Item 1A. Risk Factors
An investment in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below and all other information contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including our condensed consolidated financial statements and the related notes, before making a decision to invest in our common stock. Our business, operating results, financial condition or prospects could be materially and adversely affected by any of these risks and uncertainties. In that case, the trading price of our common stock could decline and you might lose all or part of your investment. In addition, the risks and uncertainties discussed below are not the only ones we face. Our business, operating results, financial performance or prospects could also be harmed by risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently do not believe are material. In assessing the risks and uncertainties described below, you should also refer to the other information contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q before making a decision to invest in our common stock.
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
We have a history of losses, and we may not become profitable or maintain profitability.
Since our inception in 1999, we have incurred a net loss in each fiscal year except 2010 and in each of our fiscal quarters except for the three months ended January 31, 2016. During the three and nine months ended
April 30, 2016
, we generated a net loss of
$5.7 million
and
$3.4 million
and as of
April 30, 2016
, we had an accumulated deficit of
$210.0 million
. We may not become profitable in the future or may be unable to maintain any profitability achieved if we fail to increase our net revenue and manage our expenses or if we incur unanticipated liabilities. Revenue growth may slow or revenue may decline for a number of reasons, including slowing demand for our products or services as we experienced during the three months ended April 30, 2016, increasing competition, the timing of revenue recognition, lengthening sales cycles, decelerating growth of, or declines in, our overall market, or our failure to capitalize on growth opportunities or to introduce new products and services. In addition, we expect that our operating expenses, including stock-based compensation, will continue to increase in all areas in the near term before our efforts to reduce our overall cost structure take effect. Any failure by us to achieve and maintain profitability could cause the price of our common stock to decline significantly.
Our recent growth rates may not be indicative of our future growth, and we may not continue to grow at our recent pace or at all.
Our continued business and revenue growth will depend, in part, on our ability to continue to sell our products to new end customers, sell additional products to our existing end customers, introduce new products or enhancements and increase our share of and compete successfully in new, growing markets, and we may fail to do so. For example, during the third fiscal quarter of 2016, we experienced challenges in our revenue growth and we anticipate that we will experience a slowing of our revenue growth for the remainder of fiscal 2016. We also expect to experience slower revenue growth to the extent our subscription-based offerings represent a growing portion of our sales as revenue from such sales is recognized ratably over multiple quarters as opposed to being recognized in the quarter of sale. Accordingly, you should not consider our historical growth rate in net revenue as indicative of our future growth.
Our net revenue and operating results could vary significantly from period to period and be unpredictable, which could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
The sale and licensing of our products generates a significant portion of our net revenue. The timing of sales and licensing of products can be difficult to predict and can result in significant fluctuations in our net revenue from period to period. Our operating results have fluctuated significantly in the past, and may continue to fluctuate in the future, as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result, comparing our net revenue and operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful, and you should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance.
We have based our current and projected future expense levels on our operating plans and sales forecasts, and our operating costs are relatively fixed in the short term. As a result, we may not be able to reduce our costs sufficiently to compensate for an unexpected shortfall in net revenue, and even a small shortfall in net revenue could disproportionately and adversely affect our financial results for a given quarter.
It is possible that our operating results in some periods may be below market expectations. This would likely cause the market price of our common stock to decline. In addition to the other risk factors listed in this section, our operating results may be affected by a number of factors, including:
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the timing of sales of our products and services;
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the inherent complexity, length and associated unpredictability of our sales cycles, including the varying budgetary cycles and purchasing priorities of our end customers;
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the timing of revenue recognition as a result of guidance under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States;
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the loss or delay of any anticipated large sales in a given quarterly period.
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fluctuations in demand for our products and services, including seasonal variations;
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the timing of and rate and discounts at which customers replace older generations of products;
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the mix of products, services and product solution configurations sold during the period;
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the timing of the resale of our products sold to distributors for which we generally recognize revenue upon reported sell-through;
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the mix of distribution channels through which our products and services are sold;
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the timing and success of changes in our product offerings or those of our competitors;
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changes in our or our competitors' pricing policies or sales terms;
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the mix of products with subscription based pricing for which revenue is recognized ratably over multiple quarters as opposed to being recognized in the quarter of sale;
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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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our ability to control costs, including the costs of our third-party manufacturers;
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the ability to obtain sufficient supplies of components at acceptable prices, or at all;
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the timing of costs related to the development or acquisition of technologies or businesses;
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our inability to complete or integrate efficiently any acquisitions that we may undertake;
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changes in the regulatory environment for our products domestically and internationally;
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claims of intellectual property infringement against us and any resulting temporary or permanent injunction prohibiting us from selling our products or requirement to pay damages or expenses associated with any of those claims; and
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general economic conditions in our domestic and international markets.
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Further, end customer buying patterns and sales cycles can vary significantly from quarter to quarter and are not subject to an established pattern over the course of a quarter. Accordingly, at the beginning of a quarter, we have limited visibility into the level of sales that will be made in that quarter. If expected net revenue at the end of any quarter is reduced or delayed for any reason, including, among other things, the failure of anticipated purchase orders to materialize, our inability to deliver products prior to quarter-end to fulfill purchase orders received near the end of the quarter, our failure to manage inventory properly in a way to meet demand, or our inability to release new products on schedule, our net revenue and operating results for that quarter could be materially and adversely affected.
As a result of the foregoing factors, our operating results in one or more future periods may fail to meet or exceed our projections or the expectations of securities analysts or investors. In that event, the trading price of our common stock would likely decline.
Since large sales may have a significant impact on our results from time to time, our quarterly results are subject to wide fluctuations.
We are increasing the focus of our sales and marketing efforts on large enterprise and service provider customers, which tend to have large and complex networks. We believe such customers have a greater need and budget for the solutions that we offer than smaller customers, and therefore we can sell more products and services to them. We expect that any relatively large sales that we may receive from time to time in the future would have a significant impact on our product and licenses revenues in the quarter in which we recognize revenues from these sales. Large sales make our net revenues and operating results more likely to vary from quarter to quarter because the number of large sales is expected to vary from period to period. The loss of any particular large sale in any period could be significant. As a result, our operating results could suffer if any large sales are delayed or canceled in any future period.
If we are unable to introduce new products successfully and to make enhancements to existing products, our growth rates would likely decline and our business, results of operations and competitive position could suffer.
We invest substantial amounts of time and resources in researching and developing new products and enhancing existing products by incorporating additional features, improving functionality and adding other improvements to meet end customers' rapidly evolving demands in our highly competitive industry. For example, we introduced our Infoblox Internal DNS Security solution in May 2015. From time to time, we also invest in the acquisition of businesses, products or technologies to expand our offerings and help us enter into new growing markets. For example, in February 2016, we acquired IID Security, Inc., a provider of global threat intelligence. We typically make these investments without being certain that they will result in products or enhancements that the market will accept or that they will expand our share of those markets. The sizes of the markets currently addressed by our products are not certain, and our ability to grow our business in the future may depend upon our ability to introduce new products or enhance and improve our existing products for those markets or entry into new markets. Our growth would likely be adversely affected if we fail to introduce these new products or enhancements, fail to successfully manage the transition to new products from the products they are replacing or do not invest our development efforts in appropriate products or enhancements for significant new markets, or if these new products or enhancements do not attain market acceptance.
Our new products or enhancements could fail to attain sufficient market acceptance for many reasons, including:
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the timeliness of the introduction and delivery of our products or enhancements;
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our failure or inability to predict changes in our industry or end customers' demands or to design products or enhancements that meet end customers' increasing demands;
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defects, errors or failures in any of our products or enhancements;
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the inability of our products and enhancements to interoperate effectively with products from other vendors or to operate successfully in the networks of prospective end customers;
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negative publicity about the performance or effectiveness of our products or enhancements;
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reluctance of end customers to purchase products that incorporate elements of open source software;
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failure of our channel partners to market, support or distribute our products or enhancements effectively; and
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changes in government or industry standards and criteria.
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Our products or enhancements may have limited value to us if they fail to achieve market acceptance, and there can be no assurance that our sales efforts will be effective or that we will realize a positive return on any of these investments, even if the resultant products or enhancements achieve market acceptance.
Our end customers expect timely introduction of new products and enhancements to respond to new feature requests. Since developing new products or new versions of, or add-ons to, our existing products is complex, the timetable for their commercial release is difficult to predict and may vary from historical experience, which could result in delays in their introduction from anticipated or announced release dates. We may not offer updates as rapidly as our end customers require or expect. If we do not respond to the rapidly changing needs of our end customers by developing and introducing new and effective products on a timely basis, features, upgrades and services that can respond adequately to their needs, our competitive position, business and growth prospects will be harmed.
Sales of our Trinzic DDI family of products generate most of our products and licenses revenue, and if we are unable to continue to grow sales of these products, our operating results and profitability will suffer.
Historically, we have derived the substantial majority of our products and licenses revenue from sales of products in our Trinzic DDI family and their predecessors, and we expect sales of our Trinzic DDI family of products to have a similar contribution to product and licenses revenue for the foreseeable future. A decline in the price of these products and related services, whether due to competition or otherwise, or our inability to increase sales of these products, would harm our business and operating results more seriously than it would if we derived significant revenue from a variety of product lines and services. Our future financial performance will also depend upon successfully developing and selling enhanced versions of our Trinzic DDI family of products. Since the second quarter of fiscal year 2015, our net revenue has benefited from product sales to existing customers who upgraded from our prior generation of appliances approaching their end of support to current Trinzic DDI appliances. The benefit from this upgrade cycle decreased in the third quarter of fiscal year 2016, and we expect it will further decrease during the remainder of fiscal 2016. If we fail to deliver product enhancements, new releases or new products that meet the needs of our end customers, it will be more difficult for us to succeed. Moreover, our strategy depends upon our products being able to solve critical network management problems for our end customers. If our Trinzic DDI family of products is unable to solve these problems for our end customers or if we are unable to sustain the high levels of innovation in our Trinzic DDI product feature set needed to maintain leadership in what will continue to be a competitive market environment, our business and results of operations will be harmed.
The demand for our network control solution and related services may not grow as we expect.
The demand for network control depends upon the increasing size and complexity of networks, which may be driven by the rapid growth of new network-connected devices and applications, the adoption of IPv6 and the proliferation of virtualization and cloud computing. The market for network control products has increased in recent years as organizations have deployed more devices and applications on their networks and increased the number of virtual machines in use. Our business plan assumes that the demand for network control will increase based on the foregoing factors. Ultimately, however, the factors driving demand for network control may not develop as quickly as we anticipate, or at all, and the growth of our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.
If we are unable to attract new end customers or to sell additional products to our existing end customers, our revenue growth will be adversely affected and our net revenue could decrease.
To increase our net revenue, we must continually add new end customers and sell additional products to existing end customers. While we have recently increased the focus of our sales and marketing efforts on large enterprise and service provider customers to achieve these objectives, there can be no assurance this strategy will be effective as to these potential customers or at increasing our overall sales. In addition, we have hired new personnel and added other resources to our sales function as we focus on growing our business, entering new markets and increasing our market share. We expect in the near term to incur additional expenses with respect to our sales and marketing efforts worldwide before our efforts to reduce our overall cost structure take effect. The return on these and future investments may be lower, or may be realized more slowly, than we expect. For example, despite these investments into the growth of our sales function, since the first quarter of fiscal year 2015, we have experienced higher turnover in sales personnel than in the past, which will likely reduce some of the benefits we expected from such investments and could make it more difficult for us to implement our sales execution strategies and otherwise attract new end customers or expand sales among our existing end customers. Furthermore, during the third fiscal quarter of 2016, we experienced challenges in our revenue growth. If we do not achieve the benefits anticipated from our investments, or if the achievement of these benefits is delayed, our growth rates will decline and our operating results would likely be adversely affected.
We compete in rapidly evolving markets, and our failure to respond quickly and effectively to changing market requirements could cause our business and key operating metrics to decline.
The network control market is characterized by rapidly changing technology, changing customer needs, evolving industry standards and frequent introductions of new products and services. For example, in order to be competitive, our solution must be capable of operating with and managing an ever increasing array of network devices and an increasingly complex network environment. In some cases, the ability of our solution to interoperate with and manage third-party devices may require licenses from the device manufacturers or other third parties, and we may not be able to obtain necessary licenses on acceptable terms or at all. In addition, our solution must be compatible with industry standards for networks. As new networking devices are introduced and standards in the networking market evolve, we may be required to modify our products and services to make them compatible with these new devices and standards. Likewise, if our competitors introduce new products and services that compete with ours, or offer solutions which incorporate functionality we offer, we may be required to reposition our product and service offerings or to introduce new products and services in response to that competitive pressure. We may not be successful in modifying our current products or introducing new ones in a timely or appropriately responsive manner, or at all. If we fail to address these shifts in the competitive landscape successfully, our business and operating results could be materially harmed.
Our sales cycles can be long and unpredictable, and our sales efforts require considerable time and expense. As a result, our sales and revenue are difficult to predict and may vary substantially from period to period, which may cause our operating results to fluctuate significantly.
The timing of our sales and revenue recognition is difficult to predict because of the length and unpredictability of our products’ sales cycles. A sales cycle is the period between initial contact with a prospective end customer and any sale of our products. End customer orders often involve the purchase of multiple products. These orders are complex and difficult to complete because prospective end customers generally consider a number of factors over an extended period of time before committing to purchase network control products, such as the solution we sell. End customers often view the purchase of our products as a significant and strategic decision and require considerable time to evaluate, test and qualify our products prior to making a purchase decision and placing an order. The length of time that end customers devote to their evaluation, contract negotiation and budgeting processes varies significantly. The length of our products’ sales cycles typically ranges from three to twelve months but can be more than eighteen months. During the sales cycle, we expend significant time and money on sales and marketing activities and make investments in evaluation equipment, all of which lower our operating margins, particularly if no sale occurs. Moreover, we are subject to the risk that turnover in our sales personnel reduces the efficiency and effectiveness of our sales execution, which could lengthen our sales cycle, lower our operating margins and increase the likelihood that no sale occurs. Even if an end customer makes a decision to purchase our products, there are many factors affecting the timing of our recognition of revenue, which makes our revenue difficult to forecast. For example, there may be unexpected delays in an end customer’s internal procurement processes, particularly for some of our larger end customers for which our products represent a very small percentage of their total procurement activity. There are many other factors specific to end customers that contribute to the timing of their purchases and the variability of our revenue recognition, including the strategic importance of a particular project to an end customer, budgetary constraints and changes in their personnel. Even after an end customer makes a purchase, there may in some cases be circumstances or terms relating to the purchase that delay our ability to recognize revenue from that purchase. In addition, the significance and timing of our product enhancements, and the introduction of new products by our competitors, may also affect end customers’ purchases. For all of these reasons, it is difficult to predict whether a sale will be completed, the particular fiscal period in which a sale will be completed or the period in which revenue from a sale will be recognized. If our sales cycles lengthen, our net revenue could be lower than expected, which would have an adverse impact on our operating results and could cause our stock price to decline.
We compete in highly competitive markets, and competitive pressures from existing and new companies may adversely impact our business and operating results.
The markets in which we compete are highly competitive. We expect competition to intensify in the future as existing competitors and new market entrants introduce new products into our markets. This competition could result in increased pricing pressure, reduced profit margins, increased sales and marketing expenses and our failure to increase, or the loss of, market share, any of which would likely seriously harm our business, operating results and financial condition. If we do not keep pace with product and technology advances and otherwise keep our product offerings competitive, there could be a material and adverse effect on our competitive position, revenue and prospects for growth.
We compete primarily with large technology companies, such as BMC Software, Inc., EMC Corporation, F5 Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, International Business Machines Corporation, Microsoft Corporation and Palo Alto Networks, telecommunication equipment providers, such as Alcatel-Lucent and British Telecom, and specialized technology providers, such as BlueCat Networks, Inc., Efficient IP, Inc. and Nominum, Inc. We also seek to replace network control tools and processes in which end customers have made significant investments. These tools and processes may have been purchased or internally-developed based on open source software or other technology, and end customers may be reluctant to adopt a new solution that replaces or changes their existing tools and processes.
Many of our competitors are substantially larger and have greater financial, technical, research and development, sales and marketing, manufacturing, distribution and other resources and greater name recognition. We could also face competition from new market entrants, some of which might be our current technology partners. Many of our existing and potential competitors enjoy substantial competitive advantages, such as:
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longer operating histories;
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the capacity to leverage their sales efforts and marketing expenditures across a broader portfolio of products;
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broader distribution and established relationships with channel partners;
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access to larger end customer bases;
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greater end customer support;
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greater resources to make acquisitions;
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larger intellectual property portfolios;
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the ability to bundle competitive offerings with other products and services;
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less stringent accounting requirements, resulting in greater flexibility in pricing and terms; and
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lower labor and development costs.
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As a result, increased competition could result in fewer end customer orders, price reductions, reduced operating margins and loss of market share. Our competitors also may be able to provide end customers with capabilities or benefits different from or greater than those we can provide in areas such as product functionality, technical qualifications or geographic presence, or to provide end customers a broader range of products, services and prices. In addition, large competitors may have more extensive relationships within existing and potential end customers that provide them with an advantage in competing for business with those end customers. Our ability to compete will depend upon our ability to provide a better solution than our competitors at a competitive price. We may be required to make substantial additional investments in research, development, marketing and sales in order to respond to competition, and there is no assurance that these investments will achieve any returns for us or that we will be able to compete successfully in the future.
We also expect increased competition if our market continues to expand. Conditions in our market could change rapidly and significantly as a result of technological advancements or other factors. In addition, current or potential competitors may be acquired by third parties that have greater resources available. As a result of these acquisitions, our current or potential competitors might take advantage of the greater resources of the larger organization to compete more vigorously or broadly with us. In addition, continued industry consolidation might adversely impact end customers’ perceptions of the viability of smaller and even medium-sized networking companies and, consequently, end customers’ willingness to purchase from those companies.
Acquisitions and investments could result in operating difficulties, dilution and other harmful consequences.
In February 2016, we acquired IID Security, Inc., a provider of global threat intelligence. We expect to continue to evaluate and enter into discussions regarding potential strategic transactions. These transactions could be material to our financial condition and results of operations. The process of integrating businesses and technology can create unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures as could the integration of any future acquisitions. The areas where we face risks include:
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implementation or remediation of controls, procedures and policies at the acquired company;
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diversion of management time and focus from operating our business to addressing acquisition integration challenges;
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coordination of product, engineering and sales and marketing functions;
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transition of the acquired company’s operations, users and end customers onto our existing platforms;
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retention of employees from the acquired company;
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cultural challenges associated with integrating employees from the acquired company into our organization;
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integration of the acquired company's accounting, management information, human resources and other administrative systems;
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liability for activities of the acquired company before the acquisition, including patent and trademark infringement claims, violations of laws, commercial disputes, tax liabilities and other known and unknown liabilities;
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litigation or other claims in connection with the acquired company, including claims from terminated employees, end customers, former stockholders or other third parties;
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in the case of foreign acquisitions, the need to integrate operations across different cultures and languages and to address the particular economic, currency, political and regulatory risks associated with specific countries;
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diversion of engineering resources away from development of our core products; and
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failure to continue to develop the acquired technology successfully.
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Our failure to address these risks or other problems encountered in connection with our past or future acquisitions and investments could cause us to fail to realize the anticipated benefits of these acquisitions or investments, cause us to incur unanticipated liabilities and harm our business generally. Future acquisitions could also result in the use of substantial amounts of our cash and cash equivalents, dilutive issuances of our equity securities, the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities, amortization expenses or the write-off of goodwill, any of which could harm our financial condition. Also, the anticipated benefits of any acquisitions may not materialize, may be less beneficial, or may develop more slowly, than we expect. If we do not receive the benefits anticipated from these acquisitions and investments, or if the achievement of these benefits is delayed, our operating results may be adversely affected.
The developing and rapidly evolving nature of our business and the markets in which we operate may make it difficult to evaluate our business.
Since our inception in 1999 we have been creating products for the developing and rapidly evolving market for network control. Our initial products were appliances that supported reliable connectivity to networks. We have expanded our product focus through internal development and acquisitions of products and technologies. Acquisitions of this kind may cause uncertainties related to their integration into our business and there can be no assurance that we will realize the anticipated benefits of these acquisitions. In addition, we may have difficulty in our business and financial planning because of the developing nature of the markets in which we operate and the evolving nature of our business. Because we depend in part on market acceptance of our products, it is difficult to evaluate trends that may affect our business and whether our expansion will be profitable. Thus, any predictions about our future revenue and expenses may not be as accurate as they would be if our business and market were more mature and stable.
Adverse economic conditions may adversely impact our business.
Our business depends on the overall demand for IT and on the economic health of our current and prospective end customers. In addition, the purchase of our products is often discretionary and may involve a significant commitment of capital and other resources. General worldwide economic conditions have experienced significant instability in recent years, impacting availability of credit and business confidence and activity and causing other difficulties that may affect one or more of the industries to which we sell our products and services. In particular, in the three months ended April 30, 2016, we experienced a weaker IT spending environment, especially in North America. If economic conditions in the United States, Europe and other key markets for our products deteriorate further, many end customers may delay or reduce their IT spending. This could result in reductions in sales of our products and services, longer sales cycles, slower adoption of new technologies and increased price competition. Any of these events would likely harm our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, there can be no assurance that IT spending levels will increase following any recovery.
We base our inventory purchasing decisions on our forecasts of end customer demand, and if our forecasts are inaccurate, our operating results could be materially harmed.
We place orders with our third-party manufacturers based on our forecasts of our end customers’ requirements and forecasts provided by our channel partners. These forecasts are based on multiple assumptions, each of which might cause our estimates to be inaccurate, affecting our ability to provide products to our customers. When demand for our products increases significantly, we may not be able to meet it on a timely basis, and we may need to expend a significant amount of time working with our customers to allocate limited supply and maintain positive customer relations, or we may incur additional costs to rush the manufacture and delivery of additional products. If we or our channel partners underestimate end customer demand, we may forego revenue opportunities, lose market share and damage our end customer relationships. Conversely, if we overestimate end customer demand, we may maintain more finished goods or raw materials inventory than we are able to sell when we expect to or at all. If our channel partners overestimate end customer demand, our channel partners may accumulate excess inventory, which could cause a reduction of purchases from us in future quarters. As a result, we could have excess or obsolete inventory, resulting in a decline in its value, which would increase our cost of revenue and reduce our liquidity. Our failure to manage inventory accurately relative to demand would adversely affect our operating results.
We rely on our channel partners, including distributors, integrators, managed service providers and value-added resellers. A decrease in their sales of our products would materially and adversely affect our operating results.
A significant majority of our net revenue is generated from sales through our channel partners, including third-party distributors, integrators, managed service providers and VARs, that market or sell networking equipment, software and other products and services to end customers. We expect these channel partners to continue to have a similar impact on our net revenue for the foreseeable future, as we invest in and expand our channel relationships, particularly those with large managed service providers. Accordingly, our future growth will depend in part on our channel partners’ ability to market and sell our products and services. In general, our contracts with our channel partners do not contain minimum purchase commitments and allow them to exercise significant discretion regarding the promotion of our products and services, meaning our channel partners could cease to sell our products and services, choose to market, sell and support products and services that are competitive with ours or choose to devote more resources to the marketing, sales and support of those competitive products. As a result, our net revenue would decrease if our competitors were effective in providing incentives to existing and potential channel partners to favor their products over ours or to prevent or reduce sales of our products. Our net revenue might also be negatively affected by our failure to hire and retain sufficient qualified sales personnel internally since our channel partners depend on significant support from our internal sales personnel. Even if our channel partners actively and effectively promote our products and services, there can be no assurance that their efforts will result in growth of our net revenue. In addition, to the extent we fail to attract, train and maintain a sufficient number of high-quality channel partners, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected. Recruiting and retaining qualified channel partners, particularly large managed service providers, is difficult. Training new channel partners regarding our technology and products requires significant time and resources, and it may take several months or more to achieve significant sales from new channel partners. We may also change our channel distribution model in one or more regions, such as by adding a distribution tier to our sales channel in North America to support our VARs, such change might not improve our channel partners’ effectiveness and could result in decreases to our gross margins and declining profitability. In order to develop and expand our distribution channels, we must continue to scale and improve our processes and procedures that support these channels, including investment in systems and training, and those processes and procedures may become increasingly complex and difficult to manage.
By relying on channel partners, we may in some cases have little contact with the end customers of our products, thereby making it more difficult for us to ensure proper delivery, installation and support of our products, service ongoing end customer requirements and respond to evolving end customer needs. In addition, our use of channel partners could subject us to lawsuits, potential liability, reputational harm and other negative consequences if, for example, a sales channel partner misrepresents the functionality of our products or services to end customers or violates laws or our corporate policies.
In particular, violations of laws or key control policies by our channel partners, despite our efforts to prevent them, could result in delays in revenue recognition, financial reporting misstatements, fines, penalties, or the prohibition of the importation or exportation of our products and services and could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Accordingly, if we fail to manage our channel partners effectively, our business would be seriously harmed.
We are exposed to the credit risk of our channel partners and end customers, which could result in material losses and negatively impact our operating results.
Most of our sales are on an open credit basis, with typical payment terms of 30 days. Because of local customs or conditions, payment terms may be longer in some circumstances and markets. If any of the channel partners or end customers responsible for a significant portion of our net revenue becomes insolvent or suffers a deterioration in its financial or business condition and is unable to pay for our products, our results of operations could be harmed.
Our business depends on end customers renewing their maintenance and support contracts. Any decline in maintenance renewals could harm our future operating results.
We typically sell our products with maintenance and support as part of the initial purchase, and a substantial portion of our annual net revenue comes from renewals of maintenance and support contracts. Our end customers have no obligation to renew their maintenance and support contracts after the expiration of the initial period, and they may elect not to renew their maintenance and support contracts, to renew their maintenance and support contracts at lower prices through alternative channel partners or to reduce the product quantity under their maintenance and support contracts, thereby reducing our future net revenue from maintenance and support contracts. If our end customers do not renew their maintenance and support contracts or if they renew them on terms that are less favorable to us, our net revenue may decline and our business will suffer.
Our ability to sell our products is highly dependent on the quality of our support and services offerings, and our failure to offer high-quality support and services could have a material and adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Once our products are deployed within our end customers’ networks, our end customers depend on our support organization and our channel partners to resolve any issues relating to our products. High-quality support is critical for the successful marketing and sale of our products. If we or our channel partners do not assist our end customers in deploying our products effectively, succeed in helping our customers resolve post-deployment issues quickly, or provide ongoing support, it could adversely affect our ability to sell our products to existing end customers and could harm our reputation with potential end customers. In addition, as we expand our operations internationally, our support organization will face additional challenges, including those associated with delivering support, training and documentation in languages other than English. Our failure or the failure of our channel partners to maintain high-quality support and services could have a material and adverse effect on our business and operating results.
Claims by others that we infringe their intellectual property rights could harm our business.
Our industry is characterized by vigorous pursuit and protection of intellectual property rights, which has resulted in protracted and expensive litigation for many companies. Third parties have asserted and may in the future assert claims of misappropriation of trade secrets or infringement of intellectual property rights against us or against our end customers or channel partners for which we may be liable.
As our business expands, the number of products and competitors in our markets increases and product overlaps occur, infringement claims may increase in number and significance. In this regard, we have been sued in the past for alleged patent infringement. Intellectual property lawsuits are subject to inherent uncertainties due to the complexity of the technical issues involved, and we cannot be certain that we will be successful in defending ourselves against intellectual property claims. In addition, we currently have a more limited portfolio of issued patents than our major competitors, and therefore may not be able to utilize our intellectual property portfolio effectively to assert defenses or counterclaims in response to patent infringement claims or litigation brought against us by third parties. Further, litigation may involve patent holding companies or other adverse patent owners that have no relevant product revenue and against which our potential patents may provide little or no deterrence. In addition, many potential litigants have the capability to dedicate substantially greater resources than we can to enforce their intellectual property rights and to defend claims that may be brought against them. Furthermore, a successful claimant could secure a judgment that requires us to pay substantial damages or prevents us from distributing products or performing certain services. We could also be required to seek a license for the use of that intellectual property, which might not be available on commercially acceptable terms or at all. Alternatively, we might be required to develop non-infringing technology, which could require significant effort and expense and might ultimately not be successful.
Failure to protect our intellectual property rights could adversely affect our business.
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to protect proprietary methods and technologies that we develop under patent and other intellectual property laws of the United States and foreign jurisdictions so that we can prevent others from using our inventions and proprietary information. If we fail to protect our intellectual property rights adequately, our competitors might gain access to our technology and our business might be harmed. In addition, we might incur significant expenses in defending our intellectual property rights. Any of our patents, copyrights, trademarks or other intellectual property rights could be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation.
We could be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights. In this regard, we have in the past initiated and may in the future initiate claims or litigation against third parties for infringement of our proprietary rights or to establish the validity of our proprietary rights. Any litigation, whether or not resolved in our favor, could result in significant expense to us and divert the efforts of our management and technical personnel, which might adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Indemnity provisions in various agreements potentially expose us to substantial liability for intellectual property infringement and other losses.
Our agreements with customers and commercial partners include indemnification provisions, under which we agree to indemnify them for losses suffered or incurred as a result of claims of intellectual property infringement and, in some cases, for damages caused by us to property or persons or other third-party claims. The term of these indemnity provisions is generally perpetual after execution of the corresponding product sale agreement. Large indemnity payments could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
We depend on third-party manufacturers for the supply and quality of our products.
We outsource the manufacturing of the substantial majority of our products to Flextronics Telecom Systems, Ltd., an affiliate of Flextronics International Ltd. These standard contract manufacturer arrangements subject us to the risk that the manufacturer does not provide our customers with the quality and performance that they expect or that the manufacturer does not provide us with an adequate supply of products. Our orders typically represent a relatively small percentage of the overall orders received by these manufacturers from their customers. As a result, fulfilling our orders may not be considered a priority in the event our manufacturer is constrained in its ability to fulfill all of its customer obligations in a timely manner. We must also accurately predict the number of products that we will require. If we overestimate our requirements, we may incur liabilities for excess inventory, which could negatively affect our gross margins. Conversely, if we underestimate our requirements, our manufacturer and suppliers may have inadequate supplies of the materials and components required to produce our products. In addition, we acquire some of our other products and components from sole-source suppliers. This could result in an interruption of the manufacturing of our products, delays in shipments and deferral or loss of revenue. Quality or performance failures of our products or changes in our manufacturers' financial or business condition could disrupt our ability to supply quality products to our customers and thereby have a material and adverse effect on our business and operating results.
Some of the components and technologies used in our products are purchased and licensed from a single source or a limited number of sources. The loss of any of these suppliers might cause us to incur additional transition costs, result in delays in the manufacturing and delivery of our products, or cause us to carry excess or obsolete inventory and could require us to redesign our products.
Although supplies of our components are generally available from a variety of sources, we currently depend on a single source or a limited number of sources for most components included in our products. For example, the chipsets and motherboards that we use in the products manufactured by Flextronics are currently available only from a limited number of sources, and neither we nor, to our knowledge, this manufacturer have entered into supply agreements with these sources. We have also entered into license agreements with some of our suppliers for technologies that are used in our products.
As there are no other sources for identical components and technologies, if we lost any of these suppliers, we might not be able to sell our products for a significant period of time, and we could incur significant costs to redesign our hardware and software to incorporate components or technologies from alternative sources or to qualify alternative suppliers. Our reliance on a single source or a limited number of suppliers involves a number of additional risks, including risks related to:
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supplier capacity constraints;
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In addition, for certain components for which there are multiple sources, we are subject to potential price increases and limited availability as a result of market demand for these components. In the past, unexpected demand for computer and network products has caused worldwide shortages of certain electronic parts. If similar shortages occur in the future, our business would be adversely affected. We carry very little inventory of our products, and we and our manufacturer rely on our suppliers to deliver necessary components in a timely manner. We and our manufacturer rely on purchase orders rather than long-term contracts with these suppliers, and as a result we or our manufacturer might not be able to secure sufficient components, even if they were available, at reasonable prices or of acceptable quality to build products in a timely manner and, therefore, might not be able to meet customer demands for our products, which would have a material and adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
We rely on the availability of third-party licenses and, in the future, if these licenses are available to us only on less favorable terms or not available at all, our business and operating results would be harmed.
Our products include software and other technology licensed from third parties. It may be necessary in the future to renew licenses relating to various aspects of these products or to seek additional licenses for existing or new products. There can be no assurance that the necessary licenses would be available on acceptable terms or at all. The inability to obtain certain licenses or other rights or to obtain those licenses or rights on favorable terms, or the need to engage in litigation regarding these matters, could result in delays in product releases until such time, if ever, as equivalent technology could be identified, licensed or developed and integrated into our products and might have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
If we are unable to hire, retain and motivate qualified personnel, our business would suffer.
Our future success depends, in part, on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled personnel. The loss of the services of any of our key personnel, the inability to attract and retain additional qualified personnel or delays in hiring required personnel, particularly in engineering and sales, could seriously harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Any of our employees may terminate their employment at any time. Competition for highly skilled personnel is frequently intense, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, where we have a substantial presence and need for highly skilled personnel. For example, since the first quarter of fiscal year 2015, we have experienced higher turnover in sales personnel than in the past. In addition, employees who are substantially vested in significant stock options and RSUs could exercise those options and sell their stock, which might result in a higher than normal turnover rate. Also, to the extent we hire personnel from competitors, we may be subject to allegations that they have been improperly solicited or divulged proprietary or other confidential information to us.
We are dependent on the continued services and performance of our senior management and other key employees, the loss of any of whom could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our future performance depends on the continued services and continuing contributions of our senior management and other key employees to execute on our business plan, and to identify and pursue new opportunities and product innovations. The loss of the services of senior management or other key employees could significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our development and strategic objectives and could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Replacing departing executive officers and key employees can involve organizational disruption, including employee departures. We have experienced transitions among our executive officers, including the appointments of our president and chief executive officer in December 2014 and our chief financial officer in January 2016, the departure of our executive vice president of worldwide field operations in April 2016 and the departures and subsequent appointments of two other executive vice presidents in November 2015. If we fail to manage these transitions successfully, we could experience significant delays or difficulty in the achievement of our development and strategic objectives and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely harmed.
Our international sales and operations subject us to additional risks that may materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.
During the three months ended
April 30, 2016
and
2015
,
41.5%
and
35.9%
of our net revenue were derived from customers outside of the United States. During the three months ended
April 30, 2016
, revenue from customers in the United States decreased
4.3%
year-over-year while revenue generated internationally grew
21.5%
year-over-year. There can be no assurance that these trends will continue in the foreseeable future. Sales to our international customers have typically been denominated in U.S. dollars. Fluctuations in currency exchange rates could cause our products to become relatively more expensive to end customers in a particular country, leading to a reduction in sales or profitability in that country. We are also exposed to movements in foreign currency exchange rates relating to operating expenses associated with our operations and personnel outside the United States. We have research and development personnel in Canada and France, engage contractors in Belarus, India and Malaysia, and we expect to expand our offshore development efforts. We also have testing and support personnel in India and sales and support personnel in numerous countries worldwide. We expect to continue to hire personnel in additional countries. Our international operations subject us to a variety of risks, including:
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the difficulty of managing and staffing international offices and the increased travel, infrastructure and legal compliance costs associated with numerous international locations;
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reduced demand for technology products outside the United States;
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difficulties in enforcing contracts and collecting accounts receivable, and longer payment cycles, especially in emerging markets;
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tariffs and trade barriers, export regulations and other regulatory or contractual limitations on our ability to sell or develop our products in certain foreign markets;
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increased exposure to currency exchange rate risk;
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heightened exposure to political instability, war and terrorism;
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added legal compliance obligations and complexity;
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reduced protection for intellectual property rights in some countries;
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multiple conflicting tax laws and regulations;
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the need to localize our products for international end customers; and
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the increased cost of terminating employees in some countries.
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As we continue to expand our business globally, our success will depend, in large part, on our ability to anticipate and manage effectively these and other risks associated with our international operations. Our failure to manage any of these risks successfully could harm our international operations and reduce our international sales, adversely affecting our business, operating results and financial condition.
In addition, we may be subject to increasing international environmental laws and regulations such as laws governing the hazardous material content of our products and laws relating to the recycling of electrical and electronic equipment. The laws and regulations to which we are currently subject include the EU Regulation of Hazardous Substances Directive and the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (the “Environmental Directives”) as well as the legislation of the EU member states implementing the Environmental Directives. Similar laws and regulations have been passed or are pending in China, South Korea, Norway and Japan and may be enacted in other regions, including in the United States, and we are, or may in the future be, subject to these laws and regulations. We have incurred costs to comply with the Environmental Directives in the past, and we may be required to incur additional costs in the future to comply with similar laws and regulations as they are introduced in other countries and could disrupt our operations or logistics if we do not have sufficient time to adjust our products and processes. Our failure to comply with such environmental rules and regulations could result in reduced sales of our products, increased costs, substantial product inventory write-offs, reputational damage, penalties and other sanctions.
We are subject to governmental export and import controls that could subject us to liability or impair our ability to compete in international markets.
Because we incorporate encryption technology into our products, certain of our products are subject to U.S. export controls and may be exported outside the United States only with the required export license or through an export license exception. If we continue to develop and expand our security related products and services, some or all of these products may be subject to more restrictive export and import requirements than our historic products, which would require additional administration and could result in limiting our ability to offer our products and services in some countries or to some end customers. If we were to fail to comply with United States export licensing, United States Customs regulations and import regulations, United States economic sanctions and other countries' import and export laws, we could be subject to substantial civil and criminal penalties, including fines against us and incarceration for responsible employees and managers, and the possible loss of export or import privileges. In addition, if our channel partners fail to obtain appropriate import, export or re-export licenses or permits, we may also be adversely affected through reputational harm and penalties. Obtaining the necessary export license for a particular sale may be time-consuming and may result in the delay of product launches. In addition, various countries regulate the import of certain encryption technology, including import permitting/licensing requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our products or could limit our end customers' ability to implement our products in those countries. Changes in our products or changes in export and import regulations may create delays in the introduction of our products in international markets, prevent our end customers with international operations from deploying our products globally or, in some cases, prevent the export or import of our products to certain countries, governments or persons altogether. Changes in our products or changes in export or import regulations, economic sanctions or related legislation, shift in the enforcement or scope of existing regulations, or change in the countries, governments, persons or technologies targeted by such regulations could result in decreased use of our products by, or in our decreased ability to export or sell our products to, existing or potential end customers with international operations. Any decreased use of our products or limitation on our ability to export or sell our products would likely adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our use of and reliance on research and development resources in foreign countries may expose us to unanticipated costs or events.
We have significant research and development centers in Canada and France and have significant numbers of contractors in Belarus and India. There can be no assurance that our reliance upon research and development resources in foreign countries will enable us to achieve meaningful cost reductions or greater resource efficiency. Further, our research and development efforts and other operations in foreign countries involve significant risks, including:
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difficulty hiring and retaining appropriate engineering personnel because of intense competition for engineers and resulting wage inflation;
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difficulties regarding the transfer of knowledge related to our technology and resulting exposure to misappropriation of intellectual property or information that is proprietary to us, our end customers and other third parties;
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heightened exposure to change in the economic, security and political conditions in developing countries;
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fluctuations in currency exchange rates and difficulties of regulatory compliance in foreign countries; and
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interruptions to our operations in India or Thailand as a result of typhoons, floods and other natural catastrophic events, as well as man-made problems such as power disruptions or terrorism.
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Difficulties resulting from the factors above and other risks related to our operations in foreign countries could expose us to increased expense, impair our development efforts and harm our competitive position.
If we fail to manage future growth effectively, our business would be harmed.
We operate in emerging markets and have experienced, and may continue to experience, significant expansion of our operations. This growth has placed, and any future growth would continue to place, a strain on our employees, management systems and other resources. Managing our growth will require significant expenditures and allocation of valuable management resources. Further international expansion may be required for our continued business growth, and managing any international expansion would require additional resources and controls. If we fail to achieve the necessary level of efficiency in our organization as it grows, our business, operating results and financial condition would be harmed.
We expect our gross margin to vary over time, and our current level of gross margin may not be sustainable.
Our level of gross margin may not be sustainable and may be adversely affected by numerous factors, including:
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increased price competition;
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changes in end customer or product and service mix;
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increased inbound shipping charges;
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our inability to maintain or reduce the amount we pay our third-party manufacturers;
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increases in material or labor costs;
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increased costs of licensing third-party technologies that are used in our products;
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carrying costs of excess inventory, inventory holding charges and obsolescence charges that may be passed through to us by our third-party manufacturers;
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changes in our distribution channels or our arrangements with our distributors and VARs;
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increased warranty and repair costs; and
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the introduction of new appliance models, which may have lower margins than our existing products.
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Depending on the overall mix of product models in any given quarter, gross margins could be lower which would impact our operating results.
If we are not able to maintain and enhance our brand and reputation, our business and operating results may be harmed in tangible or intangible ways.
We believe that maintaining and enhancing our brand and reputation are critical to our relationships with, and our ability to attract, new end customers, technology partners and employees. The successful promotion of our brand will depend largely upon our ability to continue to develop, offer and maintain high-quality products and services, our marketing and public relations efforts, and our ability to differentiate our products and services successfully from those of our competitors. Our brand promotion activities could involve significant expenditures and may not be successful and may not yield increased revenue. In addition, extension of our brand to products and uses different from our traditional products and services may dilute our brand, particularly if we fail to maintain the quality of products and services in these new areas. If we do not successfully maintain and enhance our brand and reputation, our growth rate may decline, we may have reduced pricing power relative to competitors with stronger brands or reputations, and we could lose end customers or technology partners, all of which would harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
In addition, from time to time independent industry analysts may provide reviews of our products and services, as well as those of our competitors, and perception of our products in the marketplace may be significantly influenced by these reviews. We have no control over what these industry analysts report, and because industry analysts may influence current and potential end customers, our brand could be harmed if industry analysts do not provide positive reviews of our products or identify them as market leaders.
Seasonality may cause fluctuations in our net revenue and operating results.
We operate on a July 31 fiscal year-end and believe that there are significant seasonal factors which may cause the second and fourth quarters of our fiscal year to have greater product revenue than our first and third fiscal quarters. We believe that this seasonality results from a number of factors, including:
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end customer procurement, budget and deployment cycles in the government and education sectors, which potentially result in stronger order flow in our second fiscal quarter;
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one or more of our larger end customers with a December 31 fiscal year-end choosing to spend remaining budgets before their year-end, which potentially results in a positive impact on our product revenue in the second quarter of our fiscal year;
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the timing of our annual training for the entire sales force in our first fiscal quarter, which, combined with fourth quarter sales, can potentially cause our first fiscal quarter to be seasonally weak, and
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seasonal reductions in business activity during August in the United States, Europe and certain regions, which have a negative impact on our first fiscal quarter revenue.
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Our rapid historical growth may have reduced the impact of seasonal or cyclical factors that might have influenced our business to date. As our increasing size causes our growth rate to slow, seasonal or cyclical variations in our operations may become more pronounced over time and may materially affect our results of operations.
If our products contain undetected software, hardware or data errors, we could incur significant unexpected expenses and lost sales and revenue and we could be subject to product liability claims.
Products such as ours frequently contain undetected software, hardware or data errors, many of which are identified only when our products are first introduced or as new versions, updates or enhancements are released. We have experienced errors in the past in connection with our products. We expect that errors will be found from time to time in new or enhanced products after commencement of commercial shipments. Since our products contain software, hardware or data components that we purchase or license from third parties, we also expect our products to contain latent defects and errors from time to time related to those third-party components. These problems may cause us to incur significant warranty and repair costs, process management costs, and costs associated with remanufacturing our inventory. In addition, regardless of the party at fault, errors of these kinds divert the attention of our engineering personnel from our product development efforts, damage our reputation and the reputation of our products, cause significant customer relations problems and can result in product liability claims. The occurrence of these problems could result in the delay or loss of market acceptance of our products and could adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our business is subject to the risks of warranty claims, product returns, product liability and product defects.
Real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our products could result in claims by customers for losses that they sustain. If customers make these types of claims, we may be required, or may choose, for customer relations or other reasons, to expend additional resources in order to help correct the problem or resolve matters with customers. Liability provisions in our standard terms and conditions of sale, and those of our resellers and distributors, may not be enforceable under some circumstances or may not fully or effectively protect us from customer claims and related liabilities and costs, including indemnification obligations under our agreements with resellers and distributors. The sale and support of our products also entail the risk of product liability claims. We maintain insurance to protect against certain types of claims associated with the use of our products, but our insurance coverage may not adequately cover any such claims. In addition, even claims that ultimately are unsuccessful could result in expenditures of funds in connection with litigation and divert management’s time and other resources.
We depend on the U.S. government for a portion of our sales, which are facilitated through resellers on which we also depend for these sales. Any reductions in sales to the U.S. government, as a result of the loss of reseller relationships or any other reason, could harm our growth.
A significant portion of our sales is made to certain departments of the U.S. government. Nearly all of these sales are made through resellers. Any factors that cause a decline in government expenditures generally or government IT expenditures in particular could cause our net revenue to grow less rapidly or even to decline. The timing of fulfillment under government contracts can also be uncertain. In addition, since in most cases we are unable to fulfill orders from the U.S. government directly, the loss of key reseller relationships could adversely affect our ability to fulfill certain orders from the government until we are able to find and qualify a suitable alternative. This, in turn, would cause revenue to be delayed and could cause sales to be lost.
Our net revenue may decline as a result of reductions in public funding of educational institutions.
We regard sales to universities, colleges and other educational institutions as an important source of net revenue. Many of these institutions receive funding from local tax revenues and from state and federal governments through a variety of programs. Federal, state or local funding of public education may be reduced for a variety of reasons, including budget-driven austerity measures, legislative changes or fluctuations in tax revenues because of changing economic conditions. If funding of public education declines for these or any other reason, our sales to educational institutions might be negatively impacted. Any reduction in spending on IT systems by educational institutions would likely materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.
If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis could be impaired, which could result in a loss of investor confidence in our financial reports and have an adverse effect on our stock price.
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of our financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. If we are unable to maintain adequate internal control over financial reporting, we might be unable to report our financial information on a timely basis and might suffer adverse regulatory consequences or violate New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, listing standards. There could also be a negative reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of investor confidence in us and the reliability of our financial statements. We may in the future discover areas of our internal financial and accounting controls and procedures that need improvement. Our internal control over financial reporting will not prevent or detect all error and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system will be met. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within our company will be detected. If we are unable to maintain proper and effective internal controls, we may not be able to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis, which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and could result in regulatory action, and could require us to restate our financial statements. Any such restatement could result in a loss of public confidence in the reliability of our financial statements and sanctions imposed on us by the SEC.
We rely on third parties for the fulfillment of our end customer orders and replacements, and the failure of these third parties to perform could have an adverse effect upon our reputation and our ability to distribute our products, which could cause a material reduction in our net revenue.
We rely on our third-party manufacturers to build and inventory sufficient quantities of our products to fulfill end customer orders, and we also use third parties to transport our products, hold our inventory in local depots in foreign countries and fulfill our end customer replacement requirements. If our third-party agents fail to perform, our ability to deliver our products and to generate revenue would be adversely affected. The failure of our third-party manufacturers and other third-party logistics providers to deliver products in a timely manner could lead to the dissatisfaction of our channel partners and end customers and damage our reputation, which might cause our channel partners or end customers to cancel existing agreements with us and to stop transacting business with us. In addition, this reliance on our third-party manufacturers and third-party logistics providers may impact the timing of our revenue recognition if our providers fail to deliver orders during the prescribed time period. In the event we were unexpectedly forced to change providers, we could experience short-term disruptions in our delivery and fulfillment process that could adversely affect our business.
Our use of open source software could impose limitations on our ability to commercialize our products.
Our products contain software modules licensed for use from third-party authors under open source licenses, including the GNU Public License, the GNU Lesser Public License and the Apache License. Use and distribution of open source software may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code. Some open source licenses contain requirements that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works that we create based upon the type of open source software we use. If we combine our proprietary software with open source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain of the open source licenses, be required to release the source code of our proprietary software to the public. This could allow our competitors to create similar products with lower development effort and time and ultimately could result in a loss of product sales for us.
The terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. courts, and there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a manner that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our products. In such event, we could be required to seek licenses from third parties in order to continue offering our products and to re-engineer our products or to discontinue the sale of our products in the event re-engineering cannot be accomplished on a timely basis, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.
System security risks, data protection breaches, cyber-attacks and systems integration issues could disrupt our internal operations and effectiveness of our products, and any such disruption could reduce our expected revenue, increase our expenses, damage our reputation and adversely affect our stock price.
Experienced computer programmers and hackers may be able to penetrate our network security and misappropriate or compromise our confidential and proprietary information, create system disruptions or cause shutdowns. Computer programmers and hackers also may be able to develop and deploy viruses, worms, and other malicious software programs that attack our products or otherwise exploit any security vulnerabilities of our products. The costs to us to eliminate or alleviate cyber or other security problems, bugs, viruses, worms, malicious software programs and security vulnerabilities could be significant, and our efforts to address these problems may not be successful, could result in interruptions and delays that could impede our sales, manufacturing, distribution or other critical functions and could cause our products to not perform as intended, which could cause prospective end customers not to purchase such products.
We manage and store various proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data relating to our business in the “cloud.” Breaches of our security measures or the accidental loss, inadvertent disclosure or unapproved dissemination of proprietary information or sensitive or confidential data about us, including the potential loss or disclosure of that information or data as a result of fraud, trickery or other forms of deception, could expose us to a risk of loss or misuse of this information, result in litigation and potential liability for us, damage our brand and reputation or otherwise harm our business. In addition, the cost and operational consequences of implementing further data protection measures could be significant.
Portions of our IT infrastructure also may experience interruptions, delays or cessations of service or produce errors in connection with systems integration or migration work that takes place from time to time. We may not be successful in implementing new systems and transitioning data, which could cause business disruptions and be more expensive, time consuming, disruptive and resource-intensive. Any disruptions could adversely impact our ability to fulfill orders and interrupt other processes. Delayed sales, lower margins or lost customers resulting from these disruptions have adversely affected us in the past, and in the future could adversely affect our financial results, stock price and reputation.
Confidentiality agreements with employees and others may not adequately prevent disclosure of our trade secrets and other proprietary information.
In order to protect our proprietary technology, processes and methods, we rely in part on confidentiality agreements with our technology partners, employees, consultants, advisors and others. These agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of our confidential information and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of our confidential information. In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets and proprietary information, and in these cases we would not be able to assert any trade secret rights against those parties. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position.
Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in accounting principles applicable to us.
Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or U.S. GAAP, are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the SEC, and other bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. For example, in May 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, which supersedes nearly all existing revenue recognition guidance under U.S. GAAP, and the guidance which was amended in April 2016 to address implementation issues. Changes in accounting principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results and could affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of a change. Any difficulties in the implementation of new or changed accounting standards could cause us to fail to meet our financial reporting obligations, which could result in regulatory discipline. In addition, the SEC has announced a multi-year plan that could ultimately lead to the use of International Financial Reporting Standards by U.S. issuers in their SEC filings. Any such change could have a significant effect on our reported financial results.
If our estimates relating to our critical accounting policies are based on assumptions or judgments that change or prove to be incorrect, our operating results 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 generally accepted accounting principles requires our management to make estimates, assumptions and judgments that affect the amounts reported in our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. If our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, our operating results may be adversely affected, which could cause our operating results to fall below market expectations and our stock price to decline. Significant estimates, assumptions and judgments used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include those related to revenue recognition, determination of fair value of stock-based awards, valuation of goodwill and intangible assets acquired, impairment of goodwill and other long-lived assets, amortization of intangible assets, contingencies and litigation, accounting for income taxes, including the valuation reserve on deferred tax assets and uncertain tax positions, allowances for doubtful accounts and sales returns and valuation of inventory.
Our ability to use net operating losses to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.
In general, under Section 382 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or the Code, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change net operating losses, or NOLs, to offset future taxable income. Our existing NOLs may be subject to limitations arising from previous ownership changes and, if we undergo an ownership change in the future, our ability to utilize our NOLs could be further limited by Section 382 of the Code. Future changes in our stock ownership, many of which are outside of our control, could result in an ownership change under Section 382 of the Code. Our net operating losses could also be impaired under state law. As a result, we might not be able to utilize a material portion of our NOLs.
Our future capital needs are uncertain, and we may need to raise additional funds in the future.
We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash requirements for at least the next 12 months. We may, however, need to raise substantial additional capital to:
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continue our research and development;
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fund stock repurchases, including pursuant to our share repurchase program;
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commercialize new products; or
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acquire companies, in-licensed products or intellectual property.
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Our future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including:
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market acceptance of our products and services;
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the cost of our research and development activities;
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the cost of defending, in litigation or otherwise, claims that we infringe third-party patents or violate other intellectual property rights;
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the cost and timing of establishing additional sales, marketing and distribution capabilities;
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the cost and timing of establishing additional technical support capabilities;
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the effect of competing technological and market developments; and
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the market for different types of funding and overall economic conditions.
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If we require additional funds in the future, those funds may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all.
We may require additional funds in the future, and we may not be able to obtain those funds on acceptable terms, or at all. If we raise additional funds by issuing equity securities, our stockholders may experience dilution. Debt financing, if available, may involve covenants restricting our operations or our ability to incur additional debt. Any debt or additional equity financing that we raise may contain terms that are not favorable to us or our stockholders. If we do not have, or are not able to obtain, sufficient funds, we may have to delay development or commercialization of our products or license to third parties the rights to commercialize products or technologies that we would otherwise seek to commercialize. If we raise additional funds through collaboration and licensing arrangements with third parties, it may be necessary to relinquish some rights to our technologies or our products, or to grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us. If we are unable to raise adequate funds, we may have to liquidate some or all of our assets, or delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate some or all of our development programs. We also may have to reduce marketing, customer support or other resources devoted to our products or cease operations. Any of these actions could harm our operating results.
Changes in our provision for income taxes or adverse outcomes resulting from examination of our income tax returns could adversely affect our results.
Our provision for income taxes is subject to volatility and could be adversely affected by the following:
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changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets;
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foreign or domestic income tax assessments and any related tax interest or penalties;
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expiration of, or lapses in, the research and development tax credit laws;
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tax effects of nondeductible compensation;
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adjustments to the pricing of intercompany transactions and transfers of intellectual property or other assets;
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changes in accounting principles; or
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changes in tax laws and regulations, including changes in taxation of the services provided by our foreign subsidiaries.
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Significant judgment is required to determine the recognition and measurement attributes prescribed in the accounting guidance for uncertainty in income taxes. The accounting guidance for uncertainty in income taxes applies to all income tax positions, including the potential recovery of previously paid taxes, that if settled unfavorably could adversely impact our provision for income taxes or additional paid-in capital. In addition, we are subject to the examination of our income tax returns by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes. The outcomes from these examinations might have a material and adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.
Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, floods and other natural catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems such as power disruptions or terrorism.
Our corporate headquarters is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for seismic activity. We also have significant testing and support facilities in India, a region known for typhoons, floods and other natural disasters. A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, fire or a flood, occurring at our headquarters, at one of our other facilities or where a channel partner or supplier is located could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, natural disasters and acts of terrorism could cause disruptions in our or our customers’ businesses, national economies or the world economy as a whole. We also rely on IT systems to communicate among our workforce located worldwide and, in particular, our research and development activities that are coordinated between our corporate headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area and our operations in other states and countries. Any disruption to our internal communications, whether caused by a natural disaster or by man-made problems, such as power disruptions or terrorism, could delay our research and development efforts. To the extent that these disruptions result in delays or cancellations of customer orders or delays in our research and development efforts or the deployment of our products, our business and operating results would be materially and adversely affected.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
Our actual operating results may differ significantly from our guidance.
From time to time, we have released, and may continue to release guidance in our quarterly earnings releases, quarterly earnings conference call, or otherwise, regarding our future performance that represents our management’s estimates as of the date of release. This guidance, which includes forward-looking statements, has been and will be based on projections prepared by our management. These projections are not prepared with a view toward compliance with published guidelines of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and neither our registered public accountants nor any other independent expert or outside party compiles or examines the projections. Accordingly, no such person expresses any opinion or any other form of assurance with respect to the projections.
Projections are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while presented with numerical specificity, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control and are based upon specific assumptions with respect to future business decisions, some of which will change. We intend to state possible outcomes as high and low ranges which are intended to provide a sensitivity analysis as variables are changed but are not intended to imply that actual results could not fall outside of the suggested ranges. The principal reason that we release guidance is to provide a basis for our management to discuss our business outlook with analysts and investors. We do not accept any responsibility for any projections or reports published by any such persons.
Guidance is necessarily speculative in nature, and it can be expected that some or all of the assumptions underlying the guidance furnished by us will not materialize or will vary significantly from actual results. Accordingly, our guidance is only an estimate of what management believes is realizable as of the date of release. Actual results will vary from our guidance and the variations may be material. In light of the foregoing, investors are urged not to rely upon our guidance in making an investment decision regarding our common stock.
Any failure to successfully implement our operating strategy or the occurrence of any of the events or circumstances set forth in this “Risk Factors” section in this quarterly report could result in the actual operating results being different from our guidance, and the differences may be adverse and material.
The price of our common stock may be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
In the recent past, stocks generally, and technology stocks in particular, have experienced high levels of volatility. The trading price of our common stock may fluctuate substantially. The trading price of our common stock will depend on a number of factors, including those described in this “Risk Factors” section, many of which are beyond our control and may not be related to our operating performance. These fluctuations could cause you to lose all or part of your investment in our common stock since you might be unable to sell your shares at or above the price you paid. Factors that could cause fluctuations in the trading price of our common stock include the following:
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price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market from time to time;
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volatility in the market prices and trading volumes of high technology stocks;
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changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of other technology companies generally, or those in our industry in particular;
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sales of shares of our common stock by us or our stockholders;
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failure of securities analysts to maintain coverage of us, changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our company, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;
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the financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in those projections or our failure to meet those projections;
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announcements by us or our competitors of new products or new or terminated significant contracts, commercial relationships or capital commitments.
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the public's reaction to our press releases, other public announcements and filings with the SEC;
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rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry;
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actual or anticipated changes in our results of operations or fluctuations in our operating results;
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actual or anticipated developments in our business or our competitors' businesses or the competitive landscape generally;
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litigation involving us, our industry or both or investigations by regulators into our operations or those of our competitors;
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developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property or other proprietary rights;
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announced or completed acquisitions of businesses or technologies by us or our competitors;
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new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business;
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changes in accounting standards, policies, guidelines, interpretations or principles;
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any major change in our management;
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general economic conditions and slow or negative growth of our markets; and
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other events or factors, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism or responses to these events.
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In addition, the stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. Broad market and industry factors may seriously affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market prices of particular companies’ securities, securities class action litigations have often been instituted against these companies. For example, following the volatility in the trading price of our common stock in fiscal year 2014, class actions were filed beginning in May 2014 against us and two of our officers and a stockholder derivative suit was filed in November 2014 against several of our current directors and one former director. Although the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed these lawsuits without prejudice, we may be the target of these types of litigation in the future. The outcome of securities class actions and stockholder derivative lawsuits is difficult to predict. Plaintiffs in these matters may seek recovery of very large or indeterminate amounts. The monetary and other impact of these actions may remain unknown for substantial periods of time. Accordingly, litigation of these types against us could result in substantial costs to defend or settle these matters and divert our management’s attention and resources, which could seriously harm our business.
If securities or industry analysts issue an adverse or misleading opinion regarding our stock or do not publish research or reports about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will rely in part on the research and reports that equity research and other analysts publish about us and our business. We do not control these analysts or the content and opinions included in their reports. The price of our common stock could decline if one or more analysts were to downgrade our common stock or if they were to issue other unfavorable commentary or cease publishing reports about us or our business. If one or more analysts were to cease coverage of our company, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline. Further, analysts may elect not to provide research coverage of our common stock, and lack of research coverage would likely adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our capital stock. We intend to retain any earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. As a result, you will likely receive a return on your investment in our common stock only if the market price of our common stock increases.
Our charter documents and Delaware law could discourage, delay or prevent a takeover that stockholders consider favorable and could also reduce the market price of our stock.
Our restated certificate of incorporation and our restated bylaws contain provisions that could delay or prevent a change in control of our company. These provisions could also make it more difficult for stockholders to nominate directors for election to our board of directors and take other corporate actions. These provisions, among other things:
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provide for non-cumulative voting in the election of directors;
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provide for a classified board of directors;
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authorize our board of directors, without stockholder approval, to issue preferred stock with terms determined by our board of directors and to issue additional shares of our common stock;
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provide that only our board of directors may set the number of directors constituting our board of directors or fill vacant directorships;
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provide that stockholders may remove directors only for cause;
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prohibit stockholder action by written consent and limit who may call a special meeting of stockholders; and
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require advance notification of stockholder nominations for election to our board of directors and of stockholder proposals.
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These and other provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and our restated bylaws, as well as provisions under Delaware law, could discourage potential takeover attempts, reduce the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock and result in the trading price of our common stock being lower than it otherwise would be.