Item 1A. Risk Factors
Our operations and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described in the sections below, that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, growth prospects, demand for our products and services, reputation and the trading price of our common stock, and make an investment in us speculative or risky. The following does not summarize all of the risks that we face, and there may be additional risks or uncertainties that are currently unknown or not believed to be material that occur or become material.
Risk Factors Summary
Business and Operational Risks
• We have experienced varied operating results, and our operating results for any particular fiscal period are affected by the timing of revenue recognition, particularly for our hardware, IP and certain software products.
• The growth of our business depends primarily on the semiconductor and electronics systems industries.
• Uncertainty in the global economy and instability within international relations, including changes in governmental policies relating to technology, may negatively affect our business and reduce our bookings levels and revenue.
• We are subject to governmental export and import controls that subject us to liability and impair our ability to compete in global markets as well as a variety of other laws and regulations.
• As we continue to acquire and invest in companies or technologies, we may not realize the expected business or financial benefits and these acquisitions could prove difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and adversely affect our operating results and the market value of our common stock.
• We could suffer serious harm to our business because of the infringement or misappropriation of our IP rights by third parties.
• Our success is highly dependent upon the legal protection of our proprietary technology, as well as software and other IP rights licensed to us by third parties, and we cannot assure that the precautions taken to protect our rights will be adequate or that we will continue to be able to adequately secure such IP rights from third parties.
• We may not realize opportunities presented by AI and may incur reputational and financial harm and liability as a result of issues relating to the management and governance of our use of AI.
• Cyberattacks that compromise the confidentiality, integrity or availability of our or our third-party providers’ information technology systems or confidential information could materially harm our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.
• Any actual or perceived failure to comply with new or existing laws, regulations and other requirements relating to the privacy, security, processing and cross-border transfer of Personal Information (as defined below) could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
• We rely on third-party data center providers and any disruption in the operations of these third-party providers, limitations on capacity or interference with our use could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
• Doing business with the public sector and heavily-regulated entities subjects us to risks related to government procurement processes, regulations and contracting requirements.
• Risks associated with our international operations could adversely impact our financial condition.
• The effect of foreign exchange rate fluctuations may adversely impact our revenue, expenses, cash flows and financial condition.
• We depend upon our management team and qualified employees, and our failure to attract, train, motivate and retain them may make us less competitive and therefore harm our results of operations.
• A significant portion of our cash is held and generated outside of the United States, and if our cash available in the United States is insufficient to meet our requirements in the United States, we may be required to raise cash in ways that could negatively affect our financial condition, results of operations and the market price of our common stock.
• The investment of our cash is subject to risks that may cause losses and affect the liquidity of these investments.
• The long sales cycle of our products and services may cause our operating results to fluctuate unexpectedly.
• We have incurred, and may in the future incur, substantial costs in connection with restructuring plans, which might not result in the benefits we anticipate, possibly having a negative effect on our future operating results.
• Our business is subject to the risk of natural disasters, global climate change and other catastrophic events.
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Risks Related to Customers, Suppliers and Industry Competition
• Customer consolidation could affect our operating results.
• Our failure to respond quickly to technological developments or customers’ increasing technological requirements and to continue to develop or acquire technological capabilities could make our products uncompetitive and obsolete and impede our ability to address the requirements in technology segments that are expected to contribute to our growth.
• Our investment in research and development of new and existing products, technologies and services may affect our operating results, and our return on investment may be lower or develop more slowly than expected.
• Our operating results and revenue could be adversely affected by customer payment delays, customer bankruptcies and defaults, modifications or non-renewals of licenses.
• The competition in our industries is substantial, and we may not be able to continue to compete successfully.
• Our future revenue is dependent in part upon our installed customer base continuing to license or buy products and purchase services.
• We depend on a single supplier or a limited number of suppliers for certain hardware components and contract manufacturers for production of our hardware products, making us vulnerable to supply disruption and price fluctuation.
Tax, Regulatory and Litigation Risks
• Our results could be adversely affected by an increase in our effective tax rate as a result of U.S. and foreign tax law changes, outcomes of current or future tax examinations, or by material differences between our forecasted and actual effective tax rates.
• Litigation, government investigations or regulatory proceedings could adversely affect our financial condition and operations.
• Errors, defects or other issues with our products and services could expose us to liability and harm our business.
• Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in United States generally accepted accounting principles, and we may incur significant costs to adjust our accounting systems and processes to comply with significant changes.
• If we become subject to unfair hiring claims, we could be prevented from hiring needed employees, incur liability for damages and incur substantial costs in defending ourselves.
• We are subject to evolving corporate governance, environmental and social practices and public disclosure expectations and regulations that impact compliance costs and risks of noncompliance.
Risks Related to Our Securities and Indebtedness
• Our stock price has been and may continue to be subject to fluctuations.
• The amount and frequency of our share repurchases may fluctuate, and we cannot guarantee that we will fully consummate our share repurchase authorization, or that it will enhance long-term stockholder value. Share repurchases could also increase the volatility of the trading price of our common stock and diminish our cash reserves.
• Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and certain provisions under Delaware law could prevent an acquisition of our company or limit the price that investors might be willing to pay for our common stock.
• Our bylaws designate the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware as the exclusive forum for certain disputes between us and our stockholders.
• Our debt obligations expose us to risks that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations, and could prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under such indebtedness.
• At the option of the holders of our outstanding notes, we may, under certain circumstances, be required to repurchase such notes.
• The terms of our debt agreements restrict our current and future operations, particularly our ability to respond to changes or to take certain actions.
• 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 variable rate indebtedness subjects us to interest rate risk, which could cause our debt service obligations to increase significantly.
• Various factors could increase our future borrowing costs or reduce our access to capital, including a lowering or withdrawal of the ratings assigned to us and our Senior Notes by credit rating agencies.
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Business and Operational Risks
We have experienced varied operating results, and our operating results for any particular fiscal period are affected by the timing of revenue recognition, particularly for our hardware, IP and certain software products.
Historical results of operations should not be viewed as reliable indicators of our future performance. Various factors affect our operating results, and some of them are not within our control. Our operating results for any period are affected by the mix of products and services sold in a given period and the timing of revenue recognition, particularly for our hardware, IP and certain software products for which revenue is recognized at a point in time rather than over time. In addition, we have recorded net losses in the past and may record net losses in the future. Also, our cash flows from operating activities have and will continue to fluctuate due to a number of factors, including the timing of our billings, collections, disbursements and tax payments.
A substantial portion of our software licenses yield revenue recognized over time, which may make it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue in future fiscal periods and means that a decrease in orders in a given period would negatively affect our revenue in future periods.
A substantial portion of the product revenue related to our hardware and IP, and to a lesser extent certain software, is recognized upon delivery, and our forecasted revenue results are based, in part, on our expectations of these products to be delivered in a particular quarter. Therefore, changes in bookings or deliveries for these products, relative to expectations, will have a more immediate impact on our revenue than changes in the majority of our time-based software or services bookings, for which revenue is generally recognized over time.
Revenue related to our hardware and IP products is inherently difficult to predict because sales of our hardware and IP products depend on the commencement of new projects for the design and development of complex ICs and systems by our customers, our customers’ willingness to expend capital to deploy our new and existing hardware or IP products in those projects and the availability of our new and existing hardware or IP products for delivery. Therefore, our hardware or IP sales may be delayed or may decrease if our customers delay or cancel projects because their spending is constrained or if there are problems or delays with the supply, delivery or installation of our hardware or IP products or our hardware suppliers. Moreover, the market environment for hardware and IP is highly competitive, and our customers may choose to purchase a competitor’s hardware or IP product based on cost, performance or other factors. These factors may result in lower revenue, which would have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and cash flows.
As we continue to expand our IP offerings, a portion of the revenue related to our IP bookings will be deferred until we complete and deliver the licensed IP to our customers. As a result, costs related to the research and development of IP may be incurred prior to the recognition of the related revenue.
We plan our operating expenses based on forecasted revenue, expected business needs and other factors such as inflation. These expenses and the effect of long-term commitments are relatively fixed in the short term. Bookings and the related revenue are harder to forecast in a difficult economic environment. If we experience a shortfall in bookings, our operating results could differ from our expectations because we may not be able to quickly reduce our expenses in response to short-term business changes. Our operating expenses are also impacted by economic conditions, such as inflation. Unexpected increases in inflation could cause our expenses to increase at a rate faster than our product pricing to recover such increases.
The methods, estimates and judgments that we use in applying our accounting policies have a significant impact on our results of operations (see “Critical Accounting Estimates” under Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”). Such methods, estimates and judgments are subject to substantial risks, uncertainties and assumptions, and factors may arise over time that may lead us to change our methods, estimates and judgments. Changes in those methods, estimates and judgments could significantly affect our results of operations.
The growth of our business depends primarily on the semiconductor and electronics systems industries.
Purchases of our products and services are dependent upon the commencement of new design projects by semiconductor and electronics systems companies. The semiconductor and electronics systems industries are cyclical and are characterized by constant and rapid technological change, product obsolescence and price erosion, evolving standards, short product life cycles and wide fluctuations in product supply and demand. The semiconductor and electronics systems industries have also experienced significant downturns in connection with, or in anticipation of, maturing product cycles of both these industries’ and their customers’ products.
The increasing complexity of designs of semiconductors and electronic systems and customers’ concerns about managing costs have previously led to, and in the future could lead to, a decrease in design starts and design activity in general. For example, in response to this increasing complexity, some customers have chosen to focus on one discrete phase of the design process or opt for less advanced, but less risky, manufacturing processes that may not require the most advanced EDA products. If growth in the semiconductor and electronics systems industries slows or stalls, then demand for our products and services could decrease and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Additionally, as the EDA industry has matured, stronger competition has emerged from companies better able to compete as sole source vendors. This increased competition could cause our revenue growth rate to decline and exert downward pressure on our operating margins, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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Furthermore, the semiconductor and electronics systems industries have become increasingly complex and interconnected ecosystems. Many of our customers outsource the manufacturing of their semiconductor designs to foundries. Our customers also frequently incorporate third-party IP, whether provided by us or other vendors, into their designs to improve the efficiency of their design process. We work closely with major foundries to help ensure that our products are compatible with their manufacturing processes. Similarly, we work closely with other major providers of semiconductor IP, particularly microprocessor IP, to optimize our EDA products for use with their IP designs and to help ensure that their IP and our own IP products work effectively together, as we may each provide for the design of separate components on the same chip. If we fail to optimize our products for use with major foundries’ manufacturing processes or major IP providers’ products, or if our access to such foundry processes or third-party IP products is hampered, then our products and services may become less desirable to our customers, resulting in an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Uncertainty in the global economy and instability within international relations, including changes in governmental policies relating to technology, may negatively affect our business and reduce our bookings levels and revenue.
Uncertainty caused by challenging global political and economic conditions, including inflation, interest rates, bank failures, government deficit concerns, government shutdowns or political stalemates, geopolitical conflicts and other adverse changes to international relationships among countries in which we or our customers operate or do business, protectionist measures or decline in corporate or consumer spending could negatively impact our customers’ businesses, reducing the number of new chip designs and their overall research and development spending, including their spending on our products and services, and as a result decrease demand for our products and services. Adverse developments that affect financial institutions, transactional counterparties or other third parties, such as bank failures and failure by the U.S. Congress to increase the U.S. federal debt ceiling on a timely basis, or concerns or speculation about any similar events or risks, have led and could lead to further credit downgrades and market-wide liquidity problems, which in turn may cause customers and other third parties to become unable to meet their obligations under various types of financial arrangements as well as general disruptions or instability in the financial markets. Public health emergencies and reactionary measures by governments and businesses have also had, and could in the future have, the effect of curtailing economic activity and causing substantial volatility and disruption in global markets. Decreased bookings for our products and services, customer bankruptcies, consolidation among our customers, or problems or delays with our hardware suppliers or with the supply or delivery of our hardware products could also adversely affect our ability to grow our business or adversely affect our future revenue and financial results.
There is inherent risk, based on the complex relationships between certain countries and within regions, that political, diplomatic or military events could result in trade disruptions and other disruptions in the markets and industries we serve and our supply chain. A significant disruption in any area where we or our customers operate or do business could reduce customer demand, make our products and services more expensive or unavailable for customers, increase the cost of our products and services, have a negative impact on customer spending, make our products less competitive, or otherwise have a materially adverse impact on our future revenue and profits, our customers’ and suppliers’ businesses, and our results of operations. In addition, there is currently significant uncertainty in the global economy and the future relationship among the United States and various other countries, caused by increased geopolitical instabilities and changes in global trade policies. For example, the ongoing geopolitical and economic uncertainty between the United States and China, where we conduct business and have derived a substantial percentage of our revenue, the unknown impact of current and future U.S. and Chinese trade regulations, including tariffs and other trade restrictions, and geopolitical risks with respect to Taiwan, which serves as a central hub for the technology industry supply chain, could, directly or indirectly, materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Similarly, many of our suppliers, vendors and other entities with whom we do business have strong ties to doing business in China and other countries impacted by recent tariffs and other trade restrictions. Their ability to supply materials to us, buy products or services from us, or otherwise work with us is affected by their ability to do business in impacted countries. Moreover, these tariffs and any other trade restrictions imposed on our suppliers could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations through reduced demand for our products and services, cancelled orders, supply chain disruptions, increased transaction costs and increased expenses.
Our future business and financial results, including demand for our products and services, are subject to considerable uncertainties that could impact our stock price. Further, political or economic conflicts between various global actors, and responsive measures that have been or could be taken, have created and can further create significant global economic uncertainty that could prolong or expand such conflicts, which could have a lasting impact on regional and global economies and harm our business and operating results.
We are subject to governmental export and import controls that subject us to liability and impair our ability to compete in global markets as well as a variety of other laws and regulations.
We must comply with the import and export restrictions and regulations and economic sanctions laws of the United States and of certain other countries in selling, providing or shipping our products and transferring our technology outside the United States, to foreign nationals (including foreign nationals within the United States) or across borders. Changes in our products or services, or changes in and continued expansion of these laws and regulations, including new or increased tariffs, trade protection measures, sanctions, trade embargoes and other trade barriers, may create delays in the introduction of our products or services into international markets and prevent our customers from deploying our products or services. In some cases, such changes have prevented and may further prevent the export or import of our products or services to certain countries, governments or persons altogether, or may result in increased costs for us, which could reduce our competitiveness, or for our
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customers, which could affect their purchasing behaviors. Any decreased use of our products or services or limitation on our ability to export to or sell our products or services in international markets would likely harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
For example, U.S. trade control laws and regulations have been amended over the past several years, including through the imposition of certain export control restrictions concerning advanced node IC production in China, the inclusion of additional Chinese technology companies on BIS “Entity List” and regulations governing the sale and export of certain technologies. If a customer was added to the Entity List or became subject to new or expanded trade restrictions, it could have a negative effect on our ability to sell products and provide services to these customers. In addition, the issuance of new or expanded trade restrictions, such as the continued expansion of the military end-user and military end-use rule, the foreign-direct product rules, or any other rule that prevents or places restrictions on a class of commodities, software or technology from export or re-export to any specific country or countries without a license, could increase our costs or expenses.
In addition, as previously disclosed, on May 23, 2025, BIS informed us that a license was required for the export, re-export or in-country transfer of EDA Software and Technology when a party to the transaction is located in China or is a Chinese "military end user" on the "Military End-User List," wherever located. On July 2, 2025, BIS informed us that the license requirements set forth in the May 23, 2025 letter from BIS were rescinded effective immediately. While we have since restored access to EDA Software and Technology for affected customers in accordance with these updated U.S. export regulations, the temporary license requirements negatively impacted our revenue in China during this period. However, in light of continued negotiations between the United States and China, the United States may consider reimposing these or additional restrictions on the export, re-export or in-country transfer of EDA Software and Technology or our other products and services in China in the future.
Anticipated or actual changes in trade restrictions could also affect customer purchasing behaviors. Entity List restrictions and other trade restrictions may also encourage customers to seek substitute products from our competitors, including a growing class of foreign competitors and open source alternatives, that are not subject to these restrictions or to develop their own solutions, thereby decreasing our long-term competitiveness. In particular, China’s stated national policy to be a global leader in all segments of the semiconductor industry by 2030 has resulted in and may continue to cause increased competitive capability in China. In addition, although customers on the Entity List are not prohibited from paying (and we are not restricted from collecting) for products we previously delivered to them (in compliance with applicable law), the credit risks associated with outstanding receivables from customers on the Entity List – including receivables from anti-piracy enforcement efforts and litigation settlements – and other trade restrictions could increase.
We cannot predict whether or when any additional changes will be made that eliminate or decrease these limitations on our ability to sell products and provide services to these Entity List customers or other customers impacted by other trade restrictions. We are unable to predict the duration of the export restrictions imposed with respect to any particular customer, technology, country or region or the long-term effects on our business or our customers’ businesses. For example, effective September 29, 2025, BIS issued an interim final rule that extended the export restrictions imposed on entities identified on the Entity List or the Military End-User List and certain other sanctioned parties, to entities that are 50% or more owned by one or more of such entities. However, on November 11, 2025, BIS published a one-year suspension of the new rule that is currently set to expire on November 9, 2026, absent a future extension. In addition, there may be indirect impacts to our business which we cannot reasonably quantify, including that certain restrictions, even if not directly applicable to us, may impact our customers' products which may have an adverse effect on demand for our products, or that a country-specific export control may limit or prevent our employees who are nationals of the restricted country from performing their duties unless a license can be obtained. Additionally, our business may also be impacted by other trade restrictions that may be imposed by the United States, China or other countries. For example, the United States and other global actors have imposed economic sanctions on Russia and other entities and individuals as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East. New or increased tariffs and other changes in U.S. trade policy, including new sanctions, have triggered and could continue to trigger retaliatory actions by affected countries. For instance, the United States has increased use of Section 232 trade authorities to impose tariffs on certain commodities, including certain articles of steel, aluminum and copper. In response to these and other U.S. measures, China and other countries have taken a range of retaliatory measures. These include the imposition of retaliatory tariffs on certain U.S.-origin goods; the implementation of new export controls by China on various critical minerals, including rare earths metals; the scheduling of further retaliatory tariff measures; and other actions that may affect us directly or indirectly. The Chinese government has also responded to U.S. actions by adding U.S. companies to an “unreliable entity list,” which limits the ability of listed companies to engage in business with Chinese customers.
Failure to obtain import, export or re-export licenses or permits when required or restrictions on trade imposed by the United States or other countries could harm our business by rendering us unable to sell or ship products and transfer our technology outside of the United States or across borders. Delays, uncertainty or an inability to obtain required export licenses in a timely manner, including as a result of government processing backlogs or policy changes, could cause delays in scheduled shipments and may impact our business and customer relationships. In addition, if our customers fail to obtain appropriate import, export or re-export licenses or permits for re-sale of our products, we may also be adversely affected through reputational harm and penalties and may not be able to provide support related to those items. Although we have implemented risk-based policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to comply with all applicable trade restrictions, from time to time we and governmental authorities inquire into particular transactions.
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Specifically, as previously disclosed, on July 27, 2025, we reached a settlement with each of BIS and the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") that resolved matters relating to export control violations that occurred between 2015 and 2021 primarily involving sales initiated by a Cadence subsidiary of products and services valued at $45.3 million in total over that period to a customer in China, as well as the subsequent transfer of technology involved in those sales to a third party in China, without the requisite authorization from BIS. As part of the settlements, we entered into a plea agreement with the DOJ pursuant to which we agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit export controls violations. The plea agreement has a three-year probationary term and includes obligations to implement additional export compliance programs and policies, including ongoing reporting and certification requirements and risk assessments, as well as obligations to cooperate in any ongoing or future investigations. In addition, we have entered into an administrative settlement agreement with BIS. Obligations under the administrative settlement agreement include two internal annual audits of our export compliance programs. Compliance with the administrative settlement agreement is a condition to our continued ability to export products. Under the agreements, we paid BIS and the DOJ aggregate net penalties and forfeitures of $140.6 million during the three months ended September 30, 2025.
Failure to comply with the terms of the plea agreement, the administrative settlement agreement or our probation could result in further criminal, civil, or administrative proceedings or denial of export privileges. Such failure or any resulting further government action could materially and adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations. Further, our ongoing obligations under these agreements will generally apply to any new business entities we acquire, which could limit our ability to acquire new businesses that may be strategically important to us, and our continued acquisition and integration of other businesses could increase our risk of a violation. Our ongoing obligations under these agreements will also generally apply to any purchaser of our company or our material business operations, which could deter a potential acquisition of our company. In addition, political, media or other scrutiny surrounding these matters or their outcome could cause significant expense and reputational harm and distract senior executives from managing normal day-to-day operations. Entry into the settlements, including the plea agreement and the administrative settlement agreement, exposes us and our directors, officers and employees to further inquiries or other actions by other governmental authorities, including in China, which could materially and adversely affect our ability to operate and do business in China. We could also face challenges in our future business dealings with government agencies, including the potential for debarment from U.S. government contracts. Any of the foregoing could further materially and adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.
The laws and policies of the United States and other countries in this area are evolving and changing, and we have experienced and may continue to experience challenges in complying with new rules as they become effective. The application and interpretation of these laws and policies can also be uncertain and change over time, and we may need to adjust our policies and procedures accordingly. In addition to the matters described above, any further failure or alleged failure to comply with these laws and policies could have negative consequences, including significant legal costs, government investigations, penalties, denial of export privileges and debarment from participation in U.S. government contracts, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition to trade control laws, our global operations are subject to numerous U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, including those related to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, tax, corporate governance, financial and other disclosures, competition, antitrust, data privacy, data protection, cybersecurity and employment. These laws and regulations are complex and may have differing or conflicting legal standards, making compliance difficult and costly, and changes to these laws, or their interpretations, may require us to make significant changes to our business operations that may adversely affect our business overall. The policies and procedures we have implemented to assist our compliance with these laws and regulations do not provide complete assurance that our employees, contractors, agents or partners will not violate such laws and regulations. Any violation individually or in the aggregate could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations. For more information about the import and export restrictions and regulations that we may be subject to, see “Governmental Regulations—Trade” under Item 1 of Part I of this Annual Report.
As we continue to acquire and invest in companies or technologies, we may not realize the expected business or financial benefits and these acquisitions could prove difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and adversely affect our operating results and the market value of our common stock.
As part of our business strategy, we invest in, and acquire complementary businesses, joint ventures, services and technologies and IP rights, some of which may be material to our financial condition and operating results. We continue to engage in investments and acquisitions and evaluate such opportunities and expect to continue to make such investments and acquisitions in the future. There can be no guarantee that we will be able to find and identify desirable investment or acquisition targets, and we may not be successful in entering into an agreement with any particular target.
Acquisitions and other transactions, arrangements and investments involve numerous risks and potential operating difficulties and expenditures, including the following, any of which could harm our business or negatively impact our results of operations:
• the failure to complete transactions on a timely basis or at all, or to realize, or a delay in realizing, anticipated benefits or synergies, including as a result of any conditions placed upon approvals from governmental authorities;
• potential identified or unknown security vulnerabilities in acquired companies, technologies or products that expose us to additional security risks or delay our ability to integrate them;
• brand or reputational harm, including due to failure or perceived failure to achieve our publicly disclosed greenhouse gas emissions reduction target due to acquisitions with large greenhouse gas emissions;
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• the failure to understand, compete and operate effectively in markets where we have limited experience or where competitors may have stronger market positions;
• the failure to integrate, combine or manage acquired products, infrastructure, technologies and businesses effectively;
• difficulties in integrating and assimilating acquired employees, which may lead to retention risk with respect to both acquired and existing employees and difficulties related to acquired employees represented by labor unions;
• the need to integrate operations across different cultures and languages and to address the particular economic, currency, political and regulatory risks associated with specific countries;
• diversion of financial resources and management’s attention from day-to-day business;
• overlapping customers and product sets that impact our ability to maintain revenue at historical rates;
• unanticipated costs, assumed liabilities or challenges in enforcing consistent controls over the acquired business, including those related to an acquired company's disclosure controls and procedures, internal control over financial reporting, cybersecurity, taxes and other compliance programs;
• contingent payments in connection with acquisitions in the future;
• unwillingness of customers, suppliers or other business partners of an acquired business to continue licensing or do business with us, or delays in such activities;
• difficulties managing any strategic investment or collaboration that we do not control or for which we do not have sole decision-making authority;
• impairment charges or other adverse accounting outcomes related to acquisitions or strategic investments;
• the failure or cessation of operations by entities in which we made strategic investments or collaboration agreements;
• the loss of some or all of the value of our investment;
• additional stock-based compensation issued or assumed in connection with the acquisition, including the impact on stockholder dilution and our results of operations; and
• the tax effects of any such acquisitions including related integration and business operation changes, and assessment of the impact on the realizability of our future tax assets or liabilities
In addition, to facilitate acquisitions or investments, we have and may in the future seek additional equity or debt financing, which may not be available on terms favorable to us or at all, which may affect our ability to complete subsequent acquisitions or investments, and which may affect the risks of owning our common stock. For example, we have and may in the future finance acquisitions or investments by issuing equity or convertible securities, or use such securities as consideration, which have and may in the future cause our existing stockholders to be diluted. We also have and may in the future finance acquisitions or investments through debt financing. Acquisitions or investments may also require the expenditure of substantial cash resources. Acquisitions are also often dilutive to margins and earnings, at least initially. In addition, in certain cases we may be required to consolidate one or more of our strategic investee’s financial results into ours. Fluctuations in any such investee’s financial results, due to general market conditions, bank failures or otherwise, could negatively affect our consolidated financial condition, results of operations, cash flows or the price of our common stock.
Our ability to acquire other businesses or technologies, make strategic investments or integrate acquired businesses effectively is impacted by geopolitical conflicts, trade tensions and increased global scrutiny of foreign investments and acquisitions and investments in the technology sector. The United States has adopted, or is considering adopting, restrictions on transactions involving foreign investments. For example, the U.S. government implemented an outbound investment review mechanism, effective January 2, 2025, which could limit our ability to pursue investment opportunities outside the United States. These restrictions, which impose certain notification requirements and prohibitions on investments by U.S. persons in sensitive sectors in China, such as semiconductors, quantum information technologies and artificial intelligence systems, may prevent us from capitalizing on opportunities that could otherwise benefit our business and stockholders. In addition, several other countries have also adopted, or are considering adopting, similar restrictions. Further, antitrust authorities in the United States and a number of countries have also reviewed acquisitions and investments in the technology industry with increased scrutiny. Governments may continue to adopt or tighten restrictions of this nature, some of which may apply to acquisitions, investments or integrations of businesses by us, and such restrictions or government actions could negatively impact our business and financial results.
We could suffer serious harm to our business because of the infringement or misappropriation of our IP rights by third parties.
There are numerous patents relating to our business and ecosystem. New patents are being issued at a rapid rate and are owned by computational software companies as well as entities and individuals outside the computational software field, including parties whose income is primarily derived from infringement-related licensing and litigation. It is not always practicable or possible to determine in advance whether a product or any of its components infringes the patent rights of others. As a result, from time to time, we have been and may continue to be compelled to respond to IP infringement claims to protect our rights or defend a customer’s rights consistent with the terms of our license agreements.
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IP infringement and misappropriation claims, including contractual defense reimbursement obligations related to third-party claims against our customers, regardless of merit, could consume valuable management time, result in costly litigation or cause product shipment delays, all of which could seriously harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
IP claims and litigation have compelled and could in the future compel us to do one or more of the following:
• pay damages (including the potential for treble damages), license fees or royalties (including royalties for past periods);
• stop licensing products or providing services that use the challenged IP and potentially refund customers;
• obtain a license to sell or use the relevant technology, which license may not be available on reasonable terms; or
• redesign the challenged technology, which could be time consuming and costly, or impossible.
If we were compelled to take any of these actions, our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations might suffer.
Our success is highly dependent upon the legal protection of our proprietary technology, as well as software and other IP rights licensed to us by third parties, and we cannot assure that the precautions taken to protect our rights will be adequate or that we will continue to be able to adequately secure such IP rights from third parties.
Our success depends, in part, upon our proprietary technology and our ability to secure, protect and enforce our IP rights in our proprietary technology. We generally rely on a combination of patent, copyright and trademark law, trade secret protection and confidentiality or licenses agreements with our employees, contractors, customers, business partners and others to establish and protect our rights in our proprietary technology and products. Despite the precautions we may take to protect our IP rights, from time to time third parties may challenge, invalidate or circumvent these safeguards. Our patents and other IP rights may not provide us with sufficient competitive advantages. Patents may not be issued on any of our pending applications and our issued patents may not be sufficiently broad to protect every feature of our technology. In addition, we believe that the protection of our trademark rights is an important factor in product recognition, protecting our brand and maintaining goodwill, and if we do not adequately protect our rights in our trademarks from infringement, any goodwill that we have developed in those trademarks could be lost or impaired, which could harm our brand and our business. Furthermore, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our proprietary rights in those countries to the same extent as applicable law protects these rights in the United States, and we may encounter difficulties in our attempts to protect our IP in foreign jurisdictions, particularly with respect to trade secret rights and including as a result of impacts from changes in international trade relationships. The protection of our IP may require the expenditure of significant financial and managerial resources. Moreover, the steps we take to protect our IP may not adequately protect our rights, or deter or prevent third parties from infringing or misappropriating our proprietary rights. In addition, to the extent we hire personnel from competitors, we may be subject to allegations that such personnel have divulged proprietary or other confidential information to us. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our IP rights could be costly, time consuming and distracting to management. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our IP rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our IP rights, which could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our IP rights.
Many of our products include software or other IP licensed from third parties. We may need to seek new or renew existing licenses for such software and other IP. Our engineering services business holds licenses to certain software and other IP owned by third parties, including that of our competitors. In addition, we use open source software in our products, and due to uncertainties regarding the interpretation of open source software licenses, there is a risk that our use of open source software is inconsistent with what the copyright owners had intended, which could lead to disputes and enforcement actions. From time to time, there have been claims against companies that distribute or use open source software in their products, asserting that open source software infringes the claimants’ IP rights. We could be subject to suits by parties claiming infringement of IP rights in what we believe to be licensed open source software. If we are held to have breached the terms of an open source software license, we could be required to seek licenses from third parties to continue offering our products on terms that are not economically feasible, to re-engineer our products or incur additional costs to remove and/or replace the affected open source software, to discontinue the sale of our products if re-engineering could not be accomplished on a timely basis or to make generally available, in source code form, our proprietary code, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition to risks related to license requirements, use of 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 assurances of title or controls on origin of the software. Moreover, many of the risks associated with use of open source software, such as the lack of warranties or assurances of title, cannot be eliminated, and could, if not properly addressed, negatively affect our business. While we have established processes designed to help alleviate these risks, including a review process for screening requests from our development organizations for the use of open source software, we cannot guarantee that our processes for controlling our use of open source software in our products and services will be effective.
Our failure to obtain third party software, other IP licenses or other IP rights that are necessary or helpful for our business on favorable terms (or at all), or our need to engage in litigation over these licenses or rights, could seriously harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. In the case of infringement or misappropriation caused by technology that we obtain from third parties, any indemnification or other contractual protections we obtain from such third parties, if any, may be insufficient to cover the liabilities we incur as a result of such infringement or misappropriation.
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We may not realize opportunities presented by AI and may incur reputational and financial harm and liability as a result of issues in the development and use of AI.
We use AI Technologies throughout our business and are making significant investments in AI initiatives, including expanding our generative AI platform and applications, to enable our customers to optimize their products’ performance, increase the productivity of their design teams and workflows and develop AI solutions themselves. AI Technologies are complex and rapidly evolving, and we face significant competition from other companies. Such other companies may develop AI Technologies that are similar or superior to ours and/or are more cost-effective and/or quicker to develop, deploy and maintain. Any inability to develop, offer or deploy new AI Technologies as effectively, as quickly and/or as cost-efficiently as our competitors could have a materially adverse impact on our operating results, customer relationships and growth. We expect that increased investment will be required in the future to continuously improve our development and use of AI Technologies. Such investments ultimately may not be commercially viable or may not result in an adequate return of capital, and we may incur unanticipated liabilities. Moreover, the long-term trajectory of this technological trend is unknown, and we may not be successful in our ongoing development and maintenance of AI Technologies in the face of novel and evolving technical, reputational and market factors. We may incur significant costs, resources, investments, delays and not achieve a return on investment or capitalize on opportunities presented by AI Technologies, and we could incur financial losses.
While AI Technologies may drive future growth in the semiconductor and electronics systems industries as well as our business, worldwide markets for AI-enabled products may not develop in the manner or time periods we anticipate, or at all. If domestic or global economies worsen, overall spending on the development of AI-related products may decrease, which would adversely impact demand for our products in these markets. Even if the demand for AI-enabled products develops in the manner or in the time periods we anticipate, if we do not have timely, competitively priced, market-accepted products available to meet our customers’ needs, we may miss a significant opportunity and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. In addition, because the markets for AI-related products are still emerging, demand for these products may be unpredictable and may vary significantly from one period to another.
Further, the introduction of AI Technologies into new or existing products may result in new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, litigation, confidentiality or security risks, ethical concerns, or other complications that could adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations. The regulatory framework governing the use of AI Technologies is rapidly evolving. Existing laws and regulations, such as data privacy and antitrust regimes, may apply to us or our customers in new ways, and many U.S. federal, state and foreign government bodies and agencies have introduced or are currently considering additional laws and regulations. For example, the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (the "EU AI Act") establishes a comprehensive, risk-based governance framework for AI in the EU market. The EU AI Act applies to companies that develop, use and/or provide AI in the EU and includes fines for breach of up to 7% of worldwide annual turnover. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission has required other companies to disgorge valuable insights or trainings generated through the use of AI or machine learning technologies where they allege the company has violated privacy and consumer protection laws. Existing laws and regulations may be interpreted in ways that would affect the operation of AI Technologies, or could be rescinded or amended as new administrations take differing approaches to evolving AI Technologies. As a result, implementation standards and enforcement practices are likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future, and we cannot yet determine the impact future laws, regulations, standards or market perception of their requirements may have on our business and may not always be able to anticipate how to respond to these laws or regulations.
We cannot predict how newly instituted legislation and regulation, or the interpretation and application of existing laws and regulations, will impact our ability, or our customers' ability, to develop and offer products or services that leverage AI Technologies and the costs of doing so. We may need to expend resources to adjust our products or services in certain jurisdictions if the laws, regulations or decisions are not consistent across jurisdictions. Further, the cost to comply with such laws, regulations, decisions and/or guidance interpreting existing laws, could be significant and would increase our operating expenses (such as by imposing additional reporting obligations regarding our use of AI Technologies). Such an increase in operating expenses, as well as any actual or perceived failure to comply with such laws and regulations, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Further, the IP ownership and license rights, including copyright, surrounding AI Technologies have not been fully addressed by U.S. courts or other federal or state laws or regulations, and the use or adoption of AI Technologies into our products and services may result in exposure to claims of copyright infringement or other IP misappropriation.
The implementation of AI Technologies may accelerate or exacerbate potential risks related to technological developments. These risks include the possibility of AI Technologies malfunctioning, producing biased, misleading or inaccurate content or failing to meet performance expectations. The development and deployment of AI Technologies carries the risk of other unintended consequences, such as ethical concerns, privacy violations and negative public perception. The rapid evolution of AI Technologies requires the application of resources to help ensure that AI is implemented responsibly in order to minimize unintended, harmful impact. If the development or use of AI Technologies by us or our customers draws controversy due to perceived or actual impact on human rights, IP, privacy, security, employment or the environment or in other social contexts, we may experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm or legal liability. For more information about laws and regulations governing the use of AI Technologies, see “Governmental Regulations—Artificial intelligence” under Item 1 of Part I of this Annual Report.
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Cyberattacks that compromise the confidentiality, integrity or availability of our or our third-party providers' information technology systems or confidential information could materially harm our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on hardware, software, digital infrastructure and computing networks for both internal and customer-facing operations that are critical to our business (collectively, “IT Systems”). We own and manage certain IT Systems but also rely on third parties for IT Systems and related products and services, including cloud computing. In addition, we and certain third-party providers collect, maintain and process data about our customers, employees, business partners and others, including information that relates to individuals and/or constitutes “personal data,” “personal information,” "personally identifiable information" or similar terms under applicable data privacy laws (collectively “Personal Information”), as well as proprietary data such as trade secrets (together with Personal Information, “Confidential Information”).
We face numerous, evolving cybersecurity risks that threaten the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our IT Systems, Confidential Information, products and services, including from diverse threat actors, such as state-sponsored organizations, opportunistic hackers and malicious insiders, as well as through diverse attack vectors, such as social engineering (including phishing), malware (including ransomware) and denial-of-service attacks, and due to human or technological error, such as misconfigurations, “bugs” or other vulnerabilities in software or hardware. Additionally, advances in technology, an increased level of sophistication and expertise of hackers, widespread access to generative AI, and new discoveries in the field of cryptography increase the risk of significant compromises or breaches of our IT Systems or security measures implemented to protect our systems. We and certain of our third-party service providers have experienced cyberattacks and other security incidents in the past and will continue to experience varying degrees of attacks and incidents in the future. Any such incidents could compromise our or our providers' IT Systems, which could cause system disruptions or slowdowns and lead to the Confidential Information stored on our or third-party systems being accessed, publicly disclosed, lost or stolen. Any actual or perceived unauthorized access or disclosure to our Confidential Information poses significant risk to our business as it could result in reputational and financial harm and further subject us to liability to our customers, suppliers, business partners and others. While to date no incidents have had a material impact to our operations or financial results, we cannot guarantee that material incidents will not occur in the future.
Cyberattacks are expected to accelerate on a global basis in frequency and magnitude as threat actors are becoming increasingly sophisticated in using techniques and tools – including AI – that circumvent security controls, evade detection and remove forensic evidence. Techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage information systems change frequently and include zero-day software vulnerabilities that are unknown until exploited by threat actors. As a result, we may be unable to promptly or effectively detect, investigate, remediate or recover from future attacks or incidents, or to avoid a material adverse impact to our IT Systems, Confidential Information or business. Furthermore, state-supported and geopolitical-related cyberattacks against companies such as ours may increase due to geopolitical conditions. A cyberattack on our IT Systems or IT Systems of one of our third-party providers or customers could result in material adverse impacts due to any or all of the following: compromise to our Cadence Cloud portfolio, which includes both our managed and customer-managed environments, and our data centers and those of our customers and end users; corruption or stealing of Confidential Information such as proprietary information related to our (or our customers') business, products, services and infrastructure or Personal Information; manipulation or stealing of financial data and assets; and/or disruption of our systems and services and those of our customers and others. As a result, we could be exposed to a risk of loss or misuse of Confidential Information, loss of financial assets, business interruption, regulatory investigations, litigation and other liabilities and costs.
Because we make extensive use of third-party suppliers and service providers, such as cloud services that support our internal and customer-facing operations, successful cyberattacks that disrupt or result in unauthorized access to third party providers’ IT Systems, including those that store our Confidential Information, can materially impact our operations and financial results. Moreover, hardware, software or applications we develop or procure from third parties or through open source solutions may contain defects in design or manufacture or other vulnerabilities and are susceptible to compromise. In addition, we have acquired and continue to acquire companies with less sophisticated security measures, and it takes time to align their security practices to meet our information security policies, procedures and controls, which exposes us to increased cybersecurity and other integration risks. There can be no assurance that our cybersecurity risk management strategy, program, policies, processes and controls will be fully implemented, complied with or effective in protecting any systems or information.
An actual or perceived breach of IT Systems or Confidential Information managed by us or a vendor could significantly impact our business through diminished market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures, legal or regulatory actions, substantial fines, penalties and required changes to our business practices, damage to our reputation or our business, loss of existing customers and our ability to obtain new customers (including government customers), significant restoration, remediation and compliance costs, and cause harm to our financial condition. Any or all of the foregoing could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Also, we cannot guarantee that any costs and liabilities incurred in relation to an attack or incident will be covered by our existing insurance policies or that applicable insurance will be available to us in the future on economically reasonable terms or at all.
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Any actual or perceived failure to comply with new or existing laws, regulations and other requirements relating to the privacy, security, processing and cross-border transfer of Personal Information could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In connection with running our business, we receive, store, use and otherwise process Personal Information, including from and about actual and prospective customers and users, as well as our employees and business contacts. We are therefore subject to a variety of federal, state and foreign laws, regulations and other requirements relating to the privacy, security and handling of Personal Information. For example, the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation, the California Consumer Privacy Act and related laws in other jurisdictions require us to adhere to certain disclosure restrictions and deletion obligations with respect to the Personal Information of their residents, and allow for penalties for violations and, in some cases, a private right of action. These laws also impose transparency and other obligations with respect to Personal Information of their respective residents and provide residents with similar rights with respect to their Personal Information. We have invested, and continue to invest, human and technology resources in our efforts to comply with such requirements that may be time-intensive and costly.
The application and interpretation of such requirements are constantly evolving and are subject to change, creating a complex compliance environment. In some cases, these requirements may be either unclear in their interpretation and application, or they may have inconsistent or conflicting requirements with each other. Further, there has been a substantial increase in legislative activity and regulatory focus on data privacy and security in the United States and elsewhere, including in relation to cybersecurity incidents. In addition, some such requirements place restrictions on our ability to process Personal Information across our business or across country borders.
It is possible that new laws, regulations and other requirements, or amendments to or changes in interpretations of existing laws, regulations and other requirements, may require us to incur significant costs, implement new processes or change our handling of information and business operations, which could ultimately hinder our ability to grow our business by extracting value from our data assets. In addition, any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with laws, regulations and other requirements relating to privacy, security and handling of information could result in legal claims or proceedings (including class actions), regulatory investigations or enforcement actions. We could incur significant costs in investigating and defending such claims and, if found liable, pay significant damages or fines or be required to make changes to our business. These proceedings and any subsequent adverse outcomes may subject us to significant negative publicity and an erosion of trust. If any of these events were to occur, our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
We rely on third-party data center providers and any disruption in the operations of these third-party providers, limitations on capacity or interference with our use could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We outsource substantially all of the infrastructure relating to our cloud solutions to third-party hosting services. Customers of our cloud-based products need to be able to access our platform at any time, without interruption or degradation of performance, and we provide them with service-level commitments with respect to uptime. Our cloud-based products depend on protecting the virtual cloud infrastructure hosted by third-party hosting services by maintaining its configuration, architecture, features and interconnection specifications, as well as the information stored in these virtual data centers, which is transmitted by third-party internet service providers. In addition, we rely on third-party providers to operate certain data centers that support our customers and users’ access to our applications and services. Any limitation on the capacity of our third-party hosting services could impede our ability to onboard new customers or expand the usage of our existing customers, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, any incident affecting our third-party hosting services’ infrastructure that may be caused by cyberattacks, natural disasters, fires, floods, severe storms, earthquakes, power loss, telecommunications failures, outbreaks of contagious diseases, terrorist or other attacks and other similar events beyond our control could negatively affect our cloud-based products and applications. A prolonged service disruption affecting our cloud-based solutions or our customers’ and other users’ access to our applications would negatively impact our ability to serve our customers and could damage our reputation with current and potential customers, expose us to liability, cause us to lose customers or otherwise harm our business. We may also incur significant costs for using alternative equipment or taking other actions in preparation for, or in reaction to, events that damage the third-party hosting services we use.
In the event that our service agreements with our third-party hosting services are terminated, or there is a lapse of service, elimination of services or features that we utilize, interruption of internet service provider connectivity or damage to such facilities, we could experience interruptions in access to our platform as well as significant delays and additional expense in arranging or creating new facilities and services and/or re-architecting our cloud-based solutions for deployment on a different cloud infrastructure service provider, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Doing business with the public sector and heavily-regulated entities subjects us to risks related to government procurement processes, regulations and contracting requirements.
We provide products and services to governmental and heavily-regulated entities, directly and through our business partners. The procurement process is highly competitive and time-consuming, may be subject to political influence and may involve different rules and conditions on the offering or pricing of products and services. We incur significant up-front time and expense without any assurance that we or our business partner will win a contract. Beyond this, demand for our products and services may be adversely impacted by public sector budgetary cycles and funding availability. Further, even if we or our business partners are successful in receiving a contract award, that award could be challenged during a bid protest process,
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which may result in an increase in expenses, an unfavorable modification, delay in the startup and funding of the work or loss of an award.
Our public sector customers may have contractual, statutory or regulatory rights to terminate contracts with us or our business partners for convenience, in which case we may not be able to collect fees for products or services delivered, or due to a default, in which case we may be liable for replacement costs incurred by the customer. Further, we are required to comply with a variety of complex laws, regulations and contractual provisions that give public sector customers substantial rights and remedies, many of which are atypical in commercial contracts. Failure by us and/or our business partners to comply with these obligations could create legal, contractual and customer satisfaction issues.
Governments routinely investigate and audit compliance with contractual or regulatory requirements. If we or our business partners fail to comply with applicable requirements, we may be subject to civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including termination of contracts, forfeiture of profits, cost associated with the triggering of price reduction clauses, fines and suspensions or debarment from future government business, all of which may adversely affect our business.
Further, we are increasingly doing business in heavily-regulated industries, such as automotive, consumer, mobile, aerospace and defense, data centers, hyperscale computing, industrial automation, life sciences and biotech. Current and prospective customers in those industries may be required to comply with more stringent regulations to use our products and services. In addition, regulatory agencies may impose requirements that we may not meet. Customers in these heavily-regulated industries often have a right to conduct audits of our systems, products and practices, and in some cases the regulators of customers in heavily-regulated industries may directly examine vendors that provide outsourced services to such customers. If one or more customers and/or regulators determine that some aspect of our business does not meet regulatory requirements, our ability to continue or expand our business with those customers may be restricted.
Risks associated with our international operations could adversely impact our financial condition.
A significant amount of our revenue is derived from our international operations, a substantial majority of our employees are located outside of the United States, and we have offices throughout the world, including key research and development facilities outside of the United States. Our international operations are subject to a number of risks, including:
• trade restrictions, sanctions or other trade barriers, which may lengthen sales cycles, restrict or prohibit the sale or licensing of certain products, or prevent foreign nationals employed by us from performing their roles;
• limitations on repatriation of earnings and on the conversion of foreign currencies;
• reduced protection of IP rights and heightened exposure to IP theft;
• longer collection periods for receivables and greater difficulty in collecting accounts receivable;
• difficulties in managing foreign operations;
• political and economic conditions, such as economic downturns in the regions in which we do business, as well as macroeconomic policy and operational impacts of political instability and armed conflicts, including military service by our international employees;
• changes in legal and regulatory requirements;
• differing employment practices and labor issues or inability to continue to offer competitive compensation;
• variations in costs or expenses associated with our international operations, including as a result of changes in foreign tax laws or changes in valuation of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies; and
• public health emergencies and related public health measures, including restrictions on travel between jurisdictions in which we and our customers and suppliers operate.
Some of our research and development and other facilities are in parts of the world where there is a greater risk of business interruption as a result of political instability, terrorist acts or military conflicts than businesses located domestically. Damage to or disruptions at our research and development facilities could have a significant adverse effect on our ability to develop and improve products. We are not insured for losses or interruptions caused by acts of war, among other exclusions. Furthermore, our operations are dependent upon the connectivity of our operations throughout the world. Activities that interfere with our international connectivity or operations, such as cyber hacking, computer system viruses, natural disasters, public health emergencies, civil unrest or terrorism, could significantly harm our business operations.
In addition, internal controls, policies and procedures and employee training and compliance programs that we have implemented to deter prohibited practices may not prevent our employees, contractors or agents from violating or circumventing our policies and the laws and regulations applicable to our worldwide operations.
The effect of foreign exchange rate fluctuations may adversely impact our revenue, expenses, cash flows and financial condition.
Approximately one third of our total costs and expenses has historically been transacted in foreign currencies and more than a half of our revenue has historically come from our international operations, while the majority of our revenue contracts worldwide are denominated in U.S. dollars. Volatility of currencies in countries where we conduct business, most notably the U.S.
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dollar, Chinese renminbi, Japanese yen, European Union euro, British pound, Indian rupee, Taiwan dollar and Israeli shekel, from time to time have an effect on our revenue or operating results.
Fluctuations in the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and other currencies could seriously affect our business, financial condition and results of operations, including due to inflation, devaluations and currency controls. If we price our products and services in a non-U.S. market in the local currency, we receive fewer U.S. dollars when the local currency declines in value relative to the U.S. dollar. If we price our products and services in a non-U.S. market in U.S. dollars, a decrease in value of the local currency relative to the U.S. dollar could result in our prices being uncompetitive in that market. On the other hand, when a foreign currency increases in value relative to the U.S. dollar, it takes more U.S. dollars to purchase the same amount of the foreign currency, which increases our operating expenses in that region. Our attempts to reduce the effect of foreign currency fluctuations may be unsuccessful, and exchange rate movements may adversely impact our results of operations as expressed in U.S. dollars. For more information, see Item 7A, “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk—Foreign Currency Risk.”
We depend upon our management team and qualified employees, and our failure to attract, train, motivate and retain them may make us less competitive and therefore harm our results of operations.
Our business depends upon the continued services, efforts and abilities of our senior management and other qualified employees. Competition for highly skilled executive officers and employees can be intense, particularly in geographic areas recognized as high technology centers. In addition, competition for qualified personnel, including software engineers, in the EDA, commercial electronics engineering services, IP industries and AI industries has intensified. Further, increased uncertainty regarding social, political and immigration policies, including changes to the rules regarding H1-B visas, in the United States and abroad may make it difficult to recruit employees with adequate experience. Current and future restrictions on the availability of visas or increased costs of visas could impair our ability to employ skilled professionals. We have experienced delays in the issuance and processing of visas, and may continue to experience such delays. In addition, governmental policies resulting in increased funding of domestic technology companies, such as China’s stated national policy to be a global leader in all segments of the semiconductor industry by 2030, has caused and may continue to cause difficulty in retaining and attracting local talent. We may also experience increased compensation costs that are not offset by either improved productivity or higher sales. We may not be successful in recruiting new personnel and in training, retaining and motivating existing personnel. Our ability to do so also depends on how well we maintain a strong workplace culture that is attractive to employees, particularly as we have transitioned employees back to the office generally four days a week, which may impact our ability to retain and hire employees. Further, some of our employees are represented by unions or work councils, and unionization of significant employee populations could cause slowdowns or work stoppages, decrease our operating flexibility or result in increased costs and other changes necessary to respond to changing conditions and to establish new relationships with the relevant representatives. Additionally, hiring and training of new employees may be adversely impacted by global economic uncertainty. From time to time, there may be changes in our management team resulting from the hiring and departure of executive officers, and as a result, we may experience disruption to our business that may harm our operating results and our relationships with our employees, customers and suppliers may be adversely affected.
To attract, retain and motivate individuals with the requisite expertise, we may be required to grant large numbers of stock options or other stock-based incentive awards, which may be dilutive to existing stockholders and increase compensation expense, and pay significant base salaries and cash bonuses, which could harm our operating results. The high cost of training new employees, not fully utilizing these employees, or losing trained employees to competing employers could also reduce our operating margins and harm our business or operating results.
A significant portion of our cash is held and generated outside of the United States, and if our cash available in the United States is insufficient to meet our requirements in the United States, we may be required to raise cash in ways that could negatively affect our financial condition, results of operations and the market price of our common stock.
We have substantial cash requirements in the United States and significant operations outside the United States. As of December 31, 2025, approximately 29% of our cash and cash equivalents balance was held by subsidiaries outside the United States. We cannot accurately predict the full impact that evolving macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions may have on our cash flows and there are administrative processes associated with repatriation of foreign earnings that could affect the timing of returning cash to the U.S. from non-U.S. jurisdictions. Accordingly, if our U.S. cash is insufficient to meet our future funding obligations in the United States, we could be required to seek funding sources on less attractive terms, which could negatively impact our results of operations, financial position and the market price of our common stock.
The investment of our cash is subject to risks that may cause losses and affect the liquidity of these investments.
Our marketable investments include various money market funds and shares of publicly held companies, and may include other investments as well. Weakened financial markets have at times adversely impacted the general credit, liquidity, market prices and interest rates for these and other types of investments. Additionally, changes in monetary policy by the Federal Open Market Committee or other relevant regulators and concerns about the rising U.S. government debt level may cause a decrease in the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar and adversely affect our investment portfolio. We also invest cash in non-marketable equity securities, including shares of privately held entities. The financial market and monetary risks associated with our investment portfolio may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, liquidity, results of operations or cash flows.
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The long sales cycle of our products and services may cause our operating results to fluctuate unexpectedly.
Generally, we have a long sales cycle that can extend up to six months or longer. The complexity and expense associated with our products and services generally require a lengthy customer education, evaluation and approval process. Consequently, we may incur substantial expenses and devote significant management effort and expense to develop potential relationships that do not result in agreements or revenue and may prevent us from pursuing other opportunities. In addition, sales of our products and services have been and may in the future be delayed if customers delay approval or commencement of projects because of the timing of customers’ competitive evaluation processes or customers’ budgetary constraints and budget cycles. Long sales cycles for hardware products subject us to a number of significant risks over which we have limited control, including insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory, variations in inventory valuation and fluctuations in quarterly operating results. Further, economic conditions, including economic downturn and rising inflation, may have a delayed impact on our results and financial condition as a result of our long sales cycles. Similarly, such macroeconomic conditions may impact our long sales cycles by making it difficult for our customers to plan future business activities, which could cause customers to limit spending or delay decision-making.
We have incurred, and may in the future incur, substantial costs in connection with restructuring plans, which might not result in the benefits we anticipate, possibly having a negative effect on our future operating results.
From time to time, we initiate restructuring plans in an effort to better align our resources with our business strategy. We incur substantial costs to implement restructuring plans, and our restructuring activities subject us to reputational risks and litigation risks and expenses. Our past restructuring plans do not provide any assurance that we will realize anticipated cost savings or other benefits from any restructuring plans we implement in the future. In addition, restructuring plans may have other consequences, such as attrition beyond our planned reduction in workforce, a negative effect on employee morale and productivity or our ability to attract highly skilled employees. Our competitors may also use any future restructuring plans to seek to gain a competitive advantage over us. As a result, restructuring plans may affect our revenue and other operating results.
Our business is subject to the risk of natural disasters, global climate change and other catastrophic events.
Our corporate headquarters, including certain of our research and development operations and certain of our distribution facilities, and a significant portion of our employees are located in the Silicon Valley area of Northern California, a region known to experience seismic activity and wildfires. Our offices around the world may also be adversely impacted by natural disasters, including those intensified by climate change. Our offices, and those of our customers and suppliers, can be disrupted by droughts, extreme temperatures, fires, flooding and other climate change-related risks, as well as earthquakes, actions by utility providers, cybersecurity attacks, terrorist attacks, telecommunication failures and other catastrophic events such as an actual or threatened public health emergency. Catastrophic or climate change-related events could cause system interruptions, delays in our product development and loss of critical data and could prevent us from fulfilling our customers' orders. If a catastrophic event occurs at or near our offices or where our employees are located, or utility providers or public health officials take certain actions (e.g., shut off power to our facilities or impose travel restrictions), our operations may be interrupted, which could adversely impact our business and results of operations. These risks may be further increased if the disaster recovery plans for us and our suppliers prove to be inadequate. If a catastrophic event impacts a significant number of customers, resulting in decreased demand for their and our products, or our ability to provide services and maintenance, our business and results of operations could be adversely impacted.
Risks Related to Customers, Suppliers and Industry Competition
Customer consolidation could affect our operating results.
There has been a trend toward customer consolidation in the semiconductor industry through business combinations, including mergers, asset acquisitions and strategic partnerships. As companies attempt to expand, strengthen or hold their market positions in an evolving industry, companies could be acquired or may be unable to continue operations. If this trend continues, it could make us more dependent on fewer customers who may be able to exert increased bargaining power in negotiations with us and could increase the portion of our total sales concentration for any single customer. Customer consolidation activity could also reduce the demand for our products and services if such customers streamline research and development or operations, reduce purchases or delay purchasing decisions. These outcomes could negatively impact our operating results and financial condition.
Our failure to respond quickly to technological developments or customers’ increasing technological requirements and to continue to develop or acquire technological capabilities could make our products uncompetitive and obsolete and impede our ability to address the requirements in technology segments that are expected to contribute to our growth.
Our strategy is designed to increase our business among electronic systems companies, which are developing their own ICs and other electronic subsystems, and to increase our business among semiconductor companies, which are increasing their contribution to the end products into which their ICs and other electronic subsystems are incorporated. Part of this strategy involves addressing the needs across a variety of vertical sectors including consumer, hyperscale computing, mobile, communications, automotive, aerospace and defense, industrial and life sciences, where increased investment is expected by our customers. Each of these sectors require technologies, expertise, and marketing and operations infrastructure that are application-specific. Our inability to develop or acquire application-specific capabilities could impede our ability to expand our business and ultimately affect our future growth. The following trends may impact the sectors we serve:
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• changes in the design and manufacturing of ICs, including migration to advanced-process nodes, present major challenges to the semiconductor industry, particularly in IC design and verification, design automation, design of manufacturing equipment, and the manufacturing process itself. With migration to advanced-process nodes, the industry must adapt to more complex physics and manufacturing challenges. Novel design tools and methodologies must be invented and enhanced quickly to remain competitive in the design of electronics in the smallest nanometer ranges;
• with the availability of seemingly endless gate capacity, there is an increase in design reuse, or the combining of off-the-shelf design IP with custom logic to create ICs or SoCs. The unavailability of a broad range of high-quality design IP (including our own) that can be reliably incorporated into a customer’s design with our software products and services could lead to reduced demand for our products and services;
• adoption of cloud computing technologies with accompanying new engagement models for an increasing number of software categories may impact our business;
• with Moore's Law slowing, the trend towards more on-chip integration and advanced system level 3D package design may change the requirements for the design, multiphysics analysis and verification of complex systems; and
• changing end-user dynamics in our target customer vertical sectors could advance the need from simple ICs to full-system design and analysis capabilities that require increasingly complex computational software-based solutions.
If we are unable to respond quickly and successfully to these trends, we may lose our competitive position, and our products or technologies may become obsolete. To compete successfully, we must develop, acquire or license new products and improve our existing products and processes on a schedule that keeps pace with technological developments. We must provide frequent and relevant updates to our software products in order to provide substantial benefit to the customer throughout the license periods because of the rapid changes in our customers’ industries. The market must also accept our new and improved products. We must also offer high-quality technical support services to assist our customers in planning, deploying and gaining operation proficiency for our products. We must enhance our hardware platforms periodically to reduce the likelihood that a competitor surpasses the capabilities we offer. Our introduction of new products could reduce the demand and revenue of our older products or affect their pricing. We must also be able to support a range of changing computer software, hardware platforms and customer preferences. Additionally, we must be able to identify and successfully enter emerging international markets for our products. We cannot guarantee that we will be successful in keeping pace with all, or any, of the customer trends.
Our investment in research and development of new and existing products, technologies and services may affect our operating results, and our return on investment may be lower or develop more slowly than expected.
We invest and expect to continue to invest in research and development for new and existing products, technologies and services in response to our customers’ increasing technological requirements and to maintain and improve our competitive position. Such investments may be in related areas, such as technical sales support, and may include increases in employee headcount. These investments may involve significant time, risks and uncertainties, including the risk that the expenses associated with these investments may affect our margins and operating results and that we may not realize the intended benefits of these investments. If we do not achieve the benefits anticipated from these investments, if the achievement of these benefits is delayed, or if customers reduce or slow the need to upgrade or enhance their computational software products and design flows, our revenue and operating results may be adversely affected.
Our operating results and revenue could be adversely affected by customer payment delays, customer bankruptcies and defaults, modifications or non-renewals of licenses.
Our customers have and may continue to face challenging financial or operating conditions, including due to macroeconomic conditions or catastrophic events, and delay or default on their payment commitments to us, request to modify contract terms, or modify or cancel plans to license our products. Our customers’ inability to fulfill payment commitments, in turn, could adversely affect our revenue, operating expenses and cash flow. Additionally, from time to time our customers seek to renegotiate pre-existing contractual commitments. Customers may also choose to not renew their licenses to our products in full or at all. Payment defaults by our customers or significant reductions in existing contractual commitments could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and operating results.
The competition in our industries is substantial, and we may not be able to continue to compete successfully.
The industries in which we do business are highly competitive and require us to identify and develop or acquire innovative and cost-competitive products, integrate them into platforms and market them in a timely manner. Failure to compete successfully could seriously harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Factors that could affect our ability to compete successfully include:
• the development by others of competitive products or platforms and services, possibly resulting in a shift of customer preferences away from our products and services and significantly decreased revenue;
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• aggressive pricing competition by our competitors, including through significant discounts, may cause us to reduce the prices of our products, offer terms that are unfavorable to us or lose our competitive position, any of which could result in lower revenue or profitability and could adversely impact our ability to realize the revenue and profitability forecasts for our products and could, over time, significantly constrain the prices that we can charge for our products;
• the challenges of advanced-node design may lead some customers to work with more mature, less risky manufacturing processes that may reduce their need to upgrade or enhance their EDA solutions and design flows;
• the challenges of developing (or acquiring) technology solutions that meet the rapidly evolving requirements of next-generation design challenges;
• intense competition to attract acquisition targets, possibly making it more difficult for us to acquire companies or technologies at an acceptable price, or at all;
• new entrants, including larger electronic systems companies, in our industry;
• the combination of our competitors or collaboration among competitors and/or other companies (including through strategic alliances) to deliver more comprehensive or different offerings than they could individually;
• our entry into new product categories or technology vertical sectors, including those in which success depends on absolute or relative scale;
• decisions by customers to perform engineering services or IP development internally, rather than purchase these services from outside vendors due to budget constraints or excess engineering capacity;
• actions by regulators to limit the contractual terms that either we or our customers can apply to product and service offerings; and
• events or circumstances that damage the reputation of our company, leadership, products, services or technologies.
For more information about our specific competitors, see “Competition” under Item 1 of Part I of this Annual Report.
Our future revenue is dependent in part upon our installed customer base continuing to license or buy products and purchase services.
Our installed customer base has traditionally generated additional new license, services and maintenance revenues. In future periods, customers may not necessarily license or buy additional products or contract for additional services or maintenance. Our customers, many of which are large semiconductor and systems companies, often have significant bargaining power in negotiations with us.
We depend on a single supplier or a limited number of suppliers for certain hardware components and contract manufacturers for production of our hardware products, making us vulnerable to supply disruption and price fluctuation.
Our reliance on single or a limited number of suppliers and contract manufacturers for certain hardware components and contract manufacturers for production of our hardware products has resulted in, and could continue to result in, some product delivery delays and reduced control over contractual terms and quality. In some cases, it may not be practical or feasible to have multiple sources to procure certain key components. We have suffered from, and may continue to suffer from, delays and other disruptions in the supply of certain hardware components and the delivery of products by our contract manufacturers. Such delays and disruptions may be due to a variety of factors, including bankruptcy, shutdown or upstream supply chain issues, and may prevent us from delivering completed hardware products to customers or from supplying new evaluation units to customers, which could have a negative impact on our revenue and operating results.
Tax, Regulatory and Litigation Risks
Our results could be adversely affected by an increase in our effective tax rate as a result of U.S. and foreign tax law changes, outcomes of current or future tax examinations, or by material differences between our forecasted and actual effective tax rates.
Tax laws, regulations, and administrative practices in various jurisdictions are evolving and may be subject to significant changes due to economic, political and other conditions. Governments, including the United States, are increasingly focused on ways to increase tax revenues, particularly from multinational corporations, which have led to changes in tax laws, an increase in audit activity and harsher positions taken by tax authorities. We are currently subject to tax audits, administrative appeals and litigation in various jurisdictions and these jurisdictions have assessed, or may assess, additional tax liabilities against us.
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Our operations are subject to income and transaction taxes in the United States and in multiple foreign jurisdictions, with a significant amount of our foreign earnings generated by our subsidiaries organized in Ireland and Hungary. Any significant change in our future effective tax rates could adversely impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial position. Our future effective tax rates could be adversely affected by factors that include, but are not limited to, changes in tax laws or the interpretation of such tax laws in jurisdictions in which we have business activity, earnings being lower than anticipated in jurisdictions with low statutory tax rates, changes in tax benefits from stock-based compensation, changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, changes in our recognition or measurement of a tax position taken in a prior period, increases to interest or penalty expenses, new accounting standards or interpretations of such standards, or results of examinations by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), state, and foreign tax or other governmental authorities.
The IRS and other tax authorities regularly examine our income tax returns and other non-income tax returns, such as payroll, sales, use, value-added, net worth or franchise, property, goods and services, consumption, import, stamp and excise taxes, in both the United States and foreign jurisdictions. The calculation of our provision for income taxes and our accruals for other taxes requires us to use significant judgment and involves dealing with uncertainties in the application of complex tax laws and regulations. In determining the adequacy of our provision for income taxes, we regularly assess the potential settlement outcomes resulting from income tax examinations. However, the final outcome of tax examinations cannot be estimated with certainty and could be materially different from the amount that is reflected in our historical income tax provisions and accruals for other taxes. Should the IRS or other tax authorities assess additional taxes, penalties or interest as a result of a current or future examination, we may be required to record charges to operations in future periods that could have a material impact on our results of operations, financial position and cash flows in the applicable period or periods.
We may recognize additional tax expense and be subject to additional tax liabilities due to changes in tax laws, regulations, and administrative practices and principles, including changes to the global tax framework, in various jurisdictions. In recent years, multiple domestic and international tax proposals were proposed to impose greater tax burdens on large multinational enterprises. For example, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development continues to advance proposals or guidance in international taxation, including the establishment of a 15% global minimum tax. In addition, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (“OBBBA”) enacted in the United States on July 4, 2025, included significant provisions, such as the permanent extension of certain expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, modifications to the international tax framework and the restoration of favorable tax treatment for certain business provisions including the immediate expensing of United States research and development expenditures. The OBBBA has multiple effective dates, with certain provisions effective in fiscal 2025 and others effective from fiscal 2026.
Forecasts of our annual effective tax rate do not include the anticipation of future tax law changes and are complex and subject to uncertainty because our income tax position for each year combines the effects of estimating the amount and composition of our annual income or loss in jurisdictions with varying income tax rates, as well as benefits from available deferred tax assets, the impact of various accounting rules, our interpretations of changes in tax laws and results of tax audits. In addition, we account for certain tax benefits from stock-based compensation in the period the stock compensation vests or is settled, which may cause increased variability in our quarterly effective tax rates. If there were a material difference between forecasted and actual tax rates, it could have a material impact on our results of operations.
Litigation, government investigations or regulatory proceedings could adversely affect our financial condition and operations.
From time to time, we or our products or technologies are involved in or subject to disputes and legal proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of business. These include disputes and legal proceedings related to IP, indemnification, mergers and acquisitions, licensing, contracts, customers, products, distribution and other commercial arrangements and employee relations matters. Governments and regulatory agencies in the jurisdictions in which we operate also open or initiate inquiries, investigations or regulatory proceedings from time to time. For information regarding legal proceedings in which we are currently engaged, please refer to the discussion under Note 18 in the notes to consolidated financial statements. The final outcome of these legal proceedings or any other proceedings that may arise in the future could have an adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations. Legal proceedings can be time consuming, expensive and divert management’s time and attention from our business, which could adversely affect our revenue and operating results.
Errors, defects or other issues with our products and services could expose us to liability and harm our business.
Our customers use our products and services in designing and developing products that involve a high degree of technological complexity, each of which has its own specifications. Because of the complexity of the systems and products with which we work, including the interoperation of our products with third party products in a customer's environment, some of our products and designs can be adequately tested only when put to full use in the marketplace. As a result, from time to time, our customers or their end users discover errors or defects in our software or the systems we design, or the products or systems incorporating our designs and IP may not operate as expected. Errors, defects or issues arising from interoperability with third party products, whether or not our products are the source of such problems, could result in reputational damage, failure to attract new or retain existing customers or market share and acceptance, diversion of development resources to resolve the problem, loss of or delay in revenue or payments and increased service costs and liability.
Although we generally have limitation of liability provisions in our standard terms and conditions of sale, in some circumstances, we may be required to indemnify a customer in full, without limitation, for certain liabilities, including for losses suffered or incurred as a result of claims of infringement, misappropriation or other violation of IP rights, or other liabilities relating
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to or arising from our products, services or acts or omissions under our agreements with customers. Large indemnity payments could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Furthermore, any dispute with a customer or other third party with respect to such obligations could have adverse effects on our relationship with such customer or other third party and other existing or prospective customers, reduce demand for our products and services and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, although we do not control what our products are used for and our standard terms and conditions generally disclaim liability for our customers’ products, the sale and support of our products also entail the risk of product liability claims. We maintain insurance to protect against certain claims associated with the use of our products, but our insurance coverage may not apply or may not fully cover claims asserted against us. In addition, even claims that ultimately are unsuccessful could result in our expenditure of funds in litigation, divert management’s time and other resources or cause reputational damage.
Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in United States generally accepted accounting principles ("U.S. GAAP"), and we may incur significant costs to adjust our accounting systems and processes to comply with significant changes.
U.S. GAAP are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”), the SEC and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. We are also subject to evolving rules and regulations of the countries in which we do business. Changes to accounting standards or interpretations thereof may result in different accounting principles under U.S. GAAP that could have a significant effect on our reported financial results.
In addition, we have in the past and may in the future need to significantly change our customer contracts, accounting systems and processes when we adopt future or proposed changes in accounting principles. The cost and effect of these changes may negatively impact our results of operations during the periods of transition .
If we become subject to unfair hiring claims, we could be prevented from hiring needed employees, incur liability for damages and incur substantial costs in defending ourselves.
When companies in our industry lose employees to competitors, they frequently claim that these competitors have engaged in unfair hiring practices or that the employment of these persons would involve the disclosure or use of trade secrets. These claims could prevent us from hiring employees or cause us to incur liability for damages. We could also incur substantial costs in defending ourselves or our employees against these claims, regardless of their merits. Defending ourselves from these claims could also divert the attention of our management away from our operations.
We are subject to evolving corporate governance, environmental and social practices and public disclosure expectations and regulations that impact compliance costs and risks of noncompliance.
We are subject to changing rules and regulations promulgated by a number of governmental and self-regulatory organizations, including the SEC, Nasdaq and the FASB, as well as evolving investor, customer, employee and other stakeholder expectations around corporate governance, executive compensation and environmental and social practices and related disclosures. These rules, regulations and expectations continue to evolve in scope and complexity, and many new requirements have been created in response to laws enacted by U.S. and foreign governments, making compliance more difficult and uncertain. For example, in January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to take steps to target diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the private sector, including directing each agency to identify up to nine opportune civil compliance investigations of publicly traded corporations, and requiring agencies to include terms within federal contracts for contractors to certify that they do not operate such programs that violate any applicable federal anti-discrimination laws, among others. We may be subject to increased litigation and regulatory scrutiny regarding these practices. The increase in costs to comply with such evolving expectations, rules and regulations, as well as any risk of noncompliance, could adversely impact us. We expect that rapidly changing laws, regulations, policies, interpretations and expectations related to corporate governance, environmental and social matters, as well as increased enforcement actions by various governmental and regulatory agencies, will continue to increase the cost of our compliance and internal risk management programs, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Moreover, some stakeholders may disagree with our environmental, social and governance targets and practices and the focus of stakeholders may change and evolve over time. Stakeholders may have different views on where corporate governance, environmental and social focus should be placed. Any disagreement with our targets or strategies could adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.
We have established environmental, social and governance targets and strategies, including relating to greenhouse gas emissions reduction. If our ESG practices, reporting or disclosure controls do not meet evolving investor, customer, employee or other stakeholder expectations and regulatory standards, or if we are unable to make progress on or achieve our goals and objectives, including our net zero target, then our reputation and our attractiveness as an employer, investment or business partner could be negatively impacted, which could adversely affect our operating results. Our disclosures and public positions or commitments on these matters may change from time to time, as may corresponding internal controls and external reporting standards, which can expose us to reputational, financial, legal, and other risks, including as a result of a failure or perceived failure to achieve aspirations, targets, or goals, such as our greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, or a failure to report accurately. Statements about our ESG initiatives and goals, and progress against those goals, may be based on standards for measuring progress that are still developing, internal controls and processes that continue to evolve, and assumptions that are subject to change. In addition, we could face scrutiny from certain stakeholders for the scope or nature of such initiatives, targets or goals, or for any revisions to these initiatives, targets or goals.
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Risks Related to Our Securities and Indebtedness
Our stock price has been and may continue to be subject to fluctuations.
Our stock price is subject to changes in recommendations or earnings estimates by financial analysts, changes in investors’ or analysts’ valuation measures for our stock, our credit ratings and other factors beyond our control including macroeconomic factors. Furthermore, speculation in the press or investment community about our strategic position, financial condition, results of operations, business or security of our products, can cause changes in our stock price. In addition to these factors and industry and general economic and political conditions, our stock price may be adversely impacted by announcements related to financial results or forecasts that fail to meet or are inconsistent with earlier projections or the expectations of our securities analysts or investors, announcements of new products or acquisitions of new technologies by us, or by other companies, including our competitors or our customers, or announcements of acquisitions, major transactions, litigation developments or management changes. A significant drop in our stock price could expose us to the risk of securities class action lawsuits, stockholder derivative lawsuits or other actions by stockholders, which may result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources, which may adversely affect our business.
The amount and frequency of our share repurchases may fluctuate, and we cannot guarantee that we will fully consummate our share repurchase authorization, or that it will enhance long-term stockholder value. Share repurchases could also increase the volatility of the trading price of our common stock and diminish our cash reserves.
We repurchase shares of our common stock from time to time in accordance with authorizations from our Board of Directors. The primary objective of our share repurchase activities is to prevent share dilution associated with our stock compensation plans. The actual timing and amount of our share repurchases are subject to business and market conditions, corporate and regulatory requirements, stock price, acquisition opportunities and other factors and may fluctuate based on such factors. Our repurchase authorization does not obligate us to acquire a minimum amount of shares, does not have an expiration date and may be modified, suspended or terminated without prior notice. We cannot guarantee that the authorization will be fully expended or that our share repurchases will enhance long-term stockholder value. Further, our share repurchase activities could affect our stock price, increase stock price volatility, reduce our cash reserves and may be suspended or terminated at any time, which may result in a decrease in our stock price.
Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and certain provisions under Delaware law could prevent an acquisition of our company or limit the price that investors might be willing to pay for our common stock.
Anti-takeover defenses in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and certain provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”) that apply to us could make it difficult for anyone to acquire control of our company. Our certificate of incorporation allows our Board of Directors to designate and issue, at any time and without stockholder approval, up to 400,000 shares of preferred stock in one or more series, all of which are currently designated as Series A Preferred, but the number of such shares of preferred stock may be reduced to zero. Subject to the DGCL, our Board of Directors may, as to any shares of preferred stock the terms of which have not then been designated, establish the terms without stockholder approval. Our Board of Directors has the power to issue shares of Series A Preferred with dividend, voting and liquidation rights superior to our common stock at a rate of 1,000-to-1 without further vote or action by the common stockholders. In addition, our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult, including the following:
• our Board of Directors’ exclusive right to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by an expansion, resignation, death or removal;
• a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent in certain circumstances, forcing certain stockholder actions to be taken at an annual or special meeting of stockholders;
• the requirement that a special meeting may be called only by our Board of Directors, the Board Chair, Chief Executive Officer or Secretary upon the written request of certain stockholders that satisfy the requirements specified in our bylaws;
• certain amendments to our certificate of incorporation requiring the affirmative vote of the holders of not less than a majority of outstanding voting stock(with different requirements for a related person); and
• advance notice procedures required to nominate candidates or to propose matters for a stockholders’ meeting.
In addition, Section 203 of the DGCL generally prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any business combination with a person owning 15% or more of its voting stock, or who is affiliated with the corporation and owned 15% or more of its voting stock at any time within three years prior to the proposed business combination, for a period of three years from the date the person became a 15% owner, unless specified conditions are met.
All or any one of these factors could limit the price that certain investors would be willing to pay for shares of our common stock and could allow our Board of Directors to resist, delay or prevent an acquisition of our company, even if a proposed transaction were favored by a majority of our independent stockholders.
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Our bylaws designate the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware as the exclusive forum for certain disputes between us and our stockholders.
Our bylaws provide that, unless a majority of our Board of Directors consents to an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, subject to certain jurisdictional requirements, is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action based upon a breach of fiduciary duty owed by any current or former director, officer, employee or stockholder to us or to our stockholders, any action asserting a claim against us or our current or former directors, officers, employees or stockholders, arising pursuant to the DGCL, our certificate of incorporation, bylaws, or any action asserting a claim against us or our current or former directors, officers or other employees that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. In addition, our bylaws provide that the federal district courts of the United States will be the exclusive forum for any complaint asserting a cause of action under the Securities Act. These exclusive forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, employees or stockholders.
Our debt obligations expose us to risks that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations, and could prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under such indebtedness.
We have significant outstanding indebtedness, as well as the ability to access additional borrowings under our revolving credit facility. Subject to the limits contained in the credit agreement governing our revolving credit facility and the indenture governing the $500 million aggregate principal amount of 4.200% Senior Notes due 2027 (the “2027 Notes”), $1.0 billion aggregate principal amount of 4.300% Senior Notes due 2029 (the “2029 Notes”) and $1.0 billion aggregate principal amount of 4.700% Senior Notes due 2034 (the “2034 Notes” and together with the 2027 Notes and the 2029 Notes, the “Senior Notes”), we may be able to incur substantial additional debt from time to time to finance working capital, capital expenditures, investments or acquisitions, share repurchases or for other purposes. If we do so, the risks related to our level of debt could intensify.
Specifically, our level of debt could have important consequences, including the following:
• making it more difficult for us to service our debt;
• limiting our ability to obtain additional financing to fund future working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions or other general corporate requirements;
• requiring a substantial portion of our cash flows (including U.S. cash) to be dedicated to debt service payments instead of other purposes;
• increasing our vulnerability to adverse economic and industry conditions;
• exposing us to the risk of increased interest rates as certain of our borrowings are at variable rates of interest;
• limiting our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in the industry in which we compete;
• placing us at a disadvantage compared to other, less leveraged competitors and competitors that have greater access to capital resources;
• limiting our interest deductions for U.S. income tax purposes; and
• increasing our cost of borrowing.
In addition, if we incur any additional indebtedness that ranks equally with the Senior Notes, then subject to any collateral arrangements we may enter into, the holders of that debt will be entitled to share ratably in any proceeds distributed in connection with any insolvency, liquidation, reorganization, dissolution or other winding up of our company.
At the option of the holders of our outstanding notes, we may, under certain circumstances, be required to repurchase such notes.
Under the terms of the Senior Notes, we may be required to repurchase for cash such notes prior to their respective maturity dates in connection with the occurrence of certain significant corporate events. Specifically, we are required to offer to repurchase such notes upon a “change of control triggering event” (as defined in the indenture related to such notes), such as a change of control accompanied by certain downgrades in the credit ratings of such notes. The repayment obligations under such notes may have the effect of discouraging, delaying or preventing a takeover of our company. If we were required to pay the Senior Notes prior to their respective maturity dates, it could have a significant negative impact on our cash and liquidity and could impact our ability to invest financial resources in other strategic initiatives.
The terms of our debt agreements restrict our current and future operations, particularly our ability to respond to changes or to take certain actions.
The agreements governing our revolving credit facility and our Senior Notes contain a number of restrictive covenants that impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us and may limit our ability to engage in acts that may be in our long-term best interest, including restrictions on our ability to incur liens or additional indebtedness and guarantee indebtedness, enter into transactions with affiliates, alter the businesses we conduct, consolidate, merge or sell all or substantially all of our assets and to enter into sale and leaseback transactions. In addition, the agreement governing our revolving credit facility requires us to maintain a specified financial ratio. Our ability to meet that financial ratio can be affected by events beyond our control, and we may be unable to meet it.
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A breach of the covenants or restrictions under the agreements governing our revolving credit facility and the Senior Notes could result in an event of default under the applicable indebtedness. Such a 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 credit agreement governing our revolving credit facility would permit the lenders under our revolving credit facility to terminate all commitments to extend further credit. In the event our lenders or note holders accelerate the repayment of our borrowings, we may not have sufficient assets to repay that indebtedness.
As a result of these restrictions, we may be limited in how we conduct our business, unable to raise additional debt or equity financing to operate during general economic or business downturns or unable to compete effectively, take advantage of new business opportunities or otherwise grow in accordance with our strategy. In addition, our financial results, our substantial indebtedness and our credit ratings could adversely affect the availability and terms of our financing.
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 refinance our debt obligations depends on our financial condition and operating performance, which are subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and certain financial, business, legislative, regulatory and other factors beyond our control. We may be unable 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 satisfy our debt obligations, we could face substantial liquidity problems and be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures or dispose of material assets or operations, seek additional debt or equity capital or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. We may not be able to effect any such alternative measures on commercially reasonable terms or at all and, even if successful, those alternative actions may not allow us to meet our debt obligations. Our debt agreements restrict our ability to dispose of assets and use the proceeds from dispositions and may also restrict our ability to raise capital to repay other indebtedness when due. We may not be able to consummate dispositions or obtain proceeds in an amount sufficient to meet any debt obligations when due.
In addition, we conduct a substantial portion of our operations through our subsidiaries. Accordingly, repayment of our indebtedness is dependent on the generation of cash flow by our subsidiaries and their ability to make such cash available to us. Our subsidiaries do not have any obligation to pay amounts due on our indebtedness or to make funds available for that purpose. Our subsidiaries may not be able to, or may not be permitted to, make distributions to us. Each subsidiary is a distinct legal entity, and, under certain circumstances, legal and contractual restrictions may limit our ability to obtain cash from our subsidiaries. If we do not receive distributions from our subsidiaries, we may be unable to make required payments on our debt.
If we cannot make scheduled payments on our debt, we will be in default and holders of our debt could declare all outstanding principal and interest to be due and payable, the lenders could terminate their commitments to loan money, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation. In addition, a material default on our indebtedness could suspend our eligibility to register securities using short form, automatically effective registration statements, potentially hindering our ability to raise capital through the issuance of our securities and increasing our costs.
Our variable rate indebtedness subjects us to interest rate risk, which could cause our debt service obligations to increase significantly.
Borrowings under our revolving credit facility are at variable rates of interest and expose us to interest rate risk. When interest rates increase, our debt service obligations increase even though the amount borrowed remains the same, and our net income and cash flows, including cash available for servicing our indebtedness, could correspondingly decrease. 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.
In addition, the applicable margin is based on the credit rating of our unsecured debt. Accordingly, a credit rating downgrade would increase the applicable interest rate. Assuming our revolving credit facility was fully drawn and we were to fully exercise our right to increase borrowing capacity under our revolving credit facility, each quarter point change in the interest rate would result in a $4.4 million change in annual interest expense.
Various factors could increase our future borrowing costs or reduce our access to capital, including a lowering or withdrawal of the ratings assigned to us and our Senior Notes by credit rating agencies.
We may in the future seek additional financing for a variety of reasons, and our future borrowing costs, terms and access to capital could be affected by factors including the condition of the debt and equity markets, the condition of the economy generally, prevailing interest rates, our level of indebtedness, our credit rating and our business and financial condition. In addition, the Senior Notes currently have an investment grade credit rating, which could be lowered or withdrawn entirely by a credit rating agency based on adverse changes to circumstances relating to the basis of the credit rating. Consequently, real or anticipated changes in our credit ratings will generally affect the market value of the Senior Notes. Any future lowering of the credit ratings of the Senior Notes likely would make it more difficult or more expensive for us to obtain additional debt financing.
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