Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Investing in our Class A common stock involves a high degree of risk. Investors should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information contained in this report, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes appearing in this quarterly report, before deciding to invest in our Class A common stock. If any of the following risks actually occur, it could harm our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition. In such event, the trading price of our Class A common stock could decline and investors might lose all or part of their investment.
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
We have experienced rapid growth in prior periods, and we may not be able to sustain or manage future growth effectively.
We have significantly expanded our overall business, customer base, headcount, channel partner relationships and operations in prior periods, and we anticipate that we will continue to expand and experience growth in future periods. For example, we delivered year-over-year revenue growth of 40% for the three months ended April 30, 2018, and our headcount increased from over 1,800 to over 2,300 employees from April 30, 2017 to
April 30, 2018
. Our future operating results will depend to a large extent on our ability to successfully sustain our growth and manage our anticipated expansion. To sustain and manage our growth successfully, we believe that we must, among other things, effectively:
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maintain and extend our product leadership;
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recruit, hire, train and manage qualified personnel;
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maintain and further develop our partner relationships;
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enhance and expand our distribution and supply chain infrastructure;
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expand our support capabilities;
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forecast and control expenses;
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enhance and expand our international operations; and
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implement, improve and maintain our internal systems, procedures and controls.
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We expect that our future growth will continue to place a significant strain on our managerial, administrative, operational, financial and other resources. We will incur costs associated with this future growth prior to realizing the anticipated benefits, and the return on these investments may be lower, may develop more slowly than we expect or may never materialize. Investors should not consider our revenue growth in prior quarterly or annual periods as indicative of our future performance. In future periods, we do not expect to achieve similar percentage revenue growth rates as we have achieved in some past periods. If we are unable to manage our growth successfully, we may not be able to take advantage of market opportunities or release new products or enhancements in a timely manner, and we may fail to satisfy customers’ expectations, maintain product quality, execute on our business plan or adequately respond to competitive pressures, each of which could adversely impact our growth and affect our business and operating results.
We intend to continue focusing on revenue growth and increasing our market penetration and international presence by investing heavily in our business, and this may put pressure on near-term profitability.
Our strategy is to continue investing in marketing, sales, support and research and development. We believe our decision to continue investing heavily in our business will be critical to our future success and to meet our growth objectives. We anticipate that our operating costs and expenses will continue to increase in absolute terms. In addition, we expect to continue incurring significant legal, accounting and other expenses in order to operate effectively as a public company. Even if we achieve or maintain significant revenue growth, we may continue to experience losses, forgoing near-term profitability on a U.S. GAAP basis.
We have not achieved profitability for any year since our inception. We incurred a net loss of $177.6 million for the year ended
January 31, 2018
, and
$64.3 million
for the
three
months ended
April 30, 2018
, and we had an accumulated deficit of
$903.6
million as of
January 31, 2018
and
$967.9 million
as of
April 30, 2018
. Our operating expenses largely are based on anticipated revenue, and a high percentage of our expenses are, and will continue to be, fixed in the short term. If we fail to adequately increase revenue and manage costs, we may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future. As a result, our business could be harmed and our operating results could suffer.
Our revenue growth rate in recent periods may not be indicative of our future performance.
We were founded in October 2009, but have generated substantially all of our revenue in our last three fiscal years. Investors should not consider our revenue growth in prior quarterly or annual periods as indicative of our future performance. In future periods, we do not expect to achieve similar percentage revenue growth rates as we have achieved in some past periods. If we are unable to maintain adequate revenue or revenue growth, our stock price could be volatile, and it may be difficult to achieve and maintain profitability.
The market for all-flash storage products is rapidly evolving, which makes it difficult to forecast customer adoption rates and demand for our products.
The market for all-flash storage products is rapidly evolving. Our future financial performance will depend on the continued growth of this market and on our ability to adapt to competitive dynamics and emerging customer demands and trends. Incumbent vendors promote storage products retrofitted with flash, which may reduce the perceived value of purpose-built, all-flash products. It is difficult to predict with any precision customer adoption rates of flash, customer demand for our products or the future growth rate and size of our market.
Our products may never reach mass adoption, and changes or advances in alternative technologies or adoption of cloud storage offerings not utilizing our storage platform could adversely affect the demand for our products. For instance, offerings from large public cloud providers are expanding quickly and may serve as alternatives to our products for a variety of customer workloads. Since these providers are known for developing storage systems internally, this trend could reduce the demand for storage systems developed by original equipment manufacturers, such as us. Further, although flash storage has a number of advantages as compared to other data storage alternatives, flash storage has certain limitations as well, including more limited methods for data recovery and reduced performance gains for certain uses, such as sequential input/output transactions. A slowing in or reduced demand for all-flash storage products caused by technological challenges, alternative technologies and products or any other reason would result in a lower revenue growth rate or decreased revenue, either of which would negatively impact our business and operating results.
We face intense competition from established companies and new entrants.
We face intense competition from a number of established companies that sell competitive storage products. These competitors include Dell EMC, HP Enterprise, Hitachi Vantara, IBM, Lenovo, NetApp and others. Our competitors may have:
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greater name and brand recognition and longer operating histories;
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larger sales and marketing and customer support budgets and resources;
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broader distribution and established relationships with distribution partners and customers;
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the ability to bundle storage products with other products and services to address customers’ requirements;
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greater resources to make acquisitions;
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larger and more mature product and intellectual property portfolios; and
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substantially greater financial, technical and other resources.
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We also compete against some large public cloud providers and vendors that offer hyperconverged products, which combine compute, networking and storage. These providers are growing and expanding their product offerings, potentially displacing some demand for our products. Acquisitions by competitors have introduced new competitive dynamics. For example, some of our competitors offer bundled products and services in order to reduce the initial cost of their storage products. Some of our competitors offer their storage products either at significant discounts or even for free in competing against us and in response to our efforts to market the overall benefits and technological merits of our products and programs.
Many competitors have developed competing all-flash storage technologies. For example, several of our competitors have introduced all-flash storage products with performance-focused designs and/or with data reduction technologies that directly compete with our products, or have introduced business programs that attempt to compete with our innovative programs, such as our
Evergreen Storage
model. We expect our competitors to continue to improve the performance of their products, reduce their prices and introduce new features, services and technologies that may, or that they may claim, to offer greater value compared to our products. In addition, our competitors may develop enhancements to, or future generations of, competitive products that may render our products or technologies obsolete or less competitive. These and other competitive pressures may prevent us from competing successfully against current or future competitors.
Our business may be harmed by trends in the overall external storage market.
Despite ongoing data growth, the external storage market in which we compete has not experienced overall
growth in the past few years due to a combination of technology transitions, increased storage efficiency, and changing economic and business environments. Customers are rethinking how they consume IT, increasing spending toward public cloud, software as a service, hyperconverged and converged infrastructure and software-defined storage. The future impact of these trends on both short-term and long-term growth of the overall external storage market is uncertain. Reductions in the overall external storage market, or the specific markets in which we compete would harm our business and operating results.
Many of our competitors have long-standing relationships with key decision makers at current and prospective customers, which may inhibit our ability to compete.
Many of our competitors benefit from established brand awareness and long-standing relationships with key decision makers at our current and prospective customers. Our competitors often leverage these existing relationships to discourage customers from evaluating or purchasing our products. Additionally, most of our prospective customers have existing storage products from our competitors, which provides those competitors an advantage in retaining the customer because, among other things, the incumbent vendor already understands the customer’s IT infrastructure, user demands and needs. In the event that we are unable to successfully sell our products to new customers or persuade our customers to continue purchasing our products, we will not be able to maintain or increase our market share and revenue, which could adversely affect our business and operating results.
Our ability to increase our revenue depends on our ability to attract, motivate and retain sales, engineering and other key personnel, including our management team, and any failure to attract, motivate and retain these employees could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our ability to increase our revenue depends on our ability to attract, motivate and retain qualified sales, engineering and other key employees, including our management. These positions may require candidates with specific backgrounds in software and the storage industry, and competition for employees with such expertise is intense. We have from time to time experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. To the extent that we are successful in hiring to fill these positions,
we need a significant amount of time to train new employees before they become effective and efficient in performing their jobs. From time to time, there may be changes in our management team, which could create short term uncertainty. Members of our management team, including our executive officers, are generally employed on an at-will basis, which means that they could terminate their employment with us at any time. If we are unable to attract, motivate and retain qualified sales, engineering and other key employees, including our management, our business and operating results could suffer.
If we fail to adequately expand and optimize our sales force, our growth will be impeded.
We will need to continue to expand and optimize our sales organization in order to grow our customer base and our business. We plan to continue to expand and train our sales force, both domestically and internationally. We must design and implement effective sales incentive programs, and it can take time before our sales representatives are fully trained and productive. If we are unable to hire, develop and retain qualified sales personnel or if new sales personnel are unable to achieve desired productivity levels in a reasonable period of time, we may not be able to realize the expected benefits of these investments or increase our revenue.
If we fail to develop and introduce new or enhanced products successfully, our ability to attract and retain customers could be harmed.
We operate in a dynamic environment characterized by rapidly changing technologies and industry standards and technological obsolescence. To compete successfully, we must design, develop, market and sell new or enhanced products that provide increasingly higher levels of performance, capacity and reliability and that meet the expectations of our customers, which is a complex and uncertain process. We believe that we must continue to dedicate significant resources to our research and development efforts to maintain or expand our competitive position. Our investments may take longer to generate revenue or may generate less revenue than we anticipate. The introduction of new products by our competitors, or the emergence of alternative technologies or industry standards could render our existing or future products obsolete or less competitive.
As we introduce new or enhanced products, we must successfully manage product launches and transitions to the next generations of our products, and encourage our customers to adopt new products and features. For example, we started shipments of our
FlashBlade
and
FlashArray//X
products, and introduced new software features last year. If we are not able to successfully manage the development and release of new or enhanced products, our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed. Similarly, if we fail to introduce new or enhanced products, such as new or improved software features, that meet our customers' needs in a timely or cost-effective fashion, we may lose market share and our operating results could be adversely affected.
If we fail to successfully maintain or grow our relationships with channel partners, our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.
Our future success is highly dependent upon our ability to establish and maintain successful relationships with our channel partners. In addition to selling our products, our partners may offer installation, post-sale service and support in their local markets. In markets where we rely on partners more heavily, we have less contact with our customers and less control over the sales process and the quality and responsiveness of our partners. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to ensure the proper delivery and installation of our products or the quality or responsiveness of the support and services being offered. Any failure on our part to effectively identify, train and manage our channel partners and to monitor their sales activity, as well as the customer support and services provided to our customers, could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our channel partners may choose to discontinue offering our products and services or may not devote sufficient attention and resources toward selling our products and services. We typically enter into non-exclusive, written agreements with our channel partners. These agreements generally have a one-year, self-renewing term, have no minimum sales commitment and do not prohibit our channel partners from offering products and services that compete with ours. Additionally, our competitors provide incentives to our existing and potential channel partners to use, purchase or offer their products and services or to prevent or reduce sales of our products and services. The occurrence of any of these events could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our gross margins are impacted by a variety of factors and vary from period to period, making them difficult to predict with certainty.
Our gross margins fluctuate from period to period due primarily to product costs, customer mix and product mix. A variety of factors may cause our gross margins to fluctuate and make them difficult to predict, including:
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demand for our products;
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sales and marketing initiatives, discount levels, rebates and competitive pricing;
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changes in customer, geographic or product mix, including mix of product configurations;
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the cost of components, including NAND and DRAM flash, and freight;
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new product introductions and enhancements, potentially with initial sales at relatively small volumes and higher product costs;
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the timing and amount of revenue recognized and deferred, including impact from the adoption of ASC 606;
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excess inventory levels or purchase commitments as a result of changes in demand forecasts or product transitions;
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an increase in product returns, order rescheduling and cancellations;
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the timing of technical support service contracts and contract renewals;
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inventory stocking requirements to mitigate supply constraints, accommodate unforeseen demand or support new product introductions; and
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product quality and serviceability issues.
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If we are unable to manage these factors effectively, our gross margins may decline, and fluctuations in gross margins may make it difficult to manage our business and achieve or maintain profitability, which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our operating results may fluctuate significantly, which could make our future results difficult to predict and could cause our operating results to fall below expectations.
Our operating results may fluctuate due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result, comparing our results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. Factors that are difficult to predict and that could cause our operating results to fluctuate include:
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the timing and magnitude of orders, shipments and acceptance of our products in any quarter, including product returns, order rescheduling and cancellations by our customers;
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fluctuations in demand and prices for our products;
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seasonality in our business or the markets we serve;
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our ability to control the costs of the components we use in our hardware products;
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our ability to timely adopt subsequent generations of components into our hardware products;
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disruption in our supply chains, component availability and related procurement costs;
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reductions in customers’ budgets for IT purchases;
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changes in industry standards in the data storage industry;
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our ability to develop, introduce and ship in a timely manner new products and product enhancements that meet customer requirements;
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our ability to effectively manage product transitions as we introduce new products;
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any change in the competitive dynamics of our markets, including new entrants or discounting of product prices;
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our ability to control costs, including our operating expenses; and
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future accounting pronouncements and changes in accounting policies, including our ability to implement the new processes necessary to accurately recognize our revenue under ASC 606 going forward.
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The occurrence of any one of these risks could negatively affect our operating results in any particular quarter.
Our sales cycles can be long and unpredictable and our sales efforts require considerable time and expense, making it difficult for us to predict future sales.
Our sales efforts involve educating our customers about the use and benefits of our products. Larger customers often undertake an evaluation process that can result in a lengthy sales cycle. We spend substantial time and resources on our sales efforts without any assurances that our efforts will produce any sales. In addition, product purchases are frequently subject to budget constraints, multiple approvals and unplanned administrative and other delays. A substantial portion of our quarterly sales typically occurs during the last several weeks of the quarter, which we believe largely reflects customer buying patterns of products similar to ours and other products in the technology industry generally. Since we do not recognize revenue from a sale until control is transferred, a substantial portion of our sales late in a quarter may negatively impact the recognition of the associated revenue. Furthermore, our products come with a 30-day money back guarantee, allowing a customer to return a product within 30 days of receipt if the customer is not satisfied with its purchase for any reason. These factors, among others, make it difficult for us to predict when customers will purchase our products, which may adversely affect our operating results and cause our operating results to fluctuate. In addition, if sales expected from a specific customer for a particular quarter are not realized in that quarter or at all, our operating results may suffer.
Our company culture has contributed to our success, and if we cannot maintain this culture as we grow, we could lose the innovation, creativity and teamwork fostered by our culture, and our business may be harmed.
We believe that a critical contributor to our success has been our company culture, which we believe fosters innovation, creativity, teamwork, passion for customers and focus on execution, as well as facilitating critical knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing. In particular, we believe that the difference between our sales, support and engineering cultures, relative to those of incumbent vendors, is a key competitive advantage and differentiator for our customers and partners. As we grow and change, we may find it difficult to maintain these important aspects of our company culture, which could limit our ability to innovate and operate effectively. Any failure to preserve our culture could also negatively affect our ability to retain and recruit personnel, continue to perform at current levels or execute on our business strategy.
Our long-term success depends, in part, on sales outside of the United States, which is susceptible to risks associated with international operations.
We maintain operations outside of the United States, which we have been expanding and intend to continue to expand in the future. Conducting and expanding international operations subjects us to new risks that we do not generally face in the United States. These include:
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exposure to foreign currency exchange rate risk;
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difficulties in collecting payments internationally, and managing and staffing international operations;
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establishing relationships with channel partners in international locations;
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increased travel, infrastructure and legal compliance costs associated with international locations;
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burdens of complying with a wide variety of laws associated with international operations, including taxes and customs;
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significant fines, penalties and collateral consequences if we or our partners fail to comply with anti-bribery laws;
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heightened risk of improper, unfair or corrupt business practices in certain geographies;
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potentially adverse tax consequences, including repatriation of earnings;
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increased financial accounting and reporting burdens and complexities;
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political, social and economic instability abroad, terrorist attacks and security concerns in general; and
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reduced or varied protection for intellectual property rights in some countries.
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The occurrence of any one of these risks could negatively affect our international operations and, consequently, our business, operating results and financial condition generally.
The sales prices of our products and services may fluctuate or decline, which may reduce our gross profits and adversely impact our financial results.
The sales prices of our products and services may fluctuate or decline for a variety of reasons, including competitive pricing pressures, discounts, cost of components, a change in our mix of products and services, and the introduction of competing products or services or promotional programs. Competition continues to increase in the markets in which we participate, and we expect competition to further increase in the future, thereby leading to increased pricing pressures. Larger competitors may reduce the price of products or services that compete with ours or may bundle them with other products and services. Additionally, although we price our products and services predominantly in U.S. dollars, currency fluctuations in certain countries and regions may negatively impact actual prices that partners and customers are willing to pay in those countries and regions. Furthermore, we anticipate that the prices for our products will decrease over product life cycles. If we are required to decrease our prices to be competitive and are not able to offset this decrease by increases in the volume of sales or the sales of new products with higher margins, our gross margins and operating results could be adversely affected.
We derive the majority of our revenue from a single family of products, and a decline in demand for these products would cause our revenue to grow more slowly or to decline.
Our
FlashArray
family of products has historically accounted for the majority of our revenue and will continue to comprise a significant portion of our revenue for the foreseeable future. As a result, our revenue could be reduced by any decline or fluctuation in demand for our products, regardless of the reason. If the market for all-flash storage products grows more slowly than anticipated or if demand for our products slows or declines, we may not be able to increase our revenue or achieve and maintain profitability.
Our products are highly technical and may contain defects, which could cause data unavailability, loss or corruption that might, in turn, result in liability and harm to our reputation and business.
Our products are highly technical and complex and are often used to store information critical to our customers’ business operations. Our products may contain errors, defects or security vulnerabilities that could result in data unavailability, loss, corruption or other harm to our customers. Some errors in our products may only be discovered after they have been installed and used by customers. Any errors, defects or security vulnerabilities in our products could result in a loss of revenue, injury to our reputation, loss of customers or increased service and warranty costs, any of which could adversely affect our business and operating results. In addition, errors or failures in the products of third-party technology vendors may be attributed to us and may harm our reputation.
We could face claims for product liability, tort or breach of warranty. Many of our contracts with customers contain provisions relating to warranty disclaimers and liability limitations, which may be difficult to enforce. Defending a lawsuit, regardless of its merit, would be costly and might divert management’s attention and adversely affect the market’s perception of us and our products. Our business liability insurance coverage could prove inadequate with respect to a claim and future coverage may be unavailable on acceptable terms or at all. These product-related issues could result in claims against us, and our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.
Our brand name and our business may be harmed by the marketing strategies of our competitors.
Because of the early stage of our business, we believe that building and maintaining brand recognition and customer goodwill is critical to our success. Our efforts in this area have, on occasion, been hampered by the marketing efforts of our competitors, which have included negative or misleading statements about us and our products. If we are unable to effectively respond to the marketing efforts of our competitors and protect our brand and customer goodwill now or in the future, our business will be adversely affected.
Our products must interoperate with third party operating systems, software applications and hardware, and if we are unable to ensure that our products interoperate with third party software and hardware, we may lose or fail to increase our market share and may experience reduced demand for our products.
Our products must interoperate with our customers’ existing infrastructure, specifically their networks, servers, software and operating systems, which are manufactured by a wide variety of vendors. When new or updated versions of these operating systems or applications are introduced, we must sometimes develop updated versions of our software so that our products interoperate properly. For example, our
Pure1
cloud-based management and support includes connectors to virtualization platforms, allowing our customers to manage our products within native management tools, such as VMware and OpenStack. We may not deliver or maintain interoperability quickly, cost-effectively or at all. These efforts require capital investment and engineering resources. If we fail to maintain compatibility of our products with these infrastructure components, our customers may not be able to fully utilize our products, and we may, among other consequences, lose or fail to increase our market share and experience reduced demand for our products, which may harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our products must conform to industry standards in order to be accepted by customers in our markets.
Generally, our products comprise only a part of a data center. The servers, network, software and other components and systems of a data center must comply with established industry standards in order to interoperate and function efficiently together. We depend on companies that provide other systems in a data center to conform to prevailing industry standards. These companies are often significantly larger and more influential in driving industry standards than we are. Some industry standards may not be widely adopted or implemented uniformly, and competing standards may emerge that may be preferred by our customers. If larger companies do not conform to the same industry standards that we do, or if competing standards emerge, sales of our products could be adversely affected, which may harm our business.
Our ability to successfully market and sell our products is dependent in part on ease of use and the quality of our support offerings, and any failure to offer high-quality installation and technical support could harm our business.
Once our products are deployed within our customers’ data centers, customers depend on our support organization to resolve technical issues relating to our products. Our ability to provide effective support is largely dependent on our ability to attract, train and retain qualified personnel, as well as to engage with qualified support partners that provide a similar level of customer support. In addition, our sales process is highly dependent on our product and business reputation and on recommendations from our existing customers. Although our products are designed to be interoperable with existing servers and systems, we may need to provide customized installation and configuration support to our customers before our products become fully operational in their environments. Any failure to maintain, or a market perception that we do not maintain, high-quality installation and technical support could harm our reputation, our ability to sell our products to existing and prospective customers and our business.
We rely on contract manufacturers to manufacture our products, and if we fail to manage our relationships with our contract manufacturers successfully, our business could be negatively impacted.
We rely on a limited number of contract manufacturers to manufacture our products. Our reliance on contract manufacturers reduces our control over the assembly process, and exposes us to risks, such as reduced control over quality assurance, costs and product supply. If we fail to manage our relationships with these contract manufacturers effectively, or if these contract manufacturers experience delays, disruptions, capacity constraints or quality control problems, our ability to timely ship products to our customers could be impaired and our competitive position and reputation could be harmed. If we are required, for whatever reason, to change contract manufacturers or assume internal manufacturing operations, we may lose revenue, incur increased costs and damage our customer relationships. Qualifying a new contract manufacturer and commencing production is expensive and time-consuming. We may need to increase our component purchases, contract manufacturing capacity and internal test and quality functions if we experience increased demand. The inability of our contract manufacturers to provide us with adequate supplies of high-quality products could cause a delay in our order fulfillment, and our business, operating results and financial condition may be harmed.
We rely on a limited number of suppliers, and in some cases single-source suppliers, and any disruption or termination of our supply arrangements could delay shipments of our products and could harm our relationships with current and prospective customers.
We rely on a limited number of suppliers, and in some cases, on single-source suppliers, for several key components of our products, and we have not generally entered into agreements for the long-term purchase of these components. For example, the CPUs utilized in our products are supplied by Intel Corporation (Intel), and neither we nor our contract manufacturers have an agreement with Intel for the procurement of these CPUs. Instead, we purchase the CPUs either directly from Intel or through a reseller on a purchase order basis. Intel or its resellers could stop selling to us at any time or could raise their prices without notice.
This reliance on a limited number of suppliers and the lack of any guaranteed sources of supply exposes us to several risks, including:
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the inability to obtain an adequate supply of key components, including solid-state drives;
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price volatility for the components of our products;
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failure of a supplier to meet our quality or production requirements;
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failure of a supplier of key components to remain in business or adjust to market conditions; and
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consolidation among suppliers, resulting in some suppliers exiting the industry or discontinuing the manufacture of components.
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Further, some of the components in our products are sourced from component suppliers outside the United States. The portion of our products that are sourced outside the United States may subject us to additional logistical risks or risks associated with complying with local rules and regulations in foreign countries. Significant changes to existing international trade agreements could lead to sourcing or logistics disruption resulting from import delays or the imposition of increased tariffs on our sourcing partners. For example, the United States and Chinese governments have recently had discussions regarding potential import tariffs by both countries.
As a result of these risks, we cannot assure investors that we will be able to obtain enough of these key components in the future or that the cost of these components will not increase. If our supply of components is disrupted or delayed, or if we need to replace our existing suppliers, there can be no assurance that additional components will be available when required or that components will be available on terms that are favorable to us, which could extend our lead times, increase the costs of our components and harm our business, operating results and financial condition. We may not be able to continue to procure components at reasonable prices, which may require us to enter into longer-term contracts with component suppliers to obtain components at competitive prices. Any of the foregoing disruptions could increase our costs and decrease our gross margins, harming our business, operating results and financial condition.
Managing the supply of our products and their components is complex. Insufficient supply and inventory may result in lost sales opportunities or delayed revenue, while excess inventory may harm our gross margins.
Our third-party contract manufacturers procure components and build our products based on our forecasts, and we generally do not hold inventory for a prolonged period of time. These forecasts are based on estimates of future demand for our products, which are in turn based on historical trends and analyses from our sales and marketing organizations, adjusted for overall market conditions. In order to reduce manufacturing lead times and plan for adequate component supply, from time to time we may issue orders for components and products that are non-cancelable and non-returnable. Our inventory management systems and related supply chain visibility tools may be inadequate to enable us to make accurate forecasts and effectively manage the supply of our products and components. We have, in the past, had to write off inventory in connection with transitions to new product models. If we ultimately determine that we have excess supply, we may have to reduce our prices and write down or write off excess or obsolete inventory, which in turn could result in lower gross margins. Alternatively, insufficient supply levels may lead to shortages that result in delayed revenue, reduced product margins or loss of sales opportunities altogether. If we are unable to effectively manage our supply and inventory, our results of operations could be adversely affected.
If we are unable to sell renewals of our support subscription services to our customers, our future revenue and operating results will be harmed.
Existing customers may not renew their support subscription agreements after the initial period, and given our limited operating history, we may not be able to accurately predict our renewal rates. Our customers’ renewal rates may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including their available budget and the level of their satisfaction with our products, customer support and pricing compared to that offered by our competitors. If our customers renew their contracts, they may renew on terms that are less economically beneficial to us. If our customers do not renew their agreements or renew on less favorable terms, our revenue may grow more slowly than expected, if at all.
We expect that revenue from support subscription agreements will increase as a percentage of total revenue over time, and because we recognize this revenue over the term of the relevant contract period, downturns or upturns in sales of support subscriptions are not immediately reflected in full in our results of operations.
We expect that revenue from support subscription agreements will increase as a percentage of total revenue over time. We recognize support subscription revenue ratably over the term of the relevant service period. As a result, much of the support subscription revenue we report each quarter is derived from support subscription agreements that we sold in prior quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed support subscription agreements in any one quarter will not be fully reflected in revenue in that quarter but will negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales of support subscriptions is not reflected in full in our results of operations until future periods. It is also difficult for us to rapidly increase our support subscription revenue through additional sales in any period, as revenue from renewals must be recognized ratably over the applicable service period.
Adverse economic conditions or reduced data center spending may harm our revenues and profitability.
Our operations and performance depend in part on worldwide economic conditions and the impact these conditions have on levels of spending on data center technology. Global economic uncertainty and political and fiscal challenges in the United States and abroad could adversely impact data center spending. Our business depends on the overall demand for data center infrastructure and on the economic health of our current and prospective customers. Weak economic conditions would likely adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition in a number of ways, including by reducing sales, lengthening sales cycles and lowering prices of our products and services.
Third-party claims that we infringe their intellectual property rights could be costly and harm our business.
There is a substantial amount of intellectual property litigation in the flash-based storage industry, and we may become party to, or threatened with, litigation or other adversarial proceedings regarding intellectual property rights with respect to our technology. Third parties may assert infringement claims against us based on existing or future intellectual property rights. The outcome of intellectual property litigation is subject to uncertainties that cannot be adequately quantified in advance. We have been, and may in the future be, subject to claims that we infringe upon the intellectual property rights of other intellectual property holders, particularly as we grow and face increasing competition.
Any intellectual property rights claim against us or our customers, suppliers, and channel partners, with or without merit, could be time-consuming and expensive to litigate or settle, could divert management’s resources and attention from operating our business and could force us to acquire intellectual property rights and licenses, which may involve substantial royalty payments. Further, a party making such a claim, if successful, could secure a judgment that requires us to pay substantial damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees if we are found to have willfully infringed a patent. An adverse determination also could invalidate our intellectual property rights and prevent us from manufacturing and selling our products and may require that we procure or develop substitute products that do not infringe, which could require significant effort and expense. We may not be able to re-engineer our products successfully to avoid infringement, and we may have to seek a license for the infringed technology, which may not be available on reasonable terms or at all, may significantly increase our operating expenses or may require us to restrict our business activities in one or more respects. Even if we were able to obtain a license, it could be non-exclusive, thereby giving our competitors access to the same technologies licensed to us. Claims that we have misappropriated the confidential information or trade secrets of third parties could have a similar negative impact on our business. Any of these events could harm our business and financial condition.
We currently have a number of agreements in effect pursuant to which we have agreed to defend, indemnify and hold harmless our customers, suppliers and channel partners from damages and costs which may arise from the infringement by our products of third-party patents, trademarks or other proprietary rights. The scope of these indemnity obligations varies but may, in some instances, include indemnification for damages and expenses, including attorneys’ fees. Our insurance may not cover intellectual property infringement claims. A claim that our products infringe a third party’s intellectual property rights could harm our relationships with our customers, deter future customers from purchasing our products and expose us to costly litigation and settlement expenses. Even if we are not a party to any litigation between a customer and a third party relating to infringement by our products, an adverse outcome in any such litigation could make it more difficult for us to defend our products against intellectual property infringement claims in any subsequent litigation in which we are a named party. Any of these results could harm our brand and financial condition.
The success of our business depends in part on our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights.
We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, service mark, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual restrictions, to establish and protect our proprietary rights, all of which provide only limited protection. We have over 700 issued patents and patent applications in the United States and foreign countries. We cannot assure investors that future patents issued to us, if any, will give us the protection that we seek, if at all, or that any patents issued to us will not be challenged, invalidated, circumvented or held to be unenforceable. Our issued patents and any patents that may issue in the future may not provide sufficiently broad protection or may not be enforceable. Changes to the patent laws in the United States and other jurisdictions could also diminish the value of our patents and patent applications or narrow the scope of our patent protection. We cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will prevent unauthorized use of our technology or the reverse engineering of our technology. Moreover, others may independently develop technologies competitive to ours or infringe our intellectual property. Furthermore, any of our trademarks may be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation.
Protecting against the unauthorized use of our intellectual property, products and other proprietary rights is expensive and difficult. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce or defend our intellectual property rights or to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. Any such litigation could result in substantial costs and diversion of management’s resources and attention, either of which could harm our business, operating results and financial condition. Further, many of our current and potential competitors have the ability to dedicate substantially greater resources than us to defend intellectual property infringement claims and enforce their intellectual property rights. Accordingly, we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our intellectual property. Effective patent, trademark, service mark, copyright and trade secret protection may not be available in every country in which our products are available. An inability to adequately protect and enforce our intellectual property and other proprietary rights could harm our business and financial condition.
Our use of open source software could impose limitations on our ability to commercialize our products.
We use open source software in our products and expect to continue to use open source software in the future. Although we monitor our use of open source software, the terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to market our products. From time to time, we may face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the open source software or derivative works that we have developed using such software, which could include our proprietary source code, or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to make our software source code freely available, seek licenses from third parties in order to continue offering our products for certain uses or cease offering the implicated solutions unless and until we can re-engineer them to avoid infringement. This re-engineering process could require significant additional research and development resources, and we may be required to discontinue providing some of our software in the event re-engineering cannot be accomplished on a timely basis, any of which could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
If we suffer a cybersecurity or other security breach, we may lose customers and incur significant liabilities.
In the ordinary course of business, we store sensitive data on our internal systems, networks and servers, which may include intellectual property, our proprietary business information and that of our customers, suppliers and business partners and sales data, which may include personally identifiable information. Additionally, we design and sell products that allow our customers to store our customers’ data. The security of our own networks and the intrusion protection features of our products are both critical to our operations and business strategy.
We devote significant resources to network security, data encryption and other security measures to protect our systems and data, but these security measures cannot provide absolute security. For example, we use encryption and authentication technologies to secure the transmission and storage of data and prevent third party access to data or accounts, but these security measures are subject to third-party security breaches, employee error, malfeasance, faulty password management or other irregularities. Any destructive or intrusive breach of our internal systems could result in the information stored on our networks being accessed, publicly disclosed, lost or stolen. Additionally, an effective attack on our products could disrupt the proper functioning of our products, allow unauthorized access to sensitive, proprietary or confidential information of ours or our customers, disrupt or temporarily interrupt customers’ operations or cause other destructive outcomes, including the theft of information sufficient to engage in fraudulent transactions. The risk that these types of events could seriously harm our business is likely to increase as we expand our network of channel partners, resellers and authorized service providers and operate in more countries. The economic costs to us to eliminate or alleviate cyber or other security problems, viruses, worms, malicious software systems and security vulnerabilities could be significant and may be difficult to anticipate or measure because the damage may differ based on the identity and motive of the programmer or hacker, which are often difficult to identify. If any of these types of security breaches, actual or perceived, were to occur and we were to be unable to protect sensitive data, our relationships with our business partners and customers could be materially damaged, our reputation and brand could be materially harmed, use of our products could decrease and we could be exposed to a risk of loss or litigation and possible liability.
We may acquire other businesses which could require significant management attention, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value, and adversely affect our operating results.
We may, from time to time, acquire complementary products, technologies or businesses. We also may enter into relationships with other businesses in order to expand our product offerings, which could involve preferred or exclusive licenses, additional channels of distribution or discount pricing or investments in other companies. Negotiating these transactions can be time-consuming, difficult and expensive, and our ability to close these transactions may be subject to third-party or government approvals, which are beyond our control. Consequently, we can make no assurance that these transactions, once undertaken and announced, will close.
These kinds of acquisitions or investments may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. In particular, we may encounter difficulties assimilating or integrating the businesses, technologies, products, personnel or operations of acquired companies, particularly if the key personnel of the acquired business choose not to work for us, and we may have difficulty retaining the customers of any acquired business. Acquisitions may also disrupt our ongoing business, divert our resources and require significant management attention that would otherwise be available for development of our business. Any acquisition or investment could expose us to unknown liabilities. Moreover, we cannot assure investors that the anticipated benefits of any acquisition or investment would be realized. In connection with these types of transactions, we may issue additional equity securities that would dilute our stockholders, use cash that we may need in the future to operate our business, incur debt on terms unfavorable to us or that we are unable to repay, incur large charges or substantial liabilities, encounter difficulties integrating diverse business cultures and become subject to adverse tax consequences, substantial depreciation or deferred compensation charges. These challenges related to acquisitions or investments could harm our business and financial condition.
We are exposed to the credit risk of some of our customers, which could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Most of our sales are made on an open credit basis. We monitor individual customer payment capability when we grant open credit arrangements and may limit these open credit arrangements based on perceived creditworthiness. We also maintain allowances we believe are adequate to cover exposure for doubtful accounts. Although we have programs in place that are designed to monitor and mitigate these risks, we cannot assure investors these programs will be effective in managing our credit risks, especially as we expand our business internationally. If we are unable to adequately control these risks, our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.
Sales to U.S. federal, state and local governments are subject to a number of challenges and risks that may adversely impact our business.
Sales to U.S. federal, state and local governmental agencies may in the future account for a significant portion of our revenue. Selling to governmental agencies can be highly competitive, expensive and time consuming, often requiring significant upfront time and expense without any assurance that such efforts will generate a sale. Government certification requirements applicable to our products may change and in doing so restrict our ability to sell into the U.S. federal government sector until we have attained the revised certification. Government demand and payment for our products and services may be impacted by public sector budgetary cycles and funding authorizations, with funding reductions or delays adversely affecting public sector demand for our products and services. We sell our products to governmental agencies through our channel partners, and these agencies may have statutory, contractual or other legal rights to terminate contracts with our distributors and resellers for convenience or due to a default, and any such termination may adversely impact our future results of operations. Governments routinely investigate and audit government contractors’ administrative processes, and any unfavorable audit could result in the government refusing to continue buying our products, which would adversely impact our revenue and results of operations, or institute fines or civil or criminal liability if the audit uncovers improper or illegal activities. Finally, governments may require certain products to be manufactured in the United States and other relatively high-cost manufacturing locations, and we may not manufacture all products in locations that meet these requirements, affecting our ability to sell these products to governmental agencies.
We need to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the failure to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. We are required to perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Section 404). Our independent registered public accounting firm also needs to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. We continue to take steps to develop our finance and accounting function, such as continue to hire additional personnel and to implement additional tools and improvements to policies and procedures. Our compliance with Section 404 may require us to continue to incur substantial expense and expend significant management efforts. If we are unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner, or if we or our independent registered public accounting firm notes or identifies deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, the price of our Class A common stock could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the SEC, or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources.
Our international operations, as well as U.S. tax reform, could expose us to potentially adverse tax consequences.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the Tax Act) was signed into law on December 22, 2017. The new legislation decreases the U.S. corporate federal income tax rate from 35% to 21% effective January 1, 2018. The Tax Act also includes a number of other provisions including the elimination of loss carrybacks and limitations on the use of future losses, limitations on the deductibility of executive compensation, limitation or modification on the deductibility of certain business expenses, the transition of U.S. international taxation from a worldwide tax system to a territorial system, and the introduction of a base erosion and anti-abuse tax. In the absence of guidance on various uncertainties and ambiguities in the application of these provisions, we will use what we believe are reasonable interpretations and assumptions in applying the Tax Act, but it is possible that the Internal Revenue Service could issue subsequent guidance or take positions on audit that differ from our prior interpretations and assumptions, which could have a material adverse effect on our cash tax liabilities, results of operations, and financial condition.
We generally conduct our international operations through wholly-owned subsidiaries and report our taxable income in various jurisdictions worldwide based upon our business operations in those jurisdictions. Given the passage of the Tax Act and other global tax developments, we continue to evaluate our corporate structure and intercompany relationships. Future changes to U.S. and global tax laws may adversely impact our effective tax rate.
Our intercompany relationships are, and after the implementation of any changes to our corporate structure will continue to be, subject to complex transfer pricing regulations administered by taxing authorities in various jurisdictions. The relevant taxing authorities may disagree with our determinations as to the income and expenses attributable to specific jurisdictions. If such a disagreement were to occur, and our position were not sustained, we could be required to pay additional taxes, interest and penalties, which could result in tax charges, higher effective tax rates, reduced cash flows and lower overall profitability of our operations.
Failure to comply with governmental laws and regulations could harm our business.
Our business is subject to regulation by various federal, state, local and foreign governmental agencies, including agencies responsible for monitoring and enforcing employment and labor laws, workplace safety, product safety, environmental laws, consumer protection laws, anti-bribery laws, import/export controls, federal securities laws and tax laws and regulations. In certain jurisdictions, these regulatory requirements may be more stringent than in the United States. For example, the European Union has adopted certain directives to facilitate the recycling of electrical and electronic equipment sold in the European Union, including the Restriction on the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive.
Changes in applicable laws, regulations and standards could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
For example, we have a presence in the European Union, including in United Kingdom, and our business could be impacted, to some extent, by the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union and related changes in law and regulation. In addition, the European Union has adopted the General Data Protection Regulation, which went into effect in May 2018 and contains numerous requirements and changes, including more robust obligations on data processors and heavier documentation requirements for data protection compliance programs by companies. Customers may choose to implement technological solutions to comply with such regulations that impact the performance and competitiveness of our products and solutions.
Noncompliance with applicable regulations or requirements could subject us to investigations, sanctions, mandatory product recalls, enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, fines, damages, civil and criminal penalties or injunctions. If any governmental sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal litigation, our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed. Even the perception of privacy concerns, whether or not valid, may harm our reputation and inhibit competitiveness and adoption of our products by current and future customers. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and an increase in professional fees. Enforcement actions and sanctions could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Governmental regulations affecting the import or export of products could negatively affect our revenue.
The U.S. and various foreign governments have imposed controls, export license requirements and restrictions on the import or export of some technologies, especially encryption technology. From time to time, governmental agencies have proposed additional regulation of encryption technology, such as requiring the escrow of imports or exports. If we fail to obtain required import or export approval for our products, our international and domestic sales could be harmed and our revenue may be adversely affected. In many cases, we rely on vendors and channel partners to handle logistics associated with the import and export of our products, so our visibility and control over these matters may be limited. In addition, failure to comply with such regulations could result in penalties, costs and restrictions on export privileges, which could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, floods and other natural catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made factors such as computer viruses or terrorism.
We and our suppliers have operations in locations, including our headquarters in California, that are subject to earthquakes, floods and other natural catastrophic events, such as severe weather and geological events, which could disrupt our operations or the operations of our customers and suppliers. Our customers affected by a natural disaster could postpone or cancel orders of our products, which could negatively impact our business. Moreover, should any of our key suppliers fail to deliver components to us as a result of a natural disaster, we may be unable to purchase these components in necessary quantities or may be forced to purchase components in the open market at significantly higher costs. We may also be forced to purchase components in advance of our normal supply chain demand to avoid
potential market shortages. Our business interruption insurance may be insufficient to compensate us for losses due to a significant natural disaster or due to man-made factors. Any natural catastrophic events may also prevent our employees from being able to reach our offices in any jurisdiction around the world, and therefore impede our ability to conduct business as usual.
In addition, acts of terrorism or malicious computer viruses could cause disruptions in our or our customers’ businesses or the economy as a whole. To the extent that these disruptions result in delays or cancellations of customer orders or the deployment of our products, our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.
Risks Related to Our Notes
We may not have the ability to raise the funds necessary to settle conversions of the Notes or to repurchase the Notes upon a fundamental change, and our future debt may contain limitations on our ability to pay cash upon conversion or repurchase of the Notes.
Holders of the Notes will have the right to require us to repurchase all or a portion of their Notes upon the occurrence of a fundamental change at a repurchase price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the Notes to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid special interest, if any, to, but excluding, the fundamental change repurchase date. In addition, if a make-whole fundamental change (as defined in the indenture for the Notes) occurs prior to the maturity date of the Notes, we will in some cases be required to increase the conversion rate for a holder that elects to convert its Notes in connection with such make-whole fundamental change. Upon a conversion of the Notes, unless we elect to deliver solely shares of our Class A common stock to settle such conversion (other than paying cash in lieu of delivering any fractional share), we will be required to make cash payments in respect of the Notes being converted. However, we may not have enough available cash or be able to obtain financing at the time we are required to make repurchases of Notes surrendered therefor or pay cash with respect to Notes being converted.
In addition, our ability to repurchase or to pay cash upon conversion of the Notes may be limited by law, regulatory authority or agreements governing our future indebtedness. Our failure to repurchase the Notes at a time when the repurchase is required by the indenture governing the Notes or to pay cash upon conversion of the Notes as required by the indenture would constitute a default under the indenture. A default under the indenture or the fundamental change itself could also lead to a default under agreements governing our future indebtedness. If the payment of the related indebtedness were to be accelerated after any applicable notice or grace periods, we may not have sufficient funds to repay the indebtedness and repurchase the Notes or to pay cash upon conversion of the Notes.
Servicing our debt will require a significant amount of cash, and we may not have sufficient cash flow from our business to pay our substantial debt.
Our ability to make scheduled payments of the principal of, to pay interest on or to refinance our indebtedness, including the amounts payable under the Notes, depends on our future performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive and other factors beyond our control. Our business may not continue to generate cash flow from operations in the future sufficient to service our debt and make necessary capital expenditures. If we are unable to generate such cash flow, we may be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as selling assets, restructuring debt or obtaining additional equity capital on terms that may be onerous or highly dilutive. Our ability to refinance our indebtedness will depend on the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. We may not be able to engage in any of these activities or engage in these activities on desirable terms, which could result in a default on our debt obligations.
We may still incur substantially more debt or take other actions that would diminish our ability to make payments on the Notes when due.
We and our subsidiaries may incur substantial additional debt in the future, subject to the restrictions contained in our future debt instruments, some of which may be secured debt. We are not restricted under the terms of the indenture governing the Notes from incurring additional debt, securing existing or future debt, recapitalizing our debt or taking a number of other actions that could have the effect of diminishing our ability to make payments on the Notes when due. Furthermore, the indenture prohibits us from engaging in certain mergers or acquisitions unless, among other things, the surviving entity assumes our obligations under the Notes and the indenture. These and other provisions
in the indenture could deter or prevent a third party from acquiring us even when the acquisition may be favorable to holders of the Notes.
The conditional conversion feature of the Notes, if triggered, may adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.
In the event the conditional conversion feature of the Notes is triggered, holders of the Notes will be entitled to convert the Notes at any time during specified periods at their option. If one or more holders elect to convert their Notes, unless we elect to satisfy our conversion obligation by delivering solely shares of our common stock (other than by paying cash in lieu of delivering any fractional share), we may settle all or a portion of our conversion obligation in cash, which could adversely affect our liquidity. In addition, even if holders do not elect to convert their Notes, we could be required under applicable accounting rules to reclassify all or a portion of the outstanding principal of the Notes as a current rather than long-term liability, which would result in a material reduction of our net working capital.
If we are unable to use the treasury stock method in accounting for the shares issuable upon conversion of the Notes, then our diluted earnings per share would be adversely affected.
Under certain circumstances, convertible debt instruments (such as the Notes) that may be settled entirely or partly in cash are currently accounted for utilizing the treasury stock method, the effect of which is that the shares issuable upon conversion of the Notes are not included in the calculation of diluted earnings per share except to the extent that the conversion value of the Notes exceeds their principal amount. Under the treasury stock method, for diluted earnings per share purposes, the transaction is accounted for as if the number of shares of common stock that would be necessary to settle such excess, if we elected to settle such excess in shares, are issued. We cannot be sure that the accounting standards in the future will continue to permit the use of the treasury stock method. If we are unable to use the treasury stock method in accounting for the shares issuable upon conversion of the Notes, then our diluted earnings per share would be adversely affected.
The capped call transactions may affect the value of the Notes and our common stock.
In connection with the Notes, we entered into capped call transactions with certain financial institutions (the option counterparties). The capped call transactions are expected generally to reduce the potential dilution upon any conversion of the Notes and/or offset any cash payments we are required to make in excess of the principal amount upon conversion of the Notes, with such reduction and/or offset subject to a cap.
In connection with establishing their initial hedges of the capped call transactions, the option counterparties and/or their respective affiliates purchased shares of our Class A common stock and/or entered into various derivative transactions with respect to our Class A common stock. This activity could have increased (or reduced the size of any decrease in) the market price of our Class A common stock or the Notes at that time.
In addition, the option counterparties and/or their respective affiliates may modify their hedge positions by entering into or unwinding various derivatives with respect to our Class A common stock and/or purchasing or selling our Class A common stock in secondary market transactions (and are likely to do so during any observation period related to a conversion of notes or following any repurchase of notes by us on any fundamental change repurchase date or otherwise). This activity could also cause or avoid an increase or a decrease in the price of our Class A common stock or the Notes.
The potential effect, if any, of these transactions and activities on the price of our Class A common stock or the Notes will depend in part on market conditions and cannot be ascertained at this time. Any of these activities could adversely affect the value of our common stock.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with those stockholders who hold our Class B common stock, including our executive officers, employees and directors and their affiliates, which limits investors’ ability to influence the outcome of important transactions, including a change in control.
Our Class B common stock has ten votes per share, and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. Stockholders who hold shares of our Class B common stock, including our executive officers, employees and directors and their affiliates, collectively hold the vast majority of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock. Because of the ten-to-one voting ratio between our Class B common stock and Class A common stock, the holders of our Class B common stock will therefore be able to control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval so long as the shares of our Class B common stock represent at least 10% of all outstanding shares of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock. These holders of our Class B common stock may also have interests that differ from investors and may vote in a way with which investors disagree and which may be adverse to investors’ interests. This concentrated control may have the effect of delaying, preventing or deterring a change in control of our company, could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their capital stock as part of a sale of our company and might ultimately affect the market price of our Class A common stock.
Future transfers by holders of our Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting into shares of our Class A common stock, subject to limited exceptions, such as certain transfers effected for estate planning purposes. The conversion of shares of our Class B common stock into shares of our Class A common stock will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long term. If, for example, Dr. Dietzen and Messrs. Colgrove and Hatfield retain a significant portion of their holdings of our Class B common stock for an extended period of time, they could control a significant portion of the voting power of our capital stock for the foreseeable future. As board members, Dr. Dietzen and Mr. Colgrove each owe a fiduciary duty to our stockholders and must act in good faith and in a manner they reasonably believe to be in the best interests of our stockholders. However, as stockholders, Dr. Dietzen and Messrs. Colgrove and Hatfield are entitled to vote their shares in their own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our stockholders generally.
The trading price of our Class A common stock has been and may continue to be highly volatile, and an active, liquid, and orderly market for our Class A common stock may not be sustained.
The trading price of our Class A common stock has been, and will likely continue to be, highly volatile. Since shares of our Class A common stock were sold in our initial public offering in October 2015 at a price of $17.00 per share, our closing stock price has ranged from $9.40 to $23.88, through May 31, 2018. Some of the factors, many of which are beyond our control, affecting our volatility may include:
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price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market from time to time;
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significant volatility in the market price and trading volume of technology companies in general and of companies in our industry;
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actual or anticipated changes in our results of operations or fluctuations in our operating results;
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whether our operating results meet the expectations of securities analysts or investors;
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issuance or new or updated research or reports by securities analysts, including the publication of unfavorable reports or change in recommendation or downgrading of our Class A common stock;
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actual or anticipated developments in our competitors’ businesses or the competitive landscape generally;
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litigation involving us, our industry or both;
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general economic conditions and trends;
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major catastrophic events;
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sales of large blocks of our stock; or
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departures of key personnel.
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In several recent situations where the price of a stock has been volatile, holders of that stock have instituted securities class action litigation against the company that issued the stock. If any of our stockholders were to bring a lawsuit against us, the defense and disposition of the lawsuit could be costly and divert the time and attention of our management and harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
We have never paid dividends on our common stock and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.
We have never declared or paid any dividends on our common stock. We intend to retain any earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the future. As a result, investors may only receive a return on their investment in our Class A common stock if the market price of our common stock increases.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws and under Delaware law might discourage, delay or prevent a change of control of our company or changes in our management and, therefore, depress the price of our Class A common stock.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that could depress the trading price of our Class A common stock by acting to discourage, delay or prevent a change of control of our company or changes in our management that the stockholders of our company may deem advantageous. These provisions:
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provide for a dual class common stock structure, so that certain stockholders will have significant influence over all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or its assets and which could discourage others from initiating any potential merger, takeover or other change of control transaction that other stockholders may view as beneficial;
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establish a classified board of directors so that not all members of our board of directors are elected at one time;
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authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that our board of directors could issue to increase the number of outstanding shares to discourage a takeover attempt;
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prohibit stockholder action by written consent, which requires all stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders;
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prohibit stockholders from calling a special meeting of our stockholders;
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provide that the board of directors is expressly authorized to make, alter or repeal our bylaws; and
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establish advance notice requirements for nominations for elections to our board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at stockholder meetings.
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Additionally, we are subject to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which generally prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any of a broad range of business combinations with any “interested” stockholder for a period of three years following the date on which the stockholder became an “interested” stockholder and which may discourage, delay, or prevent a change of control of our company.
Any provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Class A common stock.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty; any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our bylaws; or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. The choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. If a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business and financial condition.
Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
In April 2018, in conjunction with our issuance and sale of the Notes, our Board of Directors authorized us to repurchase up to $20.0 million of our Class A common stock with a portion of the net proceeds received from the issuance and sale of the Notes. We repurchased and retired 1,008,573 shares of our Class A Common Stock for approximately $20.0 million pursuant to this authorization.
The following table sets forth repurchases of our Class A Common Stock during the three months ended April 30, 2018:
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Period
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Total Number of Shares Purchased
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Average Price Paid Per Share
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Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs
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Dollar Value of Shares That May Yet be Purchased Under the Plan or Program
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February 1, 2018 to April 30, 2018
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1,008,573
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$
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19.83
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1,008,573
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$
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—
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Total
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1,008,573
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$
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19.83
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1,008,573
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$
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—
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