Item 1A. Risk Factors
Our operations and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties including those described below. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, also may become important factors that affect us. If any of the following risks or others not specified below materialize, our business, financial condition, and operating results could be materially adversely affected, and the market price of our common stock could decline. In addition, the impacts of any worsening of the economic environment may exacerbate the risks described below, any of which could have a material impact on us.
Risk Factor Summary
Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. These risks include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Our operating results may be adversely affected by unfavorable economic and market conditions and the uncertain geopolitical environment.
• Our business and operations have experienced growth in recent periods, and if we do not effectively manage any future growth or are unable to improve our systems, processes, and controls, our operating results could be adversely affected.
• Our revenue growth rate in recent periods may not be indicative of our future performance, and we may not be able to maintain profitability, which could cause our business, financial condition, and operating results to suffer.
• Our operating results may vary significantly from period to period, which makes our results difficult to predict and could cause our results to fall short of expectations, and such results may not be indicative of future performance.
• Seasonality may cause fluctuations in our revenue.
• If we are unable to sell new and additional product, subscription, and support offerings to our end-customers, especially to large enterprise customers, our future revenue and operating results will be harmed.
• If we are unable to attract new customers, our future results of operations could be harmed.
• We rely on revenue from subscription and support offerings, and because we recognize revenue from subscription and support over the term of the relevant service period, downturns or upturns in sales or renewals of these subscription and support offerings are not immediately reflected in full in our operating results.
• The sales prices of our products, subscriptions, and support offerings may decrease, which may reduce our revenue and gross profits and adversely impact our financial results.
• We rely on our channel partners to sell substantially all of our products, including subscriptions and support, and if these channel partners fail to perform, our ability to sell and distribute our products and subscriptions will be limited and our operating results will be harmed.
• We are exposed to the credit and liquidity risk of our customers, and to credit exposure in weakened markets, which could result in material losses.
• A portion of our revenue is generated by sales to government entities, which are subject to a number of challenges and risks.
• We face intense competition in our market and we may lack sufficient financial or other resources to maintain or improve our competitive position.
• We have and may in the future acquire other businesses (including CyberArk), which could subject us to adverse claims or liabilities, require significant management attention, disrupt our business, adversely affect our operating results, may not result in the expected benefits of such acquisitions, and may dilute stockholder value.
• We may not complete the acquisition of CyberArk within the timeframe we anticipate or at all, which could negatively impact our future business and financial results.
• As a result of the CyberArk acquisition, we anticipate that the scope and size of our business will substantially change and result in certain incremental risks, including increased competition.
• If we do not accurately predict, prepare for, and respond promptly to rapidly evolving technological and market developments and successfully manage product and subscription introductions and transitions to meet changing end-customer needs in the enterprise security industry, our competitive position and prospects will be harmed.
• Issues in the development and deployment of AI may result in reputational harm and legal liability and could adversely affect our results of operations.
• A network or data security incident may allow unauthorized access to our network or data, harm our reputation, create additional liability, and adversely impact our financial results.
• Defects, errors, or vulnerabilities in our products, subscriptions, or support offerings, the failure of our products or subscriptions to block a virus or prevent a security breach or incident, misuse of our products, or risks of product liability claims could harm our reputation and adversely impact our operating results.
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• Our ability to sell our products and subscriptions is dependent on the quality of our technical support services and those of our channel partners, and the failure to offer high-quality technical support services could have a material adverse effect on our end-customers’ satisfaction with our products and subscriptions, our sales, and our operating results.
• Claims by others that we infringe their intellectual property rights could harm our business.
• Our proprietary rights may be difficult to enforce or protect, which could enable others to copy or use aspects of our products or subscriptions without compensating us.
• Our use of open source software in our products and subscriptions could negatively affect our ability to sell our products and subscriptions and subject us to possible litigation.
• We license technology from third parties, and our inability to maintain those licenses could harm our business.
• Because we depend on manufacturing partners to build and ship our hardware products, we are susceptible to manufacturing and logistics delays and pricing fluctuations that could prevent us from shipping customer orders on time, if at all, or on a cost-effective basis, which may result in the loss of sales and end-customers.
• Managing the supply of our hardware products and product components is complex. Insufficient supply and inventory would result in lost sales opportunities or delayed revenue, while excess inventory would harm our gross margins.
• Our hardware products contain key components from limited sources of supply, including outside the United States, and we are susceptible to supply shortages, supply changes, and international regulations, which, in certain cases, have disrupted or delayed our scheduled product deliveries to our end-customers, increased our costs and may result in the loss of sales and end-customers.
• If we are unable to attract, retain, and motivate our key technical, sales, and management personnel, our business could suffer.
• We generate a significant amount of revenue from sales to distributors, resellers, and end-customers outside of the United States, and we are therefore subject to a number of risks associated with international sales and operations.
• We are exposed to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, which could negatively affect our financial condition and operating results.
• We face risks associated with having operations and employees located in Israel.
• We are subject to international trade regulations and governmental export and import controls that could subject us to liability or impair our ability to compete in international markets.
• We may incur increased costs to comply with privacy and data protection laws and, if we fail to comply, we could be subject to government enforcement actions, private litigation and adverse publicity.
• We may have exposure to tax liabilities that are greater than anticipated.
• If our estimates or judgments, including those relating to our critical accounting policies, are based on assumptions that change or prove to be incorrect, our operating results differ from our publicly announced guidance or the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the market price of our common stock.
• We are obligated to maintain proper and effective internal control over financial reporting. We may not complete our analysis of our internal control over financial reporting in a timely manner, or our internal control may not be determined to be effective, which may adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our common stock.
• Our reputation and/or business could be negatively impacted by corporate responsibility matters and/or our reporting of such matters.
• Failure to comply with governmental laws and regulations could harm our business.
• The market price of our common stock historically has been volatile, and the value of an investment in our common stock could decline.
• The warrant transactions may affect the value of our common stock.
• The issuance of additional stock in connection with financings, acquisitions, investments, our stock incentive plans, exercise of the 2025 Warrants, or otherwise will dilute stock held by all other stockholders.
• We cannot guarantee that our share repurchase program will be fully consummated or that it will enhance shareholder value, and share repurchases could affect the price of our common stock.
• We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
• Our charter documents and Delaware law could discourage takeover attempts and lead to management entrenchment, which could also reduce the market price of our common stock.
• Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, power outages, floods, health risks, and other catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems, such as terrorism.
• Our failure to raise additional capital or generate the significant capital necessary to expand our operations and invest in new products and subscriptions could reduce our ability to compete and could harm our business.
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Risks Related to Global Economic and Geopolitical Conditions
Our operating results may be adversely affected by unfavorable economic and market conditions and the uncertain geopolitical environment.
We operate globally, and as a result, our business and revenues are impacted by global economic and geopolitical conditions. The instability in the global credit markets, inflation, changes in public policies such as domestic and international legislation or regulations, changes in enforcement and administration policies, taxes, any increases in interest rates, fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, or international trade agreements, international trade disputes, trade regulations, tariffs and changes in tariffs, geopolitical turmoil, and other disruptions to global and regional economies and markets continue to add uncertainty to global economic conditions. Military actions or armed conflict, including the hostilities in Israel and the surrounding region, the Russia-Ukraine war and any related political or economic responses and counter-responses, and uncertainty about, or changes in, government and trade relationships, policies, and treaties could also lead to worsening economic and market conditions and geopolitical environment. In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States, along with the European Union (the “E.U.”) has imposed restrictive sanctions on Russia, Russian entities, and Russian citizens (“Sanctions on Russia”). We are subject to these governmental sanctions and export controls, which may subject us to liability if we are not in full compliance with applicable laws. Any continued or further uncertainty, or in economic and market conditions or the geopolitical environment could have a material and impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations, including reductions in sales of our products and subscriptions, longer sales cycles, reductions in subscription or contract duration and value, adoption of new technologies, alterations in the spending patterns or priorities of current and prospective customers (including purchasing decisions), increased costs for the chips and components to manufacture our products, and increased price competition.
Risks Related to Our Business
RISKS RELATED TO OUR GROWTH
Our business and operations have experienced growth in recent periods, and if we do not effectively manage any future growth or are unable to improve our systems, processes, and controls, our operating results could be adversely affected.
We have experienced growth and increased demand for our products and subscriptions over the last few years. As a result, our employee headcount has increased, and we expect it to continue to grow over the next year. For example, from the end of fiscal 2024 to the end of fiscal 2025, our headcount increased from 15,289 to 16,068 employees. In addition, as we have grown, the number of end-customers has also increased, and we have managed more complex deployments of our products and subscriptions with larger end-customers. The growth and expansion of our business and product, subscription, and support offerings places a significant strain on our management, operational, and financial resources. To manage any future growth effectively, we must continue to improve and expand our information technology and financial infrastructure, our operating and administrative systems and controls, and our ability to manage headcount, capital, and processes in an efficient manner.
We may not be able to successfully implement, scale, or manage improvements to our systems, processes, and controls in an efficient or timely manner, which could result in material disruptions of our operations and business. In addition, our existing systems, processes, and controls may not prevent or detect all errors, omissions, or fraud. We may also experience difficulties in managing improvements to our systems, processes, and controls, or in connection with third-party software licensed to help us with such improvements. Any future growth would add complexity to our organization and require effective coordination throughout our organization. Failure to manage any future growth effectively could result in increased costs, disrupt our existing end-customer relationships, reduce demand for or limit us to smaller deployments of our products, or materially our business performance and operating results.
Our revenue growth rate in recent periods may not be indicative of our future performance, and we may not be able to maintain profitability, which could cause our business, financial condition, and operating results to suffer.
We have experienced revenue growth rates of 14.9% and 16.5% in fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2024, respectively. Our revenue for any quarterly or annual period should not be relied upon as an indication of our future revenue or revenue growth for any future period. If we are unable to maintain consistent or increasing revenue or revenue growth, the market price of our common stock could be volatile, and it may be difficult for us to maintain profitability or maintain or increase cash flow on a consistent basis.
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In addition, we have incurred losses in fiscal years prior to fiscal 2023. We anticipate that our operating expenses will continue to increase in the foreseeable future as we continue to grow our business. Our growth efforts may prove more expensive than we currently anticipate, and we may not succeed in increasing our revenues sufficiently, or at all, to offset increasing expenses. Revenue growth may slow or revenue may decline for a number of possible reasons, including slowing demand for our products or subscriptions, increasing competition, a decrease in the growth of, or a demand shift in, our overall market, or a failure to capitalize on growth opportunities. We have also entered into a substantial amount of capital commitments for operating lease obligations and other purchase commitments. Any failure to increase our revenue as we grow our business could prevent us from maintaining profitability or maintaining or increasing cash flow on a consistent basis, or satisfying our capital commitments. If we are to navigate these as we encounter them, our business, financial condition, and operating results may .
Our operating results may vary significantly from period to period, which makes our results difficult to predict and could cause our results to fall short of expectations, and such results may not be indicative of future performance.
Our operating results have fluctuated in the past, and will likely continue to fluctuate in the future, as a result of a number of factors, many of which are outside of our control and may be difficult to predict, including those factors described in this Risk Factor section. For example, we have historically received a substantial portion of sales orders and generated a substantial portion of revenue during the last few weeks of each fiscal quarter. If expected revenue at the end of any fiscal quarter is delayed for any reason, including the failure of anticipated purchase orders to materialize (particularly for large enterprise end-customers with lengthy sales cycles), our logistics partners’ inability to ship products prior to fiscal quarter-end to fulfill purchase orders received near the end of a fiscal quarter, our failure to manage inventory to meet demand, any failure of our systems related to order review and processing, or any delays in shipments based on trade compliance requirements (including new compliance requirements imposed by new or renegotiated trade agreements), our revenue could fall below our expectations and the estimates of analysts for that quarter. Due to these fluctuations, comparing our revenue, margins, or other operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful, and our past results should not be relied on as an indication of our future performance.
This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failure to meet our revenue, margin, or other operating result expectations contained in any forward-looking statements (including financial or business expectations we have provided) or those of securities analysts or investors for a particular period. If we fail to meet or exceed such expectations for these, or any other, reasons, the market price of our common stock could fall substantially, and we could face costly lawsuits, including securities class action suits.
Seasonality may cause fluctuations in our revenue.
We believe there are significant seasonal factors that may cause our second and fourth fiscal quarters to record greater revenue sequentially than our first and third fiscal quarters. We believe that this seasonality results from a number of factors, including:
• end-customers with a December 31 fiscal year-end choosing to spend remaining unused portions of their discretionary budgets before their fiscal year-end, which potentially results in a positive impact on our revenue in our second fiscal quarter;
• our sales compensation plans, which are typically structured around annual quotas and commission rate accelerators, which potentially results in a positive impact on our revenue in our fourth fiscal quarter; and
• the timing of end-customer budget planning at the beginning of the calendar year, which can result in a delay in spending at the beginning of the calendar year, potentially resulting in a negative impact on our revenue in our third fiscal quarter.
As we continue to grow, seasonal or cyclical variations in our operations may become more pronounced, and our business, operating results, and financial position may be adversely affected.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGY
If we are unable to sell new and additional product, subscription, and support offerings to our end-customers, especially to large enterprise customers, our future revenue and operating results will be harmed.
Our future success depends, in part, on our ability to expand the deployment of our portfolio with existing end-customers, especially large enterprise customers, including through our platformization strategy, and create demand for our new offerings. The rate at which our end-customers purchase additional products, subscriptions, and support depends on a number of factors, including the perceived need for additional security products, including subscription and support offerings, as well as general economic conditions. If our efforts to sell additional products and subscriptions to our end-customers are not successful, our revenues may grow more slowly than expected or decline.
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Sales to large enterprise end-customers, which is part of our growth strategy, involve risks that may not be present, or that are present to a lesser extent, with sales to smaller entities, such as (a) longer sales cycles and the associated risk that substantial time and resources may be spent on a potential end-customer that elects not to purchase our products, subscriptions, and support, and (b) increased purchasing power and leverage held by large end-customers in negotiating contractual arrangements. Deployments for large enterprise end-customers are also more complex, require greater product functionality, scalability, and a broader range of services, and are more time-consuming and resource-consuming. All of these factors add further risk to business conducted with these end-customers. Failure to realize sales from large enterprise end-customers could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
If we are unable to attract new customers, our future results of operations could be harmed.
To increase our revenue and maintain profitability, we must add new customers. To do so, we must successfully convince prospective customers of the value of adopting our solutions. We are engaging in costly marketing and sales efforts to accelerate our strategies, including platformization, and attract new customers, which may fail or may not be as successful as intended or at all. Additionally, prospective customers’ decisions to purchase our solutions depend on a variety of factors, many of which are out of our control. These factors significantly impact our ability to add new customers and increase the time, resources and sophistication required to do so. For example, prospective customers may face real or perceived switching costs when switching to our solutions from legacy security vendors and products. Deployment of our solutions may require a significant commitment of resources from our customers. Any deterioration in general economic conditions, including as a result of the geopolitical environment or inflation (as well as government policies such as raising interest rates in response to inflation), have in the past caused, and may in the future cause, our current and prospective customers to delay or their overall security and IT operations spending. If our efforts to attract new customers are not , our sales may not grow as quickly as anticipated, or at all, and our business, operating results, and financial condition will be .
We rely on revenue from subscription and support offerings, and because we recognize revenue from subscription and support over the term of the relevant service period, downturns or upturns in sales or renewals of these subscription and support offerings are not immediately reflected in full in our operating results.
Subscription and support revenue accounts for a significant portion of our revenue, comprising 80.5% of total revenue in fiscal 2025, 80.0% of total revenue in fiscal 2024, and 77.1% of total revenue in fiscal 2023. Sales and renewals of subscription and support contracts may decline and fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including end-customers’ level of satisfaction with our products and subscriptions, the frequency and severity of subscription outages, our product uptime or latency, the prices of our products and subscriptions, and reductions in our end-customers’ spending levels. Existing end-customers have no contractual obligation to, and may not, renew their subscription and support contracts after the completion of their initial contract period. Additionally, our end-customers may renew their subscription and support agreements for shorter contract lengths or on other terms that are less economically beneficial to us. If our sales of new or renewal subscription and support contracts decline, our total revenue and revenue growth rate may decline, and our business will suffer. In addition, because we recognize subscription and support revenue over the term of the relevant service period, which is typically one to five years, a in subscription or support contracts in any one fiscal quarter will not be fully or immediately reflected in revenue in that fiscal quarter but will affect our revenue in future fiscal quarters.
The sales prices of our products, subscriptions, and support offerings may decrease, which may reduce our revenue and gross profits and adversely impact our financial results.
The sales prices for our products, subscriptions, and support offerings may decline for a variety of reasons, including competitive pricing pressures, discounts, a change in our mix of products, subscriptions, and support offerings, anticipation of the introduction of new products, subscriptions, or support offerings, or promotional programs or pricing pressures. Furthermore, we anticipate that the sales prices and gross profits for our products could decrease over product life cycles. Declining sales prices could adversely affect our revenue, gross profits, and profitability.
We rely on our channel partners to sell substantially all of our products, including subscriptions and support, and if these channel partners fail to perform, our ability to sell and distribute our products and subscriptions will be limited and our operating results will be harmed.
Substantially all of our revenue is generated by sales through our channel partners, including distributors and resellers. For fiscal 2025, three distributors individually represented 10% or more of our total revenue and in the aggregate represented 44.2% of our total revenue. As of July 31, 2025, three distributors individually represented 10% or more of our gross accounts receivable and in the aggregate represented 44.8% of our gross accounts receivable.
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We provide our channel partners with specific training and programs to assist them in selling our products, including subscriptions and support offerings, but there can be no assurance that these steps will be utilized or effective. In addition, our channel partners may be unsuccessful in marketing, selling, and supporting our products and subscriptions. We may not be able to incentivize these channel partners to sell our products and subscriptions to end-customers and, in particular, to large enterprises. These channel partners may also have incentives to promote our competitors’ products and may devote more resources to the marketing, sales, and support of competitive products. Our agreements with our channel partners may generally be terminated for any reason by either party with advance notice prior to each annual renewal date. We cannot be certain that we will retain these channel partners or that we will be able to secure additional or replacement channel partners. In addition, any new channel partner requires extensive training and may take several months or more to achieve productivity. Our channel partner sales structure could subject us to lawsuits, potential liability, and reputational harm if, for example, any of our channel partners the functionality of our products or subscriptions to end-customers or laws or our corporate policies. If we to effectively manage our sales channels or channel partners, our ability to sell our products and subscriptions and operating results will be .
We are exposed to the credit and liquidity risk of our customers, and to credit exposure in weakened markets, which could result in material losses.
Most of our sales are made on an open credit basis. Beyond our open credit arrangements, we have also experienced demands for customer financing and deferred payments due to, among other things, macro-economic conditions. Increases in deferred payments result in payments being made over time, negatively impacting our short-term cash flows, and subject us to risk of non-payment by our customers, including as a result of insolvency. We monitor customer payment capability in granting such financing arrangements, seek to limit the amounts to what we believe customers can pay and maintain reserves we believe are adequate to cover exposure for doubtful accounts to mitigate credit risks of these customers. However, there can be no assurance that these programs will be effective in reducing our credit risks. To the degree that turmoil in the credit markets makes it more difficult for some customers to obtain financing, those customers’ ability to pay could be adversely impacted, which in turn could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Our exposure to the credit risks relating to the financing activities described above may increase if our customers are adversely affected by a global economic downturn or periods of economic uncertainty. If we are unable to adequately control these risks, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be harmed. In addition, in the past, we have experienced non-material losses due to bankruptcies among customers. If these losses increase due to global economic conditions, they could harm our business and financial condition.
A portion of our revenue is generated by sales to government entities, which are subject to a number of challenges and risks.
Sales to government entities are subject to a number of risks. Selling to government entities can be highly competitive, expensive, and time-consuming, often requiring significant upfront time and expense without any assurance that these efforts will generate a sale. The substantial majority of our sales to date to government entities have been made indirectly through our channel partners. Government certification or technical requirements for products and subscriptions like ours may change, thereby restricting our ability to sell into the federal government sector until we have attained the revised certification or technical requirements. If our products and subscriptions are late in achieving or fail to achieve compliance with these certifications and standards or technical requirements, or our competitors achieve compliance with these certifications and standards or technical requirements, we may be disqualified from selling our products, subscriptions, and support offerings to such governmental entity, or be at a competitive disadvantage, which would harm our business, operating results, and financial condition. Government entity demand and payment for our products, subscriptions, and support offerings may be impacted by government , changes in governmental administrations, public sector budgetary cycles, fiscal policies, contracting policies or requirements, funding authorizations, and efforts by a government to evaluate and reduce overall government spending and analyze and its operational , with funding reductions or affecting public sector demand for our products, subscriptions, and support offerings. Government entities may have statutory, contractual, or other legal rights to contracts with our distributors and resellers for convenience or due to a , and any such may impact our future operating results. Governments routinely and audit government contractors’ administrative processes, and any audit could result in the government to continue buying our products, subscriptions, and support offerings, a reduction of revenue, or or civil or liability if the audit or activities, which could impact our operating results in a material way. Additionally, the U.S. government may require certain of the products that it purchases to be manufactured in the United States or other relatively high-cost manufacturing locations, and we may not manufacture all products in locations that meet such requirements, affecting our ability to sell these products, subscriptions, and support offerings to the U.S. government.
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We face intense competition in our market and we may lack sufficient financial or other resources to maintain or improve our competitive position.
The industry for enterprise security products is intensely competitive, and we expect competition to increase in the future from established competitors and new market entrants. Our main competitors fall into four categories:
• large companies that incorporate security features in their products, such as Cisco, Microsoft, Alphabet or those that have acquired, or may acquire, security vendors and have the technical and financial resources to bring competitive solutions to the market;
• independent security vendors, such as Check Point, Fortinet, CrowdStrike, Zscaler, and Wiz, that offer a mix of security products;
• startups and point-product vendors that offer independent or emerging solutions across various areas of security; and
• public cloud vendors and startups that offer solutions for cloud security (private, public, and hybrid cloud).
Some of our competitors have or may attain greater financial, technical, marketing, sales, and other resources, greater name recognition, longer operating histories, and a larger base of customers than we do. They may be able to devote greater resources to the promotion and sale of products and services than we can, and they may offer lower pricing than we do. Further, they may have greater resources for research and development of new technologies, the provision of customer support, and the pursuit of acquisitions or other strategic investments. They may also have larger and more mature intellectual property portfolios, and broader and more diverse product and service offerings, which allow them to leverage their relationships based on other products or incorporate functionality into existing products to gain business in a manner that discourages users from purchasing our products and subscriptions, including incorporating cybersecurity features into their existing products or services and product bundling, selling at zero or negative margins, and offering concessions or a technology offering. Some competitors may have broader distribution and established relationships with distribution partners and end-customers. Other competitors specialize in providing protection from a single type of security , which may allow them to deliver these specialized security products to the market more quickly than we can.
We also face competition from companies that have entrenched legacy offerings at end-user customers. End-user customers have also often invested substantial personnel and financial resources to design and operate their networks and have established deep relationships with other providers of networking and security products. As a result, these organizations may prefer to purchase from their existing suppliers rather than add or switch to a new supplier such as us. In addition, as our customers refresh the security products bought in prior years, they may seek to consolidate vendors, which may result in current customers choosing to purchase products from our competitors. Due to budget constraints or economic downturns, organizations may add solutions to their existing network security infrastructure rather than replacing it with our products and subscriptions.
Conditions in our market could change rapidly and significantly as a result of technological advancements, partnering, acquisitions or strategic investments by our competitors, or continuing market consolidation. Our competitors and potential competitors may be able to develop new or disruptive technologies, products, or services, and leverage new business models that are equal or superior to ours, achieve greater market acceptance of their products and services, disrupt our markets, and increase sales by utilizing different distribution channels than we do. In addition, new and enhanced technologies, including AI and machine learning, continue to increase our competition. To compete successfully, we must accurately anticipate technology developments and deliver innovative, relevant, and useful products, services, and technologies in a timely manner. Some of our competitors have made or could make acquisitions of businesses that may allow them to offer more directly competitive and comprehensive solutions than they had previously offered and adapt more quickly to new technologies and end-customer needs. Our current and potential competitors may also establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties that may further their resources or product or service offerings.
These competitive pressures in our market or our failure to compete effectively may result in price reductions, fewer orders, reduced revenue and gross margins, and loss of market share. If we are unable to compete successfully, or if competing successfully requires us to take aggressive pricing or other actions, our business, financial condition, and results of operations would be adversely affected.
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We have and may in the future acquire other businesses (including CyberArk), which could subject us to adverse claims or liabilities, require significant management attention, disrupt our business, adversely affect our operating results, may not result in the expected benefits of such acquisitions, and may dilute stockholder value.
As part of our business strategy, we acquire and make investments in complementary companies, products, or technologies. We continue to evaluate such opportunities and expect to continue to make such acquisitions and investments in the future, such as our pending acquisition of CyberArk Software Ltd. (“CyberArk”). The identification of suitable acquisition candidates is difficult, and we may not be able to complete such acquisitions on favorable terms, if at all. In addition, we may be subject to claims or liabilities assumed from an acquired company, product, or technology; acquisitions we complete could be viewed negatively by our end-customers, investors, and securities analysts; and we may incur costs and expenses necessary to address an acquired company’s failure to comply with laws and governmental rules and regulations. Additionally, we may be subject to litigation or other claims in connection with the acquired company, product, or technology, including claims from terminated employees, customers, former stockholders, or other third parties, which may differ from or be more significant than the risks our business faces.
If we are unsuccessful at integrating past or future acquisitions, including the pending acquisition of CyberArk, in a timely manner, or the technologies, products, or operations associated with such acquisitions, into our company, our revenue and operating results could be adversely affected. Any integration process may require significant time and resources, which may disrupt our ongoing business and divert management’s attention, and we may not be able to manage the integration process successfully or in a timely manner. We may have difficulty retaining key personnel or customers of the acquired business. We may not successfully evaluate or utilize any acquired technology, products, or personnel, realize anticipated synergies from an acquisition, or accurately forecast the financial impact of an acquisition transaction and integration of such acquisition, including accounting charges and any potential impairment of goodwill and intangible assets recognized in connection with such acquisitions. In particular, we believe that there are significant benefits and synergies that may be realized from our proposed acquisition of CyberArk, including through leveraging our and CyberArk’s products, scale, and combined enterprise customer bases. However, the efforts to realize the anticipated benefits and synergies will be a complex process and may both our and CyberArk’s existing operations if not implemented in a timely and manner. The full benefits of the proposed acquisition of CyberArk, including the anticipated sales or growth , may not be realized as expected or may not be within the anticipated time frame, or at all.
We have recorded, and may in the future record, liability for contingent consideration obligations from acquisitions that are to be settled in cash, the fair value of which is assessed on a quarterly basis. If changes are made in our assumptions used to determine the liability’s fair value or our assumptions are incorrect, adjustments could be made that may have a material impact, favorable or unfavorable, on our operating results. We may also be required to make cash payments of contingent consideration in excess of its initial fair value, or in excess of our expectations for a particular period, which could adversely impact cash flows.
We may have to pay cash, incur debt, or issue equity or equity-linked securities to pay for any future acquisitions, including the pending acquisition of CyberArk, each of which could adversely affect our financial condition or the market price of our common stock, and result in dilution to our stockholders. Furthermore, the sale or issuance of equity or equity-linked debt to finance any future acquisitions could result in dilution to our stockholders.
In addition, any acquisitions may be viewed negatively by our customers, financial markets, or investors and may not ultimately strengthen our competitive position or achieve our goals and business strategy. The occurrence of any of these risks could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.
We may not complete the acquisition of CyberArk within the timeframe we anticipate or at all, which could negatively impact our future business and financial results .
The completion of the acquisition of CyberArk is subject to a number of conditions, including, among others:
• the effectiveness of a registration statement on Form S-4 to be filed by us registering the shares of our common stock to be issued to CyberArk shareholders as consideration in the acquisition and the absence of any stop order or proceedings seeking a stop order;
• the approval for listing on Nasdaq of our shares of common stock to be issued in connection with the proposed acquisition;
• obtaining the requisite CyberArk shareholder approval in connection with the proposed acquisition;
• the expiration or termination of any waiting period (or extensions thereof) applicable to the acquisition under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (the “HSR Act”) and the making, approval, expiration, termination or receipt of, as applicable, all applicable filings, registrations, waiting periods (or extensions of waiting periods) and approvals under specified antitrust and foreign investment laws; and
• the absence of governmental restraints or prohibitions preventing the consummation of the proposed acquisition.
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No assurance can be given that the required CyberArk shareholder approval and governmental and regulatory consents and approvals will be obtained or that any of the required conditions to closing will be satisfied in a timely manner or at all. As a result, although it is currently anticipated that we will complete the acquisition of CyberArk during the second half of our fiscal 2026, the possible timing and likelihood of completion are uncertain. There can be no assurance that the acquisition of CyberArk will be completed in the anticipated timeframe or at all. Any delay in completing the proposed acquisition could cause the combined company not to realize, or to be delayed in realizing, some or all of the benefits and synergies that we anticipate to achieve if the proposed acquisition were to be successfully completed within its expected time frame.
In addition, the relevant governmental authorities from which approvals under specified antitrust and foreign investment laws must be obtained may impose or seek to impose conditions on the completion of the acquisition or require changes to the terms of the proposed acquisition or agreements to be entered into in connection with the CyberArk acquisition. Such conditions or changes and the process of obtaining these approvals, could have the effect of delaying or impeding completion of the CyberArk acquisition or imposing additional costs or limitations on us following the acquisition, which may have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
The failure or inability to satisfy all of the required conditions could delay the completion of the acquisition for a significant period of time or prevent it from occurring at all. In addition, under limited circumstances, we or CyberArk may elect to terminate the definitive agreement or we and CyberArk may mutually decide to terminate the definitive agreement, before or after obtaining the requisite CyberArk shareholder approval. A termination of the definitive agreement could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and reputation.
If the acquisition of CyberArk is delayed or not completed, we could be subject to a number of risks that may adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition, including, among other things:
• we may experience negative reactions from the financial markets, including negative impacts on the market price of our common stock;
• we could incur significant acquisition costs that we would be unable to recoup;
• under specified circumstances in connection with the termination of the definitive agreement, we would be required to pay CyberArk a termination fee of $1.0 billion;
• negative perception from industry contacts, business partners, and other third parties, which could impact our operations or our ability to compete for new business or obtain renewals in the marketplace more broadly; and
• reputational harm, negative publicity, negative reactions from employees, and other negative impacts resulting from delay or failure to complete the acquisition of CyberArk.
As a result of the CyberArk acquisition, we anticipate that the scope and size of our business will substantially change and result in certain incremental risks, including increased competition .
We believe that the CyberArk acquisition will expand the scope and size of our business by adding substantial assets and operations to our existing business. The anticipated future growth of our business may impose significant added responsibilities on our senior management, and our senior management’s attention may be diverted from the management of our business and its day-to-day operations to the completion and integration of the CyberArk acquisition. The CyberArk acquisition could also create uncertainty for our and CyberArk’s employees, partners, and customers, particularly during the anticipated post-acquisition integration process, and result in disruption to existing business relationships and the development of new business relationships.
Following completion of the proposed acquisition of CyberArk, our success, including with respect to realizing the anticipated benefits and synergies from the proposed acquisition, will depend, in part, on our ability to manage our expansion, which poses numerous risks and uncertainties, including the need to integrate the operations and business of CyberArk into our existing business in a timely and efficient manner, to combine systems and management controls and to integrate relationships with industry contacts and business partners. In addition, we will be required to devote significant attention and resources prior to closing to prepare for the post-closing integration and operation of the combined company, and we will be required post-closing to devote significant attention and resources to successfully align our and CyberArk’s business practices and operations. This process may disrupt our business and, if ineffective, would limit the anticipated benefits and synergies of the acquisition.
In addition, we expect that the completion of the CyberArk acquisition will result in increased competition, including, as a result of our entry into a new product category. CyberArk faces intense competition in the information security and identity security industry in which it operates, characterized by constant innovation, evolving customer requirements, and rapid adoption of different technologies and services. These added competitive pressures could result in decreased sales, price reductions, increased operating costs, and lower revenues, margins and net income for the combined company. These impacts could also result in a delay in realizing, or our failure to realize, expected synergies or cost savings from the CyberArk acquisition.
The occurrence of any of these risks could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.
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If we do not accurately predict, prepare for, and respond promptly to rapidly evolving technological and market developments and successfully manage product and subscription introductions and transitions to meet changing end-customer needs in the enterprise security industry, our competitive position and prospects will be harmed.
The enterprise security industry has grown quickly and continues to evolve rapidly. Moreover, many of our end-customers operate in markets characterized by rapidly changing technologies and business plans, which require them to add numerous network access points and adapt increasingly complex enterprise networks, incorporating a variety of hardware, software applications, operating systems, and networking protocols. If we fail to effectively anticipate, identify, and respond to rapidly evolving technological and market developments in a timely manner, our business will be harmed.
In order to anticipate and respond effectively to rapid technological changes and market developments, as well as evolving security threats, we must invest effectively in research and development to increase the reliability, availability, and scalability of our existing products and subscriptions and introduce new products and subscriptions. Our investments in research and development, including investments in AI, may not result in design or performance improvements, marketable products, subscriptions, or features, or may not achieve the cost savings or additional revenue that we expect. In addition, new and evolving products and services, including those that use AI, require significant investment and raise ethical, technological, legal, regulatory, and other challenges, which may negatively affect our brands and demand for our products and services. Because all of these investment areas are inherently risky, no assurance can be given that such strategies and offerings will be successful or will not harm our reputation, financial condition, and operating results.
In addition, we must continually change our products and expand our business strategy in response to changes in network infrastructure requirements, including the expanding use of cloud computing. For example, organizations are moving portions of their data to be managed by third parties, primarily infrastructure, platform, and application service providers, and may rely on such providers’ internal security measures. While we have historically been successful in developing, acquiring, and marketing new products and product enhancements that respond to technological change and evolving industry standards, we may not be able to continue to do so, and there can be no assurance that our new or future offerings will be successful or will achieve widespread market acceptance. If we fail to accurately predict and address end-customers’ changing needs and emerging technological trends in the enterprise security industry, including in the areas of AI, mobility, virtualization, cloud computing, and software-defined networks, our business could be harmed.
The technology in our portfolio is especially complex because it needs to effectively identify and respond to new and increasingly sophisticated methods of attack, while minimizing the impact on network performance. Additionally, some of our new features and related enhancements may require us to develop new hardware architectures that involve complex, expensive, and time-consuming research and development processes. The development of our portfolio is difficult and the timetable for commercial release and availability is uncertain as there can be long time periods between releases and availability of new features. If we experience unanticipated delays in the availability of new products, features, and subscriptions, and fail to meet customer expectations for such availability, our competitive position and business prospects will be harmed.
The success of new features depends on several factors, including appropriate new product definition, differentiation of new products, subscriptions, and features from those of our competitors, and market acceptance of these products, services, and features. Moreover, successful new product introduction and transition depends on a number of factors, including our ability to manage the risks associated with new product production ramp-up issues, the availability of application software for new products, the effective management of purchase commitments and inventory, the availability of products in appropriate quantities and costs to meet anticipated demand, and the risk that new products may have quality or other defects or deficiencies, especially in the early stages of introduction. There can be no assurance that we will successfully identify opportunities for new products and subscriptions, develop and bring new products and subscriptions to market in a timely manner, achieve market acceptance of our products and subscriptions, or that products, subscriptions, and technologies developed by others will not render our products, subscriptions, and technologies or .
Issues in the development and deployment of AI may result in reputational harm and legal liability and could adversely affect our results of operations.
We have incorporated, and are continuing to develop and deploy, AI into many of our products and solutions, including services that support our products and solutions. We are also incorporating AI into the operations of our business. AI presents challenges and risks that could affect our products and solutions, and the operations of our business. For example, AI algorithms may have flaws, and datasets used to train models may be insufficient or contain biased information. The AI that is being incorporated into our products, solutions, and business operation tools may not be successful or beneficial, and instead may cause technical, legal or ethical problems or result in increased costs. The investments that we are making across our business in AI reflect our ongoing efforts to innovate and provide products and services that are useful to our customers, as well as provide efficiencies in our business. Such investments ultimately may not be commercially viable or may not result in an adequate return of capital and we may incur unanticipated liabilities. These efforts could subject us to regulatory risk, legal liability, including under legislation regulating AI in jurisdictions such as the E.U. and laws and regulations being considered in other jurisdictions, or brand or reputational .
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The rapid evolution of AI, including potential government regulation of AI, requires us to invest significant resources to develop, test, and maintain AI in our products and services in a manner that meets evolving requirements and expectations. The rules and regulations adopted by policymakers over time may require us to make changes to our business practices. Developing, testing, and deploying AI systems may also increase the cost profile of our offerings due to the nature of the computing costs involved in such systems.
The intellectual property ownership and license rights surrounding AI technologies, as well as data protection laws related to the use and development of AI, are currently not fully addressed by courts or regulators. The use or adoption of AI technologies in our products may result in exposure to claims by third parties of copyright infringement or other intellectual property misappropriation, which may require us to pay compensation or license fees to third parties. The evolving legal, regulatory, and compliance framework for AI technologies may also impact our ability to protect our own data and intellectual property against infringing use.
A network or data security incident may allow unauthorized access to our network or data, harm our reputation, create additional liability, and adversely impact our financial results.
Increasingly, companies are subject to a wide variety of attacks on an ongoing basis. In addition to traditional computer “hackers,” malicious code (such as viruses and worms), phishing attempts, employee theft or misuse, and denial of service attacks, sophisticated nation-state and nation-state supported actors engage in intrusions and attacks (including advanced persistent threat intrusions and supply chain attacks), and add to the risks to our internal networks, cloud-deployed enterprise and customer-facing environments and the information they store and process. Incidences of cyberattacks and other cybersecurity breaches and incidents have increased and are likely to continue to increase. We and our third-party service providers face security threats and attacks from a variety of sources. Despite our efforts and processes to prevent breaches of our internal networks, systems, and websites, our data, corporate systems, and security measures, as well as those of our third-party service providers, are still to computer viruses, -ins, phishing attacks, ransomware attacks, or other types of attacks from outside parties, or due to employee , , or some combination of these. We cannot guarantee that the measures we have taken to protect our networks, systems, and websites will provide adequate security. Furthermore, as a well-known provider of security solutions, we may be a more target for such attacks. The Russia-Ukraine war and associated activities in Ukraine and Russia may increase the risk of on various types of infrastructure and operations, and the United States government has companies to be prepared for additional Russian in response to the Sanctions on Russia.
A security breach or incident, or an attack against our service availability suffered by us, or our third-party service providers, could impact our networks or networks secured by our products and subscriptions, creating system disruptions or slowdowns and exploiting security vulnerabilities of our products. In addition, the information stored or otherwise processed on our networks, or those of our third-party service providers, could be accessed, publicly disclosed, altered, lost, stolen, rendered unavailable, or otherwise used or processed without authorization, which could subject us to liability and cause us financial harm. Any actual or perceived breach of security in our systems or networks, or any other actual or perceived data security we or our third-party service providers , could result in significant to our reputation, publicity, of channel partners, end-customers, and sales, of competitive over our competitors, increased costs to remedy any and otherwise respond to any , regulatory and enforcement actions, demands, , and other liability. In addition, we may incur significant costs and operational consequences of , remediating, eliminating, and putting in place additional tools, devices, and other measures designed to prevent actual or perceived security and other security , as well as the costs to comply with any notification obligations resulting from any security . Any of these outcomes could impact the market perception of our products and subscriptions and end-customer and investor confidence in our company and could our business or operating results.
Defects, errors, or vulnerabilities in our products, subscriptions, or support offerings, the failure of our products or subscriptions to block a virus or prevent a security breach or incident, misuse of our products, or risks of product liability claims could harm our reputation and adversely impact our operating results.
Because our products and subscriptions are complex, they have contained and may contain design or manufacturing defects or errors that are not detected until after their commercial release and deployment by our end-customers. For example, from time to time, certain of our end-customers have reported defects in our products related to performance, scalability, and compatibility. Additionally, defects or vulnerabilities may cause our products or subscriptions to become partially or fully unavailable temporarily or permanently, to be vulnerable to security attacks, cause them to fail to help secure networks, or interrupt end-customers’ networking traffic, or the availability of other information technology infrastructure or systems. For example, in November 2024, we became aware of an authentication bypass vulnerability through the management web interface of certain versions of our PAN-OS software. To remediate the matter, we published a security advisory to advise customers, provided software updates for affected PAN-OS versions, and engaged in customer outreach, support and remediation efforts for potentially impacted customers. Because the techniques used by computer hackers to access or networks change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched a target, we may be to anticipate these techniques and provide a solution in time to protect our end-customers’ networks. In addition, due to the Russia-Ukraine war, there could be a significant increase in Russian our customers, resulting in an increased risk of a security of our end-customers’ systems.
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Furthermore, defects or errors in products or software, or migrations or updates to those products or software, could result in a failure to effectively update end-customers’ hardware and cloud-based products or otherwise cause problems in our customers’ hardware, networks or information technology infrastructure or systems. The data centers, networks, and cloud infrastructure that we use to deliver our products and services may experience technical failures and downtime or may fail to meet the increased requirements of a growing installed end-customer base, any of which could temporarily or permanently expose our end-customers’ networks, leaving their networks unprotected against the latest security threats. Moreover, our products must interoperate with our end-customers’ existing infrastructure, which often have varied specifications, utilize multiple protocol standards, deploy products from multiple vendors, and contain multiple generations of products that have been added over time. As a result, when occur in a network, it may be to identify the sources of these . Any such technical , or in general may temporarily or permanently disable our end-customers’ networks, information technology infrastructure or other systems, or our end-customers’ networks to attacks from security .
The occurrence of any such problem in our products and subscriptions, or migrations or updates to those products or software, whether real or perceived, could result in:
• expenditure of significant financial and product development resources in efforts to analyze, correct, eliminate, or work-around errors or defects or to address and eliminate vulnerabilities;
• loss of existing or potential end-customers or channel partners;
• delayed or lost revenue;
• delay or failure to attain market acceptance;
• an increase in warranty claims compared with our historical experience, or an increased cost of servicing warranty claims, either of which would adversely affect our gross margins; and
• litigation, regulatory inquiries, investigations, or other proceedings, each of which may be costly and harm our reputation.
Further, our products and subscriptions may be misused by end-customers or third parties that obtain access to our products and subscriptions. For example, our products and subscriptions could be used to censor private access to certain information on the Internet. Such use of our products and subscriptions for censorship could result in negative press coverage and negatively affect our reputation.
The limitation of liability provisions in our standard terms and conditions of sale may not fully or effectively protect us from claims as a result of federal, state, or local laws or ordinances, or unfavorable judicial decisions in the United States or other countries. The sale and support of our products and subscriptions also entails the risk of product liability claims. Although we may be indemnified by our third-party manufacturers for product liability claims arising out of manufacturing defects, because we control the design of our products and subscriptions, we may not be indemnified for product liability claims arising out of design defects. While we maintain insurance coverage for certain types of losses, our insurance coverage may not adequately cover any claim asserted against us, if at all. In addition, even claims that ultimately are could result in our expenditure of funds in , management’s time and other resources, and our reputation.
In addition, our classifications of application type, virus, spyware, vulnerability exploits, data, or URL categories may falsely detect, report, and act on applications, content, or threats that do not actually exist. This risk is heightened by the inclusion of a “heuristics” feature in our products and subscriptions, which attempts to identify applications and other threats not based on any known signatures but based on characteristics or anomalies which indicate that a particular item may be a threat. These false positives may impair the perceived reliability of our products and subscriptions and may therefore adversely impact market acceptance of our products and subscriptions and could result in damage to our reputation, negative publicity, loss of channel partners, end-customers and sales, increased costs to remedy any , and .
Our ability to sell our products and subscriptions is dependent on the quality of our technical support services and those of our channel partners, and the failure to offer high-quality technical support services could have a material adverse effect on our end-customers’ satisfaction with our products and subscriptions, our sales, and our operating results.
After our products and subscriptions are deployed within our end-customers’ networks, our end-customers depend on our technical support services, as well as the support of our channel partners, to resolve any issues relating to our products. Many larger enterprise, service provider, and government entity end-customers have more complex networks and require higher levels of support than smaller end-customers. If our channel partners do not effectively provide support to the satisfaction of our end-customers, we may be required to provide direct support to such end-customers, which would require us to hire additional personnel and to invest in additional resources. If we are not able to hire such resources fast enough to keep up with unexpected demand, support to our end-customers will be negatively impacted, and our end-customers’ satisfaction with our products and subscriptions will be adversely affected. Additionally, to the extent that we may need to rely on our sales engineers to provide post-sales support while we are ramping up our support resources, our sales productivity will be negatively impacted, which would our revenues. Accordingly, our , or our channel partners’ , to provide and maintain high-quality support services could have a material effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results.
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RISKS RELATED TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND TECHNOLOGY LICENSING
Claims by others that we infringe their intellectual property rights could harm our business.
Companies in the enterprise security industry own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks, domain names, and trade secrets and frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation, or other violations of intellectual property rights. In addition, non-practicing entities also frequently bring claims of infringement of intellectual property rights. Third parties are asserting, have asserted, and may in the future assert claims of infringement of intellectual property rights against us. For example, on January 31, 2024, in the Centripetal Networks, Inc. lawsuit against us, a jury returned a verdict of non-willful infringement, and, after post-trial motions, a judgment was issued in the lawsuit on October 3, 2024 assessing a lump sum damages amount of $113.6 million, plus statutory interest, which is currently on appeal. Additional examples of patent cases have been in Note 13. Commitments and Contingencies in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Third parties may also assert such claims against our end-customers or channel partners, whom our standard license and other agreements obligate us to indemnify against claims that our products and subscriptions infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties. In addition, to the extent we hire personnel from competitors, we may be subject to allegations that they have been improperly solicited, that they have divulged proprietary or other confidential information, or that their former employers own their inventions or other work product. Furthermore, we may be unaware of the intellectual property rights of others that may cover some or all of our technology, products, subscriptions, and services. As we expand our footprint, both in our platforms, products, subscriptions, and services and geographically, more overlaps occur and we may face more infringement claims both in the United States and abroad.
While we have been increasing the size of our patent portfolio, our competitors and others may now and in the future have significantly larger and more mature patent portfolios than we have. In addition, litigation has involved and will likely continue to involve patent-holding companies or other adverse patent owners who have no relevant product revenue and against whom our own patents may therefore provide little or no deterrence or protection. In addition, we have not registered our trademarks in all of our geographic markets and failure to secure those registrations could adversely affect our ability to enforce and defend our trademark rights. Any claim of infringement by a third party, even those without merit, could cause us to incur substantial costs defending against the claim, could distract our management from our business, and could require us to cease use of such intellectual property. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property , there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of . A claimant could secure a judgment, or we may agree to a settlement that us from distributing certain products or performing certain services or that requires us to pay substantial , royalties, or other fees. Any of these events could our business, financial condition, and operating results.
Our proprietary rights may be difficult to enforce or protect, which could enable others to copy or use aspects of our products or subscriptions without compensating us.
We rely and expect to continue to rely on a combination of confidentiality and license agreements with our employees, consultants, and third parties with whom we have relationships, as well as trademark, copyright, patent, and trade secret protection laws, to protect our proprietary rights. We have filed various applications for certain aspects of our intellectual property. Valid patents may not issue from our pending applications, and the claims eventually allowed on any patents may not be sufficiently broad to comprehensively protect our technology or products and subscriptions. We cannot be certain that we were the first to make the inventions claimed in our pending patent applications or that we were the first to file for patent protection, which could prevent our patent applications from issuing as patents or invalidate our patents following issuance. Additionally, the process of obtaining patent protection is expensive and time-consuming, and we may not be able to prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. Any issued patents may be challenged, invalidated or , and any rights granted under these patents may not actually provide adequate protection or competitive to us. Additional uncertainty may result from changes to patent-related laws and court rulings in the United States and other jurisdictions. As a result, we may not be to obtain adequate patent protection or effectively enforce any issued patents.
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Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our products or subscriptions or obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. We generally enter into confidentiality or license agreements with our employees, consultants, vendors, and end-customers, and generally limit access to and distribution of our proprietary information. However, we cannot be certain that we have entered into such agreements with all parties who may have or have had access to our confidential information or that the agreements we have entered into will not be breached. We cannot guarantee that any of the measures we have taken will prevent misappropriation of our technology. Because we may be an attractive target for computer hackers, we may have a greater risk of unauthorized access to, and misappropriation of, our proprietary information. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights to as great an extent as the laws of the United States, and many foreign countries do not enforce these laws as as government agencies and private parties in the United States. From time to time, we may need to take legal action to enforce our patents and other intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets, to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others, or to of or . Such could result in substantial costs and of resources and could affect our business, operating results, and financial condition. Attempts to enforce our rights third parties could also these third parties to assert their own intellectual property or other rights us or result in a holding that or narrows the scope of our rights, in whole or in part. If we are to protect our proprietary rights (including aspects of our software and products protected other than by patent rights), we may find ourselves at a competitive to others who need not incur the additional expense, time, and effort required to create the products that have us to be to date. Any of these events would have a material effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results.
Our use of open source software in our products and subscriptions could negatively affect our ability to sell our products and subscriptions and subject us to possible litigation.
Our products and subscriptions contain software modules licensed to us by third-party authors under “open source” licenses. Some open source licenses contain requirements that we make available applicable source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon the type of open source software we use. If we combine our proprietary software with, or otherwise distribute or use open source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain open source licenses, be required to release the source code of our proprietary software to the public. This would allow our competitors to create similar products or subscriptions with lower development effort and time and ultimately could result in a loss of product sales for us.
Although we take reasonable steps to monitor our use of open source software to avoid subjecting our products and subscriptions to conditions we do not intend, the terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by United States courts, and 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 products and subscriptions. From time to time, there have been claims against companies that distribute or use open source software in their products and subscriptions, asserting that open source software infringes the claimants’ intellectual property rights. We could be subject to suits by parties claiming infringement of intellectual property rights in what we believe to be licensed open source software. If we are held to have breached the terms of an open source software license, we could be required to seek licenses from third parties to continue offering our products and subscriptions on terms that are not economically feasible, to reengineer our products and subscriptions, to discontinue the sale of our products and subscriptions if reengineering could not be on a timely basis, or to make generally available, in source code form, our proprietary code, any of which could affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
In addition to risks related to license requirements, usage of open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or assurance of title or controls on origin of the software. In addition, many of the risks associated with usage of open source software, such as the lack of warranties or assurances of title, cannot be eliminated, and could, if not properly addressed, negatively affect our business. We have established processes to help alleviate these risks, including a review process for screening requests from our development organizations for the use of open source software, but we cannot be sure that our processes for controlling our use of open source software in our products and subscriptions will be effective.
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We license technology from third parties, and our inability to maintain those licenses could harm our business.
We incorporate technology that we license from third parties, including software, into our products and subscriptions. We cannot be certain that our licensors are not infringing the intellectual property rights of third parties or that our licensors have sufficient rights to the licensed intellectual property in all jurisdictions in which we may sell our products and subscriptions. In addition, some licenses may be non-exclusive, and therefore our competitors may have access to the same technology licensed to us. Some of our agreements with our licensors may be terminated for convenience by them. We may also be subject to additional fees or be required to obtain new licenses if any of our licensors allege that we have not properly paid for such licenses or that we have improperly used the technologies under such licenses, and such licenses may not be available on terms acceptable to us or at all. If we are unable to continue to license any of this technology because of intellectual property infringement claims brought by third parties against our licensors or us, or us by our licensors, or if we are to continue our license agreements or enter into new licenses on commercially reasonable terms, our ability to develop and sell products and subscriptions containing such technology would be limited and our business could be . Additionally, if we are to license necessary technology from third parties, we may be to acquire or develop alternative technology, which we may be to do in a commercially feasible manner or at all, and we may be required to use alternative technology of lower quality or performance standards. This would limit and our ability to offer new or competitive products and subscriptions and increase our costs of production. As a result, our margins, market share, and operating results could be significantly .
RISKS RELATED TO OPERATIONS
Because we depend on manufacturing partners to build and ship our hardware products, we are susceptible to manufacturing and logistics delays and pricing fluctuations that could prevent us from shipping customer orders on time, if at all, or on a cost-effective basis, which may result in the loss of sales and end-customers.
We depend on manufacturing partners, primarily our EMS provider, Flex, to manufacture our hardware product lines. Our substantial reliance on Flex, as well as other manufacturing partners subjects us to potential concentration risks, such as reduced control over the manufacturing process, quality assurance, product costs, product supply, and timing. Our hardware products are manufactured by our manufacturing partners at facilities located primarily in the United States. Some of the components in our products are sourced either through Flex or directly by us from component suppliers outside the United States. The portion of our hardware products that are sourced outside the United States may subject us to geopolitical risks, additional logistical risks, risks associated with international trade agreements, international trade disputes, trade regulations, tariffs, or risks associated with complying with local rules and regulations in foreign countries.
Significant changes to existing international trade agreements, tariffs, or trade regulations could lead to sourcing or logistics disruption resulting from import delays or the imposition of increased tariffs on our sourcing partners. For example, the United States and Chinese governments have each enacted, and discussed additional, import tariffs. Some components that we import for final manufacturing in the United States have been impacted by these tariffs. As a result, our costs have increased and we have raised, and may be required to further raise, prices on our hardware products in response to these and potential new trade regulations.
Our manufacturing partners typically fulfill our supply requirements on the basis of individual purchase orders. We do not have long-term contracts with these manufacturers that guarantee capacity, the continuation of particular pricing terms, or the extension of credit limits. Accordingly, they are not obligated to continue to fulfill our supply requirements and the prices we pay for manufacturing services could be increased on short notice. Our contract with Flex permits them to terminate the agreement for their convenience, subject to prior notice requirements. If we are required to change manufacturing partners, our ability to meet our scheduled product deliveries to our end-customers could be adversely affected, which could cause the loss of sales to existing or potential end-customers, delayed revenue or an increase in our costs which could adversely affect our gross margins. Any production interruptions for any reason, such as a natural disaster, epidemic or pandemic, capacity shortages, or quality problems at one of our manufacturing partners would affect sales of our product lines manufactured by that manufacturing partner and affect our business and operating results.
Managing the supply of our hardware products and product components is complex. Insufficient supply and inventory would result in lost sales opportunities or delayed revenue, while excess inventory would harm our gross margins.
Our manufacturing partners procure components and build our hardware products based on our forecasts, and we generally do not hold inventory for a prolonged period of time. These forecasts are based on historical trends and analysis, adjusted for overall market conditions. In order to reduce manufacturing lead times and plan for adequate component supply, from time to time we may issue forecasts for components and products that are non-cancelable and non-returnable.
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Our inventory management systems and related supply chain visibility tools may be inadequate to enable us to forecast accurately and effectively manage supply of our hardware products and product components. If we ultimately determine that we have excess supply, we may have to reduce our prices and write down inventory, which in turn could result in lower gross margins. If our actual component usage and product demand are lower than the forecast we provide to our manufacturing partners, we accrue for losses on manufacturing commitments in excess of forecasted demand. Alternatively, insufficient supply levels may lead to shortages that result in delayed hardware product revenue or loss of sales opportunities altogether as potential end-customers turn to competitors’ products that are readily available. If we are unable to effectively manage our supply and inventory, our operating results could be adversely affected.
Our hardware products contain key components from limited sources of supply, including outside the United States, and we are susceptible to supply shortages, supply changes, and international regulations, which, in certain cases, have disrupted or delayed our scheduled product deliveries to our end-customers, increased our costs and may result in the loss of sales and end-customers.
Our hardware products rely on key components, including integrated circuit components, which our manufacturing partners purchase on our behalf from a limited number of component suppliers, including sole source providers. The manufacturing operations of some of our component suppliers are geographically concentrated in Asia and elsewhere, which makes our supply chain vulnerable to regional disruptions, such as natural disasters, fire, political instability, civil unrest, power outages, or health risks, and international regulations, such as tariffs, sanctions and import and export controls. In the past, we experienced supply chain disruption and have incurred increased costs resulting from inflationary pressures and changes in U.S. trade policy. We are also monitoring the tensions between China and Taiwan, and between the U.S. and China, which could have an adverse impact on our business or results of operations in future periods.
Further, we do not have volume purchase contracts with any of our component suppliers, and they could cease selling to us at any time. If we are unable to obtain a sufficient quantity of these components in a timely manner for any reason, sales of our hardware products could be delayed or halted, or we could be forced to expedite shipment of such components or our hardware products at dramatically increased costs. Our component suppliers also change their selling prices frequently in response to market trends, including industry-wide increases in demand. Because we do not have, for the most part, volume purchase contracts with our component suppliers, we are susceptible to price fluctuations related to raw materials and components and may not be able to adjust our prices accordingly. Additionally, poor quality in any of the sole-sourced components in our products could result in lost sales or sales opportunities.
If we are unable to obtain a sufficient volume of the necessary components for our hardware products on commercially reasonable terms or the quality of the components do not meet our requirements, we could also be forced to redesign our products and qualify new components from alternate component suppliers. The resulting stoppage or delay in selling our hardware products and the expense of redesigning our hardware products would result in lost sales opportunities and damage to customer relationships, which would adversely affect our business and operating results.
If we are unable to attract, retain, and motivate our key technical, sales, and management personnel, our business could suffer.
Our future success depends, in part, on our ability to continue to attract, retain, and motivate the members of our management team and other key employees. For example, we are substantially dependent on the continued service of our engineering personnel because of the complexity of our offerings. Competition for highly skilled personnel, particularly in engineering, including in the areas of AI and machine learning, is intense, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, where we have a substantial presence and need for such personnel. In addition, the industry in which we operate generally experiences high employee attrition. Our future performance depends on the continuing services and contributions of our senior management to execute on our business plan and to identify and pursue new opportunities and product innovations. If we are unable to hire, integrate, train, or retain the qualified and highly skilled personnel required to fulfill our current or future needs, our business, financial condition, and operating results could be harmed.
Further, we believe that a critical contributor to our success and our ability to retain highly skilled personnel has been our corporate culture, which we believe fosters innovation, inclusion, teamwork, passion for end-customers, focus on execution, and the facilitation of critical knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing. As we grow and change, we may find it difficult to maintain these important aspects of our corporate culture. While we are taking steps to develop a more inclusive workforce, there is no guarantee that we will be able to do so. Any failure to preserve our culture as we grow could limit our ability to innovate and could negatively affect our ability to retain and recruit personnel, continue to perform at current levels or execute on our business strategy.
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We generate a significant amount of revenue from sales to distributors, resellers, and end-customers outside of the United States, and we are therefore subject to a number of risks associated with international sales and operations.
Our ability to grow our business and our future success will depend to a significant extent on our ability to expand our operations and customer base worldwide. Many of our customers, resellers, partners, suppliers, and manufacturers operate around the world. Operating in a global marketplace, we are subject to risks associated with having an international reach and compliance and regulatory requirements. We may experience difficulties in attracting, managing, and retaining an international staff, and we may not be able to recruit and maintain successful strategic distributor relationships internationally. Business practices in the international markets that we serve may differ from those in the United States and may require us in the future to include terms other than our standard terms related to payment, warranties, or performance obligations in end-customer contracts.
Additionally, our international sales and operations are subject to a number of risks, including the following:
• political, economic, and social uncertainty around the world, health risks such as epidemics and pandemics like COVID-19, macroeconomic challenges, terrorist activities, the Russia-Ukraine war, tensions between China and Taiwan, the hostilities in Israel and the surrounding region, and continued hostilities in the Middle East;
• unexpected changes in, or the application of, foreign and domestic laws and regulations (including intellectual property rights protections), regulatory practices or enforcement policies, trade restrictions, international trade agreements, and foreign legal requirements, including those applicable to the importation, certification, and localization of our products, tariffs, and tax laws and treaties, including regulatory and trade policy changes adopted by the current administration, such as the Sanctions on Russia, or foreign countries in response to regulatory changes adopted by the current administration; and
• non-compliance with U.S. and foreign laws, including antitrust regulations, anti-corruption laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) Bribery Act, U.S. or foreign sanctions regimes and export or import control laws, and any trade regulations ensuring fair trade practices.
These and other factors could harm our future international revenues and, consequently, materially impact our business, operating results, and financial condition. The expansion of our existing international operations and entry into additional international markets will require significant management attention and financial resources. Our failure to successfully manage our international operations and the associated risks effectively could limit the future growth of our business.
We are exposed to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, which could negatively affect our financial condition and operating results.
Our sales contracts are primarily denominated in U.S. dollars, and therefore, a predominant amount of our revenue is not subject to foreign currency risk. However, in the event of a strengthening of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies in which we conduct business, the cost of our products to our end-customers outside of the United States would increase, which could adversely affect our financial condition and operating results. In addition, increased international sales in the future, including through our channel partners and other partnerships or as a result of our acquisitions, may result in increased foreign currency denominated sales, increasing our foreign currency risk.
Our operating expenses incurred outside the United States and denominated in foreign currencies are generally increasing and are subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. If we are not able to successfully hedge against the risks associated with foreign currency fluctuations, our financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected. We have entered into forward contracts in an effort to reduce our foreign currency exchange exposure related to our foreign currency denominated revenue and operating expenditures. As of July 31, 2025, the total notional amount of our outstanding foreign currency forward contracts was $1.5 billion. For more information on our hedging transactions, refer to Note 6. Derivative Instruments in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The effectiveness of our existing hedging transactions and the availability and effectiveness of any hedging transactions we may decide to enter into in the future may be limited and we may not be able to successfully hedge our exposure, which could adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.
We face risks associated with having operations and employees located in Israel.
We have business operations in Israel and intend to continue growing our presence in Israel, including in connection with our proposed acquisition of CyberArk. Our operations in Israel could be disrupted by political instability, civil unrest, terrorist attacks, acts of violence, acts of war, or other military actions, including the hostilities in Israel and the surrounding region. The future of peace efforts between Israel and its Arab neighbors remains uncertain. The effects of hostilities and violence on the Israeli economy and our operations in Israel are unclear, and we cannot predict the effect on us of further increases in these hostilities or future armed conflict, political instability, or violence in the region. Current or future tensions and conflicts in the Middle East could adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition, and cash flows.
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In addition, many of our employees in Israel are obligated to perform annual reserve duty in the Israeli military and are subject to being called for active duty under emergency circumstances, which has occurred as a result of hostilities in Israel and the surrounding region. We cannot predict the full impact of these conditions on us in the future, particularly if emergency circumstances or an escalation in the political situation or hostilities occurs. If many of our employees in Israel are called for active duty for a significant period of time, our operations and our business could be disrupted and may not be able to function at full capacity. Any disruption in our operations in Israel could adversely affect our business.
We are subject to international trade regulations and governmental export and import controls that could subject us to liability or impair our ability to compete in international markets.
Because we incorporate encryption technology into our products, certain of our products are subject to U.S. export controls and may be exported outside the United States only with the required export license or through an export license exception. If we were to fail to comply with U.S. export licensing requirements, U.S. customs regulations, U.S. economic sanctions, or other laws or regulations, we could be subject to substantial civil and criminal penalties, including fines, incarceration for responsible employees and managers, and the possible loss of export or import privileges. Obtaining the necessary export license for a particular sale may be time-consuming and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities. Furthermore, U.S. export control laws and economic sanctions prohibit the shipment of certain products to U.S. embargoed or sanctioned countries, governments, and persons. Even though we take precautions to ensure that our channel partners comply with all relevant regulations, any by our channel partners to comply with such regulations could have consequences for us, including reputational , government , and .
In addition, various countries regulate the import of certain encryption technology, including through import permit and license requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our products or could limit our end-customers’ ability to implement our products in those countries. Changes in our products or changes in export and import regulations may create delays in the introduction of our products into international markets, prevent our end-customers with international operations from deploying our products globally or, in some cases, prevent or delay the export or import of our products to certain countries, governments, or persons altogether. Any change in export or import regulations, economic sanctions, such as the Sanctions on Russia, or related legislation, shift in the enforcement or scope of existing regulations, or change in the countries, governments, persons, or technologies targeted by such regulations could result in decreased use of our products by, or in our decreased ability to export or sell our products to, existing or potential end-customers with international operations. Any decreased use of our products or limitation on our ability to export to or sell our products in international markets would likely adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results.
International trade laws and regulations continuously evolve to address technological developments and changes in geopolitical conditions. New regulations or other governmental restrictions that may result from these circumstances could inhibit our ability to transact with foreign suppliers, customers, or other business partners. Monitoring and responding to these developments may require significant resources, and failure to comply with resulting regulations and restrictions may have an adverse impact on our business or results of operation.
RISKS RELATED TO PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION
We may incur increased costs to comply with privacy and data protection laws and, if we fail to comply, we could be subject to government enforcement actions, private litigation and adverse publicity.
A wide variety of laws and regulations apply to the collection, use, retention, protection, disclosure, transfer, and other processing of personal data in jurisdictions where we and our customers operate. Compliance with these laws and regulations is difficult and costly. These laws and regulations are also subject to frequent, inconsistent and unexpected changes; new, modified or additional laws or regulations may be adopted; and rulings that invalidate prior laws, regulations, or interpretations of such laws or regulations may be issued. For example, we are subject to the E.U. General Data Protection Regulation (“E.U. GDPR”) and the U.K. General Data Protection Regulation (“U.K. GDPR,” and collectively the “GDPR”), each of which imposes stringent data protection requirements, provide for costly penalties for noncompliance (up to the greater of (a) €20 million under the E.U. GDPR or £17.5 million under the U.K. GDPR, and (b) 4% of annual worldwide turnover), and confer the right upon data subjects and consumer associations to lodge with supervisory authorities, seek judicial remedies, and obtain compensation for resulting from .
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The GDPR imposes restrictions, among other things, on the transfer of personal data outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) (or, in the case of the U.K. GDPR, the U.K.) to non-EEA countries, such as the United States, unless adequate safeguards are implemented or a derogation applies. In practice, we rely on standard contractual clauses approved under the GDPR to carry out such transfers and to receive personal data subject to the GDPR (directly or indirectly) in the United States. In addition, with respect to the personal data that we process on behalf of our customers, we self-certified to the E.U.-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (“E.U.-U.S. DPF”), the UK Extension to the E.U.-U.S. DPF, and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (collectively, the “DPF”), as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce, regarding transfers of certain personal data from the E.U., the U.K., and Switzerland to the United States. The DPF has been recognized as adequate under applicable law to allow transfers of personal data from the E.U., U.K., and Switzerland, as the case may be, to companies in the U.S. that have self-certified to the framework. However, the DPF may be subject to legal challenges, which could invalidate its use, disrupt our ability to rely on such data transfer mechanisms, and otherwise cause the legal requirements for such data transfers to be uncertain.
In addition, the U.K. government enacted the U.K. Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 on June 19, 2025, which includes targeted amendments to the U.K.’s data protection regime that cause it to expressly deviate from the GDPR. This development creates new compliance challenges and has created uncertainty with respect to the European Commission’s adequacy determination regarding the U.K.’s data protection regime, which has been extended until December 2025 and must be renewed to permit ongoing relatively unrestricted data flows from the EEA to the UK.
Among other effects of these developments, we may experience additional costs associated with increased compliance burdens, reduced demand for our offerings from current or prospective customers in the EEA, Switzerland, and the U.K. (collectively, “Europe”) to use our products, on account of the risks identified in the Schrems II decision or other developments relating to cross-border data transfers, and we may find it necessary or desirable to make further changes to our processing of personal data of European residents. The regulatory environment applicable to the handling of European residents’ personal data and cross-border data transfers, and our actions taken in response, may cause us to assume additional liabilities or incur additional costs. Moreover, much like with Schrems II, we anticipate future legal challenges to the approved data transfer mechanisms between Europe and the United States, including a challenge to the E.U.-U.S. DPF. Such legal challenges could result in additional legal and regulatory risk, compliance costs, and in our business, operating results, and financial condition being harmed.
We are also subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (collectively, the “CCPA”). The CCPA requires, among other things, covered businesses to provide enhanced disclosures to California consumers and to afford such consumers certain rights regarding their personal data, including the right to opt out of data sales for targeted advertising, and creates a private right of action to individuals affected by a data breach, if the breach was caused by a lack of reasonable security. The effects of the CCPA have been significant, requiring us to modify our data processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses for compliance. Moreover, other U.S. states have enacted laws relating to privacy and security that are potentially relevant to us. These include laws enacted in at least 20 U.S. states, a portion of which are expected to come into effect over the course of our fiscal 2026. The U.S. Department of Justice also has issued rules regarding access to, or transfer of, certain bulk sensitive personal data by countries of concern. Increasingly complex federal or state laws and regulations relating to privacy and security, and interpretations and enforcement of existing laws and regulations relating to these matters, may require us to modify our data practices and policies, incur substantial compliance costs and expenses, and add further complexity to our compliance efforts that could affect our business or increase our potential liability if we to comply or are to have done so.
We may also from time to time be subject to obligations relating to personal data by contract, or face assertions that we are subject to self-regulatory obligations or industry standards. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission and many state attorneys general are more regularly bringing enforcement actions in connection with federal and state consumer protection laws for false or deceptive acts or practices in relation to the online collection, use, dissemination, and security of personal data. Internationally, data localization laws may mandate that personal data collected in a foreign country be processed and stored within that country.
We and our customers may face risk of enforcement actions by regulators or data protection authorities, private litigation and adverse publicity including reputational damage and loss of customer confidence for alleged violations of any of the foregoing obligations. Any such claims could result in substantial costs, ongoing remedial, audit and reporting obligations, and diversion of resources, and distract management and technical personnel. These potential liabilities and enforcement actions could also have an overall negative effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. The amount and scope of insurance we maintain may not cover all types of claims that may arise.
New legislation affecting the scope of personal data and personal information where we or our customers and partners have operations, especially relating to classification of Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses, machine identification, AI and machine learning, location data, and other information, may limit or inhibit our ability to operate or expand our business, including limiting strategic partnerships that may involve the sharing or uses of data, and may require significant expenditures and efforts in order to comply. Notably, public perception of potential privacy, data protection, or information security concerns—whether or not valid—may harm our reputation and inhibit adoption of our products and subscriptions by current and future end-customers. Each of these laws and regulations, and any changes to these laws and regulations, or new laws and regulations, could impose significant limitations, or require changes to our business model or practices or growth strategy, which may increase our compliance expenses and make our business more costly or less efficient to conduct.
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Tax, Accounting, Compliance, and Regulatory Risks
We may have exposure to tax liabilities that are greater than anticipated.
Our income tax obligations are based in part on our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements, including the manner in which we develop, value, and use our intellectual property and the valuations of our intercompany transactions. The tax laws applicable to our business, including the laws of the United States and various other jurisdictions, are subject to interpretation and certain jurisdictions may aggressively interpret their laws, regulations, and policies, including in an effort to raise additional tax revenue. The tax authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies for valuing developed or acquired technology or determining the proper charges for intercompany arrangements, which could increase our worldwide effective tax rate, harm our financial position and operating results, and have a negative effect on our cash flow. Some tax authorities of jurisdictions other than the United States may seek to assert extraterritorial taxing rights on our transactions or operations. It is possible that domestic or international tax authorities may subject us to tax examinations, or audits, and such tax authorities may disagree with certain positions we have taken, and any adverse outcome of such an examination, review or audit could result in additional tax liabilities and and otherwise have a effect on our financial position, operating results, and cash flow. Further, the determination of our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities requires significant judgment by management, and there are transactions where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Although we believe that our estimates are reasonable, the ultimate tax outcome may differ from the amounts recorded on our consolidated financial statements and may materially affect our financial results in the period or periods for which such determination is made.
In addition, our future income tax obligations and effective tax rates could be adversely affected by changes in, or interpretations of, tax laws, regulations, policies, or decisions in the United States or in the other jurisdictions in which we operate including as a result of the U.S. federal tax legislation commonly referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law on July 4, 2025.
If our estimates or judgments, including those relating to our critical accounting policies, are based on assumptions that change or prove to be incorrect, our operating results differ from our publicly announced guidance or the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the market price of our common stock.
The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”) requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported on our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying amounts of assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. For more information relating to critical accounting policies, refer to the section entitled “Critical Accounting Estimates” in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Part II, Item 7 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In general, if our estimates, judgments or assumptions relating to our critical accounting policies change or if actual circumstances differ from our estimates, judgments or assumptions, our operating results may be adversely affected and could fall below our publicly announced guidance or the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the market price of our common stock.
We are obligated to maintain proper and effective internal control over financial reporting. We may not complete our analysis of our internal control over financial reporting in a timely manner, or our internal control may not be determined to be effective, which may adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our common stock.
If we are unable to assert that our internal controls are effective, our independent registered public accounting firm may not be able to formally attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. If, in the future, our chief executive officer, chief financial officer, or independent registered public accounting firm determines that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective as defined under Section 404, we could be subject to one or more investigations or enforcement actions by state or federal regulatory agencies, stockholder lawsuits, or other adverse actions requiring us to incur defense costs, pay fines, settlements, or judgments, causing investor perceptions to be adversely affected and potentially resulting in a decline in the market price of our stock.
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Our reputation and/or business could be negatively impacted by corporate responsibility matters and/or our reporting of such matters.
There is an increasing focus from regulators, certain investors, and other stakeholders concerning corporate responsibility matters, both in the United States and internationally. We communicate certain corporate responsibility-related initiatives, goals, and/or commitments regarding sustainability matters, inclusion, responsible sourcing and social investments, and other matters in our annual Corporate Responsibility Report, on our website, in our filings with the SEC, and elsewhere. These initiatives, goals, or commitments could be difficult to achieve and costly to implement. We could fail to achieve, or be perceived to fail to achieve, our corporate responsibility-related initiatives, goals, or commitments. In addition, we could be criticized for the timing, scope or nature of these initiatives, goals, or commitments, or for any revisions to them. To the extent that our required and voluntary disclosures about corporate responsibility matters increase, we could be criticized for the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of such disclosures. Our actual or perceived failure to our corporate responsibility-related initiatives, goals, or commitments could impact our reputation, result in corporate responsibility-focused investors not purchasing and holding our stock, or otherwise materially our business.
In addition, we are or may become subject to various new and proposed sustainability-related laws and regulations, including, for example, the E.U.’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. Additional regulation may require us to incur significant additional costs associated with increased compliance burdens, including the implementation of additional internal controls processes and procedures, and impose increased oversight obligations on our management and board of directors, as well as require us to retain third-party experts. Noncompliance with applicable regulations or requirements could subject us to investigations, sanctions, enforcement actions, fines or litigation, which could negatively impact our business, operating results or financial condition.
Failure to comply with governmental laws and regulations could harm our business.
Our business is subject to regulation by various federal, state, local, and foreign governmental agencies, including agencies responsible for monitoring and enforcing employment and labor laws, workplace safety, product safety, environmental laws, consumer protection laws, privacy, data security, and data-protection laws, anti-bribery laws (including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Anti-Bribery Act), import/export controls, federal securities laws, and tax laws and regulations. These laws and regulations may also impact our innovation and business drivers in developing new and emerging technologies (e.g., AI and machine learning). In certain jurisdictions, these regulatory requirements may be more stringent than those in the United States. Noncompliance with applicable regulations or requirements could subject us to investigations, sanctions, mandatory product recalls, enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, fines, damages, civil and , or . If any governmental sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or resulting from any , our business, operating results, and financial condition could be materially affected. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a significant of management’s attention and resources and an increase in professional fees. Enforcement actions, , and sanctions could our business, operating results, and financial condition.
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Risks Related to Our Common Stock
The market price of our common stock historically has been volatile, and the value of an investment in our common stock could decline.
The market price of our common stock has historically been, and is likely to continue to be, volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control and unrelated to our business, operating results, or financial condition. These fluctuations could cause a loss of all or part of an investment in our common stock. Factors that could cause fluctuations in the market price of our common stock include, but are not limited to:
• announcements of new products, subscriptions or technologies, commercial relationships, strategic partnerships, acquisitions, or other events by us or our competitors;
• price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market from time to time;
• news announcements that affect investor perception of our industry, including reports related to the discovery of significant cyberattacks;
• significant volatility in the market price and trading volume of technology companies in general and of companies in our industry;
• fluctuations in the trading volume of our shares or the size of our public float;
• actual or anticipated changes in our operating results or fluctuations in our operating results;
• whether our operating results meet the expectations of securities analysts or investors;
• actual or anticipated changes in the expectations of securities analysts or investors, whether as a result of our forward-looking statements, our failure to meet such expectations or otherwise;
• inaccurate or unfavorable research reports about our business and industry published by securities analysts or reduced coverage of our company by securities analysts;
• litigation involving us, our industry, or both;
• actions instituted by activist shareholders or others;
• regulatory developments in the United States, foreign countries, or both;
• major catastrophic events;
• sales or repurchases of large blocks of our common stock or substantial future sales by our directors, executive officers, employees, and significant stockholders;
• issuances or sales of shares of our common stock, including as part of a capital-raising transaction or as consideration in or in connection with acquisitions;
• issuances or sales of debt or securities convertible into or exchangeable for shares of our common stock, including in connection with acquisitions;
• departures of key personnel; or
• geopolitical or economic uncertainty around the world.
In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been brought against that company. Securities litigation could result in substantial costs, divert our management’s attention and resources from our business, and have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
The warrant transactions may affect the value of our common stock.
In June 2020, we issued our 0.375% Convertible Senior Notes due 2025 (the “2025 Notes”), which matured on June 1, 2025. In connection with the sale of our 2025 Notes, we entered into convertible note hedge transactions (the “2025 Note Hedges”) with certain counterparties. In connection with the sale of the 2025 Notes and purchase of the 2025 Note Hedges, we also entered into warrant transactions with the counterparties pursuant to which we sold warrants (the “2025 Warrants”) for the purchase of our common stock. The 2025 Warrants could have a dilutive effect to the extent that the market price per share of our common stock exceeds the applicable strike price of the 2025 Warrants unless, subject to certain conditions, we elect to cash settle such 2025 Warrants.
The applicable counterparties to the 2025 Warrants or their respective affiliates may modify their related hedge positions by entering into or unwinding various derivatives with respect to our common stock and/or purchasing or selling our common stock or other securities of ours in secondary market transactions prior to the expiration of the 2025 Warrants. This activity could cause or prevent an increase or a decrease in the market price of our common stock.
We do not make any representation or prediction as to the direction or magnitude of any potential effect that the transactions described above may have on the price of our common stock. In addition, we do not make any representation that the counterparties or their respective affiliates will engage in these transactions or that these transactions, once commenced, will not be discontinued without notice.
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The issuance of additional stock in connection with financings, acquisitions, investments, our stock incentive plans, exercise of the 2025 Warrants, or otherwise will dilute stock held by all other stockholders.
Our restated certificate of incorporation authorizes us to issue up to 2.0 billion shares of common stock and up to 100.0 million shares of preferred stock with such rights and preferences as may be determined by our board of directors. Subject to compliance with applicable rules and regulations, we may issue shares of common stock or securities convertible into or exchangeable for shares of our common stock from time to time in connection with a financing or other capital raising, acquisition, investment, our stock incentive plans, the settlement of our 2025 Warrants, or otherwise. Any such issuance, including in connection with the proposed CyberArk acquisition, could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
We cannot guarantee that our share repurchase program will be fully consummated or that it will enhance shareholder value, and share repurchases could affect the price of our common stock.
As of July 31, 2025, we had $1.0 billion available under our share repurchase program which will expire on December 31, 2025 and may be suspended or discontinued at any time without prior notice. Although our board of directors has authorized a share repurchase program, we are not obligated to repurchase any specific dollar amount or to acquire any specific number of shares under the program. The share repurchase program could affect the price of our common stock, increase volatility, and diminish our cash reserves. In addition, the program may be suspended or terminated at any time, which may result in a decrease in the price of our common stock.
We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
We have never declared or paid any dividends on our common stock. We intend to retain any earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the future. As a result, stockholders may only receive a return on their investments in our common stock if the market price of our common stock increases.
Our charter documents and Delaware law could discourage takeover attempts and lead to management entrenchment, which could also reduce the market price of our common stock.
Provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of our company or changes in our management. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws include provisions that, among other things:
• establish that our board of directors is divided into three classes, Class I, Class II, and Class III, with three-year staggered terms;
• authorize our board of directors to issue shares of preferred stock and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval;
• provide our board of directors with the exclusive right to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of our board of directors or the resignation, death, or removal of a director;
• prohibit our stockholders from taking action by written consent;
• specify that special meetings of our stockholders may be called only by the chairman of our board of directors, our president, our secretary, or a majority vote of our board of directors;
• require the affirmative vote of holders of at least 66 2/3% of the voting power of all of the then outstanding shares of the voting stock, voting together as a single class, to amend the provisions of our restated certificate of incorporation relating to the issuance of preferred stock and management of our business or our amended and restated bylaws;
• authorize our board of directors to amend our bylaws by majority vote; and
• establish advance notice procedures with which our stockholders must comply to nominate candidates to our board of directors or to propose matters to be acted upon at a stockholders’ meeting.
These provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for our stockholders to replace members of our board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of management. In addition, as a Delaware corporation, we are subject to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. These provisions may prohibit large stockholders, in particular those owning 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock, from merging or combining with us for a certain period of time. Any of these provisions could, under certain circumstances, depress the market price of our common stock.
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General Risk Factors
Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, power outages, floods, health risks, and other catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems, such as terrorism.
Both our corporate headquarters and the location where our products are manufactured are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for seismic activity. In addition, other natural disasters, such as fire or floods, a significant power outage, telecommunications failure, terrorism, an armed conflict, cyberattacks, epidemics and pandemics such as COVID-19, or other geopolitical unrest could affect our supply chain, manufacturers, logistics providers, channel partners, end-customers, or the economy as a whole, and such disruption could impact our shipments and sales. These risks may be further increased if the disaster recovery plans for us and our suppliers prove to be inadequate. To the extent that any of the above should result in delays or cancellations of customer orders, the loss of customers, or the delay in the manufacture, deployment, or shipment of our products, our business, financial condition, and operating results would be affected.
Our failure to raise additional capital or generate the significant capital necessary to expand our operations and invest in new products and subscriptions could reduce our ability to compete and could harm our business.
We intend to continue to make investments to support our business growth and may require additional funds to respond to business challenges, including the need to develop new features to enhance our portfolio, 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 we engage in future debt financings, the holders of such additional debt would have priority over the holders of our common stock. Current and future indebtedness may also contain terms that, among other things, restrict our ability to incur additional indebtedness. In addition, we may be required to take other actions that would otherwise be in the interests of the debt holders and would require us to maintain specified liquidity or other ratios, any of which could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition. 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 could be significantly impaired, and our business may be affected.
