Item 1A. Risk Factors
You should carefully review and consider the following risk factors and the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the audited consolidated financial statements and notes to the consolidated financial statements included herein.
These risk factors are not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the following risk factors in addition to the other information included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including matters addressed in the section entitled “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” The Company may face additional risks and uncertainties that are not presently known to it, or that BigBear.ai currently deems immaterial, which may also impair the Company’s business or financial condition.
The following discussion should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and notes to those financial statements included herein. Additional risks, beyond those summarized below may apply to our activities or operations as currently conducted or as we may conduct them in the future or in the markets in which we operate or may in the future operate. Consistent with the foregoing, we are exposed to a variety of risks, including risks associated with:
•a significant portion of our business depends on sales to the public/government sector, and our failure to receive and maintain government contracts or changes in the contracting or fiscal policies of the public sector could have a material adverse effect on our business;
•our limited operating history as a combined company, which makes it difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects;
•our ability to sustain our revenue growth in the future;
•our ability to execute our strategy to grow our business and increase our sales and the number and types of markets we compete in;
•the length of our sales cycle and the time and expense associated with it;
•our ability to grow our customer base and to expand our relationships with our existing customers, including with our government customers;
•our reliance on customers in the public/government sector;
•the market and our customers accepting and adopting our products, including future new product offerings;
•the impact of health epidemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic, on our business, financial condition, growth and the actions we may take in response thereto;
•competition in our industry;
•our ability to gain contracts on favorable terms, including with our government customers;
•our ability to grow, maintain and enhance our brand and reputation;
•risks related to security and our technology, including cybersecurity;
•our ability to maintain competitive pricing for our products;
•our ability to secure financing necessary to operate and grow our business as planned, including through acquisitions;
•the high degree of uncertainty of the level of demand for, and market utilization of, our solutions and products;
•our estimates and projections may prove to be inaccurate and certain of our assets may be at risk of future impairment;
•substantial regulation and the potential for unfavorable changes to, or failure by us to comply with, these regulations, which could substantially harm our business and operating results;
•our dependency upon third-party service providers for certain technologies;
•increases in costs, disruption of supply or shortage of materials, which could harm our business;
•developments and projections relating to our competitors and industry;
•the unavailability, reduction or elimination of government and economic incentives, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results;
•our existing debt and our ability to refinance it on more favorable terms;
•our management team’s limited experience managing a public company;
•our ability to hire, retain, train and motivate qualified personnel and senior management and ability to deploy our personnel and resources to meet customer demand;
•our ability to successfully execute future joint ventures, channel sales relationships, platform partnerships, strategic alliances and subcontracting opportunities;
•our ability to grow through acquisitions and successfully integrate any such acquisitions;
•our ability to successfully maintain, protect, enforce and grow our intellectual property rights;
•our compliance with governmental laws, trade controls, customs requirements and other regulations we are subject to;
•the possibility of our need to defend ourselves against fines, penalties and injunctions if we are determined to be promoting products for unapproved uses or otherwise found to have violated a law or regulation;
•concentration of ownership among our existing executive officers, directors and their respective affiliates, which may
prevent new investors from influencing significant corporate decisions;
•the effect of economic downturns, depressions and recessions;
•if the benefits of the Business Combination do not meet the expectations of investors or securities;
•the risk that the Business Combination disrupted current plans and operations of our business as a result of consummation of the transactions described herein;
•the risk that our significant increased expenses and administrative burdens as a public company could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations; and
•other factors detailed below.
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
We have a limited operating history, which makes it difficult to evaluate our prospects and future results of operations.
Since we commenced operations, our business has expanded organically through the delivery of enhanced solutions and expanded product offerings to our customers and through acquisitions. As a result of our limited operating history and evolving business, our ability to forecast our future results of operations is limited and subject to several uncertainties, including our ability to plan for and model future growth. Our historical revenue growth should not be considered indicative of our future performance. Further, in future periods, our revenue growth could slow. We have encountered and will encounter risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries, such as the risks and uncertainties described herein. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our business could be adversely affected.
We may not be able to sustain our revenue growth rate in the future.
Although our revenue has increased in recent periods, there can be no assurances that revenue will continue to grow or do so at current rates, and you should not rely on the revenue of any prior quarterly or annual period as an indication of our future performance. Our revenue growth rate may decline in future periods. Many factors may contribute to declines in our revenue growth rate, including increased competition, slowing demand for our products and services from existing and new customers, a failure by us to continue capitalizing on growth opportunities including expansion into the commercial marketplace, strategic acquisitions, terminations of existing contracts or failure to exercise existing options by our customers, our failure to execute on the existing backlog of customer contracts, the maturation of our business, and a contraction of our overall market, among others. If our revenue growth rate declines, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our results of operations and cash flows are substantially affected by our mix of fixed-price and time-and-material type contracts. Our profits may decrease and/or we may incur significant unanticipated costs if we do not accurately estimate the costs of these engagements.
We generate most of our revenue through various time-and-material and fixed-price contracts. Some of our arrangements with our customers are on fixed-price contracts, rather than contracts in which payment to us is determined on a time and materials or other basis. These fixed-price contracts allow us to benefit from cost savings, but subject us to the risk of potential cost overruns, particularly for firm fixed-price contracts because we assume all of the cost burden. If our initial estimates are incorrect, we can lose money on these contracts. U.S. government contracts can expose us to potentially large losses because the U.S. government can hold us responsible for completing a project or, in certain circumstances, require us to pay the entire cost of its replacement by another provider regardless of the size or foreseeability of any cost overruns that occur over the life of the contract. Because many of these contracts involve new technologies and applications and can last for years, unforeseen events, such as technological difficulties, fluctuations in the price of raw materials, a significant increase in inflation in the U.S. or other countries, problems with our suppliers and cost overruns, can result in the contractual price becoming less favorable or even unprofitable to us over time. Our failure to estimate accurately the resources and schedule required for a project, or our failure to complete our contractual obligations in a manner consistent with the project plan upon which our fixed-price contract was based, could adversely affect our overall profitability and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. We are consistently entering into contracts for large projects that magnify this risk. We have been required to commit unanticipated additional resources to complete projects in the past, which has occasionally resulted in losses on those contracts. We could experience similar situations in the future. In addition, we may fix the price for some projects at an early stage of the project engagement, which could result in a fixed price that is too low. Therefore, any changes from our original estimates could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our sales efforts involve considerable time and expense and our sales cycle is often long and unpredictable.
Our results of operations may fluctuate, in part, because of the intensive nature of our sales efforts and the length and unpredictability of our sales cycle. As part of our sales efforts, we invest considerable time and expense evaluating the specific organizational needs of our potential customers and educating these potential customers about the technical capabilities and value of our products and services. In the “land” phase of our business model, we often deploy prototype capabilities to potential customers at no or minimal cost initially to them for evaluation purposes, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to convert these engagements into long-term sales arrangements. In addition, we currently have a limited direct sales force, and our sales efforts have historically depended on the significant involvement of our senior management team. The length of our sales cycle, from initial demonstration to sale of our products and services, tends to be long and varies substantially from customer to customer. Our sales cycle often lasts six to nine months but can extend to a year or more for some customers. Because decisions to purchase our software involve significant financial commitments, potential customers generally evaluate our software at multiple levels within their organization, each of which often have specific requirements, and typically involve their senior management.
Our results of operations depend on sales to enterprise customers, which make product purchasing decisions based in part or entirely on factors, or perceived factors, not directly related to the features of the software, including, among others, that customer’s projections of business growth, uncertainty about economic conditions (including as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and the escalation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine), capital budgets, anticipated cost savings from the implementation of our software, potential preference for such customer’s internally-developed software solutions, perceptions about our business and software, more favorable terms offered by potential competitors, and previous technology investments. In addition, certain decision makers and other stakeholders within our potential customers tend to have vested interests in the continued use of internally developed or existing software, which may make it more difficult for us to sell our software and services. As a result of these and other factors, our sales efforts typically require an extensive effort throughout a customer’s organization, a significant investment of human resources, expense and time, including by our senior management, and there can be no assurances that we will be successful in making a sale to a potential customer. If our sales efforts to a potential customer do not result in sufficient revenue to justify our investments, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Historically, existing customers have expanded their relationships with us, which has resulted in a limited number of customers accounting for a substantial portion of our revenue. If existing customers do not make subsequent purchases from us or renew their contracts with us, if those renewals are otherwise delayed, or if our relationships with our largest customers are impaired or terminated, our revenue could decline, and our results of operations would be adversely impacted.
We derive a significant portion of our revenue from existing customers that expand their relationships with us. Increasing the size and number of the deployments of our existing customers is a major part of our growth strategy. We may not be effective in executing this or any other aspect of our growth strategy. For example, revenue earned from customers contributing in excess of 10% of consolidated revenues were derived from two customers comprising 32% of revenue for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021 (Successor). As of December 31, 2021, we have supported these customers for more than five years.
Each of our contracts with these customers includes termination for convenience provisions whereby the customer can unilaterally elect to terminate the contract. In the event of a termination, we may generally recover only our incurred or committed costs and settlement expenses and profit on work completed prior to the termination. Our 2021 revenues from these significant customers were mainly earned from large multi-year contracts. As of December 31, 2021, about $189 million of our approximate $466 million of total backlog is attributable to these significant customers. The estimated completion dates for these contracts range from 2022 to 2026. Of the $189 million of backlog related to these significant customers as of December 31, 2021 we expect to recognize almost a quarter of that amount as revenue by the end of 2022, with the remainder to be recognized as revenue by the end of 2026.
There are inherent risks whenever a large percentage of total revenues are concentrated with a limited number of customers. Our concentration of revenue among a few of our customers increases the risk of quarterly fluctuations in our operating results and our sensitivity to any material, adverse developments experienced by our significant customers. Further, it is not possible for us to predict the future level of demand for our products and services that will be generated by these customers. As previously described, the terms of our contracts with these significant customers permit them to unilaterally terminate our arrangement at any time (subject to notice and certain other provisions). In addition, the terms and conditions under which we do business generally do not include commitments by those customers to purchase any specific quantities of products or services from us or to renew their contracts after the initial period. Even in those instances where we enter into an arrangement under which a significant
customer agrees to purchase an agreed portion of its product or service needs from us (provided we meet our contractual obligations), the arrangement often includes pricing schedules with substantial price concessions that may apply regardless of the volume of products or services purchased, and those material customers may not purchase the volume of products or services we expect. If any of these major customers experience declining or delayed sales due to market, economic or competitive conditions, we could be pressured to reduce the prices we charge for our products and services or we could lose the customer. Any such development could have an adverse effect on our margins and financial position, and would negatively affect our sales and results of operations and/or trading price of our common stock. There can be no assurance that our sales will not continue to be sufficiently concentrated among a limited number of customers.
Certain customers, including customers that represent a significant portion of our business, have in the past reduced their spend with us as a result of budgetary pressure, which has reduced our anticipated future payments or revenue from these customers. It is not possible for us to predict the future level of demand from our larger customers for our software and applications.
While we generally engage customers through contracts with terms up to five years in length, our customers sometimes enter into shorter-term contracts, such as six-month engagements for specific capability developments or enhancements, which may not provide for automatic renewal and may require the customer to opt-in to extend the term. Our customers have no obligation to renew, upgrade, or expand their agreements with us after the terms of their existing agreements have expired. In addition, many of our customer contracts permit the customer to terminate their contracts with us with little or no notice required. If one or more of our customers terminate their contracts with us, whether for convenience, for default in the event of a breach by us, or for other reasons specified in our contracts, as applicable; if our customers elect not to renew their contracts with us; if our customers renew their contractual arrangements with us for shorter contract lengths or for a reduced scope; or if our customers otherwise seek to renegotiate terms of their existing agreements on terms less favorable to us, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected. This adverse impact would be even more pronounced for customers that represent a material portion of our revenue or business operations.
Our ability to renew or expand our customer relationships may decrease or vary due to a number of factors, including our customers’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our software and services, the frequency and severity of software and implementation errors, our software’s reliability, our pricing, the effects of general economic conditions and budgets, competitive offerings or alternatives, or reductions in our customers’ spending levels. Achieving such renewal or expansion of our customer contracts may require us to increasingly engage in sophisticated and costly sales efforts that may not result in additional sales. If our customers do not renew or expand their agreements with us or if they renew their contracts for shorter lengths or on other terms less favorable to us, our revenue may decline or grow more slowly than expected, and our business could suffer. Additionally, if the contract awards process for our government customers is delayed due to budgetary constraints, political instability or other governmental delays in the awards process, expected revenues could be delayed, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Our business, financial condition, and results of operations would also be adversely affected if we face difficulty collecting our accounts receivable from our customers or if we are required to refund customer deposits.
We may not realize the full deal value of our customer contracts, which may result in lower than expected revenue.
As of December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, the total remaining deal value of the contracts that we had been awarded by, or entered into with, commercial and government customers, including existing contractual obligations, contract options available to those customers, and anticipated follow-on awards was approximately $465 million and $409 million, respectively.
The majority of these contracts contain termination for convenience provisions. Additionally, the U.S. federal government is prohibited from exercising contract options more than one year in advance. As a result, there can be no guarantee that our customer contracts will not be terminated or that contract options will be exercised.
We may not realize all of the revenue from the full deal value of our customer contracts. This is because the actual timing and amount of revenue under contracts included are subject to various contingencies, including exercise of contractual options, customers terminating their contracts, and renegotiations of contracts. In addition, delays in the completion of the U.S. government’s budgeting process, the use of continuing resolutions, and a potential lapse in appropriations, or similar events in other jurisdictions, could adversely affect our ability to timely recognize revenue under certain government contracts.
Our results of operations and our key business measures are likely to fluctuate significantly on a quarterly basis in future periods and may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business, which makes our future results difficult to predict and could cause our results of operations to fall below expectations.
Our quarterly results of operations, including cash flows, have fluctuated significantly in the past and are likely to continue to do
so in the future. Accordingly, the results of any one quarter should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. Our quarterly results, financial position, and operations are likely to fluctuate as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control, and as a result, may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business. Fluctuation in quarterly results may negatively impact the value of our common stock.
The timing of our sales cycles is unpredictable and is impacted by factors such as government budgeting and appropriation cycles, varying commercial fiscal years, and changing economic conditions. This can impact our ability to plan and manage margins and cash flows. Our sales cycles are often long, and it is difficult to predict exactly when, or if, we will make a sale with a potential customer or how quickly we can move them from the “land” phase into the profitable “expand” phase. As a result, large individual sales have, in some cases, occurred in quarters subsequent to those we anticipated, or have not occurred at all. The loss or delay of one or more large sales transactions in a quarter would impact our results of operations and cash flow for that quarter and any future quarters in which revenue from that transaction is lost or delayed. In addition, downturns in new sales may not be immediately reflected in our revenue because we generally recognize revenue over the term of our contracts. The timing of customer billing and payment varies from contract to contract. A delay in the timing of receipt of such collections, or a default on a large contract, may negatively impact our liquidity for the period and in the future. Because a substantial portion of our expenses are relatively fixed in the short-term and require time to adjust, our results of operations and liquidity would suffer if revenue falls below our expectations in a particular period.
Other factors that may cause fluctuations in our quarterly results of operations and financial position include, without limitation, those listed below:
•the success of our sales and marketing efforts, including the success of pilot deployments;
•our ability to increase our margins;
•the timing of expenses and revenue recognition;
•the timing and amount of payments received from our customers;
•termination of one or more large contracts by customers, including for convenience;
•the time and cost-intensive nature of our sales efforts and the length and variability of sales cycles;
•the amount and timing of operating expenses related to the maintenance and expansion of our business and operations;
•the timing and effectiveness of new sales and marketing initiatives;
•changes in our pricing policies or those of our competitors;
•the timing and success of new products, features, and functionality introduced by us or our competitors;
•cyberattacks and other actual or perceived data or security breaches;
•our ability to hire and retain employees, in particular, those responsible for the development, operations and maintenance, and selling or marketing of our software; and our ability to develop and retain talented sales personnel who are able to achieve desired productivity levels in a reasonable period of time and provide sales leadership in areas in which we are expanding our sales and marketing efforts;
•the amount and timing of our stock-based compensation expenses;
•changes in the way we organize and compensate our sales teams;
•changes in the way we operate and maintain our software;
•changes in the competitive dynamics of our industry;
•the cost of and potential outcomes of future claims or litigation, which could have a material adverse effect on our
business;
•changes in laws and regulations that impact our business, such as the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (“FASA”);
•indemnification payments to our customers or other third parties;
•ability to scale our business with increasing demands;
•the timing of expenses related to any future acquisitions; and
•general economic, regulatory, and market conditions, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and international affairs such as the escalation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine which may cause financial market volatility.
In addition, our contracts generally contain termination for convenience provisions, and we may be obligated to repay prepaid amounts or otherwise not realize anticipated future revenue should we fail to provide future services as anticipated. These factors make it difficult for us to accurately predict financial metrics for future periods.
The variability and unpredictability of our quarterly results of operations, cash flows, or other operating metrics could result in our failure to meet our expectations or those of analysts that may cover us or investors with respect to revenue or other key metrics for a particular period. If we fail to meet or exceed such expectations for these or any other reasons, the trading price of our common stock could fall, and we could face costly lawsuits, including securities class action suits.
Our software is complex and may have a lengthy implementation process, and any failure of our software to satisfy our customers or perform as desired could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our software and services are complex and are deployed in a wide variety of environments. Implementing our software can be a complex and lengthy process since we often configure our existing software for a customer’s unique environment. Inability to meet the unique needs of our customers may result in customer dissatisfaction and/or damage to our reputation, which could materially harm our business. Further, the proper use of our software may require training of the customer and the initial or ongoing services of our technical personnel over the contract term. If training and/or ongoing services require more of our expenditures than we originally estimated, our margins will be lower than projected.
In addition, if our customers do not use our software correctly or as intended, inadequate performance or outcomes may result. It is possible that our software may also be intentionally misused or abused by customers or their employees or third parties who obtain access and use of our software. Similarly, our software is sometimes used by customers with smaller or less sophisticated IT departments, potentially resulting in sub-optimal performance at a level lower than anticipated by the customer. Because our customers rely on our software and services to address important business goals and challenges, the incorrect or improper use or configuration of our software, failure to properly train customers on how to efficiently and effectively use our software, or failure to properly provide implementation or analytical or maintenance services to our customers may result in contract terminations or non-renewals, reduced customer payments, negative publicity, or legal claims against us. For example, as we continue to expand our customer base, any failure by us to properly provide these services may result in lost opportunities for follow-on expansion sales of our software and services.
Furthermore, if customer personnel are not well trained in the use of our software, customers may defer the deployment of our software and services, may deploy them in a more limited manner than originally anticipated, or may not deploy them at all. If there is substantial turnover of the company or customer personnel responsible for procurement and use of our software, our software may go unused or be adopted less broadly, and our ability to make additional sales may be substantially limited, which could negatively impact our business, results of operations, and growth prospects.
If we do not successfully develop and deploy new technologies to address the needs of our customers, our business and results of operations could suffer.
Our success has been based on our ability to design software that enables the integration of large amounts of data to facilitate advanced data analysis, knowledge management, and decision support in real-time. We spend substantial amounts of time and money researching and developing new technologies and enhanced versions of existing features to meet our customers’ and potential customers’ rapidly evolving needs. There is no assurance that our enhancements to our software or our new product
features, capabilities, or offerings, including new product modules, will be compelling to our customers or gain market acceptance. If our research and development investments do not accurately anticipate customer demand or if we fail to develop our software in a manner that satisfies customer preferences in a timely and cost-effective manner, we may fail to retain our existing customers or increase demand for our software.
The introduction of new products and services by competitors or the development of entirely new technologies to replace existing offerings could make our software obsolete or adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. We may experience difficulties with software development, design, or marketing that delay or prevent our development, introduction, or implementation of new software, features, or capabilities. We have in the past experienced delays in our internally planned release dates of new features and capabilities, and there can be no assurance that new software, features, or capabilities will be released according to schedule. Any delays could result in adverse publicity, loss of revenue or market acceptance, or claims by customers brought against us, any of which could harm our business. Moreover, the design and development of new software or new features and capabilities to our existing software may require substantial investment, and we have no assurance that such investments will be successful. If customers do not widely adopt our new software, experiences, features, and capabilities, we may not be able to realize a return on our investment and our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected.
Our new and existing software and changes to our existing software could fail to attain sufficient market acceptance for many reasons, including:
•our failure to predict market demand accurately in terms of product functionality and to supply offerings that meet this demand in a timely fashion;
•product defects, errors, or failures or our inability to satisfy customer service level requirements;
•negative publicity or negative private statements about the security, performance, or effectiveness of our software or product enhancements;
•delays in releasing to the market our new offerings or enhancements to our existing offerings, including new product modules;
•introduction or anticipated introduction of competing software or functionalities by our competitors;
•inability of our software or product enhancements to scale and perform to meet customer demands;
•receiving qualified or adverse opinions in connection with security or penetration testing, certifications or audits, such as those related to IT controls and security standards and frameworks or compliance;
•poor business conditions for our customers, causing them to delay software purchases;
•reluctance of customers to purchase proprietary software products;
•reluctance of our customers to purchase products hosted by our vendors and/or service interruption from such providers; and
•reluctance of customers to purchase products incorporating open source software.
If we are not able to continue to identify challenges faced by our customers and develop, license, or acquire new features and capabilities to our software in a timely and cost-effective manner, or if such enhancements do not achieve market acceptance, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects may suffer and our anticipated revenue growth may not be achieved.
Because we derive, and expect to continue to derive, a substantial percentage of our revenue from customers purchasing our software, market acceptance of these products, and any enhancements or changes thereto, is critical to our success.
The competitive position of our software depends in part on its ability to operate with third-party products and services, and if we are not successful in maintaining and expanding the compatibility of our software with such third-party products and services, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely impacted.
The competitive position of our software depends in part on its ability to operate with products and services of third parties, software services, and infrastructure, including but not limited to, in connection with our joint ventures, channel sales relationships, platform partnerships, strategic alliances, and other similar arrangements where applicable. As such, we must continuously modify and enhance our software to adapt to changes in, or to be integrated or otherwise compatible with, hardware, software, networking, browser, and database technologies. In the future, one or more technology companies may choose not to support the operation of their hardware, software, or infrastructure, or our software may not support the capabilities needed to operate with such hardware, software, or infrastructure. In addition, to the extent that a third-party were to develop software or services that compete with ours, that provider may choose not to support one or more of our offerings. We intend to facilitate the compatibility of our software with various third-party hardware, software, and infrastructure by maintaining and expanding our business and technical relationships. If we are not successful in achieving this goal, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely impacted.
If we fail to manage future growth effectively, our business could be harmed.
Since our founding, we have experienced rapid growth. We operate in a growing market and have experienced, and may continue to experience, significant expansion of our operations. This growth has placed, and may continue to place, a strain on our employees, management systems, operational, financial, and other resources. As we have grown, we have increasingly managed larger and more complex deployments of our software and services with a broader base of government and commercial customers. As we continue to grow, we face challenges of integrating, developing, retaining, and motivating a rapidly growing employee base. In the event of continued growth of our operations, our operational resources, including our information technology systems, our employee base, or our internal controls and procedures may not be adequate to support our operations and deployments. Managing our growth may require significant expenditures and allocation of valuable management resources, improving our operational, financial, and management processes and systems, and effectively expanding, training, and managing our employee base. If we fail to achieve the necessary level of efficiency in our organization as it grows, our business, financial condition, and results of operations would be harmed. As our organization continues to grow, we may find it increasingly difficult to maintain the benefits of our traditional company culture, including our ability to quickly respond to customers, and avoid unnecessary delays that may be associated with a formal corporate structure. This could negatively affect our business performance or ability to hire or retain personnel in the near or long-term.
In addition, our rapid growth may make it difficult to evaluate our future prospects. Our ability to forecast our future results of operations is subject to a number of uncertainties, including our ability to effectively plan for and model future growth. We have encountered in the past, and may encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries. If we fail to achieve the necessary level of efficiency in our organization as it grows, or if we are not able to accurately forecast future growth, our business, financial condition, and results of operations would be harmed.
If we are unable to hire, retain, train, and motivate qualified personnel and senior management and deploy our personnel and resources to meet customer demand around the world, our business could suffer.
Our ability to compete in the highly competitive technology industry depends upon our ability to attract, motivate, and retain qualified personnel. We are highly dependent on the continued contributions of our management team, including their customer relationships, expertise in science and technology, business development experience, and innovative management in both public and private sectors. These contributions are integral to our growth and would be difficult to replace. Some of our executive officers and key personnel are at-will employees and may terminate their employment relationship with us at any time. The loss of the services of our key personnel and any of our other executive officers, and our inability to find suitable replacements, could result in a decline in sales, delays in product development, and harm to our business and operations.
At times, we have experienced, and we may continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining personnel with appropriate qualifications, and we may not be able to fill positions in a timely manner or at all. Potential candidates may not perceive our compensation package, including our equity awards, as favorably as personnel hired prior to our listing. In addition, our recruiting personnel, methodology, and approach may need to be altered to address a changing candidate pool and profile. We may not be able to identify or implement such changes in a timely manner. In addition, we may incur significant costs to attract and recruit skilled personnel, and we may lose new personnel to our competitors or other technology companies before we realize the benefit of our investment in recruiting and training them. As we move into new geographies, we will need to attract and recruit skilled personnel in those geographic areas, but it may be challenging for us to compete with traditional local employers in these regions
for talent. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel who can meet our growing technical, operational, and managerial requirements on a timely basis or at all, our business may be harmed. In addition, certain personnel may be required to receive various security clearances and substantial training to work on certain customer engagements or to perform certain tasks. Necessary security clearances may be delayed or unsuccessful, which may negatively impact our ability to perform on our U.S. and non-U.S. government contracts in a timely manner or at all.
Our success depends on our ability to effectively source and staff people with the right mix of skills and experience to perform services for our customers, including our ability to transition personnel to new assignments on a timely basis. If we are unable to effectively utilize our personnel on a timely basis to fulfill the needs of our customers, our business could suffer.
We face intense competition for qualified personnel, especially software engineers and data scientists, in major U.S. markets, where a large portion of our personnel are based. We incur costs related to attracting, relocating, and retaining qualified personnel in these highly competitive markets, including leasing real estate in prime areas in these locations. Further, many of the companies with which we compete for qualified personnel have greater resources than we have. Additionally, laws and regulations, such as restrictive immigration laws, may limit our ability to recruit outside of the United States. If we fail to attract new personnel or to retain our current personnel, our business and operations could be harmed.
We seek to retain and motivate existing personnel through our compensation practices, company culture, and career development opportunities. We may need to invest significant amounts of cash and equity for new and existing employees, and we may never realize returns on these investments. If the perceived value of our equity awards declines, or if the mix of equity and cash compensation that we offer is less attractive than that of our competitors, it may adversely affect our ability to recruit and retain highly skilled personnel. Employees may also be more likely to leave us if the shares of our capital stock they own or the shares of our capital stock underlying their equity incentive awards have significantly reduced in value or the vested shares of our capital stock they own or vested shares of our capital stock underlying their equity incentive awards have significantly appreciated. In addition, many of our employees may receive significant proceeds from sales of our equity in the public markets at some point after the Closing, which may reduce their motivation to continue to work for us. Any of these factors could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
If we are unable to successfully deploy our marketing and sales organization in a timely manner, or at all, or to successfully hire, retain, train, and motivate our sales personnel, our growth and long-term success could be adversely impacted.
We currently have a growing, but limited, direct sales force and our sales efforts have historically depended on the significant direct involvement of our senior management team. The successful execution of our strategy to increase our sales to existing customers, identify and engage new customers, and enter new markets will depend, among other things, on our ability to successfully build and expand our sales organization and operations. Identifying, recruiting, training, and managing sales personnel requires significant time, expense, and attention, including from our senior management and other key personnel, which could adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations in the short and long term.
In order to successfully scale our unique sales model, we must, and we intend to continue to, increase the size of our direct sales force, both in the United States and outside of the United States, to generate additional revenue from new and existing customers while preserving the cultural and mission-oriented elements of our company. If we do not hire enough qualified sales personnel, our future revenue growth and business could be adversely impacted. It may take a significant period of time before our sales personnel are fully trained and productive, particularly in light of our unique sales model, and there is no guarantee we will be successful in adequately training and effectively deploying our sales personnel. In addition, we may need to invest significant resources in our sales operations to enable our sales organization to run effectively and efficiently, including supporting sales strategy planning, sales process optimization, data analytics and reporting, and administering incentive compensation arrangements. Furthermore, hiring personnel in new countries requires additional setup and upfront costs that we may not recover if those personnel fail to achieve full productivity in a timely manner. Our business would be adversely affected if our efforts to build, expand, train, and manage our sales organization are not successful. We periodically change and make adjustments to our sales organization in response to market opportunities, competitive threats, management changes, product introductions or enhancements, acquisitions, sales performance, increases in sales headcount, cost levels, and other internal and external considerations. Any future sales organization changes may result in a temporary reduction of productivity, which could negatively affect our rate of growth. In addition, any significant change to the way we structure and implement the compensation of our sales organization may be disruptive or may not be effective and may affect our revenue growth. If we are unable to attract, hire, develop, retain, and motivate qualified sales personnel, if our new sales personnel are unable to achieve sufficient sales productivity levels in a reasonable period of time or at all, if our marketing programs are not effective or if we are unable to effectively build, expand, and manage our sales organization and operations, our sales and revenue may grow more slowly than expected or materially decline, and our business may be significantly harmed.
Our ability to sell our software and services to customers is dependent on the quality of our offerings, and our failure to maintain the quality of our offerings could have a material adverse effect on our sales and results of operations.
Once our software is deployed and integrated with our customers’ existing information technology investments, our customers depend on our support to resolve any issues relating to our products. Increasingly, our software is deployed in large-scale, complex technology environments, and we believe our future success will depend on our ability to increase sales of our products into these environments. Our ability to provide effective ongoing support in a timely, efficient, or scalable manner may depend in part on our customers’ environments and their ability to maintain and/or modernize their IT infrastructure.
In addition, our ability to provide effective services is largely dependent on our ability to attract, train, and retain qualified personnel with experience in supporting customers on software such as ours. The number of our customers has grown significantly, and that growth has and may continue to put additional pressure on our services teams. We may be unable to respond quickly enough to accommodate short-term increases in customer demand for our products. Increased customer demand for support, without corresponding revenue, could increase costs and negatively affect our business and results of operations. In addition, as we continue to grow our operations and expand outside of the United States, we need to be able to provide efficient services that meet our customers’ needs globally at scale, and our services teams may face additional challenges, including those associated with operating the software and delivering support, training, and documentation in languages other than English and providing services across expanded time-zones. If we are unable to provide efficient deployment and support services globally at scale, our ability to grow our operations may be harmed, and we may need to hire additional services personnel, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our customers typically need training in the proper use of and the variety of benefits that can be derived from our software to realize its full potential. If we do not effectively deploy, update, or upgrade our products, help our customers quickly resolve post-deployment issues, and provide effective ongoing support, our ability to sell additional products and services to customers could be adversely affected, we may face negative publicity, and our reputation with potential customers could be damaged. Many enterprise and government customers require higher levels of services than smaller customers. If we fail to meet the requirements of the larger customers, it may be more difficult to execute on our strategy to increase our penetration with larger customers. As a result, our failure to maintain high quality services may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
If we are not able to grow, maintain, and enhance our brand and reputation, our relationships with our customers, partners, and employees may be harmed, and our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.
We believe growing, maintaining, and enhancing our brand identity and reputation is important to our relationships with, and to our ability to attract and retain customers, partners, investors, and employees. The successful promotion of our brand depends upon our ability to continue to offer high-quality software, maintain strong relationships with our customers, the community, and others, while successfully differentiating our software from those of our competitors. Unfavorable media coverage may adversely affect our brand and reputation. We anticipate that as our market becomes increasingly competitive, maintaining and enhancing our brand may become increasingly difficult and expensive. Brand promotion activities may not yield increased revenue, and even if they do, the increased revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building and maintaining our brand and reputation. If we do not successfully grow, maintain, and enhance our brand identity and reputation, or if we are unable to sell legacy products under the “BigBear.ai” brand name, we may fail to attract and retain employees, customers, investors, or partners, grow our business, or sustain pricing power, all of which could adversely impact our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects. Additionally, despite our internal safeguards and efforts to the contrary, we cannot guarantee that our customers will not ultimately use our software for purposes inconsistent with our company values, and such uses may harm our brand and reputation.
Our reputation and business may be harmed by news or social media coverage of BigBear.ai including but not limited to coverage that presents, or relies on, inaccurate, misleading, incomplete, or otherwise damaging information.
Publicly available information regarding BigBear.ai has historically been limited, in part due to the sensitivity of our work with customers or contractual requirements limiting or preventing public disclosure of certain aspects of our work or relationships with certain customers. As our business has grown and as interest in BigBear.ai and the technology industry overall has increased, we have attracted, and may continue to attract, significant attention from news and social media outlets, including unfavorable coverage and coverage that is not directly attributable to statements authorized by our leadership, that incorrectly reports on statements made by our leadership or employees and the nature of our work, perpetuates unfounded speculation about company involvements, or that is otherwise misleading. If such news or social media coverage presents, or relies on, inaccurate, misleading,
incomplete, or otherwise damaging information regarding BigBear.ai such coverage could damage our reputation in the industry and with current and potential customers, employees, and investors, and our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects could be adversely affected. Due to the sensitive nature of our work and our confidentiality obligations and despite our ongoing efforts to provide increased transparency into our business, operations, and product capabilities, we may be unable to or limited in our ability to respond to such harmful coverage, which could have a negative impact on our business.
Our relationships with government customers and customers that are engaged in certain sensitive industries, including organizations whose products or activities are or are perceived to be harmful, has resulted in public criticism, including from political and social activists, and unfavorable coverage in the media. Criticism of our relationships with customers could potentially engender dissatisfaction among potential and existing customers, investors, and employees with how we address political and social concerns in our business activities. Conversely, being perceived as yielding to activism targeted at certain customers could damage our relationships with certain customers, including governments and government agencies with which we do business, whose views may or may not be aligned with those of political and social activists.
Actions we take in response to the activities of our customers, up to and including terminating our contracts or refusing a particular product use case could harm our brand and reputation. In either case, the resulting harm to our reputation could:
•cause certain customers to cease doing business with us;
•impair our ability to attract new customers, or to expand our relationships with existing customers;
•diminish our ability to hire or retain employees;
•undermine our standing in professional communities to which we contribute and from which we receive expert knowledge; or
•prompt us to cease doing business with certain customers.
Any of these factors could adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our pricing for our software and services may change to address market conditions.
We may have to change or adjust our pricing model in response to general economic conditions, competitor pricing, customer budgets, pricing studies, or findings demonstrating how customers consume our products and services. Additionally, as we introduce our products into new markets, we may need to tailor our pricing structure to address conditions or trends in specific markets. In addition, as new and existing competitors introduce new products or services that compete with ours, or revise their pricing structures, we may be unable to attract new customers at the same price or based on the same pricing model as we have used historically. Moreover, as we continue to target selling our software and services to larger organizations, these larger organizations may demand substantial price concessions. In addition, we may need to change pricing policies to accommodate government pricing guidelines for our contracts with federal, state, and local government agencies. If we are unable to modify or develop pricing models and strategies that are attractive to existing and prospective customers, while enabling us to significantly grow our sales and revenue relative to our associated costs and expenses in a reasonable period of time, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely impacted.
If our government customers are not able or willing to accept our software-based business model, instead of a labor-based business model, our business and results of operations could be negatively impacted.
Our software is generally offered on a productized basis to minimize our customers’ overall cost of acquisition, maintenance, and deployment time of our products. Many of our government customers and potential customers are instead generally familiar with the practice of purchasing or licensing software through labor contracts, where custom software is written for specific applications, the intellectual property for specific use cases is often owned by the customer, and the software typically requires additional labor contracts for modifications, updates, and services during the life of that specific software. Customers may be unable or unwilling to accept our model of commercial software procurement. Should our customers be unable or unwilling to accept this model of commercial software procurement, our growth could be materially diminished, which could adversely impact our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
Certain estimates of market opportunity included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K may prove to be inaccurate.
This Annual Report on Form 10-K includes our internal estimates of the addressable market for our software and services. Market opportunity estimates, whether obtained from third-party sources or developed internally, are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate. The estimates in this Annual Report on Form 10-K relating to the size of our target market, market demand and adoption, capacity to address this demand, and pricing may prove to be inaccurate. The addressable market we estimate may not materialize for many years, if ever, and even if the markets in which we compete meet the size estimates in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, our business could fail to successfully address or compete in such markets.
We face intense competition in our markets, and we may lack sufficient financial or other resources to maintain or improve our competitive position.
The markets for our software are very competitive, and we expect such competition to continue or increase in the future. A significant number of companies are developing products that currently, or in the future may, compete with some or all aspects of our proprietary software. We may not be successful in convincing the management teams of our potential customers to deploy our software in lieu of existing software solutions or in-house software development projects often favored by internal IT departments or other competitive products and services. In addition, our competitors include large enterprise software companies, government contractors, and system integrators, and we may face competition from emerging companies as well as established companies who have not previously entered this market. Additionally, we may be required to make substantial additional investments in our research, development, services, marketing, and sales functions in order to respond to competition, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to compete successfully in the future.
Many of our existing competitors have, and some of our potential competitors could have, substantial competitive advantages such as:
•greater name recognition, longer operating histories, and larger customer bases;
•larger sales and marketing budgets and resources and the capacity to leverage their sales efforts and marketing expenditures across a broader portfolio of products;
•broader, deeper, or otherwise more established relationships with technology, channel and distribution partners, and customers;
•wider geographic presence or greater access to larger potential customer bases;
•greater focus in specific geographies;
•lower labor and research and development costs;
•larger and more mature intellectual property portfolios; and
•substantially greater financial, technical, and other resources to provide services, to make acquisitions, and to develop and introduce new products and capabilities.
In addition, some of our larger competitors have substantially broader and more diverse product and service offerings and may be able to leverage their relationships with distribution partners and customers based on other products or incorporate functionality into existing products to gain business in a manner that discourages customers from purchasing our software, including by selling at zero or negative margins, product bundling, or offering closed technology software. Potential customers may also prefer to purchase from their existing provider rather than a new provider regardless of software performance or features. As a result, even if the features of our software offer advantages that others do not, customers may not purchase our software. These larger competitors often have broader product lines and market focus or greater resources and may therefore not be as susceptible to economic downturns or other significant reductions in capital spending by customers. If we are unable to sufficiently differentiate our software from the integrated or bundled products of our competitors, such as by offering enhanced functionality, performance, or value, we may see a decrease in demand for these offerings, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
In addition, new, innovative start-up companies and larger companies that are making significant investments in research and
development may introduce products that have greater performance or functionality, are easier to implement or use, incorporate technological advances that we have not yet developed, or implemented or may invent similar or superior software and technologies that compete with our software. Our current and potential competitors may also establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties that may further enhance their resources.
Some of our competitors have made or could make acquisitions of businesses that allow them to offer more competitive and comprehensive solutions. As a result of such acquisitions, our current or potential competitors may be able to accelerate the adoption of new technologies that better address customer needs, devote greater resources to bring these products and services to market, initiate or withstand substantial price competition, or develop and expand their product and service offerings more quickly than we do. These competitive pressures in our market, or our failure to compete effectively, may result in fewer orders, reduced revenue and margins, and loss of market share. In addition, it is possible that industry consolidation may impact customers’ perceptions of the viability of smaller or even mid-size software firms and consequently customers’ willingness to purchase from such firms.
We may not compete successfully against our current or potential competitors. If we are unable to compete successfully, or if competing successfully requires us to take costly actions in response to the actions of our competitors, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected. In addition, companies competing with us may have an entirely different pricing or distribution model. Increased competition could result in fewer customer orders, price reductions, reduced margins, and loss of market share, any of which could harm our business and results of operations.
Our culture emphasizes rapid innovation and advancement of successful hires who may, in some cases, have limited prior industry expertise and prioritizes customer outcomes over short-term financial results, and if we cannot maintain or properly manage our culture as we grow, our business may be harmed.
We have a culture that encourages employees to quickly develop and launch key technologies and software intended to solve our customers’ most important problems and prioritizes the advancement of employees to positions of significant responsibility based on merit despite, in some cases, limited prior work or industry experience. Some of our hiring into technical roles comes through our internship program or from candidates joining us directly from undergraduate or graduate engineering programs rather than industry hires. Successful entry-level hires are often quickly advanced and rewarded with significant responsibilities, including in important customer-facing roles as project managers, development leads, and product managers. Larger competitors, such as defense contractors, system integrators, and large software and service companies that traditionally target large enterprises typically have more sizeable direct sales forces staffed by individuals with significantly more industry experience than our customer-facing personnel, which may negatively impact our ability to compete with these larger competitors. As our business grows and becomes more complex, the staffing of customer-facing personnel, some of whom may have limited industry experience, may result in unintended outcomes or in decisions that are poorly received by customers or other stakeholders. For example, in many cases we launch, at our expense, pilot deployments with customers without a long-term contract in place, and some of those deployments have not resulted in the customer’s adoption or expansion of its use of our software and services, or the generation of significant, or any, revenue or payments. In addition, as we continue to grow, including geographically, we may find it difficult to maintain our culture.
Our culture also prioritizes customer outcomes over short-term financial results, and we frequently make product and service decisions that may reduce our short-term revenue or cash flow if we believe that the decisions are consistent with our mission and responsive to our customers’ goals and thereby have the potential to improve our financial performance over the long term. These decisions may not produce the long-term benefits and results that we expect or may be poorly received in the short term by our investors, in which case our customer growth and our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be harmed.
We may not enter into relationships in select countries or with potential customers if their activities or objectives are inconsistent with our mission or values.
We generally do not enter into business with customers or governments whose positions or actions we consider inconsistent with our mission to support Western liberal democracy and its strategic allies. Our decisions to not enter into these relationships may not produce the long-term financial benefits and results that we expect, in which case our growth prospects, business, and results of operations could be harmed. Although we endeavor to do business with customers and governments that are aligned with our mission and values, we cannot predict how the activities and values of our government and private sector customers will evolve over time, and they may evolve in a manner inconsistent with our mission.
Joint ventures, channel sales relationships, platform partnerships, strategic alliances, or subcontracting opportunities may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and prospects.
We expect to continue to enter into joint ventures, channel sales relationships (including original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) and reseller relationships), platform partnerships, strategic alliances, and subcontracting relationships as part of our long-term business strategy. Joint ventures, channel sales relationships, platform partnerships, strategic alliances, subcontracting relationships, and other similar arrangements involve significant investments of both time and resources, and there can be no assurances that they will be successful. They may present significant challenges and risks, including that they may not advance our business strategy, we may get an unsatisfactory return on our investment or lose some or all of our investment, they may distract management and divert resources from our core business, including our business development and product development efforts, they may expose us to unexpected liabilities, they may conflict with our increased sales hiring and direct sales strategy, or we may choose a partner that does not cooperate as we expect them to and that fails to meet its obligations or that has economic, business, or legal interests or goals that are inconsistent with ours.
For example, in May 2021, we entered into a Joint Venture Agreement with JASINT Consulting and Technologies, LLC to pursue various federal government opportunities. The agreement allowed us to share the considerable investment costs for the proposal and offer the customer the ability to award the contract to a single entity with considerable incumbency, but there is no guarantee the venture will be awarded the contract or any of the associated costs will be recovered.
Entry into certain joint ventures, channel sales relationships, platform partnerships, or strategic alliances now or in the future may be subject to government regulation, including review by U.S. or foreign government entities related to foreign direct investment. If a joint venture or similar arrangement were subject to regulatory review, such regulatory review might limit our ability to enter into the desired strategic alliance and thus our ability to carry out our long-term business strategy.
As our joint ventures, channel sales relationships, platform partnerships, and strategic alliances come to an end or terminate, we may be unable to renew or replace them on comparable terms, or at all. When we enter into joint ventures, channel sales relationships, platform partnerships, and strategic alliances, our partners may be required to undertake some portion of sales, marketing, implementation services, engineering services, or software configuration that we would otherwise provide. In such cases, our partner may be less successful than we would have otherwise been absent the arrangement and our ability to influence, or have visibility into, the sales, marketing, and related efforts of our partners may be limited. In the event we enter into an arrangement with a particular partner, we may be less likely (or unable) to work with one or more direct competitors of our partner with which we would have worked absent the arrangement. We may have interests that are different from our joint venture partners and/or which may affect our ability to successfully collaborate with a given partner. Similarly, one or more of our partners in a joint venture, channel sales relationship, platform partnership, or strategic alliance may independently suffer a bankruptcy or other economic hardship that negatively affects its ability to continue as a going concern or successfully perform on its obligation under the arrangement. Moreover, we cannot guarantee that the partners with whom we have strategic relationships will continue to devote the resources necessary to expand our reach and increase our distribution. In addition, customer satisfaction with our products provided in connection with these arrangements may be less favorable than anticipated, negatively impacting anticipated revenue growth and results of operations of arrangements in question. Further, some of our strategic partners offer competing products and services or work with our competitors. As a result of these and other factors, many of the companies with which we have or are seeking joint ventures, channel sales relationships, platform partnerships, or strategic alliances may choose to pursue alternative technologies and develop alternative products and services in addition to or in lieu of our software, either on their own or in collaboration with others, including our competitors. If we are unsuccessful in establishing or maintaining our relationships with these partners, our ability to compete in a given marketplace or to grow our revenue would be impaired, and our results of operations may suffer. Even if we are successful in establishing and maintaining these relationships with our partners, we cannot assure you that these relationships will result in increased customer usage of our software or increased revenue. Additionally, if our partners’ brand, reputation, or products are negatively impacted in any way, that could impact our expected outcomes in those markets.
In addition, some of our sales to government entities have been made, and in the future may be made, indirectly through our channel partners. Government entities may have statutory, contractual, or other legal rights to terminate contracts with our channel partners for convenience or due to a default, and, in the future, if the portion of government contracts that are subject to renegotiation or termination at the election of the government entity are material, any such termination or renegotiation may adversely impact our future operating results. In the event of such termination, it may be difficult for us to arrange for another channel partner to sell our software to these customers in a timely manner, and we could lose sales opportunities during the transition. Government entities routinely investigate and audit government contractors’ administrative processes, and any unfavorable audit could result in the government entity refusing to renew its subscription for our software, a reduction of revenue, or fines or civil or criminal liability if the audit uncovers improper or illegal activities.
Further, winding down joint ventures, channel sales relationships, platform partnerships, or other strategic alliances can result in additional costs, litigation, and negative publicity. Any of these events could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
We have business and customer relationships with certain entities who are stockholders or are affiliated with our directors, or both, and conflicts of interest may arise because of such relationships.
Some of our customers and other business partners are affiliated with certain of our directors or hold shares of our capital stock, or both. For example, in July 2021, we entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UAV Factory, a company owned by AE Industrial Partners, whereby BigBear.ai will develop AI/ML capabilities for UAV Factory’s unmanned systems and components used in autonomous operations within the commercial and defense markets. We believe that the transactions and agreements that we have entered into with related parties are on terms that are at least as favorable as could reasonably have been obtained at such time from third parties. However, these relationships could create, or appear to create, potential conflicts of interest when our Board is faced with decisions that could have different implications for us and these other parties or their affiliates. In addition, conflicts of interest may arise between us and these other parties and their affiliates. The appearance of conflicts, even if such conflicts do not materialize, might adversely affect the public’s perception of us, as well as our relationship with other companies and our ability to enter into new relationships in the future, including with competitors of such related parties, which could harm our business and results of operations.
If we are not successful in executing our strategy to increase our sales to larger customers, our results of operations may suffer.
An important part of our growth strategy is to increase sales of our software to large enterprises and government entities. Sales to large enterprises and government entities involve risks that may not be present (or that are present to a lesser extent) with sales to small-to-mid-sized entities, especially in commercial markets. These risks include:
•increased leverage held by large customers in negotiating contractual arrangements with us;
•changes in key decision makers within these organizations that may negatively impact our ability to negotiate in the future;
•customer IT departments may perceive that our software and services pose a threat to their internal control and advocate for legacy or internally developed solutions over our software;
•resources may be spent on a potential customer that ultimately elects not to purchase our software and services;
•more stringent requirements in our service contracts, including stricter service response times, and increased penalties for any failure to meet service requirements;
•increased competition from larger competitors, such as defense contractors, system integrators, or large software and service companies that traditionally target large enterprises and government entities and that may already have purchase commitments from those customers; and
•less predictability in completing some of our sales than we have with smaller customers.
Large enterprises and government entities often undertake a significant evaluation process that results in a lengthy sales cycle, in some cases over 12 months, requiring approvals of multiple management personnel and more technical personnel than would be typical of a smaller organization. Due to the length, size, scope, and stringent requirements of these evaluations, we typically provide short-term pilot deployments of our software at no or minimal cost. We sometimes spend substantial time, effort, and money in our sales efforts without producing any sales. The success of the investments that we make depends on factors such as our ability to identify potential customers for which our software has an opportunity to add significant value to the customer’s organization, our ability to identify and agree with the potential customer on an appropriate pilot deployment to demonstrate the value of our software, and whether we successfully execute on such pilot deployment. Even if the pilot deployment is successful, we or the customer could choose not to enter into a larger contract for a variety of reasons. For example, product purchases by large enterprises and government entities are frequently subject to budget constraints, leadership changes, multiple approvals, and unplanned administrative, processing, and other delays, any of which could significantly delay or entirely prevent our realization of sales.
Finally, large enterprises and government entities typically (i) have longer implementation cycles, (ii) require greater product functionality and scalability and a broader range of services, including design services, (iii) demand that vendors take on a larger share of risks, (iv) sometimes require acceptance provisions that can lead to a delay in revenue recognition, (v) typically have more complex IT and data environments, and (vi) expect greater payment flexibility from vendors. Customers, and sometimes we, may also engage third parties to be the users of our software, which may result in contractual complexities and risks, require additional investment of time and human resources to train the third parties and allow third parties (who may be building competitive projects or engaging in other competitive activities) to influence our customers’ perception of our software. All these factors can add further risk to business conducted with these customers. If sales expected from a large customer for a particular quarter are not realized in that quarter or at all, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects could be materially and adversely affected.
The ongoing global COVID-19 outbreak has significantly affected our business and operations.
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the numerous variants that have emerged in the last year, such as the Delta and Omicron variants, have had a significant and sustained negative impact on the global economy. It is unclear how long nations, populations, economies, and businesses will have to operate under the current conditions. Specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic has created headwinds for our business in the form of slower customer operations, longer sales cycles, delayed contract awards, difficulty traveling to or meeting with prospective customers, and decreasing customer budgets as resources are focused on mitigating the impact of the pandemic.
Our internal measures to protect our workforce, including office closures, remote work arrangements, vaccination awareness campaigns, and office sanitization/disinfecting have been extremely successful, but there remain facets of our operations that are outside of our control. For that reason, we cannot guarantee that our business will not be materially impacted by COVID-19 in the future. Among the largest potential impacts is the speed at which our government customers can return to normal operations, update procurement schedules, and award upcoming contracts. Our financial projections are largely based on advertised contract award dates, and changes to those schedules (when and if they are provided) may substantially impact our operations.
Moreover, to the extent the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects our business, financial condition, and results of operations, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, including but not limited to, those related to our ability to increase sales to existing and new customers, continue to perform on existing contracts, develop and deploy new technologies, expand our marketing capabilities and sales organization, generate sufficient cash flow to service our indebtedness, and comply with the covenants in the agreements that govern our indebtedness. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will ultimately affect our financial condition and results of operations is unknown and will depend, among other things, on the duration of the pandemic, the actions undertaken by national, state and local governments and health officials to contain the virus or mitigate its effects, the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines that have been developed and the ability of pharmaceutical companies and governments to continue to manufacture and distribute those vaccines, changes to interest rates, and how quickly and to what extent economic conditions improve and normal business and operating conditions resume. Any one or a combination of these factors could negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations and prospects.
Unfavorable conditions in our industry or the global economy, or reductions in IT spending, could limit our ability to grow
our business and negatively affect our results of operations.
Our results of operations may vary based on the impact of changes in our industry or the global economy on us or our customers. The revenue growth and potential profitability of our business depend on demand for our platform. Current or future economic uncertainties or downturns could adversely affect our business and results of operations. Negative conditions in the global economy or individual markets, including changes in gross domestic product growth, financial and credit market fluctuations, political turmoil, natural catastrophes, warfare and terrorist attacks on the United States, Europe, Australia, the Asia Pacific region or elsewhere, could cause a decrease in business investments, including spending on IT and negatively affect our business. Political and military events in Ukraine, including the ongoing tensions and state of war between Ukraine and Russia, poor relations between the U.S. and Russia, and sanctions by the international community against Russia or separatist areas of Ukraine may also have an adverse impact on our employees, customers, partners, and vendors. In turn, any of these may adversely impact our ability to grow our business and negatively affect our results of operations.
If the market for our software and services develops more slowly than we expect, our growth may slow or stall, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be harmed.
The market for our software is rapidly evolving. Our future success will depend in large part on the growth and expansion of this market, which is difficult to predict and relies on a number of factors, including customer adoption, customer demand, changing customer needs, the entry of competitive products, the success of existing competitive products, potential customers’ willingness to adopt an alternative approach to data collection, storage, and processing and their willingness to invest in new software after significant prior investments in legacy data collection, storage, and processing software. The estimates and assumptions that are used to calculate our market opportunity are subject to change over time, and there is no guarantee that any particular number or percentage of the organizations covered by our market opportunity estimates will pay for our software and services at all or generate any particular level of revenue for us. Even if the market in which we compete meets the size estimates and growth forecasts, our business could fail to grow at the levels we expect or at all for a variety of reasons outside our control, including competition in our industry. Further, if we or other data management and analytics providers experience security incidents, loss of or unauthorized access to customer data, disruptions in delivery, or other problems, this market as a whole, including our software, may be negatively affected. If software for the challenges that we address does not achieve widespread adoption, or there is a reduction in demand caused by a lack of customer acceptance, technological challenges, weakening economic conditions (including due to the COVID-19 pandemic), security or privacy concerns, competing technologies and products, decreases in corporate spending, or otherwise, or, alternatively, if the market develops but we are unable to continue to penetrate it due to the cost, performance, and perceived value associated with our software, or other factors, it could result in decreased revenue and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We will face risks associated with the growth of our business in new commercial markets and with new customer verticals, and we may neither be able to continue our organic growth nor have the necessary resources to dedicate to the overall growth of our business.
We plan to expand our operations in new commercial markets, including those where we may have limited operating experience, and may be subject to increased business, technology and economic risks that could affect our financial results. In recent periods, we have increased our focus on commercial customers. In the future, we plan to increasingly focus on such customers, including in the manufacturing, supply chain, and commercial space industries. Entering new verticals and expanding in the verticals in which we are already operating will continue to require significant resources and there is no guarantee that such efforts will be successful or beneficial to us. Historically, sales to new customers have often led to additional sales to the same customers or similarly situated customers. As we expand into and within new and emerging markets and heavily regulated industry verticals, we will likely face additional regulatory scrutiny, risks, and burdens from the governments and agencies which regulate those markets and industries. While this approach to expansion within new commercial markets and verticals has proven successful in the past, it is uncertain we will achieve the same penetration and organic growth in the future and our reputation, business, financial condition, and results of operations could be negatively impacted.
In the future, we may not be able to secure the financing necessary to operate and grow our business as planned, or to make acquisitions.
In the future, we may seek to raise or borrow additional funds to expand our product or business development efforts, make acquisitions or otherwise fund or grow our business and operations. As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately $195 million of indebtedness. Although we currently anticipate that our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to meet our cash needs for the next 12 months, additional funds may be required if our commercial sales do not develop as quickly as planned. If we require additional financing, we may not be able to obtain debt or equity financing on favorable terms, if at all. If we raise equity financing to fund operations or on an opportunistic basis, our stockholders may experience significant dilution of their ownership interests. If adequate funds are not available on acceptable terms, or at all, we may be unable to, among other things:
•develop new products, features, capabilities, and enhancements;
•continue to expand our product development, sales, and marketing organizations;
•hire, train, and retain employees;
•respond to competitive pressures or unanticipated working capital requirements; or
•pursue acquisition or other growth opportunities.
Our inability to take any of these actions because adequate funds are not available on acceptable terms could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
We may need to raise additional capital, which may not be available on favorable terms, if at all, and which may cause dilution to stockholders, restrict our operations or adversely affect our ability to operate our business.
Our ability to raise additional capital may be significantly affected by general market conditions, the market price of our ordinary shares, our financial condition, uncertainty about the future commercial success of our products, regulatory developments, the status and scope of our intellectual property, any ongoing arbitration or litigation, our compliance with applicable laws and regulations and other factors, many of which are outside our control. Furthermore, the Indenture governing the 2026 Convertible Notes contains limitations on our ability to incur debt and issue preferred and/or disqualified stock. Accordingly, we cannot be certain that we will be able to obtain additional financing on favorable terms or at all. If we are unable to obtain needed financing on acceptable terms, or otherwise, we may not be able to implement our business plan, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, including a decline in the trading price of our ordinary shares. Any additional equity financings could result in additional dilution to our then existing stockholders. In addition, we may enter into additional financings that restrict our operations or adversely affect our ability to operate our business and, if we issue equity, debt or other securities to raise additional capital or restructure or refinance our existing indebtedness, the new equity, debt or other securities may have rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of our existing stockholders.
Our ability to generate the amount of cash needed to pay interest and principal on any indebtedness and our ability to refinance all or a portion of our indebtedness or obtain additional financing depends on many factors beyond our control.
Our ability to make scheduled payments on, or to refinance our obligations under, any indebtedness depends on our financial and operating performance and prevailing economic and competitive conditions. Certain of these financial and business factors, many of which may be beyond our control, are described above.
If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we may be forced to reduce or delay capital expenditures, sell assets, raise additional equity capital, or restructure our debt. However, there is no assurance that such alternative measures may be successful or permitted under the agreements governing our indebtedness and, as a result, we may not be able to meet our scheduled debt service obligations. Even if successful, actions taken to improve short-term liquidity to meet our debt service and other obligations could harm our long-term business prospects, financial condition, and results of operations.
We cannot guarantee that we will be able to refinance our indebtedness or obtain additional financing on satisfactory terms or at all, including due to existing guarantees on our assets or our level of indebtedness and the debt incurrence restrictions imposed by the agreements governing our indebtedness. Further, the cost and availability of credit are subject to changes in the economic and business environment. If conditions in major credit markets deteriorate, our ability to refinance our indebtedness or obtain additional financing on satisfactory terms, or at all, may be negatively affected.
Our debt agreements contain restrictions that may limit our flexibility in operating our business.
Our Credit Agreement, our Indenture governing our 2026 Convertible Notes and related documents contain, and instruments governing any future indebtedness of ours would likely contain, a number of covenants that will impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us, including restrictions on our ability to, among other things:
•create liens on certain assets;
•incur additional debt or issue new equity;
•consolidate, merge, sell or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of our assets; and
•sell certain assets.
Any of these restrictions could limit our ability to plan for or react to market conditions and could otherwise restrict corporate activities. Any failure to comply with these covenants could result in a default under our secured credit facility or instruments governing any future indebtedness of ours. Additionally, our credit facility is secured by substantially all of our assets. Upon a default, unless waived, the lenders under our secured credit facility could elect to terminate their commitments, cease making further loans, foreclose on our assets pledged to such lenders to secure our obligations under our credit agreement and force us
into bankruptcy or liquidation. In addition, a default under our secured credit facility could trigger a cross default under agreements governing any future indebtedness. Our results of operations may not be sufficient to service our indebtedness and to fund our other expenditures, and we may not be able to obtain financing to meet these requirements. If we experience a default under our secured credit facility or instruments governing our future indebtedness, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely impacted.
In addition, the 2026 Convertible Notes mature on December 15, 2026. There are no assurances that that we will have sufficient funds available to satisfy the 2026 Convertible Notes at maturity, or that the holders will elect to convert the 2026 Convertible Notes into shares of our Common Stock.
As of December 31, 2021, we were in compliance with all covenants and restrictions associated with our debt agreements.
We may acquire or invest in companies and technologies, which may divert our management’s attention, and result in additional dilution to our stockholders. We may be unable to integrate acquired businesses and technologies successfully or achieve the expected benefits of such acquisitions or investments.
As part of our business strategy, we have engaged in strategic transactions in the past and expect to evaluate and consider potential strategic transactions, including acquisitions of, or investments in, businesses, technologies, services, products and other assets in the future. We also may enter into relationships with other businesses to expand our products or our ability to provide services. An acquisition, investment or business relationship may result in unforeseen risks, operating difficulties and expenditures, including the following:
•an acquisition may negatively affect our financial results because it may require us to incur charges or assume substantial debt or other liabilities, may cause adverse tax consequences or unfavorable accounting treatment, may expose us to claims and disputes by third parties, including intellectual property claims and disputes, or may not generate sufficient financial return to offset additional costs and expenses related to the acquisition;
•costs and potential difficulties associated with the requirement to test and assimilate the internal control processes of the acquired business;
•we may encounter difficulties or unforeseen expenditures assimilating or integrating the businesses, technologies, infrastructure, products, personnel, or operations of the acquired companies, particularly if the key personnel of the acquired company choose not to work for us or if we are unable to retain key personnel, if their technology is not easily adapted to work with ours, or if we have difficulty retaining the customers of any acquired business due to changes in ownership, management, or otherwise;
•we may not realize the expected benefits of the acquisition;
•an acquisition may disrupt our ongoing business, divert resources, increase our expenses, and distract our management;
•an acquisition may result in a delay or reduction of customer purchases for both us and the company acquired due to customer uncertainty about continuity and effectiveness of service from either company;
•the potential impact on relationships with existing customers, vendors, and distributors as business partners as a result of acquiring another company or business that competes with or otherwise is incompatible with those existing relationships;
•the potential that our due diligence of the acquired company or business does not identify significant problems or liabilities, or that we underestimate the costs and effects of identified liabilities;
•exposure to litigation or other claims in connection with, or inheritance of claims or litigation risk as a result of, an acquisition, including but not limited to claims from former employees, customers, or other third parties, which may differ from or be more significant than the risks our business faces;
•potential goodwill impairment charges related to acquisitions;
•we may encounter difficulties in, or may be unable to, successfully sell any acquired products;
•an acquisition may involve the entry into geographic or business markets in which we have little or no prior experience or where competitors have stronger market positions;
•an acquisition may require us to comply with additional laws and regulations, or to engage in substantial remediation efforts to cause the acquired company to comply with applicable laws or regulations, or result in liabilities resulting from the acquired company’s failure to comply with applicable laws or regulations;
•our use of cash to pay for an acquisition would limit other potential uses for our cash;
•if we incur debt to fund such acquisition, such debt may subject us to material restrictions on our ability to conduct our business as well as financial maintenance covenants; and
•to the extent that we issue a significant amount of equity securities in connection with future acquisitions, existing stockholders may be diluted and earnings per share may decrease.
The occurrence of any of these risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Moreover, we cannot assure you that we would not be exposed to unknown liabilities.
Certain revenue metrics such as net dollar-based retention rate or annual recurring revenue may not be accurate indicators of our future financial results.
Other subscription-based software companies often report on metrics such as net dollar-based revenue retention rate, annual recurring revenue or other revenue metrics, and investors and analysts sometimes look to these metrics as indicators of business activity in a period for businesses such as ours. However, given our large concentration of business with government customers through non-traditional contract arrangements, these metrics may not be relevant, available, or representative of the success of our operations. The gain or loss of even a single high-value customer contract could cause significant volatility in these metrics. If investors and analysts view our business through these metrics, the trading price of our common stock may be adversely affected.
Risks Related to Intellectual Property, Information Technology, Data Privacy and Security
If any of the systems of any third parties upon which we rely, our customers’ cloud or on-premises environments, or our internal systems, are breached or if unauthorized access to customer or third-party data is otherwise obtained, public perception of our software and services may be harmed, and we may lose business and incur losses or liabilities.
Our success depends in part on our ability to provide effective data security protection in connection with our software and services, and we rely on information technology networks and systems to securely store, transmit, index, and otherwise process electronic information. Because our software is used by our customers to store, transmit, index, or otherwise process and analyze large data sets that often contain proprietary, confidential, and/or sensitive information (including in some instances personal or identifying information and personal health information), our software is perceived as an attractive target for attacks by computer hackers or others seeking unauthorized access, and our software faces threats of unintended exposure, exfiltration, alteration, deletion, or loss of data. Additionally, because many of our customers use our software to store, transmit, and otherwise process proprietary, confidential, or sensitive information, and complete mission critical tasks, they have a lower risk tolerance for security vulnerabilities in our software and services than for vulnerabilities in other, less critical, software products and services.
We, and the third-party vendors upon which we rely, have experienced, and may in the future experience, cybersecurity threats, including threats or attempts to disrupt our information technology infrastructure and unauthorized attempts to gain access to sensitive or confidential information. Our and our third-party vendors’ technology systems may be damaged or compromised by malicious events, such as cyberattacks (including computer viruses, malicious and destructive code, phishing attacks, and denial of service attacks), physical or electronic security breaches, natural disasters, fire, power loss, telecommunications failures, personnel misconduct, and human error. Such attacks or security breaches may be perpetrated by internal bad actors, such as employees or contractors, or by third parties (including traditional computer hackers, persons involved with organized crime, or foreign state or foreign state-supported actors). Cybersecurity threats can employ a wide variety of methods and techniques, which may include the use of social engineering techniques, are constantly evolving, and have become increasingly complex and sophisticated; all of which increase the difficulty of detecting and successfully defending against them. Furthermore, because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not identified until after they are launched against a target, we and our third-party vendors may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventative measures. Although prior cyberattacks directed at us have not had a material impact on our financial
results, and we are continuing to bolster our threat detection and mitigation processes and procedures, we cannot guarantee that future cyberattacks, if successful, will not have a material impact on our business or financial results. While we have security measures in place to protect our information and our customers’ information and to prevent data loss and other security breaches, we have not always been able to do so and there can be no assurance that in the future we will be able to anticipate or prevent security breaches or unauthorized access of our information technology systems or the information technology systems of the third-party vendors upon which we rely. Despite our implementation of network security measures and internal information security policies, data stored on personnel computer systems is also vulnerable to similar security breaches, unauthorized tampering, or human error.
Many governments have enacted laws requiring companies to provide notice of data security incidents involving certain types of data, including personal data. In addition, most of our customers, including U.S. government customers, contractually require us to notify them of data security breaches. If an actual or perceived breach of security measures, unauthorized access to our system or the systems of the third-party vendors that we rely upon, or any other cybersecurity threat occurs, we may face direct or indirect liability, costs, or damages, contract termination, our reputation in the industry and with current and potential customers may be compromised, our ability to attract new customers could be negatively affected, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
Further, unauthorized access to our or our third-party vendors’ information technology systems or data or other security breaches could result in the loss of information; significant remediation costs; litigation, disputes, regulatory action, or investigations that could result in damages, material fines, and penalties; indemnity obligations; interruptions in the operation of our business, including our ability to provide new product features, new software, or services to our customers; damage to our operation technology networks and information technology systems; and other liabilities. Moreover, our remediation efforts may not be successful. Any or all of these issues, or the perception that any of them have occurred, could negatively affect our ability to attract new customers, cause existing customers to terminate or not renew their agreements, hinder our ability to obtain and maintain required or desirable cybersecurity certifications, and result in reputational damage, any of which could materially adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition, and future prospects. There can be no assurance that any limitations of liability provisions in our license arrangements with customers or in our agreements with vendors, partners, or others would be enforceable, applicable, or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any such liabilities or damages with respect to any claim.
We maintain cybersecurity insurance and other types of insurance, subject to applicable deductibles and policy limits, but our insurance may not be sufficient to cover all costs, claims, or liabilities associated with a potential data security incident. In addition, our insurance may not protect us against all claims and losses related to our software or a data security incident due to specified exclusions, deductibles and material change limitations and it may be difficult to insure against certain risks. We also cannot be sure that our existing general liability insurance coverage and coverage for cyber liability or errors or omissions will continue to be available on acceptable terms or will be available in sufficient amounts to cover one or more large claims or that the insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could harm our financial condition.
Issues in the use of AI and ML in our software may result in reputational harm or liability.
AI is enabled by or integrated into some of our software and is a significant and potentially growing element of our business. As with many developing technologies, AI presents risks and challenges that could affect its further development, adoption, and use, and therefore our business. AI algorithms may be flawed. Datasets may be insufficient, of poor quality, or contain biased information. Inappropriate or controversial data practices by data scientists, engineers, and end-users of our systems could impair the acceptance of AI solutions. If the recommendations, forecasts, or analyses that AI applications assist in producing are deficient or inaccurate, we could be subjected to competitive harm, potential legal liability, and brand or reputational harm. Some AI scenarios present ethical issues. Though our technologies and business practices are designed to mitigate many of these risks, if we enable or offer AI solutions that are controversial because of their purported or real impact on human rights, privacy, employment, or other social issues, we may experience brand or reputational harm.
We depend on computing infrastructure operated by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and other third parties to support some of our customers, and any errors, disruption, performance problems, or failure in their or our operational infrastructure could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We rely on the technology, infrastructure, and software applications, including software-as-a-service offerings, of certain third parties, such as AWS, in order to host or operate some or all of certain key platform features or functions of our business, including our cloud-based services, customer relationship management activities, billing and order management, and financial
accounting services. Additionally, we rely on computer hardware purchased in order to deliver our software and services. We do not have control over the operations of the facilities of the third parties that we use. If any of these third-party services experience errors, disruptions, security issues, or other performance deficiencies, if they are updated such that our software become incompatible, if these services, software, or hardware fail or become unavailable due to extended outages, interruptions, defects, or otherwise, or if they are no longer available on commercially reasonable terms or prices (or at all), these issues could result in errors or defects in our software, cause our software to fail, cause our revenue and margins to decline, or cause our reputation and brand to be damaged, and we could be exposed to legal or contractual liability, our expenses could increase, our ability to manage our operations could be interrupted, and our processes for managing our sales and servicing our customers could be impaired until equivalent services or technology, if available, are identified, procured, and implemented, all of which may take significant time and resources, increase our costs, and could adversely affect our business. Many of these third-party providers attempt to impose limitations on their liability for such errors, disruptions, defects, performance deficiencies, or failures, and if enforceable, we may have additional liability to our customers or third-party providers.
We have experienced, and may in the future experience, disruptions, failures, data loss, outages, and other performance problems with our infrastructure and cloud-based offerings due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, introductions of new functionality, human or software errors, employee misconduct, capacity constraints, denial of service attacks, phishing attacks, computer viruses, malicious or destructive code, or other security-related incidents, and our disaster recovery planning may not be sufficient for all situations. If we experience disruptions, failures, data loss, outages, or other performance problems, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our systems and the third-party systems upon which we and our customers rely are also vulnerable to damage or interruption from catastrophic occurrences such as earthquakes, floods, fires, power loss, telecommunication failures, cybersecurity threats, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical and similar events, or acts of misconduct. Moreover, we have business operations in San Diego, California, which is a seismically active region. Despite any precautions we may take, the occurrence of a catastrophic disaster or other unanticipated problems at our or our third-party vendors’ hosting facilities, or within our systems or the systems of third parties upon which we rely, could result in interruptions, performance problems, or failure of our infrastructure, technology, or software, which may adversely impact our business. In addition, our ability to conduct normal business operations could be severely affected. In the event of significant physical damage to one of these facilities, it may take a significant period of time to achieve full resumption of our services, and our disaster recovery planning may not account for all eventualities. In addition, any negative publicity arising from these disruptions could harm our reputation and brand and adversely affect our business.
Furthermore, our software are in many cases important or essential to our customers’ operations, including in some cases, their cybersecurity or oversight and compliance programs, and subject to service level agreements (“SLAs”). Any interruption in our service, whether as a result of an internal or third-party issue, could damage our brand and reputation, cause our customers to terminate or not renew their contracts with us or decrease use of our software and services, require us to indemnify our customers against certain losses, result in our issuing credit or paying penalties or fines, subject us to other losses or liabilities, cause our software to be perceived as unreliable or unsecure, and prevent us from gaining new or additional business from current or future customers, any of which could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Moreover, to the extent that we do not effectively address capacity constraints, upgrade our systems as needed, and continually develop our technology and network architecture to accommodate actual and anticipated changes in technology, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected. The provisioning of additional cloud hosting capacity requires lead time. AWS and other third parties have no obligation to renew their agreements with us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If any third parties increase pricing terms, terminate, or seek to terminate our contractual relationship, establish more favorable relationships with our competitors, or change or interpret their terms of service or policies in a manner that is unfavorable with respect to us, we may be required to transfer to other cloud providers or invest in a private cloud. If we are required to transfer to other cloud providers or invest in a private cloud, we could incur significant costs and experience possible service interruption in connection with doing so, or risk loss of customer contracts if they are unwilling to accept such a change.
A failure to maintain our relationships with our third-party providers (or obtain adequate replacements), and to receive services from such providers that do not contain any material errors or defects, could adversely affect our ability to deliver effective products and solutions to our customers and adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Our policies regarding customer confidential information and support for individual privacy and civil liberties could cause us to experience adverse business and reputational consequences.
We strive to protect our customers’ confidential information and individuals’ privacy consistent with applicable laws, directives,
and regulations. From time to time, government entities may seek our assistance with obtaining information about our customers or could request that we modify our software in a manner to permit access or monitoring. In light of our confidentiality and privacy commitments, we may legally challenge law enforcement or other government requests to provide information, to obtain encryption keys, or to modify or weaken encryption. To the extent that we do not provide assistance to or comply with requests from government entities, or if we challenge those requests publicly or in court, we may experience adverse political, business, and reputational consequences among certain customers or portions of the public. Conversely, to the extent that we do provide such assistance, or do not challenge those requests publicly in court, we may experience adverse political, business, and reputational consequences from other customers or portions of the public arising from concerns over privacy or the government’s activities.
Failure to adequately obtain, maintain, protect and enforce our intellectual property and other proprietary rights could adversely affect our business.
Our success and ability to compete depends in part on our ability to protect our proprietary methods and technologies in the United States and other jurisdictions outside the United States so that we can prevent others from using our inventions and proprietary information and technology. Despite our efforts, third parties may attempt to disclose, obtain, copy, or use our intellectual property or other proprietary information or technology without our authorization, and our efforts to protect our intellectual property and other proprietary rights may not prevent such unauthorized disclosure or use, misappropriation, infringement, reverse engineering or other violation of our intellectual property or other proprietary rights.
We have devoted substantial resources to the development of our proprietary software. In order to protect our proprietary technologies and processes, we rely in part on trade secret laws and confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, and third parties. These agreements may not effectively prevent unauthorized disclosure of confidential information and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of confidential information. In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets, in which case we would not be able to assert trade secret rights or develop similar technologies and processes.
Further, laws in certain jurisdictions may afford little or no trade secret protection, and any changes in, or unexpected interpretations of, the intellectual property laws in any jurisdiction in which we operate may compromise our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights. If the protection of our proprietary rights is inadequate to prevent use or appropriation by third parties, the value of our software, brand, and other intangible assets may be diminished, and competitors may be able to more effectively replicate our software products. Any of these events would harm our business.
In addition, we may be the subject of intellectual property infringement or misappropriation claims, which could be very time-consuming and expensive to settle or litigate and could divert our management’s attention and other resources. These claims could also subject us to significant liability for damages if we are found to have infringed patents, copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights, or breached trademark co-existence agreements or other intellectual property licenses and could require us to cease using or to rebrand all or portions of our software. Any of our patents, copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights may be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation.
In addition, any of our copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property or proprietary rights may be challenged, narrowed, invalidated, held unenforceable, or circumvented in litigation or other proceedings, including, where applicable, opposition, re-examination, inter partes review, post-grant review, interference, nullification and derivation proceedings, and equivalent proceedings in foreign jurisdictions, and such intellectual property or other proprietary rights may be lost or no longer provide us meaningful competitive advantages. Such proceedings may result in substantial cost and require significant time from our management, even if the eventual outcome is favorable to us. Third parties also may legitimately and independently develop products, services, and technology similar to or duplicative of our software. In addition to protection under intellectual property laws, we rely on confidentiality or license agreements that we generally enter into with our corporate partners, employees, consultants, advisors, vendors, and customers, and generally limit access to and distribution of our proprietary information. However, we cannot be certain that we have entered into such agreements with all parties who may have or have had access to our confidential information or that the agreements we have entered into will not be breached or challenged, or that such breaches will be detected. Furthermore, non-disclosure provisions can be difficult to enforce, and even if successfully enforced, may not be entirely effective. We cannot guarantee that any of the measures we have taken will prevent infringement, misappropriation, or other violation of our technology or other intellectual property or proprietary rights. Because we may be an attractive target for cyberattacks, we also may have a heightened risk of unauthorized access to, and misappropriation of, our proprietary and competitively sensitive information. We may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property and other proprietary rights, and we may conclude that in at least some instances the benefits of protecting our
intellectual property or other proprietary rights may be outweighed by the expense or distraction to our management. We may initiate claims or litigation against third parties for infringement, misappropriation, or other violation of our intellectual property or other proprietary rights or to establish the validity of our intellectual property or other proprietary rights. Any such litigation, whether or not it is resolved in our favor, could be time-consuming, result in significant expense to us and divert the efforts of our technical and management personnel. Furthermore, attempts to enforce our intellectual property rights against third parties could also provoke these third parties to assert their own intellectual property or other rights against us, or result in a holding that invalidates or narrows the scope of our rights, in whole or in part.
We may in the future be subject to intellectual property rights claims, which are extremely costly to defend, could require us to pay significant damages and could limit our ability to use certain technologies.
Our success and ability to compete also depends in part on our ability to operate without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual property or other proprietary rights of third parties. Companies in the software and technology industries, including some of our current and potential competitors, own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets and frequently pursue litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation, or other violations of intellectual property rights. In addition, many of these companies have the capability to dedicate substantial resources to enforce their intellectual property rights and to defend claims that may be brought against them. Such litigation also may involve non-practicing patent assertion entities or companies who use their patents to extract license fees by threatening costly litigation or that have minimal operations or relevant product revenue and against whom our patents may provide little or no deterrence or protection. While we have not received any notices to date, we may receive notices in the future that claim we have infringed, misappropriated, misused, or otherwise violated other parties’ intellectual property rights, and, to the extent we become exposed to greater visibility, we face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement, misappropriation or other violation claims, which is not uncommon with respect to software technologies in particular. There may be third-party intellectual property rights, including issued patents or pending patent applications, that cover significant aspects of our technologies, or business methods. There may also be third-party intellectual property rights, including trademark registrations and pending applications, that cover the goods and services that we offer in certain regions. We may also be exposed to increased risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement, misappropriation, or other violation claims as a result of acquisitions and our incorporation of open source and other third-party software into, or new branding for, our software, as, among other things, we have a lower level of visibility into the development process with respect to such technology or the care taken to safeguard against infringement, misappropriation, or other violation risks. In addition, former employers of our current, former, or future employees may assert claims that such employees have improperly disclosed to us confidential or proprietary information of these former employers. Any intellectual property claims, with or without merit, are difficult to predict, could be very time-consuming and expensive to settle or litigate, could divert our management’s attention and other resources, and may not be covered by the insurance that we carry. These claims could subject us to significant liability for damages, potentially including treble damages if we are found to have willfully infringed a third party’s intellectual property rights. These claims could also result in our having to stop using technology, branding or marks found to be in violation of a third party’s rights and any necessary rebranding could result in the loss of goodwill. We could be required to seek a license for the intellectual property, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Even if a license were available, we could be required to pay significant royalties, which would increase our expenses. As a result, we could be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology, branding or marks, which could require significant effort and expense. If we cannot license rights or develop technology for any infringing aspect of our business, we would be forced to limit or stop sales of one or more of our software or features, we could lose existing customers, and we may be unable to compete effectively. Any of these results would harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Further, certain of our agreements with customers and other third parties may include indemnification provisions under which we agree to indemnify them for losses suffered or incurred as a result of third-party claims of intellectual property infringement, misappropriation, or other violations of intellectual property rights, damages caused by us to property or persons, or other liabilities relating to or arising from our software, services, or other contractual obligations. Large indemnity payments could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Any dispute with a customer with respect to such obligations could have adverse effects on our relationship with that customer and other existing customers and new customers and harm our business and results of operations.
Real or perceived errors, failures, defects, or bugs in our software could adversely affect our results of operations and growth prospects.
Because we offer very complex software, undetected errors, defects, failures, or bugs may occur, especially when software or capabilities are first introduced or when new versions or other product or infrastructure updates are released. Our software is often installed and used in large-scale computing environments with different operating systems, software products and equipment, and
data source and network configurations, which may cause errors or failures in our software or may expose undetected errors, failures, or bugs in our software. Despite testing by us, errors, failures, or bugs may not be found in new software or releases until after commencement of commercial shipments. In the past, errors have affected the performance of our software and can also delay the development or release of new software or capabilities or new versions of software, adversely affect our reputation and our customers’ willingness to buy software from us, and adversely affect market acceptance or perception of our software. Many of our customers use our software in applications that are critical to their businesses or missions and may have a lower risk tolerance to defects in our software than to defects in other, less critical, software products. Any errors or delays in releasing new software or new versions of software or allegations of unsatisfactory performance or errors, defects or failures in released software could cause us to lose revenue or market share, increase our service costs, cause us to incur substantial costs in redesigning the software, cause us to lose significant customers, subject us to liability for damages and divert our resources from other tasks, any one of which could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, our software could be perceived to be ineffective for a variety of reasons outside of our control. Hackers or other malicious parties could circumvent our or our customers’ security measures, and customers may misuse our software resulting in a security breach or perceived product failure. Real or perceived errors, failures, or bugs in our software and services, or dissatisfaction with our services and outcomes, could result in customer terminations and/or claims by customers for losses sustained by them. In such an event, we may be required, or we may choose, for customer relations or other reasons, to expend additional resources in order to help correct any such errors, failures, or bugs. Although we have limitation of liability provisions in certain of our customer agreements, these provisions may not be enforceable in some circumstances, may vary in levels of protection across our agreements, or may not fully or effectively protect us from such claims and related liabilities and costs. The sale and support of our products also entail the risk of product liability claims. We maintain insurance to protect against certain claims associated with the use of our software and services, but our insurance coverage may not adequately cover all claims and liabilities asserted against us. In addition, our insurance may not protect us against all losses due to specified exclusions, deductibles and material change limitations and it may be difficult to insure against certain risks. Even claims that ultimately are unsuccessful could result in our expenditure of funds in litigation and divert management’s time and other resources.
In addition, our software integrates a wide variety of other elements, and our software must successfully interoperate with products from other vendors and our customers’ internally developed software. As a result, when problems occur for a customer using our software, it may be difficult to identify the sources of these problems, and we may receive blame for a security, access control, or other compliance breach that was the result of the failure of one of other elements in a customer’s or another vendor’s IT, security, or compliance infrastructure. The occurrence of software or errors in data, whether or not caused by our software, could delay or reduce market acceptance of our software and have an adverse effect on our business and financial performance, and any necessary revisions may cause us to incur significant expenses. The occurrence of any such problems could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. If an actual or perceived breach of information correctness, auditability, integrity, or availability occurs in one of our customers’ systems, regardless of whether the breach is attributable to our software, the market perception of the effectiveness of our software could be harmed. Alleviating any of these problems could require additional significant expenditures of our capital and other resources and could cause interruptions, delays, or cessation of our product licensing, which could cause us to lose existing or potential customers and could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
We rely on the availability of licenses to third-party technology that may be difficult to replace or that may cause errors or delay implementation of our software and services should we not be able to continue or obtain a commercially reasonable license to such technology.
Our software may include intellectual property licensed from third parties. It may be necessary in the future to renew licenses relating to various aspects of these software or to seek new licenses for existing or new software or other products. There can be no assurance that the necessary licenses would be available on commercially acceptable terms, if at all. Third parties may terminate their licenses with us for a variety of reasons, including actual or perceived failures or breaches of security or privacy, or reputational concerns, or they may choose not to renew their licenses with us. In addition, we may be subject to liability if third-party software that we license is found to infringe, misappropriate, or otherwise violate intellectual property or privacy rights of others. The loss of, or inability to obtain, certain third-party licenses or other rights or to obtain such licenses or rights on favorable terms, or the need to engage in litigation regarding these matters, could result in product roll-backs, delays in product releases until equivalent technology can be identified, licensed or developed, if at all, and integrated into our software, and may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Moreover, the inclusion in our software of software or other intellectual property licensed from third parties on a nonexclusive basis could limit our ability to differentiate our software from products of our competitors and could inhibit our ability to provide the current level of service to existing customers.
In addition, any data that we license from third parties for potential use in our software may contain errors or defects, which could
negatively impact the analytics that our customers perform on or with such data. This may have a negative impact on how our software is perceived by our current and potential customers and could materially damage our reputation and brand.
Changes in or the loss of third-party licenses could lead to our software becoming inoperable or the performance of our software being materially reduced resulting in our potentially needing to incur additional research and development costs to ensure continued performance of our software or a material increase in the costs of licensing, and we may experience decreased demand for our software.
Our software contains “open source” software, and any failure to comply with the terms of one or more of these open source licenses could negatively affect our business.
Our software is distributed with software licensed by its authors or other third parties under “open source” licenses. Some of these licenses contain requirements that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon the open-source software, and that we license these modifications or derivative works under the terms of a particular open-source license or other license granting third-parties certain rights of further use. If we combine our proprietary software with open-source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain provisions of the open-source licenses, be required to release the source code of our proprietary software. In addition to risks related to license requirements, usage of open-source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open-source licensors generally do not provide updates, warranties, support, indemnities, assurances of title, or controls on origin of the software. Likewise, some open-source projects have known security and other vulnerabilities and architectural instabilities, or are otherwise subject to security attacks due to their wide availability, and are provided on an “as-is” basis. We have established processes to help alleviate these risks, including a review process for screening requests from our development organization for the use of open source software, and the use of software tools to review our source code for open source software, but we cannot be sure that all open source software is submitted for approval prior to use in our software or that such software tools will be effective. In addition, open source license terms may be ambiguous and many of the risks associated with usage of open source software cannot be eliminated, and could, if not properly addressed, negatively affect our business. If we were found to have inappropriately used open source software, we may be required to re-engineer our software, to release proprietary source code, to discontinue the sale of our software in the event re-engineering could not be accomplished on a timely basis, or to take other remedial action that may divert resources away from our development efforts, any of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and growth prospects. In addition, if the open source software we use is no longer maintained by the relevant open source community, then it may be more difficult to make the necessary revisions to our software, including modifications to address security vulnerabilities, which could impact our ability to mitigate cybersecurity risks or fulfill our contractual obligations to our customers. We may also face claims from others seeking to enforce the terms of an open source license, including by demanding release of the open source software, derivative works or our proprietary source code that was developed using such software. Such claims, with or without merit, could result in litigation, could be time-consuming and expensive to settle or litigate, could divert our management’s attention and other resources, could require us to lease some of our proprietary code, or could require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our software, any of which could adversely affect our business.
Additionally, we have intentionally made certain proprietary software available on an open source basis, both by contributing modifications back to existing open source projects, and by making certain internally developed tools available pursuant to open source licenses, and we plan to continue to do so in the future. While we have established procedures, including a review process for any such contributions, which is designed to protect any code that may be competitively sensitive, we cannot guarantee that this process has always been applied consistently. Even when applied, because any software source code we contribute to open source projects is publicly available, our ability to protect our intellectual property rights with respect to such software source code may be limited or lost entirely, and we may be unable to prevent our competitors or others from using such contributed software source code for competitive purposes, or for commercial or other purposes beyond what we intended.
Many of these risks associated with usage of open source software could be difficult to eliminate or manage, and could, if not properly addressed, negatively affect the performance of our offerings and our business.
Risks Related to Legal, Regulatory and Accounting
Our estimates and projections may prove to be inaccurate and certain of our assets may be at risk of future impairment.
The accounting for some of our most significant activities is based on judgments and estimates, which are complex and subject to many variables. For example, accounting for sales using the percentage-of-completion method requires that we assess risks and make assumptions regarding schedule, cost, technical and performance issues for numerous contracts, many of which are long-term in nature. Additionally, we initially allocate the purchase price of acquired businesses based on a preliminary assessment of
the fair value of identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed. For significant acquisitions, we may use a one-year measurement period to analyze and assess a number of factors used in establishing the asset and liability fair values as of the acquisition date which could result in adjustments to asset and liability balances.
We have $91.6 million of goodwill assets recorded on our consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2021, from previous acquisitions, which represents approximately 24% of our total assets as of the end of this period. These goodwill assets are subject to annual impairment testing and more frequent testing upon the occurrence of certain events or significant changes in circumstances that indicate goodwill may be impaired. If we experience changes or factors arise that negatively affect the expected cash flows of a reporting unit, we may be required to write off all or a portion of the reporting unit’s related goodwill. Business deterioration, contract cancellations or terminations, or market pressures could cause our sales, earnings and cash flows to decline below current projections and could cause goodwill and intangible assets to be impaired.
Our business is subject to complex and evolving U.S. and non-U.S. laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection and security, technology protection, and other matters. Many of these laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could result in claims, changes to our business practices, monetary penalties, increased cost of operations, or otherwise harm our business.
We are subject to a variety of local, state, national, and international laws and directives and regulations in the United States and abroad that involve matters central to our business, including privacy and data protection, data security, data storage, retention, transfer and deletion, technology protection, and personal information. Foreign data protection, data security, privacy, and other laws and regulations can impose different obligations or be more restrictive than those in the United States. These U.S. federal and state and foreign laws and regulations, which, depending on the regime, may be enforced by private parties or government entities, are constantly evolving and can be subject to significant change, and they are likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. In addition, the application, interpretation, and enforcement of these laws and regulations are often uncertain, particularly in the new and rapidly evolving software and technology industry in which we operate and may be interpreted and applied inconsistently from country to country and inconsistently with our current policies and practices. A number of proposals are pending before U.S. federal, state, and foreign legislative and regulatory bodies that could significantly affect our business. For example, ongoing legal challenges in Europe to the mechanisms allowing companies to transfer personal data from the European Economic Area to certain other jurisdictions, including the United States, could result in further limitations on the ability to transfer data across borders, particularly if governments are unable or unwilling to reach new or maintain existing agreements that permit cross-border data transfers. The California state legislature passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) in 2018 and California voters approved a ballot measure subsequently establishing the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”) in 2020, which will jointly regulate the processing of personal information of California residents and increase the privacy and security obligations of entities handling certain personal information of California residents, including requiring covered companies to provide new disclosures to California consumers, and afford such consumers new abilities to opt-out of certain sales of personal information. The CCPA came into effect on January 1, 2020, and the California Attorney General may bring enforcement actions, with penalties for violations of the CCPA. The CPRA will go into effect on January 1, 2023 instilling enforcement authority in a new dedicated regulatory body, the California Privacy Protection Agency, which will begin carrying out enforcement actions as soon as six months after the enactment date. While aspects of both the CCPA and CPRA and their interpretations remain to be determined in practice, we are committed to complying with their obligations. We cannot yet fully predict the impact of the CCPA and CPRA on our business or operations, but developments regarding these and all privacy and data protection laws and regulations around the world may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to maintain compliance on an ongoing basis. Outside of the United States, virtually every jurisdiction in which we operate has established its own legal framework relating to privacy, data protection, and information security matters with which we and/or our customers must comply. Laws and regulations in these jurisdictions apply broadly to the collection, use, storage, retention, disclosure, security, transfer, and other processing of data that identifies or may be used to identify or locate an individual. Some countries and regions, including the European Union, are considering or have passed legislation that imposes significant obligations in connection with privacy, data protection, and information security that could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our software and services, including the European General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) which took effect in May 2018. Complying with the GDPR or other data protection laws and regulations as they emerge may cause us to incur substantial operational costs or require us to modify our data handling practices on an ongoing basis. Non-compliance with the GDPR specifically may result in administrative fines or monetary penalties of up to 4% of worldwide annual revenue in the preceding financial year or €20 million (whichever is higher) for the most serious infringements and could result in proceedings against us by governmental entities or other related parties and may otherwise adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
The overarching complexity of privacy and data protection laws and regulations around the world pose a compliance challenge that could manifest in costs, damages, or liability in other forms as a result of failure to implement proper programmatic controls,
failure to adhere to those controls, or the malicious or inadvertent breach of applicable privacy and data protection requirements by us, our employees, our business partners, or our customers.
In addition to government regulation, self-regulatory standards and other industry standards may legally or contractually apply to us, be argued to apply to us, or we may elect to comply with such standards or to facilitate our customers’ compliance with such standards. Because privacy, data protection, and information security are critical competitive factors in our industry, we may make statements on our website, in marketing materials, or in other settings about our data security measures and our compliance with, or our ability to facilitate our customers’ compliance with, these standards. We also expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws and regulations concerning privacy, data protection, and information security, and we cannot yet determine the impact such future laws, regulations and standards, or amendments to or re-interpretations of existing laws and regulations, industry standards, or other obligations may have on our business. New laws, amendments to or re-interpretations of existing laws and regulations, industry standards, and contractual and other obligations may require us to incur additional costs and restrict our business operations. As these legal regimes relating to privacy, data protection, and information security continue to evolve, they may result in ever-increasing public scrutiny and escalating levels of enforcement and sanctions. Furthermore, because the interpretation and application of laws, standards, contractual obligations and other obligations relating to privacy, data protection, and information security are uncertain, these laws, standards, and contractual and other obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is, or is alleged to be, inconsistent with our data management practices, our policies or procedures, or the features of our software, or we may simply fail to properly develop or implement our practices, policies, procedures, or features in compliance with such obligations. If so, in addition to the possibility of fines, lawsuits, and other claims, we could be required to fundamentally change our business activities and practices or modify our software, which could have an adverse effect on our business. We may be unable to make such changes and modifications in a commercially reasonable manner or at all, and our ability to fulfill existing obligations, make enhancements, or develop new software and features could be limited. Furthermore, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, the laws, regulations, and policies that are applicable to the businesses of our customers may limit the use and adoption of, and reduce the overall demand for, our software.
These existing and proposed laws and regulations can be costly to comply with and can make our software and services less effective or valuable, delay or impede the development of new products, result in negative publicity, increase our operating costs, require us to modify our data handling practices, limit our operations, impose substantial fines and penalties, require significant management time and attention, or put our data or technology at risk. Any failure or perceived failure by us or our software to comply with the laws, regulations, directives, policies, industry standards, or legal obligations of the U.S., European Union, or other governmental or non-governmental bodies at the regional, national, or supra-national level relating to privacy, data protection, or information security, or any security incident that results in actual or suspected loss of or the unauthorized access to, or acquisition, use, release, or transfer of, personal information, personal data, or other customer or sensitive data or information may result in governmental investigations, inquiries, enforcement actions and prosecutions, private claims and litigation, indemnification or other contractual obligations, other remedies, including fines or demands that we modify or cease existing business practices, or adverse publicity, and related costs and liabilities, which could significantly and adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Failure to comply with governmental laws and regulations could harm our business, and we may be the subject of legal and regulatory inquiries, which may result in monetary payments or may otherwise negatively impact our reputation, business, and results of operations.
Our business is subject to regulation by various federal, state, local, and foreign governments in which we operate. In certain jurisdictions, the regulatory requirements imposed by foreign governments may be more stringent than those in the United States. Noncompliance with applicable regulations or requirements could subject us to investigations, administrative proceedings, sanctions, enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, fines, damages, litigation, civil and criminal penalties, termination of contracts, exclusion from sales channels or sales opportunities, injunctions, or other consequences. Such matters may include, but are not limited to, claims, disputes, allegations, or investigations related to alleged violations of laws or regulations relating to anti-corruption requirements, lobbying or conflict-of-interest requirements, export or other trade controls, data privacy or data protection requirements, or laws or regulations relating to employment, procurement, cybersecurity, securities, or antitrust/competition requirements. The effects of recently imposed and proposed actions are uncertain because of the dynamic nature of governmental action and responses. We may be subject to government inquiries that drain our time and resources, tarnish our brand among customers and potential customers, prevent us from doing business with certain customers or markets, including government customers, affect our ability to hire, attract and maintain qualified employees, or require us to take remedial action or pay penalties. From time to time, we receive formal and informal inquiries from governmental agencies and regulators regarding our compliance with laws and regulations or otherwise relating to our business or transactions. Any negative outcome from such inquiries or investigations or failure to prevail in any possible civil or criminal litigation could adversely affect our business, reputation, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
We may become involved in legal, regulatory, and administrative inquiries and proceedings, and unfavorable outcomes in litigation or other matters could negatively impact our business, financial conditions, and results of operations.
We may, from time to time, be involved in and subject to litigation or proceedings for a variety of claims or disputes, or regulatory inquiries. These claims, lawsuits, and proceedings could involve labor and employment, discrimination and harassment, commercial disputes, intellectual property rights (including patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and other proprietary rights), class actions, general contract, tort, defamation, data privacy rights, antitrust, common law fraud, government regulation, or compliance, alleged federal and state securities and “blue sky” law violations or other investor claims, and other matters. Derivative claims, lawsuits, and proceedings, which may, from time to time, be asserted against our directors by our stockholders, could involve breach of fiduciary duty, failure of oversight, corporate waste claims, and other matters. In addition, our business and results may be adversely affected by the outcome of currently pending and any future legal, regulatory, and/or administrative claims or proceedings, including through monetary damages or injunctive relief.
Additionally, if customers fail to pay us under the terms of our agreements, we may be adversely affected due to the cost of enforcing the terms of our contracts through litigation. Litigation or other proceedings can be expensive and time consuming and can divert our resources and leadership’s attention from our primary business operations. The results of our litigation also cannot be predicted with certainty. If we are unable to prevail in litigation, we could incur payments of substantial monetary damages or fines, or undesirable changes to our software or business practices, and accordingly, our business, financial condition, or results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, if we accrue a loss contingency for pending litigation and determine that it is probable, any disclosures, estimates, and reserves we reflect in our financial statements with regard to these matters may not reflect the ultimate disposition or financial impact of litigation or other such matters. These proceedings could also result in negative publicity, which could harm customer and public perception of our business, regardless of whether the allegations are valid or whether we are ultimately found liable.
Failure to comply with anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws could subject us to penalties and other adverse consequences.
Since we may operate and sell our software and services around the world, we will be subject to the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the United States Travel Act, and other anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we currently or may do business, both domestic and abroad, including potentially the U.K. Bribery Act. These laws and regulations generally prohibit improper payments or offers of improper payments to government officials, political parties, or commercial partners for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business or securing an improper business advantage.
Corruption issues pose a risk in every country and jurisdiction, but in many countries, particularly in countries with developing economies, it may be more common for businesses to engage in practices that are prohibited by the FCPA or other applicable laws and regulations, and our activities in these countries pose a heightened risk of unauthorized payments or offers of payments by one of our employees or third-party business partners, representatives, and agents that could be in violation of various laws including the FCPA. The FCPA and other applicable anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws also may hold us liable for acts of corruption and bribery committed by our third-party business partners, representatives, and agents. We and our third-party business partners, representatives, and agents may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies, or state-owned or affiliated entities and we may be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of our employees or such third parties even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities. The FCPA or other applicable laws and regulations also require that we keep accurate books and records and maintain internal controls and compliance procedures designed to prevent improper payments. While we have implemented policies and procedures to address compliance with such laws, we cannot assure you that our employees or other third parties working on our behalf will not engage in conduct in violation of our policies or applicable law for which we might ultimately be held responsible. Violations of the FCPA and other applicable anti-corruption laws may result in whistleblower complaints, adverse media coverage, investigations, imposition of significant legal fees, loss of export privileges, as well as severe criminal or civil sanctions, including suspension or debarment from U.S. government contracting, and we may be subject to other liabilities and adverse effects on our reputation, which could negatively affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and growth prospects. In addition, responding to any enforcement action may result in a significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and significant legal defense costs and other professional fees. Our exposure for violating these laws increases as our non-U.S. presence expands and as we increase sales and operations in foreign jurisdictions.
Governmental trade controls, including export and import controls, sanctions, customs requirements, and related regimes, could subject us to liability or loss of contracting privileges or limit our ability to compete in certain markets.
Our offerings are subject to U.S. export controls, including with respect to encryption technology incorporated into certain of our offerings. Certain of our controlled software offerings and the underlying technology may be exported outside of the United States or accessed by non-U.S. persons (wherever located) only with the required export authorizations, which may include license requirements in some circumstances. Additionally, our current or future products or services may be classified under the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security or as defense articles subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (“ITAR”) administered by the U.S. Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. If a product, or component of a product, is classified under the ITAR, or is ineligible for an encryption license exception under the EAR, then the product or component could be exported outside the United States (or accessed by non-U.S. persons) only if we obtain the applicable export license or qualify for a different license exception. In certain contexts, the services we provide might be classified as defense services subject to the ITAR separately from the products we provide. Compliance with the EAR, ITAR, and other applicable regulatory requirements regarding the export or deemed export of our products, including new releases of our products and/or the performance of services, may create delays in or increase the cost of the introduction of our products in non-U.S. markets, prevent our customers with non-U.S. operations from deploying our products throughout their global systems or, in some cases, prevent the export of our products to some countries altogether.
Furthermore, our activities are subject to the economic sanctions laws and regulations administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control and U.S. Department of State, and other jurisdictions. Such controls prohibit the shipment or transfer of certain products and services without the required export authorizations or export to countries, governments, and persons targeted by applicable sanctions. We take precautions to prevent our offerings from being exported in violation of these laws, including: (i) seeking to proactively classify our software and obtain authorizations for the export and/or import of our software where appropriate, (ii) implementing certain technical controls and screening practices to reduce the risk of violations, and (iii) requiring compliance with U.S. export control and sanctions obligations in customer and vendor contracts. However, we cannot guarantee the precautions we take will prevent violations of export control and sanctions laws.
As discussed above, if we misclassify a product or service, export or provide access to a product or service in violation of applicable export control or sanctions laws or regulations, or otherwise fail to comply with export or sanctions laws or regulations, we may be denied export privileges or subjected to significant per violation fines or other penalties, and our software may be denied entry into other countries. Any decreased use of our software or limitation on our ability to export or sell our software would likely adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Violations of U.S. sanctions or export control laws can result in fines or penalties, including civil penalties of up to $300,000 or twice the value of the transaction, whichever is greater, per EAR violation and a civil penalty that could exceed $1,000,000 for ITAR violations, depending on the circumstances of the violation or violations. In the event of criminal knowing and willful violations of these laws, fines of up to $1,000,000 per violation and possible incarceration for responsible employees and managers could be imposed.
We also note that if we or our business partners or counterparties, including licensors and licensees, prime contractors, subcontractors, sublicensors, vendors, customers, contractors, or agents fail to obtain appropriate import, export, or re-export licenses or permits, notwithstanding regulatory requirements or contractual commitments to do so, or if we fail to secure such contractual commitments where necessary, we may also be adversely affected, through reputational harm as well as other negative consequences, including government investigations and penalties. For instance, violations of U.S. sanctions or export control laws can result in fines or penalties, including significant civil and criminal penalties per violation, depending on the circumstances of the violation or violations.
Negative consequences for violations or apparent violations of trade control laws or regulations may include the absolute loss of the right to sell our software or services to the government of the United States, or to other public bodies, or a reduction in our ability to compete for such sales opportunities. Further, complying with export control and sanctions regulations for a particular sale may be time-consuming and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities.
Also, various countries, in addition to the United States, regulate the import and export of certain encryption and other dual-use or defense technology or services, including import and export permitting and licensing requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our software or could limit our customers’ abilities to implement our software in those countries. Any new export restrictions, new legislation, changes in economic sanctions, or shifting approaches in the enforcement or scope of existing regulations, or in the countries, persons, or technologies targeted by such regulations, could result in decreased use of our software by existing customers with non-U.S. operations, declining adoption of our software by new customers with non-U.S. operations, limitation of our expansion into new markets, and decreased revenue.
Changes in accounting principles or their application to us could result in unfavorable accounting charges or effects, which could adversely affect our results of operations and growth prospects.
We prepare our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). In particular, we make certain estimates and assumptions related to the adoption and interpretation of these principles including the recognition of our revenue and the accounting of our stock-based compensation expense with respect to our financial statements. If these assumptions turn out to be incorrect, our financial results and position could materially differ from our expectations and could be materially adversely affected. A change in any of these principles or guidance, or in their interpretations or application to us, may have a significant effect on our reported results, as well as our processes and related controls, and may retroactively affect previously reported results or our forecasts, which may negatively impact our financial statements.
If our judgments or estimates relating to our critical accounting policies are based on assumptions that change or prove to be incorrect, our results of operations could fall below expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in our stock price.
The preparation of our financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make judgments, estimates, and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities, and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Our results of operations may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our results of operations to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the trading price of our common stock. Significant judgments, estimates, and assumptions used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include, or may in the future include, those related to revenue recognition, stock-based compensation, intangible assets, including goodwill, and income taxes.
We could be subject to additional tax liabilities.
We are subject to federal, state, and local income taxes in the U.S. Determining our provision for income taxes requires significant management judgment, and the ultimate tax outcome may be uncertain. In addition, our provision for income taxes is subject to volatility and could be adversely affected by many factors, including, among other things, changes to our operating or holding structure, changes in the amounts of earnings in jurisdictions with differing statutory tax rates, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities, and changes in U.S. tax laws. Tax authorities may disagree with our calculation of research and development tax credits, cross-jurisdictional transfer pricing, or other matters and assess additional taxes, interest, or penalties. While we regularly assess the likely outcomes of these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes and we believe that our financial statements reflect adequate reserves to cover any such contingencies, there can be no assurance that the outcomes of such examinations will not have a material impact on our results of operations and cash flows. If tax authorities change applicable tax laws, our overall taxes could increase, and our financial condition or results of operations may be adversely impacted.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards may be limited.
As of December 31, 2021, we had $34.7 million of U.S. federal and $46.0 million of U.S. state net operating loss (“NOLs”) carryforwards available to reduce future taxable income. While the federal NOL carryforwards can be carried forward indefinitely, state NOLs begin to expire in the year ending December 31, 2031. It is possible that we will not generate taxable income in time to use these NOL carryforwards before their expiration or at all. Under legislative changes made in December 2017, U.S. federal NOLs incurred in 2018 and in future years may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such NOLs is limited. It is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the newly enacted federal tax law. In addition, the federal and state NOL carryforwards and certain tax credits may be subject to significant limitations under Section 382 and Section 383 of the Code, respectively, and similar provisions of state law. Under those sections of the Code, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change NOL carryforwards and other pre-change attributes, such as research tax credits, to offset its post-change income or tax may be limited. In general, an “ownership change” will occur if there is a cumulative change in our ownership by “5-percent stockholders” that exceeds 50 percentage points over a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws. We have not yet undertaken an analysis of whether the Business Combination constitutes an “ownership change” for purposes of Section 382 and Section 383 of the Code. BigBear.ai or its subsidiaries may have previously undergone an “ownership change.” In addition, the Business Combination, or future
issuances or sales of our common stock, including certain transactions involving our common stock that are outside of its control, could result in future “ownership changes.” “Ownership changes” that have occurred in the past or that may occur in the future, including in connection with the Business Combination, could result in the imposition of an annual limit on the amount of pre-ownership change NOLs and other tax attributes BigBear.ai and its subsidiaries can use to reduce their respective taxable incomes, potentially increasing and accelerating their liability for income taxes, and also potentially causing those tax attributes to expire unused. States may impose other limitations on the use of BigBear.ai’s and its subsidiaries’ NOLs. Any limitation on using NOLs could, depending on the extent of such limitation and the NOLs previously used, result in BigBear.ai or its subsidiaries retaining less cash after payment of U.S. federal and state income taxes during any year in which BigBear.ai or its subsidiaries have taxable income, rather than losses, than BigBear.ai and its subsidiaries would be entitled to retain if such NOLs were available as an offset against such income for U.S. federal and state income tax reporting purposes, which could adversely impact our operating results.
Certain U.S. state tax authorities may assert that we have a state nexus and seek to impose state and local income taxes which could harm our results of operations.
There is a risk that certain U.S. state tax authorities where we do not currently file a state income tax return could assert that we are liable for state and local income taxes based upon income or gross receipts allocable to such states. States are becoming increasingly aggressive in asserting a nexus for state income tax purposes. If a state tax authority successfully asserts that our activities give rise to a nexus, we could be subject to state and local taxation, including penalties and interest attributable to prior periods. Such tax assessments, penalties and interest may adversely impact our results of operations.
Our results of operations may be harmed if we are required to collect sales or other related taxes for our license arrangements in jurisdictions where we have not historically done so.
States and some local taxing jurisdictions have differing rules and regulations governing sales and use taxes, and these rules and regulations are subject to varying interpretations that may change over time. We collect and remit U.S. sales and use tax, value-added tax (“VAT”), and goods and services tax (“GST”) in several jurisdictions. It is possible, however, that we could face sales tax, VAT, or GST audits and that our liability for these taxes could exceed our estimates as state tax authorities could still assert that we are obligated to collect additional tax amounts from our customers and remit those taxes to those authorities. We could also be subject to audits for which we have not accrued tax liabilities. Jurisdictions may seek to impose incremental or new sales, use, or other tax collection obligations on us or may determine that such taxes should have, but have not been, paid by us.
Risks Related to Our Relationships and Business with the Public Sector
A significant portion of our business depends on sales to the public/government sector, and our failure to receive and maintain government contracts or changes in the contracting or fiscal policies of the public sector could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We derive a significant portion of our revenue from contracts with the federal government and government agencies, and we believe that the success and growth of our business will continue to depend on our successful procurement of government contracts. For example, we have historically derived, and expect to continue to derive, a significant portion of our revenue from sales to agencies of the U.S. federal government, either directly by us or through other government contractors. Our perceived relationship with the U.S. government could adversely affect our business prospects in certain non-U.S. geographies or with certain non-U.S. governments.
Sales to government agencies are subject to a number of challenges and risks. Selling to government agencies can be highly competitive, expensive, and time-consuming, often requiring significant upfront time and expense without any assurance that these efforts will generate a sale. We also must comply with laws and regulations relating to the formation, administration, and performance of contracts, which provide public sector customers rights, many of which are not typically found in commercial contracts.
Further, governmental and highly regulated entities may demand contract terms that differ from our standard arrangements and may be less favorable than terms agreed with private sector customers. In our experience, government entities often require shorter term subscriptions than our private sector customers due to budget cycles. Government entities and highly regulated organizations typically have longer implementation cycles, sometimes require acceptance provisions that can lead to a delay in revenue recognition, can have more complex IT and data environments, and may expect greater payment flexibility from vendors.
Contracts with governmental entities may also include preferential pricing terms, including, but not limited to, “most favored
customer” pricing. In the event that we are successful in being awarded a government contract, such award may be subject to appeals, disputes, or litigation, including but not limited to bid protests by unsuccessful bidders.
Accordingly, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects may be adversely affected by certain events or activities, including, but not limited to:
•changes in fiscal or contracting policies or decreases in available government funding;
•changes in government programs or applicable requirements;
•restrictions in the grant of personnel security clearances to our employees;
•ability to maintain facility clearances required to perform on classified contracts for U.S. federal government agencies;
•changes in the political environment, including before or after a change to the leadership within the government administration, and any resulting uncertainty or changes in policy or priorities and resultant funding;
•changes in the government’s attitude towards the capabilities that we offer, especially in the areas of national defense, cybersecurity, and critical infrastructure, including the financial, energy, telecommunications, and healthcare sectors;
•changes in the government’s attitude towards us as a company or our software as a viable or acceptable software solution;
•appeals, disputes, or litigation relating to government procurement, including but not limited to bid protests by unsuccessful bidders on potential or actual awards of contracts to us or our partners by the government;
•the adoption of new laws or regulations or changes to existing laws or regulations;
•budgetary constraints, including automatic reductions as a result of “sequestration” or similar measures and constraints imposed by any lapses in appropriations for the federal government or certain of its departments and agencies;
•influence by, or competition from, third parties with respect to pending, new, or existing contracts with government customers;
•changes in political or social attitudes with respect to security or data privacy issues;
•potential delays or changes in the government appropriations or procurement processes, including as a result of events such as war, incidents of terrorism, natural disasters, and public health concerns or epidemics, such as the COVID-19 outbreak; and
•increased or unexpected costs or unanticipated delays caused by other factors outside of our control, such as performance failures of our subcontractors.
Any such event or activity, among others, could cause governments and governmental agencies to delay or refrain from purchasing our software and services in the future, reduce the size or payment amounts of purchases from existing or new government customers, or otherwise have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and growth prospects.
We have government customers, which subjects us to risks including early termination, audits, investigations, sanctions and penalties.
We derive a substantial portion of our revenue from contracts with U.S. defense and intelligence agencies and intend to enter into additional contracts with the U.S. government in the future. This subjects us to statutes and regulations applicable to companies doing business with the government, including the Federal Acquisition Regulation. These government contracts customarily contain provisions that give the government substantial rights and remedies, many of which are not typically found in commercial
contracts, which in certain cases are unfavorable to contractors. For instance, most U.S. government agencies include provisions that allow the government to unilaterally terminate contracts, in whole or in part, for convenience, and in that event, the counterparty to the contract may generally recover only its incurred or committed costs and settlement expenses and profit on work completed prior to the termination. If the government terminates a contract for default, the defaulting party may be liable for any extra costs incurred by the government in procuring undelivered supplies or services from another source.
Some of our federal government contracts are subject to the approval of appropriations being made by the U.S. Congress to fund the expenditures under these contracts. In addition, government contracts normally contain additional compliance requirements that may increase our costs of doing business, reduce our profits, and expose us to liability for failure to comply with these terms and conditions. These requirements include, for example:
•specialized disclosure and accounting requirements unique to government contracts;
•financial and compliance audits that may result in potential liability for price adjustments, recoupment of government funds after such funds have been spent, civil and criminal penalties, or administrative sanctions such as suspension or debarment from doing business with the U.S. government;
•public disclosures of certain contract and company information; and
•mandatory socioeconomic compliance requirements, including labor requirements, non-discrimination and affirmative action programs and environmental compliance requirements.
Government contracts are also generally subject to greater scrutiny by the government, which can initiate reviews, audits and investigations regarding our compliance with government contract requirements. In addition, if we fail to comply with government contracting laws, regulations and contract requirements, our contracts may be subject to termination, and we may be subject to financial and/or other liability under our contracts, the Federal Civil False Claims Act (including the possibility of treble damages and significant penalties), or criminal law. In particular, the False Claims Act’s “whistleblower” provisions also allow private individuals, including present and former employees, to sue on behalf of the U.S. government. Any penalties, damages, fines, suspension, or damages could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results.
We have contracts with government agencies that involve classified programs, which may limit investor insight into portions of our business.
We derive a portion of our revenue from programs with government agencies that are subject to security restrictions (e.g., contracts involving classified information, classified contracts, and classified programs), which preclude the dissemination of information and technology that is classified for national security purposes under applicable law and regulation. 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. In the event of a security incident involving classified information, technology, facilities, or programs or personnel holding clearances, we may be subject to legal, financial, operational, and reputational harm. We are limited in our ability to provide specific information about these classified programs, their risks, or any disputes or claims relating to such programs. As a result, investors have less insight into our classified programs than our other businesses and therefore less ability to fully evaluate the risks related to our classified business or our business overall. However, historically the business risks associated with our work on classified programs have not differed materially from those of our other government contracts.
Our business could be adversely affected if our employees cannot obtain and maintain required personnel security clearances, or we cannot establish and maintain a required facility security clearance.
Certain government contracts may require our employees to maintain various levels of security clearances and may require us to maintain a facility security clearance to comply with U.S. and international government agency requirements. Many governments have strict security clearance requirements for personnel who perform work in support of classified programs. Obtaining and maintaining security clearances for employees typically involves a lengthy process, and it can be difficult to identify, recruit, and retain employees who already hold security clearances. If our employees are unable to obtain security clearances in a timely manner, or at all, or if our employees who hold security clearances are unable to maintain their clearances or terminate employment with us, then we may be unable to comply with relevant U.S. and international government agency requirements, or our customers requiring classified work could choose to terminate or decide not to renew one or more contracts requiring employees to obtain or maintain security clearances upon expiration. To the extent we are not able to obtain or maintain a facility security clearance, we may not be able to bid on or win new classified contracts, and existing contracts requiring a facility security
clearance could be terminated, either of which would have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Most of our customer contracts may be terminated by the customer at any time for convenience and may contain other provisions permitting the customer to discontinue contract performance, and if terminated contracts are not replaced, our results of operations may differ materially and adversely from those anticipated. In addition, our contracts with government customers often contain provisions with additional rights and remedies favorable to such customers that are not typically found in commercial contracts.
Most of our contracts, including our government contracts, contain termination for convenience provisions. Customers that terminate such contracts may also be entitled to a pro rata refund of the amount of the customer deposit for the period of time remaining in the contract term after the applicable termination notice period expires. Government contracts often contain provisions and are subject to laws and regulations that provide government customers with additional rights and remedies not typically found in commercial contracts. These rights and remedies allow government customers, among other things, to:
•terminate existing contracts for convenience with short notice;
•reduce orders under or otherwise modify contracts;
•for contracts subject to the Truth in Negotiations Act, 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, and 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 triggering circumstances, including the revision of price lists or other documents upon which the contract award was predicated;
•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 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (“IDIQ”) contracts;
•claim rights in solutions, systems, or 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 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 applicable government agency; and
•control or prohibit the export of our services.
If a 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 if a government were to suspend or debar us from doing business with such government, our business, financial condition, and results of operations would be materially harmed.
Failure to comply with laws, regulations, or contractual provisions applicable to our business could cause us to lose government customers or our ability to contract with the U.S. and other governments.
As a government contractor, we must comply with laws, regulations, and contractual provisions relating to the formation,
administration, and performance of government contracts and inclusion on government contract vehicles, which affect how we and our partners do business with government agencies. As a result of actual or perceived noncompliance with government contracting laws, regulations, or contractual provisions, we may be subject to audits and internal investigations which may prove costly to our business financially, divert management time, or limit our ability to continue selling our software and services to our government customers. These laws and regulations may impose other added costs on our business, and failure to comply with these or other applicable regulations and requirements, including non-compliance in the past, could lead to claims for damages from our channel partners, penalties, and termination of contracts and suspension or debarment from government contracting for a period of time with government agencies. Any such damages, penalties, disruption, or limitation in our ability to do business with a government could adversely impact, and could have a material adverse effect on, our business, results of operations, financial condition, public perception, and growth prospects.
Evolving government procurement policies and increased emphasis on cost over performance could adversely affect our business.
Federal, state, local, and foreign governments and government agencies could implement procurement policies that negatively impact our profitability. Changes in procurement policy favoring more non-commercial purchases, different pricing, or evaluation criteria or government contract negotiation offers based upon the customer’s view of what our pricing should be may affect the predictability of our margins on such contracts or make it more difficult to compete on certain types of programs.
Governments and government agencies are continually evaluating their contract pricing and financing practices, and we have no assurance regarding the full scope and recurrence of any study and what changes will be proposed, if any, and their impact on our financial position, cash flows, or results of operations.
Increased competition and bid protests in a budget-constrained environment may make it more difficult to maintain our financial performance and customer relationships.
A substantial portion of our business is awarded through competitive bidding. Even if we are successful in obtaining an award, we may encounter bid protests from unsuccessful bidders on any specific award. Bid protests could result, among other things, in significant expenses to us, contract modifications, or even loss of the contract award. Even where a bid protest does not result in the loss of a contract award, the resolution can extend the time until contract activity can begin and, as a result, delay the recognition of revenue. We also may not be successful in our efforts to protest or challenge any bids for contracts that were not awarded to us, and we would be required to incur significant time and expense in such efforts.
In addition, governments and agencies increasingly have relied on competitive contract award types, including IDIQ and other multi-award contracts, which have the potential to create pricing pressure and to increase our costs by requiring us to submit multiple bids and proposals. Multi-award contracts require us to make sustained efforts to obtain orders under the contract. The competitive bidding process entails substantial costs and managerial time to prepare bids and proposals for contracts that may not be awarded to us or may be split among competitors.
We are experiencing increased competition while, at the same time, many of our customers are facing budget pressures, cutting costs, identifying more affordable solutions, performing certain work internally rather than hiring contractors, and reducing product development cycles. To remain competitive, we must maintain consistently strong customer relationships, seek to understand customer priorities, and provide superior performance, advanced technology solutions, and service at an affordable cost with the agility that our customers require to satisfy their objectives in an increasingly price competitive environment. Failure to do so could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
The U.S. government may procure non-commercial developmental services rather than commercial products, which could materially impact our future U.S. government business and revenue.
U.S. government agencies, including our customers, often award large developmental item and service contracts to build custom software rather than firm fixed-price contracts for commercial products. The U.S. government is required to procure commercial items and services to the maximum extent practicable in accordance with FASA, 10 U.S.C. § 2377; 41 U.S.C. § 3307, and the U.S. government may instead decide to procure non-commercial developmental items and services if commercial items and services are not practicable. In order to challenge a government decision to procure developmental items and services instead of commercial items and services, we would be required to file a bid protest at the agency level and/or with the Government Accountability Office. This can result in contentious communications with government agency legal and contracting offices and may escalate to litigation in federal court. The results of any future challenges or potential litigation cannot be predicted with certainty, however, and any dispute or litigation with the U.S. government may not be resolved in our favor; moreover, whether or
not it is resolved in our favor, such disputes or litigation could result in significant expense and divert the efforts of our technical and management personnel. These proceedings could adversely affect our reputation and relationship with government customers and could also result in negative publicity, which could harm customer and public perception of our business. Any change in or repeal of FASA, or a contrary interpretation of FASA by a court of competent jurisdiction, could adversely affect our competitive position for U.S. federal government contracts.
A decline in the U.S. and other government budgets, changes in spending or budgetary priorities, or delays in contract awards may significantly and adversely affect our future revenue and limit our growth prospects.
Because we generate a substantial portion of our revenue from contracts with U.S. government agencies, our results of operations could be adversely affected by government spending caps or changes in government budgetary priorities, as well as by delays in the government budget process, program starts, or the award of contracts or orders under existing contract vehicles, including as a result of a new U.S. administration. Current U.S. government spending levels for defense-related and other programs may not be sustained beyond government fiscal year 2021. Future spending and program authorizations may not increase or may decrease or shift to programs in areas in which we do not provide services or are less likely to be awarded contracts. Such changes in spending authorizations and budgetary priorities may occur as a result of shifts in spending priorities from defense-related and other programs as a result of competing demands for federal funds and the number and intensity of military conflicts or other factors.
The U.S. government also conducts periodic reviews of U.S. defense strategies and priorities which may shift Department of Defense budgetary priorities, reduce overall spending, or delay contract or task order awards for defense-related programs from which we would otherwise expect to derive a significant portion of our future revenue. A significant decline in overall U.S. government spending, a significant shift in spending priorities, the substantial reduction or elimination of defense-related programs, or significant budget-related delays in contract or task order awards for large programs could adversely affect our future revenue and limit our growth prospects.
Risks Related to the 2026 Convertible Notes
Our indebtedness could adversely affect our financial condition and prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under the 2026
Convertible Notes.
In the future, we may seek to raise or borrow additional funds to expand our product or business development efforts, make
acquisitions or otherwise fund or grow our business and operations. Our indebtedness could have important consequences to the
holders of the 2026 Convertible Notes, including:
•increasing our vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions;
•requiring us to dedicate a portion of our cash flow from operations to principal and interest payments on our indebtedness, thereby reducing the availability of cash flow to fund working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and investments and other general corporate purposes;
•making it more difficult for us to optimally capitalize and manage the cash flow for our businesses;
•limiting our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our businesses and the markets in which we operate;
•possibly placing us at a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors that have less debt;
•limiting our ability to borrow additional funds or to borrow funds at rates or on other terms that we find acceptable; and
•exposing us to the risk of increased interest rates because certain of our borrowings, including our Credit Agreement, are subject to variable rates of interest.
In addition, it is possible that we may need to incur additional indebtedness in the future in the ordinary course of business. We paid off our Antares Credit Agreement on December 7, 2021 and the Bank of America Senior Revolver we entered into on December 7, 2021 was undrawn as of December 31, 2021.
The terms of our Credit Agreement and our Indenture that governs the 2026 Convertible Notes allow us to incur additional debt subject to certain limitations; however, there is no assurance that additional financing will be available to us on terms favorable to us, if at all. In addition, if new debt is added to the then existing debt levels, the risks described above could intensify.
Our Credit Agreement and our Indenture contain restrictive covenants that will limit our ability to engage in activities that may be in our long-term best interest. Our failure to comply with those covenants could result in an event of default which, if not cured or waived, could result in the acceleration of substantially all of our indebtedness. See Exhibit 4.4 “Description of the Registrant’s Securities Registered pursuant to Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.”
We may be able to incur substantial indebtedness. This could exacerbate the risks to our financial condition described above and prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under the 2026 Convertible Notes.
We may be able to incur significant additional indebtedness in the future and this could result in additional risk. Although the Credit Agreement and our Indenture contain restrictions on the incurrence of additional indebtedness, these restrictions are subject to a number of qualifications and exceptions, and the additional indebtedness incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be substantial. In the future we may draw on the Credit Agreement to reinforce our liquidity position and preserve financial flexibility in light of current uncertainty in the global markets resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical uncertainty. We paid off our Antares Credit Agreement on December 7, 2021 and the Bank of America Senior Revolver we entered into on December 7, 2021 was undrawn as of December 31, 2021.
If we incur any additional indebtedness that ranks equally with the 2026 Convertible Notes, subject to any collateral arrangements, the holders of that debt will be entitled to share ratably in any proceeds distributed in connection with our insolvency, liquidation, reorganization, dissolution or other winding up as a company. This may have the effect of reducing the amount of proceeds paid to our creditors and shareholders. These restrictions also will not prevent us from incurring obligations that do not constitute indebtedness. If new indebtedness is added to our current indebtedness levels, the related risks that we now face could increase. Any of these risks could materially impact our ability to fund our operations or limit our ability to expand our business, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our obligation to offer to redeem the 2026 Convertible Notes upon the occurrence of a fundamental change will be triggered only by certain specified transactions, and may discourage a transaction that could be beneficial to the holders of our Common Stock and the 2026 Convertible Notes.
The term “fundamental change” in the Indenture is limited to certain specified transactions and may not include other events that might adversely affect our financial condition or the market value of the new notes or our common stock. See Exhibit 4.4 “Description of the Registrant’s Securities Registered pursuant to Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934” The delisting of our shares from trading on the NYSE is a fundamental change. Our obligation to offer to redeem the new notes upon a fundamental change would not necessarily afford holders of such notes protection in the event of a highly leveraged transaction, reorganization, merger or similar transaction involving us. If a fundamental change occurs, there are no assurances that we will have sufficient funds to redeem the 2026 Convertible Notes. See “— 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 position and results of operations and our ability to satisfy our obligations under the 2026 Convertible Notes.”
We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service all of our indebtedness, including the 2026 Convertible Notes, 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 to refinance our debt obligations, including the 2026 Convertible Notes, depends on our financial condition and results of operations, which in turn are subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and to certain financial, business and other factors beyond our control. We may 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, including the 2026 Convertible Notes.
If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we could face substantial liquidity problems and may be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures, or to sell assets, seek additional capital or restructure or refinance our indebtedness, including the 2026 Convertible Notes. Our ability to restructure or refinance our debt will depend on, among other things, the condition of the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. Any refinancing of our debt could be at higher interest rates and may require us to comply with more onerous covenants, which could further restrict our business operations. The terms of existing or future debt instruments and the Indenture that governs the 2026 Convertible Notes may restrict us from adopting some of these alternatives. In addition, any failure to make payments of interest and principal on our outstanding indebtedness on a timely basis would likely result in a reduction of our credit rating, which could harm our ability to incur additional indebtedness. In the absence of such cash flows and resources, we could face substantial liquidity problems and might be required to dispose of material assets or operations to meet our debt service and other obligations.
Further, our Credit Agreement and our Indenture contain provisions that will restrict our ability to dispose of assets and use the proceeds from any such disposition. We may not be able to consummate those dispositions or to obtain the proceeds that we could realize from them and these proceeds may not be adequate to meet any debt service obligations then due. These alternative measures may not be successful and may not permit us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations.
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 position and results of operations and our ability to satisfy our obligations under the 2026 Convertible Notes.
If we cannot make scheduled payments on our indebtedness, to the extent applicable, we will be in default and holders of the 2026 Convertible Notes could declare all outstanding principal and interest to be due and payable and the lenders under the Credit Agreement could terminate their commitments to loan money, our secured lenders could foreclose against the assets securing their borrowings and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation. If we breach the covenants under our debt instruments, we would be in default under such instruments. The holders of such indebtedness could exercise their rights, as described above, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation. All of these events could result in your losing your entire investment in the 2026 Convertible Notes.
The Credit Agreement and the Indenture contain terms which restrict our current and future operations, particularly our ability to respond to changes or to take certain actions.
The Credit Agreement and the Indenture contain a number of restrictive covenants that impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us and may limit our ability to engage in acts that may be in our long-term best interest, including, among other things, restrictions on our ability to:
•incur or guarantee additional indebtedness or issue disqualified stock or preferred stock;
•pay dividends and make other distributions on, or redeem or repurchase, capital stock;
•make certain investments;
•incur certain liens;
•enter into transactions with affiliates;
•merge or consolidate;
•enter into agreements that restrict the ability of restricted subsidiaries to make dividends or other payments to us or the guarantors;
•designate restricted subsidiaries as unrestricted subsidiaries; and
•transfer or sell assets.
The covenants in the Indenture that governs the 2026 Convertible Notes are subject to important exceptions and qualifications, which are described under Exhibit 4.4 “Description of the Registrant’s Securities Registered pursuant to Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.”
These covenants may limit our ability to optimally operate our business. In addition, our Credit Agreement requires that we meet certain financial tests, including a leverage ratio test and a fixed charge coverage ratio test.
These restrictive covenants could adversely affect our ability to:
•finance our operations;
•make needed capital expenditures;
•make strategic acquisitions or investments or enter into joint ventures;
•withstand a future downturn in our business, the industry or the economy in general;
•engage in business activities, including future opportunities, that may be in our best interest; and
•plan for or react to market conditions or otherwise execute our business strategies.
These restrictions may affect our ability to expand our business, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
As a result of these restrictions, we will be limited as to how we conduct our business and we may be unable to raise additional debt or equity financing to compete effectively or to take advantage of new business opportunities. The terms of any future indebtedness we may incur could include more restrictive covenants. We cannot assure you that we will be able to maintain compliance with these covenants in the future and, if we fail to do so, that we will be able to obtain waivers from the lenders and/or amend the covenants.
Our failure to comply with the restrictive covenants described above and/or the terms of any future indebtedness from time to time could result in an event of default, which, if not cured or waived, could result in our being required to repay these borrowings before their due date and the termination of future funding commitments by our lenders. If we are forced to refinance these borrowings on less favorable terms or cannot refinance these borrowings, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
The Credit Agreement and the Indenture contain cross-default provisions that could result in the acceleration of all of our indebtedness.
A breach of the covenants under our Credit Agreement or our Indenture could result in an event of default under the applicable indebtedness. Such a default may allow the creditors to accelerate the related indebtedness and may result in the acceleration of any other indebtedness to which a cross-acceleration or cross-default provision applies. In addition, an event of default under the Credit Agreement would permit the lenders under the Credit Agreement to terminate all commitments to extend further credit under that facility. Furthermore, if we were unable to repay amounts due and payable under the Credit Agreement, those lenders could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure that indebtedness. In the event our lenders or noteholders accelerate the repayment of our borrowings, we and our guarantors may not have sufficient assets to repay that indebtedness. Additionally, we may not be able to borrow money from other lenders to enable us to refinance our indebtedness.
The 2026 Convertible Notes are effectively subordinated to our indebtedness under the Credit Agreement and our other secured indebtedness to the extent of the value of the assets securing that indebtedness.
The 2026 Convertible Notes are not secured by any of our assets. As a result, the 2026 Convertible Notes and the guarantees are
effectively subordinated to our existing and future secured indebtedness (including any indebtedness under the Credit Agreement) with respect to the assets that secure that indebtedness. The effect of this subordination is that upon a default in payment on, or the acceleration of, any of our secured indebtedness, or in the event of bankruptcy, insolvency, liquidation, dissolution or reorganization of our company, the proceeds from the sale of assets securing our secured indebtedness are available to pay obligations on the 2026 Convertible Notes only after all secured indebtedness has been paid in full. We paid off our Antares Credit Agreement on December 7, 2021 and the Bank of America Senior Revolver we entered into on December 7, 2021 was undrawn as of December 31, 2021. The holders of the 2026 Convertible Notes may receive less, ratably, than the holders of secured indebtedness in the event of our or any of the guarantors’ bankruptcy, insolvency, liquidation, dissolution or reorganization.
The 2026 Convertible Notes are structurally subordinated to all obligations of our existing and future subsidiaries that are not and do not become guarantors of the 2026 Convertible Notes.
Each of our existing and future domestic restricted subsidiaries that is a borrower under or that guarantees obligations under the Credit Agreement or that guarantees certain of our other indebtedness is a guarantor of the 2026 Convertible Notes (subject to certain exceptions). Our subsidiaries that do not guarantee the 2026 Convertible Notes, including all of our non-domestic subsidiaries, will have no obligation, contingent or otherwise, to pay amounts due under the 2026 Convertible Notes or to make any funds available to pay those amounts, whether by dividend, distribution, loan or other payment. The 2026 Convertible Notes are structurally subordinated to all indebtedness and other obligations of any non-guarantor subsidiary such that in the event of insolvency, liquidation, reorganization, dissolution or other winding up of any subsidiary that is not a guarantor, all of that subsidiary’s creditors (including trade creditors and preferred stockholders, if any) would be entitled to payment in full out of that
subsidiary’s assets before the 2026 Convertible Note Holders would be entitled to any payment.
In addition, the Indenture, subject to some limitations, permits these subsidiaries to incur additional indebtedness and will not contain any limitation on the amount of other liabilities, such as trade payables, that may be incurred by these subsidiaries.
In addition, our subsidiaries that provide, or will provide, guarantees of the 2026 Convertible Notes will be automatically released from those guarantees upon the occurrence of certain events, including the following:
•upon a sale, transfer, exchange or other disposition (including by way of consolidation or merger) of Capital Stock of such Guarantor following which the applicable Guarantor ceases to be a Subsidiary or the sale, transfer, exchange or other disposition of all or substantially all the properties and assets of the applicable Guarantor (other than to the other Guarantors) otherwise not prohibited by the Indenture;
•upon the release or discharge of such Guarantor’s obligations under the Credit Agreement or other Indebtedness that resulted in the creation of such Guarantee other than, in each case, a release or discharge through payment thereon;
•upon the merger, amalgamation or consolidation of any Guarantor with and into the Company or another Guarantor or upon the liquidation of such Guarantor, in each case, in compliance with the Indenture;
•upon the discharge of the 2026 Convertible Notes, as provided in Article 3 of the Indenture; or
•as provided in Article 10 of the Indenture.
If any guarantee is released, no holder of the 2026 Convertible Notes will have a claim as a creditor against that subsidiary, and the indebtedness and other liabilities (including trade payables and preferred stock, if any), whether secured or unsecured, of that subsidiary will be effectively senior to the claim of any holders of the 2026 Convertible Notes. See Exhibit 4.4 “Description of the Registrant’s Securities Registered pursuant to Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.”
Federal and state fraudulent transfer laws may permit a court to void the 2026 Convertible Notes or the guarantees and, if that occurs, the noteholders may not receive any payments on the 2026 Convertible Notes.
Federal and state fraudulent transfer and conveyance statutes may apply to the issuance of the 2026 Convertible Notes and the incurrence of the guarantees of the 2026 Convertible Notes. Under federal bankruptcy law and comparable provisions of state fraudulent transfer or conveyance laws, which may vary from state to state, the 2026 Convertible Notes or the guarantees thereof could be voided as a fraudulent transfer or conveyance if BigBear.ai or a guarantor, as applicable,
•issued the 2026 Convertible Notes or incurred its guarantee with the intent of hindering, delaying or defrauding creditors or
•received less than reasonably equivalent value or fair consideration in return for either issuing the 2026 Convertible Notes or incurring the guarantee and, in the case of (2) only, one of the following is also true at the time thereof:
•the issuer or such guarantor, as applicable, was insolvent or rendered insolvent by reason of the issuance of the 2026 Convertible Notes or the incurrence of its guarantees;
•the issuance of the 2026 Convertible Notes or the incurrence of its guarantees left the issuer or such guarantor, as applicable, with an unreasonably small amount of capital or assets to carry on the business;
•the issuer or such guarantor intended to, or believed that it would, incur indebtedness beyond its ability to pay as they mature; or
•the issuer or such guarantor was a defendant in an action for money damages, or had a judgment for money damages docketed against it if, in either case, the judgment is unsatisfied after final judgment.
As a general matter, value is given for a transfer or an obligation if, in exchange for the transfer or obligation, property is transferred or a valid antecedent debt is secured or satisfied. A court would likely find that a guarantor did not receive reasonably equivalent value or fair consideration for its guarantee to the extent the guarantor did not obtain a reasonably equivalent benefit directly or indirectly from the issuance of the 2026 Convertible Notes.
We cannot be certain as to the standards a court would use to determine whether or not we or a guarantor was insolvent at the relevant time or, regardless of the standard that a court uses, whether the 2026 Convertible Notes or the guarantees would be subordinated to other indebtedness. In general, however, a court would deem an entity insolvent if:
•the sum of its indebtedness, including contingent and unliquidated liabilities, was greater than the fair saleable value of all of its assets;
•the present fair saleable value of its assets was less than the amount that would be required to pay its probable liability on its existing indebtedness, including contingent liabilities, as they become absolute and mature; or
•it could not pay its indebtedness as it became due.
If a court were to find that the issuance of the 2026 Convertible Notes or the incurrence of a guarantee was a fraudulent transfer or conveyance, the court could void the payment obligations under the 2026 Convertible Notes or that guarantee, could subordinate the 2026 Convertible Notes or that guarantee to our presently existing and future indebtedness or of the relevant guarantor or could require the holders of the 2026 Convertible Notes to repay any amounts received with respect to the 2026 Convertible Notes or that guarantee. In the event of a finding that a fraudulent transfer or conveyance occurred, the noteholders may not receive any repayment on the 2026 Convertible Notes. Further, the voiding of the 2026 Convertible Notes could result in an event of default with respect to our and our subsidiaries’ other indebtedness that could result in acceleration of that indebtedness.
Although each guarantee entered into in connection with the 2026 Convertible Notes will contain a provision intended to limit that guarantor’s liability to the maximum amount that it could incur without causing the incurrence of obligations under its guarantee to be a fraudulent conveyance or fraudulent transfer, this provision may not be effective as a legal matter to protect those guarantees from being voided under fraudulent conveyance or fraudulent transfer law or otherwise, or may reduce that guarantor’s obligation to an amount that effectively makes its guarantee worthless.
In addition, as noted above, any payment by us pursuant to the 2026 Convertible Notes or by a guarantor under a guarantee made at a time we or such guarantor was found to be insolvent could be voided and required to be returned to the issuer or such guarantor if such payment is made to an insider within a one-year period prior to a bankruptcy filing or within 90 days for any non-insider party and such payment would give such insider or non-insider party (as the case may be) more than such creditors would have received in a distribution under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in a hypothetical Chapter 7 case.
Finally, as a court of equity, the bankruptcy court may subordinate the claims in respect of the 2026 Convertible Notes to other claims against us under the principle of equitable subordination if the court determines that (1) the holder of 2026 Convertible Notes engaged in some type of inequitable conduct, (2) the inequitable conduct resulted in injury to our other creditors or conferred an unfair advantage upon the holders of 2026 Convertible Notes and (3) equitable subordination is not inconsistent with the provisions of the United States Bankruptcy Code.
There is no existing public trading market for the 2026 Convertible Notes, and holders’ ability to sell the 2026 Convertible Notes will be limited.
There is no existing public market for the 2026 Convertible Notes. No market for the 2026 Convertible Notes may develop, and any market that develops may not persist. We cannot assure the noteholders as to the liquidity of any market that may develop for the 2026 Convertible Notes, their ability to sell their 2026 Convertible Notes or the price at which they would be able to sell their 2026 Convertible Notes. Future trading prices of the new notes will depend on many factors, including, among other things, prevailing interest rates, our operating results and the market for similar securities. The liquidity of any trading market and the trading price of such notes may be adversely affected by changes in our financial performance or prospects and by changes in the financial performance of or prospects for companies in our industry generally.
Even though the 2026 Convertible Notes are convertible into shares of our Common Stock, the terms of the 2026 Convertible Notes will not provide protection against some types of important corporate events.
The 2026 Convertible Notes are convertible into shares of our Common Stock. Certain important corporate events, such as leveraged recapitalizations, that would increase the level of our indebtedness, would not constitute a “fundamental change” under the 2026 Convertible Notes. See Exhibit 4.4 “Description of the Registrant’s Securities Registered pursuant to Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.”
A lowering or withdrawal of the ratings assigned to our debt securities by rating agencies may increase our future borrowing costs and reduce our access to capital.
There can be no assurances that any rating assigned to our debt securities 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, future circumstances relating to the basis of the rating, such as adverse changes, so warrant. Consequently, real or anticipated changes in our credit ratings will generally affect the market value of the 2026 Convertible Notes. Credit ratings are not recommendations to purchase, hold or sell the 2026 Convertible Notes, and may be revised or withdrawn at any time. Additionally, credit ratings may not reflect the potential effect of risks relating to the structure or marketing of the 2026 Convertible Notes.
Any future lowering of our ratings likely would make it more difficult or more expensive for us to obtain additional debt financing. If any credit rating initially assigned to the 2026 Convertible Notes is subsequently lowered or withdrawn for any reason, our noteholders may not be able to resell their 2026 Convertible Notes at a favorable price or at all.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
We have convertible debt that may be converted into Common Stock in the future, which would cause immediate and substantial dilution to our stockholders.
On December 7, 2021, we issued the 2026 Convertible Notes in the aggregate principal of $200.0 million. The 2026 Convertible Notes are convertible into up to 23,058,494 shares of Common Stock, with an initial conversion rate of 86.9565 shares of Common Stock per $1,000 principal amount of 2026 Convertible Notes (subject to adjustment up to 102.2495 per $1,000 principal amount of 2026 Convertible Notes, and further adjustment up to 23,058,494 in the event of a Make-Whole Fundamental Change and maximum downward adjustment to $9.775). The issuance of shares of Common Stock upon any conversion of the 2026 Convertible Notes will result in dilution to the interests of other stockholders.
Our only significant asset is our ownership interest in our subsidiaries and such ownership may not be sufficient to pay dividends or make distributions or loans to enable us to pay any dividends on our Common Stock or satisfy our other financial obligations.
We have no direct operations and no significant assets other than our ownership of our subsidiaries. We will depend on our subsidiaries for distributions, loans and other payments to generate the funds necessary to meet our financial obligations, including our expenses as a publicly traded company and to pay any dividends with respect to our Common Stock. The financial condition and operating requirements of our subsidiaries may limit our ability to obtain cash from our subsidiaries. The earnings from, or other available assets of, our subsidiaries may not be sufficient to pay dividends or make distributions or loans to enable us to pay any dividends on our Common Stock or satisfy our other financial obligations.
The ability of our subsidiaries to make distributions, loans and other payments to us for the purposes described above and for any other purpose may be limited by our Credit Agreement which our subsidiaries are party from time to time, including the existing loan and security agreement described in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and the terms of the 2026 Convertible Notes, and will be subject to the negative covenants set forth therein. Any loans or other extensions of credit to us from our subsidiaries will be permitted only to the extent there is an applicable exception to the investment covenants under our Credit Agreement. Similarly, any dividends, distributions or similar payments to us from our subsidiaries will be permitted only to the extent there is an applicable exception to the dividends and distributions covenants under our Credit Agreement.
Because we have no current plans to pay cash dividends on shares of common stock for the foreseeable future, you may not receive any return on investment unless you sell shares of Common Stock for a price greater than that which you paid for it.
We may retain future earnings, if any, for future operations, expansion and debt repayment and have no current plans to pay any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. Any decision to declare and pay dividends as a public company in the future will be made at the discretion of the Board and will depend on, among other things, our results of operations, financial condition, cash requirements, contractual restrictions and other factors that the Board may deem relevant. In addition, our ability to pay dividends may be limited by covenants of any existing and future outstanding indebtedness we or our subsidiaries incur. As a result, you may not receive any return on an investment in our Common Stock unless you sell your Common Stock for a price greater than that which you paid for it.
Certain of our warrants are accounted for as a warrant liability and are recorded at fair value upon issuance with changes in fair value each period reported in earnings, which may have an adverse effect on the market price of our common stock.
We had 366,533 Private Placement Warrants that were issued concurrently with the IPO. The Private Placement Warrants and the shares of Common Stock issuable upon the exercise of the Private Placement Warrants are exercisable for cash or on a cashless basis, at the holder’s option, and are non-redeemable so long as they are held by the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees. If the Private Placement Warrants are held by someone other than the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees, the Private Placement Warrants will be redeemable by us and exercisable by such holders on the same basis as the warrants included in the units sold in the IPO, in which case the 366,533 Private Placement Warrants could be redeemed by the Company for $3,665 (or $0.01 per Warrant). Under GAAP, we are required to evaluate contingent exercise provisions of these warrants and then their settlement provisions to determine whether they should be accounted for as a warrant liability or as equity. Any settlement amount not equal to the difference between the fair value of a fixed number of our equity shares and a fixed monetary amount precludes these warrants from being considered indexed to its own stock, and therefore, from being accounted for as equity. As a result of the provision that the Private Placement Warrants, when held by someone other than the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees, will be redeemable by us, the requirements for accounting for these warrants as equity are not satisfied. Therefore, we are required to account for these Private Placement Warrants as a warrant liability and record (a) that liability at fair value, which was determined as the same as the fair value of the warrants included in the units sold in the IPO, and (b) any subsequent changes in fair value as of the end of each period for which earnings are reported. The impact of changes in fair value on earnings may have an adverse effect on the market price of our Common Stock.
A market for our securities may not continue, which would adversely affect the liquidity and price of our securities.
Following the Business Combination, the price of our securities have fluctuated significantly due to the market’s reaction to the Business Combination and general market and economic conditions. An active trading market for our securities may never fully develop or, if developed, it may not be sustained. In addition, the price of our securities can vary due to general economic conditions and forecasts, our general business condition and the release of our financial reports. Additionally, if our securities become delisted from the NYSE for any reason, and are quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board (an inter-dealer automated quotation system for equity securities that is not a national securities exchange), the liquidity and price of our securities may be more limited than if our securities were quoted or listed on the NYSE or another national securities exchange. You may be unable to sell your securities unless a market can be sustained. Recently, we repurchased 9,952,803 million shares of our Common Stock pursuant to several of our Forward Share Purchase Agreements. As a result of these repurchases, the amount of Common Stock trading freely on NYSE may be reduced, which could have a material effect on the liquidity of our Common Stock.
There can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with the continued listing standards of the NYSE.
Our Common Stock is listed on the NYSE under the symbol “BBAI.” If the NYSE delists our shares from trading on its exchange for failure to meet the listing standards, we and our stockholders could face significant material adverse consequences including:
•a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;
•a determination that our Common Stock is a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our Common Stock to adhere to more stringent rules, possibly resulting in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for shares of our Common Stock;
•being required to repurchase the 2026 Convertible Notes at a price equal to the principal amount plus accrued and unpaid interest;
•a limited amount of analyst coverage; and
•a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.
General Risk Factors
Adverse economic conditions or reduced technology spending may adversely impact our business.
Our business depends on the economic health of our current and prospective customers and overall demand for technology. In addition, the purchase of our software and services is often discretionary and typically involves a significant commitment of capital and other resources. A further downturn in economic conditions, global political and economic uncertainty, a lack of
availability of credit, a reduction in business confidence and activity, the curtailment of government or corporate spending, public health concerns or emergencies, financial market volatility, and other factors have in the past and may in the future affect the industries to which we sell our software and services. Our customers may suffer from reduced operating budgets, which could cause them to defer or forego purchases of our software or services. Moreover, competitors may respond to market conditions by lowering prices and attempting to lure away our customers, and the increased pace of consolidation in certain industries may result in reduced overall spending on our offerings. Uncertainty about global and regional economic conditions, a downturn in the technology sector or any sectors in which our customers operate, or a reduction in information technology spending even if economic conditions are stable, could adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations in a number of ways, including longer sales cycles, lower prices for our software and services, material default rates among our customers, reduced sales of our software or services, and lower or no growth.
We cannot predict the timing, strength, or duration of any crises, economic slowdown, or any subsequent recovery generally, or for any industry in particular. Although certain aspects of the effects of a crisis or an economic slowdown may provide potential new opportunities for our business, we cannot guarantee that the net impact of any such events will not be materially negative. Accordingly, if the conditions in the general economy and the markets in which we operate worsen from present levels, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We have and will incur increased costs and demands upon management as a result of complying with the laws and regulations affecting public companies, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the listing standards of the NYSE, and other applicable securities rules and regulations. We expect that the requirements of these rules and regulations will continue to increase our legal, accounting, and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time-consuming and costly, and place significant strain on our personnel, systems, and resources. For example, the Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly, and current reports with respect to our business and results of operations. As a result of the complexity involved in complying with the rules and regulations applicable to public companies, our management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Although we have already hired additional employees to assist us in complying with these requirements, we may need to hire more employees in the future or engage outside consultants, which will increase our operating expenses. Additionally, as a public company subject to additional rules and regulations and oversight, we may not have the same flexibility we had as a private company.
In addition, changing laws, regulations, and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial compliance costs, and making some activities more time-consuming. These laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to invest substantial resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from business operations to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to their application and practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us, and our business may be harmed.
We also expect that being a public company and these new rules and regulations will make it more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our Board, particularly to serve on our audit committee and compensation committee, and qualified executive officers.
As a result of disclosure of information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in filings required of a public company, our business and financial condition will become more visible, which may result in an increased risk of threatened or actual litigation, including by competitors and other third parties. If such claims are successful, our business and results of operations could be harmed, and even if the claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the resources of our management and harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We may not be able to timely and effectively implement controls and procedures required by Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act applicable to us.
We are required to provide management’s attestation on internal controls. The standards required for a public company under Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are significantly more stringent than those required of us as a privately-held company. Management may not be able to effectively and timely implement controls and procedures that adequately respond to the increased regulatory compliance and reporting requirements that are applicable after the Business Combination. If the Company is not able to implement the additional requirements of Section 404(a) in a timely manner or with adequate compliance, it may not be able to assess whether its internal controls over financial reporting are effective, which may subject it to financial reporting misstatements and adverse regulatory consequences and could harm investor confidence and the market price of the Company’s shares of common stock.
Natural disasters and other events beyond our control could harm our business.
Natural disasters or other catastrophic events may cause damage or disruption to our operations, non-U.S. commerce and the global economy, and thus could have a negative effect on us. Our business operations are subject to interruption by natural disasters, earthquakes, flooding, fire, power shortages, pandemics such as the recent spread of COVID-19, terrorism, political unrest, telecommunications failure, vandalism, cyberattacks, geopolitical instability, war, the effects of climate change (such as drought, wildfires, increased storm severity, and sea level rise), and other events beyond our control. Although we maintain crisis management and disaster response plans, such events could make it difficult or impossible for us to deliver our services to our customers, could decrease demand for our services, could make existing customers unable or unwilling to fulfill their contractual requirements to us, including their payment obligations, and could cause us to incur substantial expense, including expenses or liabilities arising from potential litigation. Our insurance may not be sufficient to cover losses or additional expense that we may sustain. Customer data could be lost, significant recovery time could be required to resume operations and our financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected in the event of a major natural disaster or catastrophic event.
Unanticipated changes in effective tax rates or adverse outcomes resulting from examination of our income or other tax returns could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to income taxes in the United States and other jurisdictions, and our tax liabilities will be subject to the allocation of expenses in differing jurisdictions. Our future effective tax rates could be subject to volatility or adversely affected by a number of factors, including:
•changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities;
•expected timing and amount of the release of any tax valuation allowances;
•tax effects of stock-based compensation;
•costs related to intercompany restructurings;
•changes in tax laws, regulations or interpretations thereof; or
•lower than anticipated future earnings in jurisdictions where we have lower statutory tax rates and higher than anticipated future earnings in jurisdictions where we have higher statutory tax rates.
In addition, we may be subject to audits of our income, sales and other transaction taxes by taxing authorities. Outcomes from these audits could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
We may be required to take write-downs or write-offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and stock price, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.
We may be forced to later write-down or write-off assets, restructure our operations, or incur impairment or other charges that could result in losses. Even though these charges may be non-cash items and may not have an immediate impact on our liquidity, the fact that we report charges of this nature could contribute to negative market perceptions about us or our securities. In addition, charges of this nature may cause us to be unable to obtain future financing on favorable terms or at all.
We will incur significant increased expenses and administrative burdens as a public company, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We will face increased legal, accounting, administrative and other costs and expenses as a public company that we and our subsidiaries did not incur as private companies. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, including the requirements of Section 404, as well as rules and regulations subsequently implemented by the SEC, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and the rules and regulations promulgated and to be promulgated thereunder, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (the “PCAOB”) and the securities exchanges impose additional reporting and other obligations on public companies. Compliance with public company requirements will increase costs and make certain activities more time-consuming. A number of those requirements will require us to carry out activities we and our subsidiaries have not done previously. For example, we have created new board committees and adopted new internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures. In addition, expenses associated with SEC reporting requirements have been and will be incurred. Furthermore, if any issues in complying with those requirements are identified (for example, if the auditors identify a material weakness or significant deficiency in the internal control over financial reporting), we could incur additional costs rectifying those issues, and the existence of those issues could adversely affect our reputation or investor perceptions of it. It may also be more expensive to obtain director and officer liability insurance. Risks associated with our status as a public company may make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or as executive officers. The additional reporting and other obligations imposed by these rules and regulations will increase legal and financial compliance costs and the costs of related legal, accounting and administrative activities. These increased costs will require us to divert a significant amount of money that could otherwise be used to expand the business and achieve strategic objectives. Advocacy efforts by stockholders and third parties may also prompt additional changes in governance and reporting requirements, which could further increase costs.
If we do not file and maintain a current and effective prospectus relating to the Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants, holders will only be able to exercise such warrants on a “cashless basis.”
If we do not file and maintain a current and effective prospectus relating to the Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants at the time that holders wish to exercise such warrants, they will only be able to exercise them on a “cashless basis” provided that an exemption from registration is available. As a result, the number of shares of Common Stock that holders will receive upon exercise of the warrants will be fewer than it would have been had such holder exercised its warrant for cash. Further, if an exemption from registration is not available, holders would not be able to exercise on a cashless basis and would only be able to exercise their warrants for cash if a current and effective prospectus relating to the Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants is available. Under the terms of the Warrant Agreement, dated as of February 8, 2021, between GigCapital4 and the Transfer Agent (the “Warrant Agreement”), we have agreed to use our best efforts to meet these conditions and to file and maintain a current and effective prospectus relating to the Common Stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants until the expiration of the warrants. However, we cannot assure you that we will be able to do so. If we are unable to do so, the potential “upside” of the holder’s investment in us may be reduced or the warrants may expire worthless.
There is no guarantee that the warrants will ever be in the money, and they may expire worthless and the terms of warrants may be amended.
The exercise price for the warrants is $11.50 per share of Common Stock. There is no guarantee that the warrants will ever be in the money prior to their expiration, and as such, the warrants may expire worthless.
In addition, the Company’s warrants were issued in registered form under the Warrant Agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and the Company. The Warrant Agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants to make any other change. Accordingly, the Company may amend the terms of the warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants approve of such amendment. Although the Company’s ability to amend the terms of the warrants with the consent of at least 50% of the then outstanding public warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of shares and their respective affiliates and associates have of Common Stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
The exercise price for our public warrants is higher than in many similar blank check company offerings in the past, and, accordingly, the public warrants are more likely to expire worthless.
The exercise price of our public warrants is higher than is typical with many similar blank check companies in the past. Historically, with regard to units offered by blank check companies, the exercise price of a public warrant was generally a fraction
of the purchase price of the units in the initial public offering. The exercise price for our public warrants is $11.50 per share, subject to adjustment as provided herein. As a result, the public warrants are less likely to ever be in the money and more likely to expire worthless.
Our warrants will become exercisable for our Common Stock, which would increase the number of shares eligible for future resale in the public market and result in dilution to our stockholders.
Our public warrants issued as part of GigCapital4’s IPO are exercisable for up to one share of Common Stock at $11.50 per share. The additional shares of Common Stock issued upon exercise of our warrants will result in dilution to the then existing holders of our Common Stock and increase the number of shares eligible for resale in the public market. Sales of substantial numbers of such shares in the public market could adversely affect the market price of our Common Stock.
We have no obligation to net cash settle the warrants.
In no event will we have any obligation to net cash settle the warrants. Furthermore, there are no contractual penalties for failure to deliver securities to the holders of the warrants upon consummation of an initial business combination, including the Business Combination, or exercise of the warrants. Accordingly, the warrants may expire worthless.
If we fail to introduce or acquire new products or services that achieve broad market acceptance on a timely basis, or if our products or services are not adopted as expected, we will not be able to compete effectively.
We operate in a highly competitive, quickly changing environment, and the combined company’s future success depends on its ability to develop or acquire, and introduce new products and services that achieve broad market acceptance. Our ability to successfully introduce and market new products is unproven. Because we have a limited operating history and the market for our products, including newly acquired or developed products, is rapidly evolving, it is difficult to predict the company’s operating results, particularly with respect to any new products that it may introduce. Our future success will depend in large part upon our ability to identify demand trends in the market in which we operate and quickly develop or acquire, and design, manufacture and sell, products and services that satisfy these demands in a cost-effective manner.
In order to differentiate our products and services from competitors’ products, we will need to increase focus and capital investment in research and development, including software development. If any products currently sold by, and services offered by, us do not continue, or if our new products or services fail to achieve widespread market acceptance, or if we are unsuccessful in capitalizing on opportunities in the market in which we will operate, our future growth may be slowed and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. Successfully predicting demand trends is difficult, and it is very difficult to predict the effect that introducing a new product or service will have on existing product or service sales. It is possible that we may not be successful with our new products and services, and as a result our future growth may be slowed and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. Also, we may not be able to respond effectively to new product or service announcements by competitors by quickly introducing competitive products and services.
In addition, we may acquire companies and technologies in the future. In these circumstances, the combined company may not be able to successfully manage integration of the new product and service lines with the combined company’s existing suite of products and services. If we are unable to effectively and successfully further develop these new product and service lines, we may not be able to increase or maintain sales (as compared to sales of BigBear.ai on a standalone basis), and our gross margin (as compared to sales of BigBear.ai on a standalone basis) may be adversely affected.
Furthermore, the success of our new products will depend on several factors, including, but not limited to, market demand costs, timely completion and introduction of these products, prompt resolution of any defects or bugs in these products, our ability to support these products, differentiation of new products from those of our competitors, market acceptance of these products, delays and quality issues in releasing new products and services. The occurrence of one or more of the foregoing factors may result in lower quarterly revenue than expected, and we may in the future experience product or service introductions that fall short of our projected rates of market adoption.
If our products fail to achieve and sustain sufficient market acceptance, the combined company’s revenue will be adversely affected.
Our success will depend on its ability to develop and market products that are recognized and accepted as reliable, enabling and cost-effective. Some potential customers of the combined company may already use products similar to what we currently offer and similar to what we may offer in the future and may be reluctant to replace those products with what we currently offer or
which we may offer in the future. Market acceptance of our products and technology will depend on many factors, including our ability to convince potential customers that our products and technology are an attractive alternative to existing products and technology. Prior to adopting our products and technology, some potential customers may need to devote time and effort to testing and validating our systems. Any failure of our systems to meet these customer benchmarks could result in potential customers choosing to retain their existing systems or to purchase systems other than the company’s.
If the Business Combination’s benefits do not meet the expectations of investors, stockholders or financial analysts, the market price of our securities may decline.
If the benefits of the Business Combination do not meet the expectations of investors or securities analysts, the market price of our securities may decline. The market values of our securities may vary significantly from their prices on the date the Business Combination was executed.
In addition, fluctuations in the price of our securities could contribute to the loss of all or part of your investment. Prior to the Business Combination, there was not a public market for BigBear.ai’s stock and trading in the shares of our Common Stock has not been active. Accordingly, the valuation ascribed to BigBear.ai and our Common Stock in the Business Combination may not be indicative of the price that prevailed in the trading market following the Business Combination. If an active market for our securities develops and continues, the trading price of our securities following the Business Combination could be volatile and subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. Any of the factors listed below could have a material adverse effect on your investment in our securities and our securities may trade at prices significantly below the price you paid for them. In such circumstances, the trading price of our securities may not recover and may experience a further decline.
Factors affecting the trading price of our securities may include:
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly financial results or the quarterly financial results of companies perceived to be similar to us;
•changes in the market’s expectations about our operating results;
•success of competitors;
•our operating results failing to meet the expectation of securities analysts or investors in a particular period;
•changes in financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts concerning us or the market in general;
•operating and stock price performance of other companies that investors; deem comparable to us;
•ours ability to market new and enhanced services and products on a timely basis;
•changes in laws and regulations affecting our business;
•commencement of, or involvement in, litigation involving us;
•changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances of securities or the incurrence of additional debt;
•the volume of shares of our securities available for public sale;
•any major change in the board or management;
•sales of substantial amounts of Common Stock by our directors, executive officers or significant stockholders or the perception that such sales could occur; and
•general economic and political conditions such as recessions, interest rates, fuel prices, international currency fluctuations and acts of war or terrorism.
Broad market and industry factors may materially harm the market price of our securities irrespective of its operating performance. The stock market in general and the NYSE have experienced price and volume fluctuations that have often been
unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of the particular companies affected. The trading prices and valuations of these stocks, and of our securities, may not be predictable. A loss of investor confidence in the market for retail stocks or the stocks of other companies which investors perceive to be similar to us could depress our stock price regardless of our business, prospects, financial condition or results of operations. A decline in the market price of our securities also could adversely affect our ability to issue additional securities and our ability to obtain additional financing in the future.
The future sales of shares of Common Stock by existing stockholders may adversely affect the market price of the Company’s Common Stock.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of the Company’s Common Stock in the public market could occur at any time. If the Company’s stockholders sell, or the market perceives that the Company’s stockholders intend to sell, substantial amounts of the Company’s Common Stock in the public market, the market price of the Company’s Common Stock could decline.
Further, the market price of our Common Stock could decline as a result of the perception that such sales could occur. These sales, or the possibility that these sales may occur, also might make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and price that we deem appropriate. Our Common Stock has a relatively small public float. As a result, sales of substantial amounts of shares of our Common Stock, or even the potential for such sales, may materially and adversely affect prevailing market prices for our common stock. In the future, we may also issue securities in connection with investments or acquisitions. The amount of Common Stock issued in connection with an investment or acquisition could constitute a material portion of our then-outstanding Common Stock. Any issuance of additional securities in connection with investments or acquisitions may result in additional dilution to our stockholders.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about the Company, its business, or its market, or if they change their recommendations regarding the Company’s securities adversely, the price and trading volume of the Company’s securities could decline.
The trading market for our securities are influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, its market, or its competitors. If any of the analysts who cover BigBear.ai, change their recommendation regarding our Common Stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, the price of our securities would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on it, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause its stock price or trading volume to decline.
The future sales of shares by existing stockholders may adversely affect the market price of the Company’s Common Stock.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of the Company’s Common Stock in the public market could occur at any time. If the Company’s stockholders sell, or the market perceives that the Company’s stockholders intend to sell, substantial amounts of the Company’s Common Stock in the public market, the market price of the Company’s Common Stock could decline.
Resales of the shares of Common Stock included in the Merger Consideration could depress the market price of our Common Stock.
We have approximately 135,566,227 shares of Common Stock outstanding as of December 31, 2021. The shares held by the Company’s public stockholders are freely tradable and a large number of shares of Common Stock may be sold in the market. Rule 144 is available for the resale of shares of our Common Stock that are not registered for resale once one year has elapsed from December 7, 2021, the date that we filed the Current Report on Form 8-K following the Closing that included the required Form 10 information that reflects we are no longer a shell company. Such sales of shares of Common Stock or the perception of such sales may depress the market price of our Common Stock.
We may redeem the unexpired warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to warrant holders, thereby making their warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, provided that the last reported sales price of the Common Stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date BigBear.ai sends the notice of redemption to the warrant holders. If and when the warrants become redeemable by BigBear.ai, BigBear.ai may exercise its redemption right even if BigBear.ai is unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. Redemption of the outstanding warrants could force the holder (i) to exercise their warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so, (ii) to sell your warrants at the then-current market price
when you might otherwise wish to hold your warrants or (iii) to accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of your warrants. Historical trading prices for our Common Stock have not exceeded the $18.00 per share threshold at which the public warrants become redeemable. In the event BigBear.ai exercises its redemption right, holders of the warrants would be notified of such redemption as described in our warrant agreement. Specifically, in the event that BigBear.ai elects to redeem all of the outstanding warrants, BigBear.ai shall fix a date for the redemption (the “Redemption Date”). Notice of redemption shall be mailed by first class mail, postage prepaid, by BigBear.ai not less than 30 days prior to the Redemption Date to the registered holders of the outstanding warrants to be redeemed at their last addresses as they appear on the registration books. Any notice mailed in the manner provided in the Warrant Agreement shall be conclusively presumed to have been duly given whether or not the registered holder received such notice. In addition, beneficial owners of the warrants will be notified of such redemption via the Company’s posting of the redemption notice to DTC. None of the private placement warrants and warrants underlying the units issuable upon conversion of working capital loan will be redeemable by BigBear.ai so long as they are held by their initial purchasers or their permitted transferees.
Anti-takeover provisions contained in our Second Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation as well as provisions of Delaware law, could impair a takeover attempt.
Our Second Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation (the “Certificate of Incorporation”) contains provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that stockholders may consider to be in their best interests. We are also subject to anti-takeover provisions under Delaware law, which could delay or prevent a change of control. Together these provisions may make more difficult the removal of management and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities. These provisions will include:
•no cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates;
•a classified board of directors with three-year staggered terms, which could delay the ability of stockholders to change the membership of a majority of the Board;
•the right of our Board to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of our Board or the resignation, death or removal of a director in certain circumstances, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our Board;
•a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent, which forces stockholder action to be taken at an annual or special meeting of our stockholders; and
•the requirement that a meeting of stockholders may only be called by members of our Board or the stockholders holding a majority of our shares, which may delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors.
These provisions, alone or together, could delay hostile takeovers and changes in control of BigBear.ai or changes in the our Board and our management.
As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to provisions of Delaware law, including Section 203 of the DGCL, which prevents some stockholders holding more than 15% of our outstanding Common Stock from engaging in certain business combinations without approval of the holders of substantially all of BigBear.ai Common Stock. Any provision of the Certificate of Incorporation or 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.
The JOBS Act permits “emerging growth companies” like us to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.
We currently qualify as an “emerging growth company” as defined in Section 2(a)(19) of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act. As such, we take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies for as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, including: (i) the exemption from the auditor attestation requirements with respect to internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; (ii) the exemptions from say-on-pay, say-on-frequency and say-on-golden parachute voting
requirements; and (iii) reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements. As a result, our stockholders may not have access to certain information they deem important. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of (i) the last day of the fiscal year: (a) following February 11, 2026, the fifth anniversary of the IPO; (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion; or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our Common Stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (ii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.
In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of the exemption from complying with new or revised accounting standards provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act as long as we are an emerging growth company. An emerging growth company can therefore delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies, but any such election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected to avail ourselves of such extended transition period, which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company that is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company that has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
We cannot predict if investors will find our Common Stock less attractive because we rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our Common Stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our Common Stock and our stock price may be more volatile.
Our internal controls over financial reporting may not be effective and our independent registered public accounting firm may not be able to certify as to their effectiveness, which could have a significant and adverse effect on our business and reputation.
As a public company, we are required to comply with the SEC’s rules implementing Sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which require management to certify financial and other information in our quarterly and annual reports and provide an annual management report on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. To comply with the requirements of being a public company, we will be required to provide management’s assessment on internal controls commencing with the annual report for fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, and we may need to undertake various actions, such as implementing additional internal controls and procedures and hiring additional accounting or internal audit staff. The standards required for a public company under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are significantly more stringent than those required of BigBear.ai as a privately held company. Further, as an emerging growth company, our independent registered public accounting firm is not required to formally attest to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 until the date we are no longer an emerging growth company. At such time, our independent registered public accounting firm may issue a report that is adverse in the event that it is not satisfied with the level at which the controls of BigBear.ai are documented, designed or operating.
Testing and maintaining these controls can divert our management’s attention from other matters that are important to the operation of our business. If we identify material weaknesses in the internal control over financial reporting of BigBear.ai or are unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404 or assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting when we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our Common Stock could be negatively affected, and we could become subject to investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources.
We did not design and maintain effective information technology (“IT”) general controls for information systems that are relevant to the preparation of the financial statements, including user access controls to ensure appropriate segregation of duties. These IT deficiencies noted above did not result in a misstatement to the financial statements for the Company; however, the deficiencies, when aggregated, could impact maintaining effective segregation of duties, as well as the effectiveness of IT-dependent controls that could result in misstatements potentially impacting all financial statement accounts and disclosures that would not be prevented or detected. We are in the process of implementing measures designed to improve our internal control over financial reporting.
Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect the Company’s business, investments and results of operations.
The Company is subject to laws, regulations and rules enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, the Company is required to comply with certain SEC, NYSE and other legal or regulatory requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws, regulations and rules may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws, regulations and rules and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws, regulations and rules, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business and results of operations.
The Company is a “controlled company” within the meaning of the applicable rules of the NYSE and, as a result, may qualify for exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements. If the Company relies on these exemptions, its stockholders will not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to such requirements.
BBAI Ultimate Holdings, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“Ultimate”) controls a majority of the voting power of BigBear.ai Common Stock outstanding, and the Company is a “controlled company” within the meaning of applicable rules of the NYSE. Under these rules, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power for the election of directors is held by an individual, group or another company is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements, including the requirements:
•that a majority of the board consists of independent directors;
•for an annual performance evaluation of the nominating and corporate governance and compensation committees;
•that the controlled company has a nominating and corporate governance committee that is composed entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities; and
•that the controlled company has a compensation committee that is composed entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibility.
We are relying on these exemptions now or in the future. As a result, our stockholders do not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the NYSE corporate governance requirements.
Our Certificate of Incorporation provides, subject to limited exceptions, that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the sole and exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between the Company and its stockholders, which could limit the Company’s stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with the Company or its directors, officers, or employees.
Our Certificate of Incorporation requires, to the fullest extent permitted by law, that derivative actions brought in our name, actions against our directors, officers, and employees for breach of fiduciary duty and other similar actions may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware and, if brought outside of Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will be deemed to have consented to service of process on such stockholder’s counsel except any action arising under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to the forum provisions in our Certificate of Incorporation. This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, or employees which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims, although our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. However, there is no assurance that a court would enforce the choice of forum provision contained in our Certificate of Incorporation. If a court were to find such provision to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our Certificate of Incorporation provides that the exclusive forum provision will be applicable to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. As a result, the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction.
In addition, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. Our certificate of incorporation will provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternate forum, the federal district courts of the United States will be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. We note that there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce the choice of forum provision with respect to claims under the Securities Act, and that investors cannot waive compliance with the Securities Act and the rules and regulations thereunder.
The future exercise of registration rights may adversely affect the market price of our Common Stock.
Certain of our stockholders have registration rights for restricted securities. We are obligated to register certain securities, including all of the shares of Common Stock held by the Initial Stockholders, shares of Common Stock received by Ultimate as part of the Business Combination, and the 2026 Convertible Notes Shares, if applicable. Sales of a substantial number of shares of Common Stock pursuant to a prospectus in the public market could occur at any time our prospectus remains effective. In addition, certain registration rights holders can request underwritten offerings to sell their securities. These sales, or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell shares, could reduce the market price of our Common Stock.