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PART I
ITEM 1. Business
OVERVIEW AND STRATEGY
At Vonage, our vision is to accelerate the world's ability to connect. We are observing a secular change in the way business is done, with a fundamental shift in how communications technologies are being leveraged in almost every industry. Through the Vonage Communications Platform, our strategy is to deliver a single leading cloud communications platform that powers our customers' and partners' global engagement solutions using our APIs, Unified Communications, and Contact Center innovations. We believe that the Vonage Communications Platform's products and services are well positioned to take advantage of emerging trends with sizable, growing total addressable markets as companies look to cloud-based communications solutions and API programming architectures as part of their digital transformation.
For our Consumer customers, we enable users to access and utilize our services and features, via their existing internet connections, including over 3G/4G, LTE, Cable, or DSL broadband networks. This technology enables us to offer our Consumer customers attractively priced voice and messaging services and other features around the world on a variety of devices. Our Consumer strategy is focused on the continued penetration of our core North American markets, which provide value in international long distance and target under-served segments.
EVOLUTION OF VONAGE
Founded in 2001, Vonage was among the first companies to provide Voice over Internet Protocol technology offering feature-rich, low-cost home phone services. Through a series of strategic acquisitions and organic growth, Vonage since has transformed from a VoIP-based residential service provider to a global leader in business cloud communications.
Beginning in November 2013 and continuing through September 2015, Vonage acquired four unified communications-as-a-service companies which began its transformation into a buisness-to-business cloud communications company. In 2016 and 2018, Vonage expanded its offering into the API space with the completion of the acquisition of Nexmo, Inc., a global leader in communications platform as a service and TokBox Inc., an industry leader in WebRTC programmable video that enables developers and enterprises to integrate live video into existing websites, mobile apps and IoT devices with only a few lines of code.
Also in 2018, Vonage completed the acquisition of NewVoiceMedia, an industry-leading cloud contact center-as-a-service provider. This acquisition enabled Vonage to combine its robust Unified Communications and API solutions with NVM's pure-play cloud contact center offerings, culminating in our ability to provide an end-to-end communication experience for an organization's team members and customers.
In 2021, Vonage completed the acquisition of certain assets and liabilities of Jumper AI Ptd. Ltd., a leader in omnichannel conversational commerce solutions. The acquisition expanded Vonage's total addressable market and complemented its robust portfolio of APIs with a packaged AI-enabled conversational commerce offering.
On November 22, 2021, the Company, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ) ("Ericsson") and Ericsson Muon Holding Inc. entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the "Merger Agreement") providing for the acquisition of the Company by Ericsson for approximately $6.2 billion in cash. The proposed transaction received the required approval of the Company's stockholders on February 9, 2022 and is expected to be consummated during the first half of 2022 following the satisfaction of certain other customary conditions.
3 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
OPERATING SEGMENTS
Our business is organized under two reportable operating segments: Vonage Communications Platform and Consumer. The Vonage Communications Platform includes our APIs, Unified Communications, Contact Center service offerings and products. The Vonage Communications Platform represents the Company’s strategic business as the source of future growth. Our Consumer segment includes our communications solutions for residential customers based on the Company's roots in providing VoIP communication services. Additional discussions of our reportable segments is included in Note 16, Industry Segment and Geographical Information to the Consolidated Financial Statements. The following tables summarize our revenues for each of our operating segments for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019:
Vonage Communications Platform
Our strategic business is the Vonage Communications Platform, which delivers a single leading cloud communications platform that powers our customers' and partners' global engagement solutions using our APIs, Unified Communications, and Contact Center innovations. The Vonage Communications Platform brings unique value to businesses by providing multiple communications channels - including video, voice, messaging, email, verification, and artificial intelligence - that integrate into the applications, products and workflows that our customers are already using. We believe this delivers both the power and the flexibility to our customers to address the growing need to transform their communications, connections and experiences for customers and enables the type of business continuity, remote work, and remote delivery of services that are now essential for team members.
The following provides a more detailed description of the products and services within the Vonage Communications Platform:
APIs
Our APIs are fully programmable, embeddable and customizable, enabling software developers to build communications capabilities such as messaging and voice calling within their applications without having to build or maintain communications infrastructure.
Our APIs aim to remove the complexities of the global communications networks and deliver video, voice, chat, messaging, verification, and artificial intelligence capabilities that developers can easily embed into their applications with a low risk, pay-as-you-go business model that fosters innovation. Developers adopt our APIs via a low friction, self service model on our website where they start with a free trial account and pay for additional usage via prepaid accounts. Customers include digital native companies that are looking to disrupt an existing industry, enterprises undergoing digital transformation, and enterprise SaaS companies looking to enhance their products with embedded communications capabilities.
The need for companies to jump between these modes of communication is being driven by today's customer. There is an increased need among businesses to provide their customers with the ability to connect and communicate on their customers' own preferred channels. In an increasingly digital world, this is what customers have come to expect. Our APIs enable businesses to implement these programmable capabilities quickly, with just a few lines of code, and without the need for in-house IT support or expertise.
4 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Our APIs include, but are not limited to, the following:
Communications APIs
•Voice API: Voice API enables companies to deliver better and more flexible voice experiences when communicating with their customers within the context of their existing business workflow, backed by the quality, strength and reliability of the Vonage network in the United States and tier one carriers globally.
•SIP Trunking: Session Initiation Protocol Trunking enables companies to rapidly connect their private branch exchanges to the global telecommunications networks using a pay as you go model and without having to negotiate lengthy carrier contracts.
•SMS API: SMS API enables companies to send and receive SMS messages within the context of their existing business workflows. The direct to carrier approach and patented Adaptive Routing algorithm enables us to deliver messages reliably and with low latency, globally.
•Messages API and Dispatch API: Together they enable brands to engage with their customers wherever they prefer, elevating customer communications by meeting customers on the channels they find most engaging.
•Video API: Programmable video enables developers, independent software vendors, and enterprises to incorporate highly scalable point-to-point and multi-party video into websites, mobile applications and IoT devices with only a few lines of code.
Authentication APIs
•Verify: Verify API enables companies to deploy two-factor-authentication for their applications to help them acquire genuine customers and to protect against fraud. With a single API call, Verify delivers messages via SMS and voice calls if required to ensure high conversion rates. In addition, customers pay only for successful authentications.
•Number Insight: Number Insight API enables companies to get real time intelligence on phone numbers anywhere in the world to ensure numbers are valid and reachable and to discover other insights such as carrier information, roaming status whether a landline or mobile, and caller name.
Use Case APIs and Programmable Numbers
•Audit API: Enables organizations to build security information and event management alerts, and access real-time information on user activities and events within accounts.
•Reports API: Reports API allows applications to access all voice and data in a single location.
•Virtual Phone Numbers: We offer phone numbers that are local all over the world enabling our customers to have a local presence globally. We also offer toll free numbers and short codes in the United States and Canada. Our numbers can be provisioned and de-provisioned programmatically to enable maximum utilization.
Our product offerings combined with the strength of our network, enables us to partner closely with customers to ensure that they are successful through a personalized account management experience, high quality support and consulting services. Our APIs products are supported through our close relationships with tier one carriers across the globe and offer local numbers in more countries along with its private MPLS network with numerous points of presence in the United States allowing us to offer high voice quality, lower costs and increased reliability. Our extensive network of more than one million developers provides customers with the ability to foster rapid innovations, including extensive developer documentation, sample codes, tutorials, libraries and free online support.
Unified Communications
Vonage Business Communications
Vonage Business Communications is our cloud-native, proprietary technology platform which delivers integrated unified communication services. It provides a cost-effective, highly scalable, feature-rich solution, delivered over-the-top of a customer’s broadband. All VBC features and functionality offerings include access to a mobile application, including the ability to update account profiles, manage devices, and contact call logs directly from a mobile device. We also offer virtual extensions, which connects employees to a business phone number through their mobile phones.
5 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
VBC integrates with other third-party software applications to improve workflow and enhance productivity via the Vonage App Center ecosystem. Built on a microservices architecture, Vonage App Center creates embedded, UI-level integrations with high-value applications, placing critical functionality at the fingertips of VBC users within a single, familiar interface. Our software uses a combination of open APIs and pre-built integrations to enhance functionality with data from other third-party enterprise applications including Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Teams, NetSuite, Zendesk, Oracle Sales Cloud, Hubspot, and others. The investments we have made have enabled scalability to allow Vonage Business Communications to serve a broader customer base.
The launch of VBC was quickly followed by innovations to improve and build upon this service with new features and functionality that we believe transforms the way businesses connect, including:
•VBC Desktop Connect App, which allows employees to start their day in the redesigned Vonage Business Cloud Mobile App and switch to the desktop when they reach the office;
•VonageFlow, a proprietary workstream collaboration solution;
•Business Inbox, which allows customers to reply to messages sent in messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, providing the ability to respond to customers in real-time directly within the app, organizing customer requests in one unified inbox; and
•Vonage Meetings, a programmable video capability which is fully integrated with VBC and leverages Vonage APIs to enable voice, SMS, social, team messaging, and video all within a single interview for a simple, clean user experience.
Vonage Business Enterprise
Vonage Business Enterprise is a purpose-built cloud based platform for existing mid-market and enterprise customers, providing a complete set of enhanced unified communication and collaboration services, including: voice, data, video, mobile and contact center services. We focus on customers for whom guaranteed quality of service and uniformity of services across all locations is critical. We deliver services to this customer base over our private, nationwide, fully redundant, secure IP MPLS network using network points of presence that allow us to deliver dedicated, secure and private bandwidth utilizing all forms of last mile technologies including EoC and Fiber and bandwidth ranging from 1.5Mbps to 1Gbps. Services we deliver include Wide Area Networking, or WAN, Internet Access, MPLS VPN, Managed Firewall, Hosted UCaaS, Hosted Video Conferencing, Web Collaboration, Secure Instant Messaging & Presence, Mobility and Fixed Mobile Convergence.
Vonage Contact Center
Vonage Contact Center provides customers with a robust offering, driving intelligent interactions for customers and agents through emerging technologies such as skills-based routing, real-time sentiment analysis and chatbots. With VCC, we enhance the agent and customer experience by providing a modern contact center with seamless integration into productivity tools and business applications - all on a single, flexible, and unified platform. Our cloud contact center solution can be integrated with the VBC unified communications solution providing an end-to-end communications experience for enhanced customer engagement and conversation. By integrating with today’s leading business applications, productivity tools and CRMs such as Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Microsoft Dynamics, Vonage Contact Center solution delivers better omni-channel interactions and robust analytics, giving businesses the ability to customized agent, employee, and customer connections and workflows to deliver great customer experiences and enhanced productivity - from anywhere.
With the Vonage Contact Center solution, we believe that Vonage is the only cloud communication company that can combine deep CRM integrations with the full range of programmable communications capabilities to enhance the way agents connect with each other and with customers.
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Consumer
For our Consumer segment, we enable customers to access and utilize our services and features via their existing internet connections, including over 3G/4G, LTE, Cable, or DSL broadband networks. This technology enables us to offer our Consumer customers attractively priced voice and messaging services and other features around the world on a variety of devices. Our home telephone services are offered to customers through several service plans with different pricing structures. The service plans include basic features such as voicemail, call waiting, and call forwarding as well as unique features such as Simulring, Visual Voicemail, Boomerang and Extensions. We also charge for local and international calling outside of plan limits.
We have two primary Consumer offerings available in the United States: Vonage World and Vonage North America. Each of our Consumer calling plans provides a number of basic features including call waiting, caller ID with name, call forwarding, and voicemail. Vonage plans also include unlimited Vonage Visual Voicemail, which is “readable voicemail” delivered via email or SMS text message, Vonage Extensions, which extends the plan, and inbound calling, to additional phone numbers and devices, and selective call block, which allows users to block unwanted calls. We also offer, in some cases for additional fees, features such as area code selection, virtual phone numbers, and web-enabled voicemail. Additionally, we also provides similar product offerings to customers in both Canada and the United Kingdom.
NETWORK OPERATIONS
Our network uses our customer’s existing or Vonage procured high-speed broadband Internet service to allow calls over the Internet either from a standard telephone through a Vonage-enabled device or through soft phone software or mobile client applications. Our Unified Communications services are not dependent on any specific type or provider of Internet service, and our customers are free to change their Internet service provider in response to a competitive alternative, or because they have moved to a different location. For many of our Business Enterprise customers, our Unified Communications services are delivered over the Company's private, nationwide, fault tolerant, secure IP MPLS network under multi-year contracts to provide the high level of interconnection quality and the ability to offer service level agreements, or SLA, guaranteeing certain levels of voice service performance.
Our network is scalable and geographically distributed for robustness, high availability, and reliability across multiple call processing sites, using regional data interconnection points, where calls to non-Vonage customers are interconnected with the public switched telephone network. We periodically assess the locations of its regional data connection points in connection with efforts to improve the quality of and efficiency in delivering our service. Our interconnections with the public switched telephone network, or IP/SIP networks, are made pursuant to commercial agreements we have with several telecommunications providers. Under these agreements, we transfer calls originated by customers to other carriers who connect the call to the called party or connect peer to peer. We have a varying degree of settlement arrangements with our carrier partners for indirect third party or direct termination of calls. The calls are routed from our network to other carriers’ interconnected circuits at co-location facilities in which the Company leases space. This method of connecting to the public switched telephone or IP/SIP networks allows us to expand capacity quickly, as necessary to meet call volume, and to provide redundancy within the network.
Because Vonage’s system is standards based and not constrained to use any specific broadband service provider to connect to our customers, we can centrally manage and share resources across our customer base to minimize capital investment when entering new markets.
MARKETING
In connection with our transformation from a consumer telecommunications company to a business-focused SaaS provider, beginning in 2020 we introduced a rebranding of the Company and began a focused pivot to drive relevancy in our key business markets. Our marketing objective is to help drive growth, revenue, and relevancy across our business markets. Vonage employs an integrated multi-channel approach to marketing, whereby we evaluate and focus efforts on efficient marketing vehicles to accomplish its goals with the greatest return on investment. To do this, we make use of both broad-reaching and highly-targeted media channels.
For VCP customers, our primary source of lead acquisition is digital marketing in the form of search engine marketing, digital advertising, social media advertising, and affiliate programs. We also utilize database marketing and lead aggregators to source business leads and use direct marketing and account-based marketing to help source leads and create interest in our solutions. For Consumer customers, we have a highly optimized acquisition approach and focus mainly on digital advertising channels.
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We make use of marketing research to gain insights into brand, product, and service performance, and utilize those learnings to improve our messaging and media plans. Market research is also leveraged in the areas of testing, retention marketing, and product marketing to ensure we bring compelling products and services to market for our customers.
The Vonage brand is a meaningful factor for customers as they consider business services. We continue to invest in the equity of our brand in order to retain and expand our customer base and to position Vonage as a technology leader that delivers innovative, unified communication services and APIs to help businesses around the world accelerate digital transformation for a fundamentally new way of doing business.
SALES AND DISTRIBUTION
Enterprise Sales
In order to continue to expand in the enterprise sales channel, which we define as businesses larger than 1,000 seats, the enterprise sales organization is positioned to provide high quality business services for Enterprise, through our fully managed solution, which utilizes BroadSoft’s enterprise-grade call processing platform, with a broad portfolio of products delivered over its own private, national MPLS network, with numerous Points-of-Presence, or POPs, across the country and our own team of service delivery project managers using our proprietary provisioning tool Zeus, or with SmartWan, as well as our industry leading CPaaS products. Additionally, Contact Center solutions are commonly integrated into Enterprise solutions
Developer Ecosystem
Our API platform products are principally adopted and consumed by software developers all over the world. Given the nature of the business, we invest significant time and effort to build, recruit, and maintain developers and various software ecosystems. We have a large developer ecosystem worldwide with over one million registered developers.
Field Sales and Inside Sales - SMB and Midmarket
We utilize our team of sales agents (or field sales team), primarily based in geographic territories comprising customers and prospects to market and sell our business services. These field sales agents utilize a consistent, automated, highly-structured sales process to effectively educate prospective customers regarding our services. We have developed a scalable model applicable to both existing and new markets now have a field sales presence in 20 markets within the United States and made significant expansion into new markets globally primarily supporting Vonage APIs. For customers in the SMB segment, we leverage an Inside Sales team to provide solutions across our cloud communications offerings.
Channel Sales
In addition to the inside sales and field sales team, Vonage also has a dedicated team focused on channel sales who work with channel partners to market and sell business services, which helps to broaden sales distribution. Vonage continues to develop and expand this channel program by adding new a new Channel Chief, channel managers, and additional national master agents. Vonage now has a broad and deep coverage of the U.S. market through a network of over 20,000 sub agents and resellers.
Self-Service
Customers can subscribe to consumer services at Vonage websites, http://www.vonageforhome.com, http://www.vonageforhome.ca, http://www.vonageforhome.co.uk. U.S. VCP customers can subscribe to Unified Communications services at www.vonage.com, through our main toll-free number 1-844-365-9460, or through campaign-driven sales lines listed on our www.vonage.com web pages. Additionally, Vonage's API enablement and developer focus lends itself to a self-service model. Developers can register, sign up and test, and scale their businesses easily and quickly without having to engage with anyone at Vonage at www.vonage.com. This allows customers to self-provision their accounts with the aim of improving the customer experience while reducing customer acquisition costs.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Vonage currently owns over 250 issued U.S. patents as well as a number of foreign patents and pending U.S. and foreign patent applications. The Company routinely reviews technological developments with technology staff and business units to identify the aspects of Vonage technology that provide us with a technological or commercial advantage and seek intellectual property and patent protection as appropriate to protect such key proprietary technology in the United States and internationally, based on our assessment in light of applicable law. The Company's policies require our employees to assign intellectual property rights developed in the scope of or in relation to, company business and to treat proprietary know-how and materials as confidential information.
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Vonage has acquired multiple U.S. and foreign patents, and obtained licenses to numerous other patents. The Company owns numerous United States and international trademarks and service marks and have applied for registration of trademarks and service marks in the United States and abroad to establish and protect brand names as part of intellectual property strategy.
COMPETITION
In connection with its cloud communications products, Vonage faces competition from the traditional telephone and cable companies as discussed below, as well as from vendors of premises-based solutions or hosted solutions including the following:
•Independent cloud service providers;
•Premises-based business communication equipment providers;
•Hosted communication services providers;
•Traditional technology companies; and
•Emerging competitors in technology companies.
As the cloud communications market evolves, and the convergence of voice, video, messaging, mobility and data networking technologies accelerates, Vonage may face competition in the future from companies that do not currently compete in the market, including companies that currently compete in other sectors, companies that serve consumers rather than business customers, or companies which expand their market presence to include cloud communications.
Vonage faces strong competition from traditional telephone companies, cable companies, wireless companies, alternative communication providers, direct unified communications providers, legacy consumer VOIP businesses, large technology incumbents, and collaboration providers in the consumer, mobile, SMB and enterprise markets. Because most of the Company's target customers are already purchasing communications services from one or more of these providers, success is dependent upon our ability to attract these customers away from their existing providers. The principal competitive factors affecting our ability to attract and retain customers are price, call quality, brand awareness, customer service, network and system reliability, service features and capabilities, scalability, usability, simplicity, mobile integration and the unique ability to deliver APIs to business customers in addition to our Unified Communications and Contact Center Communications offerings.
There is a continuing trend toward consolidation of competitive companies, including the acquisition of alternative communication providers by Internet product and software companies with significant resources. In addition, certain of our competitors have partnered and may in the future partner with other competitors to offer products and services, leveraging their collective competitive positions. Vonage is also subject to the risk of future disruptive technologies, which could give rise to significant new competition.
HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
Successful execution of our strategy is dependent on attracting, developing and retaining key employees and members of our management team. At Vonage, we believe our culture is our human capital competitive advantage that empowers us to win in the marketplace. We believe the substantial skills, experience, and industry knowledge of our employees. These beliefs are built on a core set of values: accountability, collaboration, trust, and excellence. Vonage leaders strive to foster an environment that empowers team members to drive results, delight customers, and inspire teams.
There are several ways in which we attract, develop, and retain highly qualified talent, including:
•Strategic Approach to Work-Life Balance, Diversity, and Inclusion. As part of our strategic plan, we have implemented flexible remote working and parental leave for all employees, have mandatory unconscious bias and culture training for all employees, implement company-sponsored networking events for female employees, and have milestones in place to achieve gender pay parity. Objectives and key results for our senior executives also include metrics on diversity, pay equity, voluntary terminations, and internal mobility. We have also established a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee that is focused on promoting race, gender, and ethnic diversity throughout the organization.
•Investments in Employee Training and Development. In order to foster internal promotion and development, we continue to implement accelerated leadership development and emerging leadership programs to a diverse set of employees throughout the organization. We also continue to implement development and training programs for all employees including product and sales, Code of Conduct, conflicts of interest, information security and cybersecurity, anti-harassment and anti-bribery, and insider trading prohibitions.
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EMPLOYEES
As of December 31, 2021, we had 2,082 employees, none of which are subject to a collective bargaining agreement.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
Vonage was incorporated in Delaware in May 2000 and changed our name to Vonage Holdings Corp. in February 2001. Vonage maintains a website with the address www.vonage.com. References to our website are provided as a convenience, and the information contained on our website is not included as a part of, or incorporated by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Other than an investor’s own Internet access charges, we make available free of charge through our website our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after we have electronically filed such material with, or furnished such material to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. Copies are also available, without charge, by writing to Vonage’s Investor Relations Department at Vonage Holdings Corp., 23 Main Street, Holmdel, NJ 07733 or calling us at 732.365.1328 or sending an email through the Vonage Investor Relations website at http://ir.vonage.com/. Reports filed with the SEC may be viewed at www.sec.gov or obtained at the SEC Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, D.C. 20549. Information regarding the operation of the Public Reference Room may be obtained by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330.
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ITEM 1A. Risk Factors
You should carefully consider the risks below, as well as all of the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, in evaluating our company and our business. Any of these risks could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and the trading price of our common stock.
Risks Relating to our Business Operations, Strategic Planning and Product Development
If we are unable to compete successfully, we could lose market share and revenue.
The business cloud communications markets and consumer services markets in which we participate are highly competitive. We face intense competition from a broad set of companies, including: software as a service companies, contact center as a service companies, other alternative communication providers, and other providers of cloud communications services; and traditional telephone, wireless service providers, cable companies and alternative communications providers with consumer offerings
Many of these providers are substantially larger and better capitalized than us and have the advantage of greater name and brand name recognition, and have a large existing customer base. These service providers may have the ability to devote greater resources to their communications services and may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities. Our competitors' financial resources may allow them to offer services at prices below cost or even for free in order to maintain and gain market share or otherwise improve their competitive positions. Some of our competitors also could use their greater financial resources to develop and market services with more attractive features and more robust customer service. To the extent that these or other companies strengthen their offerings, we may have to reduce our prices, increase promotions, or offer additional features, which may adversely impact our revenues and profitability.
As the cloud communications services market evolves, and the convergence of voice, video, messaging, mobility, artificial intelligence and data networking technologies accelerates, we may face competition in the future from companies that do not currently compete in the cloud communications services market.
As the cloud communications services market evolves, combining voice, video, messaging, mobility, artificial intelligence and data networks, and information technology and communication applications, opportunity is created for new competitors to enter the cloud communications services market and offer competing products, including companies that currently compete in other sectors, companies that serve consumer rather than business customers, or companies which expand their market presence to include business communications. This new competition may take many forms, and may offer products and applications similar to ours. If these new competitors emerge, the cloud communications services market may become increasingly competitive and we may not be able to maintain or improve our market position. Our failure to do so could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Our pending merger with Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ) (“Ericsson”) creates incremental business, regulatory and reputational risks and failure to close the merger could negatively impact the share price and the future business and financial results of the Company.
On November 22, 2021, the Company entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the "Merger Agreement") with Ericsson and Ericsson Muon Holding Inc.. The proposed transaction with Ericsson entails important risks, including, among others: the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the Merger Agreement; the inability to complete the proposed merger due to the failure to satisfy conditions to completion of the proposed merger, including obtaining the requisite Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. clearance; risks related to disruption of management’s attention from the Company’s ongoing business operations due to the proposed merger; the risk that we will not be able to attract, retain, and motivate qualified personnel; the effect of the announcement of the proposed merger on the Company’s relationships with its customers, operating results and business generally; the risk that litigation associated with the proposed merger affects the merger or the business otherwise; and the risk that the proposed merger will not be consummated in a timely manner.
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If we fail to adapt to rapid changes in the market for cloud communications services, then our products and services could become obsolete.
The market for our products and services is constantly and rapidly evolving as we and our competitors introduce new and enhanced products and services and react to changes in the cloud communications services industry and customer demands. We may not be able to develop or acquire new products and plans or product and plan enhancements that compete effectively with present or emerging cloud communications services technologies or differentiate our products and plans based on functionality and performance. In addition, we may not be able to establish or maintain strategic alliances that will permit enhancement opportunities or innovative distribution methods for our products and plans.
To address these issues, we are targeting revenue growth in large, existing markets, which require us to enhance our current products and plans, and develop new products and plans on a timely basis to keep pace with market needs and satisfy the increasingly sophisticated requirements of customers. If we are unable to attract users of these services our net revenues may fail to grow as we expect.
Cloud communications services are complex, and new products and plans and enhancements to existing products and plans can require long development and testing periods. Any delays in developing and releasing new or enhanced products and plans could cause us to lose revenue opportunities and customers. Any technical flaws in products we release could diminish the innovative impact of the products and have a negative effect on customer adoption and our reputation.
We also are subject to the risk of future disruptive technologies. New products based on new technologies or new industry standards could render our existing products obsolete and unmarketable. If new technologies develop that are able to deliver competing voice and messaging services at lower prices, better or more conveniently, it could have a material adverse effect on us.
The market for our API products and platform is relatively nascent and may not experience the growth that we anticipate.
The utilization of APIs to embed contextual, programmable real time communications into mobile apps, websites and business systems workflows, remains a relatively new market, and developers and organizations may not yet recognize the need for, or benefits of, our products and platform. It is important that we are able to educate developers, organizational leaders, and other potential customers regarding our products and platform in order to help grow the market and to realize our market share. If we fail to achieve the foregoing, the market for our products and platform or our share of that market could fail to grow significantly. If the API market, or our share of that market, does not experience significant growth, then our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
We may not fully realize the expected benefits of our business optimization plans or other cost-saving initiatives, which may negatively impact our results of operations and financial condition.
Since the third quarter of 2020, the Company has been implementing a business optimization and alignment project to focus the use of Company resources and drive operational execution. The Company may pursue similar cost-saving initiatives in the future. We may not achieve the operational improvements and efficiencies that we have targeted in this project.
Implementing any restructuring, optimization, or cost-savings plan presents significant potential risks that may impair our ability to achieve anticipated operating improvements and/or cost reductions. These risks include (but are not limited to) higher than anticipated costs in implementing these plans, management distraction from ongoing business activities, failure to maintain adequate controls and procedures while executing these plans, damage to our reputation, brand image, and workforce attrition beyond our planned reductions, and our ability to provide optimal service to our customers. Any of these risks could have a negative impact on our profitability and on our results of operations and financial condition.
We may face difficulties related to the acquisition or integration of businesses, which could harm our growth or operating results.
In August 2018, we acquired TokBox with the intention of integrating and adding video to our VCP offerings in voice, SMS, and IP messaging. In October 2018, we completed the acquisition of NewVoiceMedia as a contact center provider, with the intention of combining our UC, CC and API solutions to provide an end-to-end communications experience for a company's employees and customers. In August 2019, we acquired intellectual property assets from Over.ai in order to integrate conversational artificial intelligence into our VCP product offerings. In October 2021, we acquired Jumper.ai to integrate omnichannel conversational commerce solutions into our VCP product offerings. In addition, we have made several acquisitions over the past several years to build our business services and continue to periodically review acquisition opportunities.
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Acquisition and integration activities require substantial management time and resources. Acquisitions of existing businesses involve substantial risks, including the risk that we may not be able to integrate the operations, personnel, services, or technologies, the potential disruption of our ongoing businesses, the diversion of management attention, the maximization of financial and strategic opportunities, the difficulty in developing or maintaining controls and procedures, and the dilution to our existing stockholders from the issuance of additional shares of common stock. We may elect to acquire additional businesses or assets in the future. However, we cannot predict or guarantee that we will be able to identify suitable acquisition candidates or consummate any acquisition. As a result of these and other risks, we may not produce anticipated revenue, profitability, or synergies.
Acquisitions may require us to issue debt or equity securities, use our cash resources, incur debt or contingent liabilities, amortize intangibles, or write-off acquisition-related expenses. If we are unable to successfully integrate any acquired businesses or assets we may not receive the intended benefits of such acquisition. In addition, we cannot predict market reactions to any acquisitions we may make or to any failure to announce any future acquisitions.
Further, there may be risks or liabilities that such due diligence efforts fail to discover, are not disclosed to us, or that we inadequately assess. The discovery of material liabilities associated with acquisitions or joint venture opportunities, economic risks faced by joint venture partners, or any failure of joint venture partners to perform their obligations could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our Vonage Communications Platform segment is growing rapidly, and any inability to scale our business and grow efficiently could materially and adversely harm our business and results of operations.
As our VCP segment expands, we will need to continue to improve our application architecture, integrate our products and applications across our technology platforms, integrate with third-party systems, and maintain infrastructure performance. We expect the number of users, the amount of data transferred and processed, the number of locations where our service is being used, and the volume of communications over our networks to continue to expand. To address this growth, we will need to scale our systems and customer services organization. Our ability to execute on these initiatives may impact system and network performance, customer satisfaction, and ultimately, sales and revenue. These efforts may also divert management resources. These factors may materially and adversely harm our business and results of operations.
Risks Relating to Customer Attraction and Sales
If we are unsuccessful at retaining customers or attracting new customers, we may experience a reduction in revenue or may be required to spend more money or alter our marketing approaches to grow our customer base.
Our rate of customer terminations for our UC and CC services could increase in the future if customers are not satisfied with the quality and reliability of our network, the value proposition of our products, and the ability of our customer service to meet the needs and expectations of our customers. For our API customers, our ability to grow revenue depends, in part, on our ability to maintain and grow usage of our platform by new and existing customers. If we are not able to increase customer usage of our products, our revenue may decline which would adversely impact our business, results of operations and financial condition. Our API customers are charged based on their usage of our products and generally our customers do not have long-term contractual financial commitments to us, therefore, usage rates may fluctuate at any time. In addition, our agreements with business customers typically provide for service level commitments. If we are unable to meet these commitments or if we suffer extended periods of downtime for our products or platform, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected. Our ability to attract and retain customers for our consumer services are impacted by our pricing, brand awareness, customer service, network and system reliability and service features and capabilities. A material decline in the usage of our business and consumer products could cause us to spend significantly more on sales and marketing than we currently budget in order to maintain or increase revenue from customers, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our success in the cloud communications market for our business services depends in part on developing and maintaining effective distribution channels. The failure to develop and maintain these channels could materially and adversely affect our business.
A portion of our business revenue is generated through our direct sales, or “field sales,” team. This channel consists of sales agents that market and sell our business services products to customers to customers through direct, commonly face-to-face interaction. Our continued success requires that we continue developing and maintaining a successful sales organization. If we fail to do so, or if our sales agents are not successful in their sales efforts, our sales may decrease and our operating results would suffer.
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A portion of our business revenue is generated through indirect channel sales. These channels consist of third-party resellers and value-added distributors that market and sell our business services products to customers. These channels may generate an increasing portion of our business revenue in the future. Generally, we do not have long-term contracts with these third-party resellers and value-added distributors, and the loss of or reduction in sales through these third parties could materially reduce our revenues. We also compete for preference amongst our current or potential resellers with our competitors. Our continued success requires that we continue developing and maintaining successful relationships with these third-party resellers and value-added distributors. If we fail to do so, or if our resellers are not successful in their sales efforts, our sales may decrease and our operating results would suffer.
Sales of our UC and CC business services to medium-sized and enterprise customers involve significant risks which, if not managed effectively, could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.
As we continue to expand our sales efforts to medium-sized and larger businesses, we may incur higher selling expense and longer, more complex, sales cycles. Customers in this market segment may also require bespoke features and integration services, increasing the complexity and expense related to the sales and delivery process, and requiring highly skilled sales and support personnel. As a result, we may devote greater sales and support to these customers, which may result in increased costs and a strain on our support resources. In addition, the rollout of our products with medium-sized and enterprise customers can take longer periods of time compared to smaller customers, which can result in longer lead times in realizing revenues. These factors could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and our overall ability to grow our customer base.
Risks Relating to External Factors and Third Parties
The recent coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the global attempt to contain it has impacted and may continue to impact our business and results of operations.
The global spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and the various measures to contain its effects have created significant volatility, uncertainty, and economic disruption worldwide. COVID-19 has impacted some of our customers more than others, including customers in the travel, hospitality, retail, and other industries where physical interaction is critical. We have experienced and expect that we will continue to experience slowdowns in bookings and customer payments; increased customer churn and reduced usage; and issuance of customer credits to distressed customers served by certain product lines, including SMS API, Vonage Business Cloud, and Vonage Business Enterprise. Moreover, as businesses and educational institutions have pivoted to cloud-based communications in light of social distancing, we are experiencing and expect to experience intense competition from our existing competitors, and also emerging competitors seeking to capitalize on the growing industry.
In addition to COVID-19, our operations, and the operations of our vendors and customers, may also suffer interruptions caused by other pandemic diseases, natural disasters, acts of terrorism, acts of war, military conflict (including escalating military tension between Russia and Ukraine), economic sanctions, and such operations may be further affected by government reactions due to such incidents. Such uncertainties could have a material adverse effect on the continuity of our business and our results of operations and financial condition.
Our ability to provide our telephony service and manage related customer accounts is dependent upon third-party facilities, equipment, and systems, the failure of which could cause delays of or interruptions to our service, damage our reputation, cause us to lose customers, limit our growth, and affect our financial condition.
Our success depends on our ability to provide quality and reliable telephony service, which is in part dependent upon the proper functioning of facilities and equipment owned and operated by third parties and is, therefore, beyond our control. Unlike traditional wireline telephone service or wireless service, our telephony service typically requires our customers to have an operative broadband Internet connection and an electrical power supply, which are provided by the customer's Internet service provider and electric utility company, respectively, and not by us. The quality of some broadband Internet connections may be too poor for customers to use our telephony services properly. In addition, if there is any interruption to a customer's broadband Internet service or electrical power supply, that customer will be unable to make or receive calls, including emergency calls, using our telephony service.
We outsource several of our network functions to third-party providers. For example, we outsource the maintenance of our regional data connection points, which are the facilities at which our network interconnects with the public switched telephone network. If our third-party service providers fail to maintain these facilities properly, or fail to respond quickly to problems, our customers may experience service interruptions. Interruptions in our service caused by third-party facilities have in the past caused and may in the future cause us to lose customers or cause us to offer substantial customer credits, which could adversely affect our revenue and profitability. If interruptions adversely affect the perceived reliability of our service, we may have difficulty attracting new customers, and our brand, reputation, and growth will be negatively impacted.
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There can be no guarantee that these third party providers will be able or willing to supply services to us in the future on commercially reasonable terms, or that we will be able to engage alternative or additional providers. Our ability to provide our services may be impacted during any transition, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We rely on third-party vendors that may be difficult to replace or may not perform adequately.
It is vital to our customers that there be a minimum of disruption to the performance of our API, UC and CC services. We are therefore vulnerable to service interruptions of our third-party data center providers, such as IBM Softlayer and Amazon Web Services, or AWS; and of third-party hosted services. We also rely on third-party vendors that support our internal operations, including Genpact, which provides certain accounting transaction-processing activities. We may experience interruptions, delays and outages in third-party service and availability due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, website hosting disruptions and capacity constraints caused by technical failures, natural disasters, fraud or security attacks. To the extent that we do not effectively address interruptions, delays and outages in our data center providers’ and other hosted providers’ service and availability or capacity constraints, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.
In some cases we rely on purchased or leased hardware and software licensed from third parties in order to provide our services. For example, Broadsoft, Inc. provides us with infrastructure, call termination and origination services, and other hardware and software in connection with certain of our Enterprise offerings. We also integrate third-party licensed software components into our platform. This hardware and software may not continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms or pricing or may fail to continue to be updated to remain competitive. The loss of the right to use this third party hardware or software may increase our expenses or impact the provisioning of our services. The failure of this third party hardware or software could materially impact the performance of our services and may cause material harm to our business or results of operations.
We depend on third-party vendors to supply, configure and deliver the phones that we sell. Any delays in delivery, or failure to operate effectively with our own servers and systems, may result in delay or failure of our services, which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on Yealink Inc. and Polycom, Inc. to provide, and a single fulfillment agent to configure and deliver, the phones that we offer for sale to our customers that use our UC and CC services. If these third parties are unable to deliver phones of acceptable quality or quantity, or in a timely manner, we may be forced to offer replacements at a higher cost than what is currently contracted. In addition, these phones must interoperate with our servers and systems. If either of our providers changes the operation of their phones, we may be required to engage in development efforts to ensure that the new phones interoperate with our system. The failure of our vendor-supplied phones to operate effectively with our system could impact our customers’ ability to use our services and could cause customers to cancel our services, which may cause material harm to our business or results of operations.
We rely on third parties to provide a portion of our customer service representatives, provide aspects of our E-911 service, which differs from traditional 911 service, and initiate local number portability for our customers. If these third parties do not provide our customers with reliable, high-quality service, our reputation will be harmed and we may lose customers.
We offer our customers support 24 hours a day, seven days a week through both our comprehensive online account management website and our toll free number. Our customer support is currently provided via United States based employees as well as third party partners located in various global locations. Our third-party providers generally represent us without identifying themselves as independent parties. The ability to support our customers may be disrupted by natural disasters, inclement weather conditions, civil unrest, and other adverse events in the locations where our customer support is provided.
We also contract for services required to provide E-911 services including assistance in routing emergency calls, terminating E-911 calls, operating a national call center that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to receive certain emergency calls, and maintaining PSAP databases for the purpose of deploying and operating E-911 services. Interruptions in service from our vendor could cause failures in our customers’ access to E-911 services and expose us to liability and damage our reputation. We also have agreements with companies that initiate our local number portability, which allow new customers to retain their existing telephone numbers when subscribing to our services.
If any of these third parties do not provide reliable, high-quality service, our reputation and our business will be harmed. In addition, industry consolidation among providers of services to us may impact our ability to obtain these services or increase our expense for these services.
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We market our products and services to small and medium-sized businesses, which may be disproportionately impacted by fluctuations in economic conditions.
We market our products to small and medium-sized businesses. Customers in this market may be affected by economic downturns to a greater extent, and may have more limited financial resources, than larger or more established businesses. If customers in our VCP markets experience financial hardship as a result of a weak economy, the demand for our services could be materially and adversely affected.
Significant foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations could adversely affect our financial results.
Because our consolidated financial statements are presented in U.S. dollars, increases or decreases in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies in which we transact business could materially adversely affect our financial results. For example, our API business collects revenues in Euros, and accordingly the strengthening of the U.S. dollar relative to the Euro adversely affects our revenue and operating results presented in U.S. dollars. In addition, Following the departure of the U.K. from the EU and the EEA on January 31, 2020 (commonly referred to as “Brexit”) and the expiration of a transition period on December 31, 2020, there continues to be uncertainty over the practical consequences of Brexit including the potential for Brexit to contribute to long-term instability in financial, stock and currency exchange markets, greater restrictions on the supply and availability of goods and services between the U.K. and EEA region, and a general deterioration in consumer sentiment and credit conditions leading to overall negative economic growth and increased risk of merchant default. Brexit has continued to cause significant volatility in global stock markets and currency exchange rate fluctuations that resulted in the fluctuation of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies in which we conduct business, such as the British Pound, Euro and other currencies. Such fluctuations of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies may adversely affect our revenue and operating results. In addition, Brexit may affect our ability to negotiate future customer and vendor contracts, and changes to U.K. border and immigration policy could likewise occur as a result of Brexit, affecting our U.K. operation's ability to recruit and retain employees from outside the U.K.
Risks Relating to Marketing and Talent Management
Growth of our business will depend on market awareness and a strong brand, and any failure to develop, maintain, protect and enhance our brand would hurt our ability to retain or attract subscribers.
Beginning in 2020, we introduced a rebranding of the Company and began implementing a new marketing campaign. Building and maintaining market awareness, brand recognition and goodwill in a cost-effective manner is important to our overall success in achieving widespread acceptance of our existing and future solutions and products and is an important element in attracting new customers. While we may choose to engage in a broader marketing campaign to further promote our brand, this effort may not be successful, or our marketing techniques or content may be challenged. The success of our business also relies on our ability to attract new customers in a cost-effective manner by using a variety of marketing channels. Our efforts in developing our brand may be hindered by the marketing efforts of our competitors and our reliance on any strategic partners to promote our brand. If we are unable to cost-effectively maintain and increase awareness of our brand, our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations could be harmed.
We depend on the continued services of our senior management and other key employees, the loss of any of whom could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our future performance depends on the continued services and contributions of our senior management and other key employees to execute on our business plan, and to identify and pursue opportunities and services innovations. The loss of services of senior management or other key employees could significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our development and strategic objectives. None of our executive officers or other senior management personnel is bound by a written employment agreement and any of them may therefore terminate employment with us at any time with no advance notice. The replacement of any of these senior management personnel would likely involve significant time and costs, and such loss could significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our business objectives and acquisition integrations. The loss of the services of our senior management or other key employees for any reason could adversely affect our business, financial condition, or results of operations.
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Risks Relating to Cybersecurity, IT Systems, Data Privacy and Fraud
Security breaches and other cybersecurity or technological risks could compromise our information systems and network and expose us to liability, which could cause our business and reputation to suffer and which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results.
There are several inherent risks to engaging in a technology business, including our reliance on our data centers and networks, and the use and interconnectivity of those networks. A significant portion of our operations relies heavily on our ability to provide secure processing, storage and transmission of confidential and other sensitive data, including intellectual property, proprietary business information, and personally identifiable information of our customers and employees, in our data centers and on our networks. The secure processing, storage, and transmission of this information is critical to our operations and business strategy. As seen in our industry and others, these activities have been, and will continue to be, subject to continually evolving cybersecurity and other technological risks. Targeted attacks, such as advanced persistent threat is prevalent throughout the Internet and associated with the theft of intellectual property and state-sponsored espionage. Due to the nature of our business and reliance on the Internet, we are susceptible to this type of attack. In addition, physical security of devices located within our offices, and/or remote devices, pose cybersecurity and other technological risks that could negatively impact our business and reputation.
We also operate Internet based, worldwide data, voice, video communications, and messaging services and electronic billing, which require the transmission of confidential and at times personal or sensitive customer or employee information over public networks that may or may not support end to end security. Despite our security measures, which include the development, operation and maintenance of systems and processes that are designed to protect consumer and employee information and prevent fraudulent credit card transactions and other security breaches, our information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to attacks by hackers or breached due to error, malfeasance or other disruptions by a current or former employee or third-party provider and our failure to mitigate such fraud or breaches may adversely affect our operating results. Any such breach could compromise our systems and network and the information stored there could be accessed, publicly disclosed, lost or stolen. Any such access, disclosure or other loss of information could result in legal claims or proceedings, liability under laws that protect the privacy of personal information, regulatory penalties, disruption to our operations, damage to our reputation, and a loss of confidence in our products and services, as well as our ability to keep personally identifiable information confidential, which could adversely affect our business.
We have been subject to cybersecurity incidents from external sources including “brute force” and distributed denial of service attacks, as well as attacks that introduce fraudulent VoIP traffic. Although these incidents have not had a material adverse effect financially or on our ability to provide services, this may not continue to be the case going forward. There can be no assurance that cybersecurity incidents will not occur in the future, potentially more frequently and/or on a more significant scale.
There can be no assurance that we are adequately protecting our information or that we will not experience future incidents. The expenses associated with protecting our information could reduce our operating margins. We maintain insurance intended to cover some of these risks, however, this insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our losses from any future breaches of our systems. In addition, third parties with which we do business may also be sources of cybersecurity or other technological risks. We outsource certain functions, which results in the storage and processing of customer information by third parties. While we engage in certain actions to reduce the exposure resulting from outsourcing, unauthorized access, loss or destruction of data or other cybersecurity incidents could occur, resulting in similar costs and consequences as those discussed above.
Flaws in our technology and systems or our failure to adapt our systems to any new Internet Protocol could cause delays or interruptions of service, which could damage our reputation, cause us to lose customers, and limit our growth.
Our service may be disrupted by problems with our technology and systems that we provide to customers, software or facilities and overloading of our network. As we attract new customers, we expect increased call volume that we need to manage to avoid network interruptions. Interruptions have caused and may in the future cause us to lose customers and offer substantial customer credits, which could adversely affect our revenue and profitability. Network interruptions have also impaired our ability at times to sign-up new customers and the ability of customers to manage their accounts. If service interruptions or other outages adversely affect the perceived reliability of our service or customer service, we may have difficulty attracting and retaining customers and our brand reputation and growth may suffer.
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The storage, processing, and use of personal information and other confidential information subjects us to evolving governmental laws and regulation, commercial standards, contractual obligations, and other legal obligations related to consumer and data privacy, which may have a material impact on our costs, use of our products and services, or expose us to increased liability.
Federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations, commercial commitments and industry standards, each provide for obligations and restrictions with respect to data privacy and security, as well as the collection, storage, retention, use, processing, transmission, sharing, disclosure and protection of personal information and other customer data. The evolving nature of these obligations and restrictions dictates that differing interpretations, inconsistency or conflicts among countries or rules, and general uncertainty impact the application to our business. These new laws, such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), also impact our innovation and business drivers in developing new and emerging technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence and machine learning).
These obligations and restrictions may limit our ability to collect, store, retain, process, use, transmit and share data with our customers, employees, and third party providers, which in turn could limit the ability of our customers to collect, store, retain, protect, use, process, transmit, share and disclose data with others through our products and services. Compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, such obligations and restrictions could increase the cost of our operations and impact our ability to market our products and services through effective segmentation.
Failure to comply with obligations and restrictions related to applicable data protection laws, regulations, standards, and codes of conduct, as well as our own posted privacy policies and contractual commitments could subject us to lawsuits, fines, criminal penalties, statutory damages, consent decrees, injunctions, adverse publicity, loss of user confidence in our services, and loss of users, which could materially harm our business. Additionally, third-party contractors may have access to customer or employee data. If these or other third-party vendors violate obligations and restrictions related to applicable data protection laws or our policies, such violations may also put our customers’ or employees’ information at risk and could in turn have a material and adverse effect on our business.
Third parties may be capable of fraudulently using our name to obtain access to customer accounts and other personal information, use our services to commit fraud or steal our services or equipment, which could damage our reputation, limit our growth, and cause us to incur additional expenses.
Our customers have been subject to “phishing,” which occurs when a third party calls or sends an email or pop-up message to a customer that claims to be from a business or organization that provides services to the customer. The purpose of the inquiry is typically to encourage the customer to visit a bogus website designed to look like a website operated by the legitimate business or organization or provide information to the operator. At the bogus website, the operator attempts to trick the customer into divulging customer account or other personal information such as credit card information or to introduce viruses through “Trojan horse” programs to the customers’ computers. This has resulted in identity theft from our customers and the unauthorized use of Vonage services. Third parties have also used our communications services to commit fraud. Although we have engaged a third party to assist in the shutdown of purported phishing sites, if we are unable to detect and prevent “phishing,” use of our services for fraud, and similar activities, our brand reputation and growth may suffer and we may incur additional costs, including costs to increase security, or be required to credit significant amounts to customers.
Third parties also have used our communications services and obtained delivery of our equipment without paying, including by submitting fraudulent credit card information. This has resulted in our incurring the cost of providing the services, including incurring call termination fees, or providing the equipment without any corresponding revenues. We have implemented anti-fraud procedures in order to limit the expenses resulting from theft of service or equipment. If our procedures are not effective, theft of service or equipment could significantly increase our expenses and negatively impact our profitability.
Risks Relating to Litigation, Regulatory and Tax Matters
Unfavorable litigation or governmental investigation results could require us to pay significant amounts or lead to onerous operating procedures.
We are subject from time to time to lawsuits both in the United States and in foreign countries, including claims and investigations relating to competition, intellectual property rights (including patents), employment and labor matters, personal injury and property damage, customer privacy, regulatory requirements, advertising, marketing and selling practices, and credit and collection issues. Greater constraints on the use of arbitration to resolve certain of these disputes could adversely affect our business. We also spend substantial resources complying with various regulatory and government standards, including any related investigations and litigation. We may incur significant expenses defending any such suit or government investigation and may be required to pay amounts or otherwise change our operations in ways that could adversely impact our businesses, results of operations or financial condition.
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If we fail to protect unique aspects of our internally developed systems, technology, products, and software and our trademarks, we may become involved in costly litigation or our business or brand may be harmed.
Our ability to compete effectively is dependent in large part upon the maintenance and protection of systems and software that we have developed internally based on open standards. While we own over 250 U.S. patents as well as a number of foreign patents and pending U.S. and foreign patent applications, we cannot patent much of the technology that is important to our business. Our pending patent applications may not be granted. Any issued patent that we own may be challenged, narrowed, invalidated, or circumvented. To date, we have relied on patent, copyright and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality procedures and licensing arrangements, to establish and protect our rights to this technology. We typically enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, customers, partners, and vendors in an effort to control access to and distribution of technology, software, documentation, and other information. Despite these precautions, it may be possible for a third party to copy or otherwise obtain and use this technology without authorization. Policing unauthorized use of this technology is difficult. The steps we take may not prevent misappropriation of the technology we rely on. In addition, effective protection may be unavailable or limited in some jurisdictions outside the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce or protect our rights or to determine the validity and scope of the rights of others. That litigation could cause us to incur substantial costs and divert resources away from our daily business, which in turn could materially adversely affect our business.
We may be subject to damaging and disruptive intellectual property disputes that could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition, as well as the continued viability of our company.
There has been substantial litigation in the cloud communications, VoIP, telecommunications, hosted services, and related industries regarding intellectual property rights and, given the rapid technological change in our industry, expansion into new technological and geographical markets, and our continual development of new products and services, we and/or our commercial partners may be subject to infringement claims from time to time. For example, we may be unaware of filed patent applications and issued patents that could include claims that might be interpreted to cover our products and services. We have been subject to patent infringement claims in the past, and from time to time we receive letters from third parties offering an opportunity for us to obtain licenses to patents that may be relevant to our business or alleging that our services infringe upon third party patents or other intellectual property. We may seek to obtain rights to third party technology in the future, but may not be able to agree upon commercially reasonable terms or at all with respect to obtaining such rights. If we are unable to extend existing licenses or are unable to obtain rights to other technology that may be commercially advantageous or necessary for our product and service offerings, we may experience a decrease in the quality of our products or services or we may lose the ability to provide our products and services on a non-infringing basis until alternative technology or suitable alternative products and services can be developed, identified, obtained either through acquisition, license or other grants of rights, and integrated.
The regulatory framework for API services continues to develop, as many existing regulations may not fully contemplate this type of service or business model; future legislative, regulatory or judicial actions impacting API could adversely affect our business and financial results of operations, increase the cost and complexity of compliance, and expose us to liability.
In many countries where we offer API products, it is not clear how our APIs fit into the communications regulatory framework. The Company is also expanding into new regions, such as the Asia Pacific (including China), where regulations are unclear and subject to rapid change. Regulators could claim that our API products are subject to licensing and substantive communications regulatory requirements, could modify their regulations to explicitly expand the obligations to which our API products are subject, or could increase the level of scrutiny and enforcement they apply.
Future legislative, judicial or other regulatory actions could have a negative effect on our business. If our API products become subject to additional rules and regulations applicable to technology or communications providers, we may incur significant litigation and compliance costs, or it may significantly impact our ability to compete. Moreover, the regulatory environment is constantly evolving and changes to the applicable regulations could impose additional compliance costs and require modifications to our technology operations. We may also experience interruptions or limitations on the delivery and use of our API products on our platform, or incur significant losses based on the timing of customer payments and any difficulty in collecting accounts receivable from our API customers. Any decreased use of our products and services or limitation on our ability to collect payments from our customers could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We may also have to restructure or discontinue certain of our service offerings, exit certain markets, or raise the price of our services in response to regulatory changes or actions, any of which could cause our services to be less attractive to customers. In addition, future regulatory developments could increase our cost or complexity of doing business, limit our growth, or impact our results of operations.
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Our VoIP services are subject to country-specific governmental regulation and related actions and taxes that may increase our costs or impact our product offerings.
In many countries, we are not a regulated telecommunications business subject primarily to regulations surrounding provision of emergency services and payment into universal service type funds. In some countries, providing VoIP services is or may be illegal. We may need to change our service offerings to avoid regulation as a telecommunications business in a jurisdiction, or if we are treated as a fully regulated telecommunications business, we may be required to incur additional expenses. In addition, if governments believe that we are providing unauthorized service in their countries, they may pursue fines, penalties, or other governmental action, including criminal action, that may damage our brand and reputation. If we use a local partner to provide services in a country and the local partner does not comply with applicable governmental regulations, we may face additional regulation, liabilities, penalties or other governmental action, and our brand and reputation may be harmed.
In addition to the risk of being directly subjected to regulation, decisions by foreign regulators to increase the charge for terminating international calls into their countries could cause increased costs, impact margin, and impact churn. These regulatory actions may be taken without notice and cause us to react quickly to changing market conditions. These efforts could divert management’s efforts and attention from ordinary business operations which could materially and adversely affect our results of operations.
As a United States-based company, any foreign subsidiary or joint venture that we use for international operations may be subject to a variety of governmental regulations in the countries where we market our products, including tariffs, taxes and employment regulations different from those in the U.S. For example, distributions of earnings and other payments, including interest, received from our foreign subsidiaries may be subject to withholding taxes imposed by the jurisdiction in which such entities are formed or operating, which will reduce the amount of after-tax cash we can receive. In general, as a United States corporation, we may claim a foreign tax credit against our federal income tax expense for such foreign withholding taxes and for foreign income taxes paid directly by foreign corporate entities in which we own 10% or more of the voting stock. The ability to claim such foreign tax credits and to utilize net foreign losses is, however, subject to numerous limitations, and we may incur incremental tax costs as a result of these limitations or because we are not currently in a tax-paying position in the United States. We may also be required to include in our income for United States federal income tax purposes our proportionate share of certain earnings of those foreign subsidiaries that are classified as “controlled foreign corporations” without regard to whether distributions have been actually received from such subsidiaries.
Our VoIP services are subject to regulation in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, and in additional countries as we expand globally. Future legislative, regulatory or judicial actions could adversely affect our business and expose us to liability and limit our growth potential.
The United States, United Kingdom, and Canada have applied some traditional telephone company regulations to VoIP and continue to evaluate how VoIP should be regulated, as are other countries as we expand globally. The effects of future regulatory developments are uncertain. At the federal level in the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission has imposed certain telecommunications regulations on VoIP services including, but not limited to; requirements to provide E-911 service; communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act obligations; obligation to support Universal Service; customer Proprietary Network Information, or CPNI, requirements; disability access obligations; local Number Portability requirements; and consumer protection, including protection from unwanted telemarketing and other calls. As we expand globally, these types of regulations are likely to be similarly enacted and enforced by local regulatory authorities.
In general, the focus of interconnected VoIP telecommunications regulation is at the federal level. On November 12, 2004, the FCC issued a declaratory ruling providing that our service is subject to federal regulation and preempted the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission from imposing certain of its regulations on us. While this ruling does not exempt us from all state oversight of our service, it effectively prevents state telecommunications regulators from imposing certain burdensome and inconsistent market entry requirements and certain other state utility rules and regulations on our service. Despite this, Vonage may be subject to state and local regulatory requirements including: payment of state and local E-911 fees; and State Universal Service support obligations.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, regulates VOIP Service. In the UK, the Office of Communications, or OFCOM, regulates voice services. Other regulatory bodies in various jurisdictions regulate services Vonage offers its customers. These regulated services are similar to those regulated in the United States discussed above. Future legislative, judicial or other regulatory actions could have a negative effect on our business. If we become subject to the rules and regulations applicable to telecommunications providers in individual states or other foreign jurisdictions, we may incur significant litigation and compliance costs, and we may have to restructure our service offerings, exit certain markets, or raise the price of our services, any of which could cause our services to be less attractive to customers. In addition, future regulatory developments could increase our cost of doing business and limit our growth.
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Customer misuse of our API products in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act may cause us to face litigation risk.
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 restricts telemarketing and the use of automatic SMS text messages without proper consent. The scope and interpretation of the laws that are or may be applicable to the delivery of text messages are continuously evolving and developing. If we do not comply with these laws or regulations or if we become liable under these laws or regulations due to the failure of our customers to comply with these laws by obtaining proper consent, we could face liability.
We may be exposed to liabilities under anti-corruption, export control and economic sanction regulations, and similar laws and regulations, and any determination that we violated any of these laws or regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We are subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act, or FCPA, the UK Bribery Act and other laws that prohibit improper payments or offers of payments to foreign governments and their officials, political parties, and/or private parties by persons and entities for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. We have operations, agreements with third parties, and make sales internationally. In addition, we plan to expand our international operations through potential joint ventures with local partners. Our international activities create the risk of unauthorized payments or offers of payments by one of our employees, consultants, partners, sales agents or distributors, even though these parties are not always subject to our control. It is our policy to prohibit these practices by our employees, consultants, partners, sales agents or distributors, however, our existing safeguards and any future improvements may prove to be less than effective, and our employees, consultants, partners, sales agents or distributors may engage in conduct for which we might be held responsible. Violations of the FCPA, the UK Bribery Act or other laws may result in severe criminal or civil sanctions, and we may be subject to other liabilities, which could negatively affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Our products and services may be subject to export control and economic sanctions regulations, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, U.S. Customs regulations and various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Controls. Our products and services must be offered and sold in compliance with these laws and regulations. If we do not comply with these laws or regulations or if we become liable under these laws or regulations due to the failure of our customers to comply with these laws by obtaining proper consent, we could face liability. In addition, changes in our products or services, changes in applicable regulations, or change in the target of such regulations, could also result in decreased use of our products and services, or in our decreased ability to sell our products or provide our services to existing or prospective customers with international operations. Any decreased use of our products and services or limitation on our ability to export our products and provide our services could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
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Our API offerings may be subject to liability for historic and future sales, use and similar taxes, that may increase our costs or impact our product offerings.
In some United States tax jurisdictions in which we conduct operations, sales and use and telecommunications taxes could apply to our API products. Historically, we have not billed or collected these taxes from our API customers. It is possible that some tax jurisdictions may assert that such taxes are applicable to our API products, which could result in tax assessments, penalties and interest, and we may be required to collect such taxes on our API customers in the future. Such tax assessments, penalties and interest or future requirements may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. To the extent that we decide to collect such taxes from our API customers in the future, we may have some customers that question the incremental tax charges and some may seek to negotiate lower pricing from us, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
The global scope of our operations may subject us to potentially adverse tax consequences.
We generally report our taxable income in various jurisdictions worldwide based upon our business operations in those jurisdictions. Intercompany relationships are subject to complex transfer pricing regulations in various jurisdictions. If revenue and taxing authorities disagree with positions we have taken we could be required to pay additional taxes, interest and penalties, which could result in one-time tax charges, higher effective tax rates, reduced cash flows and lower overall profitability of our operations. In addition, changes in tax laws of countries in which we do business could change on a prospective or retroactive basis, and any such changes could increase our liabilities for taxes, interest and penalties, and therefore could harm our business, cash flows, results of operations and financial position.
We have incurred cumulative losses since our inception and may not achieve consistent profitability in the future.
We incurred a net loss attributable to Vonage of $24,497 for the year ended December 31, 2021 and our accumulated deficit is $691,718 from our inception through December 31, 2021. Although we have achieved profitability in prior years and believe we will achieve consistent profitability in the future, we ultimately may not be successful. We believe that our ability to achieve consistent profitability will depend, among other factors, on our ability to continue to achieve and maintain substantive operational improvements and structural cost reductions while maintaining and growing our net revenues. In addition, certain of the costs of our business are not within our control and may increase. For example, we and other telecommunications providers are subject to regulatory termination charges imposed by regulatory authorities in countries to which customers make calls.
We may be unable to fully realize the benefits of our net operating loss, or NOL, carry forwards if an ownership change occurs.
If we were to experience a “change in ownership” under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code, or Section 382, the NOL carryforward limitations under Section 382 would impose an annual limit on the amount of the future taxable income that may be offset by our NOL generated prior to the change in ownership. If a change in ownership were to occur, we may be unable to use a significant portion of our NOL to offset future taxable income. In general, a change in ownership occurs when, as of any testing date, there has been a cumulative change in the stock ownership of the corporation held by 5% stockholders of more than 50 percentage points over an applicable three-year period. For these purposes, a 5% stockholder is generally any person or group of persons that at any time during an applicable three-year period has owned 5% or more of our outstanding common stock. In addition, persons who own less than 5% of the outstanding common stock are grouped together as one or more “public group” 5% stockholders. Under Section 382, stock ownership would be determined under complex attribution rules and generally includes shares held directly, indirectly through intervening entities, and constructively by certain related parties and certain unrelated parties acting as a group. We have implemented a Tax Benefits Preservation Plan intended to provide a meaningful deterrent effect against acquisitions that could cause a change in ownership, however this is not a guarantee against such a change in ownership.
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Risks Relating to Stock Ownership and Indebtedness
Actions of activist stockholders could cause us to incur substantial costs, divert management’s attention and resources, and have an adverse effect on our business.
We have been and may continue to be subject to proposals by stockholders urging us to take certain corporate actions. If activist stockholder activities continue, our business could be adversely affected because responding to proxy contests and reacting to other actions by activist stockholders can be costly and time-consuming, disrupt our operations, and divert the attention of management and our employees. For example, we may be required to retain the services of various professionals to advise us on activist stockholder matters, including legal, financial, and communications advisers, the costs of which may negatively impact our future financial results. This may be exploited by our competitors, cause concern to our current or potential customers, and make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified personnel. In addition, actions of activist shareholders may cause significant fluctuations in our stock price based on temporary or speculative market perceptions or other factors that do not necessarily reflect the underlying fundamentals and prospects of our business.
The debt agreements governing our financing contain restrictions that may limit our flexibility in operating our business or executing on our acquisition strategy.
On July 31, 2018, we entered into the 2018 Credit Facility consisting of a $100 million senior secured term loan and a $500 million revolving facility. The 2018 Credit Facility contains customary representations and warranties and affirmative covenants that limit our ability and/or the ability of certain of our subsidiaries to engage in specified types of transactions. These covenants and other restrictions may under certain circumstances limit, but not necessarily preclude, our and certain of our subsidiaries’ ability to, among other things: consolidate or merge; create liens; incur additional indebtedness; dispose of assets; consummate acquisitions; make investments; or pay dividends and other distributions.
Under the 2018 Credit Facility, we are required to comply with financial covenants, including the following financial covenants: specified maximum consolidated leverage ratio; specified minimum consolidated fixed coverage charge ratio, minimum cash position and maximum capital expenditures.
Our ability to comply with such financial and other covenants may be affected by events beyond our control, so we may not be able to comply with these covenants. A breach of any such covenant could result in a default under the 2018 Credit Facility. In that case, the lenders could elect to declare due and payable immediately all amounts due under the 2018 Credit Facility, including principal and accrued interest.
If we require additional capital, we may not be able to obtain additional financing on favorable terms or at all.
We may need to pursue additional financing to respond to new competitive pressures, pay extraordinary expenses such as litigation settlements or judgments or fund growth, including through acquisitions. Because of our past significant losses and our limited tangible assets, we do not fit traditional credit lending criteria, which, in particular, could make it difficult for us to obtain loans or to access the capital markets. In addition, the credit documentation for our recent financing contains affirmative and negative covenants that affect, and in many respects may significantly limit or prohibit, among other things, our and certain of our subsidiaries’ ability to incur, refinance or modify indebtedness and create liens. Our credit card processors have the ability to impose significant holdbacks in certain circumstances. The reinstatement of such holdbacks likely would have a material adverse effect on our liquidity. Under our credit card processing agreements with our Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover credit card processors, the credit card processor has the right, in certain circumstances, including adverse events affecting our business, to impose a holdback of our advanced payments purchased using a Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover credit card, as applicable, or demand additional reserves or other security. If circumstances were to occur that would allow any of these processors to reinstate a holdback, the negative impact on our liquidity likely would be significant. In addition, our Visa and MasterCard credit card processing agreement may be terminated by the credit card processor at its discretion if we are deemed to be financially insecure. As a significant portion of payments to us are made through Visa and MasterCard credit cards, if the credit card processor does not assist in transitioning our business to another credit card processor, the negative impact on our liquidity likely would be significant. There were no cash reserves and cash-collateralized letters of credit with any credit card processors as of December 31, 2021.
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We may not have the ability to raise the funds necessary to settle conversions of the convertible senior notes due 2024 in cash or to repurchase the notes upon a fundamental change, and our future debt may contain limitations on our ability to pay cash upon conversion or repurchase of the notes.
Holders of our 1.75% convertible senior notes due 2024 (the “Convertible Senior Notes”) have the right to require us to repurchase their Convertible Senior Notes upon the occurrence of a fundamental change at a fundamental change repurchase price equal to 100% of the aggregate principal amount of the Convertible Senior Notes to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any. In addition, upon conversion of the Convertible Senior Notes, unless we elect to deliver solely shares of our common stock to settle such conversion (other than paying cash in lieu of delivering any fractional share), we will be required to make cash payments in respect of the Convertible Senior Notes being converted. However, we may not have enough available cash or be able to obtain financing at the time we are required to make repurchases of Convertible Senior Notes surrendered therefor or Convertible Senior Notes being converted. In addition, our ability to repurchase the Convertible Senior Notes or to pay cash upon conversions of the Convertible Senior Notes may be limited by law, by regulatory authority or by agreements governing our future indebtedness. Our failure to repurchase Convertible Senior Notes at a time when the repurchase is required by the indenture setting forth the terms of the Convertible Senior Notes or to pay any cash payable on future conversions of the Convertible Senior Notes as required by the indenture would constitute a default under the indenture. A default under the indenture setting forth the terms of the Convertible Senior Notes or the occurrence of the fundamental change itself may lead to a default under our 2018 Credit Facility or other agreements governing our future indebtedness. If the repayment of the related 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 Convertible Senior Notes or make cash payments upon conversions thereof. The increase in the conversion rate for Convertible Senior Notes converted in connection with a make-whole fundamental change or notice of redemption may not adequately compensate holders for any lost value of such holders’ Convertible Senior Notes as a result of such transaction.
If a make-whole fundamental change occurs prior to the maturity date or if we issue a notice of redemption with respect to the Convertible Senior Notes, under certain circumstances, we will increase the conversion rate by a number of additional shares of our common stock for Convertible Senior Notes converted in connection with such make-whole fundamental change or notice of redemption, as the case may be. The increase in the conversion rate will be determined based on the date on which the specified corporate transaction becomes effective, or the date of the notice of redemption, as the case may be and the price paid (or deemed to be paid) per share of our common stock in such transaction or with respect to such redemption, as the case may be. The increase in the conversion rate for Convertible Senior Notes converted in connection with a make-whole fundamental change or notice of redemption may not adequately compensate holders for any lost value of such holders’ Convertible Senior Notes as a result of such transaction or redemption. In addition, if the price per share of our common stock paid (or deemed paid) in the transaction is greater than $60.00 per share or less than $11.73 per share (in each case, subject to adjustment), no additional shares will be added to the conversion rate. Moreover, in no event will the conversion rate per $1,000 aggregate principal amount of Convertible Senior Notes as a result of this adjustment exceed 85.2514 shares of common stock, subject to adjustment in the same manner as the conversion rate.
Our obligation to increase the conversion rate for Convertible Senior Notes converted in connection with a make-whole fundamental change or notice of redemption could be considered a penalty, in which case the enforceability thereof would be subject to general principles of reasonableness and equitable remedies.
The conditional conversion feature of the Convertible Senior Notes, if triggered, may adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.
In the event the conditional conversion feature of the Convertible Senior Notes is triggered, holders of Convertible Senior Notes will be entitled to convert the Convertible Senior Notes at any time during specified periods at their option. If one or more holders elect to convert their Convertible Senior Notes, unless we elect to satisfy our conversion obligation by delivering solely shares of our common stock (other than paying cash in lieu of delivering any fractional share), 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. In addition, even if holders of Convertible Senior Notes do not elect to convert their Convertible Senior Notes, we could be required under applicable accounting rules to reclassify all or a portion of the outstanding principal of the Convertible Senior Notes as a current rather than long-term liability, which would result in a material reduction of our net working capital.
24 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Convertible debt securities that may be settled in cash, such as the Convertible Senior Notes, could have a material effect on our reported financial results.
Under certain circumstances, convertible debt instruments (such as the Convertible Senior Notes) that may be settled entirely or partly in cash may be accounted for utilizing the treasury stock method, the effect of which is that the shares issuable upon conversion of such Convertible Senior Notes are not included in the calculation of diluted earnings per share except to the extent that the conversion value of such Convertible Senior Notes exceeds their principal amount. Under the treasury stock method, for diluted earnings per share purposes, the transaction is accounted for as if the number of shares of common stock that would be necessary to settle such excess, if we elected to settle such excess in shares, are issued. We cannot be sure that the accounting standards in the future will continue to permit the use of the treasury stock method. If we are unable or otherwise elect not to use the treasury stock method in accounting for the shares issuable upon conversion of the Convertible Senior Notes, then our diluted earnings per share could be adversely affected.
The capped call transactions entered into in connection with the pricing of the Convertible Senior Notes may affect the value of the Convertible Senior Notes and our common stock.
In connection with the pricing of the Convertible Senior Notes and subsequently in connection with the exercise of the initial purchasers’ exercise of their option to purchase additional Convertible Senior Notes, we entered into capped call transactions (the “Capped Calls”) with certain option counterparties. The Capped Calls are expected generally to reduce the potential dilution upon conversion of the Convertible Senior Notes and/or offset any cash payments we are required to make in excess of the aggregate principal amount of converted Convertible Senior Notes, as the case may be, with such reduction and/or offset subject to a cap.
In addition, the option counterparties or their respective affiliates may modify their hedge positions by entering into or unwinding various derivatives with respect to our common stock and/or purchasing or selling our common stock or other securities of ours in secondary market transactions following the pricing of the Convertible Senior Notes and prior to the maturity of the Convertible Senior Notes (and are likely to do so during any observation period related to a conversion of the Convertible Senior Notes). This activity could also cause or avoid an increase or a decrease in the market price of our common stock or the Convertible Senior Notes, which could affect holders’ ability to convert the Convertible Senior Notes and, to the extent the activity occurs during any observation period related to a conversion of Convertible Senior Notes, it could affect the number of shares and value of the consideration that holders will receive upon conversion of the Convertible Senior Notes.
In addition, if any such Capped Call fails to become effective, the option counterparty party thereto may unwind its hedge positions with respect to our common stock, which could adversely affect the value of our common stock and, if the Convertible Senior Notes have been issued, the value of the Convertible Senior Notes.
Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and the agreements governing our indebtedness contain provisions that could delay or discourage a takeover attempt, which could prevent the completion of a transaction in which our stockholders could receive a substantial premium over the then-current market price for their shares.
Certain provisions of our Restated Certificate of Incorporation and our Amended and Restated By-laws may make it more difficult for, or have the effect of discouraging, a third party from acquiring control of us or changing our board of directors and management. These provisions permit our board of directors to issue additional shares of common stock and preferred stock and to establish the number of shares, series designation, voting powers if any, preferences, other special rights, qualifications, limitations or restrictions of any series of preferred stock; limit the ability of stockholders to amend our Restated Certificate of incorporation and Amended and Restated By-laws, including supermajority requirements; allow only our board of directors, Chairman of the board of directors or Chief Executive Officer to call special meetings of our stockholders; eliminate the ability of stockholders to act by written consent; require advance notice for stockholder proposals and director nominations; and limit the removal of directors and the filling of director vacancies.
Such provisions could have the effect of depriving stockholders of an opportunity to sell their shares at a premium over prevailing market prices. Any delay or prevention of, or significant payments required to be made upon, a change of control transaction or changes in our board of directors or management could deter potential acquirers or prevent the completion of a transaction in which our stockholders could receive a substantial premium over the then-current market price for their shares.
25 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
ITEM 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None.
ITEM 2. Properties
During the third quarter of 2021, the Company entered into a new lease agreement to relocate its corporate headquarters from Holmdel, New Jersey to a new leased facility also located in Holmdel, New Jersey. We lease office, building space, and research and development sites around the world, primarily in the United States, Europe, Israel, Australia, and Asia. We sublease portions of office space including space in our old Holmdel, NJ location to a third parties. Due to the impact of COVID-19, we analyzed our real estate footprint, our ability to work primarily as a remote organization, and that a significant amount of real estate was not fully utilized. As a result, we had closed offices in certain locations worldwide during 2021 and 2020. We believe that the remaining facilities that we occupy are in good condition and adequate for our current needs. We have established a program to lease temporary work spaces based on the office re-openings and future needs, and do not anticipate leasing any material additional space.
ITEM 3. Legal Proceedings
Refer to Note 15, Commitments and Contingencies to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a discussion of recent developments regarding our legal proceedings.
ITEM 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not Applicable.
26 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
(In thousands, except per share amounts)
Note 1. Nature of Business
Nature of Operations
Vonage Holdings Corp. (“Vonage”, “Company”, “we”, “our”, “us”) is incorporated as a Delaware corporation. At Vonage, our vision is to accelerate the world's ability to connect. We are observing a secular change in the way business is done, with a fundamental shift in how communications technologies are being leveraged in almost every industry. Through the Vonage Communications Platform, our strategy is to deliver a single leading cloud communications platform that powers our customers' and partners' global engagement solutions using our APIs, Unified Communications, and Contact Center innovations. We believe that the Vonage Communications Platform's products and services are well positioned to take advantage of emerging trends with sizable, growing total addressable markets as companies look to cloud-based communications solutions and API programming architectures as part of their digital transformation.
Our strategic business is the Vonage Communications Platform formerly referred to as "Business," which delivers a single leading cloud communications platform that powers our customers' and partners' global engagement solutions using our APIs, Unified Communications, and Contact Center innovations. The Vonage Communications Platform brings unique value to businesses by providing multiple communications channels - including video, voice, messaging, email, verification, and artificial intelligence - that integrate into the applications, products and workflows that our customers are already using. We believe this delivers both the power and the flexibility to our customers to address the growing need to transform their communications, connections and experiences for customers and enables the type of business continuity, remote work, and remote delivery of services that are now essential for team members.
For our Consumer customers, we enable users to access and utilize our services and features, via their existing internet connections, including over 3G/4G, LTE, Cable, or DSL broadband networks. This technology enables us to offer our Consumer customers attractively priced voice and messaging services and other features around the world on a variety of devices. Our Consumer strategy is focused on the continued penetration of our core North American markets, which provide value in international long distance and target under-served segments.
Customers in the United States represented 65%, 68%, and 72% of our consolidated revenues for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively, with the balance in Canada, the United Kingdom, China, Singapore, Netherlands, and other countries around the world.
Note 2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Principles of Consolidation
The consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The ASC established by the FASB is the source of authoritative GAAP to be applied to nongovernmental entities. In addition, the rules and interpretive releases of the SEC under the authority of federal securities laws are also sources of authoritative GAAP for SEC registrants.
The consolidated financial statements include the accounts and operations of Vonage and its wholly-owned subsidiaries for which we have a controlling interest. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. The usual condition for a controlling financial interest is ownership of a majority of the voting interests of an entity; however, a controlling financial interest may also exist through arrangements that do not involve controlling voting interests. As such, Vonage applies the guidance of ASC 810, Consolidations, or ASC 810, to determine when an entity that is insufficiently capitalized or not controlled through its voting interests, referred to as a VIE, should be consolidated. In addition, the results of companies acquired or disposed of are included in the consolidated financial statements from the effective date of the acquisition or up to the date of disposal.
61 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Revenue Recognition
Our results are presented in accordance with the guidance of ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), or Topic 606. We measure revenue based upon consideration specified by contracts with our customers. Revenue is recognized when our performance obligation under the contract is satisfied by transferring control over the product or service to the customer. We derive our revenues for our Consumer and VCP segments primarily from the sale of our communication services, access, and products along with USF as further described in Note 4, Revenue Recognition. The majority of the Company's contracts with customers have a single performance obligation for service revenues. We recognize revenue with customers when control transfers, which occurs upon delivery of a service or product. For our VCP segment, the typical life of a customer for service is 7 years.
Contract Acquisition Costs
We have various commission programs for which eligible employees and third parties may earn commission on sales of services and products to customers. We expect that these commission fees are recoverable and, therefore, we have capitalized these commissions as contract costs included within deferred customer acquisitions cost on our consolidated balance sheet. Capitalized commission fees are amortized to sales and marketing expense over estimated customer life, which is 7 years for VCP customers. In addition, the Company expenses sales commissions for commission plans related to customer arrangements deemed less than a year and for residuals and renewals.
Cost of Revenues
Cost of revenues is primarily comprised of cost of services consisting of costs that we pay to third parties such as access and interconnection charges that we pay to other companies to terminate domestic and international phone calls on the public switched telephone network. In addition, costs to lease phone numbers, to co-locate in other companies’ facilities, to provide enhanced emergency dialing capabilities to transmit 911 calls, and to provide local number portability are also included in cost of service. These costs also include taxes that we pay on telecommunications services from our suppliers or are imposed by government agencies such as USF contributions and royalties for use of third parties’ intellectual property. In addition, these costs include certain personnel and related costs for network operations and technical support that are attributable to revenue generating activities. Cost of services excludes depreciation and amortization expense of $61,874, $51,408, and $38,167 for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively.
Also included in cost of revenues is costs of goods sold consisting primarily of costs incurred on customer equipment for customers who subscribe through the direct sales channel in excess of activation fees. The amortization of deferred customer equipment, the cost of shipping and handling for customer equipment, and the cost of certain promotions are also included in cost of goods sold.
We categorize cost of revenues as follows:
Services, access and product cost of revenues. Services cost of revenues consists of costs associated with network operations and technical support personnel, communication origination, and termination services provided by third party carriers and excludes depreciation and amortization. Access and product cost of revenues includes equipment sold to customers, shipping and handling, professional services, cost of certain products including equipment or services that we give customers as promotions, and broadband access.
USF cost of revenues. USF cost of revenues represents contributions to the Federal USF and related fees.
Sales and Marketing Expenses
Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel and related costs for employees and contractors directly associated with our sales and marketing activities, internet advertising fees, radio and billboard advertising, public relations, commissions paid to employees, resellers and other third parties, trade shows, marketing and promotional activities, customer support, credit card fees, collections, and systems and information technology support. We expense advertising costs during the period in which they are incurred. Advertising costs included in sales and marketing were $42,816, $40,862, and $46,606 for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively.
62 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Engineering and Development Expenses
Engineering and development expenses predominantly include personnel and related costs for developers responsible for research and development of new products. Costs related to preliminary project activities and post implementation activities are expensed as incurred.
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash
We maintain cash with several investment grade financial institutions. Highly liquid investments, which are readily convertible into cash, with original maturities of three months or less, are recorded as cash equivalents. The following table provides a reconciliation of cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash reported within the consolidated balance sheet to same such amounts show in the consolidated statement of cash flows:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| As of December 31, |
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | | |
Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 18,342 | | $ | 43,078 | | $ | 23,620 | | | |
Restricted cash | 1,967 | | 1,919 | | 2,015 | | | |
| $ | 20,309 | | $ | 44,997 | | $ | 25,635 | | | |
Certain Risks and Concentrations
Financial instruments that potentially subject us to concentrations of credit risk consist principally of cash equivalents and accounts receivable. They are subject to fluctuations in both market value and yield based upon changes in market conditions, including interest rates, liquidity, general economic conditions, and conditions specific to the issuers. Accounts receivable are typically unsecured and are derived from revenues earned from customers. A portion of our accounts receivable represents the timing difference between when a customer’s credit card is billed and the subsequent settlement of that transaction with our credit card processors. This timing difference is generally three days for substantially all of our credit card receivables. We have never experienced any accounts receivable write-offs due to this timing difference. In addition, we collect subscription fees in advance, minimizing our accounts receivable and bad debt exposure. If a customer’s credit card, debit card or ECP is declined, we generally suspend international calling capabilities as well as their ability to incur domestic usage charges in excess of their plan minutes. Generally, if the customer’s credit card, debit card or ECP could not be successfully processed during three billing cycles, we terminate the account. In addition, we automatically charge any per minute fees to our customers’ credit card, debit card or ECP monthly in arrears. To further mitigate our bad debt exposure, a customer’s credit card, debit card or ECP will be charged in advance of their monthly billing if their international calling or overage charges exceed a certain dollar threshold.
Property and Equipment
Property and equipment includes acquired assets and consist principally of network equipment and computer hardware, furniture, and leasehold improvements. Company-owned equipment in use at customer premises is also included in property and equipment. Network equipment, computer hardware and furniture are stated at cost with depreciation provided using the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the related assets, which range from three to five years. Leasehold improvements are amortized over their estimated useful life of the related assets or the life of the lease, whichever is shorter. The cost of substantial improvements is capitalized while the cost of maintenance and repairs is charged to operating expenses as incurred. Company-owned customer premises equipment is depreciated on a straight-line basis over 3 years.
Our network equipment and computer hardware, which consists of routers, gateways, and servers that enable our services, is subject to technological risks and rapid market changes due to new products and services and changing customer demand. These changes may result in future adjustments to the estimated useful lives or the carrying value of these assets, or both.
63 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Leases
We determine if an arrangement is a lease at inception. Operating leases are included in operating lease right-of-use assets, operating lease obligations, current portion and operating lease obligations on the Company's consolidated balance sheets. A right-of-use asset represents the Company's right to use an underlying asset for the lease term and lease liabilities represent our obligation to make lease payments arising from the lease. A right-of-use asset and related liability is recognized at the commencement date of the arrangement based upon the present value of lease payments over the lease term. As most of our lease arrangements do not provide an implicit rate, the Company uses its incremental borrowing rate based on the information available at the commencement date in determining the present value of lease payments.
When the Company has the option to extend the lease term, terminate the lease before the contractual expiration date, or purchase the leased asset, and it is reasonably certain that the Company will exercise the option, the Company will consider these options in determining the classification and measurement of the lease. Lease expense for lease payments is recognized on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease arrangement. From time to time, the Company may abandon one of its leased locations. Upon abandonment, the Company will accelerate the amortization of the related right-of-use asset through the abandonment date within rent expense.
The Company has lease arrangements with lease and non-lease components, which are generally accounted for separately. For certain leases, the Company accounts for the lease and non-lease components as a single lease component.
Software
The Company capitalizes software which primarily consists of qualifying internal-use software development costs that are incurred during the application development stage. Capitalization is dependent on whether management with the relevant authority has authorized and committed to funding the project, it is probable the project will be completed, and the software will be used to perform the function intended. Costs related to preliminary project activities and post implementation activities are expensed as incurred. Capitalized software is stated at cost less accumulated amortization and amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives.
Cloud Computing Arrangements
The Company incurs costs to implement cloud computing arrangements that are hosted by a third party vendor. Generally, these arrangements are service contracts that do not provide the Company with the right to take possession of the software or the ability to run the software on its own hardware or contract with another party, other than the vendor, to host the software. As such, the costs incurred to implement these arrangements are capitalized into other assets on the Company's balance sheet and amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives expensed along with respective hosting fees.
Goodwill
In accordance with ASC 350, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other, we recognize goodwill for the excess cost of an acquired business over the fair value assigned to assets acquired and liabilities assumed. Goodwill is tested for impairment on an annual basis on October 1st and, when specific circumstances dictate, between annual tests. A goodwill impairment loss is measured at the amount by which a reporting unit's carrying amount, including goodwill, exceeds its fair value, not to exceed the carrying amount of goodwill. Additionally, an entity has the ability to assess qualitative factors to determine whether it is more likely than not (that is, a likelihood of more than 50%) that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount, including goodwill. If determined to be necessary, the quantitative impairment test shall be used to identify goodwill impairment and measure the amount of a goodwill impairment loss to be recognized (if any).
The Company performed its qualitative assessment of the Unified Communications and Contact Center Communications reporting unit and API reporting unit as of October 1, 2021 and determined that it was not more likely than not that the fair value of the reporting units' was less than its carrying value and accordingly, no impairment needed to be recognized for the year ended December 31, 2021. There were also no impairments recorded during the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.
64 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Intangible Assets
Intangible assets acquired in the settlement of litigation or by direct purchase are accounted for based upon the fair value of assets received.
Purchased-intangible assets are accounted for based upon the fair value of assets received and are amortized on a straight-line or accelerated basis over the periods of economic benefit, ranging from two to twelve years. We perform a review of purchased-intangible assets whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the useful life is shorter than we had originally estimated or that the carrying amount of assets may not be recoverable. If such facts and circumstances exist, we assess the recoverability of purchased-intangible assets by comparing the projected undiscounted net cash flows associated with the related asset or group of assets over their remaining lives against their respective carrying amounts. Impairments, if any, are based on the excess of the carrying amount over the fair value of those assets. If the useful life of the asset is shorter than originally estimated, we accelerate the rate of amortization and amortize the remaining carrying value over the new shorter useful life. There was no impairment of purchased-intangible assets identified for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019.
Asset Impairments
We evaluate impairment losses on long-lived assets used in operations when events and changes in circumstances indicate that the assets might be impaired. If our review indicates that the carrying value of an asset or asset group will not be recoverable, based on a comparison of the carrying value of the asset to the undiscounted future cash flows, the impairment will be measured by comparing the carrying value of the asset to its fair value. Fair value will be determined based on quoted market values, discounted cash flows or appraisals. Impairments of long-lived assets are recorded in the statement of operations as part of depreciation and amortization expense. There was no impairment of property and equipment identified for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019.
Debt Related Costs
Costs incurred in raising debt are deferred and amortized as interest expense using the effective interest method over the life of the debt. Costs associated with term loans are netted against the underlying notes payable in accordance with ASU 2015-15, Interest-Imputation of Interest, while costs deferred associated with revolving facilities are included in other assets. Upon refinancing, costs associated with the new debt are either expensed or deferred and unamortized costs associated with the old debt are either written off or deferred and to be amortized as interest expense if deferred using the effective interest method over the life of the new debt per the guidance in ASC 470-50. Total costs related to the Convertible Senior Notes were allocated to the liability and equity components of the Convertible Senior Notes based on the proportion of the proceeds allocated to the debt and equity components. Costs attributable to the liability component were recorded as additional debt discount and amortized to interest expense using the effective interest method over the contractual terms of the Convertible Senior Notes. Costs attributable to the equity component were netted with the equity component in stockholders’ equity.
Restricted Cash and Letters of Credit
We had a cash collateralized letter of credit for $1,350 and $1,502 as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, mainly related to lease deposits for our Holmdel office. In the aggregate, cash reserves and collateralized letters of credit of $1,967 and $1,919 were recorded as long-term restricted cash at December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Derivative Financial Instruments
The Company accounts for derivative financial instruments under ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging, which requires the Company to record all derivatives on the balance sheet at fair value unless they qualify for a normal purchase normal sale exception. Changes in the fair value of non-hedge derivatives are immediately recognized into earnings. Changes in the fair value of derivatives accounted for as hedges, if elected for hedge accounting, are either recognized in earnings as an offset to the changes in the fair value of the related hedged assets and liabilities or deferred and recognized as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income, or OCI, until the hedged transactions occur and are recognized in earnings.
During 2017, the Company entered into three interest rate swap agreements to mitigate variability in our Credit Facility earnings due to fluctuations in interest rates and has been designated and qualified as a cash flow hedge. The Company assesses hedge effectiveness under the critical terms matched method at inception and at least quarterly through the life of the hedging relationship. If the critical terms of the interest rate swap match the terms of the forecasted transaction, the Company concludes that the hedge is effective. The swaps expired on June 3, 2020.
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Income Taxes
We recognize deferred tax assets and liabilities at enacted income tax rates for the temporary differences between the financial reporting bases and the tax bases of our assets and liabilities. Any effects of changes in income tax rates or tax laws are included in the provision for income taxes in the period of enactment. Our net deferred tax assets primarily consist of net operating loss carry forwards, or NOLs. We are required to record a valuation allowance against our net deferred tax assets if we conclude that it is more likely than not that taxable income generated in the future will be insufficient to utilize the future income tax benefit from our net deferred tax assets prior to expiration. We periodically review this conclusion, which requires significant management judgment. If we are able to conclude in a future period that a future income tax benefit from our net deferred tax assets has a greater than 50% likelihood of being realized, we are required in that period to reduce the related valuation allowance with a corresponding decrease in income tax expense. This would result in a non-cash benefit to our net income in the period of the determination. In the future, if available evidence changes our conclusion that it is more likely than not that we will utilize our net deferred tax assets prior to their expiration, we will make an adjustment to the related valuation allowance and income tax expense at that time. In subsequent periods, we would expect to recognize income tax expense equal to our pre-tax income multiplied by our effective income tax rate, an expense that was not recognized prior to the reduction of the valuation allowance. Our effective rate may differ from the federal statutory rate due, in part, to our foreign operations and certain discrete period items.
We recognize the tax benefit from an uncertain tax position only if it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the taxing authorities, based on the technical merits of the position. The tax benefits recognized in the financial statements from such a position are measured based on the largest benefit that has a greater than 50% likelihood of being realized upon ultimate resolution.
Business Combinations
We account for business combinations using the acquisition method of accounting. The acquisition method of accounting requires that the purchase price, including the fair value of contingent consideration, of the acquisition be allocated to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed using the fair values determined by management as of the acquisition date. Goodwill as of the acquisition date is measured as the excess of consideration transferred over the net of the acquisition date fair values of assets acquired and the liabilities assumed. While the Company uses its best estimates and assumptions as part of the purchase price allocation process to accurately value assets acquired and liabilities assumed at the acquisition date, the Company’s estimates are inherently uncertain and subject to refinement. As a result, during the measurement period, which may be up to one year from the acquisition date, the Company records adjustments to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed, with the corresponding offset to goodwill to the extent the Company identifies adjustments to the preliminary purchase price allocation. Upon the conclusion of the measurement period or final determination of the values of assets acquired or liabilities assumed, whichever comes first, any subsequent adjustments are recorded to the consolidated statements of operations. We include the results of all acquisitions in our consolidated financial statements from the date of acquisition.
Acquisition related transaction costs, such as banking, legal, accounting and other costs incurred in connection with an acquisition, are expensed as incurred in general and administrative expense.
Acquisition related integration costs include costs associated with exit or disposal activities, which do not meet the criteria of discontinued operations, including costs for employee, lease, and contract terminations, facility closing or other exit activities. Additionally, these costs include expenses directly related to integrating and reorganizing acquired businesses and include items such as employee retention costs, recruiting costs, certain moving costs, certain duplicative costs during integration and asset impairments. These costs are expensed as incurred in ,general and administrative expense.
Acquisition related consideration accounted for as compensation expense, such as restricted cash, restricted stock and option related costs incurred in connection with an acquisition are included in general and administrative expense.
On October 18, 2021, the Company completed the acquisition of certain assets and liabilities of Jumper AI Pte. Ltd. for cash consideration of $7 million. The Company has allocated the purchase price primarily to developed technology, customer relationships and goodwill. The Company may make additional payments of up to $9 million over the next two years subject to continuing employment of key individuals and achievement of certain financial targets.
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Foreign Currency
Generally, the functional currency of our non-United States subsidiaries is the local currency. However, the functional currency of API's United States's subsidiary is the Euro. The financial statements of these subsidiaries are translated to their respective functional currency using month-end rates of exchange for assets and liabilities, and average rates of exchange for revenues, costs, and expenses. Translation gains and losses from the Company's net investments in subsidiaries are deferred and recorded in accumulated other comprehensive income as a component of stockholders’ equity until sale or complete or substantially complete liquidation of the net investment in the foreign entity takes place. Foreign currency transaction gains or losses are reported within other income (expense), net in the Company's consolidated statements of operations. For the year ended December 31, 2021, the amount recognized as foreign currency transaction loss was $457, for the years ended December 31, 2020, the amount recognized as foreign currency transaction gain was $368, and for the year ended December 31, 2019, the amount recognized as foreign currency transaction loss was $727.
Share-Based Compensation
We account for share-based compensation in accordance with FASB ASC 718, Compensation-Stock Compensation. Under the fair value recognition provisions of this pronouncement, share-based compensation cost is measured at the grant date based on the fair value of the award, which is generally the closing price of the Company's stock on the date of grant, and is recognized as expense over the applicable vesting period of the stock award on a straight-line basis. The Company considers the impact of certain information for which management is aware in determining the grant date fair value of the awards. The Company adopted ASU 2016-09, Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting. Any excess tax benefits or shortfalls are recorded in income taxes upon vest or exercise. During the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company recorded a net tax expense of $1.4 million, and during the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, the Company recorded a net tax benefit of $0.3 million and $5 million, respectively, related to excess tax benefits.
Comprehensive Income (Loss)
Comprehensive income (loss) consists of net income (loss) and other comprehensive items. Other comprehensive items include unrealized gains (losses) on derivatives, foreign currency translation adjustments, and unrealized gains (losses) on available-for-sale securities.
Use of Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, which require management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts of assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from these estimates, including uncertainty in the economic environment due to the ongoing outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19.
We base our estimates on historical experience, available market information, appropriate valuation methodologies, and on various other assumptions that we believed to be reasonable, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities. Estimates are used for such items as depreciable lives for long-lived assets including intangible assets, tax provisions, uncollectible accounts, and assets and liabilities assumed in business combinations, among others. In addition, estimates are used to test long-lived assets and goodwill for impairment.
COVID-19 has created and may continue to create uncertainty in customer payments, reduced usage, and issuance of customer credits to distressed customers served by certain product lines. As of the date of our consolidated financial statements, we are not aware of any specific event or circumstance that would require us to materially update our estimates or judgments. However, these estimates may change as new events occur and additional information is obtained, which may result in changes being recognized in our consolidated financial statements in future periods. In particular and in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the assumptions and estimates associated with collectability assessment of revenue and credit losses of accounts receivable may have a material impact our consolidated financial statements in future periods, depending on the continued duration or degree of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy.
Reclassifications
Reclassifications have been made to our consolidated financial statements for the prior year periods to conform to classification used in the current year period including presentation of the Company's segments as further described in Note 16, Industry Segment and Geographical Information. The reclassifications did not affect results from operations or net assets.
67 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
In August 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-06, "Debt - Debt with Conversion Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging - Contracts in Entity's Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40): Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entity's Own Equity". This ASU simplifies the accounting for certain convertible instruments such that the embedded conversion features are no longer separated from the host contract for convertible instruments with conversion features that are not required to be accounted for as derivatives under ASC 815, or that do not result in substantial premiums accounted for as paid-in-capital. As a result, more convertible debt instruments will be accounted for as a single liability measured at its amortized cost. In addition, the ASU requires the use of the if-converted method to be applied to convertible instruments when calculating earnings per share. The ASU is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2021, including interim periods within those fiscal years, using either a modified retrospective or a full retrospective approach. Early adoption is permitted for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2020. The Company intends to adopt the ASU on a modified retrospective basis on January 1, 2022. Upon adoption, the Company expects to record a $50.1 million decrease to additional paid-in capital, a $34.5 million increase to convertible senior notes, net, a $15.9 million increase in deferred tax assets, and a $31.5 million increase to accumulated deficit.
68 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Note 3. Recent Events
Merger Agreement
On November 22, 2021, the Company, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ), an entity organized and existing under the Laws of Sweden ("Ericsson"), and Ericsson Muon Holding Inc., a Delaware corporation ("Merger Sub”), entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) providing for the acquisition of the Company by Ericsson for approximately $6.2 billion to be funded by cash on hand.
The Merger Agreement provides that, among other things, upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the Merger Agreement, Merger Sub will merge with and into the Company, continuing as the surviving corporation and an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Ericsson. The proposed transaction is expected to be consummated during the first half of 2022 following the satisfaction of certain other customary conditions. The Company obtained the required approval by the stockholders on February 9, 2022.
Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, each share of common stock, par value $0.001 per share, of the Company (collectively, the “Shares”) issued and outstanding immediately prior to the effective time of the Merger (the “Effective Time”) (other than (i) Shares owned by Ericsson or Merger Sub or any of their respective subsidiaries, (ii) Shares owned by the Company as treasury stock, and (iii) Shares held by stockholders who will not have voted in favor of the adoption of the Merger Agreement (as may be amended) and who will have properly exercised appraisal rights in respect of such Shares in accordance with Section 262 of the DGCL) will be converted into the right to receive $21.00 per Share in cash, without interest.
69 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Note 4. Revenue Recognition
The Company recognizes revenues in accordance with ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606).
Service Revenues
Substantially all of our revenues are service revenues, which are derived from monthly subscription fees under usage based or pay-per-use type billing arrangements, and contract-based services plans. For consumer customers in the United States, we offer domestic and international rate plans, including a variety of residential plans and mobile plans. For VCP customers, we offer small and medium business, mid-market, and enterprise customers several service plans with different pricing structures and contractual requirements ranging in duration from month-to-month to three years. In addition, we provide managed equipment to VCP customers for a monthly fee. Customers also have the opportunity to purchase premium features for additional fees. We also derive service revenues from per minute fees for international calls if not covered under a plan, including calls made via applications for mobile devices and other stand-alone products, and for any calling minutes in excess of a customer's monthly plan limits. For a portion of our customers, monthly subscription fees are automatically charged to customers' credit cards, debit cards or ECP in advance and are recognized over the following month as service is provided.
Service revenue also includes supplying messaging (SMS and Voice) services to customers as part of our APIs. Revenue is recognized in the period when messages are sent by the customer. We also transact with providers or bulk SMS aggregators and sell services to these customers who then onsell to their customers. Since the aggregator is our customer, revenue is recognized on a gross basis with related costs included in cost of revenues.
In the United States, we charge regulatory, compliance and intellectual property, and E-911 recovery fees on a monthly basis to defray costs and to cover taxes that we are charged by the suppliers of telecommunications services. These charges, along with the remittance to the relevant government entity, are recorded on a gross basis. In addition, we charge customers USF fees from customers to recover our obligation to contribute to the fund, as allowed by the FCC. We recognize USF revenue on a gross basis and record the related fees in cost of revenues.
Customer Equipment and Shipping Revenues
Revenues are generated from sales of customer equipment directly to customers for replacement devices, or for upgrading their device at the time of customer sign-up for which we charge an additional fee. In addition, customer equipment and shipping revenues include revenues from the sale of VoIP telephones in order to access our small and medium business services. Customer equipment and shipping revenues also include the fees that customers are charged for shipping their customer equipment to them.
Disaggregation of Revenue
The following tables detail our revenue from customers disaggregated by primary geographical market, source of revenue, and timing of revenue recognition. The table also includes a reconciliation of the disaggregated revenue for our Business and Consumer segments.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| For the years ended December 31, | | For the years ended December 31, | | For the years ended December 31, |
| 2021 | | 2020 | | 2019 |
| VCP | Consumer | Total | | VCP | Consumer | Total | | VCP | Consumer | Total |
Primary geographical markets | | | | | | | | | | | |
Americas | $ | 648,927 | | $ | 279,315 | | $ | 928,242 | | | $ | 556,464 | | $ | 322,811 | | $ | 879,275 | | | $ | 501,949 | | $ | 374,464 | | $ | 876,413 | |
EMEA | 283,300 | | 9,575 | | 292,875 | | | 214,530 | | 10,066 | | 224,596 | | | 192,910 | | $ | 11,002 | | 203,912 | |
APAC | 187,898 | | — | | 187,898 | | | 144,063 | | — | | 144,063 | | | 109,021 | | $ | — | | 109,021 | |
| 1,120,125 | | 288,890 | | 1,409,015 | | | 915,057 | | 332,877 | | 1,247,934 | | | 803,880 | | 385,466 | | 1,189,346 | |
Major Sources of Revenue | | | | | | | | | | | |
Service revenues | $ | 1,061,745 | | $ | 246,553 | | $ | 1,308,298 | | | $ | 856,492 | | $ | 292,003 | | $ | 1,148,495 | | | $ | 719,514 | | $ | 340,462 | | $ | 1,059,976 | |
Access and product revenues | 30,522 | | 243 | | 30,765 | | | 36,584 | | 278 | | 36,862 | | | 46,232 | | 264 | | 46,496 | |
USF revenues | 27,858 | | 42,094 | | 69,952 | | | 21,981 | | 40,596 | | 62,577 | | | 38,134 | | 44,740 | | 82,874 | |
| 1,120,125 | | 288,890 | | 1,409,015 | | | 915,057 | | 332,877 | | 1,247,934 | | | 803,880 | | 385,466 | | 1,189,346 | |
70 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
In addition, the Company recognizes service revenues from its customers through subscription services provided or through usage or pay-per-use type arrangements. During the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company recognized $594,319 related to subscription services, $614,127 related to usage, and $200,569 related to other revenues such as USF, other regulatory fees, and credits. During the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company recognized $612,551 related to subscription services, $447,012 related to usage, and $188,371 related to other revenues such as USF, other regulatory fees, and credits. During the year ended December 31, 2019, the Company recognized $637,980 related to subscription services, $338,697 related to usage, and $212,669 related to other revenues such as USF, other regulatory fees, and credits.
Contract Assets and Liabilities
The following table provides information about receivables and contract liabilities from contracts with customers:
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| December 31, 2021 | | December 31, 2020 |
Receivables (1) | $ | 147,622 | | | 116,304 | |
Contract liabilities (2) | 61,420 | | | 65,506 | |
(1) Amounts included in accounts receivables on our consolidated balance sheet.
(2) Amounts included in deferred revenues on our consolidated balance sheet.
Our deferred revenue represents the advance consideration received from customers for subscription services and is predominantly recognized over the following month as transfer of control occurs. During the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, the Company recognized revenue of $421,340, $431,220, and $456,855, respectively, related to its contract liabilities. We expect to recognize $61,420 into revenue over the next twelve months related to our deferred revenue as of December 31, 2021.
Remaining Performance Obligation
Transaction price allocated to the remaining performance obligation represents contracted revenue that has not yet been recognized. The typical subscription term may range from 1 month to 3 years. Contracted revenue as of December 31, 2021 that has not yet been recognized was approximately $0.4 billion. This excludes contracts with an original expected length of less than one year. The Company expects to recognize the majority of its remaining performance obligation over the next 18 months.
Contract Acquisition Costs
We have various commission programs for internal sales personnel and channel partners that are incremental to the acquisition of customer contracts. These costs are recorded as deferred contract acquisition costs on the consolidated balance sheets which eligible employees and third parties may earn commission on sales of services and products to customers. We expect that these commission fees are recoverable and, therefore, we have capitalized $101,403 and $85,690 as contract costs, net of accumulated amortization, as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, included within deferred customer acquisitions costs, current portion and deferred customer acquisition costs on our consolidated balance sheet. Capitalized commission fees are amortized to sales and marketing expense over the estimated customer life, which is seven years for Vonage Communications Platform customers. During the year ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, the amounts amortized to sales and marketing were $20,854, $16,241, and $11,359, respectively. There were no impairment losses recognized in relation to the costs capitalized for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020. In addition, the Company expenses sales commissions for commission plans related to customer arrangements deemed less than a year and for residuals and renewals.
71 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Note 5. Earnings Per Share
Earnings (loss) per share has been computed according to FASB ASC 260, “Earnings per Share”, which requires a dual presentation of basic and diluted EPS. Basic EPS represents net income or loss divided by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during a reporting period. Diluted EPS reflects the potential dilution that could occur if securities or other contracts to issue common stock, including stock options and restricted stock units under our 2001 Stock Incentive Plan and 2006 Incentive Plan were exercised or converted into common stock. The dilutive effect of outstanding, stock options and restricted stock units is reflected in diluted earnings per share by application of the treasury stock method. In applying the treasury stock method for stock-based compensation arrangements, the assumed proceeds are computed as the sum of the amount the employee must pay upon exercise and the amounts of average unrecognized compensation cost attributed to future services.
The following table sets forth the computation for basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| For the years ended December 31, |
| 2021 | | 2020 | | 2019 |
| | | | | |
Numerator | | | | | |
Net loss | $ | (24,497) | | | $ | (36,212) | | | $ | (19,482) | |
| | | | | |
Denominator | | | | | |
Basic and diluted weighted average common shares outstanding | 251,500 | | | 246,082 | | | 242,018 | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
Basic loss per share | | | | | |
Basic and diluted loss per share | $ | (0.10) | | | $ | (0.15) | | | $ | (0.08) | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
The following shares were excluded from the calculation of diluted earnings (loss) per share because of their anti-dilutive effects:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| For the years ended December 31, |
| 2021 | | 2020 | | 2019 |
Restricted stock units | 15,138 | | | 14,623 | | | 10,389 | |
Employee stock options | 445 | | | 1,501 | | | 4,946 | |
| | | | | |
| 15,583 | | | 16,124 | | | 15,335 | |
As the Company expects to settle the principal amount of its outstanding convertible senior notes in cash and any excess in cash or shares of the Company’s common stock, the Company uses the treasury stock method for calculating any potential dilutive effect of the conversion spread on diluted net income per share, if applicable. The conversion spread will have a dilutive impact on diluted net income per share of common stock when the average market price of the Company’s common stock for a given annual period exceeds the conversion price of $16.72 per share. The Company's convertible senior notes are further described in Note 8, Long-Term Debt .
72 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Note 6. Goodwill and Intangible Assets
Goodwill
The Company's goodwill is derived primarily from the acquisitions of Vocalocity, Telesphere, iCore, Simple Signal, Nexmo, TokBox and NVM which are included in the Company's VCP segment. The following table provides a summary of the changes in the carrying amounts of goodwill:
| | | | | |
Balance at January 1, 2020 | $ | 602,970 | |
Foreign currency translation adjustment | 21,358 | |
Balance at December 31, 2020 | 624,328 | |
Increase due to acquisition of Jumper.ai | 2,880 | |
Foreign currency translation adjustment | (12,074) | |
Balance at December 31, 2021 | $ | 615,134 | |
Intangible assets, net
The Company's intangible assets as of December 31, 2021 and 2020 primarily reflect intangible assets established with the acquisitions of various companies such as customer relationships, trade names and developed technology. In addition, the Company's intangible assets include patents we have purchased and licensed, including in connection with the settlement of litigation.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | December 31, 2021 | | December 31, 2020 |
| Useful Lives (years) | | Gross Carrying Value | Accumulated Amortization | Net Carrying Value | | Gross Carrying Value | Accumulated Amortization | Net Carrying Value |
Customer relationships | 7 | to | 12 | | $ | 277,435 | | $ | (168,292) | | $ | 109,143 | | | $ | 284,692 | | $ | (150,094) | | $ | 134,598 | |
Developed technology | 3 | to | 10 | | 174,862 | | (123,585) | | 51,277 | | | 173,572 | | (104,468) | | 69,104 | |
Patents and patent licenses | 3 | to | 5 | | 21,056 | | (20,342) | | 714 | | | 20,849 | | (20,284) | | 565 | |
Trade names | 2 | to | 5 | | 458 | | (458) | | — | | | 500 | | (500) | | — | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
Total finite-lived intangible assets | | | | | $ | 473,811 | | $ | (312,677) | | $ | 161,134 | | | $ | 479,613 | | $ | (275,346) | | $ | 204,267 | |
During the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019, the Company recorded amortization expense of $43,177, $54,539 and $58,441, respectively. Amortization expense may vary in the future as acquisitions, dispositions and impairments, if any, occur. The total expected future annual amortization for the succeeding five years ended December 31 is as follows:
| | | | | |
| Estimated Amortization Expense |
2022 | $ | 41,414 | |
2023 | 34,735 | |
2024 | 28,693 | |
2025 | 14,654 | |
2026 | 11,768 | |
73 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Note 7. Income Taxes
The components of loss before income taxes are as follows:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| For the years ended December 31, |
| 2021 | | 2020 | | 2019 |
United States | $ | (17,308) | | | $ | (9,440) | | | $ | 11,994 | |
Foreign | (2,754) | | | (22,555) | | | (38,102) | |
| $ | (20,062) | | | $ | (31,995) | | | $ | (26,108) | |
The income tax (expense) benefit consisted of the following amounts:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| For the years ended December 31, |
| 2021 | | 2020 | | 2019 |
Current: | | | | | |
Federal | $ | (675) | | | $ | 1,303 | | | $ | — | |
Foreign | (2,324) | | | (2,637) | | | (3,599) | |
State and local taxes | (2,035) | | | (3,235) | | | (3,186) | |
| $ | (5,034) | | | $ | (4,569) | | | $ | (6,785) | |
Deferred: | | | | | |
Federal | $ | (1,488) | | | $ | (739) | | | $ | (1,495) | |
Foreign | 1,858 | | | 1,290 | | | 7,321 | |
State and local taxes | 229 | | | (199) | | | 7,585 | |
| 599 | | | 352 | | | 13,411 | |
| $ | (4,435) | | | $ | (4,217) | | | $ | 6,626 | |
74 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
The reconciliation between the United States federal statutory rate of 21% for the year ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively, to the Company's effective rates are as follows:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| For the years ended December 31, |
| 2021 | | 2020 | | 2019 |
U.S. Federal statutory tax rate | 21 | % | | 21 | % | | 21 | % |
Statutory permanent items | — | % | | — | % | | (3) | % |
| | | | | |
Equity-based compensation | (7) | % | | 1 | % | | 19 | % |
Acquisition costs | (10) | % | | — | % | | — | % |
Officers' compensation | (30) | % | | (9) | % | | (7) | % |
Interest | 6 | % | | (5) | % | | (10) | % |
State and local taxes, net of federal benefit | (7) | % | | (8) | % | | 13 | % |
International tax (reflects effect of losses for which tax benefit not realized) | (12) | % | | (7) | % | | (9) | % |
Uncertain tax positions | (5) | % | | 1 | % | | 2 | % |
Tax credits | 31 | % | | 7 | % | | 1 | % |
Valuation reserve for income taxes and other | (19) | % | | (16) | % | | — | % |
Tax rate change | 11 | % | | 3 | % | | — | % |
Other | (1) | % | | (1) | % | | (2) | % |
Effective tax rate | (22) | % | | (13) | % | | 25 | % |
For the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company's overall effective tax rate was different from the statutory rate of 21% primarily as a result of a permanent adjustment related to a limitation against the deductibility of officer’s compensation, acquisition costs related to the proposed Ericsson transaction, and foreign nondeductible losses. In addition, a $6 million benefit was recorded for Research & Development Tax Credits in the United States and United Kingdom.
For the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company's overall effective tax rate was different from the statutory rate of 21% primarily as a result of a permanent adjustment related to a limitation against the deductibility of officer’s compensation stemming from the impact of CEO and CFO succession and related costs during the current year. In addition, there was an increase to the valuation allowance related to the United Kingdom.
For the year ended December 31, 2019, the Company's overall effective tax rate was different from the statutory rate of 21% primarily as a result of a permanent benefit related to the equity based stock compensation and an interested related adjustment in the United Kingdom.
75 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
The temporary differences which gave rise to the Company's net deferred tax assets consisted of the following:
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| December 31, 2021 | | December 31, 2020 |
Assets and liabilities: | | | |
Accounts receivable and inventory allowances | $ | 1,320 | | | $ | 1,588 | |
Deferred rent | 2,867 | | | 3,149 | |
Acquired intangible assets and property and equipment | (15,254) | | | (23,360) | |
Accrued expenses | 11,485 | | | 9,537 | |
Research and development credit | 14,480 | | | 11,288 | |
Stock option compensation | 17,235 | | | 18,326 | |
| | | |
Cumulative translation adjustments | 39 | | | 39 | |
Deferred revenue | 10,819 | | | 8,201 | |
| | | |
Prepaid expense | (21,745) | | | (18,892) | |
Convertible debt and capped call | (10,713) | | | (9,345) | |
Net operating loss carryforwards | 127,139 | | | 130,681 | |
Other | (186) | | | — | |
| 137,486 | | | 131,212 | |
Valuation allowance | (28,399) | | | (24,838) | |
Deferred tax assets, net, non-current | $ | 109,087 | | | $ | 106,374 | |
Deferred tax assets and valuation allowance
Net deferred tax balance. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, we recorded a deferred tax asset, net of valuation allowance of $109,087 and $106,374, respectively. The Company believes that the net operating losses related to two of its United Kingdom subsidiaries, Vonage Limited, Vonage Business Limited, and certain U.S. states may not be realizable under a "more likely than not" measurement and as such, a valuation allowance has been established to reduce the asset accordingly.
Valuation allowance. As of December 31, 2021 and 2020, the Company's valuation allowance was $28,399 and $24,838, respectively, primarily consisting of NOLs associated with Vonage Limited, Vonage Business Limited and state NOLs for certain legal entities.
NOL carryforwards. As of December 31, 2021, the Company has U.S. federal and state NOL carryforwards of $352,077 and $184,914, respectively, which expire at various times through 2030. We have Non-US NOLs of $170,366 primarily related to the United Kingdom which has no expiration date. Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code, if we undergo an “ownership change” which is generally defined as a greater than 50% change by value in our equity ownership over a three-year period, our ability to use our pre-change of control NOLs and other pre-change tax attributes against our post-change income may be limited. The Section 382 limitation is applied so as to limit the use of our pre-change NOLs to an amount that generally equals the value of our stock immediately before the ownership change multiplied by a designated federal long-term tax-exempt rate. At December 31, 2021, there were no limitations on the use of our NOLs except for a certain portion of the NOLs acquired with Vocalocity, which the Company has reflected in the deferred tax asset.
Uncertain tax benefits
The Company had uncertain tax benefits of $1,271 and $632 as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The Company recognizes interest and penalties related to uncertain tax benefits in income tax expense. The Company incurred interest and penalty benefits of $3 for the years ended December 31, 2021, and interest or penalty expenses of $20 and $60 for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.
The following table reconciles the total amounts of uncertain tax benefits:
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| As of December 31, |
| 2021 | | 2020 |
Balance as of January 1 | $ | 632 | | | $ | 914 | |
Increase due to current year positions | 1,061 | | | 114 | |
Decrease due to prior year positions | (5) | | | — | |
Decrease due to settlements and payments | (355) | | | (173) | |
Decrease due to lapse of applicable statute of limitations | (60) | | | (238) | |
Increase (Decrease) due to foreign currency fluctuation | (2) | | | 15 | |
Uncertain tax benefits as of December 31 | $ | 1,271 | | | $ | 632 | |
76 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Tax jurisdictions
Business is conducted in various countries throughout the world and is subject to tax in numerous jurisdictions. A significant number of tax returns that are filed are subject to audit by various federal, state and local tax authorities. The Company is no longer subject to U.S. federal income tax examinations for years prior to 2017. With few exceptions, state and local income tax examinations are no longer open for years before 2016.
Note 8. Long-Term Debt
A schedule of long-term debt, excluding current portion, at December 31, 2021 and 2020 is as follows:
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| December 31, 2021 | | December 31, 2020 |
| | | |
Revolving credit facility - due 2023 | 130,500 | | | 215,500 | |
Convertible senior notes - due 2024 | 345,000 | | | 345,000 | |
Long-term debt including current maturities | $ | 475,500 | | | $ | 560,500 | |
| | | |
Less unamortized discount | 35,472 | | | 48,702 | |
Less debt issuance cost | 3,919 | | | 5,514 | |
Total long-term debt | $ | 436,109 | | | $ | 506,284 | |
As of December 31, 2021, future payments under long-term debt obligations over each of the next five years are as follows:
| | | | | |
| Long-term debt |
2022 | $ | — | |
2023 | 130,500 | |
2024 | 345,000 | |
| |
| |
Minimum future payments of principal | $ | 475,500 | |
| |
| |
| |
Convertible Senior Notes
In June 2019, the Company issued $300.0 million aggregate principal amount of 1.75% convertible senior notes due 2024 in a private placement and an additional $45.0 million aggregate principal amount of such notes pursuant to the exercise in full of the over-allotment option of the initial purchasers. The Convertible Senior Notes are the Company's senior unsecured obligations. The Convertible Senior Notes will mature on June 1, 2024, unless earlier redeemed, repurchased or converted. We may not redeem the notes prior to June 5, 2022. The total net proceeds from the offering, after deducting initial purchase discounts and expenses payable by the Company, were $334.8 million.
Each $1,000 principal amount of the Convertible Senior Notes is initially convertible into 59.8256 shares of the Company's common stock, which is equivalent to an initial conversion price of approximately $16.72 per share. The conversion rate is subject to adjustment upon the occurrence of certain specified events but will not be adjusted for any accrued and unpaid interest. In addition, upon the occurrence of a make-whole fundamental change or a redemption period, each as defined in the indenture setting forth the terms of the Convertible Senior Notes, the Company will, in certain circumstances, increase the conversion rate by a number of additional shares for a holder that elects to convert its Convertible Senior Notes in connection with such make-whole fundamental change or during the relevant redemption period.
Prior to December 1, 2023, the notes will be convertible only upon satisfaction of certain conditions and during certain periods, and thereafter, at any time until the close of business on the second scheduled trading day immediately preceding the maturity date. We will satisfy any conversion election by paying or delivering, as the case may be, cash, shares of common stock or a combination of cash and shares of common stock.
During the year ended December 31, 2021, the conditions allowing holders of the Convertible Senior Notes to convert were not met.
77 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
The net carrying amount of the liability component of the Convertible Senior Notes was as follows:
| | | | | |
| December 31, 2021 |
Principal | $ | 345,000 | |
Unamortized discount | (35,472) | |
Unamortized issuance cost | (3,919) | |
Net carrying amount | $ | 305,609 | |
The net carrying amount of the equity component of the Convertible Senior Notes was as follows:
| | | | | |
| December 31, 2021 |
Proceeds allocated to the conversion option (debt discount) | $ | 67,664 | |
Issuance cost | (1,944) | |
Income tax expense | (15,597) | |
Net carrying amount | $ | 50,123 | |
The following table sets forth the interest expense recognized related to the Convertible Senior Notes:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| For the years ended December 31, |
| 2021 | | 2020 | | | | |
Contractual interest expense | $ | 6,038 | | | $ | 6,038 | | | | | |
Amortization of debt discount | 13,230 | | | 12,532 | | | | | |
Amortization of debt issuance costs | 1,595 | | | 1,594 | | | | | |
Total interest expense related to the Convertible Senior Notes | $ | 20,863 | | | $ | 20,164 | | | | | |
In connection with the pricing of the Convertible Senior Notes and subsequently in connection with the exercise of the initial purchasers option to purchase additional notes, the Company entered into privately negotiated capped call transactions with certain counterparties (the "Capped Calls"). The Capped Calls each have a strike price of $16.72 per share, subject to certain adjustments, which corresponds to the initial conversion price of the Convertible Senior Notes. The Capped Calls have initial cap prices of $23.46 per share, subject to certain adjustments. The Capped Calls are expected generally to reduce potential dilution to the Company's common stock upon any conversion of notes and/or offset any cash payments the Company is required to make in excess of the aggregate principal amount of converted notes, as the case may be, with such reduction and/or offset subject to a cap. The initial cap price of the Capped Call transactions was $23.46. The net cost of $28,325 incurred to purchase the Capped Calls and related income tax benefit of $6,772 was recorded as a reduction to additional paid-in capital on the Company's consolidated balance sheet during the quarter ended June 30, 2019 and are not accounted for as derivatives.
Concurrently with the issuance of the Convertible Senior Notes, the Company’s board of directors approved the repurchase of an aggregate of 852,515, or $10,000 of, shares of the Company’s outstanding common stock in privately negotiated transactions at a price of $11.73 per share, which was equal to the closing price per share of the Company’s common stock on June 11, 2019, the date of the pricing of the offering of the Convertible Senior Notes. The share repurchase was recorded to treasury stock on the Company's consolidated balance sheet and stockholder's equity during the year ended December 31, 2019.
2018 Term Note and Revolving Credit Facility
On July 31, 2018, the Company entered into the 2018 Credit Facility consisting of a $100 million senior secured term loan and a $500 million revolving credit facility. The co-borrowers under the 2018 Credit Facility are the Company and Vonage America Inc., the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary. Obligations under the 2018 Credit Facility are guaranteed, fully and unconditionally, by the Company’s other United States subsidiaries and are secured by substantially all of the assets of each borrower and each guarantor.
78 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
2018 Credit Facility Terms
The following description summarizes the material terms of the 2018 Credit Facility:
The loans under the 2018 Credit Facility mature on July 31, 2023. The unused portion of the Company's revolving credit facility incurs a 0.30% per annum commitment fee.
Outstanding amounts under the 2018 Credit Facility, at the Company's option, will bear interest at:
•LIBOR (applicable to one-, two-, three-, six-, or twelve-month periods) plus an applicable margin equal to 2.00% up to 2.75% per annum payable on the last day of each relevant interest period or, if the interest period is longer than three months, each day that is three months after the first day of the interest period, or
•the base rate determined by reference to the highest of (a) the rate of interest last quoted by the Wall Street Journal as the “Prime Rate” in the U.S., (b) the federal funds effective rate from time to time plus 0.50%, and (c) the adjusted LIBO rate applicable to one month interest periods plus 1.00%, plus an applicable margin equal to 1.00% up to 1.75% per annum payable on the last business day of each March, June, September, and December and the maturity date of the 2018 Credit Facility.
In 2021, we made discretionary repayments of $85 million under the 2018 revolving credit facility. In addition, the effective interest rate was 2.88% as of December 31, 2021.
In 2020, we made discretionary repayments of $80 million under the 2018 revolving credit facility and borrowed $75 million under the revolving credit facility.
As of December 31, 2021, we were in compliance with all covenants, including financial covenants, for the 2018 Credit Facility.
Interest Rate Swap
On July 14, 2017, we executed on three interest rate swap agreements to hedge the variability of expected future cash interest payments. The swaps had an aggregate notional amount of $150 million and were effective on July 31, 2017. Under the swaps our interest rate was fixed at 4.7%. The swaps expired on June 3, 2020 at which time the Company recognized previously deferred amounts within interest expense. The interest rate swaps were accounted for as cash flow hedges in accordance with ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging.
The following table summarizes the effects of ASC 815 on the Company's accumulated OCI balance attributable to cash flow derivatives:
| | | | | | | | | |
| | Years Ended December 31 |
| | | 2020 |
Accumulated OCI beginning balance | | | $ | (1,001) | |
Reclassified from accumulated OCI to income: | | | |
Due to reclassification of previously deferred gain | | | 1,051 | |
Change in fair value of cash flow hedge accounting contracts, net of tax | | | (50) | |
Accumulated OCI ending balance, net of tax expense of $— | | | $ | — | |
Gains expected to be realized from accumulated OCI during the next 12 months | | | $ | — | |
79 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
NOTE 9. Fair Value of Financial Instruments
ASC 820-10 defines fair value as the amount that would be received for an asset or paid to transfer a liability in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability in an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. ASC 820-10 also establishes a fair value hierarchy that requires an entity to maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs when measuring fair value. ASC 820-10 describes the following three levels of inputs that may be used:
•Level 1: Quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets that are accessible at the measurement date for identical assets and liabilities. The fair value hierarchy gives the highest priority to Level 1 inputs.
•Level 2: Observable prices that are based on inputs not quoted on active markets but corroborated by market data.
•Level 3: Unobservable inputs when there is little or no market data available, thereby requiring an entity to develop its own assumptions. The fair value hierarchy gives the lowest priority to Level 3 inputs.
Although management believed its valuation methods were appropriate and consistent with other market participants, the use of different methodologies or assumptions to determine the fair value of certain financial instruments could have resulted in a different fair value measurement at the reporting date.
As of December 31, 2021, the fair value of the 1.75% Convertible Senior Notes was approximately $457,125. The fair value was determined based on the quoted price for the Convertible Senior Notes in an inactive market on the last trading day of the reporting period and is classified as Level 2 in the fair value hierarchy.
Fair Value of Other Financial Instruments
The carrying amounts of our other financial instruments, including cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, and accounts payable, approximate fair value and are classified as Level 1 because of their short maturities. We believe the fair value of our 2018 Credit Facility at December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020 was approximately the same as its carrying amount as as the facility bears interest at a variable rate indexed to current market conditions and is classified as Level 2 within the fair value hierarchy.
As of December 31, 2021, we did not have any other assets or liabilities that are measured and recognized at fair value on a recurring basis.
80 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Note 10. Common Stock
As of December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, the Company had 596,950 shares of common stock authorized. For a detailed description of our share-based compensation programs refer to Note 11, Employee Stock Benefit Plans.
The following table reflects the changes in the Company's common stock issued and outstanding:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
For the Year Ended | | | | | |
(in thousands) | Issued | | Treasury | | Outstanding |
Balance at December 31, 2018 | 309,736 | | | (69,993) | | | 239,743 | |
Shares issued under the 2015 Equity Incentive Plan | 5,832 | | | — | | | 5,832 | |
Employee taxes paid on withholding shares | — | | | (2,113) | | | (2,113) | |
Assets acquisition | 240 | | | | | 240 | |
Common stock repurchases | | | (853) | | | (853) | |
Balance at December 31, 2019 | 315,808 | | | (72,959) | | | 242,849 | |
Shares issued under the 2015 Equity Incentive Plan | 8,007 | | | — | | | 8,007 | |
Employee taxes paid on withholding shares | — | | | (1,882) | | | (1,882) | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
Balance at December 31, 2020 | 323,815 | | | (74,841) | | | 248,974 | |
Shares issued under the 2015 Equity Incentive Plan | 7,515 | | | | | 7,515 | |
Employee taxes paid on withholding shares | | | (2,483) | | | (2,483) | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
Balance at December 31, 2021 | 331,330 | | | (77,324) | | | 254,006 | |
Common Stock Repurchases
On June 11, 2019, concurrently with the issuance of the Convertible Senior Notes, the Company repurchased the Company’s outstanding common stock in privately negotiated transactions. For additional information, refer to Note 8. Long-Term Debt.
We repurchased the following shares of common stock during the year ended December 31, 2019:
| | | | | | | |
| December 31, 2019 | | |
Shares of common stock repurchased | 852,515 | | | |
Value of common stock repurchased | $ | 10,000 | | | |
Net Operating Loss Rights Agreement
On June 7, 2012, we entered into a Tax Benefits Preservation Plan, or Preservation Plan, designed to preserve stockholder value and tax assets. Our ability to use our tax attributes to offset tax on U.S. taxable income would be substantially limited if there were an "ownership change" as defined under Section 382 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. In general, an ownership change would occur if one or more "5-percent shareholders," as defined under Section 382, collectively increase their ownership in us by more than 50 percent over a rolling three-year period.
In connection with the adoption of the Preservation Plan, our board of directors declared a dividend of one preferred share purchase right for each outstanding share of the Company’s common stock. The preferred share purchase rights were distributed to stockholders of record as of June 18, 2012, as well as to holders of the Company's common stock issued after that date, but will only be activated if certain triggering events under the Preservation Plan occur.
Under the Preservation Plan, preferred share purchase rights will work to impose significant dilution upon any person or group which acquires beneficial ownership of 4.9% or more of the outstanding common stock, without the approval of our board of directors, from and after June 7, 2012. Stockholders that own 4.9% or more of the outstanding common stock as of the opening of business on June 7, 2012, will not trigger the preferred share purchase rights so long as they do not (i) acquire additional shares of common stock or (ii) fall under 4.9% ownership of common stock and then re-acquire shares that in the aggregate equal 4.9% or more of the common stock.
81 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
On June 3, 2021, the Board of Directors approved the extension of the Preservation Plan through June 30, 2023. As required under the Merger Agreement, on November 22, 2021, in connection with the execution of the Merger Agreement, Vonage entered into an amendment to the Preservation Plan with American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC in order to, among other things, (i) provide that the Company Rights (as defined in the Merger Agreement) will expire and cease to be exercisable effective as of immediately prior to the Effective Time (as defined in the Merger Agreement) and (ii) render the Preservation Plan inapplicable to the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement.
Note 11. Employee Stock Benefit Plans
Our stock option program is a long-term retention program that is intended to attract, retain and provide incentives for talented employees, officers and directors, and to align stockholder and employee interests. Currently, we grant options from our 2015 Equity Incentive Plan. Our 2006 Incentive Plan was terminated by our board of directors in 2015 and our 2001 Stock Incentive Plan was terminated by our board of directors in 2008. As such, share-based awards are no longer granted under either the 2006 Incentive Plan and the 2001 Stock Incentive Plan. Under the 2015 Equity Incentive Plan, share-based awards can be granted to all employees, including executive officers, outside consultants, and non-employee directors. Vesting periods for share-based awards are generally two, three or four years for both plans. Awards granted under each plan expire in five or ten years from the effective date of grant. The fair value for these options was estimated at the date of grant using a Black-Scholes option-pricing model.
We also issue restricted performance stock units with vesting that is in part contingent on both TSR compared to members of our peer group and continued service. For the market-based restricted performance stock units issued during the year ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, the payouts at vesting which are linearly interpolated between the percentiles specified below are as follows:
| | | | | | | | |
Payout Schedule |
Percentile Rank | | Payout Percentage |
Greater than 80% | | 200 | % |
50% | | 100 | % |
30% | | 50 | % |
Less than 30% | | — | % |
Notwithstanding the foregoing, if our TSR is negative for the performance period, then the vesting percentage shall not exceed 100%. In addition, we reduce the shares available for grant to cover the potential payout of 200%.
To value these market-based restricted performance stock units, we used a Monte Carlo simulation model on the date of grant. Compensation expense for restricted stock units with performance and market conditions is recognized over the requisite service period using the straight-line method.
The assumptions used to value these market based restricted performance stock units are as follows:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 2021 | | 2020 | | 2019 |
Risk-free interest rate | 0.29 | % | | 0.56 | % | | 2.40 | % |
Expected stock price volatility | 51.01 | % | | 42.21 | % | | 39.95 | % |
Dividend yield | 0.00 | % | | 0.00 | % | | 0.00 | % |
Expected term (in years) | 2.80 | | 2.80 | | 2.79 |
Our stock incentive plans as of December 31, 2021 are summarized as follows (in thousands):
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Shares Authorized | | Shares Available for Grant | | Stock Options Outstanding | | Non-vested Restricted Stock and Restricted Stock Units |
Options assumed from acquisition | 2,227 | | | 283 | | | 88 | | | — | |
2006 Incentive Plan | 71,669 | | | — | | | 344 | | | — | |
2015 Incentive Plan | 42,731 | | | 7,913 | | | 13 | | | 15,138 | |
Total as of December 31, 2021 | 116,627 | | | 8,196 | | | 445 | | | 15,138 | |
82 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
2015 Equity Incentive Plan
On June 3, 2015, we adopted our 2015 Equity Incentive Plan which replaced the 2006 Incentive Plan. Shares issued under the plan may be authorized and unissued shares or may be issued shares that we have reacquired. Shares covered by awards that are forfeited, canceled or otherwise expire without having been exercised or settled, or that are settled by cash or other non-share consideration, will become available for issuance pursuant to a new award. Shares that are tendered or withheld to pay the exercise price of an award or to satisfy tax withholding obligations will not be available for issuance pursuant to new awards. Our 2015 Equity Incentive Plan will terminate on June 3, 2025. At December 31, 2021, there are 7,913 shares available for future grant under the 2015 Equity Incentive Plan.
The 2015 Equity Incentive Plan permits the grant of stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, stock appreciation rights, performance stock, performance units, annual awards, and other awards based on, or related to, shares of our common stock. Options awarded under our 2015 Equity Incentive Plan may be non-qualified stock options or may qualify as incentive stock options under Section 422 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. For purposes of complying with the requirements of Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, the maximum number of shares of common stock that may be subject to stock options, stock appreciation rights, performance-based restricted stock awards, performance-based restricted stock units and performance-based stock awards granted to any participant other than a non-employee director during any calendar year will be limited to 10,000 shares of common stock for each such award type individually. The maximum number of shares of common stock that may be subject to stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock awards, restricted stock units and stock awards granted to any non-employee director during any calendar year will be limited to 10,000 shares of common stock for all such award types in the aggregate. Further, the maximum amount that may become payable to any one Participant during any one calendar year under all Cash Performance Awards intended to qualify as “performance-based compensation” under Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, is limited to $5,000.
Stock Options
The following table summarizes the activity and changes related to stock options during the year:
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| Stock Options Outstanding |
| Shares | | Weighted Average Exercise Price Per Share |
| (in thousands) | | |
Outstanding at December 31, 2020 | 1,501 | | | $ | 4.90 | |
| | | |
Stock options exercised | (1,047) | | | 5.56 | |
Stock options canceled | (9) | | | 4.23 | |
Outstanding at December 31, 2021 | 445 | | | $ | 3.35 | |
Vested and expected to vest at December 31, 2021 | 445 | | | $ | 3.35 | |
Exercisable at December 31, 2021 | 445 | | | $ | 3.35 | |
There were no options granted in 2020, 2019, and 2018. The aggregate intrinsic value of exercised stock options for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019 was $11,927, $26,133, and $7,616, respectively.
Restricted Stock and Restricted Stock Units
The following table summarizes the activity and changes related to restricted stock and restricted stock units during the year:
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| Restricted Stock and Restricted Stock Units Outstanding |
| Units | | Weighted Average Grant Date Fair Value Per Unit |
| (in thousands) | | |
Non-vested at December 31, 2020 | 14,623 | | | $ | 9.65 | |
Restricted stock and restricted stock units granted | 10,599 | | | 15.42 | |
Restricted stock and restricted stock units vested | (6,468) | | | 12.57 | |
Restricted stock and restricted stock units canceled | (3,616) | | | 9.97 | |
Non-vested at December 31, 2021 | 15,138 | | | $ | 13.28 | |
83 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
The weighted average grant date fair market value of restricted stock and restricted stock units granted was $15.42, $8.49, and $11.29 per unit during the year ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively. The fair value of restricted stock and restricted stock units that vested during the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019 was $81,281, $42,886, and $32,872, respectively. The aggregate intrinsic value of restricted stock units outstanding was $314,714 as of December 31, 2021.
From time to time, our Compensation Committee has determined that it is prudent to grant awards for incentive and retention purposes. In normal course, RSUs were granted on November 1, 2021 and November 8, 2021 to executives and certain key employees for retention purposes. These RSUs vest over a two year period. Given the timing of the grant of RSUs relative to the announcement of the acquisition of the Company by Ericsson on November 22, 2021, the RSUs were valued utilizing a price that was substantively close to the Merger Consideration included in the Merger Agreement which incorporated the effect of the expected increase of the share price resulting from the announcement rather than the closing price of the Company's stock on the date of grant which is typically how the Company determines the grant date fair value of RSUs and resulted in an immaterial increase to share-based compensation for the year ended December 31, 2021.
Supplemental Information
Total share-based compensation expense recognized for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019 was $79,900, $45,667, and $45,242, respectively, which were recorded to cost of services and general and administrative expense in the consolidated statements of operations. During the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company modified awards for certain individuals in connection with strategies implemented to mitigate the impact of 280G of the IRS Code which resulted in $9,579 of incremental stock compensation expense being recognized in the current year to reflect the revised fair value of the modified awards. As of December 31, 2021, total unamortized share-based compensation was $121,108, accounting for forfeitures when they occur, which is expected to be amortized over the remaining weighted average recognition period of 2.0 years. Compensation costs for all share-based awards are amortized on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period. Our current policy is to issue new shares to settle the exercise of stock options and prospectively, the vesting of restricted stock units.
Information regarding the options outstanding as of December 31, 2021 is summarized below:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Stock Options Outstanding | | Stock Options Exercisable |
Range of Exercise Prices | Stock Options Outstanding | Weighted Average Remaining Contractual Life | Weighted Average Exercise Price | Aggregate Intrinsic Value | | Stock Options Vested and Exercisable | Weighted Average Remaining Contractual Life | Weighted Average Exercise Price | Aggregate Intrinsic Value |
| (in thousands) | (in years) | | (in thousands) | | (in thousands) | (in years) | | (in thousands) |
$0.69 to $1.99 | 88 | | | 1.10 | | | | 88 | | | 1.10 | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
$2.00 to $4.00 | 174 | | | 2.94 | | | | 174 | | | 2.94 | | |
$4.01 to $7.25 | 183 | | | 4.83 | | | | 183 | | | 4.83 | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| 445 | | 2.29 | 3.35 | | $ | 7,754 | | | 445 | | 2.29 | 3.35 | | $ | 7,754 | |
Retirement Plan
In March 2001, we established a 401(k) Retirement Plan, or the Retirement Plan, available to employees who meet the plan’s eligibility requirements. Participants may elect to contribute a percentage of their compensation to the Retirement Plan up to a statutory limit. We may make a contribution to the Retirement Plan in the form of a matching contribution. The employer matching contribution is 50% of each employee’s contributions not to exceed $6 in 2021, 2020, and 2019. Our expense related to the Retirement Plan was $8,722, $9,625, and $8,750 in 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively.
84 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Note 12. Leases
The Company entered into various non-cancelable operating lease arrangements for certain of our existing office and telecommunications co-location space as well as operating leases for certain equipment. The operating leases expire at various times through 2028, some of which provide the Company options to extend the leases for terms up to 5 years beyond the original term. We are committed to pay a portion of the buildings’ operating expenses as required under the arrangements which we will separate as a non-lease component when readily determinable. The Company did not have any finance leases as of December 31, 2021 and 2020.
During the year ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019, the Company incurred operating lease expense of $9,634, $10,976, and $14,390, respectively, related to its operating leases. In addition, the Company received sub-lease income of $1,117, $1,196, and $1,272, respectively, during the year ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019. Additionally, the remaining weighted average lease term for our operating leases was 4.58 years and the weighted average discount rate utilized to measure the Company's operating leases was 4.26% as of December 31, 2021.
Supplemental cash flow related to the Company's operating leases is as follows:
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| For the years ended |
| December 31, 2021 | | December 31, 2020 |
Cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of lease liabilities | $ | 11,698 | | | $ | 15,380 | |
Right-of-use assets obtained in exchange for lease obligations | 8,431 | | | 13,023 | |
Maturities of lease liabilities as of December 31, 2021 were as follows:
| | | | | | | |
| For the year ended | | |
| December 31, 2021 | | |
| | | |
2022 | $ | 11,825 | | | |
2023 | 11,089 | | | |
2024 | 7,193 | | | |
2025 | 7,404 | | | |
2026 | 6,431 | | | |
Thereafter | 3,280 | | | |
Total lease payments | 47,222 | | | |
Less imputed interest | (4,166) | | | |
Total | $ | 43,056 | | | |
During the first quarter of 2020, the Company amended one of its office leases to remove a renewal period of 5 years beyond the initial lease term. In the Company's adoption of ASC 842, the Company had included the available renewal term within the transition asset and liability as the renewal was highly probable at the time of adoption. As a result, the Company's operating lease liability was reduced by $15,825 with a corresponding reduction in the Company's operating lease right-of-use assets as of March 31, 2020. During the third and fourth quarters of 2020, the Company abandoned a few of its office leases and as such, the Company reduced its operating lease right-of-use asset by $9,503 as of December 31, 2020 by accelerating the amortization of the right-of-use asset through the cease use date which is included in general and administrative expense.
During the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company entered into a new lease agreement to relocate its corporate headquarters to a new leased facility located in Holmdel, New Jersey. As a result, the Company expects to incur a charge associated with the abandonment of its former corporate headquarters in early 2022 upon successful relocation.
85 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Note 13. Property and Equipment
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| December 31, 2021 | | December 31, 2020 |
Network equipment and computer hardware | $ | 72,660 | | | $ | 74,149 | |
Leasehold improvements | 37,487 | | | 37,752 | |
Customer premise equipment | 40,816 | | | 34,009 | |
Furniture | 3,424 | | | 3,472 | |
| 154,387 | | | 149,382 | |
Less accumulated depreciation | (130,053) | | | (117,761) | |
Property and equipment | $ | 24,334 | | | $ | 31,621 | |
Note 14. Accrued Liabilities
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| December 31, 2021 | | December 31, 2020 |
Compensation and benefits, related taxes and temporary labor | $ | 45,712 | | | $ | 43,580 | |
Marketing | 32,312 | | | 15,319 | |
Taxes and fees | 28,214 | | | 25,977 | |
Telecommunications | 59,934 | | | 52,975 | |
Severance | 845 | | | 3,594 | |
Interest | 884 | | | 847 | |
Customer credits | 4,461 | | | 4,738 | |
Professional fees | 7,324 | | | 1,953 | |
Inventory | 886 | | | 659 | |
Other accruals | 6,263 | | | 8,438 | |
| $ | 186,835 | | | $ | 158,080 | |
During the third quarter of September 30, 2020, the Company initiated a business-wide optimization and alignment project to focus the Company's resources and drive stronger operational execution, which includes the previously announced Consumer evaluation. In connection with this project, the Company initiated a reduction in workforce incurring accrued severance costs of $9,410 related to employee exits as well as abandoning a portion of its office leases as further described in Note 12, Leases which together resulted in total restructuring expense included in general and administrative expense during the year ended December 31, 2020 of $18,913.
Note 15. Commitments and Contingencies
Commitments
Stand-by Letters of Credit
We have stand-by letters of credit totaling $1,350 and $1,502, as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
End-User Commitments
We are obligated to provide telephone services to our registered end-users. The costs related to the potential utilization of minutes sold are expensed as incurred. Our obligation to provide this service is dependent on the proper functioning of systems controlled by third-party service providers. We do not have a contractual service relationship with some of these providers.
86 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Vendor Commitments
We have several commitments primarily commitments to vendors who will provide license patents to us, provide web hosting service, provide electricity to our office, provide cloud-based data warehousing, provide software maintenance service, and provide insurance to us. In certain cases, we may terminate these arrangements early upon payment of specified fees. These commitments total $40,883 as of December 31, 2021. Of this total amount, we expect to purchase $29,208 in 2022, $7,894 in 2023, $2,414 in 2024, and $1,367 in 2025, respectively. These amounts do not represent our entire anticipated purchases in the future, but represent only those items for which we are contractually committed. We also purchase products and services as needed with no firm commitment. For this reason, the amounts presented do not provide a reliable indicator of our expected future cash outflows or changes in our expected cash position.
Contingencies
From time to time, in addition to those identified below, we are subject to legal proceedings, claims, investigations, and proceedings in the ordinary course of business, including claims of alleged infringement of third-party patents and other intellectual property rights, commercial, employment, and other matters. From time to time, we receive letters or other communications from third parties inviting us to obtain patent licenses that might be relevant to our business or alleging that our services infringe upon third party patents or other intellectual property. In accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, we make a provision for a liability when it is both probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the loss or range of loss can be reasonably estimated. These provisions, if any, are reviewed at least quarterly and adjusted to reflect the impacts of negotiations, settlements, rulings, advice of legal counsel, and other information and events pertaining to a particular case. Litigation is inherently unpredictable. We believe that we have valid defenses with respect to the legal matters pending against us and are vigorously defending these matters. Given the uncertainty surrounding litigation and our inability to assess the likelihood of a favorable or unfavorable outcome in the matters noted below and our inability to reasonably estimate the amount of loss or range of loss, it is possible that the resolution of one or more of these matters could have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial position, cash flows or results of operations.
Regulation
Telephony services are subject to a broad spectrum of state, federal and foreign regulations. Because of the uncertainty over whether VoIP should be treated as a telecommunications or information service, we have been involved in a substantial amount of state and federal regulatory activity. Implementation and interpretation of the existing laws and regulations is ongoing and is subject to litigation by various federal and state agencies and courts. Due to the uncertainty over the regulatory classification of VoIP service, there can be no assurance that we will not be subject to new regulations or existing regulations under new interpretations, and that such change would not introduce material additional costs to our business. The Company continues to monitor federal regulations relating to net neutrality, rural call completion issues, number slamming, 911 access, access to telecommunication equipment and services by persons with disabilities, caller ID services, number portability, unwanted calls to reassigned numbers, and robocalling. As we continue to expand globally, these types of regulations are likely to be similarly enacted and enforced by the local regulatory authorities.
State and Municipal Taxes
In accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, we make a provision for a liability for taxes when it is both probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the liability or range of liability can be reasonably estimated. These provisions are reviewed at least quarterly and adjusted to reflect the impacts of negotiations, settlements, rulings, advice of legal counsel, and other information and events pertaining to a particular case. From time to time, we have received inquiries from a number of states and local taxing agencies with respect to the remittance of sales, use, telecommunications, and excise taxes. Several jurisdictions are currently conducting tax audits of the Company's records. While the Company collects or has accrued for taxes that it believes are required to be remitted, it has reviewed its positions in those various jurisdictions as well as other regulatory fees and has established appropriate reserves. As such, we have a reserve of $10,010 as of December 31, 2021 included in accrued expenses as our best estimate of the potential tax exposure for any retroactive assessment.
87 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Note 16. Industry Segment and Geographic Information
ASC 280, Segment Reporting, establishes reporting standards for an enterprise's business segments and related disclosures about its products, services, geographic areas and major customers. Under ASC 280, the method for determining what information to report is based upon the way management organizes the reportable operating segments within the Company for making operating decisions and assessing financial performance. Our chief operating decision-maker reviews revenue and Adjusted EBITDA for each of our reportable operating segments. The items excluded from Adjusted EBITDA are not separately evaluated for each reportable operating segment. In addition, with the exception of goodwill and intangible assets, we do not identify or allocate our assets by the reportable operating segments as this information is not utilized by management to allocate resources or capital.
Vonage Communications Platform
The Vonage Communications Platform is our single enterprise cloud communications platform, offering our wide range of enterprise communications services and solutions including Communications APIs, Unified Communications, and Contact Center Communications The Vonage Communications Platform brings unique value to businesses by providing multiple communications channels - video, voice, messaging, email and verification - that integrate into applications, products and workflows. This delivers both the power and the flexibility our customers need to disrupt their industries, and enables the type of business continuity, remote work, and remote delivery of services that are now essential for companies to work and serve customers from anywhere. Vonage products and services enable our business customers to fundamentally change how they engage with their customers and team members. We have a robust set of solutions and services that meet the needs of businesses of all sizes, from micro, to SMB through mid-market and enterprise. We provide customers with multiple deployment options designed to provide the reliability and quality of service they demand. Vonage solutions also integrate with today's leading business applications, CRM and productivity tools,, including Google’s G Suite, Zendesk, Salesforce’s Sales and Service Clouds, Microsoft Dynamics, ServiceNow, Oracle, and Clio among others, to drive internal communications and collaboration among team members and external engagement with customers
Consumer
For our Consumer customers, we enable users to access and utilize our UCaaS services and features, via a single “identity,” either a number or user name, regardless of how they are connected to the Internet, including over 3G/4G, LTE, Cable, or DSL broadband networks. This technology enables us to offer our Consumer customers attractively priced voice and messaging services and other features around the world on a variety of devices.
88 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Information about our segment results for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019 were as follows:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Service Revenue | | Revenue | | Adjusted EBITDA | | Depreciation and Amortization | | |
Year ended December 31, 2021 | | | | | | | | | | |
Vonage Communications Platform | | $ | 1,061,745 | | | $ | 1,120,125 | | | $ | 10,714 | | | $ | 87,872 | | | |
Consumer | | 246,553 | | | 288,890 | | | 186,856 | | | 908 | | | |
Total Vonage | | $ | 1,308,298 | | | $ | 1,409,015 | | | $ | 197,570 | | | $ | 88,780 | | | |
| | | — | | | | | | | |
Year ended December 31, 2020 | | | | | | | | | | |
Vonage Communications Platform | | $ | 856,492 | | | $ | 915,057 | | | $ | (56,968) | | | $ | 85,210 | | | |
Consumer | | 292,003 | | | 332,877 | | | 227,152 | | | 3,707 | | | |
Total Vonage | | $ | 1,148,495 | | | $ | 1,247,934 | | | $ | 170,184 | | | $ | 88,917 | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
Year ended December 31, 2019 | | | | | | | | | | |
Vonage Communications Platform | | $ | 719,514 | | | $ | 803,880 | | | $ | (103,266) | | | $ | 80,197 | | | |
Consumer | | 340,462 | | | 385,466 | | | 261,362 | | | 6,059 | | | |
Total Vonage | | $ | 1,059,976 | | | $ | 1,189,346 | | | $ | 158,096 | | | $ | 86,256 | | | |
The Company uses Adjusted EBITDA as the measure of profit or loss for the evaluation of performance and allocation of resources of our reportable operating segments. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income or net loss before income tax expense or benefit, interest expense, depreciation and amortization, stock-based expense, amortization of costs to implement cloud computing arrangements, acquisition related transaction and integration costs, organizational transformation costs, restructuring activities, and other non-recurring items. Organizational transformation includes employee related exits including CEO succession, system change management, facility exit costs, and rebranding. Restructuring activities relate to the Company's business-wide optimization and alignment project initiated in 2020 which included employee related exits and further facility exit costs executed upon as part of the overall project. Other non-recurring items principally include certain litigation charges including defense costs and other non-recurring project costs such as the review of the Consumer business review and the business optimization project, both of which were initiated in 2020. This is also consistent with the measure used under our bank credit assessment. Our reconciliation of the aggregate amount of Adjusted EBITDA for our reportable segments to consolidated income before taxes is presented below:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Years Ended December 31, |
| | 2021 | | 2020 | | 2019 |
Adjusted EBITDA | | $ | 197,570 | | | $ | 170,184 | | | $ | 158,096 | |
Interest expense | | (28,348) | | | (32,160) | | | (32,821) | |
Depreciation and amortization | | (88,780) | | | (88,917) | | | (86,256) | |
Amortization of costs to implement cloud computing arrangements | | (3,515) | | | (2,885) | | | (1,362) | |
Share-based expense | | (79,900) | | | (45,667) | | | (45,242) | |
Acquisition related transactions and integration costs | | (10,120) | | | — | | | (701) | |
| | | | | | |
Organizational transformation | | — | | | (5,119) | | | (14,533) | |
Restructuring activities | | (2,655) | | | (18,913) | | | — | |
Other non-recurring items | | (4,314) | | | (8,518) | | | (3,289) | |
Loss before taxes | | $ | (20,062) | | | $ | (31,995) | | | $ | (26,108) | |
89 VONAGE ANNUAL REPORT 2021
Information about our operations by geographic location is as follows:
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| December 31, 2021 | | December 31, 2020 |
Long-lived assets: | | | |
United States | $ | 627,243 | | | $ | 646,072 | |
United Kingdom | 278,173 | | | 293,457 | |
Israel | 1,702 | | | 1,325 | |
| $ | 907,118 | | | $ | 940,854 | |
Note 17. Cash Flow Information
Detail of supplemental disclosures for cash flow and non-cash investing and financing information was as follows:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| For the years ended December 31, |
| 2021 | | 2020 | | 2019 |
Supplemental disclosures of cash flow information: | | | | | |
Cash paid during the periods for: | | | | | |
Interest | $ | 12,982 | | | $ | 15,928 | | | $ | 23,006 | |
Income taxes paid net of refunds | 2,131 | | | 2,298 | | | 4,365 | |
Non-cash investing and financing activities: | | | | | |
Acquisition of long-term assets included in accounts payable and accrued expenses | $ | 5,576 | | | $ | 3,082 | | | $ | 1,326 | |
Share-based compensation expense capitalized in internally developed software costs | 6,338 | | | 4,136 | | | — | |
| | | | | |
Issuance of shares for asset acquisition | — | | | — | | | 3,000 | |
| | | | | |