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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

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FORM 10-K

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☒Annual Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021

or

☐Transition Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

For the transition period from _______ to _______

Commission file number 001-35108

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code (720) 889-8500

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.

Yes  ☒   No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).

Yes  ☒   No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See definition of “large accelerated filer, “accelerated filer”, “smaller reporting company” and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

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If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C.7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.

 ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).

Yes  ☐   No  ☒

The aggregate market value of voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2021, the last business day of the Registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was approximately $107.3 million. Shares of common stock held by each executive officer, director and holder of 10% or more of the outstanding common stock have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status does not reflect a determination that such persons are affiliates of the registrant for any other purpose.

As of February 17, 2022, there were approximately 99,112,032 shares of the registrant’s common stock outstanding.

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DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its 2022 annual meeting of stockholders are incorporated by reference in Part III of this annual report on Form 10-K. Such proxy statement will be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year to which this report relates. Except with respect to information specifically incorporated by reference in this Form 10-K, the proxy statement is not deemed to be filed as part of this Form 10-K.

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FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “annual report") includes estimates, projections, statements relating to our business plans, objectives, and expected operating results that are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements may appear throughout this annual report. These forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words “believe,” “project,” "target," "forecast", “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will likely result,” and variations of such words or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those identified elsewhere in this annual report, including the risks and uncertainties related to the impact and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic in “Risk Factors” (Part I, Item 1.A. of this Form 10-K) and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” (Part II, Item 7 of this Form 10-K). Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

“ServiceSource,” “the Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”, as used herein, refer to ServiceSource International, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

For a summary of commonly used industry terms and abbreviations used in this annual report, see the Glossary of Terms.

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Our Strategy and Solutions

Our strategy is to drive client success by bringing the world’s greatest brands closer to their customers through people-powered, digitally-enabled solutions and data-driven insights. We are pioneers in the CJX^® market and believe our solution scope, process expertise and global operating scale position us as a category leader. Our unified CJX^® solution suite spans the pre- and post-sale B2B customer journey and is deployed through a holistic model that enables our clients to more efficiently and effectively identify, land, adopt, expand and renew their customers and end-users.

The ServiceSource CJX^® solution suite has been built on three primary solution pillars, encompassing digital sales, customer success, and channel management, all underpinned by enabling competencies centered around our highly trained people, proprietary processes, and best-in-class technologies. Depending on our clients’ needs, we can provide our solutions and motions on a fully integrated basis or we can design and deploy them on a discrete, á la carte basis to address our clients’ unique requirements.

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Digital sales. Through our digital sales solution, we help our clients accelerate their acquisition and expansion efforts across both net-new and installed-base customer accounts. Our core motions of demand qualification, demand conversion, and account management are designed to drive higher quality leads, improved pipeline hygiene, greater marketing and sales funnel velocity, better sales conversion rates, higher net expansion rates, and increased consumption for our clients’ products and services.

Customer success and renewals. Through our customer success and renewals solution, we are an integrated component of our clients’ customer experience strategies and engagement efforts. Our core motions of onboarding, adoption, and renewals management are uniquely tailored and customized to improve the satisfaction, referenceability, loyalty, retention and lifetime value of our clients’ customers.

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Channel management. Through our channel management solution, we support the full lifecycle management of our clients’ indirect channels and routes to market. Our core motions of partner recruitment, partner onboarding and enablement, and partner success management are designed to increase partner mindshare, productivity, and sales of our clients’ products and services across both one-tier and two-tier distribution channel models.

Our CJX^® solution suite is provided to our clients primarily through a unique outcomes-based, pay-for-performance model that ensures optimal alignment to their business growth priorities, return-on-investment mandates and customer experience objectives. Through this model, our clients pay us commissions that are either flat-rate or variable based on the pipeline, bookings, and/or revenue we generate on their behalf. For engagements where other pricing options are more appropriate, including our professional services, sales enablement and data management services, our clients pay us through either fixed-fee or full-time employee-based pricing models. Oftentimes, our client contracts incorporate multiple pricing models to most appropriately balance our assessment of the data quality, operational complexity and risk-reward profile of the engagement. For the year ended December 31, 2021, 72% of our revenue was derived from pay-for-performance pricing arrangements and 28% was derived from fixed-fee or full-time employee-based pricing arrangements.

Our relationship with our clients begins in the pre-sales process and continues through the lifecycle of our engagement:

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Markets We Serve

We target our solutions exclusively to B2B technology companies and focus on chosen market segments where we have deep domain expertise, proven competencies and best practices, robust executive relationships, and the ability to leverage existing client references and advocacy.

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Our Clients

We seek to build long-term, durable relationships with leading companies and high-growth innovators within each of our target markets, where our strategy, solutions, and capabilities provide a compelling client value proposition and opportunity for us to drive enduring client success and trusted business outcomes. We typically enter into contracts with our clients with average terms ranging from one to three years. Our client contracts are generally comprised of a master services agreement, which is a framework agreement that defines broad governing terms, supplemented by one or multiple order forms or statements of work that outline detailed terms, conditions, pricing, description of services and definition of scope. While most of our contracts may be terminated for convenience with relatively short notice, often subject to the payment of an early termination fee by the client, our top 10 client relationships range in duration from 5 to 15 years, with an average tenure of approximately 11 years.

During the year ended December 31, 2021, our top ten clients each generated more than $4.0 million in revenue and represented a combined 82% of our total net revenue, and four clients each represented over 10% of our revenue during this period. A relatively small number of clients may continue to account for a significant portion of our revenue for the foreseeable future. The loss of revenue from any of our significant clients for any reason may cause a significant decrease in our revenue.

Competition and Our Competitive Strengths

The market for our BPaaS services and CJX^® solution suite is dynamic and evolving. Historically, B2B companies have managed their customer acquisition, engagement, expansion, and retention efforts internally and have relied upon a variety of third-party technologies and tools - including enterprise resource planning software, customer relationship management software, customer success management software, business intelligence software, channel management software, customer experience management software, and sales enablement software - from vendors such as Adobe, Gainsight, Gong, Medallia, Oracle, SAP, salesforce.com, and Totango, to enable their in-house teams and workflows. Some companies have made further investments in this area using firms such as Bain & Company, Deloitte Digital and McKinsey & Company for customer experience design and digital transformation consulting services for their go-to-market organizations. These internally developed solutions represent the primary alternative to our integrated approach of combining people, processes and technology to provide a purpose-built, end-to-end optimized solution.

We believe we are the only company of scale exclusively focused on serving the unique requirements of B2B technology companies with a solution suite that addresses the entirety of the customer journey experience continuum. Within the broader BPaaS market, at times we may compete with larger, more diversified and less-focused companies such as Accenture, Cognizant, Concentrix, Genpact, TTEC, and Webhelp, as well as smaller companies offering more narrow point solutions.

We believe our principal competitive strengths and differentiators include our:

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Although we currently have few direct competitors that offer integrated solutions at our scale, we expect competition and competitive pressure, from both new and existing competitors, to increase in the future.

Human Capital

We believe our people are our greatest asset and central to the success of ServiceSource and our clients. Through our core values of trust, caring, collaboration, and dedication, we direct our efforts and invest extensive resources to ensure we attract, hire, develop, incentivize, promote, and retain a world-class workforce. We are committed to building a culture that inspires success for our people and fostering a workplace environment that promotes trust, diversity, and inclusion while providing multiple avenues for continuous personal and professional development.

As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately 2,900 employees worldwide, of which nearly all were full-time, with 71% located outside of the U.S. Our employees are not covered by collective bargaining agreements. We believe we have good relations with our employees, as demonstrated by our average employee tenure of 3.5 years and an employee net promoter score that improved by approximately 11 points in 2021.

In 2021, we brought greater focus and Board governance to our Human Capital strategies by expanding the Compensation Committee’s responsibilities to include periodically reviewing and reporting to the Board, as appropriate, on (i) the Company’s talent management strategies, such as the Company’s recruitment, development, promotion, and retention programs, (ii) diversity and inclusion within the Company, and (iii) employee engagement and Company culture. In order to more accurately reflect the committee’s expanded responsibilities, we renamed our Compensation Committee the Compensation and Human Resources Committee.

Employee health and well-being. We believe a loyal and productive workforce requires a holistic approach to caring for the whole self. We provide a variety of programs and benefits to support the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and well-being of our employees.

We are committed to the health and safety of our employees. To keep our employees safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, we created a dedicated crisis team to proactively implement business continuity plans and quickly transitioned to a 100% work-from-home model. As a result of this successful work-from-home implementation, we have shifted to a virtual-first operating model whereby our employees will continue to primarily work from their home offices and our facilities will be used for collaboration, innovation, and connection. Additionally, this model includes virtual sourcing, hiring, and onboarding for new employees as well as a process for driving performance and culture in a virtual environment.

Inclusion and diversity. We believe high-performing organizations are defined by policies and practices that encourage and celebrate an inclusive and diverse workforce. We have adopted metrics that measure the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of our organization and practices to ensure our organization is representative of the communities we serve. We are committed to equal pay for equal work, and continually monitor and analyze our compensation programs for equality.

We have further advanced our gender equality initiative with women representing nearly half of our total employee base and more than one-third of our leadership ranks.

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Benefits. We offer a complete set of benefits for our employees, including competitive base salaries, annual cash bonuses and an equity incentive program, as well as comprehensive health benefits, retirement plans, and a generous time off policy. For our U.S.-based employees, we offer 12 weeks of paid parental leave, providing important support for our employees as they strive to care for, bond with and welcome new family members and integrate family life with work life. In addition, every employee receives a day of birthday time off, to enable that employee to celebrate on a day during the month of their birth.

Community engagement and involvement. We are active and involved members in the communities in which our employees live and work, and we promote a culture of volunteering and giving back. Every employee globally receives eight hours of paid volunteer time off annually, which encourages our employees to serve the communities in which we live and work. Through our paid volunteer time off program, our employees collectively volunteered more than 5,000 hours supporting a variety of charitable causes and organizations in their communities during 2021.

Training, development, and performance. In July 2020, we launched CJX^® University, a world-class learning and development platform designed to help employees grow and develop in their careers. Since launch, our employees have logged more than 17,000 training hours. Additionally, we hold bi-annual unrated performance reviews, designed to encourage employees to have conversations with their managers relating to their areas of strength and growth opportunities and allowing for a plan for future career progression and development.

Our Intellectual Property

We believe our ability to innovate is a key driver of value for our clients and our business. The solutions we provide to our clients often include a variety of proprietary tools, technologies, processes, methodologies, and expertise which comprise our intellectual property. In addition, our intellectual property includes patents, trademarks, and copyrights, as well as various trade secrets, which we believe provide us with a competitive advantage in the marketplace. We protect our intellectual property by leveraging U.S. and foreign patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret laws, in addition to entering into non-competition, confidentiality, non-disclosure, and related intellectual property protection agreements with our clients, employees, contractors and suppliers.

Partnerships and Alliances

We enter into partnerships and alliances with companies that can enhance our solutions, differentiate our capabilities, advance our technologies and tools, and complement our sales and marketing activities. These relationships include strategic go-to-market alliances, joint-selling agreements, “white-labeled” technology integrations and business transformation and consulting partners.

Additional Information

Our predecessor company was founded in 1999 and we were formed as a Delaware limited liability company in 2002 and converted to a Delaware corporation in 2011. Additional information about us is available on our website at http://www.servicesource.com. The information on our website is not incorporated into this annual report by reference and is not a part of this Form 10-K. We make available free of charge on our website our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, as soon as reasonably practicable after those reports are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. In addition, the SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. From time to time, we may use our website as a channel of distribution of material information about our company. Financial and other important information regarding our business is routinely posted on and accessible at http://ir.servicesource.com.

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If our performance falls short of our estimates, our client relationships will be at risk, our revenue will suffer and our ability to grow could be harmed.

A majority of our business depends on driving new or renewal revenue for our clients, and we then receive a commission on the new or renewal revenue that we generate on our clients’ behalf. In some cases, our commission rates vary depending on our performance —for example, if we overperform compared to our estimates then we may receive a higher commission. In addition, our clients rely on us to accurately forecast our performance, especially because we drive revenue on their behalf. These forecasts are based upon the data our clients provide to us, and are subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate. In addition, these forecasted expectations are based upon historical trends and data that may not be true in subsequent periods. If our performance for a particular client is lower than anticipated, then our revenue for that client will also be lower than projected. If our performance falls short of expectations across a broad range of clients, or if our performance falls below expectations for a particularly large client, then the impact on our revenue and our overall business will be significant. In the event our performance is lower than expected for a given client, our margins will suffer because we will have already incurred a certain level of costs in both personnel and infrastructure to support the engagement. This risk is compounded by the fact that many of our client relationships can be terminated by the client if we fail to meet certain specified sales targets, including bookings rates, over a sustained period of time. If our performance falls to a level at which our revenue and client contracts are at risk, then our financial performance will decline and we may have difficulty attracting and retaining new clients.

We depend on a limited number of clients for a significant portion of our revenue, and the loss of business from one or more of our key clients could adversely affect our results of operations.

Our top ten clients accounted for 82% of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2021, and four clients each represented over 10% of our revenue during this period. A relatively small number of clients may continue to account for a significant portion of our revenue for the foreseeable future. The loss of revenue from any of our significant clients for any reason, including the failure to renew our contracts, termination of some or all of our services, a change of relationship with any of our key clients, or the acquisition of one of our significant clients, may cause a significant decrease in our revenue.

If we cannot efficiently implement our offering for clients, we may be delayed in generating revenue, fail to generate revenue and/or incur significant costs.

In general, our client engagements are complex and we must undertake lengthy and significant work to implement our offerings. We generally incur sales and marketing expenses related to the commissions owed to our sales representatives and make upfront investments in technology and personnel to support the engagements one to three months before we begin selling end customer contracts on behalf of our clients. Each client’s situation may be different, and unanticipated difficulties and delays may arise as a result of our failure, or that of our client, to meet implementation responsibilities. If the client implementation process is not executed successfully or if execution is delayed, we could incur significant costs without generating revenue, and our relationships with some of our clients and operating results may be adversely impacted.

Because competition for our target employees is intense, we may be unable to attract and retain the highly skilled employees we need to support our planned growth.

To continue to execute on our growth plan, we must attract and retain highly qualified employees in the international markets in which we have operations. Competition for these personnel is intense, especially for highly educated, qualified sales representatives with multiple language skills. We have from time to time in the past experienced, and we expect to continue to experience in the future, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled key employees with appropriate qualifications. Our shift to a virtual-first operating model may increase the difficulty in hiring and retaining these highly skilled key employees. If we are unable to hire and retain these highly skilled workers, our company’s culture could be negatively influenced and potentially lead to increased employee attrition and loss of key personnel. In addition, hiring and retaining highly skilled key employees could become more difficult in the future if COVID-19 vaccine mandates become required. We may incur significant costs to attract and retain highly skilled key employees, and we may lose new employees to our competitors or other companies before we realize the benefit of our investment in recruiting and training them. If we fail to attract new highly skilled key employees, or fail to retain and motivate our most successful employees, our business and future growth prospects could be harmed.

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If our security measures are breached or fail, resulting in unauthorized access to client data, our solution may be perceived as insecure, the attractiveness of our solution to current or potential clients may be reduced and we may incur significant liabilities.

Our solution involves the storage and transmission of the proprietary information and protected data that we receive from our clients. We rely on proprietary and commercially available systems, software, tools and monitoring, as well as other processes, to provide security for processing, transmission and storage of such information. Despite the implementation of these security measures, our systems may still be vulnerable. If our, or our clients’, security measures are breached or fail as a result of third-party action, employee negligence, error, malfeasance or otherwise, unauthorized access to client or end customer data may occur. Techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, and we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate protective measures. Our security measures may not be effective in preventing these types of activities, and the security measures of our third-party data centers and service providers may not be adequate. In addition, these risks may be increased as a result of our virtual-first operating model and our third-party data centers and service providers working remotely, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our client contracts generally provide that we will indemnify our clients for data privacy breaches caused by our acts or omissions and the acts and omissions of our service providers. If a data privacy breach occurs, we could face contractual damages, damages and fees arising from our indemnification obligations, penalties for violation of applicable laws or regulations, possible lawsuits by affected individuals and significant remediation costs and efforts to prevent future occurrences. Insurance may not be able to cover these costs in full, in particular if the damages are large. In addition, whether there is an actual or a perceived breach of our security, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures could be harmed significantly and we could lose current or potential clients.

We may be liable to our clients or third parties if we make errors in providing our solution or fail to properly safeguard our clients’ confidential information.

The solution we offer is complex, and we may make errors from time to time. These may include human errors made in the course of managing the sales process for our clients as we interact with their end customers, or errors arising from our technology solution as it interacts with our clients’ systems and the disparate data contained on such systems. For example, our employees enter codes to classify their interactions with our clients’ end customers, and incorrect code entry could result in our clients’ end customer not receiving the service or solution they requested, which in turn could lead to customer dissatisfaction or termination causing our client relationships to suffer and our revenue and our clients’ revenue to decline. The costs incurred in correcting any material errors may be substantial. Any claims based on errors could subject us to exposure for damages, significant legal defense costs, adverse publicity and reputational harm, regardless of the merits or eventual outcome of such claims.

We conduct operations in a number of countries and are subject to risks of international operations.

Outside of the U.S., we conduct operations in Bulgaria, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and the United Kingdom. In 2021, approximately 45% of our revenue was related to operations located outside of the U.S. In addition, 71% of our employees are located in offices outside of the U.S. Our employees and clients in a particular country or region in the world may be impacted as a result of a variety of factors, including: geopolitical events, such as war, the threat of war, or terrorist activity; natural disasters (such as drought, flooding, wildfires, increased storm severity, and sea level rise), which may become more common as a result of climate change; power shortages or outages, major public health issues, including pandemics (such as the COVID-19 pandemic); and significant local, national or global events capturing the attention of a large part of the population. If any of these, or any other factors, disrupt a country or region where we have a significant workforce our business could be materially adversely affected.

We expect to continue our international growth, with international revenue accounting for an increased portion of total revenue in the future. Our international operations involve risks that differ from or are in addition to those faced by our U.S. operations. These risks include different employment laws and rules and related social and cultural factors; different regulatory and compliance requirements, including in the areas of privacy and data protection, anti-bribery and anti-corruption, trade sanctions, marketing and sales and other barriers to conducting business; cultural and language differences; diverse or less stable political, operating and economic environments and market fluctuations; and civil disturbances or other catastrophic events that affect business activity (including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic). If we are not able to efficiently adapt to or effectively manage our business in markets outside of the U.S., our business prospects and operating results could be materially and adversely affected. Although we have business continuity plans in place for our operations, an extended period of civil unrest that halts or significantly impedes operations could have a material adverse effect on our business.

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Laws or public perception may eliminate or restrict our ability to use revenue delivery centers not located in the U.S., which could have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations.

The issue of companies outsourcing services to organizations operating in other countries is a politically sensitive topic and has been under heightened scrutiny in many countries, including the U.S. We provide our BPaaS solutions in several non-U.S. locations, including the Philippines and Malaysia, and our growth strategy includes increasing reliance on these “offshore” revenue delivery centers. Many organizations and public figures in the U.S. have publicly expressed concern about a perceived association between offshore outsourcing providers and the loss of jobs in the U.S., and the topic of offshore outsourcing has recently received a great deal of negative attention from the U.S. executive branch. Because of negative public perception about offshore outsourcing, measures aimed at limiting or restricting offshore outsourcing by U.S. companies are periodically considered in the U.S. Congress. Current or prospective clients may elect to perform such services themselves or may be discouraged from transferring these services from onshore to offshore providers to avoid negative perceptions that may be associated with using an offshore provider. Any slowdown or reversal of existing industry trends towards offshore outsourcing, including due to the enactment of any legislation restricting offshore outsourcing by U.S. companies, would harm our ability to provide certain of our services to our clients at a competitive and cost-effective price point and would have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Changes in the legal and regulatory environment that affect our operations, including laws and regulations relating to the handling of personal data, data security and cross-border data flows, may impede the adoption of our services, disrupt our business or result in increased costs, legal claims, or fines against us.

We are subject to a wide variety of laws and regulations in the U.S. and the other jurisdictions in which we operate, and changes in the level of government regulation of our business have the potential to materially alter our business practices with resultant increases in costs and decreases in profitability. Depending on the jurisdiction, those changes may come about through new legislation, the issuance of new regulations or changes in the interpretation of existing laws and regulations by a court, regulatory body or governmental official. Sometimes those changes have both prospective and retroactive effect, which is particularly true when a change is made through reinterpretation of laws or regulations that have been in effect for some time.

Our international operations and global client base rely increasingly on the movement of data across national boundaries. Legal requirements relating to the collection, storage, handling and transfer of personal data continue to evolve, and additional regulation in those areas, some of it potentially difficult and costly for us to accommodate, is frequently proposed and occasionally adopted. Laws in many countries and jurisdictions, particularly in the European Union, United Kingdom, and Canada, govern the requirements related to how we store, transfer or otherwise process the private data provided to us by our clients. For example, in the European Union, the GDPR imposes substantial requirements regarding the handling of personal data. The GDPR, as well as other data privacy, cyber security and data localization laws and regulations, has changed in recent years and is likely to continue to evolve in the future. Although we have implemented measures designed to comply with the laws and regulations applicable to our business, our ongoing efforts to comply with the GDPR and other changes in laws and regulations (such as the California Consumer Privacy Act that became effective in January 2020) may entail substantial expenses and divert resources from other initiatives. These changes have in the past increased, and may continue to increase, our cost of providing our services, could limit us from offering solutions in certain jurisdictions, could adversely affect our sales cycles, and could impact our new technology innovation. In addition, the centralized nature of our information systems at the data and operations centers that we use requires the routine flow of data relating to our clients and their respective end customers across national borders, both with respect to the jurisdictions within which we have operations and the jurisdictions in which we provide services to our clients. If this flow of data becomes subject to new or different restrictions, our ability to serve our clients and their respective end customers could be seriously impaired for an extended period of time.

We also have entered into various model contracts and related contractual provisions to enable these data flows. For any jurisdictions in which these measures are not recognized or otherwise not compliant with the laws of the countries in which we process data, or where more stringent data privacy laws are enacted irrespective of international treaty arrangements or other existing compliance mechanisms, we could face increased compliance expenses and face penalties for violating such laws or be excluded from those markets altogether, in which case our operations could be materially damaged.

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Consolidation in the technology sector could harm our business in the event that our clients are acquired and their contracts are canceled.

Consolidation among technology companies in our target market has been robust in recent years, and this trend poses a risk for us. Acquisitions of our clients could lead to cancellation of our contracts with those end customers by the acquiring companies and could reduce the number of our existing and potential clients. If mergers and acquisitions take place within our client base, some of the acquiring companies may terminate, renegotiate and/or elect not to renew our contracts with the companies they acquire, which would reduce our revenue. In addition, acquisitions in our client base may adversely impact our revenue even if the contract is not terminated. The sales we make on behalf of our clients are processed through our clients’ billing and quoting platforms. If our clients are acquired or merge with another company and as a result, their billing platforms or the procedures for processing closed sales are changed or slowed down, we will be unable to close our sales and our closure rate will fall, and therefore our revenue and our ability to keep our clients, could suffer.

We enter into long-term, commission-based contracts with our clients, and our failure to correctly price these contracts may negatively affect our profitability.

We enter into long-term contracts with our clients that are priced based on multiple factors determined in large part by the performance analysis we conduct for our clients. These factors include opportunity size, anticipated booking rates and expected commission rates at various levels of sales performance. Some of these factors require forward-looking assumptions that may prove incorrect. If our assumptions are inaccurate, or if we otherwise fail to correctly price our client contracts, particularly those with lengthy contract terms, then our revenue, profitability and overall business operations may suffer. Further, if we fail to anticipate any unexpected increase in our costs for employees, office space, technology, and other costs of providing services, as a result of inflation or otherwise, we could be exposed to risks associated with cost overruns related to our required performance under our contracts, which could have a negative effect on our margins and earnings.

A substantial portion of our business consists of supporting our clients’ channel partners in the sale of service contracts. If those channel partners become unreceptive to our solution, our business could be harmed.

Many of our clients, including some of our largest clients, sell service contracts through their channel partners and engage our solution to help those channel partners become more effective at selling service contract renewals. In this context, the ultimate buyers of the service contracts are end customers of those channel partners, who then receive the actual services from our clients. In the event our clients’ channel partners become unreceptive to our involvement in the renewals process, those channel partners could discourage our current or future clients from engaging our solution to support channel sales. This risk is compounded by the fact that large channel partners may have relationships with more than one of our clients or prospects, in which case the negative reaction of one or more of those large channel partners could impact multiple client relationships. Accordingly, with respect to those clients and prospective clients who sell service contracts through channel partners, any significant resistance to our solution by their channel partners could harm our ability to attract or retain clients, which would damage our overall business operations.

We face long sales cycles to secure new client contracts, making it difficult to predict the timing of specific new client relationships.

We face a variable selling cycle to secure new client agreements, typically spanning a number of months and requiring our effort to obtain and analyze our prospect’s business through the service performance analysis, for which we are not paid. Moreover, even if we succeed in developing a relationship with a potential new client, the scope of the potential subscription or service revenue management engagement frequently changes over the course of the business discussions and, for a variety of reasons, our sales discussions may fail to result in new client acquisitions. Consequently, we have only a limited ability to predict the timing and size of specific new client relationships.

The length of time it takes our newly hired sales representatives and global account managers to become productive could adversely impact our success rate, the execution of our overall business plan and our costs.

It can take twelve months or longer before our internal sales representatives and global account managers are fully trained and productive in selling our solution to prospective clients. This long ramp period, which could be further increased by our shift to a virtual-first operating model, presents a number of operational challenges as the cost of recruiting, hiring and carrying new sales representatives and global account managers cannot be offset by the revenue such new sales representatives produce until after they

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complete their long ramp periods. Given the length of the ramp period, we often cannot determine if a sales representative or global account manager will succeed until he or she has been employed for a year or more. If we cannot reliably develop our sales representatives and global account managers to a productive level, or if we lose productive representatives and account managers in whom we have heavily invested, our future growth rates and revenue will suffer.

Our revenue and earnings are affected by foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.

Our results of operations and cash flows are subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates, particularly changes in the Euro, British Pound, Singapore Dollar, Philippine Peso, Bulgarian Lev and Malaysian Ringgit. We currently do not undertake hedging activities to manage these currency fluctuations. Even if we were to implement hedging strategies to mitigate this risk, these strategies might not eliminate our exposure to foreign exchange rate fluctuations and would involve costs and risks of their own, such as ongoing management time and expense, external costs to implement the strategies and potential accounting implications. In addition, if the effective price of the contracts we sell to end customers were to increase as a result of fluctuations in the exchange rate of the relevant currencies, demand for such contracts could fall, which in turn would reduce our revenue.

The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union could adversely affect our business.

In January 2020, the United Kingdom formally left the European Union, an action referred to as Brexit. Several political, legal, regulatory, and economic factors which are currently unknown will influence Brexit’s impact on our business. We have a revenue delivery center in Liverpool, United Kingdom, and Brexit has, and could continue to, create uncertainty in our employee base relating to immigration and other cross-border matters. Brexit could lead to economic and legal uncertainty, including significant volatility in currency exchange rates, reduced customer demand for our services, and increasingly divergent laws and regulations as the United Kingdom determines which European Union laws to replace or replicate. In addition, Brexit could cause a shift or increase in data privacy regulations for data transfers between the United Kingdom and European Union. Any of these effects of Brexit, among others, could adversely affect our operations in the United Kingdom and our financial results.

Claims by others that we infringe or violate their intellectual property could force us to incur significant costs and require us to change the way we conduct our business.

Our services or solutions could infringe the intellectual property rights of others, impacting our ability to deploy our services or solutions with our clients. From time to time, we receive letters from other parties alleging, or inquiring about, possible breaches of their intellectual property rights. These claims could require us to cease activities, incur expensive licensing costs, or engage in costly litigation, each of which could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

In addition, we may incorporate open source software into our technology solution. The terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our commercialization of any of our solutions that may include open source software. As a result, we will be required to analyze and monitor our use of open source software closely. As a result of the use of open source software, we could be required to seek licenses from third parties in order to develop such future products, re-engineer our products, discontinue sales of our solutions or release our software code under the terms of an open source license to the public. Given the nature of open source software, there is also a risk that third parties may assert copyright and other intellectual property infringement claims against us based on any use of such open source software. These claims could result in significant expense to us, which could harm our business.

Interruption of operations at our data centers and revenue delivery centers could have a materially adverse effect on our business.

If we experience a temporary or permanent interruption in our operations at one or more of our data or revenue delivery centers, through natural disaster (such as drought, flooding, wildfires, increased storm severity, and sea level rise), which may become more common as a result of climate change, pandemics or other public health emergencies (including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic), casualty, operating malfunction, cyberattack, sabotage or other causes, we may be unable to provide the services we are contractually obligated to deliver. Failure to provide contracted services could result in contractual damages or clients’ termination or renegotiation of their contracts. Although we maintain disaster recovery and business continuity plans and precautions designed to protect our company and our clients from events that could interrupt our delivery of services, there is no guarantee that such plans and precautions will be effective or that any interruption will not be prolonged. Any prolonged interruption in our ability to provide services to our

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clients for whom our plans and precautions fail to adequately protect us could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operation and financial condition.

We are dependent on the continued participation and level of service of our third-party platform provider. Any failure or disruption in this service could materially and adversely affect our ability to manage our business effectively.

We rely on salesforce.com to provide the platform supporting many of our technologies and AWS to support a significant portion of our data storage. If salesforce.com or AWS stops supporting our technologies or if they fail to provide a platform that consistently and adequately supports our solution, including as a result of errors or failures in their systems or events beyond their control, or refuse to provide their platforms on terms acceptable to us or at all and we are not able to find suitable alternatives, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

We may be subject to state, local and foreign taxes that could harm our business.

We operate revenue delivery centers in multiple locations. Some of the jurisdictions in which we operate, such as Ireland, Malaysia, and the Philippines, give us the benefit of either relatively low tax rates, tax holidays or government grants, in each case, that are dependent on how we operate or how many jobs we create and employees we retain. We plan on utilizing such tax incentives in the future, as opportunities are made available to us. Any failure on our part to operate in conformity with applicable requirements to remain qualified for any such tax incentives or grants may result in an increase in our taxes. In addition, jurisdictions may choose to increase rates at any time due to economic or other factors. Any such rate increases may harm our results of operations.

We may lose sales or incur significant costs should various tax jurisdictions impose taxes on either a broader range of services or services that we have performed in the past. We may be subject to audits of the taxing authorities in the jurisdictions where we do business that would require us to incur costs in responding to such audits. Imposition of such taxes on our services could result in substantial unplanned costs, would effectively increase the cost of such services to our clients and may adversely affect our ability to retain existing clients or to gain new clients in the areas in which such taxes are imposed.

We may incur material restructuring charges.

We continually evaluate ways to reduce our operating expenses and adapt to changing industry and market conditions through new restructuring opportunities, including more effective utilization of our assets, workforce and operating facilities. We have recorded restructuring charges in the past and we may incur material restructuring charges in the future. The risk that we incur material restructuring charges may be heightened during economic downturns or with expanded global operations.

We have incurred indebtedness in connection with our business and may incur additional indebtedness in the future.

In July 2021, we entered into a $35.0 million Revolver that allows us to borrow against our domestic receivables as defined in the 2021 Credit Agreement. As of February 23, 2022, we had $10.0 million of borrowings under the Revolver through a six-month BSBY borrowing at an effective interest rate of 3.04% maturing in August 2022. An additional $18.0 million was available for borrowing under the Revolver as of February 23, 2022. The BSBY borrowings may be extended upon maturity, converted into a base rate borrowing upon maturity or require an incremental payment if the Company's borrowing base decreases below the current amount outstanding during the term of the BSBY borrowing. We may incur additional indebtedness in connection with financing acquisitions, strategic transactions or for other purposes.

If we are unable to secure additional borrowing options in the future, it may have an adverse effect on our business.

The Revolver matures in July 2024, and we are subject to the risks normally associated with debt obligations, including the risk that we will be unable to refinance our indebtedness, or that the terms of such refinancing will not be as favorable as the terms of our indebtedness. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds necessary to make required payments or otherwise refinance any debt that we incur, our business could suffer.

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Covenants in our 2021 Credit Agreement currently impose, and future financing agreements may impose, significant operating and financial restrictions.

Our current 2021 Credit Agreement contains restrictions, and future financing agreements may contain additional restrictions, on our activities, including covenants that restrict our ability to incur additional debt, pay dividends on, redeem or repurchase stock, create liens, make specified types of investments, engage in transactions with our affiliates, merge or consolidate, and sell, assign, transfer, lease, convey or dispose of assets.

Our financial condition and results of operations could suffer if there is an impairment of goodwill.

We are required to test goodwill annually or more frequently if certain circumstances change that would more-likely-than-not indicate the carrying value of the reporting unit may not be recoverable. As of December 31, 2021, our goodwill was $6.3 million. When the carrying value of a reporting unit exceeds its fair value, an impairment loss equal to the difference is recorded. This would result in incremental expenses for that period, which would reduce any earnings or increase any loss for the period in which the impairment was determined to have occurred. Declines in our level of revenues or declines in our operating margins, or sustained declines in our stock price, increase the risk that goodwill may become impaired in future periods. Our goodwill impairment analysis is sensitive to changes in key assumptions used in our analysis, such as expected future cash flows and our stock price. If the assumptions used in our analysis are not realized, it is possible that an impairment charge may need to be recorded in the future. We cannot accurately predict the amount and timing of any impairment of goodwill.

If we were to experience an ownership change, we could be limited in our ability to use NOLs arising prior to the ownership change to offset future taxable income. In addition, our ability to use NOLs to reduce future tax payments may be limited if our taxable income does not reach sufficient levels.

As of December 31, 2021, we had federal net operating losses of $325.4 million. If we were to experience an “ownership change,” as determined under Section 382 of the IRC, our ability to offset taxable income arising after the ownership change with net operating losses arising prior to the ownership change would be limited, possibly substantially. In addition, our ability to use our net operating losses is dependent on our ability to generate taxable income, and the net operating losses could expire before we generate sufficient taxable income to make use of our net operating losses.

General Risk Factors

Anti-takeover provisions contained in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, as well as provisions of Delaware law, could impair a takeover attempt.

Our certificate of incorporation, bylaws and Delaware law contain provisions that could have the effect of rendering more difficult or discouraging an acquisition deemed undesirable by our board of directors. Our corporate governance documents include provisions:

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These provisions, alone or together, could delay hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our management. As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to provisions of Delaware law, including Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation law, which limits the ability of stockholders owning in excess of 15% of our outstanding common stock to merge or combine with us.

Any provision of our certificate of incorporation, bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our common stock.

We may be unable to maintain compliance with Nasdaq Marketplace Rules which could cause our common stock to be delisted from the Nasdaq Global Select Market. This could result in the lack of a market for our common stock, cause a decrease in the value of our common stock, and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Under the Nasdaq Marketplace Rules our common stock must maintain a minimum price of $1.00 per share for continued inclusion on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

Our stock price was previously below $1.00 on certain dates during December 2021, and we cannot guarantee that our stock price will remain at or above $1.00 per share. If the price of our stock were to close below $1.00 per share for 30 consecutive business days, our stock could become subject to delisting, and we may seek stockholder approval for a reverse stock split, which in turn could produce adverse effects and may not result in a long-term or permanent increase in the price of our common stock.

If our common stock is delisted, trading of the stock will most likely take place on an over-the-counter market established for unlisted securities. An investor is likely to find it less convenient to sell, or to obtain accurate quotations in seeking to buy, our common stock on an over-the-counter market, and many investors may not buy or sell our common stock due to difficulty in accessing over-the-counter markets, or due to policies preventing them from trading in securities not listed on a national exchange or other reasons. For these reasons and others, delisting would adversely affect the liquidity, trading volume and price of our common stock, causing the value of an investment in us to decrease and having an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations by limiting our ability to attract and retain qualified executives and employees and limiting our ability to raise capital.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock could depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business, which in part depends on our market capitalization. If analysts downgrade our stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price could also likely decline. If analysts cease coverage of us, the trading price and trading volume of our stock could be negatively impacted. As of December 31, 2021, the Company is not aware of any active analyst coverage.

Because we currently do not intend to pay dividends, stockholders will benefit from an investment in our common stock only if it appreciates in value.

We currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, for use in the operation of our business and do not expect to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future on our common stock. As a result, the success of an investment in our common stock will depend upon any future appreciation in its value. There is no guarantee that our common stock will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which stockholders have purchased their shares.

Our business or the value of our common stock could be negatively affected as a result of actions by activist stockholders.

Our company values constructive input from investors and regularly engages in dialogue with stockholders regarding strategy and performance. Our board of directors and management team are committed to acting in the best interests of all of our

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stockholders. There is no assurance that the actions taken by our board of directors and management in seeking to maintain constructive engagement with stockholders will be successful.

Activist stockholders who disagree with the composition of our board of directors, our strategy, or the way our company is managed may seek to effect change through various strategies that range from private engagement to publicity campaigns, proxy contests, efforts to force transactions not supported by our board of directors, and litigation. Responding to some of these actions can be costly and time-consuming, may disrupt our operations and divert the attention of our board of directors, management, and employees. Such activities could interfere with our ability to execute our strategic plan and to attract and retain qualified executive leadership and could cause concern to our current or potential clients. The perceived uncertainty as to our future direction resulting from activist strategies could also affect the market price and volatility of our common stock.

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operating margins until we begin to achieve anticipated sales levels associated with the new engagements, which is typically two to three quarters after we begin selling contracts on behalf of our clients.

Although we expect new client engagements to contribute to our operating profitability over time, in the initial periods of a client relationship, our near-term profitability can be negatively impacted by slower-than anticipated growth in revenues for these engagements as well as the impact of the upfront costs we incur, the lower initial level of associated service sales team productivity and lack of mature data and technology integration with the client. As a result, an increase in the mix of new clients as a percentage of total clients may initially have a negative impact on our operating results. Similarly, a decline in the ratio of new clients to total clients may positively impact our near-term operating results.

Contract Terms. A significant portion of our revenue comes from our pay-for-performance model. Under our pay-for-performance model, we earn commissions based on the value of service contracts we sell on behalf of our clients. In some cases, we earn additional performance-based commissions for exceeding pre-determined service performance targets.

Our new client contracts typically have an initial term between one and two years. Our contracts generally require our clients to deliver a minimum value of qualifying service revenue contracts for us to renew on their behalf during a specified period. To the extent that our clients do not meet their minimum contractual commitments over a specified period, they may be subject to fees for the shortfall. Our client contracts are cancelable with relatively short notice and can be subject to the payment of an early termination fee by the client. The amount of this fee is based on the length of the remaining term and value of the contract.

Merger and Acquisition Activity. Our clients, particularly those in the technology sector, participate in an active environment for mergers and acquisitions. Large technology companies have maintained active acquisition programs to increase the breadth and depth of their product and service offerings and small and mid-sized companies have combined to better compete with large technology companies. A number of our clients have merged, purchased other companies or been acquired by other companies. We expect merger and acquisition activity to continue to occur in the future.

The impact of these transactions on our business can vary. Acquisitions of other companies by our clients can provide us with the opportunity to pursue additional business to the extent the acquired company is not already one of our clients. Similarly, when a client is acquired, we may be able to use our relationship with the acquired company to build a relationship with the acquirer. In some cases, we have been able to maintain our relationship with an acquired client even where the acquiring company handles its other service contract renewals through internal resources. In other cases, however, acquirers have elected to terminate or not renew our contract with the acquired company.

Seasonality. We experience a seasonal variance in our revenue which is typically higher in the fourth quarter when many of our clients’ products come up for renewal, and for the third quarter of the year which is typically lower as a result of lower or flat renewal volume corresponding to the timing of our clients’ product sales, particularly in the international regions. The impact of this seasonal fluctuation can be amplified if the economy as a whole is experiencing disruption or uncertainty, leading to deferral of some renewal decisions.

Foreign currency. Our results of operations and cash flows are subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates, particularly changes in the Euro, British Pound, Singapore Dollar, Philippine Peso, Bulgarian Lev and Malaysian Ringgit. To date, we have not entered into any foreign currency hedging contracts, but may consider entering into such contracts in the future. We believe our operating activities act as a natural hedge for a portion of our foreign currency exposure because we typically collect revenue and incur costs in the currency in the location in which we provide our solution from our revenue delivery centers. As our international operations grow, we will continue to reassess our approach to managing our risk relating to fluctuations in currency rates. See Item.1A. "Risk Factors" for a description of the risks associated with fluctuations of the foreign currency exchange rate in our foreign operations.

Inflation. We do not believe that inflation had a material effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations as of December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020. Nonetheless, if our costs were to become subject to significant inflationary pressures, we may not be able to fully offset such higher costs through price increases. Our inability or failure to do so could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic. With the global outbreak of COVID-19 and the declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, we created a dedicated crisis team to proactively implement our business continuity plans. By March 19, 2020, more than 95% of our employees had moved from an in-office to a work-from-home environment and as of April 1, 2020, we transitioned to a 100% virtual operating model. As a result of this successful work-from-home implementation, we have shifted to a virtual-first operating model whereby our employees will continue to primarily work from their home offices and our facilities will be used for collaboration, innovation, and connection. Additionally, this model includes virtual sourcing, hiring, and onboarding for new employees as well as a process for driving performance and culture in a virtual environment. As a result of the implementation of these business continuity measures, we have not experienced material disruptions in our operations.

We believe we have sufficient liquidity on hand to continue business operations even during periods of volatility such as those experienced since early 2020. As of December 31, 2021, we had total available liquidity of $46.5 million consisting of cash on hand and borrowing availability under our Revolver. See "Liquidity and Capital Resources" for additional information.

There was no material adverse impact on the results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect to continue to invest capital to allow our employees to function in our virtual, work-from-home operating model. However, we are benefiting and will continue to benefit from decreases in certain costs related to our facilities and reduced travel and entertainment costs.

During 2020, ServiceSource received various grants from the Singapore government, including the Job Support Scheme, which assists enterprises in retaining their local employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Company received and recognized income related to the grants of approximately $0.3 million and $1.3 million from the grant during the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The Company does not expect to receive additional income related to these grants.

The situation surrounding COVID-19 remains fluid and the potential for a negative impact on our financial condition and results of operations increases the longer the virus impacts the economic activity in the U.S. and globally. See Part I, Item 1A - “Risk Factors” for additional information.

Basis of Presentation

Net Revenue

The majority of our net revenue is attributable to commissions we earn from the sale of renewals of maintenance, support and subscription agreements on behalf of our clients. We generally invoice our clients for our selling services on a monthly basis for sales commissions, and on a quarterly basis for certain performance sales commissions. We do not set the price, terms or scope of services in the service contracts with end customers and do not have any obligations related to the underlying service contracts between our clients and their end customers. We also generate revenues from selling professional services for which we are the principal. Professional services involve providing data integration at scale with our systems and processes, combined with client data enhancement, enablement and optimization. We typically invoice our clients for professional services on a monthly basis.

Cost of Revenue and Gross Profit

Our cost of revenue includes employee compensation, technology costs, including those related to the delivery of our cloud-based technologies, and allocated overhead expenses. Employee compensation includes salary, bonus, commissions, benefits, and stock-based compensation for our dedicated service sales teams. Allocated overhead expenses include depreciation, amortization of internal-use software associated with our selling services revenue technology platform and cloud applications, and costs for facilities and information technology. Allocated overhead expenses for facilities consist of rent, maintenance, and compensation of personnel in our facilities departments. Our allocated overhead expenses for information technology include costs associated with third-party data centers where we maintain our data servers, compensation of our information technology personnel and the cost of support and maintenance contracts associated with computer hardware and software. To the extent our client base or business with our existing client base expands, we may need to hire additional service sales personnel and invest in infrastructure to support such growth. Our cost of revenue may fluctuate significantly and increase or decrease on an absolute basis and as a percentage of revenue in the near term, including for the reasons discussed under, “Factors Affecting Our Performance-Implementation Cycle.”

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Operating Expenses

Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing expenses primarily consist of employee compensation expense and sales commissions paid to our sales and marketing employees, amortization of contract acquisition costs, marketing programs and events and allocated overhead expenses which consist of depreciation, amortization of internally developed software, and facility and technology costs. We sell our solutions through our global sales organization, which is organized across three geographic regions: NALA, EMEA and APJ. Our commission plans generally provide multiple payments of commissions to our sales representatives based in part on the execution of a client contract and then on a percentage of revenue recorded during the first one to two years of the contract term. Commissions paid as a percentage of recorded revenue is contingent on the sales representatives’ continued employment. We generally capitalize the amounts payable for obtaining a contract and amortize ratably to sales and marketing expense over the contract term for new clients or five years for long-standing client relationships. Revenue based commissions are generally expensed to sales and marketing expense each quarter as revenue is recorded.

Research and Development

Research and development expenses primarily consist of employee compensation expense, third-party consultant costs and allocated overhead expenses which consist of depreciation, amortization of internally developed software, and facility and technology costs. We focus our research and development efforts on developing new products and applications related to our technology platform. We capitalize certain expenditures related to the development and enhancement of internal-use software related to our technology platform.

General and Administrative

General and administrative expenses primarily consist of employee compensation expense for our executive, human resources, finance and legal functions and expenses for professional fees for accounting, tax and legal services, as well as allocated overhead expenses, which consist of depreciation, amortization of internally developed software, facility and technology costs.

Restructuring and Other Related Costs

Restructuring and other related costs primarily consist of employees’ severance payments and related employee benefits, related legal fees and charges related to lease termination costs.

During 2020, the Company announced a restructuring effort to align with its virtual-first operating model and reduce the operating cost structure resulting in a reduction of headcount and office lease costs. As of December 31, 2021, the Company does not expect to incur additional restructuring charges related to this restructuring effort.

Interest and Other Expense, Net

Interest and other expense, net consists of interest expense associated with our Revolver, imputed interest from finance lease payments, interest income earned on our cash and cash equivalents, amortization of debt issuance costs and foreign exchange gains and losses.

Provision for Income Tax Expense

We account for income taxes using an asset and liability method, which requires the recognition of taxes payable or refundable for the current year and deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of temporary differences that currently exist between the tax basis and the financial reporting basis of our taxable subsidiaries’ assets and liabilities using the enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which the differences are expected to reverse. The effect of a change in tax rates on deferred tax assets and liabilities is recognized in operations in the period that includes the enactment date. The measurement of deferred tax assets is reduced, if necessary, by the amount of any tax benefits that, based on available evidence, are not expected to be realized.

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We evaluate our ability to realize the tax benefits associated with deferred tax assets on a jurisdictional basis. This evaluation utilizes the framework contained in ASC 740 wherein management analyzes all positive and negative evidence available at the balance sheet date to determine whether all or some portion of our deferred tax assets will not be realized. Under this guidance, a valuation allowance must be established for deferred tax assets when it is more-likely-than-not (a probability level of more than 50 percent) that they will not be realized. In assessing the realization of our deferred tax assets, we consider all available evidence, both positive and negative, and place significant emphasis on guidance contained in ASC 740, which states that “a cumulative loss in recent years is a significant piece of negative evidence that is difficult to overcome.”

We account for unrecognized tax benefits using a more-likely-than-not threshold for financial statement recognition and measurement of tax positions taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. We establish reserves for tax-related uncertainties based on estimates of whether, and the extent to which, additional taxes will be due. We record an income tax liability, if any, for the difference between the benefit recognized and measured and the tax position taken or expected to be taken on our tax returns. To the extent that the assessment of such tax positions change, the change in estimate is recorded in the period in which the determination is made. The provision for income taxes includes the impact of reserve provisions and changes to reserves that are considered appropriate.

Key Financial Results  – Full Year Ended December 31, 2021

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Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing expense decreased $7.9 million, or 32%, for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to a $4.9 million decrease in employee related costs largely associated with a reduction in headcount, a $2.8 million decrease in information technology and facility costs related to transitioning to a virtual-first operating model, and a $0.2 million decrease in marketing cost.

Research and Development

Research and development expense decreased $0.4 million, or 7%, for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to a $0.7 million decrease in information technology and facility costs and a $0.5 million decrease in professional fees, partially offset by a $0.4 million increase in employee related costs primarily due to increased compensation expense associated with higher revenue attainment and a $0.4 million reduction in third-party capitalizable software development costs.

General and Administrative

General and administrative expense increased $3.1 million, or 7%, for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to the following:

Restructuring and Other Related Costs

Restructuring and other related costs decreased $0.5 million, or 31%, for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 due to decreased costs incurred during the year ended December 31, 2021 related to restructuring efforts resulting in a reduction of headcount and office lease costs compared to the year ended December 31, 2020.

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Interest expense decreased $0.1 million, or 23%, for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 primarily due to lower average borrowings on the Revolver.

Other expense, net increased $0.6 million, or 96%, for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 primarily due to foreign currency fluctuations.

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Operating Activities

Net cash provided by operating activities increased $3.2 million during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily as a result of lower payments for operating costs and increased revenue, partially offset by a decrease in cash collections from our clients.

Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities decreased $3.9 million during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, due to decreased cash outflows from purchases of property and equipment during the year ended December 31, 2021.

Financing Activities

Net cash provided by financing activities decreased $20.0 million during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily due to $5.0 million in net cash outflows from repayments on the Revolver during the current period compared to $15.0 million in net cash inflows from borrowings on the Revolver during the prior period.

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Critical Accounting Estimates

General

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to use judgment in the application of accounting policies, including making estimates and assumptions. If our judgment or interpretation of the facts and circumstances relating to various transactions had been different or different assumptions were made, it is possible that different accounting policies would have been applied, resulting in different financial results or a different presentation of our financial statements. Our discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations is based on our Consolidated Financial Statements, which have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. Estimates, judgments and assumptions are based on historical experiences that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. From time to time, we re-evaluate those estimates and assumptions.

The Company’s significant accounting policies are described in Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, "Note 2 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies.” These policies were followed in preparing the Consolidated Financial Statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2021 and are consistent with the year ended December 31, 2020.

Revenue Recognition

The Company derives its revenues primarily from selling and professional services. Revenue is recognized in accordance with ASC 606 when performance obligations identified in a contract are satisfied, which is achieved through the transfer of control of the services to our client.

Significant estimates and judgments for revenue recognition include: (1) identifying and determining distinct performance obligations in contracts with clients, (2) determining the timing of the satisfaction of performance obligations, (3) estimating the timing and amount of variable consideration in a contract, (4) determining SSP for each performance obligations and the methodology to allocate the total contract consideration to the distinct performance obligations, and (5) determining and measuring variable revenue that has yet to be invoiced as of period end.

Our revenue contracts often include promises to transfer services involving multiple selling motions to a client. Determining whether those services are considered distinct and qualify as a series of distinct services that represent a single performance obligation requires significant judgment. Also, due to the continuous nature of providing services to our clients, judgment is required in determining when control of the services is transferred to the client.

A significant portion of our contracts is based on a pay-for-performance model that provides the Company with commissions and revenue based on a volume of closed bookings each time period and variable consideration if certain performance targets are achieved during a given period of time (such as exceeding quarterly closure rate thresholds or achieving absolute dollar volume sales targets). Significant judgment is required to determine if this type of variable consideration should be constrained, and to what extent, until the risk of a significant revenue reversal is not probable.

We also enter into contracts with multiple performance obligations that incorporate fixed consideration, pay-for-performance commissions and variable bonus commissions. Judgment is required to estimate the amount of variable consideration to include when estimating the total contract consideration and how to allocate the consideration if one of the distinct performance obligations is not sold at SSP.

Stock-Based Compensation

Stock-based compensation expense for RSUs and PSUs is determined using the fair value of our common stock on the date of grant and is recognized on a straight-line basis over the vesting period. PSU compensation expense is only recorded if it is probable the performance conditions will be met. Judgment is required to estimate achievement of the performance metrics.

Impairment of Goodwill

We evaluate goodwill for possible impairment at least annually or if indicators of impairment arise, such as significant changes in key factors including the industry and competitive environment, stock price, actual revenue performance year over year, EBITDA and

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cash flow generation that would more-likely-than-not indicate the carrying amount of such assets may not be recoverable. Significant judgments are required to estimate the fair value of the reporting unit which include estimating future cash flows. Changes in these estimates and assumptions could materially affect the determination of fair value for the reporting unit which could trigger impairment.

Income Taxes

We account for income taxes using an asset and liability method, which requires the recognition of taxes payable or refundable for the current year and deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of temporary differences that currently exist between the tax basis and the financial reporting basis of our taxable subsidiaries’ assets and liabilities using the enacted tax rates in effect for the year in which the differences are expected to reverse. The effect of a change in tax rates on deferred tax assets and liabilities is recognized in operations in the period that includes the enactment date. The measurement of deferred tax assets is reduced, if necessary, by the amount of any tax benefits that, based on available evidence, are not expected to be realized.

We regularly assess the need for a valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets. In making that assessment, we consider both positive and negative evidence related to the likelihood of realization of the deferred tax assets on a jurisdictional basis to determine, based on the weight of available evidence, whether it is more-likely-than-not that some or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. Examples of positive and negative evidence include future growth, forecasted earnings, future taxable income, the mix of earnings in the jurisdictions in which we operate, historical earnings, taxable income in prior years, if carryback is permitted under the law and prudent and feasible tax planning strategies. In the event we were to determine that we would not be able to realize all or part of our net deferred tax assets in the future, an adjustment to the deferred tax assets valuation allowance would be charged to earnings in the period in which we make such a determination, or goodwill would be adjusted at our final determination of the valuation allowance related to an acquisition within the measurement period. If we later determine that it is more-likely-than-not that the net deferred tax assets would be realized, we would reverse the applicable portion of the previously provided valuation allowance as an adjustment to earnings at such time.

We account for unrecognized tax benefits using a more-likely-than-not threshold for financial statement recognition and measurement of tax positions taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. We establish reserves for tax-related uncertainties based on estimates of whether, and the extent to which, additional taxes will be due. We record an income tax liability, if any, for the difference between the benefit recognized and measured and the tax position taken or expected to be taken on our tax returns. We recognize interest accrued and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits in the income tax provision. To the extent that the assessment of such tax positions change, the change in estimate is recorded in the period in which the determination is made. The provision for income taxes includes the impact of reserve provisions and changes to reserves that are considered appropriate.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements “Note 2 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” in Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data for a full description of recent accounting pronouncements including the expected dates of adoption and the anticipated impact to our Consolidated Financial Statements.

Non-GAAP Financial Measurements

ServiceSource believes net income (loss), as defined by GAAP, is the most appropriate financial measure of our operating performance; however, ServiceSource considers Adjusted EBITDA to be a useful supplemental, non-GAAP financial measure of our operating performance. We believe Adjusted EBITDA can assist investors in understanding and assessing our operating performance on a consistent basis, as it removes the impact of the Company’s capital structure and other non-cash or non-recurring items from operating results and provides an additional tool to compare ServiceSource’s financial results with other companies in the industry, many of which present similar non-GAAP financial measures.

EBITDA consists of net income (loss) plus provision for income tax expense (benefit), interest and other expense (income), net and depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA consists of EBITDA plus stock-based compensation, restructuring and other related costs, amortization of contract acquisition costs related to the initial adoption of ASC 606, costs attributable to establishing a litigation reserve, and loss (gain) on disposal of fixed assets and other, net.

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This non-GAAP measure should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP.

The following table presents the reconciliation of “Net loss” to Adjusted EBITDA:

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The accompanying notes are an integral part of these Consolidated Financial Statements

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The accompanying notes are an integral part of these Consolidated Financial Statements.

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The accompanying notes are an integral part of these Consolidated Financial Statements.

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The accompanying notes are an integral part of these Consolidated Financial Statements.

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