MANH Manhattan Associates Inc

You should consider the following and other risk factors in evaluating our business or an investment in our common stock. The occurrence of adverse events described in the following risk factors or other adverse events not described in the following risk factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flow and financial condition, and could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline.

We now offer certain of our solutions as cloud subscriptions, which will adversely affect our revenue and earnings in the transition period and make predicting our revenue, earnings and cash flow more difficult. We began offering more of our solutions under a cloud subscription option in 2017, in addition to our perpetual license option. Under a cloud subscription, customers pay a periodic fee for the right to use our software within a cloud-based environment that we provide and manage over a specified period of time. We believe that over time a growing number of our customers will elect to purchase our solutions as cloud subscriptions rather than under an on-premise perpetual license.

Until we have fully transitioned to a stable mix of cloud subscription and on-premise perpetual license arrangements, we expect our combined license and cloud subscription revenue will decrease due to the difference in revenue recognition for a cloud subscription (for which revenue is recognized ratably over the term of the subscription arrangement) and a perpetual license (for which revenue is generally recognized upon purchase) and that our maintenance revenue (which comprises a significant portion of our revenue) may also decrease due to software enhancement and support being included in the cloud subscription offering.

Our revenue, earnings and cash flow are based on the mix of revenue between cloud subscription and perpetual license revenue including timing, number and size of deals. If a greater percentage of our customers purchase our solutions as cloud subscriptions in any period, our revenue, earnings and cash flow will likely fall below expectations for that period, which could cause our stock price to decline.

Economic, political and market conditions can adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flow and financial condition, including our revenue growth and profitability, which in turn could adversely affect our stock price.  Our business is influenced by a range of factors that are beyond our control and that we have no comparative advantage in forecasting. These include:

Macroeconomic developments like the continued slow pace of economic recovery in the United States and Europe and in parts of Asia and South America could negatively affect our business, operating results, financial condition and outlook, which, in turn, could adversely affect our stock price. Any general weakening of, and related declining corporate confidence in, the global economy or the curtailment in government or corporate spending could cause current or potential customers to reduce or eliminate their information technology budgets and spending, which could cause customers to delay, decrease or cancel purchases of our products and services or cause customers not to pay us or to delay paying us for previously purchased products and services.

In addition, political unrest and the related potential impact on global stability, terrorist attacks and the potential for other hostilities in various parts of the world, potential public health crises and natural disasters continue to contribute to a climate of economic and political uncertainty that could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition, including our revenue growth and profitability.

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Our inability to attract, integrate, and retain managemen t and other personnel could adversely impact our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition. Our success greatly depends on the continued service of our executives, as well as our other key senior management, technical personnel, a nd sales personnel. Our success will depend on the ability of our executive officers to work together as a team. The loss of any of our senior management or other key professional services, research and development, sales and marketing personnel—particular ly if they are lost to competitors—could impair our ability to grow our business. We do not maintain key man life insurance on any of our executive officers.

Our future success will depend in large part upon our ability to attract, retain, and motivate highly skilled employees. We face significant competition for individuals with the skills required to perform the services we offer, and thus we may encounter increased compensation costs that are not offset by increased revenue. In the broader technology industry in which we compete for talented hires, there is substantial and continuous competition for engineers with high levels of experience in designing, developing and managing software, as well as competition for sales executives and operations personnel. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to attract and retain sufficient numbers of these highly skilled employees or motivate them. Because of the complexity of the supply chain market, we may experience a significant time lag between the date on which technical and sales personnel are hired and the time at which these persons become fully productive.

We may not be able to continue to successfully compete with other companies . We compete in markets that are intensely competitive and are expected to become more competitive as current competitors expand their product offerings. Our current competitors come from many segments of the software industry and offer a variety of solutions directed at various aspects of the extended supply chain, as well as the enterprise as a whole. We face competition for product sales from:

We anticipate facing increased competition from ERP and supply chain management (SCM) applications vendors and business application software vendors that may broaden their solution offerings by internally developing or by acquiring or partnering with independent developers of supply chain planning and execution software. Some of these ERP and other potential competitors have longer operating histories, significantly more financial, technical, marketing, and other resources, greater name recognition, broader solutions, and larger installed bases of customers than do we. To the extent that ERP and SCM vendors or other large competitors develop or acquire systems with functionality comparable or superior to ours, their larger customer bases, long-standing customer relationships, and ability to offer broader solutions outside the scope of supply chain could create significant competitive advantage for them. It also is possible that new competitors or alliances among current and/or new competitors could emerge to win significant market share. Increased competition could result in price reductions, fewer customer orders, reduced earnings and margins, and loss of market share. In turn, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition.

We believe the domain expertise required to continuously innovate supply chain technology in our target markets, effectively and efficiently implement solutions, identify and attract sales opportunities, and compete successfully in the sales cycle provides us with a competitive advantage and is a significant barrier to market entry. However, in order to be successful in the future, we must continue to respond promptly and effectively to technological change and competitors’ innovations, and consequently we cannot assure you that we will not be required to make substantial additional investments in connection with our research, development, marketing, sales, and customer service efforts in order to meet any competitive threat, or that we will be able to compete successfully in the future. Some of our competitors have significant resources at their disposal, and the degree to which we will compete with their new innovative products in the marketplace is undetermined.

Our pricing models may need to be modified due to price competition. The competitive markets in which we operate may oblige us to reduce our prices in order to contend with the pricing models of our competitors. If our competitors discount certain products or services, we may have to lower prices on certain products or services in order to attract or retain customers. Any such price modifications would likely reduce margins and could adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition.

Our operating results are substantially dependent on one line of business . We continue to derive our revenues from sales of our supply chain commerce solutions software and related services and hardware. Any factor adversely affecting the markets for supply chain solutions could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition.

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Accordingly, our future operating results will depend on the demand for our supply chain commerce products and related serv ices and hardware by our customers, including new and enhanced releases that we subsequently introduce. We cannot guarantee that the market will continue to demand our current products or we will be successful in marketing any new or enhanced products. If our competitors release new products that are superior to our products in performance or price, demand for our products may decline. A decline in demand for our products as a result of competition, technological change, or other factors would reduce our to tal revenues and harm our ability to maintain profitability.

Our future revenue is dependent on continuing sales from software licenses and cloud subscriptions, which in turn drive sales of post-contract support and professional services. We are dependent on our new customers as well as our large installed customer base to purchase additional software licenses, cloud subscriptions, post-contract support, and professional services from us. Our post-contract support agreements are generally for a one-year term and our professional services agreements generally only cover a particular engagement. In future periods customers may not license additional products, and in turn may not renew post-contract support agreements or purchase additional professional services from us. If our customers decide not to license or purchase these products and services from us, or if they reduce the scope of their post-contract support or hosting or professional services agreements, our revenue could decrease significantly, and that could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flow and financial condition.

In addition, many of our customers are using older versions of our products for which we are no longer developing any further upgrades or enhancements. While we intend to migrate our customers who are using these versions to newer versions or products, there can be no assurance that these customers will do so. If customers using older versions of our products decide not to license our current software products, or decide to discontinue the use of our products and associated post-contract support services, our revenue could decrease and our operating results could be materially adversely affected.

Our software may contain undetected errors or “bugs” causing harm to our reputation, which could adversely impact our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition. Software products as complex as those we offer might contain undetected errors or failures when we first introduce them or when we release new versions. Despite testing, we cannot ensure errors will not be found in new products or product enhancements after commercial release. Any errors could cause substantial harm to our reputation, result in additional unplanned expenses to remedy any defects, delay the introduction of new products, result in the loss of existing or potential customers, or cause a loss in revenue. Further, such errors could subject us to customer claims for significant damages, and we cannot guarantee courts would enforce the provisions in our customer agreements limiting our damage liability. In turn, this could materially affect our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition.

If we encounter defects, delays or interruptions in our cloud subscription services, the demand for these services could diminish, and we could incur significant liability. We currently utilize data center hosting facilities, which are managed by third-parties, to provide cloud-based solutions and hosting services to our customers. If the data center facilities fail or encounter any damage, it could result in interruptions in services to our customers. This could result in unanticipated downtime for our customers, and in turn, our reputation and business could be adversely affected. In addition, if our customers use our cloud-based arrangements in unanticipated ways, this could cause an interruption in service for other customers attempting to access their data.

If any defects, delays or interruption in our cloud-based solutions occurs, customers could elect to cancel their service, delay or withhold payment to us, not purchase from us in the future or make claims against us, which could adversely affect our business and reputation.

If our data protection or other security measures are compromised and, as a result, our data, our customers’ data or our IT systems are accessed improperly, made unavailable, or improperly modified, our products and services may be perceived as vulnerable, possibly damaging our brand and reputation, disrupting the IT services we provide to our customers, and causing our customers to stop using our products and services, all of which could reduce our revenue and earnings, increase our expenses and expose us to legal claims and regulatory actions.  Our products and services can store, retrieve, manipulate and manage our customers’ information and data as well as our own. We have a reputation for secure and reliable software products and services and invest time and resources in protecting the integrity and security of our products, services and internal and external data that we manage.

Nevertheless, we encounter attempts by third parties to penetrate or bypass our data protection and other security measures and gain unauthorized access to our networks, systems and data or compromise our customers’ confidential information or data. Unauthorized third parties also could improperly access or modify data as a result of employee or supplier error or malfeasance and third parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees or customers into disclosing sensitive information such as user names, passwords or other information.

These risks are persistent and likely will increase as we continue to grow our cloud offerings and services and store and process increasingly large amounts of our customers’ confidential information and data. We also may acquire companies, products, services and technologies and inherit such risks when we integrate these acquisitions within Manhattan.

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If a cyber-attack or other secur ity incident were to occur, we could suffer damage to our brand and reputation, which could reduce our revenue and earnings, increase our expenses to address and fix the incidents and expose us to legal claims and regulatory actions.

Further, as regulatory focus on privacy issues continues to increase and become more complex, these potential risks to our business will intensify. Changes in laws or regulations associated with the enhanced protection of certain types of sensitive data could greatly increase our cost of providing our products and services.

Delays in implementing our products could adversely impact our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition. Due to the size and complexity of most of our software implementations, our implementation cycle can be lengthy and may result in delays. Our products may require modification or customization and must integrate with many existing computer systems and software programs of our customers. This can be time-consuming and expensive for customers and can result in implementation and deployment delays of our products. Additional delays could result if we fail to attract, train, and retain services personnel, or if our alliance companies fail to commit sufficient resources towards implementing our software. These delays and resulting customer dissatisfaction could limit our future sales opportunities, impact revenue, and harm our reputation.

Our liability to clients may be substantial if our systems fail, which could adversely impact our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition . Our products are often critical to the operations of our customers’ businesses and provide benefits that may be difficult to quantify. If our products fail to function as required—which, as described in more detail above, could be due to software bugs, cloud hosting service failures, security breaches, faulty implementations or other reasons—we may be subject to claims for substantial damages. Courts may not enforce provisions in our contracts that would limit our liability or otherwise protect us from liability for damages. Defending a lawsuit, regardless of its merit, could be costly and divert management’s time and attention. Although we maintain general liability insurance and error and omissions coverage, these coverages may not continue to be available on reasonable terms or in sufficient amounts to cover claims against us. In addition, our insurer may disclaim coverage as to any future claim. If claims exceeding the available insurance coverage are successfully asserted against us, or our insurer imposes premium increases or large deductibles or co-insurance requirements on us, then our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Our ability to sell our software is highly dependent on the quality of our services offerings, and our failure to offer high quality services could adversely impact our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition. Most of our customers rely to some extent on our professional services to aid in the implementation of our software solutions. Once our software has been installed and deployed, our customers may depend on us to provide them with ongoing support and resolution of issues relating to our software. Therefore, a high level of service is critical for the continued marketing and sale of our solutions. If we or our partners do not efficiently and effectively install and deploy our software products, or succeed in helping our customers quickly resolve post-deployment issues, our ability to sell software products to these customers would be adversely affected and our reputation in the marketplace with potential customers could suffer.

Our international operations have many associated risks . We continue to strategically manage our presence in international markets, and these efforts require significant management attention and financial resources. We may not be able to successfully penetrate international markets, or, if we do, there can be no assurance that we will grow our business in these markets at the same rate as in North America. Because of these inherent complexities and challenges, lack of success in international markets could adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition.

We have international offices in Americas: the United States and Chile; in Europe: the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France and Germany; and in Asia: China, Japan, Singapore, and India; and Australia. We have committed resources to maintaining and further expanding, where appropriate, our sales offices and sales and support channels in key international markets. However, our efforts may not be successful. International sales are subject to many risks and difficulties, including those arising from the following: building and maintaining a competitive presence in new markets; staffing and managing foreign operations; managing international systems integrators; complying with a variety of foreign laws; producing localized versions of our products; import and export restrictions and tariffs; enforcing contracts and collecting accounts receivable; unexpected changes in regulatory requirements; reduced protection for intellectual property rights in some countries; potential adverse tax treatment; less stringent adherence to ethical and legal standards by prospective customers in some countries; language and cultural barriers; currency fluctuations; political and economic instability abroad; and seasonal fluctuations.

Our operating results may include foreign currency gains and losses. Due to our international operations, we conduct a portion of our business in currencies other than the United States dollar. Our revenues, expenses, operating profit and net income are affected when the dollar weakens or strengthens in relation to other currencies. In addition, we have a large development center in Bangalore, India, that does not have a natural in-market revenue hedge to mitigate currency risk to our operating expense in India. Fluctuations in the value of other currencies, particularly the Indian rupee, could materially impact our revenues, expenses, operating profit and net income.

Our research and development activities may not generate significant returns. Our product development activities are costly, and recovering our investment in product development may take a significant amount of time, if it occurs at all. We anticipate continuing to make significant investments in software research and development and related product opportunities because we

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believe that we must continue to allocate a significant amount of resources to our research and development activities in order to compete successfully. We cannot estimate with any certainty when we will, if ever, receive signific ant revenues from these investments.

We may encounter long sales cycles, particularly with our larger customers, which could have an adverse effect on the amount, timing, and predictability of our revenue, adversely affecting our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition. Our products have lengthy sales cycles, which typically extend from nine to twelve months and may take up to several years. Potential and existing customers, particularly larger enterprise customers, often commit significant resources to an evaluation of available solutions and services and require us to expend substantial time and resources in connection with our sales efforts. The length of our sales cycles also varies depending on the type of customer to which we are selling, the product being sold, and customer requirements. We may incur substantial sales and marketing expenses and expend significant management effort during this time, regardless of whether we make a sale. Many of the key risks relating to sales processes are beyond our control, including: our customers’ budgetary and scheduling constraints; the timing of our customers’ budget cycles and approval processes; our customers’ willingness to replace their currently deployed software solutions; and general economic conditions.

As a result of these lengthy and uncertain sales cycles of our products and services, it is difficult for us to predict when customers may purchase products or services from us, thereby affecting when we can recognize the associated revenue, and our operating results may vary significantly and may be adversely affected. The length of our sales cycle makes us susceptible to having pending transactions delayed or terminated by our customers if they decide to delay or withdraw funding for IT projects. Our customers may decide to delay or withdraw funding for IT projects for various reasons, including, but not limited to, global economic cycles and capital market fluctuations.

Our operating results are difficult to predict and could cause our stock price to fall . Our quarterly revenue and operating results are difficult to predict and can fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter. If our quarterly revenue or operating results fall below the expectations of investors or public market analysts, the price of our common stock could fall substantially. Our quarterly revenue is difficult to forecast for several reasons, including the following: global macro-economic disruptions; credit and equity market disruptions, which can significantly impact capital availability and spend timing of customers or potential customers; the varying sales cycle for our products and services from customer to customer, including multiple levels of authorization required by some customers; the varying demand for our products; customers’ budgeting and purchasing cycles; potential deferral of license revenue well after entering into a license agreement due to extended payment terms, including, although infrequent, payment terms in a contract extending beyond twelve months, significant software modifications, future software functionality deliverables not on a stand-alone basis, or other negotiated terms that preclude software revenue recognition under U.S. general accepted accounting principles; delays in our implementations at customer sites; timing of hiring new services employees and the rate at which these employees become productive; timing of introduction of new products; development and performance of our distribution channels; and timing of any acquisitions and related costs.

As a result of these and other factors, our license revenue is difficult to predict. Because our revenue from services is largely correlated to our license revenue, a decline in license revenue could also cause a decline in our services revenue in the same quarter or in subsequent quarters. In addition, an increase or decrease in hardware sales, which provide us with lower gross margins than sales of software licenses or services, may cause variations in our quarterly operating results.

Most of our expenses, including employee compensation and rent, are relatively fixed. In addition, our expense levels are based, in part, on our expectations regarding future revenue increases. As a result, any shortfall in revenue in relation to our expectations could cause significant changes in our operating results from quarter to quarter and could result in quarterly losses. As a result of these factors, we believe that period-to-period comparisons of our revenue levels and operating results are not necessarily meaningful. Historical growth rates and historical quarterly revenue and operating results may not be a good indicator of future operating results and reliance on historical results should not be used to predict our future performance.

Our technology must be advanced if we are to remain competitive . The market for our products is characterized by rapid technological change, frequent new product introductions and enhancements, changes in customer demands, and evolving industry standards. Our existing products could be rendered obsolete if we fail to continue to advance our technology. We have also found that the technological life cycles of our products are difficult to estimate, partially because of changing demands of other participants in the supply chain. We believe that our future success will depend in large part upon our ability to continue to enhance our current product line while we concurrently develop and introduce new products that keep pace with competitive and technological developments. These developments require us to continue to make substantial product development investments. Although we are presently developing a number of product enhancements to our product sets, we cannot assure you that these enhancements will be completed on a timely basis or gain customer acceptance.

Our failure to manage the growth of our operations may adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition . We plan to continue to increase the scope of our operations domestically and internationally. This growth may place a significant strain on our management systems and resources. We may further expand domestically or internationally through internal growth or through acquisitions of related companies and technologies. If we fail to maintain continuity in our executive officers; develop the management skills of our managers and supervisors; attract, retain, train, and motivate our employees; improve

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our operational, financial, and management controls; and maintain adequate reporting systems an d procedures and our management and information control systems, our business, results of operations, and cash flow could be negatively impacted.

We incorporate third-party software in our solutions, the failure or unavailability of which could adversely affect our ability to sell, support, and service our products. We incorporate and include third-party software into and with certain of our products and solutions and expect to continue to do so. The operation of our products could be impaired if there are defects in that third-party software. It may be difficult for us to correct any defects in third-party software because the development and maintenance of the software is not within our control. Such defects could adversely affect our business.

In addition, there can be no assurance that these third parties will continue to make their software available to us on acceptable terms, or at all; not make their products available to our competitors on more favorable terms; invest the appropriate levels of resources in their products and services to maintain and enhance the capabilities of their software; or remain in business. Any impairment in our relationship with these third parties or our ability to license or otherwise use their software could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition.

The use of open source software in our products may expose us to additional risks and harm our intellectual property, which could adversely impact our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition. Some of our products use or incorporate software that is subject to one or more open source licenses. Open source software is typically freely accessible, usable and modifiable. Certain open source software licenses require a user who intends to distribute the open source software as a component of the user’s software to disclose publicly part or all of the source code to the user’s software. In addition, certain open source software licenses require the user of such software to make any derivative works of the open source code available to others on unfavorable terms or at no cost. This can subject previously proprietary software to open source license terms.

While we monitor the use of all open source software in our products, processes, and technology and try to ensure that no open source software is used in such a way as to require us to disclose the source code to the related product or solution, such use could inadvertently occur. Additionally, if a third-party software provider has incorporated open source software into software we license from them for use in our products and solutions, we could, under certain circumstances, be required to disclose the source code to our products and solutions. This could harm our intellectual property position and have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition.

If we are unable to develop software applications that interoperate with computing platforms developed by others, our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition may be adversely affected. We develop software applications that interoperate with operating systems, database platforms, and hardware devices developed by others, which we refer to collectively as computing platforms. If the developers of these computing platforms do not cooperate with us or we are unable to devote the necessary resources so that our applications interoperate with those computing platforms, our software development efforts may be delayed and our business and results of operations may be adversely affected. When new or updated versions of these computing platforms are introduced, it is often necessary for us to develop updated versions of our software applications so that they interoperate properly with these computing platforms. We may not accomplish these development efforts quickly or cost-effectively, and it is difficult to predict what the relative growth rates of adoption of these computing platforms will be. These development efforts require substantial investment, the devotion of substantial employee resources, and the cooperation of the developers of the computing platforms. For some computing platforms, we must obtain some proprietary application program interfaces from the owner in order to develop software applications that interoperate with the computing platforms. Computing platform providers have no obligation to assist in these development efforts. If they do not provide us with assistance or the necessary proprietary application program interfaces on a timely basis, we may experience delays or be unable to expand our software applications into other areas.

The computing platforms we use may not continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms. Any loss of the right to use any of these systems could result in delays in the provision of our products and services, and our results of operations may be adversely affected. Defects in computing platforms could result in errors or failure of our products, which could harm our business.

Our liability for intellectual property claims can be costly and result in the loss of significant rights, which could adversely impact our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition . It is possible that third parties will claim that we have infringed their current or future products, inventions, or other intellectual property. We expect that supply chain software developers like us will increasingly be subject to infringement claims as the number of products grows. Any claims, with or without merit, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, cause product shipment delays, or require us to pay monetary damages or to enter into royalty or licensing agreements, any of which could negatively impact our operating results. There are no assurances that these royalty or licensing agreements, if required, would be available on terms acceptable to us, if at all. We also may be required to indemnify our customers for damages they suffer as a result of such infringement. There are no assurances that legal action claiming patent infringement will not be commenced against us, or that we would prevail in litigation given the complex technical issues and inherent uncertainties in patent litigation. If a patent claim against us were successful and we could not obtain a license on acceptable terms or license a substitute technology or redesign the product or feature to avoid infringement, we may be prevented from

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distributing our sof tware or required to incur significant expense and delay in developing non-infringing software. Any of these events could seriously harm our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition.

We may have exposure to additional tax liabilities. As a multinational corporation, we are subject to income taxes in the U.S. and various foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining our global provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities. In the ordinary course of a global business, there are many intercompany transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Our income tax returns are routinely subject to audits by tax authorities. Although we regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine our tax estimates, a final determination of tax audits or tax disputes could have an adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Also, the earnings of our foreign subsidiaries are considered to be indefinitely reinvested. If our plans change in the future or if we elect to repatriate the unremitted earnings of our foreign subsidiaries in the form of dividends or otherwise, we could be subject to additional local withholding taxes which may result in a higher effective tax rate.

In addition, the United States government enacted tax reform and other governments are considering adopting tax reform measures that could impact future effective tax rates favorably or unfavorably affected by changes in tax rates, changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets or liabilities, or changes in tax laws or their interpretation. Such changes could have a material adverse impact on our financial 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 U.S. and various foreign jurisdictions. We are regularly under audit by tax authorities with respect to these non-income taxes and may have exposure to additional non-income tax liabilities, which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

Fluctuations in our hardware sales may adversely impact our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition. A portion of our revenue in any period is from the resale of a variety of third-party hardware products to purchasers of our software. However, our customers may purchase these hardware products directly from manufacturers or distributors rather than from us. We view sales of hardware as non-strategic. We perform this service to our customers seeking a single source for their supply chain needs. Hardware sales are difficult to forecast and fluctuate from quarter to quarter, leading to unusual comparisons of total revenue and fluctuations in profits. If we are unable to maintain or grow our hardware revenue, our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition may be adversely affected.

Our growth is dependent upon the successful development of our direct and indirect sales channel mix . We believe that our future growth also will depend on further developing and maintaining a successful direct sales force and strategic relationships with systems integrators and other technology companies. We invest significant resources to maintain and develop our sales channels. Our investment could adversely affect our operating results if these efforts do not generate license and service revenue necessary to offset the investment. Also, our inability to partner with other technology companies and qualified systems integrators could adversely affect our results of operations. Because lower unit prices are typically charged on sales made through indirect channels, a disproportionate increase in indirect sales could reduce our average selling prices and result in lower gross margins. In addition, sales of our products through indirect channels typically do not generate consulting services revenue for us at the same levels as direct sales, as the third-party systems integrators generally provide these services. Similarly, indirect sales typically do not generate the same levels of direct contact between our associates and those of our customer, and we may have more difficulty accurately forecasting sales, evaluating customer satisfaction, and recognizing emerging customer requirements. In addition, these systems integrators and third-party software providers may develop, acquire, or market products competitive with our products.

Our strategy of marketing our products directly to customers and indirectly through systems integrators and other technology companies may result in distribution channel conflicts. Our direct sales efforts may compete with those of our indirect channels and, to the extent different systems integrators target the same customers, systems integrators may also come into conflict with each other. Any channel conflicts that develop may have a material adverse effect on our relationships with systems integrators or harm our ability to attract new systems integrators.

Our employee retention and hiring may be hindered by immigration restrictions, which could adversely impact our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition. Foreign nationals who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents constitute a significant part of our professional U.S. workforce. Our ability to hire and retain these workers, and their ability to remain and work in the U.S. are impacted by laws and regulations as well as by processing procedures of various government agencies. Changes in laws, regulations, or procedures may adversely affect our ability to hire or retain such workers and may affect our costs of doing business and/or our ability to deliver services.

Our failure to adequately protect our proprietary rights could adversely impact our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition . Our success and ability to compete is dependent in part upon our proprietary technology. There are no assurances that we will be able to protect our proprietary rights against unauthorized disclosure or third-party copying or use. We rely on a combination of copyright, patent, trademark, and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality agreements, licensing arrangements, and contractual commitments, to establish and protect our proprietary rights. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, existing copyright, patent, trademark, and trade secret laws afford only limited protection. In addition, the laws of certain foreign

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countries do not protect our rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. Attempts may be made to copy or reverse engineer aspects of our products or to obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. Any infring ement of our proprietary rights could negatively impact our future operating results. Furthermore, policing the unauthorized use of our products is difficult, and litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights, to pro tect our trade secrets, or to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. Litigation could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources. In turn, our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition co uld be materially adversely affected.

Mergers or other strategic transactions involving our competitors could weaken our competitive position or reduce our revenue. Our competitors have been consolidating, which may make them more formidable competitors to us. Competing with stronger companies may cause us to experience pricing pressure and loss of market share, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition. Our competitors may establish or strengthen their cooperative relationships with vendors, systems integrators, third-party consulting firms, or other parties. Established companies may not only develop their own products but may also acquire or partner with our current competitors. If any of these events occur, our revenue and profitability could significantly decline.

Our business, results of operations, cash flow, and financial condition may be adversely affected if we cannot integrate acquired companies or manage joint ventures. We may from time to time acquire companies with complementary products and services. These acquisitions will expose us to increased risks and costs, including those arising from the following: assimilating new operations and personnel; diverting financial and management resources from existing operations; and integrating acquired technologies. We may not be able to generate sufficient revenue from any of these acquisitions to offset the associated acquisition costs.

We will also be required to maintain uniform standards of quality and service, controls, procedures, and policies. Our failure to achieve any of these standards may hurt relationships with customers, employees, and new management personnel. In addition, future acquisitions may result in additional issuances of stock that could be dilutive to our shareholders.

Many acquisition candidates have significant intangible assets, and an acquisition of these businesses would likely result in significant amounts of goodwill and other intangible assets. Goodwill and certain other intangible assets are not amortized to income, but are subject to at least annual impairment reviews. If the acquisitions do not perform as planned, future charges to income arising from such impairment reviews could be significant. Likewise, future quarterly and annual earnings could be significantly adversely affected. In addition, these acquisitions could involve acquisition-related charges, such as one-time acquired research and development charges.

We may also evaluate joint venture relationships with complementary businesses. Any joint venture we enter into would involve many of the same risks posed by acquisitions, particularly the following: risks associated with the diversion of resources; the inability to generate sufficient revenue; the management of relationships with third parties; and potential additional expenses.

Our business may require additional capital . We may require additional capital to finance our growth or to fund acquisitions or investments in complementary businesses, technologies or product lines. Our capital requirements may be impacted by many factors, including: demand for our products; the timing of and extent to which we invest in new technology; the timing of and extent to which we acquire other companies; the level and timing of revenue; the expenses of sales and marketing and new product development; the success and related expense of increasing our brand awareness; the cost of facilities to accommodate a growing workforce; the extent to which competitors are successful in developing new products and increasing their market share; and the costs involved in maintaining and enforcing intellectual property rights.

To the extent that our resources are insufficient to fund our future activities, we may need to raise additional funds through public or private financing. However, additional funding, if needed, may not be available on terms attractive to us, or at all. In addition, since we have historically financed our growth through cash flow from operations and available cash, our relative inexperience in accessing the credit or capital markets may impair our ability to do so if the need arises. Our inability to raise capital when needed could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flow and financial condition. If additional funds are raised through the issuance of equity securities, the percentage ownership of our company held by our current shareholders would be diluted.

Fires or other catastrophic events at our principal facilities could cripple our business.   Fires, natural disasters or other catastrophic events, particularly those effecting our Atlanta headquarters or India research and development center, may cause damage or disruption to our operations, and thus could have a strong negative effect on us. Our business operations are subject to interruption by natural disasters, fire, power shortages, pandemics and other events beyond our control. Although we maintain crisis management and disaster response plans, such events could make it difficult or impossible for us to deliver our services to our customers.

Our ability to maintain and develop our brand is critical for our continued success. The brand identity we have developed has significantly contributed to the continued success of our business. Our ability to maintain and develop our brand is critical in expanding our base of customers, partners and employees. Our brand will depend largely on our ability to remain a technology leader

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and continue to provide high-quality innovative products, services, and features. Significant investments may be required in order to maintain and develop our brand. Howe ver, the investments may later be proven to be unsuccessful. If we fail to maintain and develop our brand, or if we incur excessive expenses in our efforts to do so, our business, operating results and financial condition may be materially and adversely af fected.

Adverse litigation results could affect our business . From time to time, we may be involved in litigation relating to claims arising out of our ordinary course of business, and occasionally legal proceeding not in the ordinary course. Litigation can be lengthy, expensive and disruptive to our operations, and can divert our management’s attention away from running our core business. The results of any litigation also cannot be predicted with certainty. An adverse decision could result in monetary damages or injunctive relief that could affect our business, operating results or financial condition. Additional information regarding legal matters in which we are involved can be found in Note 5 of the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements.

Our stock price has been highly volatile . The trading price of our common stock has fluctuated significantly since our initial public offering in April 1998. In addition, the trading price of our common stock could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, including: global macro-economic contraction impacting demand for supply chain solutions; quarterly variations in operating results; announcements of technological innovations or new products by us or our competitors; developments with respect to patents or proprietary rights; changes in financial estimates by securities analysts; and mergers, acquisitions, and combinations involving our competitors or us.

Our articles of incorporation and bylaws and Georgia law may inhibit a takeover of our company . Our basic corporate documents and Georgia law contain provisions that might enable our management to resist a takeover of our company. These provisions might discourage, delay, or prevent a change in the control of our company or a change in our management. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for you and other shareholders to elect directors and take other corporate actions. The existence of these provisions could also limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock.

Economic conditions and regulatory changes caused by the United Kingdom’s likely exit from the European Union could adversely affect our business. In June 2016, the United Kingdom (the “U.K”) held a referendum in which voters approved an exit from the European Union (“E.U.”), commonly referred to as Brexit. On March 29, 2017, the UK notified the E.U. of its intention to withdraw pursuant to Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.. The terms of the withdrawal are subject to a negotiation period that could last at least two years from the withdrawal notification date. Brexit has caused, and may continue to result in, significant volatility in global stock market and currency exchange rate fluctuations, which have resulted in the strengthening of the U.S. dollar relative to other foreign currencies in which we conduct business.  The likely withdrawal of the U.K. from the E.U. may also create global economic uncertainty, which may cause our customers to closely monitor their costs and reduce their spending budgets. This could adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows. Our EMEA operations represented approximately 14% and 11% of our total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Changes in, or interpretation of, accounting principles could result in unfavorable accounting changes. Our Consolidated Financial Statements are prepared in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles and accompanying accounting pronouncements, implementation guidelines, and interpretations. These rules are subject to interpretation by the SEC and various bodies formed to interpret and create appropriate accounting principles. Changes in these rules or their interpretation could significantly change our reported results and may even retroactively affect previously reported transactions. Our accounting principles that may be affected by changes in accounting principles include, but are not limited to revenue recognition and leases. We are continuing to evaluate the impact that the adoption of these standards will have on our Consolidated Financial Statements. Changes resulting from these new accounting standards or the adoption of other new or revised accounting principles may result in materially different financial results and may require that we make changes to our systems, processes and controls. For further detail, please see new accounting pronouncements discussion in Note 1 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.