Item 1A. Risk Factors
Summary of Risk Factors
Our business is subject to numerous risks. Below is a summary of the principal factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements made by us or on our behalf. This summary does not address all of the risks that we face. Additional discussion of the risks summarized in this risk factor summary, and other risks that we face, can be found under the heading “Risk Factors” immediately following this section and should be carefully considered, together with other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the SEC, before making an investment decision regarding our Class A common stock.
We may experience significant delays in the design, production and launch of our additive manufacturing solutions, and we may be unable to successfully commercialize products on our planned timelines.
If demand for our products does not grow as expected, or if market adoption of additive manufacturing does not continue to develop, or develops more slowly than expected, our revenues may stagnate or decline, and our business may be adversely affected.
The additive manufacturing industry in which we operate is characterized by rapid technological change, which requires us to continue to develop new products and innovations to meet constantly evolving customer demands and which could adversely affect market adoption of our products.
We cannot guarantee that our restructuring activities and other cost savings measures will achieve their intended results.
Difficulties or delays in integrating the businesses and operations of acquired companies into Desktop Metal, or realizing the expected benefits of these acquisitions, may adversely affect the company’s future’s results.
We are an early-stage company with a history of losses. We have not been profitable historically and may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future.
Future sales, or the perception of future sales, of our Class A common stock by us or our existing stockholders in the public market could cause the market price for our Class A common stock to decline.
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Risk Factors
Our business is subject to numerous risks. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below and the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K before making an investment decision regarding our Class A common stock. Our business, financial condition, results of operations, or prospects could be materially and adversely affected if any of these risks occurs, and as a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. This Annual Report on Form 10-K also contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. See “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” Our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including those set forth below.
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
We may experience significant delays in the design, production and launch of our additive manufacturing solutions, and we may be unable to successfully commercialize products on our planned timelines.
Several of our announced additive manufacturing solutions are yet to be commercially released. There are often delays in the design, testing, manufacture and commercial release of new products, and any delay in the launch of our products could materially damage our brand, business, growth prospects, financial condition and operating results. Even if we successfully complete the design, testing and manufacture for one or all of our products under development, we may fail to develop a commercially successful product on the timeline we expect for a number of reasons, including:
misalignment between the products and customer needs;
lack of innovation of the product;
failure of the product to perform in accordance with customer expectations or industry standards;
ineffective distribution and marketing;
delay in obtaining any required regulatory approvals;
unexpected production costs; or
release of competitive products.
Our success in the market for the products we develop will depend largely on our ability to prove our products’ capabilities in a timely manner. Upon demonstration, our customers may not believe that our products and/or technology have the capabilities they were designed to have or that we believe they have. Furthermore, even if we do successfully demonstrate our products’ capabilities, potential customers may be more comfortable doing business with another larger and more established company or may take longer than expected to make the decision to order our products. Significant revenue from new product investments may not be achieved for a number of years, if at all. If the timing of our launch of new products and/or of our customers’ acceptance of such products is different than our assumptions, our revenue and results of operations may be adversely affected.
We may experience significant delays or other obstacles in the design, production, launch and/or maintenance of produced parts offerings, and we may be unable to successfully commercialize said offerings.
We are building out produced parts offerings for customers, and produced parts is an existing offering of some of our recently-acquired businesses. These offerings present similar challenges and risks to those outlined herein with respect to the design, production, launch and profitability of new additive manufacturing solutions. We have a limited history operating in the direct manufacturing and produced parts businesses, and as a result we may face challenges in designing or delivering parts that meet customer specifications, both on time and cost-effectively. Additionally, our produced parts in the healthcare and dental industry may be subject to regulatory approvals and controls, which may delay the design, production or launch of products. In particular, we may fail to develop commercially successful produced parts offerings if we are unable to meet customer needs or industry standards, if we fail to meet our desired gross margins or customer price expectations, or if our marketing and distribution strategy proves ineffective.
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If we are unsuccessful in establishing such offerings, sales of our additive manufacturing solutions and our overall operating results could suffer.
Our business activities have been disrupted and may continue to be disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption and volatility in the global economy and capital markets, which increased the cost of capital and adversely impacted access to capital. Government-enforced travel bans and business closures around the world significantly impacted our ability to sell, install and service our additive manufacturing systems at customers around the world. The pandemic has, and may continue to, disrupt our third-party contract manufacturers and supply chain and delay payments from customers. We also experienced some delays in installation of our products at customers’ facilities, which has and could lead to postponed revenue recognition for those transactions. In addition, installation delays could prevent us from achieving anticipated consumables revenues due to systems being put into operation later, or at lower utilization, than expected. Furthermore, if significant portions of our workforce are unable to work effectively, including because of illness, quarantines, government actions, facility closures, remote working or other restrictions in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, our operations will likely be adversely impacted.
If future variants of COVID-19 cause any of these events to recur, we or our customers may be unable to perform fully on our contracts, which will likely result in increases in costs and reduction in revenue. These cost increases and revenue reductions may not be fully recoverable or adequately covered by insurance. The long-term effects of COVID-19 to the global economy and to us are difficult to assess or predict and may include a further decline in the market prices of our products, risks to employee health and safety, risks for the deployment of our products and services and reduced sales in geographic locations impacted. Any prolonged restrictive measures put in place in order to control COVID-19 or other adverse public health developments in any of our targeted markets may have a material and adverse effect on our business operations and results of operations.
We cannot guarantee that our restructuring activities and other cost savings measures will achieve their intended results.
In June 2022, we implemented a strategic integration and cost savings initiative (the “2022 Initiative”) to match strategic and financial objectives and optimize resources for long term growth. In January 2023, we expanded the 2022 Initiative. We intend to implement additional cost savings measures in the future. On January 22, 2024, the Company committed to a strategic integration and cost optimization initiative (the “2024 Initiative”) that includes a global workforce reduction of approximately 20%, facilities consolidation, product rationalization and other operational savings measures. We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, substantial costs in connection with these initiatives. Our ability to achieve the anticipated cost savings and other benefits from these initiatives within the expected time frame is subject to many estimates and assumptions. There can be no assurance that the anticipated cost savings will be achieved, or that they will not be significantly and materially less than anticipated, or that the completion of such cost savings initiatives will be effectively accomplished. In addition, our ability to realize the anticipated cost savings are subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, such as operating difficulties, supply chain disruptions, local regulations, employment laws or general economic or industry conditions. Failure to realize the anticipated cost savings could have a material negative impact on our results of operations and financial position.
In addition, our restructuring activities and cost savings initiatives may subject us to litigation risks and expenses and may have other consequences, such as attrition beyond our planned reduction in workforce, a negative effect on employee morale and productivity or a negative effect on our ability to attract highly skilled employees. Our competitors may use our restructuring plans to seek to gain a competitive advantage over us. As a result, our restructuring plans and cost savings initiatives may negatively affect our revenue and operating results in the future
Changes in our product mix may impact our gross margins and financial performance.
Our financial performance may be affected by the mix of products and services we sell during a given period. Our products are sold, and will continue to be sold, at different price points. Sales of certain of our products have, or are expected to have, higher gross margins than others. If our product mix shifts too far into lower gross margin products, and we are not able to sufficiently reduce the engineering, production and other costs associated with those products or substantially increase the sales of our higher gross margin products, our profitability could be reduced. Additionally, the introduction of new products or services may further heighten quarterly fluctuations in gross profit and gross profit margins due to manufacturing ramp-up and start-up costs. We may experience significant quarterly fluctuations in gross profit margins or operating income or loss due to the impact of the mix of products, channels or
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geographic areas in which we sell our products from period to period. Our financial performance also depends on the portion of our produced parts revenue supplied using additive manufacturing processes, which may enable higher gross margins and operational efficiencies as compared to conventional manufacturing technologies.
If we fail to meet our customers’ price expectations, demand for our products and product lines could be negatively impacted and our business and results of operations could suffer.
Demand for our product lines is sensitive to price. We believe our competitive pricing has been an important factor in our results to date. Therefore, changes in our pricing strategies can have a significant impact on our business and ability to generate revenue. Many factors, including our production and personnel costs and our competitors’ pricing and marketing strategies, can significantly impact our pricing strategies. If we fail to meet our customers’ price expectations in any given period, demand for our products and product lines could be negatively impacted and our business and results of operations could suffer.
If demand for our products does not grow as expected, or if market adoption of additive manufacturing does not continue to develop, or develops more slowly than expected, our revenues may stagnate or decline, and our business may be adversely affected.
The industrial manufacturing market, which today is dominated by conventional manufacturing processes that do not involve 3D printing technology, is undergoing a shift towards additive manufacturing. We may not be able to develop effective strategies to raise awareness among potential customers of the benefits of additive manufacturing technologies or our products may not address the specific needs or provide the level of functionality or economics required by potential customers to encourage the continuation of this shift towards additive manufacturing. If additive manufacturing technology does not continue to gain broader market acceptance as an alternative to conventional manufacturing processes, or does so more slowly than anticipated, or if the marketplace adopts additive manufacturing technologies that differ from our technologies, we may not be able to increase or sustain the level of sales of our products, and our operating results would be adversely affected as a result.
Declines in the prices of our products and services, or in our volume of sales, together with our relatively inflexible cost structure, may adversely affect our financial results.
Our business is subject to price competition. Such price competition may adversely affect our results of operation, especially during periods of decreased demand. Decreased demand also adversely impacts the volume of our systems sales. If our business is not able to offset price reductions resulting from these pressures, or decreased volume of sales due to contractions in the market, by improved operating efficiencies and reduced expenditures, then our operating results will be adversely affected.
Certain of our operating costs are fixed and cannot readily be reduced, which diminishes the positive impact of our restructuring programs on our operating results. To the extent the demand for our products slows, or the additive manufacturing market contracts, we may be faced with excess manufacturing capacity and related costs that cannot readily be reduced, which will adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations.
Our business model is predicated, in part, on building a customer base that will generate a recurring stream of revenues through the sale of our consumables and service contracts. If that recurring stream of revenues does not develop as expected, or if our business model changes as the industry evolves, our operating results may be adversely affected.
Our business model is dependent, in part, on our ability to maintain and increase sales of our proprietary consumables and service contracts as they generate recurring revenues. Existing and future customers of our systems may not purchase our consumables or related service contracts at the rate we expect for certain product lines or at the same rate at which customers currently purchase those consumables and services. In addition, our entry-level systems focused on low-volume production generally use a lower volume of consumables relative to our volume throughput systems focused on high-volume production. If our current and future customers purchase a lower volume of our consumable materials or service contracts, or if our entry-level systems represent an increasing percentage of our future installed customer base, resulting overall in lower purchases of consumables and service contracts on average than our current installed customer base or than we expect, our recurring revenue stream relative to our total revenues would be reduced and our operating results would be adversely affected.
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Defects in new products or in enhancements to our existing products that give rise to product returns or warranty or other claims could result in material expenses, diversion of management time and attention and damage to our reputation.
Our additive manufacturing solutions are complex and may contain undetected defects or errors when first introduced or as enhancements are released that, despite testing, are not discovered until after a machine has been used. This could result in delayed market acceptance of those products or claims from resellers, customers or others, which may result in litigation, increased end user warranty, support and repair or replacement costs, damage to our reputation and business, or significant costs and diversion of support and engineering personnel to correct the defect or error. We may from time to time become subject to warranty or product liability claims related to product quality issues that could lead us to incur significant expenses.
We attempt to include provisions in our agreements with customers that are designed to limit our exposure to potential liability for damages arising from defects or errors in our products. However, it is possible that these limitations may not be effective as a result of unfavorable judicial decisions or laws enacted in the future.
The sale and support of our products entails the risk of product liability claims. Any product liability claim brought against us, regardless of its merit, could result in material expense, diversion of management time and attention, damage to our business and reputation and brand, and cause us to fail to retain existing customers or to fail to attract new customers.
Our operations could suffer if we are unable to attract and retain key management or other key employees.
We believe our success has depended, and continues to depend, on the efforts and talents of our senior management and other key personnel, including, in particular, our Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman, Ric Fulop. Our executive team is critical to the management of our business and operations, as well as to the development of our strategy. Members of our senior management team may resign at any time. The loss of the services of any members of our senior management team, especially Mr. Fulop, could delay or prevent the successful implementation of our strategy or our commercialization of new applications for our systems or other products, or could otherwise adversely affect our ability to manage our company effectively and carry out our business plan. There is no assurance that if any senior executive leaves in the future, we will be able to rapidly replace him or her and transition smoothly towards his or her successor, without any adverse impact on our operations.
To support the continued growth of our business, we may need to effectively recruit and hire new employees, and we need to effectively integrate, develop, motivate and retain new and existing employees. High demand exists for senior management and other key personnel (including scientific, technical, engineering, financial and sales personnel) in the additive manufacturing industry, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to retain our current key personnel. We experience intense competition for qualified personnel. While we intend to continue to provide competitive compensation packages to attract and retain key personnel, some of our competitors for these employees have greater resources, making it difficult for us to compete successfully for key personnel. Moreover, new employees may not become as productive as we expect since we may face challenges in adequately integrating them into our workforce and culture. If we cannot attract and retain sufficiently qualified technical employees for our research and product development activities, as well as experienced sales and marketing personnel, we may be unable to develop and commercialize new products or new applications for existing products. Furthermore, possible shortages of key personnel, including engineers, in the regions surrounding our Boston facility could require us to pay more to hire and retain key personnel, thereby increasing our costs.
Departing employees’ knowledge of our business and industry can be extremely difficult to replace and provides their future employers with a competitive advantage. Where applicable law permits, we generally enter into non-competition agreements with our employees. These agreements prohibit our employees from competing directly with us or working for our competitors or clients while they work for us, and in some cases, for a limited period after they cease working for us. We may be unable to enforce these agreements under the laws of the jurisdictions in which our employees work, and it may be difficult for us to restrict our competitors from benefiting from the expertise that our former employees or consultants developed while working for us. If we cannot demonstrate that our legally protectable interests will be harmed, we may be unable to prevent our competitors from benefiting from the expertise of our former employees or consultants and our ability to remain competitive may be diminished.
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If we fail to grow our business as anticipated, our net sales, gross margin and operating margin will be adversely affected. If we grow as anticipated but fail to manage our growth and expand our operations accordingly, our business may be harmed and our results of operation may suffer.
Over the past several years, we have experienced rapid growth, and we are attempting to continue to grow our business substantially. To this end, we have made, and expect to continue to make, significant investments in our business, including investments in our infrastructure, technology, marketing, and sales efforts. These investments include dedicated facilities expansion and increased staffing, both domestic and international. If our business does not generate the level of revenue required to support our investment, our net sales and profitability will be adversely affected.
Our ability to effectively manage our anticipated growth and expansion of our operations will also require us to enhance our operational, financial and management controls and infrastructure, human resources policies and reporting systems. These enhancements and improvements may require significant capital expenditures, investments in additional headcount and other operating expenditures and allocation of valuable management and employee resources. Our future financial performance and our ability to execute on our business plan will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth and expansion. There are no guarantees we will be able to do so in an efficient or timely manner, or at all.
We may experience significant delays or obstacles to realizing the success of our Desktop Labs platform and Desktop Health product offerings.
The Desktop Labs platform and our Desktop Health products aim to leverage our proprietary additive manufacturing technologies and materials to grow the market for existing applications in the dental market and identify, develop and/or commercialize future solutions in the healthcare and dental markets for personalized patient care spanning dentistry, orthodontics, dermatology, orthopedics, cardiology, plastic surgery and printed regenerative tissues and grafts. These businesses operate in a highly competitive space which may make it difficult for us to implement business plans and expectations and identify and realize opportunities. In addition, their technology, products, materials, and applications may be subject to strict regulatory requirements in the United States and other countries. The regulatory approval or clearance process may be lengthy and costly, and regulatory requirements may impact the timing of, or our ability to, commercialize the regulated technology, products, materials and applications. The success of these parts of our business will also depend on our ability to attract, hire and retain qualified personnel, establish sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure, and establish and maintain supply and manufacturing relationships.
Our existing and planned global operations subject us to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could adversely affect our business and operating results. Our business is subject to risks associated with selling machines and other products in non-United States locations.
Our products and services are distributed in more than 40 countries around the world, and we derive a substantial percentage of our sales from these international markets. In 2023, we derived approximately 37% of our revenues from countries outside the United States. Accordingly, we face significant operational risks from doing business internationally.
Our operating results may be affected by volatility in currency exchange rates and our ability to effectively manage our currency transaction risks. Transactions in which we participate that are denominated in other than US Dollars may subject the company to currency exchange losses because we do not currently engage in currency swaps or other currency hedging strategies to address this risk. As we realize our strategy to expand internationally, our exposure to currency risks may increase. Given the volatility of exchange rates, we can give no assurance that we will be able to effectively manage our currency transaction risks or that any volatility in currency exchange rates will not have an adverse effect on our results of operations.
Other risks and uncertainties we face from our global operations include:
difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations;
limited protection for the enforcement of contract and intellectual property rights in certain countries where we may sell our products or work with suppliers or other third parties;
potentially longer sales and payment cycles and potentially greater difficulties in collecting accounts receivable;
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costs and difficulties of customizing products for foreign countries;
challenges in providing solutions across a significant distance, in different languages and among different cultures;
laws and business practices favoring local competition;
being subject to a wide variety of complex foreign laws, treaties and regulations and adjusting to any unexpected changes in such laws, treaties and regulations;
specific and significant regulations, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which imposes compliance obligations on companies who possess the personal data of EU residents;
uncertainty and resultant political, financial and market instability arising from the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union;
compliance with U.S. laws affecting activities of U.S. companies abroad, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act;
tariffs, trade barriers and other regulatory or contractual limitations on our ability to sell or develop our products in certain foreign markets;
operating in countries with a higher incidence of corruption and fraudulent business practices;
changes in regulatory requirements, including export controls, tariffs and embargoes, other trade restrictions, competition, corporate practices and data privacy and security concerns;
potential adverse tax consequences arising from global operations;
seasonal reductions in business activity in certain parts of the world, particularly during the summer months in Europe and at year end globally;
rapid changes in government, economic and political policies and conditions; and
political or civil unrest or instability, war, international hostilities, terrorism or epidemics and other similar outbreaks or events.
In addition, additive manufacturing has been identified by the U.S. government as an emerging technology and is currently being further evaluated for national security impacts. We expect additional regulatory changes to be implemented that will result in increased and/or new export controls related to additive manufacturing, components and related materials and software. These changes, if implemented, may result in our being required to obtain additional approvals and/or licenses to sell additive manufacturing products and services in the global market.
Additionally, we have teams that are engaged in marketing, selling, and supporting our products internationally, and we must hire and train experienced personnel to staff and manage our foreign operations. To the extent that we experience difficulties in recruiting, training, managing, and retaining international employees, particularly managers and other members of our international sales team, we may experience difficulties in sales productivity in international markets.
Our failure to effectively manage the risks and uncertainties associated with our global operations could limit the future growth of our business and adversely affect our business and operating results.
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Global economic, political and social conditions and uncertainties in the markets that we serve may adversely impact our business.
Our performance depends on the financial health and strength of our customers, which in turn is dependent on the economic conditions of the markets in which we and our customers operate. A decline in the global economy, difficulties in the financial services sector and credit markets, continuing geopolitical uncertainties and other macroeconomic factors all affect the spending behavior of potential customers. The economic uncertainty in Europe, the United States, India, China, and other countries may cause end-users to further delay or reduce technology purchases.
We also face risks from financial difficulties or other uncertainties experienced by our suppliers, distributors or other third parties on which we rely. If third parties are unable to supply us with required materials or components or otherwise assist us in operating our business, our business could be harmed.
For example, the possibility of an ongoing trade war between the United States and China may impact the cost of raw materials, finished products or components used in our products and our ability to sell our products in China. Other changes in U.S. social, political, regulatory and economic conditions or in laws and policies governing foreign trade, manufacturing, development and investment could also adversely affect our business. In addition, the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union on January 31, 2020 may result in increased costs of barriers to trade, and uncertainty surrounding this transition may have an effect on global economic conditions and the stability of global financial markets, which in turn could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. If global economic conditions remain volatile for a prolonged period or if European economies experience further disruption, our results of operations could be adversely affected.
In the future, some of our arrangements for additive manufacturing solutions may contain customer-specific provisions that may impact the period in which we recognize the related revenues under GAAP.
Some customers that purchase additive manufacturing solutions from us may require specific, customized factors relating to their intended use of the solution or the installation of the product in the customers’ facilities. These specific, customized factors are occasionally required by customers to be included in our commercial agreements governing these sales. As a result, our responsiveness to our customers’ specific requirements has the potential to impact the period in which we recognize the revenue relating to that additive manufacturing system sale.
Similarly, some of our customers must build or prepare facilities to install a subset of our additive manufacturing solutions, and the completion of such projects can be unpredictable, which can impact the period in which we recognize the revenue relating to that additive manufacturing solution sale.
We rely on our information technology systems to manage numerous aspects of our business and a failure, disruption, or breach of these systems could adversely affect our business.
We rely on our information technology systems to manage numerous aspects of our business, including to efficiently purchase products from our suppliers, provide procurement and logistic services, ship products to our customers, manage our accounting and financial functions, including our internal controls, and maintain our research and development data. Our information technology systems are an essential component of our business and any failure, disruption, or breach of such systems could significantly limit our ability to manage and operate our business efficiently. Any actual or perceived failure of our information technology systems to perform properly could disrupt our supply chain, product development and customer experience, which may lead to increased overhead costs and decreased sales and have an adverse effect on our reputation and our financial condition. In addition, following the COVID-19 pandemic, a substantial portion of our employees have continued to work remotely, making us more dependent on potentially vulnerable communications systems and making us more vulnerable to cyberattacks.
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Although we take steps and incur significant costs to secure our information technology systems, including our computer systems, intranet and internet sites, email and other telecommunications and data networks, there can be no assurance that our cybersecurity risk management program and processes, including our policies, controls or procedures, will be fully implemented, complied with, or effective, and our systems may be vulnerable to attack, damage or interruption. Disruption to our information technology systems could result from power outages, computer and telecommunications and electrical failures, computer viruses and malware, malicious code, hacking, cyberattacks (including ransomware attack), phishing attacks and other social engineering schemes, human error, fraud, denial or degradation of service attacks and sophisticated nation-state and nation-state supported actors or other security breaches, catastrophic events such as fires, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, acts of war, terrorism and theft or usage errors by our employees.
Attacks upon information technology systems are increasing in their frequency, levels of persistence, sophistication and intensity, and are being conducted by sophisticated and organized groups and individuals with a wide range of motives and expertise. Furthermore, because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to, or to sabotage, systems change frequently and often are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventative measures. We may also experience security breaches that may remain undetected for an extended period. Even if identified, we may be unable to adequately investigate or remediate incidents or breaches due to attackers increasingly using tools and techniques that are designed to circumvent controls, to avoid detection, and to remove or obfuscate forensic evidence.
We and certain of our service providers are from time to time subject to cyberattacks and security incidents. While we do not believe that we have experienced any significant system failure, accident or security breach to date, our reputation, results of operations, business and financial condition could be adversely affected if, as a result of a significant cyber-event or otherwise:
our operations are disrupted or shut down;
our confidential, proprietary information is stolen, lost or disclosed;
we are subject to regulatory investigation, we incur costs with respect to the investigation, remediation and potential notification to counterparties or data subjects, or we are required to pay penalties or fines in connection with stolen customer, employee or other personal information;
we must dedicate significant resources to system repairs or increase cyber security protection; or
we otherwise incur significant litigation or other costs.
Further, if our information technology systems are damaged or cease to function properly, or, if we do not replace or upgrade certain systems, we may incur substantial costs to repair or replace them and may experience an interruption of our normal business activities or loss of critical data. Any such disruption could adversely affect our reputation, results of operations, business and financial condition. Additionally, some of the companies we acquire may not have made the same level of investment in security measures for their information technology systems which may require that we invest significant resources to get those systems to the level of security we require. Additionally, some of the companies we acquire may not have the same level of information technology systems which may require that we invest significant resources to get those systems to the level of security we require.
We also rely on information technology systems maintained by third parties, including third-party cloud computing services and the information technology systems of our suppliers for both our internal operations and our customer-facing infrastructure related to our additive manufacturing solutions. These systems are also vulnerable to the types of interruption and damage described above, but we have less ability to take measures to protect against such disruptions or to resolve them if they were to occur. Information technology problems faced by third parties on which we rely could adversely impact our results of operations, business and financial condition as well as negatively impact our brand reputation.
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If we fail to implement or are delayed in the implementation of our new ERP system platform, we may not be able to effectively transact our business or produce our financial statements on a timely basis and without incurrence of additional costs, which would adversely affect our business, results of operations and cash flows.
We are currently implementing Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP, to manage enterprise functions for our significant subsidiaries. This integration involves significant complexity, requiring us to move and reconfigure all of our current system processes, transactions, data and controls to a new platform. Due to this complexity and the scope and volume of changes involved in this implementation, we may experience delays and higher than planned resource needs in our migration efforts. Although we will conduct testing, assessments and validation to ensure that our internal financial and accounting controls will be effective post-implementation, we may nevertheless experience difficulties in transacting our business due to system challenges, delays or process deficiencies following the initial launch of the system, which could impair our ability to conduct our business or to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis. If our ability to conduct our business or to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis is impaired, our business, results of operations and cash flows would be adversely affected.
Our current levels of insurance may not be adequate for our potential liabilities.
We maintain insurance to cover our potential exposure for most claims and losses, including potential product and non-product related claims, lawsuits and administrative proceedings seeking damages or other remedies arising out of our commercial operations. However, our insurance coverage is subject to various exclusions, self-retentions and deductibles. We may be faced with types of liabilities that are not covered under our insurance policies, such as environmental contamination or terrorist attacks, or that exceed our policy limits. Even a partially uninsured claim of significant size, if successful, could have an adverse effect on our financial condition.
In addition, we may not be able to continue to obtain insurance coverage on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Our existing policies may be cancelled or otherwise terminated by the insurer, and/or the companies that we acquire may not be eligible for certain types or limits of insurance. Maintaining adequate insurance and successfully accessing insurance coverage for a claim can require a significant amount of our management’s time, and we may be forced to spend a substantial amount of money in that process.
Due to our acquisition activity, the existing information technology systems and cyber controls of the acquired entities and integration efforts with respect thereto, as well as the state of the cyber insurance market generally, the costs for our cyber insurance increased in 2023, and the cost of such insurance could continue to increase for future policy periods. Our cyber insurance coverage does not extend to all of our group companies. Although we are working to implement more rebust cybersecurity controls and infrastructure for these entities, we may continue to be unable to secure cyber risk coverage for them for future periods. Moreover, the scope and limits of our cyber insurance coverage may not be sufficient or available to cover all expenses or other losses, including fines, or all types of claims that may arise in connection with cyberattacks, security compromises, and other related incidents.
Uncertainty and instability resulting from the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could negatively impact our business, financial condition and operations.
The ongoing war in Ukraine could negatively impact global and regional financial markets which could result in businesses postponing spending in response to tighter credit, higher unemployment, financial market volatility, negative financial news, and other factors. In addition, our suppliers and contractors may have staff, operations, materials, or equipment located in Ukraine or Russia which could impact our supply chain. Moreover, we outsource some of our software development and design to third-party contractors that have employees and consultants located in Ukraine, Russia and/or Belarus. Poor relations between the United States and Russia, sanctions by the United States and the European Union against Russia, and any escalation of political tensions or economic instability in the area could have an adverse impact on our third-party contractors. In particular, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the increased tensions among the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Russia could increase the scope of armed conflict, cyberwarfare and economic instability that could disrupt or delay the operations of these resources in Russia, Belarus and/or Ukraine, disrupt or delay communication with such resources or the flow of funds to support their operations, or otherwise render our resources unavailable.
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Macroeconomic conditions could have a materially adverse impact on our business, financial condition, or results of operations.
Macroeconomic conditions, such as high inflation, changes to monetary policy, high interest rates, volatile currency exchange rates, as well as credit and sovereign debt concerns in certain European countries, concerns about slowed growth in China and other markets outside of the U.S., decreasing consumer confidence and spending, including capital spending, concerns about the stability and liquidity of certain financial institutions, and global or local recessions can adversely impact demand for our products, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition, or results of operations. Recent macroeconomic conditions have been adversely impacted by political instability and military hostilities in multiple geographies (including the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the conflict in Israel and surrounding areas) and monetary and financial uncertainties.
The additive manufacturing industry in which we operate is characterized by rapid technological change, which requires us to continue to develop new products and innovations to meet constantly evolving customer demands and which could adversely affect market adoption of our products.
Our revenues are derived from the sale of additive manufacturing systems, produced parts, and related consumables and services. We have encountered and will continue to encounter challenges experienced by growing companies in a market subject to rapid innovation and technological change. While we intend to invest substantial resources to remain on the forefront of technological development, continuing advances in additive manufacturing technology, changes in customer requirements and preferences and the emergence of new standards, regulations and certifications could adversely affect adoption of our products either generally or for particular applications. Our ability to compete in the additive manufacturing market depends, in large part, on our success in developing and introducing new additive manufacturing systems and technology, in improving our existing products and technology and qualifying new materials which our systems can support. We believe that we must continuously enhance and expand the functionality and features of our products and technologies in order to remain competitive. However, we may not be able to:
develop cost effective new products and technologies that address the increasingly complex needs of prospective customers;
enhance our existing products and technologies;
respond to technological advances and emerging industry standards and certifications on a cost-effective and timely basis;
adequately protect our intellectual property as we develop new products and technologies;
identify the appropriate technology or product to which to devote our resources; or
ensure the availability of cash resources to fund research and development.
Even if we successfully introduce new additive manufacturing products and technologies and enhance our existing products and technologies, it is possible that these will eventually supplant our existing products or that our competitors will develop new products and technologies that will replace our own. As a result, any of our products may be rendered obsolete or uneconomical by our or our competitors’ technological advances, leading to a loss in market share, decline in revenue and adverse effects on our business and prospects.
The additive manufacturing industry is competitive. We expect to face increasing competition in many aspects of our business, which could cause our operating results to suffer.
The additive manufacturing industry in which we operate is fragmented and competitive. We compete for customers with a wide variety of producers of additive manufacturing and/or 3D printing equipment that creates 3D objects and end-use parts, as well as with providers of materials and services for this equipment. Some of our existing and potential competitors are researching, designing, developing, and marketing other types of products and services that may render our existing or future products obsolete, uneconomical or less competitive. Existing and potential competitors may also have substantially greater financial, technical, marketing and sales, manufacturing, distribution, and other resources than we do, including name recognition, as well as experience and expertise in developing and protecting intellectual property rights and operating within certain international markets, any of which may enable them to compete effectively against us. For example, a number of companies that have substantial resources have announced that they are beginning production of 3D printing systems, which will further enhance the competition we face.
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Future competition may arise from the development of allied or related techniques for equipment, materials and services that are not encompassed by our patents, from the issuance of patents to other companies that may inhibit our ability to develop certain products and from improvements to existing technologies.
We intend to continue to follow a strategy of continuing product development and distribution network expansion to enhance our competitive position to the extent practicable. But we cannot provide assurance that we will be able to maintain our current position or continue to compete successfully against current and future sources of competition. If we do not keep pace with technological change and introduce competitive new products and technologies, demand for our products may decline, and our operating results may suffer.
Because the additive manufacturing market is rapidly evolving, forecasts of market growth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K may not be accurate.
Market opportunity estimates and growth forecasts included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate. Even if these markets experience the forecasted growth described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we may not grow our business at similar rates, or at all. Our future growth is subject to many factors, including market adoption of our products, which is subject to many risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, the forecasts and estimates of market size and growth described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our estimates that the size of the total addressable market is expected to be more than $100 billion in 2030, should not be taken as indicative of our future growth.
Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional Capital
We are an early-stage company with a history of losses. We have not been profitable historically and may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future.
We experienced net losses in each year from our inception, including net losses of $323.3 million, $740.3 million, and $240.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022, and 2021 respectively. We believe we will continue to incur operating losses and negative cash flow in the near-term as we continue to invest in our business, in particular across our research and development efforts and sales and marketing programs. These investments may not result in increased revenue or growth in our business or enable us to achieve profitability.
In addition, as a public company, we incur significant additional legal, accounting and other expenses in order to comply with public company reporting, and disclosure requirements. We will also incur additional legal, accounting and other expenses in connection with acquisitions and integration activities associated therewith. These increased expenditures may make it harder for us to achieve and maintain future profitability. Revenue growth and growth in our customer base may not be sustainable, and we may not achieve sufficient revenue to achieve or maintain profitability. We may incur significant losses in the future for a number of reasons, including due to the other risks described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications and delays and other unknown events. As a result, our losses may be larger than anticipated, we may incur significant losses for the foreseeable future, and we may not achieve profitability, and even if we do, we may not be able to maintain or increase profitability. Furthermore, if our future growth and operating performance fail to meet investor or securities analyst expectations, or if we have future negative cash flow or losses resulting from our investment in acquiring customers or expanding our operations, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our limited operating history and rapid growth makes evaluating our current business and future prospects difficult and may increase the risk of your investment.
Much of our growth has occurred in recent periods. Our limited operating history may make it difficult for you to evaluate our current business and our future prospects, as we continue to grow our business. Our ability to forecast our future operating results is subject to a number of uncertainties, including our ability to plan for and model future growth. We have encountered, and will continue to encounter, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly evolving industries, as we continue to grow our business. If our assumptions regarding these uncertainties, which we use to plan our business, are incorrect or change in reaction to changes in our markets, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our operating and financial results could differ materially from our expectations, our business could suffer, and the trading price of our stock may decline.
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We may fail to meet our publicly announced guidance or other expectations about our business, which would cause our stock price to decline.
We provide guidance regarding our expected revenue and Adjusted EBITDA, and we may in the future provide guidance regarding other measures of financial and business performance.
It is difficult to predict our future revenues and appropriately budget for our expenses, and we have limited insight into trends that may emerge and affect our business. Correctly predicting future events is inherently an uncertain process, and our guidance may not ultimately be accurate. Our guidance is based on certain assumptions such as anticipated production and sales volumes, material costs and planned cost reductions. In addition, we have implemented, and in the foreseeable future expect to continue to implement, a number of cost saving measures. Those measures may not have their intended effect, and we may not adequately be able to implement them. Even if the measures we implement lead to cost savings, those cost savings may not be sufficient or we may be unable to sustain the cost savings that we achieve. Our ability to achieve the anticipated cost savings and other benefits from these measures within the expected time frames is subject to many estimates and assumptions, and depends on many factors, some of which are beyond our control. If actual results differ from our guidance or from the expectations of securities analysts or investors, or we adjust our guidance in future periods, whether as a result of our inability to successfully implement our cost saving measures or because of other factors, the market value of our common stock could decline significantly.
Our operating results and financial condition may fluctuate from period to period.
Our operating results and financial condition fluctuate from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year and are likely to continue to vary due to a number of factors, many of which will not be within our control. Both our business and the additive manufacturing industry are changing and evolving rapidly, and our historical operating results may not be useful in predicting our future operating results. If our operating results do not meet the guidance that we provide to the marketplace or the expectations of securities analysts or investors, the market price of our Class A common stock will likely decline. Fluctuations in our operating results and financial condition may be due to a number of factors, including:
the degree of market acceptance of our products and services;
our ability to compete with competitors and new entrants into our markets;
the mix of products and services that we sell during any period;
the timing of our sales and deliveries of our products to customers;
the geographic distribution of our sales;
changes in our pricing policies or those of our competitors, including our response to price competition;
changes in the amount that we spend to develop and manufacture new products or technologies;
changes in the amounts that we spend to promote our products and services;
changes in the cost of satisfying our warranty obligations and servicing our installed customer base;
expenses and/or liabilities resulting from litigation;
delays between our expenditures to develop and market new or enhanced solutions and the generation of revenue from those solutions;
unforeseen liabilities or difficulties in integrating our acquisitions or newly acquired businesses;
disruptions to our information technology systems or our third-party contract manufacturers;
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general economic and industry conditions that effect customer demand;
seasonal reductions in business activity in certain parts of the world, particularly during the summer months in Europe;
the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our customers, suppliers, manufacturers, and operations; and
changes in accounting rules and tax laws.
In addition, our revenues and operating results may fluctuate from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year due to our sales cycle and seasonality among our customers. Generally, our additive manufacturing solutions are subject to the adoption and capital expenditure cycles of our customers. As a result, we typically conduct a larger portion of our business during the fourth quarter of our fiscal year relative to the other quarters. Our quarterly sales also have often reflected a pattern in which a disproportionate percentage of each quarter’s total sales occurs towards the end of the quarter. This uneven sales pattern makes predicting revenue, earnings, cash flow from operations, adjusted EBITDA and working capital for each period difficult, increases the risk of unanticipated variations in our quarterly results and financial condition, and places pressure on our inventory management and logistics systems. We face a number of uncertainties related to our ability to achieve our targets in a given quarter, including our inability to obtain materials as a result of global supply chain issues, our customers may decline or be unable to take delivery of products during holidays, and we may not receive our expected level of purchase orders or payments. If these or other events were to occur, our results for a given quarter could be negatively impacted, and may vary materially and adversely from our stated expectations and the estimates or expectations of securities research analysts, investors, and other market participants.
Additionally, for our more complex solutions, which may require customers to make additional facilities investment, potential customers may spend a substantial amount of time performing internal assessments prior to making a purchase decision. This may cause us to devote significant effort in advance of a potential sale without any guarantee of receiving any related revenues. As a result, revenues and operating results for future periods are difficult to predict with any significant degree of certainty, which could lead to adverse effects on our inventory levels and overall financial condition.
Due to the foregoing factors, and the other risks discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, investors should not rely on quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year comparisons of our operating results as an indicator of our future performance.
We may require additional capital to support business growth, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all.
We have funded our operations since inception primarily through debt and equity financings and sales. We cannot be certain when or if our operations will generate sufficient cash to fully fund our ongoing operations or the growth of our business. We intend to continue to make investments to support our business growth and may require additional funds to respond to business challenges and opportunities, including the need to develop new features or enhance our products, improve our operating infrastructure, or acquire complementary businesses and technologies. Accordingly, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds if our existing sources of cash and any funds generated from operations do not provide us with sufficient capital. If we raise additional funds through future issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of holders of our Class A common stock. Any debt financing that we may secure in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. We may not be able to obtain additional financing on terms favorable to us, if at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth and to respond to business challenges and opportunities could be significantly impaired, and our business may be adversely affected.
Bank failures or other events affecting financial institutions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or liquidity, or have other adverse consequences.
We maintain the majority of our cash and cash equivalents in accounts with major financial institutions, and our deposits at certain of these institutions exceed insurance limits. Market conditions can impact the viability of these institutions. In the event of failure of any of the financial institutions where we maintain our cash and cash equivalents, there can be no assurance that we would
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be able to access uninsured funds in a timely manner or at all. Any inability to access or delay in accessing these funds could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and liquidity.
Risks Related to Third Parties
We could be subject to personal injury, property damage, product liability, warranty and other claims involving allegedly defective products that we supply.
The products we supply are sometimes used in potentially hazardous or critical applications, such as the assembled parts of an aircraft, medical device or automobile, that could result in death, personal injury, property damage, loss of production, punitive damages, and consequential damages. While we have not experienced any such claims to date, actual or claimed defects in the products we supply could result in our being named as a defendant in lawsuits asserting potentially large claims.
We attempt to include legal provisions in our agreements with customers that are designed to limit our exposure to potential liability for damages arising from defects or errors in our products. However, it is possible that these limitations may not be effective as a result of unfavorable judicial decisions or laws enacted in the future. Any such lawsuit, regardless of merit, could result in material expense, diversion of management time and efforts and damage to our reputation, and could cause us to fail to retain or attract customers, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
We depend on our network of resellers and our business could be adversely affected if they do not perform as expected.
We rely heavily on our global network of resellers to sell our products and to provide installation and support services to customers in their respective geographic regions. These resellers may not be as effective in selling our products or installing and supporting our customers as we expect. Further, our contracts with our resellers provide for termination for convenience, and if our contracts with a significant number of resellers, or with the most effective resellers, were to terminate or if they would otherwise fail or refuse to sell certain of our products, we may not be able to find replacements that are as qualified or as successful in a timely manner, if at all. In addition, if our resellers do not perform as anticipated, or if we are unable to secure qualified and successful resellers, our sales will suffer, which would have an adverse effect on our revenues and operating results. Because we also depend upon our resellers to provide installation and support services for products, if our reseller relationship were terminated or limited to certain products, we may face disruption in providing support for our customers, which would adversely affect our reputation and our results of operations. Any failure to offer high-quality technical support services may adversely affect our relationships with our customers and adversely affect our financial results.
Additionally, a default by one or more resellers that have a significant receivables balance could have an adverse impact on our financial results. We have reviewed our policies that govern credit and collections and will continue to monitor them in light of current payment status and economic conditions. In addition, we try to reduce the credit exposures of our accounts receivable by instituting credit limits. However, there can be no assurance that our efforts to identify potential credit risks will be successful. Our inability to timely identify resellers that are credit risks could result in defaults at a time when such resellers have high accounts receivable balances with us. Any such default would result in a significant charge against our earnings and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.
We could face liability if our additive manufacturing solutions are used by our customers to print dangerous objects.
Customers may use our additive manufacturing systems to print parts that could be used in a harmful way or could otherwise be dangerous. For example, there have been news reports that 3D printers were used to print guns or other weapons. We have little, if any, control over what objects our customers print using our products, and it may be difficult, if not impossible, for us to monitor and prevent customers from printing weapons with our products. There can be no assurance that we will not be held liable if someone were injured or killed by a weapon printed by a customer using one of our products.
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We depend on a limited number of third-party contract manufacturers for a significant portion of our manufacturing needs. If these third-party manufacturers experience any delay, disruption or quality control problems in their operations, we could lose market share and our brand may suffer.
We depend on third-party contract manufacturers for the production of several of our additive manufacturing systems. While there are several potential manufacturers for most of these products, several of our products are manufactured, assembled, tested and generally packaged by a limited number of third-party manufacturers. In most cases, we rely on these manufacturers to procure components and, in some cases, subcontract engineering work. Our reliance on a limited number of contract manufacturers involves a number of risks, including:
unexpected increases in manufacturing and repair costs;
inability to control the quality and reliability of finished products;
inability to control delivery schedules;
potential liability for expenses incurred by third-party contract manufacturers in reliance on our forecasts that later prove to be inaccurate;
potential lack of adequate capacity to manufacture all or a part of the products we require; and
potential labor unrest affecting the ability of the third-party manufacturers to produce our products.
If any of our third-party contract manufacturers experience a delay, disruption, or quality control problems in their operations, or if a primary third-party contract manufacturer does not renew its agreement with us, our operations could be significantly disrupted, and our product shipments could be delayed. Ensuring that a contract manufacturer is qualified to manufacture our products to our standards is time consuming. In addition, there is no assurance that a contract manufacturer can scale its production of our products at the volumes and in the quality that we require. If a contract manufacturer is unable to do these things, we may have to move production for the products to a new or existing third-party manufacturer, which would take significant effort and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
As we contemplate moving manufacturing into different jurisdictions, we may be subject to additional significant challenges in ensuring that quality, processes, and costs, among other issues, are consistent with our expectations. For example, while we expect our third-party contract manufacturers to be responsible for cost resulting from manufacturing defects, there is no assurance that we will be able to collect such reimbursements from these manufacturers, which exposes us to take on additional risk for potential failures of our products.
In addition, because we use a limited number of third-party contract manufacturers, increases in the prices charged may have an adverse effect on our results of operations, as we may be unable to find a contract manufacturer who can supply us at a lower price. As a result, the loss of a limited source supplier could adversely affect our relationships with our customers and our results of operations and financial condition.
All of our products must satisfy safety and regulatory standards and some of our products must also receive government certifications. Our third-party contract manufacturers are primarily responsible for conducting the tests that support our applications for most regulatory approvals for our products. If our third-party contract manufacturers fail to timely and accurately conduct these tests, we may be unable to obtain the necessary domestic or foreign regulatory approvals or certifications to sell our products in certain jurisdictions. As a result, we would be unable to sell our products and our sales and profitability could be reduced, our relationships with our sales channel could be harmed and our reputation and brand would suffer.
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If our suppliers become unavailable or inadequate, our customer relationships, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.
We acquire certain of our materials, which are critical to the ongoing operation and future growth of our business, from several third parties. If we or one of our contract manufacturers has a supply chain disruption, or our relationship with any of our contract manufacturers or key suppliers terminates, we could experience delays. While most manufacturing equipment and materials for our products are available from multiple suppliers, certain of those items are only available from limited sources. Should any of these suppliers become unavailable or inadequate, or impose terms unacceptable to us, such as increased pricing terms, we could be required to spend a significant amount of time and expense to develop alternate sources of supply, and we may not be successful in doing so on terms acceptable to us, or at all. As a result, the loss of a limited source supplier could adversely affect our relationship with our customers as well as our results of operations and financial condition.
Our facilities and the facilities of our third-party contract manufacturers, suppliers, and customers, are vulnerable to disruption due to natural or other disasters, including climate-related events, strikes and other events beyond our control.
A major earthquake, fire, tsunami, hurricane, cyclone or other disaster, such as a pandemic, major flood, seasonal storms, droughts, extreme temperatures, nuclear event or terrorist attack affecting our facilities or the areas in which they are located, or affecting those of our customers or third-party manufacturers or suppliers, could significantly disrupt our or their operations and delay or prevent product shipment or installation during the time required to repair, reinforce, rebuild or replace our or their damaged manufacturing facilities. These delays could be lengthy and costly. Climate change may contribute to increased frequency or intensity of certain of these events, as well as contribute to chronic changes in the physical environment (such as changes to ambient temperature and precipitation patterns or sea-level rise) any of which may impair the operating conditions of our facilities or the facilities of our customers or third-party manufacturers or suppliers, or otherwise adversely impact our operations and value chain (including the delivery of our services and products), access to capital, access to insurance or access to talent. If any of our facilities or those of our third-party contract manufacturers, suppliers or customers are negatively impacted by such a disaster, production, shipment, and installation of our products could be delayed, which can impact the period in which we recognize the revenue related to that product sale. Additionally, customers may delay purchases of our products until operations return to normal. Even if we are able to respond quickly to a disaster, the continued effects of the disaster could create uncertainty in our business operations. In addition, concerns about terrorism, the effects of a terrorist attack, political turmoil, labor strikes, war or the outbreak of epidemic diseases (including the outbreak of COVID-19) could have a negative effect on our operations and sales.
Risks Related to Our Class A Common Stock
Our issuance of additional shares of Class A common stock or convertible securities may dilute investors’ equity interest in the Company and could adversely affect our stock price.
From time to time, we have issued, and we expect in the future to issue, additional shares of our Class A common stock or securities convertible into our Class A common stock pursuant to a variety of transactions, including acquisitions. Additional shares of our Class A common stock may also be issued upon exercise of outstanding stock options and warrants to purchase our Class A common stock. The issuance by us of additional shares of our Class A common stock or securities convertible into our Class A common stock would dilute investors’ equity interest in the Company and the sale of a significant amount of such shares in the public market could adversely affect prevailing market prices of our Class A common stock. Subject to the satisfaction of vesting conditions and the expiration of lockup agreements, shares issuable upon exercise of options will be available for resale immediately in the public market without restriction.
In the future, we expect to obtain financing or to further increase our capital resources by issuing additional shares of our capital stock or offering debt or other equity securities, including senior or subordinated notes, debt securities convertible into equity, or shares of preferred stock. Issuing additional shares of our capital stock, other equity securities, or securities convertible into equity may dilute the economic and voting rights of our existing stockholders, reduce the market price of our Class A common stock, or both. Debt securities convertible into equity could be subject to adjustments in the conversion ratio pursuant to which certain events may increase the number of equity securities issuable upon conversion. Preferred stock, if issued, could have a preference with respect to liquidating distributions or a preference with respect to dividend payments that could limit our ability to pay dividends to the holders of our Class A common stock. Our decision to issue securities in any future offering will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond our control, which may adversely affect the amount, timing, or nature of our future offerings. As a result, holders of
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our Class A common stock bear the risk that our future offerings may reduce the market price of our Class A common stock and dilute their percentage ownership.
Future sales, or the perception of future sales, of our Class A common stock by us or our existing stockholders in the public market could cause the market price for our Class A common stock to decline.
The sale of substantial amounts of shares of our Class A common stock in the public market, or the perception that such sales could occur, could harm the prevailing market price of shares of our Class A common stock. These sales, or the possibility that these sales may occur, also might make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate. Certain shares of our common stock are freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act, except for any shares of our Class A common stock that may be held or acquired by our directors, executive officers, and other affiliates, as that term is defined in the Securities Act, which are restricted securities under the Securities Act. Restricted securities may not be sold in the public market unless the sale is registered under the Securities Act or an exemption from registration is available. Any such sales, including sales of a substantial number of shares or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell shares, could reduce the market price of our common stock. We may also issue shares of our common stock or securities convertible into our common stock from time to time in connection with financings, acquisitions, investments, or otherwise. Any such issuance could result in ownership dilution to you as a stockholder and cause the trading price of our common stock to decline.
Our directors, executive officers and stockholders affiliated with our directors and executive officers own a significant percentage of our Class A common stock and, if they choose to act together, will be able to exert significant control over matters subject to shareholder approval.
Our directors, executive officers, and stockholders affiliated with our directors and executive officers exert significant influence on us. As of December 31, 2023, these holders owned approximately 13.9% of our outstanding Class A common stock. As a result, these holders, acting together, have significant control over all matters that require approval of our stockholders, including the election of directors, amendments of our organizational documents, or approval of any merger, sale of assets, or other major corporate transactions. The interests of these holders may not always coincide with our corporate interests or the interests of other stockholders, and they may act in a manner with which you may not agree or that may not be in the best interests of our other stockholders.
Anti-takeover provisions in our governing documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of us more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management and limit the market price of our Class A common stock.
Our certificate of incorporation, bylaws, and Delaware law contain provisions that could have the effect of rendering more difficult, delaying, or preventing an acquisition deemed undesirable by our board of directors. Among other things, our certificate of incorporation and bylaws include the following provisions:
a staggered board, which means that our board of directors is classified into three classes of directors with staggered three-year terms and directors are only able to be removed from office for cause;
limitations on convening special stockholder meetings, which could make it difficult for our stockholders to adopt desired governance changes;
a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent, which means that our stockholders will only be able to take action at a meeting of stockholders and will not be able to take action by written consent for any matter;
a forum selection clause, which means certain litigation against us can only be brought in Delaware;
the authorization of undesignated preferred stock, the terms of which may be established and shares of which may be issued without further action by our stockholders; and
advance notice procedures, which apply for stockholders to nominate candidates for election as directors or to bring matters before an annual meeting of stockholders.
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These provisions, alone or together, could delay or prevent hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our management. As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to provisions of Delaware law, including Section 203 of the DGCL, which prevents interested stockholders, such as certain stockholders holding more than 15% of our outstanding Class A common stock, from engaging in certain business combinations unless (i) prior to the time such stockholder became an interested stockholder, our board of directors approved the transaction that resulted in such stockholder becoming an interested stockholder, (ii) upon consummation of the transaction that resulted in such stockholder becoming an interested stockholder, the interested stockholder owned at least 85% of our Class A common stock, or (iii) following board approval, such business combination receives the approval of the holders of at least two-thirds of our outstanding Class A common stock not held by such interested stockholder at an annual or special meeting of stockholders.
Any provision of our certificate of incorporation, our bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying, preventing or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our Class A common stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Class A common stock.
Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.
Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the (a) Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, in the event that the Chancery Court does not have jurisdiction, the federal district court for the District of Delaware or other state courts of the State of Delaware) shall, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the sole and exclusive forum for: (i) any derivative action, suit or proceeding brought on our behalf; (ii) any action, suit or proceeding asserting a claim of breach of fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers, or stockholders to us or to our stockholders; (iii) any action, suit or proceeding asserting a claim arising pursuant to the DGCL, our certificate of incorporation or bylaws; or (iv) any action, suit or proceeding asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine; and (b) subject to the foregoing, the federal district courts of the United States of America shall be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. Notwithstanding the foregoing, such forum selection provisions shall not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts of the United States have exclusive jurisdiction. The choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Additionally, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. As noted above, our certificate of incorporation and bylaws provide that the federal district courts of the United States of America shall have jurisdiction over any action arising under the Securities Act. Accordingly, there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce such provision. Our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.
Risks Related to Our Indebtedness
Our indebtedness and liabilities could limit the cash flow available for our operations, expose us to risks that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and impair our ability to satisfy our obligations under the 2027 Notes.
In May 2022, we issued $115.0 million principal amount of 6.0% Convertible Senior Notes due 2027. We may also incur additional indebtedness to meet future financing needs. Our indebtedness could have significant negative consequences for our security holders and our business, results of operations and financial condition by, among other things:
increasing our vulnerability to adverse economic and industry conditions;
limiting our ability to obtain additional financing;
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requiring the dedication of a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to service our indebtedness, which will reduce the amount of cash available for other purposes;
limiting our flexibility to plan for, or react to, changes in our business;
diluting the interests of our existing stockholders as a result of issuing shares of our Class A common stock upon conversion of the 2027 Notes; and
placing us at a possible competitive disadvantage with competitors that are less leveraged than we or have better access to capital.
Our business may not generate sufficient funds, and we may otherwise be unable to maintain sufficient cash reserves, to pay amounts due under our indebtedness, including the 2027 Notes, and our cash needs may increase in the future. In addition, any future indebtedness that we may incur may contain financial and other restrictive covenants that limit our ability to operate our business, raise capital or make payments under any existing indebtedness. If we fail to comply with these covenants or to make payments under any existing indebtedness when due, then we would be in default under that indebtedness, which could, in turn, result in that and any other existing indebtedness becoming immediately payable in full.
We may be unable to raise the funds necessary to repurchase the 2027 Notes for cash following a fundamental change (as defined in the indenture governing the 2027 Notes) , or to pay the cash amounts due upon conversion, and any other existing indebtedness may limit our ability to repurchase the 2027 Notes or pay cash upon their conversion.
Noteholders may require us to repurchase the 2027 Notes following a fundamental change at a cash repurchase price generally equal to the principal amount of the 2027 Notes to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any. In addition, upon conversion, we will satisfy part or all of our conversion obligation in cash. We may not have enough available cash or be able to obtain financing at the time we are required to repurchase the 2027 Notes or pay the cash amounts due upon conversion. In addition, applicable law, regulatory authorities and the agreements governing any other indebtedness may restrict our ability to repurchase the 2027 Notes or pay the cash amounts due upon conversion. Our failure to repurchase the 2027 Notes or pay the cash amounts due upon conversion when required will constitute a default under the indenture. A default under the indenture or the fundamental change itself could also lead to a default under agreements governing any other indebtedness, which may result in that other indebtedness becoming immediately payable in full. We may not have sufficient funds to satisfy all amounts due under any other indebtedness and the 2027 Notes.
Provisions in the indenture governing the 2027 Notes could delay or prevent an otherwise beneficial takeover of us.
Certain provisions in the 2027 Notes and the indenture governing the 2027 Notes could make a third-party attempt to acquire us more difficult or expensive. For example, if a takeover constitutes a fundamental change, then holders of the 2027 Notes will have the right to require us to repurchase their 2027 Notes for cash. In addition, if a takeover constitutes a make-whole fundamental change (as defined in the indenture governing the 2027 Notes), then we may be required to temporarily increase the conversion rate. In either case, and in other cases, our obligations under the 2027 Notes and the indenture could increase the cost of acquiring us or otherwise discourage a third party from acquiring us or removing incumbent management, including in a transaction that holders of our 2027 Notes or holders of our Class A common stock may view as favorable.
Risks Related to Compliance Matters
Failure of our global operations to comply with anti-corruption laws and various trade restrictions, such as sanctions and export controls, could have an adverse effect on our business.
We operate in a number of countries throughout the world, including countries known to have a reputation for corruption. Doing business on a global basis requires us to comply with anti-corruption laws and regulations imposed by governments around the world with jurisdiction over our operations, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act 2010, as well as the laws of the countries where we do business. We are also subject to various trade restrictions, including trade and economic sanctions and export controls, imposed by governments around the world with jurisdiction over our operations. For example, in accordance with trade sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the U.S. Department of Commerce, we are prohibited from
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engaging in transactions involving certain persons and certain designated countries or territories, including Russia, Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea and the Crimea Region of Ukraine. In addition, our products are subject to export regulations that can involve significant compliance time and may add additional overhead cost to our products. In recent years the U.S. government has had a renewed focus on export matters. For example, the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 and regulatory guidance have imposed additional controls, and may result in the imposition of further additional controls, on the export of certain “emerging and foundational technologies.” Our current and future products may be subject to these heightened regulations, which could increase our compliance costs.
We are committed to doing business in accordance with applicable anti-corruption laws and regulations and with applicable trade restrictions. We are subject, however, to the risk that our affiliated entities or our and our affiliates’ respective officers, directors, employees, and agents (including distributors of our products) may take action determined to be in violation of such laws and regulations. Any violation by any of these persons could result in substantial fines, sanctions, legal expenses, civil and/or criminal penalties, or curtailment of operations in certain jurisdictions, and might adversely affect our operating results. In addition, actual or alleged violations could damage our reputation and ability to do business.
We are subject to environmental, health and safety laws and regulations related to our operations and the use of our additive manufacturing systems, produced parts, and consumable materials, which could subject us to compliance costs and/or potential liability in the event of non-compliance.
We are subject to domestic and foreign environmental laws and regulations governing our operations, including, but not limited to, emissions into the air and water and the use, handling, disposal and remediation of hazardous substances. A certain risk of environmental liability is inherent in our production activities. These laws and regulations govern, among other things, the generation, use, storage, registration, handling, and disposal of chemicals and waste materials, the presence of specified substances in electrical products, the emission and discharge of hazardous materials into the ground, air or water, the cleanup of contaminated sites, including any contamination that results from spills due to our failure to properly dispose of chemicals and other waste materials and the health and safety of our employees. Under these laws, regulations, and requirements, we could also be subject to liability for improper disposal of chemicals and waste materials, including those resulting from the use of our systems and accompanying materials by end-users. Accidents or other incidents that occur at our facilities or involve our personnel or operations could result in claims for damages against us. In the event we are found to be financially responsible, as a result of environmental or other laws or by court order, for environmental damages alleged to have been caused by us or occurring on our premises, we could be required to pay substantial monetary damages or undertake expensive remedial obligations. If our operations fail to comply with such laws or regulations, we may be subject to fines and other civil, administrative, or criminal sanctions, including the revocation of permits and licenses necessary to continue our business activities, as well as substantial legal expenses. In addition, we may be required to pay damages or civil judgments in respect of third-party claims, including those relating to personal injury (including exposure to hazardous substances that we generate, use, store, handle, transport, manufacture or dispose of), property damage or contribution claims. Some environmental laws allow for strict, joint and several liabilities for remediation costs, regardless of fault. We may be identified as a potentially responsible party under such laws. The amount of any costs, including fines or damages payments that we might incur under such circumstances could substantially exceed any insurance we have to cover such losses. Any of these events, alone or in combination, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and could adversely affect our reputation.
The export of our products internationally from our production facilities subjects us to environmental laws and regulations concerning the import and export of chemicals and hazardous substances such as the United States Toxic Substances Control Act and the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemical Substances. These laws and regulations require the testing and registration of some chemicals that we ship along with, or that form a part of, our systems and other products. If we fail to comply with these or similar laws and regulations, we may be required to make significant expenditures to reformulate the chemicals that we use in our products and materials or incur costs to register such chemicals to gain and/or regain compliance. Additionally, we could be subject to significant fines or other civil and criminal penalties should we not achieve such compliance.
The SEC’s rules on climate change disclosures proposed in March 2022, if adopted, will increase our costs and expenditures, as well as the costs, expenditures and expectations of many of our third parties. The cost of complying with other current and future environmental, health and safety laws applicable to our operations and the operations of many of our third parties, or the liabilities arising from past releases of, or exposure to, hazardous substances, may result in future expenditures. Any of these developments, alone or in combination, could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
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Increasing attention to, and evolving expectations for, environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) initiatives could increase our costs, harm our reputation, or otherwise adversely impact our business.
Companies across industries are facing increasing scrutiny from a variety of stakeholders related to their ESG practices. Expectations regarding voluntary ESG initiatives and disclosures may result in increased costs, changes in demand for certain offerings, enhanced compliance or disclosure obligations, or other adverse impacts to our business, financial condition, or results of operations. While we may at times engage in voluntary ESG initiatives, such initiatives may be costly and may not have the desired effect. We may experience pressure to make commitments relating to ESG matters that affect us, but we may be unable to make such commitments for strategic or cost-related reasons (or be perceived as not making commitments to the extent expected by stakeholders), in which case, we may experience reputational fallout, negative impacts with respect to our stakeholder relations or limitations with respect to our access to capital or insurance. Unfavorable ESG ratings could lead to increased negative investor sentiment towards us, which could negatively impact our share price as well as our access to and cost of capital. To the extent ESG matters negatively impact our reputation, it may also impede our ability to compete as effectively to attract and retain employees or customers, which may adversely impact our operations.
Aspects of our business are subject to data privacy, data use and data security regulations and other requirements, which could increase our costs, and our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
The global data protection landscape is rapidly evolving, and we are or may become subject to numerous state, federal and foreign laws, requirements and regulations governing the collection, use, disclosure, retention, and security of personally identifiable information we collect from our employees, prospects, and our customers. Data privacy and security laws and regulations may limit the use and disclosure of certain personal information and require us to adopt certain cybersecurity and data handling practices that may affect our ability to effectively market our services to current, past, or prospective customers. We must comply with data privacy and security laws in the United States, Europe and other countries and jurisdictions where we conduct business.
For example,in Europe the GDPR became effective May 25, 2018 and imposes strict requirements for processing the personal data of individuals within the European Economic Area, or EEA, or in the context of our activities within the EEA. Companies that must comply with the GDPR face increased compliance obligations and risk, including more robust regulatory enforcement of data protection requirements and potential fines for noncompliance of up to €20 million or 4% of the annual global revenues of the noncompliant undertaking, whichever is greater. In addition to fines, a breach of the GDPR may result in regulatory investigations, reputational damage, orders to cease/ change our data processing activities, enforcement notices, assessment notices (for a compulsory audit) and/ or civil claims (including class actions). Among other requirements, the GDPR regulates transfers of personal data subject to the GDPR to third countries that have not been found to provide adequate protection to such personal data, including the United States, and the efficacy and longevity of current transfer mechanisms between the EEA, and the United States remains uncertain. Case law from the Court of Justice of the European Union states that reliance on the standard contractual clauses, or SCCs, - a standard form of contract approved by the European Commission as an adequate personal data transfer mechanism - alone may not necessarily be sufficient in all circumstances and that transfers must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. On July 10, 2023, the European Commission adopted its Adequacy Decision in relation to the new EU-US Data Privacy Framework, or DPF, rendering the DPF effective as a GDPR transfer mechanism to U.S. entities self-certified under the DPF. We expect the existing legal complexity and uncertainty regarding international personal data transfers to continue. As supervisory authorities issue further guidance on personal data export mechanisms, including circumstances where the SCCs cannot be used, and/or start taking enforcement action, we could suffer additional costs, complaints and/or regulatory investigations or fines, and/or if we are otherwise unable to transfer personal data between and among countries and regions in which we operate, it could affect the manner in which we provide our services, the geographical location or segregation of our relevant systems and operations, and could adversely affect our financial results.
We are also subject to the retained version of the GDPR as it forms part of the law of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the UK General Data Protection Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018, or collectively, the UK GDPR, which imposes separate but similar obligations to those under the GDPR and comparable penalties, including fines of up to £17.5 million or 4% of a noncompliant undertaking’s global annual revenue for the preceding financial year, whichever is greater. On October 12, 2023, the UK Extension to the DPF came into effect (as approved by the UK Government), as a data transfer mechanism from the UK to U.S. entities self-certified under the DPF.
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In the U.S., certain states have also adopted data privacy and security laws and regulations, which govern the privacy, processing and protection of personal information. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, or CCPA, became effective on January 1, 2020. Similar laws have been passed in other states and are continuing to be proposed at the state and federal level.
These laws create new individual privacy rights and impose increased obligations, including disclosure obligations, on companies handling personal data. In many jurisdictions, consumers must be notified in the event of a data security breach, and such notification requirements continue to increase in scope and cost. Data privacy and security laws and regulations may limit the use and disclosure of certain information and require us to adopt certain cybersecurity and data handling practices that may affect our ability to effectively market our services to current, past, or prospective customers. While we have invested in, and intend to continue to invest in, resources to comply with these standards, we may not be successful in doing so, and any actual or perceived failure to comply could result in additional cost and liability to us, damage our reputation and have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and reputation.
As data privacy, data use and data security laws are interpreted and applied, compliance costs may increase, particularly in the context of ensuring that adequate data protection and data transfer mechanisms are in place. In recent years, there has been increasing regulatory enforcement and litigation activity in this area in the United States, Germany and in various other countries in which we operate.
Compliance with regulations for medical devices and solutions is expensive and time-consuming, and failure to obtain or maintain approvals, clearances, or compliance could impact financial projections and/or subject us to penalties or liabilities.
Our Desktop Labs and Desktop Health products and services, and healthcare provider customers and distributors, are and will be subject to extensive federal, state, local and foreign regulations, including, without limitation, regulations with respect to approvals and clearances for products, design, manufacturing and testing, labeling, marketing, sales, quality control, and data privacy and security. Unless an exemption applies, we must obtain clearance or approval from the Food and Drug Administration (or comparable foreign regulatory body) before a medical device or solution can be marketed or sold; this process involves significant time, effort and expense. The healthcare market overall is highly regulated and subject to frequent and sudden change. Our failure to secure clearances or approvals or comply with regulations could have an adverse impact on our business and reputation and subject us to lost research and development costs, withdrawal of clearance/approval, operating restrictions, liabilities, fines, penalties and/or litigation.
Risks Related to Intellectual Property
Third-party lawsuits and assertions alleging our infringement of patents, trade secrets or other intellectual property rights may have a significant adverse effect on our financial condition.
Third parties may own issued patents and pending patent applications that exist in fields relevant to additive manufacturing. Some of these third parties may assert that we are employing their proprietary technology without authorization. There may be third-party patents or patent applications with claims related to additive manufacturing. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications which may later result in issued patents that our additive technologies may infringe. In addition, third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that our technologies infringe upon these patents. Any third-party lawsuits or other assertion to which we are subject alleging our infringement of patents, trade secrets or other intellectual property rights may have a significant adverse effect on our financial condition.
We may incur substantial costs enforcing and defending our intellectual property rights.
We may incur substantial expense and costs in protecting, enforcing and defending our intellectual property rights against third parties. Intellectual property disputes may be costly and can be disruptive to our business operations by diverting attention and energies of management and key technical personnel and by increasing our costs of doing business. Third-party intellectual property claims asserted against us could subject us to significant liabilities, require us to enter into royalty and licensing arrangements on unfavorable terms, prevent us from assembling or licensing certain of our products, subject us to injunctions restricting our sale of products, cause severe disruptions to our operations or the marketplaces in which we compete or require us to satisfy indemnification commitments with our customers, including contractual provisions under various license arrangements. In addition, we may incur significant costs in acquiring the necessary third-party intellectual property rights for use in our products. Any of these could have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
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If we are unable to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, such information may be used by others to compete against us, in particular in developing consumables that could be used with our printing systems in place of our proprietary consumables.
We have devoted substantial resources to the development of our technology and related intellectual property rights. Our success and future revenue growth will depend, in part, on our ability to protect our intellectual property. We rely on a combination of registered and unregistered intellectual property and protect our rights using patents, licenses, trademarks, trade secrets, confidentiality and assignment of invention agreements and other methods.
Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, it is possible that competitors or other unauthorized third parties may obtain, copy, use or disclose our technologies, inventions, processes or improvements. We cannot provide assurance that any of our existing or future patents or other intellectual property rights will not be challenged, invalidated or circumvented, or will otherwise provide us with meaningful protection. Our pending patent applications may not be granted, and we may not be able to obtain foreign patents or pending applications corresponding to our U.S. patents. Even if foreign patents are granted, effective enforcement in foreign countries may not be available.
Our trade secrets, know-how and other unregistered proprietary rights are a key aspect of our intellectual property portfolio. While we take reasonable steps to protect our trade secrets and confidential information and enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements intended to protect such rights, such agreements can be difficult and costly to enforce or may not provide adequate remedies if violated, and we may not have entered into such agreements with all relevant parties. Such agreements may be breached, and trade secrets or confidential information may be willfully or unintentionally disclosed, including by employees who may leave our company and join our competitors, or our competitors or other parties may learn of the information in some other way. The disclosure to, or independent development by, a competitor of any of our trade secrets, know-how or other technology not protected by a patent or other intellectual property system could materially reduce or eliminate any competitive advantage that we may have over such competitor. This concern could manifest itself in particular with respect to our proprietary consumables that are used with our systems. Portions of our proprietary consumables may not be afforded patent protection. Chemical companies or other producers of raw materials used in our consumables may be able to develop consumables that are compatible to a large extent with our products, whether independently or in contravention of our trade secret rights and related proprietary and contractual rights. If such consumables are made available to owners of our systems, and are purchased in place of our proprietary consumables, our revenues and profitability would be reduced, and we could be forced to reduce prices for our proprietary consumables.
If our patents and other intellectual property do not adequately protect our technology, our competitors may be able to offer products similar to ours. Our competitors may also be able to develop similar technology independently or design around our patents and other intellectual property. Any of the foregoing events would lead to increased competition and reduce our revenue or gross margin, which would adversely affect our operating results.
If we attempt enforcement of our intellectual property rights, we may be, and have been in the past, subject or party to claims, negotiations or complex, protracted litigation. Intellectual property disputes and litigation, regardless of merit, can be costly and disruptive to our business operations by diverting attention and energies of management and key technical personnel and by increasing our costs of doing business. Any of the foregoing could adversely affect our business and financial condition.
As part of any settlement or other compromise to avoid complex, protracted litigation, we may agree not to pursue future claims against a third party, including related to alleged infringement of our intellectual property rights. Part of any settlement or other compromise with another party may resolve a potentially costly dispute but may also have future repercussions on our ability to defend and protect our intellectual property rights, which in turn could adversely affect our business.
Our additive manufacturing software contains third-party open-source software components, and failure to comply with the terms of the underlying open-source software licenses could restrict our ability to sell our products.
Our additive manufacturing software contains components that are licensed under so-called “open source,” “free” or other similar licenses. Open source software is made available to the general public on an “as-is” basis under the terms of a non-negotiable license. We currently combine our proprietary software with open source software, but not in a manner that we believe requires the release of the source code of our proprietary software to the public. We do not plan to integrate our proprietary software with open source software in ways that would require the release of the source code of our proprietary software to the public; however, our use and
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distribution of open source software may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software. Open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code. In addition, if we combine our proprietary software with open source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain open source licenses, be required to release to the public or remove the source code of our proprietary software. We may also face claims alleging noncompliance with open source license terms or infringement or misappropriation of proprietary software. These claims could result in litigation, require us to purchase a costly license or remove the software. In addition, if the license terms for open source software that we use change, we may be forced to re-engineer our solutions, incur additional costs or discontinue the sale of our offerings if re-engineering could not be accomplished on a timely basis. Although we monitor our use of open source software to avoid subjecting our offerings to unintended conditions, there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a way that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our offerings. We cannot guarantee that we have incorporated open source software in our software in a manner that will not subject us to liability or in a manner that is consistent with our current policies and procedures.
General Risk Factors
Our Class A common stock price may be volatile or may decline regardless of our operating performance. You may lose some or all of your investment.
The trading price of our Class A common stock is likely to be volatile. The stock market recently has experienced extreme volatility. This volatility often has been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of particular companies. You may not be able to resell your shares at an attractive price due to several of factors such as those listed in this section and the following:
the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our financial condition and the results of operations;
our operating and financial performance and prospects;
our quarterly or annual earnings or those of other companies in our industry compared to market expectations;
conditions that impact demand for our products;
future announcements concerning our business, our customers’ businesses, or our competitors’ businesses;
the public’s reaction to our press releases, other public announcements, and filings with the SEC;
the size of our public float;
coverage by or changes in financial estimates by securities analysts or failure to meet their expectations;
market and industry perception of our success, or lack thereof, in pursuing our growth strategy;
strategic actions by us or our competitors, such as acquisitions or restructurings;
changes in laws or regulations which adversely affect our industry or us;
changes in accounting standards, policies, guidance, interpretations or principles;
changes in senior management or key personnel;
issuances, exchanges or sales, or expected issuances, exchanges, or sales of our capital stock;
changes in our dividend policy;
adverse resolution of new or pending litigation against us; and
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changes in general market, economic and political conditions in the United States and global economies or financial markets, including those resulting from natural disasters, terrorist attacks, acts of war and responses to such events.
These broad market and industry factors may materially reduce the market price of our Class A common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In addition, price volatility may be greater if the public float and trading volume of our Class A common stock is low. As a result, you may suffer a loss on your investment.
In the past, following periods of market volatility, stockholders have instituted securities class action litigation. Securities litigation has the potential to create substantial costs and divert resources and the attention of executive management regardless of the outcome of such litigation.
If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about us, or if they issue unfavorable commentary about us or our industry or downgrade our Class A common stock, the price of our Class A common stock could decline.
The trading market for our Class A common stock depends, in part, on the research and reports that third-party securities analysts publish about us and the industries in which we operate. We may be unable or slow to attract research coverage and if one or more analysts cease coverage of us, the price and trading volume of our securities would likely be negatively impacted. If any of the analysts that may cover us change their recommendation regarding our Class A common stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, the price of our Class A common stock would likely decline. If any analyst that may cover us ceases covering us or fails to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause the price or trading volume of our Class A common stock to decline. Moreover, if one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrades our Class A common stock, or if our reporting results do not meet their expectations, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline.
The obligations associated with being a public company involve significant expenses and require significant resources and management attention, which may divert from our business operations.
We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Exchange Act requires that we file annual, quarterly, and current reports with respect to our business and financial condition. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we establish and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting. Now that we have ceased to be an “emerging growth company” an attestation report on internal control over financial reporting is required to be issued by our independent registered public accounting firm. As a result, we have incurred, and will continue to incur, increased legal, accounting, and other expenses. Our entire management team and many of our other employees will continue to devote substantial time to compliance and may not effectively or efficiently manage our transition into a public company.
In addition, the need to establish the corporate infrastructure demanded of a public company may also divert management’s attention from implementing our business strategy, which could prevent us from improving our business, results of operations and financial condition. We have made, and will continue to make, changes to our internal control over financial reporting, including IT controls, and procedures for financial reporting and accounting systems to meet our reporting obligations as a public company. However, the measures we take may not be sufficient to satisfy our obligations as a public company. If we do not continue to develop and implement the right processes and tools to manage our changing enterprise and maintain our culture, our ability to compete successfully and achieve our business objectives could be impaired, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, we cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur to comply with these requirements.
These rules and regulations result in our incurring legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. For example, we expect these rules and regulations to make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified people to serve on our board of directors, our board committees, or as executive officers.
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As a public reporting company, we will be subject to rules and regulations established from time to time by the SEC regarding our internal control over financial reporting. If we fail to establish and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or report them in a timely manner.
We are subject to the rules and regulations established from time to time by the SEC and the NYSE. These rules and regulations require, among other things that we establish and periodically evaluate procedures with respect to our internal control over financial reporting. Reporting obligations as a public company are likely to place a considerable strain on our financial and management systems, processes, and controls, as well as on our personnel.
In addition, as a public company, we are required to document and test our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act so that our management can certify as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023. Our internal controls over financial reporting currently do not meet all of the standards contemplated by Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and failure to achieve and maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could impair our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations and have a material adverse effect on our business.
We are required to maintain internal control over financial reporting and to report any material weaknesses in these controls. The process of designing and implementing effective internal controls is a continuous effort that will require us to anticipate and react to changes in our business and the economic and regulatory environments and to expend significant resources to maintain a system of internal controls that is adequate to satisfy our reporting obligations as a public company. If we are unable to establish or maintain appropriate internal financial reporting controls and procedures, it could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations on a timely basis or result in material misstatements in our consolidated financial statements, which could harm our operating results. In addition, we will be required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. This assessment will need to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. The rules governing the standards that must be met for our management to assess our internal control over financial reporting are complex and require significant documentation, testing, and possible remediation. Testing and maintaining internal controls may divert management’s attention from other matters that are important to our business. Our independent registered public accounting firm will be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting on an annual basis.
In addition to our results determined in accordance with GAAP, we believe certain non-GAAP measures may be useful in evaluating our operating performance. We present certain non-GAAP financial measures in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and intend to continue to present certain non-GAAP financial measures in future filings with the SEC and other public statements. Any failure to accurately report and present our non-GAAP financial measures could cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information, which would likely have a negative effect on the trading price of our Class A common stock.
Matters impacting our internal controls may cause us to be unable to report our financial information on a timely basis and thereby subject us to adverse regulatory consequences, including sanctions by the SEC or violations of applicable NYSE listing rules, which may result in a breach of the covenants under existing or future financing arrangements. There also could be a negative reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of investor confidence in us and the reliability of our financial statements. Confidence in the reliability of our financial statements also could suffer if we or our independent registered public accounting firm continue to report a material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting. This could materially adversely affect us and lead to a decline in the market price of our Class A common stock.
As of December 31, 2023, our management and auditors determined that material weaknesses existed in our internal control over financial reporting due to the fact that we had not fully integrated our acquired subsidiaries into our control structure, and with our limited accounting department personnel, this may not be achievable. A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim consolidated financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. While we have instituted plans to remediate the issue described above and continue to take remediation steps, including hiring additional personnel, including a vice
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president of accounting with public company experience, we continued to have a limited number of personnel with the level of GAAP accounting knowledge, specifically related to complex accounting transactions, commensurate with our financial reporting requirements.
Although we believe the hiring of additional accounting resources, implementation of additional reviews and processes requiring timely account reconciliations and analysis and implementation of processes and controls to better identify and manage segregation of duties will remediate the material weakness with respect to insufficient personnel, there can be no assurance that the material weakness will be remediated on a timely basis or at all, or that additional material weaknesses will not be identified in the future. If we are unable to remediate the material weakness, our ability to record, process, and report financial information accurately, and to prepare financial statements within the time periods specified by the rules and forms of the SEC, could be adversely affected which, in turn, may adversely affect our reputation and business and the market price of our Class A common stock.
We are, and have been in the recent past, subject to litigation.
We are currently, and have been in the recent past, subject to litigation, and we could be subject to further litigation in the future. Although we vigorously pursue favorable outcomes, we can provide no assurance as to the outcome of any current or future lawsuits or allegations, and any such actions may result in judgments against us for significant damages. Resolution of any such matters can be prolonged and costly, and the ultimate results or judgments are uncertain due to the inherent uncertainty in litigation and other proceedings. In addition, the additive manufacturing industry has been, and may continue to be, litigious, particularly with respect to intellectual property claims. Moreover, our potential liabilities are subject to change over time due to new developments, changes in settlement strategy or the impact of evidentiary requirements. Regardless of the outcome, litigation has resulted in the past, and may result in the future, in significant legal expenses and require significant attention and resources of management. As a result, any present or future litigation that may be brought against us by any third party could result in losses, damages and expenses that have a significant adverse effect on our financial condition.
We do not intend to pay dividends on our Class A common stock for the foreseeable future.
We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings to fund the development and growth of our business. As a result, we do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends on our Class A common stock in the foreseeable future. Any decision to declare and pay dividends in the future will be made at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on, among other things, our business prospects, results of operations, financial condition, cash requirements and availability, certain restrictions related to our indebtedness, industry trends and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant. Any such decision will also be subject to compliance with contractual restrictions and covenants in the agreements governing our current and future indebtedness. In addition, we may incur additional indebtedness, the terms of which may further restrict or prevent us from paying dividends on our Class A common stock. As a result, you may have to sell some or all of your Class A common stock after price appreciation in order to generate cash flow from your investment, which you may not be able to do. Our inability or decision not to pay dividends, particularly when others in our industry have elected to do so, could also adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock.
