Exhibit 99.2
[Excerpt from the registrant's Registration Statement on Form S-1 (No. 333-253969).
Terms not defined herein are defined as set forth in the Registration Statement.]
RISK FACTORS
An investment in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following risk factors, together with all of the other information included in this prospectus, before making an investment decision. The occurrence of one or more of the events or circumstances described in these risk factors, alone or in combination with other events or circumstances, may adversely affect the anticipated benefits of the Transactions, and may have an adverse effect on our business, cash flows, financial condition and results of operations. You should also carefully consider the following risk factors in addition to the other information included in this prospectus, including matters addressed in the section entitled “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” We may face additional risks and uncertainties that are not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial, which may also impair our business or financial condition. The following discussion should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes to the financial statements included herein.
Risks Related to Our Business and Operations
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including the resulting global economic uncertainty, measures taken in response to the pandemic and changes to the way our customers are operating their businesses, could materially impact our business and future results of operations and financial condition.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the economy and put strains on governments, health care systems, and businesses around the world. The impact and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may worsen, are difficult to assess or predict. It is even more difficult to predict the impact on the global economic market, which will depend upon the actions taken by governments, businesses, and other enterprises in response to the pandemic. The pandemic has already caused, and is likely to result in further, significant disruption of global financial markets and economic uncertainty. Adverse market conditions resulting from the spread of COVID-19 could materially adversely affect our business.
The conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could affect the rate of spending on software products and could adversely affect our customers’ ability or willingness to purchase our offerings; the timing of our current or prospective customers’ purchasing decisions; pricing discounts or extended payment terms; reductions in the amount or duration of customers’ subscription contracts or term licenses; or increase customer attrition rates, all of which could adversely affect our future sales, operating results and overall financial performance.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have temporarily closed all of our offices, enabled our employees to work remotely and implemented travel restrictions for all non-essential business in a manner consistent with local standards and risks. If the COVID-19 pandemic worsens, especially in regions where we have offices, our business activities originating from affected areas could be adversely affected, and our expansion plans could be disrupted. Disruptive activities could include business closures in impacted areas, localized infrastructure interruptions, including to power, internet, or cellular service, further restrictions on our employees’ and service providers’ ability to travel, impacts to productivity if our employees or their family members experience health issues, and potential delays in hiring and onboarding of new employees. We may take further actions that alter our business operations as may be required by local, state, or federal authorities or that we determine are in the best interests of our employees. Such measures could negatively affect our sales and marketing efforts, sales cycles, employee productivity, or customer retention, any of which could harm our financial condition and business operations.
The COVID-19 pandemic could cause our third-party data center hosting facilities and cloud computing platform providers, which are critical to our infrastructure, to shut down their business, experience security incidents that impact our business, delay or disrupt performance or delivery of services, or experience interference with the supply chain of hardware required by their systems and services, any of which could materially adversely affect our business. Limitations on access or disruptions to services or goods provided by or to some of our suppliers and vendors upon which our platform and business operations relies, could interrupt our ability to provide our platform, decrease the productivity of our workforce, and significantly harm our business operations, financial condition, and results of operations.
1
The extent and continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business will depend on certain developments, including: the duration and spread of the outbreak; government responses to the pandemic; the impact on our customers and our sales cycles; the impact on customer, industry, or employee events; and the effect on our partners, vendors, and supply chains, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted. Because of our largely subscription-based business model, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic may not be fully reflected in our results of operations and overall financial condition until future periods, if at all.
To the extent the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects our business and financial results, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, including, in particular, risks related to our ability to secure customer renewals, the addition of new customers and increased revenue from existing customers, risks relating to cyber-attacks and security vulnerabilities, and global supply chain disruptions.
If we are unable to sell products to new customers or to sell additional products or upgrades to our existing customers, it could adversely affect our revenue growth and operating results.
To increase our revenue, we must add new customers (whether through sales or acquisitions) or sell additional products or upgrades to existing customers. Even if we capture a significant volume of leads from our digital marketing activities, we must be able to convert those leads into sales of our products to new or existing customers in order to achieve revenue growth.
We primarily rely on our direct sales force to sell our products to new and existing customers and convert qualified leads into sales. Accordingly, our ability to achieve significant growth in revenue in the future will depend on our ability to recruit, train and retain sufficient numbers of sales personnel, and on the productivity of those personnel. Our recent and planned personnel additions may not become as productive as we would like or in a timely manner, and we may be unable to hire or retain sufficient numbers of qualified individuals in the future in the markets where we do or plan to do business. If we are unable to sell products to new customers and additional products or upgrades to our existing customers through our direct sales force or through our channel partners, which supplement our direct sales force by distributing our products and generating sales opportunities, we may be unable to grow our revenue and our operating results could be adversely affected.
Our business depends on customers renewing their subscription agreements. Any decline in renewal or net retention rates could harm our future operating results.
The significant majority of our revenue is recurring and consists of subscription revenue. Our subscription products generally have recurring annual subscription periods. While many of our subscriptions provide for automatic renewal, our customers may opt-out of automatic renewal and customers have no obligation to renew a subscription after the expiration of the term. Our customers may or may not renew their subscriptions as a result of a number of factors (including as a result of general economic downturns due to of COVID-19, including their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our products and services, our pricing or pricing structure, the pricing or capabilities of the products and services offered by our competitors, the effects of economic conditions), or reductions in our paying customers’ spending levels. In addition, our customers may renew for fewer subscriptions, renew for shorter contract lengths if they were previously on multi-year contracts, or switch to lower cost offerings of our products and services.
It is difficult to accurately predict long-term customer retention. Our customers’ subscription net retention rates may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including their level of satisfaction with our products, the prices of our products, the prices of products and services offered by our competitors or reductions in our customers’ spending levels. If our customers do not renew their subscription arrangements, maintenance or other services agreements or if they renew them on less favorable terms, our revenue may decline. A substantial portion of our quarterly subscription revenue is attributable to agreements entered into during previous quarters. As a result, if there is a decline in renewed subscription agreements in any one quarter, only a small portion of the decline will be reflected in our revenue recognized in that quarter and the rest will be reflected in our revenue recognized in the following four quarters or more.
2
Our large customers have substantial negotiating leverage, which may require that we agree to terms and conditions that result in increased cost of sales, decreased revenue, and lower average selling prices and gross margins, all of which could harm our results of operations.
Some of our customers have significant bargaining power when negotiating new licenses or subscriptions or renewals of existing agreements, and have the ability to buy similar products from other vendors or develop such systems internally. These customers have and may continue to seek advantageous pricing and other commercial and performance terms that may require us to develop additional features in the products we sell to them or add complexity to our customer agreements. Currently, as customers become larger, our pricing model recognizes various factors such as number of products purchased and the penetration of those products within a customer’s operations. As such, when a customer buys more product, their average cost per product can decline even though the total revenue from them increases, and, to date, we have generally seen sales to customers increase in proportion to or in excess of any reductions in the cost per product. However, there can be no guarantee that these results will continue in the future. If we are unable to negotiate renewals with our large customers on favorable terms, our results of operations could be harmed.
Adverse or weakened general economic and market conditions may reduce spending on supply chain technology and information, which could harm our revenue, results of operations, and cash flows.
Our revenue, results of operations, and cash flows depend on the overall demand for and use of technology and information for global supply chain management, which depends in part on the amount of spending allocated by our customers or potential customers on supply chain technology and information. This spending depends on worldwide economic and geopolitical conditions. The U.S. and other key international economies have experienced cyclical downturns from time to time in which economic activity was impacted by falling demand for a variety of goods and services, restricted credit, poor liquidity, reduced corporate profitability, volatility in credit, equity, and foreign exchange markets, bankruptcies, pandemics such as COVID-19, and overall economic uncertainty. These economic conditions can arise suddenly, and the full impact of such conditions often remains uncertain. In addition, geopolitical developments and potential trade wars, can increase levels of political and economic unpredictability globally and increase the volatility of global financial markets. Further actions or inactions of the U.S. or other major national governments, including the United Kingdom’s 2016 vote in favor of exiting the European Union, may also impact economic conditions, which could result in financial market disruptions or an economic downturn.
Concerns about the systemic impact of a recession (in the United States or globally), energy costs, geopolitical issues, or the availability and cost of credit could lead to increased market volatility, decreased consumer confidence, and diminished growth expectations in the U.S. economy and abroad, which in turn could affect the rate of information technology spending and could adversely affect our customers’ ability or willingness to purchase our services, delay prospective customers’ purchasing decisions, reduce the value or duration of their subscription contracts, or affect attrition rates, all of which could adversely affect our future sales and operating results. Prolonged economic slowdowns may result in requests to renegotiate existing contracts on less advantageous terms to us than those currently in place, payment defaults on existing contracts, or non-renewal at the end of a contract term.
Because our long-term success depends on our ability to operate our business internationally and increase sales of our products to customers located outside of the United States, our business is susceptible to risks associated with international operations.
We have international operations in India, the United Kingdom, Poland, Germany, Belgium, China, including Hong Kong, Malaysia and Canada and we market and sell our products worldwide. We expect to continue to expand our international operations for the foreseeable future. The continued international expansion of our operations requires significant management attention and financial resources and results in increased administrative and compliance costs. Our limited experience in operating our business in certain regions outside the United States increases the risk that our expansion efforts into those regions may not be successful. In particular, our business model may not be successful in particular countries or regions outside the United States for reasons that we currently are unable to anticipate. We are subject to risks associated with international sales and operations including, but not limited to:
3
• fluctuations in currency exchange rates;
• the complexity of, or changes in, foreign regulatory requirements;
• difficulties in managing the staffing of international operations, including compliance with local labor and employment laws and regulations;
• potentially adverse tax consequences, including the complexities of foreign value added tax systems, overlapping tax regimes, restrictions on the repatriation of earnings and changes in tax rates;
• dependence on resellers and distributors to increase customer acquisition or drive localization efforts, including in new or evolving markets, which resellers and distributors may fail to maintain standards consistent with our brand and reputation;
• the burdens of complying with a wide variety of foreign laws and different legal standards;
• increased financial accounting and reporting burdens and complexities, including treatment of revenue from international sources;
• longer payment cycles and difficulties in collecting accounts receivable;
• longer sales cycles;
• political, social and economic instability;
• war, terrorist attacks, civil unrest and security concerns in general;
• reduced or varied protection for intellectual property rights in some countries and the risk of potential theft or compromise of our technology, data or intellectual property in connection with our international operations, whether by state-sponsored malfeasance or other foreign entities or individuals;
• laws and policies of the U.S. and other jurisdictions affecting international trade (including import and export control laws, tariffs and trade barriers);
• the risk of U.S. regulation of foreign operations; and
• other factors beyond our control such as natural disasters and public health crises, including pandemics.
The occurrence of any one of these risks could negatively affect our international business and, consequently, our operating results. We cannot be certain that the investment and additional resources required to establish, acquire or integrate operations in other countries will produce desired levels of revenue or profitability. If we are unable to effectively manage our expansion into additional geographic markets, our financial condition and results of operations could be harmed.
Our success depends in part on our ability to develop and market new and enhanced solutions modules, and we may not be able to do so, or do so quickly enough to respond to changes in demand. Even if we anticipate changes in demand, it may be difficult for us to transition existing customers to new versions of our solutions.
Our success depends in part on our ability to develop and market new and enhanced solutions modules, and to do so on a timely basis. Successful module development and marketing depends on numerous factors, including anticipating customer requirements, changes in technology requirements, our ability to differentiate our solutions from those of our competitors, and market acceptance of our solutions. Enterprises are requiring their software application vendors to provide ever increasing levels of functionality and broader offerings. Moreover, our industry is characterized by rapid evolution, and shifts in technology and customer needs. We may not be able to develop and market new or enhanced modules in a timely or cost-effective manner or at all. Our solutions also may not achieve market acceptance or correctly anticipate technological changes or the changing needs of our customers or potential customers.
In addition, even if we correctly anticipate changes in technology or demand, it might be difficult for us to transition existing customers to new versions of our solutions. Such transitions or upgrades may require considerable professional services effort and expense and customers may choose to discontinue using our solutions rather than proceed with a lengthy and expensive upgrade. If customers fail to accept new versions of our solution, if our newest solutions contains errors, or if we expend too many resources supporting multiple versions of our solutions, we may suffer a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations and cash flows.
4
The market for cloud-based supply chain management solutions is still evolving. If this market develops more slowly than we expect, our revenue may decline or fail to grow, and we may incur additional operating losses.
We derive, and expect to continue to derive, substantially all of our revenue from providing cloud-based supply chain management platforms, solutions and related services. The market for cloud-based supply chain management solutions is still evolving and it is uncertain whether these platforms and solutions will sustain high levels of demand and market acceptance. Our success will depend on the willingness of companies to accept our cloud-based supply chain management platforms and solutions as an alternative to manual processes, traditional enterprise resource planning software and internally-developed supply chain management solutions. Some customers may be reluctant or unwilling to use our cloud-based supply chain management platforms or solutions for a number of reasons, including data privacy concerns, data and network security concerns and existing investments in supply chain management technology.
Traditional approaches to supply chain management have required, among other things, purchasing hardware and licensing software. Because these traditional approaches often require significant initial investments to purchase the necessary technology and to establish systems that comply with customers’ unique requirements, companies may be unwilling to abandon their current solutions for our cloud-based supply chain management platforms and solutions. Other factors that may limit market acceptance of our platforms and solutions include:
• our ability to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction;
• our ability to maintain continuity of service for all users of our solutions;
• the price, performance and availability of competing solutions; and
• our ability to address companies’ confidentiality concerns about information stored outside of their premises.
If companies do not perceive the benefits of our cloud-based supply chain management platforms or solutions, or if companies are unwilling to accept our platforms and solutions as an alternative to traditional approaches, the market for our platforms and solutions might not continue to develop or might develop more slowly than we expect, either of which could significantly adversely affect our revenues and growth prospects.
The information we source from third parties for inclusion in our knowledge databases may not be accurate and complete, our trade experts may make errors in interpreting legal and other requirements when processing this information, and our trade content may not be updated on a timely basis, which can expose our customers to fines and other substantial claims and penalties.
Our customers often use our solutions as a system of record and many of our customers are subject to regulation of their products, services and activities. Our knowledge library includes trade content sourced from government agencies and transportation carriers in numerous countries. It is often sourced from text documents and includes import and export regulations, shipping documents, preferential duties and taxes, specifications for free trade agreements, transportation rates, sailing schedules, embargoed country and restricted party lists, and harmonized tariff codes. The information in these text documents may not be timely, accurate or complete. Our team of trade experts transforms these documents into a normalized and propriety knowledgebase, interpretable by software, and in so doing has to interpret the legal and other requirements contained in the source documents. We can provide no assurances that our trade experts do not make errors in the interpretation of these requirements. Furthermore, rules and regulations and other trade content used in our solutions change constantly, and we must continuously update our knowledge library. Maintaining a complete and accurate knowledge library is time-consuming and costly and we can provide no assurances that our specialists will always make appropriate updates to the library on a timely basis. Errors or defects in updating the trade content we provide to our customers and any defects or errors in, or failure of, our software, hardware, or systems, can result in an inability to process transactions in a timely manner or lead to violations that could expose our customers to fines and other substantial claims and penalties and involve criminal liability. In addition, these errors and delays may damage our reputation with both existing and new customers and result in lost customers and decreased revenue, which could materially and adversely affect our business, revenue and results of operations.
5
Any of these problems may enable our customers to terminate our agreements or we may be required to issue credits or refunds, and may be subject to product liability, breach of warranty or other contractual claims. We also may be required to indemnify our customers or third parties as a result of any of these problems. Any provisions in our customer agreements intended to limit liability may not be sufficient to protect us against any such claims. Insurance may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. In addition, any insurance we do have may not cover claims related to specific defects, errors, failures or delays, may not cover indirect or consequential damages, and otherwise may be inadequate, and defending a suit, regardless of its merit, could be costly and divert management’s attention. In general, losses from customers terminating their agreements with us and our cost of defending claims resulting from defects, errors, failures or delays might be substantial, and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations and cash flows.
Because we generally recognize revenue from subscriptions for our services over the term of the subscription, downturns or upturns in new business may not be immediately reflected in our operating results.
We generally recognize revenue from customers ratably over the terms of their subscription and support agreements, which are typically 12 to 36 months. As a result, most of the revenue we report in each quarter is the result of subscription and support agreements entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed subscriptions in any one quarter may not be reflected in our revenue results for that quarter. Any such decline, however, will negatively impact our revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our services, and potential changes in our attrition rate, may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. Our subscription model also makes it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue through additional sales in any period, as revenue from new customers must be recognized over the applicable subscription and support term.
We face intense competition, and our failure to compete successfully would make it difficult for us to add and retain customers and would impede the growth of our business.
The supply chain management market is fragmented, competitive and rapidly evolving. We compete with other cloud-based supply chain management vendors, traditional enterprise resource planning vendors such SAP and Oracle, and other service providers, as well as with solutions developed internally by enterprises seeking to manage their global supply chains and global trade. Some of our actual and potential competitors may enjoy competitive advantages over us, such as greater name recognition, more varied offerings and larger marketing budgets, as well as greater financial, technical and other resources. Furthermore, some competitors may have best-of-breed solutions to problems created by the unique trading requirements of particular countries, industries and/or business processes. As a result, our competitors may be able to respond more quickly than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards or customer requirements or devote greater resources to the promotion and sale of their products and services than we can.
The intensity of competition in the supply chain management market has resulted in pricing pressure as the market has developed and our competitors very frequently offer substantial price discounts for their products. We expect the intensity of competition to increase in the future as existing competitors develop their capabilities and as new companies, which could include one or more large software or trade content providers, enter our market. Increased competition could result in additional pricing pressure, reduced sales, shorter term lengths for customer contracts, lower margins or the failure of our solutions to achieve or maintain broad market acceptance. If we are unable to compete effectively, it will be difficult for us to maintain our pricing rates or add and retain customers, and our business, financial condition and results of operations will be harmed.
6
We may not be able to adequately protect our proprietary and intellectual property rights in our data or technology.
Our success is dependent, in part, upon protecting our proprietary information and technology. We may be unsuccessful in adequately protecting our intellectual property. No assurance can be given that confidentiality, non-disclosure, or invention assignment agreements with employees, consultants, or other parties will not be breached and will otherwise be effective in controlling access to and distribution of our platform or solutions, or certain aspects of our platform or solutions, and proprietary information. Further, these agreements do not prevent our competitors from independently developing technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our platform or solutions. Additionally, certain unauthorized use of our intellectual property may go undetected, or we may face legal or practical barriers to enforcing our legal rights even where unauthorized use is detected.
Current law may not provide for adequate protection of our platform or data. In addition, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability, and scope of protection of proprietary rights in internet-related businesses are uncertain and evolving, and changes in these standards may adversely impact the viability or value of our proprietary rights. Some license provisions protecting against unauthorized use, copying, transfer, and disclosure of our platform, or certain aspects of our platform, or our data may be unenforceable under the laws of certain jurisdictions. Further, the laws of some countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights in some foreign countries may be inadequate. To the extent we expand our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying and use of our data or certain aspects of our platform may increase. Competitors, foreign governments, foreign government-backed actors, criminals, or other third parties may gain unauthorized access to our proprietary information and technology. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may be unable to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our technology and intellectual property.
To protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect these rights, and we may or may not be able to detect infringement by our customers or third parties. Litigation has been and may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights and to protect our trade secrets. Such litigation could be costly, time consuming, and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims, and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our proprietary technology against unauthorized copying or use, as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management’s attention and resources, could delay further sales or the implementation of our platform or solutions, impair the functionality of our platform or solutions, delay introductions of new features, integrations, and capabilities, result in our substituting inferior or more costly technologies into our platform or solutions, or injure our reputation. In addition, we may be required to license additional technology from third parties to develop and market new features, integrations, and capabilities, and we cannot be certain that we could license that technology on commercially reasonable terms or at all, and our inability to license this technology could harm our ability to compete.
Acquisitions present many risks that could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
In order to expand our business, we have made numerous acquisitions and expect to continue making similar acquisitions and possibly larger acquisitions as part of our growth strategy. The success of our future growth strategy will depend on our ability to identify, negotiate, complete and integrate acquisitions and, if necessary, to obtain satisfactory debt or equity financing to fund those acquisitions. Acquisitions are inherently risky, and any acquisitions we complete may not be successful. Our past acquisitions and any mergers and acquisitions that we may undertake in the future involve numerous risks, including, but not limited to, the following:
7
• difficulties in integrating and managing the operations, personnel, systems, technologies and products of the companies we acquire;
• diversion of our management’s attention from normal daily operations of our business;
• our inability to maintain the key business relationships and the reputations of the businesses we acquire;
• uncertainty of entry into markets in which we have limited or no prior experience and in which competitors have stronger market positions;
• our dependence on unfamiliar affiliates, resellers, distributors and partners of the companies we acquire;
• our inability to increase revenue from an acquisition for a number of reasons, including our failure to drive demand in our existing customer base for acquired products and our failure to obtain maintenance renewals or upgrades and new product sales from customers of the acquired businesses;
• increased costs related to acquired operations and continuing support and development of acquired products;
• our responsibility for the liabilities of the businesses we acquire;
• potential goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges and amortization associated with acquired businesses;
• adverse tax consequences associated with acquisitions;
• changes in how we are required to account for our acquisitions under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, including arrangements that we assume from an acquisition;
• potential negative perceptions of our acquisitions by customers, financial markets or investors;
• failure to obtain required approvals from governmental authorities under competition and antitrust laws on a timely basis, if at all, which could, among other things, delay or prevent us from completing a transaction, or otherwise restrict our ability to realize the expected financial or strategic goals of an acquisition;
• potential increases in our interest expense, leverage and debt service requirements if we incur additional debt to pay for an acquisition;
• our inability to apply and maintain our internal standards, controls, procedures and policies to acquired businesses;
• potential loss of key employees of the companies we acquire;
• potential security vulnerabilities in acquired products that expose us to additional security risks or delay our ability to integrate the product into our service offerings;
• difficulties in increasing or maintaining security standards for acquired technology consistent with our other services, and related costs;
• challenges converting the acquired company’s revenue recognition policies and forecasting the related revenues, including subscription-based revenues and software license revenue, as well as appropriate allocation of the customer consideration to the individual deliverables;
• ineffective or inadequate controls, procedures and policies at the acquired company;
• inadequate protection of acquired intellectual property rights; and
• potential failure to achieve the expected benefits on a timely basis or at all.
Additionally, acquisitions or asset purchases made entirely or partially for cash may reduce our cash reserves or require us to incur additional debt under our credit agreements or otherwise. We may seek to obtain additional cash to fund an acquisition by selling equity or debt securities. We may be unable to secure the equity or debt funding necessary to finance future acquisitions on terms that are acceptable to us. If we finance acquisitions by issuing equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders will experience ownership dilution.
The occurrence of any of these risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows, particularly in the case of a larger acquisition or substantially concurrent acquisitions.
8
Businesses that we acquire may have greater than expected liabilities for which we become responsible.
Businesses that we acquire may have liabilities or adverse operating issues, or both, that we fail to discover through due diligence or the extent of which we underestimate prior to the acquisition. For example, to the extent that any business that we acquire or any prior owners, employees or agents of any acquired businesses or properties (i) failed to comply with or otherwise violated applicable laws, rules or regulations; (ii) failed to fulfill or disclose their obligations, contractual or otherwise, to applicable government authorities, their customers, suppliers or others; or (iii) incurred tax or other liabilities, we, as the successor owner, may be financially responsible for these violations and failures and may suffer harm to our reputation and otherwise be adversely affected. An acquired business may have problems with internal control over financial reporting, which could be difficult for us to discover during our due diligence process and could in turn lead us to have significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in our own internal control over financial reporting. These and any other costs, liabilities and disruptions associated with any of our past acquisitions and any future acquisitions could harm our operating results.
Charges to earnings resulting from acquisitions may adversely affect our operating results.
When we acquire businesses, we allocate the purchase price to tangible assets and liabilities and identifiable intangible assets acquired at their acquisition date fair values. Any residual purchase price is recorded as goodwill, which is also generally measured at fair value. We also estimate the fair value of any contingent consideration. Our estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions believed at the time to be reasonable, but which are uncertain and involve significant judgments by management. After we complete an acquisition, the following factors could result in material charges and adversely affect our operating results and may adversely affect our cash flows:
• costs incurred to combine the operations of companies we acquire, such as transitional employee expenses, stock compensation and employee retention expenses;
• impairment of goodwill or intangible assets;
• a reduction in the useful lives of intangible assets acquired;
• impairment of long-lived assets;
• identification of, or changes to, assumed contingent liabilities;
• changes in the fair value of any contingent consideration;
• charges to our operating results due to duplicative pre-merger activities; and
• charges to our operating results from expenses incurred to effect the acquisition.
Substantially all of these costs will be accounted for as expenses that will decrease our net income and earnings per share for the periods in which those costs are incurred. Charges to our operating results in any given period could differ substantially from other periods based on the timing and size of our acquisitions and the extent of integration activities.
If we fail to maintain adequate operational and financial resources, particularly if we continue to grow rapidly, we may be unable to execute our business plan or maintain high levels of service and customer satisfaction.
We have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, rapid growth, particularly through a number of acquisitions, which has placed, and may continue to place, significant demands on our management and our operational and financial resources. Our organizational structure is becoming more complex as we scale our operational, financial, and management controls, as well as our reporting systems and procedures, and expand internationally. As we continue to grow, we face challenges of integrating, developing, training, and motivating a rapidly growing employee base in our various offices around the world and navigating a complex multi-national regulatory landscape. If we fail to manage our anticipated growth and change in a manner that preserves the functionality of our platforms and solutions, the quality of our products and services may suffer, which could negatively affect our brand and reputation and harm our ability to attract customers.
To manage growth in our operations and personnel, we will need to continue to grow and improve our operational, financial, and management controls and our reporting systems and procedures. We will require significant capital expenditures and the allocation of valuable management resources to grow and change in these areas. Our expansion has placed, and our expected future growth will continue to place, a significant strain on our management, customer experience, research and development, sales and marketing, administrative, financial, and other resources.
9
We anticipate that significant additional investments will be required to scale our operations and increase productivity, to address the needs of our customers, to further develop and enhance our products and services, to expand into new geographic areas and to scale with our overall growth. If additional investments are required due to significant growth, this will increase our cost base, which will make it more difficult for us to offset any future revenue shortfalls by reducing expenses in the short term.
Given many of our key customers are enterprise customers, our sales cycle is longer and more expensive, and we may encounter pricing pressure and implementation and configuration challenges.
Many of our largest customers are enterprise customers, which means we face longer sales cycles, greater competition, more complex customer due diligence, less favorable contractual terms, and less predictability in completing some of our sales.
Consequently, a target customer’s decision to use our services may be an enterprise-wide decision and, if so, these types of sales require us to provide greater levels of education regarding the use and benefits of our products and services, as well as education regarding privacy and data protection laws and regulations to prospective customers. In addition, larger enterprise customers may demand more configuration, integration services, and features. As a result of these factors, these sales opportunities may require us to devote greater sales support and professional services resources to individual customers, driving up costs and time required to complete sales, while potentially requiring us to delay revenue recognition on some of these transactions until the technical or implementation requirements have been met.
We have experienced rapid growth in recent periods, and our recent growth rates may not be indicative of our future growth.
We have experienced organic and acquisition-driven growth in recent periods, and revenue growth in future periods may not be consistent with recent history. We believe our revenue growth depends on a number of factors, including, but not limited to, our ability to:
• attract new customers;
• renew and grow current customer subscriptions;
• introduce and grow adoption of our products and services in new markets;
• adequately expand our sales force and otherwise scale our operations as a business;
• expand the features and capabilities of our platform, including through the creation and use of additional integrations;
• maintain the security and reliability of our platform;
• comply with existing and new applicable laws and regulations;
• price and package our products and services effectively;
• successfully compete against established companies and new market entrants;
• increase awareness of our brand on a global basis; and
• execute on our acquisition strategy.
We may not be able to successfully implement our strategic initiatives in accordance with our expectations, or in the timeframe we desire, which may result in an adverse impact on our business and financial results. We also expect our operating expenses to increase in future periods, and if our revenue growth does not increase to offset these anticipated increases in our operating expenses, our business, results of operations, and financial condition will be harmed and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability.
10
We may experience quarterly fluctuations in our operating results due to a number of factors which makes our future results difficult to predict and could cause our operating results to fall below expectations or our guidance.
Our quarterly operating results have fluctuated in the past and are expected to fluctuate in the future due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control, including seasonality in our business as a result of customer budget cycles and customary European vacation schedules, with higher sales in the third and fourth fiscal quarters. As a result, our past results may not be indicative of our future performance, and comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. In addition to the other risks described in this prospectus, factors that may affect our quarterly operating results include the following:
• our ability to attract and retain customers and grow subscriptions of existing customers;
• our ability to price and package our products and services effectively;
• pricing pressure as a result of competition or otherwise;
• unforeseen costs and expenses, including those related to the expansion of our business and operations;
• changes in customers’ budgets and in the timing of their budget cycles and purchasing decisions;
• changes in the competitive dynamics of our market, including consolidation among competitors or customers and the introduction of new products or product enhancements;
• the amount and timing of payment for operating expenses, particularly research and development, sales, and marketing expenses and employee benefit expenses;
• the timing of revenue and expenses related to the development or acquisition of technologies, products, or businesses;
• potential goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges and amortization associated with acquired businesses;
• changes in unearned revenue and the remaining performance obligation, due to seasonality, the timing of and compounding effects of renewals, invoice duration, size and timing, new business linearity between quarters and within a quarter, average contract term or the collectability of invoices, all of which may impact implied growth rates;
• potential restructuring and transaction-related expenses;
• the amount and timing of costs associated with recruiting, training, and integrating new employees while maintaining our company culture;
• our ability to manage our existing business and future growth, including increases in the number of customers on our platform and the introduction and adoption of our platform in new markets outside of the United States;
• foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations;
• general economic and political conditions in our domestic and international markets; and
• litigation or related settlement payments.
We may not be able to accurately forecast the amount and mix of future subscriptions, revenue, and expenses and, as a result, our operating results may fall below our estimates or the expectations of public market analysts and investors.
11
Our failure to raise additional capital or generate cash flows necessary to expand our operations and invest in new technologies in the future could reduce our ability to compete successfully and harm our results of operations.
We may require additional financing, and we may not be able to obtain debt or equity financing on favorable terms, if at all. If we raise equity financing to fund operations or on an opportunistic basis, our stockholders may experience significant dilution of their ownership interests. We have a secured credit facility that restricts our ability to incur additional indebtedness, requires us to maintain specified minimum liquidity and restricts our ability to pay dividends. The terms of any additional debt financing may be similar or more restrictive. If we need additional capital and cannot raise it on acceptable terms, or at all, we may not be able to, among other things:
• develop new features, integrations, capabilities, and enhancements;
• continue to expand our product development, sales, and marketing organizations;
• hire, train, and retain employees;
• respond to competitive pressures or unanticipated working capital requirements; or
• pursue acquisition opportunities.
We are subject to various global data privacy and security regulations, which could result in additional costs and liabilities to us.
Our business is subject to a wide variety of local, state, national and international laws, directives and regulations that apply to the collection, use, retention, protection, disclosure, transfer and other processing of personal data. These data protection and privacy-related laws and regulations continue to evolve and may result in ever-increasing regulatory and public scrutiny and escalating levels of enforcement and sanctions and increased costs of compliance. In the United States, these include rules and regulations promulgated under the authority of the Federal Trade Commission, and state breach notification laws. If we experience a security incident with personal data issue, we may be required to inform the representative state attorney general or federal or country regulator, media and credit reporting agencies, and any customers whose information was stolen, which could harm our reputation and business. Other states and countries have enacted different requirements for protecting personal information collected and maintained electronically. We expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws, regulations and industry standards concerning privacy, data protection and information security in the United States, the European Union and other jurisdictions, and we cannot yet determine the impact such future laws, regulations and standards will have on our business or the businesses of our customers.
Failure to comply with laws concerning privacy, data protection and information security could result in enforcement action against us, including fines, imprisonment of company officials and public censure, claims for damages by end customers and other affected individuals, damage to our reputation and loss of goodwill (both in relation to existing end customers and prospective end customers), any of which could have a material adverse effect on our operations, financial performance and business. In addition, we could suffer adverse publicity and loss of customer confidence were it known that we did not take adequate measures to assure the confidentiality of the personally identifiable information that our customers had given to us. This could result in a loss of customers and revenue that could jeopardize our success. We may not be successful in avoiding potential liability or disruption of business resulting from the failure to comply with these laws and, even if we comply with laws, may be subject to liability because of a security incident. If we were required to pay any significant amount of money in satisfaction of claims under these laws, or any similar laws enacted by other jurisdictions, or if we were forced to cease our business operations for any length of time as a result of our inability to comply fully with any of these laws, our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected. Further, complying with the applicable notice requirements in the event of a security breach could result in significant costs.
Additionally, our business efficiencies and economies of scale depend on generally uniform product offerings and uniform treatment of customers across all jurisdictions in which we operate. Compliance requirements that vary significantly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction impose added costs on our business and can increase liability for compliance deficiencies. Further, new or recently implemented regulations, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, may require significant investment, including the establishment of new data centers.
12
Cyber-attacks and security vulnerabilities could result in serious harm to our reputation, business, and financial condition.
Threats to network and data security are constantly evolving and becoming increasingly diverse and sophisticated. Our products and services, as well as our servers and computer systems and those of third parties that we rely on in our operations could be vulnerable to cybersecurity risks. As such, we may be subject to risks inherent to companies that process personal data. An increasing number of organizations have disclosed breaches of their information security systems, some of which have involved sophisticated and highly targeted attacks.
We are the target of attempts to identify and exploit system vulnerabilities and/or penetrate or bypass our security measures in order to gain unauthorized access to our systems, including an incident that has resulted in exfiltration of the contact records from our database. We employ multiple methods at different layers of our systems to defend against intrusion and attack, to protect our systems and to resolve and mitigate the impact of any incidents. Despite our efforts to keep our systems secure and to remedy identified vulnerabilities, future attacks could be successful and could result in substantial liability or business risk. Third parties will continue to attempt to gain unauthorized access to our systems or facilities through various means, including hacking into our systems or facilities, or those of our customers or vendors, or attempting to fraudulently induce our employees, customers, vendors or other users of our systems into disclosing sensitive information, which may in turn be used to access our IT systems. Our cybersecurity programs and efforts to protect our systems and data, and to prevent, detect and respond to data security incidents, may not prevent these threats or provide adequate security. Further, we may be subject to additional liability risks associated with data security breaches or other incidents by virtue of the private right of action granted to individuals under certain data privacy laws for actions arising from certain data security incidents.
We may experience breaches of our security measures due to human error, malfeasance, system errors or vulnerabilities, or other irregularities. In particular, our platform and the other systems or networks used in our business may experience an increase in attempted cyber-attacks, targeted intrusion, ransomware, and phishing campaigns seeking to take advantage of shifts to employees working remotely using their household or personal internet networks and to leverage fears promulgated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Actual or perceived breaches of our security could subject us to regulatory investigations and orders, litigation, indemnity obligations, damages, penalties, fines and other costs in connection with actual and alleged contractual breaches, violations of applicable laws and regulations and other liabilities. Any such incident could also materially damage our reputation and harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. We maintain errors, omissions, and cyber liability insurance policies covering certain security and privacy damages. However, we cannot be certain that our coverage will be adequate for liabilities actually incurred or that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all.
Interruptions or performance problems associated with our internal infrastructure, and its reliance on technologies from third parties, may adversely affect our ability to manage our business and meet reporting obligations.
Currently, we use NetSuite to manage our financial processes and other third-party vendors to manage sales, online marketing and web services. We believe the availability of these services is essential to the management of our high-volume, transaction-oriented business model. As we expand our operations, we expect to utilize additional systems and service providers that may also be essential to managing our business. Although the systems and services that we require are typically available from a number of providers, it is time-consuming and costly to qualify and implement these relationships. Therefore, if one or more of our providers suffer an interruption in their business, or experience delays, disruptions or quality-control problems in their operations, or we have to change or add additional systems and services, our ability to manage our business and produce timely and accurate financial statements would suffer.
Interruptions or performance problems associated with our products, including disruptions at any third-party data centers upon which we rely, may impair our ability to support our customers.
Our continued growth depends in part on the ability of our existing and potential customers to access our websites, software or cloud-based products within an acceptable amount of time. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, service disruptions, outages and other performance problems due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, capacity constraints due to an overwhelming number of users accessing our website simultaneously and denial of service or fraud or security attacks. In some instances, we may not be able to identify the cause or causes of these website performance problems within an acceptable period of time. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve our website performance, especially during peak usage times and as our user traffic increases. If our websites are unavailable or if our customers are unable to access our software or cloud-based products within a reasonable amount of time or at all, our business would be negatively affected. Additionally, our data centers and networks and third-party data centers and networks may experience technical failures and downtime, may fail to distribute appropriate updates, or may fail to meet the increased requirements of a growing customer base.
13
We provide certain of our solutions through third-party data center hosting facilities located in the United States and other countries. While we control and have access to our servers and all of the components of our network that are located in such third-party data centers, we do not control the operation of these facilities. Additionally, some of these data centers could be temporarily or permanently impacted by natural disasters, including wildfires and earthquakes. Following expiration of the current agreement terms, the owners of the data center facilities have no obligation to renew their agreements with us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If we are unable to renew these agreements on commercially reasonable terms, or if one of our data center operators is acquired, we may be required to transfer our servers and other infrastructure to new data center facilities, and we may incur significant costs and possible service interruptions in connection with doing so.
We leverage third-party software for use with our solution. Performance issues, errors and defects, or failure to successfully integrate or license necessary third-party software could cause delays, errors, or failures of our solution, increases in our expenses and reductions in our sales, which could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.
We use software licensed from a variety of third parties in connection with the operation of our products. Any performance issues, errors, bugs, or defects in third-party software could result in errors or a failure of our products, which could adversely affect our business and results of operations. In the future, we might need to license other software to enhance our solution and meet evolving customer demands and requirements. Any limitations in our ability to use third-party software could significantly increase our expenses and otherwise result in delays, a reduction in functionality, or errors or failures of our solution until equivalent technology or content is either developed by us or, if available, identified, obtained through purchase or license, and integrated into our solution. In addition, third-party licenses may expose us to increased risks, including risks associated with the integration of new technology, the diversion of resources from the development of our own proprietary technology, and our inability to generate revenues from new technology sufficient to offset associated acquisition and maintenance costs, all of which may increase our expenses and materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.
If we fail to integrate our products with a variety of operating systems, software applications, platforms and hardware that are developed by others or ourselves, our products may become less competitive or obsolete and our results of operations would be harmed.
Our products must integrate with a variety of network, hardware and software platforms, and we need to continuously modify and enhance our products to adapt to changes in hardware, software, networking, browser and database technologies. We believe a significant component of our value proposition to customers is the ability to optimize and configure our products to integrate with our systems and those of third parties. If we are not able to integrate our products in a meaningful and efficient manner, demand for our products could decrease and our business and results of operations would be harmed.
In addition, we have a large number of solutions, and maintaining and integrating them effectively requires extensive resources. Our continuing efforts to make our products more interoperative may not be successful. Failure of our products to operate effectively with future infrastructure platforms and technologies could reduce the demand for our products, resulting in customer dissatisfaction and harm to our business. If we are unable to respond to changes in a cost-effective manner, our products may become less marketable, less competitive or obsolete and our business and results of operations may be harmed.
Material defects or errors in our products could harm our reputation, result in significant costs to us and impair our ability to sell our products.
Software products are inherently complex and often contain defects and errors when first introduced or when new versions are released. Any defects or errors in our products could result in:
14
• lost or delayed market acceptance and sales of our products;
• a reduction in subscription or maintenance renewals;
• diversion of development resources;
• legal claims; and
• injury to our reputation and our brand.
The costs incurred in correcting or remediating the impact of defects or errors in our products may be substantial and could adversely affect our operating results.
Our management team has limited experience managing a public company.
Some members of our management team have limited experience managing a publicly traded company, interacting with public company investors, and complying with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies. Our management team may not successfully or efficiently manage our transition to being a public company that is subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under the federal securities laws and the continuous scrutiny of securities analysts and investors. These new obligations and constituents will require significant attention from our senior management and could divert their attention away from the day-to-day management of our business, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We may be subject to litigation for any of a variety of claims, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
In the ordinary course of business, we may be involved in and subject to litigation for a variety of claims or disputes and receive regulatory inquiries. These claims, lawsuits, and proceedings could include labor and employment, wage and hour, commercial, data privacy, antitrust, alleged securities law violations or other investor claims, and other matters. The number and significance of these potential claims and disputes may increase as our business expands. Any claim against us, regardless of its merit, could be costly, divert management’s attention and operational resources, and harm our reputation. As litigation is inherently unpredictable, we cannot assure you that any potential claims or disputes will not have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Any claims or litigation, even if fully indemnified or insured, could make it more difficult to compete effectively or to obtain adequate insurance in the future.
In addition, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our contractual, property, and other rights, including collection of payments and fees. Litigation has been and may be necessary in the future to enforce such rights. Such litigation could be costly, time consuming, and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of our rights. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims, and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of such rights. Our inability to protect our rights as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management’s attention and resources, could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition or injure our reputation.
15
Our use of open source software could negatively affect our ability to sell our products and subject us to possible litigation.
Some of our products incorporate open source software, and we intend to continue to use open source software in the future. Some terms of certain open source licenses to which we are subject have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts, and there is a risk that open source software licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to monetize our products. Additionally, we may from time to time face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the open source software or derivative works that we developed using such software, which could include our proprietary source code, or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source software license. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to make our software source code freely available, purchase a costly license to continue offering the software or cease offering the implicated services unless and until we can re-engineer them to avoid infringement or violation. This re-engineering process could require significant additional research and development resources, and we may not be willing to entertain the cost associated with updating the software or be able to complete it successfully. In addition to risks related to license requirements, use of certain open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of software and, thus, may contain security vulnerabilities or infringing or broken code. Additionally, if we utilize open source licenses that require us to contribute to open source projects, this software code is publicly available; and our ability to protect our intellectual property rights with respect to such software source code may be limited or lost entirely. We may be unable to prevent our competitors or others from using such contributed software source code. Any of these risks could be difficult to eliminate or manage, and if not addressed, could have a negative effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
We may in the future be sued by third parties for various claims including alleged infringement of proprietary intellectual property rights.
There is considerable patent and other intellectual property development activity in our market, and litigation, based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property, is frequent in software and internet-based industries. We may receive communications from third parties, including practicing entities and non-practicing entities, claiming that we have infringed their intellectual property rights.
In addition, we may be sued by third parties for breach of contract, defamation, negligence, unfair competition, or copyright or trademark infringement or claims based on other theories. We could also be subject to claims based upon the content that is accessible from our website through links to other websites or information on our website supplied by third parties or claims that our collection of information from third-party sites without a license violates certain federal or state laws or website terms of use. We could also be subject to claims that the collection or provision of certain information breached laws or regulations relating to privacy or data protection. As a result of claims against us regarding suspected infringement, our technologies may be subject to injunction, we may be required to pay damages, or we may have to seek a license to continue certain practices (which may not be available on reasonable terms, if at all), all of which may significantly increase our operating expenses or may require us to restrict our business activities and limit our ability to deliver our products and services and/or certain features, integrations, and capabilities of our platform. As a result, we may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology, which could require significant effort and expense and/or cause us to alter our products or services, which could negatively affect our business. Further, many of our subscription agreements require us to indemnify our customers for third-party intellectual property infringement claims, so any alleged infringement by us resulting in claims against such customers would increase our liability. Our exposure to risks associated with various claims, including the use of intellectual property, may be increased as a result of acquisitions of other companies. For example, we may have a lower level of visibility into the development process with respect to intellectual property or the care taken to safeguard against infringement risks with respect to the acquired company or technology. In addition, third parties may make infringement and similar or related claims after we have acquired technology that had not been asserted prior to our acquisition.
16
We may be subject to liability if we breach our contracts, and our insurance may be inadequate to cover our losses.
We are subject to numerous obligations in our contracts with organizations using our products and services, as well as vendors and other companies with which we do business. We may breach these commitments, whether through a weakness in our procedures, systems, and internal controls, negligence, or through the willful act of an employee or contractor. Our insurance policies, including our errors and omissions insurance, may be inadequate to compensate us for the potentially significant losses that may result from claims arising from breaches of our contracts, as well as disruptions in our services, failures or disruptions to our infrastructure, catastrophic events and disasters, or otherwise.
In addition, our insurance may not cover all claims made against us, and defending a suit, regardless of its merit, could be costly and divert management’s attention. Further, such insurance may not be available to us in the future on economically reasonable terms, or at all.
Changes in laws and regulations related to the internet or changes in the internet infrastructure itself may diminish the demand for our platform and could harm our business.
The future success of our business depends upon the continued use of the internet as a primary medium for commerce, communication, and business applications. Federal, state, or foreign governmental bodies or agencies have in the past adopted, and may in the future adopt, laws or regulations affecting the use of the internet as a commercial medium. The adoption of any laws or regulations that could reduce the growth, popularity, or use of the internet, including laws or practices limiting internet neutrality, could decrease the demand for, or the usage of, our products and services, increase our cost of doing business, and harm our results of operations. Changes in these laws or regulations could require us to modify our platform, or certain aspects of our platform, in order to comply with these changes. In addition, government agencies or private organizations have imposed and may impose additional taxes, fees, or other charges for accessing the internet or commerce conducted via the internet. These laws or charges could limit the growth of internet-related commerce or communications generally or result in reductions in the demand for internet-based products such as ours. In addition, the use of the internet as a business tool could be harmed due to delays in the development or adoption of new standards and protocols to handle increased demands of internet activity, security, reliability, cost, ease-of-use, accessibility, and quality of service. Further, our platform depends on the quality of our users’ access to the internet.
On June 11, 2018, the repeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s (the “FCC”), “net neutrality” rules took effect and returned to a “light-touch” regulatory framework. The prior rules were designed to ensure that all online content is treated the same by internet service providers and other companies that provide broadband services. Additionally, on September 30, 2018, California enacted the California Internet Consumer Protection and Net Neutrality Act of 2018, making California the fourth state to enact a state-level net neutrality law since the FCC repealed its nationwide regulations, mandating that all broadband services in California must be provided in accordance with state net neutrality requirements. The U.S. Department of Justice has sued to block the law going into effect, and California has agreed to delay enforcement until the resolution of the FCC’s repeal of the federal rules. A number of other states are considering legislation or executive actions that would regulate the conduct of broadband providers. We cannot predict whether the FCC order or state initiatives will be modified, overturned, or vacated by legal action of the court, federal legislation or the FCC. With the repeal of net neutrality rules in effect, we could incur greater operating expenses, which could harm our results of operations. As the internet continues to experience growth in the number of users, frequency of use, and amount of data transmitted, the internet infrastructure that we and our users rely on may be unable to support the demands placed upon it. The failure of the internet infrastructure that we or our users rely on, even for a short period of time, could undermine our operations and harm our results of operations.
Internet access is frequently provided by companies that have significant market power that could take actions that degrade, disrupt, or increase the cost of user access to our platform, which would negatively impact our business. The performance of the internet and its acceptance as a business tool has been harmed by “viruses,” “worms” and similar malicious programs and the internet has experienced a variety of outages and other delays as a result of damage to portions of its infrastructure. If the use of the internet is adversely affected by these issues, demand for our platform could decline.
17
We could incur greater operating expenses and our user acquisition and retention could be negatively impacted if network operators:
| • | implement usage-based pricing; |
| • | discount pricing for competitive products; |
| • | otherwise materially change their pricing rates or schemes; |
| • | charge us to deliver our traffic at certain levels or at all; |
| • | throttle traffic based on its source or type; |
| • | implement bandwidth caps or other usage restrictions; or |
| • | otherwise try to monetize or control access to their networks. |
In addition, national-level “fire walls” can disrupt existing usage of our applications as well as prevent expansion into certain geographies.
We are subject to sanctions, anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and similar laws, and non-compliance with such laws can subject us to criminal penalties or significant fines and harm our business and reputation.
We are subject to requirements under the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and similar laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended (the “FCPA”), the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, the U.K. Bribery Act 2010, and other anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and anti-money laundering laws in countries in which we conduct activities. Anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws have been enforced aggressively in recent years and are interpreted broadly and prohibit companies and their employees and agents from promising, authorizing, making, offering, or providing anything of value to a “foreign official” for the purposes of influencing official decisions or obtaining or retaining business, or otherwise obtaining favorable treatment. As we increase our international sales and business, our risks under these laws may increase. Noncompliance with these laws could subject us to investigations, sanctions, settlements, prosecution, other enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, significant fines, damages, other civil and criminal penalties or injunctions, adverse media coverage, and other consequences. Any investigations, actions or sanctions could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
In addition, we may use third parties to sell access to our platform and conduct business on our behalf abroad. We or such future third-party intermediaries, may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities, and we can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of such future third-party intermediaries, and our employees, representatives, contractors, partners, and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities. We cannot provide assurance that our internal controls and compliance systems will always protect us from liability for acts committed by employees, agents, or business partners of ours (or of businesses we acquire or partner with) that would violate U.S. and/or non-U.S. laws, including the laws governing payments to government officials, bribery, fraud, kickbacks, false claims, pricing, sales and marketing practices, conflicts of interest, competition, employment practices and workplace behavior, export and import compliance, economic and trade sanctions, money laundering, data privacy, and other related laws. Any such improper actions or allegations of such acts could subject us to significant sanctions, including civil or criminal fines and penalties, disgorgement of profits, injunctions, and debarment from government contracts, as well as related stockholder lawsuits and other remedial measures, all of which could adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition, and results of operations. Software intended to prevent access to our products and service from certain geographies may not be effective in all cases.
Any violation of economic and trade sanction laws, export and import laws, the FCPA, or other applicable anti-corruption laws or anti-money laundering laws could also result in whistleblower complaints, adverse media coverage, investigations, loss of export privileges or our license issued by OFAC, severe criminal or civil sanctions, and, in the case of the FCPA, suspension or debarment from U.S. government contracts, any of which could have a materially adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of operations, and prospects.
18
Changes in existing financial accounting standards or practices may harm our results of operations.
We regularly monitor our compliance with applicable financial reporting standards and review new pronouncements and interpretations that are relevant to us. Changes in existing accounting rules or practices, new accounting pronouncements, or varying interpretations of current accounting pronouncements could negatively impact our results of operations. Further, such changes could potentially affect our reporting of transactions completed before such changes are effective. GAAP is subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the SEC and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these 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 implementing these pronouncements could cause us to fail to meet our financial reporting obligations, which could result in regulatory discipline and harm investors’ confidence in us.
Failure to achieve and maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of SOX could impair our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations and have a material adverse effect on our business.
As a public company, we will have significant requirements for enhanced financial reporting and internal controls. The process of designing and implementing effective internal controls is a continuous effort that requires us to anticipate and react to changes in our business and the economic and regulatory environments and to expend significant resources to maintain a system of internal controls that is adequate to satisfy our reporting obligations as a public company, and we are still in the process of generating a mature system of internal controls and integration across business systems. If we are unable to establish or maintain appropriate internal financial reporting controls and procedures, it could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations on a timely basis, result in material misstatements in our consolidated financial statements, and harm our operating results.
In addition to our results determined in accordance with GAAP, we believe certain non-GAAP measures may be useful in evaluating our operating performance. We present certain non-GAAP financial measures in this prospectus and intend to continue to present certain non-GAAP financial measures in future filings with the SEC and other public statements. Any failure to accurately report and present our non-GAAP financial measures could cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information, which would likely have a negative effect on the trading price of the Company’s Class A Common Stock.
Matters impacting our internal controls may cause us to be unable to report our financial information on a timely basis and thereby subject us to adverse regulatory consequences, including sanctions by the SEC or violations of applicable stock exchange listing rules, which may result in a breach of the covenants under existing or future financing arrangements. There also could be a negative reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of investor confidence in us and the reliability of our financial statements. Confidence in the reliability of our financial statements also could suffer if we or our independent registered public accounting firm continue to report a material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting. This could materially adversely affect us and lead to a decline in the market price of the Company’s Class A Common Stock.
We have a significant amount of goodwill and intangible assets on our balance sheet, and our results of operations may be adversely affected if we fail to realize the full value of our goodwill and intangible assets.
Our balance sheet reflects goodwill of $482.4 million, $752.8 million, and $752.7 million as of February 28, 2019, February 29, 2020, and November 30, 2020, respectively, and net intangible assets of $313.0 million, $467.6 million, and $426.7 million as of February 28, 2019, February 29, 2020, and November 30, 2020, respectively. In accordance with GAAP, goodwill and intangible assets with an indefinite life are not amortized but are subject to a periodic impairment evaluation. Goodwill and acquired intangible assets with an indefinite life are tested for impairment at least annually or when events and circumstances indicate that fair value of a reporting unit may be below their carrying value. Acquired intangible assets with definite lives are amortized on a straight-line basis over the estimated period over which we expect to realize economic value related to the intangible asset. In addition, we review long-lived assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of an asset might not be recoverable. If indicators of impairment are present, we evaluate the carrying value in relation to estimates of future undiscounted cash flows. Our ability to realize the value of the goodwill and intangible assets will depend on the future cash flows of the businesses we have acquired, which in turn depend in part on how well we have integrated these businesses into our own business. Judgments made by management relate to the expected useful lives of long-lived assets and our ability to realize undiscounted cash flows of the carrying amounts of such assets. The accuracy of these judgments may be adversely affected by several factors, including significant:
19
| • | underperformance relative to historical or projected future operating results; |
| • | changes in the manner of our use of acquired assets or the strategy for our overall business; |
| • | negative industry or economic trends; or |
| • | decline in our market capitalization relative to net book value for a sustained period. |
These types of events or indicators and the resulting impairment analysis could result in impairment charges in the future. If we are not able to realize the value of the goodwill and intangible assets, we may be required to incur material charges relating to the impairment of those assets. Such impairment charges could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Unanticipated changes in our effective tax rate and additional tax liabilities may impact our financial results.
We are subject to income taxes in the United States and various jurisdictions outside of the United States. Our income tax obligations are generally determined based on our business operations in these jurisdictions. Significant judgment is often required in the determination of our worldwide provision for income taxes. Our effective tax rate could be impacted by changes in the earnings and losses in countries with differing statutory tax rates, changes in non-deductible expenses, changes in excess tax benefits of stock-based compensation, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities and our ability to utilize them, the applicability of withholding taxes, effects from acquisitions, changes in accounting principles and tax laws in jurisdictions where we operate. Any changes, ambiguity, or uncertainty in taxing jurisdictions’ administrative interpretations, decisions, policies, and positions could also materially impact our income tax liabilities.
As our business continues to grow and if we become more profitable, we anticipate that our income tax obligations could significantly increase. If our existing tax credits and net operating loss carry-forwards become fully utilized, we may be unable to offset or otherwise mitigate our tax obligations to the same extent as in prior years. This could have a material impact to our future cash flows or operating results.
In addition, recent global tax developments applicable to multinational businesses, including certain approaches of addressing taxation of digital economy recently proposed or enacted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the European Commission or certain major jurisdictions where we operate or might in the future operate, might have a material impact to our business and future cash flow from operating activities, or future financial results. We are also subject to tax examinations in multiple jurisdictions. While we regularly evaluate new information that may change our judgment resulting in recognition, derecognition, or changes in measurement of a tax position taken, there can be no assurance that the final determination of any examinations will not have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial position. In addition, our operations may change, which may impact our tax liabilities. As our brand becomes increasingly recognizable both domestically and internationally, our tax planning structure and corresponding profile may be subject to increased scrutiny and if we are perceived negatively, we may experience brand or reputational harm.
We may also be subject to additional tax liabilities and penalties due to changes in non-income based taxes resulting from changes in federal, state, or international tax laws, changes in taxing jurisdictions’ administrative interpretations, decisions, policies and positions, results of tax examinations, settlements or judicial decisions, changes in accounting principles, changes to the business operations, including acquisitions, as well as the evaluation of new information that results in a change to a tax position taken in a prior period. Any resulting increase in our tax obligation or cash taxes paid could adversely affect our cash flows and financial results.
Changes in tax laws or regulations in the various tax jurisdictions we are subject to that are applied adversely to us or our paying customers could increase the costs of our products and services and harm our business.
New income, sales, use, or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations, or ordinances could be enacted at any time. Those enactments could harm our domestic and international business operations and our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Further, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations, or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified, or applied adversely to us. These events could require us or our paying customers to pay additional tax amounts on a prospective or retroactive basis, as well as require us or our paying customers to pay fines and/or penalties and interest for past amounts deemed to be due. If we raise our prices to offset the costs of these changes, existing and potential future paying customers may elect not to purchase our products and services in the future. Additionally, new, changed, modified, or newly interpreted or applied tax laws could increase our paying customers’ and our compliance, operating, and other costs, as well as the costs of our products and services. Further, these events could decrease the capital we have available to operate our business. Any or all of these events could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
20
On December 22, 2017, the legislation commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Tax Act”), was enacted, which contains significant changes to U.S. tax law, including, but not limited to, a reduction in the corporate tax rate and a transition to a modified territorial system of taxation. The impact of the Tax Act will likely be subject to ongoing technical guidance and accounting interpretation, which we will continue to monitor and assess. As we expand the scale of our international business activities, any changes in the U.S. or foreign taxation of such activities may increase our worldwide effective tax rate and harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Additionally, the application of U.S. federal, state, local, and international tax laws to services provided electronically is unclear and continually evolving. Existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations, or ordinances could be interpreted or applied adversely to us, possibly with retroactive effect, which could require us or our paying customers to pay additional tax amounts, as well as require us or our paying customers to pay fines or penalties, as well as interest for past amounts. If we are unsuccessful in collecting such taxes due from our paying customers, we could be held liable for such costs, thereby adversely affecting our results of operations and harming our business.
As a multinational organization, we may be subject to taxation in several jurisdictions around the world with increasingly complex tax laws, the application of which can be uncertain. The amount of taxes we pay in these jurisdictions could increase substantially as a result of changes in the applicable tax principles, including increased tax rates, new tax laws or revised interpretations of existing tax laws and precedents, which could harm our liquidity and results of operations. In addition, the authorities in these jurisdictions could review our tax returns and impose additional tax, interest, and penalties, and the authorities could claim that various withholding requirements apply to us or assert that benefits of tax treaties are not available to us, any of which could harm us and our results of operations.
Our results of operations may be harmed if we are required to collect sales or other related taxes for subscriptions to our products and services in jurisdictions where we have not historically done so.
States and some local taxing jurisdictions have differing rules and regulations governing sales and use taxes, and these rules and regulations are subject to varying interpretations that may change over time. The application of federal, state, local, and international tax laws to services provided electronically is evolving. In particular, the applicability of sales taxes to our products and services in various jurisdictions is unclear. We collect and remit U.S. sales and value-added tax (“VAT”), in a number of jurisdictions. It is possible, however, that we could face sales tax or VAT audits and that our liability for these taxes could exceed our estimates as state tax authorities could still assert that we are obligated to collect additional tax amounts from our paying customers and remit those taxes to those authorities. We could also be subject to audits in states and international jurisdictions for which we have not accrued tax liabilities. A successful assertion that we should be collecting additional sales or other taxes on our services in jurisdictions where we have not historically done so and do not accrue for sales taxes could result in substantial tax liabilities for past sales, discourage organizations from subscribing to our products and services, or otherwise harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Further, one or more state or foreign authorities could seek to impose additional sales, use, or other tax collection and record-keeping obligations on us or may determine that such taxes should have, but have not been, paid by us. Liability for past taxes may also include substantial interest and penalty charges. Any successful action by state, foreign, or other authorities to compel us to collect and remit sales tax, use tax, or other taxes, either retroactively, prospectively, or both, could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards may be subject to limitation.
Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, our ability to utilize net operating loss carryforwards or other tax attributes in any taxable year may be limited if we experience an “ownership change.” A Section 382 “ownership change” generally occurs if one or more stockholders or groups of stockholders who own at least 5% of our stock increase their ownership by more than 50 percentage points over their lowest ownership percentage within a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws. It is possible that the Business Combination will result in an ownership change with respect to the corporate subsidiaries of E2open Holdings and the Blockers being acquired by us pursuant to the Blocker Mergers, which may limit our ability to utilize pre-existing tax attributes of such corporate subsidiaries and Blockers. In addition, future issuances of our stock could cause an “ownership change.” It is possible that any such ownership change, or any future ownership change, could have a material effect on the use of our net operating loss carryforwards or other tax attributes, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and profitability.
21
We will incur increased costs and obligations as a result of being a public company.
As a result of the Business Combination, we are required to comply with certain corporate governance and financial reporting practices and policies required of a publicly traded company; however, we do qualify for the exemptions and transition periods available to “emerging growth companies.” As a publicly traded company, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we were not required to incur in the recent past. In addition, new and changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the rules and regulations promulgated and to be promulgated thereunder, as well as under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Jobs Act, and the rules and regulations of the SEC and national securities exchanges have created uncertainty for public companies and increased the costs and the time that the Board and management must devote to complying with these rules and regulations. We expect these rules and regulations to increase our legal and financial compliance costs and lead to a diversion of management time and attention from revenue generating activities.
Furthermore, the need to establish the corporate infrastructure demanded of a public company may divert management’s attention from implementing our growth strategy, which could prevent us from improving our business, results of operations and financial condition. We have made, and will continue to make, changes to our internal controls and procedures for financial reporting and accounting systems to meet our reporting obligations as a publicly traded company. However, the measures we take may not be sufficient to satisfy our obligations as a publicly traded company.
Our Sponsor and its affiliates, together with affiliates of Insight Partners, will beneficially own a significant equity interest in us and their interests may conflict with us or your interests.
Our Sponsor, Insight Partners and their respective affiliates collectively control approximately 46% of our voting equity. As a result, they have significant influence over our decisions to enter into any corporate transaction. In addition, affiliates of our Sponsor and Insight Partners are each in the business of making investments in companies and may acquire and hold interests in businesses that compete directly or indirectly with us. Our Sponsor and Insight Partners, and their respective affiliates, may also pursue acquisition opportunities that may be complementary to our business and, as a result, those acquisition opportunities may not be available to us. Our certificate of incorporation provides that certain parties may engage in competitive businesses and renounces any entitlement to certain corporate opportunities offered to the private placement investors or any of their managers, officers, directors, equity holders, members, principals, affiliates and subsidiaries (other than us and our subsidiaries) that are not expressly offered to them in their capacities as our directors or officers. The certificate of incorporation also provides that certain parties or any of their managers, officers, directors, equity holders, members, principals, affiliates and subsidiaries (other than us and our subsidiaries) do not have any fiduciary duty to refrain from engaging directly or indirectly in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us or any of our subsidiaries.
[Certain text intentionally omitted]
22
The Company is a holding company and its only material asset is its interest in E2open Holdings, and it is accordingly dependent upon distributions made by its subsidiaries to pay taxes, make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement and pay dividends.
The Company is a holding company with no material assets other than its ownership of the Common Units and Restricted Common Units and its managing member interest in E2open Holdings. As a result, the Company has no independent means of generating revenue or cash flow. The Company’s ability to pay taxes, make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement and pay dividends depend on the financial results and cash flows of E2open and the distributions it receives from E2open. Deterioration in the financial condition, earnings or cash flow of E2open for any reason could limit or impair E2open’s ability to pay such distributions. Additionally, to the extent that the Company needs funds and E2open is restricted from making such distributions under applicable law or regulation or under the terms of any financing arrangements, or E2open is otherwise unable to provide such funds, it could materially adversely affect the Company’s liquidity and financial condition.
E2open Holdings is treated as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes and, as such, generally will not be subject to any entity-level U.S. federal income tax. Instead, taxable income will be allocated to holders of Common Units. Accordingly, the Company is required to pay income taxes on its allocable share of any net taxable income of E2open. Under the terms of the Third Amended and Restated Limited Liability Company Agreement, E2open Holdings is obligated to make tax distributions to holders of Common Units (including the Company) calculated at certain assumed tax rates. In addition to income taxes, the Company incurs expenses related to its operations, including payment obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement, which could be significant, and some of which are reimbursable by E2open (excluding payment obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement). See the section entitled “The Business Combination — Tax Receivable Agreement.” The Company intends to cause E2open Holdings to make ordinary distributions on a pro rata basis and tax distributions (which, in certain circumstances, may be made on a non-pro rata basis as described in more detail in the section entitled “The Business Combination — Tax Receivable Agreement”) to holders of Common Units in amounts sufficient to cover all applicable taxes, relevant operating expenses, payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement and dividends, if any, declared by the Company. However, as discussed below, E2open Holdings’ ability to make such distributions may be subject to various limitations and restrictions including, but not limited to, retention of amounts necessary to satisfy E2open’s obligations and restrictions on distributions that would violate any applicable restrictions contained in E2open’s debt agreements, or any applicable law, or that would have the effect of rendering E2open insolvent. To the extent that the Company is unable to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement for any reason, such payments will be deferred and will accrue interest until paid; provided, however, that nonpayment for a specified period may constitute a material breach of a material obligation under the Tax Receivable Agreement and therefore accelerate payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement, which could be substantial.
23
Additionally, although E2open generally is not subject to any entity-level U.S. federal income tax, it may be liable under recent federal tax legislation for adjustments to its tax return, absent an election to the contrary. In the event E2open’s calculations of taxable income are incorrect, E2open and/or its members, including the Company, in later years may be subject to material liabilities pursuant to this federal legislation and its related guidance.
The Company anticipates that the distributions receives from E2open may, in certain periods, exceed the Company’s actual tax liabilities and obligations to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement. The Board, in its sole discretion, may make any determination from time to time with respect to the use of any such excess cash so accumulated, which may include, among other uses, to pay dividends on the Class A Common Stock. The Company will have no obligation to distribute such cash (or other available cash other than any declared dividend) to its stockholders. See the section entitled “Dividend Policy.”
Dividends on the Company’s common stock, if any, will be paid at the discretion of the Board, which will consider, among other things, the Company’s available cash, available borrowings and other funds legally available therefor, taking into account the retention of any amounts necessary to satisfy the obligations of the Company that will not be reimbursed by E2open, including taxes and amounts payable under the Tax Receivable Agreement and any restrictions in then applicable bank financing agreements. Financing arrangements may include restrictive covenants that restrict the Company’s ability to pay dividends or make other distributions to its stockholders. In addition, E2open is generally prohibited under Delaware law from making a distribution to a member to the extent that, at the time of the distribution, after giving effect to the distribution, liabilities of E2open (with certain exceptions) exceed the fair value of its assets. E2open’s subsidiaries are generally subject to similar legal limitations on their ability to make distributions to E2open. If E2open does not have sufficient funds to make distributions, the Company’s ability to declare and pay cash dividends may also be restricted or impaired.
Pursuant to the Tax Receivable Agreement, the Company is required to pay to the Blocker Sellers and/or the Flow-Through Sellers, as applicable, 85% of the tax savings that the Company realizes as a result of increases in tax basis in E2open’s assets resulting from the sale of E2open units for the consideration paid pursuant to the Business Combination Agreement and the future exchange of Common Units for shares of Class A Common Stock (or cash) pursuant to the Third Amended and Restated Limited Liability Company Agreement, and certain pre-existing tax attributes of the Blockers, as well as certain other and tax benefits related to entering into the Tax Receivable Agreement, including tax benefits attributable to payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement, and those payments may be substantial.
The Blocker Sellers and the Flow-Through Sellers sold E2open units for the consideration paid pursuant to the Business Combination Agreement and, in the case of the Flow-Through Sellers, may in the future exchange their Common Units for shares of Class A Common Stock of the Company (or cash) pursuant to the Third Amended and Restated Limited Liability Company Agreement, subject to certain conditions and transfer restrictions as set forth therein and in the Investor Rights Agreement. These sales, purchases, redemptions and exchanges are expected to result in increases in the Company’s allocable share of the tax basis of the tangible and intangible assets of E2open, which may increase (for income tax purposes) depreciation and amortization deductions to which the Company is entitled. In addition, as a result of the Blocker Mergers, the Company may inherit certain pre-existing tax attributes of the Blockers. These increases in tax basis and pre-existing tax attributes of the Blockers may reduce the amount of income or franchise tax that the Company would otherwise be required to pay in the future had the Business Combination and/or such sales and exchanges never occurred.
In connection with the Business Combination, the Company entered into the Tax Receivable Agreement, which generally provides for the payment by it of 85% of certain tax benefits, if any, that the Company realizes (or in certain cases is deemed to realize) as a result of these increases in tax basis and certain pre-existing tax attributes of the Blockers and tax benefits related to entering into the Tax Receivable Agreement, including tax benefits attributable to payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement. These payments are the obligation of the Company and not of E2open. The actual increase in the Company’s allocable share of E2open’s tax basis in its assets, the availability of pre-existing tax attributes of the Blockers, as well as the amount and timing of any payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement, will vary depending upon a number of factors, including the timing of exchanges, the market price of the Class A Common Stock at the time of the exchange, the extent to which such exchanges are taxable and the amount and timing of the recognition of the Company’s income. While many of the factors that will determine the amount of payments that the Company will make under the Tax Receivable Agreement are outside of its control, the Company expects that the payments it will make under the Tax Receivable Agreement will be substantial and could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial condition. Any payments made by the Company under the Tax Receivable Agreement will generally reduce the amount of overall cash flow that might have otherwise been available to the Company. To the extent that the Company is unable to make timely payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement for any reason, the unpaid amounts will be deferred and will accrue interest until paid; however, nonpayment for a specified period may constitute a material breach of a material obligation under the Tax Receivable Agreement and therefore accelerate payments due under the Tax Receivable Agreement, as further described below. Furthermore, the Company’s future obligation to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement could make it a less attractive target for an acquisition, particularly in the case of an acquirer that cannot use some or all of the tax benefits that may be deemed realized under the Tax Receivable Agreement. See the section entitled “The Business Combination — Tax Receivable Agreement.”
24
In certain cases, payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement may exceed the actual tax benefits the Company realizes or be accelerated.
Payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement are based on the tax reporting positions of the Company, and the IRS or another taxing authority may challenge all or any part of the tax basis increases, the amount or availability of pre-existing tax attributes of the Blockers, as well as other tax positions that the Company takes, and a court may sustain such a challenge. In the event that any tax benefits initially claimed by the Company are disallowed as a result of such a challenge, the Sellers and the exchanging holders will not be required to reimburse the Company for any excess payments that may previously have been made under the Tax Receivable Agreement. Rather, excess payments made to such holders will be netted against any future cash payments otherwise required to be made by the Company, if any, after the determination of such excess. A challenge to any tax benefits claimed by the Company may not arise for a number of years following the time payments begin to be made in respect of such benefits or, even if challenged soon thereafter, such excess cash payment may be greater than the amount of future cash payments that the Company might otherwise be required to make under the terms of the Tax Receivable Agreement and, as a result, there might not be sufficient future cash payments against which to net such excess. As a result, in certain circumstances the Company could make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement in excess of the Company’s actual income or franchise tax savings, which could materially impair the Company’s financial condition.
Moreover, the Tax Receivable Agreement provides that, in the event that (i) the Company exercises its early termination rights under the Tax Receivable Agreement, (ii) certain changes of control of the Company or E2open occur (as described in the Third Amended and Restated Limited Liability Company Agreement), (iii) the Company, in certain circumstances, fails to make a payment required to be made pursuant to the Tax Receivable Agreement by its final payment date, which non-payment continues until 30 days following receipt by the Company of written notice thereof or (iv) the Company materially breaches any of its material obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement other than as described in the foregoing clause (iii), which breach continues without cure for 30 days following receipt by the Company of written notice thereof and written notice of acceleration is received by the Company thereafter (except that in the case that the Tax Receivable Agreement is rejected in a case commenced under bankruptcy laws, no written notice of acceleration is required), in the case of clauses (iii) and (iv) unless certain liquidity exceptions apply, the Company’s obligations under the Tax Receivable Agreement will accelerate and the Company will be required to make a lump-sum cash payment to the Sellers and/or other applicable parties to the Tax Receivable Agreement equal to the present value of all forecasted future payments that would have otherwise been made under the Tax Receivable Agreement, which lump-sum payment would be based on certain assumptions, including those relating to the Company’s future taxable income. The lump-sum payment could be substantial and could exceed the actual tax benefits that the Company realizes subsequent to such payment because such payment would be calculated assuming, among other things, that the Company would have certain tax benefits available to it and that the Company would be able to use the potential tax benefits in future years.
25
There may be a material negative effect on the Company’s liquidity if the payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement exceed the actual income or franchise tax savings that the Company realizes.
Furthermore, the Company’s obligations to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement could also have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing certain mergers, asset sales, other forms of business combinations or other changes of control.
Risks Related to Our Indebtedness
Our substantial level of indebtedness and significant leverage may materially adversely affect our ability to raise additional capital to fund our operations and limit our ability to react to changes in the economy or our industry.
We have a substantial amount of indebtedness and are significantly leveraged. As of February 4, 2021, we had outstanding indebtedness in the principal amount of $525 million. In addition, we have an additional $75.0 million available for borrowing under E2open’s senior secured revolving credit facility. Our substantial level of indebtedness increases the possibility that we may be unable to generate cash sufficient to pay, when due, the principal of, interest on or other amounts due in respect of our indebtedness. Our substantial indebtedness, combined with our other financial obligations and contractual commitments, may have a material adverse impact on us and our business. For example, it could:
| · | make it more difficult for us to satisfy obligations with respect our indebtedness and any repurchase obligations that may arise thereunder; | |
| · | require us to dedicate a substantial portion of cash flow from operations to payments on our indebtedness, thereby reducing funds available for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, research and development and other purposes; | |
| · | increase our vulnerability to adverse economic, market and industry conditions and limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, these conditions; | |
| · | expose us to the risk of increased interest rates as certain of our borrowings are at variable rates of interest; | |
| · | limit our flexibility to adjust to changing market conditions and our ability to withstand competitive pressures, and we may be more vulnerable to a downturn in general economic or industry conditions or be unable to carry out capital spending that is necessary or important to our growth strategy; | |
| · | limit our ability to borrow additional funds or to dispose of assets to raise funds, if needed, for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, research and development and other corporate purposes; and | |
| · | limit our ability to compete with others who are not as highly-leveraged. |
Despite our current leverage, we and our subsidiaries may still be able to incur substantially more indebtedness, including secured indebtedness. This could further exacerbate the risks that we and our subsidiaries face.
We and our subsidiaries may be able to incur significant additional indebtedness in the future. Although certain of our subsidiaries are subject to restrictions on the incurrence of additional indebtedness, these restrictions are subject to a number of qualifications and exceptions, and the additional indebtedness incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be substantial. These restrictions also will not prevent us or such subsidiaries from incurring obligations that do not constitute indebtedness. We may also seek to increase the borrowing availability under the senior secured credit facilities through incremental term loans or an increase to the revolving credit facility commitments under the senior secured credit facilities under certain circumstances.
26
Our variable rate indebtedness subjects us to interest rate risk, which could cause our debt service obligations to increase significantly.
All of the borrowings under the senior secured credit facilities bear interest at variable rates. As a result, an increase in interest rates, whether due to an increase in market interest rates or an increase in our own cost of borrowing, would increase the cost of servicing our debt even though the amount borrowed remained the same, and our net income and cash flows, including cash available for servicing our indebtedness, will correspondingly decrease. The impact of such an increase would be more significant than it would be for some other companies because of our substantial debt. In the future, we may enter into interest rate swaps that involve the exchange of floating for fixed rate interest payments in order to reduce interest rate volatility. However, we may not maintain interest rate swaps with respect to all of our variable rate indebtedness, and any swaps we enter into may not fully mitigate our interest rate risk.
Our debt agreements contains restrictions that limit our flexibility in operating our business.
The senior secured credit facilities contain various covenants that limit E2open’s and its restricted subsidiaries’ ability to engage in specified types of transactions. These covenants limit E2open’s and its restricted subsidiaries’ ability to, among other things:
| · | incur additional indebtedness or issue certain preferred shares; | |
| · | pay certain dividends or make certain distributions on capital stock or repurchase or redeem capital stock; | |
| · | make certain loans, investments or other restricted payments, including certain payments with respect to subordinated indebtedness; | |
| · | transfer or sell certain assets; | |
| · | enter into certain sale and leaseback transactions; | |
| · | incur certain liens; | |
| · | guarantee indebtedness or incur other contingent obligations; | |
| · | consolidate, merge, sell or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of their assets; and | |
| · | engage in certain transactions with our affiliates. |
In addition, under the senior secured credit facilities, in certain circumstances, E2open is required to satisfy specified financial ratios, including a first-lien secured debt leverage ratio. E2open’s ability to meet those financial ratios can be affected by events beyond our control, and E2open may not be able to meet those ratios and tests.
The restrictions and specified financial ratios could limit our ability to plan for or react to market or economic conditions or meet capital needs or otherwise restrict our activities or business plans and could adversely affect our ability to finance operations, acquisitions, investments or strategic alliances or other capital needs or to engage in other business activities that would be in our interest.
A breach of the covenants under our credit facilities could result in an event of default under the applicable indebtedness. Such default may allow the creditors to accelerate the related debt and may result in the acceleration of any other debt to which a cross-acceleration or cross-default provision applies. In addition, an event of default under the senior secured credit facilities would permit the lenders under the senior secured credit facilities to terminate all commitments to extend further credit under those facilities. Furthermore, if we were unable to repay the amounts due and payable under the senior secured credit facilities, those lenders could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure such indebtedness. A significant portion of our indebtedness could become immediately due and payable. We cannot be certain whether we would have, or would be able to obtain, sufficient funds to make these accelerated payments. If any such indebtedness is accelerated, our assets may not be sufficient to repay in full such indebtedness and our other indebtedness.
27
We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service all of our indebtedness, and may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness, which may not be successful.
Our ability to make scheduled payments on or to refinance our debt obligations depends on our financial condition and operating performance, which in turn are subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and to certain financial, business and other factors beyond our control. We may not be able to maintain a level of cash flows from operating activities sufficient to permit us to pay the principal, premium, if any, and interest on our indebtedness.
If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we could face substantial liquidity problems and may be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures, or to sell assets, seek additional capital or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. Our ability to restructure or refinance our debt will depend on the condition of the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. Any refinancing of our debt could be at higher interest rates and may require us to comply with more onerous covenants, which could further restrict our business operations. The terms of existing or future debt instruments may restrict us from adopting some of these alternatives. In addition, any failure to make payments of interest and principal on our outstanding indebtedness on a timely basis would likely result in a reduction of our credit rating, which could harm our ability to incur additional indebtedness. In the absence of such cash flows and resources, we could face substantial liquidity problems and might be required to dispose of material assets or operations to meet our debt service and other obligations. Our credit facilities restrict E2open’s and our restricted subsidiaries’ ability to dispose of assets and use the proceeds from the disposition. We may not be able to consummate those dispositions or to obtain the proceeds that we could realize from them and these proceeds may not be adequate to meet any debt service obligations then due. These alternative measures may not be successful and may not permit us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations.
A lowering or withdrawal of the ratings assigned to our debt securities by rating agencies may increase our future borrowing costs and reduce our access to capital.
Our debt currently has a non-investment grade rating, and any rating assigned could be lowered or withdrawn entirely by a rating agency if, in that rating agency’s judgment, future circumstances relating to the basis of the rating, such as adverse changes in our performance under assorted financial metrics and other measures of financial strength, our business and financial risk, our industry or other factors determined by such rating agency, so warrant. There can be no assurances that our credit ratings or outlook will not be lowered in the future in response to adverse changes in these metrics and factors caused by our operating results or by actions that we take, that reduce our profitability, or that require us to incur additional indebtedness for items such as substantial acquisitions, significant increases in costs and capital spending in security and IT systems, significant costs related to settlements of litigation or regulatory requirements, or by returning excess cash to shareholders through dividends. Consequently, real or anticipated changes in our credit rating will generally affect the market value of our indebtedness. Additionally, credit ratings may not reflect the potential effect of risks relating to the structure of our indebtedness. Any future lowering of our ratings likely would make it more difficult or more expensive for us to obtain additional debt financing and may reduce our profitability.
28
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Securities
The NYSE may not continue to list our securities, which could limit investors’ ability to make transactions in our securities and subject us to additional trading restrictions.
Our Class A Common Stock and Public Warrants are currently listed on the NYSE. There can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with the continued listing standards of NYSE. If the NYSE delists our Class A Common Stock from trading on its exchange for failure to meet the listing standards, our stockholders could face significant material adverse consequences including:
| · | a limited availability of market quotations for our securities; | |
| · | reduced liquidity for our securities; | |
| · | a determination that our common stock is a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in such securities to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities; | |
| · | a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and | |
| · | a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future. |
A significant portion of our Class A Common Stock is restricted from immediate resale, but may be sold into the market in the future. This could cause the market price of our Class A Common Stock to drop significantly, even if our business is doing well.
The market price of shares of our Class A Common Stock could decline as a result of substantial sales of our Class A Common Stock (particularly by our significant stockholders), a large number of shares of our Class A Common Stock becoming available for sale or the perception in the market that holders of a large number of shares intend to sell their shares. Sales of a substantial number of shares of common stock in the public market could occur at any time. As of March 17, 2021, we had 187,051,142 shares of our Class A Common Stock outstanding and we are registering up to 215,045,300 shares of Class A Common Stock pursuant to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part.
In connection with the Business Combination, we, the Sponsor, Insight Partners and certain other parties thereto entered into the Investor Rights Agreement, pursuant to which such stockholders are entitled to, among other things, certain registration rights, including demand, piggy-back and shelf registration rights, subject to cut-back provisions. Certain parties to the Investor Rights Agreement, including Insight Partners and the Sponsor, as well as other E2open Sellers (including our directors and officers that were E2open Sellers), have agreed not to sell, transfer, pledge or otherwise dispose of shares of our Class A Common Stock they hold during the Lock-Up Period. However, upon expiration of the Lock-Up Period, the sale of shares of our Class A Common Stock or the perception that such sales may occur, could cause the market price of our securities to drop significantly.
29
We may issue additional shares of our Class A Common Stock or other equity securities without your approval, which would dilute your ownership interests and may depress the market price of your shares.
We may issue additional shares of our Class A Common Stock or other equity securities of equal or senior rank in the future in connection with, among other things, future acquisitions, repayment of outstanding indebtedness or under our Equity Incentive Plan, without stockholder approval, in a number of circumstances.
Our issuance of additional shares of our Class A Common Stock or other equity securities of equal or senior rank could have the following effects:
| · | your proportionate ownership interest in the Company will decrease; | |
| · | the relative voting strength of each previously outstanding share of common stock may be diminished; or | |
| · | the market price of your shares of Class A Common Stock may decline. |
A market for our securities may not continue, which would adversely affect the liquidity and price of our securities.
The price of our securities may fluctuate significantly due to the market’s reaction to the Business Combination and general market and economic conditions. An active trading market for our securities may never develop or, if developed, it may not be sustained. In addition, the price of our securities can vary due to general economic conditions and forecasts, our general business condition and the release of our financial reports. Additionally, if our securities become delisted from the NYSE for any reason, and are quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board, an inter-dealer automated quotation system for equity securities that is not a national securities exchange, the liquidity and price of our securities may be more limited than if we were quoted or listed on the NYSE or another national securities exchange. You may be unable to sell your securities unless a market can be established or sustained.
The price of our securities may be volatile.
If the benefits of the Business Combination do not meet the expectations of investors, stockholders or securities analysts, the market price of our securities may decline. In addition, fluctuations in the price of our securities could contribute to the loss of all or part of your investment. The valuation ascribed to our business and our securities in the Business Combination may not be indicative of the price that will prevail in the trading market.
The trading price of our securities may fluctuate substantially and may be lower than its current price. If an active market for our securities develops and continues, the trading price of our securities could be volatile and subject to wide fluctuations. The trading price of our securities will depend on many factors, including those described in the “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 securities since you might be unable to sell your shares or warrants at or above the price you paid for them. Any of the factors listed below could have a material adverse effect on your investment in our securities and our securities may trade at prices significantly below the price you paid for them. In such circumstances, the trading price of our securities may not recover and may experience a further decline.
30
The price of our securities may fluctuate due to a variety of factors, including:
| · | actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly and annual results and those of other public companies in our industry; |
| · | changes in the market’s expectations about our operating results; | |
| · | the public’s reaction to our press releases, other public announcements and filings with the SEC; | |
| · | speculation in the press or investment community; | |
| · | actual or anticipated developments in our business, competitors’ businesses or the competitive landscape generally; | |
| · | the operating results failing to meet the expectation of securities analysts or investors in a particular period; | |
| · | changes in financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts concerning us or the market in general; | |
| · | the failure of securities analysts to publish research about us, or shortfalls in our operating results compared to levels forecast by securities analysts; | |
| · | operating and stock price performance of other companies that investors deem comparable to ours; | |
| · | changes in laws and regulations affecting our business; | |
| · | commencement of, or involvement in, litigation involving us; | |
| · | changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances of securities or the incurrence of additional debt; | |
| · | the volume of our Class A Common Stock available for public sale (which will increase significantly at the time the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part is declared effective); | |
| · | any major change in our board of directors or management; | |
| · | sales of substantial amounts of our common stock by our directors, officers or significant stockholders or the perception that such sales could occur; | |
| · | mergers and strategic alliances in the industry in which we operate; | |
| · | market prices and conditions in the industry in which we operate; | |
| · | general economic and political conditions such as recessions, interest rates and “trade wars,” pandemics (such as COVID-19), natural disasters, potential or actual military conflicts or acts of terrorism; | |
| · | the general state of the securities markets; and | |
| · | other risk factors listed under “Risk Factors.” |
Broad market and industry factors may materially harm the market price of our securities irrespective of our operating performance. The stock market in general and the NYSE have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of the particular companies affected. The trading prices and valuations of these stocks, and of our securities, may not be predictable. A loss of investor confidence in the market for the stocks of other companies which investors perceive to be similar to us could depress our stock price regardless of our business, prospects, financial conditions or results of operations. Broad market and industry factors, including, most recently, the impact of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, and any other global pandemics, as well as general economic, political and market conditions such as recessions or interest rate changes, may seriously affect the market price of our securities, regardless of our actual operating performance. These fluctuations may be even more pronounced in the trading market for our securities shortly following the business combination. A decline in the market price of our securities also could adversely affect our ability to issue additional securities and our ability to obtain additional financing in the future.
31
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. Litigation of this type, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources. Any adverse determination in any such litigation or any amounts paid to settle any such actual or threatened litigation could require that we make significant payments.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business, or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our Class A Common Stock adversely, then the price and trading volume of our securities could decline.
The trading market for our Class A Common Stock and warrants will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business and operations, our market, or our competitors. Securities and industry analysts do not currently, and may never, publish research on us. If no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of us, the trading price and trading volume of our securities would likely be negatively impacted. If any of the analysts who may cover us change their recommendation regarding our stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, the price of our securities would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on it, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our trading price or trading volume of our securities to decline.
Our charter designates a state court within the State of Delaware, to the fullest extent permitted by law, as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit the ability of our stockholders to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or with our directors, officers or employees and may discourage stockholders from bringing such claims.
Under our charter, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the sole and exclusive forum will be a state court within the State of Delaware for:
| · | any derivative action or proceeding brought on behalf of the Company; | |
| · | any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by, or any wrongdoing by, any director, officer or employee of ours to us or our stockholders; | |
| · | any action asserting a claim against us or any director or officer or other employee of ours arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL or our charter or bylaws (as either may be amended, restated, modified, supplemented or waived from time to time); | |
| · | any action asserting a claim against us or any director or officer or other employee of ours governed by the internal affairs doctrine; or any action asserting an “internal corporate claim” as that term is defined in Section 115 of the DGCL, shall be a state court located within the State of Delaware (or, if no state court located within the State of Delaware has jurisdiction, the federal district court for the District of Delaware). |
For the avoidance of doubt, the foregoing provisions of our charter will not apply to any action or proceeding asserting a claim under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act. These provisions of our charter could limit the ability of our stockholders to obtain a favorable judicial forum for certain disputes with us or with our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find these provisions of our charter inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the types of actions or proceedings listed above, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
32
We may amend the terms of the warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders of Public Warrants with the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding Public Warrants. As a result, the exercise price of your warrants could be increased, the exercise period could be shortened and the number of shares of Class A Common Stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant could be decreased, all without your approval.
Our warrants were issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding Public Warrants to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders of Public Warrants.
Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the Public Warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding Public Warrants approve of such amendment. Although our ability to amend the terms of the Public Warrants with the consent of at least 50% of the then outstanding Public Warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, convert the warrants into cash, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of shares of Class A Common Stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
Our warrants may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Class A Common Stock.
We issued warrants to purchase 13,800,000 of our Class A ordinary shares as part of the units offered in the IPO (of which 13,799,972 are currently outstanding) and, simultaneously with the closing of the IPO, we issued in a private placement an aggregate of 10,280,000, each exercisable to purchase one Class A ordinary share at $11.50 per share, each of which entitled the holder to purchase shares of Class A Common Stock upon the Domestication. We also issued 5,000,000 Forward Purchase Warrants pursuant to the Forward Purchase Agreement. Such Warrants, when exercised, will increase the number of issued and outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock and reduce the value of the Class A Common Stock.
We are an emerging growth company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies, this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.
We are an “emerging growth company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our shareholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the market value of our Class A Common Stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of any August 31 before that time, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following February 28. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the trading prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the trading prices of our securities may be more volatile.
33
Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such an election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition period which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accountant standards used.
34
