ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
A description of the risks and uncertainties associated with our business is set forth below. You should carefully consider such risks and uncertainties, together with the other information contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and in our other public filings. If any such risks and uncertainties actually occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations could differ materially from the plans, projections and other forward-looking statements included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and in our other public filings. In addition, if any of the following risks and uncertainties, or if any other risks and uncertainties, actually occur, our business, financial condition, or results of operations could be harmed substantially.
Risk Factors Summary
Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those highlighted in this section titled “Risk Factors” and summarized below. We have various categories of risks, including, risks related to our business and industry, risks related to information technology, intellectual property, and data security and privacy, risks related to legal, regulatory, accounting, and tax matters, risks related to ownership of our Class A Common Stock, risks related to our indebtedness, and general risks, which are discussed more fully below. As a result, this risk factors summary does not contain all of the information that may be important to you, and you should read this risk factors summary together with the more detailed discussion of risks and uncertainties set forth following this summary, as well as elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. These risks include, but are not limited to, those listed below.
•Our rapid growth makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and may increase the risk that we will not continue to grow at or near historical rates.
•We may not be able to sustain our revenue growth rate or achieve profitability in the future.
•The continuing global economic and geopolitical volatility, the COVID-19 pandemic, including any associated economic and social impacts, increased inflation and measures taken in response to these events, could harm our business and results of operations.
•The markets in which we participate are intensely competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
•Our distribution model of offering and selling on-premises offerings of certain of our products, in addition to offering and selling Cloud offerings of these products, increases our expenses, may impact revenue recognition timing, and may pose other challenges to our business.
•Our business depends on our customers renewing their subscriptions and maintenance plans and purchasing additional licenses or subscriptions from us, and any decline in our customer retention or expansion could harm our future results of operations.
•If we are not able to develop new products and enhancements to our existing products that achieve market acceptance and that keep pace with technological developments, our business and results of operations could be harmed.
•Our quarterly results may fluctuate significantly and may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business.
•Our business model relies on a high volume of transactions and affordable pricing. As lower cost or free products are introduced by our competitors, our ability to generate new customers could be harmed.
•If we fail to effectively manage our growth, our business and results of operations could be harmed.
•If our security measures are breached or unauthorized access to customer data is otherwise obtained, our products may be perceived as insecure, we may lose existing customers or fail to attract new customers, and we may incur significant liabilities.
•Interruptions or performance problems associated with our technology and infrastructure could harm our business and results of operations.
•Real or perceived errors, failures, vulnerabilities or bugs in our products or in the products on Atlassian Marketplace could harm our business and results of operations.
•Changes in laws or regulations relating to data privacy or data protection, or any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with such laws and regulations or our privacy policies, could harm our business and results of operations.
•Because our products rely on the movement of data across national boundaries, global privacy and data security concerns could result in additional costs and liabilities to us or inhibit sales of our products globally.
•Our global operations and structure subject us to potentially adverse tax consequences.
•The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with certain stockholders, in particular, our Co-Chief Executive Officers and their affiliates, which will limit our other stockholders’ ability to influence the outcome of important transactions, including a change in control.
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
Our rapid growth makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and may increase the risk that we will not continue to grow at or near historical rates.
We have been growing rapidly over the last several years, and as a result, 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. Our recent and historical growth should not be considered indicative of our future performance. We have encountered in the past, and will encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan and operate our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our operating and financial results could differ materially from our expectations, our growth rates may slow, and our business would suffer.
We may not be able to sustain our revenue growth rate or achieve profitability in the future.
Our historical growth rate should not be considered indicative of our future performance and may decline in the future. In future periods, our revenue could grow more slowly than in recent periods or decline for a number of reasons, including any reduction in demand for our products, increase in competition, limited ability to, or our decision not to, increase pricing, contraction of our overall market, a slower than anticipated adoption of or migration to our Cloud offerings, or our failure to capitalize on growth opportunities. For example, starting in fiscal year 2023 we began to see growth from existing customers moderate, which we believe is due to customers being impacted by to weakening economic conditions. Additionally, beginning in February 2021, we ceased sales of new perpetual licenses for our products, and beginning in February 2022, we ceased sales of upgrades to these on-premises versions of our products. We also plan to end maintenance and support for these on-premises versions of our products in February 2024. If a significant portion of our customers do not transition to our Cloud or Data Center offerings, our revenue growth rates and profitability may be negatively impacted.
In addition, we expect expenses to increase substantially in the near term, particularly as we continue to make significant investments in research and development and technology infrastructure for our Cloud offerings, expand our operations globally and develop new products and features for, and enhancements of, our existing products. As a result of these significant investments, and in particular stock-based compensation associated with our growth, we may not be able to achieve GAAP profitability in future periods. The additional expenses we will incur may not lead to sufficient additional revenue to maintain historical revenue growth rates and profitability.
The continuing global economic and geopolitical volatility, the COVID-19 pandemic, including any associated economic and social impacts, increased inflation and measures taken in response to these events, could harm our business and results of operations.
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the global economy, disrupted global supply chains, and created significant volatility and disruption of financial markets. Additionally, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022
has led to further economic disruptions. The conflict has increased inflationary pressures and supply chain constraints, which have negatively impacted the global economy. Inflationary pressure may result in decreased demand for our products and services, increases in our operating costs (including our labor costs), reduced liquidity, and limits on our ability to access credit or otherwise raise capital. In response to the concerns over inflation risk, the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates multiple times in 2022 and may continue to do so in the future. It is especially difficult to predict the impact of such events on the global economic markets, which have been and will continue to be highly dependent upon the actions of governments, businesses, and other enterprises in response to such events, and the effectiveness of those actions.
The adverse public health developments of COVID-19, including orders to shelter-in-place, travel restrictions, and mandated business closures, have adversely affected workforces, organizations, customers, economies, and financial markets globally, leading to an economic downturn and increased market volatility. It has also disrupted the normal operations of many businesses, including ours. Following an initial movement to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we subsequently announced that most employees will have flexibility to work remotely indefinitely. An extended period of remote-work arrangements could strain our business continuity plans, introduce operational risk, including cybersecurity risks and increased costs, and impair our ability to effectively manage our business, which may negatively impact our business, results of operations, and financial condition. We are actively monitoring the impacts of the situation and may continue to adjust our current policies and practices as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic change.
Our business depends on demand for business software applications generally and for collaboration software solutions in particular. In addition, the market adoption of our products and our revenue is dependent on the number of users of our products. The COVID-19 pandemic, including intensified measures undertaken to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, increased inflation and interest rates and the resulting economic and social impacts of these events could reduce the number of personnel providing development or engineering services, decrease technology spending, including the purchasing of software products, adversely affect demand for our products, affect our ability to accurately forecast our future results, cause some of our paid customers or suppliers to file for bankruptcy protection or go out of business, affect the ability of our customer support team to conduct in-person trainings or our solutions partners to conduct in-person sales, impact expected spending from new customers or renewals or expansions from existing customers, negatively impact collections of accounts receivable, result in elongated sales cycles, and harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition. In particular, we have revenue exposure to customers who are small- and medium-sized businesses and to industries that may be disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. If these customers’ business operations and finances are negatively affected, they may not purchase or renew our products, may reduce or delay spending, or request extended payment terms or price concessions, which would negatively impact our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
The extent to which these factors ultimately impact our business, results of operations, and financial position will depend on future developments, which are uncertain and cannot be fully predicted at this time, including, but not limited to, the continued duration and spread of the COVID-19 outbreak and related variants, its severity, the actions taken by governments and authorities to contain the virus or treat its impact, the effectiveness of current vaccine and therapeutic treatments, and the extent to which normal economic and operating conditions continue to resume, future developments regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, continued inflationary pressures and governmental actions, such as interest rate increases to respond to such pressures. As a result of these and other recent macroeconomic events, we have seen the growth from existing customers moderate and experienced volatility in the trading prices for our Class A Common Stock, and such volatility may continue in the long term. Any sustained adverse impacts from these and other recent macroeconomic events could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, and earnings guidance that we may issue from time to time, which could have a material effect on the value of our Class A Common Stock.
The markets in which we participate are intensely competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
The markets for our solutions are fragmented, rapidly evolving, highly competitive, and have relatively low barriers to entry. We face competition from both traditional, larger software vendors offering full collaboration and productivity suites and smaller companies offering point products for features and use cases. Our principal competitors vary depending on the product category and include Microsoft (including GitHub), IBM, Alphabet, ServiceNow, PagerDuty, Gitlab, Freshworks, Asana, Monday.com, Notion and Smartsheet. In addition, some of our competitors have made acquisitions to offer a more comprehensive product or service offering, which may allow them to compete more effectively with our products. We expect this trend to continue as companies attempt to
strengthen or maintain their market positions in an evolving industry. Following such potential consolidations, companies may create more compelling product offerings and be able to offer more attractive pricing options, making it more difficult for us to compete effectively.
Our competitors, particularly our competitors with greater financial and operating resources, may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards, or customer requirements. With the introduction of new technologies, the evolution of our products, and new market entrants, we expect competition to intensify in the future. For example, as we continue to expand our focus into new use cases or other product offerings beyond software development teams, we expect competition to increase. Pricing pressures and increased competition generally could result in reduced sales, reduced margins, losses, or the failure of our products to achieve or maintain more widespread market acceptance, any of which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Many of our current and potential competitors have greater resources than we do, with established marketing relationships, large enterprise sales forces, access to larger customer bases, pre-existing customer relationships, and major distribution agreements with consultants, system integrators and resellers. Additionally, some current and potential customers, particularly large organizations, have elected, and may in the future elect, to develop or acquire their own internal collaboration and productivity software tools that would reduce or eliminate the demand for our solutions.
Our products seek to serve multiple markets, and we are subject to competition from a wide and varied field of competitors. Some competitors, particularly new and emerging companies with sizeable venture capital investment, could focus all their energy and resources on one product line or use case and, as a result, any one competitor could develop a more successful product or service in a particular market we serve which could decrease our market share and harm our brand recognition and results of operations. For all of these reasons and others we cannot anticipate today, we may not be able to compete successfully against our current and future competitors, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our distribution model of offering and selling on-premises offerings of certain of our products, in addition to offering and selling Cloud offerings of these products, increases our expenses, may impact revenue recognition timing, and may pose other challenges to our business.
We currently offer and sell both on-premises and Cloud offerings of certain of our products. For these products, our Cloud offering enables quick setup and subscription pricing, while our on-premises offering permits more customization, a perpetual or term license fee structure, and complete application control. Historically, these products were developed in the context of our on-premises offering, and we have less operating experience offering and selling these products via our Cloud offering. Although a substantial majority of our revenue has historically been generated from customers using our on-premises products, we believe that over time more customers will move to our Cloud offering, and our Cloud offering will become more central to our distribution model. For example, beginning in February 2021, we ceased sales of new perpetual licenses for our products, and beginning in February 2022, we ceased sales of upgrades to these on-premises versions of our products. We also plan to end maintenance and support for these on-premises versions of our products in February 2024. As more of our customers transition to the cloud, we may be subject to additional competitive and pricing pressures, which could harm our business. Further, as more customers elect our Cloud offering in place of our on-premises offering, revenues from such customers are typically lower in the initial year, which may impact our near-term revenue growth rates and margins. Additionally, we plan to offer discounts to certain of our enterprise-level on-premises customers to incentivize migration to our Cloud offering, which may also impact our near-term revenue growth. If our Cloud offering does not develop as quickly as we expect, if we are unable to continue to scale our systems to meet the requirements of a successful large, Cloud offering, or if we lose customers currently using our on-premises products due to our increased focus on our Cloud offering or our inability to successfully migrate them to our Cloud products, our business could be harmed. We are directing a significant portion of our financial and operating resources to implement a robust Cloud offering for our products and to migrate our existing customers to our Cloud offerings, but even if we continue to make these investments, we may be unsuccessful in growing or implementing our Cloud offering that competes successfully against our current and future competitors and our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
Our business depends on our customers renewing their subscriptions and maintenance plans and purchasing additional licenses or subscriptions from us, and any decline in our customer retention or expansion could harm our future results of operations.
In order for us to maintain or improve our results of operations, it is important that our customers renew their subscriptions and maintenance plans when existing contract terms expire and that we expand our commercial relationships with our existing customers. Our customers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions or maintenance plans, and our customers may not renew subscriptions or maintenance plans with a similar contract duration or with the same or greater number of users. Our customers generally do not enter into long-term contracts, rather they primarily have monthly or annual terms. Some of our customers have elected not to renew their agreements with us and it is difficult to accurately predict long-term customer retention.
Our customer retention and expansion may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including our customers’ satisfaction with our products, new market entrants, our product support, our prices and pricing plans, the prices of competing software products, reductions in our customers’ spending levels, new product releases and changes to packaging of our product offerings, mergers and acquisitions affecting our customer base, our increased focus on our Cloud offerings, our decision to end the sale of new perpetual licenses for our products, or the effects of global economic conditions, including the impacts on us or our customers, partners and suppliers from the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and related interest rate increases. We may be unable to timely address any retention issues with specific customers, which could harm our results of operations. If our customers do not purchase additional licenses or subscriptions or renew their subscriptions or maintenance plans, renew on less favorable terms, or fail to add more users, our revenue may decline or grow less quickly, which could harm our future results of operations and prospects.
If we are not able to develop new products and enhancements to our existing products that achieve market acceptance and that keep pace with technological developments, our business and results of operations could be harmed.
Our ability to attract new customers, and retain and increase revenue from existing customers depends in large part on our ability to enhance and improve our existing products and to introduce compelling new products that reflect the changing nature of our markets. The success of any enhancement to our products depends on several factors, including timely completion and delivery, competitive pricing, adequate quality testing, integration with existing technologies and our platform, and overall market acceptance. Any new product that we develop may not be introduced in a timely or cost-effective manner, may contain bugs, or may not achieve the market acceptance necessary to generate significant revenue. If we are unable to successfully develop new products, enhance our existing products to meet customer requirements, or otherwise gain market acceptance, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
If we cannot continue to expand the use of our products beyond our initial focus on software developers, our ability to grow our business could be harmed.
Our ability to grow our business depends in part on our ability to persuade current and future customers to expand their use of our products to additional use cases beyond software developers, including IT and business teams. If we fail to predict customer demands or achieve further market acceptance of our products within these additional areas and teams, or if a competitor establishes a more widely adopted product for these applications, our ability to grow our business could be harmed.
We invest significantly in research and development, and to the extent our research and development investments do not translate into new products or material enhancements to our current products, or if we do not use those investments efficiently, our business and results of operations would be harmed.
A key element of our strategy is to invest significantly in our research and development efforts to develop new products and enhance our existing products to address additional applications and markets. In fiscal years 2022 and 2021, our research and development expenses were 46% and 45% of our revenue, respectively. If we do not spend our research and development budget efficiently or effectively on compelling innovation and technologies, our business could be harmed and we may not realize the expected benefits of our strategy. Moreover, research and development projects can be technically challenging and expensive. The nature of these research and development cycles may cause us to experience delays between the time we incur expenses associated with research and development and the time we are able to offer compelling products and generate revenue, if any, from such investment. Additionally, anticipated customer demand for a product we are developing could decrease after the development cycle has commenced, and we would nonetheless be unable to avoid substantial costs associated with the development of any such product. If we expend a significant amount of resources on research and development and our efforts do not lead to the successful introduction or improvement of products that are competitive in our current or future markets, it could harm our business and results of operations.
If we fail to effectively manage our growth, our business and results of operations could be harmed.
We have experienced and expect to continue to experience rapid growth, both in terms of employee headcount and number of customers, which has placed, and may continue to place, significant demands on our management, operational, and financial resources. In addition, we operate globally and sell our products to customers in approximately 200 countries. Further, we have employees in Australia, the U.S., the United Kingdom (the “UK”), the Netherlands, the Philippines, Poland, India, Turkey, Canada, Japan, Germany, France and New Zealand and a substantial number of our employees have been with us for fewer than 24 months. We plan to continue to invest in and grow our team, and to expand our operations into other countries in the future, which will place additional demands on our resources and operations. As our business expands across numerous jurisdictions, we may experience difficulties, including in hiring, training, and managing a diffuse and growing employee base.
We have also experienced significant growth in the number of customers, users, transactions and data that our products and our associated infrastructure support. If we fail to successfully manage our anticipated growth and change, the quality of our products may suffer, which could negatively affect our brand and reputation and harm our ability to retain and attract customers. Finally, our organizational structure is becoming more complex and if we fail to scale and adapt our operational, financial, and management controls and systems, as well as our reporting systems and procedures, to manage this complexity, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed. We will require significant capital expenditures and the allocation of management resources to grow and change in these areas.
Our corporate values have contributed to our success, and if we cannot maintain these values as we grow, we could lose the innovative approach, creativity, and teamwork fostered by our values, and our business could be harmed.
We believe that a critical contributor to our success has been our corporate values, which we believe foster innovation, teamwork, and an emphasis on customer-focused results. In addition, we believe that our values create an environment that drives and perpetuates our product strategy and low-cost distribution approach. As we undergo substantial growth in our customers and employee base, transition to a remote-first “Team Anywhere” work environment, and continue to develop the infrastructure of a public company, we may find it difficult to maintain our corporate values. Any failure to preserve our values could harm our future success, including our ability to retain and recruit personnel, innovate and operate effectively, and execute on our business strategy.
Our quarterly results may fluctuate significantly and may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business.
Our quarterly financial results may fluctuate as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. If our quarterly financial results fall below the expectations of investors or any securities analysts who follow us, the price of our Class A Common Stock could decline substantially. Factors that may cause our revenue, results of operations and cash flows to fluctuate from quarter to quarter include, but are not limited to:
•our ability to attract new customers, retain and increase sales to existing customers, and satisfy our customers’ requirements;
•the timing of customer renewals;
•changes in our or our competitors’ pricing policies and offerings;
•new products, features, enhancements, or functionalities introduced by our competitors;
•the amount and timing of operating costs and capital expenditures related to the operations and expansion of our business;
•significant security breaches, technical difficulties, or interruptions to our products;
•our increased focus on our Cloud offerings, including customer migrations to our cloud products;
•the number of new employees added;
•changes in foreign currency exchange rates or adding additional currencies in which our sales are denominated;
•the amount and timing of acquisitions or other strategic transactions;
•extraordinary expenses such as litigation or other dispute-related settlement payments;
•general economic conditions, such as recent inflation and related interest rate increases, that may adversely affect either our customers’ ability or willingness to purchase additional licenses, subscriptions, and maintenance plans, delay a prospective customer’s purchasing decisions, reduce the value of new license, subscription, or maintenance plans, or affect customer retention;
•the impact of political and social unrest, natural disasters, climate change, diseases and pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and any associated economic downturn, on our results of operations and financial performance;
•seasonality in our operations;
•the impact of new accounting pronouncements and associated system implementations; and
•the timing of the grant or vesting of equity awards to employees, contractors, or directors.
Many of these factors are outside of our control, and the occurrence of one or more of them might cause our revenue, results of operations, and cash flows to vary widely. As such, we believe that quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our revenue, results of operations, and cash flows may not be meaningful and should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance.
We may require additional capital to support our operations or the growth of our business and we cannot be certain that we will be able to secure this capital on favorable terms, or at all.
We may require additional capital to respond to business opportunities, challenges, acquisitions, a decline in the level of license, subscription or maintenance revenue for our products, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, or other unforeseen circumstances. We may not be able to timely secure debt or equity financing on favorable terms, or at all. This inability to secure additional debt or equity financing could be exacerbated in times of economic uncertainty and tighter credit, such as is currently the case in the U.S. and abroad. In addition, recent increases in interest rates could make any debt financing that we are able to secure much more expensive than in the past. Our current Credit Facility contains certain restrictive covenants and any future debt financing obtained by us could involve restrictive covenants relating to financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity, convertible debt securities or other securities convertible into equity, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution in their percentage ownership of Atlassian, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of holders of our Class A Common Stock. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us, when we require it, our ability to continue to grow or support our business and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited.
If our current marketing model is not effective in attracting new customers, we may need to incur additional expenses to attract new customers and our business and results of operations could be harmed.
Unlike traditional enterprise software vendors, who rely on direct sales methodologies and face long sales cycles, complex customer requirements and substantial upfront sales costs, we primarily utilize a viral marketing model to target new customers. Through this word-of-mouth marketing, we have been able to build our brand with relatively low marketing and sales costs. We also build our customer base through various online marketing activities as well as targeted web-based content and online communications. This strategy has allowed us to build a substantial customer base and community of users who use our products and act as advocates for our brand and solutions, often within their own corporate organizations. Attracting new customers and retaining existing customers requires that we continue to provide high-quality products at an affordable price and convince customers of our value proposition. If we do not attract new customers through word-of-mouth referrals, our revenue may grow more slowly than expected, or decline. In addition, high levels of customer satisfaction and market adoption are central to our marketing model. Any decrease in our customers’ satisfaction with our products, including as a result of our own actions or actions outside of our control, could harm word-of-mouth referrals and our brand. If our customer base does not continue to grow through word-of-mouth marketing and viral adoption, we may be required to incur significantly higher marketing and sales expenses in order to acquire new subscribers, which could harm our business and results of operations.
One of our marketing strategies is to offer free trials, limited free versions or affordable starter licenses for certain products, and we may not be able to realize the benefits of this strategy.
We offer free trials, limited free versions or affordable starter licenses for certain products in order to promote additional usage, brand and product awareness, and adoption. Historically, a majority of users never convert to a paid version of our products from these free trials or limited free versions or upgrade beyond the starter license. Our marketing strategy also depends in part on persuading users who use the free trials, free versions or starter licenses of our products to convince others within their organization to purchase and deploy our products. To the extent that these users do not become, or lead others to become, customers, we will not realize the intended benefits of this marketing strategy, and our ability to grow our business could be harmed.
Our business model relies on a high volume of transactions and affordable pricing. As lower cost or free products are introduced by our competitors, our ability to generate new customers could be harmed.
Our business model is based in part on selling our products at prices lower than competing products from other commercial vendors. For example, we offer entry-level or free pricing for certain products for small teams at a price that typically does not require capital budget approval and is orders-of-magnitude less than the price of traditional enterprise software. As a result, our software is frequently purchased by first-time customers to solve specific problems and not as part of a strategic technology purchasing decision. We have historically increased, and will continue to increase, prices from time to time. As competitors enter the market with low cost or free alternatives to our products, it may become increasingly difficult for us to compete effectively and our ability to garner new customers could be harmed. Additionally, some customers may consider our products to be discretionary purchases, which may contribute to reduced demand for our offerings in times of economic uncertainty, including the current environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and related interest rate increases. If we are unable to sell our software in high volume, across new and existing customers, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.
We derive a majority of our revenue from Jira Software and Confluence.
We derive a majority of our revenue from Jira Software and Confluence. As such, the market acceptance of these products is critical to our success. Demand for these products and our other products is affected by a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control, such as continued market acceptance of our products by customers for existing and new use cases, the timing of development and release of new products, features, functionality and lower cost alternatives introduced by our competitors, technological changes and developments within the markets we serve, and growth or contraction in our addressable markets. If we are unable to continue to meet customer demands or to achieve more widespread market acceptance of our products, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
We recognize certain revenue streams over the term of our subscription and maintenance contracts. Consequently, downturns in new sales may not be immediately reflected in our results of operations and may be difficult to discern.
We generally recognize subscription and maintenance revenue from customers ratably over the terms of their contracts. As a result, a significant portion of the revenue we report in each quarter is derived from the recognition of deferred revenue relating to subscription and maintenance plans entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed licenses, subscriptions, and maintenance plans in any single quarter may only have a small impact on our revenue results for that quarter. However, such a decline will negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our products, and potential changes in our pricing policies or rate of expansion or retention, may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. For example, the impact of the current economic uncertainty may cause customers to request concessions, including better pricing, or to slow their rate of expansion or reduce their number of licenses, which may not be reflected immediately in our results of operations. We may also be unable to reduce our cost structure in line with a significant deterioration in sales. In addition, a significant majority of our costs are expensed as incurred, while a significant portion of our revenue is recognized over the life of the agreement with our customer. As a result, increased growth in the number of our customers could continue to result in our recognition of more costs than revenue in the earlier periods of the terms of certain of our customer agreements. Our subscription and maintenance revenue also makes it more difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue through additional sales in any period, as revenue from certain new customers must be recognized over the applicable term.
If the Atlassian Marketplace does not continue to be successful, our business and results of operations could be harmed.
We operate the Atlassian Marketplace, an online marketplace, for selling third-party, as well as Atlassian-built, apps. We rely on the Atlassian Marketplace to supplement our promotional efforts and build awareness of our products, and believe that third-party apps from the Atlassian Marketplace facilitate greater usage and customization of our products. If we do not continue to add new vendors and developers, are unable to sufficiently grow the number of cloud apps our customers demand, or our existing vendors and developers stop developing or supporting the apps that they sell on Atlassian Marketplace, our business could be harmed.
In addition, third-party apps on Atlassian Marketplace may not meet the same quality standards that we apply to our own development efforts and, in the past, third-party apps have caused disruptions affecting multiple customers. To the extent these apps contain bugs, vulnerabilities, or defects, such apps may create disruptions in our customers’ use of our products, lead to data loss or unauthorized access to customer data, they may damage our brand and reputation, and affect the continued use of our products, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our sales model does not rely primarily on a direct enterprise sales force, which could impede the growth of our business.
Our sales model does not rely primarily on traditional, quota-carrying sales personnel. Although we believe our business model can continue to scale without a large, direct enterprise sales force, our viral marketing model may not continue to be as successful as we anticipate, and the absence of a large, direct, enterprise sales function may impede our future growth. As we continue to scale our business, a more traditional sales infrastructure could assist in reaching larger enterprise customers and growing our revenue. Identifying, recruiting, training, and retaining such a qualified sales force would require significant time, expense and attention and would significantly impact our business model. In addition, expanding our sales infrastructure would considerably change our cost structure and results of operations, and we may have to reduce other expenses, such as our research and development expenses, in order to accommodate a corresponding increase in marketing and sales expenses and maintain positive free cash flow. If our lack of a large, direct enterprise sales force limits us from reaching larger enterprise customers and growing our revenue, and we are unable to hire, develop, and retain talented sales personnel in the future, our revenue growth and results of operations could be harmed.
Any failure to offer high-quality product support could harm our relationships with our customers and our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
In deploying and using our products, our customers depend on our product support teams to resolve complex technical and operational issues. We may be unable to respond quickly enough to accommodate short-term increases in customer demand for product support. We also may be unable to modify the nature, scope and delivery of our product support to compete with changes in product support services provided by our competitors. Increased customer demand for product support, without corresponding revenue, could increase costs and harm our results of operations. In addition, as we continue to grow our operations and reach a global and vast customer base, we need to be able to provide efficient product support that meets our customers’ needs globally at scale. The number of our customers has grown significantly and that has put additional pressure on our product support organization. The end customers may also reach out to us requesting support for third-party apps sold on the Atlassian Marketplace. In order to meet these needs, we have relied in the past and will continue to rely on third-party vendors to fulfill requests about third-party apps and self-service product support to resolve common or frequently asked questions for Atlassian products, which supplement our customer support teams. If we are unable to provide efficient product support globally at scale, including through the use of third-party vendors and self-service support, our ability to grow our operations could be harmed and we may need to hire additional support personnel, which could harm our results of operations. For example, in April 2022, a very small subset of our customers experienced a full outage across their Atlassian cloud products due to a faulty script used during a maintenance procedure. While we restored access for these customers with minimal to no data loss, these affected customers experienced disruptions in using our cloud products during the outage. Our sales are highly dependent on our business reputation and on positive recommendations from our existing customers. Any failure to maintain high-quality product support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality product support, could harm our reputation, our ability to sell our products to existing and prospective customers, and our business, results of operations and financial condition.
If we are unable to develop and maintain successful relationships with our solution partners, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
We have established relationships with certain solution partners to distribute our products. We believe that continued growth in our business is dependent upon identifying, developing and maintaining strategic relationships with our existing and potential solution partners that can drive substantial revenue and provide additional value-
added services to our customers. For fiscal year 2022, we derived approximately 40% of our revenue from channel partners’ sales efforts.
Successfully managing our indirect channel distribution efforts is a complex process across the broad range of geographies where we do business or plan to do business. Our solution partners are independent businesses we do not control. Notwithstanding this independence, we still face legal risk and reputational harm from the activities of our solution partners including, but not limited to, export control violations, workplace conditions, corruption and anti-competitive behavior.
Our agreements with our existing solution partners are non-exclusive, meaning they may offer customers the products of several different companies, including products that compete with ours. They may also cease marketing our products with limited or no notice and with little or no penalty. We expect that any additional solution partners we identify and develop will be similarly non-exclusive and unbound by any requirement to continue to market our products. If we fail to identify additional solution partners in a timely and cost-effective manner, or at all, or are unable to assist our current and future solution partners in independently distributing and deploying our products, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed. If our solution partners do not effectively market and sell our products, or fail to meet the needs of our customers, our reputation and ability to grow our business could also be harmed.
Many of our solution partners have historically relied on a combination of in-person and remote interactions to manage and build relationships with our customers. As a result of work and travel restrictions due to COVID-19, many of our solution partners’ activities adjusted their activities to remote only. Many of our solutions partners are now re-opening offices and conducting customers visits as needed; however, any additional travel or work restrictions could have a negative impact on our solution partners’ ability to sell our products.
Our Credit Facility and overall debt level may limit our flexibility in obtaining additional financing and in pursuing other business opportunities or operating activities.
Our Credit Facility requires compliance with various financial and non-financial covenants, including affirmative covenants relating to the provision of periodic financial statements, compliance certificates and other notices, maintenance of properties and insurance, payment of taxes and compliance with laws and negative covenants, including, among others, restrictions on the incurrence of certain indebtedness, granting of liens and mergers, dissolutions, consolidations and dispositions. The Credit Facility also provides for a number of events of default, including, among others, failure to make a payment, bankruptcy, breach of a covenant, representation and warranty, default under material indebtedness (other than the Credit Facility), change of control and judgment defaults.
Under the terms of the Credit Facility, we may be restricted from engaging in business or operating activities that may otherwise improve our business or from financing future operations or capital needs. Failure to comply with the covenants, including the financial covenant, if not cured or waived, will result in an event of default that could trigger acceleration of our indebtedness, which would require us to repay all amounts owing under our Credit Facility and could have a material adverse impact on our business.
Overdue amounts under the Credit Facility accrue interest at a default rate. We cannot be certain that our future operating results will be sufficient to ensure compliance with the financial covenant in our Credit Facility or to remedy any defaults. In addition, in the event of default and related acceleration, we may not have or be able to obtain sufficient funds to make the accelerated payments required under the Credit Facility.
We continue to have the ability to incur additional debt, subject to the limitations in our Credit Facility. Our level of debt could have important consequences to us, including the following:
•our ability to obtain additional financing, if necessary, for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions or other purposes may be impaired or such financing may not be available on favorable terms;
•we may need a substantial portion of our cash flow to make principal and interest payments on our debt, reducing the funds that would otherwise be available for investment in operations and future business opportunities;
•our debt level will make us more vulnerable than our competitors with less debt to competitive pressures or a downturn in our business or the economy generally; and
•our debt level may limit our flexibility in responding to changing business and economic conditions.
Our ability to service our debt will depend upon, among other things, our future financial and operating performance, which will be affected by prevailing economic conditions and financial, business, regulatory and other factors, some of which are beyond our control. If our operating results are not sufficient to service our current or future indebtedness, we will be forced to take actions such as reducing or delaying our business activities, acquisitions, investments or capital expenditures, selling assets, restructuring or refinancing our debt, or seeking additional equity capital or bankruptcy protection. We may not be able to effect any of these remedies on satisfactory terms to us or at all.
In addition, our Credit Facility has a floating interest rate that is based on variable and unpredictable U.S. and international economic risks and uncertainties and an increase in interest rates, such as has occurred recently and is expected in the future, may negatively impact our financial results. We enter into interest rate hedging transactions that reduce, but do not eliminate, the impact of unfavorable changes in interest rates. We attempt to minimize credit exposure by limiting counterparties to internationally recognized financial institutions, but even these counterparties are subject to default and contract risk and this risk is beyond our control. There is no guarantee that our hedging efforts will be effective or, if effective in one period will continue to remain effective in future periods.
Our Credit Facility utilizes LIBOR to calculate the amount of accrued interest on any borrowings. Following announcements by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates LIBOR, and ICE Benchmark Administration Limited, which administers LIBOR publication, publication of most LIBOR settings ceased after December 31, 2021, and the remaining LIBOR settings are expected to cease after June 30, 2023. Our Credit Facility identifies the Secured Overnight Financing Right (“SOFR”) as the replacement reference rate. SOFR is intended to be a broad measure of the cost of borrowing cash overnight that is collateralized by U.S. Treasury securities. However, because SOFR is a broad U.S. Treasury repo financing rate that represents overnight secured funding transactions, it differs fundamentally from LIBOR. A change from LIBOR to SOFR could result in interest obligations that are more than or that do not otherwise correlate over time with the payments that would have been made on this debt if LIBOR were available in its current form. This may have a negative effect on our financing costs. The impact of the transition from LIBOR to SOFR is uncertain at this time and the consequences of such developments cannot be entirely predicted, but could result in an increase in the cost of our borrowings under our existing Credit Facility and any future borrowings.
If we are not able to maintain and enhance our brand, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
We believe that maintaining and enhancing our reputation as a differentiated and category-defining company is critical to our relationships with our existing customers and to our ability to attract new customers. The successful promotion of our brand attributes will depend on a number of factors, including our and our solution partners’ marketing efforts, our ability to continue to develop high-quality products, our ability to minimize and respond to errors, failures, outages, vulnerabilities or bugs, and our ability to successfully differentiate our products from competitive products. In addition, independent industry analysts often provide analyses of our products, as well as the products offered by our competitors, and perception of the relative value of our products in the marketplace may be significantly influenced by these analyses. If these analyses are negative, or less positive as compared to those of our competitors’ products, our brand may be harmed.
The promotion of our brand requires us to make substantial expenditures, and we anticipate that the expenditures will increase as our market becomes more competitive, as we expand into new markets, and as more sales are generated through our solution partners. To the extent that these activities yield increased revenue, this revenue may not offset the increased expenses we incur. If we do not successfully maintain and enhance our brand, our business may not grow, we may have reduced pricing power relative to competitors, and we could lose customers or fail to attract new customers, any of which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
If we fail to integrate our products with a variety of operating systems, software applications, platforms and hardware that are developed by others, our products may become less marketable, less competitive, or obsolete and our results of operations could be harmed.
Our products must integrate with a variety of network, hardware, and software platforms, and we need to continuously modify and enhance our products to adapt to changes in hardware, software, networking, browser and database technologies. In particular, we have developed our products to be able to easily integrate with third-party applications, including the applications of software providers that compete with us, through the interaction of application programming interfaces (“APIs”). In general, we rely on the fact that the providers of such software systems continue to allow us access to their APIs to enable these customer integrations. To date, we have not relied
on long-term written contracts to govern our relationship with these providers. Instead, we are subject to the standard terms and conditions for application developers of such providers, which govern the distribution, operation and fees of such software systems, and which are subject to change by such providers from time to time. Our business could be harmed if any provider of such software systems:
•discontinues or limits our access to its APIs;
•modifies its terms of service or other policies, including fees charged to, or other restrictions on us or other application developers;
•changes how customer information is accessed by us or our customers;
•establishes more favorable relationships with one or more of our competitors; or
•develops or otherwise favors its own competitive offerings over ours.
We believe a significant component of our value proposition to customers is the ability to optimize and configure our products with these third-party applications through our respective APIs. If we are not permitted or able to integrate with these and other third-party applications in the future, demand for our products could decline and our business and results of operations could be harmed.
In addition, an increasing number of organizations and individuals within organizations are utilizing mobile devices to access the internet and corporate resources and to conduct business. We have designed and continue to design mobile applications to provide access to our products through these devices. If we cannot provide effective functionality through these mobile applications as required by organizations and individuals that widely use mobile devices, we may experience difficulty attracting and retaining customers. Failure of our products to operate effectively with future infrastructure platforms and technologies could also reduce the demand for our products, resulting in customer dissatisfaction and harm to our business. If we are unable to respond to changes in a cost-effective manner, our products may become less marketable, less competitive or obsolete and our results of operations could be harmed.
Acquisitions of, or investments in, other businesses, products, or technologies could disrupt our business, and we may be unable to integrate acquired businesses and technologies successfully or achieve the expected benefits of such acquisitions.
We have completed a number of acquisitions and strategic investments and continue to evaluate and consider additional strategic transactions, including acquisitions of, or investments in, businesses, technologies, services, products, and other assets in the future. We also may enter into strategic relationships with other businesses to expand our products, which could involve preferred or exclusive licenses, additional channels of distribution, discount pricing or investments in other companies.
Any acquisition, investment or business relationship may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. In particular, we may encounter difficulties assimilating or integrating the businesses, technologies, products, personnel, or operations of the acquired companies, particularly if the key personnel of the acquired companies choose not to work for us, their software and services are not easily adapted to work with our products, or we have difficulty retaining the customers of any acquired business due to changes in ownership, management or otherwise. Acquisitions may also disrupt our business, divert our resources, and require significant management attention that would otherwise be available for development of our existing business. We may not successfully evaluate or utilize the acquired technology or personnel, or accurately forecast the financial impact of an acquisition transaction, including accounting charges. Moreover, the anticipated benefits of any acquisition, investment, or business relationship may not be realized or we may be exposed to unknown risks or liabilities.
In the future, we may not be able to find suitable acquisition or strategic investment candidates, and we may not be able to complete acquisitions or strategic investments on favorable terms, if at all. Our previous and future acquisitions or strategic investments may not achieve our goals, and any future acquisitions or strategic investments we complete could be viewed negatively by users, customers, developers or investors.
Negotiating these transactions can be time consuming, difficult and expensive, and our ability to complete these transactions may often be subject to approvals that are beyond our control. Consequently, these transactions, even if announced, may not be completed. For one or more of those transactions, we may:
•issue additional equity securities that would dilute our existing stockholders;
•use cash that we may need in the future to operate our business;
•incur large charges, expenses, or substantial liabilities;
•incur debt on terms unfavorable to us or that we are unable to repay;
•encounter difficulties retaining key employees of the acquired company or integrating diverse software codes or business cultures; and
•become subject to adverse tax consequences, substantial depreciation, impairment, or deferred compensation charges.
We are subject to risks associated with our strategic investments, including partial or complete loss of invested capital. Significant changes in the value of this portfolio could negatively impact our financial results.
We have strategic investments in publicly traded and privately held companies in both domestic and international markets, including in emerging markets. These companies range from early-stage companies to more mature companies with established revenue streams and business models. Many such companies generate net losses and the market for their products, services or technologies may be slow to develop, and, therefore, they are dependent on the availability of later rounds of financing from banks or investors on favorable terms to continue their operations. The financial success of our investment in any privately held company is typically dependent on a liquidity event, such as a public offering, acquisition or other favorable market event reflecting appreciation relative to the cost of our initial investment. Likewise, the financial success of our investment in any publicly held company is typically dependent upon an exit in favorable market conditions, and to a lesser extent on liquidity events. The capital markets for public offerings and acquisitions are dynamic and the likelihood of successful liquidity events for the companies we have invested in could significantly worsen. Further, valuations of privately held companies are inherently complex due to the lack of readily available market data.
Privately held companies in which we invest have in the past and others may in the future undertake an initial public offering. We may also decide to invest in companies in connection with or as part of such company’s initial public offering or other transactions directly or indirectly resulting in it being publicly traded. Therefore, our investment strategy and portfolio have also expanded to include public companies. In certain cases, our ability to sell these investments may be constrained by contractual obligations to hold the securities for a period of time after a public offering, including market standoff agreements and lock-up agreements.
All of our investments, especially our investments in privately held companies, are subject to a risk of a partial or total loss of investment capital. In addition, we have in the past, and may in the future, continue to deploy material investments in individual investee companies, resulting in the increasing concentration of risk in a small number of companies. Partial or complete loss of investment capital of these individual companies could be material to our financial statements.
The expected benefits of the planned U.S. Domestication may not be realized.
On September 30, 2022, we completed the U.S. Domestication. We believe that the U.S. Domestication will increase access to a broader set of investors, support inclusion in additional stock indices, streamline our corporate structure, and provide more flexibility in accessing capital and, as a result, will be beneficial to our business and operations, the holders of our ordinary shares, and other stakeholders. The success of the U.S. Domestication will depend, in part, on our ability to realize the anticipated benefits associated with the U.S. Domestication and associated reorganization of our corporate structure. There can be no assurance that all of the anticipated benefits of the U.S. Domestication will be achieved, particularly as the achievement of the benefits are subject to factors that we do not and cannot control.
We expect to incur additional costs related to the U.S. Domestication, including non-recurring costs as well as recurring costs resulting from financial reporting obligations of being a “domestic issuer” as opposed to a “foreign private issuer” in the United States.
We will incur additional legal, accounting and other expenses that may exceed the expenses we incurred prior to the U.S. Domestication. The obligations of being a public company in the U.S. require significant expenditures and will place significant demands on our management and other personnel, including costs resulting from public company reporting obligations under the Exchange Act, and the rules and regulations regarding corporate governance practices, including those under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”), the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, and the listing requirements of the Nasdaq Global
Select Market. These rules require that we maintain effective disclosure and financial controls and procedures, internal control over financial reporting and changes in corporate governance practices, among many other complex rules that are often difficult to monitor and maintain compliance with. While we were subject to many of these requirements prior to the U.S. Domestication, additional legal and accounting requirements apply to us following the U.S. Domestication. Our management and other personnel will need to devote additional time to ensure compliance with all of these requirements and to keep pace with new regulations, otherwise we may fall out of compliance and risk becoming subject to litigation or being delisted, among other potential problems.
Risks Related to Information Technology, Intellectual Property, and Data Security and Privacy
If our security measures are breached or unauthorized access to customer data is otherwise obtained, our products may be perceived as insecure, we may lose existing customers or fail to attract new customers, and we may incur significant liabilities.
Use of our products involves the storage, transmission, and processing of our customers’ proprietary data, including potentially personal or identifying information. Unauthorized access to, or security breaches of, our products could result in unauthorized access to data and information, and the loss, compromise or corruption of such data and information. In the event of a security breach, we could suffer loss of business, severe reputational damage adversely affecting customer or investor confidence, regulatory investigations and orders, litigation, indemnity obligations, damages for contract breach, penalties for violation of applicable laws or regulations, significant costs for remediation, and other liabilities. We have incurred and expect to incur significant expenses to prevent security breaches, including costs related to deploying additional personnel and protection technologies, training employees, and engaging third-party solution providers and consultants. Our errors and omissions insurance coverage covering certain security and privacy damages and claim expenses may not be sufficient to compensate for all liabilities we may incur.
Although we expend significant resources to create security protections that shield our customer data against potential theft and security breaches, such measures cannot provide absolute security. We have in the past experienced breaches of our security measures. Certain breaches have resulted in unauthorized access to certain data processed through our products. Our products are at risk for future breaches, including, without limitation, breaches that may occur as a result of third-party action, including from state actors, or employee, vendor or contractor error or malfeasance, and other causes. For example, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine may result in a heightened threat environment and create unknown cyber risks, including increased risk of retaliatory cyber-attacks from Russian actors against non-Russian companies. Additionally, we have transitioned to a remote-first “Team Anywhere” work environment that may pose additional data security risks.
As we further transition to selling our products via our Cloud offering, continue to collect more personal and sensitive information, and operate in more countries, our risks continue to increase and evolve. For instance, we rely on third-party partners to develop apps on the Atlassian Marketplace that connect with and enhance our Cloud offerings for our customers. These apps may not meet the same quality standards that we apply to our own development efforts and may contain bugs, vulnerabilities, or defects that could pose data security risks. Our ability to mandate security standards and ensure compliance by these third parties may be limited. Additionally, our products may be subject to vulnerabilities in the third-party software on which we rely. For example, in December 2021, a vulnerability in a widely-used open-source software application, known as Apache Log4j, was identified that could have allowed bad actors to remotely access a target, potentially stealing data or taking control of a target’s system. We promptly worked to remediate vulnerabilities related to Apache Log4j in our products while working with our partners to ensure the same. While this issue has not materially affected our business, reputation or financial results, there is no guarantee that our actions effectively remediated the vulnerabilities and there is no assurance that other incidents could not occur in the future with a material adverse effect on our business. We are likely to face increased risks that real or perceived vulnerabilities of our systems could seriously harm our business and our financial performance, by tarnishing our reputation and brand and limiting the adoption of our products.
Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not identified until they are launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. We may also experience security breaches that may remain undetected for an extended period and, therefore, have a greater impact on the products we offer, the proprietary data processed through our services, and, ultimately, on our business.
Interruptions or performance problems associated with our technology and infrastructure could harm our business and results of operations.
Our continued growth depends in part on the ability of our existing and potential customers to access our solutions at any time and within an acceptable amount of time. In addition, we rely almost exclusively on our websites for the downloading of, and payment for, all our products. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, disruptions, data loss and corruption, outages and other performance problems with our infrastructure and websites due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, introductions of new functionality, human or software errors, capacity constraints, denial of service attacks, or other security-related incidents. In some instances, we have not been able to, and in the future may not be able to, identify the cause or causes of these performance problems within an acceptable period of time. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve our performance, especially during peak usage times and as our products and websites become more complex and our user traffic increases.
If our products and websites are unavailable or if our users are unable to access our products within a reasonable amount of time, or at all, our business could be harmed. Moreover, we provide service level commitments under certain of our paid customer cloud contracts, pursuant to which we guarantee specified minimum availability. If we fail to meet these contractual commitments, we could be obligated to provide credits for future service, or face contract termination with refunds of prepaid amounts related to unused subscriptions, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition. From time to time, we have granted, and in the future will continue to grant, credits to paid customers pursuant to, and sometimes in addition to, the terms of these agreements. For example, in April 2022, a very small subset of our customers experienced a full outage across their Atlassian cloud products due to a faulty script used during a maintenance procedure. While we restored access for these customers with minimal to no data loss, these affected customers experienced disruptions in using our cloud products during the outage. We incurred certain costs associated with offering service level credits and other concessions to these customers, although the overall impact did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial condition. However, other future events like this may materially and adversely impact our results of operations or financial condition. Further, disruptions, data loss and corruption, outages and other performance problems in our cloud infrastructure may cause customers to delay or halt their transition to our Cloud offerings, to the detriment of our increased focus on our Cloud offerings, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Additionally, we depend on services from various third parties, including Amazon Web Services, to maintain our infrastructure and distribute our products via the internet. Any disruptions in these services, including as a result of actions outside of our control, would significantly impact the continued performance of our products. In the future, these services may not be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Any loss of the right to use any of these services could result in decreased functionality of our products until equivalent technology is either developed by us or, if available from another provider, is identified, obtained and integrated into our infrastructure. 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, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.
Real or perceived errors, failures, vulnerabilities or bugs in our products or in the products on Atlassian Marketplace could harm our business and results of operations.
Errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs may occur in our products, especially when updates are deployed or new products are rolled out. Our solutions are often used in connection with large-scale computing environments with different operating systems, system management software, equipment, and networking configurations, which may cause errors, failures of products, or other negative consequences in the computing environment into which they are deployed. In addition, deployment of our products into complicated, large-scale computing environments may expose errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs in our products. Any such errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs have in the past been, and in the future may not be, found until after they are deployed to our customers. Real or perceived errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs in our products have and could result in negative publicity, loss of or unauthorized access to customer data, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our products, loss of competitive position, or claims by customers for losses sustained by them, all of which could harm our business and results of operations.
In addition, third-party apps on Atlassian Marketplace may not meet the same quality standards that we apply to our own development efforts and, in the past, third-party apps have caused disruptions affecting multiple customers. To the extent these apps contain bugs, vulnerabilities, or defects, such apps may create disruptions in our customers’ use of our products, lead to data loss or unauthorized access to customer data, they may damage our brand and reputation, and affect the continued use of our products, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Changes in laws or regulations relating to data privacy or data protection, or any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with such laws and regulations or our privacy policies, could harm our business and results of operations.
Privacy and data security have become significant issues in the U.S., Europe and in many other jurisdictions where we offer our products. The regulatory framework for the collection, use, retention, safeguarding, sharing, disclosure, and transfer of data worldwide is rapidly evolving and is likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future.
Globally, virtually every jurisdiction in which we operate has established its own data security and privacy frameworks with which we, and/or our customers, must comply. These laws and regulations often are more restricted than those in the United States.
The European General Data Protection regulation (“GDPR”), which is supplemented by national laws in individual member states and the guidance of national supervisory authorities and the European Data Protection Board, applies to any company established in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) as well as to those outside the EEA if they collect and use personal data in connection with the offering of goods or services to individuals in the EEA or the monitoring of their behavior. GDPR enhances data protection obligations for processors and controllers of personal data, including, for example, expanded disclosures about how personal information is collected and used, limitations on retention of information, mandatory data breach notification requirements, and extensive obligations on services providers. Non-compliance can trigger steep fines of up to €20 million or four percent of total worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher. In addition, the UK has established its own domestic regime with the UK GDPR and amendments to the Data Protection Act, which so far mirrors the obligations in the GDPR, poses similar challenges and imposes substantially similar penalties.
Data protection is an area of increased focus and changing requirements. Among the recent developments, data transfers have been under increasing scrutiny by regulators in the EEA and UK. Specifically, the July 16, 2020 case of Data Protection Commissioner v. Facebook Ireland Limited and Maximillian Schrems (“Schrems II”) requires organizations to ensure that data is protected to a standard that is “essentially equivalent” to that under GDPR and/or other applicable laws and to document compliance with this requirement. As another example, the EEA is in the process of finalizing the e-Privacy Regulation to replace the European e-Privacy Directive (Directive 2002/58/EC as amended by Directive 2009/136/EC). We may face difficulties in marketing to current and potential customers under applicable laws, which impacts our ability to spread awareness of our products and services and, in turn, grow a customer base. As rules evolve, we also expect to incur in additional costs to comply with new requirements.
Additionally, in the U.S., various laws and regulations apply to the collection, processing, disclosure and security of certain types of data, including the Federal Trade Commission Act, and state equivalents, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. There are also various state laws relating to privacy and data security. The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) as modified by California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”), broadly defines personal information and gives California residents expanded privacy rights and protections and provides for civil penalties for violations and a private right of action for data breaches.
Since the CPRA passed, various other states have each passed their own comprehensive privacy statutes that share similarities with CCPA and CPRA. Some observers see this influx of state privacy regimes as a trend towards more stringent privacy legislation in the United States, including a potential federal privacy law, all of which could increase our potential liability and adversely affect our business.
We expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws and regulations around the globe and we cannot yet determine the full impact these developments may have on our business, nor assure ongoing compliance with all such laws or regulations. The interpretation and application of these laws are, and will likely remain, uncertain, and it is possible that these laws may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our existing data management practices or product features. If so, in addition to the possibility of fines, lawsuits and other claims and penalties, we could be required to fundamentally change our business activities and practices or modify our products, which could harm our business. Any inability to adequately address privacy and data security concerns or comply with applicable privacy or data security laws, regulations and policies could result in additional cost and liability to us, damage our reputation, inhibit sales, and harm our business.
Moreover, record-breaking enforcement actions globally have shown that regulators wield their right to impose substantial fines for violations of privacy regulations, and these enforcement actions could result in guidance from regulators that would require changes to our current compliance strategy. Given the breadth and depth of changes
in data protection obligations, complying with global data protection requirements requires time, resources, and a review of our technology and systems currently in use against regulatory requirements.
In addition, privacy advocates and industry groups may propose new and different self-regulatory standards that either legally or contractually apply to us. Further, our customers may require us to comply with more stringent privacy and data security contractual requirements or obtain certifications that we do not currently have, and any failure to obtain these certifications could reduce the demand for our products and our business could be harmed. If we were required to obtain additional industry certifications, we may incur significant additional expenses and have to divert resources, which could slow the release of new products, all of which could harm our ability to effectively compete.
Further, any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our posted privacy policies, our privacy-related obligations to users or other third parties, or any other legal obligations or regulatory requirements relating to privacy, data protection or information security may result in governmental investigations or enforcement actions, litigation, claims or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others and could result in significant liability, cause our users to lose trust in us, and otherwise materially and adversely affect our reputation and business. Furthermore, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, the laws, regulations and policies that are applicable to the businesses of our users may limit the adoption and use of, and reduce the overall demand for, our platform. Additionally, if third parties we work with violate applicable laws, regulations or agreements, such violations may put our users’ data at risk, could result in governmental investigations or enforcement actions, fines, litigation, claims, or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others and could result in significant liability, cause our users to lose trust in us and otherwise materially and adversely affect our reputation and business. Further, public scrutiny of, or complaints about, technology companies or their data handling or data protection practices, even if unrelated to our business, industry or operations, may lead to increased scrutiny of technology companies, including us, and may cause government agencies to enact additional regulatory requirements, or to modify their enforcement or investigation activities, which may increase our costs and risks.
Because our products rely on the movement of data across national boundaries, global privacy and data security concerns could result in additional costs and liabilities to us or inhibit sales of our products globally.
Certain privacy legislation restricts the cross-border transfer of personal data and some countries have introduced or are currently considering legislation that imposes local storage and processing of data to avoid any form of transfer to a third country, or other restrictions on transfer and disclosure of personal data, outside of that country. Specifically, the EEA and UK data protection laws generally prohibit the transfer of personal data to third countries, including to the U.S., unless the transfer is to an entity established in a third country deemed to provide adequate protection or the parties to the transfer implement supplementary safeguards and measures to protect the transferred personal data. Currently, where we transfer personal data from the EEA and the UK to third countries outside the EEA and UK that are not deemed to be “adequate,” such as the U.S., we rely on standard contractual clauses (“SCCs”) (a standard form of contract approved by the European Commission (the “EC”) of the European Union (the “EU”) as an adequate personal data transfer mechanism, and potential alternative to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework (“Privacy Shield”)).
In Schrems II, though the court upheld the adequacy of the SCCs, it made clear that reliance on them alone may not necessarily be sufficient in all circumstances. Use of the SCCs must now be assessed on a case-by-case basis taking into account the legal regime applicable in the destination country, in particular applicable surveillance laws and rights of individuals and additional measures and/or contractual provisions may need to be put in place, as per the contractual requirement built into the EC’s new SCCs and the UK equivalent to conduct and document Data Transfer Impact Assessments addressing these issues. The Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) further stated that if a competent supervisory authority believes that the SCCs cannot be complied with in the destination country and the required level of protection cannot be secured by other means, such supervisory authority is under an obligation to suspend or prohibit that transfer. Supervisory authorities have pursued enforcement in cases where they have deemed the level of protection in the destination country to be insufficient.
U.S. and EU officials are actively seeking a solution to replace the Privacy Shield, which was invalidated by the CJEU in its Schrems II judgment. There is no clear timeline for the enactment of this new framework. Moreover, once enacted, the new framework is likely to be subject to legal challenges and may be struck down by the CJEU.
SCCs and other international data transfer mechanisms and data localization requirements will continue to evolve and face additional scrutiny across the EEA, the UK and other countries. We continue to monitor and update
our data protection compliance strategy accordingly and will continue to explore other options for processing and transferring data from the EEA and UK, including without limitation, conducting (or assisting data exporters in conducting) assessments and due diligence of the related data flows and destination countries across our supply chain and customer base, re-evaluating and amending our contractual and organizational arrangements, all of this activity may involve substantial expense and distraction from other aspects of our business.
To the extent we are unsuccessful in establishing an adequate mechanism for international data transfers or do not comply with the applicable requirements in respect of international transfers of data and localization, there is a risk that any of our data transfers could be halted or restricted. In addition, we could be at risk of enforcement action taken by an EEA or UK data protection authority including regulatory action, significant fines and penalties (or potential contractual liabilities) until such point in time that we ensure an adequate mechanism for EEA and UK data transfers to the U.S. and other countries is in place. This could damage our reputation, inhibit sales and harm our business.
We may be sued by third parties for alleged infringement or misappropriation of their intellectual property rights.
There is considerable patent and other intellectual property development activity in our industry. Our future success depends in part on not infringing upon or misappropriating the intellectual property rights of others. We have received, and may receive in the future, communications and lawsuits from third parties, including practicing entities and non-practicing entities, claiming that we are infringing upon or misappropriating their intellectual property rights, and we may be found to be infringing upon or misappropriating such rights. We may be unaware of the intellectual property rights of others that may cover some or all of our technology, or technology that we obtain from third parties. Any claims or litigation could cause us to incur significant expenses and, if successfully asserted against us, could require that we pay substantial damages or ongoing royalty or license payments, prevent us from offering our products or using certain technologies, require us to implement expensive workarounds, refund fees to customers or require that we comply with other unfavorable terms. In the case of infringement or misappropriation caused by technology that we obtain from third parties, any indemnification or other contractual protections we obtain from such third parties, if any, may be insufficient to cover the liabilities we incur as a result of such infringement or misappropriation. We may also be obligated to indemnify our customers or business partners in connection with any such claims or litigation and to obtain licenses, modify our products or refund fees, which could further exhaust our resources. Even if we were to prevail in the event of claims or litigation against us, any claim or litigation regarding our intellectual property could be costly and time-consuming and divert the attention of our management and other employees from our business operations and disrupt our business.
Indemnity provisions in various agreements potentially expose us to substantial liability for intellectual property infringement and other losses.
Our agreements with customers and other third parties may include indemnification or other provisions under which we agree to indemnify or otherwise be liable to them for losses suffered or incurred as a result of claims of intellectual property infringement, damages caused by us to property or persons, or other liabilities relating to or arising from our products or other acts or omissions. The term of these contractual provisions often survives termination or expiration of the applicable agreement. Large indemnity payments or damage claims from contractual breach could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. Although we generally contractually limit our liability with respect to such obligations, we may still incur substantial liability related to them. Any dispute with a customer with respect to such obligations could have adverse effects on our relationship with that customer and other current and prospective customers, reduce demand for our products, damage our reputation and harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We use open source software in our products that may subject our products to general release or require us to re-engineer our products, which could harm our business.
We use open source software in our products and expect to continue to use open source software in the future. There are uncertainties regarding the proper interpretation of and compliance with open source software licenses. Consequently, there is a risk that the owners of the copyrights in such open source software may claim that the open source licenses governing their use impose certain conditions or restrictions on our ability to use the software that we did not anticipate. Such owners may seek to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license, including by demanding release of the source code for the open source software, derivative works of such software, or, in some cases, our proprietary source code that uses or was developed using such open source software. These claims could also result in litigation, require us to purchase a costly license or require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our products, any of which could result in additional cost,
liability and reputational damage to us, and harm to our business and results of operations. In addition, if the license terms for the open source software we utilize change, we may be forced to re-engineer our products or incur additional costs to comply with the changed license terms or to replace the affected open source software. Although we have implemented policies and tools to regulate the use and incorporation of open source software into our products, we cannot be certain that we have not incorporated open source software in our products in a manner that is inconsistent with such policies.
Any failure to protect our intellectual property rights could impair our ability to protect our proprietary technology and our brand.
Our success and ability to compete depend in part upon our intellectual property. We primarily rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trade secret and trademark laws, trade secret protection and confidentiality or license agreements with our employees, customers, business partners and others to protect our intellectual property rights. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property rights may be inadequate. We make business decisions about when to seek patent protection for a particular technology and when to rely upon trade secret protection, and the approach we select may ultimately prove to be inadequate. Even in cases where we seek patent protection, there is no assurance that the resulting patents will effectively protect every significant feature of our products. In addition, we believe that the protection of our trademark rights is an important factor in product recognition, protecting our brand and maintaining goodwill and if we do not adequately protect our rights in our trademarks from infringement, any goodwill that we have developed in those trademarks could be lost or impaired, which could harm our brand and our business. In any event, in order to protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect these rights.
For example, in order to promote the transparency and adoption of our downloadable software, we provide our customers with the ability to request a copy of the source code of those products, which they may customize for their internal use under limited license terms, subject to confidentiality and use restrictions. If any of our customers misuses or distributes our source code in violation of our agreements with them, or anyone else obtains access to our source code, it could cost us significant time and resources to enforce our rights and remediate any resulting competitive harms.
Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time consuming and distracting to management. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights, which could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property rights. Our failure to secure, protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could harm our brand and our business.
Risks Related to Legal, Regulatory, Accounting, and Tax Matters
Our global operations and structure subject us to potentially adverse tax consequences.
We are subject to income taxes as well as non-income-based taxes in the United States, Australia and various other jurisdictions. Significant judgement is often required in the determination of our worldwide provision for income taxes. Our effective tax rate could be impacted by changes in our earnings and losses in countries with differing statutory tax rates, changes in transfer pricing, changes in operations, changes in non-deductible expenses, changes in excess tax benefits of stock-based compensation expense, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities and our ability to utilize them, the applicability of withholding taxes, effects from acquisitions, and changes in accounting principles and tax laws. Any changes or uncertainty in taxing jurisdictions’ administrative interpretations, decisions, policies and positions could also materially impact our income tax liabilities. Our intercompany relationships are subject to complex transfer pricing regulations administered by taxing authorities in various jurisdictions. The relevant revenue and taxing authorities may disagree with positions we have taken generally, or our determinations as to the value of assets sold or acquired, or income and expenses attributable to specific jurisdictions. For example, during the three months ended December 31, 2022, we reserved for uncertain tax positions of $83.0 million in connection with ongoing negotiations with the ATO to establish a unilateral APA relating to our transfer pricing arrangements between Australia and the U.S. Although the Company’s recorded tax reserves are the best estimate of its liabilities, differences may occur in the future, depending on resolution of the APA negotiations. In addition, in the ordinary course of our business we are subject to tax audits from various taxing authorities. Although we believe our tax positions are appropriate, the final determination of any future tax audits could be materially different from our income tax provisions, accruals and reserves. If such a disagreement were to occur, we could be required to pay additional taxes, interest and penalties, which could result in one-time tax charges, a higher effective tax rate, reduced cash flows and lower overall profitability of our operations.
Tax laws in the United States and in foreign jurisdictions are subject to change. For example, the TCJA, signed into law in 2017, enacted significant tax law changes which impacted our tax obligations and effective tax rate beginning in our fiscal year 2023 tax year. The TCJA eliminates the option to deduct research and development expenditures, instead requiring taxpayers to capitalize and amortize such expenditures over five or fifteen years beginning in fiscal year 2023. Although Congress is considering legislation that would defer the capitalization and amortization requirement, there is no assurance that the provision will be repealed or otherwise modified. The IRA, signed into law in 2022, includes various corporate tax provisions including a new alternative corporate minimum tax on applicable corporations. The IRA tax provisions may become applicable in future years, which could result in additional taxes, a higher effective tax rate, reduced cash flows and lower overall profitability of our operations.
Certain government agencies in jurisdictions where we do business have had an extended focus on issues related to the taxation of multinational companies. In addition, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (the “OECD”) has introduced various guidelines changing the way tax is assessed, collected and governed. Of note are the efforts around base erosion and profit shifting which seek to establish certain international standards for taxing the worldwide income of multinational companies. These measures have been endorsed by the leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies.
In March 2018, the EC proposed a series of measures aimed at ensuring a fair and efficient taxation of digital businesses operating within the EU. As collaborative efforts by the OECD and EC continue, some countries have unilaterally moved to introduce their own digital service tax or equalization levy to capture tax revenue on digital services more immediately. Notably France, Italy, Austria, Spain, the UK, Turkey and India have enacted this tax, generally 2% on specific in-scope sales above a revenue threshold. The EU and the UK have recently established a mandate that focuses on the transparency of cross-border arrangements concerning at least one EU member state through mandatory disclosure and exchange of cross-border arrangements rules. These regulations (known as MDR in the UK and DAC 6 in the EU) require taxpayers to disclose certain transactions to the tax authorities resulting in an additional layer of compliance and require careful consideration of the tax benefits obtained when entering into transactions that need to be disclosed.
Global tax developments applicable to multinational companies may result in new tax regimes or changes to existing tax laws. If the U.S. or foreign taxing authorities change tax laws, our overall taxes could increase, lead to a higher effective tax rate, harm our cash flows, results of operations and financial position.
Taxing authorities may successfully assert that we should have collected or in the future should collect sales and use, value-added or similar taxes, and we could be subject to liability with respect to past or future sales, which could harm our results of operations.
We do not collect sales and use, value-added and similar taxes in all jurisdictions in which we have sales, based on our understanding that such taxes are not applicable. Sales and use, value-added and similar tax laws and rates vary greatly by jurisdiction. Certain jurisdictions in which we do not collect such taxes may assert that such taxes are applicable, which could result in tax assessments, penalties, and interest, and we may be required to collect such taxes in the future. Such tax assessments, penalties and interest, or future requirements could harm our results of operations.
The requirements of being a public company, including additional rules and regulations that we must comply with now that we are not longer a foreign private issuer, may strain our resources, divert management’s attention, and affect our ability to attract and retain executive officers and qualified board members.
We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the listing requirements of Nasdaq and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with these rules and regulations has increased our legal and financial compliance costs, making some activities more difficult, time-consuming, and costly, and has increased demand on our systems and resources. The Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual reports with respect to our business and results of operations. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. In order to maintain and, if required, improve our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting to meet this standard, significant resources and management oversight is required.
Additionally, as of September 30, 2022, we are no longer a foreign private issuer, and we are required to comply with all of the provisions applicable to a U.S. domestic issuer under the Exchange Act, including filing an annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly periodic reports and current reports for certain events, complying with the
sections of the Exchange Act regulating the solicitation of proxies, requiring insiders to file public reports of their share ownership and trading activities and insiders being liable for profit from trades made in a short period of time. We are also no longer exempt from the requirements of Regulation FD promulgated under the Exchange Act related to selective disclosures. We are also no longer permitted to follow our home country’s rules in lieu of the corporate governance obligations imposed by Nasdaq, and are required to comply with the governance practices required by U.S. domestic issuers listed on Nasdaq. We are also required to comply with all other rules of Nasdaq applicable to U.S. domestic issuers. In addition, we are required to report our financial results under GAAP, including our historical financial results, which have previously been prepared in accordance with IFRS.
The regulatory and compliance costs associated with the reporting and governance requirements applicable to U.S. domestic issuers may be significantly higher than the costs we previously incurred as a foreign private issuer. We expect to continue to incur significant legal, accounting, insurance and other expenses and to expend greater time and resources to comply with these requirements. Additionally, 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. In addition, the pressures of operating a public company may divert management’s attention to delivering short-term results, instead of focusing on long-term strategy. In addition, we may need to develop our reporting and compliance infrastructure and may face challenges in complying with the new requirements applicable to us. If we fall out of compliance, we risk becoming subject to litigation or being delisted, among other potential problems.
Further, as a public company it is more expensive for us to maintain adequate 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 executive officers and members of our board of directors.
If we are unable to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in the future, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our Class A Common Stock could be negatively affected.
As a public company, we are required to maintain internal controls over financial reporting and to report any material weaknesses in such internal controls. We are required to furnish a report by management on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. If we identify material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, if we are unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner 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 control over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of Class A Common Stock could be negatively affected, and we could become subject to investigations by the stock exchange on which our securities are listed, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources.
We face exposure to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.
While we primarily sell our products in U.S. dollars, we incur expenses in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, which exposes us to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. A large percentage of our expenses are denominated in the Australian dollar and the Indian rupee, and fluctuations in these currencies could have a material negative impact on our results of operations. Moreover, our subsidiaries, other than our U.S. subsidiaries, maintain net assets that are denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. In addition, we transact in non-U.S. dollar currencies for our products, and, accordingly, changes in the value of non-U.S. dollar currencies relative to the U.S. dollar could affect our revenue and results of operations due to transactional and translational remeasurements that are reflected in our results of operations.
We have a foreign exchange hedging program to hedge a portion of certain exposures to fluctuations in non-U.S. dollar currency exchange rates. We use derivative instruments, such as foreign currency forward contracts, to hedge the exposures. The use of such hedging instruments may not fully offset the adverse financial effects of unfavorable movements in foreign currency exchange rates over the limited time the hedges are in place. Moreover, the use of hedging instruments may introduce additional risks if we are unable to structure effective hedges with such instruments or if we are unable to forecast hedged exposures accurately.
We are subject to government regulation, including import, export, economic sanctions, and anti-corruption laws and regulations, that may expose us to liability and increase our costs.
Various of our products are subject to U.S. export controls, including the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Export Administration Regulations and economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls. These regulations may limit the export of our products and provision of our services outside of the U.S., or may require export authorizations, including by license, a license exception, or other appropriate government authorizations, including annual or semi-annual reporting and the filing of an encryption registration. Export control and economic sanctions laws may also include prohibitions on the sale or supply of certain of our products to embargoed or sanctioned countries, regions, governments, persons and entities. In addition, various countries regulate the importation of certain products through import permitting and licensing requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our products. Import, export and economic sanctions laws may also change rapidly due to political events, such as has occurred in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The exportation, reexportation, and importation of our products, and the provision of services, including by our solution partners, must comply with these laws or else we may be adversely affected through reputational harm, government investigations, penalties, and a denial or curtailment of our ability to export our products or provide services. Complying with export control and sanctions laws can be time consuming and complex and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities. Although we take precautions to prevent our products from being provided in violation of such laws, we are aware of previous exports of certain of our products to a small number of persons and organizations that are the subject of U.S. sanctions or located in countries or regions subject to U.S. sanctions. If we are found to be in violation of U.S. sanctions or export control laws, it could result in substantial fines and penalties for us and for the individuals working for us. Changes in export or import laws or corresponding sanctions may delay the introduction and sale of our products in international markets, or, in some cases, prevent the export or import of our products to certain countries, regions, governments, persons or entities altogether, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are also subject to various domestic and international anti-corruption laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act, as well as other similar anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws and regulations. These laws and regulations generally prohibit companies and their employees and intermediaries from authorizing, offering, or providing improper payments or benefits to officials and other recipients for improper purposes. We rely on certain third parties to support our sales and regulatory compliance efforts and can be held liable for their corrupt or other illegal activities, even if we do not explicitly authorize or have actual knowledge of such activities. Although we take precautions to prevent violations of these laws, our exposure for violating these laws increases as our international presence expands and as we increase sales and operations in additional jurisdictions.
Changes in laws and regulations related to the internet or changes in the internet infrastructure itself may diminish the demand for our products, and could harm our business.
The future success of our business depends upon the continued use of the internet as a primary medium for commerce, communication, and business applications. Federal, state, or foreign government bodies or agencies have in the past adopted, and may in the future adopt, laws or regulations affecting the use of the internet as a commercial medium. Changes in these laws or regulations could require us to modify our products in order to comply with these changes. In addition, government agencies or private organizations have imposed and may impose additional taxes, fees, or other charges for accessing the internet or commerce conducted via the internet. These laws or charges could limit the growth of internet-related commerce or communications generally, or result in reductions in the demand for internet-based products such as ours. In addition, the use of the internet as a business tool could be harmed due to delays in the development or adoption of new standards and protocols to handle increased demands of internet activity, security, reliability, cost, ease-of-use, accessibility, and quality of service. The performance of the internet and its acceptance as a business tool has been harmed by phishing attacks, cyber-attacks, viruses, worms, and similar malicious programs and the internet has experienced a variety of outages and other delays as a result of damage to portions of its infrastructure. If the use of the internet is adversely affected by these issues, demand for our products could decline and our business could be harmed.
If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, our results of operations could be harmed.
Under Sections 3(a)(1)(A) and (C) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Company Act”), a company generally will be deemed to be an “investment company” for purposes of the Investment Company Act if (i) it is, or holds itself out as being, engaged primarily, or proposes to engage primarily, in the business of investing, reinvesting, or trading in securities or (ii) it engages, or proposes to engage, in the business of investing, reinvesting, owning, holding, or trading in securities and it owns or proposes to acquire investment securities having a value exceeding 40% of the value of its total assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and
cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. We do not believe that we are an “investment company,” as such term is defined in either of these sections of the Investment Company Act. We currently conduct, and intend to continue to conduct, our operations so that neither we, nor any of our subsidiaries, is required to register as an “investment company” under the Investment Company Act. If we were obligated to register as an “investment company,” we would have to comply with a variety of substantive requirements under the Investment Company Act that impose, among other things, limitations on capital structure, restrictions on specified investments, prohibitions on transactions with affiliates, and compliance with reporting, record keeping, voting, proxy disclosure and other rules and regulations that would increase our operating and compliance costs, could make it impractical for us to continue our business as contemplated, and could harm our results of operations.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock
The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with certain stockholders, in particular, our Co-Chief Executive Officers and their affiliates, which will limit our other stockholders’ ability to influence the outcome of important transactions, including a change in control.
Shares of our Class B Common Stock have ten votes per share and shares of our Class A Common Stock have one vote per share. As of December 31, 2022, stockholders who hold our Class B Common Stock collectively hold approximately 88% of the voting power of our outstanding share capital and in particular, our Co-Chief Executive Officers, Michael Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, collectively hold approximately 88% of the voting power of our outstanding share capital. The holders of our Class B Common Stock will collectively continue to control a majority of the combined voting power of our capital stock and therefore be able to control substantially all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval so long as the outstanding shares of our Class B Common Stock represent at least 10% of all shares of our outstanding Class A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock in the aggregate. These holders of our Class B Common Stock may also have interests that differ from holders of our Class A Common Stock and may vote in a way which may be adverse to such interests. This concentrated control may have the effect of delaying, preventing or deterring a change in control of Atlassian, could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their shares as part of a sale of Atlassian and might ultimately affect the market price of our Class A Common Stock.
If Messrs. Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar retain a significant portion of their holdings of our Class B Common Stock for an extended period of time, they will control a significant portion of the voting power of our capital stock for the foreseeable future. As members of our board of directors, Messrs. Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar each owe statutory and fiduciary duties to Atlassian and must act in good faith and in a manner they consider would be most likely to promote the success of Atlassian for the benefit of stockholders as a whole. As stockholders, Messrs. Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar are entitled to vote their shares in their own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our stockholders generally.
The market price of our Class A Common Stock is volatile and could continue to fluctuate significantly regardless of our operating performance resulting in substantial losses for our Class A ordinary stockholders.
The trading price of our Class A Common Stock is volatile and could continue to fluctuate significantly, regardless of our operating performance, in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:
•general economic conditions;
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our results of operations;
•the financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in these projections or our failure to meet these projections;
•failure of securities analysts to initiate or maintain coverage of Atlassian, publication of inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, changes in financial estimates or ratings changes by any securities analysts who follow Atlassian or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;
•announcements by us or our competitors of significant technical innovations, new products, acquisitions, pricing changes, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments;
•changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of other technology companies generally, or those in our industry in particular;
•price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market from time to time, including as a result of trends in the economy as a whole;
•actual or anticipated developments in our business or our competitors’ businesses or the competitive landscape generally;
•developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property or our products, or third-party proprietary rights;
•changes in accounting standards, policies, guidelines, interpretations or principles;
•new laws or regulations, new interpretations of existing laws, or the new application of existing regulations to our business;
•changes in tax laws or regulations;
•any major change in our board of directors or management;
•additional Class A Common Stock being sold into the market by us or our existing stockholders or the anticipation of such sales;
•the existence of our Share Repurchase Program and purchases made pursuant to that program or any failure to repurchase shares as planned, including failure to meet expectations around the timing, price or amount of share repurchases, and any reduction, suspension or termination of our Share Repurchase Program;
•cyber-security and privacy breaches;
•lawsuits threatened or filed against us; and
•other events or factors, including those resulting from geopolitical risks, natural disasters, climate change, diseases and pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic, macroeconomic factors such as inflationary pressures or recession, war, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, incidents of terrorism, or responses to these events.
In addition, the stock markets, and in particular the market on which our Class A Common Stock is listed, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many technology companies. Stock prices of many technology companies have fluctuated in a manner unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In the past, stockholders have instituted securities class action litigation following periods of market volatility. If we were to become involved in securities litigation, it could subject us to substantial costs, divert resources and the attention of management from operating our business, and harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Substantial future sales of our Class A Common Stock could cause the market price of our Class A Common Stock to decline.
The market price of our Class A Common Stock could decline as a result of substantial sales of shares of our Class A Common Stock, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers and significant stockholders, or the perception in the market that holders of a large number of shares intend to sell their shares. As of December 31, 2022, we had 149,039,165 outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock and 107,247,693 outstanding shares of Class B Common Stock.
We have also registered shares of Class A Common Stock that we issue under our employee equity incentive plans. These shares may be sold freely in the public market upon issuance.
Certain holders of our Class A Common Stock and our Class B Common Stock, including our founders, have rights, subject to certain conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or our stockholders. Sales of our Class A Common Stock pursuant to these registration rights may make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate. These sales also could cause the market price of our Class A Common Stock to fall and make it more difficult for our investors to sell our Class A Common Stock at a price that they deem appropriate.
We cannot guarantee that our Share Repurchase Program will be fully consummated or that it will enhance long-term stockholder value. Repurchases of shares of our Class A Common Stock could also increase the volatility of the trading price of our Class A Common Stock and could diminish our cash reserves.
In January 2023, our board of directors authorized a Share Repurchase Program to repurchase up to $1.0 billion of our outstanding Class A Common Stock. Under the Share Repurchase Program, stock repurchases may be made from time to time through open market purchases, in privately negotiated transactions, or by other means, including through the use of trading plans intended to qualify under Rule 10b5-1 under the Exchange Act, in accordance with applicable securities laws and other restrictions. The Share Repurchase Program does not have a fixed expiration date, may be suspended or discontinued at any time, and does not obligate us to acquire any amount of Class A Common Stock. The timing, manner, price, and amount of any repurchases will be determined by us at our discretion and will depend on a variety of factors, including business, economic and market conditions, prevailing stock prices, corporate and regulatory requirements, and other considerations. We cannot guarantee that the Share Repurchase Program will be fully consummated or that it will enhance long-term stockholder value. The Share Repurchase Program could also affect the trading price of our Class A Common Stock and increase volatility, and any announcement of a reduction, suspension or termination of the Share Repurchase Program may result in a decrease in the trading price of our Class A Common Stock. In addition, repurchasing our Class A Common Stock could diminish our cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities available to fund working capital, repayment of debt, capital expenditures, strategic acquisitions, investments, or business opportunities, and other general corporate purposes.
We do not expect to declare dividends in the foreseeable future.
We currently anticipate that we will retain future earnings for the development, operation and expansion of our business and to fund our Share Repurchase Program, and do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. As a result, stockholders must rely on sales of their shares of Class A Common Stock after price appreciation, if any, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment.
Anti-takeover provisions contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, as well as provisions of Delaware law, could impair a takeover attempt.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain, and the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (the “Delaware General Corporation Law”) contains, provisions which could have the effect of rendering more difficult, delaying or preventing an acquisition deemed undesirable by our board of directors. These provisions provide for the following:
•a dual-class structure which provides our holders of Class B Common Stock with the ability to significantly influence the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, even if they own significantly less than a majority of the shares of our outstanding Class A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock;
•no cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates;
•the exclusive right of our board of directors to set the size of the board of directors and to elect a director to fill a vacancy, however occurring, including by an expansion of the board of directors, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our board of directors;
•the ability of our board of directors to authorize the issuance of shares of preferred stock and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, including voting or other rights or preferences, without stockholder approval, which could be used to significantly dilute the ownership of a hostile acquirer;
•the ability of our board of directors to alter our amended and restated bylaws without obtaining stockholder approval;
•in addition to our board of directors’ ability to adopt, amend, or repeal our amended and restated bylaws, our stockholders may adopt, amend, or repeal our amended and restated bylaws only with the affirmative vote of the holders of at least 66 2/3% of the voting power of the outstanding shares of capital stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, voting together as a single class;
•the required approval of at least 66 2/3% of the voting power of the outstanding shares of capital stock entitled to vote thereon, voting together as a single class, to adopt, amend, or repeal certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation;
•the ability of stockholders to act only at an annual or special meeting of stockholders;
•the requirement that a special meeting of stockholders may be called only by certain specified officers of the Company, a majority of our board of directors then in office or the chairperson of our board of directors;
•advance notice procedures that stockholders must comply with in order to nominate candidates to our board of directors or to propose matters to be acted upon at a stockholders’ meeting, which may discourage or deter a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us; and
•the limitation of liability of, and provision of indemnification to, our directors and officers.
These provisions, alone or together, could delay or prevent hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our management.
As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law, including Section 203 thereof, 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 our outstanding common stock.
Any provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws or the Delaware General Corporation 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.
Claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third-party claims against us and may reduce the amount of money available to us.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws provide that we will indemnify our directors and officers, in each case to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law.
In addition, as permitted by Section 145 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated bylaws and our indemnification agreements that we have entered or intend to enter into with our directors and officers provide that:
•we will indemnify our directors and officers to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. Delaware law provides that a corporation may indemnify such person if such person acted in good faith and in a manner such person reasonably believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the registrant and, with respect to any criminal proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe such person’s conduct was unlawful;
•we may, in our discretion, indemnify employees and agents in those circumstances where indemnification is permitted by applicable law;
•we are required to advance expenses, as incurred, to our directors and officers in connection with defending a proceeding, except that such directors or officers will undertake to repay such advances if it is ultimately determined that such person is not entitled to indemnification;
•the rights conferred in our amended and restated bylaws are not exclusive, and we are authorized to enter into indemnification agreements with our directors, officers, employees and agents and to obtain insurance to indemnify such persons; and
•we may not retroactively amend our amended and restated bylaw provisions to reduce our indemnification obligations to directors, officers, employees, and agents.
While we have procured directors’ and officers’ liability insurance policies, such insurance policies may not be available to us in the future at a reasonable rate, may not cover all potential claims for indemnification, and may not be adequate to indemnify us for all liability that may be imposed.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws provide for an exclusive forum in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware for certain disputes between us and our stockholders, and that the federal district courts of the United States will be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action under the Securities Act.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws provide, that unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, (a) the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, if such court does not have subject matter jurisdiction thereof, the federal district court for the District of Delaware or other state courts of the State of Delaware) will, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the sole and exclusive forum for: (i) any derivative action, suit or proceeding brought on behalf of the Company, (ii) any action, suit or proceeding asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any director, officer or stockholder to the Company or our stockholders, (iii) any action, suit or proceeding arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law or our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or amended and restated bylaws, or (iv) any action, suit or proceeding asserting a claim against the Company that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine; and (b) the federal district courts of the United States will be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause or causes of action arising under the Securities Act, including all causes of action asserted against any defendant to such complaint. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any security of the Company will be deemed to have notice of and consented to these provisions. Nothing in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or amended and restated bylaws precludes stockholders that assert claims under the Exchange Act, from bringing such claims in federal court to the extent that the Exchange Act confers exclusive federal jurisdiction over such claims, subject to applicable law.
We believe these provisions may benefit us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law and federal securities laws by chancellors and judges, as applicable, particularly experienced in resolving corporate disputes, efficient administration of cases on a more expedited schedule relative to other forums and protection against the burdens of multi-forum litigation. If a court were to find the choice of forum provision that is contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or amended and restated bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. For example, 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. Accordingly, there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce such a forum selection provision as written in connection with claims arising under the Securities Act.
The choice of forum provisions 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 current or former director, officer or stockholder to the Company, which may discourage such claims against us or any of our current or former director, officer or stockholder to the Company and result in increased costs for investors to bring a claim.
General Risk Factors
Our global operations subject us to risks that can harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
A key element of our strategy is to operate globally and sell our products to customers around the world. Operating globally requires significant resources and management attention and subjects us to regulatory, economic, geographic, and political risks. In particular, our global operations subject us to a variety of additional risks and challenges, including:
•increased management, travel, infrastructure, and legal compliance costs associated with having operations in many countries;
•difficulties in enforcing contracts, including “clickwrap” contracts that are entered into online, of which we have historically relied as part of our product licensing strategy, but which may be subject to additional legal uncertainty in some foreign jurisdictions;
•increased financial accounting and reporting burdens and complexities;
•requirements or preferences within other regions for domestic products, and difficulties in replacing products offered by more established or known regional competitors;
•differing technical standards, existing or future regulatory and certification requirements, and required features and functionality;
•communication and integration problems related to entering and serving new markets with different languages, cultures, and political systems;
•compliance with foreign privacy and security laws and regulations and the risks and costs of non-compliance;
•compliance with laws and regulations for foreign operations, including anti-bribery laws (such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.S. Travel Act, and the UK Bribery Act), import and export control laws, tariffs, trade barriers, economic sanctions, and other regulatory or contractual limitations on our ability to sell our products in certain foreign markets, and the risks and costs of non-compliance;
•heightened risks of unfair or corrupt business practices in certain geographies that may impact our financial results and result in restatements of our consolidated financial statements;
•fluctuations in currency exchange rates, rising interest rates, and related effects on our results of operations;
•difficulties in repatriating or transferring funds from, or converting currencies in certain countries;
•weak economic conditions which could arise in each country or region in which we operate or sell our products, including due to rising inflation or hyperinflation, such as is occurring in Turkey, and related interest rate increases, or general political and economic instability around the world, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine;
•differing labor standards, including restrictions related to, and the increased cost of, terminating employees in some countries;
•difficulties in recruiting and hiring employees in certain countries;
•the preference for localized software and licensing programs and localized language support;
•reduced protection for intellectual property rights in some countries and practical difficulties associated with enforcing our legal rights abroad;
•imposition of travel restrictions, prohibitions of non-essential travel, modifications of employee work locations, or cancellation or reorganization of certain sales and marketing events as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic or future pandemics or public health emergencies;
•compliance with the laws of numerous foreign taxing jurisdictions, including withholding obligations, and overlapping of different tax regimes; and
•geopolitical risks, such as political and economic instability, and changes in diplomatic and trade relations.
Compliance with laws and regulations applicable to our global operations substantially increases our cost of doing business in foreign jurisdictions. We may be unable to keep current with changes in government requirements as they change from time to time. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations could harm our business. In many countries, it is common for others to engage in business practices that are prohibited by our internal policies and procedures or other regulations applicable to us. Although we have implemented policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with these regulations and policies, there can be no assurance that all of our employees, contractors, business partners and agents will comply with these regulations and policies. Violations of laws, regulations or key control policies by our employees, contractors, business partners, or agents could result in delays in revenue recognition, financial reporting misstatements, enforcement actions, reputational harm, disgorgement of profits, fines, civil and criminal penalties, damages, injunctions, other collateral consequences, or the prohibition of the importation or exportation of our products and could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Catastrophic events may disrupt our business.
Natural disasters, pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic, other public health emergencies, geopolitical conflicts, social or political unrest, or other catastrophic events may cause damage or disruption to our operations, international commerce and the global economy, and thus could harm our business. We have a large
employee presence and operations in the San Francisco Bay Area, California and Australia. The west coast of the U.S. contains active earthquake zones and is often at risk from wildfires. Australia has recently experienced significant wildfires and flooding that have impacted our employees. In the event of a major earthquake, hurricane, typhoon or catastrophic event such as fire, power loss, telecommunications failure, cyber-attack, war or terrorist attack, we may be unable to continue our operations and may endure system interruptions, reputational harm, delays in our application development, lengthy interruptions in our product availability, breaches of data security and loss of critical data, all of which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Additionally, we rely on our network and suppliers of third-party infrastructure and applications, internal technology systems, and our websites for our development, marketing, internal controls, operational support, hosted services and sales activities. If these systems were to fail or be negatively impacted as a result of a natural disaster, disease or pandemic, including the COVID-19 pandemic, or catastrophic event, our ability to conduct normal business operations and deliver products to our customers could be impaired.
As we grow our business, the need for business continuity planning and disaster recovery plans will grow in significance. If we are unable to develop adequate plans to ensure that our business functions continue to operate during and after a disaster, disease or pandemic, including the COVID-19 pandemic, or catastrophic event, or if we are unable to successfully execute on those plans, our business and reputation could be harmed.
Climate change may have a long-term impact on our business.
The long-term effects of climate change on the global economy and the technology industry in particular are unclear, however we recognize that there are inherent climate-related risks wherever business is conducted. Climate-related events, including the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and their impact on critical infrastructure in the U.S., Australia and elsewhere, have the potential to disrupt our business, our third-party suppliers, and/or the business of our customers, and may cause us to experience higher attrition, losses and additional costs to maintain and resume operations.
We depend on our executive officers and other key employees and the loss of one or more of these employees or the inability to attract and retain highly skilled employees could harm our business.
Our success depends largely upon the continued services of our executive officers and key employees. We rely on our leadership team and other key employees in the areas of research and development, products, strategy, operations, security, go-to-market, marketing, IT, support, and general and administrative functions. From time to time, there may be changes in our executive management team resulting from the hiring or departure of executives, which could disrupt our business. For example, we recently hired a new Chief Financial Officer who joined us in September 2022 and a new Chief Technology Officer who joined us in May 2022. In addition, we do not have employment agreements with our executive officers or other key personnel that require them to continue to work for us for any specified period and, therefore, they could terminate their employment with us at any time. The loss of one or more of our executive officers, especially our Co-Chief Executive Officers, or other key employees could harm our business.
In addition, in order to execute our growth plan, we must attract and retain highly qualified personnel. Competition for these personnel in Sydney, Australia, the San Francisco Bay Area, and in other locations where we maintain offices, is intense, especially for engineers experienced in designing and developing software and cloud-based services. We have from time to time experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty hiring and retaining employees with appropriate qualifications. In particular, recruiting and hiring senior product engineering personnel has been, and we expect to continue to be, challenging. If we are unable to hire and retain talented product engineering personnel, we may be unable to scale our operations or release new products in a timely fashion and, as a result, customer satisfaction with our products may decline.
Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we have. If we hire employees from competitors or other companies, these employers may attempt to assert that the employees or we have breached certain legal obligations, resulting in a diversion of our time and resources. In addition, job candidates and existing employees often consider the value of the equity awards they receive in connection with their employment. If the value or perceived value of our equity awards declines, it could harm our ability to recruit and retain highly skilled employees. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.
We are exposed to credit risk and fluctuations in the market values of our investment portfolio.
Given the global nature of our business, we may have diversified U.S. and non-U.S. investments. Credit ratings and pricing of our investments can be negatively affected by liquidity, credit deterioration, financial results, economic risk, including from impacts of inflation, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, political risk, sovereign risk or other factors. As a result, the value and liquidity of our investments may fluctuate substantially. Therefore, although we have not realized any significant losses on our investments, future fluctuations in their value could result in a significant realized loss.