Item 1A.
Risk Factors
.
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, our Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes, and the other information in this
Quarterly
Report on Form
10-Q
. If any of these risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects could be adversely affected. As a result, the price of our common stock could decline and you could lose part or all of your investment.
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
Our quarterly operating results may fluctuate, which could cause our stock price to decline.
Our quarterly operating results, as well as our key metrics, may fluctuate for a variety of reasons, many of which are beyond our control, including:
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fluctuations in GMS or revenue generated from Etsy sellers on our platform, including as a result of the seasonality of market transactions, and Etsy sellers’ use of services;
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our ability to convert visits to Etsy.com into sales for our sellers;
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the amount and timing of our operating expenses;
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our success in attracting and retaining Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers;
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our success in executing on our strategy and the impact of any changes in our strategy;
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the timing and success of product launches, including new services and features we may introduce;
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the success of our marketing efforts;
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economic and market conditions, such as currency fluctuations and adverse global events;
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disruptions or defects in our marketplace, such as privacy or data security breaches, errors in our software, or other incidents that impact the availability, reliability, or performance of our platform;
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the impact of competitive developments and our response to those developments;
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our ability to manage our existing business and future growth;
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our ability to recruit and retain employees; and
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the impact of our revised global corporate structure that was implemented on January 1, 2015.
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Fluctuations in our quarterly operating results and key metrics may cause those results to fall below our financial guidance or other projections, or the expectations of analysts or investors, which could cause the price of our common stock to decline. Fluctuations in our results could also cause a number of other problems. For example, analysts or investors might change their models for valuing our common stock, we could experience short-term liquidity issues, our ability to retain or attract key personnel may diminish, and other unanticipated issues may arise.
In addition, we believe that our quarterly operating results and key metrics may vary in the future and that period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful. For example, our overall historical growth rate may have overshadowed the effect of seasonal variations on our historical operating results. These seasonal effects may become more pronounced over time, which could also cause our operating results and key metrics to fluctuate. You should not rely on the results of one quarter as an indication of future performance.
If we are unable to successfully execute on our business strategy or if our strategy proves to be ineffective, our business, financial performance and growth could be adversely affected.
Our ability to execute our strategy is dependent on a number of factors, including the ability of our senior management team and key team leaders to execute our strategy, our ability to maintain our pace of product experiments coupled with the success of such initiatives and our ability to meet the changing needs of our sellers and buyers, and the ability of our employees to perform at a high-level. If we are unable to execute our strategy, if our strategy does not drive the growth that we anticipate, or if our market opportunity is not as large as we have estimated, it could adversely affect our business, financial performance and growth.
Our business, financial performance and growth depends on our ability to attract and retain an active and engaged community of Etsy buyers and Etsy sellers.
Our financial performance has been and will continue to be significantly determined by our success in attracting and retaining active buyers and active sellers. For example, our revenue is driven by the number of active buyers and buyer engagement, as well as the number of active sellers and seller engagement. We must encourage buyers to return to Etsy and purchase items in our marketplace more frequently. We must also continue to encourage Etsy sellers to list items for sale and use our services.
We believe that many new Etsy buyers and Etsy sellers find Etsy by word of mouth and other non-paid referrals from existing Etsy buyers and Etsy sellers. If existing Etsy buyers do not find our platform appealing, whether because of a negative experience, lack of competitive shipping costs, inadequate customer service, lack of buyer-friendly features, declining interest in the nature of the goods offered by Etsy sellers, or other factors, they may make fewer purchases and they may stop referring others to us. Likewise, if existing Etsy sellers are dissatisfied with their experience on our platform, they may stop listing items in our marketplace and using our services and may stop referring others to us. Under any of these circumstances, we may have difficulty attracting new Etsy buyers and Etsy sellers without incurring additional expense.
Our GMS and revenue is concentrated in our most active buyers and sellers. If we lose those buyers and sellers, our financial performance and growth could be harmed. Even if we are able to attract new Etsy buyers and Etsy sellers to replace the ones that we lose, they may not maintain the same level of activity, and the GMS and revenue generated from new Etsy buyers and Etsy sellers may not be as high as the GMS and revenue generated from the ones who leave our marketplace. If we are unable to retain existing Etsy buyers and Etsy sellers and attract new Etsy buyers and Etsy sellers who contribute to an active community, our business, financial performance, and growth would be harmed.
Additionally, the demand for the goods listed in our marketplace is dependent on consumer preferences which can change quickly and may differ across generations and cultures. If demand for the goods that Etsy sellers offer declines, we may not be able to attract and retain Etsy buyers and our business would be harmed. Trends in socially-conscious consumerism and buying unique rather than mass produced goods could also shift or slow which would make it more difficult to attract new Etsy buyers and Etsy sellers. Our growth would also be harmed if the shift to ecommerce does not continue.
We have a history of losses and we may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future.
We generated net income of
$31.6 million
, $77.5 million, and $81.8 million for
the three months ended March 31, 2019
and the years ended
December 31, 2018
and
December 31, 2017
, respectively, and incurred net losses of $29.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. However, we may not maintain profitability in the future. Our costs may increase as we continue to invest in the development of our platform, including our services and technological enhancements, and increase our marketing efforts, expand our operations, and hire additional employees. These efforts may be more costly than we expect and our revenue may not increase sufficiently to offset these additional expenses. In addition, our revenue may decline for a number of reasons, including those described elsewhere in these Risk Factors.
Further, our revenue growth rate may decelerate in the future for a number of reasons, including the deceleration of our GMS growth rate. For further information about the rate of revenue and GMS growth, see “
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
—
Results of Operations
—
Revenue
.” You should not rely on growth rates of prior periods as an indication of our future performance.
Our business could be adversely affected by economic downturns, natural disasters, public health crises, political crises or other unexpected events.
Macroeconomic conditions may adversely affect our business. If general economic conditions deteriorate in the United States or other markets where we operate, consumer discretionary spending may decline and demand for the goods and services available in our platform may be reduced. This would cause our Marketplace and Services revenue to decline and adversely impact our business. Conversely, if recent trends supporting self-employment and the desire for supplemental income were to reverse, the number of Etsy sellers offering their goods in our marketplace could decline and the number of goods listed in our marketplace could decline. In addition, currency exchange rates may directly and indirectly impact our business. For example, continued uncertainty around the United Kingdom’s decision to exit the European Union, or E.U., commonly referred to as Brexit, may result in future exchange rate volatility, which may strengthen the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies. If the U.S. dollar strengthens against foreign currencies, our translation of foreign currency denominated GMS and revenue will result in lower U.S. denominated GMS and revenue. Currency exchange rates may also dampen demand from buyers outside the United States for goods denominated in U.S. dollars, which could impact GMS and revenue. For
the three months ended March 31, 2019
, approximately
81%
of our GMS was denominated in U.S. dollars.
Natural disasters and other adverse weather and climate conditions, public health crises, political instability or crises, terrorist attacks, war, or other unexpected events, could disrupt our operations, internet or mobile networks, or the operations of one or more of our third-party service providers. Certain events, such as hurricanes and other natural disasters and political instability, are likely to impact buyer behavior for discretionary goods and sellers’ ability to run their businesses on our marketplace and ship their goods. These kinds of events may also impact consumer perceptions of well-being and security, which may adversely impact consumer discretionary spending. If any of these events occurs, our business could be adversely affected.
Our ability to recruit and retain employees is important to our success.
Our ability to attract, retain, and motivate employees, including our management team, is important to our success. We strive to attract, retain, and motivate employees, from our office administrators to our management team, who share our dedication to our community and our mission to “Keep Commerce Human.” We cannot guarantee we will continue to attract and retain the number or caliber of employees we need to maintain our competitive position.
Some of the challenges we face in attracting and retaining employees include:
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perceived uncertainties as to our commitment to our mission, guiding principles and culture;
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skepticism regarding our ability to continue to accelerate GMS growth in the future;
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continuing to offer competitive compensation and benefits;
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enhancing engagement levels among existing employees and supporting their work-life balance;
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attracting and retaining qualified employees who support our mission and guiding principles;
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promotion opportunities for employees into leadership positions;
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hiring employees in multiple locations globally; and
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responding to competitive pressures and changing business conditions in ways that do not divert us from our guiding principles.
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Filling engineering, product management, and other technical positions, particularly in New York City and San Francisco, is challenging. Qualified individuals are limited and in high demand, and we may incur significant costs to attract, develop, and motivate them. Even if we were to offer higher compensation and other benefits, people with suitable technical skills may choose not to join us or to continue to work for us. In addition, job candidates and existing employees often consider the value of the stock awards they receive in connection with their employment. If the perceived value of our stock awards declines, it may adversely affect our ability to recruit and retain highly skilled employees.
In general, our employees, including our management team, work for us on an at-will basis. The unexpected loss of or failure to retain one or more of our key employees, such as our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer or Chief Technology Officer, or unsuccessful succession planning, could adversely affect our business. Other companies, including our competitors, may be successful in recruiting and hiring our employees, and it may be difficult for us to find suitable replacements on a timely basis or on competitive terms.
If we experience increased voluntary attrition in the future and if we are unable to attract and retain qualified employees, particularly in critical areas of operations such as engineering, we may not achieve our strategic goals and our business and operations could be harmed.
The trustworthiness of our marketplace and the connections within our community are important to our success. If we are unable to maintain them, our ability to attract and retain Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers could suffer.
We have built a trusted marketplace that embodies our values-based culture and continue to focus on ensuring that we deliver trust and reliability throughout the buyer experience on Etsy.com. Our reputation depends upon our Etsy sellers, their unique offerings and their adherence to our policies.
The trustworthiness of our marketplace and the connections among the members of our community are the cornerstones of our business. Many things could undermine these cornerstones, such as:
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complaints or negative publicity about us, our platform or our policies and guidelines, even if factually incorrect or based on isolated incidents;
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an inability to gain the trust of prospective buyers;
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disruptions or defects in our marketplace, such as the increased pace of product experimentation, privacy or data security breaches, website outages, payment disruptions or other incidents that impact the reliability of our platform;
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lack of awareness of our policies or confusion about how they are applied;
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changes to our policies that members of our community perceive as inconsistent with their best interests or our mission, or that are not clearly articulated;
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inadequacies in our terms of use;
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a failure to enforce our policies effectively, fairly and transparently, including, for example, by allowing the widespread listing of prohibited items in our marketplace;
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inadequate or unsatisfactory customer service experiences;
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a failure to respond to feedback from our community; or
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a failure to operate our business in a way that is consistent with our guiding principles and mission.
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In particular, we are focused on enhancing customer service for Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers and have migrated our legacy support platform to a new third-party customer service platform. We plan to introduce new customer service features and tools to support a positive user experience on our platform. If our efforts to enhance customer service are unsuccessful or if our new customer service platform fails to meet our needs, we may need to invest additional resources in customer service and our ability to maintain a trustworthy marketplace could be harmed.
If we are unable to maintain a trustworthy marketplace and encourage connections among members of our community, then our ability to attract and retain Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers could be impaired and our reputation and business could be adversely affected.
If we are not able to keep pace with technological changes and enhance our current offerings and develop new offerings to respond to the changing needs of Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers, our business, financial performance and growth may be harmed.
Our industry is characterized by rapidly changing technology, new service and product introductions, and changing customer demands and we are not able to predict the effect of these changes on our business. The technologies that we currently use to support our platform may become inadequate or obsolete and the cost of incorporating new technologies into our products and services may be substantial. We strive to respond to evolving customer needs and regularly launch new products, features and services including, for example, our recently announced seller subscription packages and tools. Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers, however, may not be satisfied with our enhancements or new offerings or may perceive that these offerings do not respond to their needs or create value for them. Additionally, as we experiment with new offerings or changes to our platform, Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers may find these changes to be disruptive and may perceive them negatively. In addition, developing new services and features is complex, and the timetable for public launch is difficult to predict and may vary from our historical
experience. As a result, the introduction of new offerings may occur after anticipated release dates or they may be introduced as pilot programs, which may not be continued for various reasons. In addition, new offerings may not be successful due to defects or errors, negative publicity, or our failure to market them effectively.
New offerings may not drive GMS or revenue growth, may require substantial investment and planning, and may bring us more directly into competition with companies that are better established or have greater resources than we do.
If we do not continue to cost-effectively develop new offerings that satisfy Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers, then our competitive position and growth prospects may be harmed. In addition, new offerings may have lower margins than existing offerings and our revenue from the new offerings may not be enough to offset the cost of developing them, which could adversely affect our business, financial performance and growth.
Our marketing efforts to help grow our business may not be effective.
Maintaining and promoting awareness of our marketplace and services is important to our ability to attract and retain Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers. One of the key parts of our strategy is to create more habitual buyers by inspiring purchases across multiple categories and special occasions. In addition, one of the primary goals of our 2018 pricing increase was to enable us to make further investments in marketing designed to attract more buyers to Etsy. Generating a meaningful return on our investments in marketing initiatives, however, may be difficult, particularly as we anticipate that our marketing investments will be more speculative in the future. In addition, there can be no assurance that we will deploy additional funds resulting from our 2018 pricing increase effectively.
The marketing efforts we implement may not succeed for a variety of reasons, including our inability to execute and implement our plans. External factors beyond our control may also impact the success of our marketing initiatives. Our primary marketing efforts currently include search engine optimization, search engine marketing, affiliate marketing and display advertising, as well as, social media, mobile push notifications, and email. Additionally, we have begun experimenting with television and digital video advertising. We obtain a significant number of visits via search engines such as Google. Search engines frequently change the algorithms that determine the ranking and display of results of a user’s search and may make other changes to the way results are displayed, which can negatively affect the placement of links to our marketplace and, therefore, reduce the number of visits to our marketplace. In addition, search engines and other third-parties typically require compliance with their policies and procedures, which may be subject to change or new interpretation with limited ability to negotiate, which could negatively impact our marketing capabilities and GMS. The growing use of online ad-blocking software, including on mobile devices, may also impact the success of our marketing efforts because we may reach a smaller audience and fail to bring more Etsy buyers to our platform. In addition, ongoing privacy regulatory changes, such as the E.U. General Data Protection Regulation, may impact the scope and effectiveness of marketing and advertising services generally, including those used on our platform.
We also obtain a significant number of visits through email. If we are unable to successfully deliver emails to Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers, or if Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers do not open our emails, whether by choice, because those emails are marked as low priority or spam, or for other reasons, our business could be adversely affected. Social networking websites, such as Facebook and Pinterest, are another important source of visits to our marketplace. As ecommerce and social networking evolve, we must continue to evolve our marketing tactics accordingly and, if we are unable to do so, our business could be adversely affected.
If the mobile solutions available to Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers are not effective, the use of our marketplace could decline.
Purchases made on mobile devices by consumers, including Etsy buyers, have increased significantly in recent years. The smaller screen size and reduced functionality associated with some mobile devices may make the use of our platform more difficult or less appealing. Etsy sellers are also increasingly using mobile devices to operate their businesses on our platform. If we are not able to deliver a rewarding experience on mobile devices, Etsy sellers’ ability to manage and scale their businesses may be harmed and, consequently, our business may suffer. Further, although we strive to provide engaging mobile experiences for both Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers who visit our mobile website using a browser on their mobile device, we depend on Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers using our mobile apps for the optimal mobile experience. Mobile web conversion rate is lower than our desktop and Buy on Etsy app conversion rates. Therefore, if mobile web visits continue to grow as a percentage of overall visits, it could be a headwind to future conversion rate gains and result in less GMS and revenue for us.
As new mobile devices and mobile platforms are released, we may encounter problems in developing or supporting apps for them. In addition, supporting new devices and mobile device operating systems may require substantial time and resources.
The success of our mobile apps could also be harmed by factors outside our control, such as:
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actions taken by providers of mobile operating systems or mobile app download stores;
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unfavorable treatment received by our mobile apps, especially as compared to competing apps, such as the placement of our mobile apps in a mobile app download store;
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increased costs to distribute or use our mobile apps; or
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changes in mobile operating systems, such as iOS and Android, that degrade the functionality of our mobile website or mobile apps or that give preferential treatment to competitive products.
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If Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers encounter difficulty accessing or using our platform on their mobile devices, or if they choose not to use our platform on their mobile devices, our business, financial performance, and growth may be adversely affected.
Expanding our community outside of the United States is part of our strategy and the growth of our business could be harmed if our expansion efforts do not succeed.
Our vision is both global and local and we are focused on growing our business outside of the United States.
Although we have a significant number of Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers outside of the United States, we are a U.S.-based company with less experience developing local markets outside the United States and may not execute our strategy successfully. Operating outside of the United States also requires significant management attention, including managing operations over a broad geographic area with varying cultural norms and customs, and adapting our platform to local markets.
Despite our execution efforts, the goods that Etsy sellers list on Etsy.com may not appeal to non-U.S. consumers in the same way as they do to consumers in the United States. In addition, non-U.S. buyers are not as familiar with the Etsy brand as buyers in the United States and may not perceive us as relevant or trustworthy. Also, visits to Etsy.com from Etsy buyers outside the United States may not convert into sales as often as visits from within the United States, including due to the impact of the strong U.S. dollar relative to other currencies and the fact that most of the goods listed on our platform are denominated in U.S. dollars.
Our ability to grow our international operations may also be adversely affected by any circumstances that reduce or hinder cross-border trade. For example, the shipping of goods cross-border is typically more expensive and slower than domestic shipping and often involves complex customs and duty inspections and the dependency of national postal carrier systems.
Our success outside the United States depends upon our ability to attract Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers from the same countries in order to enable the growth of local markets. If we are not able to expand outside of the United States successfully, our growth prospects could be harmed. An inability to develop Etsy’s community globally or to otherwise grow our business outside of the United States on a cost-effective basis could adversely affect our GMS, revenue, and operating results.
Competition is also likely to intensify outside of the United States, both where we operate now and where we plan to expand our operations. Local companies based outside the United States may have a substantial competitive advantage because of their greater understanding of, and focus on, their local markets. Some of our competitors may also be able to develop and grow internationally more quickly than we will.
Continued expansion outside of the United States may also require significant financial investment. For example, in June 2018, we announced a referral agreement with DaWanda, a German e-commerce marketplace, which encouraged the migration of DaWanda buyers and sellers to Etsy’s marketplace and helped expand Etsy’s presence in Central Europe. Etsy also made initial investments to explore growth opportunities in India, a dynamic market where we have limited operating experience. We plan to invest in seller and buyer acquisition marketing, enhancing our machine translation and machine learning to help sellers and buyers connect even if they do not speak the same language, forming relationships with third-party service providers, supporting operations in multiple countries, and potentially acquiring companies based outside the United States and integrating those companies with our operations. Our investment outside of the United States may be more costly than we expect or unsuccessful.
Further expansion outside of the United States will subject us to risks associated with operations abroad.
Doing business outside of the United States subjects us to increased risks and burdens such as:
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complying with different (and sometimes conflicting) laws and regulatory standards (particularly including those related to the use and disclosure of personal information, online payments and money transmission, intellectual property, consumer protection, online platform liability and taxation of goods and services);
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fluctuations of foreign exchange rates;
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potentially heightened risk of fraudulent or other illegal transactions;
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limitations on the repatriation of funds;
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exposure to liabilities under anti-corruption, anti-money laundering and export control laws, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, the U.K. Bribery Act of 2010, trade controls and sanctions administered by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, and similar laws and regulations in other jurisdictions;
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varying levels of internet, e-commerce, and mobile technology adoption and infrastructure;
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our ability to enforce contracts and intellectual property rights in jurisdictions outside the United States;
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geopolitical events such as natural disasters, terrorism and acts of war;
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uncertainties and instability in European markets caused by Brexit; and
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barriers to international trade, such as tariffs, customs or other taxes.
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Etsy sellers face similar risks in conducting their businesses across borders. Even if we are successful in managing the risks of conducting our business across borders, if Etsy sellers are not, our business could be adversely affected. In particular, Etsy buyers and sellers seeking to engage in cross-border sales may become subject to an increasing number of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, customs or other taxes.
If we invest substantial time and resources to expand our operations outside of the United States and cannot manage these risks effectively, the costs of doing business in those markets may be prohibitive or our expenses may increase disproportionately to the revenue generated in those markets.
Legal, political and economic uncertainty surrounding the planned exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union may be a source of instability in international markets, create significant currency fluctuations, adversely affect our operations in the United Kingdom and pose additional risks to our business, revenue, financial condition, and results of operations.
On March 29, 2017, the United Kingdom formally notified the European Council of its intention to leave the E.U. It is unclear how long it will take to negotiate a withdrawal agreement, but it appears likely that Brexit will continue to involve a process of lengthy negotiations between the United Kingdom and E.U. member states to determine the future terms of the United Kingdom’s relationship with the E.U.
Lack of clarity about future U.K. laws and regulations as the United Kingdom determines which E.U. rules and regulations to replace or replicate in the event of a withdrawal, including financial laws and regulations, tax and free trade agreements, intellectual property rights, supply chain logistics, environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, immigration laws and employment laws, could decrease foreign direct investment in the United Kingdom, increase costs, depress economic activity, and restrict access to capital. In addition, depending on the terms of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the E.U., the United Kingdom could lose the benefits of global trade agreements negotiated by the E.U. on behalf of its members. The long-term effects of Brexit will depend on any agreements (or lack thereof) between the United Kingdom and the E.U. and, in particular, any arrangements for the United Kingdom to retain access to E.U. markets either during a transitional period or more permanently.
Such a withdrawal from the E.U. is unprecedented, and it is unclear how the United Kingdom’s access to the European single market for goods, capital, services and labor within the E.U., or the European single market, and the wider commercial, legal and regulatory environment, will impact our U.K. operations, including our sellers and buyers in the United Kingdom. We may also face new regulatory costs and challenges that could have an adverse effect on our operations. The announcement of Brexit
has already created economic uncertainty, and its consequences could adversely impact our business, revenue, financial condition, and results of operations.
Regulation in the areas of privacy and protection of user data could harm our business.
In addition to the actual and potential changes in law described elsewhere in these Risk Factors, global developments in privacy and data security regulations are changing some of the ways we and our vendors collect, use, and share personal information. Compliance with these changing regulations have necessitated some specific product changes for our non-U.S. activities. In May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) went into effect in the E.U., effectively extending the scope of E.U. data protection law to all non-E.U. companies processing data of E.U. persons. The GDPR seeks to harmonize the data protection regulations throughout the entire E.U. The regulation contains numerous requirements and changes from existing E.U. law, including more robust obligations on data processors, greater rights for data subjects (requiring potentially significant changes to both our technology and operations), security and accountability obligations, and significantly heavier documentation and record-keeping requirements for data protection compliance programs. Specifically, the GDPR introduced numerous privacy-related changes for companies operating in the E.U., including greater control over personal data by data subjects (e.g., the “right to be forgotten”), increased data portability, access and redress rights for E.U. consumers, data breach notification requirements, increased rules for online and e-mail marketing, and stronger regulatory enforcement regimes. The GDPR requirements apply to some third-party transactions (such as commercial contracts with partners and vendors) and to transfers of information between us and our subsidiaries, including user and employee information. GDPR requirements may also apply, depending on interpretation of its reach, to some users in Etsy’s worldwide community of sellers. We may experience difficulty retaining or obtaining new E.U. sellers or new sellers selling into the E.U. due to the legal requirements, compliance cost, potential risk exposure, and uncertainty for them in respect of their own compliance obligations with respect to GDPR. In addition, although Etsy sellers are independent businesses, it is possible that a privacy authority could deem Etsy jointly and severally liable for actions of Etsy sellers, which would increase our potential liability exposure and costs of compliance, which could negatively impact our business. We could face potential liability, regulatory investigation, and costly litigation, which may not be adequately covered by insurance.
GDPR, the recently passed California Consumer Privacy Act, and similar laws coming into effect in other jurisdictions may continue to change the data protection landscape globally and could result in potentially significant operational costs for internal compliance and risk to our business. Some of these requirements introduce friction into the buying and selling experience on Etsy and may impact the scope and effectiveness of our marketing efforts, which could negatively impact our business and future outlook. Non-compliance with these laws could result in proceedings against us by data protection authorities, other public authorities, third-parties, or individuals. Under GDPR alone, noncompliance could result in fines up to 20 million Euros or up to 4% of the annual global revenue of the noncompliant company, whichever is greater.
In addition, the laws relating to the transfer of personal data outside of the E.U. continue to evolve and remain uncertain.
Although we are taking steps to comply and mitigate the potential impact to us, the efficacy and longevity of these steps are uncertain. We may find it necessary to establish systems to maintain personal data originating from the E.U. in the European Economic Area, which may involve substantial expense and distraction from other aspects of our business. In the meantime, the evolving data protection landscape also creates uncertainty as to how to comply with E.U. privacy law, including potentially inconsistent guidance, rulings or requirements from multiple authorities in the E.U., as well as in the U.S. and worldwide. Further, we may not be entirely successful in our compliance efforts due to various factors either within our control (such as limited internal resource allocation) or outside our control (such as a lack of vendor cooperation, new regulatory interpretations, or lack of regulatory guidance in respect of certain GDPR requirements).
Our payments system depends on third-party providers, requires ongoing investment, and is subject to evolving laws, regulations, rules, and standards.
Etsy buyers primarily pay for purchases using Etsy Payments or PayPal. In the United States and other countries where Etsy Payments is available, Etsy Payments enables our sellers to accept various forms of payments such as credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, Google Wallet, Apple Pay, and Etsy Gift Cards.
We rely upon third-party service providers to perform underlying compliance, credit card processing and payment disbursing, currency exchange, identity verification, sanctions screening, and fraud analysis services. If these service providers do not perform adequately or if our relationships with these service providers were to change or terminate, Etsy sellers’ ability to receive orders or payment could be adversely affected and certain fraud prevention and detection tools may not be effective, which could lead to potential legal liability and negatively impact our business. In addition, Etsy and our third-party service providers may experience service outages from time to time that negatively impact payments on Etsy. We have in the past experienced, and may in the future experience, such service outages and, if we are unable to provide an alternative payment
solution, our business could be harmed. In addition, if our third-party providers increase the fees they charge us, our operating expenses could increase. If we respond by increasing the fees we charge to Etsy sellers, some Etsy sellers may stop listing new items for sale or even close their accounts altogether.
The laws and regulations that govern payments are complex, evolving, and subject to change and vary across different jurisdictions in the United States and globally. Moreover, even in regions where such laws have been harmonized, regulatory interpretations of such laws may differ. As a result, we are required to spend significant time and effort to determine whether various licensing and registration laws relating to payments apply to Etsy and to comply with applicable laws and licensing regulations. Any failure or claim of our failure to comply, or any failure by our third-party service providers to comply, could cost us substantial resources, could result in liabilities, could cause us significant reputational damage, or could force us to stop offering Etsy Payments in certain markets. Additionally, changes in payment regulation may occur that could render our payments systems less profitable. For example, any significant change in credit or debit card interchange rates in the United States or other markets, including as a result of changes in interchange fee limitations, may negatively impact payments on Etsy.
We plan to invest ongoing internal resources into our payments tools in order to maintain existing availability, expand into additional markets and offer new payment methods and tools to Etsy buyers and sellers. If we fail to invest adequate resources into payments on Etsy, or if our investment efforts are unsuccessful or unreliable, payments on Etsy may not function properly or keep pace with competitive offerings, which could negatively impact Etsy Payments usage and our marketplace
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Further, our ability to expand Etsy Payments into additional countries is dependent upon the third-party providers we use to support this service. As we expand the availability of Etsy Payments to additional markets or offer new payment methods to Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers in the future, we may become subject to additional regulations, compliance requirements, and exposed to heightened fraud risk, which could lead to an increase in our operating expenses.
Further, through our agreements with our third-party payment processors, we are indirectly subject to payment card association operating rules and certification requirements, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which are subject to change. Failure to comply with these rules and certification requirements could impact our ability to meet our contractual obligations with our third-party payment processors and could result in potential fines. We are also subject to rules governing electronic funds transfers. Any change in these rules and requirements, including as a result of a change in our designation by major payment card providers, could make it difficult or impossible for us to comply and could require a change in our business operations. In addition, similar to a potential increase in costs from third-party providers described above, any increased costs associated with compliance with payment card association rules or payment card provider rules could lead to increased fees for Etsy or Etsy sellers, which may negatively impact payments on our platform, usage of Etsy Payments, and our marketplace.
If sensitive information about members of our community or employees is misused or disclosed, or if we or our third-party providers are subject to cyber attacks, members of our community may curtail use of our platform, we may be exposed to liability, and our reputation could suffer.
Like all online services, our platform is vulnerable to power outages, telecommunications failures, and catastrophic events, as well as computer viruses, break-ins, phishing attacks, denial-of-service attacks, and other cyber attacks. Any of these incidents could lead to interruptions or shutdowns of our platform, loss of data or unauthorized disclosure of personal or financial information of our members or employees. Cyber attacks could also result in the theft of our intellectual property. As we grow our business, expand internationally, and gain greater public visibility, we may face a higher risk of being targeted by cyber attacks. Although we rely on a variety of security measures, including security testing, encryption of sensitive information, and authentication technology, we cannot assure you that such measures will provide absolute security, particularly given the increasingly sophisticated tools and methods used by hackers and cyber terrorists. In addition, we have experienced in the past, and may experience in the future, security breaches as a result of non-technical issues, including intentional, inadvertent, or social engineering breaches occurring through our employees or employees of our third-party service providers. In addition, if our employees or employees of our third-party service providers fail to comply with our internal security policies and practices, member or employee data may be improperly accessed, used, or disclosed.
We are also reliant on the security practices of our third party service providers, which may be outside of our direct control. Additionally, some of our third party service providers, such as identity verification and payment processing providers, regularly have access to some confidential and sensitive member data. If these third parties fail to adhere to adequate security practices, or experience a breach of their networks, our members’ data may be improperly accessed, used or disclosed.
Cyber attacks aimed at disrupting our and our third-party service providers’ services have occurred regularly in the past, and we expect they will continue to occur in the future. If we or our third-party service providers experience security breaches that result in marketplace performance or availability problems or the loss or unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information, or if
we fail to respond appropriately to any security breaches that we may experience, people may become unwilling to provide us the information necessary to set up an account with us. Existing Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers may stop listing new items for sale, decrease their purchases or close their accounts altogether. We could also face potential liability, regulatory investigation, costly remediation efforts and litigation, which may not be adequately covered by insurance. Any of these results could harm our growth prospects, our business, and our reputation for maintaining a trusted marketplace.
Adherence to our guiding principles and our focus on our mission and long-term sustainability may negatively influence our financial performance. Further, our reputation could be harmed if we fail to meet our impact strategy goals.
We intend to operate in line with our guiding principles, focus on the long-term sustainability of our business, and work toward our mission to “Keep Commerce Human.” We may take actions in line with our mission and guiding principles that we believe will benefit our business and, therefore, our stockholders over a longer period of time, even if those actions do not maximize short- or medium-term financial performance. However, these longer-term benefits may not materialize within the time frame we expect or at all. For example:
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we may choose to prohibit the sale of items in our marketplace that are inconsistent with our policies even though we could benefit financially from the sale of those items; or
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we may choose to revise our policies in ways that we believe will be beneficial to our community in the long term even though the changes may be perceived unfavorably, such as updates to the way we define “handmade.”
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Additionally, we have developed an impact strategy that focuses on leveraging Etsy’s core business to generate value for our community and stakeholders through positive economic, social and environmental efforts. Our impact strategy aims to create more economic opportunity for sellers, greater diversity in our workforce and build long-term resilience by reducing our carbon footprint. If we don’t demonstrate progress against our impact strategy or if our impact strategy is not perceived to be adequate, our reputation could be harmed.
Failure to deal effectively with fraud or other illegal activity could harm our business.
Although we have measures in place to detect and limit the occurrence of fraudulent and other illegal activity in our marketplace, those measures may not always be effective.
For example, Etsy sellers occasionally receive orders placed with fraudulent or stolen credit card data. Under current credit card chargeback rules, we could be held liable for orders placed through Etsy Payments with fraudulent credit card data even if the associated financial institution approved the credit card transaction. Although we attempt to detect or challenge fraudulent transactions, we may not be able to do so effectively. As a result, our business could be adversely affected. We could also incur significant fines or lose our ability to give the option of paying with credit cards if we fail to follow payment card industry data security standards or payment card association rules or fail to limit fraudulent transactions conducted in our marketplace.
We have adopted policies and procedures that are intended to ensure compliance with anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, export controls, and trade sanctions requirements. In addition, as stated elsewhere in these Risk Factors, we rely upon third-party service providers to perform certain underlying compliance, credit card processing identity verification, and fraud analysis services. If we or our service providers do not perform adequately, certain of our fraud prevention and detection tools may not be effective, which could lead to potential legal liability and negatively impact our business.
Negative publicity and sentiment resulting from fraudulent, illegal, or deceptive conduct by members of our community or the perception that our levels of responsiveness and support for Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers are inadequate could reduce our ability to attract and retain Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers and damage our reputation.
We are subject to risks related to our corporate social responsibility metrics.
We voluntarily report certain corporate social responsibility metrics. This transparency is consistent with our commitment to executing on a strategy that reflects the positive economic, social, and environmental impact we want to have on the world while advancing and complementing our business strategy. These metrics, whether it be the standards we set for ourselves and/or our failure to meet such metrics, may influence our reputation and the value of our brand. For example, the perception held by Etsy buyers or sellers, our partners or vendors, other key stakeholders, or the communities in which we do business may depend, in part, on the metrics we have chosen to aspire to and whether or not we meet these metrics on a timely basis, if at all. While selected metrics receive limited assurance from an independent third party, this is inherently a less rigorous process than
reasonable assurance sought in a typical auditing engagement. Our failure to achieve progress on our metrics on a timely basis, or at all, could adversely affect our business, financial performance, or growth.
By electing to set and share publicly these corporate social responsibility metrics, our business may also face increased scrutiny related to environmental, social, and governance activities. As a result, we could damage our reputation and the value of our brand if we fail to act responsibly in the areas in which we report, such as economic security and personal empowerment, diversity and inclusion, energy and water management, carbon footprint, and data privacy or if we are perceived not to have rigorously measured our achievement against such metrics. Any harm to our reputation resulting from setting these metrics or our failure or perceived failure to meet such metrics could impact: employee engagement and retention; the willingness of Etsy buyers and sellers and our partners and vendors to do business with us; or investors willingness to purchase or hold shares of our common stock, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial performance, and growth.
We face intense competition and may not be able to compete effectively.
Our industry is highly competitive and we expect competition to increase in the future. To be successful, we need to attract and retain Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers. As a result, we face competition from a wide range of online and offline competitors.
We compete for Etsy sellers with both retailers and companies that sell software and services to small businesses. In addition to listing her goods for sale on Etsy, an Etsy seller can list her goods with other online retailers, such as Amazon, eBay, or Alibaba, or sell her goods through local consignment and vintage stores and other venues or marketplaces, including through commerce channels on social networks like Facebook and Instagram. She may also sell wholesale directly to traditional retailers, including large national retailers, who discover her goods in our marketplace or otherwise. We also compete with companies that sell software and services to small businesses, enabling an Etsy seller to sell from her own website or otherwise run her business independently of our platform, such as Bigcommerce, and Shopify.
We compete to attract, engage, and retain Etsy sellers based on many factors, including:
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the extent to which our tools and services can ease the administrative tasks that an Etsy seller might encounter in running her business;
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the global scale of our marketplace and the breadth of our online presence;
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the number and engagement of Etsy buyers;
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our seller education resources and tools;
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the ability to scale her business, including through Pattern or with a production partner;
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the strength of our community; and
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In addition, we compete with retailers for the attention of the Etsy buyer. An Etsy buyer has the choice of shopping with any online or offline retailer, including large e-commerce marketplaces, such as Amazon, eBay or Alibaba, national retail chains, such as West Elm or Target, local consignment and vintage stores, social commerce channels like Instagram, event-driven platforms and vertical experiences like Zola and Wayfair, and other venues or marketplaces. Many of these competitors offer low-cost or free shipping, fast shipping times, favorable return policies, and other features that may be difficult or impossible for Etsy sellers to match.
We compete to attract, engage, and retain Etsy buyers based on many factors, including:
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the breadth of unique goods that Etsy sellers list in our marketplace;
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the ease of finding the special item a buyer is looking for;
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the person-to-person commerce experience;
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our reputation for trustworthiness;
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the availability of fair and free shipping offered by Etsy sellers;
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the availability and reliability of our platform.
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Many of our competitors and potential competitors have longer operating histories, greater resources, better name recognition, or more customers than we do.
They may invest more to develop and promote their services than we do, and they may offer lower fees to sellers than we do. Additionally, we believe that it is relatively easy for new businesses to create online commerce offerings or tools or services that enable entrepreneurship.
Local companies or more established companies based in markets where we operate outside of the United States may also have a better understanding of local customs, providing them a competitive advantage. For example, in certain markets outside the United States, we compete with smaller, but similar, local online marketplaces with a focus on unique goods that are attempting to attract sellers and buyers in those markets.
If we are unable to compete successfully, or if competing successfully requires us to expend significant resources in response to our competitors’ actions, our business could be adversely affected.
We rely on Etsy sellers to provide a fulfilling experience to Etsy buyers.
A small portion of Etsy buyers complain to us about their experience with our platform. For example, Etsy buyers may report that they have not received the items that they purchased, that the items received were not as represented by an Etsy seller or that an Etsy seller has not been responsive to their questions.
Negative publicity and sentiment generated as a result of these types of complaints could reduce our ability to attract and retain Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers or damage our reputation. A perception that our levels of responsiveness and support for Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers are inadequate could have similar results. In some situations, we may choose to reimburse Etsy buyers for their purchases to help avoid harm to our reputation, but we may not be able to recover the funds we expend for those reimbursements. Although we are focused on enhancing customer service, our efforts may be unsuccessful and Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers may be disappointed in their Etsy experience and not return.
Anything that prevents the timely processing of orders or delivery of goods to Etsy buyers could harm Etsy sellers. Service interruptions and delivery delays may be caused by events that are beyond the control of Etsy sellers, such as interruptions in order or payment processing, transportation disruptions, natural disasters, inclement weather, terrorism, public health crises, or political unrest. Disruptions in the operations of a substantial number of Etsy sellers could also result in negative experiences for a substantial number of Etsy buyers, which could harm our reputation and adversely affect our business.
Our reputation may be harmed if members of our community use illegal or unethical business practices.
Our emphasis on our mission and guiding principles makes our reputation particularly sensitive to allegations of illegal or unethical business practices by Etsy sellers or other members of our community. Our policies promote legal and ethical business practices, such as encouraging Etsy sellers to work only with manufacturers who do not use child or involuntary labor, who do not discriminate, and who promote sustainability and humane working conditions. However, we do not control Etsy sellers or other members of our community or their business practices and cannot ensure that they comply with our policies. If members of our community engage in illegal or unethical business practices or are perceived to do so, we may receive negative publicity and our reputation may be harmed.
Our business depends on network and mobile infrastructure provided by third parties and on our ability to maintain and scale the technology underlying our platform.
The reliability of our platform is important to our reputation and our ability to attract and retain Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers. As the number of Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers, volume of traffic, number of transactions, and the amount of information shared on our platform grow, our need for additional network capacity and computing power will also grow. The operation of the technology underlying our platform is expensive and complex, and we could experience operational failures. If we fail to accurately predict the rate or timing of the growth of our platform, we may be required to incur significant additional costs to maintain reliability. The investments we make in our platform are designed to grow our business and to improve our operating results in the long term, but these investments could also delay our ability to achieve profitability or reduce profitability in the near term.
We also depend on the development and maintenance of the internet, cloud and mobile infrastructure, and increasingly rely on the availability, features, cost, and reliability of third-party service providers and platforms. For example, this includes maintenance of reliable internet and mobile networks with the necessary speed, data capacity, and security, as well as timely development of complementary products.
Third-party providers host much of our technology infrastructure and are likely to host more in the future. Any disruption in their services, or any failure of our providers to handle the demands of our marketplace could significantly harm our business. We exercise little control over these providers, which increases our vulnerability to their financial conditions and to problems with the services they provide, such as security concerns. Our efforts to update our infrastructure may not be successful or may take longer than anticipated. If we experience failures in our technology infrastructure or do not expand our technology infrastructure successfully, then our ability to attract and retain Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers could be adversely affected, which could harm our growth prospects and our business.
We will rely on Google Cloud for a substantial portion of our computing, storage, data processing, networking, and other services. Any disruption of or interference with our use of the Google Cloud operation would adversely affect our business, financial performance, and growth.
Google Cloud Platform provides a distributed computing infrastructure as a service platform for business operations, and we are in the process of migrating from our data centers to Google Cloud, increasing our reliance on cloud infrastructure. As we implement the transition to the cloud, there will be occasional planned or unplanned downtime for our websites and apps and potential site delays, all of which will impact our sellers’ ability to conduct transactions and our buyers’ ability to purchase items. We may also need to divert engineering resources away from other important business operations, which could significantly harm our business and growth. Additionally, if the costs to migrate to Google Cloud are greater than we expect or take significantly more time than we anticipate, our business could be harmed.
Any transition of the cloud services currently provided by Google Cloud to another cloud provider would be difficult to implement and will cause us to incur significant time and expense. Any significant disruption of, or interference with, our use of Google Cloud would negatively impact our operations and our business would be seriously harmed. In addition, if hosting costs increase over time and if we require more computing or storage capacity, our costs could increase disproportionately. If we are unable to grow our revenues faster than the cost of utilizing the services of Google or similar providers, our business and financial condition could be adversely affected.
We may be subject to claims that items listed in our marketplace are counterfeit, infringing or illegal.
Although we do not create or take possession of the items listed in our marketplace by Etsy sellers, we frequently receive communications alleging that items listed in our marketplace infringe third-party copyrights, trademarks, patents, or other intellectual property rights. We have intellectual property complaint and take-down procedures in place to address these communications, and we believe such procedures are important to promote confidence in our marketplace. We follow these procedures to review complaints and relevant facts to determine the appropriate action, which may include removal of the item from our marketplace and, in certain cases, closing the shops of Etsy sellers who repeatedly violate our policies.
Our procedures may not effectively reduce or eliminate our liability. In particular, we may be subject to civil or criminal liability for activities carried out by Etsy sellers on our platform, especially outside the United States where laws may offer less protection for intermediaries and platforms than the United States. Under current U.S. copyright law and the Communications Decency Act, we may benefit from statutory safe harbor provisions that protect us from copyright liability for content posted on our platform by Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers. However, trademark and patent laws do not include similar statutory provisions, and liability for these forms of intellectual property is often determined by court decisions. These safe harbors and court rulings
may change unfavorably. In that event, we may be held secondarily liable for the intellectual property infringement of Etsy sellers.
Regardless of the validity of any claims made against us, we may incur significant costs and efforts to defend against or settle them. If a governmental authority determines that we have aided and abetted the infringement or sale of counterfeit goods or if legal changes result in us potentially being liable for actions by Etsy sellers on our platform, we could face regulatory, civil, or criminal penalties. Successful claims by third-party rights owners could require us to pay substantial damages or refrain from permitting any further listing of the relevant items. These types of claims could force us to modify our business practices, which could lower our revenue, increase our costs or make our platform less user-friendly. Moreover, public perception that counterfeit or other unauthorized items are common in our marketplace, even if factually incorrect, could result in negative publicity and damage to our reputation.
Our business and our Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers may be subject to sales and other taxes.
The application of indirect taxes, such as sales and use tax, value-added tax, provincial taxes, goods and services tax, business tax, withholding tax, digital service tax, and gross receipt tax, to businesses like ours and to Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers is a complex and evolving issue. Significant judgment is required to evaluate applicable tax obligations and as a result amounts recorded are estimates and are subject to adjustments. In many cases, the ultimate tax determination is uncertain because it is not clear when and how new and existing statutes might apply to our business or to Etsy sellers’ businesses. If Etsy is found to be deficient in how it has addressed its tax obligations, our business could be adversely impacted.
One or more states, the federal government, or other countries are seeking to, or have recently imposed additional reporting, record-keeping, or indirect tax collection and remittance obligations on businesses like ours that facilitate online commerce. If requirements like these become applicable in additional jurisdictions, our business could be harmed. For example, taxing authorities in certain U.S. states and in other countries have identified e-commerce platforms as a means to calculate, collect, and remit indirect taxes for transactions taking place over the internet, and are considering related legislation. Additionally, the Supreme Court’s recent decision in
South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. et al
overturned existing law that sellers are not required to collect sales and use tax unless they have a physical presence in the buyer’s state. As a result of the
Wayfair
decision, states or the federal government may adopt, or begin to enforce laws requiring Etsy sellers to calculate, collect, and remit taxes on their sales. Such changes to current law or new legislation could adversely affect our business if the requirement of tax to be charged on items sold on Etsy causes our marketplace to be less attractive to current and prospective Etsy buyers, which could materially impact our business, financial performance, and growth. Additionally, new legislation could require us or Etsy sellers to incur substantial costs in order to comply, including costs associated with tax calculation, collection, remittance, and audit requirements, which could make selling in our marketplace less attractive.
Our business is subject to a large number of U.S. and non-U.S. laws, many of which are evolving.
We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States and around the world, including those relating to traditional businesses, such as employment laws and taxation, and laws and regulations focused on ecommerce and online marketplaces, such as online payments, privacy, anti-spam, data security and protection, online platform liability, intellectual property, and consumer protection. In light of our international operations, we need to comply with various laws associated with doing business outside of the United States, including anti-money laundering, sanctions, anti-corruption, and export control laws. In some cases, non-U.S. privacy, data security, consumer protection, e-commerce, and other laws and regulations are more detailed than those in the United States and, in some countries, are actively enforced.
These laws and regulations are continuously evolving, and compliance is costly and can require changes to our business practices and significant management time and effort.
Additionally, it is not always clear how existing laws apply to online marketplaces as many of these laws do not address the unique issues raised by online marketplaces or ecommerce. For example, as described elsewhere in these Risk Factors, laws relating to privacy are evolving differently in different jurisdictions. Federal, state, and non-U.S. governmental authorities, as well as courts interpreting the laws, continue to evaluate and assess the privacy requirements that are applicable to Etsy.
Some providers of consumer devices and web browsers have implemented, or have announced plans to implement, ways to block tracking technologies which, if widely adopted, could also result in online tracking methods becoming significantly less effective. Any reduction in our ability to make effective use of such technologies could harm our ability to personalize the experience of Etsy buyers, increase our costs and limit our ability to attract and retain Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers on cost-effective terms. As a result, our business could be adversely affected.
Existing and future laws and regulations enacted by federal, state, or non-U.S. governments or the inconsistent enforcement of such laws and regulations could impede the growth of ecommerce or online marketplaces, which could have a negative impact on our business and operations. Examples include data localization requirements, limitation on marketplace scope or ownership, intellectual property intermediary liability rules, regulation of online speech, limits on network neutrality, and rules related to security, privacy, or national security, which may impede Etsy or our users. We could also face regulatory challenges or be subject to discriminatory or anti-competitive practices that could impede both our and Etsy sellers’ growth prospects, increase our costs, and harm our business.
We strive to comply with all applicable laws, but they may conflict with each other, and by complying with the laws or regulations of one jurisdiction, we may find that we are violating the laws or regulations of another jurisdiction. Despite our efforts, we may not have fully complied in the past and may not in the future. If we become liable under laws or regulations applicable to us, we could be required to pay significant fines and penalties, our reputation may be harmed and we may be forced to change the way we operate. That could require us to incur significant expenses or to discontinue certain services, which could negatively affect our business.
Additionally, if third parties with whom we work violate applicable laws or our policies, those violations could result in other liabilities for us and could harm our business. Furthermore, the circumstances in which we may be held liable for the acts, omissions or responsibilities of our sellers is uncertain, complex, and evolving. For example, certain laws have recently been enacted seeking to hold marketplaces like ours responsible for certain compliance obligations for which sellers have traditionally been responsible. If an increasing number of such laws are passed, the resulting compliance costs and potential liability risk could negatively impact our business.
Our software is highly complex and may contain undetected errors.
The software underlying our platform is highly interconnected and complex and may contain undetected errors or vulnerabilities, some of which may only be discovered after the code has been released. We rely heavily on a software engineering practice known as “continuous deployment,” meaning that we typically release software code many times per day. This practice may result in the more frequent introduction of errors or vulnerabilities into the software underlying our platform, which can impact the user experience on Etsy.com. Additionally, due to the interconnected nature of the software underlying our platform, updates to certain parts of our code, including changes to Etsy or third party APIs on which Etsy relies, could have an unintended impact on other sections of our code, which may result in errors or vulnerabilities to our platform that negatively impact the user experience and functionality of our marketplace. Any errors or vulnerabilities discovered in our code after release could result in damage to our reputation, loss of our community members, loss of revenue or liability for damages, any of which could adversely affect our growth prospects and our business.
Our business depends on continued and unimpeded access to the internet and mobile networks.
Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers rely on access to the internet or mobile networks to access our marketplace. Internet service providers may choose to disrupt or degrade access to our platform or increase the cost of such access. Mobile network operators or operating system providers could block or place onerous restrictions on the ability to download and use our mobile apps.
Internet service providers or mobile network operators could also attempt to charge us for providing access to our platform. In addition, we could face discriminatory or anticompetitive practices that could impede both our and Etsy sellers’ growth prospects, increase our costs, and harm our business. In 2015, rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) went into effect that prohibited internet service providers from charging content providers higher rates in order to deliver their content over certain “fast traffic” lanes; however, those rules were repealed in June 2018. This repeal may make it more difficult or costly for many small businesses such as our community of sellers, as well as our buyers, to access our platform and may result in increased costs for us, which could significantly harm our business, and the millions of microbusinesses that utilize our platform. We, along with other companies and public interest groups, are challenging this repeal in the courts, but these efforts may not be successful and may be costly.
Outside of the United States, it is possible that governments of one or more countries may seek to censor content available on our platform or may even attempt to block access to our platform. If we are restricted from operating in one or more countries, our ability to attract and retain Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers may be adversely affected and we may not be able to grow our business as we anticipate.
Our business could be negatively affected as a result of actions of activist stockholders.
The actions of activist stockholders could adversely affect our business. Specifically, responding to common actions of an activist stockholder, such as requests for special meetings, potential nominations of candidates for election to our Board of Directors, requests to pursue a strategic combination, or other transaction or other special requests, could disrupt our operations, be costly and time-consuming, or divert the attention of our management and employees. In addition, perceived uncertainties as to our future direction in relation to the actions of an activist stockholder may result in the loss of potential business opportunities or the perception that we are unstable as a company, which may make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified employees. Actions of an activist stockholder may also cause fluctuations in our stock price based on speculative market perceptions or other factors that do not necessarily reflect the underlying fundamentals and prospects of our business.
We may be subject to intellectual property claims, which are extremely costly to defend, could require us to pay significant damages, and could limit our ability to use certain technologies in the future.
Companies in the internet and technology industries are frequently subject to litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. We periodically receive communications that claim we have infringed, misappropriated, or misused others’ intellectual property rights. To the extent we gain greater public recognition, we may face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property claims. Third-parties may have intellectual property rights that cover significant aspects of our technologies or business methods and prevent us from expanding our offerings. Third parties may also allege a company is secondarily liable for intellectual property infringement, or that it is a joint infringer with another party. Any intellectual property claim against us, with or without merit, could be time consuming and expensive to settle or litigate and could divert the attention of our management. Litigation regarding intellectual property rights is inherently uncertain due to the complex issues involved, and we may not be successful in defending ourselves in such matters. In addition, some of our competitors have extensive portfolios of issued patents. Many potential litigants, including some of our competitors and patent holding companies, have the ability to dedicate substantial resources to enforcing their intellectual property rights. Any claims successfully brought against us could subject us to significant liability for damages and we may be required to stop using technology or other intellectual property alleged to be in violation of a third party’s rights in one or more jurisdictions where Etsy does business. We also might be required to seek a license for third-party intellectual property. Even if a license is available, we could be required to pay significant royalties or submit to unreasonable terms, which would increase our operating expenses. We may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology, which could require significant time and expense. If we cannot license or develop technology for any allegedly infringing aspect of our business, we would be forced to limit our service and may be unable to compete effectively. Any of these results could harm our business.
We may be unable to protect our intellectual property adequately.
Our intellectual property is an essential asset of our business. To establish and protect our intellectual property rights, we rely on a combination of trade secret, copyright, trademark, and patent laws, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions. The efforts we have taken to protect our intellectual property may not be sufficient or effective. We generally do not elect to register our copyrights, relying instead on the laws protecting unregistered intellectual property, which may not be sufficient. We rely on both registered and unregistered trademarks, which may not always be comprehensive in scope. In addition, our copyrights and trademarks, whether or not registered, and patents may be held invalid or unenforceable if challenged, and may be of limited territorial reach. While we have obtained or applied for patent protection with respect to some of our intellectual property, we generally do not rely on patents as a principal means of protecting intellectual property. To the extent we do seek patent protection, any U.S. or other patents issued to us may not be sufficiently broad to protect our proprietary technologies.
In addition, we may not be effective in policing unauthorized use of our intellectual property and authorized uses may not have the intended effect. Even if we do detect violations, we may need to engage in litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights. Any enforcement efforts we undertake, including litigation, could be time-consuming and expensive and could divert our management’s attention. In addition, our efforts may be met with defenses and counterclaims challenging the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights or may result in a court determining that our intellectual property rights are unenforceable. The legal framework surrounding protection of intellectual property changes frequently throughout the world, and these changes may impact our ability to protect our intellectual property and defend against third party claims. If we are unable to cost-effectively protect our intellectual property rights, then our business could be harmed.
We are subject to the terms of open source licenses because our platform incorporates open source software.
The software powering our marketplace incorporates software covered by open source licenses. In addition, we regularly contribute source code to open source software projects and release internal software projects under open source licenses, and we anticipate doing so in the future. The terms of many open source licenses relied upon by Etsy and the internet and technology industries have been interpreted by only a few court decisions and there is a risk that the licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to operate our marketplace. Under certain open source licenses, if certain conditions were met, we could be required to publicly release aspects of the source code of our software or to make our software available under open source licenses. To avoid the public release of the affected portions of our source code, we could be required to expend substantial time and resources to re-engineer some or all of our software. In addition, use of open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software because open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of the software. Use of open source software may also present additional security risks because the public availability of such software may make it easier for hackers and other third parties to determine how to compromise our platform. Additionally, because any software source code we contribute to open source projects is publicly available, while we may benefit from the contributions of others, our ability to protect our intellectual property rights in such software source code may be limited or lost entirely, and we will be unable to prevent our competitors or others from using such contributed software source code. Any of these risks could be difficult to eliminate or manage and, if not addressed, could adversely affect our business, financial performance and growth.
We may experience fluctuations in our tax obligations and effective tax rate.
We are subject to taxation in the United States and in numerous other jurisdictions. We record tax expense based on current tax payments and our estimates of future tax payments, which may include reserves for estimates of probable settlements of tax audits. At any one time, multiple tax years could be subject to audit by various taxing jurisdictions. As a result, we could be subject to higher than anticipated tax liabilities as well as ongoing variability in our quarterly tax rates as audits close and exposures are re-evaluated. Further, our effective tax rate in a given financial statement period may be adversely impacted by changes in tax laws, changes in the mix of revenue among different jurisdictions, changes to accounting rules, and changes to our ownership or capital structure. Fluctuations in our tax obligations and effective tax rate could adversely affect our business.
In December 2017, the U.S. government enacted comprehensive tax legislation that includes significant changes to the taxation of business entities. These changes include, among others, (1) a permanent reduction to the corporate income tax rate, (2) a partial limitation on the deductibility of business interest expense, (3) a shift of the U.S. taxation of multinational corporations from a tax on worldwide income to a quasi-territorial system (along with certain rules designed to prevent erosion of the U.S. income tax base), and (4) a one-time tax on accumulated offshore earnings held in cash and illiquid assets, with the latter taxed at a lower rate. Notwithstanding the reduction in the corporate income tax rate, the overall impact of this tax reform is uncertain, and our business and financial condition could be adversely affected.
In January 2015, we implemented a revised corporate structure to more closely align our structure with our global operations and future expansion plans outside of the United States. Our new corporate structure changed how we use our intellectual property and implemented certain intercompany arrangements. We believe this may result in a reduction in our overall effective tax rate over the long term and other operational efficiencies; however, the tax laws of the jurisdictions in which we operate are subject to interpretation, and their application may depend on our ability to operate our business in a manner consistent with our corporate structure. Moreover, these tax laws are subject to change. Tax authorities may disagree with our position as to the tax treatment of our transfer of intangible assets or determine that the manner in which we operate our business does not achieve the intended tax consequences. If our new corporate structure does not achieve our expectations for any of these or other reasons, we may be subject to a higher overall effective tax rate and our business may be adversely affected.
We may be involved in litigation matters that are expensive and time consuming.
In addition to intellectual property claims, we may become involved in other litigation matters, including class action lawsuits. Under certain circumstances, we have contractual and other legal obligations to indemnify and to incur legal expenses on behalf of current and former directors, officers, and underwriters. Any lawsuit to which we are a party, with or without merit, may result in an unfavorable judgment. We also may decide to settle lawsuits on unfavorable terms. Any such negative outcome could result in payments of substantial damages or fines, damage to our reputation, or adverse changes to our offerings or business practices. Any of these results could adversely affect our business. In addition, defending claims is costly and can impose a significant burden on our management.
We may expand our business through acquisitions of other businesses, which may divert management’s attention and/or prove to be unsuccessful.
We have acquired a number of other businesses in the past and may acquire additional businesses or technologies in the future. Acquisitions may divert management’s time and focus from operating our business. Acquisitions also may require us to spend a substantial portion of our available cash, issue stock, incur debt or other liabilities, amortize expenses related to intangible assets, or incur write-offs of goodwill or other assets. In addition, integrating an acquired business or technology is risky. Completed and future acquisitions may result in unforeseen operational difficulties and expenditures associated with:
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integrating new businesses and technologies into our infrastructure;
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consolidating operational and administrative functions;
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coordinating outreach to our community;
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maintaining morale and culture and retaining and integrating key employees;
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maintaining or developing controls, procedures and policies (including effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures); and
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assuming liabilities related to the activities of the acquired business before and after the acquisition, including liabilities for violations of laws and regulations, commercial disputes, cyber attacks, taxes, and other matters.
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Moreover, we may not benefit from our acquisitions as we expect, or in the time frame we expect. We also may issue additional equity securities in connection with an acquisition, which could cause dilution to our stockholders. Finally, acquisitions could be viewed negatively by analysts, investors or the members of our community.
If our insurance coverage is insufficient or our insurers are unable to meet their obligations, our insurance may not mitigate the risks facing our business.
Our insurance policies cover a number of risks and potential liabilities, such as general liability, property coverage, errors, and omissions liability, employment liability, business interruptions, data breaches, crime, product liability, and directors’ and officers’ liability. For certain types of business risk, we may not be able to, or may choose not to, acquire insurance. In addition, our insurance may not adequately mitigate the risks we face or we may have to pay high premiums and/or deductibles for the coverage we do obtain. Additionally, if any of our insurers becomes insolvent, it would be unable to pay any claims that we make.
The growth of our business may strain our management team and our operational and financial infrastructure.
We have experienced rapid growth in our business, in the number of Etsy sellers and the number of countries in which we have Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers, and we plan to continue to grow in the future, both in the United States and abroad. The growth of our business places significant demands on our management team and pressure to expand our operational and financial infrastructure. For example, we may need to continue to develop and improve our operational, financial, and management controls and enhance our reporting systems and procedures. If we do not manage our growth effectively, the increases in our operating expenses could outpace any increases in our revenue and our business could be harmed.
Operating as a public company requires us to incur substantial costs and requires substantial management attention.
As a public company, we incur substantial legal, accounting, and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. For example, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the applicable requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, (“the Sarbanes-Oxley Act”), and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). The rules and regulations of the Nasdaq Global Select Market (“Nasdaq”) also apply to us. As part of these requirements, we have established and maintained effective disclosure and financial controls and made changes to our corporate governance practices. Continued compliance with these requirements may increase our legal and financial compliance costs in the future and may make some activities more time-consuming. In addition, as described elsewhere in these Risk Factors, as a public company, we may be subject to stockholder activism, which can lead to additional substantial costs, distract management, and impact the manner in which we operate our business in ways we cannot currently anticipate.
If we are unable to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy of our financial reports.
As a public company, we are required to maintain internal control over financial reporting and to report any material weaknesses in such internal controls. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and determine the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. It also requires our independent registered public accounting firm to attest to our evaluation of our internal controls over financial reporting. Although our management has determined, and our independent registered public accounting firm has attested, that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of
December 31, 2018
, we cannot assure you that we or our independent registered public accounting firm will not identify a material weakness in our internal control in the future.
If we have a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting in the future, we may not detect errors on a timely basis. If we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or if we identify a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting in the future, it could harm our operating results, cause us to fail to meet our SEC reporting obligations or Nasdaq listing requirements, adversely affect our reputation, cause our stock price to decline, or result in inaccurate financial reporting or material misstatements in our annual or interim financial statements. Further, if there are material weaknesses or failures in our ability to meet any of the requirements related to the maintenance and reporting of our internal controls, such as Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and that could cause the price of our common stock to decline. We could become subject to investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional management attention and which could adversely affect our business.
In addition, our internal control over financial reporting will not prevent or detect all errors and fraud. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud will be detected.
We have a significant amount of debt and may incur additional debt in the future. We may not have sufficient cash flow from our business to pay our substantial debt when due.
Our ability to pay our debt when due or to refinance our indebtedness, including the
0%
Convertible Senior Notes due
2023
we issued in
March 2018
, (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. In addition, any required repurchase of the Notes for cash as a result of a fundamental change would lower our current cash on hand such that we would not have those funds available for us in our business. 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.
In addition, we and our subsidiaries may be able to incur substantial additional debt in the future, subject to the restrictions contained in our debt instruments, some of which may be secured debt. If, for example, we incur additional debt, secure existing or future debt or recapitalize our debt, these actions may diminish our ability to make payments on our substantial debt when due.
The accounting method for convertible debt securities that may be settled in cash, such as the Notes, could have a material effect on our reported financial results.
In May 2008, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued FASB Staff Position No. APB 14-1,
Accounting for Convertible Debt Instruments That May Be Settled in Cash Upon Conversion (Including Partial Cash Settlement)
, which has subsequently been codified as Accounting Standards Codification 470-20
—Debt with Conversion and Other Options
, (“ASC 470-20”). Under ASC 470-20, an entity must separately account for the liability and equity components of the convertible debt instruments (such as the Notes) that may be settled entirely or partially in cash upon conversion in a manner that reflects the issuer’s economic interest cost. The effect of ASC 470-20 on the accounting for the Notes is that the equity component is required to be included in the additional paid-in capital section of stockholders’ equity on our Consolidated Balance Sheet, and the value of the equity component would be treated as original issue discount for purposes of accounting for the debt component of the Notes. As a result, we will be required to record a greater amount of non-cash interest expense in current periods presented as a result of the amortization of the discounted carrying value of the Notes to their face amount over the term of the Notes. We will report lower net income in our financial results because ASC 470-20 will require interest to include
both the current period’s amortization of the debt discount and the instrument’s coupon interest, which could adversely affect our reported or future financial results, the trading price of our common stock and the trading price of the Notes.
In addition, under certain circumstances, convertible debt instruments (such as the Notes) that may be settled entirely or 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 terms of our debt instruments may restrict our ability to pursue our business strategies.
We do not currently have any obligations outstanding under our credit facility. However, our credit facility requires us to comply with various covenants that limit our ability to take actions such as:
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completing mergers or acquisitions;
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incurring additional indebtedness;
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encumbering our properties or assets;
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paying dividends or making other distributions;
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making specified investments; and
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engaging in transactions with our affiliates.
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These restrictions could limit our ability to pursue our business strategies. If we default under our credit facility and if the default is not cured or waived, the lenders could terminate their commitments to lend to us and cause any amounts outstanding to be payable immediately. Such a default could also result in cross defaults under other debt instruments. Moreover, any such default would limit our ability to obtain additional financing, which may have an adverse effect on our cash flow and liquidity.
We may need additional capital, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all.
We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments, together with cash generated from operations will be enough to meet our anticipated cash needs for at least the next 12 months. However, we may require additional cash resources due to changes in business conditions or other developments, such as acquisitions or investments we may decide to pursue. We may seek to borrow funds under our credit facility or sell additional equity or debt securities. The sale of additional equity or convertible debt securities could result in dilution to our existing stockholders. Any debt financing that we may secure in the future could result in additional operating and financial covenants that would limit or restrict our ability to take certain actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. It is also possible that financing may not be available to us in amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
The price of our common stock has been and will likely continue to be volatile and declines in the price of common stock could subject us to litigation.
The price of our common stock has been and is likely to continue to be volatile. For example, since January 1, 2018, our common stock’s daily closing price on Nasdaq has ranged from a low of $17.73 to a high of $72.77 through
May 3, 2019
. The price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly for numerous reasons, many of which are beyond our control, such as:
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variations in our operating results and other financial and operational metrics, including the key financial and operating metrics disclosed in this Annual Report, as well as how those results and metrics compare to analyst and investor expectations;
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forward-looking statements related to our financial guidance or projections, our failure to meet or exceed our financial guidance or projections or changes in our financial guidance or projections;
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failure of analysts to initiate or maintain coverage of our company, changes in their estimates of our operating results or changes in recommendations by analysts that follow our common stock or a negative view of our financial guidance or projections and our failure to meet or exceed the estimates of such analysts;
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announcements of new services or enhancements, strategic alliances or significant agreements or other developments by us or our competitors;
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announcements by us or our competitors of mergers or acquisitions or rumors of such transactions involving us or our competitors;
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the amount and timing of our operating expenses and the success of any cost-savings actions we take;
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changes in our Board of Directors or senior management team;
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disruptions in our marketplace due to hardware, software or network problems, security breaches, or other issues;
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the strength of the global economy or the economy in the jurisdictions in which we operate, currency fluctuations, and market conditions in our industry and those affecting members of our community;
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the trading activity of our largest stockholders;
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the number of shares of our common stock that are available for public trading;
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litigation or other claims against us;
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the performance of the equity markets in general and in our industry;
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the operating performance of other similar companies;
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changes in legal requirements relating to our business; and
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any other factors discussed in this Annual Report.
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In addition, if the market for technology stocks or the stock market in general experiences a loss of investor confidence, the price of our common stock could decline for reasons unrelated to our business, financial performance, or growth. Stock prices of many internet and technology companies have historically been highly volatile. Some companies that have experienced volatility in the trading price of their stock have been the subject of securities class action litigation. We have experienced securities class action lawsuits in the past and may experience more such litigation following future periods of volatility or declines in our stock price. Any securities litigation, could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention and resources, which could adversely affect our business.
If analysts do not publish research about our business, or if they publish inaccurate or unfavorable research, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock depends in part on the research and reports that analysts publish about our business. We do not have any control over these analysts. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our common stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of our common stock would likely decline. If few analysts cover us, demand for our common stock could decrease and our common stock price and trading volume may decline. Similar results may occur if one or more of these analysts stop covering us in the future or fail to publish reports on us regularly.
Our stock repurchases may not achieve the desired objectives.
In November 2018, our Board of Directors approved a stock repurchase program authorizing us to repurchase up to
$200 million
of our common stock. Previously, in November 2017, our Board of Directors approved a stock repurchase program authorizing us to repurchase up to
$100 million
of our common stock, which we completed in the second quarter of 2018. There can be no assurance that these stock repurchases will enhance stockholder value because the market price of our common stock may decline below the levels at which we repurchased such shares. In addition, there is no guarantee that our stock repurchases in the past or in the future will be able to successfully mitigate the dilutive effect of recent and future employee stock option exercises and restricted stock vesting.
We do not intend to pay dividends on our capital stock, so any returns will be limited to increases in the value of our common stock.
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently anticipate that we will retain future earnings for the operation and expansion of our business and do not anticipate declaring any dividends in the foreseeable future. In addition, our ability to pay cash dividends on our capital stock is restricted by the terms of our credit facility. As a result, stockholders will not receive dividends or other distributions and may only receive a return on their investment if the trading price of our common stock increases.
Future sales and issuances of our common stock or rights to purchase common stock could result in additional dilution to our stockholders and could cause the price of our common stock to decline.
We may issue additional common stock, convertible securities, or other equity in the future. We also issue common stock to our employees, directors, and other service providers pursuant to our equity incentive plans. Such issuances could be dilutive to investors and could cause the price of our common stock to decline. New investors in such issuances could also receive rights senior to those of current stockholders.
Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of our company more difficult, could limit attempts to make changes in our management and could depress the price of our common stock.
Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of our company or limiting changes in our management. Among other things, these provisions:
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provide for a classified board of directors so that not all members of our Board of Directors are elected at one time;
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permit our Board of Directors to establish the number of directors and fill any vacancies and newly created directorships;
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provide that directors may only be removed for cause;
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require super-majority voting to amend some provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws;
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authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that our Board of Directors could use to implement a stockholder rights plan;
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eliminate the ability of our stockholders to call special meetings of stockholders;
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prohibit stockholder action by written consent, which means all stockholder actions must be taken at a meeting of our stockholders;
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provide that our Board of Directors is expressly authorized to amend or repeal any provision of our bylaws;
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restrict the forum for certain litigation against us to Delaware; and
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require advance notice for nominations for election to our Board of Directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at annual stockholder meetings.
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These provisions may delay or prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace members of our management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our Board of Directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. In addition, Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”) may delay or prevent a change in control of our company. Section 203 of the DGCL imposes certain restrictions on mergers, business combinations and other transactions between us and holders of 15% or more of our common stock. Anti-takeover provisions could depress the price of our common stock by acting to delay or prevent a change in control of our company.
Our certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is 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 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 DGCL, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This 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 and may discourage these types of lawsuits. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions.