OVERVIEW
We develop, market, sell, and support software and integrated solutions for video and audio content creation, management, and distribution. We are a leading technology provider that powers the media and entertainment industry. We do this by providing an open and efficient platform for digital media, along with a comprehensive set of creative software tools and workflow solutions. Our solutions are used in production and post-production facilities; film studios; network, affiliate, independent and cable television stations; recording studios; live-sound performance venues; advertising agencies; government and educational institutions; corporate communications departments; and by independent video and audio creative professionals, as well as aspiring professionals. Projects produced using our tools, platform, and ecosystem include feature films, television programming, live events, news broadcasts, sports productions, commercials, music, video, and other digital media content. With over one million creative users and thousands of enterprise clients relying on our technology platforms and solutions around the world, Avid enables the industry to thrive in today’s connected media and entertainment world.
Our mission is to empower media creators with innovative technology and collaborative tools to entertain, inform, educate, and enlighten the world. Our clients rely on Avid to create prestigious and award-winning feature films, music recordings, television shows, live concerts, sporting events, and news broadcasts. Avid has been honored for technological innovation with 16 Emmy Awards, one Grammy Award, two Oscars, and the first ever America Cinema Editors Technical Excellence Award. In 2018, Avid was named the recipient of the prestigious Philo T. Farnsworth Award by the Television Academy to honor Avid’s 30 years of continuous, transformative technology innovations, including products that have improved and accelerated the editing and post production process for television.
CORPORATE STRATEGY
Acceleration of digitization is having a tremendous impact on the media industry and altering the industry value chain. Today’s consumers are empowered to create and consume content on-demand, anywhere, anytime. Organizations in the media industry are under pressure to connect and automate the entire creation-to-consumption workflow, and are facing a number of challenges, including:
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Increasing rate of content creation and digitization of media assets - Many organizations are feeling intense pressure to create more and more content, increasingly tailored for audience niches, while also facing greater competition from nimble players. At the same time, access to creative software tools is wider today than ever before, giving more people the ability to tell their stories.
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Exponential growth of distribution platforms - The number of distribution platforms continues to expand, and the economic models of new distribution platforms are still evolving. Many organizations need to embrace new opportunities while also maximizing heritage business.
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Continued increase in content consumption - There has been a tremendous increase in viewership in the last decade, but it is spread across many outlets and channels. This increase in viewership is dwarfed by an increase in competitive content. In addition, with growing audience fragmentation, compelling content, brand equity, and relevance are even more critical today.
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Disparate mix of tools, skills, and workflows - Lack of commonality and a fragmented supplier landscape creates incompatibilities, inhibiting agility, collaboration, sharing, and efficiency.
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Media technology budgets - Today’s economic realities are placing pressure on media technology budgets, while content output must increase exponentially to deliver on the market requirements. Content creators and distributors have to work with essentially flat budgets, which demands more efficient workflows and solutions.
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We believe we are uniquely positioned in the media technology industry because we have a differentiated platform strategy and a well-established market position. Our products and solutions allow our customers to (i) create high-quality, engaging, and immersive content, (ii) distribute to more outlets and devices, (iii) maximize and protect the value of media assets, and (iv) create operational and capital efficiency. As a result of our unique position across the media industry, we believe we can take advantage of the following opportunities and trends:
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Large and growing market poised for transition - Our customers are facing significant disruption and need to make major changes and investments in their business and operational approaches. Our product offerings will help them address those challenges.
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Deeply entrenched with a market leadership position - We can strategically leverage a significant global customer base that is loyal to our brand across TV, film, music, and media.
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Positioned to help the industry navigate disruption - Our unique approach encompasses a common technology platform, leading software applications and integrated solutions with a large and open ecosystem, which we believe differentiates us from our competitors.
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Ready to intercept the next emerging opportunity - By leveraging our partnership with Microsoft and our MediaCentral platform, we believe we can lead the media and entertainment industry into the cloud with market-leading Software as a Service, or SaaS, offerings.
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Our strategy for connecting creative professionals and media enterprises with audiences in a powerful, efficient, collaborative, and profitable way leverages our Avid MediaCentral Platform. This platform is an open, extensible and customizable foundation that streamlines and simplifies content workflows by integrating all Avid or third-party products and services that run on top of it. The platform provides secure and protected access and enables fast and easy creation, delivery, and monetization of content.
We work to ensure that we are meeting customer needs, staying ahead of industry trends, and investing in the right areas through a close and interactive relationship with our customer base. The Avid Customer Association was established to be an innovative and influential media technology community. It represents thousands of organizations and over 33,000 professionals from all levels of the industry including inspirational and award-winning thought leaders, innovators, and storytellers. The Avid Customer Association fosters collaboration between Avid, its customers, and other industry colleagues to help shape our product offerings and provide a means to shape our industry together.
A key element of our strategy is our transition to a recurring revenue-based model through a combination of subscription offerings and long-term agreements. We started offering subscription licensing options for some of our products and solutions in 2014 and by the end of 2019 had approximately 188,000 paid subscriptions. These licensing options offer choices in pricing and deployment to suit our customers’ needs. Our subscription offerings to date have primarily been sold to creative professionals, though we expect to increase subscription sales to media enterprises going forward as we expand offerings and move through customer upgrade cycles, which we expect will further increase recurring revenue on a longer-term basis. Our long-term agreements are comprised of multi-year agreements with large media enterprise customers to provide specified products and services, including SaaS offerings, and channel partners and resellers to purchase minimum amounts of products and service over a specified period of time.
Another key aspect of our strategy has been to implement programs to increase operational efficiencies and reduce costs. We are making significant changes in business operations to better support the company’s strategy and overall performance. We have implemented a number of spending control initiatives with an emphasis on non-personnel costs to reduce the overall cost structure while still investing in key areas that will drive growth. We are also revamping our supply chain and logistics, moving to a lean model that leverages a new supplier and distribution network. We are optimizing our go-to-market strategy, simplifying it to address specific customer markets and help maximize our commercial success. We expect this will improve our effectiveness, increase efficiency, and drive growth in our pipeline and ultimately revenue.
CUSTOMER MARKETS
We provide our solutions to the following markets:
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Media Enterprises. This market consists of broadcast, government, sports, and other organizations that acquire, create, process, and/or distribute audio and video content to a large audience for communication, entertainment, analysis, and/or forensic purposes. Customers in this market rely on workflows that span content acquisition, creation, editing, distribution, sales, and redistribution and utilize all content distribution platforms, including web, mobile, internet protocol television, cable, satellite, on-air, and various other proprietary platforms. Our domain expertise also allows us to provide customers in this market with a range of professional and consulting services. We sell into this market through our direct sales force and resellers.
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Creative Professionals. This market is made up of individual artists and small entities that create audio and video media as a paid service but do not currently distribute media to end consumers on a large scale. This market spans a wide-ranging target audience that includes: independent video editors; facilities and filmmakers that produce video media as a business but are not broadcasters; professional sound designers, editors, and mixers and facilities that specialize in the creation of audio for picture; songwriters, musicians, producers, film composers, and engineers who compose and record music professionally; technicians, engineers, rental companies, and facilities that present, record, and broadcast audio and video for live performances; and students and teachers in career technical education programs in high schools, colleges, universities, and post-secondary vocational schools that prepare students for professional media production careers in the digital workplace. Our domain expertise also allows us to provide customers in this market with a broad range of professional services. We sell into this market through storefront and on-line retailers, as well as through our direct sales force, resellers, and our webstore.
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PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Overview
Avid’s growing product portfolio is rooted in providing open and extensible products that ensure our long-term position with customers. Our software and integrated solutions, as well as our services offerings, address the diverse needs, skills, and sophistication levels of our customers. All of our key products and solutions have been integrated into our MediaCentral Platform, which provides the industry’s most open, integrated, and efficient platform designed for media. In addition, we provide flexible deployment models, licensing options, and commercial structures so our customers can choose how, when, and where to deploy and use our tools.
The standalone software portion of our portfolio consists of our Creative Software Suite and the Enterprise Software Suite, representing a large high-margin software and maintenance business.
Creative Software Solutions
The Creative Software Suite includes our Media Composer, Pro Tools, and Sibelius tools, as well the Artist Community platform and the Avid Marketplace, all of which are key components of our cloud-enabled software subscription strategy.
Media Composer
Our award-winning Media Composer product line is used to edit video content, including television programming, commercials, and films. Our cloud-enabled solutions that include Media Composer enable broadcast news, sports, reality television, and film professionals to acquire, access, edit, and finish stories anytime and from everywhere. Leveraging an integrated, yet open, end-to-end architecture, this solution gives contributors the ability to craft stories where and while they are happening and speed them to delivery, while maintaining connectivity with the central production operation. Media Composer also offers resolution flexibility and independence, accelerating high-res, HDR, and HD workflows. We offer Media Composer through both subscription and perpetual license offerings.
Pro Tools
Our Pro Tools digital audio workstation software facilitates the audio production process, including music and sound creation, recording, editing, signal processing, integrated surround mixing, and mastering and reference video playback. The Pro Tools platform supports a wide variety of internally developed and third-party software plug-ins and integrated hardware. Pro Tools solutions are offered at a range of price points and are used by professionals in music, film, television, radio, gaming, Internet, and other media production environments. We offer Pro Tools through both subscription and perpetual license offerings.
Sibelius
Our Sibelius product allows users to create, edit, and publish musical scores. It is used by composers, arrangers, and other music professionals. Student versions are also available to assist in the teaching of music composition and score writing. Sibelius music notation software offers sophisticated, yet easy-to-use tools that are proven and trusted by composers, arrangers, publishers, educators, and students alike. We also offer Sibelius | Cloud Sharing, which allows users to view and play scores anywhere from the cloud using current web browsers and mobile devices. We offer Sibelius through both subscription and perpetual license offerings.
Avid Link
Avid Link is a free mobile application for anyone wanting to connect with other artists, producers, mixers, composers, editors, videographers, movie makers, and graphic designers, and to the Avid Marketplace. Available for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android users, Avid Link is intended to make it easy for users to find, connect, message, and collaborate with audio and video creators, promote their work and skills to a vast network of media professionals, manage and keep their software up to date, and purchase new tools. We believe Avid Link will increase interest and demand for Avid’s suite of product offerings.
Enterprise Software Solutions
Avid’s Enterprise Software Suite is built on the MediaCentral platform along with a suite of applications, modules, and services and is also the foundation of our cloud and SaaS offerings.
MediaCentral
MediaCentral | Cloud UX is Avid’s next-generation media production suite that further extends the Avid MediaCentral platform into the cloud. The MediaCentral platform scales from the simplest to the most sophisticated solutions. Built on a customizable cloud native microservices architecture, MediaCentral platform features a cloud-based user experience that runs on any device, workflow modules for editorial, production, news, graphics, and asset management, with applications to enhance and scale any of those modules, and a wide array of media services and partner connectors. Every user is connected in a completely integrated workflow environment with a user-friendly interface, and gains a unified view into all their media with flexible deployment options for on premises, hybrid, or cloud (public/private) environments.
As part of the Avid MediaCentral platform, we also offer an Editorial Management module for smaller creative teams that provides the same robust media management capabilities used by the largest media enterprises in the industry. Integrated within Media Composer via a panel, Editorial Management connects directly to Avid NEXIS storage to provide easy access to media with hyper-search functionality. Editorial Management also extends collaboration capabilities for the assistant editor in an easy to use web interface by allowing Media Composer bin creation, logging, and search capabilities, greatly expanding the efficiency of creative teams.
SaaS Solutions
We have a strategic partnership with Microsoft to deliver Azure certified solutions to support end-to-end hybrid and cloud deployments of news workflows. Our partnership includes developing virtualized versions of many of our product offerings, allowing them to run in a private cloud, public cloud, or in hybrid deployments. This enables customers to migrate to more traditional IT infrastructures leveraging IP technology to integrate disparate systems within a broadcast environment. We
believe our new SaaS and cloud offerings will allow our customers to (i) scale production while lowering costs, (ii) enable anytime access, boosting efficiency and collaboration, and (iii) deliver content quickly and securely to any device, from anywhere. With many of our SaaS and cloud offerings just coming online, historical revenue related to SaaS offerings has not been significant, however, we expect these offerings to be important growth drivers going forward.
Integrated Solutions
The Integrated Solutions part of our portfolio mainly consists of four common, best-in-class hardware platforms that are combined with tightly integrated software elements to create powerful and differentiated solutions, all of which are designed to complement and enhance our overall software strategy.
Avid NEXIS
Our Avid NEXIS family of shared storage systems are real-time, open solutions that bring the power of shared storage to local, regional, national and multinational broadcasters, and post-production facilities at competitive prices. Customers can improve allocation of creative resources and support changing project needs with an open, shared storage platform that includes file system technology on lower cost hardware, support for third-party applications, and streamlined administration to create more content at an affordable price. Avid NEXIS is the industry’s first and only software-defined storage platform specifically designed for storing and managing media. Avid NEXIS enables fully virtualized storage so media organizations can adjust storage capacity mid-project, without disrupting workflows. Powered by our MediaCentral Platform, Avid NEXIS delivers media storage flexibility, scalability, and control for both Avid-based and third-party workflows. It has been designed to serve small production teams as powerfully as large media enterprises and is built with flexibility to grow with customers through their business stages.
S6
Our S6 product line offers customers a range of complementary control surfaces and consoles, leveraging the open industry standard protocol EUCON (Extended User Control) to provide open solutions that meet the needs of customers ranging from the independent professional to the high-end broadcaster. Our Pro Tools | S6 control surface for sound recording, mixing, and editing was designed as a modular solution that scales to meet both current and future customer requirements. S6 is designed for audio professionals in demanding production environments, delivering the performance needed to complete projects faster while producing high quality mixes. Compact and portable, all control surfaces in the Artist line feature EUCON, allowing hands-on control of the user’s applications. Finally, the free Pro Tools | Control iOS application enables customers to record and mix faster and easier than working with a mouse and keyboard alone.
S1 and S4
In July 2019, we unveiled two new audio control surfaces, the Avid S4 and Avid S1, for professionals at smaller facilities and project studios. Avid S4 brings the power and workflows of Avid’s industry-leading Pro Tools S6 control surface to budget-conscious audio professionals and small- to mid-size music and audio post facilities in an ergonomic and more compact package. The Avid S1 delivers the speed, rich visual feedback, and software integration of Avid’s high-end consoles in a portable, slimline surface that’s an easy fit for any space or budget.
Live Sound
Our VENUE product family and our VENUE | S6L live sound system includes console systems for mixing audio for live sound reinforcement for concerts, theater performances, and other public address events. We offer a range of VENUE systems designed for large performance settings, such as stadium concerts, as well as medium-sized theaters and houses of worship. VENUE systems allow the direct integration of Pro Tools solutions to mix and record live productions of any size.
Maestro
Our Maestro product line offers customers comprehensive solutions for integrating virtual sets, augmented reality, and video wall control into existing workflows, ideal for any type of production needs in news, sports, entertainment, and in-studio
productions, creating greater accessibility, efficiency at scale to enable the delivery of content with graphics faster. Maestro features a core platform that includes a powerful render engine and featured design tool called Maestro | Designer that drives a line-up of applications that are designed to address the specific challenges broadcasters face when automating the integration of statistics and graphics for the creation of an engaging broadcast. By adding graphics capabilities across the entire product line, we enable journalists and producers to add graphics remotely to news stories or enhance any story with innovative stats to drive augmented reality graphics for presenting data in new and compelling ways.
FastServe
Our FastServe video server product line assists broadcasters in making the move to UHD and IP based workflows with a new, modular architecture. The Avid FastServe family integrates with the MediaCentral platform, empowering creative teams to deliver content fast for news, sports, entertainment, and other media productions. Its 10GbE interface offers direct connection to Avid NEXIS storage, enabling real-time ingest, editing, and playout, even while media is being captured. Its modular, future-proof architecture improves efficiency and provides a smooth transition from HD to UHD, and from SDI workflows to video over IP. We also continue to sell and support our on-air server solutions, including AirSpeed 5000 and AirSpeed 5500, which enable broadcasters to automate the ingest and playout of television and news programming. The AirSpeed 5000 and 5500 video servers work with a wide range of applications to improve workflow and provide cost-efficient ingest and play to air capabilities for broadcasters of any size.
I/O and Processing
We offer a number of hardware products that complement our Media Composer and Pro Tools creative solutions, which include I/O devices, interfaces, and audio and video processing equipment.
Customer Support
We offer a variety of service contracts and support plans for our software and integrated solutions, allowing each customer to select the level of technical and operational support that they need to maintain their operational effectiveness. Support contracts typically include the right to the latest software updates, call support, and, in some cases, hardware maintenance. Support contracts for individual products are sold bundled with initial product offerings or as renewals once initial contracts have lapsed. Support contracts are also sold on an enterprise basis where a customer purchases support for all Avid products owned. Our Customer Care team provides customers with a partner committed to giving them help and support when they need it. Our global Customer Care team of industry professionals offers a blend of technology expertise and real-world experience throughout the audio, visual, and entertainment industries. The team’s mission is to provide timely, informed responses to our customers’ issues and proactive maintenance for our solutions to help our customers maintain high standards of operational effectiveness.
Professional Services
Our Professional Services team delivers workflow design and consulting, program, and project management, system installation and commissioning, custom development, and role-based product level training. The Professional Services team facilitates the engagement with our customers to maximize their investment in technology, increase their operational efficiency, and enable them to reduce deployment risk and implement our solutions.
Training and Education
Our Education team delivers public and private training to our customers and alliance partners to ensure that they have the necessary skills and technical competencies to deploy, use, administer, and create Avid solutions. The Education team develops and licenses curriculum content for use by third-party Avid Learning partners to deliver training to customers, users, and alliance partners. The Education team includes the Avid Certification program which validates the skills and competency of Avid users, administrators, instructors, support representatives, and developers.
COMPETITION
Our customer markets are highly competitive and subject to rapid change and declining average selling prices. The competitive landscape is fragmented with a large number of companies providing various types of products and services in different markets and geographic areas. We provide integrated solutions that compete based on total workflow value, features, quality, service, and flexibility of pricing and deployment options. Companies with which we compete in some contexts may also act as our partners in other contexts, such as large enterprise customer environments.
Certain companies that compete with us across some of our products and solutions are listed below by the market relevant to Avid in which they compete predominantly:
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Broadcast and Media: Grass Valley, ChyronHego Corporation, Dalet S.A., Dell Technologies Inc. (EMC Isilon), EVS Corporation, Harmonic Inc., Quantum Corporation, Ross Video Limited, and Vizrt Ltd., among others.
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Audio and Video Post and Professional: Ableton AG, Adobe Systems Incorporated, Apple Inc., AudioTonix Limited, Blackmagic Design Pty Ltd, PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc., and Yamaha Corporation, among others.
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Some of our principal competitors are substantially larger than we are and have greater financial, technical, marketing, and other resources than us. For a discussion of these and other risks associated with our competitors, see “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of this Form 10-K.
OPERATIONS
Sales and Services Channels
We market and sell our products and solutions through a combination of direct, indirect, and digital sales channels. Our direct sales channel consists of internal sales representatives serving select customers and markets. Our indirect sales channels include global networks of independent distributors, value-added resellers, system integrators, and retailers. Our digital sales channel is represented by the online Avid Marketplace, and also through the Xchange Market Platform, or XMP, with some of our key partners and distributors.
We have significant international operations with offices in 19 countries and the ability to reach approximately 171 countries through a combination of our direct sales force and resellers. Sales to customers outside the United States accounted for 63%, 64% and 62% of our total net revenues in 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. Additional information about the geographic breakdown of our revenues and long-lived assets can be found in Note P to our Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of this Form 10-K. For additional information about risks associated with our international operations, see “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of this Form 10-K.
We generally ship our products shortly after the receipt of an order. However, a high percentage of our revenues has historically been generated in the third month of each fiscal quarter and concentrated in the latter part of that month. Orders that may exist at the end of a quarter and have not been shipped are not recognized as revenues in that quarter and are included in revenue backlog.
We provide customer care services directly through regional in-house and contracted support centers and major-market field service representatives and indirectly through dealers, value-added resellers, and authorized third-party service providers. Depending on the solution, customers may choose from a variety of support offerings, including telephone and online technical support, on-site assistance, hardware replacement and extended warranty, and software upgrades. In addition to customer care services, we offer a broad array of professional services, including installation, integration, planning and consulting services, and customer training.
Manufacturing and Suppliers
Our manufacturing operations consist primarily of a network of contract manufacturers around the globe to manufacture many of our products, components and subassemblies, and original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, from whom we purchase finished assemblies. Our products undergo testing and quality assurance at the final assembly stage. We depend on
sole-source suppliers for many key hardware product components and finished goods, including some critical items. Although we have procedures in place to mitigate the risks associated with our sole-sourced suppliers, we cannot be certain that we will be able to obtain sole-sourced components or finished goods from alternative suppliers or that we will be able to do so on commercially reasonable terms without a material impact on our results of operations or financial position. For the risks associated with our use of contractors and sole-source vendors, see “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of this Form 10-K.
Our contract manufacturers and OEMs manufacture our products at a relatively limited number of different facilities located throughout the world and, in most cases, the manufacturing of each of our products is concentrated in one or a few locations. An interruption in manufacturing capabilities at any of these facilities, as a result of equipment failure or other reasons, could reduce, delay, or prevent the production of our products. Because some of our manufacturing or our contract manufacturers’ operations are located outside of the United States, principally located in Mexico, those manufacturing operations are also subject to additional challenges and risks associated with international operations. For these and other risks associated with our manufacturing operations, see “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of this Form 10-K.
Research and Development
We are committed to delivering best-in-class digital media content-creation solutions that are designed for the unique needs, skills and sophistication levels of our target customer markets as well as a generic media platform for the media industry. Having helped establish the digital media technology industry, we are building on a 30-year heritage of innovation and leadership in developing content-creation solutions and platforms. We have research and development, or R&D, operations in seven facilities located in five countries. Our R&D efforts are focused on the development of digital media content-creation, distribution, and monetization tools as well as the media platform. These tools operate primarily on the Mac and on Windows platforms, whereas the media platform primarily operates on Linux platforms. Our R&D efforts also include highly optimized media storage solutions, standards-based media transfer and media asset management tools, and ingest and playout solutions to cover the entire workflow. Our R&D expenditures for 2019, 2018 and 2017 were $62.3 million, $62.4 million and $68.2 million, respectively, which represented 15%, 15% and 16% of our total net revenues, respectively. For the risks associated with our use of partners for R&D projects, see “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of this Form 10-K.
Our philosophy is to prioritize research and development investments to take advantage of market opportunities based on the following short-term, medium-term, and long-term horizons:
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Here & Now - Improve performance, solidify core portfolio, improve margins, and ignite growth.
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Emerging - Expand opportunities by pursuing growth areas, extending our product portfolio, and expanding market opportunities.
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Transformational - Build for the future, creating unique defensible differentiation in our products and solutions with disruptive and visionary innovation.
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Our company-operated R&D operations are located in: Burlington, Massachusetts; Berkeley, California; Munich, Germany; Kaiserslautern, Germany; Kfar Saba, Israel; Szczecin, Poland; and Montreal, Canada. We also partner with a vendor in Kiev, Ukraine for outsourced R&D services.
Intellectual Property
We regard our software and hardware as proprietary and protect our proprietary interests under the laws of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, as well as through contractual provisions.
We have obtained patents and have registered copyrights, trademarks and service marks in the United States and in many foreign countries. At February 8, 2020, we held 114 U.S. patents, with expiration dates through 2039, and had 15 patent applications pending with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. We have also registered or applied to register various trademarks and service marks in the United States and a number of foreign countries, including Avid, Avid Nexis, AirSpeed, FastServe, MediaCentral, Media Composer, Pro Tools, and Sibelius. As a technology company, we regard our patents, copyrights, trademarks, service marks, and trade secrets as being among our most valuable assets, together with the innovative skills, technical competence, and marketing abilities of our personnel.
Our software is licensed to end users pursuant to shrink-wrap, embedded, click-through, or signed license agreements. Our products generally contain features to guard against unauthorized use. Policing unauthorized use of computer software is difficult, and software piracy is a persistent problem for us, as it is for the software industry in general. Although we attempt to protect our intellectual property rights through patents, trademarks, copyrights, licensing arrangements, maintaining certain technology as trade secrets, and other measures, there can be no assurance that any patent, trademark, copyright, or other intellectual property rights owned by us will not be invalidated, circumvented or challenged, that such intellectual property rights will provide competitive advantages to us, or that any of our pending or future patent applications will be issued with the claims, or the scope of the claims, sought by us, if at all. Others may develop technologies that are similar or superior to our technology, duplicate our technology, or design around the patents that we own. In addition, effective patent, copyright, and trade secret protection may be unavailable or limited in countries in which we do business or may do business in the future. For these and other risks associated with the protection of our intellectual property, see “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of this Form 10-K.
HISTORY AND EMPLOYEES
Avid was incorporated in Delaware in 1987. We are headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, with operations in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. At December 31, 2019, our worldwide workforce consisted of 1,429 employees and 325 external contractors.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
We make available free of charge on our website, www.avid.com, copies of our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, our Current Reports on Form 8-K, and all amendments to those reports as soon as practicable after filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. Additionally, we will provide paper copies of all of these filings free of charge upon request. Alternatively, these reports can be accessed at the SEC’s Internet website at www.sec.gov. The information contained on our web site shall not be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Exchange Act.
You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, in addition to the other information included or incorporated by reference in this Form 10-K, before making an investment decision regarding our common stock. If any of the following risks were to actually occur, our business, financial condition or operating results would likely suffer, possibly materially, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business.
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
A natural disaster or catastrophic event may significantly limit our ability to conduct business as normal and harm our business.
Our operations, and the operations of our customers, are vulnerable to interruptions by natural disasters and catastrophic events. For example, we operate a complex, geographically dispersed business, which includes significant personnel, customers and facilities in California near major earthquake fault lines. We may not be able to protect our company from, and we are predominantly uninsured for, business continuity losses and disruptions caused by such catastrophic events. Disruption or failure of our or our customers’ networks or systems, or injury or damage to either parties’ personnel or physical infrastructure, caused by a natural disaster, public health crisis, terrorism, cyber-attack, act of war, or other catastrophic event may significantly limit our or our customers’ ability to conduct business as normal, including our ability to communicate and transact with customers, suppliers, distributors, and resellers, which may negatively affect our revenues and operating results. Additionally, a natural disaster or catastrophic event could cause us or our customers to suspend all or a portion of operations for a significant period of time, result in a permanent loss of resources, and require the relocation of personnel and material to alternate facilities that may not be available or adequate. Such an event could also cause an indirect economic impact on our customers, which could impact our customers’ purchasing decisions and reduce demand for our products and services. For example, due to the recent outbreak of the coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China, there likely will be disruption to our supply chain as certain of the hardware subcomponent shipments from our manufacturing and hardware development vendors in China may be delayed. Additionally, the outbreak of the coronavirus likely will cause disruption to our customers in China, and possibly elsewhere, reducing or delaying purchasing decisions. We may also experience disruption to our internal operations if we are forced to restrict employee travel, cancel events with customers or partners, or even close office facilities as a result of the outbreak. Although we are monitoring the situation, the Company cannot predict for how long, or the ultimate extent to which the outbreak may disrupt the Company’s operations. Any significant disruption resulting from this or similar events on a large scale or over a prolonged period of time could cause significant delays and disruption to our business until the Company would be able to resume normal business operations or shift to other third-party vendors, negatively affecting our revenue and other financial results. A prolonged disruption of our business could also damage our reputation, particularly among our global news organization customers who are likely to require our solutions and support during such time. Any of these factors could cause a material adverse impact on our financial condition and operating results.
The rapid evolution of the media industry is changing our customers’ needs, businesses and revenue models, and if we cannot anticipate these changes or adapt to them quickly, our revenues will be adversely affected and our business will be harmed.
The media industry is rapidly and dramatically transforming as a result of free content, minimal entry costs for creation and distribution, and expanded use of mobile devices. As a result, our customers’ needs, businesses, and revenue models are changing, often in ways that deviate from our traditional core strengths and bases. If we cannot anticipate these changes or adapt to them quickly, our revenues will be adversely affected and our business will be harmed. For example, our customers have to address the increasing digitization of the media industry, which requires the creation of a more seamless value chain between content creation and monetization. Because of the consumerization of the media industry, there is more pressure to create media that can be efficiently repurposed in a variety of ways. As a result of these industry changes, traditional advertising channels are also facing competition from web and mobile platforms, and diminished revenues from traditional advertising could cause some customers’ budgets for the purchase of our solutions to decline; this may be particularly true among local television stations, which in the past have been an important source of revenue for us. Additionally, our customers may seek to pool or share facilities and resources with others in their industry and engage with providers of software as a service.
The ongoing evolution of the media industry may reduce demand for some of our existing products and services. New or non-traditional competitors may arise or adapt in response to this evolution of the media industry, which could create downward price pressure on our products and solutions and reduce our market share and revenue opportunities.
Our success depends in significant part on our ability to offer innovative products and solutions in response to dynamic and rapidly evolving market demand.
To succeed in our market, we must offer innovative products and solutions. Innovation requires that we accurately predict future market trends and customer expectations, and that we quickly adapt our development efforts in response. We must also protect our product roadmap and new product initiatives from leaks that might reduce or eliminate any innovative edge that we seek. Predicting market trends is difficult because our market is dynamic and rapidly evolving. Additionally, given the complex, sophisticated nature of our solutions and our typically lengthy product development cycles, we may not be able to rapidly change our product direction or strategic course. If we are unable to accurately predict market trends or adapt to evolving market conditions, we may be unable to capture customer demand and our market reputation and financial performance will be negatively affected. Even to the extent we make accurate predictions and possess the requisite flexibility to adapt, we may be able to pursue only some of the possible innovations due to limited resources. Our success, therefore, further depends on our ability to identify and focus on the most promising innovations.
Our success also depends on our ability to manage a number of risks associated with new products that we introduce, including timely and successful product launch, market acceptance, and the availability of products in appropriate locations, quantities, and costs to meet demand. There can be no assurance that our efforts will be successful in the near future, or at all, or that our competitors will not take significant market share in similar efforts. If we fail to develop new products and to manage new product introductions and transitions properly, our financial condition and operating results could be harmed.
Our increased emphasis on a cloud strategy may give rise to risks that could harm our business.
Our cloud strategy requires continued investment in product development and cloud operations, where we have a limited operating history. Our cloud strategy has also led to changes in the way we price and deliver our products. Many of our competitors may have advantages over us due to their larger presence, larger developer network, deeper experience in the cloud-based computing market, and greater sales and marketing resources. It is uncertain whether our cloud strategy will prove successful, or whether we will be able to develop the necessary infrastructure and business models more quickly than our competitors. Our cloud strategy may give rise to a number of risks, including the following:
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if new or current customers desire only perpetual licenses, we may not be successful in selling subscriptions;
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although we intend to support our perpetual license business, the increased emphasis on a cloud strategy may raise concerns among our installed customer base;
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we may be unsuccessful in achieving our target pricing;
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our revenues might decline over the short or long term as a result of this strategy;
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our relationships with existing partners that resell perpetual licenses may be damaged; and
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we may incur costs at a higher than forecasted rate as we enhance and expand our cloud operations.
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Certain of our enterprise offerings have long and complex sales cycles, which could result in a loss of customers and lower revenues.
With our transition to leveraging the Avid MediaCentral platform in our sales process, we have experienced longer and more complex sales cycle for some of our enterprise offerings, which could result in a loss of customers and lower revenues. The length and complexity in these sales cycles is due to a number of factors, including:
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the need for our sales representatives to educate customers about the uses and benefits of our products and services, including technical capabilities, security features, potential cost savings, and return on investment, which are made available in large-scale deployments;
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the desire of large and medium size organizations to undertake significant evaluation processes to determine their technology requirements prior to making information technology expenditures;
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the negotiation of large, complex, enterprise-wide contracts, as often required by our and our customers' business and legal representatives;
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the need for our customers to obtain requisition approvals from various decision makers within their organizations; and
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customer budget constraints, economic conditions, and unplanned administrative delays.
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We spend substantial time and money on our sales efforts without any assurance that potential customers will ultimately purchase our solutions. As we target our sales efforts at larger enterprise customers, these trends are expected to continue. Our long and complex sales cycle for these products makes it difficult to predict when a given sales cycle will close.
There are a number of financial and accounting risks in our subscription model.
A growing portion of our revenue is subscription-based pursuant to service and subscription agreements that are generally month-to-month or one year in length, and we intend to continue to expand our subscription-based offerings. Although the subscription model is designed to increase the number of customers who purchase our products and services on a recurring basis and create a more predictable revenue stream, there are certain risks inherent in a subscription-based model. These risks include the risk that customers will not renew their subscriptions, risks related to the timing of revenue recognition, and the risk of potential reductions in cash flows. Although many of our service and subscription agreements contain automatic renewal terms, generally, our customers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions for our services after the expiration of their initial subscription period. If customers do renew their subscriptions, these subscriptions may not be renewed on the same terms. Moreover, under certain circumstances, some of our customers have the right to cancel their service agreements prior to the expiration of the terms of their agreements. If our customers do not renew their subscriptions for our services or if they renew on terms less favorable to us, our revenues may decline. Our future growth is also affected by our ability to sell additional features and services to our current customers, which depends on a number of factors, including customers' satisfaction with our products and services, the prices of our offerings, and general economic conditions. If our efforts to cross-sell and upsell to our customers are unsuccessful, the rate at which our business grows may decline.
A portion of the subscription-based revenue we report each quarter results from the recognition of deferred revenue relating to subscription agreements entered into during previous quarters. A decline in new or renewed subscriptions in any period may not be immediately reflected in our reported financial results for that period but may result in a decline in our revenue in future quarters. If we were to experience significant downturns in subscription sales and renewal rates, our reported financial results might not reflect such downturns until future periods. Our subscription model could also make it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenues from subscription-based services through additional sales in any period, as revenue from new customers will be recognized over the applicable subscription term. Further, any increases in sales under our subscription sales model could result in decreased revenues over the short term if these sales are offset by a decline in sales from perpetual license customers. If any of our assumptions about revenue from our new businesses or our addition of a subscription-based model prove incorrect, our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated, estimated, or projected. We may be unable accurately to predict subscription renewal rates and the impact these rates may have on our future revenue and operating results.
Failure of our information systems or those of third parties or breaches of data security could cause significant harm to our business.
Our systems and processes involve the storage and transmission of proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data, including personal information of employees, customers, and others. In addition, we rely on information systems controlled by third parties. Information system failures, network disruptions, and system and data security breaches, manipulation, destruction, or leakage, whether intentional or accidental, could impair our ability to provide services to our customers or otherwise harm our ability to conduct our business, impede the development, manufacture or shipment of products, interrupt or delay processing of transactions and reporting financial results, result in theft or misuse of our intellectual property or other assets, or result in the unintentional disclosure of personal, proprietary, sensitive, or confidential information of employees, customers, and others. With our development of Avid MediaCentral Platform, public and private marketplaces and cloud-based offerings, our and our customer’s data and financial and proprietary information could become more susceptible to such failures and data breaches. Significant or repeated reductions in the performance, reliability, security, or availability of our information systems and network infrastructure could significantly harm our brand and reputation and ability to attract and retain existing and potential users, customers, advertisers, and content providers.
Information system failures or unauthorized access could be caused by our failure to adequately maintain and enhance our systems and networks, external theft or attack, misconduct by our employees, contractors, vendors, or external bad actors, or many other causes such as power failures, earthquakes, fire, or other natural disasters. Cyber threats are constantly evolving, increasing the difficulty of detecting and successfully defending against them. We may have no current capability to detect certain vulnerabilities, which may allow them to persist in the environment over long periods of time. Cyber threats can have cascading impacts that unfold with increasing speed across our internal networks and systems and those of our partners and customers.
Any information system failures or unauthorized access to our network or systems could expose us, our customers, or the individuals affected to a risk of loss or misuse of this information, resulting in litigation and potential liability for us. In addition, we could incur substantial remediation costs, including costs associated with repairing our information systems, implementing further data protection measures, engaging third-party experts and consultants, and increased insurance premiums.
We operate in highly fragmented and competitive markets, and our competitors may be able to draw upon a greater depth and breadth of resources than those available to us.
We operate in highly fragmented and competitive markets characterized by pressure to innovate, expand feature sets and functionality, accelerate new product releases, and reduce prices. Markets for certain of our products have limited barriers to entry. Also, the fragmentation in our markets creates an additional risk of consolidation among our competitors, which would result in fewer, more effective competitors. Customers consider many factors when evaluating our products relative to those of our competitors, including innovation, ease of use, price, feature sets, functionality, reliability, performance, reputation, and training and support, and we may not compare favorably against our competitors in all respects. Some of our current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, greater brand recognition, and substantially greater financial, technical, marketing, distribution, and support resources than we do. As a result, our competitors may be able to deliver greater innovation, respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies and changes in market demand, devote more resources to the development, marketing and sale of their products, successfully expand into emerging and other international markets, or price their products more aggressively than we can. If our competitors are more successful than we are in developing products, or in attracting and retaining customers, our financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected.
We obtain certain hardware product components and finished goods under sole-source supply arrangements, and disruptions to these arrangements could jeopardize the manufacturing or distribution of certain of our hardware products.
Although we generally prefer to establish multi-source supply arrangements for our hardware product components and finished goods, multi-source arrangements are not always possible or cost-effective. We consequently depend on sole-source suppliers for many hardware product components and finished goods, including some critical items. We do not generally carry significant inventories of, and may not in all cases have guaranteed supply arrangements for, these sole-sourced items. Our sole-source suppliers may cease, suspend, or otherwise limit production or shipment of our product components, due to, among other things, macroeconomic events, political crises, or natural or environmental disasters or other occurrences, or they may terminate our agreements or adversely modify supply terms or pricing. If any of these events occur, our ability to manufacture, distribute, and service our products would be impaired, and our business could be significantly harmed. We may not be able to obtain sole-sourced components or finished goods, or acceptable substitutes, from alternative suppliers or on commercially reasonable terms. If we are forced to change sole-source suppliers due to a contract termination or other production cessation, it may take a significant amount of time and expenses to obtain substitute suppliers, during which time our inventory may be significantly reduced, which may adversely impact our working capital, liquidity, results of operations, or financial position. We may also be required to expend significant development resources to redesign our products to work around the exclusion of any sole-sourced component or accommodate the inclusion of any substitute component. Although we have procedures in place to mitigate the risks associated with our sole-sourced suppliers, we cannot be certain that we will be able to obtain sole-sourced components or finished goods from alternative suppliers or that we will be able to do so on commercially reasonable terms without a material impact on our results of operations or financial position.
We have largely completed a transition of the manufacturer of certain of our hardware product components to a new vendor located in Mexico. As it works to meet our expectations, this new vendor may experience difficulty ramping up production to meet our demand within our desired timeline. Such a delay could result in significant product shortfalls and delays in delivery of products to our customers. For example, we experienced greater than expected challenges implementing our new supply chain model in the third quarter of 2019, including with respect to ramping up new production lines, which resulted in approximately
$8.1 million of hardware orders that were unfulfilled at the end of the third quarter. We plan to mitigate these risks by conducting manufacturing readiness reviews and may place company personnel on site at the international vendors’ facility to assist with production.
We depend on the availability and proper functioning of certain third-party technology that we incorporate into or bundle with our products. Third-party technology may include defects or errors that could adversely affect the performance of our products. If third-party technology becomes unavailable at acceptable prices, we may need to expend considerable resources integrating alternative third-party technology or developing our own substitute technology.
The profit margin for some of our products depends in part on the royalty, license, and purchase fees we pay in connection with third-party technology which we license for incorporation into our bundling with our products. To the extent we add additional third-party technology to our products and we are unable to offset associated costs, our profit margins may decline, and our operating results may suffer. In addition to cost implications, third-party technology may include defects or errors that could adversely affect the performance of our products, which may harm our market reputation or adversely affect our product sales. Third-party technology may also include certain open source software code that if used in combination with our own software may jeopardize our intellectual property rights or limit our ability to sell through certain sales channels. If any third-party technology license expires, is terminated, or ceases to be available on commercially reasonable terms, we may be required to expend considerable resources integrating alternative third-party technology or developing our own substitute technology. In the interim, sales of our products may be delayed or suspended, or we may be forced to distribute our products with reduced feature sets or functionality.
Our products may experience defects that could negatively impact our customer relationships, market reputation, and operating results.
Our software products occasionally include coding defects (commonly referred to as “bugs”), which in some cases may interfere with or impair a customer’s ability to operate or use the software. Similarly, our hardware products could include design or manufacturing defects that could cause them to malfunction. The quality control measures we use are not designed or intended to detect and remedy all defects. Any product defects could result in loss of customers or revenues, delays in revenue recognition, increased product returns, damage to our market reputation, and significant warranty or other expense and could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and operating results.
Our international operations expose us to legal, regulatory and other risks that we may not face in the United States.
We derive more than half of our revenues from customers outside of the United States, and we rely on foreign contractors for the supply and manufacture of many of our products. For example, sales to customers outside the United States accounted for 63%, 64% and 62% of our total net revenues in 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. We also conduct significant research and development activities overseas, including through third-party development vendors. For example, a portion of our research and development is outsourced to contractors operating in Kiev, Ukraine, we have customer support activities in the Philippines, and we have operations in Poland and Israel.
Our international operations are subject to a variety of risks that we may not face in the United States, including:
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the financial and administrative burdens associated with environmental, tax, labor and employment, and export laws, as well as other business regulations, in foreign jurisdictions, including high compliance costs, inconsistencies among jurisdictions, and a lack of administrative or judicial interpretative guidance;
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reduced or varied protection for intellectual property rights in some countries;
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regional economic downturns;
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economic, social, and political instability, security concerns, and the risk of war;
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fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates;
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longer collection cycles for accounts receivable;
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difficulties in enforcing contracts;
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difficulties in managing and staffing international implementations and operations, and executing our business strategy internationally;
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difficulties managing a global labor force;
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potentially adverse tax consequences, including the complexities of foreign value added or other tax systems and restrictions on the repatriation of earnings;
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increased financial accounting and reporting burdens and complexities;
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difficulties in maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls;
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costs and delays associated with developing products in multiple languages; and
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foreign exchange controls that may prevent or limit our ability to repatriate income earned in foreign markets.
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Additionally, recent legal developments in Europe have created compliance uncertainty regarding certain transfers of personal data from Europe to the United States. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which became effective in the European Union, or EU, in 2018, applies to any of our activities conducted from an establishment in the EU or related to products and services that we offer to EU users. The GDPR created a range of new data privacy related compliance obligations, which could cause us to change our business practices, and will significantly increase financial penalties for noncompliance, including possible fines of up to 4% of global annual turnover for the preceding financial year or €20 million (whichever is higher) for the most serious infringements.
We may not be successful in developing, implementing, or maintaining policies and strategies that will be effective in managing the varying risks in each country where we do business. Our failure to manage these risks successfully, including developing appropriate contingency plans for our outsourced research and development work, could harm our international operations, reduce our international sales, and increase our costs, thus adversely affecting our business, operating results, and financial condition.
We could be adversely affected by violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.K. Bribery Act and similar foreign anti-corruption laws.
We operate in several foreign jurisdictions. The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, and similar foreign anti-corruption laws generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from offering, promising, authorizing, or making payments to foreign officials for the purpose of influencing any act or decision of such official in his or her official capacity, inducing the official to do any act in violation of his or her lawful duty, or to secure any improper advantage in obtaining or retaining business. Recent years have seen a substantial increase in the global enforcement of anti-corruption laws, with more frequent voluntary self-disclosures by companies, aggressive investigations and enforcement proceedings by both the U.S. Department of Justice and the SEC resulting in record fines and penalties, increased enforcement activity by non-U.S. regulators, and increases in criminal and civil proceedings brought against companies and individuals.
We operate in a number of countries that are recognized as having governmental corruption problems to some degree and where local customs and practices may not foster strict compliance with anti-corruption laws, including China. Our continued operation and expansion outside the United States could increase the risk of such violations in the future. Although we have policies that mandate compliance with these anti-corruption laws and require training, we cannot assure you that these policies and procedures will protect us from unauthorized reckless or criminal acts committed by our employees or agents. In the event that we believe or have reason to believe that our employees or agents have or may have violated applicable anti-corruption laws, including the FCPA, we may be required to investigate or have outside counsel investigate the relevant facts and circumstances, which can be expensive and require significant time and attention from senior management. Violations of these laws may result in significant criminal or civil sanctions, which could disrupt our business and result in a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of operations, or financial condition.
We rely to a significant extent on manufacturing and hardware development vendors with operations in foreign jurisdictions. This may reduce our control over the manufacturing activities, create uncertainty with respect to intended cost savings and expose our proprietary assets to greater risk of misappropriation. Changes to these vendor relationships may result in delays or disruptions that could harm our business.
We rely to a significant extent on vendors for the development and manufacture of certain of our hardware products, primarily in Mexico. These relationships provide us with more flexible resource capabilities, access to global talent, and cost savings, but also expose us to risks that may not exist or may be less pronounced with respect to our internal operations. We are able to exercise only limited oversight of our contractors, including with respect to their engineering and manufacturing processes, resource allocations, delivery schedules, security procedures, and quality control. Language and cultural, and time zone differences complicate effective management of contractors that are located abroad. Additionally, competition for talent in certain locations may lead to high turnover rates that disrupt development or manufacturing continuity. The manufacturers we use also manufacture products for other companies, including our competitors. Our contractors could choose to prioritize capacity for other users, increase the prices they charge us or reduce or eliminate deliveries to us, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Pricing terms offered by contractors may be highly variable over time reflecting, among other things, order volume, local inflation, and exchange rates. Some of our contractor relationships are based on contract, while others operate on a purchase order basis, where we do not have the benefit of written protections with respect to pricing or other critical terms.
Many of our contractors require access to our intellectual property and our confidential and proprietary information to perform their services. Protection of these assets in certain non-U.S. jurisdictions may be less robust than in the United States. We must rely on policies and procedures we have instituted with our contractors and certain confidentiality and contractual provisions in our written agreements, to the extent they exist, for protection. These safeguards may be inadequate to prevent breaches. If a breach were to occur, available legal or other remedies may be limited or otherwise insufficient to compensate us for any resulting damages.
Furthermore, if one of our international vendors were, for any reason, to cease or experience significant disruptions in its operations, among others as a result of political unrest, we might be unable to replace it on a timely basis with a comparably priced provider. We would also have to expend time and resources to train any new development or manufacturing vendor. If any of the vendors were to suffer an interruption in its business, or experience delays, disruptions, or quality control problems in development or manufacturing operations, or if we had to change development or manufacturing vendors, our ability to provide services to our customers would be delayed and our business, operating results and financial condition would be adversely affected.
Lengthy procurement lead times and unpredictable life cycles and customer demand for some of our products may result in significant inventory risks.
With respect to many of our products, particularly our audio products, we must procure component parts and build finished inventory far in advance of product shipments. Certain of these products may have unpredictable life cycles and encounter rapid technological obsolescence as a result of dynamic market conditions. We procure product components and build inventory based upon our forecasts of product life cycle and customer demand. If we are unable to accurately forecast product life cycle and customer demand or unable to manage our inventory levels in response to shifts in customer demand, the result may be insufficient, excess, or obsolete product inventory. Insufficient product inventory may impair our ability to fulfill product orders and negatively affect our revenues, while excess or obsolete inventory may require a write-down on products and components to their net realizable value, which would negatively affect our results of operations. In addition, we experienced greater than expected challenges implementing our new supply chain model in the third quarter of 2019, including with respect to ramping up new production lines. If we experience further disruptions in our supply chain in the future, we may experience significant product shortfalls and delays in delivery of products to our customers.
Our revenues and operating results depend significantly on our third-party reseller and distribution channels. Our failure to effectively manage our distribution channels for our products and services could adversely affect our revenues and gross margins and therefore our profitability.
We distribute many of our products indirectly through third-party resellers and distributors. We also distribute products directly to end-user customers. Successfully managing the interaction of our direct and indirect channel efforts to reach various potential customer industries for our products and services is a complex process. For example, in response to our direct sales strategies or for other business reasons, our current resellers and distributors may from time to time choose to resell our competitors’ products in addition to, or in place of, our products. Moreover, since each distribution method has distinct risks and gross margins, our failure to identify and implement the most advantageous balance in the delivery model for our products and services could adversely affect our revenues and gross margins and therefore our profitability.
If we are unable to sell our professional products through retail sales channels, our operating results could be adversely affected.
We continue to have a presence in retail because our professional-level products are offered through specialty retailers. Our ability to continue to sell our professional products through certain retail sales channels could be impaired due to changes in our business strategy, including our shift to more subscription offerings. Changes in our strategy could lead to fewer unit sales through retail channels in the future, which could adversely affect retailers’ willingness to carry our professional-level products and our ability to reach certain customers. If we are unable to sell our professional products through retail sales channels, our operating results could be adversely affected.
Our success depends in part on our ability to hire and retain competent and skilled management and technical, sales, and other personnel.
We are dependent on the continued service and performance of our management team and key technical, sales, and other personnel and our success will depend in part on our ability to recruit and retain these employees in a competitive job market. If we fail to recruit and retain, including through competitive compensation, competent and skilled personnel, we may incur increased costs or experience challenges with the execution of our strategic plan. Also, if we fail to maintain an inclusive and discrimination-free workplace, we risk losing employees.
Our competitors may in some instances be able to offer a work environment with higher compensation or more opportunities to work with cutting-edge technology than we can. If we are unable to retain our key personnel or appropriately match skill sets with our needs, we would be required to expend significant time and financial resources to identify and hire new qualified personnel and to transfer significant internal historical knowledge, which might significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our business objectives.
Our intellectual property and trade secrets are valuable assets that may be subject to third-party infringement and misappropriation.
As a technology company, our intellectual property and trade secrets are among our most valuable assets. Infringement or misappropriation of these assets can result in lost revenues, and thereby ultimately reduce their value. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality procedures, contractual provisions, and anti-piracy technology in certain of our products to protect our intellectual property and trade secrets. Most of these tools require vigilant monitoring of competitor and other third-party activities and of end-user usage of our products to be effective. These tools may not provide adequate protection in all instances, may be subject to circumvention, or may require a vigilance that in some cases exceeds our capabilities or resources. Additionally, our business model is increasingly focused on software products and, as we offer more software products, our revenues may be more vulnerable to loss through piracy. While we may seek to engage with those potentially infringing our intellectual property to negotiate a license for use, we also may seek legal recourse. As noted in more detail above, the legal regimes of certain foreign jurisdictions in which we operate may not protect our intellectual property or trade secrets to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. If our intellectual property or trade secrets are misappropriated in foreign jurisdictions, we may be without adequate remedies to address these issues. Regardless of jurisdiction, assuming legal protection exists, and infringement or misappropriation is detected, any enforcement action that we may pursue could be costly and time-consuming, the outcome will be uncertain, and the alleged offender in some cases may seek to have our intellectual property rights invalidated. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property and trade secrets, our business could be harmed.
Our results could be materially adversely affected if we are accused of, or found to be, infringing third parties’ intellectual property rights.
Because of technological change in our industry, extensive and sometimes uncertain patent coverage, and the rapid issuance of new patents, it is possible that certain of our products or business methods may infringe the patents or other intellectual property rights of third parties. Companies in the technology industry own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets and frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. Our technologies may not be able to withstand any third-party claims or rights against their use. We have received claims and are subject to litigation alleging that we infringe patents owned by third parties, and we may in the future be subject to such claims and litigation. Regardless of the scope or validity of such patents, or the merits of any patent claims by potential or actual
litigants, we could incur substantial costs in defending intellectual property claims and litigation, and such claims and litigation could distract management’s attention from normal business operations. In addition, we provide indemnification provisions in agreements with certain customers covering potential claims by third parties of intellectual property infringement. These agreements generally provide that we will indemnify customers for losses incurred in connection with an infringement claim brought by a third party with respect to our products, and we have received claims for such indemnification. The results of any intellectual property litigation to which we are, or may become, a party, or for which we are required to provide indemnification, may require us to:
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cease selling or using products or services that incorporate the challenged intellectual property;
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make substantial payments for legal fees, settlement payments or other costs or damages;
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obtain a license, which may not be available on reasonable terms, to sell or use the relevant technology, which such license could require royalties that would significantly increase our cost of goods sold; or
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redesign products or services to avoid infringement, where such redesign could involve significant costs and result in delayed and/or reduced sales of the affected products.
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Potential acquisitions could be difficult to consummate and integrate into our operations, and they could disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value, or impair our financial results.
As part of our business strategy, from time to time we may seek to grow our business through acquisitions of or investments in new or complementary businesses, technologies, or products that we believe can improve our ability to compete in our existing customer markets or allow us to enter new markets. There are numerous risks associated with acquisitions and investment transactions including, but not limited to, failing to realize anticipated returns on investment, unanticipated costs and liabilities associated with the acquisition, and difficulty assimilating the operations, policies and personnel of the acquired company.
Unanticipated changes in our tax provisions, the adoption of new tax legislation, or exposure to additional tax liabilities could affect our profitability.
We are subject to income and other taxes in the United States and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Our tax liabilities are affected by the amounts we charge for inventory, services, licenses, and other items in intercompany transactions. We are also subject to ongoing tax audits in various jurisdictions. Tax authorities may disagree with our intercompany charges, cross-jurisdictional transfer pricing, or other matters and assess additional taxes. We regularly assess the likely outcomes of these audits in order to determine the appropriateness of our tax provision. However, there can be no assurance that we will accurately predict the outcomes of these audits, and the amounts ultimately paid upon the resolution of an audit could be materially different from the amounts previously included in our income tax expense and therefore, could have a material impact on our tax provision, net income, and cash flows. In addition, our tax provision in the future could be adversely affected by changes to our operating structure, changes in the mix of earnings in countries with differing statutory tax rates, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities, and changes in tax laws.
We may be subject to litigation, which, if adversely determined, could harm our business and operating results.
The costs of defending litigation, whether in cash expenses or in management time, could harm our business and materially and adversely affect our operating results and cash flows. An unfavorable outcome in any litigation matter could require that we pay substantial damages, or, in connection with any intellectual property infringement claims, could require that we pay ongoing royalty payments or prohibit us from selling certain of our products. In addition, we may decide to settle any litigation, which could cause us to incur significant settlement costs. A settlement or an unfavorable outcome on any litigation matter could have a material and adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition, and cash flows.
Economic conditions and regulatory changes following the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, or Brexit, could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
There remains significant uncertainty regarding effects of Brexit, including, but not limited to, the imposition of trade barriers and increased costs throughout Europe, changes in European manufacturing and employment markets, and currency fluctuations. While the full effects of Brexit will not be known for some time, Brexit could cause disruptions to, and create uncertainty surrounding, our business and results of operations. The most immediate effect of the expected Brexit has been significant volatility in global equity
and debt markets and currency exchange rate fluctuations. Ongoing global market volatility and a deterioration in economic conditions due to uncertainty surrounding Brexit could significantly disrupt the markets in which we operate and lead our customers to closely monitor their costs and delay capital spending decisions.
Additionally, Brexit has resulted in the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies in which we conduct business. Because we translate revenue denominated in foreign currency into U.S. dollars for our financial statements, during periods of a strengthening U.S. Dollar, our reported revenue from foreign operations is reduced. As a result of Brexit, there may be further periods of volatility in the currencies in which we conduct business.
The effects of Brexit will depend on any agreements the U.K. makes to retain access to EU markets. The measures could potentially disrupt the markets we serve and may cause us to lose customers and employees. In addition, Brexit could lead to legal uncertainty and potentially divergent national laws and regulations as the U.K. determines which EU laws to replace or replicate.
Any of these effects of Brexit could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Liquidity and Financial Condition and Performance
If we are not able to generate and maintain adequate liquidity our ability to operate our business could be adversely affected.
Generating and maintaining adequate liquidity is important to our business operations. We meet our liquidity needs primarily through cash generated by operations, supplemented from time to time with the proceeds of long-term debt and borrowings under the revolving credit facility, or Credit Facility, governed by the financing agreement, dated February 26, 2016, as amended, between us and the lenders party thereto, or the Financing Agreement. We have the ability to borrow up to $22.5 million under the Credit Facility. We have also undertaken significant cost cutting measures and we may take additional measures to further improve our liquidity. Significant fluctuations in our cash balances could harm our ability to meet our immediate liquidity needs, impair our capacity to react to sudden or unexpected contractions or growth in our business, reduce our ability to withstand a sustained period of economic crisis, and impair our ability to compete with competitors with greater financial resources. In addition, fluctuations in our cash balances could cause us to draw on our Credit Facility and therefore reduce available funds under the Credit Facility (see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Liquidity and Capital Resources” in Item 7 of this Form 10-K). If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow or our borrowings are not sufficient, our liquidity may significantly decrease, which could have an adverse effect on our business.
Restrictions in the Financing Agreement may limit our activities.
The Financing Agreement contains restrictive covenants that limit our ability to engage in activities that could otherwise benefit us, including, among other things, limitations on our ability to make investments, incur additional indebtedness, issue equity, sell assets, pay dividends and make other restricted payments, and create liens. We are also required to comply on an ongoing basis with certain financial covenants, including a maximum leverage ratio and an annual limit on the amount of our capital expenditures. Our ability to comply with these restrictions and covenants in the future is uncertain and could be affected by the levels of our cash flows from operations and events or circumstances beyond our control. Failure to comply with any of these restrictions or covenants may result in an event of default under the Financing Agreement, which could permit acceleration of the outstanding indebtedness under the Financing Agreement and require us to repay such indebtedness before its scheduled due date. Certain events of default under the Financing Agreement may also give rise to a default under our outstanding 2.00% convertible senior notes due 2020, or the Notes, or other future indebtedness. If an event of default were to occur, we might not have sufficient funds available to make the payments required. If we are unable to repay amounts owed, our lenders may be entitled to foreclose on and sell substantially all of our assets, which secure our borrowings under the Financing Agreement.
We may not be able to achieve the efficiencies, savings, and other benefits anticipated from our cost reduction, margin improvement, and other business optimization initiatives.
We regularly review and implement programs to reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and enhance our business. We have undertaken, and expect to continue to undertake, various restructuring activities and cost reduction initiatives in an effort to better
align our organizational structure, and costs with our overall strategy. Past restructuring and cost reduction initiatives have included reductions in our workforce, facility consolidation, transferring resources to lower cost regions, and reducing other third-party services costs.
In connection with these activities, we may experience a disruption in our ability to perform functions important to our strategy. Unexpected delays, increased costs, challenges with adapting our internal control environment to a new organizational structure, inability to retain and motivate employees, or other challenges arising from these initiatives could adversely affect our ability to realize the anticipated savings or other intended benefits of these activities and could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and operating results.
Our substantial indebtedness could adversely affect our business, cash flow and results of operations.
As of December 31, 2019, we had $229.6 million of indebtedness, including the Notes and borrowings under the Financing Agreement. This substantial level of indebtedness may:
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require us to dedicate a greater percentage of our cash flow from operations to payments on our debt, thereby reducing the availability of cash flow to fund capital expenditures, pursue other acquisitions or investments, and use for general corporate purposes;
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increase our vulnerability to general adverse economic conditions, including increases in interest rates with respect to borrowings under the Financing Agreement that bear interest at variable rates or when our indebtedness is being refinanced;
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limit our ability to obtain additional financing; and
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limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in or challenges relating to our business and industry, creating competitive disadvantages compared to other competitors with lower debt levels and borrowing costs.
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The Notes mature in June 2020 and were a current liability on our balance sheet for the year ended December 31, 2019. We may elect to satisfy our conversion obligation by paying cash or delivering shares of our common stock. To the extent we do not elect to satisfy our conversion obligation by delivering solely shares of our common stock, we would be required to settle a portion or all of our conversion obligation through the payment of cash, which could adversely affect our liquidity. Further, if a fundamental change occurs, we may not have enough available cash or be able to obtain financing to fulfill our obligation to repurchase the Notes. The Financing Agreement contains restrictions on our ability to settle conversions of the Notes with cash.
Our failure to repurchase Notes or pay any cash upon conversion of the Notes as required by the indenture governing the Notes would constitute a default under the Financing Agreement, and it could constitute a default under agreements governing our future indebtedness. If the repayment of the indebtedness under the Financing Agreement, or any other indebtedness, were to be accelerated after any applicable notice or grace periods, we may not have sufficient funds to repay the indebtedness and repurchase the Notes or make cash payments upon conversions thereof.
We cannot make any assurance that our cash flow from operations, combined with any additional borrowings available to us, will be sufficient to enable us to repay the Notes or our other indebtedness, or to fund other liquidity needs. We may incur additional indebtedness in the future, which could cause these risks to intensify. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flows to repay the Notes and our other indebtedness when due or to fund our other liquidity needs, we may be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as selling assets, restructuring debt, or obtaining additional equity capital on terms that may be onerous or highly dilutive. Our ability to refinance the Notes or our other indebtedness will depend on the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. We may not be able to engage in any of these activities or engage in these activities on desirable terms, which could result in a default on our debt obligations.
The capped call transaction may affect the trading price of our common stock.
In connection with the offering of the Notes, we entered into the Capped Call. The primary purpose of the Capped Call was to reduce potential dilution to our common stock and/or offset any cash payments we may be required to make in excess of the principal amount, in each case, upon any conversion of Notes. In order to establish a hedge of the Capped Call, the Counterparty may have entered into various derivative transactions with respect to our common stock, and it may modify its hedge positions from time to time by entering into or unwinding various derivative transactions with respect to our common stock and/or
purchasing or selling our common stock or other securities in secondary market transactions prior to the maturity of the Notes. The Counterparty is likely to undertake these activities during, and potentially prior to, any observation period related to a conversion of the Notes. These activities could cause or avoid an increase or a decrease in the market price of our common stock.
We recognized a significant amount of revenue in recent years due to the amortization of deferred revenue attributable to transactions occurring in the past. The reduction in deferred revenues resulted in increased revenue and gross margin and our reported net income in prior years. Revenue from the amortization of deferred revenue will not recur to the same extent in future periods; as a result, there are no assurances that we will be able to report net income in future periods. In addition, as less revenue is recognized from deferred revenue amortization and we have adopted a new accounting standard for revenue recognition, we may experience greater volatility in our quarterly and annual operating results.
We have had a historical practice of providing free Software Updates. This represents an implied obligation of a form of post-contract customer support, or Implied Maintenance Release PCS, on many of our products. As a result of this Implied Maintenance Release PCS, we were required, under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, or GAAP, to recognize revenue for many of these transactions ratably over a period that typically ranged from three to six years. Due to changes in accounting rules, namely Accounting Standards Update, or ASU, No. 2009-13 and ASU No. 2009-14, and the cessation of our practice of providing Implied Maintenance Release PCS for many of our products, revenue from older transactions continued to be recognized and, in some cases, accelerated into revenue through 2017. This resulted in significant increases to revenue and declines in deferred revenue during 2016 and 2017. New sales of many of the same products now qualify for upfront recognition and do not add significantly to deferred revenue balances. As a result, revenue attributable to older transactions has declined significantly through 2017 as corresponding deferred revenue is fully amortized and not being replenished by new transactions. Deferred revenue for the fiscal years 2016 and 2017 declined approximately $123 million and $31 million, respectively, as a result of these circumstances.
The amortization of deferred revenue described above resulted in our reporting a smaller net loss of $14 million in 2017 and net income of approximately $48 million in 2016. With the impact of deferred revenue amortization declining significantly in future periods, there are no assurances that we will be able to report net income in future periods. Our financial results and the impact of the deferred revenue are discussed in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Item 7 of this Form 10-K.
The adoption of ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (ASC 606) on January 1, 2018, which requires virtually all product sales to be recognized as revenue upon delivery, further impacts our deferred revenue balances since, upon adoption, using the modified retrospective method, we recorded a cumulative reduction of deferred revenue of approximately $97 million. With the adoption of ASC 606, we now recognize a greater proportion of revenue upon delivery of our products, whereas some of our product sales under legacy GAAP were initially recorded in deferred revenue and recognized over a longer period of time. With the decreased amount of deferred revenue and more immediate impact of current period sales and shipment activity on revenue, our operating results may be more volatile in future quarterly and annual periods.
Our revenues and operating results are difficult to predict and may fluctuate from period to period.
Our results of operations have been, and may continue to, be subject to significant quarterly variation. Our revenues and operating results for any particular quarter may also vary due to a number of factors, including, but not limited to, those enumerated under the section “Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements,” appearing elsewhere in this Form 10-K and:
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the timing of large or enterprise-wide sales and our ability to recognize revenues from such sales;
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demand planning and logistics;
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renewal rates under subscription contracts;
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reliance on third-party reseller and distribution channels;
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disruptions in our supply chain;
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changes in operating expenses;
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price protections and provisions for inventory obsolescence extended to resellers and distributors;
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seasonal factors, such as higher consumer demand at year-end; and
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complex accounting rules for revenue recognition.
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The occurrence and interaction of these variables may cause our revenues and operating results to fluctuate from period to period. As a result, period-to-period comparisons of our revenues and operating results may not provide an adequate indication of our future performance. We cannot be certain when, or if, our operations will be profitable in future periods.
Our revenue backlog estimates are based on certain assumptions and are subject to unexpected adjustments and cancellations and backlog orders may not be timely converted to revenues in any particular fiscal period, if at all, or be indicative of our actual operating results for any future period.
Our revenue backlog, as we define it, consists of firm orders received and includes both (i) orders where the customer has paid in advance of our performance obligations being fulfilled, which are reflected as deferred revenues on our balance sheet, and (ii) orders for future product deliveries or services that have not yet been invoiced by us. To the extent that our customers cancel their orders with us, or reduce their requirements during a particular period for any reason, we will not realize revenue or profit from the associated revenue backlog. Even where a project proceeds as scheduled, it is possible that the customer may default and fail to pay amounts owed to us. Material delays, payment defaults, or cancellations could reduce the amount of revenue backlog currently reported, and consequently, could inhibit the conversion of that backlog into revenues. Furthermore, orders included in our revenue backlog may not be profitable. We may experience variances in the realization of our revenue backlog because of project delays or cancellations resulting from external market factors and economic factors beyond our control. In addition, even if we realize all of the revenue from the projects in our revenue backlog, if our expenses associated with these projects are higher than expected, our results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected.
Fluctuations in foreign exchange rates may result in short-term currency exchange losses and could adversely affect our revenues from foreign markets and our manufacturing costs in the long term.
Our international sales are largely transacted through foreign subsidiaries and generally in the currency of the end-user customers. Consequently, we are exposed to short-term currency exchange risks that may adversely affect our revenues, operating results, and cash flows. The majority of our international sales are transacted in euros. To hedge against the dollar/euro exchange exposure of the resulting forecasted payables, receivables and cash balances, we may enter into foreign currency contracts. The success of our hedging programs depends on the accuracy of our forecasts of transaction activity in foreign currency. To the extent that these forecasts are over- or understated during periods of currency volatility, we may experience currency gains or losses. Our hedging activities, if enacted, may only offset a portion of the adverse financial impact resulting from unfavorable movement in dollar/euro exchange rates, which could adversely affect our financial position or results of operations.
Furthermore, the significance to our business of sales in Europe subjects us to risks associated with long-term changes in the dollar/euro exchange rate. A sustained strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the euro would decrease our expected future U.S. dollar revenues from European sales, and could have a significant adverse effect on our overall profit margins. During the past few years, economic instability in Europe, including concern over sovereign debt in Greece, Italy, Ireland and certain other European Union countries and the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, caused significant fluctuations in the value of the euro relative to those of other currencies, including the U.S. dollar. Continuing uncertainty regarding economic conditions, including the solvency of these countries and the stability of the Eurozone, could lead to significant long-term economic weakness and reduced economic growth in Europe, the occurrence of which, or the potential occurrence of which, could lead to a sustained strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the euro, adversely affecting the profitability of our European operations.
In addition, we source and manufacture many of our products in China and our costs may increase should the renminbi not remain stable with the U.S. dollar. Although the renminbi is pegged against a basket of currencies determined by the People’s Bank of China, the renminbi may appreciate or depreciate significantly in value against the U.S. dollar in the long term. In addition, if China were to permit the renminbi to float to a free market rate of exchange, it is widely anticipated that the renminbi would appreciate significantly in value against U.S. dollar. An increase in the value of the renminbi against the U.S. dollar would have the effect of increasing the labor and production costs of our Chinese manufacturers in U.S. dollar terms, which may result in their passing such costs to us in the form of increased pricing, which would adversely affect our profit margins if we could not pass those price increases along to our customers.
Global economic weakness and uncertainty could adversely affect our revenues, gross margins and expenses.
Our business is impacted by global economic conditions, which have been in recent years, and continue to be, volatile. Specifically, our revenues and gross margins depend significantly on global economic conditions and the demand for our products and services in the markets in which we compete. Economic weakness and uncertainty have resulted, and may result in the future, in decreased revenue, gross margin, earnings or growth rates, and difficulty managing inventory levels. Sustained uncertainty about global economic conditions may adversely affect demand for our products and services and could cause demand to differ materially from our expectations as customers curtail or delay spending on our products and services. Economic weakness and uncertainty also make it more difficult for us to make accurate forecasts of revenues, gross margins and expenses.
The inability of our customers to obtain credit in the future may impair their ability to make timely payments to us. Tightening of credit by financial institutions could also lead customers to postpone spending or to cancel, decrease, or delay their existing or future orders with us. Customer insolvencies could negatively impact our revenues and our ability to collect receivables. Financial difficulties experienced by our suppliers or distributors could result in product delays, increased accounts receivable defaults and inventory challenges. In the event we are impacted by global economic weakness, we may record additional charges relating to restructuring costs or the impairment of assets, and our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
Efforts by the current Administration to withdraw from, or materially modify international trade agreements, and the imposition of tariffs, and any other future attempts to otherwise limit international trade could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
A significant portion of our business activities is conducted in foreign countries, including Mexico and China. Although the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement, is likely to be in force in 2020, there remains some uncertainty regarding the ultimate effects of the USMCA on international trade involving the three countries. The current Administration has also imposed certain tariffs on international trade and may consider additional tariffs or other limitations on international trade. As a result of these actions, and any other actions that the U.S. may take in the future to withdraw from or materially modify other international trade agreements, or to otherwise limit international trade, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Risks Related to Our Stock
The market price of our common stock has been and may continue to be volatile.
The market price of our common stock has historically experienced volatility. Our stock may continue to fluctuate substantially in the future in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. These factors include, but are not limited to:
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period-to-period variations in our revenues or operating results;
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our failure to accurately forecast revenues or operating results or to report financial or operating results within the range of our previously issued guidance;
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our ability to produce accurate and timely financial statements;
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whether our results meet analysts’ expectations;
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market reaction to significant corporate initiatives or announcements;
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our ability to innovate;
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our relative competitive position within our markets;
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shifts in markets or demand for our solutions;
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changes in our relationships with suppliers, resellers, distributors, or customers;
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our commencement of, or involvement in, litigation;
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short sales, hedging or other derivative transactions involving shares of our common stock;
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shifts in financial markets and fluctuations of exchange rates; and
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the actions and decisions of our significant stockholders.
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Additionally, broader financial market and global economic trends may affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our operating performance.
Future sales of our common stock could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
The market price of our common stock could decline due to sales of a large number of shares in the market, including sales of shares by our largest stockholders, or the perception that such sales could occur. These sales could also make it more difficult or impossible for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and price that we deem appropriate to raise funds through future offerings of common stock. Future sales of our common stock by stockholders could depress the market price of our common stock.
Delaware law and our charter documents may impede or discourage a takeover, which could reduce the market price of our common stock.
We are a Delaware corporation, and the anti-takeover provisions of Delaware law impose various impediments to the ability of a third party to acquire control of us, even if a change in control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. In addition, our board of directors, or a committee thereof, has the power, without stockholder approval, to designate the terms of one or more series of preferred stock and issue shares of preferred stock. The ability of our board of directors to create and issue a new series of preferred stock and certain provisions of Delaware law and our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, could impede a merger, takeover or other business combination involving us, or discourage a potential acquirer from making a tender offer for our common stock, which, under certain circumstances, could reduce the market price of our common stock.