Item 1.
Legal Proceedings
For a description of our material pending legal proceedings, please refer to Note 11 "Contingencies - Legal Matters" of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Item 1A.
Risk Factors
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Part I, Item II, and our consolidated financial statements and related notes, before making a decision to invest in our common stock. The risks and uncertainties described below may not be the only ones we face. If any of the risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. All information is presented in thousands, except per share amounts, customer count, head count and where specifically noted.
Risks Related to Our Business
We currently face competition from established competitors and may face competition from others in the future.
We compete in markets that are intensely competitive, rapidly changing and characterized by frequently declining prices. In these markets, vendors offer a wide range of alternate solutions. We have experienced and expect to continue to experience increased competition on price, features, functionality, integration and other factors. Several of our current competitors, as well as a number of our potential competitors, have longer operating histories, greater name recognition, broader customer relationships and industry alliances, and substantially greater financial, technical and marketing resources than we do. As a consequence of the competitive dynamics in our markets, we have experienced reductions in our prices, and an increased requirement for product advancement and innovation in order to remain competitive, which in turn have adversely affected and may continue to adversely affect our revenue, gross margin and operating results.
Our primary competitors for the content delivery service offering of our Orchestrate Platform include Akamai, Level 3, Amazon, Fastly, CDNetworks, StackPath, and Verizon Digital Media Services. In addition, a number of companies have recently entered or are currently attempting to enter our market, either directly or indirectly, as a result of the growth in the content delivery market. These new entrants include companies that have built internal content delivery networks to solely deliver their own traffic, rather than relying solely, largely or in part on content delivery specialists, such as us. Some of these new entrants may become significant competitors in the future. Given the relative ease by which customers typically can switch among content delivery service providers, differentiated offerings or pricing by competitors could lead to a rapid loss of customers. Some of our current or potential competitors may bundle their offerings with other services, software or hardware in a manner that may discourage content providers from purchasing the services that we offer. In addition, we face different market characteristics and competition with local content delivery service providers as we expand internationally. Many of these international competitors are very well positioned within their local markets. Increased competition could result in price reductions and revenue shortfalls, loss of customers and loss of market share, which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We face different competitors for the other service offerings of our Orchestrate Platform. However, the competitive landscape is different from content delivery in this area in that the process of changing vendors can be more costly and complicated for the customer, which could make it difficult for us to attract new customers and increase our market share.
Several of our competitors have greater financial and sales resources than we do. Many have been offering similar services in the markets in which we compete longer than we have. We may not be able to successfully compete against these or new competitors. If we are unable to increase our customer base and increase our market share, our business, financial condition and results of operations may suffer.
Any unplanned interruption or degradation in the functioning or availability of our network or services, or attacks on or disruptions to our internal information technology systems, could lead to increased costs, a significant decline in our revenue and harm to our reputation.
Our business is dependent on providing our customers with fast, efficient, and reliable distribution of content delivery and digital asset management services over the Internet every minute of every day. Many of our customers depend primarily or exclusively on our services to operate their businesses. Consequently, any disruption, or substantial and extensive degradation, of our services could have a material impact on our customers’ businesses. Our network or services could be disrupted by numerous events, including natural disasters, failure or refusal of our third-party network providers to provide the necessary capacity or access, failure of our software or global network infrastructure and power losses. In addition, we deploy our servers in third-party co-location facilities, and these third-party co-location providers could experience system outages or other disruptions that could constrain our ability to deliver our services. We may also experience disruptions caused by software viruses, unauthorized hacking of our systems, security breaches or other cyberattacks by unauthorized users. Any hacking of our systems or other cyberattacks could lead to the unauthorized release of confidential information that could damage our customers’ business and reputation, as well as our own. The economic costs to us to eliminate or alleviate cyber or other security problems, viruses, worms, malicious software programs, and other security vulnerabilities could be significant, and our efforts to address these problems may not be successful and could result in interruptions, delays, cessation of service, and loss of existing or potential customers. In addition, our release of a security-related solution may increase our visibility as a security-focused company and make us a more attractive target for attacks on our infrastructure intended to steal information about our technology, financial data, or customer information or take other actions that would be damaging to our customers and us.
We could experience a significant, unplanned disruption, or substantial and extensive degradation of our services, or our network may fail in the future. Despite our significant infrastructure investments, we may have insufficient communications and server capacity to address these or other disruptions, which could result in interruptions in our services. Any widespread interruption or substantial and extensive degradation in the functioning of our Orchestrate Platform services for any reason would reduce our revenue and could harm our business and results of operations. If such a widespread interruption occurred, or if we failed to deliver content to users as expected during a high-profile media event, game release or other well-publicized circumstance, our reputation could be damaged severely. Moreover, any disruptions, significant degradation, cybersecurity threats, security breaches, or attacks on our internal information technology systems could undermine confidence in our services and cause us to lose customers or make it more difficult to attract new ones, either of which could harm our business and results of operations.
We have a history of losses and we may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future.
Since 2006, we have been profitable only one year, which was as a result of a reversal of a significant reserve for litigation. We incur significant share-based compensation expense, which has substantial impact on our results of operations. We have also incurred, and may continue to incur, significant costs associated with litigation. Our share-based compensation expense and any material ongoing litigation costs could adversely affect our ability to achieve and maintain profitability in the future.
We also may not achieve sufficient revenue to achieve or maintain profitability and thus may continue to incur significant losses in the future for a number of reasons, including, among others:
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slowing demand for our services,
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increasing competition and competitive pricing pressures,
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any inability to provide our services in a cost-effective manner,
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the incurrence of unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications and delays, and
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other risks described in this annual report on Form 10-K.
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If we fail to achieve and maintain profitability, the price of our common stock could decline, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could suffer.
If we are unable to sell our services at acceptable prices relative to our costs, our revenue and gross margins will decrease and our business and financial results will suffer.
Prices for content delivery services have fallen in recent years and are likely to fall further in the future. We have invested significant amounts in purchasing capital equipment as part of our effort to increase the capacity of our global content delivery network. Our investments in our infrastructure are based upon our assumptions regarding future demand, as well as prices that we will be able to charge for our services. These assumptions may prove to be wrong. If the price that we are able to charge customers to deliver their content falls to a greater extent than we anticipate, if we over-estimate future demand for our services, or if our costs to deliver our services do not fall commensurate with any future price declines, we may not be able to achieve acceptable rates of return on our infrastructure investments, and our gross profit and results of operations may suffer dramatically.
As we further expand our global network and the Orchestrate Platform, and as we refresh our network equipment, we are dependent on significant future growth in demand for our services to justify additional capital expenditures. If we fail to generate significant additional demand for our services, our results of operations will suffer, and we may fail to achieve planned or expected financial results. There are numerous factors that could, alone or in combination with other factors, impede our ability to increase revenue, moderate expenses or maintain gross margins, including:
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continued price declines arising from significant competition;
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increasing settlement fees for certain peering relationships;
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failure to increase sales of our Orchestrate Platform services;
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increases in electricity, bandwidth and rack space costs or other operating expenses, and failure to achieve decreases in these costs and expenses relative to decreases in the prices we can charge for our Orchestrate Platform services and products;
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failure of our current and planned services and software to operate as expected;
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loss of any significant customers or loss of existing customers at a rate greater than our increase in new customers or our sales to existing customers;
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failure to increase sales of our Orchestrate Platform services to current customers as a result of their ability to reduce their monthly usage of our services to their minimum monthly contractual commitment;
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failure of a significant number of customers to pay our fees on a timely basis or at all or to continue to purchase our Orchestrate Platform services in accordance with their contractual commitments; and
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inability to attract high quality customers to purchase and implement our current and planned services.
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A significant portion of our revenue is derived collectively from our video content management services, website and web application acceleration services, and cloud storage services. These services tend to have higher gross margins than our content delivery services. We may not be able to achieve the growth rates in revenue from such services that we or our investors expect or have experienced in the past. If we are unable to achieve the growth rates in revenue that we expect for these service offerings, our revenue and operating results could be significantly and negatively affected.
Our involvement in litigation may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and operations.
We are currently involved in multiple intellectual property lawsuits (see discussion of such lawsuits in Note 11 "Contingencies - Legal Matters" of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part I, Item 1 of this quarterly report on Form 10-Q).
The outcome of all litigation, including intellectual property litigation, is inherently unpredictable. If we are ultimately held liable for patent infringement in the Akamai and XO Litigation, it could seriously impact our ability to conduct our business and to offer our products and services to our customers. For example, a permanent injunction could prevent us from providing our content delivery services or from delivering certain types of traffic, which could impact the viability of those portions of our business. Similarly, if we are ultimately held liable for patent infringement in either of the 2016 Akamai Litigations, one or more of our products and services could be adversely affected. Any such finding of infringement in either case could also harm our revenue, expenses, market share, reputation, liquidity and overall financial position.
Further, if we are unsuccessful in asserting our claims in the Akamai and XO Litigation, which alleges that both of those companies infringed six of our patents that we believe are critical to the effective and efficient delivery of bytes by a content delivery network, our rights to enforce the intellectual property asserted by us may be impaired or we could lose some or all of our rights to such intellectual property. Similarly, if we are unsuccessful with our counterclaims of patent infringement in either of the 2016 Akamai Litigations, our rights to enforce the intellectual property asserted by us in that case may be impaired or we could lose some or all of our rights to such intellectual property.
We are from time to time party to other lawsuits in addition to that described above. The expenses of defending these lawsuits, particularly fees paid to our lawyers and expert consultants, have been significant to date. If the cost of prosecuting or defending current or future lawsuits continues to be significant, it may continue to adversely affect our operating results during the pendency of such lawsuits. Lawsuits also require a diversion of management and technical personnel time and attention away from other activities to pursue the defense or prosecution of such matters. In addition, adverse rulings in such lawsuits either alone or cumulatively may have an adverse impact on our revenue, expenses, market share, reputation, liquidity and financial condition.
If we are required to seek funding, such funding may not be available on acceptable terms or at all.
We may need to obtain funding due to a number of factors, including a shortfall in revenue, increased expenses, final adverse judgments in litigation matters, increased investment in capital equipment or the acquisition of significant businesses or technologies. We believe that our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities classified as current plus cash from
operations will be sufficient to fund our operations and proposed capital expenditures for at least the next 12 months. However, we may need or desire funding before such time. If we do need to obtain funding, it may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all. If we are unable to obtain sufficient funding, our business would be harmed. Even if we were able to find outside funding sources, we might be required to issue securities in a transaction that could be highly dilutive to our investors or we may be required to issue securities with greater rights than the securities we have outstanding today. We might also be required to take other actions that could lessen the value of our common stock, including borrowing money on terms that are not favorable to us. If we are unable to generate or raise capital that is sufficient to fund our operations, we may be required to curtail operations, reduce our capabilities or cease operations in certain jurisdictions or completely.
We may have difficulty scaling and adapting our existing architecture to accommodate increased traffic and technology advances or changing business requirements. This could lead to the loss of customers and cause us to incur unexpected expenses to make network improvements.
Our content delivery and other Orchestrate Platform services are highly complex and are designed to be deployed in and across numerous large and complex networks. Our global network infrastructure has to perform well and be reliable for us to be successful. The greater the user traffic and the greater the complexity of our solutions and services, the more resources we will need to invest in additional infrastructure and support. Further, as a result of the ’703 Litigation, we made significant investment in designing and implementing changes to our network architecture. We have spent and expect to continue to spend substantial amounts on the purchase and lease of equipment and data centers and the upgrade of our technology and network infrastructure to handle increased traffic over our network, implement changes to our network architecture and integrate existing solutions and to roll out new solutions and services. This expansion is expensive and complex and could result in inefficiencies, operational failures or defects in our network and related software. If we do not implement such changes or expand successfully, or if we experience inefficiencies and operational failures, the quality of our solutions and services and user experience could decline. From time to time, we have needed to correct errors and defects in our software or in other aspects of our network. In the future, there may be additional errors and defects that may harm our ability to deliver our services, including errors and defects originating with third party networks or software on which we rely. These occurrences could damage our reputation and lead to the loss of current and potential customers, which would harm our operating results and financial condition. We must continuously upgrade our infrastructure in order to keep pace with our customers’ evolving demands. Cost increases or the failure to accommodate increased traffic or these evolving business demands without disruption could harm our operating results and financial condition.
If we are unable to develop new services and enhancements to existing services or fail to predict and respond to emerging technological trends and customers’ changing needs, our operating results and market share may suffer.
The market for our Orchestrate Platform services is characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards, and new product and service introductions. Our operating results depend on our ability to understand user preferences or predict industry changes. Our operating results also depend on our ability to modify our solutions and services on a timely basis or develop and introduce new services into existing and emerging markets. The process of developing new technologies is complex and uncertain. We must commit significant resources to developing new services or enhancements to our existing services before knowing whether our investments will result in services the market will accept. Furthermore, we may not successfully execute our technology initiatives because of errors in planning or timing, technical hurdles that we fail to overcome in a timely fashion, misunderstandings about market demand or a lack of appropriate resources. As prices for content delivery services fall, we will increasingly rely on new product offerings and other Orchestrate Platform service offerings to maintain or increase our gross margins. Failures in execution, delays in bringing new or improved products or services to market, failure to effectively integrate service offerings, or market acceptance of new services we introduce could result in competitors providing those solutions before we do, which could lead to loss of market share, revenue and earnings.
We depend on a limited number of customers for a substantial portion of our revenue in any fiscal period, and the loss of, or a significant shortfall in demand from, these customers could significantly harm our results of operations.
During any given fiscal period, a relatively small number of customers typically account for a significant percentage of our revenue. For the six months ended June 30, 2017, sales to our top 20 customers accounted for approximately 64% of our total revenue. During the six months ended June 30, 2017, we had one customer, Amazon, who represented 10% or more of our total revenue.
In the past, the customers that comprised our top 20 customers have continually changed, and we also have experienced significant fluctuations in our individual customers’ usage of, or decreased usage of, our services. As a consequence, we may not be able to adjust our expenses in the short term to address the unanticipated loss of a large customer during any particular period. As such, we may experience significant, unanticipated fluctuations in our operating results that may cause us to not meet our expectations or those of stock market analysts, which could cause our stock price to decline.
Rapidly evolving technologies or new business models could cause demand for our Orchestrate Platform services to decline or could cause these services to become obsolete.
Customers, potential customers or third parties may develop technological or business model innovations that address digital delivery requirements in a manner that is, or is perceived to be, equivalent or superior to our Orchestrate Platform service offerings. This is particularly true as our customers increase their operations and begin expending greater resources on delivering their content using third party solutions. If we fail to offer content delivery, video content management and other related services that are competitive to in-sourced solutions, we may lose additional customers or fail to attract customers that may consider pursuing this in-sourced approach, and our business and financial results would suffer.
If competitors introduce new products or services that compete with or surpass the quality or the price or performance of our services, we may be unable to renew our agreements with existing customers or attract new customers at the prices and levels that allow us to generate attractive rates of return on our investment. We may not anticipate such developments and may be unable to adequately compete with these potential solutions. In addition, our customers’ business models may change in ways that we do not anticipate, and these changes could reduce or eliminate our customers’ needs for our services. If this occurred, we could lose customers or potential customers, and our business and financial results would suffer.
As a result of these or similar potential developments, it is possible that competitive dynamics in our market may require us to reduce our prices faster than we anticipate, which could harm our revenue, gross margin and operating results.
Failure to effectively enhance our sales capabilities could harm our ability to increase our customer base and achieve broader market acceptance of our services.
Increasing our customer base and achieving broader market acceptance of our services will depend to a significant extent on our ability to enhance our sales and marketing operations. We have a concentration of our sales force at our headquarters in Tempe, Arizona, but we also have a widely deployed field sales force. We have aligned our sales resources to improve our sales productivity and efficiency and to bring our sales personnel closer to our current and potential customers. Adjustments to our sales force have been and will continue to be expensive and could cause some near-term productivity impairments. As a result, we may not be successful in improving the productivity and efficiency of our sales force, which could cause our results of operations to suffer.
We believe that there is significant competition for both inside and direct sales personnel with the sales skills and technical knowledge that we require. Our ability to achieve significant growth in revenue in the future will depend, in large part, on our success in recruiting, training and retaining sufficient numbers of inside and direct sales personnel. New hires require significant training and, in most cases, take a significant period of time before they achieve full productivity. Our recent hires and planned hires may not become as productive as we would like, and we may be unable to hire or retain sufficient numbers of qualified individuals in the future in the markets where we do business. Our business will be seriously harmed if our sales force productivity efforts do not generate a corresponding significant increase in revenue.
Many of our significant current and potential customers are pursuing emerging or unproven business models, which, if unsuccessful, or ineffective at monetizing delivery of their content, could lead to a substantial decline in demand for our content delivery and other Orchestrate Platform services.
Because the proliferation of broadband Internet connections and the subsequent monetization of content libraries for distribution to Internet users are relatively recent phenomena, many of our customers’ business models that center on the delivery of rich media and other content to users remain unproven. Some of our customers will not be successful in selling advertising, subscriptions, or otherwise monetizing the content we deliver on their behalf and consequently may not be successful in creating a profitable business model. This will result in some of our customers discontinuing their Internet or web-based business operations and discontinuing use of our services and solutions. Further, any deterioration and related uncertainty in the global financial markets and economy could result in, among other things, reductions in available capital and liquidity from banks and other providers of credit, fluctuations in equity and currency values worldwide, and concerns that portions of the worldwide economy may be in a prolonged recessionary period. Any one or more of these occurrences could materially adversely impact our customers’ access to capital or willingness to spend capital on our services or, in some cases, ultimately cause the customer to file for protection from creditors under applicable insolvency or bankruptcy laws or simply go out of business. This uncertainty may also impact our customers’ levels of cash liquidity, which could affect their ability or willingness to timely pay for services that they will order or have already ordered from us. From time to time we discontinue service to customers for non-payment of services. We expect further customers may discontinue operations or not be willing or able to pay for services that they have ordered from us. Further loss of customers may adversely affect our financial results.
If we are unable to attract new customers or to retain our existing customers, our revenue could be lower than expected and our operating results may suffer.
To increase our revenue, we must add new customers and sell additional services to existing customers and encourage existing customers to increase their usage levels. If our existing and prospective customers do not perceive our services to be of sufficiently high value and quality, we may not be able to retain our current customers or attract new customers. We sell our services pursuant to service agreements that generally include some form of financial minimum commitment. Our customers have no obligation to renew their contracts for our services after the expiration of their initial commitment, and these service agreements may not be renewed at the same or higher level of service, if at all. Moreover, under some circumstances, some of our customers have the right to cancel their service agreements prior to the expiration of the terms of their agreements. Aside from minimum financial commitments, customers are not obligated to use our services for any particular type or amount of traffic. These facts, in addition to the changing competitive landscape in our market, means that we cannot accurately predict future customer renewal rates or usage rates. Our customers’ renewal rates may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including:
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their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our services;
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the quality and reliability of our content delivery network;
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the prices of our services;
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the prices of services offered by our competitors;
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discontinuation by our customers of their Internet or web-based content distribution business;
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mergers and acquisitions affecting our customer base; and
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reductions in our customers’ spending levels.
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If our customers do not renew their service agreements with us, or if they renew on less favorable terms, our revenue may decline and our business may suffer. Similarly, our customer agreements often provide for minimum commitments that are often significantly below our customers’ historical usage levels. Consequently, even if we have agreements with our customers to use our services, these customers could significantly curtail their usage without incurring any penalties under our agreements. In this event, our revenue would be lower than expected and our operating results could suffer.
It also is an important component of our growth strategy to market our services and solutions to particular industries or market segments. As an organization, we may not have significant experience in selling our services into certain of these markets. Our ability to successfully sell our services into these markets to a meaningful extent remains unproven. If we are unsuccessful in such efforts, our business, financial condition and results of operations could suffer.
Rapid increase in the use of mobile and alternative devices to access the Internet present significant development and deployment challenges.
The number of people who access the Internet through devices other than PCs, including mobile devices, game consoles and television set-top devices, has increased dramatically in the past few years. The capabilities of these devices are advancing dramatically and the increasing need to provide a high-quality video experience will present us and other providers with significant challenges. If we are unable to deliver our service offerings to a substantial number of alternative device users and at a high quality, or if we are slow to develop services and technologies that are more compatible with these devices, we may fail to capture a significant share of an increasingly important portion of the market. Such a failure could limit our ability to compete effectively in an industry that is rapidly growing and changing, which, in turn, could cause our business, financial condition and results of operations to suffer.
We need to defend our intellectual property and processes against patent or copyright infringement claims, which may cause us to incur substantial costs and threaten our ability to do business.
Companies, organizations or individuals, including our competitors and non-practicing entities, may hold or obtain patents or other proprietary rights that would prevent, limit or interfere with our ability to make, use or sell our services or develop new services, which could make it more difficult for us to operate our business. From time to time, we may receive inquiries from holders of patents inquiring whether we infringe their proprietary rights. Companies holding Internet-related patents or other intellectual property rights are increasingly bringing suits alleging infringement of such rights or otherwise asserting their rights and seeking licenses. Any litigation or claims, whether or not valid, could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources from the defense of such claims. In addition, many of our agreements with customers require us to defend and indemnify those customers for third-party intellectual property infringement claims against them, which could result in significant additional costs and diversion of resources. If we are determined to have infringed upon a third party’s intellectual property rights, we may also be required to do one or more of the following:
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cease selling, incorporating or using products or services that incorporate the challenged intellectual property;
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pay substantial damages;
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obtain a license from the holder of the infringed intellectual property right, which license may or may not be available on reasonable terms or at all; or
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redesign products or services.
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If we are forced to litigate any claims or to take any of these other actions, our business may be seriously harmed.
Our business may be adversely affected if we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights from unauthorized use or infringement by third parties.
We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws and restrictions on disclosure to protect our intellectual property rights. We have applied for patent protection in the United States and a number of foreign countries. These legal protections afford only limited protection and laws in foreign jurisdictions may not protect our proprietary rights as fully as in the United States. Monitoring infringement of our intellectual property rights is difficult, and we cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will prevent unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights. Developments and changes in patent law, such as changes in interpretations of the joint infringement standard, could restrict how we enforce certain patents we hold. We also cannot be certain that any pending or future patent applications will be granted, that any future patent will not be challenged, invalidated or circumvented, or that rights granted under any patent that may be issued will provide competitive advantages to us.
Our results of operations may fluctuate in the future. As a result, we may fail to meet or exceed the expectations of securities analysts or investors, which could cause our stock price to decline.
Our results of operations may fluctuate as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. If our results of operations fall below the expectations of securities analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. In addition to the effects of other risks discussed in this section, fluctuations in our results of operations may be due to a number of factors, including, among others:
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our ability to increase sales to existing customers and attract new customers to our content delivery and other Orchestrate Platform services;
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the addition or loss of large customers, or significant variation in their use of our content delivery and other Orchestrate Platform services;
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costs associated with current or future intellectual property lawsuits and other lawsuits;
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service outages or third party security breaches to our platform or to one or more of our customers’ platforms;
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the amount and timing of operating costs and capital expenditures related to the maintenance and expansion of our business, operations and infrastructure and the adequacy of available funds to meet those requirements;
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the timing and success of new product and service introductions by us or our competitors;
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the occurrence of significant events in a particular period that result in an increase in the use of our content delivery and other Orchestrate Platform services, such as a major media event or a customer’s online release of a new or updated video game or operating system;
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changes in our pricing policies or those of our competitors;
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the timing of recognizing revenue;
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limitations of the capacity of our global network and related systems;
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the timing of costs related to the development or acquisition of technologies, services or businesses;
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the potential write-down or write-off of intangible or other long-lived assets;
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general economic, industry and market conditions (such as fluctuations experienced in the stock and credit markets during times of deteriorated global economic conditions) and those conditions specific to Internet usage;
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limitations on usage imposed by our customers in order to limit their online expenses; and
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war, threat of war or terrorist actions, including cyber terrorism targeted at us, our customers, or both, and inadequate cybersecurity.
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We believe that our revenue and results of operations may vary significantly in the future and that period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful. You should not rely on the results of one period as an indication of future performance.
We generate our revenue primarily from the sale of content delivery services, and the failure of the market for these services to expand as we expect or the reduction in spending on those services by our current or potential customers would seriously harm our business.
While we offer our customers a number of services and solutions associated with our Orchestrate Platform, we generate the majority of our revenue from charging our customers for the content delivered on their behalf through our global network. We are subject to an elevated risk of reduced demand for these services. Furthermore, if the market for delivery of rich media content in particular does not continue to grow as we expect or grows more slowly, then we may fail to achieve a return on the significant investment we are making to prepare for this growth. Our success, therefore, depends on the continued and
increasing reliance on the Internet for delivery of media content and our ability to cost-effectively deliver these services. Many different factors may have a general tendency to limit or reduce the number of users relying on the Internet for media content, the amount of content consumed by our customers’ users, or the number of providers making this content available on-line, including, among others:
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a general decline in Internet usage;
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third party restrictions on on-line content (including copyright restrictions, digital rights management and restrictions in certain geographic regions);
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system impairments or outages, including those caused by hacking or cyberattacks; and
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a significant increase in the quality or fidelity of off-line media content beyond that available online to the point where users prefer the off-line experience.
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The influence of any of these or other factors may cause our current or potential customers to reduce their spending on content delivery services, which would seriously harm our operating results and financial condition.
We could incur charges due to impairment of goodwill and long-lived assets.
As of June 30, 2017, we had a goodwill balance of approximately $77,032, which is subject to periodic testing for impairment. Our long-lived assets also are subject to periodic testing for impairment. A significant amount of judgment is involved in the periodic testing. Failure to achieve sufficient levels of cash flow could result in impairment charges for goodwill or fixed asset impairment for long-lived assets, which could have a material adverse effect on our reported results of operations. Our goodwill impairment analysis also includes a comparison of the aggregate estimated fair value of our reporting unit to our total market capitalization. If our stock trades below our book value, a significant and sustained decline in our stock price and market capitalization could result in goodwill impairment charges. During times of financial market volatility, significant judgment will be used to determine the underlying cause of the decline and whether stock price declines are short-term in nature or indicative of an event or change in circumstances. Impairment charges, if any, resulting from the periodic testing are non-cash.
Our operations are dependent in part upon communications capacity provided by third party telecommunications providers. A material disruption of the communications capacity we have leased could harm our results of operations, reputation and customer relations.
We lease private line capacity for our backbone from third party providers. Our contracts for private line capacity generally have terms of three to four years. The communications capacity we have leased may become unavailable for a variety of reasons, such as physical interruption, technical difficulties, contractual disputes, or the financial health of our third party providers. Also, industry consolidation among communications providers could result in fewer viable market alternatives, which could have an impact on our costs of providing services. Alternative providers are currently available; however, it could be time consuming and expensive to promptly identify and obtain alternative third party connectivity. Additionally, as we grow, we anticipate requiring greater private line capacity than we currently have in place. If we are unable to obtain such capacity from third party providers on terms commercially acceptable to us or at all, our business and financial results would suffer. Similarly, if we are unable to timely deploy enough network capacity to meet the needs of our customer base or effectively manage the demand for our services, our reputation and relationships with our customers would be harmed, which, in turn, could harm or business, financial condition and results of operations.
We face risks associated with international operations that could harm our business.
We have operations in numerous foreign countries and may continue to expand our sales and support organizations internationally. As part of our business strategy, we intend to expand our international network infrastructure. Expansion could require us to make significant expenditures, including the hiring of local employees or resources, in advance of generating any revenue. As a consequence, we may fail to achieve profitable operations that will compensate our investment in international locations. We are subject to a number of risks associated with international business activities that may increase our costs, lengthen our sales cycle and require significant management attention. These risks include:
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increased expenses associated with sales and marketing, deploying services and maintaining our infrastructure in foreign countries;
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competition from local content delivery service providers, many of which are very well positioned within their local markets;
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challenges caused by distance, language and cultural differences;
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unexpected changes in regulatory requirements preventing or limiting us from operating our global network or resulting in unanticipated costs and delays;
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interpretations of laws or regulations that would subject us to regulatory supervision or, in the alternative, require us to exit a country, which could have a negative impact on the quality of our services or our results of operations;
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longer accounts receivable payment cycles and difficulties in collecting accounts receivable;
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corporate and personal liability for violations of local laws and regulations;
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currency exchange rate fluctuations and repatriation of funds;
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potentially adverse tax consequences;
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credit risk and higher levels of payment fraud; and
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foreign exchange controls that might prevent us from repatriating cash earned in countries outside the United States.
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International operations are subject to significant additional risks not generally faced in our domestic operations, including, but not limited to, risks relating to legal systems that may not adequately protect contract and intellectual property rights, policies and taxation, the physical infrastructure of the country, as well as risks relating to potential political turmoil and currency exchange controls. There can be no assurance that these international risks will not materially adversely affect our business. For example, our operations include software development and quality assurance activities in Ukraine, which has experienced social unrest in recent years. Should there be significant productivity losses, or if we become unable to conduct operations in Ukraine in the future, and our contingency plans are unsuccessful in addressing the related risks, our business could be adversely affected.
Our business depends on continued and unimpeded access to third party controlled end-user access networks.
Our content delivery services depend on our ability to access certain end-user access networks in order to complete the delivery of rich media and other on-line content to end-users. Some operators of these networks may take measures that could degrade, disrupt or increase the cost of our or our customers’ access to certain of these end-user access networks. Such measures may include restricting or prohibiting the use of their networks to support or facilitate our services, or charging increased fees to us, our customers or end-users in connection with our services. In 2015, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released new network neutrality and open internet rules that reclassified broadband Internet access services as a telecommunications service subject to some elements of common carrier regulation. Among other things, the FCC order prohibits blocking or discriminating against lawful services and applications and prohibits "paid prioritization," or providing faster speeds or other benefits in return for compensation. Nevertheless, the rules are subject to legal challenges, and if they are overturned, we or our customers could experience increased cost or slower data on these third-party networks. If we or our customers experience increased cost in delivering content to end users, or otherwise, or if end users perceive a degradation of quality, our business and that of our customers may be significantly harmed. This or other types of interference could result in a loss of existing customers, increased costs and impairment of our ability to attract new customers, thereby harming our revenue and growth.
In addition, the performance of our infrastructure depends in part on the direct connection of our global network to a large number of end-user access networks, known as peering, which we achieve through mutually beneficial cooperation with these networks. In some instances, network operators charge us for the peering connections. If, in the future, a significant percentage of these network operators elected to no longer peer with our network or peer with our network on less favorable economic terms, then the performance of our infrastructure could be diminished, our costs could increase and our business could suffer.
If our ability to deliver media files in popular proprietary content formats was restricted or became cost-prohibitive, demand for our content delivery services could decline, we could lose customers and our financial results could suffer.
Our business depends on our ability to deliver media content in all major formats. If our legal right or technical ability to store and deliver content in one or more popular proprietary content formats, such as HTTP Live Streaming and Multimedia Messaging Services, was limited, our ability to serve our customers in these formats would be impaired and the demand for our content delivery and other Orchestrate Platform services would decline by customers using these formats. Owners of propriety content formats may be able to block, restrict or impose fees or other costs on our use of such formats, which could lead to additional expenses for us and for our customers, or which could prevent our delivery of this type of content altogether. Such interference could result in a loss of existing customers, increased costs and impairment of our ability to attract new customers, which would harm our revenue, operating results and growth.
We use certain “open-source” software the use of which could result in our having to distribute our proprietary software, including our source code, to third parties on unfavorable terms, which could materially affect our business.
Certain of our service offerings use software that is subject to open-source licenses. Open-source code is software that is freely accessible, usable and modifiable. Certain open-source code is governed by license agreements, the terms of which could require users of such open-source code to make any derivative works of such open-source code available to others on
unfavorable terms or at no cost. Because we use open-source code, we may be required to take remedial action to protect our proprietary software. Such action could include replacing certain source code used in our software, discontinuing certain of our products or features or taking other actions that could divert resources away from our development efforts.
In addition, the terms relating to disclosure of derivative works in many open-source licenses are unclear. We periodically review our compliance with the open-source licenses we use and do not believe we will be required to make our proprietary software freely available. Nevertheless, if a court interprets one or more such open-source licenses in a manner that is unfavorable to us, we could be required to make some components of our software available at no cost, which could materially and adversely affect our business and financial condition.
If we are unable to retain our key employees and hire qualified sales and technical personnel, our ability to compete could be harmed.
Our future success depends upon the continued services of our executive officers and other key technology, sales, marketing and support personnel who have critical industry experience and relationships that they rely on in implementing our business plan. There is increasing competition for talented individuals with the specialized knowledge to deliver Orchestrate Platform services and this competition affects both our ability to retain key employees and hire new ones. Historically, we have experienced a significant amount of employee turnover, especially with respect to our sales personnel. As a result, a significant number of our sales personnel are relatively new and may need time to become fully productive. The loss of the services of any of our key employees could disrupt our operations, delay the development and introduction of our services, and negatively impact our ability to sell our services.
We are subject to the effects of fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, which could affect our operating results.
The financial condition and results of operations of our operating foreign subsidiaries are reported in the relevant local currency and are then translated into U.S. dollars at the applicable currency exchange rate for inclusion in our consolidated U.S. dollar financial statements. Also, although a large portion of our customer and vendor agreements are denominated in U.S. dollars, we may be exposed to fluctuations in foreign exchange rates with respect to customer agreements with certain of our international customers. Exchange rates between these currencies and U.S. dollars in recent years have fluctuated significantly and may do so in the future. In addition to currency translation risk, we incur currency transaction risk whenever one of our operating subsidiaries enters into a transaction using a different currency than the relevant local currency. Given the volatility of exchange rates, we may be unable to manage our currency transaction risks effectively. Currency fluctuations could have a material adverse effect on our future international sales and, consequently, on our financial condition and results of operations.
As part of our business strategy, we may acquire businesses or technologies and may have difficulty integrating these operations.
We have completed a number of business acquisitions and may seek to acquire businesses or technologies that are complementary to our business in the future. Acquisitions are often complex and involve a number of risks to our business, including, among others;
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the difficulty of integrating the operations, services, solutions and personnel of the acquired companies;
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the potential disruption of our ongoing business;
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the potential distraction of management;
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the possibility that our business culture and the business culture of the acquired companies will not be compatible;
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the difficulty of incorporating or integrating acquired technology and rights with or into our other services and solutions;
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expenses related to the acquisition and to the integration of the acquired companies;
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the impairment of relationships with employees and customers as a result of any integration of new personnel;
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employee turnover from the acquired companies or from our current operations as we integrate businesses;
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risks related to the businesses of acquired companies that may continue to impact the businesses following the merger; and
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potential unknown liabilities associated with acquired companies.
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Any inability to integrate services, solutions, operations or personnel in an efficient and timely manner could harm our results of operations.
If we are not successful in completing acquisitions that we may pursue in the future, we may be required to reevaluate our business strategy, and we may incur substantial expenses and devote significant management time and resources without a productive result. In addition, future acquisitions will require the use of our available cash or dilutive issuances of securities. Future acquisitions or attempted acquisitions could also harm our ability to achieve profitability.
Internet-related and other laws relating to taxation issues, privacy, data security and consumer protection and liability for content distributed over our network, could harm our business.
Laws and regulations that apply to communications and commerce conducted over the Internet are becoming more prevalent, both in the United States and internationally, and may impose additional burdens on companies conducting business on-line or providing Internet-related services such as ours. Increased regulation could negatively affect our business directly, as well as the businesses of our customers, which could reduce their demand for our services. For example, tax authorities abroad may impose taxes on the Internet-related revenue we generate based on where our internationally deployed servers are located. In addition, domestic and international taxation laws are subject to change. Our services, or the businesses of our customers, may become subject to increased taxation, which could harm our financial results either directly or by forcing our customers to scale back their operations and use of our services in order to maintain their operations. Also, the Communications Act of 1934, as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (the Act), and the regulations promulgated by the FCC under Title II of the Act, may impose obligations on the Internet and those participants involved in Internet-related businesses. In addition, the laws relating to the liability of private network operators for information carried on, processed by or disseminated through their networks are unsettled, both in the United States and abroad. Network operators have been sued in the past, sometimes successfully, based on the content of material disseminated through their networks. We may become subject to legal claims such as defamation, invasion of privacy and copyright infringement in connection with content stored on or distributed through our network. In addition, our reputation could suffer as a result of our perceived association with the type of content that some of our customers deliver. If we need to take costly measures to reduce our exposure to the risks posed by laws and regulations that apply to communications and commerce conducted over the Internet, or are required to defend ourselves against related claims, our financial results could be negatively affected.
Several other federal laws also could expose us to liability and impose significant additional costs on us. For example, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has provisions that limit, but do not eliminate, our liability for the delivery of customer content that infringe copyrights or other rights, so long as we comply with certain statutory requirements. In addition, the Children’s On-line Privacy Protection Act restricts the ability of on-line services to collect information from minors and the Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act of 1998 requires on-line service providers to report evidence of violations of federal child pornography laws under certain circumstances. Also, there are emerging regulation and industry standards regarding the collection and use of personal information and protecting the security of data on networks. Compliance with these laws, regulations and standards is complex and any failure on our part to comply with these regulations may subject us to additional liabilities.
Privacy concerns could lead to regulatory and other limitations on our business, including our ability to use “cookies” and video player “cookies” that are crucial to our ability to provide services to our customers.
Our ability to compile data for customers depends on the use of “cookies” and video player “cookies” to identify certain on-line behavior that allows our customers to measure a website or video’s effectiveness. A cookie is a small file of information stored on a user’s computer that allows us to recognize that user’s browser or video player when the user makes a request for a web page or to play a video. Government authorities inside the United States concerned with the privacy of Internet users have suggested the enactment of legislation that would regulate cookies and/or require certain disclosures regarding cookies. Bills aimed at regulating the collection, use and/or storage of personal data from Internet users are currently pending in United States Congress and many state legislatures. Attempts at such regulation may be drafted in such a way as to limit or otherwise regulate the collection of certain technology like cookies, thereby creating restrictions that could reduce our ability to use them. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce have conducted hearings regarding user profiling, the collection of non-personally identifiable information and on-line privacy.
Our foreign operations may also be adversely affected by regulatory action outside the United States. These regulations, which can be enforced by private parties or governmental entities, are constantly evolving and can be subject to significant change. For example, the European Union has enacted an electronic communications directive that imposes certain restrictions on the use of cookies, requires certain disclosures with respect to cookie usages and also places restrictions on the sending of unsolicited communications. Each European Union member country was required to enact legislation to comply with the provisions of the electronic communications directive. Germany has also enacted additional laws limiting the use of user profiling, and other countries, both in and out of the European Union, may impose similar limitations.
Internet users may directly limit or eliminate the placement of cookies on their computers by using third-party software that blocks cookies, or by disabling or restricting the cookie functions of their Internet browser software and in their video player software. Internet browser software upgrades also may result in limitations on the use of cookies. Technologies like the Platform for Privacy Preferences Project may limit collection of cookies. Plaintiffs’ attorneys also have organized class action suits against companies related to the use of cookies and several companies, including companies in the Internet advertising industry, have had claims brought against them before the Federal Trade Commission regarding the collection and
use of Internet user information. We may be subject to such suits in the future, which could limit or eliminate our ability to collect such information. If our ability to use cookies were substantially restricted due to the foregoing, or for any other reason, we would have to generate and use other technology or methods that allow the gathering of user data in order to provide services to customers. This change in technology or methods could require significant re-engineering time and resources, and may not be complete in time to avoid negative consequences to our business. In addition, alternative technology or methods might not be available on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. If the use of cookies is prohibited and we are not able to efficiently and cost effectively create new technology, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially adversely affected. In addition, any compromise of security that results in the release of Internet users’ and/or our customers’ data could seriously limit the adoption of our service offerings as well as harm our reputation and brand, expose us to liability and subject us to reporting obligations under various state laws, which could have an adverse effect on our business. The risk that these types of events could seriously harm our business is likely to increase as the amount of data stored for customers on our servers and the number of countries where we operate has been increasing, and we may need to expend significant resources to protect against security breaches, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Also, a number of new privacy laws coming into effect and/or proposals pending could affect our business. For example, the European Commission has enacted a general data protection regulation that becomes effective in May 2018 and will supersede current EU data protection legislation, impose more stringent EU data protection requirements, and provide for greater penalties for noncompliance. Additionally, in October 2015, the European Court of Justice invalidated the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor framework that had been in place since 2000, which allowed companies to meet certain European legal requirements for the transfer of personal data from the European Economic Area to the United States. Although U.S. and EU authorities reached a political agreement regarding a new potential means for legitimizing personal data transfers from the European Economic Area to the United States, the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, there continue to be concerns about whether the EU-US Privacy Shield will face additional challenges (similar to the fate of the Safe Harbor framework). We expect that for the immediate future, we will continue to face uncertainty as to whether our efforts to comply with our obligations under European privacy laws will be sufficient. If we are investigated by a European data protection authority, we may face fines and other penalties. Any such investigation or charges by European data protection authorities could have a negative effect on our existing business and on our ability to attract and retain new customers. These existing and proposed laws and regulations can be costly to comply with, could expose us to significant penalties for non-compliance, can delay or impede the development or adoption of our products and services, reduce the overall demand for our services, result in negative publicity, increase our operating costs, require significant management time and attention, slow the pace at which we close (or prevent us from closing) sales transactions, and subject us to claims or other remedies, including fines or demands that we modify or cease existing business practices.
Our business requires the continued development of effective business support systems to support our customer growth and related services.
The growth of our business depends on our ability to continue to develop effective business support systems. This is a complicated undertaking requiring significant resources and expertise. Business support systems are needed for:
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implementing customer orders for services;
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delivering these services; and
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timely and accurate billing for these services.
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Because our business plan provides for continued growth in the number of customers that we serve and services offered, there is a need to continue to develop our business support systems on a schedule sufficient to meet proposed service roll-out dates. The failure to continue to develop effective business support systems could harm our ability to implement our business plans and meet our financial goals and objectives.
We have incurred, and will continue to incur significant costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management is required to devote substantial time to compliance initiatives.
As a public company, we have incurred, and will continue to incur, significant expenses, including accounting, legal and other professional fees, insurance premiums, investor relations costs, and costs associated with compensating our independent directors. In addition, rules implemented by the SEC and the Nasdaq Global Select Market impose additional requirements on public companies, including requiring changes in corporate governance practices. For example, the listing requirements of the Nasdaq Global Select Market require that we satisfy certain corporate governance requirements relating to independent directors, audit committees, distribution of annual and interim reports, stockholder meetings, stockholder approvals, solicitation of proxies, conflicts of interest, stockholder voting rights and codes of conduct. Our management and other personnel need to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations increase our legal and financial compliance costs and make some activities more time-consuming and costly. For
example, these rules and regulations make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance.
If the accounting estimates we make, and the assumptions on which we rely, in preparing our financial statements prove inaccurate, our actual results may be adversely affected.
Our financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments about, among other things, taxes, revenue recognition, share-based compensation costs, contingent obligations and doubtful accounts. These estimates and judgments affect the reported amounts of our assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, the amounts of charges accrued by us, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances and at the time they are made. If our estimates or the assumptions underlying them are not correct, we may need to accrue additional charges or reduce the value of assets that could adversely affect our results of operations, investors may lose confidence in our ability to manage our business and our stock price could decline.
If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls or fail to implement our controls and procedures with respect to acquired or merged operations, our ability to produce accurate financial statements could be impaired, which could adversely affect our operating results, our ability to operate our business and investors’ views of us.
We must ensure that we have adequate internal financial and accounting controls and procedures in place so that we can produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis. We are required to spend considerable effort on establishing and maintaining our internal controls, which is costly and time-consuming and needs to be re-evaluated frequently.
We have operated as a public company since June 2007, and we will continue to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses as we comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as well as new rules implemented from time to time by the SEC and the Nasdaq Global Select Market. These rules impose various requirements on public companies, including requiring changes in corporate governance practices, increased reporting of compensation arrangements and other requirements. Our management and other personnel will continue to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, new rules and regulations will likely increase our legal and financial compliance costs and make some activities more time-consuming and costly. These rules and regulations could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, our board committees or as executive officers.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires that we include in our annual report our assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and our audited financial statements as of the end of each fiscal year. Furthermore, our independent registered public accounting firm, Ernst & Young LLP (EY), is required to report on whether it believes we maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of the end of the year. Our continued compliance with Section 404 will require that we incur substantial expense and expend significant management time on compliance related issues, including our efforts in implementing controls and procedures related to acquired or merged operations. We currently do not have an internal audit group and use an international accounting firm to assist us with our assessment of the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting. In future years, if we fail to timely complete this assessment, or if EY cannot timely attest, there may be a loss of public confidence in our internal controls, the market price of our stock could decline, and we could be subject to regulatory sanctions or investigations by the Nasdaq Global Select Market, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources. In addition, any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to timely meet our regulatory reporting obligations.
Changes in financial accounting standards or practices may cause adverse, unexpected financial reporting fluctuations and affect our reported results of operations.
A change in accounting standards or practices can have a significant effect on our operating results and may affect our reporting of transactions completed before the change is effective. New accounting pronouncements and varying interpretations of existing 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.
Divestiture of our businesses or product lines, including those that we have acquired or will acquire, may materially adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows, or may result in impairment charges that may adversely affect our results of operations.
Divestitures involve risks, including difficulties in the separation of operations, services, products and personnel, the diversion of management’s attention from other business concerns, the disruption of our business, the potential loss of key
employees and the retention of uncertain contingent liabilities related to the divested business, any of which could result in a material adverse effect to our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. Divestitures of previously acquired businesses may result in significant asset impairment charges, including those related to goodwill and other intangible assets, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. Future impairment may result from, among other things, deterioration in the performance of the acquired business or product line, adverse market conditions and changes in the competitive landscape, adverse changes in applicable laws or regulations, including changes that restrict the activities of the acquired business or product line, changes in accounting rules and regulations, and a variety of other circumstances. The amount of any impairment is recorded as a charge to the statement of operations. We may never realize the full value of our goodwill and intangible assets, and any determination requiring the write-off of a significant portion of these assets may have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in managing these or any other significant risks that we encounter in divesting a business or product line.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
The trading price of our common stock has been, and is likely to continue to be, volatile.
The trading prices of our common stock and the securities of technology companies generally have been highly volatile. Factors affecting the trading price of our common stock will include:
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variations in our operating results;
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announcements of technological innovations, new services or service enhancements, strategic alliances or significant agreements by us or by our competitors;
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commencement or resolution of, our involvement in and uncertainties arising from litigation;
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recruitment or departure of key personnel;
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changes in the estimates of our operating results or changes in recommendations by any securities analysts that elect to follow our common stock;
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developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property or other proprietary rights;
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the gain or loss of significant customers;
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market conditions in our industry, the industries of our customers and the economy as a whole; and
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adoption or modification of regulations, policies, procedures or programs applicable to our business.
In addition, if the market for technology stocks or the stock market in general experiences loss of investor confidence, the trading price of our common stock could decline for reasons unrelated to our business, operating results or financial condition. The trading price of our common stock might also decline in reaction to events or speculation of events that affect other companies in our industry even if these events do not directly affect us.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they issue an adverse or misleading opinion or report, our stock, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts publish about us or our business. If any of the analysts who cover us issue an adverse or misleading opinion regarding our stock, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
Insiders have substantial control over us and will be able to influence corporate matters.
As of June 30, 2017, our directors and executive officers and their affiliates beneficially owned, in the aggregate, approximately 31% of our outstanding common stock, including approximately 28% beneficially owned by investment entities affiliated with Goldman, Sachs & Co. These stockholders are able to exercise significant influence over all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or its assets. This concentration of ownership could limit other stockholders’ ability to influence corporate matters and may have the effect of delaying or preventing a third party from acquiring control over us.
Future equity issuances or a sale of a substantial number of shares of our common stock may cause the price of our common stock to decline.
Because we may need to raise additional capital in the future to continue to expand our business and our research and development activities, among other things, we may conduct additional equity offerings. If we or our stockholders sell substantial amounts of our common stock (including shares issued upon the exercise of options and warrants) in the public market, the market price of our common stock could fall. A decline in the market price of our common stock could make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities in the future at a time and price that we deem appropriate.
Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and Delaware law could discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company and may affect the trading price of our common stock.
Provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws, as well as provisions of Delaware law, could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if doing so would benefit our stockholders. These provisions:
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establish that members of the board of directors may be removed only for cause upon the affirmative vote of stockholders owning a majority of our capital stock;
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authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that could be issued by our board of directors to increase the number of outstanding shares and thwart a takeover attempt;
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limit who may call special meetings of stockholders;
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prohibit stockholder action by written consent, thereby requiring stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of the stockholders;
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establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to the board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon at stockholder meetings;
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provide for a board of directors with staggered terms; and
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provide that the authorized number of directors may be changed only by a resolution of our board of directors.
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In addition, Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which imposes certain restrictions relating to transactions with major stockholders, may discourage, delay or prevent a third party from acquiring us.
Item 2.
Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds
Not applicable
Item 3. Defaults upon Senior Securities
Not applicable
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable
Item 5. Other Information
None.