Item 1. Business.
Overview
Pluralsight is a leading provider of technology skill development solutions committed to closing the global technology skills gap through our cloud-based technology skills platform. Learners on our platform can quickly acquire today’s most valuable technology skills through high-quality learning experiences delivered by subject-matter experts, available on any device at any time. We provide businesses with visibility into the strengths of their workforce, allowing them to better align resources, provide targeted skill development, and advance the skills of their teams. Ultimately, our mission is to democratize technology skills.
Our learning experiences empower customers to adapt and thrive in the midst of unprecedented technological change and digital transformation. As a result, technology leaders now see us as their “supply chain for intellectual property.” We empower the people who power businesses by enabling businesses around the world to drive innovation through a smarter workforce.
Many companies still use traditional in-person, instructor-led training, or ILT, models, which do not move fast enough or scale quickly enough to meet the ever-increasing demand. We are disrupting these traditional skill development models to provide people the skill development they need, when they need it, because learning should not be confined to a classroom, a “one size fits all” curriculum, or to a select minority of people.
Our cloud-based technology skills platform provides a broad range of tools, including skill and role assessments, a curated library of expert-authored courses, directed learning paths, interactive labs, and business analytics. Our platform is powered by Iris, our proprietary machine-learning driven skill and role assessment algorithm and recommendation engine, which enables businesses to more effectively quantify and develop skills across technologies. Through our platform we provide both businesses and individuals with the ability to stay smart, remain relevant, and drive results.
Closing the technology skills gap requires more than success in our commercial business. That is why we created Pluralsight One, our social impact initiative, committed to serving marginalized populations that our commercial business will not reach.
In recent years, we have reached significant scale in users and our customer base, which span over 180 countries across the globe. As of December 31, 2018, we had 16,756 business customers, including over 810,000 business users, compared to 575,000 business users as of December 31, 2017. Our customers included over 340 of the 2018 Fortune 500.
We have achieved significant growth in recent periods. For the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016, our billings totaled $293.6 million, $205.8 million, and $149.2 million, representing year-over-year growth of 43%, 38%, and 15%, respectively. Our billings from business customers for the same periods were $248.2 million, $163.0 million, and $104.9 million, respectively, representing year-over-year growth of 52%, 55%, and 25%. Our net loss for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016, was $128.6 million, $96.5 million, and $20.6 million, respectively, which reflects our substantial investments in the future growth of our business.
Our Platform
Our cloud-based technology skills platform provides businesses the solutions that they need to improve employee skills and drive better business outcomes. The key components of our platform include:
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Skill and Role Assessments
: Our assessment tool uses machine learning and advanced algorithms to measure a user’s skills, benchmark that user against others in the industry, and recommend opportunities for growth. Users are provided with a Skill IQ that quantifies if a user is beginner, intermediate, or advanced within technologies such as Angular JS, C#, and Java. Role IQ allows our users to quantify and develop a collection of skills that are required for success in technology roles. This provides greater clarity around the technology skills required for a specific job role and a clear path to concept mastery. For example, we have Role IQ’s for
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several roles including: Security Analyst, React Web Developer, and Cloud Architect. Skills assessments can be mapped to a defined role in order to measure a user’s technical proficiency required to master that role. We provide a modern skill assessment experience that gives businesses a credible, adaptable, and efficient model for validating technology skills.
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Course Library:
Our course library includes a digital ecosystem of thousands of on-demand courses across a range of technology subject areas, including cloud, mobile, security, IT, and data. Courses, or videos are organized by modules and clips and are searchable, so users can either take an entire course, or target an area for a specific need. The majority of our courses are transcribed, and once transcribed, are available with closed captioning in over 100 languages. We have built our exclusive course library primarily by engaging our world-class community of subject-matter experts, or authors, who create content for us and share in our success by receiving revenue-share amounts based on the viewing of their content. In addition, our platform offers interactive courses with an in-browser developer environment that allows users to practice as they learn through coding challenges with real-time feedback. Interactive courses provide a hands-on learning experience to apply knowledge outside of the course library in order to assess concept mastery. Our projects feature extends the practice modules to the user’s local coding environment, allowing users to apply knowledge to real-world, on-the-job scenarios.
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Learning Paths
: Based on either an assessment or a user’s goals, our directed learning paths are personalized to take users through a set of courses designed to help them master a particular subject area and not spend time reviewing content that they already know. Businesses can map custom learning paths to meet company-specific objectives.
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Business Analytics
: Our business analytics tools enable business customers to evaluate the technology skills of their teams, align learning to key business objectives, determine the usage of our platform, examine trends in skill development, and quantify the impact of our platform on their business.
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We developed our proprietary machine-learning technology, Iris, to power our platform and improve the value of our skill and role assessments, roles, and course recommendations. Iris powers our skill and role assessments, and guides users on how to develop desired skills. Iris uses machine learning, modern testing approaches, advanced statistical analysis, and data to create a smarter, more personalized development journey.
Our platform is designed for the professional technologist but it can be used by anyone, at any skill level, who has an interest in improving their technology skills. We offer a range of courses from beginner to advanced skill levels, with significant granularity within each topic so users can access the content most relevant to their specific needs. We utilize a cloud-based delivery model that enables us to regularly make new content available to users and allows businesses to deliver consistent skill development across distributed workforces. Users can access our platform to learn anytime and anywhere. Pluralsight applications are delivered on demand and across a range of devices and operating systems, including iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac. In addition, Pluralsight applications are available for TV applications, including Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku.
Key Benefits of Our Platform
We have developed our platform to empower businesses in driving innovation in this period of digital transformation with a smarter workforce. Key benefits of our platform include:
The most relevant skill development for a wide range of technology professionals
We believe we have the most relevant course library for the greatest number of technology professionals. We are a company founded by software engineers, and we understand first-hand the importance of keeping up with constantly changing technologies. We are focused on delivering learning content addressing the technology languages, tools, and frameworks used by the majority of technology professionals in the workplace. We began this business with a focus on software developers who constitute the largest segment of the technology market. Next, we expanded into the next three largest segments of technology: IT operations, data, and security. Our platform is capable of easily expanding to address new technical areas over time.
Integrated technology skills platform
We view learning as a holistic process. Taking a course on its own does not ensure that a user understands the content or that it was the right course to take in the first place. Our integrated platform combines skill and role assessments, a curated library of expert-authored courses, directed learning paths, business analytics, interactive courses, and projects to ensure that learners are taking the courses most useful to them and demonstrating comprehension of the subject matter. Through our skill and role assessments engine, powered by Iris, we are able to assess the proficiency of a user in a role or a topic through adaptive tests and provide a Skill IQ or Role IQ. By gathering such insights from our platform, businesses can understand skills gaps, benchmark employees against consistent standards, and address skill development needs in an efficient and targeted manner. Of surveyed Pluralsight users, 84% reported that they used the skills they learn on our platform within six weeks and 55% report that they used their new skills within one week.
High quality curated content
Our content is the product of our industry-leading authors. We have spent many years identifying, cultivating, and growing our author network, and over 1,550 authors have contributed to our current course library. One of the primary challenges for businesses and individuals seeking to enhance technology skills is finding the right resources. We address that challenge for them. Our extensive relationships within the developer and technical community allow us to source and retain the best subject-matter experts to produce relevant content for our users. We provide quality assurance on our authors’ expertise through our selection process and by having our in-house technology professionals and practitioners, as well as other authors, perform reviews on the quality and effectiveness of all content before it is published to our platform. This process ensures that our users are receiving high-quality, consistent results from our platform.
Cost effective technology skills platform
We believe our pricing model provides a significant cost advantage compared to traditional technology skill development offerings. As our customers’ industries and business models evolve, they require a learning solution that helps them deliver key innovations with demanding time and budgetary constraints. Our published pricing ranges from $579 to $779 per user per year for business subscriptions, providing what we believe to be a significant cost advantage over alternative solutions. In addition, our platform can be deployed with little to no implementation or other professional services required, as evidenced by substantially all of our revenue to date being derived from the sale of subscriptions to our platform.
Optimized for on-demand accessibility
We offer our content the way users want to consume it. Our cloud-based technology skills platform is an on-demand solution that allows globally distributed users to access courses anytime they want from almost any device, maximizing utilization of our product and workplace efficiency. Our mobile applications are available on iOS and Android operating systems, and our desktop application is available on Mac and PCs. Courses can be temporarily downloaded and viewed offline. Our platform allows users to participate and take notes while watching our courses. These applications allow our users to take our courses when convenient for them.
Growth Strategy
We are pursuing the following principal strategies to drive our growth:
Expand deployments within our customer base
We utilize a land-and-expand strategy within businesses, beginning with either individual users or departmental deployments. Our platform is used by individuals, developer groups, IT departments, line of business users, and human resources. Historically we have expanded from small teams to departments to business-wide deployments of our platform. For example, from 2013 to 2018, the billings from our business customers that were included in the 2018 Fortune 500 list, including new 2018 Fortune 500 customers that we acquired after 2013, increased by 18.1 times in the aggregate from the billings from those same companies in 2013. We intend to drive increased sales to existing customers by targeting new users, departments, and geographies within our customers.
Grow our business customer base
We have a large direct sales force to focus on business sales and have aligned our sales team’s compensation structure to fit this objective. We have also been able to drive substantial increases in the productivity and effectiveness of our sales personnel over time as they gain more experience selling subscriptions to our platform. We intend to pursue a greater proportion of large scale, recurring business transactions and to more effectively drive business customer engagement throughout the life of the relationship. As an example of our ability to increase customer engagement, as of December 31, 2018, our 25 largest customers had expanded their annual spend by 19.6 times the amount they spent in the year of initial purchase. We will continue to expand our platform capabilities to deliver additional value to our customers. Our sales force educates business customers on the strengths of our platform to help customers make informed decisions and create a customized and unified end-to-end learning experience for their businesses.
Geographic Expansion
We see a significant opportunity to expand our reach internationally, particularly where there are large developer groups for multi-national businesses. We have customers in over 180 countries around the world and are building out sales teams in Europe and Asia to further address these large markets impacted by rapidly changing technologies.
In 2018, we expanded our operations to Ireland as part of our strategy to build our business and drive customer growth in Europe. We intend to continue to selectively expand in key markets to grow our customer base and increase our revenue.
Expand course library with new content areas and offer additional platform features
We plan to continue to expand our course library to address the most relevant topics for users. We anticipate continued strong growth in our technology skills platform as we build out content in new areas like cloud, data science, data engineering, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and security.
We have introduced and acquired several platform features that have been integrated into our cloud-based technology skills platform, including skill and role assessments and learning paths. We will continue to add additional features to our platform over time which we believe will strengthen our position as the go-to platform for technology leaders to deliver on their innovation strategies.
Strategic Acquisitions
Strategic acquisitions have enabled us to quickly scale our business, expand our course library, add features to our cloud-based technology skills platform, and address new areas of technology in high demand by our customers. Over the past six years, we have made targeted strategic acquisitions, which have allowed us to expand our content catalog, author base, and platform capabilities. For example, the acquisition of Smarterer gave us the core of our assessment capability that is now an integral part of our platform and a key differentiator in the market. We have proven success with identifying core capabilities in the market, acquiring talent and technology, and integrating these assets into our platform for a seamless user experience. We will continue to selectively add content and platform capabilities through acquisitions that enhance value to our customers.
Technology and Content
Our cloud-hosted, multi-tenant application platform is designed for enterprise scalability to enable significant growth in our user base, support businesses with widely distributed locations, and provide high levels of system performance and availability. Our distributed and scalable technology architecture allows our global user base to access courses anytime they want from almost any device, maximizing utilization of our platform.
Iris
Our platform is powered by Iris, which underlies our skill assessments algorithm and guides users on how to develop desired skills. With every assessment and course completed, Iris absorbs information about the state of technology skills of our overall user base, a specific business customer’s users, and individual users, thereby allowing
our platform to adapt to the needs of our customers. Iris leverages the following to create a smarter, more personalized development journey for users:
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Machine Learning.
Iris uses a modified Bayes Network algorithm to predict assessment responses by updating certainty, question difficulty, and skill ratings as it collects user feedback. Using a text mapping technique, Iris recommends content based on a specific user’s Skill IQ or Role IQ.
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Modern Test Theory.
Iris builds on Item Response Theory, or IRT, and applies Bayesian approximation. Learners are scored against a representative global estimate of all users of a given technology or skill, and questions are usable far sooner than with traditional IRT-based methods while maintaining similar levels of accuracy and reliability.
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Bayesian Statistics.
Iris applies Bayesian statistics to assign scores to learners and characterize questions quickly and accurately. Iris is able to power adaptive assessments by using a modified scoring algorithm that applies a Monte Carlo method to evaluate each user’s skill level, providing adaptively selected questions to achieve a high level of certainty of that skill level.
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Content Creation
Our course library has been created primarily by our world-class community of authors. By publishing their courses on our platform, we provide authors with exposure to our broad user base, thereby enabling our authors to build their reputations and increase their name recognition as a trusted source in the market. In addition, we share our success with our authors, who receive revenue-share amounts based on the viewing of their content. This incentivizes authors to create new high-quality content, which drives customer growth and user adoption, creating a virtuous cycle that promotes our continued growth.
We identify and select prospective authors based on their skills, experience, following in user communities, popularity, ability to effectively communicate, and commitment to advancing knowledge about their discipline.
Once selected to produce content on our platform, we provide authors with a set of tools and skill development materials to instruct them on our course design methodology. They are assigned to one of our content leaders to help them select topics and create a framework for their courses. One of our production editors then guides them through the course production and editing process. External peer reviewers, who are generally authors, help ensure technical accuracy. Authors produce courses and presentations from their own location on their own time, making the process scalable and efficient.
Based on the size of our author community and the related depth and breadth of technical knowledge, we have the ability to consistently deliver current and relevant content to keep pace with technology’s fast pace of change. On average, from the day we decide to create a course, we can identify and sign a new author who meets our specifications in approximately 65 days and that author can publish a new course on our platform within approximately 110 days.
Technology and Content Team
Our technology and content team use a human-centered design and development approach to engage with customers, users, and industry analysts through interviews and surveys on a frequent basis to understand customer needs and general industry trends to enhance our platform and course library. This allows us to build a platform that is uniquely positioned to deliver a highly personalized journey that focuses on the user and provides deep business analytics. The primary function of our technology team is to evaluate new technologies, determine the best technologies to create for our platform, incorporate new features and functionality into our platform to improve user experience, and ensure our solutions are delivered seamlessly, as well as to ensure that our platform is resilient and available to our customers at any time. Our content team tracks subject-matter experts across a variety of categories, researches the latest technology trends and adoption within businesses, and works with our authors to create high-quality content which addresses the needs of our customers.
As of December 31, 2018, we had 340 employees in our technology and content organization. We intend to continue to invest in our technology and content organization to strengthen our existing platform and add new capabilities to enhance our value to customers.
Seasonality
Our quarterly results of operations may fluctuate due to various factors affecting our performance. We have historically experienced seasonality in terms of when we enter into agreements with customers. We typically enter into a higher percentage of agreements with new customers, as well as renewal agreements with existing customers, in the fourth quarter of each year and usually during the last month of the quarter. The increase in customer agreements entered into in the fourth quarter is generally attributable to large enterprise buying patterns typical in the software industry. During the fourth quarter of 2018, we recognized 29% of our revenue, and recorded 34% of our total billings and 35% of our billings from business customers for 2018. As the terms of most of our customer agreements are measured in full year increments, agreements initially entered into in the fourth quarter will generally come up for renewal at that same time in subsequent years. This seasonality is reflected in our billings, and to a lesser extent, our revenue. We recognize revenue from subscription fees ratably over the term of the contract. Therefore, changes in our contracting activity in the near term may not impact changes to our reported revenue until future periods.
Customers
As of December 31, 2018, we had 16,756 business customers on our platform. We have experienced rapid growth within large businesses. Our client base is diversified across every industry: financial services, internet, technology, healthcare, media and entertainment, consumer goods and retail, transportation and logistics, government contractors, manufacturing, energy, education, and professional services.
Sales and Marketing
Our platform is designed to be easy to access and use, which allows both individual and business customers to seamlessly purchase subscriptions to, and deploy, our platform. Accordingly, for the year ended December 31, 2018, approximately 26% of our revenue was derived from self-service subscriptions to our platform without any direct interaction with our sales team. Our self-service deployments are typically to small business teams and individual customers, which represent the “top of the funnel” for larger deployments, bringing our technology into the workplace and proliferating usage within a business.
We also deploy a direct sales team focused on landing new business customers, renewing existing subscriptions, and expanding business-wide deployments, as well as a field sales team responsible for sourcing new prospects and upsell opportunities. We expect to increase penetration into our business customers by expanding their use of our platform to address additional use cases and increasing the number of their employees who utilize our platform.
Our marketing efforts are focused on generating awareness of our cloud-based technology skills platform, creating sales leads, establishing and promoting our brand, and cultivating a community of loyal customers and authors. We utilize both online and offline marketing initiatives, including search engine and email marketing, online banner and video advertising, blogs, corporate communications, white papers, case studies, user events including Pluralsight LIVE, and webinars.
Employees
As of December 31, 2018, we had over 1,100 full-time employees. We also engage contractors and consultants. None of our employees are represented by a labor union. We have not experienced any work stoppages, and we believe that our employee relations are good.
Competition
The market for professional skill development is highly competitive, rapidly evolving, and fragmented. We expect competition to continue to accelerate in the future as competitors bundle new and more competitive offerings with their existing products and services, and as products and product enhancements are introduced into our market.
We compete directly or indirectly against:
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Instructor-led training vendors, such as Global Knowledge, General Assembly, and New Horizons;
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Legacy e-learning services, such as Skillsoft and Cornerstone On Demand;
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Individual-focused e-learning services, such as LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, and Udacity; and
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Free solutions, such as YouTube.
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We believe that the principal competitive factors in our market include the following:
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breadth, depth, and quality of content library;
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platform features and functionality;
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reliability and scalability;
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accessibility across several devices, operating systems, and applications;
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third-party and customer integration;
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customer, technology, and platform support; and
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We believe we compete favorably across these factors and are largely uninhibited by legacy constraints. However, many of our competitors and potential competitors are larger and have greater brand name recognition, longer operating histories, larger marketing budgets and established marketing relationships, access to larger customer bases, and significantly greater resources for the development of their offerings. Moreover, because our market is changing rapidly, it is possible that new entrants, especially those with substantial resources, more efficient operating models, more rapid technology and content development cycles, or lower marketing costs, could introduce new products and services that disrupt our market and better address the needs of our customers and potential customers.
Intellectual Property
We rely on trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, license agreements, intellectual property assignment agreements, confidentiality procedures, non-disclosure agreements, and employee non-disclosure and invention assignment agreements to establish and protect our proprietary rights. We believe that our intellectual property rights are valuable and important to our business.
As of December 31, 2018, we had nine pending patent applications in the United States and abroad. These patent applications seek to protect our proprietary inventions relevant to our business.
We have an ongoing trademark and service mark registration program pursuant to which we register our brand names and product names, taglines, and logos in the United States and other countries to the extent we determine appropriate. We also have common law rights in some unregistered trademarks that were established over years of use.
We intend to pursue additional intellectual property protection to the extent we believe it would be beneficial. Despite our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights, they may not be respected in the future or may be invalidated, circumvented, or challenged. In addition, the laws of various foreign countries where our products are distributed may not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as laws in the United States.
Our Organizational Structure
In May 2018, we completed an initial public offering, or IPO, in which we sold
23,805,000
shares of Class A common stock at a public offering price of
$15.00
per share for net proceeds of
$332.1 million
, after deducting underwriters’ discounts and commissions, which Pluralsight, Inc. used to purchase newly-issued common limited liability company units, or LLC Units, from Pluralsight Holdings. Following the IPO, we caused Pluralsight Holdings to repay in full its outstanding long-term debt of $137.7 million.
Our IPO was conducted through what is commonly referred to as an “UP-C” structure, which is often used by partnerships and limited liability companies when they decide to undertake an initial public offering. In connection with the IPO and the UP-C structure, we completed the following transactions, referred to as the Reorganization Transactions:
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The Fourth LLC Agreement of Pluralsight Holdings was amended and restated to, among other things: (i) appoint Pluralsight, Inc. as its sole managing member and (ii) effectuate the conversion of all outstanding redeemable convertible preferred limited liability company units, incentive units, and Class B incentive units into a single class of LLC Units.
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Certain members of Pluralsight Holdings that were corporations merged with and into Pluralsight, Inc. and certain members of Pluralsight Holdings contributed certain of their LLC Units to Pluralsight, Inc., in each case in exchange for shares of Class A common stock.
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The certificate of incorporation of Pluralsight, Inc. was amended and restated to authorize
three
classes of common stock, Class A common stock, Class B common stock, Class C common stock, and one class of preferred stock. Class B and Class C common stock were issued on a
one
-for-one basis to the members of Pluralsight Holdings who retained LLC Units, or the Continuing Members. Class B and Class C common stock have voting rights but no economic rights.
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As the sole managing member of Pluralsight Holdings, Pluralsight, Inc. has the sole voting interest in Pluralsight Holdings and controls all of the business operations, affairs, and management of Pluralsight Holdings. Accordingly, Pluralsight, Inc. consolidates the financial results of Pluralsight Holdings and reports the non-controlling interests of the Continuing Members’ LLC Units on its consolidated financial statements. See Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information about the Reorganization Transactions completed as part of the IPO.
Corporate Information
We were incorporated in Delaware in December 2017. Our principal executive offices are located at 182 North Union Avenue, Farmington, Utah 84025, and our telephone number is (801) 784-9007. We completed our IPO in May 2018, and our Class A common stock is listed on Nasdaq under the symbol “PS.” Our corporate website address is pluralsight.com. Information contained on or accessible through our website is not part of this report. “Pluralsight,” our logo, and our other registered or common law trademarks, service marks, or trade names appearing in this report are the property of Pluralsight, Inc., Pluralsight Holdings, LLC , and their subsidiaries. Other trademarks and trade names referred to in this report are the property of their respective owners.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, and, as such, we have elected to comply with certain reduced public company reporting requirements. We will cease to be an “emerging growth company” upon the earliest to occur of: (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have more than $1.07 billion in annual revenues; (ii) the date we qualify as a large accelerated filer, with at least $700 million of equity securities held by non-affiliates; (iii) the issuance, in any three-year period, by us of more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities; and (iv) December 31, 2023.
Available Information
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, proxy statement, and all amendments to these filings, are available free of charge from our investor relations website (https://investors.pluralsight.com/financial-information/sec-filings) as soon as reasonably practicable following our filing with
or furnishing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, of any of these reports. The SEC’s website (https://www.sec.gov) contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.
Pluralsight investors and others should note that we announce material information to the public about our company, products and services and other issues through a variety of means, including our website (https://www.pluralsight.com/), our investor relations website (https://investors.pluralsight.com), press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls, and social media, in order to achieve broad, non-exclusionary distribution of information to the public. We encourage our investors and others to review the information we make public in these locations as such information could be deemed to be material information. Please note that this list may be updated from time to time.
The contents of any website referred to in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are not intended to be incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Risks Related to Our Business and Our Industry
Market adoption of cloud-based learning solutions is new and unproven and may not grow as we expect, which may harm our business and results of operations, and even if market demand increases, the demand for our platform may not increase.
We believe our future success will depend in part on the growth, if any, in the demand for cloud-based technology learning solutions, particularly enterprise-grade solutions. The widespread adoption of our platform depends not only on strong demand for new forms of technology learning, but also for solutions delivered via a Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS, business model in particular. The market for cloud-based learning solutions is less mature than the market for in-person ILT, which many businesses currently utilize, and these businesses may be slow or unwilling to migrate from these legacy approaches. As such, it is difficult to predict customer demand for our platform, customer adoption and renewal, the rate at which existing customers expand their engagement with our platform, the size and growth rate of the market for our platform, the entry of competitive products into the market, or the success of existing competitive products. Furthermore, even if businesses want to adopt a cloud-based technology learning solution, it may take them a long time to fully transition to this type of learning solution or they could be delayed due to budget constraints, weakening economic conditions, or other factors. Some businesses may also have long-term contracts with existing vendors and cannot switch in the short term. Even if market demand for cloud-based technology learning solutions generally increases, we cannot assure you that adoption of our platform will also increase. If the market for cloud-based technology learning solutions does not grow as we expect or our platform does not achieve widespread adoption it could result in reduced customer spending, customer attrition, and decreased revenue, any of which would adversely affect our business and results of operations.
If
we are not able to expand our course library effectively or develop new platform features that respond to constantly evolving technologies and the needs of our customers, our business and results of operations would be adversely affected.
The market for talent in technology-related fields is growing and constantly evolving due to the continuously changing needs of our customers. Moreover, software is displacing manual processes throughout businesses in many industries and, as a result, the talent that companies seek to hire and retain must be able to keep pace with technological change and drive digital transformation. As such, our future success will depend on our ability to ensure that our business customers’ employees can master the latest emerging technologies and improve their skills in existing areas by developing and making available on a timely basis new and improved learning content and platform features that can address evolving customer needs. With respect to content creation, since new technologies are constantly being introduced, our success is dependent upon our ability to identify technological developments and predict which technology will become widely adopted or strategically important, and then develop course content and related skill and role assessments to address these areas in a timely manner, which we may not be able to do successfully. For example, certain courses we have developed in the past have received lower than anticipated levels of customer interest and we were unable to generate sufficient revenue from those courses to offset their costs. In addition, if we do not anticipate our customers’ demands and provide courses in topics that address these demands, our lead times for course production may make it difficult for us to rapidly produce the required content. With respect to platform features, many of the features we currently offer are relatively new and unproven and we cannot assure you that our existing features and any future features or enhancements that we develop will be successful. The success of any enhancement or new feature depends on several factors, including our understanding of market demand, timely execution, successful introduction, and market acceptance. We may not successfully develop new content and features or enhance our existing platform to meet customer needs or our new content and features and enhancements may not achieve adequate acceptance in the market. Additionally, we may not sufficiently increase our revenue to offset the upfront technology and content, sales and marketing, and other expenses we incur in connection with the development of new courses and platform features and enhancements. Any of the foregoing may adversely affect our business and results of operations.
The market in which we participate is competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our results of operations could be harmed.
The market for professional skill development is highly competitive, rapidly evolving, and fragmented, and we expect competition to continue to increase in the future. A significant number of companies have developed, or are developing, products and services that currently, or in the future may, compete with our offerings. This competition could result in decreased revenue, increased pricing pressure, increased sales and marketing expenses, and loss of market share, any of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We face competition from in-person ILT, legacy enterprise SaaS solutions, consumer-centric SaaS solutions, and free solutions. We compete directly or indirectly with:
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instructor-led training vendors, such as Global Knowledge, General Assembly, and New Horizons;
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legacy e-learning services, such as Skillsoft and Cornerstone OnDemand;
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individual-focused e-learning services, such as LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, and Udacity; and
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free solutions, such as YouTube.
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Many of our competitors and potential competitors are larger and have greater brand name recognition, longer operating histories, larger marketing budgets and established customer relationships, access to larger customer bases, and significantly greater resources for the development of their solutions. In addition, we face potential competition from participants in adjacent markets that may enter our markets by leveraging related technologies and partnering with or acquiring other companies, or providing alternative approaches to provide similar results. We may also face competition from companies entering our market, including large technology companies that could expand their offerings or acquire one of our competitors, similar to LinkedIn’s acquisition of Lynda.com. While these companies may not currently focus on our market, they may have significantly greater financial resources and longer operating histories than we do. As a result, our competitors and potential competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, or customer requirements. Further, some potential customers, particularly large enterprises, may elect to develop their own internal solutions that address their technology skill development needs.
Our ability to compete is also subject to the risk of future disruptive technologies. If new technologies emerge that are able to deliver skill development solutions at lower prices, with greater feature sets, more efficiently, or more conveniently, such technologies could adversely impact our ability to compete. With the introduction of new technologies and market entrants, we expect competition to intensify in the future.
Some of our principal competitors offer their solutions at a lower price or for free, which may result in pricing pressures on us. Many of our competitors that offer free solutions are also integrating features found previously only with paid solutions, which puts additional pressure on our pricing and feature development. If we are unable to maintain our pricing levels and competitive differentiation in the market, our results of operations would be negatively impacted.
If our business customers do not expand their use of our platform beyond their current organizational engagements or renew their existing contracts with us, our ability to grow our business and improve our results of operations may be adversely affected.
Our future success depends, in part, on our ability to increase the adoption of our platform by our existing customers and future customers. Many of our business customers initially use our platform in specific groups or departments within their organization. In addition, our customers may initially use our platform for a specific use case. Our ability to grow our business depends in part on our ability to persuade customers to expand their use of our platform to address additional use cases. Further, to continue to grow our business, it is important that our customers renew their subscriptions when existing contracts expire and that we expand our relationships with our existing customers. Our customers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions, and our customers may decide not to renew their subscriptions with a similar contract period, at the same prices and terms, with the same or a greater number of users, or at all. In the past, some of our customers have elected not to renew their agreements with us, and it is difficult to accurately predict whether we will have future success in retaining customers or expanding our relationships with them. We have experienced
significant growth in the number of users of our platform, but we do not know whether we will continue to achieve similar user growth in the future. Our ability to retain our business customers and expand our deployments with them may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including our customers’ satisfaction with our platform, our customer support, our prices, the prices and features of competing solutions, reductions in our customers’ spending levels, insufficient user adoption of our platform, and new feature releases. If our customers do not purchase additional subscriptions or renew their existing subscriptions, renew on less favorable terms, or fail to continue to expand their engagement with our platform, our revenue may decline or grow less quickly than anticipated, which would harm our results of operations.
If we are unable to increase sales of subscriptions to our platform to business customers while mitigating the risks associated with serving such customers, our business, financial condition, and results of operations would suffer.
Our growth strategy is largely dependent upon increasing sales of subscriptions to our platform to business customers. As we seek to increase our sales to business customers, we face upfront sales costs and longer sales cycles, higher customer acquisition costs, more complex customer requirements, and volume discount requirements that we do not have with sales to individuals.
We often enter into customized contractual arrangements with our business customers, particularly large enterprises, in which we offer more favorable pricing terms in exchange for larger total contract values that accompany large deployments. As we drive a greater portion of our revenue through our deployments with business customers, we expect that our revenue will continue to grow significantly but the price we charge business customers per user may decline. This may result in reduced margins in the future if our cost of revenue increases. Sales to business customers involve risks that may not be present, or that are present to a lesser extent, with sales to individuals. For example, business customers may request that we integrate our platform with their existing technologies, and these customization efforts could create additional costs and delays in utilization. In addition, business customers often begin to use our platform on a limited basis, but nevertheless require education and interactions with our sales team, which increases our upfront investment in the sales effort with no guarantee that these customers will use our platform widely enough across their organization to justify our upfront investment. As we continue to expand our sales efforts to business customers, we will need to continue to increase the investments we make in sales and marketing, and there is no guarantee that our investments will succeed and contribute to additional customer acquisition and revenue growth. If we are unable to increase sales to business customers while mitigating the risks associated with serving such customers, our business, financial condition, and results of operations will suffer.
Failure to effectively expand our sales and marketing capabilities could harm our ability to increase our customer base and achieve broader market acceptance of our platform.
Our ability to broaden our customer base, particularly our business customer base, and achieve broader market acceptance of our platform will depend to a significant extent on the ability of our sales and marketing organizations to work together to drive our sales pipeline and cultivate customer and partner relationships to drive revenue growth. We have invested in and plan to continue expanding our sales and marketing organizations, both domestically and internationally. Identifying, recruiting, and training sales personnel will require significant time, expense, and attention. We also plan to dedicate significant resources to sales and marketing programs, including lead generation activities and brand awareness campaigns, such as search engine and email marketing, online banner and video advertising, user events such as our annual user conference, Pluralsight LIVE, and webinars. If we are unable to hire, develop, and retain talented sales or marketing personnel, if our new sales or marketing personnel are unable to achieve desired productivity levels in a reasonable period of time, or if our sales and marketing programs are not effective, our ability to broaden our customer base and achieve broader market acceptance of our platform could be harmed. In addition, the investments we make in our sales and marketing organization will occur in advance of experiencing benefits from such investments, making it difficult to determine in a timely manner if we are efficiently allocating our resources in these areas.
Our future performance depends in part on attracting and retaining authors and producing content that addresses our customers’ needs.
The majority of our content is created by subject-matter experts, or authors, who are generally not our employees. This presents certain risks to our business, including, among others:
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we may not be able to remain competitive in finding and retaining authors;
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we generally have exclusivity with our authors with respect to the specific subject matter of the courses they create for us, but they may produce content for competitors or on their own with respect to related topics and other subjects;
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our existing authors, particularly our most popular authors, may not continue creating content for us;
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the topics of content created by our authors may not address the needs of our customers;
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the content created by our authors may not meet the quality standards that our customers expect and demand, or effectively differentiate our content from that of our competitors with respect to content quality and breadth; and
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the fees that we pay our authors may cease to be competitive with the market for their talent.
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If any of the risks above occur, customers may seek other solutions for their professional skill development needs and we may not be able to retain them or acquire additional customers to offset any such departures, which would adversely affect our business and results of operations. In addition, our most popular authors are a relatively small group of individuals who have created course content that has historically represented a significant portion of the total course hours viewed. The loss of our authors, particularly our most popular authors, and our inability to replace them with new author relationships of comparable quality and standing would significantly impact our business and operating results.
Our quarterly and annual results of operations may vary significantly and may be difficult to predict. If we fail to meet the expectations of investors or securities analysts, our stock price and the value of your investment could decline.
Our quarterly and annual billings, revenue and results of operations have fluctuated significantly in the past and may vary significantly in the future due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. Our financial results in any one quarter should not be relied upon as indicative of future performance. We may not be able to accurately predict our future billings, revenue or results of operations. Factors that may cause fluctuations in our quarterly results of operations include, but are not limited to, those listed below:
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fluctuations in the demand for our platform, and the timing of sales, particularly larger subscriptions;
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our ability to attract new customers or retain existing customers;
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our existing authors, particularly our most popular authors, may not continue creating content for us;
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the content created by our authors may not address the needs of our customers and may not meet the standards that our customers expect and demand;
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changes in customer renewal rates and our ability to increase sales to our existing customers;
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an increase in the length of the sales cycle as a higher percentage of our billings come from larger business customers;
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the seasonal buying patterns of our customers;
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the budgeting cycles and internal purchasing priorities of our customers;
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the payment terms and subscription term length associated with our platform sales and their effect on our billings and free cash flow;
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our ability to anticipate or respond to changes in the competitive landscape, including consolidation among competitors;
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the timing of expenses and recognition of revenue;
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the amount and timing of operating expenses related to the maintenance and expansion of our business, operations, and infrastructure;
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the timing and success of new product feature and service introductions by us or our competitors;
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network outages or actual or perceived security breaches;
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changes in laws and regulations that impact our business; and
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general economic and market conditions.
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If our billings, revenue or results of operations fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts in a particular quarter, or below any guidance that we may provide, the price of our Class A common stock could decline.
If our security measures are breached or unauthorized access to customer data is otherwise obtained, our platform may be perceived as insecure, we may lose existing customers or fail to attract new customers, our reputation may be harmed, and we may incur significant liabilities.
Unauthorized access to, or other security breaches of, our platform or the other systems or networks used in our business, including those of our vendors, contractors, or those with which we have strategic relationships, could result in the loss, compromise or corruption of data, loss of business, reputational damage adversely affecting customer or investor confidence, regulatory investigations and orders, litigation, indemnity obligations, damages for contract breach, penalties for violation of applicable laws or regulations, significant costs for remediation, and other liabilities. We have errors and omissions insurance coverage for certain security and privacy damages and claim expenses, but this coverage may be insufficient to compensate us for all liabilities that we may incur.
Our platform and the other systems or networks used in our business are also at risk for breaches as a result of third-party action, or employee, vendor, or contractor error or malfeasance. Security is one of the main course subjects we provide on our platform, which may cause our platform to be a target for hackers and others, and which causes our brand, credibility, and reputation to be particularly sensitive to any security breaches. We have incurred and expect to continue to incur significant expenses to prevent security breaches, including deploying additional personnel and protection technologies, training employees, and engaging third-party experts and consultants. However, since the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not identified until after they are launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. We may also experience security breaches that may remain undetected for an extended period and, therefore, have a greater impact on our platform, the proprietary and other confidential data contained therein or otherwise stored or processed in our operations, and ultimately on our business.
Privacy, data protection, and information security concerns, and data collection and transfer restrictions and related domestic or foreign regulations, may limit the use and adoption of our platform and adversely affect our business.
Use of our platform involves the storage, transmission, and processing of data from our customers and their employees or other personnel, including certain personal or individually identifying information. Personal privacy, information security, and data protection are significant issues in the United States, Europe, and many other jurisdictions where we offer our platform. The regulatory framework governing the collection, processing, storage, and use of business information, particularly information that includes personal data, is rapidly evolving and any failure or perceived failure to comply with applicable privacy, security, or data protection laws, regulations and/or contractual obligations may adversely affect our business.
The U.S. federal and various state and foreign governments have adopted or proposed requirements regarding the collection, distribution, use, security, and storage of personally identifiable information and other data relating to individuals, and federal and state consumer protection laws are being applied to enforce regulations related to the online collection, use, and dissemination of data. Some of these requirements include obligations of companies to notify individuals of security breaches involving particular personal information, which could result from breaches experienced by us or by our vendors, contractors, or organizations with which we have formed strategic relationships. Even though we may have contractual protections with such vendors, contractors, or other organizations, notifications and follow-up actions related to a security breach could impact our reputation, cause us to incur significant costs, including legal expenses, harm customer confidence, hurt our expansion into new markets, cause us to incur remediation costs, or cause us to lose existing customers.
Further, many foreign countries and governmental bodies, including the European Union, or EU, where we conduct business, have laws and regulations concerning the collection and use of personal data obtained from their residents or by businesses operating within their jurisdictions. These laws and regulations often are more restrictive than those in the United States and apply broadly to the collection, use, storage, disclosure, and security of data that identifies or may be used to identify or locate an individual, such as names, email addresses and, in some jurisdictions, Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses, device identifiers, and other data. With regard to transfers of personal data from our European employees and customers to the United States, in addition to in certain cases using model contract clauses approved by the European Commission, we have self-certified under the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and under the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield. These frameworks were established by EU, Swiss, and U.S. authorities to provide mechanisms for companies to transfer EU and Swiss personal data to the United States. It is unclear at this time whether the EU-U.S. or Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks or EU model contract clauses will serve as appropriate means for us to transfer personal data from the EU or Switzerland to the United States. These frameworks and model contract clauses have been subject to legal challenge and may be invalidated or modified. We may experience reluctance or refusal by European customers to use our platform due to potential risk exposure created by transferring personal data from Europe to the United States, and we and our customers may face enforcement actions by European data protection authorities regarding data transfers from Europe to the United States.
We also expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws, regulations, and industry standards concerning privacy, data protection, and information security in the United States, the EU, and other jurisdictions. In particular, the EU has adopted the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, or the GDPR, which took full effect on May 25, 2018. The GDPR repealed and replaced prior EU data protection law and is directly applicable across EU member states. The GDPR applies to any company established in the EU as well as to those outside the EU if they collect and use personal data while offering goods or services to individuals in the EU or monitoring their behavior. The GDPR enhances data protection obligations of businesses and provides direct legal obligations for service providers processing personal data on behalf of customers, including with respect to cooperation with European data protection authorities, implementation of security measures and keeping records of personal data processing activities. Noncompliance with the GDPR can trigger fines of up to €20 million or 4% of global annual revenues, whichever is higher, and may result in other consequences, such as orders to cease data processing operations. Given the breadth and depth of its obligations, meeting GDPR’s requirements requires significant time and resources. Separate EU laws and regulations (and member states’ implementations thereof) govern the protection of consumers and of electronic communications. In the United Kingdom, or the UK, the June 2016 approval by votes of a referendum to leave the EU, often referred to as “Brexit,” and the UK’s anticipated exit from the EU in March 2019 to effectuate Brexit, could require us to make additional changes to the way we conduct our business and transmit data between the United States, the UK, the EU, and other jurisdictions. Brexit has created uncertainty regarding data protection regulation in the UK. In particular, although a Data Protection Bill that substantially implements the GDPR became law in May 2018, uncertainty remains regarding how data transfers to and from the UK will be regulated.
Further, in June 2018, California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, which takes effect on January 1, 2020 and will broadly define personal information, give California residents expanded privacy rights and protections, and provide for civil penalties for violations and a private right of action for data breaches and affords consumers new abilities to opt-out of certain sales and personal information. The CCPA was amended on September 23, 2018, and we anticipate that it may be further amended in 2019. We cannot yet determine the impact of the CCPA on our business operations, but it may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs in an effort to comply. In addition, we cannot yet determine the impact future laws, regulations, and
standards may have on our business. Laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection and information security are often subject to differing interpretations and may be inconsistent among jurisdictions. These and other requirements could reduce demand for our platform, increase our costs, impair our ability to grow our business, or restrict our ability to store and process data or, in some cases, impact our ability to offer our platform in some locations and may subject us to liability. Further, in view of new or modified federal, state, or foreign laws and regulations, industry standards, contractual obligations, and other legal obligations, or any changes in their interpretation, we may find it necessary or desirable to fundamentally change our business activities and practices or to expend significant resources to modify our platform and otherwise adapt to these changes. We may be unable to make such changes and modifications in a commercially reasonable manner, or at all, and our ability to develop new content and features could be limited.
The costs of compliance with and other burdens imposed by laws, regulations, and standards may limit the use and adoption of and reduce overall demand for our platform, or lead to significant fines, penalties, or liabilities for any noncompliance. Privacy, information security, and data protection concerns, actual and perceived, may inhibit market adoption of our platform, particularly in certain industries and foreign countries.
If we fail to retain key employees or to recruit qualified technical and sales personnel, our business could be harmed.
We believe that our success depends on the continued employment of our senior management and other key employees. We also rely on our leadership team in the areas of technology, content, marketing, sales, services and general and administrative functions. From time to time, there may be changes in our executive management team resulting from the hiring or departure of executives, which could disrupt our business. The loss of one or more of our executive officers or key employees could have a serious adverse effect on our business.
In addition, because our future success is dependent on our ability to continue to enhance and introduce new content and platform features, we are heavily dependent on our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel with the requisite education, background, and industry experience. As we expand our business, our continued success will also depend, in part, on our ability to attract and retain qualified sales, marketing, and operational personnel capable of supporting a larger and more diverse customer base. The loss of the services of a significant number of our technology and content or sales personnel could be disruptive to our development efforts or customer relationships. In addition, if any of our key employees joins a competitor or decides to otherwise compete with us, we may experience a material disruption of our operations and business strategy, which may cause us to lose customers or increase operating expenses and may divert our attention as we seek to recruit replacements for the departed employees.
If we fail to effectively manage our growth, our business and results of operations could be harmed.
We have experienced, and may continue to experience, rapid growth and organizational change, which has placed, and may continue to place, significant demands on our management and our operational and financial resources. For example, our headcount has grown from approximately 800 employees as of December 31, 2017 to over 1,100 employees as of December 31, 2018. In addition, we operate globally, sell subscriptions to customers in more than 180 countries, and have employees in various locations in the United States, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. We plan to continue to expand our operations into other countries in the future, which will place additional demands on our resources and operations. Additionally, we continue to increase the breadth and scope of our platform and our operations. To support this growth, and to manage any future growth effectively, we must continue to improve our IT and financial infrastructures, our operating and administrative systems, and our ability to manage headcount, capital, and internal processes in an efficient manner. Our organizational structure is also becoming more complex as we grow our operational, financial, and management infrastructure and we must continue to improve our internal controls as well as our reporting systems and procedures. We intend to continue to invest to expand our business, including investing in technology and content and sales and marketing operations, hiring additional personnel, improving our internal controls, reporting systems and procedures, and upgrading our infrastructure. These investments will require significant capital expenditures and the allocation of management resources, and any investments we make will occur in advance of experiencing the benefits from such investments, making it difficult to determine in a timely manner if we are efficiently allocating our resources. If we do not achieve the benefits anticipated from these investments, or if the achievement of these benefits is delayed, our results of operations may be adversely affected.
Our rapid growth and limited history with our cloud-based technology skills platform make it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and may increase the risk that we will not continue to grow at or near historical rates.
We have grown rapidly over the last several years, and as a result, our ability to forecast our future results of operations is subject to a number of uncertainties, including our ability to effectively plan for and model future growth. In addition, although we began operations in 2004, we shifted our business model in 2011 from offering in-person ILT to an entirely online delivery model. Since 2011, we have extended our offering to include new content areas and additional features that have enabled us to expand our addressable market, attract new users, and expand our relationships with businesses. This limited history with our SaaS model and cloud-based platform offering further limits our ability to forecast our future results of operations. As such, any predictions about our future revenue and expenses may not be as accurate as they would be if we had a longer operating history with our delivery model or platform or operated in a more predictable market. We have encountered in the past, and will encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan and operate our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our results of operations could differ materially from our expectations, our growth rates may slow, and our business would suffer.
We recognize revenue from subscriptions over the term of our customer contracts, and as such our reported revenue and billings may differ significantly in a given period, and our revenue in any period may not be indicative of our financial health and future performance.
We recognize revenue from subscriptions ratably over the subscription term of the underlying customer contract, which is generally one year. Our billings are recorded upon invoicing for access to our platform, and thus a significant portion of the billings we report in each quarter, are generated from customer agreements entered into and invoiced during the period. As a result, much of the revenue we report each quarter is derived from contracts that we entered into with customers in prior periods. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed subscriptions in any quarter will not be fully reflected in revenue or other results of operations in that quarter but will negatively affect our revenue and other results of operations across future quarters. It is difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue from additional billings in a given period. Any increases in the average term of subscriptions would result in revenue for those contracts being recognized over longer periods of time with less positive impact on our results of operations in the near term. Accordingly, our revenue in any given period may not be an accurate indicator of our financial health and future performance.
As we continue to expand our sales efforts with larger business customers, our sales cycles can be long and unpredictable, and our sales efforts require considerable time and expense. As a result, the timing of our billings and revenue are difficult to predict and may vary substantially from period to period, which may cause our results of operations to fluctuate significantly.
Our results of operations may fluctuate, in part, because of the resource intensive nature of our sales efforts to larger businesses, from which we derive a significant portion of our billings and revenue, the length and variability of our sales cycle, and difficulty in adjusting our operating expenses in the short term. The length of our sales cycle, from identification of the opportunity to delivery of access to our platform, varies significantly from customer to customer, with sales to larger businesses typically taking longer to complete. In addition, as we continue to increase our sales to larger businesses, we face longer more complex customer requirements, and substantial upfront sales costs. With larger businesses, the decision to subscribe to our platform frequently requires the approvals of multiple management personnel and more technical personnel than would be typical of a smaller organization and, accordingly, sales to larger businesses may require us to invest more time educating these potential customers. Purchases by larger businesses are also frequently subject to budget constraints and unplanned administrative, processing, and other delays, which means we may not be able to come to agreement on the terms of the sale to larger businesses.
To the extent our competitors develop products that our prospective customers view as equivalent or superior to our platform, our average sales cycle may increase. Additionally, if a key sales member leaves our employment or if our primary point of contact at a customer or potential customers leaves his or her employment, our sales cycle may be further extended or customer opportunities may be lost. As a result of the buying behavior of enterprises and the efforts of our sales force and partners to meet or exceed their sales objectives by the end of each fiscal quarter, we have
historically received and generated a substantial portion of billings during the last month of each fiscal quarter, often the last two weeks of the quarter. These transactions may not close as expected or may be delayed in closing. The unpredictability of the timing of customer purchases, particularly large purchases, could cause our billings and revenue to vary from period to period or to fall below expected levels for a given period, which will adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We believe our long-term success depends in part on continuing to expand our sales and operations outside of the United States and we are therefore subject to a number of risks associated with international sales and operations.
We currently maintain offices and have sales personnel outside the United States in Europe and the Asia Pacific region, and we intend to continue to expand our international operations. In order to maintain and expand our sales internationally, we need to hire and train experienced personnel to staff and manage our foreign operations. To the extent that we experience difficulties in recruiting, training, managing, and retaining international staff, and specifically sales and marketing personnel, we may experience difficulties in growing our international sales and operations.
Additionally, our international sales and operations are subject to a number of risks, including the following:
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unexpected costs and errors in tailoring our products for individual markets, including translation into foreign languages and adaptation for local practices;
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difficulties in adapting to customer desires due to language and cultural differences;
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increased expenses associated with international sales and operations, including establishing and maintaining office space and equipment for our international operations;
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lack of familiarity and burdens of complying with foreign laws, legal standards, privacy standards, regulatory requirements, tariffs, and other barriers;
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greater difficulty in enforcing contracts and accounts receivable collection and longer collection periods;
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practical difficulties of enforcing intellectual property rights in countries with fluctuating laws and standards and reduced or varied protection for intellectual property rights in some countries;
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unexpected changes in regulatory requirements, taxes, trade laws, tariffs, trade wars or potential changes in trade relations arising from policy initiatives implemented by the current U.S. presidential administration, export quotas, custom duties, or other trade restrictions;
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limitations on technology infrastructure, which could limit our ability to migrate international operations to our existing systems, which could result in increased costs;
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difficulties in managing and staffing international operations and differing employer/employee relationships and local employment laws; and
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potentially adverse tax consequences, including the complexities of foreign value added tax (or other tax) systems and restrictions on the repatriation of earnings.
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Additionally, operating in international markets also requires significant management attention and financial resources. We have limited experience in marketing, selling, and supporting our platform abroad, which increases the risk that any potential future expansion efforts that we may undertake will not be successful. We plan to invest substantial time and resources to expand our international operations, but we cannot be certain that these investments will produce desired levels of revenue or profitability. These factors and other factors could harm our ability to gain future international revenue and, consequently, materially affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We may face exposure to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.
Today, substantially all of our customer contracts are denominated in U.S. dollars, while our operating expenses outside of the United States are often denominated in local currencies. In the future, an increasing portion of our international customer contracts may be denominated in local currencies. Additionally, as we expand our international
operations a larger portion of our operating expenses will be denominated in local currencies. Therefore, fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar and foreign currencies may affect our results of operations when translated into U.S. dollars. We do not currently engage in currency hedging activities to limit the risk of exchange rate fluctuations. In the future, we may use derivative instruments, such as foreign currency forward and option contracts, to hedge certain exposures to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. The use of such hedging activities may not offset any or more than a portion of the adverse financial effects of unfavorable movements in foreign exchange rates over the limited time the hedges are in place. Moreover, the use of hedging instruments may introduce additional risks if we are unable to structure effective hedges with such instruments.
If we fail to manage our hosting network infrastructure capacity, our existing customers may experience service outages and our new customers may experience delays in accessing our platform.
We host our platform on data centers provided by Amazon Web Services, or AWS, a provider of cloud infrastructure services. Our operations depend on the virtual cloud infrastructure hosted in AWS as well as the information stored in these virtual data centers and which third-party internet service providers transmit. Although we have disaster recovery plans that utilize multiple AWS locations, any incident affecting their infrastructure that may be caused by fire, flood, severe storm, earthquake, power loss, telecommunications failures, unauthorized intrusion, computer viruses, disabling devices, natural disasters, war, criminal act, military actions, terrorist attacks, and other similar events beyond our control could negatively affect the availability and reliability of our platform. A prolonged AWS service disruption affecting our platform for any of the foregoing reasons could damage our reputation with current and potential customers, expose us to liability, cause us to lose customers, or otherwise harm our business. We may also incur significant costs for using alternative equipment or taking other actions in preparation for, or in reaction to, events that damage the AWS services we use.
AWS enables us to order and reserve server capacity in varying amounts and sizes distributed across multiple regions, and provides us with computing and storage capacity pursuant to an agreement that continues until terminated by either party. AWS may terminate the agreement by providing 30 days prior written notice and may, in some cases, terminate the agreement immediately for cause upon notice. Any disruption of our use of, or interference with, AWS would adversely affect our operations and business.
We have experienced significant growth in the number of users, transactions, and data that our hosting infrastructure supports. We seek to maintain sufficient excess capacity in our hosting network infrastructure to meet the needs of all of our customers and our growing content library. However, the provision of new hosting infrastructure requires significant lead time. If we do not accurately predict our infrastructure capacity requirements, our existing clients may experience service outages that may adversely impact our results of operations and lead to customer losses. For example, in 2014, prior to using AWS, we exceeded the capacity of our network infrastructure and experienced a service outage which lasted for approximately 16 hours. If our hosting infrastructure capacity fails to keep pace with increased sales, customers may experience delays as we seek to obtain additional capacity, which could harm our reputation and adversely affect our revenue growth.
We rely upon SaaS technologies from third parties to operate our business, and interruptions or performance problems with these technologies may adversely affect our business and results of operations.
We rely on hosted SaaS applications from third parties in order to operate critical functions of our business, including content delivery, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, billing, project management, and accounting and financial reporting. If these services become unavailable due to extended outages, interruptions, or because they are no longer available on commercially reasonable terms, our expenses could increase, our ability to manage finances could be interrupted, and our processes for managing sales of our platform and supporting our customers could be impaired until equivalent services, if available, are identified, obtained, and implemented, all of which could adversely affect our business.
If we are not able to keep pace with technological developments, our business will be harmed.
As our platform is designed to operate on a variety of network, hardware, and software platforms using internet tools and protocols, we will need to continuously modify and enhance our platform to keep pace with changes in internet-related hardware, software, communication, browser, and database technologies. If we are unable to respond
in a timely and cost-effective manner to these rapid technological developments, our platform may become obsolete, which would adversely impact our results of operations.
If we fail to develop, maintain, and enhance our brand and reputation cost-effectively, our business and financial condition may be adversely affected.
We believe that developing, maintaining, and enhancing awareness and integrity of our brand and reputation in a cost-effective manner are important to achieving widespread acceptance of our platform and are important elements in maintaining existing customers and attracting new customers. We believe that the importance of our brand and reputation will increase as competition in our market further intensifies. Successful promotion of our brand will depend on the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, our ability to provide a reliable and useful platform at competitive prices, the perceived value of our platform, and our ability to provide quality customer support. Brand promotion activities may not yield increased revenue, and even if they do, the increased revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building and maintaining our brand and reputation. If we fail to promote and maintain our brand successfully or to maintain loyalty among our customers, or if we incur substantial expenses in an unsuccessful attempt to promote and maintain our brand, we may fail to retain our existing customers and partners or attract new customers and partners and our business and financial condition may be adversely affected. Any negative publicity relating to our employees, partners, or other parties associated with us or them, may also tarnish our own reputation simply by association and may reduce the value of our brand. Damage to our brand and reputation may result in reduced demand for our platform and increased risk of losing market share to our competitors. Any efforts to restore the value of our brand and rebuild our reputation may be costly and may not be successful.
If we cannot maintain our company culture as we grow, we could lose the innovation, teamwork, passion, and focus on execution that we believe contribute to our success and our business may be harmed.
We believe that a critical component to our success has been our company culture. Our company is aligned behind our culture and key values and we have invested substantial time and resources in building our team within this company culture. Additionally, as we grow and develop the infrastructure of a public company, we may find it difficult to maintain these important aspects of our company culture. If we fail to preserve our culture, our ability to retain and recruit personnel, our ability to effectively focus on and pursue our corporate objectives, and our business could be harmed.
If we fail to adequately protect our proprietary rights, our competitive position could be impaired and we may lose valuable assets, generate reduced revenue or experience slower growth rates, and incur costly litigation to protect our rights.
The skill development industry is characterized by a large number of copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and other intellectual property rights. Our success is dependent, in part, upon protecting our proprietary information and technology. We rely on a combination of trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, intellectual property assignment agreements, license agreements, confidentiality procedures, non-disclosure agreements, and employee non-disclosure and invention assignment agreements to establish and protect our proprietary rights. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property may be inadequate. We will not be able to protect our intellectual property if we are unable to enforce our rights or if we do not detect and mitigate unauthorized use of our intellectual property. Despite our precautions, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to copy our platform and use information that we regard as proprietary to create solutions that compete with ours. In addition, we have previously experienced, and may in the future be subject to, piracy of our course content. From time to time, individuals have illegally accessed our course materials and posted them online, and individual users within our business customers have obtained access to our content outside the scope of the customer’s subscription, which has caused us to lose potential revenue opportunities, and such activities may recur in the future. Policing piracy of our content and unauthorized use of our platform is difficult and the steps we take to combat such actions may prove ineffective. Some license provisions protecting against unauthorized use, copying, transfer, and disclosure of our platform may be unenforceable under the laws of certain jurisdictions and foreign countries. Further, the laws of some countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights in some foreign countries may be inadequate. To the extent we expand our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying and use of our platform and proprietary information may increase. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may be unable to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our technology and intellectual property.
We rely in part on trade secrets, proprietary know-how, and other confidential information to maintain our competitive position. Although we enter into intellectual property assignment agreements or license agreements with our authors, confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants, and confidentiality agreements with the parties with whom we have strategic relationships and business alliances, no assurance can be given that these agreements will be effective in controlling access to, and distribution of, our platform and proprietary information. Further, these agreements do not prevent our competitors from independently developing technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our platform.
To protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect these rights. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights and to protect our trade secrets. Such litigation could be costly, time-consuming, and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims, and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our proprietary technology against unauthorized copying or use, as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management’s attention and resources, could delay further sales or the implementation of our platform, impair the functionality of our platform, delay introductions of new platform features, result in our substituting inferior or more costly technologies into our platform, or injure our reputation. In addition, we may be required to license additional technology from third parties to develop and market new platform features or services, and we cannot guarantee that we will be able to license that technology on commercially reasonable terms or at all, and our inability to license this technology could harm our ability to compete.
We may be sued by third parties for alleged infringement of their proprietary rights.
Our success depends in part upon our not infringing the intellectual property rights of others. However, our competitors, as well as a number of other entities and individuals, may own or claim to own intellectual property relating to our industry or, in some cases, our technology or content. We obtain much of our content from third-party authors. Although we enter into agreements with our authors in which they represent that their content is not infringing the intellectual property rights of others, such content could be infringing and consequently subject us to liability. Moreover, we have in the past and may in the future leverage open source software in our development processes. Open source software is generally licensed by its authors or other third parties under open source licenses. These licenses may subject us to certain unfavorable conditions, including that we make publicly available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon, incorporating or using the open source software, or that we license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of the particular open source license.
In the past, third parties have claimed that we were infringing their intellectual property rights. Such claims may reoccur in the future, and we may actually be found to be infringing on such rights. Additionally, if a third-party software provider has incorporated open source software into software that we license from such provider, we may be required to disclose any of our source code that incorporates or is a modification of any such licensed software. Any claims or litigation could cause us to incur significant expenses, and if successfully asserted against us, could require that we pay substantial damages or ongoing revenue share payments, indemnify our customers or distributors, obtain licenses, modify products, or refund fees, any of which would deplete our resources and adversely impact our business.
Real or perceived errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs in our platform could harm our business and results of operations.
Errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs may occur in our platform, especially when updates are deployed or new features are rolled out. In addition, utilization of our platform in complicated, large-scale customer environments may expose errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs in our platform. Any such errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs may not be found until after they are deployed to our customers. As a provider of technology learning solutions, our brand and reputation is particularly sensitive to such errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs. Real or perceived errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs in our platform could result in negative publicity, loss of competitive position, loss of customer data, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our products, or claims by customers for losses sustained by them, all of which could harm our business and results of operations.
Any failure to offer high-quality customer support may harm our relationships with our customers and our results of operations.
Our customers depend on our customer support teams to resolve technical and operational issues if and when they arise. We may be unable to respond quickly enough to accommodate short-term increases in customer demand for customer support. Customer demand for support may also increase as we expand the features available on our platform. Increased customer demand for customer support, without corresponding revenue, could increase costs and harm our results of operations. In addition, as we continue to expand our business customer base, we need to be able to provide efficient and effective customer support that meets our business customers’ needs and expectations globally at scale. The number of our business customers has grown significantly, which puts additional pressure on our support organization. In order to meet these needs, we have relied in the past and will continue to rely on self-service customer support to resolve common or frequently asked questions, which supplement our customer support teams. If we are unable to provide efficient and effective customer support globally at scale including through the use of self-service support, our ability to grow our operations may be harmed and we may need to hire additional support personnel, which could harm our margins and results of operations. Our sales are highly dependent on our business reputation and on positive recommendations from our existing customers. Any failure to maintain high-quality customer support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality customer support, could harm our reputation, our ability to sell our platform to existing and prospective customers, our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Adverse economic conditions in the United States and international countries may adversely impact our business and results of operations.
Unfavorable general economic conditions, such as a recession or economic slowdown in the United States or in one or more of our other major markets, could adversely affect demand for our platform. Changing macroeconomic conditions may affect our business in a number of ways. For example, spending patterns of businesses are sensitive to the general economic climate. Subscriptions for our platform may be considered discretionary by many of our current and potential customers. As a result, businesses considering whether to purchase or renew subscriptions to our products may be influenced by macroeconomic factors.
In particular, the terms of Brexit are subject to continuing negotiation, and it is unclear what economic impact Brexit will have. Brexit has caused significant political uncertainty in both the UK and the EU. If the UK does not approve a withdrawal agreement with the EU by March 29, 2019 when the country officially leaves the EU, it is possible the level of economic activity in this region will be adversely impacted, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
There is also significant uncertainty about the future relationship between the United States and other countries with respect to trade policies, treaties, government relations, and tariffs. The current U.S. presidential administration has called for substantial changes to U.S. foreign trade policy with China and other countries, including the possibility of imposing greater restrictions on international trade and significant increases in tariffs on goods imported into the United States. Many of our customers who conduct business in China may be impacted by these policies. If the United States’ relationship with China deteriorates or results in trade protection measures, retaliatory actions, tariffs, or increased barriers, policies that favor domestic industries, or increased import or export licensing requirements or restrictions, then our operations and business may be adversely affected due to such changes in the economic and political ecosystem.
We may acquire other companies or technologies which could divert our management’s attention, result in addi
tional dilution to our stockholders, and otherwise disrupt our operations and harm our results of operations.
As we have in the past, we may in the future seek to acquire or invest in businesses, people, or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our platform, enhance our content library or otherwise offer growth opportunities. The pursuit of potential acquisitions may divert the attention of management and cause us to incur various expenses in identifying, investigating, and pursuing suitable acquisitions, whether or not they are ultimately consummated.
Any integration process may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and require significant time and resources and, although we have been successful in the past, we may not be able to integrate the acquired personnel, operations, and technologies successfully or effectively manage the combined business in connection with any future acquisition.
We may also not achieve the anticipated benefits from the acquired business due to a number of factors, including, among others:
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costs or liabilities associated with the acquisition;
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diversion of management’s attention from other business concerns;
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inability to integrate or benefit from acquired content, technologies, or services in a profitable manner;
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harm to our existing relationships with authors and customers as a result of the acquisition;
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difficulty integrating the accounting systems, operations, and personnel of the acquired business;
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difficulty converting the customers of the acquired business onto our platform and contract terms;
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the potential loss of key employees;
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use of resources that are needed in other parts of our business; and
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the use of substantial portions of our available cash or equity to consummate the acquisition.
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In the future, if our acquisitions do not yield expected returns, we may be required to take charges for the write-down or impairment of amounts related to goodwill, intangible assets, and our content library, which could negatively impact our results of operations. We may issue additional equity securities in connection with any future acquisitions, that would dilute our existing stockholders, use cash that we may need in the future to operate our business, incur debt on terms unfavorable to us or that we are unable to pay, incur large charges or substantial liabilities, and become subject to adverse tax consequences, substantial depreciation, or deferred compensation charges. These challenges could adversely affect our business, financial conditions, results of operations, and prospects.
We might require additional capital to support our growth, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all.
We intend to continue to make investments to support our growth and may require additional funds to respond to business challenges, including the need to develop new features or enhance our existing platform or acquire complementary businesses, technologies, and content. Accordingly, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer dilution, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences, and privileges superior to those of holders of our common stock. Any debt financing secured by us in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital-raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. In addition, we may not be able to obtain additional financing on terms favorable to us, if 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 support our growth and to respond to business challenges could be significantly impaired.
Our management team has limited experience managing a public company.
Most members of our management team have limited experience managing a publicly-traded company, interacting with public company investors, and complying with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies. Our management team may not successfully or efficiently manage issues related to our status as a public company that is subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under the federal securities laws and the continuous scrutiny of securities analysts and investors. These obligations and constituents require significant attention from our senior management and could divert their attention away from the day-to-day management of our business, which could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our business is subject to a variety of U.S. and international laws that could subject us to claims, increase the cost of operations, or otherwise harm our business due to changes in the laws, changes in the interpretations of the laws, greater enforcement of the laws, or investigations into compliance with the laws.
Our business is subject to regulation by various federal, state, local and foreign governmental agencies, including agencies responsible for monitoring and enforcing copyright laws, employment and labor laws, workplace safety, consumer protection laws, privacy and data protection laws, anti-bribery laws, import and export controls, federal securities laws, and tax laws and regulations. In certain foreign jurisdictions, these regulatory requirements may be more stringent than those in the United States. These laws and regulations are subject to change over time and thus we must continue to monitor and dedicate resources to ensure continued compliance. Non-compliance with applicable regulations or requirements could subject us to investigations, sanctions, enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, fines, damages, civil and criminal penalties, or injunctions. If any governmental sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal litigation, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and an increase in professional fees. Enforcement actions and sanctions could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
We are also subject to consumer protection laws that may impact our sales and marketing efforts, including laws related to subscriptions, billing, and auto-renewal. These laws, as well as any changes in these laws, could make it more difficult for us to retain existing customers and attract new ones.
We are subject to governmental export and import controls and anti-corruption laws and regulations that could impair our ability to compete in international markets and subject us to liability if we are not in full compliance with applicable laws.
Our business activities are subject to various restrictions under U.S. export and similar laws and regulations, including the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Export Administration Regulations and various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls. The U.S. export control laws and U.S. economic sanctions laws include restrictions or prohibitions on the sale or supply of certain products and services to U.S. embargoed or sanctioned countries, governments, persons and entities. In addition, various countries regulate the import of certain technology and have enacted or could enact laws that could limit our ability to provide our customers access to our platform or could limit our customers’ ability to access or use our services in those countries. Further, the current U.S. presidential administration has been critical of existing trade agreements and may impose more stringent export and import controls.
Although we take precautions to prevent our platform from being provided in violation of such laws, our platform could be provided inadvertently in violation of such laws, despite the precautions we take. If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations, we and certain of our employees could be subject to civil or criminal penalties, including the possible loss of export privileges and fines. We may also be adversely affected through penalties, reputational harm, loss of access to certain markets, or otherwise. In addition, various countries regulate the import and export of certain encryption and other technology, including import and export permitting and licensing requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our platform or could limit our users’ ability to access our platform in those countries. Changes in our platform, or future changes in export and import regulations may prevent our users with international operations from utilizing our platform globally or, in some cases, prevent the export or import of our platform to certain countries, governments, or persons altogether. Any change in export or import regulations, economic sanctions, or related legislation, increased export and import controls stemming from the current U.S. presidential administration’s policies, or change in the countries, governments, persons, or technologies targeted by such regulations, could result in decreased use of our platform by, or in our decreased ability to export or sell subscriptions to our platform to, existing or potential users with international operations. Any decreased use of our platform or limitation on our ability to export or sell our platform would likely adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial results.
We are also subject to various domestic and international anti-corruption laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act, as well as other similar anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws and regulations. These laws and regulations generally prohibit companies and their employees and intermediaries from
authorizing, offering, providing, and accepting improper payments or benefits for improper purposes. These laws also require that we keep accurate books and records and maintain compliance procedures designed to prevent any such actions. Although we take precautions to prevent violations of these laws, our exposure for violating these laws increases as our international presence expands and as we increase sales and operations in foreign jurisdictions.
Our business could be adversely impacted by changes in internet access for our users
.
Our platform depends on the quality of our users’ access to the internet. Certain features of our platform require significant bandwidth and fidelity to work effectively. Internet access is frequently provided by companies that have significant market power that could take actions that degrade, disrupt, or increase the cost of user access to our platform, which would negatively impact our business. We could incur greater operating expenses and our ability to acquire and retain customers could be negatively impacted if network operators:
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implement usage-based pricing;
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discount pricing for competitive products;
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otherwise materially change their pricing rates or schemes;
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charge us to deliver our traffic at certain levels or at all;
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throttle traffic based on its source or type;
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implement bandwidth caps or other usage restrictions; or
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otherwise try to monetize or control access to their networks.
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In December 2017, the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, voted to repeal its “net neutrality” Open Internet rules, effective June 2018. The rules were designed to ensure that all online content is treated the same by internet service providers and other companies that provide broadband services. The FCC’s new rules, which took effect on June 11, 2018, repealed the neutrality obligations imposed by the Open Internet rules and granted providers of broadband internet access services greater freedom to make changes to their services, including, potentially, changes that may discriminate against or harm our business. A number of parties have appealed this order, which is currently being reviewed by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Should the net neutrality rules be relaxed or eliminated, we could incur greater operating expenses, which could harm our results of operations.
As the internet continues to experience growth in the number of users, frequency of use, and amount of data transmitted, the internet infrastructure that we and our users rely on may be unable to support the demands placed upon it. The failure of the internet infrastructure that we or our users rely on, even for a short period of time, could undermine our operations and harm our results of operations.
Our business could be affected by new governmental regulations regarding the Internet.
There are various laws and regulations that could impede the growth of the Internet or other online services, and new laws and regulations may be adopted in the future. These laws and regulations could, in addition to limiting Internet neutrality, involve taxation, tariffs, privacy, data protection, information security, content, copyrights, distribution, electronic contracts and other communications, consumer protection, and the characteristics and quality of services, any of which could decrease the demand for, or the usage of, our platform. To date, government regulations have not materially restricted use of the Internet in most parts of the world. However, the legal and regulatory environment pertaining to the Internet is uncertain, and governments may impose regulation in the future. New laws may be passed, courts may issue decisions affecting the Internet, existing but previously inapplicable or unenforced laws may be deemed to apply to the Internet, regulatory agencies may begin to more rigorously enforce such formerly unenforced laws, or existing legal safe harbors may be narrowed, both by U.S. federal or state governments or by governments of foreign jurisdictions.
The adoption of any new laws or regulations, or the narrowing of any safe harbors, could hinder growth in the use of the Internet and online services generally, and decrease acceptance of the Internet and online services as a means of
communications, e-commerce, and advertising. In addition, such changes in laws could increase our costs of doing business or prevent us from delivering our services over the Internet or in specific jurisdictions, which could harm our business and our results of operations.
Our international operations subject us to potentially adverse tax consequences.
We are subject to income taxes as well as non-income-based taxes, such as payroll, sales, use, value-added, property and goods and services taxes, in both the United States and various foreign jurisdictions. Our domestic and international tax liabilities are subject to various jurisdictional rules regarding the timing and allocation of revenue and expenses. Additionally, the amount of income taxes paid is subject to our interpretation of applicable tax laws in the jurisdictions in which we file and to changes in tax laws. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities. From time to time, we may be subject to income and non-income tax audits. While we believe we have complied with all applicable income tax laws, there can be no assurance that a governing tax authority will not have a different interpretation of the law and assess us with additional taxes. Should we be assessed with additional taxes, there could be a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our future effective tax rate may be affected by such factors as changes in tax laws, regulations, or rates, changing interpretation of existing laws or regulations, the impact of accounting for equity-based compensation, the impact of accounting for business combinations, changes in our international organization, and changes in overall levels of income before tax. In addition, in the ordinary course of our global business, there are many intercompany transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Although we believe that our tax estimates are reasonable, we cannot ensure that the final determination of tax audits or tax disputes will not be different from what is reflected in our historical income tax provisions and accruals.
We may have exposure to greater than anticipated tax liabilities and may be affected by changes in tax laws or interpretations, any of which could adversely impact our results of operations.
We are subject to income taxes in the United States and various jurisdictions outside of the United States. Our effective tax rate could fluctuate due to changes in the mix of earnings and losses in countries with differing statutory tax rates. Our tax expense could also be impacted by changes in non-deductible expenses, changes in excess tax benefits of equity-based compensation, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities and our ability to utilize them, the applicability of withholding taxes, effects from acquisitions, and the evaluation of new information that results in a change to a tax position taken in a prior period.
Our tax position could also be impacted by changes in accounting principles, changes in U.S. federal, state, or international tax laws applicable to corporate multinationals, other fundamental law changes currently being considered by many countries, including the United States, and changes in taxing jurisdictions’ administrative interpretations, decisions, policies, and positions. For example, on December 22, 2017, tax reform legislation referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or the Tax Act, was enacted in the United States. The Tax Act significantly revises U.S. federal income tax law, including by lowering the corporate income tax rate to 21%, limiting the deductibility of interest expense, implementing a modified territorial tax system and imposing a one-time repatriation tax on deemed repatriated earnings and profits of U.S.-owned foreign subsidiaries. We have reflected the impact of the Tax Act in our financial statements in accordance with our understanding of the Tax Act and guidance available as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Although the impact of the Tax Act was not material on our consolidated financial statements, many consequences of the Tax Act, including whether and how state, local, and foreign jurisdictions will react to such changes are not entirely clear at this time and the U.S. Department of Treasury has broad authority to issue regulations and interpretive guidance that may significantly impact how the Tax Act will apply to us. Any of the foregoing changes could have an adverse impact on our results of operations, cash flows, and financial condition.
Additionally, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development has released guidance covering various topics, including transfer pricing, country-by-country reporting, and definitional changes to permanent establishment that could ultimately impact our tax liabilities as it is implemented in various jurisdictions.
Our results of operations may be harmed if we are required to collect sales or other related taxes for our subscription services in jurisdictions where we have not historically done so.
We collect sales and value-added tax as part of our subscription agreements in a number of jurisdictions. Sales and use, value-added, and similar tax laws and rates vary greatly by jurisdiction. One or more states or countries may seek to impose additional sales, use, or other tax collection obligations on us, including for past sales by us. Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in
South Dakota v. Wayfair
that a U.S. state may require an online retailer with no in-state property or personnel to collect and remit sales tax on sales to the state’s residents may permit wider enforcement of sales tax collection requirements. A successful assertion by a state, country, or other jurisdiction that we should have been or should be collecting additional sales, use, or other taxes on our platform could, among other things, result in substantial tax liabilities for past sales, create significant administrative burdens for us, discourage customers from purchasing our platform, or otherwise harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We may not be able to utilize a significant portion of our net operating loss or research tax credit carryforwards, which could adversely affect our potential profitability.
We have federal and state net operating loss carryforwards, or NOLs, due to prior period losses, which if not utilized will begin to expire in 2030 for both federal and state purposes, respectively. As of December 31, 2018 we had federal and state NOLs of
$81.1 million
and
$73.0 million
, respectively. These NOLs, and NOLs of companies we may acquire could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities, which could adversely affect our potential profitability.
In addition, under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, our ability to utilize NOLs or other tax attributes, such as research tax credits and excess business interest, in any taxable year may be limited to the extent we experience an “ownership change.” Such an “ownership change” generally occurs if one or more stockholders or groups of stockholders who own at least 5% of our stock increase their ownership by more than 50 percentage points over their lowest ownership percentage over a three-year period. Past or future transactions among our stockholders may trigger an “ownership change.”
The nature of our business requires the application of complex revenue and expense recognition rules, and any significant changes in current rules could affect our financial statements and results of operations.
The accounting rules and regulations that we must comply with are complex and subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or the FASB, the SEC, and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. Recent actions and public comments from the FASB and the SEC have focused on the integrity of financial reporting and internal controls over financial reporting. In addition, many companies’ accounting policies and practices are being subject to heightened scrutiny by regulators and the public. Further, the accounting rules and regulations are continually changing in ways that could materially impact our financial statements. For example, in May 2014, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2014-09,
Revenue from Contracts with Customers
, as amended, which will supersede nearly all existing revenue recognition guidance. For public business entities, the standard is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within that reporting period; however, we have elected to use the extended transition period available to emerging growth companies under the Jumpstart our Business Startups Act of 2012, or JOBS Act, and we will not adopt the standard until the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019. We cannot predict the impact of future changes to accounting principles or our accounting policies on our financial statements going forward, which could have a significant effect on our reported financial results, and could affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of the change. In addition, if we were to change our critical accounting estimates, including those related to the recognition of subscription revenue and other revenue sources, our results of operations could be significantly affected.
If our judgments or estimates relating to our critical accounting policies are based on assumptions that change or prove to be incorrect, our results of operations could fall below expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in our stock price.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make judgments, estimates, and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable
under the circumstances, as provided in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities, and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Our results of operations may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our results of operations to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the trading price of our Class A common stock. Significant judgments, estimates, and assumptions used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include, or may in the future include, those related to revenue recognition, equity-based compensation expense, sales commissions costs, long-lived assets, and accounting for income taxes including deferred tax assets and liabilities.
If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be impaired.
As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the rules and regulations of the listing standards of Nasdaq. The requirements of these rules and regulations have increased our legal, accounting, and financial compliance costs, made some activities more difficult, time-consuming, and costly, and placed significant strain on our personnel, systems, and resources. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We are continuing to develop and refine our disclosure controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we file with the SEC is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms and that information required to be disclosed in reports under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our principal executive and financial officers. We are also continuing to improve our internal control over financial reporting. In order to maintain and improve the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, we have expended, and anticipate that we will continue to expend, significant resources, including accounting-related costs and significant management oversight.
Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. Further, weaknesses in our disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting may be discovered in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement could harm our results of operations or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and may result in a restatement of our financial statements for prior periods. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting also could adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and annual independent registered public accounting firm attestation reports regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting that we will eventually be required to include in our periodic reports that will be filed with the SEC. Ineffective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our Class A common stock. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to remain listed on Nasdaq. We are not currently required to comply with the SEC rules that implement Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and are therefore not required to make a formal assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for that purpose. As a public company, we are required to provide an annual management report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting commencing with our second Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Our independent registered public accounting firm is not required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until after we are no longer an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act. At such time, our independent registered public accounting firm may issue a report that is adverse in the event it is not satisfied with the level at which our internal control over financial reporting is documented, designed, or operating. Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could have a material and adverse effect on our business and results of operations and could cause a decline in the price of our Class A common stock.
We are an “emerging growth company” and the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies may make our Class A common stock less attractive to investors.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, and we take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced financial disclosure obligations, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and any golden parachute payments not previously approved. Pursuant to Section 107 of the JOBS Act, we have elected to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. As a result, our consolidated financial statements may not be comparable to the financial statements of issuers who are required to comply with the effective dates for new or revised accounting standards that are applicable to public companies, which may make our Class A common stock less attractive to investors. If we cease to be an “emerging growth company,” we will no longer be able to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards.
We may take advantage of these provisions until we are no longer an “emerging growth company.” We would cease to be an “emerging growth company” upon the earliest to occur of: (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have more than $1.07 billion in annual revenues; (ii) the date we qualify as a large accelerated filer, with at least $700 million of equity securities held by non-affiliates; (iii) the issuance, in any three-year period, by us of more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities; and (iv) December 31, 2023. We have chosen to take advantage of some but not all of these reduced reporting requirements, and as a result, the information that we provide our security holders may be different than the information that might be available for other public companies.
We have and will continue to incur increased costs and demands upon management as a result of complying with the laws and regulations affecting public companies, particularly after we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
As a public company, we have incurred and will continue to incur greater legal, accounting, and other expenses than we incurred as a private company. We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or the Dodd-Frank Act, and the rules and regulations of Nasdaq. These requirements, and any modifications, have increased and will continue to increase our legal, accounting, and financial compliance costs and have made, and will continue to make, some activities more time-consuming and costly. For example, these rules and regulations have made it more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to maintain the same or similar coverage. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified individuals to serve on our board of directors or as our executive officers. After we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” we expect to incur significant expenses and devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In that regard, we will need to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge.
Our results of operations could be adversely affected by natural disasters, public health crises, political crises, or other catastrophic events.
Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and other adverse weather and climate conditions; unforeseen public health crises, such as pandemics and epidemics; political crises, such as terrorist attacks, war, and other political instability; or other catastrophic events, whether occurring in the United States or internationally, could disrupt our operations in any of our offices or the operations of one or more of our third-party providers and vendors, such as AWS. To the extent any of these events occur, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Risks Related to Our Organizational St
ructure
Our principal asset is our interest in Pluralsight Holdings, and we are dependent upon Pluralsight Holdings and its consolidated subsidiaries for our results of operations, cash flows, and distributions.
We are a holding company and have no material assets other than our ownership of the LLC Units of Pluralsight Holdings. As such, we have no independent means of generating revenue or cash flow, and our ability to pay our taxes and operating expenses or declare and pay dividends in the future, if any, depend upon the results of operations and cash flows of Pluralsight Holdings and its consolidated subsidiaries and distributions we receive from Pluralsight Holdings. There can be no assurance that our subsidiaries will generate sufficient cash flow to distribute funds to us or that applicable state law and contractual restrictions will permit such distributions.
Our ability to pay taxes and expenses, including payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement, or TRA, may be limited by our structure.
Our principal asset is a controlling equity interest in Pluralsight Holdings. As such, we have no independent means of generating revenue. Pluralsight Holdings is treated as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes and, as such, is generally not subject to U.S. federal income tax. Instead, taxable income is allocated to holders of its LLC Units, including us. Accordingly, we incur income taxes on our allocable share of any net taxable income of Pluralsight Holdings and also incur expenses related to our operations. Pursuant to the Fourth LLC Agreement, Pluralsight Holdings will make cash distributions to the owners of LLC Units in an amount sufficient to fund their tax obligations in respect of the cumulative taxable income in excess of cumulative taxable losses of Pluralsight Holdings that is allocated to them, to the extent previous tax distributions from Pluralsight Holdings have been insufficient. In addition to tax expenses, we also incur expenses related to our operations, plus payments under the TRA, which we expect could be significant given the tax benefits associated with exchanges of LLC Units are more-likely-than-not to be realized. We intend to cause Pluralsight Holdings to make distributions or, in the case of certain expenses, payments in an amount sufficient to allow us to pay our taxes and operating expenses, including distributions to fund any ordinary course payments due under the TRA. However, Pluralsight Holdings’ ability to make such distributions may be subject to various limitations and restrictions. If we do not have sufficient funds to pay tax or other liabilities or to fund our operations (as a result of Pluralsight Holdings’ inability to make distributions due to various limitations and restrictions or as a result of the acceleration of our obligations under the TRA), we may have to borrow funds and thus our liquidity and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected. To the extent that we do not make payments under the TRA when due, as a result of having insufficient funds or otherwise, interest will generally accrue at a rate equal to LIBOR plus 100 basis points or in some cases LIBOR plus 600 basis points until paid. Nonpayment of our obligations for a specified period may constitute a breach of a material obligation under the TRA, and therefore, may accelerate payments due under the TRA resulting in a lump-sum payment. See the section titled “
Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Tax Receivable Agreement
” incorporated by reference to our 2019 Proxy Statement for additional information.
We will be required to pay the TRA Members for certain tax benefits we may claim, and we expect that the payments we will be required to make will be substantial.
Exchanges or redemptions of LLC Units for cash or shares of our Class A common stock are expected to produce favorable tax attributes for us. When we acquire LLC Units from the Continuing Members through these exchanges or redemptions, anticipated tax basis adjustments are likely to increase (for tax purposes) our depreciation and amortization deductions and therefore reduce the amount of income tax we would be required to pay in the future in the absence of this increased basis. This increased tax basis may also decrease the gain (or increase the loss) on future dispositions of certain assets to the extent the tax basis is allocated to those assets. Under the TRA, we generally expect to retain the benefit of 15% of the applicable tax savings after our payment obligations below are taken into account.
We are a party to the TRA. Under the TRA, we generally will be required to pay to the TRA Members 85% of the applicable savings, if any, in income tax that we realize, or that we are deemed to realize, as a result of (i) certain tax attributes that are created as a result of the exchanges or redemptions of their LLC Units (calculated under certain assumptions), (ii) tax benefits related to imputed interest, and (iii) payments under such TRA.
The increase in tax basis, as well as the amount and timing of any payments under these agreements, will vary depending upon a number of factors, including the timing of exchanges or redemptions, the price of our Class A common stock at the time of the exchange or redemption, whether such exchanges or redemptions are taxable, the amount and timing of the taxable income we generate in the future, the U.S. federal and state tax rates then applicable, and the portion of our payments under the TRA constituting imputed interest. Payments under the TRA are expected to give rise to certain additional tax benefits attributable to either further increases in basis or in the form of deductions for imputed interest, depending on the circumstances. Any such benefits are covered by the TRA and will increase the amounts due thereunder. In addition, the TRA will provide for interest, generally at a rate equal to LIBOR plus 100 basis points, accrued from the due date (without extensions) of the corresponding tax return to the date of payment specified by the TRA.
As a result of the exchanges made under our structure, we may incur a TRA liability. We do not expect to record a TRA liability until the tax benefits associated with the exchanges are more-likely-than-not to be realized. We estimate the incremental TRA liability that could result from past exchanges as of December 31, 2018 will be
$5.5 million
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We expect that the payments that we will be required to make to the TRA Members will be substantial. To the extent that we are unable to make timely payments under the TRA for any reason, the unpaid amounts will be deferred and will accrue interest until paid by us. Nonpayment for a specified period may constitute a material breach of a material obligation under the TRA and therefore may accelerate payments due under the TRA. Furthermore, our future obligation to make payments under the TRA could make us a less attractive target for an acquisition, particularly in the case of an acquirer that cannot use some or all of the tax benefits that may be deemed realized under the TRA. See the section titled “
Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Tax Receivable Agreement
,” incorporated by reference to our 2019 Proxy Statement for a discussion of the TRA and the related likely benefits to be realized by the TRA Members.
Payments under the TRA will be based on the tax reporting positions that we determine. Although we are not aware of any issue that would cause the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, to challenge a tax basis increase or other tax attributes subject to the TRA, if any subsequent disallowance of tax basis or other benefits were so determined by the IRS, generally we would not be reimbursed for any payments previously made under the applicable TRA (although we would reduce future amounts otherwise payable under such TRA). As a result, payments could be made under the TRA in excess of the tax savings that we realize in respect of the attributes to which the TRA relate.
The amounts that we may be required to pay to the TRA Members under the Tax Receivable Agreement may be accelerated in certain circumstances and may also significantly exceed the actual tax benefits that we ultimately realize.
The TRA provides that if certain mergers, asset sales, other forms of business combination, or other changes of control were to occur or if, at any time, we elect an early termination of the TRA, then the TRA will terminate and our obligations, or our successor’s obligations, to make future payments under the TRA would accelerate and become immediately due and payable. The amount due and payable in those circumstances is determined based on certain assumptions, including an assumption that we would have sufficient taxable income to fully utilize all potential future tax benefits that are subject to the TRA. We may need to incur debt to finance payments under the TRA to the extent our cash resources are insufficient to meet our obligations under the TRA as a result of timing discrepancies or otherwise. In these situations, our obligations under the TRA could have a substantial negative impact on our liquidity and could have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing certain mergers, asset sales, other forms of business combination, or other changes of control. There can be no assurance that we will be able to finance our obligations under the TRA. See the section titled “
Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Tax Receivable Agreement
” incorporated by reference to our 2019 Proxy Statement for additional information.
Our organizational structure, including the Tax Receivable Agreement, confers certain benefits upon Continuing Members that will not benefit Class A common stockholders to the same extent as it will benefit the Continuing Members.
Our organizational structure, including the TRA, confers certain benefits upon the Continuing Members that does not benefit the holders of our Class A common stock to the same extent as it benefits the Continuing Members. The TRA with Pluralsight Holdings and the Continuing Members provides for the payment by us to the TRA Members of
85% of the amount of tax benefits, if any, that we realize, or in some circumstances are deemed to realize, as a result of (i) the increases in the tax basis of assets of Pluralsight Holdings resulting from any redemptions or exchanges of LLC Units from the Continuing Members as described under the section titled “
Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Fourth Amended and Restated LLC Agreement
”, incorporated by reference to our 2019 Proxy Statement and (ii) certain other tax benefits related to our making payments under the TRA. See the section titled “
Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Tax Receivable Agreement
” incorporated by reference to our 2019 Proxy Statement for additional information. Although we will retain 15% of the amount of such tax benefits, this and other aspects of our organizational structure may adversely impact the trading market for the Class A common stock.
Generally, we will not be reimbursed for any payments made to TRA Members under the Tax Receivable Agreement in the event that any tax benefits are disallowed.
If the IRS challenges the tax basis or other tax attributes that give rise to payments under the TRA and the tax basis or other tax attributes are subsequently required to be adjusted, generally the recipients of payments under the TRA will not reimburse us for any payments we previously made to them. Instead, any excess cash payments made by us to a TRA Member will be netted against any future cash payments that we might otherwise be required to make under the terms of the TRA. However, a challenge to any tax benefits initially claimed by us may not arise for a number of years following the initial time of such payment or, even if challenged early, such excess cash payment may be greater than the amount of future cash payments that we might otherwise be required to make under the terms of the TRA and, as a result, there might not be future cash payments to net against. The applicable U.S. federal income tax rules are complex and factual in nature, and there can be no assurance that the IRS or a court will not disagree with our tax reporting positions. As a result, it is possible that we could make cash payments under the TRA that are substantially greater than our actual cash tax savings. See the section titled “
Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Tax Receivable Agreement
” incorporated by reference to our 2019 Proxy Statement.
The disparity between the U.S. corporate tax rate and the U.S. tax rate applicable to non-corporate members of Pluralsight Holdings may complicate our ability to maintain our intended capital structure, which could impose transaction costs on us and require management attention.
If and when we generate taxable income, Pluralsight Holdings will generally make quarterly tax distributions to each of its members, including us, based on each member’s allocable share of net taxable income (calculated under certain assumptions) multiplied by an assumed tax rate. The assumed tax rate for this purpose will be the highest effective marginal combined federal, state, and local income tax rate that may potentially apply to any member for the applicable fiscal year. The Tax Act recently significantly reduced the highest marginal federal income tax rate applicable to corporations such as Pluralsight, Inc., relative to non-corporate taxpayers. As a result of this disparity, we expect to receive tax distributions from Pluralsight Holdings significantly in excess of our actual tax liability and our obligations under the TRA, which could result in our accumulating a significant amount of cash. This would complicate our ability to maintain certain aspects of our capital structure. Such cash, if retained, could cause the value of an LLC Unit to deviate from the value of a share of Class A common stock, contrary to the one-to-one relationship described in the section titled “
Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Fourth Amended and Restated LLC Agreement
”, which is incorporated by reference to our 2019 Proxy Statement, for additional information. In addition, such cash, if used to purchase additional LLC Units, could result in deviation from the one-to-one relationship between Class A common stock outstanding and LLC Units of Pluralsight Holdings held by Pluralsight, Inc. unless a corresponding number of additional shares of Class A common stock are distributed as a stock dividend. We may choose to pay dividends to all holders of Class A common stock with any excess cash. These considerations could have unintended impacts on the pricing of our Class A common stock and may impose transaction costs and require management efforts to address on a recurring basis. To the extent that we do not distribute such excess cash as dividends on our Class A common stock and instead, for example, hold such cash balances or lend them to Pluralsight Holdings, the Continuing Members in Pluralsight Holdings during a period in which we hold such cash balances could benefit from the value attributable to such cash balances as a result of redeeming or exchanging their LLC Units and obtaining ownership of Class A common stock (or a cash payment based on the value of Class A common stock). In such case, these Continuing Members could receive disproportionate value for their LLC Units exchanged during this time frame.
Risks Related to Our Class A Common Stock
The Continuing Members have the right to have their LLC Units exchanged for shares of Class A common stock and any disclosure of such exchange or the subsequent sale of such Class A common stock may cause volatility in our stock price.
As of December 31, 2018, we have an aggregate of 72,077,054 shares of Class A common stock that are issuable upon exchange of LLC Units that are held by the Continuing Members. Under the Fourth LLC Agreement, the Continuing Members will be entitled to have their LLC Units exchanged for shares of our Class A common stock.
We cannot predict the timing, size, or disclosure of any future issuances of our Class A common stock resulting from the exchange of LLC Units or the effect, if any, that future issuances, disclosure, if any, or sales of shares of our Class A common stock may have on the market price of our Class A common stock. Sales or distributions of substantial amounts of our Class A common stock, or the perception that such sales or distributions could occur, may cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline.
The multi-class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with Aaron Skonnard, our co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman; this limits or precludes your ability to influence corporate matters and may have a negative impact on the price of our Class A common stock.
Our Class C common stock has 10 votes per share, our Class B common stock has one vote per share, and our Class A common stock, our publicly traded stock, has one vote per share. Aaron Skonnard, our co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman, personally and through his associated entities, holds all of our issued and outstanding Class C common stock and as of December 31, 2018 holds approximately 54.5% of the combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock. As restricted share units of Pluralsight Holdings held by Mr. Skonnard vest over time, he will receive additional LLC Units and Class C common stock with 10 votes per share. As a result, Mr. Skonnard and his associated entities have the ability to control or significantly influence any action requiring the general approval of our stockholders, including the election and removal of our directors, amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, the approval of any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets, or other major corporate transaction. Many of these actions may be taken even if they are opposed by other stockholders. This concentration of ownership and voting power may also delay, defer, or even prevent an acquisition by a third party or other change of control of us and may make some transactions more difficult or impossible without his support, even if such events are in the best interests of other stockholders. This concentration of voting power with Mr. Skonnard and his associated entities may have a negative impact on the price of our Class A common stock.
As our Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Skonnard has control over our day-to-day management and the implementation of major strategic investments of our company, subject to authorization and oversight by our board of directors. As a board member and officer, Mr. Skonnard owes fiduciary duties to us and our stockholders, including those of care and loyalty, and must act in good faith and with a view to the interests of the corporation. As a stockholder, even a controlling stockholder, Mr. Skonnard is entitled to vote his shares, and shares over which he has voting control, in his own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our stockholders generally. Because Mr. Skonnard, personally and through his associated entities, holds his economic interest in our business primarily through Pluralsight Holdings, rather than through the public company, he may have conflicting interests with holders of shares of our Class A common stock. For example, Mr. Skonnard may have a different tax position from us, which could influence his decisions regarding whether and when we should dispose of assets or incur new or refinance existing indebtedness, especially in light of the existence of the TRA, and whether and when we should undergo certain changes of control within the meaning of the TRA or terminate the TRA. In addition, the structuring of future transactions may take into consideration these tax or other considerations even where no similar benefit would accrue to us. See the section titled “
Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Tax Receivable Agreement
” incorporated by reference to our 2019 Proxy Statement for additional information. In addition, Mr. Skonnard’s significant ownership in us and resulting ability to effectively control or significantly influence us may discourage someone from making a significant equity investment in us, or could discourage transactions involving a change in control, including transactions in which you as a holder of shares of our Class A common stock might otherwise receive a premium for your shares over the then-current market price.
Certain proxy advisory firms, including Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services, have expressed concern over dual-class and multi-class structures in public companies. In particular, Glass Lewis has indicated that, in certain situations, it views such structures as severely restricting stockholder rights. This may lead Glass Lewis to recommend that stockholders vote against directors who served on a company’s board of directors when such structure was adopted.
In addition, in July 2017, Standard & Poor’s announced that they would cease to allow most newly public companies utilizing dual or multi-class capital structures to be included in their indices. Affected indices include the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400, and S&P SmallCap 600, which together make up the S&P Composite 1500. Under the announced policies, our multi-class capital structure would make us ineligible for inclusion in any of these indices, and as a result, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and other investment vehicles that attempt to passively track these indices will not be investing in our stock. These policies are new and it is as of yet unclear what effect, if any, they will have on the valuations of publicly traded companies excluded from the indices, but it is possible that they may depress these valuations compared to those of other similar companies that are included.
Although we do not rely on the “controlled company” exemption under the rules and regulations of Nasdaq, we have the right to use such exemption and therefore we could in the future avail ourselves of certain reduced corporate governance requirements.
Aaron Skonnard and his associated entities, collectively, hold a majority of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock, and therefore we are considered a “controlled company” as that term is set forth in the rules and regulations of Nasdaq. Under these rules, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by a person or group of persons acting together is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain rules and regulations of Nasdaq regarding corporate governance, including:
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the requirement that a majority of its board of directors consist of independent directors;
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the requirement that its director nominees be selected or recommended for the board’s selection by a majority of the board’s independent directors in a vote in which only independent directors participate or by a nominating committee comprised solely of independent directors, in either case, with board resolutions or a written charter, as applicable, addressing the nominations process and related matters as required under the federal securities laws; and
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the requirement that its compensation committee be composed entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities.
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These requirements would not apply to us if, in the future, we choose to avail ourselves of the “controlled company” exemption. Although we qualify as a “controlled company,” we do not currently rely on these exemptions and we fully comply with all corporate governance requirements under the rules and regulations of Nasdaq, including any phase-in periods specified thereunder. However, if we were to utilize some or all of these exemptions, we would not comply with certain of the corporate governance standards of Nasdaq, which could adversely affect the protections for other stockholders.
Our stock price has been volatile and may continue to be volatile, and it may decline regardless of our operating performance.
Prior to our IPO, there was no public market for shares of our Class A common stock. On May 17, 2018, we sold shares of our Class A common stock to the public at $15.00 per share. From May 17, 2018, the date that shares of our Class A common stock began trading on Nasdaq, through December 31, 2018, the market price for our Class A common stock has ranged from $17.88 per share to $38.37 per share. The market price of our Class A common stock may continue to fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including, among others:
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actual or anticipated fluctuations in our revenue and other results of operations, including as a result of the addition or loss of any number of customers;
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announcements by us or our competitors of significant technical innovations, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, or capital commitments;
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the financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in these projections, or our failure to meet these projections;
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failure of securities analysts to initiate or maintain coverage of us, changes in ratings and financial estimates and the publication of other news by any securities analysts who follow our company, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;
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changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of SaaS-based software or other technology companies, or those in our industry in particular;
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the size of our public float;
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price and volume fluctuations in the trading of our Class A common stock and in the overall stock market, including as a result of trends in the economy as a whole;
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new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business or industry, including data privacy, data protection, and information security;
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lawsuits threatened or filed against us for claims relating to intellectual property, employment issues, or otherwise;
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changes in our board of directors or management;
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short sales, hedging, and other derivative transactions involving our Class A common stock;
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sales of large blocks of our Class A common stock including sales by our executive officers, directors, and significant stockholders; and
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other events or factors, including changes in general economic, industry, and market conditions, and trends, as well as any natural disasters, which may affect our operations.
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In addition, the stock markets have experienced price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many technology companies. Stock prices of many technology companies have fluctuated in a manner unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In the past, stockholders have instituted securities class action litigation following periods of market volatility. If we were to become involved in securities litigation, it could subject us to substantial costs, divert resources and the attention of management, and harm our business.
Future sales of shares by existing stockholders could cause our stock price to decline.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock in the public market could occur at any time. If our stockholders sell, or the market perceives that our stockholders intend to sell, substantial amounts of our Class A common stock in the public market, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or if they downgrade our common stock, the price of our Class A common stock could decline.
The trading market for our Class A common stock depends, in part, on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. We do not have any control over these analysts. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price would likely decline. In addition, if our results of operations fail to meet the forecast of analysts, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our Class A common stock could decrease, which might cause our stock price and trading volume to decline.
Our issuance of additional capital stock in connection with financings, acquisitions, investments, our equity incentive plans, or otherwise will dilute all other stockholders.
We expect to issue additional capital stock in the future that will result in dilution to all other stockholders. For example, we expect to grant equity awards under our equity incentive plans. We may also raise capital through equity financings in the future. As part of our business strategy, we may acquire or make investments in complementary companies, products, or technologies, and issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisition or investment. Any such issuances of additional capital stock may cause stockholders to experience significant dilution of their ownership interests and the per share value of our Class A common stock to decline.
We generally do not intend to pay dividends.
We generally do not intend to pay dividends to the holders of our Class A common stock for the foreseeable future, except possibly in connection with maintaining certain aspects of our UP-C structure. See the section titled “—Risks Related to Our Organizational Structure—The disparity between the U.S. corporate tax rate and the U.S. tax rate applicable to non-corporate members of Pluralsight Holdings may complicate our ability to maintain our intended capital structure, which could impose transaction costs on us and require management attention.” Our ability to pay dividends on our Class A common stock may be restricted by the terms of any future debt incurred or preferred securities issued by us or our subsidiaries or law. Payments of future dividends, if any, will be at the discretion of our board of directors after taking into account various factors, including our business, financial condition, and results of operations, current and anticipated cash needs, plans for expansion and any legal or contractual limitation on our ability to pay dividends. As a result, any capital appreciation in the price of our Class A common stock may be your only source of gain on your investment in our Class A common stock.
If, however, we decide to pay a dividend in the future, we would likely need to cause Pluralsight Holdings to make distributions to Pluralsight, Inc. in an amount sufficient to cover cash dividends, if any, declared by us.
Deterioration in the consolidated financial condition, earnings, or cash flow of Pluralsight Holdings for any reason could limit or impair its ability to pay cash distributions or other distributions to us. In addition, our ability to pay dividends in the future is dependent upon our receipt of cash from Pluralsight Holdings and its subsidiaries. Pluralsight Holdings and its subsidiaries may be restricted from distributing cash to us by, among other things, law or the documents governing our existing or future indebtedness.
Some provisions of Delaware law and our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may deter third parties from acquiring us and diminish the value of our Class A common stock.
Our status as a Delaware corporation and the anti-takeover provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law may discourage, delay, or prevent a change in control by prohibiting us from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the person becomes an interested stockholder, even if a change of control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws provide for, among other things:
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a classified board of directors with staggered three year terms;
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that stockholders may remove directors only for cause;
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our multi-class structure, which provides Aaron Skonnard, our co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman, personally and through his associated entities, the ability to control or significantly influence the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval;
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the ability of our board of directors to issue one or more series of preferred stock with voting or other rights or preferences that could have the effect of impeding the success of an attempt to acquire us or otherwise effect a change in control;
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advance notice for nominations of directors by stockholders and for stockholders to include matters to be considered at stockholder meetings;
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a prohibition on stockholders calling special stockholder meetings; and
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certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws that may be amended only by the affirmative vote of the holders of at least two-thirds in voting power of all outstanding shares of our stock entitled to vote thereon, voting together as a single class.
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These anti-takeover defenses could discourage, delay, or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of our company. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for stockholders to elect directors of their choosing and to cause us to take other corporate actions they desire, any of which, under certain circumstances, 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 designate a state or federal court located within the State of Delaware as the exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that, for (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers, or other employees of ours or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, or our amended and restated bylaws, or (iv) any other action asserting a claim that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine, the exclusive forum shall be a state or federal court located within the State of Delaware, in substantially all cases. Our amended and restated bylaws also provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States shall be the sole and exclusive forum for any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to the Securities Act, such a provision known as a “Federal Forum Provision.” Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in our shares of capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to these provisions. These exclusive-forum provisions 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.
In light of the decision issued by the Delaware Court of Chancery in Matthew Sciabacucchi v. Matthew B. Salzberg et al., C.A. No. 2017-0931-JTL (Del. Ch.), finding Federal Forum Provisions are not valid under Delaware law, we do not intend to enforce the Federal Forum Provision in our amended and restated bylaws unless and until such time there is a final determination by the Delaware Supreme Court regarding the validity of such provisions. To the extent the Delaware Supreme Court makes a final determination that provisions such as the Federal Forum Provision are not valid as a matter of Delaware law, our board of directors intends to amend our amended and restated bylaws to remove the Federal Forum Provision.
If we face relevant litigation and are unable to enforce these provisions, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, financial condition, or results of operations.