ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Investing in our common stock involves risk. Our operations and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described below, that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and the trading price of our common stock. You should carefully consider the risks described below and the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
Our business and growth depend substantially on clients renewing their agreements with us and expanding their use of our solution for additional available markets. Any decline in our client renewals, termination of ongoing engagements or failure to expand their relationships with us could harm our future operating results.
In order for us to improve our operating results and grow, it is important that our clients renew their agreements with us when the initial contract term expires and that we expand our client relationships to add new market opportunities and the related revenue management opportunity. Our clients may elect not to renew their contracts with us after the expiration of their initial term, which typically vary between one and two years, or may elect to otherwise terminate our services, and we cannot assure you that our clients will renew service contracts with us at the same or higher level of service, if at all, or provide us with the opportunity to manage additional revenue management opportunities. Although our renewal rates have been historically higher than those achieved by our clients prior to their use of our solution, some clients have still elected not to renew their agreements with us. Our clients’ renewal rates may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control, including their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our solution and results, our pricing, mergers and acquisitions affecting our clients or their end customers, the effects of economic conditions or reductions in our clients’ or their end customers’ spending levels. If our clients do not renew their agreements with us, renew on less favorable terms, terminate their services with us or fail to contract with us for additional services, our revenue may decline and our operating results may be adversely affected.
Our revenue will decline if there is a decrease in the overall demand for our clients’ products and services.
A majority of our revenue is based on a pay-for-performance model, which means that we are paid a commission based on the service contracts we sell on behalf of our clients. If a client’s products or services fail to appeal to its end customers, our revenue will decline for our work with that client. In addition, if end customer demand decreases for other reasons, such as negative news regarding our clients or their products, unfavorable economic conditions, shifts in strategy by our clients away from promoting the service contracts we sell in favor of selling their other products or services to their end customers, or if end customers experience financial constraints and terminate or fail to renew the service contracts we sell, we may experience a decrease in our revenue as the demand for our clients’ service contracts declines. Similarly, if our clients come under economic pressure, they may be more likely to terminate their contracts with us or seek to restructure those contracts.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations and/or cash flows.
COVID-19 has had, and continues to have, a significant impact around the world, prompting governments and businesses to take unprecedented measures in response. Such measures have included restrictions on travel and business operations, temporary closures of businesses, and quarantine and shelter-in-place orders. The COVID-19 pandemic has at times significantly curtailed global economic activity and caused significant volatility and disruption in global financial markets.
The Company continues to monitor the situation and take appropriate actions in accordance with the recommendations and requirements of relevant authorities. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic may impact the Company’s operational and financial performance remains uncertain and will depend on many factors outside the Company’s control, including the timing, extent, trajectory and duration of the pandemic, the emergence of new variants, the development, availability, distribution and effectiveness of vaccines and treatments, the imposition of protective public safety measures, and the impact of the pandemic on the global economy.
To the extent the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects the Company’s business, results of operations, financial condition and stock price, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this Part I, Item 1A of this Form 10-K.
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If our performance falls short of our estimates, our client relationships will be at risk, our revenue will suffer and our ability to grow could be harmed.
A majority of our business depends on driving new or renewal revenue for our clients, and we then receive a commission on the new or renewal revenue that we generate on our clients’ behalf. In some cases, our commission rates vary depending on our performance —for example, if we overperform compared to our estimates then we may receive a higher commission. In addition, our clients rely on us to accurately forecast our performance, especially because we drive revenue on their behalf. These forecasts are based upon the data our clients provide to us, and are subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate. In addition, these forecasted expectations are based upon historical trends and data that may not be true in subsequent periods. If our performance for a particular client is lower than anticipated, then our revenue for that client will also be lower than projected. If our performance falls short of expectations across a broad range of clients, or if our performance falls below expectations for a particularly large client, then the impact on our revenue and our overall business will be significant. In the event our performance is lower than expected for a given client, our margins will suffer because we will have already incurred a certain level of costs in both personnel and infrastructure to support the engagement. This risk is compounded by the fact that many of our client relationships can be terminated by the client if we to meet certain specified sales targets, including bookings rates, over a sustained period of time. If our performance falls to a level at which our revenue and client contracts are at risk, then our financial performance will and we may have attracting and retaining new clients.
We depend on a limited number of clients for a significant portion of our revenue, and the loss of business from one or more of our key clients could adversely affect our results of operations.
Our top ten clients accounted for 82% of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2021, and four clients each represented over 10% of our revenue during this period. A relatively small number of clients may continue to account for a significant portion of our revenue for the foreseeable future. The loss of revenue from any of our significant clients for any reason, including the failure to renew our contracts, termination of some or all of our services, a change of relationship with any of our key clients, or the acquisition of one of our significant clients, may cause a significant decrease in our revenue.
If we cannot efficiently implement our offering for clients, we may be delayed in generating revenue, fail to generate revenue and/or incur significant costs.
In general, our client engagements are complex and we must undertake lengthy and significant work to implement our offerings. We generally incur sales and marketing expenses related to the commissions owed to our sales representatives and make upfront investments in technology and personnel to support the engagements one to three months before we begin selling end customer contracts on behalf of our clients. Each client’s situation may be different, and unanticipated difficulties and delays may arise as a result of our failure, or that of our client, to meet implementation responsibilities. If the client implementation process is not executed successfully or if execution is delayed, we could incur significant costs without generating revenue, and our relationships with some of our clients and operating results may be adversely impacted.
Because competition for our target employees is intense, we may be unable to attract and retain the highly skilled employees we need to support our planned growth.
To continue to execute on our growth plan, we must attract and retain highly qualified employees in the international markets in which we have operations. Competition for these personnel is intense, especially for highly educated, qualified sales representatives with multiple language skills. We have from time to time in the past experienced, and we expect to continue to experience in the future, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled key employees with appropriate qualifications. Our shift to a virtual-first operating model may increase the difficulty in hiring and retaining these highly skilled key employees. If we are unable to hire and retain these highly skilled workers, our company’s culture could be negatively influenced and potentially lead to increased employee attrition and loss of key personnel. In addition, hiring and retaining highly skilled key employees could become more difficult in the future if COVID-19 vaccine mandates become required. We may incur significant costs to attract and retain highly skilled key employees, and we may lose new employees to our competitors or other companies before we realize the of our investment in recruiting and training them. If we to attract new highly skilled key employees, or to retain and motivate our most employees, our business and future growth prospects could be .
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If our security measures are breached or fail, resulting in unauthorized access to client data, our solution may be perceived as insecure, the attractiveness of our solution to current or potential clients may be reduced and we may incur significant liabilities.
Our solution involves the storage and transmission of the proprietary information and protected data that we receive from our clients. We rely on proprietary and commercially available systems, software, tools and monitoring, as well as other processes, to provide security for processing, transmission and storage of such information. Despite the implementation of these security measures, our systems may still be vulnerable. If our, or our clients’, security measures are breached or fail as a result of third-party action, employee negligence, error, malfeasance or otherwise, unauthorized access to client or end customer data may occur. Techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, and we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate protective measures. Our security measures may not be in these types of activities, and the security measures of our third-party data centers and service providers may not be adequate. In addition, these risks may be increased as a result of our virtual-first operating model and our third-party data centers and service providers working remotely, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our client contracts generally provide that we will indemnify our clients for data privacy breaches caused by our acts or omissions and the acts and omissions of our service providers. If a data privacy breach occurs, we could face contractual damages, damages and fees arising from our indemnification obligations, penalties for violation of applicable laws or regulations, possible lawsuits by affected individuals and significant remediation costs and efforts to prevent future occurrences. Insurance may not be able to cover these costs in full, in particular if the damages are large. In addition, whether there is an actual or a perceived breach of our security, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures could be harmed significantly and we could lose current or potential clients.
We may be liable to our clients or third parties if we make errors in providing our solution or fail to properly safeguard our clients’ confidential information.
The solution we offer is complex, and we may make errors from time to time. These may include human errors made in the course of managing the sales process for our clients as we interact with their end customers, or errors arising from our technology solution as it interacts with our clients’ systems and the disparate data contained on such systems. For example, our employees enter codes to classify their interactions with our clients’ end customers, and incorrect code entry could result in our clients’ end customer not receiving the service or solution they requested, which in turn could lead to customer dissatisfaction or termination causing our client relationships to suffer and our revenue and our clients’ revenue to decline. The costs incurred in correcting any material errors may be substantial. Any claims based on errors could subject us to exposure for , significant legal defense costs, publicity and reputational , regardless of the merits or eventual outcome of such .
We conduct operations in a number of countries and are subject to risks of international operations.
Outside of the U.S., we conduct operations in Bulgaria, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and the United Kingdom. In 2021, approximately 45% of our revenue was related to operations located outside of the U.S. In addition, 71% of our employees are located in offices outside of the U.S. Our employees and clients in a particular country or region in the world may be impacted as a result of a variety of factors, including: geopolitical events, such as war, the threat of war, or terrorist activity; natural disasters (such as drought, flooding, wildfires, increased storm severity, and sea level rise), which may become more common as a result of climate change; power shortages or outages, major public health issues, including pandemics (such as the COVID-19 pandemic); and significant local, national or global events capturing the attention of a large part of the population. If any of these, or any other factors, disrupt a country or region where we have a significant workforce our business could be materially adversely affected.
We expect to continue our international growth, with international revenue accounting for an increased portion of total revenue in the future. Our international operations involve risks that differ from or are in addition to those faced by our U.S. operations. These risks include different employment laws and rules and related social and cultural factors; different regulatory and compliance requirements, including in the areas of privacy and data protection, anti-bribery and anti-corruption, trade sanctions, marketing and sales and other barriers to conducting business; cultural and language differences; diverse or less stable political, operating and economic environments and market fluctuations; and civil disturbances or other catastrophic events that affect business activity (including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic). If we are not able to efficiently adapt to or effectively manage our business in markets outside of the U.S., our business prospects and operating results could be materially and adversely affected. Although we have business continuity plans in place for our operations, an extended period of civil that halts or significantly operations could have a material effect on our business.
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Laws or public perception may eliminate or restrict our ability to use revenue delivery centers not located in the U.S., which could have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations.
The issue of companies outsourcing services to organizations operating in other countries is a politically sensitive topic and has been under heightened scrutiny in many countries, including the U.S. We provide our BPaaS solutions in several non-U.S. locations, including the Philippines and Malaysia, and our growth strategy includes increasing reliance on these “offshore” revenue delivery centers. Many organizations and public figures in the U.S. have publicly expressed concern about a perceived association between offshore outsourcing providers and the loss of jobs in the U.S., and the topic of offshore outsourcing has recently received a great deal of negative attention from the U.S. executive branch. Because of negative public perception about offshore outsourcing, measures aimed at limiting or restricting offshore outsourcing by U.S. companies are periodically considered in the U.S. Congress. Current or prospective clients may elect to perform such services themselves or may be discouraged from transferring these services from onshore to offshore providers to avoid negative perceptions that may be associated with using an offshore provider. Any or reversal of existing industry trends towards offshore outsourcing, including due to the enactment of any legislation restricting offshore outsourcing by U.S. companies, would our ability to provide certain of our services to our clients at a competitive and cost- price point and would have a material effect on our business and results of operations.
Changes in the legal and regulatory environment that affect our operations, including laws and regulations relating to the handling of personal data, data security and cross-border data flows, may impede the adoption of our services, disrupt our business or result in increased costs, legal claims, or fines against us.
We are subject to a wide variety of laws and regulations in the U.S. and the other jurisdictions in which we operate, and changes in the level of government regulation of our business have the potential to materially alter our business practices with resultant increases in costs and decreases in profitability. Depending on the jurisdiction, those changes may come about through new legislation, the issuance of new regulations or changes in the interpretation of existing laws and regulations by a court, regulatory body or governmental official. Sometimes those changes have both prospective and retroactive effect, which is particularly true when a change is made through reinterpretation of laws or regulations that have been in effect for some time.
Our international operations and global client base rely increasingly on the movement of data across national boundaries. Legal requirements relating to the collection, storage, handling and transfer of personal data continue to evolve, and additional regulation in those areas, some of it potentially difficult and costly for us to accommodate, is frequently proposed and occasionally adopted. Laws in many countries and jurisdictions, particularly in the European Union, United Kingdom, and Canada, govern the requirements related to how we store, transfer or otherwise process the private data provided to us by our clients. For example, in the European Union, the GDPR imposes substantial requirements regarding the handling of personal data. The GDPR, as well as other data privacy, cyber security and data localization laws and regulations, has changed in recent years and is likely to continue to evolve in the future. Although we have implemented measures designed to comply with the laws and regulations applicable to our business, our ongoing efforts to comply with the GDPR and other changes in laws and regulations (such as the California Consumer Privacy Act that became effective in January 2020) may entail substantial expenses and divert resources from other initiatives. These changes have in the past increased, and may continue to increase, our cost of providing our services, could limit us from offering solutions in certain jurisdictions, could affect our sales cycles, and could impact our new technology . In addition, the centralized nature of our information systems at the data and operations centers that we use requires the routine flow of data relating to our clients and their respective end customers across national borders, both with respect to the jurisdictions within which we have operations and the jurisdictions in which we provide services to our clients. If this flow of data becomes subject to new or different restrictions, our ability to serve our clients and their respective end customers could be for an extended period of time.
We also have entered into various model contracts and related contractual provisions to enable these data flows. For any jurisdictions in which these measures are not recognized or otherwise not compliant with the laws of the countries in which we process data, or where more stringent data privacy laws are enacted irrespective of international treaty arrangements or other existing compliance mechanisms, we could face increased compliance expenses and face penalties for violating such laws or be excluded from those markets altogether, in which case our operations could be materially damaged.
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Consolidation in the technology sector could harm our business in the event that our clients are acquired and their contracts are canceled.
Consolidation among technology companies in our target market has been robust in recent years, and this trend poses a risk for us. Acquisitions of our clients could lead to cancellation of our contracts with those end customers by the acquiring companies and could reduce the number of our existing and potential clients. If mergers and acquisitions take place within our client base, some of the acquiring companies may terminate, renegotiate and/or elect not to renew our contracts with the companies they acquire, which would reduce our revenue. In addition, acquisitions in our client base may adversely impact our revenue even if the contract is not terminated. The sales we make on behalf of our clients are processed through our clients’ billing and quoting platforms. If our clients are acquired or merge with another company and as a result, their billing platforms or the procedures for processing closed sales are changed or slowed down, we will be unable to close our sales and our closure rate will fall, and therefore our revenue and our ability to keep our clients, could .
We enter into long-term, commission-based contracts with our clients, and our failure to correctly price these contracts may negatively affect our profitability.
We enter into long-term contracts with our clients that are priced based on multiple factors determined in large part by the performance analysis we conduct for our clients. These factors include opportunity size, anticipated booking rates and expected commission rates at various levels of sales performance. Some of these factors require forward-looking assumptions that may prove incorrect. If our assumptions are inaccurate, or if we otherwise fail to correctly price our client contracts, particularly those with lengthy contract terms, then our revenue, profitability and overall business operations may suffer. Further, if we fail to anticipate any unexpected increase in our costs for employees, office space, technology, and other costs of providing services, as a result of inflation or otherwise, we could be exposed to risks associated with cost overruns related to our required performance under our contracts, which could have a negative effect on our margins and earnings.
A substantial portion of our business consists of supporting our clients’ channel partners in the sale of service contracts. If those channel partners become unreceptive to our solution, our business could be harmed.
Many of our clients, including some of our largest clients, sell service contracts through their channel partners and engage our solution to help those channel partners become more effective at selling service contract renewals. In this context, the ultimate buyers of the service contracts are end customers of those channel partners, who then receive the actual services from our clients. In the event our clients’ channel partners become unreceptive to our involvement in the renewals process, those channel partners could discourage our current or future clients from engaging our solution to support channel sales. This risk is compounded by the fact that large channel partners may have relationships with more than one of our clients or prospects, in which case the negative reaction of one or more of those large channel partners could impact multiple client relationships. Accordingly, with respect to those clients and prospective clients who sell service contracts through channel partners, any significant resistance to our solution by their channel partners could harm our ability to attract or retain clients, which would damage our overall business operations.
We face long sales cycles to secure new client contracts, making it difficult to predict the timing of specific new client relationships.
We face a variable selling cycle to secure new client agreements, typically spanning a number of months and requiring our effort to obtain and analyze our prospect’s business through the service performance analysis, for which we are not paid. Moreover, even if we succeed in developing a relationship with a potential new client, the scope of the potential subscription or service revenue management engagement frequently changes over the course of the business discussions and, for a variety of reasons, our sales discussions may fail to result in new client acquisitions. Consequently, we have only a limited ability to predict the timing and size of specific new client relationships.
The length of time it takes our newly hired sales representatives and global account managers to become productive could adversely impact our success rate, the execution of our overall business plan and our costs.
It can take twelve months or longer before our internal sales representatives and global account managers are fully trained and productive in selling our solution to prospective clients. This long ramp period, which could be further increased by our shift to a virtual-first operating model, presents a number of operational challenges as the cost of recruiting, hiring and carrying new sales representatives and global account managers cannot be offset by the revenue such new sales representatives produce until after they
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complete their long ramp periods. Given the length of the ramp period, we often cannot determine if a sales representative or global account manager will succeed until he or she has been employed for a year or more. If we cannot reliably develop our sales representatives and global account managers to a productive level, or if we lose productive representatives and account managers in whom we have heavily invested, our future growth rates and revenue will suffer.
Our revenue and earnings are affected by foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.
Our results of operations and cash flows are subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates, particularly changes in the Euro, British Pound, Singapore Dollar, Philippine Peso, Bulgarian Lev and Malaysian Ringgit. We currently do not undertake hedging activities to manage these currency fluctuations. Even if we were to implement hedging strategies to mitigate this risk, these strategies might not eliminate our exposure to foreign exchange rate fluctuations and would involve costs and risks of their own, such as ongoing management time and expense, external costs to implement the strategies and potential accounting implications. In addition, if the effective price of the contracts we sell to end customers were to increase as a result of fluctuations in the exchange rate of the relevant currencies, demand for such contracts could fall, which in turn would reduce our revenue.
The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union could adversely affect our business.
In January 2020, the United Kingdom formally left the European Union, an action referred to as Brexit. Several political, legal, regulatory, and economic factors which are currently unknown will influence Brexit’s impact on our business. We have a revenue delivery center in Liverpool, United Kingdom, and Brexit has, and could continue to, create uncertainty in our employee base relating to immigration and other cross-border matters. Brexit could lead to economic and legal uncertainty, including significant volatility in currency exchange rates, reduced customer demand for our services, and increasingly divergent laws and regulations as the United Kingdom determines which European Union laws to replace or replicate. In addition, Brexit could cause a shift or increase in data privacy regulations for data transfers between the United Kingdom and European Union. Any of these effects of Brexit, among others, could adversely affect our operations in the United Kingdom and our financial results.
Claims by others that we infringe or violate their intellectual property could force us to incur significant costs and require us to change the way we conduct our business.
Our services or solutions could infringe the intellectual property rights of others, impacting our ability to deploy our services or solutions with our clients. From time to time, we receive letters from other parties alleging, or inquiring about, possible breaches of their intellectual property rights. These claims could require us to cease activities, incur expensive licensing costs, or engage in costly litigation, each of which could adversely affect our business and results of operations.
In addition, we may incorporate open source software into our technology solution. The terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our commercialization of any of our solutions that may include open source software. As a result, we will be required to analyze and monitor our use of open source software closely. As a result of the use of open source software, we could be required to seek licenses from third parties in order to develop such future products, re-engineer our products, discontinue sales of our solutions or release our software code under the terms of an open source license to the public. Given the nature of open source software, there is also a risk that third parties may assert copyright and other intellectual property infringement claims against us based on any use of such open source software. These claims could result in significant expense to us, which could harm our business.
Interruption of operations at our data centers and revenue delivery centers could have a materially adverse effect on our business.
If we experience a temporary or permanent interruption in our operations at one or more of our data or revenue delivery centers, through natural disaster (such as drought, flooding, wildfires, increased storm severity, and sea level rise), which may become more common as a result of climate change, pandemics or other public health emergencies (including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic), casualty, operating malfunction, cyberattack, sabotage or other causes, we may be unable to provide the services we are contractually obligated to deliver. Failure to provide contracted services could result in contractual damages or clients’ termination or renegotiation of their contracts. Although we maintain disaster recovery and business continuity plans and precautions designed to protect our company and our clients from events that could our delivery of services, there is no guarantee that such plans and precautions will be or that any will not be . Any in our ability to provide services to our
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clients for whom our plans and precautions fail to adequately protect us could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operation and financial condition.
We are dependent on the continued participation and level of service of our third-party platform provider. Any failure or disruption in this service could materially and adversely affect our ability to manage our business effectively.
We rely on salesforce.com to provide the platform supporting many of our technologies and AWS to support a significant portion of our data storage. If salesforce.com or AWS stops supporting our technologies or if they fail to provide a platform that consistently and adequately supports our solution, including as a result of errors or failures in their systems or events beyond their control, or refuse to provide their platforms on terms acceptable to us or at all and we are not able to find suitable alternatives, our business may be materially and adversely affected.
We may be subject to state, local and foreign taxes that could harm our business.
We operate revenue delivery centers in multiple locations. Some of the jurisdictions in which we operate, such as Ireland, Malaysia, and the Philippines, give us the benefit of either relatively low tax rates, tax holidays or government grants, in each case, that are dependent on how we operate or how many jobs we create and employees we retain. We plan on utilizing such tax incentives in the future, as opportunities are made available to us. Any failure on our part to operate in conformity with applicable requirements to remain qualified for any such tax incentives or grants may result in an increase in our taxes. In addition, jurisdictions may choose to increase rates at any time due to economic or other factors. Any such rate increases may harm our results of operations.
We may lose sales or incur significant costs should various tax jurisdictions impose taxes on either a broader range of services or services that we have performed in the past. We may be subject to audits of the taxing authorities in the jurisdictions where we do business that would require us to incur costs in responding to such audits. Imposition of such taxes on our services could result in substantial unplanned costs, would effectively increase the cost of such services to our clients and may adversely affect our ability to retain existing clients or to gain new clients in the areas in which such taxes are imposed.
We may incur material restructuring charges.
We continually evaluate ways to reduce our operating expenses and adapt to changing industry and market conditions through new restructuring opportunities, including more effective utilization of our assets, workforce and operating facilities. We have recorded restructuring charges in the past and we may incur material restructuring charges in the future. The risk that we incur material restructuring charges may be heightened during economic downturns or with expanded global operations.
We have incurred indebtedness in connection with our business and may incur additional indebtedness in the future.
In July 2021, we entered into a $35.0 million Revolver that allows us to borrow against our domestic receivables as defined in the 2021 Credit Agreement. As of February 23, 2022, we had $10.0 million of borrowings under the Revolver through a six-month BSBY borrowing at an effective interest rate of 3.04% maturing in August 2022. An additional $18.0 million was available for borrowing under the Revolver as of February 23, 2022. The BSBY borrowings may be extended upon maturity, converted into a base rate borrowing upon maturity or require an incremental payment if the Company's borrowing base decreases below the current amount outstanding during the term of the BSBY borrowing. We may incur additional indebtedness in connection with financing acquisitions, strategic transactions or for other purposes.
If we are unable to secure additional borrowing options in the future, it may have an adverse effect on our business.
The Revolver matures in July 2024, and we are subject to the risks normally associated with debt obligations, including the risk that we will be unable to refinance our indebtedness, or that the terms of such refinancing will not be as favorable as the terms of our indebtedness. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds necessary to make required payments or otherwise refinance any debt that we incur, our business could suffer.
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Covenants in our 2021 Credit Agreement currently impose, and future financing agreements may impose, significant operating and financial restrictions.
Our current 2021 Credit Agreement contains restrictions, and future financing agreements may contain additional restrictions, on our activities, including covenants that restrict our ability to incur additional debt, pay dividends on, redeem or repurchase stock, create liens, make specified types of investments, engage in transactions with our affiliates, merge or consolidate, and sell, assign, transfer, lease, convey or dispose of assets.
Our financial condition and results of operations could suffer if there is an impairment of goodwill.
We are required to test goodwill annually or more frequently if certain circumstances change that would more-likely-than-not indicate the carrying value of the reporting unit may not be recoverable. As of December 31, 2021, our goodwill was $6.3 million. When the carrying value of a reporting unit exceeds its fair value, an impairment loss equal to the difference is recorded. This would result in incremental expenses for that period, which would reduce any earnings or increase any loss for the period in which the impairment was determined to have occurred. Declines in our level of revenues or declines in our operating margins, or sustained declines in our stock price, increase the risk that goodwill may become impaired in future periods. Our goodwill impairment analysis is sensitive to changes in key assumptions used in our analysis, such as expected future cash flows and our stock price. If the assumptions used in our analysis are not realized, it is possible that an impairment charge may need to be recorded in the future. We cannot accurately predict the amount and timing of any of goodwill.
If we were to experience an ownership change, we could be limited in our ability to use NOLs arising prior to the ownership change to offset future taxable income. In addition, our ability to use NOLs to reduce future tax payments may be limited if our taxable income does not reach sufficient levels.
As of December 31, 2021, we had federal net operating losses of $325.4 million. If we were to experience an “ownership change,” as determined under Section 382 of the IRC, our ability to offset taxable income arising after the ownership change with net operating losses arising prior to the ownership change would be limited, possibly substantially. In addition, our ability to use our net operating losses is dependent on our ability to generate taxable income, and the net operating losses could expire before we generate sufficient taxable income to make use of our net operating losses.
General Risk Factors
Anti-takeover provisions contained in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, as well as provisions of Delaware law, could impair a takeover attempt.
Our certificate of incorporation, bylaws and Delaware law contain provisions that could have the effect of rendering more difficult or discouraging an acquisition deemed undesirable by our board of directors. Our corporate governance documents include provisions:
authorizing blank check preferred stock, which could be issued by our board of directors without stockholder approval, with voting, liquidation, dividend and other rights superior to our common stock;
limiting the liability of, and providing indemnification to, our directors and officers;
limiting the ability of our stockholders to call and bring business before special meetings and to take action by written consent in lieu of a meeting;
requiring advance notice of stockholder proposals for business to be conducted at meetings of our stockholders and for nominations of candidates for election to our board of directors;
controlling the procedures for the conduct and scheduling of stockholder meetings;
providing the board of directors with the express power to postpone previously scheduled annual meetings and to cancel previously scheduled special meetings;
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limiting the determination of the number of directors on our board and the filling of vacancies or newly created seats on the board to our board of directors then in office; and
providing that directors may be removed by stockholders only for cause.
These provisions, alone or together, could delay hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our management. As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to provisions of Delaware law, including Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation law, which limits the ability of stockholders owning in excess of 15% of our outstanding common stock to merge or combine with us.
Any provision of our certificate of incorporation, bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our common stock.
We may be unable to maintain compliance with Nasdaq Marketplace Rules which could cause our common stock to be delisted from the Nasdaq Global Select Market. This could result in the lack of a market for our common stock, cause a decrease in the value of our common stock, and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Under the Nasdaq Marketplace Rules our common stock must maintain a minimum price of $1.00 per share for continued inclusion on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Our stock price was previously below $1.00 on certain dates during December 2021, and we cannot guarantee that our stock price will remain at or above $1.00 per share. If the price of our stock were to close below $1.00 per share for 30 consecutive business days, our stock could become subject to delisting, and we may seek stockholder approval for a reverse stock split, which in turn could produce adverse effects and may not result in a long-term or permanent increase in the price of our common stock.
If our common stock is delisted, trading of the stock will most likely take place on an over-the-counter market established for unlisted securities. An investor is likely to find it less convenient to sell, or to obtain accurate quotations in seeking to buy, our common stock on an over-the-counter market, and many investors may not buy or sell our common stock due to difficulty in accessing over-the-counter markets, or due to policies preventing them from trading in securities not listed on a national exchange or other reasons. For these reasons and others, delisting would adversely affect the liquidity, trading volume and price of our common stock, causing the value of an investment in us to decrease and having an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations by limiting our ability to attract and retain qualified executives and employees and limiting our ability to raise capital.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock could depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business, which in part depends on our market capitalization. If analysts downgrade our stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price could also likely decline. If analysts cease coverage of us, the trading price and trading volume of our stock could be negatively impacted. As of December 31, 2021, the Company is not aware of any active analyst coverage.
Because we currently do not intend to pay dividends, stockholders will benefit from an investment in our common stock only if it appreciates in value.
We currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, for use in the operation of our business and do not expect to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future on our common stock. As a result, the success of an investment in our common stock will depend upon any future appreciation in its value. There is no guarantee that our common stock will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which stockholders have purchased their shares.
Our business or the value of our common stock could be negatively affected as a result of actions by activist stockholders.
Our company values constructive input from investors and regularly engages in dialogue with stockholders regarding strategy and performance. Our board of directors and management team are committed to acting in the best interests of all of our
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stockholders. There is no assurance that the actions taken by our board of directors and management in seeking to maintain constructive engagement with stockholders will be successful.
Activist stockholders who disagree with the composition of our board of directors, our strategy, or the way our company is managed may seek to effect change through various strategies that range from private engagement to publicity campaigns, proxy contests, efforts to force transactions not supported by our board of directors, and litigation. Responding to some of these actions can be costly and time-consuming, may disrupt our operations and divert the attention of our board of directors, management, and employees. Such activities could interfere with our ability to execute our strategic plan and to attract and retain qualified executive leadership and could cause concern to our current or potential clients. The perceived uncertainty as to our future direction resulting from activist strategies could also affect the market price and volatility of our common stock.
