Item 1. BUSINESS
Our Business
We started Square in February 2009 to enable businesses (sellers) to accept card payments, an important capability that was previously inaccessible to many businesses. As our company grew, we recognized that sellers need a variety of solutions to thrive and saw how we could apply our strength in technology and innovation to help sellers. We have since expanded to provide more than 30 distinct products and services to sellers that help them manage and grow their business. Similarly, with Cash App, we have built a parallel ecosystem of financial services to help individuals manage their money. Our purpose of economic empowerment drives the development of all our products and services. Effective June 30, 2020, we changed the way we reported our results from one operating and reportable segment to two. Our two reportable segments are Seller and Cash App, reflecting our two ecosystems and the way management and our chief operating decision maker (“CODM”) review and assess the performance of our business.
Seller Ecosystem: Square offers a cohesive commerce ecosystem that helps our sellers start, run, and grow their businesses. We combine software, hardware, and financial services to create products and services that are cohesive, fast, self-serve, and elegant. These attributes differentiate Square in a fragmented industry that traditionally forces sellers to stitch together products and services from multiple vendors, and more often than not, rely on inefficient non-digital processes and tools. Our ability to add new sellers efficiently, help them grow their business, and cross-sell products and services has historically led to continued and sustained long-term growth. In the year ended December 31, 2020, we processed $103.7 billion of Seller Gross Payment Volume (GPV), which was generated by more than 2 billion card payments from 405 million payment cards. At the end of 2020, our Square point of sale ecosystem had over 210 million buyer profiles and approximately 295 million items were listed on Square by sellers.
Cash App Ecosystem: Cash App provides an ecosystem of financial products and services to help individuals manage their money. Cash App’s goal is to redefine the world’s relationship with money by making it more relatable, instantly available, and universally accessible. While Cash App started with the single ability to send and receive money, it now provides an ecosystem of financial services that allows individuals to store, send, receive, spend, and invest their money.
Response to COVID-19
In 2020, we made certain focused investments in each of our Seller and Cash App ecosystems to help our customers adapt to COVID-19.
For our sellers, we provided resources with information and advice. We eliminated fees for our software products in March and April, and introduced options for sellers to pause subscriptions temporarily based on their circumstances. We prioritized omnichannel product launches to help sellers transition to serving more of their customers online and through contactless commerce, including curbside pickup and delivery for Square Online and a website for customers to purchase eGift Cards from sellers. We also temporarily offered our sellers free marketing campaigns to update their buyers on recent changes and to promote their businesses. As a participant in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), we distributed loans to Square sellers. As of December 31, 2020, Square Capital had facilitated approximately $857 million of PPP loans, excluding cancelled loans, providing access to a financial lifeline to over 80,000 small businesses.
For our Cash App customers, we published educational materials to help them understand the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act ("CARES Act") stimulus programs. We expanded direct deposit access to many of our Cash App customers, allowing customers to direct deposit government funds into their Cash App accounts. Customers could spend their funds on Cash Card and we adapted certain Boost rewards to pandemic relevant merchants and categories (e.g. grocery stores) to benefit our customers.
Our Customers
Our Sellers: Our sellers represent a diverse range of industries (including services, food-related, and retail businesses) and sizes, ranging from sole proprietors to multi-location businesses. These sellers also span geographies, including the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom. We believe the diversity of our sellers underscores the accessibility and flexibility of our offerings. We are also increasingly serving larger sellers, which we define as sellers that generate more than $125,000 in annualized GPV. Our ability to service larger sellers is due to our ability to offer more flexible and complex solutions as well as a growing product suite. GPV from larger sellers represented 60% of Seller GPV in the fourth quarter of 2020, up from 56% in the fourth quarter of 2019 and 52% in the fourth quarter of 2018. For the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, we had no customer who accounted for greater than 5% of our GPV or our total net revenue.
The charts below show the percentage mix of our GPV by seller industry and seller size, excluding Cash App for the year ended December 31, 2020:
Our Cash App Customers: As of December 2020, Cash App had more than 36 million monthly transacting active customers across the United States and Europe who had at least one financial transaction using any Cash App product or service during the specified period. In 2020, Cash App was the number one finance app in both the iOS App Store and Google Play, and was the number nine and number five app in the iOS App Store and Google Play, respectively, based on downloads in the United States. Cash App has a diverse mix of customers. In the United States, Cash App had transacting active customers in each of the 50 states and nearly every county as of December 2020.
Our Products and Services
Seller Ecosystem:
Our seller ecosystem consists of over 30 distinct software, hardware, and financial services products. We monetize these products through a combination of transaction, subscription, and service fees.
Software
We offer a growing suite of cloud-based software solutions to help sellers more effectively operate and manage their businesses. Our software is designed to be self-serve and intuitive to make initial setup and new employee training fast and easy. Our products are integrated to create a seamless experience and enable a holistic view of sales, customers, employees, and locations. Sellers get frequent software updates and upgrades automatically. Software includes our Online, Point of Sale, Developer Platform, Customer Relationship Management, and Team Management products.
Our point of sale products help sellers make sales, send digital receipts, and collect instant customer feedback to improve their service. Each product takes payments, tracks sales, inventory, customers’ purchase histories, and enables employees to clock in and clock out in the app. All point of sale products have a free software tier without a subscription fee, which we monetize only through payments transaction fees. Among our point of sales products, Square Appointments, Square for Retail, and Square for Restaurants also have premium tiers with additional functionality, which we monetize through subscription fees in addition to transaction fees on payments.
•Square Point of Sale is a general purpose point-of-sale software solution. It is available for both iOS and Android and is pre-installed on Square Register and Square Terminal hardware devices.
•Square Appointments is an integrated solution that includes support for booking, retail sales, invoicing, and payments. It can be used on iOS or Android as well as via a web browser on other operating systems. Appointments includes a free online booking site so buyers can easily schedule appointments and select their preferred time, service, and staff member. It is also integrated with Square Assistant which is an artificial intelligence enabled automated messaging tool that responds to buyers efficiently and professionally, saving sellers' time and helping prevent no-shows.
•Square for Retail is tailored for sellers in the retail industry and includes barcode scanning, advanced inventory management, support for tens of thousands of items, cost of goods sold reporting, purchase orders, and vendor management.
•Square for Restaurants is enhanced and tailored for the food and beverage industry and includes table, order and course management. It also provides back of the house functionality including a kitchen display system and revenue and cost reporting. These premium features help managers and owners make informed decisions and run a more efficient business.
Our online products make it easy to sell online and via social media. When also used in conjunction with our point of sale products, sellers can offer omnichannel experiences for their customers such as buy online, pickup in store (or curbside) and buy online, return in store. All online products have a free tier without a subscription fee, which we monetize only through transaction fees on payments. Square Online also has premium tiers with additional functionality that is monetized via software fees in addition to transaction fees on payments.
•Square Online helps sellers across a range of verticals reach customers in more ways. It makes it easy to build a website and online store as well as sell on Instagram and Facebook. The online store is mobile responsive, delivering
an app-like ordering experience on a buyer’s phone. With integrated support for QR code ordering, sellers can also streamline their in-store operations by posting the QR code and having their buyers order from their own phones. Fulfillment options include pickup, delivery managed by our sellers, and partner delivery platforms. Orders, items, inventory, and customer data stay in sync when selling both online and in-person.
•Square Online Checkout makes it easy to sell online without a website by allowing sellers to create a checkout link with only a name and price for their good or service.
•Square Invoices is a customizable digital invoicing solution with integrated and secure online payment acceptance. This eliminates the need to print and mail statements to customers and wait for checks to arrive. Sellers use Square Invoices for upcoming, recurring, or previously-delivered goods and services, such as catering orders, contractor services, lessons, and retail orders. Square Invoices also lets sellers send estimates and collect partial payments for goods and services.
•Square Virtual Terminal allows sellers to use a computer as a card terminal. Sellers can take a payment, set up recurring billing, record sales, and send digital receipts for payments, including those made by check and bank transfer.
Our business and customer relationship management products give sellers digital tools to streamline their operations. These tools seamlessly integrate with other Square products eliminating the latent, time-consuming, and error prone processes typically used to copy and sync data between disparate systems. We monetize these products via software fees with the exception of Square Contracts, Feedback, and Dashboard which we do not directly monetize.
•Square Team Management makes it easy to schedule staff, view team performance and sales analytics in real time, and pay employees in minutes when used together with Square Payroll. It also enables limiting access to Square software features per employee or role. The Square Team App enables team members to clock in and out, view and adjust their schedules, see timecards, hours worked, and estimated pay from their mobile phone. Team members paid via Square Payroll can also view their pay stubs in the Square Team App.
•Square Contracts helps sellers protect themselves by creating custom and template-based digital contracts with e-signature support for uses such as service agreements and liability waivers. These contracts can be used on their own or easily added to Square Invoices or Square Appointments.
•Square Loyalty, Marketing, Gift Cards, and Feedback help sellers engage with their buyers in-store and online to grow their business. By linking customer data and feedback with point-of-sale and online commerce data, we can offer our sellers integrated omnichannel loyalty, marketing and feedback. Our closed-loop system allows sellers to easily assess performance and return on investment.
•Square Dashboard provides sellers with real-time data and insights about orders, items, inventory, customers, employees, payments, marketing, and loyalty performance. It can be used via the web or the Dashboard iOS app. This reporting enables sellers to stay informed and make timely decisions about their business from anywhere.
Finally, we offer a developer platform including APIs (application programming interfaces) and SDKs (software development kits) that enable external developers to integrate with the Square ecosystem.
•Payment APIs support in-person, online, and mobile payments. Square Reader SDK enables developers to seamlessly integrate Square hardware with a seller’s custom point of sale, allowing them to build unique checkout experiences such as self-ordering kiosks powered by Square’s managed payments service. With our online payments APIs, developers can integrate Square payments into a seller’s e-commerce website or online store. Our In-App Payments SDK enables developers to build consumer mobile apps that use Square to process payments. These products are primarily monetized through transaction fees on payment volumes.
•Commerce APIs include more than 30 commerce APIs, through which developers can create and manage orders, subscriptions, product catalogs, inventory, customer profiles, employees, loyalty programs, gift cards and more in order to build applications that enrich and integrate with Square's ecosystem of products. In addition, these APIs enable developers to build integrations with their existing business systems such as accounting, CRM (customer relationship management), employee management, and ERP (enterprise resource planning) software.
Hardware
We custom-design hardware that can process all major card payment forms, including magnetic stripe, EMV chip, and NFC (contactless). Sellers are able to accept cards issued by Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, JCB, Interac Flash (in Canada), e-Money (in Japan), and eftpos (in Australia). Square hardware can be integrated with additional accessories such as cash drawers, receipt printers, and barcode scanners to provide sellers with a comprehensive point-of-sale solution. Our hardware portfolio includes the following:
•Magstripe reader enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards by connecting with an iOS or Android smartphone or tablet via the headphone jack or lightning connector.
•Contactless and chip reader accepts EMV chip cards and NFC payments, enabling acceptance via Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other mobile wallets.
•Square Stand enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution. It features an integrated magnetic stripe reader, provides power to a connected iPad, and can connect to the contactless and chip reader wirelessly or via USB.
•Square Register is an all-in-one offering that combines our hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology. The dedicated hardware consists of two screens: a seller display and a customer display with a built-in card reader that accepts tap, dip, and swipe payments.
•Square Terminal is a portable, all-in-one payments device and receipt printer to replace traditional keypad terminals. It accepts tap, dip, and swipe payments and has a battery that lasts all day, enabling payments anywhere in the store.
Financial Services
Square acts as both the merchant of record for the transaction as well as the payment service provider (PSP). As the merchant of record, Square is the party responsible for settling funds with the seller and helps manage transaction risk loss on behalf of the merchant. Our position as the merchant of record helps us better serve our sellers. For example, as the merchant of record, we can more efficiently onboard new sellers through our website, leveraging our risk assessment models, and we have insights into transaction-level data that we use to inform our sellers and launch new products. Square has negotiated terms and entered into contractual arrangements directly with the other service providers of transaction processing services, including the acquiring processors and card networks, and indirectly with the issuing banks. These contracts include negotiated terms, such as more favorable pricing, that are generally not available to sellers if they were to contract directly with these sub-service providers.
We offer a growing number of accessible financial services that make it easier for sellers to manage cash flow and get faster access to funds. Financial Services includes our Managed Payments, Business Banking, and Payroll products.
•Managed Payments includes next-day settlements, payment dispute management, data security, and PCI compliance. Sellers can onboard in minutes and, once onboarded, accept payments in person via swipe, dip, or tap of a card or online via a stored card on file or payment entry form. Sellers pay a transparent transaction fee for our managed payment offering.
•Risk Manager gives sellers insight into online payment fraud patterns and enables them to set custom rules and alerts to manage risk. Machine learning algorithms automatically identify fraud patterns and adapt to fit a seller's operations.
•Instant Transfer enables sellers to receive funds from their payments instantly or later that same day. Instant Transfer is an important tool for sellers that need faster access to their funds in order to better manage their cash flow or working capital.
•Square Card is a free business prepaid debit card that provides a way for sellers to spend and manage their funds, enabling sellers to spend their proceeds as soon as they make a sale. When a seller takes a payment, the proceeds immediately go into their Square stored balance and can be spent using their card or withdrawn from an ATM. Square earns interchange fees when sellers make purchases with Square Card.
•Square Capital facilitates loans to qualified Square sellers through a partnership with an industrial bank. Square Capital eliminates the lengthy (and often unsuccessful) loan application process. We are able to approve sellers for these loans while facilitating prudent risk management by using our unique data set of a seller’s Square transactions to help facilitate loan underwriting and collections. The terms are straightforward for sellers, and once approved, they get their funds quickly, often the next business day. Generally, for loans to Square sellers, loan repayment occurs automatically through a fixed percentage of every card transaction a seller takes. Loans are sized to be less than 20% of a seller's expected annual GPV and, by simply running their business, sellers historically have repaid their loan in less than nine months on average. We currently fund a majority of these loans from arrangements with institutional third-party investors who purchase these loans on a forward-flow basis. This funding allows us to mitigate our balance sheet and liquidity risk. Since its public launch in May 2014, Square Capital has facilitated more than 1.2 million loans and advances, representing more than $8.1 billion. This includes approximately $857 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, excluding cancelled loans, to more than 80,000 sellers, which Square Capital facilitated in 2020.
•Square Payroll allows sellers to easily hire and onboard employees, pay wages and associated employee taxes, and offer employee benefits (e.g. 401(k) accounts). The Square ecosystem drives competitive differentiation for our Payroll product with the ability to use Payroll in conjunction with our point of sale products, Team Management, and Cash App.
In 2021, we intend to open an industrial loan corporation (ILC), Square Financial Services ("SFS"), which will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Square. We expect SFS will engage in certain lending activities related to Square Capital. The opening of Square Financial Services remains subject to regulatory approval.
Cash App Ecosystem:
With Cash App, we are building an ecosystem of financial products and services that helps individuals manage their money by making it more relatable, instantly available, and universally accessible. Cash App has a diverse set of customers across demographics and domestic regions. Cash App primarily serves customers in the United States with its breadth of products, and also provides certain services to customers in Europe, primarily the United Kingdom and Spain.
Storing, Sending, and Receiving Funds
Customers can use Cash App to store funds by receiving money from another Cash App customer through the app’s core peer-to-peer transfer service or by transferring money from a bank account. We have enhanced the efficiency of peer-to-peer transfers by streamlining the onboarding process for new Cash App customers. Many Cash App accounts also have a routing number and a unique account number, which allows customers to deposit funds directly from their paychecks. These funds can then be sent to another customer through the app, spent anywhere that accepts cards or withdrawn from an ATM using the Cash Card, invested in stocks or ETFs, used to buy bitcoin, or transferred to a bank account (either instantly for a fee or for free in 1-3 days). Cash App has made it easier for people to manage a business by enabling payments to their Cashtag, allowing higher weekly limits, and providing relevant tax reporting forms. As of December 31, 2020, Cash App had stored balances of approximately $2.0 billion from its customers.
We are expanding Cash App’s ecosystem by reaching more customers globally. In the first quarter of 2020, we launched cross-border payments between the United States and the United Kingdom, allowing customers to instantly transfer funds between these countries using real-time exchange rates with no fees.
Spending
Cash Card is a debit card that is linked directly to a customer’s Cash App balance. Customers can order a Cash Card for free and use their Cash Card anywhere that accepts cards to make purchases, drawing down from the funds stored in their Cash App balance. Square earns interchange fees when individuals make purchases with Cash Card. Customers can select new or promotional Cash Card designs for a fee.
Cash Card also offers customers discounts at certain businesses through the Cash Boost program. Cash Boost is a free and instant rewards program for Cash App customers, which offers a discount at a specific business (e.g. 10% off a purchase on DoorDash) or a discount at certain business types (e.g. grocery stores). Customers can select the Cash Boost they want to apply to their Cash Card through the Cash App, and the discount is instantly applied to their Cash App balance when customers make eligible transactions. Some Cash Boosts are selected and funded by Square, while others will be funded by our partners. Costs related to the Cash Boost rewards program that are funded by Square are recognized as reductions to revenue.
Investing
Customers can also use Cash App to invest their funds in US listed stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or buy and sell bitcoin.
Cash App makes investing more accessible by giving customers access to hundreds of listed stocks and ETFs, as well as the ability to buy and sell bitcoin. Stocks, ETFs, or bitcoin can be purchased using the funds in a customer’s Cash App balance or from a linked debit card and once the order is filled, all investments are viewable through the Investing tab on the Cash App home screen. We offer Cash App customers the ability to buy fractional amounts of a stock, ETF, or bitcoin starting at as little as $1, which expands access to investing to more people. For bitcoin buying and selling, we recognize revenue when customers purchase bitcoin and it is transferred to the customer's account.
Tax Preparation
In the fourth quarter of 2020, we acquired Credit Karma Tax, which adds a tax filing product for individuals to Cash App's ecosystem. Credit Karma Tax provides a seamless, mobile-first solution for individuals to file their taxes for free.
Sales and Marketing
Seller Ecosystem
We have a strong brand and continue to increase awareness of Square and our ecosystem among sellers by enhancing our services and fostering rapid adoption through brand affinity, direct marketing, public relations, direct sales, and partnerships. Our Net Promoter Score (NPS) has averaged nearly 65 over the past four quarters, which is double the average score for banking providers. Our high NPS means our sellers recommend our services to others, which we believe strengthens our brand and helps drive efficient customer acquisition.
Direct marketing, online and offline, has also been an effective customer acquisition channel. These tactics include online search engine optimization and marketing, online display advertising, direct mail campaigns, direct response television advertising, mobile advertising, and affiliate and seller referral programs. Our direct sales and account management teams also contribute to the acquisition and support of larger sellers. In addition to direct channels, we work with third-party developers and partners who offer our solutions to their customers.
Partners expand our addressable market to sellers with individualized or industry-specific needs. Through the Square App Marketplace, our partners are able to expand their own addressable market by reaching the millions of sellers using Square. As of December 31, 2020, Square had more than 700 managed partners connected to its platform.
Our direct, ongoing interactions with our sellers help us tailor offerings to them, at scale, and in the context of their usage. We use various scalable communication channels such as email marketing, in-product notifications and messaging, and Square Communities, our online forum for sellers, to increase the awareness and usage of our products and services with little incremental sales and marketing expense. Our customer support team also helps increase awareness and usage of our products as part of helping sellers address inquiries and issues.
Cash App Ecosystem
Cash App has also developed a strong brand, which can be traced back to our compelling features, self-serve experience, unique design, and engaging marketing.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions serve as the primary acquisition channel for Cash App. Peer-to-peer transactions have powerful network effects as every time a customer sends or requests money, Cash App can acquire a new customer or reengage an existing customer. We have enhanced the efficiency of peer-to-peer transfers by streamlining the onboarding process for Cash App, enabling customers to sign up in minutes. We offer the peer-to-peer service to our Cash App customers for free, and we consider it to be a marketing tool to encourage the usage of Cash App. We do not generate revenue on the majority of peer-to-peer transactions and for these transactions we characterize card issuance costs, peer-to-peer costs and risk loss as a sales and marketing expense.
Cash App also uses paid marketing, including referrals, advertising spend, partnerships, and social media campaigns, to expand its network by enhancing its brand, reaching new customers, and improving retention among existing customers.
Additionally, we see the launch and advertising of new Cash App features as an important way to attract new customers. Features such as Cash Card and Boost rewards, bitcoin buying and selling, investing in stocks and ETFs, and cross-border payments enhance Cash App’s utility for customers and provide a new reason for individuals to try Cash App.
Product Development and Technology
We design both our Seller and Cash App products and services to be cohesive, fast, self-serve, and elegant, and we organize our product teams accordingly, combining individuals from product management, engineering, data science, analytics, design, and product marketing. Our products and services are platform-agnostic with most supporting iOS, Android, and web. We frequently update our software products and have a rapid software release schedule with improvements deployed regularly. Our services are built on a scalable technology platform, and we place a strong emphasis on data analytics and machine learning to maximize the efficacy, efficiency, and scalability of our services.
In our Seller ecosystem, this enables us to capture and analyze billions of transactions per year and automate risk assessment for more than 99.95% of all transactions. Our hardware is designed and developed in-house, and we contract with third-party manufacturers for production.
Our Competition
Seller Ecosystem
The markets in which our seller ecosystem operates are competitive and evolving. Our competitors range from large, well-established vendors to smaller, earlier-stage companies.
We seek to differentiate ourselves from competitors primarily on the basis of our extensive commerce ecosystem and our focus on building remarkable products and services that are cohesive, fast, self-serve, and elegant. In addition, we differentiate ourselves by offering transparent pricing, no long-term contracts, and our ability to innovate and reshape the industries we operate in to expand access to traditionally unserved or underserved sellers. With respect to each of these factors, we believe that we compare favorably to our competitors. Competitors that overlap with certain functions and features that we provide include:
•Pen and paper, manual processes, and paper currency
•Business software providers such as those that provide point of sale, website building, inventory management, analytics, customer relationship management invoicing, and appointment booking solutions
•Payment terminal vendors
•Merchant acquirers
•Banks that provide payment processing, loans, and payroll
•Payroll processors
•Established or new alternative lenders
Cash App Ecosystem
Cash App is our ecosystem of financial services for individuals and competes with other companies in the peer-to-peer payments, debit and prepaid cards, credit card rewards, stock trading, and bitcoin spaces. Our competitors include money transfer apps, prepaid debit card offerings, brokerage firms, and crypto trading services.
We primarily compete based on our brand and the simplicity and quality of our customer experience. We invest in brand, design, and technology to keep our products fast and simple, while also improving and expanding our features.
Human Capital
Our employees are the driving force behind our purpose of economic empowerment. Attracting, developing, and retaining top talent remain a focus in the development of our human capital programs. As of December 31, 2020, we had 5,477 full-time employees worldwide with 662 full-time employees outside the US. We also engage temporary employees and consultants as needed to support our operations.
We have a purpose-driven culture, with a focus on employee input and well-being, which we believe enables us to attract and retain exceptional talent. We offer learning and development programs for all employees, as well as a robust manager training program. Employees are able to actively voice their questions and thoughts through many internal channels, including our company townhall meetings and bi-annual employee engagement surveys. While we have always had distributed teams collaborating around the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic provided an unexpected experiment in remote work, as the vast majority of our employees pivoted to working from home starting in March 2020. In May 2020, we announced that most employees will continue to have the option to work remotely even after we reopen our offices. This flexible location policy has unlocked opportunities to source, connect, and hire talent in more locations. We believe it will also enable us to retain talent, as employees can continue to work for Square if they need or want to relocate.
A key focus of our human capital management approach is our commitment to improving inclusion and diversity. In 2020, our focus was on building sustainable systems to champion inclusion and diversity via three critical channels — growing our Communities program (employee resource groups), equipping our managers to build and lead inclusive teams, and making diversity a central component of our recruiting strategy. Each year, we publish our workforce demographics on our inclusion and diversity blog to show how far we’ve come, where there’s room to grow, and how our workforce is evolving from multiple perspectives. The 2020 report is available at: https://squareup.com/us/en/l/diversity/representation-matters. The contents of the report and our websites are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
From a total rewards perspective, Square offers a competitive compensation and benefits package, which we review and update each year. Our annual compensation planning coincides with our feedback cycle where employees and managers have performance conversations to facilitate learning and career development. As part of our compensation review program, we conduct pay equity analyses annually.
Intellectual Property
We seek to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on a combination of federal, state, and common law rights in the United States and other countries, as well as on contractual measures. It is our practice to enter into confidentiality, non-disclosure, and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and into confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements with other third parties, in order to limit access to, and disclosure and use of, our confidential information and proprietary technology. In addition to these contractual measures, we also rely on a combination of trademarks, trade dress, copyrights, registered domain names, trade secrets, and patent rights to help protect our brand and our other intellectual property.
We have developed a patent program and strategy to identify, apply for, and secure patents for innovative aspects of our products, services, and technologies where appropriate. In addition to our existing patents, we intend to file additional patent applications as we continue to innovate through our research and development efforts and to pursue additional patent protection to the extent we deem it beneficial and cost-effective.
We actively pursue registration of our trademarks, logos, service marks, trade dress, and domain names in the United States and in other jurisdictions. We are the registered holder of a variety of U.S. and international trademarks and domain names that include the terms “Square,” "Cash App," "Weebly," and variations thereof.
From time to time, we also incorporate certain intellectual property licensed from third parties, including under certain open source licenses. Even if any such third-party technology did not continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, we believe that alternative technologies would be available as needed in every case.
Government Regulation
Foreign and domestic laws and regulations apply to many key aspects of our business. Any actual or perceived failure to comply with these requirements may result in, among other things, revocation of required licenses or registrations, loss of approved status, private litigation, regulatory or governmental investigations, administrative enforcement actions, sanctions, civil and criminal liability, and constraints on our ability to continue to operate. It is also possible that current or future laws or regulations could be interpreted or applied in a manner that would prohibit, alter, or impair our existing or planned products and services, or that could require costly, time-consuming, or otherwise burdensome compliance measures from us.
Payments Regulation
Various laws and regulations govern the payments industry in the United States and globally. For example, certain jurisdictions in the United States require a license to offer money transmission services, such as Cash App’s peer-to-peer payments, and we maintain a license in each of those jurisdictions and comply with new license requirements as they arise. We are also registered as a “Money Services Business” with the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. These licenses and registrations subject us, among other things, to record-keeping requirements, reporting requirements, bonding requirements, limitations on the investment of customer funds, and inspection by state and federal regulatory agencies.
Outside the United States, we provide localized versions of some of our services to customers, including through various foreign subsidiaries. The activities of those non-U.S. entities are, or may be, supervised by regulatory authorities in the jurisdictions in which they operate. For instance, we hold an Australian Financial Services License issued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to provide non-cash payments in Australia, and we are licensed as an Electronic Money Institution to provide payments services and electronic money in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority and in the European Union by the Central Bank of Ireland and the Bank of Lithuania.
Our payments services may be or become subject to regulation by other authorities, and the laws and regulations applicable to the payments industry in any given jurisdiction are always subject to interpretation and change.
Consumer Protection
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other federal, local, state, and foreign regulatory and law enforcement agencies regulate financial products and enforce consumer protection laws, including credit, deposit, and payments services, and other similar services. These agencies have broad consumer protection mandates, and they promulgate, interpret, and enforce rules and regulations that affect our business.
Anti-Money Laundering
We are subject to anti-money laundering (AML) laws and regulations in the United States and other jurisdictions. We have implemented an AML program designed to prevent our payments network from being used to facilitate money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit activity. Our program is also designed to prevent our network from being used to facilitate business in countries, or with persons or entities, included on designated lists promulgated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls and equivalent applicable foreign authorities. Our AML compliance program includes policies, procedures, reporting protocols, and internal controls, including the designation of an AML compliance officer, and is designed to address these legal and regulatory requirements and to assist in managing risk associated with money laundering and terrorist financing.
Bank Regulation
We have obtained a conditional order of approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions to open an industrial loan corporation (ILC) in 2021. The opening of Square Financial Services, our ILC, will subject us to direct state and federal regulatory oversight and require compliance with all applicable banking regulations and requirements.
Broker-Dealer Regulation
Our subsidiary, Cash App Investing LLC (Cash App Investing), operates as a broker-dealer and is therefore registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). As a broker-dealer, Cash App Investing is subject to SEC and FINRA laws and regulations including, without limitation, how it markets its services, handles customer assets, keeps records, and reports to the SEC and FINRA. Cash App Investing is also registered in each state where we conduct business, and subject to those states’ securities laws and regulations.
Virtual Currency Regulation
We are subject to certain licensing and regulatory frameworks triggered by our Cash App offering, through which customers can use their stored funds to buy, hold and sell bitcoin, and transfer bitcoin to and from Cash App. We currently hold a New York State Bitlicense. The laws and regulations applicable to virtual currency are evolving and subject to interpretation and change. Therefore, our virtual currency services may be or become subject to additional licensing and regulatory requirements by other authorities.
Protection and Use of Information
We collect and use a wide variety of information for various purposes in our business, including to help ensure the integrity of our services and to provide features and functionality to our customers. This aspect of our business, including the collection, use, disclosure, and protection of the information we acquire from our own services as well as from third-party sources, is subject to laws and regulations in the United States, the European Union, and elsewhere. Accordingly, we publish our privacy policies and terms of service, which describe our practices concerning the use, transmission, and disclosure of information. As our business continues to expand in the United States and worldwide, and as laws and regulations continue to be passed and their interpretations continue to evolve in numerous jurisdictions, additional laws and regulations may become relevant to us.
Communications Regulation
We send texts, emails, and other communications in a variety of contexts, such as when providing digital receipts and marketing. Communications laws and regulations, including those promulgated by the Federal Communications Commission, apply to certain aspects of this activity in the United States and elsewhere.
Additional Developments
Various regulatory agencies in the United States and elsewhere in our international markets continue to examine a wide variety of issues that could impact our business, including products liability, import and export compliance, accessibility for the disabled, insurance, marketing, privacy, data protection, information security, and labor and employment matters. As our business continues to develop and expand, additional rules and regulations may become relevant. For example, if we choose to offer Square Payroll in more jurisdictions, additional regulations, including tax rules, will apply.
Seasonality
Historically, for our Seller ecosystem transaction-based revenue has been strongest in our fourth quarter and weakest in our first quarter, as our sellers typically generate additional GPV during the holiday season. Subscription and services-based revenue generally demonstrates less seasonality than transaction-based revenue. Hardware revenue generally demonstrates less seasonality than transaction-based revenue, with most fluctuations tied to periodic product launches, promotions, or other arrangements with our retail partners. We have not historically experienced meaningful seasonality with respect to total net revenue as this effect has been offset by our revenue growth. In 2020, typical historical seasonality trends for the Seller ecosystem were impacted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shelter-in-place restrictions.
Historically, our Cash App ecosystem experiences improvements in revenue and gross profit related to the distribution of government funds as customers have pulled more funds into Cash App, including during the first quarter related to the distribution of tax refunds. During the year ended December 31, 2020, we saw a significant increase in total Cash App revenue, primarily from bitcoin revenue which contributed 48% of total consolidated net revenue in 2020, and 85% of the total increase in consolidated net revenues in 2020. The primary drivers of bitcoin revenue are customer demand and the current market price of bitcoin, and as such, may not be indicative of future performance and skew typical seasonality trends in the Cash App ecosystem.
Corporate Information
Square was incorporated in Delaware in June 2009. Our headquarters are located at 1455 Market Street, Suite 600, San Francisco, California 94103. Our telephone number is (415) 375-3176. Our website is located at www.squareup.com, and our investor relations website is located at investors.squareup.com. The information contained in, or accessible through, our website is not part of, and is not incorporated into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
We use various trademarks and trade names in our business, including “Square” and Square®, which we have registered in the United States and in various other countries. This Annual Report on Form 10-K also contains trademarks and trade names of other businesses that are the property of their respective holders. We have omitted the ® and ™ designations, as applicable, for the trademarks we name in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Available Information
Copies of our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act), are available, free of charge, on our investor relations website as soon as reasonably practicable after we file such material electronically with or furnish it to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC also maintains a website that contains our SEC filings. The address of the site is www.sec.gov.
We webcast our earnings calls and certain events we participate in or host with members of the investment community on our investor relations website. Additionally, we provide notifications of news or announcements regarding our financial performance, including SEC filings, investor events, press and earnings releases, and blogs as part of our investor relations website. We have used, and intend to continue to use, our investor relations website, as well as the Twitter accounts @Square and @SquareIR, as means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Further corporate governance information, including our board committee charters, code of business conduct and ethics, and corporate governance guidelines, is also available on our investor relations website under the heading “Governance Documents.” The contents of our websites are not intended to be incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.
Item 1A. RISK FACTORS
Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes, before making any investment decision with respect to our securities. The risks and uncertainties described below may not be the only ones we face. If any of the risks actually occur, our business could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.
Risk Factors Summary
Our business operations are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those outside of our control, that could cause our actual results to be harmed, including risks regarding the following:
Risks related to our business and our industry:
•the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and measures intended to prevent its spread;
•our participation in government relief programs set up in response to the COVID-19 pandemic;
•our ability to maintain, protect and enhance our brand;
•our ability to retain existing sellers, attract new sellers, and increase sales to both new and existing sellers, as well as our ability to attract and retain Cash App customers and grow their use of Cash App services;
•our investments in our business and ability to maintain profitability;
•our efforts to expand our product portfolio and market reach;
•our ability to develop products and services to address the rapidly evolving market for payments and financial services;
•competition in our industry;
•expanding our business globally;
•any acquisitions, strategic investments, entries into new businesses, joint ventures, divestitures and other transactions that we may undertake; and
•additional risks of Square Capital relating to the availability of capital, seller payments, availability and structure of its bank partnership, and expansion of its products.
Operational risks:
•real or perceived improper or unauthorized use of, disclosure of, or access to sensitive data;
•security breaches or human error in administering our software, hardware, and systems;
•systems failures, interruptions, delays in service, catastrophic events, and resulting interruptions in the availability of our products or services or those of our sellers;
•any inability to access our private keys required to access our bitcoin or any hack or other data loss relating to the bitcoins we hold;
•our risk management efforts;
•our dependence on payment card networks and acquiring processors;
•our reliance on third parties and their systems for a variety of services, including the processing of transaction data and settlement of funds to us and our sellers;
•our dependence on key management and any failure to attract, motivate, and retain our employees;
•our operational, financial, and other internal controls and systems;
•the integration of our services with a variety of operating systems and the interoperation of our hardware that enables merchants to accept payment cards with third-party mobile devices utilizing such operating systems;
•any shortage, price increases, tariffs, changes, delay or discontinuation of our key components; and
•our ability to accurately forecast demand for our products and adequately manage our product inventory.
Economic, financial, and tax risks:
•a deterioration of general macroeconomic conditions;
•any greater-than-anticipated tax liabilities or significant valuation allowances on our deferred tax assets;
•any inability to secure financing on favorable terms, or at all, or covenants in our existing credit agreement or future agreements;
•our ability to service our convertible senior notes; and
•counterparty risk with respect to our convertible note hedge transactions.
Legal, regulatory, and compliance risks:
•extensive regulation and oversight in a variety of areas of our business;
•complex and evolving regulations and oversight related to privacy and data protection;
•obligations and restrictions as a licensed money transmitter;
•regulation and scrutiny of our subsidiary Square Financial Services, which is a Utah state-chartered industrial bank, including the requirement that we serve as a source of financial strength to it;
•regulation and scrutiny of our subsidiary Cash App Investing, which is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and a member of FINRA, including net capital and other regulatory capital requirements;
•changes to our business practices imposed by FINRA based on our ownership of Cash App Investing;
•litigation, including intellectual property claims, government investigations or inquiries, and regulatory matters or disputes;
•any inability to protect our intellectual property rights; and
•our bitcoin investments being subject to volatile market prices, impairment, and other risks of loss.
Risks related to ownership of our common stock:
•the dual class structure of our common stock;
•volatility of the market price of our Class A common stock;
•our convertible note hedge and warrant transactions;
•anti-takeover provisions contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our amended and restated bylaws, and provisions of Delaware law; and
•exclusive forum provisions in our bylaws.
Risks Related to Our Business and Our Industry
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and measures intended to prevent its spread have had, and may continue to have, a material and adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Global health concerns relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and related government actions taken to reduce the spread of the virus have been weighing on the macroeconomic environment, and the pandemic has significantly increased economic uncertainty and reduced economic activity. Small businesses, which constitute a large part of our sellers, have been impacted particularly hard. The pandemic has resulted in government authorities and businesses implementing numerous measures to try to contain the virus, such as travel bans and restrictions, quarantines, shelter in place or total lock-down orders, school closures, and business limitations and shutdowns. Such measures have contributed significantly to increased unemployment and negatively impacted consumer and business spending.
The pandemic has adversely impacted, and is likely to continue to adversely impact, our operations and the operations of our customers and business partners. For example, our customer support for Cash App was operating at reduced levels for some time, as certain vendors we had used to perform such functions had to shut down some operations. The pandemic has caused us to modify our business practices to help minimize the risk of the virus to our employees, our customers, and the communities in which we participate, which could negatively impact our business. These measures include temporarily requiring employees to work remotely, suspending all non-essential business travel for our employees, limiting external guests visiting our offices, and canceling, postponing, or holding meetings and events virtually. Given the continually evolving situation, there is no certainty that the measures we have taken will be sufficient to mitigate the risks posed by the virus.
The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacts our business, results of operations, and financial condition will depend on developments that continue to be highly uncertain and difficult to predict, including, but not limited to, the duration and spread of the pandemic, its severity, the actions to contain the virus or treat its impact, the availability, distribution and efficacy of vaccines, and how quickly and to what extent normal economic and operating conditions can resume. Even after the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, we may experience material and adverse impacts to our business as a result of the virus’s global economic impact, including the availability of credit, bankruptcies or insolvencies of customers, and recession or economic downturn.
There are no comparable recent events that provide guidance as to the effect the COVID-19 pandemic may have, and, as a result, the ultimate impact of the pandemic is highly uncertain and subject to change. We do not yet know the full extent of the impacts on our business, our operations, or the global economy as a whole. However, the effects could have a
material impact on our results of operations and heighten many of the known risks described throughout this Risk Factors section.
Our participation in government relief programs set up in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as facilitating loans to businesses under the Paycheck Protection Program or unemployment benefits and stimulus payments to individuals through Cash App, may subject us to new risks and uncertainties.
Federal, state, local, and foreign governmental authorities have enacted, and may enact in the future, legislation, regulations, and programs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic intended to provide economic relief to businesses and individuals. Our participation in, or facilitation of, such programs may expose us to new risks and uncertainties.
Square Capital is an approved participant under the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) administered by the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) and enacted in March 2020 under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act ("CARES Act") in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, the PPP was extended until March 31, 2021 and an additional $284 billion was allocated to fund a second round of PPP loans. The PPP was intended to provide funding for businesses so they can retain employees and includes initial loan repayment deferrals and debt forgiveness provisions for eligible borrowers. Additionally, borrowers may now qualify for a “second-draw” loan generally under the same terms and conditions as their initial loans. Small businesses who received a PPP loan previously can apply for a second loan if they: (i) employ fewer than 300 employees, (ii) experienced at least a 25% decrease in revenue in any quarter in 2020 relative to same quarter in 2019, and (iii) have already used or will use the full amount of their first PPP loan. Under the program, Square Capital, through a bank partner (and directly with respect to the second round of PPP loans), provides small businesses two-year or five-year loans at a fixed interest rate of one percent for up to 2.5 times (or 3.5 times with respect to restaurants qualifying for a second PPP loan) the borrower’s monthly payroll expenses. The loan is forgiven under the program if the loan proceeds are used for specified expenses, including payroll and benefit costs, rent payments, utilities, and mortgage and certain interest expenses; provided that at least 60% of the loan proceeds are utilized for qualifying payroll costs and the borrower maintains or rehires employees during the specified periods. As of December 31, 2020, Square Capital had facilitated approximately $857 million of PPP loans, excluding cancelled loans. Square Capital has retained some of these PPP loans in its portfolio, but also sold 100% participation rights in certain PPP loans to an institutional third-party investor. In addition, Square Capital has borrowed money from the Federal Reserve secured by PPP loans in its portfolio. Square Capital expects to continue to retain PPP loans from the second round of the PPP in its portfolio and to continue to access funds from the Federal Reserve secured by such PPP loans.
As a participant in the PPP, Square Capital is exposed to new risks and uncertainties since certain processes and program requirements are still being developed, iterated upon, and have not yet been tested, which exposes us to risks related to documentation, verification, forgiveness, and servicing of such loans. In the event that it is determined that a borrower does not qualify for loan forgiveness or if a borrower defaults on its PPP loan, Square Capital is at risk to the extent the SBA may decline to honor its guarantee or to forgive the loan due to documentation or verification errors, failure to follow regulatory requirements, or lack of adherence to underwriting standards. As a result, Square Capital’s documentation and review and underwriting processes will be subject to scrutiny, and we could incur losses if we fail to comply with the SBA documentation and other requirements. We also may become subject to litigation arising as a result of our participation in this program, which could result in significant financial liability or could adversely affect our reputation. There can be no assurance that Square Capital will be successful in mitigating all of the risks associated with the PPP or that this lending will not have a negative impact on Square Capital’s business and results of operations.
Separately, the CARES Act and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 provided for stimulus funds, called economic impact payments, to individuals, expanded eligibility for unemployment benefits, increased the amount of unemployment insurance benefits, and extended the period for such payments. Cash App has been facilitating the payment of such stimulus funds and unemployment benefits by offering account and routing numbers that customers can use to deposit such payments directly into their Cash App accounts and accepting cash-in deposits from prepaid cards issued by state governments. Cash App has also worked with partner banks to expand direct deposit eligibility for its customers. The federal stimulus programs were set up quickly and under difficult and unprecedented circumstances and the implementation of these programs at the federal, state, and local levels has been complex and difficult, causing them to be more susceptible to fraud, data breaches, technical difficulties, and other new and uncertain risks. Cash App’s facilitation of unemployment and stimulus payments may therefore expose us to operational, compliance, reputational, and legal risks, which could result in governmental action, litigation, or other forms of material and adverse loss.
Our business depends on a strong and trusted brand, and any failure to maintain, protect, and enhance our brand would hurt our business.
We have developed a strong and trusted brand that has contributed significantly to the success of our business. We believe that maintaining and promoting our brand in a cost-effective manner is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our products and services and expanding our base of customers. Maintaining and promoting our brand will depend largely on our ability to continue to provide useful, reliable, secure, and innovative products and services, as well as our ability to maintain trust and be a technology leader. We may introduce, or make changes to, features, products, services, privacy practices, or terms of service that customers do not like, which may materially and adversely affect our brand. Our brand promotion activities may not generate customer awareness or increase revenue, and even if they do, any increase in revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building our brand. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brand or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business could be materially and adversely affected.
The introduction and promotion of new services, as well as the promotion of existing services, may be partly dependent on our visibility on third-party advertising platforms, such as Google, Twitter, or Facebook. Changes in the way these platforms operate or changes in their advertising prices, data use practices or other terms could make the maintenance and promotion of our products and services and our brand more expensive or more difficult. If we are unable to market and promote our brand on third-party platforms effectively, our ability to acquire new customers would be materially harmed. We also use retail partners to sell hardware and acquire customers. Our ability to acquire new customers could be materially harmed if we are unable to enter into or maintain these partnerships on terms that are commercially reasonable to us, or at all.
Harm to our brand can arise from many sources, including failure by us or our partners and service providers to satisfy expectations of service and quality; inadequate protection or misuse of sensitive information; fraud committed by third parties using our products or applications; compliance failures and claims; litigation and other claims; and misconduct by our partners, service providers, or other counterparties. We have also been from time to time in the past, and may in the future be, the target of incomplete, inaccurate, and misleading or false statements about our company and our business that could damage our brand and deter customers from adopting our services. Any negative publicity about our industry or our company, the quality and reliability of our products and services, our risk management processes, changes to our products and services, our ability to effectively manage and resolve customer complaints, our privacy, data protection, and information security practices, litigation, regulatory activity, policy positions, and the experience of our customers with our products or services could adversely affect our reputation and the confidence in and use of our products and services. If we do not successfully maintain a strong and trusted brand, our business could be materially and adversely affected.
As our revenue has increased, our growth rate has slowed at times in the past and may slow or decline in the future, and our growth rates in each of our reporting segments may vary. Future revenue growth depends on our ability to retain existing sellers, attract new sellers, and increase sales to both new and existing sellers, as well as our ability to attract and retain Cash App customers and grow their use of Cash App services.
Our rate of revenue growth has slowed at times in the past and may decline in the future, and it may slow or decline more quickly than we expect for a variety of reasons, including the risks described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Additionally, our rate of revenue growth may vary between our two reporting segments. For example, in recent periods our Cash App segment revenue has grown at a high rate, which has varied and may continue to vary from the growth rate of our Seller segment. Our customers have no obligation to continue to use our services, and we cannot assure you that they will. We generally do not have long-term contracts with our customers, and the difficulty and costs associated with switching to a competitor may not be significant for many of the services we offer, both in the seller ecosystem and the Cash App ecosystem. Our sellers’ activity with us may decrease for a variety of reasons, including sellers’ level of satisfaction with our products and services, our pricing and the pricing and quality of competing products or services, the effects of global economic conditions, or reductions in the aggregate spending of our sellers’ customers. The COVID-19 pandemic caused some sellers to close or curtail operations, which negatively impacted our Seller revenue.
The growth of our business depends in part on existing sellers and Cash App customers expanding their use of our products and services. If we are unable to encourage broader use of our services by our sellers and Cash App customers, our growth may slow or stop, and our business may be materially and adversely affected. The growth of our business also depends on our ability to attract new sellers and Cash App customers, to encourage larger sellers to use our products and services, and to introduce successful new products and services. We have experienced rapid growth in the number of monthly transacting active Cash App customers in recent periods. Growth in monthly transacting active Cash App customers and such customers’ level of engagement with our products and services are essential to our success and long-term financial
performance. However, the growth rate of monthly transacting active Cash App customers has fluctuated over time, and it may slow or decline in the future. A number of factors have affected and could potentially negatively affect Cash App customer growth and engagement, including our ability to introduce new products and services that are compelling to our customers, the network effects of other customers choosing whether to use Cash App, technical or other problems that affect customer experience, failure to provide sufficient customer support, fraud and scams targeting Cash App customers, and harm to our reputation and brand. Further, certain events or programs, such as government stimulus programs may correlate with periods of significant growth, but such growth may not be sustainable. Additionally, the growth rate of Cash App revenue may be distorted by the prices of bitcoin, as bitcoin revenue may increase or decrease due to the price of bitcoin and may not correlate to customer or engagement growth rates. We have invested and will continue to invest in improving our Square platform in order to offer better or new features, products, and services and to adjust our product offerings to changing economic conditions, but if those features, products, services, and changes fail to be successful, our growth may slow or decline.
We have generated significant net losses in the past, and we intend to continue to invest substantially in our business. Thus, we may not be able to maintain profitability.
While we generated net income of $213.1 million and $375.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, we generated net losses of $38.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2018. As of December 31, 2020, we had an accumulated deficit of $297.2 million.
We intend to continue to make significant investments in our business, including with respect to our employee base; sales and marketing; development of new products, services, and features; acquisitions; infrastructure; expansion of international operations; and general administration, including legal, finance, and other compliance expenses related to our business. If the costs associated with acquiring and supporting new or larger sellers, attracting and supporting new Cash App customers, or with developing and supporting our products and services materially increase in the future, including the fees we pay to third parties to advertise our products and services, our expenses may rise significantly. In addition, increases in our seller base could cause us to incur increased losses because costs associated with new sellers are generally incurred up front, while revenue is recognized in future periods as our products and services are transferred to our sellers. If we are unable to generate adequate revenue growth and manage our expenses, we may incur significant losses and may not maintain profitability on a consistent basis.
From time to time, we have made and may make decisions that will have a negative effect on our short-term operating results if we believe those decisions will improve our operating results over the long term. These decisions may not be consistent with the expectations of investors and may not produce the long-term benefits that we expect, in which case our business may be materially and adversely affected.
Our efforts to expand our product portfolio and market reach may not succeed and may reduce our revenue growth.
While we have grown the proportion of revenue from newer products and services from each of the Cash App and Seller segments and we intend to continue to broaden the scope of products and services we offer, we may not be successful in maintaining or growing our current revenue streams, or deriving any significant new revenue streams from these products and services. Failure to successfully broaden the scope of products and services that are attractive may inhibit our growth and harm our business. Furthermore, we expect to continue to expand our markets in the future, and we may have limited or no experience in such newer markets. We cannot assure you that any of our products or services will be widely accepted in any market or that they will continue to grow in revenue. Our offerings may present new and difficult technological, operational, regulatory, risks, and other challenges, and if we experience service disruptions, failures, or other issues, our business may be materially and adversely affected. For example, our Cash App products are intended to make investing in certain assets, such as bitcoin, stocks, and exchange-traded funds, more accessible. However, as a result, our customers who use these products may experience losses or other financial impacts due to, among other things, market fluctuations in the prices of bitcoin and stocks. If our users are adversely affected by such risks, they may cease using the product or Cash App altogether and our business, brand, and reputation may be adversely affected. Further, our newer activities may not lead to growth or recoup our investments in a timely manner or at all and may require significant management time and attention. If any of this were to occur, it could damage our reputation, limit our growth, and materially and adversely affect our business.
Our long-term success depends on our ability to develop products and services to address the rapidly evolving market for payments and financial services, and, if we are not able to implement successful enhancements and new features for our products and services, our business could be materially and adversely affected.
Rapid and significant technological changes continue to confront the industries in which we operate, including developments in omnichannel commerce, proximity payment devices (including contactless payments via NFC technology), digital banking, mobile financial apps, as well as developments in cryptocurrencies and in tokenization, which replaces sensitive data (e.g., payment card information) with symbols (tokens) to keep the data safe in the event that it is stolen or viewed by unauthorized third parties.
These new services and technologies may be superior to, impair, or render obsolete the products and services we currently offer or the technologies we currently use to provide them. Incorporating new technologies into our products and services may require substantial expenditures and take considerable time, and we may not be successful in realizing a return on these development efforts in a timely manner or at all. Our ability to develop new products and services may be inhibited by industry-wide standards, payment card networks, existing and future laws and regulations, resistance to change from our customers, which includes our sellers and their customers, or third parties’ intellectual property rights. Our success will depend on our ability to develop new technologies and to adapt to technological changes and evolving industry standards. If we are unable to provide enhancements and new features for our products and services or to develop new products and services that achieve market acceptance or that keep pace with rapid technological developments and evolving industry standards, our business would be materially and adversely affected.
We often rely, not only on our own initiatives and innovations, but also on third parties, including some of our competitors, for the development of and access to new technologies and development of a robust market for these new products and technologies. Failure to accurately predict or to respond effectively to developments in our industry may significantly impair our business.
In addition, because our products and services are designed to operate with a variety of systems, infrastructures, and devices, we need to continuously modify and enhance our products and services to keep pace with changes in technologies. Moreover, our success may depend on our ability to provide products and services that are tailored to specific needs and requirements of our customers. Any failure of our products and services to continue to operate effectively with third-party infrastructures and technologies could reduce the demand for our products and services, result in dissatisfaction of our customers, and materially and adversely affect our business.
Substantial and increasingly intense competition in our industry may harm our business.
We compete in markets characterized by vigorous competition, changing technology, evolving industry standards, changing customer needs, and frequent introductions of new products and services. We expect competition to intensify in the future as existing and new competitors introduce new services or enhance existing services. For example, companies not traditionally associated with the payments industry have introduced products or services that are or may become competitive with our business. We compete against many companies to attract customers both within our seller ecosystem and our Cash App ecosystem, and some of these companies have greater financial resources and substantially larger bases of customers than we do, which may provide them with significant competitive advantages. These companies may devote greater resources to the development, promotion, and sale of products and services, may achieve economies of scale due to the size of their customer bases, and may more effectively introduce their own innovative products and services that adversely impact our growth. Mergers and acquisitions by these companies may lead to even larger competitors with more resources.
Certain sellers have long-standing exclusive, or nearly exclusive, relationships with our competitors to accept payment cards and other services that compete with what we offer. These relationships may make it difficult or cost-prohibitive for us to conduct material amounts of business with them. Competing services tied to established brands may engender greater confidence in the safety and efficacy of their services. If we are unable to differentiate ourselves from and successfully compete with our competitors, our business will be materially and adversely affected.
We may also face pricing pressures from competitors. Some competitors may offer lower prices to sellers for similar services by cross-subsidizing their payments services through other services they offer. Such competition may result in the need for us to alter the pricing we offer to our sellers and could reduce our gross profit. In addition, sellers may demand more customized and favorable pricing from us, and competitive pressures may require us to agree to such pricing, further reducing our gross profit. We currently negotiate pricing discounts and other incentive arrangements with certain large sellers to
increase acceptance and usage of our products and services. If we continue this practice and if an increasing proportion of our sellers are large sellers, we may have to increase the discounts or incentives we provide, which could also reduce our gross profit.
Expanding our business globally could subject us to new challenges and risks.
We currently offer our services and products in multiple countries and plan to continue expanding our business further globally. Expansion, whether in our existing or new global markets, will require additional resources and controls, and offering our services in new geographic regions often requires substantial expenditures and takes considerable time. We may not be successful enough in these new geographies to recoup our investments in a timely manner or at all. Such expansion could also subject our business to substantial risks, including:
•difficulty in attracting a sufficient number of sellers or Cash App customers;
•failure to anticipate competitive conditions and competition with service providers or other market-players that have greater experience in the local markets than we do;
•failure to conform with applicable business customs, including translation into foreign languages, cultural context, and associated expenses;
•increased costs and difficulty in protecting intellectual property and sensitive data;
•changes to the way we do business as compared with our current operations or a lack of acceptance of our products and services;
•the ability to support and integrate with local third-party service providers;
•difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations in an environment of diverse culture, laws, and customs, challenges caused by distance, language, and cultural differences, and the increased travel, infrastructure, and legal and compliance costs associated with global operations;
•difficulties in recruiting and retaining qualified employees and maintaining our company culture;
•difficulty in gaining acceptance from industry self-regulatory bodies;
•compliance with multiple, potentially conflicting and changing governmental laws and regulations, including with respect to payments, data privacy, data protection, and information security;
•compliance with U.S. and foreign anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and anti-money laundering laws;
•potential tariffs, sanctions, fines, or other trade restrictions;
•exchange rate risk;
•compliance with complex and potentially conflicting and changing laws of taxing jurisdictions where we conduct business and applicable U.S. tax laws;
•increased exposure to public health issues such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, and related industry and governmental actions to address these issues; and
•regional economic and political instability and other geopolitical risks.
As a result of these risks, our efforts to expand our global operations may not be successful, which could limit our ability to grow our business.
Any acquisitions, strategic investments, entries into new businesses, joint ventures, divestitures, and other transactions could fail to achieve strategic objectives, disrupt our ongoing operations or result in operating difficulties, liabilities and expenses, harm our business, and negatively impact our results of operations.
In pursuing our business strategy, we routinely conduct discussions and evaluate opportunities for possible acquisitions, strategic investments, entries into new businesses, joint ventures, divestitures, and other transactions. We have in the past acquired or invested in, and we continue to seek to acquire or invest, in businesses technologies or other assets that we believe could complement or expand our business. The identification, evaluation, and negotiation of potential transactions may divert the attention of management and entail various expenses, whether or not such transactions are ultimately completed. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in identifying, negotiating, and consummating favorable transaction opportunities. In addition to transaction and opportunity costs, these transactions involve large challenges and risks, whether or not such transactions are completed, any of which could harm our business and negatively impact our results of operations, including risks that:
•the transaction may not advance our business strategy;
•we may not be able to secure required regulatory approvals or otherwise satisfy closing conditions for a proposed transaction in a timely manner, or at all;
•the transaction may subject us to additional regulatory burdens that affect our business in potentially unanticipated and significantly negative ways;
•we may not realize a satisfactory return or increase our revenue;
•we may experience difficulty, and may not be successful in, integrating technologies, IT or business enterprise systems, culture, or management or other personnel of the acquired business;
•we may incur significant acquisition costs and transition costs, including in connection with the assumption of ongoing expenses of the acquired business;
•we may not realize the expected benefits or synergies from the transaction in the expected time period, or at all;
•we may be unable to retain key personnel;
•acquired businesses or businesses that we invest in may not have adequate controls, processes, and procedures to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, including with respect to data privacy and security, and our due diligence process may not identify compliance issues or other liabilities. Moreover, acquired businesses’ technology stacks may add complexity, resource constraints, and technological debt that makes it difficult and time consuming to achieve such adequate controls, processes, and procedures.
•we may fail to identify or assess the magnitude of certain liabilities, shortcomings, or other circumstances prior to acquiring or investing in a business, which could result in additional financial, legal, or regulatory exposure, which may subject us to additional controls, policies, procedures, liabilities, litigation, costs of compliance or remediation, or other adverse effects on our business, operating results, or financial condition;
•we may have difficulty entering into new market segments or new geographic territories;
•we may be unable to retain the customers, vendors, and partners of acquired businesses;
•there may be lawsuits or regulatory actions resulting from the transaction;
•there may be risks associated with undetected security weaknesses, cyberattacks, or security breaches at companies that we acquire or with which we may combine or partner;
•there may be local and foreign regulations applicable to the international activities of our business and the businesses we acquire; and
•acquisitions could result in dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt.
We may also choose to divest certain businesses or product lines. If we decide to sell assets or a business, we may have difficulty obtaining terms acceptable to us in a timely manner, or at all. Additionally, we may experience difficulty separating out portions of, or entire, businesses, incur potential loss of revenue or experience negative impact on margins, or we may not achieve the desired strategic and financial benefits. For example, in 2019, we completed the sale of Caviar to DoorDash in exchange for cash and stock consideration. Following DoorDash’s initial public offering, we are required to mark to market our equity holdings each quarter, which may result in fluctuations of our results of operations due to the trading price of DoorDash’s Class A common stock. Further, because we are subject to a lock-up agreement with respect to such holdings, we are restricted from selling all of our equity holdings for a period of 180 days following DoorDash's IPO, and there can be no assurances that we will fully realize the value of the stock consideration once we are able to sell. Such potential transactions may also delay achievement of our strategic objectives, cause us to incur additional expenses, potentially disrupt customer or employee relationships, and expose us to unanticipated or ongoing obligations and liabilities, including as a result of our indemnification obligations. Further, during the pendency of a divestiture, we may be subject to risks related to a decline in the business, loss of employees, customers, or suppliers and the risk that the transaction may not close, any of which would have a material adverse effect on the business to be divested and the Company. If a divestiture is not completed for any reason, we may not be able to find another buyer on the same terms, and we may have incurred significant costs without the corresponding benefit.
Joint ventures and minority investments inherently involve a lesser degree of control over business operations, thereby potentially increasing the financial, legal, operational, regulatory, and/or compliance risks associated with the joint venture or minority investment. In addition, we may be dependent on joint venture partners, controlling shareholders, management, or other persons or entities who control them and who may have business interests, strategies, or goals that are inconsistent with ours. Business decisions or other actions or omissions of the joint venture partners, controlling shareholders, management, or other persons or entities who control them may adversely affect the value of our investment, result in litigation or regulatory action against us, and may otherwise damage our reputation and brand.
Square Capital is subject to additional risks relating to the availability of capital, seller payments, availability and structure of its bank partnership, expansion of its products, regulatory obligations, and general macroeconomic conditions.
Square Capital, which includes our wholly owned subsidiary Square Capital, LLC, is subject to risks in addition to those described elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Maintaining and growing Square Capital is dependent on institutional third-party investors purchasing the eligible business loans originated by our bank partner. If such third parties fail to continue to purchase such business loans or reduce the amount of future loans they purchase, then our bank partner may need to reduce originations, or we would need to fund the purchase of additional business loans from our own resources. We then may have to reduce the scale of Square Capital, which could have a direct impact on our ability to grow. Additionally, Square Capital has certain customary repurchase obligations in its loan purchase and servicing agreements with such institutional third party investors for breaches of certain eligibility representations and warranties. If third parties reduce the price they are willing to pay for these business loans or reduce the servicing fees they pay us in exchange for servicing the business loans on their behalf, then the financial performance of Square Capital would be harmed.
The business loans are generally unsecured obligations of our Square sellers who utilize Square Capital, and they are not guaranteed or insured in any way. Adverse changes in macroeconomic conditions or the credit quality of our Square sellers could cause some Square sellers who utilize Square Capital to cease operating or to experience a decline in their payment processing volume, thereby rendering them unable to make payment on the business loan and/or extend the repayment period beyond the contractual repayment terms on the business loan. To the extent a seller breaches a contractual obligation, such as the requirement to make minimum payments or other breach, the seller would be liable for an accelerated business loan repayment, where Square Capital's recourse is to the business and not to any individual or other asset. In addition, because the servicing fees we receive from third party investors depend on the collectability of the business loans, if there is an increase in Square sellers who utilize Square Capital who are unable to make repayment of business loans, we will be unable to collect our entire servicing fee for such loans. While our exposure to loans that we sell to third parties is more limited, we expect that the impact of COVID-19 on loan performance will increase risk loss for our owned loan portfolio.
In addition, adverse changes in macroeconomic conditions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a decrease in the number of sellers eligible for Square Capital facilitated business loans and strained our ability to correctly identify such sellers on behalf of our bank partner or manage the risk of non-payment or fraud as servicer of the business
loans. As a result, Square Capital ceased to facilitate new business loans, with the exception of PPP loans, during the second quarter of 2020. In the third quarter of 2020, Square Capital resumed offering its regular business loans under stricter eligibility criteria, but it remains uncertain at what levels Square Capital will facilitate such business loans. If we fail to correctly predict the likelihood of timely repayment or correctly price such business loans, our business may be materially and adversely affected.
We have partnered, on a non-exclusive basis, with a Utah-chartered, member FDIC industrial bank to originate the loans. Such bank may offer products that compete with ours. The bank is subject to oversight both by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the State of Utah. Due to the fact that we are a service-provider to our bank partner, we are subject to audit standards for third-party vendors in accordance with FDIC guidance and examinations by the FDIC. There has been, and may continue to be, regulatory interest in and/or litigation challenging partnered lending arrangements where a bank makes loans and then sells and assigns such loans to a non-bank entity that is engaged in assisting with the origination and servicing of the loan. If our bank partner ceases to partner with us, ceases to abide by the terms of our agreement with them, or cannot partner with us on commercially reasonable terms, and we are not able to find suitable alternatives and/or make business loans ourselves pursuant to state licensing requirements, Square Capital may need to enter into a new partnership with another qualified financial institution or pursue an alternative model for originating business loans, all of which may be time-consuming and costly and/or lead to a loss of institutional third-party investors willing to purchase such business loans, and as a result Square Capital may be materially and adversely affected.
We intend to continue to explore other products, models, and structures for Square Capital, including forming a Utah industrial bank and other forms of credit and loan products. Some of those models or structures may require, or be deemed to require, additional data, procedures, partnerships, licenses, regulatory approvals, or capabilities that we have not yet obtained or developed. The licenses required in connection with our lending program and other activities related to the Square Capital program subject us to reporting requirements, bonding requirements, and inspection by applicable state regulatory agencies. Should we fail to expand and evolve Square Capital in a successful manner, or should these new products, models or structures, or new regulations or interpretations of existing regulations, impose requirements on us that are impractical or that we cannot satisfy, the future growth and success of Square Capital may be materially and adversely affected.
Operational Risks
We, our sellers, our partners, and others who use our services obtain and process a large amount of sensitive data. Any real or perceived improper or unauthorized use of, disclosure of, or access to such data could harm our reputation as a trusted brand, as well as have a material and adverse effect on our business.
We, our sellers, and our partners, including third-party vendors and data centers that we use, obtain and process large amounts of sensitive data, including data related to our customers, our sellers’ customers, and their transactions. We face risks, including to our reputation as a trusted brand, in the handling and protection of this data. These risks will increase as our business continues to expand to include new products, subsidiaries, and technologies, and as we and our third party vendors rely on an increasingly distributed workforce. Our operations involve the storage and transmission of sensitive information of individuals and businesses using our services, including their names, addresses, social security/tax ID numbers (or their foreign equivalents), government IDs, payment card numbers and expiration dates, bank account information, loans they have applied for or obtained, and data regarding the performance of our sellers’ businesses. Additionally, certain of our products and services are subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (and the rules and regulations thereunder, as amended, including with respect to the HITECH Act) (HIPAA), and therefore we are required to take measures to safeguard protected health information of our sellers and their customers. Our services also provide third party developers the opportunity to provide applications to our sellers in the Square and Weebly app marketplaces. Sellers who choose to use such applications can grant permission allowing the applications to access content created or held by sellers in their Square or Weebly account. Should our internal or third party developers experience or cause a breach or a technological bug, that could lead to a compromise of the content of data held by such sellers, including personal data.
If our privacy and security measures or those of third party developers and vendors are inadequate or are breached, and, as a result, there is improper disclosure of or someone obtains unauthorized access to or exfiltrates funds or other sensitive information on our systems or our partners’ systems, or if we, our third party developers or vendors suffer a ransomware or advanced persistent threat attack, or if any of the foregoing is reported or perceived to have occurred, our reputation and business could be damaged. If the sensitive information is lost or improperly accessed, misused, disclosed, destroyed, or altered or threatened to be improperly accessed, misused, disclosed, destroyed, or altered, we could incur
significant financial losses and costs and liability associated with remediation and the implementation of additional security measures and be subject to litigation, regulatory scrutiny, and investigations.
Under payment card rules and our contracts with our card processors and other counterparties, if there is a breach of payment card information that we store or that is stored by our sellers or other third parties with which we do business, we could be liable to the payment card issuing banks for certain of their costs and expenses. Additionally, if our own confidential business information were improperly disclosed, our business could be materially and adversely affected. A core aspect of our business is the reliability and security of our payments platforms. Any perceived or actual breach of security, regardless of how it occurs or the extent of the breach, could have a significant impact on our reputation as a trusted brand, cause us to lose existing sellers or other customers, prevent us from obtaining new sellers and other customers, require us to expend significant funds to remedy problems caused by breaches and to implement measures to prevent further breaches, and expose us to legal risk and potential liability including those resulting from governmental or regulatory investigations, class action litigation, and costs associated with remediation, such as fraud monitoring and forensics. Any actual or perceived security breach at a company providing services to us or our customers could have similar effects. Further, any actual or perceived security breach with respect to the bitcoin and blockchain ledger, regardless of whether such breach directly affects our products and services, could have negative reputational effects and harm customer trust in us and our products and services.
While we maintain cybersecurity insurance, our insurance may be insufficient to cover all liabilities incurred by such attacks. We cannot be certain that our insurance coverage will be adequate for data handling or data security liabilities actually incurred, that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, premiums, or deductibles could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our financial condition, operating results, and reputation.
Our products and services may not function as intended due to errors in our software, hardware, and systems, product defects, or due to security breaches or human error in administering these systems, which could materially and adversely affect our business.
Our software, hardware, systems, and processes may contain undetected errors or vulnerabilities that could have a material adverse effect on our business, particularly to the extent such errors or vulnerabilities are not detected and remedied quickly. We have from time to time found defects in our customer-facing software and hardware, internal systems, and technical integrations with third-party systems, and new errors or vulnerabilities may be introduced in the future. If there are such errors or defects in our software, hardware, or systems, we may face negative publicity, government investigations, and litigation. Additionally, we rely on a limited number of component and product suppliers located outside of the U.S. to manufacture our products. As a result, our direct control over production and distribution is limited and it is uncertain what effect such diminished control will have on the quality of our products. If there are defects in the manufacture of our hardware products, we may face similar negative publicity, investigations, and litigation, and we may not be fully compensated by our suppliers for any financial or other liability that we suffer as a result. As our hardware and software services continue to increase in size and complexity, and as we integrate new, acquired subsidiaries with different technology stacks and practices, these risks may correspondingly increase as well.
In addition, we provide frequent incremental releases of product and service updates and functional enhancements, which increase the possibility of errors. The products and services we provide are designed to process complex transactions and deliver reports and other information related to those transactions, all at high volumes and processing speeds. Any errors, data leaks, security breaches, disruptions in services, or other performance problems with our products or services caused by external or internal actors could hurt our reputation and damage our customers’ businesses. Software and system errors, or human error, could delay or inhibit settlement of payments, result in oversettlement, cause reporting errors, or prevent us from collecting transaction-based fees, all of which have occurred in the past. Similarly, security breaches such as cyber-attacks or identity theft could disrupt the proper functioning of our software products or services, cause errors, allow unauthorized access, or disclosure of, to sensitive, proprietary, or confidential information of ours or our customers, and other destructive outcomes. Moreover, security breaches or errors in our hardware or software design or manufacture could cause product safety issues typical of consumer electronics devices. Such issues could lead to product recalls and inventory shortages, result in costly and time-consuming efforts to redesign and redistribute our products, give rise to regulatory inquiries and investigations, and result in lawsuits and other liabilities and losses, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business.
Additionally, electronic payment, hardware, and software products and services, including ours, have been, and could continue to be in the future, specifically targeted and penetrated or disrupted by hackers and other malicious actors. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to data, products, and services and to disable, degrade, or sabotage them change frequently and may be difficult to detect or remediate for long periods of time, we and our customers may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventative measures to stop them. If we or our sellers or other customers are unable to anticipate or prevent these attacks, our sellers' or other customers may be harmed, our reputation could be damaged, and we could incur significant liability.
Systems failures, interruptions, delays in service, catastrophic events, and resulting interruptions in the availability of our products or services, or those of our sellers, could harm our business and our brand, and subject us to substantial liability.
Our systems and those of our third-party vendors, including data center facilities, may experience service interruptions, outages, cyber-attacks and security incidents, human error, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, pandemics, fires, other natural disasters, power losses, disruptions in telecommunications services, fraud, military or political conflicts, terrorist attacks and other geopolitical unrest, computer viruses, changes in social, political, or regulatory conditions or in laws and policies, or other changes or events. Our systems and facilities are also subject to break-ins, sabotage, and acts of vandalism. Some of our systems are not fully redundant, and our disaster-recovery planning is not sufficient for all eventualities. In addition, as a provider of payments solutions and other financial services, we are subject to increased scrutiny by regulators that may require specific business continuity and disaster recovery plans and more rigorous testing of such plans. This increased scrutiny may be costly and time-consuming and may divert our resources from other business priorities.
We have experienced and will likely continue to experience denial-of-service and other cyber-attacks, system failures, outages, security incidents, and other events or conditions that interrupt the availability, data integrity, or reduce the speed or functionality of our products and services. These events have resulted and likely will result in loss of revenue. In addition, they could result in significant expense to repair or replace damaged equipment and remedy resultant data loss or corruption. More generally, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased attack opportunities available to criminals, as they attempt to profit from disruptions and the resulting shift in companies and individuals working remotely and online, as well as the increase in electronic payments, e-commerce, and other online activity. As such, the risk of cybersecurity incidents is increasing, and we cannot provide assurances that our preventative efforts will be successful. A prolonged interruption in the availability or reduction in the speed or other functionality of our products or services could materially harm our reputation and business. Frequent or persistent interruptions in our products and services could cause customers to believe that our products and services are unreliable, leading them to switch to our competitors or to avoid our products and services, and could permanently harm our reputation and business. Moreover, to the extent that any system failure or similar event results in damages to customers or contractual counterparties, these customers and contractual counterparties could seek compensation from us for their losses, and those claims, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time-consuming and costly for us to address.
A significant natural or man-made disaster could have a material and adverse impact on our business. Our headquarters and certain of our data center facilities are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for seismic activity. Despite any precautions we may take, the occurrence of a natural disaster or other unanticipated problems at our headquarters or data centers could result in lengthy interruptions in our services or could result in related liabilities. We do not maintain insurance sufficient to compensate us for the potentially significant losses that could result from disruptions to our services.
Significant natural or other disasters, including pandemics, could also have a material and adverse impact on our sellers or other customers, which, in the aggregate, could in turn adversely affect our results of operations.
The loss or destruction of a private key required to access our bitcoin may be irreversible. If we are unable to access our private keys or if we experience a hack or other data loss relating to the bitcoins we hold on behalf of customers, our customers may be unable to access their bitcoins and it could harm customer trust in us and our products.
Bitcoins are controllable only by the possessor of both the unique public key and private key relating to the local or online digital wallet in which the bitcoins are held. While the bitcoin and blockchain ledger require a public key relating to a digital wallet to be published when used in a transaction, private keys must be safeguarded and kept private in order to prevent a third party from accessing the bitcoins held in such wallet. To the extent our private key is lost, destroyed, or otherwise compromised and no backup of the private key is accessible, we will be unable to access the bitcoins held in the related digital wallet. Further, we cannot provide assurance that our wallet will not be hacked or compromised. The bitcoin
and blockchain ledger, as well as other cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies, have been, and may in the future be, subject to security breaches, hacking, or other malicious activities. Any loss of private keys relating to, or hack or other compromise of, digital wallets used to store our customers’ bitcoins could adversely affect our customers’ ability to access or sell their bitcoins and could harm customer trust in us and our products, require us to expend significant funds for remediation, and expose us to litigation and other potential liability. Additionally, any loss of private keys relating to, or hack or other compromise of, digital wallets used by third parties to store bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies could have negative reputational effects on us and harm customer trust in us and our products. As the number of customers who use our bitcoin product has increased and the value of bitcoins we hold on behalf of such customers has grown significantly, the risks and consequences of such adverse events have increased and could materially and adversely affect our business.
Our risk management efforts may not be effective, which could expose us to losses and liability and otherwise harm our business.
We offer payments and other products and services to a large number of customers. We have programs to vet and monitor these customers and the transactions we process for them as part of our risk management efforts, but such programs require continuous improvement and may not be effective in detecting and preventing fraud and illegitimate transactions. When our payments services are used to process illegitimate transactions, and we settle those funds to customers and are unable to recover them, we suffer losses and liability. As a greater number of larger sellers use our services, our exposure to material risk losses from a single seller, or from a small number of sellers, will increase. Illegitimate transactions can also expose us to governmental and regulatory enforcement actions and potentially prevent us from satisfying our contractual obligations to our third party partners, which may cause us to be in breach of our obligations. The highly automated nature of, and liquidity offered by, our payments and peer-to-peer services make us a target for illegal or improper uses, including scams and fraud directed at Cash App customers, fraudulent or illegal sales of goods or services, money laundering, and terrorist financing. Identity thieves and those committing fraud using stolen or fabricated credit card, debit card, or bank account numbers, or other deceptive or malicious practices, potentially can steal significant amounts of money from businesses like ours or from our customers or third parties. Our risk management policies, procedures, techniques, and processes may not be sufficient to identify all of the risks to which we are exposed, to enable us to prevent or mitigate the risks we have identified, or to identify additional risks to which we may become subject in the future. Our current business, changes due to COVID-19 and the related economic impact, and anticipated domestic and international growth will continue to place significant demands on our risk management and compliance efforts, and we will need to continue developing and improving our existing risk management infrastructure, techniques, and processes. In addition, when we introduce new services, expand existing services, including online payment acceptance, focus on new business areas, including consumer financing and loans, or begin to operate in markets where we have a limited history of fraud loss, we may be less able to forecast and carry appropriate reserves on our books for those losses. Furthermore, while we maintain a program of insurance coverage for various types of liabilities, we may self-insure against certain business risks and expenses where we believe we can adequately self-insure against the anticipated exposure and risk or where insurance is either not deemed cost-effective or unavailable.
We are currently, and will continue to be, exposed to risks associated with chargebacks and refunds in connection with payment card fraud or relating to the goods or services provided by our sellers. In the event that a billing dispute between a cardholder and a seller is not resolved in favor of the seller, including in situations where the seller engaged in fraud, the transaction is typically “charged back” to the seller and the purchase price is credited or otherwise refunded to the cardholder. The risk of chargebacks is typically greater with our sellers that promise future delivery of goods and services. Moreover, chargebacks typically increase during economic downturns due to sellers becoming insolvent or bankrupt or otherwise unable to fulfill their commitments for goods or services. Consequently, we have seen an increase in chargebacks, and chargebacks may rise further as a result of the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. If we are unable to collect chargebacks or refunds from the seller’s account, or if the seller refuses to or is unable to reimburse us for chargebacks or refunds due to closure, bankruptcy, or other reasons, we, as the merchant of record, may bear the loss for the amounts paid to the cardholder. We collect and hold reserves for a limited number of sellers whose businesses are deemed higher risk in order to help cover potential losses from chargebacks and refunds, but this practice is limited and there can be no assurances that we will be successful in mitigating such losses. Our financial results would be adversely affected to the extent sellers do not fully reimburse us for the related chargebacks and refunds. Moreover, since October 2015, businesses that cannot process EMV chip cards are held financially responsible for certain fraudulent transactions conducted using chip-enabled cards. This has shifted an increased amount of the risk for certain fraudulent transactions from the issuing banks to these sellers, which has resulted in our having to seek an increased level of reimbursement for chargebacks from our sellers that do not deploy EMV-compliant card readers. Not all of the readers we offer to merchants are EMV-compliant. If we are unable to maintain our losses from chargebacks at acceptable levels, the payment card networks could fine us, increase our
transaction-based fees, or terminate our ability to process payment cards. Any increase in our transaction-based fees could damage our business, and if we were unable to accept payment cards, our business would be materially and adversely affected. If any of our risk management policies and processes, including self-insurance or holding seller reserves, are ineffective, we may suffer large financial losses, we may be subject to civil and criminal liability, and our business may be materially and adversely affected.
We are dependent on payment card networks and acquiring processors, and any changes to their rules or practices could harm our business.
Our business depends on our ability to accept credit and debit cards, and this ability is provided by the payment card networks, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. In a majority of these cases, we do not directly access the payment card networks that enable our acceptance of payment cards. As a result, we must rely on banks and acquiring processors to process transactions on our behalf. Our acquiring processor agreements have terms ranging from two to six years. Our three largest such agreements expire between the third quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023. These banks and acquiring processors may fail or refuse to process transactions adequately, may breach their agreements with us, or may refuse to renegotiate or renew these agreements on terms that are favorable or commercially reasonable. They might also take actions that degrade the functionality of our services, impose additional costs or requirements on us, or give preferential treatment to competitive services, including their own services. If we are unsuccessful in establishing, renegotiating, or maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with these payment card networks, banks, and acquiring processors, our business may be harmed.
The payment card networks and our acquiring processors require us to comply with payment card network operating rules, including special operating rules that apply to us as a “payment facilitator” providing payment processing services to merchants. The payment card networks set these network rules and have discretion to interpret the rules and change them at any time. Changes to these network rules or how they are interpreted could have a significant impact on our business and financial results. For example, changes in the payment card network rules regarding chargebacks may affect our ability to dispute chargebacks and the amount of losses we incur from chargebacks. Any changes to or interpretations of the network rules that are inconsistent with the way we or our acquiring processors currently operate may require us to make changes to our business that could be costly or difficult to implement. If we fail to make such changes or otherwise resolve the issue with the payment card networks, the networks could fine us or prohibit us from processing payment cards. In addition, violations of the network rules or any failure to maintain good relationships with the payment card networks could impact our ability to receive incentives from them, could increase our costs, or could otherwise harm our business. If we were unable to accept payment cards or were limited in our ability to do so, our business would be materially and adversely affected.
We are required to pay interchange and assessment fees, processing fees, and bank settlement fees to third-party payment processors and financial institutions. From time to time, payment card networks have increased, and may increase in the future, the interchange fees and assessments that they charge for each transaction processed using their networks. In some cases, we have negotiated favorable pricing with acquiring processors and networks that are contingent on certain business commitments and other conditions. If we fail to meet such conditions, the fees we are charged will rise. Moreover, our acquiring processors and payment card networks may refuse to renew our agreements with them on terms that are favorable, commercially reasonable, or at all. Interchange fees or assessments are also subject to change from time to time due to government regulation. Because we generally charge our sellers a standard rate for our managed payments services, rather than passing through interchange fees and assessments to our sellers directly, any increase or decrease in interchange fees or assessments or in the fees we pay to our acquiring processors could make our pricing less competitive, lead us to change our pricing model, or adversely affect our margins, all of which could materially harm our business and financial results. Likewise, we have negotiated favorable pricing for the processing fees we pay to the payment card networks for peer-to-peer transactions on our Cash App. As such, an increase in interchange fees or assessments could raise our costs for such transactions, which could materially harm our business and financial results.
We could be, and in the past have been, subject to penalties from payment card networks if we fail to detect that sellers are engaging in activities that are illegal, contrary to the payment card network operating rules, or considered “high risk.” We must either prevent high-risk sellers from using our products and services or register such sellers with the payment card networks and conduct additional monitoring with respect to such sellers. Any such penalties could become material and could result in termination of our ability to accept payment cards or could require changes in our process for registering new sellers. This could materially and adversely affect our business.
We rely on third parties and their systems for a variety of services, including the processing of transaction data and settlement of funds to us and our sellers, and these third parties’ failure to perform these services adequately could materially and adversely affect our business.
To provide our products and services, we rely on third parties that we do not control, such as the payment card networks, our acquiring and issuing processors, the payment card issuers, a carrying broker, various financial institution partners, systems like the Federal Reserve Automated Clearing House, and other partners. We rely on these third parties for a variety of services, including the transmission of transaction data, processing of chargebacks and refunds, settlement of funds to our sellers, certain brokerage services, and the provision of information and other elements of our services. For example, we currently rely on three acquiring processors for each of the United States, Canada, and Japan and two for each of Australia and the United Kingdom. While we believe there are other acquiring processors that could meet our needs, adding or transitioning to new providers may significantly disrupt our business and increase our costs. In the event these third parties fail to provide these services adequately, including as a result of financial difficulty or insolvency, errors in their systems, outages or events beyond their control, or refuse to provide these services on terms acceptable to us or at all, and we are not able to find suitable alternatives, our business may be materially and adversely affected. We have in the past experienced outages with third parties we have worked with, which has affected the ability to process payments for cards issued under our own brands.
We depend on key management, as well as our experienced and capable employees, and any failure to attract, motivate, and retain our employees could harm our ability to maintain and grow our business.
Our future success is significantly dependent upon the continued service of our executives and other key employees. If we lose the services of any member of management or any key personnel, we may not be able to locate a suitable or qualified replacement, and we may incur additional expenses to recruit and train a replacement, which could severely disrupt our business and growth. Jack Dorsey, our co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer, also serves as Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, Inc. This may at times adversely affect his ability to devote time, attention, and effort to Square.
To maintain and grow our business, we will need to identify, attract, hire, develop, motivate, and retain highly skilled employees. This requires significant time, expense, and attention. In addition, from time to time, there may be changes in our management team that may be disruptive to our business. If our management team, including any new hires that we make, fails to work together effectively and to execute our plans and strategies on a timely basis, our business could be harmed. Competition for highly skilled personnel is intense, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area where our headquarters are located. We may need to invest significant amounts of cash and equity to attract and retain new employees, and we may never realize returns on these investments. Additionally, potential changes in U.S. immigration policy may make it difficult to renew or obtain visas for any highly skilled personnel that we have hired or are actively recruiting. Furthermore, our international expansion and our business in general may be materially adversely affected if legislative or administrative changes to immigration or visa laws and regulations impair our hiring processes or projects involving personnel who are not citizens of the country where the work is to be performed. If we are not able to add and retain employees effectively, our ability to achieve our strategic objectives will be adversely affected, and our business and growth prospects will be harmed.
If we do not continue to improve our operational, financial, and other internal controls and systems to manage growth effectively, our business could be harmed.
Our current business and anticipated growth, as well as our entry into new lines of business, will continue to place significant demands on our management and other resources. In order to manage our growth effectively, we must continue to strengthen our existing infrastructure and operational procedures, enhance our internal controls and reporting systems, and ensure we timely and accurately address issues as they arise. In particular, our continued growth will increase the challenges involved in:
•improving existing and developing new internal administrative infrastructure, particularly our operational, financial, communications, and other internal systems and procedures;
•installing enhanced management information and control systems; and
•preserving our core values, strategies, and goals and effectively communicating these to our employees worldwide.
If we are not successful in developing and implementing the right processes and tools to manage our enterprise, our ability to compete successfully and achieve our business objectives could be impaired.
These efforts may require substantial financial expenditures, commitments of resources, developments of our processes, and other investments and innovations. As we grow, we must balance the need for additional controls and systems with the ability to efficiently develop and launch new features for our products and services. However, it is likely that as we grow, we will not be able to launch new features, or respond to customer or market demands as quickly as a smaller, more efficient organization. If we do not successfully manage our growth, our business will suffer.
Our services must integrate with a variety of operating systems, and the hardware that enables merchants to accept payment cards must interoperate with third-party mobile devices utilizing those operating systems. If we are unable to ensure that our services or hardware interoperate with such operating systems and devices, our business may be materially and adversely affected.
We are dependent on the ability of our products and services to integrate with a variety of operating systems, as well as web browsers, that we do not control. Any changes in these systems that degrade the functionality of our products and services, impose additional costs or requirements on us, or give preferential treatment to competitive services, including their own services, could materially and adversely affect usage of our products and services. In addition, we rely on app marketplaces, such as the Apple App Store and Google Play, to drive downloads of our mobile apps. Apple, Google, or other operators of app marketplaces regularly make changes to their marketplaces, and those changes may make access to our products and services more difficult. In the event that it is difficult for our customers to access and use our products and services, our business may be materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, Apple, Google, or other operators of app marketplaces regularly provide software updates, and such software updates may not operate effectively with our products and services, which may reduce the demand for our products and services, result in dissatisfaction by our customers, and may materially and adversely affect our business.
In addition, our hardware interoperates with wired and wireless interfaces to mobile devices developed by third parties. For example, the current versions of our magstripe reader plug into an audio jack or a Lightning connector. The use of these connection types could change, and such changes and other potential changes in the design of future mobile devices could limit the interoperability of our hardware and software with such devices and require modifications to our hardware or software. If we are unable to ensure that our hardware and software continue to interoperate effectively with such devices, if doing so is costly, or if existing merchants decide not to utilize additional parts necessary for interoperability, our business may be materially and adversely affected.
Many of our key components are procured from a single or limited number of suppliers. Thus, we are at risk of shortage, price increases, tariffs, changes, delay, or discontinuation of key components, which could disrupt and materially and adversely affect our business.
Many of the key components used to manufacture our products, such as the custom parts of our magstripe reader come from limited or single sources of supply. In addition, in some cases, we rely only on one manufacturer to fabricate, test, and assemble our products. For example, a single manufacturer assembles our magstripe reader and our contactless and chip reader, as well as manufactures those products’ plastic parts with custom tools that we own but that they maintain on their premises. The term of the agreement with that manufacturer automatically renews for consecutive one-year periods unless either party provides notice of non-renewal. In general, our contract manufacturers fabricate or procure components on our behalf, subject to certain approved procedures or supplier lists, and we do not have firm commitments from all of these manufacturers to provide all components, or to provide them in quantities and on timelines that we may require. For example, pursuant to a development and supply agreement, a component supplier provides design, development, customization, and related services for components of the magnetic stripe-reading element in some of our products. The term of the agreement extends through March 2021 and then renews for consecutive one-year periods unless either party provides notice of non-renewal. Similarly, a component provider develops certain application-specific integrated circuits for our products pursuant to our designs and specifications. The term of our agreement with this provider renews for successive two-year terms unless either party provides notice of non-renewal.
Due to our reliance on the components or products produced by suppliers such as these, we are subject to the risk of shortages and long lead times or other disruptions in the supply of certain components or products. Our ongoing efforts to identify alternative manufacturers for the assembly of our products and for many of the single-sourced components used in our products may not be successful. In the case of off-the-shelf components, we are subject to the risk that our suppliers may
discontinue or modify them, or that the components may cease to be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. We have in the past experienced, and may in the future experience, component shortages or delays or other problems in product assembly, and the availability of these components or products may be difficult to predict. For example, our manufacturers may experience temporary or permanent disruptions in their manufacturing operations due to equipment breakdowns, labor strikes or shortages, natural disasters, the occurrence of a contagious disease or illness, such as COVID-19, component or material shortages, cost increases, acquisitions, insolvency, bankruptcy, business shutdowns, trade restrictions, changes in legal or regulatory requirements, or other similar problems. In particular, the current COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruptions in our supply chain. To the extent COVID-19 pandemic continues and results in an extended period of travel, commercial, and other similar restrictions, disruptions in our supply chain may continue and cause shortages of our hardware products, which would negatively affect our ability to serve and acquire sellers and could materially and adversely impact our financial results. Moreover, our hardware product development has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, as travel to our manufacturers that develop prototypes has been restricted globally.
Additionally, various sources of supply-chain risk, including strikes or shutdowns at delivery ports or loss of or damage to our products while they are in transit or storage, intellectual property theft, losses due to tampering, third-party vendor issues with quality or sourcing control, failure by our suppliers to comply with applicable laws and regulation, potential tariffs or other trade restrictions, or other similar problems could limit or delay the supply of our products or harm our reputation. In the event of a shortage or supply interruption from suppliers of these components, we may not be able to develop alternate sources quickly, cost-effectively, or at all. Any interruption or delay in manufacturing, component supply, any increases in component costs, or the inability to obtain these parts or components from alternate sources at acceptable prices and within a reasonable amount of time, would harm our ability to provide our products to sellers on a timely basis. This could harm our relationships with our sellers, prevent us from acquiring new sellers, and materially and adversely affect our business.
In September of 2018, the United States imposed tariffs on certain imports from China, including on some of our hardware devices manufactured in China. The tariffs on these products were initially set at 10%, but were increased to 25% in May 2019. On September 1, 2019, the United States imposed new tariffs at 15% on additional imports from China, including on our remaining hardware products manufactured there, but rolled back these new tariffs to 7.5% effective February 14, 2020. The tariffs negatively affect the gross margin on the impacted products, which only partially has been offset by adjustments to the prices of some of the affected products. Any future tariffs and actions related to items imported from China or elsewhere could also negatively impact our gross margin on the impacted products, and increases in our pricing as a result of tariffs would reduce the competitiveness of our products if our competitors do not make similar pricing adjustments. The impact of any increased or new tariffs or other trade restrictions could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of future operations.
Our business could be harmed if we are unable to accurately forecast demand for our products and to adequately manage our product inventory.
We invest broadly in our business, and such investments are driven by our expectations of the future success of a product. For example, our products such as the Square Reader often require investments with long lead times. An inability to correctly forecast the success of a particular product could harm our business. We must forecast inventory needs and expenses and place orders sufficiently in advance with our third-party suppliers and contract manufacturers based on our estimates of future demand for particular products. Our ability to accurately forecast demand for our products could be affected by many factors, including an increase or decrease in demand for our products or for our competitors’ products, unanticipated changes in general market or economic conditions, and business closures and other actions taken to combat COVID-19.
If we underestimate demand for a particular product, our contract manufacturers and suppliers may not be able to deliver sufficient quantities of that product to meet our requirements, and we may experience a shortage of that product available for sale or distribution. If we overestimate demand for a particular product, we may experience excess inventory levels for that product and the excess inventory may become obsolete or out-of-date. Inventory levels in excess of demand may result in inventory write-downs or write-offs and the sale of excess inventory at further discounted prices, which could negatively impact our gross profit and our business.
Economic, Financial, and Tax Risks
A deterioration of general macroeconomic conditions could materially and adversely affect our business and financial results.
Our performance is subject to economic conditions and their impact on levels of spending by businesses and individuals. Most of the sellers that use our services are small businesses, many of which are in the early stages of their development, and these businesses are often disproportionately adversely affected by economic downturns and may fail at a higher rate than larger or more established businesses. In fact, small businesses have been, and continue to be, disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the related measures taken by governments and private industry to protect the public health such as stay-at-home orders. Many businesses are experiencing reduced sales and are processing fewer payments with us, which has had a negative impact on our results of operations. If they cease to operate, they will likely stop using our products and services altogether. Small businesses frequently have limited budgets and limited access to capital, and they may choose to allocate their spending to items other than our financial or marketing services, especially in times of economic uncertainty or in recessions. In addition, if more of our sellers cease to operate, this may have an adverse impact not only on the growth of our payments services but also on our transaction and advance loss rates, and the success of our other services. For example, if sellers processing payments with us receive chargebacks after they cease to operate, we may incur additional losses. Additionally, the growth in the number of sellers qualifying for participation in the Square Capital program may slow, or business loans may be paid more slowly, or not at all. In addition, as we expand our business to offer consumer financing products, those customers may also be disproportionately adversely affected by economic downturns.
Further, our suppliers, distributors, and other third party partners may suffer their own financial and economic challenges. Such suppliers and third parties may demand pricing accommodations, delay payment, or become insolvent, which could harm our ability to meet end customer demands or collect revenue or otherwise could harm our business. Furthermore, our investment portfolio, which includes U.S. government and corporate securities, is subject to general credit, liquidity, market, and interest rate risks, which may be exacerbated by certain events that affect the global financial markets. If global credit and equity markets decline for extended periods, or if there is a downgrade of the securities within our portfolio, our investment portfolio may be adversely affected and we could determine that our investments have experienced an other-than-temporary decline in fair value, requiring impairment charges that could adversely affect our financial results. Thus, if general macroeconomic conditions deteriorate, our business and financial results could be materially and adversely affected.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant uncertainty in the global economy. The COVID-19 pandemic and health measures taken by governments and private industry in response to the pandemic, including stay-at-home orders, restrictions on business operations, and travel restrictions, have had significant negative effects on the economy. Continued uncertainty about the pandemic, associated economic consequences, and potential relief measures may have a long-term adverse effect on the economy, our sellers, customers, suppliers, and our business. For example, we are currently subletting some of our office space. An economic downturn or our new work from home practices may cause us to need less office space than we are contractually committed to leasing and prevent us from finding subtenants for such unused office space, causing us to pay for unused office space.
We are also monitoring developments related to the decision by the United Kingdom to leave the European Union . Brexit could have significant implications for our business and could lead to economic and legal uncertainty and increasingly divergent laws, regulations, and licensing requirements. Any of these effects of Brexit, among others, could adversely affect our operations and financial results.
We may have exposure to greater-than-anticipated tax liabilities, which may materially and adversely affect our business.
We are subject to income taxes and non-income taxes in the United States and other countries in which we transact or conduct business, and such laws and rates vary by jurisdiction. We are subject to review and audit by U.S. federal, state, local, and foreign tax authorities. Such tax authorities may disagree with tax positions we take, and if any such tax authority were to successfully challenge any such position, our financial results and operations could be materially and adversely affected. For example, on June 15, 2020, the Texas Comptroller’s Office (the “Comptroller”) finalized its audit and informed us that it will be issuing an assessment for $38 million, including interest and penalties, following its sales and use tax audit for the period starting January 1, 2015 through April 30, 2018. The Comptroller alleges that services that we have deemed nontaxable are in fact subject to tax. We strongly disagree with the Comptroller’s classification of these services as taxable
and believe our position is supported by state case law and the Comptroller’s own policies. We plan to vigorously defend our position and pursue all available remedies, including possibly through litigation. Should we not prevail, we could be obligated to pay the additional taxes together with associated penalties and interest for the audited periods. Additional taxes, interest, and penalties for subsequent and future periods could be material as well. In addition, we currently are, and expect to continue to be, subject to numerous federal, state, and foreign tax audits relating to income, transfer pricing, sales & use, VAT, and other tax liabilities. While we have established reserves based on assumptions and estimates that we believe are reasonably sufficient to cover such eventualities, any adverse outcome of such a review or audit could have an adverse impact on our financial position and results of operations if the reserves prove to be insufficient.
Our tax liability could be adversely affected by changes in tax laws, rates, regulations, and administrative practices. Our income tax obligations are based on our corporate operating structure, including the manner in which we develop, value, and use our intellectual property and the scope of our international operations. The tax authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies for valuing developed technology or intercompany arrangements. For example, various levels of government and international organizations, such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) and the European Union (“EU”), have increasingly focused on future tax reform and any result from this development may create changes to long-standing tax principles, which could adversely affect our effective tax rate. Additionally, tax authorities at the international, federal, state, and local levels are currently reviewing the appropriate tax treatment of companies engaged in internet commerce and financial technology and attempting to broaden the classification and definitions of activities subject to taxation. For example, various states may attempt to broaden the definition of internet hosting, data processing, telecommunications, and other taxable services to capture additional types of activities. These developing changes could affect our financial position and results of operations. In particular, due to the global nature of the Internet, it is possible that tax authorities at the international, federal, state, and local levels may attempt to regulate our transactions or levy new or revised sales & use taxes, VAT, digital services taxes, income taxes, or other taxes relating to our activities in the internet commerce and financial technology space. New or revised taxes, in particular, sales & use taxes, VAT, and similar taxes, including digital service taxes, would likely increase the cost of doing business. New taxes could also create significant increases in internal costs necessary to capture data and collect and remit taxes. Any of these events could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Moreover, an increasing number of states, and certain foreign jurisdictions, have considered or adopted laws or administrative practices that attempt to impose obligations for online marketplaces, payment service providers, and other intermediaries. These obligations may deem parties, such as us, to be the legal agent of merchants and therefore may require us to collect and remit taxes on the merchants behalf and take on additional reporting and record-keeping obligations. Any failure by us to prepare for and to comply with these and similar reporting and record-keeping obligations could result in substantial monetary penalties and other sanctions, adversely impact our ability to do business in certain jurisdictions, and harm our business.
The determination of our worldwide provision for income and other tax liabilities is highly complex and requires significant judgment by management, and there are many transactions during the ordinary course of business where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Although we believe our estimates are reasonable, the ultimate tax outcome may differ from amounts recorded in our financial statements and may materially affect our financial results in the period or periods for which such determination is made.
We have in the past recorded, and may in the future record, significant valuation allowances on our deferred tax assets, which may have a material impact on our results of operations and cause fluctuations in such results.
As of December 31, 2020, we had a valuation allowance for deferred tax assets in the United States and in certain other countries. Our net deferred tax assets relate predominantly to the United States federal and state tax jurisdictions. The need for a valuation allowance requires an assessment of both positive and negative evidence when determining whether it is more likely than not that deferred tax assets are recoverable; such assessment is required on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis. In making such assessment, significant weight is given to evidence that can be objectively verified.
We continue to monitor the likelihood that we will be able to recover our deferred tax assets in the future. Future adjustments in our valuation allowance may be required. The recording of any future increases in our valuation allowance could have a material impact on our reported results, and both the recording and release of the valuation allowance could cause fluctuations in our quarterly and annual results of operations.
We may not be able to secure financing on favorable terms, or at all, to meet our future capital needs, and our existing credit facility contains, and any future debt financing may contain, covenants that impact the operation of our business and pursuit of business opportunities.
We have funded our operations since inception primarily through debt and equity financings, bank credit facilities, finance lease arrangements, and cash from operations. While we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, marketable debt securities, and availability under our line of credit are sufficient to meet our working capital needs and planned capital expenditures, and service our debt, there is no guarantee that this will continue to be true in the future. In the future, we may require additional capital to respond to business opportunities, refinancing needs, business and financial challenges, regulatory surety bond requirements, acquisitions, or unforeseen circumstances and may decide to engage in equity, equity-linked, or debt financings or enter into additional credit facilities for other reasons. We may not be able to secure any such additional financing or refinancing on favorable terms, in a timely manner, or at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to grow or support our business and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited.
Our credit facility contains affirmative and negative covenants, including customary limitations on the incurrence of certain indebtedness and liens, restrictions on certain inter-company transactions, and limitations on dividends and stock repurchases. Any debt financing obtained by us in the future could also involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital-raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to operate our business, obtain additional capital, and pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. Our ability to comply with these covenants may be affected by events beyond our control, and breaches of these covenants could result in a default under our existing credit facility and any future financing agreements into which we may enter. If not waived, these defaults could cause indebtedness outstanding under our credit facility, our other outstanding indebtedness, including our 2022 Notes, 2023 Notes, 2025 Notes, 2026 Notes, and 2027 Notes (collectively, the Notes) and any future financing agreements that we may enter into to become immediately due and payable.
If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity or other securities convertible into equity, including convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer dilution in their percentage ownership of our company, and any such securities we issue could have rights, preferences, and privileges senior to those of holders of our Class A common stock.
Servicing our Notes may require a significant amount of cash, and we may not have sufficient cash or the ability to raise the funds necessary to settle conversions of the Notes in cash, repay the Notes at maturity, or repurchase the Notes as required following a fundamental change.
As of December 31, 2020, we had $8.5 million outstanding aggregate principal amount of 2022 Notes, $862.5 million aggregate principal amount of 2023 Notes, $1.0 billion outstanding aggregate principal amount of 2025 Notes, $575.0 million outstanding aggregate principal amount of 2026 Notes, and $575.0 million outstanding aggregate principal amount of 2027 Notes.
Prior to December 1, 2021, in the case of the 2022 Notes, February 15, 2023, in the case of the 2023 Notes, December 1, 2024, in the case of the 2025 Notes, February 1, 2026, in the case of the 2026 Notes, and August 1, 2027, in the case of the 2027 Notes, the applicable Notes are convertible at the option of the holders only under certain conditions or upon occurrence of certain events. Because the last reported sale price of our Class A common stock exceeded 130% of the conversion price for the 2022 Notes, the 2023 Notes, and the 2025 Notes for the relevant period in the calendar quarter ending December 31, 2020, the 2022 Notes, 2023 Notes, and 2025 Notes are convertible at the option of the holders thereof during the calendar quarter ending March 31, 2021. Whether the Notes of any series will be convertible following such calendar quarter will depend on the satisfaction of this condition or another conversion condition in the future. If holders of the Notes of a series elect to convert such Notes, unless we elect to deliver solely shares of our Class A common stock to settle such conversion, we will be required to make cash payments in respect of the Notes being converted. Effective October 2018, we revised our prior stated policy of settling conversions of the 2022 Notes and 2023 Notes through combination settlement with a specified dollar amount of $1,000 per $1,000 principal amount of Notes. We currently expect to settle future conversions of the 2022 Notes and 2023 Notes solely in shares of our Class A common stock, which has the effect of including the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon conversion of the Notes of such series in our diluted earnings per share to the extent such shares are not anti-dilutive. We will reevaluate this policy from time to time as conversion notices are received from holders of the Notes.
In addition, holders of each series of Notes also have the right to require us to repurchase all or a portion of their Notes of such series upon the occurrence of a fundamental change (as defined in the applicable indenture governing the Notes) at a repurchase price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the Notes to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest. If the Notes of any series have not previously been converted or repurchased, we will be required to repay such Notes in cash at maturity.
Our ability to make required cash payments in connection with conversions of the Notes, repurchase the Notes in the event of a fundamental change, or to repay or refinance the Notes at maturity will depend on market conditions and our future performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive, and other factors beyond our control. We also may not use the cash proceeds we raised through the issuance of the Notes in an optimally productive and profitable manner. Since inception, our business has generated net losses in most quarters, and we may continue to incur significant losses. As a result, we may not have enough available cash or be able to obtain financing at the time we are required to repurchase or repay the Notes or pay cash with respect to Notes being converted.
In addition, our ability to repurchase or to pay cash upon conversion or at maturity of the Notes may be limited by law or regulatory authority. Our failure to repurchase Notes following a fundamental change or to pay cash upon conversion (unless we elect to deliver solely shares of our Class A common stock to settle such conversion) or at maturity of the Notes as required by the applicable indenture would constitute a default under such indenture. A default under the applicable indenture or the fundamental change itself could also lead to a default under our credit facility, our other outstanding indebtedness, or agreements governing our future indebtedness and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. If the payment of the related indebtedness were to be accelerated after any applicable notice or grace periods, we may not have sufficient funds to repay the indebtedness and repurchase the Notes or to pay cash upon conversion or at maturity of the Notes.
We are subject to counterparty risk with respect to the convertible note hedge transactions.
In connection with the issuance of each series of our Notes, we entered into convertible note hedge transactions with certain financial institutions, which we refer to as the "option counterparties." The option counterparties are financial institutions or affiliates of financial institutions, and we will be subject to the risk that one or more of such option counterparties may default under the convertible note hedge transactions. Our exposure to the credit risk of the option counterparties will not be secured by any collateral. If any option counterparty becomes subject to insolvency proceedings, we will become an unsecured creditor in those proceedings with a claim equal to our exposure at that time under the convertible note hedge transaction. Our exposure will depend on many factors but, generally, the increase in our exposure will be correlated to the increase in our Class A common stock market price and in the volatility of the market price of our Class A common stock. In addition, upon a default by any option counterparty, we may suffer adverse tax consequences and dilution with respect to our Class A common stock. We can provide no assurance as to the financial stability or viability of any option counterparty.
Our investments in bitcoin may be subject to volatile market prices, impairment, and other risks of loss.
We purchased $50 million in bitcoin in October 2020 and another $170 million in bitcoin in February 2021, and we may make additional bitcoin purchases in the future. The price of bitcoin has been highly volatile in the past and may continue to be volatile in the future, including as a result of various associated risks and uncertainties. For example, the prevalence of bitcoin is a relatively recent trend, and the long-term adoption of bitcoin by investors, consumers, and businesses remains uncertain. Moreover, its lack of a physical form, its reliance on technology for its creation, existence, and transactional validation, and its decentralization may subject its integrity to the threat of malicious attacks and technological obsolescence. If the market value of the bitcoin we hold decreases relative to the purchase prices, our financial condition may be adversely impacted.
Moreover, bitcoin currently is considered an indefinite-lived intangible asset under applicable accounting rules, meaning that any decrease in its market value below our book value for such asset at any time subsequent to its acquisition will require us to recognize impairment charges, whereas we may make no upward revisions for any market price increases until a sale, which may adversely affect our operating results in any period in which such impairment occurs.
Legal, Regulatory, and Compliance Risks
Our business is subject to extensive regulation and oversight in a variety of areas, all of which are subject to change and uncertain interpretation.
We are subject to a wide variety of local, state, federal, and international laws, regulations, licensing schemes, and industry standards in the United States and in other countries in which we operate. These laws, regulations, and standards govern numerous areas that are important to our business, and include, or may in the future include, those relating to banking, lending, deposit-taking, cross-border and domestic money transmission, foreign exchange, payments services (such as payment processing and settlement services), cryptocurrency, trading in shares and fractional shares, consumer protection, anti-money laundering, escheatment, international sanctions regimes, data privacy and security, and compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of requirements designed to ensure that all companies that process, store, or transmit payment card information maintain a secure environment to protect cardholder data.
These laws, rules, regulations, and standards are enforced by multiple authorities and governing bodies in the United States, including federal agencies, such as the FDIC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, self-regulatory organizations, and numerous state and local agencies, such as the Utah Department of Financial Institutions. Outside of the United States, we are subject to additional regulators. As we expand into new jurisdictions, or expand our product offerings in existing jurisdictions, the number of foreign regulations and regulators governing our business will expand as well. In addition, as our business and products continue to develop and expand, we may become subject to additional rules, regulations, and industry standards. We may not always be able to accurately predict the scope or applicability of certain regulations to our business, particularly as we expand into new areas of operations, which could have a significant negative effect on our existing business and our ability to pursue future plans.
Laws, regulations, and standards are subject to changes and evolving interpretations and application, including by means of legislative changes and/or executive orders, and it can be difficult to predict how they may be applied to our business and the way we conduct our operations, particularly as we introduce new products and services and expand into new jurisdictions.
For example, Cash App includes a feature that permits our customers to buy and sell bitcoin. Bitcoin is not considered legal tender or backed by any government, and it has experienced price volatility, technological glitches, security compromises, and various law enforcement and regulatory interventions. The regulation of cryptocurrency and crypto platforms is still an evolving area, and it is possible that we could become subject to additional regulations. If we fail to comply with regulations or prohibitions applicable to us, we could face regulatory or other enforcement actions and potential fines and other consequences. Further, we might not be able to continue operating the feature, at least in current form, which could cause the price of our Class A common stock to decrease.
We are subject to inquiries and investigations from regulators on an ongoing basis. Although we have a compliance program focused on the laws, rules, and regulations applicable to our business, we may still be subject to fines or other penalties in one or more jurisdictions levied by regulators, including state Attorneys General and private plaintiffs who may be acting as private attorneys general pursuant to various applicable laws, as well as those levied by foreign regulators. In addition to fines, penalties for failing to comply with applicable rules and regulations could include significant criminal and civil lawsuits, forfeiture of significant assets, increased licensure requirements, or other enforcement actions. We could also be required to make changes to our business practices or compliance programs as a result of regulatory scrutiny. In addition, any perceived or actual breach of compliance by us with respect to applicable laws, rules, and regulations could have a significant impact on our reputation as a trusted brand and could cause us to lose existing customers, prevent us from obtaining new customers, require us to expend significant funds to remedy problems caused by breaches and to avert further breaches, and expose us to legal risk and potential liability.
Further, from time to time, we may leverage third parties to help conduct our businesses in the U.S. or abroad. We and our third-party intermediaries may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities and may be held liable for any corrupt or other illegal activities of these third-party business partners and intermediaries, our employees, partners, and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities. While we have policies and procedures to address compliance with such laws, we cannot assure you that our employees and agents will not take actions in violation of our policies and applicable law, for which we may be ultimately held responsible.
Our business is subject to complex and evolving regulations and oversight related to privacy and data protection.
We are subject to laws and regulations relating to the collection, use, retention, privacy, security, and transfer of information, including personally identifiable information of our employees and customers. As with the other laws and regulations noted above, these laws and regulations may change or be interpreted and applied differently over time and from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and it is possible they will be interpreted and applied in ways that will materially and adversely affect our business. For example, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) imposes more stringent data privacy and data protection requirements than prior EU data protection law and provides for greater penalties for noncompliance of up to the greater of 4% of worldwide annual revenue or €20 million. To address data transfers from the EU to other jurisdictions, we utilize model contracts approved by the EU Commission. On July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a decision that may impose additional obligations on companies when relying on those model contracts, in addition to invalidating another method that some companies relied on for transferring personal data from the European Economic Area (EEA) to the United States, the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield. This CJEU decision may result in different EEA data protection regulators applying differing standards for the transfer of personal data from the EEA to the United States, and even require ad hoc verification of measures taken with respect to data flows. As a result of this CJEU decision, we may be required to take additional steps to legitimize impacted personal data transfers. This could result in increased costs of compliance and limitations on our customers and us. More generally, we may find it necessary or desirable to modify our data handling practices, and this CJEU decision or other legal challenges relating to cross-border data transfer may serve as a basis for our personal data handling practices, or those of our customers and vendors, to be challenged and may otherwise adversely impact our business, financial condition and operating results. In the United Kingdom, although a Data Protection Act substantially implements the GDPR, uncertainty remains regarding how data transfers to and from the U.K. will be regulated. The U.K.’s exit from the EU has created uncertainty with regard to the regulation of data protection in the U.K. and data transfers between the U.K., the EU, and other jurisdictions and could require us to make additional changes to the way we conduct our business and transmit data between the U.S., the U.K., the EU, and the rest of the world. In addition, some countries are considering or have enacted legislation requiring local storage and processing of data that could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our services.
Likewise, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) became effective on January 1, 2020 and will be modified by the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”), which was passed in November 2020 and becomes fully effective on January 1, 2023. The CCPA and CPRA impose stringent data privacy and data protection requirements for the data of California residents, and provides for penalties for noncompliance of up to $7,500 per violation. It remains unclear how various provisions of the CCPA and CPRA will be interpreted and enforced. More generally, data privacy and security continues to be a rapidly evolving area, and further legislative activity has arisen and will likely continue to arise in the U.S., the EU, and other jurisdictions. For example, various states in the U.S. have proposed or enacted laws regarding privacy and data protection that contain obligations similar to the CCPA, and the federal government is contemplating federal privacy legislation. In addition, laws and regulations directed at privacy and data security, and those that have been applied in those areas, may be subject to evolving interpretations or applications. The effects of recently proposed or enacted legislation, including CCPA and CPRA, potentially are far-reaching and may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply.
We have incurred, and may continue to incur, significant expenses to comply with evolving privacy and security standards and protocols imposed by law, regulation, industry standards, shifting consumer expectations, or contractual obligations. In particular, with laws and regulations such as the GDPR in the EU and the CCPA and CPRA in the U.S. imposing new and relatively burdensome obligations, and with substantial uncertainty over the interpretation and application of these and other laws and regulations, we may face challenges in addressing their requirements and making necessary changes to our policies and practices, and we may incur significant costs and expenses in an effort to do so. Any failure, real or perceived, by us to comply with our privacy, data protection, or information security policies, changing consumer expectations, or with any evolving regulatory requirements, industry standards, or contractual obligations could cause our customers to reduce their use of our products and services, disrupt our supply chain or third party vendor or developer partnerships, and materially and adversely affect our business.
As a licensed money transmitter, we are subject to important obligations and restrictions.
We have obtained licenses to operate as a money transmitter (or as other financial services institutions) in the United States and in the states where this is required, as well as in some non-U.S. jurisdictions, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Australia. As a licensed money transmitter, we are subject to obligations and restrictions with respect to the investment of customer funds, reporting requirements, bonding requirements, and inspection by state regulatory
agencies concerning those aspects of our business considered money transmission. Evaluation of our compliance efforts, as well as the questions of whether and to what extent our products and services are considered money transmission, are matters of regulatory interpretation and could change over time. In the past, we have been subject to fines and other penalties by regulatory authorities due to their interpretations and applications to our business of their respective state money transmission laws. In the future, as a result of the regulations applicable to our business, we could be subject to investigations and resulting liability, including governmental fines, restrictions on our business, or other sanctions, and we could be forced to cease conducting business in certain jurisdictions, be forced to otherwise change our business practices in certain jurisdictions, or be required to obtain additional licenses or regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain any such licenses, and, even if we were able to do so, there could be substantial costs and potential product changes involved in maintaining such licenses, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business.
Our subsidiary Square Financial Services is a Utah state-chartered industrial bank, which requires that we serve as a source of financial strength to it and subjects us to potential regulatory sanctions.
On March 17, 2020, the Board of Directors of the FDIC conditionally approved an application for federal deposit insurance for Square Financial Services, an industrial bank that we are in the process of establishing and plan to open for business this year. The Utah Department of Financial Institutions has also granted its conditional approval. However, there can be no assurances that Square Financial Services will become operational. The Federal Deposit Insurance Act requires that we serve as a source of financial strength to Square Financial Services. This means that we are required by law to provide financial assistance to Square Financial Services in the event that it experiences financial distress. In this regard, the FDIC’s approval requires that Square Financial Services has initial paid in capital of not less than approximately $56 million. Thereafter, the capital levels of Square Financial Services during the first three years of operation may not be less than the levels provided in Square Financial Services’ business plan filed with the FDIC. Thereafter, the regulatory capital ratios must be annually approved by the FDIC, and in no event may Square Financial Services’ leverage ratio be less than twenty percent, as calculated in accordance with FDIC regulations. If the FDIC were to increase Square Financial Services’ capital requirements, it could have adverse effects on us and Square Financial Services.
The FDIC’s approval is also contingent on us entering into a Capital and Liquidity Maintenance Agreement as well as a Parent Company Agreement. The Capital and Liquidity Maintenance Agreement would require, among other things, that we maintain the leverage ratio of Square Financial Services at a minimum of 20 percent at all times; maintain a third-party line of credit for the benefit of Square Financial Services acceptable to the FDIC; purchase any loan from Square Financial Services at the greater of the cost basis or fair market value, if deemed necessary by the FDIC or Square Financial Services; and establish and maintain a reserve deposit at an unaffiliated third-party bank that Square Financial Services could draw upon in the event that we fail to provide sufficient funds to maintain Square Financial Services’ capital ratios at the required levels. The Parent Company Agreement would require, among other things, that we consent to the FDIC’s examination of us and our subsidiaries; limit our representation on Square Financial Services’ board of directors to no more than 25 percent; submit a contingency plan to the FDIC that describes likely scenarios of significant financial or operational stress and, if we were unable to serve as a source of financial strength, options for the orderly wind down or sale of Square Financial Services; and engage a third party to review and provide periodic reports concerning the effectiveness of our complaint response system. Jack Dorsey, who is considered our controlling shareholder in this context, also agreed to cause us to perform under these agreements. Should we fail to comply with these obligations, we could be subject to regulatory sanctions. In addition, any failure by Square Financial Services to comply with applicable laws, rules, and regulations could also subject us and Square Financial Services to regulatory sanctions. These sanctions could adversely impact our reputation and our business, require us to expend significant funds for remediation, and expose us to litigation and other potential liability.
Our subsidiary Cash App Investing is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and a member of FINRA, and therefore is subject to extensive regulation and scrutiny.
Our subsidiary Cash App Investing facilitates transactions in shares and fractionalized shares of publicly-traded stock and exchange-traded funds by users of our Cash App through a third-party clearing and carrying broker, DriveWealth LLC (“DriveWealth”). Cash App Investing is registered with the SEC as a broker-dealer under the Exchange Act and is a member of FINRA. Therefore Cash App Investing is subject to regulation, examination, and supervision by the SEC and FINRA. The regulations applicable to broker-dealers cover all aspects of the securities business, including sales practices, use and safekeeping of clients’ funds and securities, capital adequacy, record-keeping, and the conduct and qualification of officers, employees, and independent contractors. As part of the regulatory process, broker-dealers are subject to periodic examinations by their regulators, the purpose of which is to determine compliance with securities laws and regulations, and from time to time may be subject to additional routine and for-cause examinations. It is not uncommon for regulators to
assert, upon completion of an examination, that the broker-dealer being examined has violated certain of these rules and regulations. Depending on the nature and extent of the violations, the broker-dealer may be required to pay a fine and/or be subject to other forms of disciplinary and corrective action. Additionally, the adverse publicity arising from the imposition of sanctions could harm our reputation and cause us to lose existing customers or fail to gain new customers.
The SEC, FINRA, and state regulators have the authority to bring administrative or judicial proceedings against broker-dealers, whether arising out of examinations or otherwise, for violations of state and federal securities laws. Administrative sanctions can include cease-and-desist orders, censure, fines, and disgorgement and may even result in the suspension or expulsion of the firm from the securities industry. Similar sanctions may be imposed upon officers, directors, representatives, and employees.
Cash App Investing has adopted, and regularly reviews and updates, various policies, controls, and procedures designed for compliance with Cash App Investing’s regulatory obligations. However, appropriately addressing these issues is complex and difficult and our reputation could be damaged if we fail, or appear to fail, to appropriately address them. Failure to adhere to these policies and procedures may also result in regulatory sanctions or litigation against us. Cash App Investing also relies on various third parties, including DriveWealth, to provide services, including managing and executing customer orders, and failure of these third parties to adequately perform these services may negatively impact customer experience, product performance, and our reputation and may also result in regulatory sanctions or litigation against us or Cash App Investing.
In the event of any regulatory action or scrutiny, we or Cash App Investing could also be required to make changes to our business practices or compliance programs. In addition, any perceived or actual breach of compliance by Cash App Investing with respect to applicable laws, rules, and regulations could have a significant impact on our reputation, could cause us to lose existing customers, prevent us from obtaining new customers, require us to expend significant funds to remedy problems caused by breaches and to avert further breaches, and expose us to legal risk, including litigation against us, and potential liability.
Cash App Investing is subject to net capital and other regulatory capital requirements; failure to comply with these rules could harm our business.
Our subsidiary Cash App Investing is subject to the net capital requirements of the SEC and FINRA. These requirements typically specify the minimum level of net capital a broker-dealer must maintain and also mandate that a significant part of its assets be kept in relatively liquid form. Failure to maintain the required net capital may subject a firm to limitation of its activities, including suspension or revocation of its registration by the SEC and suspension or expulsion by FINRA, and ultimately may require its liquidation. Currently, Cash App Investing has relatively low net capital requirements, because it does not hold customer funds or securities, but instead facilitates the transmission and delivery of those funds on behalf of customers to DriveWealth or back to the applicable customer. However, a change in the net capital rules, a change in how Cash App Investing handles or holds customer assets, or the imposition of new rules affecting the scope, coverage, calculation, or amount of net capital requirements could have adverse effects. Finally, because Cash App Investing is subject to such net capital requirements, we may be required to inject additional capital into Cash App Investing from time to time and as such, we may have liability and/or our larger business may be affected by any of these outcomes.
It is possible that FINRA will require changes to our business practices based on our ownership of Cash App Investing, which could impose additional costs or disrupt our business.
In certain cases, FINRA has required unregistered affiliates of broker-dealers to comply with additional regulatory requirements, including, among others, handling all securities or other financial transactions through the affiliated broker-dealer or conforming all marketing and advertising materials to the requirements applicable to broker-dealers. We do not currently believe that these types of requirements apply to any aspect of our business other than the securities transactions facilitated through the Cash App. It is possible that, in the future, FINRA could require us to comply with additional regulations in the conduct of other activities (i.e., beyond the securities transactions made through the Cash App). If that were to occur, it could require significant changes to our business practices. These and other changes would impose significantly greater costs on us and disrupt existing practices in ways that could negatively affect our overarching business and profitability.
We are subject to risks related to litigation, including intellectual property claims, government investigations or inquiries, and regulatory matters or disputes.
We may be, and have been, subject to claims, lawsuits (including class actions and individual lawsuits), government or regulatory investigations, subpoenas, inquiries or audits, and other proceedings. The number and significance of our legal disputes and inquiries have increased as we have grown larger, as our business has expanded in scope and geographic reach, and as our products and services have increased in complexity, and we expect that we will continue to face additional legal disputes as we continue to grow and expand. We also receive significant media attention, which could result in increased litigation or other legal or regulatory reviews and proceedings.
Some of the laws and regulations affecting the internet, mobile commerce, payment processing, bitcoin and equity investing, business financing, and employment did not anticipate businesses like ours, and many of the laws and regulations, including those affecting us have been enacted relatively recently. As a result, there is substantial uncertainty regarding the scope and application of many of the laws and regulations to which we are subject, which increases the risk that we will be subject to claims alleging violations of those laws and regulations. The scope, outcome, and impact of claims, lawsuits, government or regulatory investigations, subpoenas, inquiries or audits, and other proceedings to which we are subject cannot be predicted with certainty. Regardless of the outcome, such investigations and legal proceedings can have a material and adverse impact on us due to their costs, diversion of our resources, and other factors. Plaintiffs may seek, and we may become subject to, preliminary or provisional rulings in the course of litigation, including preliminary injunctions requiring us to cease some or all of our operations. We may decide to settle legal disputes on terms that are unfavorable to us. We may also be accused of having, or be found to have, infringed or violated third-party intellectual property rights. Furthermore, if any litigation to which we are a party is resolved adversely, we may be subject to an unfavorable judgment that we may not choose to appeal or that may not be reversed upon appeal. We may have to seek a license to continue practices found to be in violation of a third party’s rights, or we may have to change or cease certain practices. If we are required, or choose to enter into, royalty or licensing arrangements, such arrangements may not be available on reasonable terms or at all and may significantly increase our operating costs and expenses. As a result, we may also be required to develop or procure alternative non-infringing technology or discontinue use of technology, and doing so could require significant effort and expense or may not be feasible. In addition, the terms of any settlement or judgment in connection with any legal claims, lawsuits, or proceedings may require us to cease some or all of our operations or to pay substantial amounts to the other party and could materially and adversely affect our business.
Our intellectual property rights are valuable, and any inability to protect them could reduce the value of our products, services, and brand.
Our trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other intellectual property rights are critical to our success. We rely on, and expect to continue to rely on, a combination of confidentiality, invention assignment, and license agreements with our employees, consultants, and third parties with whom we have relationships, as well as trademark, trade dress, domain name, copyright, trade secret, and patent rights, to protect our brand and other intellectual property rights. However, various events outside of our control may pose a threat to our intellectual property rights, as well as to our products and services. Effective protection of intellectual property rights is expensive and difficult to maintain, both in terms of application and maintenance costs, as well as the costs of defending and enforcing those rights. The efforts we have taken to protect our intellectual property rights may not be sufficient or effective. Our intellectual property rights may be infringed, misappropriated, or challenged, which could result in them being narrowed in scope or declared invalid or unenforceable. Similarly, our reliance on unpatented proprietary information and technology, such as trade secrets and confidential information, depends in part on agreements we have in place with employees and third parties that place restrictions on the use and disclosure of this intellectual property. These agreements may be insufficient or may be breached, or we may not enter into sufficient agreements with such individuals in the first instance, in either case potentially resulting in the unauthorized use or disclosure of our trade secrets and other intellectual property, including to our competitors, which could cause us to lose any competitive advantage resulting from this intellectual property. Individuals not subject to invention assignment agreements may make adverse ownership claims to our current and future intellectual property. There can be no assurance that our intellectual property rights will be sufficient to protect against others offering products or services that are substantially similar to ours and that compete with our business.
We routinely apply for patents in the U.S. and internationally to protect innovative ideas in our technology, but we may not always be successful in obtaining patent grants from these applications. We also pursue registration of copyrights, trademarks, and domain names in the United States and in certain jurisdictions outside of the United States, but doing so may not always be successful or cost-effective. In general, we may be unable or, in some instances, choose not to obtain legal
protection for our intellectual property, and our existing and future intellectual property rights may not provide us with competitive advantages or distinguish our products and services from those of our competitors. The laws of some foreign countries do not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and effective intellectual property protection and mechanisms may not be available in those jurisdictions. We may need to expend additional resources to defend our intellectual property in these countries, and the inability to do so could impair our business or adversely affect our international expansion. Our intellectual property rights may be contested, circumvented, or found unenforceable or invalid, and we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing, diluting, or otherwise violating them. Additionally, our intellectual property rights and other confidential business information are subject to risks of compromise or unauthorized disclosure if our security measures or those of our third-party service providers are unable to prevent cyber-attacks. Significant impairments of our intellectual property rights, and limitations on our ability to assert our intellectual property rights against others, could have a material and adverse effect on our business.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control within our stockholders who held our stock prior to our initial public offering, including many of our employees and directors and their affiliates; this will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate matters.
Our Class B common stock has ten votes per share, and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. Stockholders who hold shares of Class B common stock, including many of our executive officers, employees, and directors and their affiliates, held approximately 62.8% of the voting power of our combined outstanding capital stock as of December 31 2020. Our executive officers and directors and their affiliates held approximately 65.1% of the voting power of our combined outstanding capital stock as of December 31, 2020. Because of the ten-to-one voting ratio between our Class B and Class A common stock, the holders of our Class B common stock collectively hold more than a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock, and therefore such holders are able to control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval. When the shares of our Class B common stock represent less than 5% of the combined voting power of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock, the then-outstanding shares of Class B common stock will automatically convert into shares of Class A common stock.
Transfers by holders of Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting to Class A common stock, subject to limited exceptions. Such conversions of Class B common stock to Class A common stock upon transfer will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long term. If, for example, our Class B stockholders retain shares of Class B common stock constituting as little as 10% of all outstanding shares of our Class A and Class B common stock combined, they will continue to control a majority of the combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock.
The market price of our Class A common stock has been and will likely continue to be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
The market price of our Class A common stock has been and may continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control and may not be related to our operating performance. In addition to the factors discussed in this “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, factors that could cause fluctuations in the market price of our Class A common stock include the following:
•general economic, regulatory, and market conditions, in particular conditions that adversely affect our sellers’ business and the amount of transactions they are processing;
•public health crises and related measures to protect the public health, such as the COVID-19 pandemic;
•sales of shares of our common stock by us or our stockholders;
•issuance of shares of our Class A common stock, whether in connection with an acquisition or upon conversion of some or all of our outstanding Notes;
•short selling of our Class A common stock or related derivative securities;
•from time to time we make investments in equity that is, or may become, publicly held, and we may experience volatility due to changes in the market prices of such equity investments;
•fluctuations in the price of bitcoin, and potentially any impairment charges in connection with our investments in bitcoin;
•reports by securities or industry analysts that are interpreted either negatively or positively by investors, failure of securities analysts to maintain coverage and/or to provide accurate consensus results of us, changes in financial estimates by securities analysts who follow us, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;
•the financial or other projections we may provide to the public, any changes in those projections, or our failure to meet those projections;
•announcements by us or our competitors of new products or services;
•rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry;
•actual or perceived data security incidents that we or our service providers may suffer; and
•actual or anticipated developments in our business, our competitors’ businesses, or the competitive landscape generally.
In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. Such litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.
The convertible note hedge and warrant transactions may affect the value of our Class A common stock.
In connection with the issuance of each series of our Notes, we entered into convertible note hedge transactions with the option counterparties. We also entered into warrant transactions with the option counterparties pursuant to which we sold warrants for the purchase of our Class A common stock. The convertible note hedge transactions are expected generally to reduce the potential dilution to our Class A common stock upon any conversion of the Notes and/or offset any cash payments we are required to make in excess of the principal amount of converted Notes, as the case may be. The warrant transactions would separately have a dilutive effect to the extent that the market price per share of our Class A common stock exceeds the strike price of any warrants unless, subject to the terms of the warrant transactions, we elect to cash settle the warrants.
From time to time, the option counterparties or their respective affiliates may modify their hedge positions by entering into or unwinding various derivative transactions with respect to our Class A common stock and/or purchasing or selling our Class A common stock or other securities of ours in secondary market transactions prior to the maturity of the Notes. This activity could cause or avoid an increase or a decrease in the market price of our Class A common stock.
Anti-takeover provisions contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our amended and restated bylaws, and provisions of Delaware law could impair a takeover attempt.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our amended and restated bylaws, and Delaware law contain provisions that could have the effect of rendering more difficult, delaying, or preventing an acquisition deemed undesirable by our board of directors and therefore depress the trading price of our Class A common stock.
Among other things, our dual-class common stock structure provides our holders of Class B common stock with the ability to significantly influence the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, even if they own significantly less than a majority of the shares of our outstanding shares of common stock. Further, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws include provisions (i) creating a classified board of directors whose members serve staggered three-year terms; (ii) authorizing “blank check” preferred stock, which could be issued by our board of directors without stockholder approval and may contain voting, liquidation, dividend, and other rights superior to our common stock; (iii) limiting the ability of our stockholders to call special meetings; (iv) eliminating the ability of our stockholders to act by written consent without a meeting or to remove directors without cause; and (v) requiring advance notice of stockholder proposals for business to be conducted at meetings of our stockholders and for nominations of
candidates for election to our board of directors. These provisions, alone or together, could delay or prevent hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our management.
As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to provisions of Delaware law, including Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which prevents certain stockholders holding more than 15% of our outstanding capital stock from engaging in certain business combinations without the approval of our board of directors or the holders of at least two-thirds of our outstanding capital stock not held by such stockholder.
Any provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws, or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our capital stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Class A common stock.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that, unless we consent to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the sole and exclusive forum for (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers, or other employees to us or to our stockholders; (iii) any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law; or (iv) any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine. The choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our amended and restated bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could have a material and adverse impact on our business.