Item 1. Business.
Overview
Booz Allen Holding Corporation (herein referred to as “Booz Allen,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is an advanced technology company delivering outcomes for the nation’s most critical defense, civil, and national security priorities. Booz Allen was founded in 1914 by Edwin Booz and for over 110 years, business, government, and military leaders have turned to us to solve their most complex problems. In 2013, we launched our Vision 2020 strategy that fundamentally reshaped the firm into the advanced technology company we are today, accelerating our ability to anticipate and build scale ahead of technology waves and solidifying a leading position at the center of the dual-use tech ecosystem. We build technology solutions using artificial intelligence (“AI”), cyber, and other cutting-edge technologies to advance and protect the nation and its citizens. By focusing on outcomes, we enable our people and customers to transform missions for the nation.
We support critical missions for a diverse base of federal government customers, including nearly all of the U.S. government’s cabinet-level departments, as well as for commercial customers, both domestically and in select international locations. Our work is designed to protect soldiers in combat, secure our national infrastructure, enable enhanced digital services, and improve government efficiency to achieve better outcomes. Drawing on our deep expertise and leading position as a cybersecurity provider, we bring advanced tradecraft to commercial customers across industries, including financial services, health and life sciences, energy, and technology.
We combine our in-depth expertise in AI and cybersecurity with leading-edge technology and engineering practices to deliver powerful solutions. By investing in markets, capabilities, and talent, and building new business models, including ventures, partnerships, and product offerings, we believe we are creating sustainable quality growth for the Company.
Our Core Technology, Expertise, and Innovation
Our technologists and mission experts identify, assess, build, and deploy technology solutions to advance and protect the nation using AI, cyber, and other cutting-edge technologies. We work alongside trusted industry leaders to rapidly create and co-create proven technologies, leveraging a broad array of longstanding relationships from Silicon Valley startups and Fortune 500 companies to the Pentagon and NASA. Through scouting, partnerships, and venturing we identify the right commercial technology for government missions.
Booz Allen’s position at the center of the government and technology ecosystem enables us to anticipate, invest in, build, and scale emerging technologies at speed. Our core technologies and capabilities include:
•Artificial Intelligence: We are one of the largest AI providers to the federal government. We create secure, purpose-built AI solutions that adapt commercial and internally-developed technology to the unique needs of the federal government.
•Cyber: We have one of the most impactful cyber businesses globally, delivering cyber solutions to our federal and commercial customers. We build and deploy intelligence-grade technology, coupled with our unique trade craft, to defend the nation’s critical assets.
•Digital Transformation: We modernize legacy systems with cloud-enabled infrastructure, platforms, and applications, delivering outcomes at scale by putting customer missions at the center of enterprise digital transformation.
•Space: We have space experts aimed at solidifying the nation’s superiority in this critical frontier. We deliver large scale multi-modal data fusion coupled with cyber and AI for secure, rapid, enhanced Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (“ISR”), earth observation, and domain awareness/battle management.
•Emerging Technologies: We hold a leading position in quantum with years of dedicated research, development, and delivery in this disruptive tech field. We cover the full spectrum of quantum information sciences (“QIS”) with capabilities in quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum communications, post-quantum compute readiness, and post-quantum cryptography. Our technologists are developing first-of-their-kind quantum and quantum-safe solutions to accelerate quantum adoption at scale.
Our Institution and Operating Model
We operate as a single profit and loss center with a single bonus pool for leadership. Our operating model encourages collaboration allowing us to bring a mix of the best talent to every customer engagement. As a result, we can go to market as a whole company rather than as a collection of individual competing business units or profit centers. Our operating model also encourages and enables continuous investment in the right markets, capabilities, and talent to position us for further growth by anticipating what government and commercial customers will need next.
Across all markets, we address our customers’ complex and evolving needs by deploying multifaceted teams with a combination of advanced technical expertise, market-leading innovation, and deep mission understanding. These customer-facing teams, which are fundamental to our differentiated value proposition, better position us to identify and deliver against diverse customer needs in a more agile manner. Our significant win rates during fiscal 2025 on new and re-competed contracts of 56% and 92%, respectively, as compared to 63% and 92%, respectively, in fiscal 2024, demonstrate the strength of this approach.
Our Long-Term Growth Strategy
VoLT is the next era of Booz Allen and stands for Velocity, Leadership, and Technology. Our VoLT strategy requires us to operate with increased speed, agility, and scale in a rapidly changing, highly competitive, and increasingly technical environment. Our ability to embrace and drive change is crucial to our success, which is why we are using our VoLT strategy and its framework to rapidly innovate and scale solutions to transform missions and address our customers’ complex challenges with advanced technology.
Velocity: Get There First
Leverage our mission knowledge to get to the future at speed and scale
•Double-down on innovation
•Strategically use mergers, investments, and partnerships to build market positions
•Make decisions ahead of customer needs
Leadership: Transform with Conviction
Redefine mission leadership to stand apart in this new era
•Identify customer needs ripe for hyper-growth
•Scale businesses at the nexus of mission and technology
Technology: Differentiate to Win
Put technology at the heart of the customer mission to define the next generation of impact
•Identify, build, and scale next generation technology to transform mission
•Use mission insights to drive real-world outcomes
With VoLT as the catalyst to transform Booz Allen, our ambition is that, by 2030, we are the market-leading mission partner for the U.S. government in the new digital environment, highly differentiated across a portfolio of scaled mission and technology businesses, and recognized for integrating, applying, and scaling technologies in the service of national mission priorities.
Our Customers
Booz Allen is committed to solving our customers’ toughest challenges, and we work with a diverse base of public and private sector customers across a number of industries in the U.S. and select international locations. We bring unmatched tech superiority to help our customers win in today’s competitive world and prepare for what’s next.
Defense Customers
We deliver advanced technologies for the Department of Defense aligned to their most critical missions. We are deeply focused on last mile modernization — making technology work in the most austere environments where warfighters operate. To do this, we blend decades of mission experience with cutting edge AI/machine learning autonomy, software infrastructure, and engineering. Our technologists partner with our mission experts to build technologies focusing on deterring our adversaries across all domains.
Our core defense customers include all six branches of the U.S. military, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, NASA and the Joint Staff. Our key defense customers include the Army, Navy/Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, and Joint Combatant Commands.
Revenue generated from defense customers was $5.9 billion, or approximately 49% of our revenue, in fiscal 2025, as compared to $5.1 billion, or approximately 47% of our revenue, in fiscal 2024. Revenue generated from defense customers also includes foreign military sales and work performed under Status of Forces Agreements (“SOFA”) to U.S. and non-U.S. government customers.
Intelligence Customers
We deliver innovative, highly technical capabilities and solutions that directly impact core national security missions across the Intelligence Community and national cyber mission providers. We leverage our knowledge of the mission to deliver tailored solutions for our customers—our biggest driver is the demand for innovation, requiring us to be ahead of the pace of technology adoption. Technology is at the center of our customers' missions and ours—we are investing in emerging technologies like AI, zero trust cyber solutions, multi-cloud, and 5G to adapt ahead of adversaries. The national security workforce remains focused on what's next, blending cleared and uncleared talent across dispersed geographies, ensuring mission impact. Our combination of technology, innovation, and talent is helping to shape the future of our national security ecosystem.
Our intelligence customers are the 18 organizations of the U.S. Intelligence Community, which includes independent agencies, the Department of Defense elements, such as the National Security Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency, and other departments or agencies.
Revenue generated from intelligence customers was $1.9 billion, or approximately 16% of our revenue, in fiscal 2025, as compared to $1.8 billion, or approximately 17% of our revenue, in fiscal 2024.
Civil Customers
Our civil work centers on the federal missions that are the highest priority to the domestic agenda, and we excel at helping our customers innovate their most critical missions. From healthcare, homeland security, and financial services to justice, law enforcement, immigration, energy, transportation, and labor, we work at the core of the mission to modernize systems, boost efficiencies, and save money.
Our major civil government customers include the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, Treasury, Labor, Homeland Security, Justice, Energy, Commerce, and Transportation. Modernization and transformation are key needs of our customers, and we offer the technical expertise and mission understanding required to deliver innovative solutions to all our customers' needs across the civil portfolio.
Within our civil customers, we include our global commercial customers, for whom we deliver advanced cyber solutions, which accounts for 2% of our total revenue.
Total revenue generated from civil and global commercial customers was $4.2 billion, or approximately 35% of our revenue, in fiscal 2025, as compared to $3.8 billion, or approximately 36% of our revenue, in fiscal 2024.
Contracts
The U.S. government procures solutions, outcomes, and services through two predominant contracting methods: indefinite contract vehicles and definite contracts. Each of these is described below:
•Definite contracts call for the performance of specified services or the delivery of specified products. The U.S. government procures services and solutions through single award, definite contracts that specify the scope of services that will be delivered and identify the contractor that will provide the specified services. When an agency recognizes a need for services or products, it develops an acquisition plan, which details how it will procure those services or products. During the acquisition process, the agency may release a request for information to determine if qualified bidders exist, a draft request for a proposal to allow the industry to comment on the scope of work and acquisition strategy, and finally a formal request for a proposal. Following the evaluation of submitted proposals, the agency will award the contract to the winning bidder.
•Indefinite contract vehicles provide for the issuance by the government customer of orders for services or products under the terms of the contract. Indefinite contracts are often referred to as contract vehicles or ordering contracts. IDIQ contracts may be awarded to one contractor (single award) or several contractors (multiple award). Under a multiple award IDIQ contract, there is no guarantee of work as contract holders must compete for individual work orders. IDIQ contracts will often include pre-established labor categories and rates, and the ordering process is streamlined (usually taking less than a month from recognition of a need to an established order with a contractor). IDIQ contracts often have multiyear terms and unfunded ceiling amounts, thereby enabling but not committing the U.S. government to purchase substantial amounts of products and services from one or more contractors in a streamlined procurement process.
Approximately 85% of our revenue for fiscal 2025 was derived from 2,596 active task orders under IDIQ contract vehicles. Our top IDIQ contract vehicle represented approximately 18% of our revenue in fiscal 2025. Our largest task order under an IDIQ contract vehicle accounted for approximately 4% of our revenue in fiscal 2025. Our largest definite contract represented approximately 1% of our revenue in fiscal 2025. For risks related to our contracts, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Industry and Economic Risks.”
•We delivered solutions, outcomes, and services under 5,279 contracts and task orders.
•We derived 95% of our revenue in fiscal 2025 from engagements for which we acted as the prime contractor.
•We derived 13% of our revenue in fiscal 2025 from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which was the single largest customer that we served in that year.
Competition
We operate in a highly competitive industry, and we compete with companies of all types and sizes. Due to the diverse requirements of the U.S. government and our commercial customers, we frequently collaborate with other companies to compete for contracts and bid against these same companies in other situations. Our major competitors include large enterprise software companies, large global technology providers, traditional government consulting firms, government contractors focused principally on the provision of technology services to the U.S. government, large defense contractors that provide both products and technology services to the U.S. government, diversified service providers, systems integrators, small businesses, and technology startups.
We compete based on various factors, including our ability to deliver innovative cost-effective services in a timely manner, technical expertise, customer knowledge and past performance, our ability to successfully recruit and retain appropriately skilled and experienced talent, including security-cleared personnel, our reputation and relationship with our customers, and pricing. In addition, to maintain our competitive position, we routinely review our operating structure, capabilities, and strategy to ensure we are effectively meeting the needs of existing customers, effectively responding to developments in our markets, and successfully building a platform intended to provide the foundation for the future growth of our business.
Human Capital Management
We attract top talent using innovative recruitment strategies and a strong employer brand that markets our expansive brand and extensive opportunities. Our total rewards strategy offers comprehensive benefits and wellness programs across various stages of life and career. Our annual Employee Experience Survey highlights our commitment to meaningful engagement, and delivery against our employee promise with approximately 83% reporting a favorable experience.
Our people at a glance (as of March 31, 2025):
•Booz Allen and its subsidiaries has 35,800 employees (32,700 customer staff) spread across various locations, with a significant presence in the United States and other strategic global regions.
•Nearly 29% of our employees identified as a veteran or an individual with military experience (based upon voluntary self-reporting).
•Approximately 72% of our employees hold security clearances.
•Highly Educated: Our workforce possesses a wide range of advanced technical acumen and in-depth domain knowledge and expertise, including artificial intelligence, cyber, quantum, and software engineering.
•Advanced Degrees: Approximately 88% of our employees hold a bachelor’s degree or higher; of that 88%, approximately 45% hold master’s degrees and 4% hold doctoral degrees (based upon voluntary self-reporting).
Building solutions that empower people to change the world is what we do at Booz Allen. We bring the right people together to build and deploy advanced technology solutions against missions of national importance.
A strong foundation. Our values of Ferocious Integrity, Unflinching Courage, Passionate Service, Champion’s Heart, and Collective Ingenuity guide our actions. Our culture differentiates how we capture opportunity, create an environment that fosters innovation, and deliver impact to customers. Our VoLT (Velocity, Leadership, and Technology) strategy positions Booz Allen for the future and guides how we recruit and retain top talent and the capabilities we cultivate through upskilling and development practices.
Differentiated by Culture. We empower our people to succeed with access to opportunities, professional development, and programs that support individual growth. We foster our culture of heart and performance by focusing on:
•Defined Values & Behaviors: Leading with care and accountability.
•Purposeful Engagement: Creating connections that drive growth.
•Flexible Environment: Offering opportunities and choices to realize potential.
•Holistic Wellbeing & Development: Promoting lifelong learning for resilience and relevance.
At Booz Allen, we act ethically, hold ourselves accountable, and lead with integrity. Our people possess strong character, expertise, and exceptional passion. Our Code of Business Ethics and Conduct represents our values in action and sets forth expectations for our employees on how they should operate on behalf of the Company. We reinforce our culture with annual mandatory training for all employees on our values and how to navigate challenging business issues ethically. We inspire curiosity, encourage people to ask questions, raise concerns, explore solutions, and think outside the box to find creative answers.
Guided by Strategy. Our VoLT strategy pairs our technology prowess with mission expertise to bring solutions to customers at scale. Our modern workplace initiatives are designed to recruit, incentivize, reward, and retain top talent based on merit. We leverage our Talent Mobility and Performance programs to identify opportunities for employees that are both aligned with our strategic objectives and critical to their development. Managers and leaders coach employees on their personalized career journeys and use a variety of tools such as goal setting, regular feedback, and career profiles to help employees reach their full potential.
Engaged through Learning. We continuously expand our upskilling programs through hands-on learning, as well as award winning in-house training, formal badging, and certificate programs. Our Technical Experience Groups (TXGs) build technical acumen, foster mentor/mentee relationships, and create thought leadership and intellectual property. These experiences heighten engagement, bolster retention, and offer limitless opportunities for skill enhancement. We offer robust leadership development programming - encouraging collaboration, collective growth, and a one-team mindset.
Patents and Proprietary Information
Our business utilizes a variety of proprietary rights in delivering products and services to our customers. We claim a proprietary interest in certain service offerings, products, software tools, methodologies, and know-how, and also have certain licenses to third-party intellectual property that may be significant to our business. While we have several patents issued and pending in the United States and in certain foreign countries, we do not consider our overall business to be materially dependent on the protection of such patents. In addition, we have a number of trade secrets that contribute to our success and competitive position, and we endeavor to protect this proprietary information. While protecting trade secrets and proprietary information is important, we are not materially dependent on any specific trade secret or group of trade secrets.
We rely on a combination of nondisclosure agreements and other contractual arrangements, as well as copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret laws, to protect our proprietary information. We also enter into proprietary information and intellectual property agreements with employees, which require them to disclose any inventions created during employment, to convey such rights to inventions to us, and to restrict any disclosure of proprietary information. We have a variety of trademarks registered in the United States and certain foreign countries, including Booz Allen Hamilton® and Booz Allen®.
Booz Allen Hamilton and other trademarks or service marks of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. appearing in this Annual Report are the trademarks or registered trademarks of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. Trade names, trademarks, and service marks of other companies appearing in this Annual Report are the property of their respective owners.
Regulation
As a contractor to the U.S. government, and to a lesser extent, to state and local governments, we are heavily regulated in most fields in which we operate. We deal with numerous U.S. government agencies and entities, and, when working with these and other entities, we must comply with and are affected by unique laws and regulations relating to the formation, administration, and performance of public government contracts. Some significant laws and regulations that affect us include the following:
•the FAR, and agency regulations supplemental to the FAR, which regulate the formation, administration, and performance of U.S. government contracts. For example, FAR 52.203-13 requires contractors to establish a Code of Business Ethics and Conduct, implement a comprehensive internal control system, and report to the government when the contractor has credible evidence that a principal, employee, agent, or subcontractor, in connection with a government contract, has violated certain federal criminal laws, violated the civil False Claims Act, or has received a significant overpayment;
•the False Claims Act, which imposes civil and criminal liability for violations, including substantial monetary penalties, for, among other things, presenting false or fraudulent claims for payments or approval;
•the False Statements Act, which imposes civil and criminal liability for making false statements to the U.S. government;
•the Truthful Cost or Pricing Data Statute (formerly known as the Truth in Negotiations Act), which requires certification and disclosure of cost and pricing data in connection with the negotiation of certain contracts, modifications, or task orders;
•the Procurement Integrity Act, which regulates access to competitor bid and proposal information and certain internal government procurement sensitive information, and our ability to provide compensation to certain former government procurement officials;
•laws and regulations restricting the ability of a contractor to provide gifts or gratuities to employees of the U.S. government;
•post-government employment laws and regulations, which restrict the ability of a contractor to recruit and hire current employees of the U.S. government and deploy former employees of the U.S. government;
•laws, regulations, and executive orders restricting the handling, use, and dissemination of information classified for national security purposes or determined to be “controlled unclassified information” or “for official use only,” and the export of certain products, services, and technical data, including requirements regarding any applicable licensing of our employees involved in such work;
•laws, regulations, and executive orders, regulating the handling, use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information in the course of performing a U.S. government contract, performing work for our commercial customers or running the business;
•international trade compliance laws, regulations, and executive orders that prohibit business with certain sanctioned entities and require authorization for certain exports or imports in order to protect national security and global stability;
•laws, regulations, and executive orders governing organizational conflicts of interest that may restrict our ability to compete for certain U.S. government contracts because of the work that we currently perform for the U.S. government or may require that we take measures such as firewalling off certain employees or restricting their future work activities due to the current work that they perform under a U.S. government contract;
•laws, regulations, and executive orders that impose requirements on us to ensure compliance with requirements and protect the government from risks related to our supply chain;
•laws, regulations, and mandatory contract provisions providing protections to employees or subcontractors seeking to report alleged fraud, waste, and abuse related to a government contract;
•the Contractor Business Systems rule, which authorizes Department of Defense agencies to withhold a portion of our payments if we are determined to have a significant deficiency in our accounting, cost estimating, purchasing, earned value management, material management and accounting, and/or property management system; and
•the Cost Accounting Standards and Cost Principles, which impose accounting and allowability requirements that govern our right to reimbursement under certain cost-based U.S. government contracts and require consistency of accounting practices over time.
Given the magnitude of our revenue derived from contracts with the Department of Defense, the Defense Contract Audit Agency (“DCAA”) is our cognizant government audit agency. The DCAA audits the adequacy of our internal control systems and policies including, among other areas, compensation. The Defense Contract Management Agency (“DCMA”), as our cognizant government contract management agency, may determine that a portion of our claimed costs are unallowable based on the findings and recommendations in the DCAA's audits. In addition, the DCMA directly reviews the adequacy of certain of our business systems, such as our purchasing system. See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Legal and Regulatory Risks—Our work with government customers exposes us to additional risks inherent in the government contracting environment, which could reduce our revenue, disrupt our business, or otherwise materially adversely affect our results of operations.” We are also subject to audit by Inspectors General of other U.S. government agencies.
The U.S. government may revise its procurement practices or adopt new contract rules and regulations at any time. To help ensure compliance with these laws and regulations, all of our employees are required to attend ethics training at least annually, and to participate in other compliance training relevant to their position. Internationally, we are subject to special U.S. government laws and regulations (such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act), local government regulations and procurement policies and practices, including regulations relating to import-export control, investments, exchange controls, and repatriation of earnings, as well as varying currency, political, and economic risks.
U.S. government contracts are, by their terms, subject to termination by the U.S. government either for its convenience or default by the contractor. In addition, U.S. government contracts are conditioned upon the continuing availability of Congressional appropriations. Congress usually appropriates funds for a given program on a September 30 fiscal year basis, even though contract performance could take many years. As is common in the industry, our Company is subject to business risks, including changes in governmental appropriations, national defense policies, service modernization plans, and availability of funds. Any of these factors could materially adversely affect our Company’s business with the U.S. government in the future.
The U.S. government has a broad range of actions that it can instigate to enforce its procurement law and policies. These include proposing a contractor, certain of its operations or individual employees for debarment or suspending or debarring a contractor, certain of its operations or individual employees from future government business. In addition to criminal, civil, and administrative actions by the U.S. government, under the False Claims Act, an individual alleging fraud related to payments under a U.S. government contract or program may file a qui tam lawsuit on behalf of the government against us; if successful in obtaining a judgment or settlement, the individual filing the suit may receive up to 30% of the amount recovered by the government.
See Item 1A., “Risk Factors—Legal and Regulatory Risks—We are required to comply with numerous laws and regulations, some of which are highly complex, and our failure to comply could result in fines or civil or criminal penalties or suspension or debarment by the U.S. government that could result in our inability to continue to work on or receive U.S. government contracts, which could materially and adversely affect our results of operations.”
Available Information
We file annual, quarterly, and current reports and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). The SEC maintains a website (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding registrants that file electronically with the SEC, including us. You may also access, free of charge, our reports filed with the SEC (for example, our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those forms) through the “Investors” portion of our website (www.boozallen.com). Reports filed with or furnished to the SEC will be available as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed with or furnished to the SEC. Our website is included in this Annual Report as an inactive textual reference only. The information found on our website is not part of this or any other report filed with or furnished to the SEC.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
You should consider and read carefully all of the risks and uncertainties described below, as well as other information included in this Annual Report, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes. The risks described below are not the only ones facing us. The occurrence of any of the following risks or additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. This Annual Report also contains forward-looking statements and estimates that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of specific factors, including the risks and uncertainties described below.
This risk factor summary contains a high-level summary of risks associated with our business. It does not contain all of the information that may be important to you, and you should read this risk factor summary together with the more detailed discussion of risks and uncertainties set forth following this summary. A summary of our risks includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Industry and Economic Risks
•risks relating to our relationships and reputation with the U.S. government;
•changes in U.S. government spending and mission priorities, including due to uncertainty relating to the new presidential administration, funding of the U.S. government, and increasing the debt ceiling;
•our ability to compete effectively in the competitive bidding and re-competing processes and delays or losses of contract awards caused by competitors’ protests of major contract awards received by us;
•the loss of GSA schedules, or our position as prime contractor on GWACs;
•variable purchasing patterns under GSA schedules, blanket purchase agreements, and IDIQ contracts;
•changes in the mix of our contracts and our ability to accurately estimate or otherwise recover expenses, time, and resources for our contracts;
•changes in estimates used in recognizing revenue;
•our ability to realize the full value of and replenish our backlog, generate revenue under certain of our contracts, and the timing of our receipt of revenue under contracts included in backlog;
•risks related to inflation and new or increased tariffs that could impact the cost of doing business and/or reduce customer buying power;
•risks related to the deterioration of economic conditions or weakening in the credit or capital markets;
•internal system or service failures and security breaches, including, but not limited to, those resulting from external or internal threats, including cyber attacks on our network and internal systems, or on our customers’ network or internal systems;
•risks related to the development and use of artificial intelligence, which include potential liability as well as regulatory, competition, reputational and other risks;
•risks related to the operation of financial management systems;
•our ability to attract, train, or retain employees with the requisite skills and experience and ensure that employees obtain and maintain necessary security clearances and effectively manage our cost structure;
•the loss of members of senior management or failure to develop new leaders;
•misconduct or other improper activities from our employees, subcontractors, or suppliers, including the improper access, use, or release of our or our customers’ sensitive or classified information;
•failure to maintain strong relationships with other contractors, or the failure of contractors with which we have entered into a sub- or prime-contractor relationship to meet their obligations to us or our customers;
•risks related to changes to our operating structure, capabilities, or strategy intended to address customer needs, grow our business, or respond to market developments; and
•risks related to completed and future acquisitions, including our ability to realize the expected benefits from such acquisitions.
Legal and Regulatory Risks
•failure to comply with numerous laws and regulations, including the FAR, False Claims Act, DFARS, and FAR Cost Accounting Standards and Cost Principles;
•risks related to our international operations;
•the adoption by the U.S. government of new laws, rules, and regulations, such as those relating to organizational conflicts of interest issues or limits;
•the incurrence of additional tax liabilities, including as a result of changes in tax laws or management judgments involving complex tax matters;
•continued efforts to change how the U.S. government reimburses compensation related costs and other expenses or otherwise limit such reimbursements and an increased risk of compensation being deemed unreasonable and unallowable or payments being withheld as a result of U.S. government audit, review, or investigation;
•inherent uncertainties and potential adverse developments in legal or regulatory proceedings;
•the impact of changes in accounting rules and regulations, or interpretations thereof, that may affect the way we recognize and report our financial results, including changes in accounting rules governing recognition of revenue; and
•the impact of changing weather patterns, natural disasters, and pandemics, epidemics, and similar disease outbreaks on our and our customers' businesses and operations, as well as risks related to increased scrutiny and changing expectations and practices related to climate change and related governance matters generally.
Risks Related to Our Indebtedness
•the impact of our substantial indebtedness and our ability to service and refinance such indebtedness; and
•the restrictions and limitations in the agreements and instruments governing our indebtedness.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
•the volatility of the market price of our Class A common stock; and
•the timing and amount of our dividends, if any.
Industry and Economic Risks
We depend on contracts with U.S. government agencies for substantially all of our revenue. If our reputation or relationships with such agencies are harmed, our future revenue and operating profits would decline.
The U.S. government is our primary customer, with revenue from contracts and task orders, either as a prime or a subcontractor, with U.S. government agencies accounting for 98% of our revenue for fiscal year 2025. Our belief is that the successful future growth of our business will continue to depend primarily on our ability to be awarded work under U.S. government contracts, as we expect this will continue to be the primary source of substantially all of our revenue. For this reason, any issue that compromises our relationship with the U.S. government generally or any U.S. government agency that we serve would cause our revenue to decline. Among the key factors in maintaining our relationship with U.S. government agencies is our performance on contracts and task orders, the strength of our professional reputation, compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and the strength of our relationships with customer personnel.
Our relationship with U.S. government agencies could be harmed by the mishandling or the perception of mishandling of sensitive information, such as our failure to maintain the confidentiality of the existence of our business relationships with certain of our customers, including as a result of misconduct or other improper activities by our employees, subcontractors, or suppliers, or a failure to maintain adequate protection against security breaches, including those resulting from cyber attacks. See “—Our employees or subcontractors may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, which could harm our ability to conduct business with the U.S. government.” Our relationship with the U.S. government could also be damaged as a result of an agency’s dissatisfaction with work performed by us, a subcontractor, or other third parties who provide services or products for a specific project for any reason, including due to perceived or actual deficiencies in the performance or quality of our work, and we may incur additional costs to address any such situation and the profitability of that work might be impaired. In addition, to the extent our performance under a contract does not meet a U.S. government agency’s expectations, the customer might seek to terminate the contract prior to its scheduled expiration date, provide a negative assessment of our performance to government-maintained contractor past-performance data repositories, fail to award us additional business under existing contracts or otherwise, and direct future business to our competitors.
Further, negative publicity concerning government contractors in general, or us, regardless of accuracy, may harm our reputation among federal agencies and federal government contractors, and the credibility of our brand, and adversely affect our ability to attract or retain customers or talent. There has been increased publicity regarding government contractors in general, and including the Company, in connection with the U.S. government’s efforts to improve efficiency and reduce costs, which could harm our reputation and could have a material impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Due to the sensitive nature of our work and our confidentiality obligations to our customers, we may be unable or limited in our ability to respond to such negative publicity, which could also harm our reputation and business. To the extent our reputation or relationships with U.S. government agencies is impaired, our revenue and operating profits could materially decline.
U.S. government spending levels and mission priorities could change in a manner that adversely affects our future revenue and limits our growth prospects.
Our business depends upon continued U.S. government expenditures on defense, intelligence, and civil programs for which we provide support. These expenditures have not remained constant over time, have been and in the future may be reduced in certain periods, and have been and in the future may be affected by the U.S. government’s efforts to improve efficiency and reduce costs affecting U.S. government programs generally. Our business, prospects, financial condition, or operating results could be materially harmed by, among other causes, the following:
•budgetary constraints, including mandated automatic spending cuts, affecting U.S. government spending generally, or specific agencies in particular, and changes in available funding;
•a shift in the permissible federal debt limit;
•a shift in expenditures away from agencies or programs that we support;
•reduced U.S. government outsourcing of functions that we are currently contracted to provide, including as a result of increased insourcing by various U.S. government agencies due to changes in the definition of “inherently governmental” work, including proposals to limit contractor access to sensitive or classified information and work assignments;
•changes or delays in U.S. government programs that we support or related requirements, including shifts in the scope of work that we support and delays in procurements;
•changes in U.S. government customer cybersecurity investments and resourcing that impact the security posture of systems hosted by the Company on behalf of the U.S. government and under a U.S. government authority to operate;
•U.S. government shutdowns due to, among other reasons, a failure to fund the government and other potential delays in the appropriations process;
•U.S. government agencies awarding contracts on a technically acceptable/lowest cost basis in order to reduce expenditures;
•increased U.S. government processing times for security clearances and other governmental consents;
•delays in the payment of our invoices by government payment offices;
•loss of government points of contact at the various U.S. government agencies we support as a result of the government’s efforts to reduce spending;
•an inability by the U.S. government to fund its operations as a result of a failure to increase the U.S. government’s debt ceiling, the exhaustion of “extraordinary measures” to borrow additional funds without breaching the government’s debt ceiling, a credit downgrade of U.S. government obligations or for any other reason; and
•changes in the political climate and general economic conditions, including political changes from successive presidential administrations, a slowdown of the economy or unstable economic conditions and other conditions, such as emergency spending, that reduce funds available for other government priorities.
In addition, any disruption in the functioning of U.S. government agencies, including as a result of U.S. government closures and shutdowns, terrorism, war, international conflicts (including the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, and increased tensions in Asia), trade tensions related to recent shifts in international trade policies, natural disasters, public health crises, destruction of U.S. government facilities, and other potential calamities could have a negative impact on our operations and cause us to lose revenue or incur additional costs due to, among other things, our inability to deploy our staff to customer locations or facilities as a result of such disruptions.
Considerable uncertainty exists regarding how future budget and program decisions will unfold, including as a result of the changing spending priorities of the U.S. government. The U.S. government is currently in the process of reviewing federal spending across federal civilian, defense, and intelligence departments and agencies, to ensure it aligns with the new administration’s priorities of maximizing governmental efficiency and productivity. As a leading provider of advanced technology products and services to U.S. government customers, we have been, and will continue to be, subject to these reviews, and we have had, and may in the future have, certain of our contracts impacted, reduced or canceled as a result of these reviews. We have also experienced price adjustments and renegotiations prior to option exercise of certain of our contracts as a result of these reviews and may in the future continue to experience such adjustments. Further, we are, and may in the future be, subject to customer mandates to formulate additional methods by which to achieve efficiencies in providing our services, and we remain in ongoing discussions with various government departments and agencies in relation to cost reductions and other potential contract modifications. There can be no assurance that these reviews will not ultimately have a material adverse impact on our business and financial performance — such as through more stringent and frequent reviews of our contracts, potential changes in government procurement policies which could affect our ability to secure new contracts or renew existing ones, the cancellation or reduction of contracts critical to our business, or the implementation of stricter compliance requirements that could increase our operational costs.
The U.S. government budget deficits, the national debt, and prevailing economic conditions, and actions taken to address them, could negatively affect U.S. government expenditures on defense, intelligence, and civil programs for which we provide support. A reduction in the amount of, or delays or cancellations of funding for, services that we are contracted to provide as a result of initiatives with certain U.S. government departments, legislation, or otherwise could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Further, there is ongoing uncertainty regarding how the U.S. Congress will address the legal limit on U.S. debt commonly known as the debt ceiling, and for which the U.S. Treasury has announced that it has been using extraordinary measures to prevent the U.S. government's default on its payment obligations, and to extend the time that the U.S. Congress has to raise its statutory debt limit or otherwise resolve the funding situation. If the debt ceiling is not raised, the U.S. government may not be able to fulfill its funding obligations and there could be significant disruption to all discretionary programs, which would have material adverse impacts on us and our industry.
If government funding relating to our contracts with the U.S. government or Department of Defense becomes unavailable, or is reduced or delayed, or planned orders are reduced, our contract or subcontract under such programs may be terminated or adjusted by the U.S. government or the prime contractor, if applicable. Our operating results could also be adversely affected by spending caps or changes in the budgetary priorities of the U.S. government or Department of Defense, as well as delays in program starts or the award of contracts or task orders under contracts.
These or other factors could cause our defense, intelligence, or civil customers to decrease the number of new contracts awarded generally and fail to award us new contracts, reduce their purchases under our existing contracts, exercise their right to terminate our contracts, or not exercise options to renew our contracts, any of which could cause a material decline in our revenue.
We derive a majority of our revenue from contracts awarded through a competitive bidding process, and our revenue and profitability may be adversely affected if we are unable to compete or re-compete effectively in the process or if there are delays caused by our competitors protesting major contract awards received by us.
We derive a majority of our revenue from U.S. government contracts awarded through competitive bidding and re-competing processes. We do not expect this to change for the foreseeable future. Our failure to compete effectively in this procurement environment would have a material adverse effect on our revenue and profitability.
The competitive bidding and re-competing processes involve risk and significant costs to businesses operating in this environment, including:
•the necessity to expend resources, make financial commitments (such as procuring leased premises), and bid on engagements in advance of the completion of their design, which may result in unforeseen difficulties in execution, cost overruns and, in the case of an unsuccessful competition, the loss of committed costs;
•the substantial cost and managerial time and effort spent to prepare bids and proposals for contracts that may not be awarded to us;
•the ability to accurately estimate the resources and costs that will be required to service any contract we are awarded;
•the expense and delay that may arise if our competitors protest or challenge contract awards made to us pursuant to competitive bidding, and the risk that any such protest or challenge could result in the resubmission of bids on modified specifications, or in termination, reduction, or modification of the awarded contract; and
•any opportunity cost of not bidding and winning other contracts we might have otherwise pursued.
In circumstances where contracts are held by other companies and are scheduled to expire, we still may not be provided the opportunity to bid on those contracts if the U.S. government determines to extend the existing contract. If we are unable to win particular contracts that are awarded through the competitive bidding and re-competing processes, we may not be able to operate in the market for services that are provided under those contracts for the duration of those contracts to the extent that
there is no additional demand for such services. An inability to consistently win new contract awards over any extended period would have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
We have seen our current competitive environment result in delays in procurements generally as well as an increase in the number of bid protests from unsuccessful bidders on new program awards. It can take many months for the relevant U.S. government agency to resolve protests by one or more of our competitors of contract awards we receive. Bid protests may result in significant expense to us, contract modification, or loss of an awarded contract as a result of the award being overturned. Even where we do not lose the awarded contract, the resulting delay in the startup and funding of the work under these contracts may cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those anticipated. There can be no assurance that these delays will not ultimately have a material adverse impact on our business and financial performance.
A significant majority of our revenue is derived from task orders under indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, or IDIQ, contract vehicles where we perform in either a prime or subcontractor position.
We believe that one of the key elements of our success is our position as the holder of 2,596 active task orders under IDIQ contract vehicles as of March 31, 2025.
IDIQ contracts provide for the issuance by the customer of orders for services or products under the contract, and often contain multi-year terms and unfunded ceiling amounts, which allow but do not commit the U.S. government to purchase products and services from contractors. Our ability to generate revenue under each of these types of contracts depends upon our ability to be awarded task orders for specific services by the customer. IDIQ contracts may be awarded to one contractor (single award) or several contractors (multiple award). Multiple contractors must compete under multiple award IDIQ contracts for task orders to provide particular services, and contractors earn revenue only to the extent that they successfully compete for these task orders. A failure to be awarded task orders under such contracts would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.
In addition, our ability to maintain our existing business and win new business depends on our ability to maintain our prime and subcontractor positions on these contracts. The loss, without replacement, of certain of these contract vehicles could have a material adverse effect on our ability to win new business and our operating results. If the U.S. government elects to use a contract vehicle that we do not hold, we will not be able to compete for work under that contract vehicle as a prime contractor.
Our earnings and profitability may vary based on the mix of our contracts and may be adversely affected by our failure to accurately estimate or otherwise recover the expenses, time, and resources for our contracts.
We enter into three general types of U.S. government contracts for our services: cost-reimbursable, time-and-materials, and fixed-price. Each of these types of contracts, to varying degrees, involves the risk that we could underestimate our cost of fulfilling the contract, which may reduce the profit we earn or lead to a financial loss on the contract and adversely affect our operating results.
Under cost-reimbursable contracts, we are reimbursed for allowable costs up to a ceiling and paid a fee, which may be fixed or performance-based. If our actual costs exceed the contract ceiling or are not allowable under the terms of the contract or applicable regulations, we may not be able to recover those costs. In particular, there is ongoing focus by the U.S. government on the extent to which government contractors, including us, are able to receive reimbursement for employee compensation, including the adoption of interim rules by federal agencies implementing a section of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, as amended, that substantially decreased the level of allowable compensation cost for executive-level employees and further applied the newly reduced limitation to all employees. In addition, there is an increased risk of compensation being deemed unallowable or payments being withheld as a result of U.S. government audit, review, or investigation.
Under time-and-materials contracts, we are reimbursed for labor at negotiated hourly billing rates and for certain allowable expenses. We assume financial risk on time-and-materials contracts because our costs of performance may exceed these negotiated hourly rates.
Under fixed-price contracts, we perform specific tasks or deliver a specific outcome for a predetermined price. Compared to time-and-materials and cost-reimbursable contracts, fixed-price contracts generally offer higher margin opportunities because we receive the benefits of any cost savings, but involve greater financial risk because we bear the impact of any cost overruns. The U.S. government has generally indicated that it intends to increase its use of fixed price contract procurements. We have seen a recent preference for the use of fixed price contracts with the new presidential administration, which may result in future contract modifications and conversions of existing contracts to fixed-price contracts. Because we assume the risk for cost overruns and contingent losses on fixed-price contracts, an increase in the percentage of fixed-price contracts in our contract mix would increase our risk of suffering losses.
Additionally, our profits could be adversely affected if our costs under any such contract exceed the assumptions we used in bidding for the contract. For example, we may miscalculate the costs, resources, or time needed to complete projects or meet contractual milestones as a result of delays on a particular project, including delays in designs, engineering information, or materials provided by the customer or a third party, delays or difficulties in equipment and material delivery, schedule changes, and other factors, some of which are beyond our control. We record provisions in our consolidated financial statements for
losses on our contracts when necessary, as required under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or GAAP, but our contract loss provisions may not be adequate to cover all actual losses that we may incur in the future.
We use estimates in recognizing revenue and if we make changes to estimates used in recognizing revenue, our profitability may be adversely affected.
Revenue from our fixed-price contracts is primarily recognized using the percentage-of-completion method with progress toward completion of a particular contract based on actual costs incurred relative to total estimated costs to be incurred over the life of the contract. Revenue from our cost-reimbursable-plus-award-fee contracts are based on our estimation of award fees over the life of the contract. Estimating costs at completion and award fees on our long-term contracts is complex and involves significant judgment. Adjustments to original estimates are often required as work progresses, experience is gained, and additional information becomes known, even though the scope of the work required under the contract may not change. Any adjustment as a result of a change in estimate is recognized as events become known.
In the event updated estimates indicate that we will experience a loss on a contract, we recognize the estimated loss at the time it is determined. Additional information may subsequently indicate that the loss is more or less than initially recognized, which requires further adjustments in our consolidated financial statements. Changes in the underlying assumptions, circumstances, or estimates could result in adjustments that could have a material adverse effect on our future results of operations.
We may not realize the full value of our backlog, which may result in lower than expected revenue.
Our backlog does not include contracts that have been awarded but are currently under protest and also does not include any task orders under IDIQ contracts, GSA Schedule or other master agreement contract vehicles, except to the extent that task orders have been awarded to us under those contracts. For additional disclosure regarding our backlog, please see “Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Factors and Trends Affecting Our Results of Operations—Sources of Revenue—Contract Backlog.”
We historically have not realized all of the revenue included in our total backlog, and we may not realize all of the revenue included in our current or future total backlog. There is a higher degree of risk in this regard with respect to unfunded backlog and priced options. In addition, there can be no assurance that our backlog will result in actual revenue in any particular period. This is because the actual receipt, timing, and amount of revenue under contracts included in backlog are subject to various contingencies, including congressional appropriations, many of which are beyond our control. The actual receipt of revenue from contracts included in backlog may never occur or may be delayed because: a program schedule could change or the program could be canceled; a contract’s funding or scope could be reduced, modified, delayed, de-obligated, or terminated early, including as a result of a lack of appropriated funds or cost cutting initiatives and other efforts to reduce U.S. government spending and/or the automatic federal defense spending cuts required by sequestration; in the case of funded backlog, the period of performance for the contract has expired or the U.S. government has exercised its unilateral right to cancel multi-year contracts and related orders or terminate existing contracts for convenience or default; in the case of unfunded backlog, funding may not be available; or, in the case of priced options, our customers may not exercise their options.
Any inability to hire additional appropriately qualified personnel or failure to timely and effectively deploy such additional personnel against funded backlog could negatively affect our ability to grow our revenue. We may also not recognize revenue on funded backlog due to, among other reasons, the tardy submissions of invoices by our subcontractors and the expiration of the relevant appropriated funding in accordance with a predetermined expiration date such as the end of the U.S. government's fiscal year. The amount of our funded backlog is also subject to change, due to, among other factors: changes in congressional appropriations that reflect changes in U.S. government policies or priorities resulting from various military, political, economic, or international developments; changes in the use of U.S. government contracting vehicles, and the provisions therein used to procure our services; and adjustments to the scope of services under, or cancellation of contracts, by the U.S. government at any time. As a result of the U.S. government’s review of federal spending across U.S. government agencies, we have had, and may in the future have, certain of our contracts impacted, reduced or canceled as a result of these reviews, which has reduced the amount of our total backlog and could have a material adverse impact on our business and financial performance. Furthermore, even if our backlog results in revenue, the contracts may not be profitable.
Systems that we develop, integrate, maintain, or otherwise support could experience security breaches which may damage our reputation with our customers and hinder future contract win rates.
We develop, integrate, maintain, or otherwise support systems and provide services that include managing and protecting information involved in intelligence, national security, and other sensitive government functions. Our systems also store, process, and transmit sensitive Company and government and commercial customer information, including personally identifiable, health and financial information. The cybersecurity threats we, our customers, and third parties face have grown more frequent and sophisticated, including but not limited to bad actors looking to augment traditional cyber tools and tradecraft with artificial intelligence capabilities that increase the speed, scale, and intricacy of threats, which may not be recognized until after they have been launched. A security breach, including from insider threats, could result in the exfiltration of our or our customers’ data and has the potential to do serious harm to our business, damage our reputation, prevent us from executing further work on sensitive systems for U.S. government or commercial customers, hinder future contract win rates, and/or cause us to incur significant expense to respond to and remediate the breach. Damage to our reputation or limitations on our eligibility for additional work or any liability resulting from a security breach in one of the systems we develop, install, maintain, or otherwise support could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
Certain services we provide and technologies we develop are designed to prevent, detect and monitor threats to our customers and may expose us or our customers and business partners to financial loss or physical or reputational harm.
We help our customers prevent, detect, monitor and mitigate threats to their people, information, and facilities. These threats may originate from nation states, terrorists or criminal actors, activist hackers, financially or politically motivated actors, or others who seek to harm our customers. Successful attacks on our customers may cause reputational harm to us and our customers and business partners, as well as liability to our customers or third parties. If we are associated with our customers and business partners in this regard, our staff, systems, information, and facilities may be targeted by a similar group of threat actors and may be at risk for financial loss or physical or reputational harm.
We also design and develop technologies that are highly technical and complex and may contain errors, defects, or security vulnerabilities that cannot be discovered before they are released, installed, and used by our customers. The introduction of new and emerging technologies, such as AI, further increases this risk. Errors, defects or vulnerabilities in the technology we develop could disrupt our customers’ or their customers’ proper functioning of the technology, cause disruptions in our customers' business operations, or allow unauthorized access to proprietary information, which could cause reputational harm to us and our customers, and could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Internal system or service failures, or those of our vendors, including as a result of cyber or other security threats, could disrupt our business and impair our ability to effectively provide our services to our customers, which could damage our reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
We create, implement, integrate, and maintain information technology (“IT”) systems that (a) are often mission critical, (b) regularly involve sensitive information, (c) may be deployed within war zones or other hazardous environments, and/or (d) can include information whose confidentiality is protected by law or contract. Additionally, we maintain internal systems housing sensitive employee and confidential company data. As a result, our systems and IT work products are susceptible to systems or service failures resulting from technical complexity, failures of third-party service providers, natural disasters, power shortages, insider threats (including improper access to the Company’s, customers’ or third parties’ information or resources, employee error, or malfeasance), terrorist attacks, physical or electronic security breaches, cyber attacks, computer viruses, or similar events or disruptions. Our systems and IT work product are the target of constantly evolving cyber attack vectors, including malware, social engineering, denial-of-service attacks, malicious software programs, phishing, smishing, vishing, identity spoofing (including through the use of emerging technologies such as “deep fakes”), account takeovers, and other cyber attacks fueled by emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence. We have observed an increase in the frequency and sophistication of the cyber and security threats these systems face, with attacks that are more advanced and persistent, targeting us because we hold classified, controlled unclassified, and other sensitive information. As a result, we and our vendors face a heightened risk of a security breach or disruption resulting from an attack by computer hackers, persons with access to systems inside our organization, foreign governments, and cyber terrorists.
We have put in place policies, controls, and technologies to help detect and protect against such attacks, but we cannot guarantee that future incidents will not occur. If an incident occurs, we may not be able to successfully mitigate the impact. We have been the target of these types of attacks in the past, and attempted attacks are likely to continue. Due to the ongoing geopolitical conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, and increased tensions in Asia, state-sponsored parties or their supporters may launch retaliatory cyber attacks, and may attempt to conduct other geopolitically motivated retaliatory actions. Those same parties may also attempt to fraudulently induce employees or authorized third parties, including contractors, to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to our systems or data, or that of our customers, or service providers. If successful, these types of attacks on our network or other systems or service failures could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations, due to, among other things, the loss of customer or proprietary data, interruptions or delays in our customers' businesses, or damage to our reputation. In addition, the failure or disruption of our systems, communications, vendors, or utilities could cause us to interrupt or suspend our operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. If our employees, contractors, suppliers or other authorized third parties do not adhere (whether inadvertently or intentionally) to appropriate information security protocols, our protocols are inadequate, or our or our customers' sensitive information is released and/or compromised, we may experience significant negative impacts to our reputation and expose us or our customers to liability. We are not immune from the possibility of a malicious insider compromising our information systems and infrastructure, including but not limited to insiders exfiltrating the personal data of employees and customers, stealing corporate trade secrets and key financial metrics, illegally diverting funds, or intentionally disclosing our secrets (e.g., application credentials) to others in order to bypass our security policies and control mechanisms. No series of measures can fully safeguard against every insider threat. Refer to “Item 1C. Cybersecurity” for additional information about our cybersecurity risk management program.
If our or our vendors' systems, services, or other applications have significant defects, errors, or vulnerabilities, are successfully attacked by cyber and other security threats, suffer delivery delays, or otherwise fail to meet our customers’ expectations, we may:
•lose revenue due to adverse customer reaction;
•be required to provide additional services to a customer at no charge;
•incur additional costs related to remediation, monitoring, and enhancing our cybersecurity;
•lose revenue due to the deployment of employees for remediation efforts instead of customer assignments;
•receive negative publicity, which could damage our reputation and credibility of our brand and adversely affect our ability to attract or retain customers or talent;
•be unable to successfully market services that are reliant on the creation and maintenance of secure information technology systems to U.S. government, international, and commercial customers;
•suffer claims by customers, employees, or impacted third parties for substantial damages, particularly as a result of any successful network or systems breach and exfiltration of customer and/or third-party information;
•incur significant costs, including fines from government regulators, related to complying with applicable federal or state laws, including laws pertaining to the security and protection of personal information.
In addition, we may have insufficient recourse against our vendors for costs, losses or claims we incur as a result of or reliance on their systems, services or other applications having significant defects, errors, or vulnerabilities, or which are successfully attacked by cyber and other security threats, resulting in our inability to meet our customers’ expectations. Further, in addition to any costs resulting from contract performance or required corrective action, these failures may result in increased costs or loss of revenue if they result in customers postponing subsequently scheduled work or canceling or failing to renew contracts.
The costs related to cyber or other security threats or disruptions may not be fully insured or indemnified by other means. Additionally, some cyber technologies and techniques that we utilize or develop may raise potential liabilities related to legal compliance, intellectual property, and civil liberties, including privacy concerns, which may not be fully insured or indemnified. We may not be able to obtain and maintain insurance coverage on reasonable terms or in sufficient amounts to cover one or more large claims, or the insurer may disclaim coverage as to some types of future claims. The successful assertion of any large claim against us could seriously harm our business. Even if not successful, these claims could result in significant legal and other costs, may be a distraction to our management, may harm our customer relationships, and may adversely affect our ability to attract or retain talent. In certain new business areas, we may not be able to obtain sufficient insurance and may decide not to accept or solicit business in these areas.
Implementation of and compliance with various data privacy and cybersecurity laws, regulations and standards could require significant investment into ongoing compliance activities, trigger potential liability, and limit our ability to use personal data.
Any failure by us, our vendors or other business partners to comply with international, U.S. federal, state or local laws and regulations regarding data privacy, including the protection of personal or confidential information of our customers or employees which we may handle and process, or cybersecurity could result in significant monetary damages, regulatory enforcement actions, fines, penalties, private litigation or claims, and/or criminal prosecution in one or more jurisdictions, including as a result of the perception of our practices, products, and services in relation to violations of individual privacy, data protection rights, or cybersecurity requirements. We may also incur substantial expenses in implementing and maintaining compliance with such laws and regulations, or anticipated laws and regulations, including those that require certain types of data to be retained on servers within these jurisdictions. These laws and regulations, and anticipated laws and regulations, are increasing in complexity and number, change frequently, sometimes conflict or create different requirements across jurisdictions, and are subject to interpretation by different regulators and courts, creating the possibility of different compliance measures or enforcement risks across jurisdictions, which may cause additional expenses for compliance with such laws and regulations. Our failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations may result in privacy claims or enforcement actions against us, including liabilities, fines and damage to our reputation, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
For example, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), and the United Kingdom’s GDPR impose compliance obligations on companies that process personal data of people in the European Union and United Kingdom, respectively. In the U.S., numerous federal, state, and local data privacy laws and regulations govern the collection, use, and processing of personal information, provide rights to residents of those respective states, in some cases including personal information collected from residents in the context of recruitment and employment, as well as business-to-business arrangements. Compliance with these laws, or emerging international, U.S. federal, state or local privacy laws, requires investments into compliance programs, investments to deploy, operate and maintain technology that enables compliance, potential modifications to business processes, ongoing data protection activities and documentation requirements, and creates the potential for fines, individual claims and other liabilities for noncompliance as well as litigation risks, particularly in the event of a data breach, and could have a material adverse effect on our business, including how we use personal information or our results of operations. Certain international, U.S. federal, state laws and regulations also impose obligations to maintain and implement an information security program that includes administrative, technical, physical, or organizational safeguards, as well as obligations to give notice to affected individuals and to certain regulators in the event of a data breach. We may be required to spend significant resources to comply with these information security and data breach legal requirements. A significant data breach (including various forms of external attack, such as ransomware, as well as data incidents resulting from internal actions or omissions) could have negative consequences for our business and future prospects, including possible penalties, fines, damages, reduced customer demand, legal claims against and by customers, personnel, business partners or other persons claiming to be affected, harm to our systems and operations and harm to our reputation and brand.
In addition, as a contractor supporting defense and national security customers, we are subject to certain additional regulatory compliance requirements relating to data privacy and cybersecurity. Under the DFARS and other federal regulations, our networks and IT systems are required to comply with the security and privacy controls in certain National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publications (“NIST SP”). To the extent that we do not comply with the applicable security and control requirements, unauthorized access or disclosure of sensitive information could result in a contract termination, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results and lead to reputational harm. We are also subject to the Department of Defense Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (“CMMC”), requirements, which will require all contractors to receive specific certifications relating to specified cybersecurity standards in order to be eligible for contract awards. In addition, CMMC certification requirements may be required in modifications to existing contracts. To the extent we are unable to achieve certification in advance of applicable contract awards that specify the requirement, we will be unable to bid on such contract awards or on follow-on awards for existing work with the Department of Defense, depending on the level of standard as required for each solicitation, or be ineligible to receive option awards under existing contracts that specify the certification requirement, which could adversely impact our revenue and profitability. In addition, our subcontractors, and in some cases our vendors, may also be required to adhere to the CMMC program requirements and potentially to achieve certification. Should our supply chain fail to meet compliance requirements or achieve certification, this may adversely affect our ability to receive award or execute on relevant government programs. In addition, any obligations that may be imposed on us under the CMMC may be different from or in addition to those otherwise required by applicable laws and regulations, which may cause additional expense for compliance.
We develop and utilize artificial intelligence, which could expose us to risks including potential liability as well as regulatory, competition, reputational and other risks.
We utilize artificial intelligence, including generative artificial intelligence, machine learning, and similar tools and technologies that collect, aggregate, analyze, or generate data or other materials (collectively, “AI”) in connection with our business. The development, deployment and oversight of the use of AI by us, either directly, through our suppliers, or by engaging third-party AI developers, as well as the use of AI by competitors, is expected to require us to invest substantially in AI technology resources and related governance. There are significant risks involved in using AI and no assurance can be provided that our use of AI will enhance our products or services, produce the intended results, or keep pace with the use of AI by our competitors. For example, AI algorithms may produce incomplete, insufficient, biased or otherwise flawed results or rely upon biased or inaccurate data, and any of these deficiencies may not be easily detectable despite internal policies and diligence efforts in place to mitigate such deficiencies. The degraded or flawed performance could also result from adversarial attacks that include data poisoning, malware risks, and evasion techniques. If the AI that we use produces deficient, inaccurate, or controversial results, or if public opinion of AI is adversely affected due to actual or perceived risks regarding the usage of AI, we could incur operational inefficiencies, competitive harm, legal liability, brand or reputational harm, or other adverse impacts on our business and results of operations. Further, ownership and intellectual property rights of content generated by artificial intelligence is a developing area. This presents unique complexity and challenges that could affect our business and impact our delivery of AI-driven solutions. If we, or the third-party AI developers on which we rely, do not have sufficient rights to use the data or other material relied upon by such AI technologies, we also may incur liability through the alleged violation of applicable laws and regulations, third-party intellectual property, data privacy, or other rights, or contractual obligations. Although we conduct diligence on third-party AI developers, we will not be able to control the manner in which third-party AI technologies are developed or maintained.
Legal and regulatory frameworks related to the use of AI are evolving, including due to the perceived or actual risks of bias, lack of transparency, and information security. The technologies underlying AI and its uses are subject to a variety of laws and regulations, including intellectual property, data privacy and security, consumer protection, competition, and equal opportunity laws, and may be subject to new laws and regulations or new interpretations of existing laws and regulations. AI is the subject of ongoing review by various U.S. and foreign governmental and regulatory agencies. For example, there have been significant changes in U.S. AI policy introduced by the new presidential administration, including the rescinding of the prior administration’s October 2023 executive order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence. In addition, in March 2024, the EU enacted a new regulation applicable to certain AI technologies and the data used to train, test and deploy them. The enactment or expansion of laws and regulations related to the use of AI in our operations could result in increased compliance costs related to our use of AI, while the persistence of regulatory ambiguity results in uncertainty regarding potential compliance obligations and presents challenges to longer-term strategic decision-making. Additionally, we may not always be able to anticipate how courts and regulators will apply existing laws to AI, predict how new legal frameworks will develop to address AI, or otherwise respond to these frameworks as they are still rapidly evolving. We may also have to expend resources to adjust our offerings in certain jurisdictions if the legal frameworks on AI are not consistent across jurisdictions. Furthermore, it is not possible to predict all the operational or technological risks that may arise relating to the use of AI, any of which may materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Further, we face significant competition from other companies that are developing their own AI features and technologies. Other companies may develop AI features and technologies that are similar or superior to our technologies or are more cost-effective to develop and deploy. Additionally, while AI is currently the focus of significant investment and strategic prioritization, there is a risk that if the expected value of AI does not materialize at scale, or if high-profile AI failures emerge, customers may reassess their AI plans, which could lead to reduced funding and a reduction in certain of our AI initiatives. These factors could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may fail to attract, train, and retain skilled and qualified employees, which may impair our ability to generate revenue, effectively serve our customers, and execute our growth strategy.
Our business depends in large part upon our ability to attract and retain sufficient numbers of highly qualified individuals who may have advanced degrees and/or appropriate security clearances. We compete for such qualified personnel with other U.S. government contractors, the U.S. government, and private industry, and such competition is intense. Personnel with the requisite skills, qualifications, or security clearance may be in short supply or generally unavailable. The government and industry have recognized that the current process for obtaining security clearances is time-consuming, sometimes taking years to complete, and can present a risk to customer mission. See “—We may fail to obtain and maintain necessary security clearances which may adversely affect our ability to perform on certain contracts.”
Our ability to attract and retain skilled and qualified employees may also be impacted by our engagements in, or perceived connections to, politically or socially sensitive activities. In addition, our ability to recruit, hire, and internally deploy former employees of the U.S. government is subject to complex laws and regulations, which may serve as an impediment to our ability to attract such former employees, and failure to comply with these laws and regulations may expose us and our
employees to civil or criminal penalties. Additionally, our ability to attract, hire, and retain skilled and qualified employees may be impacted by pandemics, epidemics or similar disease outbreaks.
Adverse labor and economic market conditions and intense competition for skilled personnel may inhibit our ability to recruit new employees, including any necessary actions in response to any pandemics, epidemics or similar disease outbreaks. If we are unable to recruit and retain a sufficient number of qualified employees, or cannot obtain their appropriate security clearances in a timely manner, or fail to deploy such employees, our ability to maintain and grow our business and to effectively serve our customers could be limited and our future revenue and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, to the extent that we are unable to make necessary permanent hires to appropriately serve our customers, we could be required to engage larger numbers of contracted personnel, which could reduce our profit margins.
If we are able to attract sufficient numbers of qualified new hires, training and retention costs may place significant demands on our resources. In addition, to the extent we experience attrition in our employee ranks, we may realize only a limited or no return on such invested resources, and we would have to expend additional resources to hire and train replacement employees. The loss of key personnel could also impair our ability to perform required services under some of our contracts and to retain such contracts, as well as our ability to win new business.
We may fail to obtain and maintain necessary security clearances which may adversely affect our ability to perform on certain contracts.
Many U.S. government programs require contractor employees and facilities to have security clearances. Security clearances are issued at the discretion of the U.S. government and there can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain or maintain the security clearances necessary to perform our contracts. Depending on the level of required clearance, security clearances can be difficult and time-consuming to obtain. In the current environment we are seeing delays by the U.S. government in the processing of security clearances and there have been recent examples of large numbers of security clearances being revoked by executive orders by the new presidential administration. If we or our employees are unable to obtain or retain necessary security clearances in a timely manner, or a significant number of our employees lose security clearances, we may not be able to win new business, and our existing customers could terminate their contracts with us or decide not to renew them. To the extent we are not able to obtain and maintain facility security clearances or engage employees with the required security clearances for a particular contract, we may not be able to bid on or win new contracts, effectively rebid on expiring contracts, or retain existing contracts, which may adversely affect our operating results and inhibit the execution of our growth strategy.
Our profitability could suffer if we are not able to timely and effectively utilize our employees or manage our cost structure.
The cost of providing our services, including the degree to which our employees are utilized, affects our profitability. The degree to which we are able to utilize our employees in a timely manner or at all is affected by a number of factors, including:
•our ability to transition employees from completed projects to new assignments and to hire, assimilate, and deploy new employees;
•our ability to forecast demand for our services and to maintain and deploy headcount that is aligned with demand, including employees with the right mix of skills and experience to support our projects;
•our employees’ inability to obtain or retain necessary security clearances;
•our ability to manage attrition; and
•our need to devote time and resources to training, business development, and other non-chargeable activities.
If our employees are under-utilized, our profit margin and profitability could suffer. Additionally, if our employees are over-utilized, it could have a material adverse effect on employee engagement and attrition, which would in turn have a material adverse impact on our business.
Our profitability is also affected by the extent to which we are able to effectively manage our overall cost structure for operating expenses, such as wages and benefits, overhead and capital, and other investment-related expenditures. If we are unable to effectively manage our costs and expenses and achieve efficiencies, our competitiveness and profitability may be adversely affected.
Global inflationary pressures and new or increased tariffs on certain imports have increased the prices of goods and services, which could raise the costs associated with providing our services, diminish our ability to compete for new contracts or task orders, and/or reduce customer buying power.
For a variety of reasons, including geopolitical factors, the global economy in which we operate has faced, and may continue to face, heightened inflationary pressure, impacting the cost of doing business (in both supply and labor markets). These inflationary pressures have been and could continue to be exacerbated by geopolitical turmoil and economic policy actions, including new or increased tariffs on certain imports from other countries, and the duration of such pressures is uncertain. We generate revenue through various fixed price and multi-year government contracts, our primary customer being the U.S. government, which has traditionally been viewed as less affected by inflationary pressures. However, our approach to include modest annual price escalations in our bids for multi-year work may be insufficient to counter inflationary cost pressures, which may result in significant cost overruns on each contract. In addition, new or increased tariffs could result in increased costs for hardware and other goods necessary to support business operations. This could result in reduced profits, or even losses, as inflation increases, particularly for fixed-priced contracts, and our longer-term multi-year contracts as contractual prices become less favorable to us over time. In the competitive environment in which we operate as a government contractor, the lack of pricing leverage and power to renegotiate long-term, multi-year contracts, coupled with reduced customer buying power as a result of inflation, could reduce our profits, disrupt our business, or otherwise materially adversely affect our results of operations.
Deterioration of economic conditions or weakening in credit or capital markets may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Volatile, negative, or uncertain economic conditions, an increase in the likelihood of a recession, or concerns about these or other similar risks may negatively impact our customers’ ability and willingness to fund their projects. Our customers reducing, postponing or cancelling spending on projects in respect of which we provide services may reduce demand for our services quickly and with little warning, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Moreover, instability in the credit or capital markets in the U.S., including as a result of failures of financial institutions and any related market-wide reduction in liquidity, or concerns or rumors about events of these kinds or similar risks, could affect the availability of credit, making it relatively difficult or expensive to obtain additional capital at competitive rates, on commercially reasonable terms or in sufficient amounts, or at all, thus making it more difficult or expensive for us to access funds or refinance our existing indebtedness, or obtain financing for acquisitions. Such instability could also cause counterparties, including vendors, suppliers and subcontractors, to be unable to perform their obligations, or to breach their obligations, to us under our contracts with them. In addition, instability in the credit or capital markets could negatively impact our customers’ ability to fund their project and, therefore, utilize our services, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We may lose one or more members of our senior management team or fail to develop new leaders, which could cause the disruption of the management of our business.
We believe that the future success of our business and our ability to operate profitably depends on the continued contributions of the members of our senior management and the continued development of new members of senior management. We rely on our senior management to generate business and execute programs successfully. In addition, the relationships and reputation that many members of our senior management team have established and maintain with our customers are important to our business and our ability to identify new business opportunities. The loss of any member of our senior management or our failure to continue to develop new members could impair our ability to identify and secure new contracts, to maintain good customer relations, and to otherwise manage our business.
Our employees or subcontractors may engage in misconduct or other improper activities, which could harm our ability to conduct business with the U.S. government.
We are exposed to the risk that fraud or other misconduct by employees, subcontractors, suppliers or other third parties with which we do business could occur. Misconduct by employees, subcontractors or suppliers could include intentional or unintentional failures to comply with U.S. government procurement regulations, engaging in other unauthorized activities, misusing authorized access, or falsifying time records. Misconduct could also involve the improper use or mishandling of our customers’ sensitive or classified information, or the inadvertent or intentional disclosure of our or our customers' sensitive information in violation of our contractual, statutory, or regulatory obligations, among other things. It is not always possible to deter employee, subcontractor, or supplier misconduct, and the precautions we take to prevent and detect this activity may not always be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses, which could materially harm our business. As a result of such misconduct, our employees could lose their security clearances and we could face fines and civil or criminal penalties, loss of facility clearance accreditation, and suspension, proposed debarment or debarment from bidding for or performing under contracts with the U.S. government, as well as reputational harm, which would materially and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.
We face intense competition from many competitors, which could cause us to lose business, lower prices and suffer employee departures.
Our business operates in a highly competitive industry, and we generally compete with a wide variety of U.S. government contractors, including large defense contractors, diversified service providers, and small businesses. We also face competition from entrants into our markets including companies divested by large prime contractors in response to increasing scrutiny of organizational conflicts of interest issues. There is also a significant industry trend towards consolidation, which may result in the emergence of companies that are better able to compete against us. Some of these companies possess greater financial resources and larger technical staffs, and others have smaller and more specialized staffs. These competitors could, among other things:
•make acquisitions of businesses, or establish teaming or other agreements among themselves or third parties, that allow them to offer more competitive and comprehensive solutions;
•divert sales from us by winning very large-scale government contracts, a risk that is enhanced by the recent trend in government procurement practices to bundle services into larger contracts;
•force us to charge lower prices in order to win or maintain contracts;
•seek to hire our employees; or
•adversely affect our relationships with current customers, including our ability to continue to win competitively awarded engagements where we are the incumbent.
If we lose business to our competitors or are forced to lower our prices or suffer employee departures, our revenue and our operating profits could decline. In addition, we may face competition from our subcontractors who, from time to time, seek to obtain prime contractor status on contracts for which they currently serve as a subcontractor to us. If our current subcontractors are awarded prime contractor status on such contracts in the future, it could divert sales from us and could force us to charge lower prices, which could have a material adverse effect on our revenue and profitability.
Our failure to maintain strong relationships with other contractors, or the failure of contractors with which we have entered into a sub- or prime-contractor relationship to meet their obligations to us or our customers, could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Maintaining strong relationships with other U.S. government contractors, who may also be our competitors, is important to our business and our failure to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition, and operating results. To the extent that we fail to maintain good relations with our subcontractors or other prime contractors due to either perceived or actual performance failures or other conduct, or increased regulatory scrutiny or regulations governing information sharing and related practices, they may refuse to hire us as a subcontractor in the future or to work with us as our subcontractor. In addition, other contractors may choose not to use us as a subcontractor or choose not to perform work for us as a subcontractor for any number of additional reasons, including because they choose to establish relationships with our competitors or because they choose to directly offer services that compete with our business.
As a prime contractor, we often rely on other companies to perform some of the work under a contract, and we expect to continue to depend on relationships with other contractors for portions of our delivery of services and revenue in the foreseeable future. If our subcontractors fail to perform their contractual obligations, our operating results and future growth prospects could be impaired. There is a risk that we may have disputes with our subcontractors arising from, among other things, the quality and timeliness of work performed by the subcontractor, customer concerns about the subcontractor, our failure to extend existing task orders or issue new task orders under a subcontract, or our hiring of a subcontractor’s personnel. In addition, if any of our subcontractors fail to deliver the agreed-upon supplies or perform the agreed-upon services on a timely basis, our ability to fulfill our obligations as a prime contractor may be jeopardized. Material losses could arise in future periods and subcontractor performance deficiencies could result in a customer terminating a contract for default. A termination for default could expose us to liability and have an adverse effect on our ability to compete for future contracts and orders.
As a subcontractor, we often lack control over fulfillment of a contract, and poor performance on the contract could tarnish our reputation, even when we perform as required, and could cause other contractors to choose not to hire us as a subcontractor in the future. If the U.S. government terminates or reduces other prime contractors’ programs or does not award them new contracts, subcontracting opportunities available to us could decrease, which would have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, as a subcontractor, we may be unable to collect payments owed to us by the prime contractor, even if we have performed our obligations under the contract, as a result of, among other things, the prime contractor’s inability to fulfill the contract. Due to certain common provisions in subcontracts in certain countries, we could also experience delays in receiving payment if the prime contractor experiences payment delays, which could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
A delay in the completion of the U.S. government’s budget process, including as a result of a failure to raise the debt ceiling, could result in a reduction in our backlog and have a material adverse effect on our revenue and operating results.
On March 15, 2025, the President signed into law the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, which funds the U.S. government under a continuing resolution through September 30, 2025, its fiscal year end. To the extent the U.S. Congress is unable to approve the annual federal budget before the expiration of this continuing resolution, funding for new projects may not be available and funding on contracts we are already performing may be delayed. If Congressional efforts to approve such funding fail, and Congress is unable to craft a long-term agreement on the U.S. government’s ability to incur indebtedness in excess of its current limits, the U.S. government may not be able to fulfill its current funding obligations and there could be significant disruption to all discretionary programs, which would have corresponding impacts on us and our industry. Any such delays would likely result in new business initiatives being delayed or canceled and a reduction in our backlog, and could have a material adverse effect on our revenue and operating results.
In addition, a failure to complete the budget process and fund government operations pursuant to a continuing resolution may result in a U.S. government shutdown, which could result in us incurring substantial costs without reimbursement under our contracts. The delay or cancellation of key programs or the delay of contract payments may have a material adverse effect on our revenue and operating results. In addition, when supplemental appropriations are required to operate the U.S. government or fund specific programs and the passage of legislation needed to approve any supplemental appropriation bill is delayed, the overall funding environment for our business could be adversely affected.
We face certain significant risk exposures and potential liabilities that may not be adequately covered by indemnity or insurance.
A significant portion of our business relates to designing, developing, and implementing advanced defense and technology systems and products, including cybersecurity products and services. New technologies may be untested or unproven, and insurance may not be available. We maintain insurance policies that mitigate against risk and potential liabilities related to our operations, including data breaches. This insurance is maintained in amounts that we believe are reasonable. However, our insurance coverage may not be adequate to cover those claims or liabilities, and we may be forced to bear significant costs from an accident or incident. The amount of the insurance coverage we maintain or indemnification to which we may be contractually or otherwise entitled may not be adequate to cover all claims or liabilities. Accordingly, we may be forced to bear substantial costs resulting from risks and uncertainties of our business which would negatively impact our results of operations, financial condition, or liquidity.
Failure to adequately protect, maintain, or enforce our rights in our intellectual property may adversely limit our competitive position.
We rely upon a combination of nondisclosure agreements, licenses, and other contractual arrangements, as well as employment, copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret laws to protect our proprietary information. We also enter into proprietary information and intellectual property agreements with employees, which require them to disclose any inventions created prior to and during employment. Inventions created during employment require inventors to convey such rights to inventions to us, and to restrict any disclosure of proprietary information. Trade secrets are generally difficult to protect. Although our employees are subject to confidentiality obligations, this protection may be inadequate to deter or prevent misappropriation of our confidential information and/or the infringement of our trade secrets, trademarks, patents, and copyrights. Further, we may be unable to detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property or otherwise take appropriate steps to enforce our rights. Failure to adequately protect, maintain, or enforce our intellectual property rights may adversely limit our competitive position. We will also need to continue to respond to and anticipate changes resulting from disruptive technologies, including from AI. If we are not successful in protecting and preserving our intellectual property rights and licenses, including trade secrets, or in staying ahead of developing AI technologies and strategically incorporating them into our business, our business and financial performance could be materially and adversely affected.
Assertions by third parties of infringement, misappropriation or other violations by us of their intellectual property rights could result in significant costs and substantially harm our business and operating results.
In recent years, there has been significant litigation involving intellectual property rights in technology industries. We may face from time to time, allegations that we or a supplier or customer have violated the rights of third parties, including patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, and other intellectual property rights. If, with respect to any claim against us for violation of third-party intellectual property rights, we are unable to prevail in the litigation or retain or obtain sufficient rights or develop non-infringing intellectual property or otherwise alter our business practices on a timely or cost-efficient basis, our business and competitive position may be adversely affected.
Any infringement, misappropriation, or related claims, whether or not meritorious, are time consuming, divert technical and management personnel, and are costly to resolve. As a result of any such dispute, we may have to develop non-infringing technology, pay damages, enter into royalty or licensing agreements, cease utilizing certain products or services, or take other actions to resolve the claims. These actions, if required, may be costly or unavailable on terms acceptable to us.
Our focus on new growth areas for our business entails risks, including those associated with new relationships, customers, talent needs, capabilities, service offerings, and maintaining our collaborative culture and core values.
We are focused on growing our presence in our addressable markets by: expanding our relationships with existing customers, acquiring new customers by leveraging our core competencies, further developing our existing capabilities and service offerings, creating new capabilities and service offerings to address our customers' emerging needs, and undertaking business development efforts focused on identifying near-term developments and long-term trends that may pose significant challenges for our customers. These efforts entail inherent risks associated with innovation and competition from other participants in those areas, potential failure to help our customers respond to the challenges they face, our ability to comply with uncertain evolving legal standards applicable to certain service offerings, including those in the cybersecurity area, and, with respect to potential international growth, risks associated with operating in foreign jurisdictions, such as compliance with applicable foreign and U.S. laws and regulations that may impose different and, occasionally, conflicting or contradictory requirements, and the economic, legal, and political conditions in the foreign jurisdictions in which we operate, including the GDPR. See “—Implementation of and compliance with various data privacy and cybersecurity laws, regulations and standards could require significant investment into ongoing compliance activities, trigger potential liability, and limit our ability to use personal data.” As we attempt to develop new relationships, customers, capabilities, and service offerings, these efforts could harm our results of operations due to, among other things, a diversion of our focus and resources and actual costs, opportunity costs of pursuing these opportunities in lieu of others and a failure to reach a profitable return on our investments in new technologies, capabilities, and businesses, including expenses on research and development investments, and these efforts could ultimately be unsuccessful.
The needs of our customers change and evolve regularly due to complex and rapidly changing technologies. Our success depends upon our ability to identify emerging technological trends; develop technologically advanced, innovative, and cost-effective products and services; and market these products and services to our customers. Our success also depends on our continued access to suppliers of important technologies and components. The possibility exists that our competitors might develop new capabilities or service offerings that might cause our existing capabilities and service offerings to become obsolete. If we fail in our new capabilities development efforts or our capabilities or services fail to achieve market acceptance more rapidly than our competitors, our ability to procure new contracts could be negatively impacted, which would negatively impact our results of operations and financial condition.
Our ability to grow our business by leveraging our operating model to efficiently and effectively deploy our people across our customer base is also largely dependent on our ability to maintain our collaborative culture. To the extent that we are unable to maintain our culture for any reason, including our effort to focus on new growth areas or acquire new businesses with different corporate cultures, we may be unable to grow our business. Any such failure could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
In addition, with the growth of our U.S. and international operations, we are providing customer services and undertaking business development efforts in numerous and disparate geographic locations both domestically and in select international locations. Our ability to effectively serve our customers is dependent upon our ability to successfully leverage our operating model across all of these and any future locations, maintain effective management controls over all of our locations to ensure, among other things, compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations, and instill our core values in all of our personnel at each of these and any future locations. Any inability to ensure any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Changes to our operating structure, capabilities, or strategy intended to address our customers’ needs, respond to developments in our markets, and grow our business may not be successful.
We routinely review our operating structure, capabilities and strategy to determine whether we are effectively meeting the needs of customers, effectively responding to developments in our markets and successfully building platforms intended to provide the foundation to support the future growth of our business. The outcome of any such review is difficult to predict and the extent of changes to our business following such a review, if any, are dependent in part upon the nature and extent of the review.
The implementation of changes to our operating structure, capabilities, strategy or any other aspect of our business following an internal review, may materially alter various aspects of our business or our business model as an entirety and there can be no assurance that any such changes will be successful or that they will not ultimately have a negative effect on our business and results of operations.
Many of our contracts with the U.S. government are classified or subject to other security restrictions, which may limit insight into portions of our business.
We derive a substantial portion of our revenue from contracts with the U.S. government that are classified or subject to security restrictions that preclude the dissemination of certain information. In general, access to classified information, technology, facilities, or programs requires appropriate personnel security clearances, is subject to additional contract oversight and potential liability, and may also require appropriate facility clearances and other specialized infrastructure. A significant number of our employees have security clearances which preclude them from providing information regarding certain customers and services provided to such customers to other employees (or members of our board of directors) without security clearances and investors. Because we are limited in our ability to provide information about these contracts and services, the various risks associated with these contracts or services or any dispute or claims relating to such contracts or services, important information concerning our business may not be available, which may limit insight into a substantial portion of our business and reduce the ability to fully evaluate the risks related to that portion of our business.
If we cannot collect our receivables or if payment is delayed, our business may be adversely affected by our inability to generate cash flow, provide working capital, or continue our business operations.
We depend on the timely collection of our receivables to generate cash flow, provide working capital, and continue our business operations. If the U.S. or any other government or any prime contractor for whom we are a subcontractor fails to pay or delays the payment of invoices for any reason, our business and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected. The U.S. or any other government may delay or fail to pay invoices for a number of reasons, including lack of appropriated funds, lack of an approved budget, lack of revised or final settled billing rates as a result of open audit years or as a result of audit findings by government regulatory agencies. Some prime contractors for whom we are a subcontractor have significantly fewer financial resources than we do, which may increase the risk that we may not be paid in full or that payment may be delayed. In recent months, we have experienced, and may continue to experience, delays in the payment of invoices by our U.S. government customers. Should such delays become significant, there may be a material and adverse affect to our business.
We may consummate acquisitions, investments, joint ventures and divestitures, which involve numerous risks and uncertainties.
As part of our operating strategy, we continually monitor U.S. government spending and budgetary priorities to align our investments in new capabilities to drive organic growth, and selectively pursue acquisitions, investments, partnerships, and joint ventures that broaden our domain expertise and service offerings, and/or establish relationships with new customers. These transactions pose many risks, including:
•we may not be able to identify suitable acquisition and investment candidates at prices we consider attractive;
•as a result of continued uncertainties in economic conditions and U.S. government spending (generally and/or specific agencies) and mission priorities, acquisition and investment candidates may choose to delay entering into acquisition or investment transactions;
•we may not be able to compete successfully for identified acquisition and investment candidates, complete acquisitions and investments on intended terms and timeline (including, without limitation, by failing to obtain required regulatory or other approvals or the benefit of safe harbors in a timely manner, or required financing on acceptable terms), or accurately estimate the financial effect of acquisitions and investments on our business;
•as a result of increased scrutiny by antitrust authorities and anticipated changes to mandatory filing requirements, we may announce acquisition or investment transactions that require significant time and resources to complete, are challenged by such authorities or are ultimately not fully completed due to a failure to obtain antitrust or other related regulatory approvals;
•future acquisitions and investments may require us to issue common stock, incur additional debt, or spend significant cash, resulting in dilution of ownership or additional debt leverage;
•we may have difficulty retaining an acquired company’s key employees or customers;
•we may have difficulty integrating personnel from the acquired company with our people, our culture of integrity, and our core values;
•we may have difficulty integrating acquired businesses and investments, resulting in diminished strategic value of a potential transaction and unforeseen difficulties, such as incompatible accounting, information management, or other control systems, and greater expenses than expected;
•we may assume legal or regulatory risks, particularly with respect to smaller businesses that have immature business processes and compliance programs, which may be required to comply with additional laws and regulations or to engage in remediation efforts to cause the acquired company to comply with applicable laws and regulations, and such risks may result in liabilities resulting from the acquired company’s failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations;
•acquisitions and investments may disrupt our business or distract our management from other responsibilities;
•as a result of an acquisition or investment, we may incur additional debt and we may need to record write-downs from future impairments of intangible assets, each of which could reduce our future reported earnings;
•we may not be able to effectively influence the operations of our minority investments, joint ventures or partnerships, or we may be exposed to certain liabilities if our partners do not fulfill their obligations; and
•as a result of an acquisition or investment, we may be targeted by additional cybersecurity threat actors or experience a cyber incident due to the security posture of the entity or its suppliers.
In addition, in connection with any acquisition or investment that we make, there may be liabilities that we fail to discover or that we inadequately assess, and we may fail to discover any failure of a target company to comply with applicable laws or regulations, or to have fulfilled its contractual obligations to the U.S. government or other customers. Acquired entities and investments may not operate profitably or result in improved operating performance. Additionally, we may not realize anticipated synergies, business growth opportunities, cost savings, and other benefits, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
In addition, we may divest businesses, including businesses that are no longer a part of our ongoing strategic plan. These divestitures similarly require significant investment of time and resources, may disrupt our business, distract management from other responsibilities and may result in losses on disposal or continued financial involvement in the divested business, including through indemnification, guarantees or other financial arrangements, which could adversely affect our financial results. In addition, we may be unable to complete strategic divestitures on satisfactory terms and conditions, including non-competition arrangements, within expected time frames or due to a failure of a prospective purchaser to obtain financing or a failure to obtain antitrust or other related regulatory approvals.
Goodwill represents a significant asset on our balance sheet, and changes in future business conditions could cause these investments to become impaired, requiring substantial write-downs that would reduce our operating income.
As of March 31, 2025, the value of our goodwill was $2.4 billion. The amount of our recorded goodwill may substantially increase in the future as a result of any acquisitions that we make. We evaluate the recoverability of recorded goodwill amounts annually, or when evidence of potential impairment exists. Impairment analysis is based on several factors requiring judgment and the use of estimates, which are inherently uncertain and based on assumptions that may prove to be inaccurate. Additionally, material changes in our financial outlook, as well as events outside of our control, such as deteriorating market conditions for companies in our industry, may indicate a potential impairment. When there is an impairment, we are required to write down the recorded amount of goodwill, which is reflected as a charge against operating income. Such non-cash impairment charges could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations in the period in which they are recognized.
Legal and Regulatory Risks
We are required to comply with numerous laws and regulations, some of which are highly complex, and our failure to comply could result in fines or civil or criminal penalties or suspension or debarment by the U.S. government that could result in our inability to continue to work on or receive U.S. government contracts, which could materially and adversely affect our results of operations.
As a U.S. government contractor, we must comply with laws and regulations relating to the formation, administration, and performance of U.S. government contracts, which affect how we do business with our customers. Such laws and regulations may potentially impose added costs on our business and our failure to comply with them may lead to civil or criminal penalties, termination of our U.S. government contracts, and/or suspension or debarment from contracting with federal agencies. Some significant laws and regulations that affect us include:
•the FAR, and agency regulations supplemental to the FAR, which regulate the formation, administration, and performance of U.S. government contracts. For example, the FAR 52.203-13 requires contractors to establish a Code of Business Ethics and Conduct, implement a comprehensive internal control system, and report to the government when the contractor has credible evidence that a principal, employee, agent, or subcontractor, in connection with a government contract, has violated certain federal criminal laws, violated the civil False Claims Act, or has received a significant overpayment;
•the False Claims Act, which imposes civil and criminal liability for violations, including substantial monetary penalties, for, among other things, presenting false or fraudulent claims for payments or approval;
•the False Statements Act, which imposes civil and criminal liability for making false statements to the U.S. government;
•the Truthful Cost or Pricing Data Statute (formerly known as the Truth in Negotiations Act), which requires certification and disclosure of cost and pricing data in connection with the negotiation of certain contracts, modifications, or task orders;
•the Procurement Integrity Act, which regulates access to competitor bid and proposal information and certain internal government procurement sensitive information, and our ability to provide compensation to certain former government procurement officials;
•laws and regulations restricting the ability of a contractor to provide gifts or gratuities to employees of the U.S. government;
•post-government employment laws and regulations, which restrict the ability of a contractor to recruit and hire current employees of the U.S. government and deploy former employees of the U.S. government;
•laws, regulations, contract requirements and executive orders, including those related to cybersecurity, restricting the handling, use and dissemination of information classified for national security purposes or determined to be “controlled unclassified information” or “for official use only” and the export of certain products, services, and technical data, including requirements regarding any applicable licensing of our employees involved in such work;
•laws, regulations, and executive orders regulating the handling, use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information in the course of performing a U.S. government contract, performing work for our commercial customers or running the business;
•international trade compliance laws, regulations and executive orders that prohibit business with certain sanctioned entities and require authorization for certain exports or imports in order to protect national security and global stability;
•laws, regulations, and executive orders governing organizational conflicts of interest that may restrict our ability to compete for certain U.S. government contracts because of the work that we currently perform for the U.S. government or may require that we take measures such as firewalling off certain employees or restricting their future work activities due to the current work that they perform under a U.S. government contract;
•laws, regulations and executive orders that impose requirements on us to ensure compliance with requirements and protect the government from risks related to our supply chain;
•laws, regulations and mandatory contract provisions providing protections to employees or subcontractors seeking to report alleged fraud, waste, and abuse related to a government contract;
•the Contractor Business Systems rule, which authorizes Department of Defense agencies to withhold a portion of our payments if we are determined to have a significant deficiency in our accounting, cost estimating, purchasing, earned value management, material management and accounting, and/or property management system; and
•the FAR Cost Accounting Standards and Cost Principles, which impose accounting and allowability requirements that govern our right to reimbursement under certain cost-based U.S. government contracts and require consistency of accounting practices over time.
In addition, considerable uncertainty exists regarding potential legal and regulatory changes from the recent U.S. administration transition. The U.S. government, U.S. states and other jurisdictions in which we do business may adopt new laws, rules, and regulations from time to time that could have a material impact on our results of operations. Adverse developments in legal or regulatory proceedings on matters relating to, among other things, cost accounting practices and compliance, contract interpretations and statutes of limitations, could also result in materially adverse judgments, settlements, withheld payments, penalties, or other unfavorable outcomes.
Our performance under our U.S. government contracts and our compliance with the terms of those contracts and applicable laws and regulations are subject to periodic audit, review, and investigation by various agencies of the U.S. government and the current environment has led to increased regulatory scrutiny and sanctions for non-compliance by such agencies generally. In addition, from time to time we report potential or actual violations of applicable laws and regulations to the relevant governmental authority. Any such report of a potential or actual violation of applicable laws or regulations could lead to an audit, review, or investigation by the relevant agencies of the U.S. government. If such an audit, review, or investigation uncovers a violation of a law or regulation, or improper or illegal activities relating to our U.S. government contracts, we may be subject to civil or criminal penalties or administrative sanctions, including the termination of contracts, forfeiture of profits, triggering of price reduction clauses, withholding or suspension of payments, fines and suspension, or debarment from contracting with U.S. government agencies. Such penalties and sanctions are not uncommon in the industry and there is inherent uncertainty as to the outcome of any particular audit, review, or investigation. If we incur a material penalty or administrative sanction or otherwise suffer harm to our reputation, our profitability, cash position, and future prospects could be materially and adversely affected.
Further, if the U.S. government were to initiate suspension or debarment proceedings against us or if we are indicted for or convicted of illegal activities relating to our U.S. government contracts following an audit, review, or investigation, we may lose our ability to be awarded contracts in the future or receive renewals of existing contracts for a period of time which could materially and adversely affect our results of operations or financial condition. We could also suffer harm to our reputation if allegations of impropriety were made against us, which would impair our ability to win awards of contracts in the future or receive renewals of existing contracts. See “Item 1. Business — Regulation.”
Adverse judgments or settlements in legal disputes could result in materially adverse monetary damages or injunctive relief and damage our reputation.
We are subject to, and may become a party to, a variety of litigation or other claims and suits that arise from time to time in the ordinary course of our business. For example, our performance under U.S. government contracts and compliance with the terms of those contracts and applicable laws and regulations are subject to continuous audit, review, and investigation by the U.S. government which may include such investigative techniques as subpoenas or civil investigative demands. Given the nature of our business, these audits, reviews, and investigations may focus, among other areas, on various aspects of procurement integrity, labor time reporting, sensitive and/or classified information access and control, executive compensation, and post government employment restrictions. In addition, from time to time, we are also involved in legal proceedings and investigations arising in the ordinary course of business, including those relating to employment matters (such as matters involving alleged violations of civil rights, wage and hour, and worker’s compensation laws), relationships with customers and contractors, intellectual property disputes, and other business matters. Any such claims, proceedings or investigations may be time-consuming, costly, divert management resources, or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our result of operations.
The results of litigation and other legal proceedings, including the other claims described under “Item 3. Legal Proceedings,” are inherently uncertain and adverse judgments or settlements in some or all of these legal disputes may result in materially adverse monetary damages or injunctive relief against us. Any claims or litigation, even if fully indemnified or insured, could damage our reputation and make it more difficult to compete effectively or obtain adequate insurance coverage in the future. The litigation and other legal proceedings described under “Item 3. Legal Proceedings” are subject to future developments and management’s view of these matters may change in the future.
We cannot predict the consequences of future geopolitical events, but they may adversely affect the markets in which we operate and our results of operations.
Ongoing instability and current conflicts in global markets, including in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and the potential for other conflicts and future terrorist activities and other recent geopolitical events throughout the world, including the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, increased tensions in Asia, and trade tensions related to recent shifts in international trade policies, have created and may continue to create economic and political uncertainties and impacts that could have a material adverse effect on our business, operations and profitability. These types of matters cause uncertainty in financial markets and may significantly increase the political, economic and social instability in the geographic areas in which we operate.
In addition, in connection with the current status of international relations with Russia, particularly in light of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the U.S. government has imposed enhanced export controls on certain products and sanctions on certain industry sectors and parties in Russia. The U.S. government has imposed tariffs, and may impose new or increased tariffs, on certain imports from other countries. The governments of other jurisdictions in which we operate, such as the European Union and Canada, may also implement sanctions or other restrictive measures. These potential sanctions, tariffs, and export controls could adversely affect the Company and/or our supply chain, business partners, or customers.
We are subject to risks associated with operating internationally.
We have operations in select international locations and, therefore, our business operations are subject to a variety of risks associated with conducting business internationally, including:
•Changes in or interpretations of laws or policies that may adversely affect the performance of our services;
•Political instability in foreign countries and international security concerns, such as those relating to the geopolitical conflict, including the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, and increased tensions in Asia, as well as trade tensions related to recent shifts in international trade policies, and potential actions or retaliatory measures taken in respect thereof;
•Imposition of inconsistent or conflicting laws or regulations;
•Reliance on the U.S. or other governments to authorize us to export products, technology, and services to customers and other business partners;
•Reliance on foreign countries for critical parts in order to meet our technical delivery requirements;
•Conducting business in places where laws, business practices, and customs are unfamiliar or unknown;
•Failure to comply with U.S. government and foreign laws and regulations applicable to international business, sanctions, employment, privacy, data protection, information security, or data transfer could have an adverse impact on our business with the U.S. government and could expose us to risks and costs of non-compliance with such laws and regulations, in addition to administrative, civil, or criminal penalties;
•Failure by third parties that we work with, including suppliers, subcontractors, and vendors, to comply with U.S. government and foreign laws and regulations applicable to international business, sanctions, employment, privacy, data protection, information security, or data transfer could expose Booz Allen to risks and costs of non-compliance with such laws and regulations, in addition to administrative, civil, or criminal penalties;
•U.S. and foreign government import and export control requirements and regulations, including International Traffic in Arms Regulations and the anti-boycott provisions of the U.S. Export Administration Act, technology transfer restrictions and other administrative, legislative, or regulatory actions that could materially interfere with our ability to offer our products or services in certain countries;
•Imposition of limitations on or increase of withholding and other taxes on payments by foreign subsidiaries or joint ventures;
•Changes in state and federal regulations in state money transmission regulations, anti-money laundering regulations, economic and trade sanctions administered by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control;
•Imposition of tariffs or embargoes, export controls, and other trade restrictions; and
•Financial and operational implications associated with potential commercial customer data sovereignty requirements that require hosting data and systems locally.
In addition, we are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the “FCPA”) and other laws that prohibit improper payments or offers of payments to foreign government officials, political parties and commercial entities for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. We have operations and deal with governmental customers and regulators in countries known to create heightened corruption risk, including certain developing countries. Our activities in these countries create the risk of unauthorized payments or offers of payments by one of our employees or third parties that we work with that could implicate Booz Allen for violations of various laws including the FCPA and other anti-corruption laws. Our operations in select international locations also involve activities involving the transmittal of information, which may include personal data, which may expose us to data privacy laws in the jurisdictions in which we operate. If our data protection practices become subject to new or different restrictions, and to the extent such practices are not compliant with the laws of the countries in which we process data, we could face increased compliance expenses and face penalties for violating such laws or be excluded from those markets altogether, in which case our operations could be adversely affected. We are also subject to import-export control regulations restricting the use and dissemination of information classified for national security purposes and the export of certain products, services, and technical data, including requirements regarding any applicable licensing of our employees involved in such work. We are also subject to applicable sanctions laws, regulations, embargoes, or restrictive measures intended to prevent unauthorized transactions with prohibited persons, entities, and countries, including, those administered and enforced by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation in the UK, and the competent authorities responsible for the administration and enforcement of Sanctions in individual EU Member States.
If we were to fail to comply with the FCPA, other applicable anti-corruption laws, import-export control regulations, sanctions, data privacy laws, or other rules and regulations, we could be subject to substantial civil and criminal penalties, including fines for our Company and incarceration for responsible employees and managers, suspension or debarment, and the possible loss of export or import privileges which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Efforts by the U.S. government to revise its organizational conflict of interest rules could limit our ability to successfully compete for new contracts or task orders, which would adversely affect our results of operations.
Efforts by the U.S. government to reform its procurement practices have focused on, among other areas, the separation of certain types of work to facilitate objectivity and avoid or mitigate organizational conflicts of interest and the strengthening of regulations governing organizational conflicts of interest. Organizational conflicts of interest may arise from circumstances in which a contractor has:
•impaired objectivity during performance;
•unfair access to non-public information; or
•the ability to set the “ground rules” for another procurement for which the contractor competes.
A focus on organizational conflicts of interest issues has resulted in legislation and a proposed regulation aimed at increasing organizational conflicts of interest requirements, including, among other things, separating sellers of products and providers of advisory services in major defense acquisition programs. Recently, U.S. government agencies have issued proposed regulations, which provide for and update definitions of each of the above types of conflicts of interest and provide illustrative examples of various relationships that contractors could have that would give rise to potential conflicts of interest. The resulting rule making process, as well as continuing reform initiatives in procurement practices may however result in future amendments to the FAR, increasing the restrictions in current organizational conflicts of interest regulations and rules. Similarly, organizational conflicts of interest remain an active area of bid protest litigation, increasing the likelihood that competitors may leverage such arguments in an attempt to overturn agency award decisions. To the extent that proposed and future organizational conflicts of interest laws, regulations, and rules or interpretations thereof limit our ability to successfully compete for new contracts or task orders with the U.S. government, either because of organizational conflicts of interest issues arising from our business, or because companies with which we are affiliated, or with which we otherwise conduct business, create organizational conflicts of interest issues for us, our results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
Changes in tax law or judgments by management related to complex tax matters could adversely impact our results of operations.
We are subject to taxation in the U.S. and certain other foreign jurisdictions. Any future changes in applicable federal, state and local, or foreign tax laws and regulations or their interpretation or application, including those that could have a retroactive effect, could result in the Company incurring additional tax liabilities in the future. In particular, effective starting in fiscal year 2023, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act requires the capitalization of research and development costs for tax purposes, which can then be amortized over five or fifteen years. We generally expect to amortize these costs over five years. While the most significant impact of this provision was to cash tax liability for fiscal year 2023, the tax year in which the provision took effect, the impact is expected to decline annually over the five-year amortization period to an immaterial amount in the sixth year. The actual impact will depend on a number of factors, including the amount of research and development costs incurred by the Company, whether Congress modifies or repeals the provision requiring such capitalization, and whether new guidance and interpretive rules are issued by the U.S. Treasury, among other factors. For additional information, see “Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”.
Additionally, we recognize liabilities for uncertainty in income taxes when it is more likely than not that a tax position will not be sustained on examination and settlement with various taxing authorities. We regularly assess the adequacy of our uncertain tax positions and other reserves, which requires a significant amount of judgment. Although we accrue for uncertain tax positions and other reserves, the results of regulatory audits and negotiations with taxing and customs authorities may be in excess of our accruals, resulting in the payment of additional taxes, duties, penalties and interest. As a result, any final determination of tax audits or related litigation may be materially different than our current provisional amounts, which could materially affect our tax obligations and effective tax rate. For example, during fiscal year 2025, we recorded additional uncertain tax positions related to research and development credits that we have claimed, or will soon claim. Any increase to the liability we established as of March 31, 2025 for these uncertain tax positions as a result of audits by taxing authorities, changes in tax laws and regulations or otherwise relating to this, or any other, tax matter could have a material effect on our results of operations. For a description of our related accounting policies, refer to Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” and Note 13, “Income Taxes,” to the consolidated financial statements.
Our U.S. government contracts may be terminated by the government at any time and may contain other provisions permitting the government to discontinue contract performance, and if lost contracts are not replaced, our operating results may differ materially and adversely from those anticipated.
U.S. government contracts contain provisions and are subject to laws and regulations that provide government customers with rights and remedies not typically found in commercial contracts. These rights and remedies allow government customers, among other things, to:
•terminate existing contracts, with short notice, for convenience as well as for default;
•reduce orders under or otherwise modify contracts;
•for contracts subject to the Truthful Cost or Pricing Data Statute, reduce the contract price or cost where it was increased because a contractor or subcontractor furnished cost or pricing data during negotiations that was not complete, accurate or current;
•for some contracts, (i) demand a refund, make a forward price adjustment, or terminate a contract for default if a contractor provided inaccurate or incomplete data during the contract negotiation process and (ii) reduce the contract price under certain triggering circumstances, including the revision of price lists or other documents upon which the contract award was predicated;
•terminate our facility security clearances and thereby prevent us from receiving classified contracts;
•cancel multi-year contracts and related orders if funds for contract performance for any subsequent year become unavailable;
•decline to exercise an option to renew a multi-year contract or issue task orders in connection with IDIQ contracts;
•claim rights in solutions, systems, and technology produced by us, appropriate such work-product for their continued use without continuing to contract for our services and disclose such work-product to third parties, including other U.S. government agencies and our competitors, which could harm our competitive position;
•prohibit future procurement awards with a particular agency due to a finding of organizational conflicts of interest based upon prior related work performed for the agency that would give a contractor an unfair advantage over competing contractors, or the existence of conflicting roles that might bias a contractor’s judgment;
•subject the award of contracts to protest by competitors, which may require the contracting federal agency or department to suspend our performance pending the outcome of the protest and may also result in a requirement to resubmit offers for the contract or in the termination, reduction, or modification of the awarded contract;
•suspend or debar us from doing business with the U.S. government; and
•control or prohibit the export of our services.
In connection with recent efforts by the U.S. government to reduce federal spending across federal civilian, defense, and intelligence departments and agencies, we have had, and may in the future have, certain of our contracts impacted, reduced or canceled as a result of these reviews. See “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Factors and Trends Affecting Our Results of Operations—U.S Political, Budget and Regulatory Environment” for additional disclosure regarding our business environment. If a U.S. government customer were to unexpectedly terminate, cancel, or decline to exercise an option to renew with respect to one or more of our significant contracts, or suspend or debar us from doing business with the U.S. government, we could face reputational harm and our revenue and operating results would be materially harmed.
Our work with government customers exposes us to additional risks inherent in the government contracting environment, which could reduce our revenue, disrupt our business, or otherwise materially adversely affect our results of operations.
U.S. government contractors (including their subcontractors and others with whom they do business) operate in a highly regulated environment and are routinely audited and reviewed by the U.S. government and its agencies, including the DCAA, DCMA, Department of Defense Inspector General, and others. These agencies review our performance on contracts, pricing practices, cost accounting practices, and compliance with applicable policies, laws, regulations, and standards, including applicable government cost accounting standards, as well as our contract costs, including allocated indirect costs. The DCAA audits and the DCMA reviews, among other areas, the adequacy of our internal control systems and policies, including our DFARS required business systems, which are comprised of our purchasing, property, estimating, earned value, accounting and material management and accounting systems. These internal control systems could focus on significant elements of costs, such as executive compensation. Determination of a significant internal control deficiency by a government agency could result in increased payment withholding that might adversely affect our cash flow. In particular, over time the DCMA has increased and may continue to increase the proportion of executive compensation that it deems unallowable and the size of the executive population whose compensation is disallowed, which will continue to materially and adversely affect our results of operations or financial condition including the requirement to carry an increased level of reserves. We recognize as revenue, net of reserves, executive compensation that we determine, based on management's estimates, to be allowable; management's estimates in this regard are based on a number of factors that may change over time, including executive compensation survey data, our and other government contractors' experiences with the DCAA audit practices in our industry, and relevant decisions of courts and boards of contract appeals. Any costs found to be unallowable under a contract will not be reimbursed, and any such costs already reimbursed must be refunded. Further, the amount of any such refund may exceed the provision for claimed costs, which is based on management's estimates and assumptions that are inherently uncertain and may not cover actual losses. For example, DCAA audits may result in, and have historically resulted in, the Company's inability to retain certain claimed costs, including executive and employee compensation, due to differing views of the allowability and reasonableness of such costs. As of March 31, 2025, years subsequent to the Company's fiscal year 2011 remained subject to audit and/or final resolution. As of March 31, 2025, the Company recognized a liability of $245 million for estimated adjustments to claimed costs based on its historical DCAA audit results, including the final resolution of such audits with the DCMA. Determining the provision for claimed costs is complex and subject to management's estimate of adjustments to claimed costs based on the number of years that remain open to audit and expected final resolution by U.S. government agencies. As a result, significant changes in estimates could have a material effect on the Company's results of operations. Furthermore, the disallowance of any costs previously charged could directly and negatively affect our current results of operations for the relevant prior fiscal periods, and we could be required to repay any such disallowed amounts. Each of these results could materially and adversely affect our results of operations or financial condition.
Moreover, if any of the administrative processes and business systems, some of which are currently certified as effective, are found not to comply with government imposed requirements, we may be subjected to increased government scrutiny and approval that could delay or otherwise adversely affect our ability to compete for or perform contracts or to be paid timely. Unfavorable U.S. government audit, review, or investigation results could subject us to civil or criminal penalties or administrative sanctions, require us to retroactively and prospectively adjust previously agreed to billing or pricing rates for our work, and could harm our reputation and relationships with our customers and impair our ability to be awarded new contracts, which could affect our future sales and profitability by preventing us, by operation of law or in practice, from receiving new government contracts for some period of time. In addition, if our invoicing system were found to be inadequate following an audit by the DCAA, our ability to directly invoice U.S. government payment offices could be eliminated. As a result, we would be required to submit each invoice to the DCAA for approval prior to payment, which could materially increase our accounts receivable days sales outstanding and adversely affect our cash flow. In addition, proposed regulatory changes, if adopted, would require the Department of Defense’s contracting officers to impose contractual withholding at no less than certain minimum levels based on assessments of a contractor’s business systems. If a government investigation uncovers improper or illegal activities, we may be subject to civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including termination of contracts, forfeitures of profits, withholding of payments, suspension of payments, fines, and suspension or debarment from doing business with the U.S. government. We could also suffer serious reputational harm if allegations of impropriety were made against us.
In addition, operation of our financial management systems, including changes to modernize and upgrade those systems, and certain changes to our cost accounting practices that we have adopted may negatively impact our profitability. In particular, the changes to our cost accounting practices required us to estimate changes in costs for certain contracts and make payments in connection with such estimates. The changes are subject to audit by the DCAA and negotiation with the DCMA, which could result in additional payments that may be material and not recoverable. To the extent we are unable to fully mitigate the costs associated with changes to our cost accounting practices as we implement the new systems, our business and financial results may be adversely affected.
The U.S. government may revise its procurement, contract, or other practices in a manner adverse to us.
The U.S. government may:
•revise its procurement practices or adopt new contract laws, rules, and regulations, such as cost accounting standards, organizational conflicts of interest, and other rules governing inherently governmental functions at any time;
•reduce, delay, or cancel procurement programs resulting from U.S. government efforts to improve procurement practices and efficiency;
•limit the creation of new government-wide or agency-specific multiple award contracts;
•face restrictions or pressure from government employees and their unions regarding the amount of services the U.S. government may obtain from private contractors;
•award contracts on a technically acceptable/lowest cost basis in order to reduce expenditures, and we may not be the lowest cost provider of services;
•adopt new socio-economic requirements, including setting aside procurement opportunities to small, disadvantaged businesses;
•change the basis upon which it reimburses our compensation and other expenses or otherwise limits such reimbursements; and
•at its option, terminate or decline to renew our contracts.
In recent months, we have seen delays in procurements with our U.S. government customers, and these delays are expected to continue in the near term. In addition, any new contracting methods could be costly or administratively difficult for us to implement and could adversely affect our future revenue and profit margin, and changes to the procurement system could cause delays in the procurement decision-making process. Any such delays in procurements generally, changes to the U.S. government’s procurement practices or the adoption of new contracting rules or practices could impair our ability to obtain new or re-compete contracts and any such changes or increased associated costs could materially and adversely affect our results of operations.
The U.S. government may prefer small and small disadvantaged businesses; therefore, we may have fewer opportunities to bid for.
As a result of the Small Business Administration set-aside program, the U.S. government may decide to restrict certain procurements only to bidders that qualify as small or small disadvantaged businesses. As a result, we would not be eligible to perform as a prime contractor on those programs and would be restricted to a maximum of 49% of the work as a subcontractor on those programs. An increase in the amount of procurements under the Small Business Administration set-aside program may impact our ability to bid on new procurements as a prime contractor or restrict our ability to re-compete on incumbent work that is placed in the set-aside program.
Increasing scrutiny and changing expectations regarding business operations and associated practices related to matters receiving substantial scrutiny from stakeholders and governmental authorities may impose additional costs on us or expose us to new or additional risks.
There is increased scrutiny from governmental organizations, customers, employees, investors, and other stakeholders on climate change, employee empowerment, and governance issues such as workplace culture, community investment, environmental management, climate impact, and information security. The quickly evolving technological, social, legal, and political context of these issues may create conflicts, disaffection, and dissatisfaction among laws and various stakeholder expectations. We comply with various federal, state, local, and foreign legislation and regulations related to these issues and applicable to our business and operations. Stakeholders may have expectations that conflict or do not align with our understanding of these laws, our strategies, or the expectations of the U.S. government. We have expended and may further expend resources to monitor, report on and adopt policies and practices that we believe will improve alignment with our evolving strategy and goals regarding these issues and related standards and expectations of legal regimes and stakeholders such as customers, investors, stockholders, raters, employees, and business partners. If our related practices, including our goals for environmental sustainability, and information security, do not meet evolving rules and regulations or stakeholder expectations and standards (or if we are viewed negatively based on positions we do or do not take or work we do or do not perform or cannot publicly disclose for certain customers and industries), then our reputation, ability to attract or retain leading experts, employees and other professionals, and ability to attract new business and customers could be negatively impacted, as could our attractiveness as an investment, service provider, employer, or business partner. Similarly, our failure or perceived failure with respect to these issues in our efforts to execute our related strategies and achieve our current or future goals, targets and objectives, or to satisfy various reporting standards within the timelines expected by stakeholders could also result in similar negative impacts. Organizations that provide information to investors on corporate governance and related matters have developed ratings processes for evaluating companies on their approach to many of these issues, and unfavorable ratings of our associated efforts may lead to negative investor sentiment, diversion of investment to other companies, and difficulty in hiring skilled employees.
Our business is subject to disruption caused by physical or transition risks that could adversely affect our results of operations or financial condition.
We have significant operations located in regions that have been, and may in the future be, subject to a variety of physical risks related to changing weather patterns (including rising temperatures and sea levels, extreme heat, and other severe weather events), natural disasters (including hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, floods, earthquakes, fires or wildfires, water shortages and prolonged drought), or pandemics, epidemics and similar disease outbreaks. Such events could disrupt our operations or those of our customers and suppliers, including the inability of employees to work, destruction of facilities, loss of life, and adverse effects on supply chains (including materials shortages), power, infrastructure, and the integrity of information technology systems, all of which could materially increase our costs and expenses, delay or decrease revenue from our customers, and disrupt our ability to maintain business continuity. We could incur significant costs to improve the resiliency of our infrastructure and otherwise prepare for, respond to, and mitigate the effects of changing weather patterns, as well as increased compliance and operational costs and transition risks due to changes in future federal, state, local and foreign legislation and regulations applicable to our business or decisions we make to conduct or change our activities in response to considerations relating to changing weather patterns. Additionally, if insurance or other risk transfer mechanisms are unavailable or insufficient to recover all costs or if we experience a significant disruption to our business due to changing weather patterns, natural disasters, or disease outbreaks, our results of operations or financial condition could be adversely affected.
Risks Related to Our Indebtedness
We have substantial indebtedness and may incur substantial additional indebtedness, which could adversely affect our financial health and our ability to obtain financing in the future as well as to react to changes in our business.
As of March 31, 2025, we had total indebtedness of approximately $4.0 billion and $1.0 billion of availability under our revolving credit facility (the “Revolving Credit Facility”). We are able to, and may, incur additional indebtedness in the future, subject to the limitations contained in the agreements governing our indebtedness. Our substantial indebtedness could have important consequences to holders of our common stock, including:
▪making it more difficult for us to satisfy our obligations with respect to our Senior Credit Facility, our outstanding senior notes, and our other debt;
▪limiting our ability to obtain additional financing to fund future working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions or other general corporate requirements;
▪requiring a substantial portion of our cash flows to be dedicated to debt service payments instead of other purposes, thereby reducing the amount of cash flows available for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes;
▪increasing our vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions;
▪exposing us to the risk of increased interest rates as certain of our borrowings, including under the Senior Credit
Facility, are at variable rates of interest;
▪limiting our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in the industry in which we compete;
▪placing us at a disadvantage compared to other, less leveraged competitors or competitors with comparable debt and more favorable terms and thereby affecting our ability to compete; and
▪increasing our cost of borrowing.
Although the Senior Credit Facility and the indentures governing our $700 million in aggregate principal amount of 3.875% senior notes due 2028 and our $500 million in aggregate principal amount of 4.000% senior notes due 2029 contain restrictions on the incurrence of additional indebtedness, and the indentures governing our $650 million in aggregate principal amount of 5.950% senior notes due 2033 and our $650 million in aggregate principal amount of 5.950% senior notes due 2035 contain restrictions on the incurrence of additional liens, these restrictions are subject to a number of qualifications and exceptions, and the additional indebtedness incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be substantial. These restrictions also will not prevent us from incurring obligations that do not constitute indebtedness. In addition, the Revolving Credit Facility provides for commitments of $1.0 billion, which as of March 31, 2025, had availability of $999 million. Additionally, the used portion as it pertains to open standby letters of credit and bank guarantees totaled approximately $1 million. Furthermore, subject to specified conditions, without the consent of the then-existing lenders (but subject to the receipt of commitments), the indebtedness under the Senior Credit Facility may be increased by up to $500 million. If new debt is added to our current debt levels, the related risks that we and the guarantors now face would increase and we may not be able to meet all our debt obligations, including the repayment of our outstanding senior notes.
We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service our indebtedness and may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness, which may not be successful.
Our ability to make scheduled payments on or refinance our debt obligations will depend on our financial condition and operating performance, which are subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and to financial, business, legislative, regulatory and other factors beyond our control. We might not be able to maintain a level of cash flows from operating activities sufficient to permit us to pay the principal, premium, if any, and interest on our indebtedness. For information regarding the risks to our business that could impair our ability to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness, see “— Risks Related to Our Indebtedness.”
If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we could face substantial liquidity problems and could be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures or to dispose of material assets or operations, seek additional debt or equity capital or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. We may not be able to effect any such alternative measures on commercially reasonable terms or at all and, even if successful, those alternative actions may not allow us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations.
The agreements governing our indebtedness restrict our ability to dispose of assets and use the proceeds from those dispositions and also restrict our ability to raise debt to be used to repay other indebtedness when it becomes due.
We may not be able to consummate those dispositions or to obtain proceeds in an amount sufficient to meet any debt service obligations then due. To the extent that we are required to prepay any amounts under our Term Loans, we may have insufficient cash to make required principal and interest payments on other indebtedness.
Our inability to generate sufficient cash flows to satisfy our debt obligations, or to refinance our indebtedness on commercially reasonable terms or at all, would materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations and our ability to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness.
If we cannot make scheduled payments on our debt, we would be in default and the following events could occur: lenders under our Senior Credit Facility and holders of our outstanding senior notes could declare all outstanding principal and interest to be due and payable; and lenders under the Revolving Credit Facility could terminate their commitments to provide loans. All of these events could force us into bankruptcy or liquidation and result in investors' losing some or all of the value of their investment.
The terms of the agreements governing our indebtedness restrict our current and future operations, particularly our ability to respond to changes or to take certain actions, which could harm our long-term interests.
The Senior Credit Facility and the indentures governing our outstanding senior notes contain covenants that, among other things, impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us and limit our ability to engage in actions that may be in our long-term best interest, including restrictions on our ability to:
•incur additional indebtedness, guarantee indebtedness, or issue disqualified stock or preferred stock;
•pay dividends on or make other distributions in respect of, or repurchase or redeem, our capital stock;
•enter into sale-leaseback transactions;
•incur liens;
•consolidate, merge or sell all or substantially all of our and our subsidiaries’ assets;
•enter into hedging transactions; and
•enter into certain lines of business.
These covenants are subject to a number of important exceptions and qualifications. In addition, the restrictive covenants in the Senior Credit Facility require us to maintain a consolidated net total leverage ratio that will be tested at the end of each fiscal quarter. Our ability to satisfy such financial ratio test may be affected by events beyond our control.
A breach of the covenants under the agreements governing our indebtedness could result in an event of default under those agreements. Such a default may allow certain creditors to accelerate the related debt and may result in the acceleration of any other debt to which a cross-acceleration or cross-default provision applies. In addition, an event of default under the Senior Credit Facility would also permit the lenders under the Revolving Credit Facility to terminate all other commitments to extend further credit under that facility. In the event the lenders accelerate the repayment of our borrowings, we may not have sufficient assets to repay that indebtedness.
As a result of these restrictions, we may be:
•limited in how we conduct our business;
•unable to raise additional debt or equity financing to operate during general economic or business downturns; or
•unable to compete effectively or to take advantage of new business opportunities.
These restrictions might hinder our ability to grow in accordance with our strategy.
Our variable rate indebtedness subjects us to interest rate risk, which could cause our debt service obligations to increase significantly.
Borrowings under the Senior Credit Facility are at variable rates of interest and expose us to interest rate risk. During 2022 and 2023, interest rates increased significantly and interest rates may continue to increase or remain at higher than recent historical levels. With an increase in interest rates, our debt service obligations on the variable rate indebtedness would increase even though the amount borrowed remains the same, and our net income and cash flows, including cash available for servicing our indebtedness, would correspondingly decrease.
Based on the $1.5 billion term loan facility (“Term Loan A”) outstanding as of March 31, 2025 and assuming all revolving loans are fully drawn, and after considering interest rate swaps that fix the interest rate on $550 million of principal of our variable-rate debt each quarter point change in interest rates would result in a $2 million change in our projected annual interest expense on our indebtedness under the Senior Credit Facility. We have entered into interest rate swaps and may in the future enter into additional interest rate swaps that involve the exchange of floating for fixed rate interest payments in order to reduce future interest rate volatility of our variable rate indebtedness. However, due to risks for hedging gains and losses and cash settlement costs, we may not elect to maintain such interest rate swaps, and any swaps may not fully mitigate our interest rate risk.
A downgrade, suspension or withdrawal of the rating assigned by a rating agency to us or our indebtedness could make it more difficult for us to obtain additional debt financing in the future.
We and our indebtedness have been rated by nationally recognized rating agencies and may in the future be rated by additional rating agencies. We cannot assure you that any rating assigned to us or our indebtedness will remain for any given period of time or that a rating will not be lowered or withdrawn entirely by a rating agency if, in that rating agency’s judgment, circumstances relating to the basis of the rating, such as adverse changes in our business, so warrant. Any downgrade, suspension or withdrawal of a rating by a rating agency (or any anticipated downgrade, suspension or withdrawal) could make it more difficult or more expensive for us to obtain additional debt financing in the future.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
Booz Allen Holding is a holding company with no operations of its own, and it depends on its subsidiaries for cash to fund all of its operations and expenses, including to make future dividend payments, if any.
The operations of Booz Allen Holding are conducted almost entirely through its subsidiaries and its ability to generate cash to meet its debt service obligations or to pay dividends is highly dependent on the earnings and receipt of funds from its subsidiaries via dividends or intercompany loans. Further, the Senior Credit Facility and indentures governing our outstanding senior notes significantly restrict the ability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends or otherwise transfer assets to us. In addition, Delaware law may impose requirements that may restrict our ability to pay dividends to holders of our common stock.
Our financial results may vary significantly from period to period as a result of a number of factors, many of which are outside our control, which could cause the market price of our Class A Common Stock to fluctuate.
Our financial results may vary significantly from period to period in the future as a result of many external factors that are outside of our control. Factors that may affect our financial results and could cause the market price of our outstanding securities, including our Class A Common Stock, to fluctuate include those listed in this “Risk Factors” section and others such as:
•any cause of reduction or delay in U.S. government funding;
•fluctuations in revenue earned on existing contracts;
•commencement, completion, or termination of contracts during a particular period;
•a potential decline in our overall profit margins if our other direct costs and subcontract revenue grow at a faster rate than labor-related revenue;
•strategic decisions by us or our competitors, such as changes to business strategy, strategic investments, acquisitions, divestitures, spin offs, and joint ventures;
•a change in our contract mix to less profitable contracts;
•changes in policy or budgetary measures that adversely affect U.S. government contracts in general;
•variable purchasing patterns under U.S. government GSA schedules, blanket purchase agreements, which are agreements that fulfill repetitive needs under GSA schedules, and IDIQ contracts;
•changes in demand for our services and solutions;
•fluctuations in the degree to which we are able to utilize our professionals;
•seasonality associated with the U.S. government’s fiscal year;
•an inability to utilize existing or future tax benefits for any reason, including a change in law;
•alterations to contract requirements; and
•adverse judgments or settlements in legal disputes.
We cannot assure you that we will pay special or regular dividends on our stock in the future.
The Board has authorized and declared a regular quarterly dividend for each quarter in the last several years. The Board has also authorized and declared special cash dividends from time to time. The declaration of any future dividends and the establishment of the per share amount, record dates, and payment dates for any such future dividends are subject to the discretion of the Board taking into account future earnings, cash flows, financial requirements and other factors. There can be no assurance that the Board will declare any dividends in the future. To the extent that expectations by market participants regarding the potential payment, or amount, of any special or regular dividend prove to be incorrect, the price of our common stock may be materially and negatively affected and investors that bought shares of our common stock based on those expectations may suffer a loss on their investment. Further, to the extent that we declare a regular or special dividend at a time when market participants hold no such expectations or the amount of any such dividend exceeds current expectations, the price of our common stock may increase and investors that sold shares of our common stock prior to the record date for any such dividend may forego potential gains on their investment.
Provisions in our organizational documents and in the Delaware General Corporation Law may prevent takeover attempts that could be beneficial to our stockholders.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws include a number of provisions that may have the effect of delaying, deterring, preventing, or rendering more difficult a change in control of Booz Allen Holding that our stockholders might consider in their best interests. These provisions include:
•granting to the Board the sole power to set the number of directors and to fill any vacancy on the Board;
•granting to the Board the ability to designate and issue one or more series of preferred stock without stockholder approval, the terms of which may be determined at the sole discretion of the Board;
•the establishment of advance notice requirements for stockholder proposals and nominations for election to the Board at stockholder meetings; and
•prohibiting our stockholders from acting by written consent.
In addition, we are subject to the anti-takeover provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which imposes additional requirements regarding mergers and other business combinations. These provisions may prevent our stockholders from receiving the benefit from any premium to the market price of our common stock offered by a bidder in a takeover context. Even in the absence of a takeover attempt, the existence of these provisions may adversely affect the prevailing market price of our common stock if the provisions are viewed as discouraging takeover attempts in the future.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated by-laws may also make it difficult for stockholders to replace or remove our management. These provisions may facilitate management entrenchment that may delay, deter, render more difficult, or prevent a change in our control, which may not be in the best interests of our stockholders.
The market for our Class A Common Stock may be adversely affected by the performance of other companies in the government services market.
In addition to factors that may affect our financial results and operations, the price of our Class A Common Stock may be impacted by the financial performance and outlook of other companies in the government services market. While certain factors may affect all participants in the markets in which we operate, such as U.S. government spending conditions and changes in rules and regulations applicable to government contractors, the market for our Class A Common Stock may be adversely affected by financial results or negative events only affecting other market participants or financial results of such participants. While such events or results may not impact or be indicative of our current or future performance, the price of our securities may nonetheless be adversely affected as a result thereof.