Item 1A. Risk Factors
There are many factors that could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and cash flows, some of which are beyond our control. The following is a description of some important factors that may cause our business prospects, results of operations, and cash flows in future periods to differ materially from those currently expected or desired. Factors not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial may also materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and cash flows.
Business and Operational Risks
Our business depends on our vendor partner and wholesale distributor relationships and the terms of the agreements governing those relationships.
Our solutions portfolio includes products and services from OEMs, software publishers, and cloud providers. We are authorized by these vendor partners to sell all or some of their products and services via direct marketing activities. Our authorization with each vendor partner is subject to specific terms and conditions regarding such things as sales channel restrictions, product return privileges, services performance commitments, price protection policies, purchase discounts, and vendor partner programs and funding, including purchase rebates, sales volume rebates, purchasing incentives, and cooperative advertising reimbursements. However, our contracts with our vendor partners are primarily short-term and many of these arrangements are terminable upon notice by either party. A reduction in vendor partner programs or funding or our failure to timely react to changes in vendor partner programs or funding could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or cash flows. In addition, a reduction in the amount or a change in the terms of credit granted to us by our vendor partners could increase our need for, and the cost of, working capital and could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
From time to time, vendor partners may terminate or limit our right to sell some or all of their products or change the terms and conditions or reduce or discontinue the incentives that they offer us. For example, there is no assurance that, as our vendor partners continue to sell directly to end users and through resellers, they will not limit or curtail the availability of their products to solutions providers like us. Any such termination or limitation or the implementation of such changes could have a negative impact on our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
We purchase the products included in our portfolio both directly from our vendor partners and from wholesale distributors. A significant portion of our sales are derived from products manufactured by Apple, Cisco, Dell Technologies, HP Inc., Lenovo, and Microsoft. In addition, purchases from two wholesale distributors, Ingram Micro and TD SYNNEX, represent over 25% of our total purchases. The loss of, or change in business relationship with, any of these or any other wholesale distributors or key vendor partners, or the diminished availability of their products, including due to backlogs for their products, could reduce the supply and impact the cost of products we sell and negatively impact our competitive position.
Further, the sale, spin-off, or combination of any of our key vendor partners or wholesale distributors or certain of their business units, including any such sale to or combination with a vendor with whom we do not currently have a commercial relationship or whose products we do not sell, or our inability to develop relationships with new and emerging vendors and vendors that we have not historically represented in the marketplace, could have an adverse impact on our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
Our sales are dependent on continued innovations in technology by our vendor partners and the competitiveness of their offerings, and our ability to partner with new and emerging technology providers.
The technology industry is characterized by rapid innovation and the frequent introduction of new and enhanced hardware, software, and services, such as cloud-based and other “as a service” solutions, hyper-converged infrastructure, embedded software solutions, and solutions that incorporate AI. We have been and will continue to be dependent on innovations in technology, as well as the adoption of those innovations by customers. Also, customers may delay spending while they evaluate new technologies. A decrease in the rate of innovation, a lack of adoption of innovations by our customers, or delays in technology spending by our customers, could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
In addition, if we are unable to anticipate and expand our capabilities to keep pace with changes in technology and new hardware, software, and services, for example by providing the appropriate training to our account managers, specialists, and engineers to enable them to effectively sell and deliver such new solutions to customers, our business, results of operations, or cash flows could be adversely affected.
We also are dependent upon our vendor partners for the development and marketing of hardware, software, and services to compete effectively with hardware, software, and services of vendors whose products and services we do not currently offer or that we are not authorized to offer in one or more customer channels. In rapidly evolving categories such as cloud-based
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solutions, AI, and software “as a service” solutions, our dependence on our vendor partners for innovation can add additional complexity as vendor channel strategies and authorization models may change more frequently. To the extent that a vendor’s offering that is in high demand is not available to us for resale in one or more customer channels, and there is not a competitive offering from another vendor that we are authorized to sell in such customer channels, our business, results of operations, or cash flows could be adversely impacted.
Issues relating to the use or capabilities of AI, including social, ethical, and safety issues, in hardware, software, and services offerings may result in reputational harm, liability, or increased costs.
Social, ethical, and safety issues relating to the use of new and evolving technologies such as AI-based technologies, including generative AI in our hardware, software, and service offerings, as well as in our internal platforms, may result in reputational harm and liability. We are increasingly utilizing AI in our business, including interactions with our coworkers, customers, and vendor partners and in the hardware, software, and services we offer, and we also plan to further invest resources to embed AI capabilities throughout our operations and enterprise to drive scale and efficiency. As with many innovations, AI presents risks and challenges that could affect its adoption and usage, and therefore our business. If we are unable to effectively and timely capitalize on the growth opportunities made available by the adoption of AI to drive our scale and efficiency, our business, results of operations, or cash flows could be adversely impacted. Further, the responsible development and deployment of AI requires ongoing investment in research, development and governance, which could adversely affect our results of operation or cash flows. AI technologies are complex and rapidly evolving, and we face significant competition in the market and from other companies regarding such technologies.
As we invest in, use, enable, or offer solutions that draw controversy due to their perceived or actual impact on society and the environment, we may experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, and legal liability. The rapid development and deployment of tools that leverage AI is also causing governments to consider and implement regulation of AI. Such increased focus and potential government regulation of AI may also increase the burden and cost of compliance in this area, subjecting us to brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, and legal liability. Failure to address AI issues by us or others in our industry could undermine public confidence in AI and slow adoption of AI in our products and services.
Additionally, the development, adoption, and use of AI by us or our vendor partners could result in unintended consequences, including exposing us to additional risks related to cybersecurity, privacy, and data security, such as the risk of increased vulnerability to cybersecurity threats and exposure or theft of proprietary or sensitive information (which could result in such information being made available to our competitors and other members of the public), impacts to the stability of our operations, the generation of factually incorrect or biased outputs, reliance on outdated or unverified data, potential intellectual property infringements, the inability to protect generated content while facing unfavorable licensing terms, and the inability to attract and retain key personnel.
Substantial competition could reduce our market share and significantly harm our financial performance.
We operate in a highly competitive industry and compete with resellers, manufacturers who sell directly to customers, large service providers and system integrators, communications service providers, cloud providers, e-commerce companies, and office supply retailers, among others. There may be new market entrants with non-traditional business, service, and delivery models, resulting in increased competition and changing industry dynamics. Existing or future competitors also may seek to compete with us for acquisitions, which could have the effect of increasing the price of potential targets and reducing the number of suitable acquisitions. These factors, in addition to competitive pressures resulting from the fragmented nature of our industry, could affect our sales, profit margins, and earnings.
We expect the competitive landscape to continue to evolve as new technologies and consumption models emerge, such as cloud-based and other “as a service” solutions, hyper-converged infrastructure, embedded software solutions, and solutions that incorporate AI. Our continued competitiveness depends upon our ability to anticipate and evolve at pace and scale with new technologies, services, and solutions through strategic and timely investments in innovation, expansion of offerings, and the capabilities necessary to implement them.
While innovation can help our business as it creates new offerings for us to sell, it can also disrupt our business model and create new and stronger competitors. For instance, while cloud-based solutions present an opportunity for us, cloud-based solutions and technology solutions as a service could increase the amount of sales directly to customers rather than through solutions providers like us, or could reduce the amount of hardware we sell. For example, growing hyperscaler marketplaces such as AWS Marketplace, Google Cloud Marketplace, and Microsoft Marketplace and evolving partner authorization and incentive models could change the role of traditional resellers, which may limit access to offerings, pressure margins, and restrict participation in certain channels. In addition, some of our hardware and software vendor partners sell, and could intensify their efforts to sell their products directly to our customers. Moreover, traditional OEMs have increased their services capabilities through mergers and acquisitions, which could potentially increase competition in the market to provide
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comprehensive technology solutions to customers. If we are unable to effectively respond to the evolving competitive landscape, or respond in a manner that is less effective than that of our competitors, our business, results of operations, or cash flows could be adversely impacted.
We focus on providing high-quality service to gain new customers and retain existing customers. To the extent we face increased competition to gain and retain customers, we may be required to reduce prices, increase advertising expenditures, or take other actions which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, or cash flows. Additionally, some of our competitors may reduce their prices in an attempt to stimulate sales, which may require us to reduce prices. This would require us to sell a greater number of products to achieve the same level of Net sales and Gross profit. If such a reduction in prices occurs and we are unable to attract new customers and sell increased quantities of products, our sales growth and profitability could be adversely affected.
The success of our business depends on the continuing development, maintenance, and operation of our information technology systems.
Our success is dependent on the accuracy, proper utilization, and continuing operation, maintenance, and development of our information technology systems, including our business systems, such as our sales, customer management, financial and accounting, marketing, purchasing, warehouse management, and e-commerce and mobile systems, as well as our operational platforms, including voice and data networks and power systems, which may include third-party hosted systems or systems that may utilize cloud technologies outside of our control. As we increasingly rely on cloud-based enterprise applications to support critical business functions, our operational performance depends in part on the availability, reliability, and proper integration of these externally hosted systems. The quality and our utilization of the information generated by our information technology systems, and our success in implementing new systems and upgrades, including our transformation initiatives, could adversely affect, among other things, our ability to:
• conduct business with our customers, including delivering services and solutions to them;
• provide the means to effectively manage global operations across time zones;
• keep pace with changes and innovation and compete effectively;
• effectuate comprehensive and reliable data collection, maintenance, and governance;
• manage our inventory, accounts receivable, and accounts payable;
• support planned growth in services and solutions and continued evolution of the business;
• purchase, sell, ship, and invoice our hardware and software products and provide and invoice our services efficiently and on a timely basis;
• maintain an effective internal control environment around our financial close process and regulatory reporting requirements;
• execute the financial close processes and deliver our required financial reporting with the SEC; and
• maintain our cost-efficient operating model while scaling our business.
Our information technology systems are inherently exposed to varied technological threats beyond our control. While we have taken steps to protect our information technology systems from a variety of threats, both internal and external, and from human error, there can be no guarantee that those steps will be effective. Furthermore, although we have redundant systems at a separate location to back up our primary systems, there can be no assurance that these redundant systems will operate properly if and when required. Moreover, software vulnerabilities within the third-party information technology software and systems we use are discovered and reported on nearly a daily basis. Any disruption to or infiltration of our information technology systems could significantly impact our ongoing business operations, harm our reputation, and adversely affect our results of operations and our ability to comply with customer, partner, legal, or regulatory obligations.
We maintain and periodically upgrade many of our information technology systems, some of which are complex, costly, and time consuming. If our information technology systems are not properly maintained or enhanced, the attention of our coworkers could be diverted and our ability to provide the level of service our customers demand could be constrained for some time. Further, new information technology systems and updates to existing information technology systems may not properly integrate with other information technology systems. Also, once implemented, the new information technology systems, updates to existing information technology systems, and related technology may not provide the intended efficiencies or
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anticipated benefits, or could be defective, contain a security vulnerability, or be improperly installed or managed, and could add costs, complications, and disruptions to our ongoing operations. Implementation of new systems or significant changes to existing systems may also require updates to related business processes and internal controls, which could increase the risk of errors or delays until such controls are fully established.
From time to time, we may acquire new companies, businesses, or sites with cybersecurity and data protection systems which may not conform with our standards. It may require significant time and expense to upgrade and integrate such systems and controls, and if we are unable to do so in a timely manner, or at all, failures or breaches of such systems could harm our reputation, business, and results of operations due to failure to comply with customer, partner, legal, or regulatory obligations.
Breaches of data security and the failure to protect our information technology systems from cybersecurity threats could adversely impact our business.
Our business involves the handling, storage, and transmission of proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data, including personal information of coworkers, customers, partners, and others, which we must do in compliance with applicable law. In connection with our services business, some of our coworkers have access to our customers’ confidential data and other information. Additionally, third parties, such as data center colocation and hosted solution partners, provide services to us and also provide services as a component of our services delivery to customers and to customer systems. These third parties may also utilize or embed AI capabilities in providing their services to us and our customers. These third parties or others that are a part of our supply chain, and their use of AI capabilities, could also be a source of security risk in the event of a failure to protect their own products, security systems and infrastructure and we may not be able to control the manner in which these third parties respond to any security breach. We have privacy and data security policies, practices, and controls in place that are designed to prevent security breaches; however, as newer technologies evolve, as more business is conducted over the internet and remotely, as we acquire more business operations from organizations with differing cybersecurity and data protection controls, and as the portfolio of the service providers we exchange confidential information, software, and hardware with expands, we have been subject to breaches in security and are increasingly likely to be exposed to risks from breaches in security, including those arising from human error, negligence, or mismanagement or from illegal or fraudulent acts, such as cyberattacks. Further, as AI continues to evolve, malicious actors could use AI to enhance the sophistication and coordination of their attacks, which could pose significant challenges to our security defenses. Additionally, as technology vendors consolidate and aggregate applications into unified platforms, the risk and magnitude of business disruption from security breaches increases due to vendor and system concentration.
We, and third parties upon which we rely, regularly experience malicious attacks and other attempts to gain unauthorized access to our systems, and attacks against us by state-sponsored organizations and nation-states may increase during periods of intense diplomatic or armed conflicts. Further, security breaches may go undetected and persist in our environments for extended periods. Although we have not experienced a material security breach to date, the evolving and escalating nature of cybersecurity threats, in light of new and sophisticated methods used by criminals and cyberterrorists, state-sponsored organizations, and nation-states, including computer viruses, malware, ransomware, phishing, misrepresentation, social engineering, and forgery, make it increasingly challenging to anticipate, detect, and defend against these threats. We and our third-party partners have implemented various security controls to meet compliance and privacy requirements while defending against these evolving security threats. However, breaches in security could expose us, our supply chain, our customers, or other individuals to significant disruptions and a risk of public disclosure, loss, or misuse of confidential data.
Security breaches could result in legal claims or proceedings, liability, or regulatory penalties under laws protecting the privacy of personal information (including those under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and the California Privacy Rights Act), significant remediation costs as well as the loss of partners and existing or potential customers and, ultimately, damage to our brand and reputation and adversely impact our business. While we maintain insurance coverages that are intended to address certain aspects of data security, such insurance may be insufficient to cover all losses or all types of claims that may arise and may not continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms or at all. Moreover, media or other reports of perceived vulnerabilities in our network security or perceived lack of security within our environment, even if inaccurate, could materially adversely impact our reputation and business. The cost and operational consequences of implementing further data protection measures could be material. Such breaches, costs, and consequences could adversely affect our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
If we or our third-party service providers fail to provide high-quality services to our customers, our reputation, brand, business, results of operations, or cash flows could be adversely affected.
Our services include professional services, managed services, warranties, configuration services, partner services, and telecom services. Additionally, we deliver and manage mission critical software, systems, and network solutions for our customers. We also offer certain services, such as implementation and installation services and repair services, to our customers through
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various third-party service providers engaged to perform these services on our behalf. If we or our third-party service providers fail to provide high-quality services to our customers or such services result in an unplanned disruption of our customers’ businesses, this could, among other things, result in legal claims and proceedings and liability for us. Moreover, as we expand our services and solutions business and provide increasingly complex services and solutions, including solutions that incorporate AI, we may be exposed to additional operational, regulatory, and other risks. We also could incur liability for failure to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to the new services and solutions we provide to our customers. If any of the foregoing were to occur, our reputation with our customers, our brand, and our business, results of operations, or cash flows could be adversely affected.
If we lose any of our key personnel, are unable to attract and retain the talent required for our business, our labor costs significantly increase, or our approach to workforce management is ineffective, our business could be disrupted, and our financial performance could suffer.
Our success is heavily dependent upon our ability to attract, develop, engage, and retain key personnel to manage, lead, innovate, and grow our business, including our key executive, management, sales, services, specialists, and engineers. Additionally, we rely on offshore operations to execute and deliver on certain functions within the organization.
Our future success will depend to a significant extent on the efforts of our leadership team, as well as the effectiveness of our succession planning and efforts to develop and promote top talent. Our future success also will depend on our ability to retain and motivate our customer-facing coworkers, who have been given critical CDW knowledge regarding, and the opportunity to develop strong relationships with, many of our customers. In addition, as we seek to expand our offerings of value-added services and solutions, our success will even more heavily depend on attracting and retaining highly-skilled specialists and engineers, for whom the market is extremely competitive.
In order to attract, retain, and motivate key personnel in a competitive marketplace, it is important to provide a competitive compensation package. If our compensation package is not viewed as being competitive, our ability to attract, retain, and motivate key personnel could be adversely affected. Additionally, as minimum wage rates increase or related laws and regulations change, we have and may need to continue to increase the wages paid to our hourly or salaried coworkers as wage rates and salaries become pressured. A sustained labor shortage or increased turnover rates within our coworker base could lead to increased costs, such as increased overtime to meet demand and increased wage rates to attract and retain coworkers, and could adversely affect our business, results of operations, or cash flows. Additionally, if we fail to effectively manage our workforce, we may need to terminate or reposition coworkers within our Company to eliminate an abundance of or to reconfigure resources, which could damage our coworker relations and our ability to attract and retain key personnel.
If we are unable to attract, develop, engage, and retain key personnel, or if our approach to workforce management, including management of our offshore operations, is ineffective, our relationships with our vendor partners and customers and our ability to expand our offerings of value-added services and solutions could be adversely affected. Moreover, if we are unable to continue to train our sales, services, and technical personnel effectively to meet the rapidly changing technology needs of our customers, the overall quality and efficiency of such personnel could decrease. Such consequences could adversely affect our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
We have outsourced certain business processes to third-party outsource partners and any service failures or disruptions related to these outsourcing arrangements could adversely affect our business.
We rely on our outsource partners, including offshore partners, to execute and deliver on certain business processes within the organization. While we make significant effort to conduct appropriate diligence before entering into arrangements with an outsourcing partner, failure by these outsource partners to meet their contractual, regulatory, and other obligations to us, including cybersecurity protections, or our failure to adequately monitor their performance, could negatively impact our operations, expected cost savings or efficiencies, and could result in work stoppages, strikes, or performance issues with such outsource partners. As a result of these outsourcing arrangements, we may experience interruptions or delays in our processes, loss or theft of proprietary or sensitive data, or other cybersecurity issues, compliance issues, challenges in maintaining and reporting financial and operational information, and increased costs to remediate any unanticipated issues that arise, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
A natural disaster or other adverse occurrence at one of our primary facilities or a third-party provider location could damage our business.
If the warehouse and distribution equipment or operations at one of our distribution centers or such facilities or operations of our outsource partners were to be seriously damaged, such as in a fire, or disrupted by a natural disaster, which may increase in number or severity as a result of climate change, or other adverse occurrence, including disruption related to political or social unrest, we could experience significant interruptions in our services and may incur material incremental operating costs. While
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we could utilize another distribution center or third-party distributors to ship products to our customers, this also may not be sufficient to avoid interruptions in our service and may not enable us to meet all of the needs of our customers and could cause us to incur incremental operating costs. In addition, we operate numerous facilities which may contain both business-critical data and confidential information of our customers and third parties, such as data center colocation, managed services sites, and hosted solution partners, and third parties provide services as a component of our services delivery to customers. A natural disaster or other adverse occurrence at any of our major data storage locations, managed services sites, or third-party provider locations could negatively impact our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
Increases in the cost of commercial delivery services or disruptions of those services could materially adversely impact our business.
We generally ship hardware products to our customers by third party commercial delivery services and invoice customers for delivery charges. If we are unable to pass on to our customers future increases in the cost of commercial delivery services and transportation costs (including those that may result from an increase in fuel or personnel costs or a need to use higher cost delivery channels during periods of increased demand), our profitability could be adversely affected. Additionally, strikes, inclement weather, natural disasters, or other service interruptions by such shippers or periods of increased demand on delivery services could materially adversely affect our ability to deliver or receive products on a timely basis.
We are exposed to accounts receivable and inventory risks.
We extend credit to our customers for a significant portion of our sales. We are subject to the risk that our customers may not pay for the products they have purchased or may pay at a slower rate than we have historically experienced. These risks are heightened during periods of global or industry-specific economic downturn or uncertainty, during periods of rising interest rates or, in the case of public sector customers, during periods of budget constraints, budget cuts, or a government shutdown. Further, evolving product delivery models, such as multi-year subscriptions, may result in prolonged risk as customer terms extend in duration. Significant failures of customers to timely pay all amounts due to us could adversely affect our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
We are also exposed to inventory risks as a result of the rapid technological changes that affect the market and pricing for the products we sell. In addition to drop-ship arrangements with many of our OEMs and wholesale distributors, we seek to minimize our inventory exposure through a variety of inventory management procedures and policies, including our rapid-turn inventory model, as well as vendor price protection and product return programs. However, if we were unable to maintain our rapid-turn inventory model, if there were unforeseen product developments that created more rapid obsolescence or if our vendor partners were to change their terms and conditions, our inventory risks could increase. We also from time to time take advantage of discounted pricing associated with certain opportunistic bulk inventory purchases offered by our vendor partners or we may decide to carry high inventory levels of certain products that have limited or no return privileges due to customer demand or request or to manage supply chain interruptions. If we purchase inventory in anticipation of customer demand that does not materialize, or if customers reduce, delay, or decommit from orders, and if we were unable to return the inventory to a vendor partner, we would be exposed to an increased risk of inventory obsolescence which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
We could be exposed to additional costs and risks if we continue to make strategic investments or acquisitions or enter into joint ventures or alliances.
We may continue to pursue transactions, including strategic investments, acquisitions, joint ventures, or alliances, in an effort to extend or complement our existing business. These types of transactions involve numerous business risks, including finding suitable transaction partners and negotiating terms that are acceptable to us, the diversion of management’s attention from other business priorities, extending our product or service offerings into areas in which we have limited experience, entering into new geographic markets, an acquisition target’s differing or inadequate cybersecurity and data protection controls, the potential loss of key coworkers or business relationships, and successfully integrating acquired businesses. There can be no assurance that the intended benefits of our investments, acquisitions, joint ventures, and alliances will be realized, or that those benefits will offset these numerous risks or other unforeseen factors, any of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
In addition, our financial results could be adversely affected by financial adjustments required by generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America in connection with these types of transactions where significant goodwill or intangible assets are recorded. To the extent the value of goodwill or identifiable intangible assets becomes impaired, we may be required to incur material charges relating to the impairment of those assets.
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Our future operating results may fluctuate significantly due to the volatility and rapidly changing state of the technology industry, which may result in volatility in the market price of our stock and could impact our ability to operate our business effectively.
We may experience significant variations in our future quarterly results of operations. These fluctuations may cause the market price of our common stock to be volatile and may result from many factors, including the state of the technology industry in general, shifts in demand and pricing for hardware, software, and services, and the introduction of new products or upgrades. Further, if our customers’ businesses are adversely affected by global or regional economic conditions such as cost inflation or rising interest rates, they may delay or reduce purchases from us, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
Our operating results are also highly dependent on Gross profit. Our Gross profit fluctuates due to numerous factors, some of which may be outside of our control, including general macroeconomic conditions including inflation; pricing pressures; changes in product costs from our vendor partners; the availability of price protection, purchase discounts, and incentive programs from our vendor partners; changes in product, order size, and customer mix; the risk of some items in our inventory becoming obsolete; increases in product and delivery costs that we cannot pass on to customers; and general market and competitive conditions.
In addition, our cost structure is based, in part, on anticipated sales and gross margins. Therefore, we may not be able to adjust our cost structure quickly enough to compensate for any unexpected sales or gross margin shortfall, and any such inability could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
We are engaged in a number of strategic and transformational initiatives intended to enable customer‑facing coworkers, accelerate profitable growth, and deliver a full portfolio of capabilities. However, the execution of these initiatives is subject to significant risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance regarding the timing or realization of anticipated benefits.
Fluctuations in foreign currency have an effect on our reported results of operations.
Our exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency rates results primarily from the translation exposure associated with the preparation of our Consolidated Financial Statements. While our Consolidated Financial Statements are reported in US dollars, the financial statements of our subsidiaries outside the US are prepared using the local currency as the functional currency and translated into US dollars. As a result, fluctuations in the exchange rate of the US dollar relative to the local currencies of our international subsidiaries, particularly the British pound and the Canadian dollar, could cause material fluctuations in our reported results of operations. We also have foreign currency exposure to the extent sales and purchases are not denominated in a subsidiary’s functional currency, which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
Macroeconomic and Industry Risks
Global and regional economic and political conditions may have an adverse impact on our business.
Political events, trade, and other international disputes, geopolitical tensions, war, terrorism, natural disasters, public health issues, including pandemics, industrial accidents, significant labor disputes and other business interruptions can harm or disrupt international commerce and the global economy, and could have a material adverse effect on the Company and its customers, suppliers, outsource partners, logistics providers, distributors, cellular network carriers, and other channel partners.
Weak or unstable economic conditions, inflation, and actions taken by central banks to counter inflation, sustained uncertainty about global political conditions, periods of intense diplomatic or armed conflict, government spending cuts or prolonged governmental shutdowns, and the impact of new government policies (including the introduction of new or increased taxes, the imposition of minimum taxes, or new or increased limitations on deductions, credits, or other tax benefits, or any other changes to tax laws), or a tightening of credit markets, including as a result of rising interest rates or bank failures, could cause our customers and potential customers to postpone or reduce spending on technology products or services or put downward pressure on prices, which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
Decreases or delays in spending on technology products and services by our customers due to, among other things, customer spending decisions and government spending and funding policies may have an adverse impact on our business.
Our sales are impacted by customer decisions on budget priorities and technology spending, including decisions to defer any such spending. Our customer’s spending decisions and budget priorities have and can be impacted by government spending and funding policies, especially but not exclusively for our public sector, healthcare and education customers, and our other customers that do business with our public sector customers or otherwise rely directly or indirectly on government funding. Federal government spending policies and budget priorities often shift during a change in federal administration, which has and can create increased levels of uncertainty with respect to these policies and priorities. An adverse change or anticipated change in government spending or funding policies (such as budget cuts or limitations or funding delays), shifts in budget priorities,
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changes in purchasing protocols, reductions in revenue levels, or significant or prolonged government shutdowns could cause our customers to reduce or delay their purchases or to terminate or not renew their contracts with us, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, or cash flows. Additionally, such adverse change in government spending policies, shifts in budget priorities, or reductions in revenue levels could impact cash collections from contracts which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, or cash flows. Our vendor partners may also be negatively impacted by changes in government spending policies and budget priorities, which could impact their ability to fulfill their contractual obligations to us.
The interruption of the flow of products from suppliers could disrupt our supply chain.
Our business depends on the timely supply of products in order to meet the demands of our customers. Manufacturing interruptions or delays, including as a result of the financial instability or bankruptcy of manufacturers, significant labor disputes such as strikes, natural disasters (which may increase in number or severity as a result of climate change), political or social unrest, armed conflict, pandemics or other public health crises, or other adverse occurrences affecting any of our suppliers’ facilities, could disrupt our supply chain and cause volatility in our level of inventory and delays in completion of orders and installations for our customers. We have experienced and could in the future experience product constraints due to the failure of suppliers to accurately forecast customer demand, or to manufacture sufficient quantities of product to meet customer demand (including as a result of shortages of product components), among other reasons. For example, more recent tightening in the availability of high-performance memory and storage as demand has increased significantly and OEMs are prioritizing datacenters and AI workloads, pushing commercial devices and many server configurations into longer lead times and higher pricing. As demand for AI increases, supply capacity for high-performance memory and storage may continue to be limited until supply capacity increases. This memory shortage could ultimately result in shortages of finished goods such as client devices and servers where memory is a key component of the bill of materials for their production. Additionally, the relocation of key distributors utilized in our purchasing model could increase our need for, and the cost of, working capital and have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
Moreover, supply chain disruptions have caused and could in the future cause us to experience more volatility in our level of inventory and delays in completion of orders and installations for our customers and could exacerbate inflationary pressures, such as those that prevailed in recent years. Supply chain pressures have and could in the future cause us to experience changes in average selling prices and our gross margins on certain products as customers have become and could in the future become more price sensitive.
Our supply chain is also exposed to risks related to international operations. While we purchase our products primarily in the markets we serve (for example, products for US customers are sourced in the US), our vendor partners manufacture or purchase a significant portion of the products we sell outside of the US, primarily in Asia. Political, social, or economic instability in Asia, or in other regions in which our vendor partners purchase or manufacture the products we sell, could cause disruptions in trade, including exports to the US. Other events related to international operations that could cause disruptions to our supply chain include:
• the imposition of additional trade law provisions or regulations, including the adoption or expansion of trade restrictions or sanctions;
• the imposition of additional duties, tariffs, and other charges on imports and exports, including any resulting retaliatory tariffs or charges and any reductions in the production of products subject to such tariffs and charges;
• foreign currency fluctuations; and
• restrictions on the transfer of funds.
We cannot predict whether the countries in which the products we sell, or any components of those products, are purchased or manufactured will be subject to new or additional trade restrictions or sanctions imposed by the US or foreign governments, including the likelihood, type, or effect of any such restrictions. Periods of intense diplomatic or armed conflict, may result in new and rapidly evolving trade restrictions and sanctions. Trade restrictions, including new or increased tariffs or quotas, embargoes, sanctions, safeguards, and customs restrictions against the products we sell, could increase the cost or reduce the supply of product available to us and adversely affect our business, results of operations, or cash flows. In addition, our exports are subject to regulations, some of which may be inconsistent, and noncompliance with these requirements could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
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Legal and Regulatory Risks
The failure to comply with our public sector contracts or applicable laws and regulations could result in, among other things, termination, fines, or other liabilities, and changes in procurement regulations could adversely impact our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
Revenues from our public sector customers are derived from sales to governmental entities, educational institutions, and healthcare customers through various contracts and open market sales of products and services. Sales to public sector customers are highly regulated and present different risks and challenges from private commercial agreements. Noncompliance with contract provisions, government procurement regulations, or other applicable laws or regulations (including the False Claims Act, the Medicare and Medicaid Anti-Kickback Statute, or similar laws of the jurisdictions for our business activities outside of the US) or security clearance and confidentiality requirements could result in civil, criminal, and administrative liability, including substantial monetary fines or damages, termination of government contracts or other public sector customer contracts, and suspension, debarment, or ineligibility from doing business with governmental entities or other customers in the public sector. In addition, contracts in the public sector are generally terminable at any time for convenience of the contracting agency or group purchasing organization (“GPO”) or upon default and public sector contracts may be subject to periodic funding approval, rejections, or delays, which could adversely impact public sector demand for our products and services. Furthermore, our inability to enter into or retain contracts with GPOs may threaten our ability to sell to customers in those GPOs and compete effectively. The effect of any of these possible actions or failures could adversely affect our business, results of operations, or cash flows. In addition, the adoption of new or modified procurement regulations and other requirements may increase our compliance costs and reduce our gross margins, which could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
We are exposed to risks from legal proceedings and audits, including intellectual property infringement claims, which may result in substantial costs and expenses or interruption of our normal business operations.
We are party to various legal proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of our business, which include commercial, employment, tort, and other litigation.
We are also subject to intellectual property infringement claims against us in the ordinary course of our business, either because of the products and services we sell or the business systems and processes we use to sell such products and services, in the form of cease-and-desist letters, licensing inquiries, lawsuits, and other communications and demands. In our industry, such intellectual property claims have become more frequent as the complexity of technological products and the intensity of competition in our industry have increased. Furthermore, increased use of AI by the Company, third-party outsource partners, or our vendor partners could lead to more frequent intellectual property claims against us. Increasingly, many of these assertions are brought by non-practicing entities whose principal business model is to secure patent licensing revenue, but we may also be subject to demands from inventors, competitors, or other patent holders who may seek licensing revenue, lost profits, or an injunction preventing us from engaging in certain activities, including selling certain products or services.
In addition, we are subject to proceedings, investigations, and audits by federal, state, international, national, provincial, and local authorities, including as a result of our significant sales to governmental entities. For example, the Company received a Civil Investigative Demand, issued by the US Department of Justice (“DOJ”) on June 11, 2024, in connection with a False Claims Act investigation. The DOJ requested information relating to bids the Company submitted for contracts funded in whole or in part by the Schools and Libraries Program (E-Rate Program).
We also are subject to audits by various partners, GPOs, and customers, including government agencies, relating to purchases and sales under various contracts. In addition, we are subject to indemnification claims under various contracts.
Current and future litigation, infringement claims, governmental proceedings and investigations, audits, or indemnification claims that we face may result in substantial costs and expenses and significantly divert the attention of our management regardless of the outcome. In addition, these matters could lead to increased costs or interruptions of our normal business operations. Litigation, infringement claims, governmental proceedings and investigations, audits, or indemnification claims involve uncertainties and the eventual outcome of any such matter could adversely affect our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
Failure to comply with complex and evolving laws and regulations applicable to our operations or failure to meet stakeholder expectations on environmental sustainability and corporate responsibility matters could adversely affect our business, results of operations, or cash flows.
Our global operations span a variety of legal regimes, subjecting us to numerous complex, diverse, evolving, and at times potentially inconsistent or conflicting laws and regulations in a number of areas, including labor and employment, advertising,
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e-commerce, tax, trade, import and export controls, economic and trade sanctions, anti-corruption, data privacy and security requirements, competition, environmental, social, and governance, and health and safety. The evaluation of and compliance with these laws, regulations, and similar requirements, including evolving laws and regulations and regulatory overhaul during any change in federal administration, may be onerous and expensive, and may have other adverse impacts on our business, results of operations, or cash flows, the risk of which will be heightened as we expand the products and services we offer, expand into new markets and channels, and expand internationally. For example, we may be subject to increased costs and use of operational resources associated with complying with a myriad of new, changing, and sometimes conflicting environmental, social, and governance related laws and regulations. If we fail to comply with new laws, regulations, treaties, or reporting requirements, our reputation and business could be adversely impacted.
We have implemented policies and procedures designed to help ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, but there can be no guarantee against coworkers, contractors, or agents violating such laws and regulations or our policies and procedures. Additionally, there is increased focus by stakeholders on environmental sustainability and corporate responsibility matters, and other stakeholders may disagree with the Company’s commitments and initiatives on such matters. Our disclosure on these matters and our failure, or perceived failure, to meet our commitments (including with respect to sustainability) or otherwise effectively address these matters may erode customer trust or confidence, particularly if such failures or perceived failures receive considerable publicity or result in litigation and could have a negative impact on our business.
As a public company, we also are subject to increasingly complex public disclosure, corporate governance, and accounting requirements that increase compliance costs and require significant management focus.
Risks Related to Our Indebtedness
Our level of indebtedness and obligations pursuant to the agreements and instruments reflecting our indebtedness could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and cash flows.
As of December 31, 2025, we had $5.6 billion of total debt outstanding and $353 million of obligations outstanding under our inventory financing agreements, and the ability to borrow an additional $1.9 billion under our senior unsecured revolving loan facility (the “Revolving Loan Facility”). Our indebtedness could have important consequences, including the following:
• requiring us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to debt service payments on our and our subsidiaries’ debt, which reduces the funds available for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, and other general corporate purposes;
• increasing our future borrowing costs and reducing our access to capital if major debt rating agencies lower or withdraw any rating assigned to any of our debt;
• requiring us to comply with restrictive covenants (including, among other things, limitations on incurring or guaranteeing additional indebtedness and merging or consolidating with other companies or disposing of substantially all of our assets) in our senior unsecured credit facilities and indentures, which may limit the manner in which we conduct our business;
• making it more difficult for us to obtain financing from our vendor partners, including OEMs, software publishers, and cloud providers, and our wholesale distributors;
• limiting our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in the industry in which we operate;
• placing us at a competitive disadvantage compared to any of our less-leveraged competitors;
• increasing our vulnerability to both general and industry-specific adverse economic conditions; and
• limiting our ability to obtain additional debt or equity financing to fund future working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, or other general corporate requirements and increasing our cost of borrowing.
A breach of any restrictive covenants under our senior unsecured credit facilities or indentures may result in a default under the terms of that agreement or instrument, upon which we may suffer adverse consequences, including the acceleration of the amounts outstanding thereunder, the trigger of cross-default provisions under other agreements or instruments, and an inability to borrow additional amounts.
Additionally, certain of our borrowings, primarily borrowings under our senior unsecured credit facilities, are at variable rates of interest and expose us to interest rate risk, which under certain conditions could cause our debt service obligations to increase significantly. As of December 31, 2025, we had $635 million of variable rate debt outstanding. When interest rates increase, our
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debt service obligations on the variable rate indebtedness increase even though the amount borrowed remains the same, and could negatively impact our net income absent any derivative instruments. From time to time, we may execute derivative instruments to reduce interest rate volatility, subject to acceptable terms. We cannot assure that we will enter into such derivative instruments in the future or that such instruments will be effective.
In addition, we are a holding company that does not conduct any business operations of our own. As a result, we are largely dependent upon cash dividends and distributions and other transfers from our subsidiaries to meet our obligations. The agreements governing the indebtedness of our subsidiaries impose restrictions on our subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends or other distributions to us. The deterioration of the earnings from, or other available assets of, our subsidiaries for any reason could also limit or impair their ability to pay dividends or other distributions to us.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
Our common stock price may be volatile and may decline regardless of our operating performance, and holders of our common stock could lose a significant portion of their investment.
The market price and trading volumes for our common stock may be volatile. Our stockholders may not be able to resell their shares of common stock at or above the price at which they purchased such shares, due to fluctuations in the market price of our common stock, which may be caused by a number of factors, many of which we cannot control, including the risk factors described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and the following:
• changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our common stock, our failure to meet these estimates or failure of securities analysts to maintain coverage of our common stock;
• downgrades by any securities analysts who follow our common stock;
• future sales of our common stock by our officers, directors, and significant stockholders;
• market conditions or trends in our industry or the economy as a whole including market expectations of changes in interest rates;
• investors’ perceptions of our prospects;
• announcements by us or our competitors of significant contracts, acquisitions, joint ventures, or capital commitments; and
• changes in key personnel.
In addition, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies, including companies in our industry. These fluctuations have often been unrelated to or disproportionately impacted by the operating performance of these companies. In the past, securities class action litigation has followed periods of market volatility. If we were involved in securities litigation, we could incur substantial costs, and our resources and the attention of management could be diverted from our business.
We may fail to meet announced guidance or market expectations associated with our financial results, which could adversely affect the market price of our stock. Any guidance we provide is based on certain assumptions, which may or may not prove to be correct. Failure to meet announced guidance or market expectations going forward, particularly with respect to our operational and financial results and expectations regarding the success of our strategies and related guidance, whether due to our assumptions not being met or the impact of various risks and uncertainties, may result in either or both a decline in or increased volatility in the market price of our stock. In addition, price and volume fluctuations in the stock market as a whole may affect the market price of our stock in ways that may be unrelated to our financial performance.
While we expect to continue to pay a quarterly cash dividend on our common stock, any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and depends upon our results of operations, financial condition, business prospects, capital requirements, contractual restrictions (including in current or future agreements governing our indebtedness), restrictions imposed by applicable law, tax considerations, and other factors our Board of Directors deems relevant. If we do not pay dividends or continue to repurchase shares of our common stock in the future, realization of a gain on an investment in our common stock will depend entirely on the appreciation of the price of our common stock, which may never occur due to the potential volatility of the market price of our common stock.
