Item 1A. Risk Factors
RISK FACTORS
We are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which could adversely affect our business, prospects, operating results, cash flows and financial condition and the trading price of our Class A Common Stock (“common stock”). You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below together with all of the other information contained in this annual report on Form 10-K, including our financial statements and related notes and in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” These risks and uncertainties are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial may also adversely affect our business.
Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional Capital
We do not have sufficient cash flows from operating activities to service our substantial amount of indebtedness and other obligations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We have a substantial amount of indebtedness and related obligations and do not currently have sufficient available cash flows to service upcoming payment commitments. In addition, we may not have sufficient cash flows or assets to repay such debt and related obligations in full when due. Our total indebtedness and related obligations as of February 28, 2023 was $99.2 million, including (1) $63.5 million under our financing agreement (the “Blue Torch Credit Facility”) by and among the Company, AN Global LLC, certain subsidiaries of the Company, as guarantors, the financial institutions party thereto as lenders (the “Blue Torch Lenders”), and Blue Torch Finance LLC (“Blue Torch”), as the administrative agent and collateral agent, and (2) $19.4 million under our credit agreement (the “Second Lien Facility”), by and among AT, AN Extend, S.A. de C.V., AN Global LLC, certain other loan parties party thereto, financial institutions affiliated with Credit Suisse and Nexxus Capital, Manuel Senderos and Kevin Johnston, as lenders (the “Second Lien Lenders”), GLAS USA LLC, as administrative agent, and GLAS Americas LLC, as collateral agent, but not including an additional paid in kind fee of $0.5 million added to the Blue Torch Credit Facility as of March 9, 2023.
We have agreed to pay approximately $34.0 million of our total indebtedness and related obligations in 2023, including principal payments of $15.0 million by April 15, 2023, $20.0 million by June 15, 2023 (inclusive of the $15.0 million by April 15, 2023 if not paid by then) and $25.0 million by September 15, 2023 (inclusive of the $20.0 million by June 15, 2023 if not paid by then) to the Blue Torch Lenders. Our failure to repay any of these amounts will be an event of default under the Blue Torch Credit Facility. However, any such event of default related to the April 15, 2023, June 15, 2023, or September 15, 2023 payments will not result in Blue Torch’s ability to accelerate any indebtedness under the Blue Torch Credit Facility but will result in us owing Blue Torch additional paid in kind fees in the amounts of $4.0 million, $2.0 million and $3.0 million, respectively, which will be added to the outstanding principal amount of the loan. If the Company meets these payments timely, no fees will be incurred. We are also required to make quarterly payments to the Blue Torch Lenders of approximately $0.7 million starting December 31, 2023 and a payment default related to those quarterly payments would allow Blue Torch to accelerate all indebtedness under the Blue Torch Credit Facility.
As described in the following risk factor, we also have certain other payment obligations, including for subordinated indebtedness, that we may not pay unless we comply with covenants in the Blue Torch Credit Facility and the Second Lien Facility. Our failure to pay these other obligations would be a default under the terms of those obligations and, in limited circumstances, a cross-default that would allow Blue Torch and the Second Lien Lenders to accelerate any and all indebtedness owed to them.
We have also entered into arrangements with certain suppliers and vendors, or are negotiating such arrangements, under which we paid or will agree to pay such counterparties on a deferred basis in order to manage our cash flows. Some of these agreements are related to material contracts under the terms of the Blue Torch Credit Facility and the Second Lien Facility and are agreements that we rely on to operate our business. If we are unable to negotiate such deferred payments, our counterparties could terminate these contracts. We may not be able to replace these contracts on terms that are acceptable to us or at all and would remain liable for the defaulted payments, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We do not have sufficient cash flows from operating activities and need to raise additional capital to service our debt and other obligations. Our ability to make payments on our indebtedness and other obligations depends on our ability to
raise additional capital and on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, which in turn are all subject to general economic, financial, competitive, legislative, regulatory and other factors that are beyond our control. We may not be able to raise such additional capital and maintain a level of cash flows from operating activities sufficient to pay the principal, premium, if any, and interest on our indebtedness and to pay our other obligations.
In addition, if we are unable to repay, refinance or restructure our indebtedness when payment is due, the lenders could proceed against any collateral granted to them to secure such indebtedness or force us into bankruptcy or liquidation. In any of these circumstances, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects would be materially adversely affected.
Provisions of our senior credit agreements restrict our ability to pay certain of our other obligations, including subordinated indebtedness, and our inability to pay or modify the payment terms of such obligations would result in events of default, which could have a material adverse effect on us.
The Blue Torch Credit Facility and the Second Lien Facility restrict our ability to pay certain of our other obligations, including $3.5 million in deferred fees (the “Monroe Deferred Fees”) due to the lenders under our prior first lien credit facility on May 25, 2023, $1.6 million due to Exitus Capital, S.A.P.I. de C.V., SOFOM, E.N.R. (“Exitus Capital) on July 27, 2023 and $0.9 million due to AGS Group LLC (“AGS Group”) on March 31, 2023 unless we satisfy certain conditions, including that no event of default has occurred and is continuing. We may not repay the Monroe Deferred Fees or AGS Group unless our leverage ratio is 3.00 to 1.00 or less or 2.50 to 1.00 or less, respectively, and we are in compliance with all financial covenants. We may not repay Exitus Capital unless we have repaid Blue Torch an aggregate principal $15.0 million and $20.0 million by April 15, 2023 and June 15, 2023, respectively.
Our failure to pay any of these amounts would be a payment default under the terms of those agreements, which would allow Exitus Capital to accelerate the amount due under its loan or allow Monroe to seek to enforce our obligation to repay the Monroe Deferred Fees. In addition, our failure to pay the indebtedness due to Exitus Capital will be a cross-default under both the Blue Torch Credit Facility and Second Lien Facility, but would not allow either of the Blue Torch or Second Lien Lenders to accelerate indebtedness due under their respective loans unless Exitus Capital accelerates the amounts due to it.
To avoid these defaults, we need to raise additional capital and reduce our leverage ratio to service these obligations. We do not believe we will be able to reduce our leverage ratio in order to pay the indebtedness due to AGS Group on March 31, 2023 or the Monroe Deferred Fees due on May 25, 2023 and therefore need to revise the terms of these obligations. Any such revisions may be subject to the prior consent of Blue Torch and the Second Lien Lenders. We cannot provide any assurance that we will be able to timely revise these obligations on commercially acceptable terms or at all or that Blue Torch and the Second Lien Lenders will consent to such revisions. Our failure to revise these obligations or receive such consents would result in events of default that, if not cured or waived, would have a material adverse effect on us.
We need additional capital, and failure to raise additional capital on terms favorable to us, or at all, would limit our ability to meet our debt and other obligations and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
In order to meet our obligations, we must raise additional capital and may be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as refinancing or restructuring indebtedness or selling material assets or operations. However, there can be no assurance that we will be able to raise additional capital or that we will be successful in one or more of these other options.
If we raise additional capital through the issuance of equity or debt securities, those securities may have rights, preferences, or privileges senior to the rights of our common stock. If we raise additional capital through equity, our existing stockholders will experience dilution and such dilution could be substantial. If we need to refinance all or part of our indebtedness at or before maturity, there can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain new financing or to refinance any of our indebtedness on commercially reasonable terms or at all. The refinancing of our existing indebtedness or incurrence of additional indebtedness could result in increased debt service obligations and could require us to agree to
operating and financing covenants that would further restrict our operations, and the instruments governing such indebtedness could contain provisions that are as or more restrictive than our existing debt instruments.
We may also require additional cash resources due to changed business conditions or other future developments, including our growth initiatives and any investments or acquisitions we may decide to pursue, or to refinance our existing indebtedness.
Our ability to obtain additional capital on acceptable terms is subject to a variety of uncertainties, including conditions in the capital markets in which we may seek to raise funds, our results of operations and financial condition, the terms of our credit facilities, investors’ perception of, and demand for, securities of IT services companies and general economic and political conditions. Financing may not be available in amounts or on terms acceptable to us, or at all. If we are not able to meet our commitments for any reason, our creditors could seek to enforce remedies against us, including actions to put us into bankruptcy proceedings or receivership, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our level of indebtedness has affected our ability to obtain financing or refinance our existing indebtedness, reduces available cash flow for operations and limits our ability to complete certain transactions necessary for growth of our business.
Our level of indebtedness has affected our ability to obtain financing or refinance existing indebtedness and requires us to dedicate a significant portion of our cash flow from operations to interest and principal payments on indebtedness, thereby reducing the availability of cash flow to fund working capital, capital expenditures, growth initiatives and other general corporate purposes.
In addition, the Blue Torch Credit Facility is secured by substantially all of our assets and will require us, and any debt instruments we may enter into in the future may require us, to comply with various covenants that limit our ability to, among other things:
•dispose of assets;
•complete mergers or acquisitions;
•incur or guarantee indebtedness;
•sell or encumber certain assets;
•pay dividends or make other distributions to holders of our shares;
•make specified investments;
•engage in different lines of business; and
•engage in certain transactions with affiliates.
These limitations limit our ability to complete certain transactions necessary for the growth of our business and also increase our vulnerability to adverse general economic, industry or competitive developments or conditions and limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in its businesses and the industries in which we operate or in pursuing our strategic objectives
Our cost reduction initiatives may not deliver the expected results and could disrupt our business.
We have implemented cost reduction initiatives for the purpose of reducing selling, general and administrative expenses, streamlining our operations and increasing cash flows from operations. Such reductions may include reducing non-revenue generating headcount, consolidating certain operations and reducing other expenditures. We plan to continue to manage costs to better and more efficiently manage our business.
Such initiatives may not be successful and could adversely impact our business in other ways, including delaying the completion of certain business processes, impacting our ability to react swiftly to changes in our industry or affecting employee retention or morale. If we do not fully realize or maintain the anticipated benefits of cost reduction initiatives or if such benefits are offset by additional costs, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected, and additional cost reduction initiatives or restructuring actions may be necessary.
We have not complied, and may not in the future, be able to comply with the financial covenants in our credit agreements, which have resulted, and may result, in events of default.
Under the terms of the Blue Torch Credit Facility and the Second Lien Facility, we are required to comply with total leverage ratio, liquidity, accounts payable and other covenants, including providing financial information to our lenders at specified times. Our ability to meet these ratios and covenants can be affected by events beyond our control. We have not always met these ratios and covenants in the past and have had to obtain waivers and consents from the lenders and amend our credit agreements to adjust the ratios and covenants so that we could remain in compliance.
For example, we have had to enter into amendments to our prior first lien credit facility, the Blue Torch Credit Facility and the Second Lien Facility on multiple occasions to reset the total leverage ratio, the fixed charge coverage ratio and the liquidity, accounts payable and other covenants in such agreements. See Management’s Discussion and Analysis - Liquidity and Capital Resources, for further information.
We may not meet these ratios and covenants in the future. A failure by us to comply with the ratios or covenants contained in our credit agreements could result in an event of default, which could adversely affect our ability to respond to changes in our business and manage our operations. Upon the occurrence of an event of default under the terms of our credit agreements, including the occurrence of a material adverse change, the lenders could elect to declare any amounts outstanding to be due and payable and exercise other remedies.
We have not had, and may not have, sufficient cash flows from operating activities, cash on hand and available borrowings under current or new credit arrangements to satisfy earnout obligations in connection with prior acquisitions.
In connection with prior acquisitions, we are required to make earnout payments to the sellers if certain metrics relating to the acquired businesses have been achieved. As of December 31, 2022, we had accrued $10.2 million in earnout payments as liabilities that we owe in connection with prior acquisitions. The earnout obligation is related to two prior acquisitions of AN Extend and AgileThought LLC with a total liability of $2.4 million and $7.8 million, respectively. The AN Extend and AgileThought LLC obligation accrues interest at a rate of 11% and 12% respectively. In order for us to make those earnout payments, in addition to having sufficient cash resources to make the payments themselves, we must be in pro forma compliance after giving effect to the earnout payments with liquidity and other financial and other covenants included in the Blue Torch Credit Facility and the Second Lien Facility. We have not been able to satisfy those covenants to date in connection with the accrued earnout payments. If we are unable to satisfy those covenants, and the Blue Torch Credit Facility and the Second Lien Facility remain outstanding, or if we otherwise have insufficient cash flows from operating activities, cash on hand or access to borrowed funds, we will be unable to make the accrued earnout payments. As long as such accrued earnout payments remain outstanding, they will continue to accrue interest that is added to the principal amount of the earnout payment, further increasing our payment obligations to third parties.
On November 15, 2022, the Company entered into an amendment to change the terms of the AN Extend purchase price obligation note payable. The amendment converted the note from Mexican pesos to U.S. dollars with additional principal added, changed the applicable interest to 11% annually, and set a maturity date of November 15, 2023. If the note is not paid in full by the maturity date, the total amount of principal and the interest will be converted within the following 30 calendar days into shares of our common stock, based on the Volume Weighted Moving Average Price of our common stock on Nasdaq.
There can be no assurance that in the event we are unable to make any such earnout payments, the sellers will not seek legal action against us, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We may not have, sufficient cash flows from operating activities, cash on hand and available borrowings under current or new credit arrangements to finance required capital expenditures and other costs under new contracts.
Our business generally requires significant upfront working capital and/or capital expenditures for software customization and implementation, systems and equipment installation and telecommunications configuration. In connection with the signing or renewal of a service contract, a customer may seek to obtain new equipment or impose new service requirements, which may require additional capital expenditures or other costs in order to enter into or retain the contract. Historically, we have funded these upfront costs through cash flows generated from operations, available cash on hand and borrowings under our credit agreements.
In addition, since we currently utilize third-party consultants to deliver a large portion of our services, we may incur upfront costs (which may be significant) prior to receipt of any revenue under such arrangements. Our ability to generate
revenue and to continue to procure new contracts will depend on, among other things, our then present liquidity levels or our ability to obtain additional financing on commercially reasonable terms.
If we do not have adequate liquidity or are unable to obtain financing for these upfront costs on favorable terms or at all, we may not be able to pursue certain contracts, which could result in the loss of business or restrict the ability to grow. Moreover, we may not realize the return on investment that we anticipate on new or renewed contracts due to a variety of factors, including lower than anticipated scope of or expansion in the services we provide to the applicable clients under the contracts, higher than anticipated capital or operating expenses and unanticipated regulatory developments or litigation. We may not have adequate liquidity to pursue other aspects of our strategy, including increasing our sales activities directed at the U.S. market or pursuing acquisitions. In the event we pursue significant acquisitions or other expansion opportunities, we may need to raise additional capital either through the public or private issuance of equity or debt securities, by entering into new credit facilities, which sources of funds may not necessarily be available on acceptable terms, if at all.
We have significant fixed costs related to lease facilities.
We have made and continue to make significant contractual commitments related to our leased facilities. Our operating and finance lease expense related to land and buildings for the year ended December 31, 2022 was $1.9 million, and for the year ended December 31, 2021 was $3.8 million, net of reimbursements. These expenses will have a significant impact on our fixed costs, and if we are unable to grow our business and revenue proportionately, our operating results may be negatively affected.
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
We are dependent on our largest clients, and if we fail to maintain these relationships or successfully obtain new engagements, we may not achieve our revenue growth and other financial goals.
Historically, a significant percentage of our annual revenue has come from our existing client base. For example, during 2020 and 2019, 92.5% and 77.5% of our revenue came from clients from whom we also generated revenue during the prior fiscal year, respectively. On a pro forma basis, giving effect of the AgileThought LLC acquisition as if it had occurred since January 1, 2018, 93.5% and 97.1% of our revenue during 2020 and 2019 came from clients from whom we also generated revenue during the prior fiscal year respectively. However, the volume of work performed for a specific client is likely to vary from year to year, especially since we generally do not have long-term contractual commitments from our clients and are often not our clients’ exclusive IT services provider. A major client in one year may not provide the same level of revenue for us in any subsequent year. Further, one or more of our significant clients could be acquired, and there can be no assurance that the acquirer would choose to use our services to the same degree as previously, if at all. Our largest client for each of the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 accounted for 14.9% and 13.0% of our revenue, respectively, and our ten largest clients for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 accounted for 61.4% and 65.1% of our revenue, respectively.
In addition, the services we provide to our clients, and the revenue and income from those services, may decline or vary as the type and quantity of services we provide changes over time. In addition, our reliance on any individual client for a significant portion of our revenue may give that client a certain degree of pricing leverage against us when re-negotiating contracts and terms of service. In order to successfully perform and market our services, we must establish and maintain multi-year, close relationships with our clients and develop a thorough understanding of their businesses. Our ability to maintain these close relationships is essential to the growth and profitability of our business. If we fail to maintain these relationships or successfully obtain new engagements from our existing clients, we may not achieve our revenue growth and other financial goals.
We generally do not have long-term contractual commitments from our clients, and our clients may terminate engagements before completion or choose not to enter into new engagements with us.
We generally do not have long-term contractual commitments with our clients. Our clients can terminate many of our master services agreements and work orders with or without cause, in some cases subject only to 30 days’ prior notice in the case of termination without cause. Although a substantial majority of our revenue is typically generated from existing clients, our engagements with our clients are typically for projects that are singular in nature. Large and complex projects may involve multiple engagements or stages, and a client may choose not to retain us for additional stages or may cancel or delay additional planned engagements.
Even if we successfully deliver on contracted services and maintain close relationships with our clients, a number of factors outside of our control could cause the loss of or reduction in business or revenue from our existing clients. These factors include, among other things:
•the business or financial condition of that client or the economy generally;
•a change in strategic priorities of that client, resulting in a reduced level of spending on IT services;
•changes in the personnel at our clients who are responsible for procurement of IT services or with whom we primarily interact;
•a demand for price reductions by that client;
•mergers, acquisitions or significant corporate restructurings involving that client; and
•a decision by that client to move work in-house or to one or more of our competitors.
The loss or diminution in business from any of our major clients could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. The ability of our clients to terminate agreements exacerbates the uncertainty of our future revenue. We may not be able to replace any client that elects to terminate or not renew its contract with us. Further, terminations or delays in engagements may make it difficult to plan our project resource requirements.
We may not be able to recover or sustain our revenue growth rate consistent with the rate prior to COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, our revenue increased by 57.2% from $110.5 million in the year ended December 31, 2018 to $173.7 million in the year ended December 31, 2019. Our business was adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we experienced a decline in our revenue from $173.7 million in the year ended December 31, 2019 to $164.0 million in the year ended December 31, 2020 to $158.7 million in the year ended December 31, 2021. We may not be able to recover our revenue growth consistent with the rate prior to the COVID-19 pandemic or at all. You should not consider our revenue growth in periods prior to the COVID-19 pandemic as indicative of our future performance. As we seek to grow our business, our future revenue growth rate may be impacted by a number of factors, such as fluctuations in demand for our services, increasing competition, rising wages in the markets in which we operate, difficulties in integrating acquired companies, decreasing growth of our overall market, our inability to engage and retain a sufficient number of information technology, or IT, professionals or otherwise scale our business or our failure, for any reason, to capitalize on growth opportunities, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected
The COVID-19, pandemic impacted demand for our services and disrupted our operations and may continue to do so.
The COVID-19 outbreak is as a serious threat to the health and economic well-being of our customers, employees, and the overall economy. Since the beginning of the outbreak, many countries and states have taken dramatic action including, without limitation, ordering all non-essential workers to stay home, mandating the closure of schools and non-essential business premises and imposing isolation measures on large portions of the population. Measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have had serious adverse impacts on domestic and foreign economies and the severity and the duration of these impacts are still being analyzed. The effectiveness of economic stabilization efforts continue to be uncertain and many economists have predicted extended local or global recessions.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on several of our customers during 2021, as several larger customers either postponed projects or developed or undertook internal technology initiatives instead of using our services to do so. This adversely affected and may continue to adversely affect our opportunities for growth, whether through an increase in business or through acquisitions. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and measures taken in response to the pandemic in the global financial markets has also reduced our ability to access capital and could continue to negatively affect our liquidity position. This financial uncertainty may also negatively impact pricing for our services or cause our clients to again reduce or postpone their technology spending significantly and/or in the long-term, which may, in turn, lower the demand for our services and negatively affect our revenue, profitability and cash flows, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
In addition, to the extent the ongoing risks adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, they may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks and uncertainties described in this “Risk Factors” section which may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Remote working conditions could harm our business.
In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, we enabled substantially all of our employees to work remotely in compliance with relevant government advice and we have continued to allow for remote work generally throughout our operations. Allowing for remote or hybrid working conditions could negatively impact our marketing efforts, challenge our ability to enter into customer contracts in a timely manner, slow down our recruiting efforts, or create operational or other challenges, including decreased productivity or increased risk of cybersecurity incidents, any of which could adversely impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We must attract and retain highly skilled IT professionals. Failure to hire, train and retain IT professionals in sufficient numbers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
In order to sustain our growth, we must attract and retain a large number of highly skilled and talented IT professionals. Our headcount increased from December 31, 2020 to December 31, 2021, with the increase was primarily attributable to actions rehiring efforts following the COVID-19 pandemic, and our headcount slightly decreased in 2022 as we reorganized our delivery model. We anticipate that we will need to continue to increase our headcount as we implement our growth strategy. Our business is driven by people and, accordingly, our success depends upon our ability to attract, train, motivate, retain and effectively utilize highly skilled IT professionals in our delivery locations, which currently are principally located in Mexico and the United States. We believe that there is significant competition for technology professionals in the geographic regions in which our offices are located and in locations in which we intend to establish future offices and that such competition is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Additionally, given our delivery locations in the United States, we must attract and retain a growing number of IT professionals with English language proficiency, which could further limit the talent base from which we can hire. Increased hiring by technology companies and increasing worldwide competition for skilled IT professionals may lead to a shortage in the availability of suitable personnel in the locations where we operate and hire. Our ability to properly staff projects, maintain and renew existing engagements and win new business depends, in large part, on our ability to recruit, train and retain IT professionals. We are currently focused on growing our workforce through university recruiting; however, this strategy and any other strategies we employ to hire, train and retain our IT professionals may be inadequate or may fail to achieve our objectives. Failure to hire, train and retain IT professionals in sufficient numbers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Furthermore, the technology industry generally experiences a significant rate of turnover of its workforce. There is a limited pool of individuals who have the skills and training needed to help us grow our company. We compete for such talented individuals not only with other companies in our industry but also with companies in other industries, such as healthcare, financial services and technology generally. High attrition rates of IT personnel would increase our hiring and training costs, reduce our revenues and could have an adverse effect on our ability to complete existing contracts in a timely manner, meet client objectives and expand our business.
We may not be successful in building a university recruiting and hiring program, which could hamper our ability to scale our business and grow revenue.
As part of our growth strategy, we are focused on growing our workforce through university recruiting. In particular, we intend to focus our university recruitment efforts on Mexico. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to recruit and train a sufficient number of qualified university hires or that we will be successful in retaining these future employees. We may not be successful in building a reputable brand on college campuses or deepening and sustaining relationships with university administrations which could hinder our ability to grow our workforce through university hiring. Increased university hiring by technology companies, particularly in Latin America and the United States, and increasing worldwide competition for skilled technology professionals may lead to a shortage in the availability of qualified university personnel in the locations where we operate and hire. Failure to hire and train or retain qualified university graduates in sufficient numbers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Increases in our levels of attrition may increase our operating costs and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
The technology industry generally experiences a significant rate of turnover of its workforce. In the past, we experienced even higher attrition rates. If our attrition rate were to increase, our operating efficiency and productivity may decrease. We compete for talented individuals not only with other companies in our industry but also with companies in other industries, such as software services, engineering services and financial services companies, among others. High attrition rates of IT personnel could have an adverse effect on our ability to expand our business, may cause us to incur
greater personnel expenses and training costs, and may otherwise adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our revenue is dependent on a limited number of industry verticals, and any decrease in demand for IT services in these verticals or our failure to effectively penetrate new verticals could adversely affect our revenue, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Historically, we have focused on developing industry expertise and deep client relationships in a limited number of industry verticals. As a result, a substantial portion of our revenue has been generated by clients operating in financial services, healthcare and professional services industries. Our business growth largely depends on continued demand for our services from clients in the financial services, healthcare and professional services industries, and any slowdown or reversal of the trend to spend on IT services in these verticals could result in a decrease in the demand for our services and materially adversely affect our revenue, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
In the verticals in which we operate, there are numerous competitors that may be entrenched with potential clients we target and which may be difficult to dislodge. As a result of these and other factors, our efforts to expand our client base may be expensive and may not succeed, and we therefore may be unable to grow our revenue. If we fail to further penetrate our existing industry verticals or expand our client base into new verticals, we may be unable to grow our revenue and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be harmed.
Other developments in the verticals in which we operate may also lead to a decline in the demand for our services, and we may not be able to successfully anticipate and prepare for any such changes. For example, consolidation or acquisitions, particularly involving our clients, may adversely affect our business. Our clients and potential clients may experience rapid changes in their prospects, substantial price competition and pressure on their profitability. This, in turn, may result in increasing pressure on us from clients and potential clients to lower our prices, which could adversely affect our revenue, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our contracts could be unprofitable, and any failure by us to accurately estimate the resources required to complete a contract on time and on budget could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We perform our services primarily on a time-and-materials basis. Revenue from our time-and-materials contracts represented 70.8% and 82.3%, respectively, of total revenue for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021. We charge out the services performed by our employees under these contracts at daily or hourly rates that are specified in the contract. The rates and other pricing terms negotiated with our clients are highly dependent on our internal forecasts of our operating costs and predictions of increases in those costs influenced by wage inflation and other marketplace factors, as well as the volume of work provided by the client. Our predictions are based on limited data and could turn out to be inaccurate, resulting in contracts that may not be profitable. Typically, we do not have the ability to increase the rates established at the outset of a client project other than on an annual basis and often subject to caps. Independent of our right to increase our rates on an annual basis, client expectations regarding the anticipated cost of a project may limit our practical ability to increase our rates for ongoing work.
In addition to time-and-materials contracts, we also perform our services under fixed-price and managed services contracts. Revenue from our fixed-price and managed services contracts represented 29.2% and 17.7%, respectively, of total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2022 and 2021. Our pricing in fixed-price and managed services contracts is highly dependent on our assumptions and forecasts about the costs we expect to incur to complete the related project, which are based on limited data and could turn out to be inaccurate. Any failure by us to accurately estimate the resources, including the skills and seniority of our employees, required to complete a fixed-price or managed services contract on time and on budget or meet a service level on a managed services contract, or any unexpected increase in the cost of our employees assigned to the related project, office space or materials could expose us to risks associated with cost overruns and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Customers may be unable or unwilling to recognize phases or partial delivery of our services, thereby delaying their recognition of our work, which would impact our cash collection cycles. Customers may also not be able or willing to recognize phases or partial delivery of our services, which may delay payment for work we delivery, and which could negatively impact our cash collection cycles. In addition, any unexpected changes in economic conditions that affect any of our assumptions and predictions could render contracts that would have been favorable to us when signed unfavorable.
Our operating results could suffer if we are not able to maintain favorable pricing.
Our operating results are dependent, in part, on the rates we are able to charge for our services. Our rates are affected by a number of factors, including:
•our clients’ perception of our ability to add value through our services;
•our competitors’ pricing policies;
•bid practices of clients and their use of third-party advisors;
•the ability of large clients to exert pricing pressure;
•employee wage levels and increases in compensation costs;
•employee utilization levels;
•our ability to charge premium prices when justified by market demand or the type of service; and
•general economic conditions.
If we are not able to maintain favorable pricing for our services, our operating results could suffer.
If we do not maintain adequate employee utilization rates and productivity levels, our operating results may suffer and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
Our operating results and the cost of providing our services are affected by the utilization rates of our employees. If we are not able to maintain appropriate utilization rates for our employees, our operating results may suffer. Our utilization rates are affected by a number of factors, including:
•our ability to promptly transition our employees from completed projects to new assignments and to hire and integrate new employees;
•our ability to forecast demand for our services and maintain an appropriate number of employees in each of our delivery locations;
•our ability to deploy employees with appropriate skills and seniority to projects;
•our ability to maintain continuity of existing resources on existing projects;
•our ability to manage the attrition of our employees; and
•our need to devote time and resources to training, including language training, professional development and other activities that cannot be billed to our clients.
Our revenue could also suffer if we misjudge demand patterns and do not recruit sufficient employees to satisfy demand. Employee shortages could prevent us from completing our contractual commitments in a timely manner and cause us to lose contracts or clients. Further, to the extent that we lack a sufficient number of employees with lower levels of seniority and daily or hourly rates, we may be required to deploy more senior employees with higher rates on projects without the ability to pass such higher rates along to our clients, which could adversely affect our operating results.
Additionally, our revenue could suffer if we experience a slowdown or stoppage of service for any clients or on any project for which we have dedicated employees and we are not be able to efficiently reallocate these employees to other clients to keep their utilization and productivity levels high. For example, we recently made investments to increase our sales team with the goal of driving positive revenue growth and stronger gross margins, but these anticipated benefits are dependent on many factors, including the demand for our services and the ability of these employees to achieve adequate utilization and productivity levels. If we are not able to maintain high resource utilization levels without corresponding cost reductions or price increases, our operating results will suffer and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
We are focused on growing our client base in the United States and may not be successful.
We are focused on geographic expansion, particularly in the United States. In 2022 and 2021, 63.5% and 65.2% of our revenue came from clients in the United States, respectively.
We have made significant investments to expand our business in the United States, including our acquisitions of 4th Source in November 2018 and of AgileThought in July 2019, which increased our sales presence in the United States and added onshore and nearshore delivery capacity in Latin America and in the United States. However, our ability to acquire new clients will depend on a number of factors, including market perception of our services, our ability to successfully add nearshore capacity and pricing, competition and overall economic conditions. If we are unable to retain existing clients and attract new clients in the United States or if our expansion plans take longer to implement than expected or their costs exceed our expectations, we may be unable to grow our revenue and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.
We may be unable to effectively manage our growth or achieve anticipated growth, which could place significant strain on our management personnel, systems and resources.
We have experienced growth and significantly expanded our business over the past several years, both organically and through acquisitions. We intend to continue to grow our business in the foreseeable future and to pursue existing and potential market opportunities. We have also increased the size and complexity of the projects that we undertake for our clients and hope to continue being engaged for larger and more complex projects in the future. As we add new delivery sites, introduce new services or enter into new markets, we may face new market, technological and operational risks and challenges with which we are unfamiliar, and we may not be able to mitigate these risks and challenges to successfully grow those services or markets. We may not be able to achieve our anticipated growth or successfully execute large and complex projects, which could materially adversely affect our revenue, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our future growth depends on us successfully recruiting, hiring and training IT professionals, expanding our delivery capabilities, adding effective sales staff and management personnel, adding service offerings, maintaining and expanding our engagements with existing clients and winning new business. Effective management of these and other growth initiatives will require us to continue to improve our infrastructure, execution standards and ability to expand services.
If we cannot maintain our culture as we grow, we could lose the innovation, creativity and teamwork fostered by our culture, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
We believe that a critical contributor to our success has been our culture, which is the foundation that supports and facilitates our distinctive approach. As we grow and are required to add more employees and infrastructure to support our growth, we may find it increasingly difficult to maintain our corporate culture. If we fail to maintain a culture that fosters career development, innovation, creativity and teamwork, we could experience difficulty in hiring and retaining IT professionals and other valuable employees. Failure to manage growth effectively could adversely affect the quality of the execution of our engagements, our ability to attract and retain IT professionals and other valuable employees, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. In addition, as we continue to integrate and acquire business as part of our growth strategy we risk preserving our culture, values and our entrepreneurial environment. Integrating acquisitions into our business can be particularly difficult due to different corporate cultures and values, geographic distance and other intangible factors.
Our management has limited experience in operating a public company.
Our executive officers have limited experience in the management of a publicly traded company subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under federal securities laws. Our management team may not successfully or effectively manage our transition to a public company. Their limited experience in dealing with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies could be a significant disadvantage in that it is likely that an increasing amount of their time may be devoted to these activities which will result in less time being devoted to our management and growth. We may not have adequate personnel with the appropriate level of knowledge, experience and training in the accounting policies, practices or internal controls over financial reporting required of public companies in the United States. It is possible that we will be required to expand our employee base and hire additional employees to support our operations as a public company, which will increase our operating costs in future periods.
Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects will suffer if we are not successful in delivering contracted services.
Our operating results are dependent on our ability to successfully deliver contracted services in a timely manner. We must consistently build, deliver and support challenging and complex projects and managed services. Failure to perform or observe any contractual obligations could damage our relationships with our clients and could result in cancellation or non-renewal of a contract. Some of the challenges we face in delivering contracted services to our clients include:
•maintaining high-quality control and process execution standards;
•maintaining planned resource utilization rates on a consistent basis;
•maintaining employee productivity and implementing necessary process improvements;
•controlling costs;
•maintaining close client contact and high levels of client satisfaction;
•maintaining physical and data security standards required by our clients;
•recruiting and retaining sufficient numbers of skilled IT professionals; and
•maintaining effective client relationships.
If we are unable to deliver contracted services, our relationships with our clients will suffer and we may be unable to obtain new engagements. In addition, it could damage our reputation, cause us to lose business, impact our operating margins and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, as well as subject us to breach of contract claims.
If we do not successfully manage and develop our relationships with key partners or if we fail to anticipate and establish new partnerships in new technologies, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.
We have partnerships with companies whose capabilities complement our own. A significant portion of our revenue and services and solutions are based on technology or software provided by a few major partners.
The business that we conduct through these partnerships could decrease or fail to grow for a variety of reasons. The priorities and objectives of our partners may differ from ours, and our partners are not prohibited from competing with us or forming closer or preferred arrangements with our competitors. In addition, some of our partners are also large clients or suppliers of technology to us. The decisions we make vis-à-vis a partner may impact our ongoing relationship. In addition, our partners could experience reduced demand for their technology or software, including, for example, in response to changes in technology, which could lessen related demand for our services and solutions.
We must anticipate and respond to continuous changes in technology and develop relationships with new providers of relevant technology. We must secure meaningful partnerships with these providers early in their life cycle so that we can develop the right number of certified people with skills in new technologies. If we are unable to maintain our relationships with current partners and identify new and emerging providers of relevant technology to expand our network of partners, we may not be able to differentiate our services or compete effectively in the market.
If we do not obtain the expected benefits from our partnerships for any reason, we may be less competitive, our ability to offer attractive solutions to our clients may be negatively affected, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.
Our sales of services and operating results may experience significant variability and our past results may not be indicative of our future performance.
Our operating results may fluctuate due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. You should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance.
Factors that are likely to cause these variations include:
•the number, timing, scope and contractual terms of projects in which we are engaged;
•delays in project commencement or staffing delays due to difficulty in assigning appropriately skilled or experienced professionals;
•the accuracy of estimates on the resources, time and fees required to complete projects and costs incurred in the performance of each project;
•inability to retain employees or maintain employee utilization levels;
•changes in pricing in response to client demand and competitive pressures;
•the business decisions of our clients regarding the use of our services or spending on technology;
•the ability to further grow sales of services from existing clients and the ability to substitute revenue from engagements with governmental clients as we discontinue new engagements with governmental entities;
•seasonal trends and the budget and work cycles of our clients;
•delays or difficulties in expanding our operational facilities or infrastructure;
•our ability to estimate costs under fixed price or managed services contracts;
•employee wage levels and increases in compensation costs;
•unanticipated contract or project terminations;
•the timing of collection of accounts receivable;
•our ability to manage risk through our contracts;
•the continuing financial stability of our clients;
•changes in our effective tax rate or unanticipated tax assessments;
•impacts of any acquisitions and our ability to successfully integrate any acquisitions;
•the implementation of new laws or regulations and/or changes to current applicable laws or regulations or their interpretation or application;
•uncertainly and disruption to the global markets including due to public health pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic;
•fluctuations in currency exchange rates; and
•general economic conditions.
As a result of these factors, our operating results may from time to time fall below our estimates or the expectations of public market analysts and investors.
Potential future acquisitions could prove difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and strain our resources, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
In the future, we plan to acquire additional businesses that we believe could complement or expand our business. Integrating the operations of acquired businesses successfully or otherwise realizing any of the anticipated benefits of acquisitions, including anticipated cost savings and additional revenue opportunities, involves a number of potential challenges. In addition, we have previously and may in the future use earn-out arrangements in connection with acquisitions. Using earn-out arrangements to consummate an acquisition, pursuant to which we agree to pay additional amounts of contingent consideration based on the achievement of a predetermined metric, has at times and may continue to make our integration efforts more complicated. We have also previously and may in the future negotiate restructured earn-out arrangements following the closing of acquisitions, which causes a diversion of management attention from ongoing business concerns and may result in additional cost in connection with the applicable acquisitions.
The failure to meet the integration challenges stemming from our acquisitions could seriously harm our financial condition and results of operations. Realizing the benefits of acquisitions depends in part on the integration of operations and personnel. These integration activities are complex and time-consuming, and we may encounter unexpected difficulties or incur unexpected costs, including:
•our inability to achieve the operating synergies anticipated in the acquisitions;
•diversion of management attention from ongoing business concerns to integration matters or earn-out calculations, restructurings or disputes;
•challenges in consolidating and rationalizing IT platforms and administrative infrastructures;
•complexities associated with managing the geographic separation of the combined businesses and consolidating multiple physical locations;
•difficulties in retaining IT professionals and other key employees and achieving minimal unplanned attrition;
•difficulties in integrating personnel from different corporate cultures while maintaining focus on providing consistent, high quality service;
•our inability to exert control of acquired businesses that include earn-out payments or the risk that actions incentivized by earn-out payments will hinder integration efforts;
•our inability to demonstrate to our clients and to clients of acquired businesses that the acquisition will not result in adverse changes in client service standards or business focus;
•possible cash flow interruption or loss of revenue as a result of transitional matters; and
•inability to generate sufficient revenue to offset acquisition costs.
Acquired businesses may have liabilities or adverse operating issues that we fail to discover through due diligence prior to the acquisition. In particular, to the extent that prior owners of any acquired businesses or properties failed to comply with or otherwise violated applicable laws or regulations, or failed to fulfill their contractual obligations to clients, we, as the successor owner, may be financially responsible for these violations and failures and may suffer financial or reputational harm or otherwise be adversely affected. Our acquisition targets may not have as robust internal controls over financial reporting as would be expected of a public company. Acquisitions also frequently result in the recording of goodwill and other intangible assets which are subject to potential impairment in the future that could harm our financial results. We may take material impairment charges in the future related to acquisitions. We may also become subject to new regulations as a result of an acquisition, including if we acquire a business serving clients in a regulated industry or acquire a business with clients or operations in a country in which we do not already operate.
In addition, if we finance acquisitions by incurring debt under credit facilities or issuing notes and are unable to realize the expected benefits of those acquisitions for any reason, we may be unable to repay, refinance or restructure that indebtedness when payment is due, and the lenders of that indebtedness could proceed against any collateral granted to secure such indebtedness or force us into bankruptcy or liquidation. If we finance acquisitions by issuing convertible debt or equity securities, our existing stockholders may also be diluted, which could affect the market price of our common stock. As a result, if we fail to properly evaluate acquisitions or investments, we may not achieve the anticipated benefits of any such acquisitions, and we may incur costs in excess of what we anticipate. Acquisitions frequently involve benefits related to the integration of operations of the acquired business. The failure to successfully integrate the operations or otherwise to realize any of the anticipated benefits of the acquisition could seriously harm our results of operations.
Strategic acquisitions to complement and expand our business have been and may remain an important part of our competitive strategy. If we fail to acquire companies whose prospects, when combined with our company, would increase our value, then our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
We have expanded, and may continue to expand, our operations through strategically targeted acquisitions of additional businesses. On occasion, selective acquisitions have expanded our service capabilities, geographic presence, or client base. There can be no assurance that we will be able to identify, acquire or profitably manage additional businesses or successfully integrate any acquired businesses without substantial expense, delays or other operational or financial risks and problems. In addition, any client satisfaction or performance problems within an acquired business could have a material adverse impact on our corporate reputation and brand. We cannot assure you that any acquired businesses will achieve anticipated revenues and earnings. Any failure to manage our acquisition strategy successfully could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We face intense competition.
The market for IT services is intensely competitive, highly fragmented and subject to rapid change and evolving industry standards and we expect competition to intensify. We believe that the principal competitive factors that we face are the ability to innovate; technical expertise and industry knowledge; end-to-end solution offerings; delivery location; price; reputation and track record for high-quality and on-time delivery of work; effective employee recruiting; training and retention; and responsiveness to clients’ business needs.
Our primary competitors include next-generation IT service providers, such as EPAM Systems, Inc., Endava Plc, Infosys Limited and Globant S.A., global consulting and traditional global IT service companies such as Accenture plc, Capgemini SE, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation and International Business Machines Corporation, or IBM; and in-house IT and development departments of our existing and potential clients. Many of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical and marketing resources and greater name recognition than we do. As a result, they may be able to compete more aggressively on pricing or devote greater resources to the development and promotion of IT services. Companies based in some emerging markets also present significant price competition due to their competitive cost structures and tax advantages.
In addition, there are relatively few barriers to entry into our markets and we have faced, and expect to continue to face, competition from new market entrants. Further, there is a risk that our clients may elect to increase their internal resources to satisfy their IT service needs as opposed to relying on third-party service providers. The IT services industry may also undergo consolidation, which may result in increased competition in our target markets from larger firms that may have substantially greater financial, marketing or technical resources, may be able to respond more quickly to new technologies or processes and changes in client demands, and may be able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their services than we can. Increased competition could also result in price reductions, reduced operating margins and loss of our market share. We cannot assure you that we will be able to compete successfully with existing or new competitors or that competitive pressures will not materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We are dependent on members of our senior management team.
Our future success heavily depends upon the continued services of our senior management team. We currently do not maintain key person life insurance for any of the members of our senior management team. In addition, we do not have employment agreements with all of the members of our senior management team. Even those employees with whom we have employment agreements or other arrangements may terminate their employment with us with or without cause, often
with limited notice. If one or more of our senior executives are unable or unwilling to continue in their present positions, it could disrupt our business operations, and we may not be able to replace them easily, on a timely basis or at all. In addition, competition for senior executives in our industry is intense, and we may be unable to retain our senior executives or attract and retain new senior executives in the future, in which case our business may be severely disrupted, and our financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
If any of our senior management team joins a competitor or forms a competing company, we may lose clients, suppliers, know-how and IT professionals and staff members to them. Also, if any of our sales executives or other sales personnel, who generally maintain close relationships with our clients, joins a competitor or forms a competing company, we may lose clients to that company, and our revenue, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be materially adversely affected. Additionally, there could be unauthorized disclosure or use of our technical knowledge, business practices or procedures by such personnel. Any non-competition, non-solicitation or non-disclosure agreements we have with our senior executives or key employees might not provide effective protection to us in light of legal uncertainties associated with the enforceability of such agreements.
Forecasts of our market size may prove to be inaccurate, and even if the markets in which we compete achieve the forecasted growth, there can be no assurance that our business will grow at similar rates, or at all.
Growth forecasts included in this annual report on Form 10-K relating to our market opportunity and the expected growth in the market for our services are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on both internal and third-party assumptions and estimates which may prove to be inaccurate. Even if these markets meet our size estimates and experience the forecasted growth, we may not grow our business at similar rates, or at all. Our growth is subject to many risks and uncertainties, including our success in implementing our business strategy. Accordingly, the forecasts of market growth included in this annual report on Form 10-K should not be taken as indicative of our future growth.
We operate in a rapidly evolving industry, which makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and may increase the risk that we will not continue to be successful.
The IT services industry is competitive and continuously evolving, subject to rapidly changing demands and constant technological developments. As a result, success and performance metrics are difficult to predict and measure in our industry. Because services and technologies are rapidly evolving and each company within the industry can vary greatly in terms of the services it provides, its business model, and its results of operations, it can be difficult to predict how any company’s services, including ours, will be received in the market. Neither our past financial performance nor the past financial performance of any other company in the IT services industry is indicative of how our company will fare financially in the future. Our future profits may vary substantially from those of other companies and those we have achieved in the past, making an investment in our company risky and speculative. If our clients’ demand for our services declines as a result of economic conditions, market factors or shifts in the technology industry, our business would suffer and our financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.
We have in the past experienced, and may in the future experience, a long selling and implementation cycle with respect to certain projects that require us to make significant resource commitments prior to realizing revenue for our services.
We have experienced, and may in the future experience, a long selling cycle with respect to certain projects that require significant investment of human resources and time by both our clients and us. Before committing to use our services, potential clients may require us to allocate substantial time and resources educating them on the value of our services and our ability to meet their requirements. Therefore, our selling cycle is subject to many risks and delays over which we have little or no control, including our clients’ decision to choose alternatives to our services (such as other IT service providers or in-house resources) and the timing of our clients’ budget cycles and approval processes. If our sales cycle unexpectedly lengthens for one or more projects, it could affect the timing of our recognition of revenue and hinder or delay our revenue growth. For certain clients, we may begin work and incur costs prior to executing the contract. A delay in our ability to obtain a signed agreement or other persuasive evidence of an arrangement, or to complete certain contract requirements in a particular financial period, could reduce our revenue in that financial period or render us entirely unable to collect payment for work already performed.
Implementing our services also involves a significant commitment of resources over an extended period of time from both our clients and us. Our clients may experience delays in obtaining internal approvals or delays associated with technology, thereby further delaying the implementation process. Our current and future clients may not be willing or able to invest the time and resources necessary to implement our services, and we may fail to close sales with potential clients to
which we have devoted significant time and resources. Any significant failure to generate revenue or delays in recognizing revenue after incurring costs related to our sales or services process could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
If we provide inadequate service or cause disruptions in our clients’ businesses, it could result in significant costs to us, the loss of our clients and damage to our corporate reputation, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
Any defects or errors or failure to meet clients’ expectations in the performance of our contracts could result in claims for substantial damages against us. In addition, certain liabilities, such as claims of third parties for intellectual property infringement and breaches of data protection and security requirements, for which we may be required to indemnify our clients, could be substantial. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us in amounts greater than those covered by our then-current insurance policies could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Even if such assertions against us are unsuccessful, we may incur reputational harm and substantial legal fees. In addition, a failure or inability to meet a contractual requirement, in addition to subjecting us to breach of contract claims, could seriously damage our corporate reputation and limit our ability to attract new business.
In certain contracts, we agree to complete a project by a scheduled date or maintain certain service levels. We may suffer reputational harm and loss of future business if we do not meet our contractual commitments. In addition, if the project experiences a performance problem, we may not be able to recover the additional costs we will incur to remediate the problem, which could exceed revenue realized from a project. Under our managed services contracts, we may be required to pay liquidated damages if we are unable to maintain agreed-upon service levels, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
Our business depends on a strong brand and corporate reputation. Damage to our reputation could be difficult and time-consuming to repair, could make potential or existing clients reluctant to select us for new engagements resulting in a loss of business and could adversely affect our employee recruitment and retention efforts, which in turn could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Since many of our specific client engagements involve highly tailored solutions, our corporate reputation is a significant factor in our clients’ and prospective clients’ determination of whether to engage us. We believe our brand name and our reputation are important corporate assets that help distinguish our services from those of our competitors and also contribute to our efforts to recruit and retain talented IT professionals. Successfully maintaining and enhancing our brand will depend largely on the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, our ability to provide reliable services that continue to meet the needs of our clients at competitive prices, our ability to maintain our clients’ trust, our ability to continue to develop new services, and our ability to successfully differentiate our services and capabilities from those of our competitors. Our brand promotion activities may not generate client awareness or yield increased revenue, and even if they do, any increased revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building our brand. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brand, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may suffer.
Our corporate reputation is susceptible to damage by actions or statements made by current or former employees or clients, competitors, vendors and adversaries in legal proceedings, as well as members of the investment community and the media. In addition, if errors are discovered in our historical financial data, we could suffer reputational damage. There is a risk that negative information about our company, even if based on false rumor or misunderstanding, could adversely affect our business. In particular, damage to our reputation could be difficult and time-consuming to repair, could make potential or existing clients reluctant to select us for new engagements, resulting in a loss of business, and could adversely affect our employee recruitment and retention efforts. Damage to our reputation could also reduce the value and effectiveness of our brand name and could reduce investor confidence in us and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
If we do not continue to innovate and remain at the forefront of next-generation technologies and related market trends, we may lose clients and not remain competitive, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
Our success depends on delivering innovative solutions that leverage emerging next-generation technologies and emerging market trends to drive increased revenue. Technological advances and innovation are constant in the IT services industry. As a result, we must continue to invest significant resources to stay abreast of technology developments so that we may continue to deliver solutions that our clients will wish to purchase. If we are unable to anticipate technology
developments, enhance our existing services or develop and introduce new services to keep pace with such changes and meet changing client needs, we may lose clients and our revenue, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could suffer. Our results of operations would also suffer if our employees are not responsive to the needs of our clients, not able to help clients in driving innovation and not able to help our clients in effectively bringing innovative ideas to market. Our competitors may be able to offer design and innovation services that are, or that are perceived to be, substantially similar or better than those we offer. This may force us to reduce our prices and to allocate significant resources in order to remain competitive, which we may be unable to do profitably or at all. Because many of our clients and potential clients regularly contract with other IT service providers, these competitive pressures may be more acute than in other industries.
Our ability to expand our business and procure new contracts or enter into beneficial business arrangements could be affected to the extent we enter into agreements with clients containing non-competition clauses.
We have in the past and may in the future enter into agreements with clients that restrict our ability to accept assignments from, or render similar services to, those clients’ customers, require us to obtain our clients’ prior written consent to provide services to their customers or restrict our ability to compete with our clients, or bid for or accept any assignment for which those clients are bidding or negotiating. These restrictions could hamper our ability to compete for and provide services to other clients in a specific industry in which we have expertise and could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our cash flows and results of operations may be adversely affected if we are unable to collect on billed and unbilled receivables from clients, which may in turn adversely affect our business, financial condition and prospects.
Our business depends on our ability to successfully obtain payment from our clients of the amounts they owe us for work performed. We evaluate the financial condition of our clients and usually bill and collect on relatively short cycles. We maintain provisions against receivables. Actual losses on client balances could differ from those that we currently anticipate and, as a result, we may need to adjust our provisions. We may not accurately assess the creditworthiness of our clients. Macroeconomic conditions, such as a potential credit crisis in the global financial system, could also result in financial difficulties for our clients, including limited access to the credit markets, insolvency or bankruptcy. Such conditions could cause clients to delay payment, request modifications of their payment terms, or default on their payment obligations to us, all of which could increase our receivables balance. Timely collection of fees for client services also depends on our ability to complete our contractual commitments and subsequently bill for and collect our contractual service fees. If we are unable to meet our contractual obligations, we might experience delays in the collection of or be unable to collect our client balances, which would adversely affect our results of operations and our cash flows. In addition, if we experience an increase in the time required to bill and collect for our services, our cash flows and results of operations could be adversely affected, which in turn could adversely affect our business, financial condition and prospects.
We are from time to time involved in, or may in the future be subject to, claims, suits, government investigations, and other proceedings that may result in adverse outcomes.
We are from time to time involved in, or may in the future be subject to, claims, suits, government investigations, and proceedings arising from our business, including actions with respect to intellectual property, privacy, consumer protection, information security, data protection or law enforcement matters, tax matters, labor and employment, and commercial claims, as well as actions involving our customers, shareholder derivative actions, purported class action lawsuits, and other matters. For example, a customer recently filed a claim against us alleging that we breached our agreement to provide the customer with a software product. See “Item 3. Legal Proceedings” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information.
Such claims, suits, government investigations, and proceedings are inherently uncertain, and their results cannot be predicted with certainty. Regardless of the outcome, any such legal proceedings can have an adverse impact on us because of legal costs, diversion of management and other personnel, negative publicity and other factors. In addition, it is possible that a resolution of one or more such proceedings could result in reputational harm, liability, penalties, or sanctions, as well as judgments, consent decrees, or orders preventing us from offering certain features, functionalities, products, or services, or requiring a change in our business practices, products or technologies, which could in the future materially and adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
If we fail to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable laws and regulations could be impaired.
As a public company we are required to maintain internal control over financial reporting and to report any material weakness in such internal control. In connection with the audit of our financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim consolidated financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. These material weaknesses identified related to the proper application of revenue recognition related to our Latin America business and proper accounting for complex financial instruments.
As of December 31, 2022, management concluded that these material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting were remediated. For the material weakness related to proper accounting of complex financial instruments, management remediated the material weakness by completing training, enhancing accounting personnel’s understanding of complex convertible debt instruments, and adding controls over the review of the accounting assessment for complex financial instruments, For the material weakness related to proper application of revenue recognition related to our Latin America business, management remediated the material weakness redesigning the respective control framework, including implementation of enhanced control procedures.
As of December 31, 2022 we concluded that our previously identified material weaknesses were remediated, but we can provide no assurance that additional material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting will not be identified in the future. Our failure to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting could result in errors in our financial statements that could result in a restatement of our financial statements, cause covenant breaches under our debt and/or other agreements, cause us to fail to meet our periodic reporting obligations, reduce investor confidence in us, materially and adversely affect the value of our common stock, and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our independent registered public accounting firm is not required to formally attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until after we are no longer an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act. An independent assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting could detect problems that our management’s assessment might not. Undetected material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting could lead to financial statement restatements, cause covenant breaches under our debt and/or other agreements, cause us to fail to meet our periodic reporting obligations, reduce investor confidence in us, materially and adversely affect the value of our common stock, and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We have and will continue to incur significantly increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management is required to devote substantial time to compliance efforts.
We have and will continue to incur significant legal, accounting, insurance and other expenses as a result of being a public company. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (the “Dodd-Frank Act”), and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”), as well as related rules implemented by the SEC, have required changes in corporate governance practices of public companies. In addition, rules that the SEC is implementing or has implemented are expected to require additional changes. We expect that compliance with these and other similar laws, rules and regulations, including compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, will continue to substantially increase our expenses, including legal and accounting costs, and make some activities more time-consuming and costly. We also expect these laws, rules and regulations to make it more expensive for us to maintain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage, which may make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or as officers. Although the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the “JOBS Act”) may, for a limited period of time, somewhat lessen the cost of complying with these additional regulatory and other requirements, we nonetheless expect a substantial increase in legal, accounting, insurance and certain other expenses in the future, which will negatively impact our results of operations and financial condition.
Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, power outages, floods and other catastrophic events, and to interruption by human-made problems such as terrorism.
A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, fire or flood, or a significant power outage could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. For instance, we have key facilities
in Mexico City, which has been the site of numerous earthquakes. In the event we are hindered by any of the events discussed above, our ability to provide our services to clients could be delayed.
In addition, our facilities are vulnerable to damage or interruption from human error, intentional bad acts, pandemics, war, terrorist attacks, power losses, hardware failures, systems failures, telecommunications failures and similar events. The occurrence of a natural disaster, power failure or an act of terrorism, vandalism or other misconduct could result in lengthy interruptions in provision of our services and failure to comply with our obligations to our clients. The occurrence of any of the foregoing events could damage our systems and hardware or could cause them to fail completely, and our insurance may not cover such events or may be insufficient to compensate us for the potentially significant losses, including the potential harm to the future growth of our business, that may result from interruptions in the provision of our services to clients as a result of system failures.
All of the aforementioned risks may be exacerbated if any of our various disaster recovery plans, which we maintain in select jurisdictions, prove to be inadequate. To the extent that any of the above results in delayed or reduced sales or increase our cost of sales, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.
Risks Related to Cybersecurity and Data Privacy
If we are unable to comply with our security obligations or our computer systems are or become vulnerable to security breaches, we could face reputational damage and lose clients and revenue, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.
The services we provide are often critical to our clients’ businesses. Certain of our client contracts require us to comply with security obligations, which could include breach notification and remediation obligations, maintaining network security and backup data, ensuring our network is virus-free, maintaining business continuity planning procedures, and verifying the integrity of employees that work with our clients by conducting background checks. Any failure in a client’s system, whether or not a result of or related to the services we provide, or breach of security relating to the services we provide to the client, could adversely affect our business, including by damaging our reputation or resulting in a claim for substantial damages against us. Our liability for security breaches of our or a client’s systems or breaches of data security requirements, for which we may be required to indemnify our clients, may be extensive. Any failure of our equipment or systems, or any disruption to basic infrastructure like power and telecommunications in the locations in which we operate, could impede our ability to provide services to our clients, have a negative impact on our reputation, cause us to lose clients, and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Additionally, our failure to continuously upgrade or increase the reliability and redundancy of our infrastructure to meet the demands of our customers could adversely affect the functioning and performance of our services and could in turn affect our results of operations. Any steps we take to increase the security, reliability and redundancy of our systems may be expensive and may not be successful in preventing system failures.
In addition, we often have access to or are required to collect, store and otherwise process confidential client data. If any person, including any of our employees or former employees, accidentally or intentionally, penetrates our network security, exposes our data or code, or misappropriates data or code that belongs to us, our clients, or our clients’ customers, we could be subject to significant liability from our clients or our clients’ customers for breaching contractual obligations or applicable privacy laws, rules and regulations. Unauthorized disclosure of sensitive or confidential client and customer data, including personal data, whether through breach of our computer systems, systems failure, loss or theft of confidential information or intellectual property belonging to our clients or our clients’ customers, or otherwise, could damage our brand and reputation, cause us to lose clients and revenue, and result in financial and other potential losses by us. For more information, see “Risk Factors — We are subject to stringent and changing regulatory, legislative and industry standard developments regarding privacy and data security matters, which could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business.”
We are also subject to numerous commitments in our contracts with our clients. Significant unavailability of our services due to attacks could cause users to claim breach of contract and cease using our services, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. We also may be subject to liability claims if we breach our contracts, including as a result of any accidental or intentional breach of our security.
Despite the procedures, systems and internal controls we have implemented to comply with our contracts, we may breach these commitments, whether through a weakness in these procedures, systems and internal controls, the negligence or the willful act of an employee or contractor. Our insurance policies, including our errors and omissions insurance, which
we only maintain in select jurisdictions, may be inadequate to compensate us for the potentially significant losses that may result from claims arising from breaches of our contracts, disruptions in our services, failures of or disruptions to our infrastructure, catastrophic events and disasters or otherwise. In addition, such insurance may not be available to us in the future on economically reasonable terms, or at all, or our insurance could undergo a change in policy including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements. Further, our insurance may not cover all claims made against us and defending a suit, regardless of its merit, could be costly and divert management’s attention.
We are subject to stringent and changing regulatory, legislative and industry standard developments regarding privacy and data security matters, which could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business.
We, along with a significant number of our clients, are subject to a variety of federal, state, local and international laws, rules, regulations and industry standards related to data privacy and cybersecurity, and restrictions or technological requirements regarding the processing, collection, use, storage, protection, retention or transfer of data. The regulatory framework for privacy and security issues worldwide is rapidly evolving and, as a result, implementation standards and enforcement practices are likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future.
For example, the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, or the GDPR, came into force in May 2018 and contains numerous requirements and changes from prior EU law, including more robust obligations on data processors and data controllers, heavier documentation requirements for data protection compliance programs, greater control over personal data by data subjects (e.g., the “right to be forgotten”), increased data portability for data subjects, data breach notification requirements and increased fines. In particular, under the GDPR, fines of up to €20 million or up to 4% of the annual global revenue of the noncompliant company, whichever is greater, could be imposed for violations of certain of the GDPR’s requirements. The GDPR requirements apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between us and our subsidiaries, including employee information.
If our efforts to comply with GDPR or other applicable EU laws and regulations are not successful, or are perceived to be unsuccessful, it could adversely affect our business in the EU. Further, in July 2020, the European Court of Justice, or the ECJ, invalidated the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, which had enabled the transfer of personal data from the EU to the U.S. for companies that had self-certified to the Privacy Shield. The ECJ decision also raised questions about the continued validity of one of the primary alternatives to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, namely the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, and EU regulators have issued additional guidance regarding considerations and requirements that we and other companies must consider and undertake when using the Standard Contractual Clauses. Although the EU has presented a new draft set of contractual clauses, at present, there are few, if any, viable alternatives to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and the Standard Contractual Clauses. To the extent that we were to rely on the EU-U.S. or Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield programs, we will not be able to do so in the future, and the ECJ’s decision and other regulatory guidance or developments may impose additional obligations with respect to the transfer of personal data from the EU and Switzerland to the U.S., each of which could restrict our activities in those jurisdictions, limit our ability to provide our products and services in those jurisdictions, or increase our costs and obligations and impose limitations upon our ability to efficiently transfer personal data from the EU and Switzerland to the U.S.
Further, the exit of the United Kingdom, or the UK, from the EU, often referred to as Brexit, has created uncertainty with regard to data protection regulation in the UK. Specifically, the UK exited the EU on January 31, 2020, subject to a transition period that ended December 31, 2020. As of January 1, 2021, following the expiry of such transition period, data processing in the UK is governed by a UK version of the GDPR (combining the GDPR and the UK’s Data Protection Act 2018), exposing us to two parallel regimes, each of which authorizes similar fines and other potentially divergent enforcement actions for certain violations. With respect to transfers of personal data from the EEA to the UK, the European Commission has published a decision finding that the UK ensures an adequate level of data protection, although such decision is subject to renewal and may be revised or revoked in the interim, resulting in uncertainty and the potential for increasing scope for divergence in application, interpretation and enforcement of the data protection law as between the UK and EEA.
Another example is the recently adopted the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, or the CCPA, in the United States, which became effective on January 1, 2020. The CCPA establishes a new privacy framework for covered businesses by creating an expanded definition of personal information, establishing new data privacy rights for California residents, imposing special rules on the collection of data from minors, and creating a new and potentially severe statutory damages framework for violations of the CCPA and for businesses that fail to implement reasonable security procedures and practices to prevent data breaches. The CCPA provides for severe civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation. The CCPA may increase our compliance
costs and potential liability. In addition, it is anticipated the CCPA will be expanded on January 1, 2023, when the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, or the CPRA, becomes operative. The CPRA will, among other things, give California residents the ability to limit use of certain sensitive personal information, further restrict the use of cross-contextual advertising, establish restrictions on the retention of personal information, expand the types of data breaches subject to the CCPA’s private right of action, provide for increased penalties for CPRA violations concerning California residents under the age of 16, and establish a new California Privacy Protection Agency to implement and enforce the CCPA and the CPRA. While aspects of the CPRA and its interpretation remain to be determined in practice, they create further uncertainty and may result in additional costs and expenses in an effort to comply. Additionally, on March 2, 2021, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, or the CDPA, was signed into law. The CDPA becomes effective beginning January 1, 2023, and contains provisions that require businesses to conduct data protection assessments in certain circumstances, and that require opt-in consent from consumers to process certain sensitive personal information. These laws could mark the beginning of a trend toward more stringent privacy legislation in the United States, which could increase our potential liability and adversely affect our business. Additionally, all 50 states now have data breach laws that require timely notification to individuals, and at times regulators, the media or credit reporting agencies, if a company has experienced the unauthorized access or acquisition of personal information. More than a dozen states require that reasonable information security protections be used to protect personal information. If we fail to comply with any applicable privacy laws, rules, regulations, industry standards and other legal obligations, we may be subject to the aforementioned penalties, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.
Also, in the United States, further laws, rules and regulations to which we may be subject include those promulgated under the authority of the Federal Trade Commission, the Gramm Leach Bliley Act and state cybersecurity and breach notification laws, as well as regulator enforcement positions and expectations. Globally, governments and agencies have adopted and could in the future adopt, modify, apply or enforce laws, rules, policies, regulations and standards covering user privacy, data security, technologies such as cookies that are used to collect, store or process data, marketing online, the use of data to inform marketing, the taxation of products and services, unfair and deceptive practices, and the collection, including the collection, use, processing, transfer, storage or disclosure of data associated with unique individual internet users. New regulation or legislative actions regarding data privacy and security, together with applicable industry standards, may increase the costs of doing business and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
While we have taken steps to mitigate the impact of the GDPR and other laws, rules, regulations and standards on us, including by implementing certain security measures and mechanisms, the efficacy and longevity of these mechanisms remains uncertain. Despite our ongoing efforts to bring practices into compliance, we may not be successful either due to various factors within our control, such as limited financial or human resources, or other factors outside our control. Our efforts could fail and result in unauthorized access to or disclosure, modification, misuse, loss or destruction of data. It is also possible that local data protection authorities may have different interpretations of the GDPR and other laws, rules, regulations and standards to which we are subject, leading to potential inconsistencies amongst various EU member states. Because the interpretation and application of many privacy and data protection laws, rules and regulations along with contractually imposed industry standards are uncertain, it is possible that these laws may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our existing data management practices or the features of our services and platform capabilities. If so, in addition to the possibility of fines, lawsuits, regulatory investigations, imprisonment of company officials and public censure, other claims and penalties, significant costs for remediation and damage to our reputation, we could be required to fundamentally change our business activities and practices or modify our services and platform capabilities, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Certain of our clients require solutions that ensure security given the nature of the content being distributed and associated applicable regulatory requirements. In particular, our U.S. healthcare industry clients may rely on our solutions to protect information in compliance with the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, the Final Omnibus Rule of January 25, 2013, and related regulations, which are collectively referred to as HIPAA, and which impose privacy and data security standards that protect individually identifiable health information by limiting the uses and disclosures of individually identifiable health information and requiring that certain data security standards be implemented to protect this information. As a “business associate” to “covered entities” that are subject to HIPAA, such as certain healthcare providers, health plans and healthcare clearinghouses, we also have our own compliance obligations directly under HIPAA and pursuant to the business associate agreements that we are required to enter into with our clients that are HIPAA-covered entities and any vendors we engage that access, use, transmit or store individually identifiable health information in connection with our business operations. Compliance efforts can be expensive and burdensome, and if we fail to comply with our obligations
under HIPAA, our required business associate agreements or applicable state data privacy laws and regulations, we could be subject to regulatory investigations and orders, significant fines and penalties, mitigation and breach notification expenses, private litigation and contractual damages, corrective action plans and related regulatory oversight and reputational harm.
We make public statements about our use and disclosure of personal information through our privacy policies, information provided on our website and press statements. Although we endeavor to comply with our public statements and documentation, we may at times fail to do so or be alleged to have failed to do so. The publication of our privacy policies and other statements that provide promises and assurances about data privacy and security can subject us to potential government or legal action if they are found to be deceptive, unfair or misrepresentative of our actual practices. Any concerns about our data privacy and security practices, even if unfounded, could damage the reputation of our business and harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Any failure or perceived failure, including as a result of deficiencies in our policies, procedures, or measures relating to privacy, data protection, marketing, client communications or information security, by us to comply with laws, rules, regulations, policies, legal or contractual obligations, industry standards, or regulatory guidance relating to data privacy or security, may result in governmental investigations and enforcement actions, litigation, significant fines and penalties or adverse publicity, and could cause our clients and partners to lose trust in us, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. We expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws, rules, regulations and industry standards relating to privacy, data protection, marketing, client communications and information security in the United States, the EU and other jurisdictions, and we cannot determine the impact such future laws, rules, regulations and standards may have on our business. Current and future laws, rules, regulations, standards and other obligations or any changed interpretation of existing laws, rules, regulations or standards could impair our ability to develop and market new services and maintain and grow our client base and increase revenue.
Our client relationships, revenue, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected if we experience disruptions in our internet infrastructure, telecommunications or IT systems.
Disruptions in telecommunications, system failures, internet infrastructure issues, computer attacks, natural disasters, terrorism and loss of adequate power could damage our reputation and harm our ability to deliver services to our clients, which could result in client dissatisfaction, a loss of business, damage to our brand and reputation and related reduction of our revenue. We may not be able to consistently maintain active voice and data communications between our various global operations and with our clients due to disruptions in telecommunication networks and power supply, system failures or computer attacks. Any failure in our ability to communicate could result in a disruption in business, which could hinder our performance and our ability to complete projects on time. Such failure to perform our client contracts could have a material adverse effect on our revenue, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Cybersecurity attacks, breaches or other technological failures or security incidents, and changes in laws and regulations related to the internet or changes in the internet infrastructure itself, may diminish the demand for our services and could have a negative impact on 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. International, federal state and foreign government bodies or agencies have in the past adopted, and may in the future adopt, laws, rules, regulations and standards affecting the use of the internet as a commercial medium. Changes in these laws, rules, regulations and standards could adversely affect the demand for our services or require us to modify our solutions in order to comply with these changes. In addition, government agencies or private organizations may begin to impose 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, resulting in reductions in the demand for IT services.
We and our vendors and outsourced data center operations are subject to cybersecurity attacks, breaches or other technological failures which can include ransomware, viruses, worms, malware, phishing attacks, data breaches, denial or degradation of service attacks, social engineering attacks, terrorism, service disruptions, failures during the process of upgrading or replacing software, unauthorized access attempts, including third parties gaining access to systems or client accounts using stolen or inferred credentials and similar malicious programs, behavior, and events. Our systems and our vendors’ systems are also subject to compromise from internal threats, such as theft, misuse, unauthorized access or other improper actions by employees and other third parties with otherwise legitimate access. In addition, we have experienced outages and other delays. A majority of our office employees are working remotely, which may also increase the risk of
cyber incidents or data breaches. We could experience a security breach resulting in the unauthorized use or disclosure of certain types of data, including client data, and personal information, that could put individuals at risk of identity theft and financial or other harm, resulting in costs to us, including as related to loss of business, severe reputational damage, reduced demand for our services, regulatory investigations or inquiries, remediation costs, indemnity obligations, legal defense costs and liability to parties who are financially harmed, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects. Such events could also compromise our trade secrets or other confidential, proprietary or sensitive information and result in such information being disclosed to third parties and becoming less valuable. A cybersecurity attack could also result in significant degradation or failure of our computer systems, communications systems or any other systems in the performance of our services, which could cause our clients or their employees to suffer delays in their receipt of our services. These delays could cause substantial losses for our clients and their employees, and we could be liable to parties who are financially harmed by those failures. In addition, such failures could cause us to lose revenues, lose clients or damage our reputation, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
The frequency and impact of cybersecurity attacks and other malicious internet-based activity continue to increase and evolve in nature. Given the unpredictability of the timing, nature and scope of data security-related incidents and fraudulent activity, there can be no assurance that our efforts will prevent, detect or mitigate system failures, breaches in our systems or other cyber incidents or that we can remediate any such incidents in an effective or timely manner. Furthermore, because the methods of attack and deception change frequently, are increasingly complex and sophisticated, and can originate from a wide variety of sources, including third parties such as vendors and even nation-state actors, despite our reasonable efforts to ensure the integrity of our systems and website, it is possible that we may not be able to anticipate, detect, appropriately react and respond to, or implement effective preventative measures against, all security breaches and failures and fraudulent activity. In the event we experience significant disruptions, we may be unable to repair our systems in an efficient and timely manner. If our services or security measures are perceived as weak or are actually compromised as a result of third-party action, employee or client error, malfeasance, or otherwise, our clients may curtail or stop using our services, our brand and reputation could be damaged, our business may be harmed, and we could incur significant liability. As we increase our client adoption and our brand becomes more widely known and recognized, we may become more of a target for third parties seeking to compromise our security systems or gain unauthorized access to our or our clients’ data.
We also cannot ensure that insurance coverage will be available on acceptable terms or will be available in sufficient amounts to cover one or more large claims related to a security incident or breach, or that the insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could adversely affect our reputation and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property
We may not secure sufficient intellectual property rights or obtain, maintain, protect, defend or enforce such rights sufficiently to comply with our obligations to our clients or protect our brand and we may not be able to prevent unauthorized use of or otherwise protect our intellectual property, thereby eroding our competitive advantages and harming our business.
Our contracts generally require, and our clients typically expect, that we will assign to them all intellectual property rights associated with the deliverables that we create in connection with our engagements. In order to validly assign these rights to our clients, we must ensure that we obtain all intellectual property rights that our employees and contractors may have in such deliverables. We endeavor to enter into agreements with our employees and contractors in order to limit access to and disclosure of our proprietary information, as well as to assign to us all intellectual property rights they develop in connection with their work for us. However, we cannot ensure that all employees and independent contractors — or any other party who has access to our confidential information or contributes to the development of our intellectual property — have signed assignment of inventions agreements with us validly assigning such rights to us or that we will be able to enforce our rights under any such agreements. Such agreements may not be self-executing or may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any such breach. Given that we operate in a variety of jurisdictions with different and evolving legal regimes, particularly in Latin America and the United States, we face increased uncertainty regarding whether we fully own all intellectual property rights in such deliverables and whether we will be able to avail ourselves of the remedies provided for by applicable law.
Further, our current and former employees could challenge our exclusive rights to the software they have developed in the course of their employment. In certain countries in which we operate, an employer is deemed to own the copyrightable work created by its employees during the course, and within the scope, of their employment, but the employer may be required to satisfy additional legal requirements in order to make further use and dispose of such works. We cannot ensure that we have complied with all such requirements or fulfilled all requirements necessary to acquire all rights in software developed by our employees and independent contractors. These requirements are often ambiguously defined and enforced. As a result, we may not be successful in defending against any claim by our current or former employees or independent contractors challenging our exclusive rights over the use and transfer of works those employees or independent contractors created or requesting additional compensation for such works. Protecting our intellectual property is thus a challenge, especially after our employees or our contractors end their relationships with us, and, in some cases, decide to work for our competitors.
Our success also depends in part on our ability to obtain, maintain, protect defend and enforce our intellectual property rights, including our trademarks and certain methodologies, practices, tools and technical expertise we utilize in designing, developing, implementing and maintaining applications and other intellectual property rights. In order to protect our intellectual property rights, we rely upon a combination of nondisclosure and other contractual arrangements as well as trade secret, copyright and trademark laws, though we have not sought patent protection for any of our proprietary technology. However, the steps we take to obtain, maintain, protect, defend and enforce our intellectual property rights may be inadequate. We will not be able to protect our intellectual property rights if we are unable to enforce our rights, detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights or, with respect to our trademarks and brand name, obtain registered trademarks in the jurisdictions in which we operate. Other parties, including our competitors, may independently develop similar technology, duplicate our services or design around our intellectual property and, in such cases, we may not be able to assert our intellectual property rights against such parties and our business, financial condition, results of operation or prospects may be harmed. Any trademarks or other intellectual property rights that we have or may obtain may be challenged or circumvented by others or invalidated, narrowed in scope or held unenforceable through administrative process or litigation. Furthermore, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are uncertain. Trademark, trade secret and other intellectual property protection may not be available to us in every country in which our services are available. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries may not be as protective of intellectual property rights as those in the United States, and mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights may be inadequate. Moreover, policing unauthorized use of our technologies, trade secrets and intellectual property may be difficult, expensive and time-consuming, particularly in foreign countries where the laws may not be as protective of intellectual property rights as those in the United States and where mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights may be weak. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may be unable to prevent third parties from infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating our intellectual property rights.
We regard our intellectual property, including our trademarks, trade names and service marks, as having significant value, and our brand is an important factor in the marketing of our services. We intend to rely on both registration and common law protection for our trademarks. We own trademark registrations for the AGILETHOUGHT trademark and logo in the United States. We also own pending trademark applications and registrations for the AGILETHOUGHT trademark in other jurisdictions in which we operate or may operate in the future; for example, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica and Colombia.
We cannot assure you that any future trademark registrations will be issued from pending or future trademark applications or that any registered trademarks will be enforceable or provide adequate protection of our proprietary rights, including with respect to branding. Our trademarks or trade names have in the past and may in the future be opposed, challenged, infringed, circumvented, diluted, declared generic, lapsed or determined to be infringing on other marks. For example, Sistemas Globales S.A. d/b/a Globant has opposed our application for AGILETHOUGHT in Argentina, based on its prior registration for AGILE PODS (Reg. No. 2706379). Opposition proceedings typically take 3-4 years to resolve in Argentina, and we cannot assure you that our application will survive such proceedings. We also own registrations for AGILETHOUGHT INSIGHTFUL SOLUTIONS :: INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES and HUMAN POTENTIAL, DIGITALLY DELIVERED in the United States. During the trademark registration process, we have and may in the future receive Office Actions or other objections from the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, or the USPTO, or equivalent foreign offices objecting to the registration of our trademarks. Although we are given an opportunity to respond to those objections, we may be unable to overcome such objections. Additionally, in the USPTO and equivalent foreign offices in many jurisdictions, third parties are given an opportunity to oppose pending trademark applications and to seek the cancellation of registered trademarks. Opposition or cancellation proceedings may be filed against our trademarks, and our trademarks may not survive such proceedings.
The value of our intellectual property could diminish if others assert rights in or ownership of our trademarks and other intellectual property rights, or trademarks that are similar to our trademarks. We may be unable to successfully resolve these types of conflicts to our satisfaction. In some cases, litigation or other actions may be necessary to protect, defend or enforce our trademarks and other intellectual property rights. We may not be able to protect our rights to our trademarks and trade names, which we need for name recognition by our current and potential clients. We may be subject to liability, required to enter into costly license agreements, required to rebrand our services or prevented from selling some of our services if third parties successfully oppose or challenge our trademarks or successfully claim that we infringe or otherwise violate their trademarks or other intellectual property rights. At times, competitors may adopt trade names or trademarks similar or identical to ours, thereby impeding our ability to build brand identity and possibly leading to market confusion. In addition, there could be potential trademark infringement claims brought by owners of other registered trademarks or trademarks that incorporate variations of our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names. If we are unable to obtain a registered trademark, establish name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names or otherwise enforce or protect our proprietary rights related to our trademarks or other intellectual property, we may not be able to compete effectively, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and could adversely impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
In order to protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and enforce these rights. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. 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. An adverse determination of any litigation proceedings could put our intellectual property at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential or sensitive information could be compromised by disclosure in the event of litigation. In addition, during the course of litigation there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Negative publicity related to a decision by us to initiate such enforcement actions against a client or former client, regardless of its accuracy, may adversely impact our other client relationships or prospective client relationships, harm our brand and business and could cause the market price of our common stock to decline. Our failure to obtain, maintain, protect, defend and enforce our intellectual property rights could adversely affect our brand and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our proprietary information, our business and competitive position may be harmed.
We consider proprietary trade secrets and confidential know-how to be important to our business. However, trade secrets and confidential know-how can be difficult to maintain as confidential. We cannot guarantee that we have entered into confidentiality agreements with each party that has or may have had access to our proprietary information, know-how and trade secrets. Moreover, no assurance can be given that any confidentiality agreements will be effective in controlling access to and distribution, use, misuse, misappropriation, reverse engineering or disclosure of our proprietary information, know-how and trade secrets. Such agreements may also be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies, including equitable remedies, for any such breach. We also seek to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our data, trade secrets and know-how by maintaining physical security of our premises and physical and electronic security of our IT systems. While we have confidence in such systems and tools, agreements or security measures may be breached.
Monitoring unauthorized uses and disclosures is difficult, and we do not know whether the steps we have taken to protect our proprietary technologies will be effective. We cannot guarantee that our trade secrets and other proprietary and confidential information have not or will not be disclosed or that competitors have not or will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets. Current or former employees, consultants, contractors and advisers may unintentionally or willfully disclose our confidential information to competitors, and confidentiality agreements may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of confidential information. Enforcing a claim that a third party illegally obtained and used trade secrets or confidential know-how could be expensive, time consuming and unpredictable. Trade secret violations are often a matter of state law, and the enforceability of confidentiality agreements and the criteria for protection of trade secrets may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In addition, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our intellectual property or other proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. Consequently, we may be unable to prevent our trade secrets from being exploited abroad, which could affect our ability to expand to foreign markets or require costly efforts to protect our proprietary rights. Furthermore, if a competitor lawfully obtained or independently developed any of our trade secrets, we would have no right to prevent such competitor from using that
technology or information, which could harm our competitive position. If the steps taken to maintain our trade secrets are inadequate, we may have insufficient recourse against third parties for misappropriating our trade secrets.
Our failure to secure, protect and enforce our trade secrets and other confidential business information could substantially harm the value of our brand and business. The theft or unauthorized use or publication of our trade secrets and other confidential business information could reduce the differentiation of our services, substantially and adversely impact our commercial operations and harm our business. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our trade secret rights and related confidentiality and nondisclosure provisions. If we fail to obtain or maintain trade secret protection, or if our competitors otherwise obtain our trade secrets, our competitive market position could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, some courts are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets and agreement terms that address non-competition are difficult to enforce in many jurisdictions and might not be enforceable in certain cases. Any of the foregoing could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may be subject to claims by third parties asserting that we, our employees or companies we have acquired, have infringed, misappropriated or otherwise violated their intellectual property, or claiming ownership of what we regard as our own intellectual property, which may be costly and time consuming. Unfavorable results of legal and administrative proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We may be subject to claims by third parties that we, our employees or companies that we have acquired, have infringed, misappropriated or otherwise violated the intellectual property of such third parties. We cannot assure you that the services and technologies that we have developed, are developing or may develop in the future will not infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate existing or future intellectual property rights owned by third parties. Our employees may infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate the intellectual property of their former employers. Many of our employees were previously employed at our competitors or potential competitors. Some of these employees executed proprietary rights, non-disclosure and non-competition agreements in connection with such previous employment. Although we try to ensure that our employees do not use the proprietary information, know-how or trade secrets of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or these employees have used or disclosed such information of any such employee’s former employer. Time-consuming and expensive litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. In addition, we are subject to additional risks as a result of our recent acquisitions and any future acquisitions we may complete. The developers of the technology that we have acquired or may acquire may not have appropriately created, obtained, protected, maintained or enforced intellectual property rights in such technology. Indemnification and other rights under acquisition documents may be limited in term and scope and may therefore provide little or no protection from these risks.
If we fail in prosecuting or defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel or sustain damages. 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, and if such defenses, counterclaims, or countersuits are successful, we could lose valuable intellectual property rights. Such intellectual property rights could be awarded to a third party. Regardless, policing unauthorized use of our technology is difficult and we may not detect all such use. Even if we successfully prosecute or defend against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs, damage to our brand and reputation and distraction of management and key personnel. This type of litigation or proceeding could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce our resources available for development activities. We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to adequately conduct such litigation or proceedings. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their substantially greater financial resources. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of intellectual property-related litigation or proceedings could adversely affect our ability to compete in the marketplace.
In addition, we may be unsuccessful in executing intellectual property assignment agreements with each party who, in fact, conceives or develops intellectual property that we regard as our own. The assignment of intellectual property rights may not be self-executing, or the assignment agreements may be breached, and we may be forced to bring claims against third parties, or defend claims that they may bring against us, to determine the ownership of what we regard as our intellectual property. Such claims could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
If we are sued for alleged infringement, misappropriation or other violations of the intellectual property rights of others, our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
Our success largely depends on our ability to use and develop our technology, tools, code, methodologies and services without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual property rights of third parties, including patents, copyrights, trade secrets and trademarks. However, we may not be aware that our products or services are infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating third-party intellectual property rights. Third parties may claim that we are infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating, or have infringed, misappropriated or otherwise violated, their intellectual property rights and we may be subject to litigation involving claims of infringement, misappropriation or other violation of intellectual property rights of third parties. As competition in our market grows, the possibility of infringement, misappropriation and other intellectual property claims against us increases. Parties making infringement claims may be able to obtain an injunction to prevent us from delivering our services or using technology involving the allegedly infringing intellectual property. Even if we were to prevail in such a dispute, intellectual property litigation can be expensive and time-consuming and could divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business. A successful infringement claim against us, whether with or without merit, could, among others things, require us to pay substantial damages (including treble damages if we are found to have willfully infringed third-party intellectual property), develop substitute non-infringing technology, or rebrand our name or enter into royalty or license agreements that may not be available on favorable or commercially reasonable terms, if at all, and could require us to cease making, licensing or using products that may have infringed, misappropriated or otherwise violated a third party’s intellectual property rights. Protracted litigation could also result in existing or potential clients deferring or limiting their purchase or use of our services until resolution of such litigation, or could require us to indemnify our clients against infringement claims in certain instances. In addition, during the course of litigation there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments, which could, among other things, distract our management and employees from our business. Additionally, if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Any intellectual property claim or litigation, whether we ultimately win or lose, could cause us to incur significant expenses, damage our reputation and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
In addition, we typically indemnify clients who purchase our services and solutions against potential infringement, misappropriation or other violations of intellectual property rights, which subjects us to the risk of indemnification claims. Some of our customer agreements provide for uncapped liability and some indemnity provisions survive termination or expiration of the applicable agreement. These claims may require us to initiate or defend protracted and costly litigation on behalf of our clients, regardless of the merits of these claims, and are often not subject to liability limits or exclusion of consequential, indirect or punitive damages. If any of these claims succeed, we may be forced to pay damages on behalf of our clients, redesign or cease offering our allegedly infringing services or solutions, or obtain licenses for the intellectual property such services or solutions allegedly infringe. Large indemnity payments could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If we cannot obtain all necessary licenses on commercially reasonable terms, our clients may stop using our services or solutions.
We use third-party software, hardware and software-as-a-service, or SaaS, technologies from third parties that may be difficult to replace or that may cause errors or defects in, or failures of, the services or solutions we provide.
We rely on software, hardware and both hosted and cloud-based SaaS applications from various third parties to deliver our services and solutions. If any of these software, hardware or SaaS applications become unavailable due to extended outages, interruptions, system failures, cybersecurity attacks, software or hardware errors, financial insolvency or natural disasters or because they are no longer available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, we could experience delays in the provisioning of our services until equivalent technology is either developed by us, or, if available from a third party, is identified, obtained and integrated, which could increase our expenses or otherwise harm our business. In addition, any errors or defects in or failures of this third-party software, hardware or SaaS applications could result in errors or defects in or failures of our services and solutions, which could harm our business, be costly to correct, and subject us to breach of contract claims with our clients. Many of these providers attempt to impose limitations on their liability for such errors, defects or failures, and if enforceable, we may have additional liability to our clients or third-party providers that could harm our reputation and increase our operating costs.
In the future we may identify additional third-party intellectual property we may need to license in order to engage in our business, including to develop or commercialize new products or services. However, such licenses may not be available on acceptable terms or at all. The licensing or acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and other companies may pursue strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may
consider attractive or necessary. Other companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, capital resources and greater development or commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us on reasonable pricing terms or at all. If we are unable to enter into the necessary licenses on acceptable terms or at all, it could adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We incorporate third-party open source software into our client deliverables and our failure to comply with the terms of the underlying open source software licenses could adversely impact our clients or our ability to sell our services, subject us to litigation or create potential liability.
Our client deliverables often contain software licensed by third parties under so-called “open source” licenses, including the GNU General Public License, or GPL, the GNU Lesser General Public License, or LGPL, the BSD License and others, and we expect to continue to incorporate open source software in our services in the future. Moreover, we cannot ensure that we have not incorporated open source software in our services in a manner that is inconsistent with the terms of the applicable license or our current policies and procedures. There have been claims against companies that distribute or use open source software in their products and services asserting that the use of such open source software infringes the claimants’ intellectual property rights. As a result, we and our clients could be subject to suits by third parties claiming that what we believe to be licensed open source software infringes, misappropriates or otherwise violates such third parties’ intellectual property rights, and we are generally required to indemnify our clients against such claims. Additionally, if an author or other third party that distributes such open source software were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of one or more of these licenses, we or our clients could be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against such allegations and could be subject to significant damages, enjoined from the sale of our services that contain the open source software and required to comply with onerous conditions or restrictions on these services, which could disrupt the distribution and sale of these services. Litigation could be costly for us to defend, have a negative effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, or require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our services. Use of open source software may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code, including with respect to security vulnerabilities. In addition, certain open source licenses require that source code for software programs that interact with such open source software be made available to the public at no cost and that any modifications or derivative works to such open source software continue to be licensed under the same terms as the open source software license, and we may be subject to such terms.
We cannot ensure that we have effectively monitored our use of open source software or that we are in compliance with the terms of all applicable open source licenses. The terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by courts in relevant jurisdictions, and there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a way that could impose certain conditions or restrictions on our clients’ ability to use the software that we develop for them and operate their businesses as they intend. The terms of certain open source licenses may require us or our clients to release the source code of the software we develop for our clients and to make such software available under the applicable open source licenses. In the event that portions of client deliverables are determined to be subject to an open source license, we or our clients could be required to publicly release the affected portions of source code or re-engineer all, or a portion of, the applicable software. Disclosing our proprietary source code could allow our clients’ competitors to create similar products with lower development effort and time and ultimately could result in a loss of sales for our clients. Any of these events could create liability for us to our clients and damage our reputation, which could have a material adverse effect on our revenue, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects and the market price of our shares of common stock.
Risks Related to Our International Operations
Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected by negative publicity about offshore outsourcing or anti-outsourcing legislation in the countries in which our clients operate.
Concerns that offshore outsourcing has resulted in a loss of jobs, sensitive technologies and information to foreign countries have led to negative publicity concerning outsourcing in some countries. Many organizations and public figures in the United States have publicly expressed concern about a perceived association between offshore outsourcing IT service providers and the loss of jobs. Current or prospective clients may elect to perform services that we offer, or may be discouraged from transferring these services to offshore providers, to avoid any negative perceptions that may be associated with using an offshore provider or for data privacy and security concerns. As a result, our ability to compete effectively with competitors that operate primarily out of facilities located in the United States could be harmed.
Legislation enacted in the United States and certain other jurisdictions in which we operate and any future legislation in countries in which we have clients that restricts the performance of services from an offshore location could also materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
General economic conditions in Mexico may have an adverse effect on our operations and business.
We have key facilities and personnel located in Mexico. The Mexican market and economy are influenced by economic and market conditions in other countries. Moreover, financial turmoil in any emerging market country tends to adversely affect prices in capital markets of emerging market countries, including Mexico, as investors move their money to more stable, developed markets. Financial problems or an increase in the perceived risks associated with investing in emerging economies could dampen foreign investment in Mexico and adversely affect the Mexican economy. A loss of investor confidence in the financial systems of other emerging markets may cause volatility in Mexican financial markets and to the Mexican economy in general, which may have an adverse effect on our business and operations. The economy in Mexico remains uncertain. Weak economic conditions could result in lower demand for our services, resulting in lower sales, revenue, earnings and cash flows.
Government intervention in the Mexican economy could adversely affect the economy and our results of operations or financial condition.
The ability of companies to efficiently conduct their business activities is subject to changes in government policy or shifts in political attitudes within Mexico that are beyond our control. Government policy may change to discourage foreign investment, nationalization of industries may occur or other government limitations, restrictions or requirements not currently foreseen may be implemented. During recent years, the Mexican government has frequently intervened in the Mexican economy, including through discretionary interventions on government spending.
For example, in January 2019, Mexico’s president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, officially suspended the construction of the partly-built $13.0 billion dollar Mexico City International Airport. This decision impacted not only the directly involved construction and development companies, advisors and contractors, but also investors and debt holders who had financially supported the project.
Interventions by the Mexican government, such as that relating to the new Mexico City International Airport, can have an adverse impact on the level of foreign investment in Mexico, the access of companies with significant Mexican operations to the international capital markets and Mexico’s commercial and diplomatic relations with other countries and, consequently, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
A significant number of individuals in our workforce in Mexico are employed by third-party service providers. If our third-party service providers fail to comply with applicable Mexican law, or if we are unable to comply with recent changes to Mexican law requiring reclassification of these individuals as our employees, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
We historically have generally utilized specialized third-party consulting services to support specific developments within the delivery of our specialized solutions to customers. Although our service providers are legally and contractually required to comply with applicable labor, tax and social security laws, it is a challenge to monitor our service providers’ compliance with such laws given the significant number of individuals employed by our service providers and the administrative complexities involved. Such laws are complex and subject to interpretation, which may vary from time to time, and it is also possible that a governmental authority could ultimately determine that we are subject to liability imposed under former and/or applicable Mexican law and regulations regarding our past and current commercial relationship with third-party consultants if such relationships are found to be non-compliant, and/or to the extent such third-party consultants do not absorb any liabilities imposed for such non-compliance, and our business and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. We also cannot provide any assurance that the service providers’ employees will not initiate legal actions against us seeking indemnification from us as the ultimate beneficiary of their services.
In April 2021, the Mexican government passed a new law that will require us to integrate our third-party service structure into our own workforce. The new law allows tax deductions from third-party service expenses only if they meet certain requirements, which are still to be fully defined. As of August 31, 2021, we finalized the conversion of 100% of the third-party consultants in Mexico into full time employees (“FTE´s”) in order to comply with the new law and as of December 31, 2022 we had 377 service export resources that are not FTEs. We cannot assure you that our compliance efforts with respect to the new law or the new law’s interpretation and application by governmental authorities will not result in additional costs or liabilities to us or other adverse impacts on our operating performance or will not make it more
difficult for us to establish, maintain and grow client relationships. We also cannot assure you that the Mexican government will not pursue further regulatory changes that may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. In addition, we cannot assure the Mexican government will not pursue further labor related laws that can result in further significantly material impact to us, nor that it could not apply retroactive reviews and assess the structure we have used in the past.
The Mexican government may order salary increases to be paid to employees in the private sector, which could increase our operating costs and adversely affect our results of operations.
In the past, the Mexican government has passed laws, regulations and decrees requiring companies in the private sector to increase wages and provide specified benefits to employees, and may do so again in the future. Mexican employers, both in the public and private sectors, have experienced significant pressure from their employees and labor organizations to increase wages and to provide additional employee benefits. The Mexican government, as a result, increased the minimum salary by 16% in January 2019.
If future salary increases in the Mexican peso exceed the pace of the devaluation of the Mexican peso, such salary increases could have a material adverse effect on our expenses and business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Corruption in Mexico could have an adverse effect on our business and operations.
Corruption could result in our competitors having an unfair advantage over us in securing business. In addition, false accusations of corruption or other alleged wrongdoing by us or our officers or directors may be spread by newspapers, competitors or others to gain a competitive advantage over us or for other reasons. Mexican press reports have also alleged selective investigations and prosecutions by the government to further its interests. In the event we become the target of corruption allegations, we may need to cease or alter certain activities or embark on expensive litigation to protect our business and employees, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Doing business with government clients could negatively impact our reputation, which in turn could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
While our current contracts with governmental entities, including the Mexican federal government and related entities, does not constitute a substantial portion of our revenue, nor do we expect it to constitute a substantial portion of our revenue in the future, there are risks associated with doing business with government clients. Agreements with governmental entities may be subject to periodic funding approval. Funding reductions or delays could adversely impact public sector demand for our products and services. Also, some agreements may contain provisions allowing the client to terminate without cause and providing for higher liability limits for certain losses. In addition, government contracts are generally subject to audits and investigations by government agencies. If the government discovers improper or illegal activities or contractual non-compliance (including improper billing), we may be subject to various civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, which may include termination of contracts, forfeiture of profits, suspension of payments, fines and suspensions or debarment from doing business with the government, which could negatively impact our reputation, which in turn could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
If relations between the United States and foreign governments deteriorate, it could cause our business or potential target businesses or their goods and services to become less attractive, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
The relationship between the United States and foreign governments, including Mexico, could be subject to sudden fluctuation and periodic tension. For instance, the United States may announce its intention to impose quotas on certain imports. Such import quotas may adversely affect political relations between the two countries and result in retaliatory countermeasures by the foreign government in industries that may affect our ultimate target business. The Biden administration in the United States has recently proposed far-ranging federal tax legislation in the United States that could impact business like ours with substantial presences in Mexico that provide extensive services in the United States .Changes in political conditions in foreign countries and changes in the state of U.S. relations with such countries are difficult to predict and could adversely affect our operations or cause our business or potential target businesses or their goods and services to become less attractive. Because we are not limited to any specific industry, there is no basis for you to evaluate the possible extent of any impact on our ultimate operations if relations are strained between the United States and a foreign country in which we acquire a target business or move our principal manufacturing or service operations.
Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be materially adversely affected if general economic conditions in Latin America and the United States or the global economy worsen.
We derive a significant portion of our revenue from clients located in Latin America and the United States. The IT services industry is particularly sensitive to the economic environment, and tends to decline during general economic downturns. If the United States or Latin American economies weaken or slow, pricing for our services may be depressed and our clients may reduce or postpone their technology spending significantly, which may, in turn, lower the demand for our services, negatively affect our revenue and profitability and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our business is dependent to a certain extent upon the economic conditions prevalent in the United States and Latin American countries in which we operate. Latin American countries have historically experienced uneven periods of economic growth, as well as recession, periods of high inflation and economic instability. As a consequence of adverse economic conditions in global markets and diminishing commodity prices, the economic growth rates of the economies of many Latin American countries have slowed and some have entered mild recessions. Adverse economic conditions in any of these countries could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. To the extent that the prospect of national debt defaults in Latin America and other adverse economic conditions continue or worsen, they would likely have a negative effect on our business. If we are unable to successfully anticipate changing economic and political conditions affecting the markets in which we operate, we may be unable to effectively plan for or respond to those changes, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.
Fluctuations in currency exchange rates and increased inflation could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We have offices located in Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina and the United States. As a result of the international scope of our operations, fluctuations in exchange rates, particularly between the Mexican peso and the U.S. dollar, may adversely affect us. The value of our common stock may be affected by the foreign exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Mexican peso, and between those currencies and other currencies in which our revenues and assets may be denominated. For example, a depreciation of the Mexican peso relative to the U.S. dollar will temporarily impact our operations in the following ways: (i) the operations in the United States that have a nearshore cost component will benefit at the gross margin level from a lower U.S. dollar denominated cost until the point where salary inflation in Mexico offsets that benefit; and (ii) on the Mexico operations side, a depreciation of the Mexican peso will result in an overall reduction of the value of our business in Mexico when translated to U.S. dollars for consolidation purposes, as the same number of Mexican pesos will now represent fewer U.S. dollars. While our current exposure is relatively balanced at the operating profit (loss) level — meaning the benefit on the U.S. operations from a Mexican peso depreciation on operating profit (loss) would largely offset the impact of our operating income (loss) of a reduction in the value of our business in Mexico, this may change in the future as our nearshore operations grow. If our operations in the United States and Mexico grow at different rates, fluctuations in the exchange rate between the Mexican peso and U.S. dollar could have negative impacts on our financial condition and results of operations and could materially adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
The banking and financial systems in less developed markets where we hold funds remain less developed than those in some more developed markets, and a banking crisis could place liquidity constraints on our business and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We have cash in banks in countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Costa Rica, where the banking sector remains subject to periodic instability, banking and other financial systems generally do not meet the banking standards of more developed markets, and bank deposits made by corporate entities are not insured. A banking crisis, or the bankruptcy or insolvency of banks through which we receive or with which we hold funds, particularly in Mexico and Brazil, may result in the loss of our deposits or adversely affect our ability to complete banking transactions in that region, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our international operations involve risks that could increase our expenses, adversely affect our results of operations and require increased time and attention from our management.
Managing a business, operations, personnel or assets in another country is challenging and costly. As of December 31, 2022, we had 2,504 employees and contractors, approximately 89.9% of whom work in nearshore offices in Mexico and
other Latin American countries. We have operations in a number of countries, including Mexico and the United States, and we serve clients primarily in the United States and Latin America. As a result, we are subject to risks inherently associated with international operations. Our global operations expose us to numerous and sometimes conflicting legal, tax and regulatory requirements, and violations or unfavorable interpretation by the respective authorities of these regulations could harm our business. Risks associated with international operations include difficulties in enforcing contractual rights, potential difficulties in collecting accounts receivable, the burdens of complying with a wide variety of foreign laws, repatriation of earnings or capital and the risk of asset seizures by foreign governments. In addition, we may face competition in other countries from companies that may have more experience with operations in such countries or with international operations. Such companies may have long-standing or well-established relationships with desired clients, which may put us at a competitive disadvantage. We may also face difficulties integrating new facilities in different countries into our existing operations, as well as integrating employees that we hire in different countries into our existing corporate culture. Our international expansion plans may be unsuccessful and we may not be able to compete effectively in other countries. Even with a seasoned and experienced management team, the costs and difficulties inherent in managing cross-border business operations, personnel and assets can be significant (and much higher than in a purely domestic business) and may negatively impact our financial and operational performance. These factors could impede the success of our international expansion plans and limit our ability to compete effectively in other countries.
From time to time, some of our employees and contractors spend significant amounts of time at our clients’ facilities, often located outside our employees’ and contractors’ countries of residence, which exposes us to certain risks.
Some of our projects require a portion of the work to be undertaken at our clients’ facilities, which are often located outside our employees’ and contractors’ countries of residence. The ability of our employees and contractors to work in such locations may depend on different countries’ regulations relating to international travel, which may eliminate or severely curtail our employees’ and contractors’ ability to work on-site at clients’ facilities, as well as our employees’ and contractors’ ability to obtain the required visas and work permits, which process can be lengthy and difficult. Immigration laws are subject to legislative changes, as well as to variations in standards of application and enforcement due to political forces and economic conditions. In addition, we may become subject to taxation in jurisdictions where we would not otherwise be so subject as a result of the time that our employees spend in any such jurisdiction in any given year. While we seek to monitor the number of days that our employees spend in each country or state to avoid subjecting ourselves to any such taxation, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in these efforts.
We also incur risks relating to our employees and contractors working at our clients’ facilities, including: claims of misconduct, negligence or intentional malfeasance on the part of our employees or contractors. Some or all of these claims may lead to litigation and these matters may cause us to incur negative publicity with respect to these alleged problems. It is not possible to predict the outcome of these lawsuits or any other proceeding, and our insurance may not cover all claims that may be asserted against us.
If we are faced with immigration or work permit restrictions in any country where we currently have personnel onsite at a client location or would like to expand our delivery footprint, then our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
The success of our business is dependent on our ability to attract and retain talented and experienced professionals and be able to mobilize them to meet our clients’ needs. Immigration laws in the countries we operate in are subject to legislative changes, as well as to variations in the standards of application and enforcement due to political forces and economic conditions. A few countries have introduced new provisions and standards in immigration law which can impact our ability to provide services in those countries due to restrictive policies and additional costs involved. Our and our contractors’ future inability to obtain or renew sufficient work permits and/or visas due to the impact of these regulations, including any changes to immigration, work permit and visa regulations in jurisdictions such as the United States, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. It is difficult to predict the political and economic events that could affect immigration laws, or the restrictive impact they could have on obtaining or renewing work visas for our employees or contractors.
Latin American governments have exercised and continue to exercise significant influence over the economies of the countries where we operate, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Historically, governments in Latin America have frequently intervened in the economies of their respective countries and have occasionally made significant changes in policy and regulations. Governmental actions to control inflation and
other policies and regulations have often involved price controls, currency devaluations, capital controls and tariffs. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected by:
•changes in government policies or regulations, including such factors as exchange rates and exchange control policies;
•inflation rates and measures taken by the governments of these countries to control or otherwise address inflation;
•interest rates;
•tariff and inflation control policies;
•price control policies;
•liquidity of domestic capital and lending markets;
•electricity rationing;
•tax policies, royalty and tax increases and retroactive tax claims; and
•other political, diplomatic, social and economic developments in or affecting the countries where we operate.
Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected by the various conflicting legal and regulatory requirements imposed on us by the countries where we operate.
Since we maintain operations and provide services to clients throughout the world, we are subject to numerous, and sometimes conflicting, legal requirements on matters as diverse as import/export controls, content requirements, trade restrictions, tariffs, taxation, sanctions, government affairs, anti-bribery, whistle blowing, internal and disclosure control obligations, data protection and privacy and labor relations. Our failure to comply with these regulations in the conduct of our business could result in fines, penalties, criminal sanctions against us or our officers, disgorgement of profits, prohibitions on doing business, unfavorable publicity, adverse impact on our reputation and allegations by our clients that we have not performed our contractual obligations. Due to the varying degree of development of the legal systems of the countries in which we operate, local laws might be insufficient to defend us and preserve our rights.
We are also subject to risks relating to compliance with a variety of national and local laws including multiple tax regimes, labor laws, employee health safety and wages and benefits laws. Many of our employees and consultants, including members of our senior management team, perform services for us in multiple jurisdictions, making us subject to multiple, and sometimes conflicting labor law regimes. We may, from time to time, be subject to litigation or administrative actions resulting from claims against us by current or former employees or contractors individually or as part of class actions, including claims of wrongful terminations, discrimination, misclassification, improper income tax or other withholding or other violations of labor law or related tax laws or other alleged conduct. We may also, from time to time, be subject to litigation resulting from claims against us by third parties, including claims of breach of non-compete and confidentiality provisions of our employees’ former employment agreements with such third parties. Our failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements could have a material adverse effect on our revenue, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Foreign, national and local governments may also adopt new laws, regulations or requirements, or make changes to existing laws or regulations, that could impact the demand for, or value of, our services. If we are unable to adapt the solutions we deliver to our clients to changing legal and regulatory standards or other requirements in a timely manner, or if our solutions fail to allow our clients to comply with applicable laws and regulations, our clients may lose confidence in our services and could switch to services offered by our competitors, or threaten or bring legal actions against us, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
Many commercial laws and regulations in Latin America are relatively new and have been subject to limited interpretation. As a result, their application can be unpredictable. Government authorities have a high degree of discretion in certain countries in which we have operations and at times have exercised their discretion in ways that may be perceived as selective or arbitrary, and sometimes in a manner that is seen as being influenced by political or commercial considerations. These governments also have the power, in certain circumstances, to interfere with the performance of, nullify or terminate contracts. Selective or arbitrary actions against others have included withdrawal of licenses, sudden and unexpected tax audits, criminal prosecutions and civil actions. Federal and local government entities have also used common defects in documentation as pretexts for court claims against others and other demands to invalidate and/or to void transactions, possibly for political purposes. In this environment, our competitors could receive preferential treatment from the government, potentially giving them a competitive advantage. Selective or arbitrary government action could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Changes and uncertainties in the tax system in the countries in which we have operations could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We conduct business globally and file income tax returns in multiple jurisdictions. Our consolidated effective income tax rate could be materially adversely affected by several factors, including: changing tax laws, regulations and treaties, or the interpretation thereof (including based on advice from our tax advisers); tax policy initiatives and reforms under consideration (such as those related to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s, Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project and other initiatives); the practices of tax authorities in jurisdictions in which we operate; the resolution of issues arising from tax audits or examinations and any related interest or penalties; and our income before taxes being lower than anticipated in countries with lower statutory tax rates and higher than anticipated in countries with higher statutory tax rates. Such changes may include the taxation of operating income, investment income, dividends received or, in the specific context of withholding tax, dividends paid, and changes in deferred tax assets and liabilities.
In particular, there have been significant changes to the taxation systems in Latin American countries in recent years as the authorities have gradually replaced or introduced new legislation regulating the application of major taxes such as corporate income tax, value-added tax, corporate property tax, personal income taxes and payroll taxes.
There have been significant changes to United States tax laws in recent years, some of which are being reconsidered by Congress and interpretations of which are being considered by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the courts. Moreover, legislation in the United States has recently been proposed that may result in additional significant changes to United States tax laws.
We are unable to predict what tax reforms may be proposed or enacted in the future or what effect such changes could have on our business, but such changes, to the extent they are brought into tax legislation, regulations, policies or practices in jurisdictions in which we operate, could increase the estimated tax liability that we have expensed to date and paid or accrued on our balance sheets, and otherwise affect our financial position, future results of operations, cash flows in a particular period and overall or effective tax rates in the future in countries where we have operations, reduce post-tax returns to our stockholders and increase the complexity, burden and cost of tax compliance, which may adversely affect our business and prospects.
Tax authorities may examine or audit our tax returns, disagree with our positions and conclusions regarding certain tax positions, or may apply existing rules in an unforeseen manner, resulting in unanticipated costs, taxes or non-realization of expected benefits.
We are subject to the continuous examination of our tax returns by the United States Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities around the world. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provisions for taxes. There can be no assurance that the outcomes from these examinations will not have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. For example, as a result of examinations by applicable tax authorities, we may be subject to an indirect tax liability relating to our previous acquisition of 4th Source and may have a contingent sales tax obligation in Tennessee which in aggregate total approximately $70,000 and each of which, if applicable, we anticipate paying in Q2 2023.
In addition, U.S. state and local and foreign jurisdictions have differing rules and regulations governing sales, use, value added and other taxes, and these rules and regulations are subject to varying interpretations that may change over time. Further, these jurisdictions’ rules regarding tax nexus are complex and vary significantly. As a result, we could face the possibility of audits that could result in tax assessments, including associated interest and penalties. A successful assertion that we should be collecting additional sales, use, value added or other taxes in those jurisdictions where we have not historically done so could result in substantial tax liabilities and related penalties for past transactions, discourage customers from using our services or otherwise harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. For example, we are currently being audited by the Mexican tax authorities with possible tax assessments including income tax, value added taxes, penalties and interest ranging from $1.5 million to $3 million. With the assistance of outside tax advisors, we are currently addressing these audits and we will pursue all available administrative or legal remedies for a favorable resolution. We regularly assess our tax returns for possible additional tax liabilities.
A tax authority may also disagree with tax positions that we have taken, which could result in increased tax liabilities. For example, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the Mexican taxing authorities or another tax authority could challenge our allocation of income by tax jurisdiction and the amounts paid between our affiliated companies pursuant to our intercompany arrangements and transfer pricing policies, including methodologies for valuing developed technology and amounts paid with respect to our intellectual property development. Similarly, a tax authority could assert that we are
subject to tax in a jurisdiction where we believe we have not established a taxable connection, often referred to as a “permanent establishment” under international tax treaties, and such an assertion, if successful, could increase our expected tax liability in one or more jurisdictions. Due to uncertainty in the application and interpretation of applicable tax laws in various jurisdictions, we may be exposed to sales and use, value added or other transaction tax liability, including with respect to transactions of the businesses we have acquired.
Tax authorities may take the position that material income tax liabilities, interest and penalties are payable by us, where there has been a technical violation of contradictory laws and regulations that are relatively new and have not been subject to extensive review or interpretation, in which case we expect that we might contest such assessment. High-profile companies can be particularly vulnerable to aggressive application of unclear requirements. Many companies must negotiate their tax bills with tax inspectors who may demand higher taxes than applicable law appears to provide. Contesting such an assessment may be lengthy and costly and if we were unsuccessful in disputing the assessment, the implications could increase our anticipated effective tax rate, where applicable. These uncertainties with respect to the application of tax laws, as well as the outcomes of tax examinations and audits and related tax assessments and liabilities, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Emerging markets are subject to greater risks than more developed markets, and financial turmoil in any emerging market could disrupt our business.
Latin American countries are generally considered to be emerging markets, which are subject to rapid change and greater legal, economic and political risks than more established markets. Financial problems or an increase in the perceived risks associated with investing in emerging economies could dampen foreign investment in Latin America and adversely affect the economy of the region. Political instability could result in a worsening overall economic situation, including capital flight and slowdown of investment and business activity. Current and future changes in governments of the countries in which we have or develop operations, as well as major policy shifts or lack of consensus between various branches of the government and powerful economic groups, could lead to political instability and disrupt or reverse political, economic and regulatory reforms, which could adversely affect our business and operations in those countries. In addition, political and economic relations between certain of the countries in which we operate are complex, and recent conflicts have arisen between certain of their governments. Political, ethnic, religious, historical and other differences have, on occasion, given rise to tensions and, in certain cases, military conflicts among Latin American countries which can halt normal economic activity and disrupt the economies of neighboring regions. The emergence of new or escalated tensions in Latin American countries could further exacerbate tensions between such countries and the United States and the European Union, which may have a negative effect on their economy, our ability to develop or maintain our operations in those countries and our ability to attract and retain employees, any of which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
In addition, banking and other financial systems in certain countries in which we have operations are less developed and regulated than in some more developed markets, and legislation relating to banks and bank accounts is subject to varying interpretations and inconsistent application. Banks in these regions often do not meet the banking standards of more developed markets, and the transparency of the banking sector lags behind international standards. Furthermore, in certain countries in which we operate, bank deposits made by corporate entities generally either are not insured or are insured only to specified limits. As a result, the banking sector remains subject to periodic instability. A banking crisis, or the bankruptcy or insolvency of banks through which we receive or with which we hold funds may result in the loss of our deposits or adversely affect our ability to complete banking transactions in certain countries in which we have operations, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Wage inflation and other compensation expense for our IT professionals could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Wage costs for IT professionals in Latin American countries are lower than comparable wage costs in more developed countries. However, wage costs in the IT services industry in these countries may increase at a faster rate than in the past and wage inflation for the IT industry may be higher than overall wage inflation within these countries. We may need to increase the levels of compensation for our personnel more rapidly than in the past to remain competitive, and we may not be able to pass on these increased costs to our clients. Unless we are able to continue to increase the efficiency and productivity of our personnel as well as the prices we can charge for our services, wage inflation may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other anti-corruption laws in the jurisdictions in which we operate, as well as export control laws, import and customs laws, trade and economic sanctions laws and other laws governing our operations.
Our operations are subject to anti-corruption laws, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, or the FCPA, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. §201, the U.S. Travel Act, the Ley General de Responsabilidades Administrativas in Mexico and other anti-corruption laws that apply in countries where we do business. The FCPA and these other laws generally prohibit us and our employees and intermediaries from authorizing, promising, offering, or providing, directly or indirectly, improper or prohibited payments, or anything else of value, to government officials or other persons to obtain or retain business or gain some other business advantage. We operate in a number of jurisdictions that pose a high risk of potential FCPA violations, such as Mexico and Brazil. In addition, we cannot predict the nature, scope or effect of future regulatory requirements to which our international operations might be subject or the manner in which existing laws might be administered or interpreted.
We are also subject to other laws and regulations governing our international operations, including regulations administered by the governments of the United States and Mexico, including applicable export control regulations, economic sanctions and embargoes on certain countries and persons, anti-money laundering laws, import and customs requirements and currency exchange regulations, collectively referred to as the Trade Control laws. We may not be completely effective in ensuring our compliance with all such applicable laws, which could result in our being subject to criminal and civil penalties, disgorgement and other sanctions and remedial measures, and legal expenses. Likewise, any investigation of any potential violations of such laws by the United States, Mexico, or other authorities could also have an adverse impact on our reputation, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Because many of our agreements may be governed by laws of jurisdictions other than the United States, we may not be able to enforce our rights within such jurisdictions or elsewhere, which could result in a significant loss of business, business opportunities or capital.
Many of our agreements are governed by laws of jurisdictions other than the United States, such as agreements governed under Mexican law. The system of laws and the enforcement of existing laws and contracts in such jurisdictions may not be as certain in implementation and interpretation as in the United States. The judiciaries in Mexico, Brazil and other Latin American countries are relatively inexperienced in enforcing corporate and commercial law, leading to a higher than usual degree of uncertainty as to the outcome of any litigation. As a result, the inability to enforce or obtain a remedy under any of our current or future agreements could result in a significant loss of business and business opportunities and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.
Risks Related to Investing in Our Securities
The market price and trading volume of our common stock and warrants has been and will likely continue to be volatile and could decline significantly.
Our common stock and our warrants have from time to time experienced significant price and volume fluctuations. Even if an active, liquid and orderly trading market is sustained for our securities, the market price of our securities is likely to continue to be volatile and could decline significantly. In addition, the trading volume in our securities may fluctuate and cause significant price variations to occur. If the market price of our securities declines significantly, you may be unable to resell your shares at or above the market price of our securities at which your purchased our securities. We cannot assure you that the market price of our securities will not fluctuate widely or decline significantly in the future in response to a number of factors, including, among others, the following:
•the realization of any of the risk factors presented in this annual report on Form 10-K;
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly financial results or the quarterly financial results of companies perceived to be similar to us;
•changes in the market’s expectations about our operating results;
•our operating results failing to meet the expectation of securities analysts of investors in a particular period;
•operating and share price performance of other companies that investors deem comparable to us;
•the volume of shares of common stock available for public sale;
•future issuances, sales, resales or repurchases or anticipated issuances, sales, resales or repurchases of our securities;
•our ability to effectively service any current and future outstanding debt obligations;
•the announcement of new services or enhancements by us or our competitors;
•developments concerning intellectual property rights;
•changes in legal, regulatory and enforcement frameworks impacting our business;
•changes in the prices of our services;
•announcements by us or our competitors of significant business developments, acquisitions or new offerings;
•our involvement in any litigation;
•changes in senior management or key personnel;
•changes in the anticipated future size and growth rate of our market;
•actual or perceived data security incidents or breaches;
•any delisting of our common stock or warrants from NASDAQ due to any failure to meet listing requirements;
•actual or anticipated variations in quarterly operating results;
•our failure to meet the estimates and projections of the investment community or that we may otherwise provide to the public;
•publication of research reports about us or our industry or positive or negative recommendations or withdrawal of research coverage by securities analysts;
•changes in the market valuations of similar companies;
•overall performance of the equity markets;
•speculation in the press or investment community;
•sales of common stock by us or our stockholders in the future;
•the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting;
•general political and economic conditions, including health pandemics, such as COVID-19; and
•other events or factors, many of which are beyond our control.
In the past, securities class-action litigation has often been instituted against companies following periods of volatility in the market price of their securities. This type of litigation could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention and resources, which could have a material adverse effect on us.
There can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with the continued listing standards of Nasdaq.
Our common stock and public warrants are currently listed on Nasdaq. However, we cannot assure you that our securities will continue to be listed on Nasdaq in the future. It is possible that our common stock and public warrants will cease to meet the Nasdaq listing requirements in the future.
If Nasdaq delists our securities from trading on its exchange and we are unable to list our securities on another national securities exchange, we expect that our securities could be quoted on an over-the-counter market. If this were to occur, we could face significant material adverse consequences, including:
•a limited availability of market quotations for its securities;
•reduced liquidity for its securities;
•a determination that our common Stock is a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in the common stock to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities;
•a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and
•a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.
The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” Because the common stock and public warrants are listed on Nasdaq, they are covered securities. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of our securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and, if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. While we are not aware of a state, other than the State of Idaho, having used these powers to prohibit or restrict the sale of securities issued by blank check companies, certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we were no longer listed on Nasdaq, our securities would not be covered securities and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.
Our failure to meet the continued listing requirements of Nasdaq could result in a delisting of our securities.
If we fail to satisfy the continued listing requirements of Nasdaq such as the corporate governance requirements or the minimum share price requirement, Nasdaq may take steps to delist our securities. Such a delisting would likely have a negative effect on the price of the securities and would impair your ability to sell or purchase the securities when you wish to do so. In the event of a delisting, we can provide no assurance that any action taken by us to restore compliance with listing requirements would allow our securities to become listed again, stabilize the market price or improve the liquidity of our securities, prevent our securities from dropping below the Nasdaq minimum share price requirement or prevent future non-compliance with Nasdaq’s listing requirements. Additionally, if our securities are not listed on, or become delisted from, Nasdaq for any reason, and are quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board, an inter-dealer automated quotation system for equity securities that is not a national securities exchange, the liquidity and price of our securities may be more limited than if we were quoted or listed on Nasdaq or another national securities exchange. You may be unable to sell your securities unless a market can be established or sustained.
We may be subject to securities litigation, which is expensive and could divert management attention.
The market price of our common stock has been volatile and may continue to be volatile in the future and, in the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention from other business concerns, which could seriously harm our business.
The Legacy AT equity holders and the sponsor own a significant portion of our outstanding voting shares, and representatives of the sponsor and two of Legacy AT’s largest stockholders occupy a total of four of the eleven seats on our board of directors. Concentration of ownership among the Legacy AT equity investors and the sponsor may prevent new investors from influencing significant corporate decisions.
As of December 31, 2022, the Legacy AT equity holders, including LIV Fund IV with respect to its shares held as a Legacy AT equity holder, held approximately 55.5% of our common stock. Furthermore, the Legacy AT equity holders, which include the second lien lenders, could increase their ownership percentage to the extent that they choose to convert all or a portion of the Second Lien Facility into common stock.
In addition, our board of directors includes one representative from the sponsor, and two from each of the Nexxus Funds and CS Investors, each of which hold large amounts of common stock, for a total of four directors out of a total of 11 directors. Pursuant to the sponsor letter agreement, for so long as the sponsor and its affiliates and its and their respective permitted transferees continue to own, directly or indirectly, our securities representing more than 4% of the combined voting power of our then outstanding voting securities, the sponsor will be entitled to nominate one director designee to serve on our board of directors. As long as the Legacy AT equity holders (including the Nexxus Funds and CS Investors), LIV Fund IV and the sponsor own or control a significant percentage of outstanding voting power, they will have the ability to strongly influence all corporate actions requiring stockholder approval, including the election and removal of directors and the size of our board of directors, any amendment of our organizational documents, or the approval of any merger or other significant corporate transaction, including a sale of substantially all of our assets. In addition, as long as the sponsor, the Nexxus Funds and CS Investors retain five of the 11 seats on our board of directors, they will have the ability to strongly influence all corporate action requiring approval of our board of directors, including calling special meetings of stockholders, any amendment of our organizational documents, or the approval of any merger or other significant corporate transaction, including financing transactions and a sale of substantially all of our assets.
The interests of the Legacy AT equity holders, including the Nexxus Funds and CS Investors, LIV Fund IV and the sponsor and affiliates and their respective permitted transferees may not align with the interests of our other stockholders. Certain of the Legacy AT equity holders, including the Nexxus Funds and CS Investors, LIV Fund IV and the sponsor are in the business of making investments in companies and may acquire and hold interests in businesses that compete directly or indirectly with us. Certain of the Legacy AT equity holders, including the Nexxus Funds and CS Investors, LIV Fund IV and the sponsor may also pursue acquisition opportunities that may be complementary to our business, and, as a result, those acquisition opportunities may not be available to us.
Certain of our executive officers and directors have received waivers from our insider trading policy in order to pledge shares of our common stock as collateral for loans, which may cause their interests to conflict with the interests of our other stockholders and may adversely affect the trading price of our common stock.
Manuel Senderos, our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, has pledged certain of his shares of our common stock to lenders to obtain a loan in the amounts of $4.5 million, used by him to provide the Company with his portion of the Second Lien Facility. In addition, Mauricio Garduño, our Vice President, Business Development and a Director, has pledged certain of his shares of our common stock to a lender as security for indebtedness.
We are not a party to these loans, which are full recourse against Messrs. Senderos and Garduño and are secured by pledges of a portion of our common stock currently beneficially owned by them. The terms of these loans were negotiated directly between Messrs. Senderos and Garduño and the lender. In order for Messrs. Senderos and Garduño to pledge their securities, our board of directors had to approve a waiver to our insider trading policy, which provides for a prohibition on pledging securities, restrictions on trading securities during blackout periods, and a requirement that all trades made by Messrs. Senderos and Garduño be pre-cleared in advance of trading.
Because of these pledges made by Messrs. Senderos and Garduño, their interests may not align with the interests of other stockholders, and they may act in a manner that advances their interests and not necessarily those of our other stockholders. The occurrence of certain events under these loan agreements could result in the future sales of such shares and significantly reduce Messrs. Senderos’s and Garduño’s ownership in us. Such sales could occur while Messrs. Senderos and Garduño are in possession of material non-public information without prior permission from the Company. Such sales could expose Messrs. Senderos and Garduño to an investigation or litigation for insider trading, which could, among other things, distract our management and employees from our business. Such sales could also adversely affect the market and trading price of our common stock. In addition, if the value of our common stock declines, the lender may require additional collateral for the loans, which could cause Messrs. Senderos and Garduño to pledge additional shares of our common stock. We can give no assurances that Messrs. Senderos and Garduño will not pledge additional shares of our common stock in the future, as a result of lender calls requiring additional collateral.
Future resales of common stock may cause the market price of our securities to drop significantly, even if our business is doing well.
Upon expiration of the lock-up extensions agreed to by the Nexxus Funds and CS Investors and certain of our management, they may sell their shares, in block trades or other large dispositions, the timing for which may be influenced for each of the Nexxus Funds and CS Investors by considerations particular to its specific fund, for example end of fund life considerations. Additionally, the subscription investors and LIV Fund IV with respect to its shares held as a pre-merger Legacy AT equity holder are not be restricted from selling any of their shares of our common stock, other than by applicable securities laws. As such, sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could occur at any time. These sales, or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell shares, could reduce the market price of our common stock.
As such, sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could occur at any time. These sales, or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell shares, could reduce the market price of our common stock.
As restrictions on resale end and registration statements are available for use, the sale or possibility of sale of these shares could have the effect of increasing the volatility in our share price or the market price of our common stock could decline if the holders of currently restricted shares sell them or are perceived by the market as intending to sell them.
Substantial future sales of shares of our common stock could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
We expect that significant additional capital will be needed in the near future to continue our planned operations. Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. We are unable to predict the effect that such sales may have on the prevailing market price of our common stock.
As noted in the following risk factor, we have issued or will issue shares to certain of our lenders. Moreover, to the extent our warrants and the warrants to be issued to Monroe are exercised or the New Second Lien Lenders convert some or all of the Second Lien Facility into shares of common stock, additional shares of our common stock will be issued. The issuance of these shares will result in dilution to the holders of our common stock and increase the number of shares
eligible for resale in the public market. We have also registered or agreed to register such sales for resale by the holders thereof.
We have issued and will issue shares of common stock to certain of our lenders to secure some of our payment obligations to those lenders. Such issuances, and any future issuances will, dilute the interests of our shareholders.
We have issued approximately 3.6 million shares of common stock to Monroe, AGS Group, and Exitus Capital who, subject to certain regulatory restrictions, may sell the shares and apply the proceeds to the outstanding balance of the respective obligations we owe to them. In addition, we are obligated to issue additional shares to Exitus Capital if the value of the shares held by them is less than two times the outstanding principal amount of the loan. As of February 28, 2023, the outstanding principal amount owed to Exitus Capital was $1.6 million and the shares held by Exitus Capital had a value of approximately $5.2 million, based on a share price of $4.30, which was the closing price of our common stock on February 28, 2023.
In addition, we will issue warrants to Monroe to purchase $7.0 million worth of our common stock, which may be exercised for nominal consideration. The warrants will be issued on the earlier of full repayment of outstanding deferred fees and August 29, 2023 and will be exercisable immediately upon issuance. Furthermore, each Second Lien Lender under the Second Lien Facility (other than Nexxus Capital) has the right, but not the obligation, to convert all or any portion of its outstanding loans into our common stock. The loans, including interest and fees, held by Nexxus Capital will convert into our common stock on June 15, 2023.
To the extent we are not able to pay the AN Extend parties in cash under the AN Extend purchase price obligation note payable on or prior to November 15, 2023, the total amount of principal and the interest will be converted within the following 30 calendar days into shares of our common stock, based on the Volume Weighted Moving Average Price of our common stock on Nasdaq. This earnout obligation totaled $2.4 million as of December 31, 2022 and accrued interest at 11% per annum.
We have also entered into registration rights agreements with respect to the resale of all such shares, except with respect to shares issuable to the AN Extend parties. Such issuances have and will dilute the equity interests of our shareholders and may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our common stock and/or warrants.
We may issue additional shares of common stock, including under the 2021 Equity Incentive Plan and the 2021 Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Any such issuances would dilute the interest of our shareholders and likely present other risks.
We may issue a substantial number of shares of common stock, including under the 2021 Equity Incentive Plan and the 2021 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or preferred stock. Any such issuances of additional shares of common stock or preferred stock:
•may significantly dilute the equity interests of our shareholders;
•may subordinate the rights of holders of common stock if preferred stock is issued with rights senior to those afforded our common stock;
•could cause a change in control if a substantial number of shares of our common stock are issued, which may affect, among other things, our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards, if any, and could result in the resignation or removal of our present officers and directors; and
•may adversely affect prevailing market prices for our common stock and/or warrants.
We do not intend to pay cash dividends for the foreseeable future.
We currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to finance the further development and expansion of our business and do not intend to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to pay dividends will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on our financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, restrictions contained in future agreements and financing instruments, business prospects and such other factors as our board of directors deems relevant.
There is no guarantee that the warrants will be in the money prior to their expiration, and they may expire worthless.
The exercise price for our warrants is $11.50 per share of common stock. There is no guarantee that the warrants will be in the money prior to their expiration, and as such, the warrants may expire worthless.
We may amend the terms of the warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders with the approval by the holders of at least a majority of then outstanding public warrants. As a result, the exercise price of your warrants could be increased, the exercise period could be shortened and the number of ordinary shares (or shares of common stock into which such shares will convert in connection with the domestication) purchasable upon exercise of a warrant could be decreased, all without your approval.
Our warrants were issued in registered form under the warrant agreement between Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent, and us. The warrant agreement provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder for the purpose of curing any ambiguity or curing, correcting or supplementing any defective provision or adding or changing any other provisions with respect to matters or questions arising under the warrant agreement, but requires the approval by the holders of at least a majority of then outstanding public warrants to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the public warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least a majority of then outstanding public warrants approve of such amendment. Examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of shares of common stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
We may redeem unexpired warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to warrant holders, thereby making their warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem outstanding warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant; provided that the last reported sales price of our shares of common stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share (as adjusted for share splits, share dividends, rights issuances, subdivisions, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. Redemption of the outstanding warrants could force you to: (1) exercise your warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so; (2) sell your warrants at then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your warrants; or (3) accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of your warrants. None of the private warrants will be redeemable by us so long as they are held by the sponsor and its affiliates and its and their respective permitted transferees.
Anti-takeover provisions contained in our charter and our bylaws, as well as provisions of Delaware law, could impair a takeover attempt.
Our charter and our bylaws contain provisions that could have the effect of delaying or preventing changes in control or changes in our management without the consent of our board of directors. These provisions include:
•no cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates;
•the exclusive right of the board of directors to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of the board of directors or the resignation, death, or removal of a director by stockholders, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on the board of directors;
•the ability of the board of directors to determine whether to issue shares of our preferred stock and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval, which could be used to significantly dilute the ownership of a hostile acquirer;
•a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent, which forces stockholder action to be taken at an annual or special meeting of our stockholders;
•the requirement that a special meeting of stockholders may be called only by the chairperson of the Board, the chief executive officer or the board of directors, which may delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors;
•limiting the liability of, and providing indemnification to, our directors and officers;
•controlling the procedures for the conduct and scheduling of stockholder meetings;
•providing for a classified board, in which the members of the board of directors are divided into three classes to serve for a period of three years from the date of their respective appointment or election;
•granting the ability to remove directors with cause by the affirmative vote of 66 2⁄3% in voting power of the then outstanding shares of capital stock of the Company entitled to vote at an election of directors;
•requiring the affirmative vote of at least 66 2⁄3% of the voting power of the outstanding shares of our capital stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, voting together as a single class, to amend the bylaws or Articles V, VI, VII and VIII of the charter; and
•advance notice procedures that stockholders must comply with in order to nominate candidates to the 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.
These provisions, alone or together, could delay hostile takeovers and changes in control of us or changes in our board of directors and our management.
As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to provisions of Delaware law, including Section 203 of the DGCL, which prevents some stockholders holding more than 15% of our outstanding common stock from engaging in certain business combinations without approval of the holders of substantially all of the common stock. Any provision of the charter, bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of common stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for common stock.
Our charter designates the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the federal district courts of the United States as the exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, to the fullest extent permitted by law, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, stockholders, employees or agents.
Our charter provides that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, and subject to the court’s having personal jurisdiction over the indispensable parties named as defendants, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for:
•any derivative claim or cause of action brought on behalf of us;
•any claim or cause of action for breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any current or former director, officer or other employee of the Company to us or our stockholders;
•any claim or cause of action against us or any current or former director, officer or other employee of the Company arising out of or pursuant to any provision of the DGCL, our charter or our bylaws (as each may be amended from time to time);
•any claim or cause of action seeking to interpret, apply, enforce or determine the validity of our charter or our bylaws (including any right, obligation or remedy thereunder);
•any claim or cause of action as to which the DGCL confers jurisdiction to the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware; or
•any claim or cause of action asserting a claim against us, or any director, officer or other employee of the Company governed by the internal affairs doctrine.
This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. However, stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder and this provision would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the Exchange Act.
Our charter also provides that the federal district courts of the United States will be the exclusive forum for any complaint asserting a cause of action under the Securities Act. 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 this forum provision providing for exclusive jurisdiction of federal district courts with respect to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act. If a court were to find the choice of forum provisions contained in our charter to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, We may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business, or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our common stock adversely, the price and trading volume of our common stock could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, our market, or our competitors. If any of the analysts who may cover us change their recommendation regarding our stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, the price of our common stock would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease their coverage or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
We are an emerging growth company and the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies may make our common stock less attractive to investors.
We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced financial disclosure obligations, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and any golden parachute payments not previously approved. Pursuant to Section 107 of the JOBS Act, as an emerging growth company, we have elected to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. As a result, our consolidated financial statements may not be comparable to the financial statements of issuers who are required to comply with the effective dates for new or revised accounting standards that are applicable to public companies.
We are permitted to take advantage of these provisions until we are no longer an emerging growth company. We would cease to be an emerging growth company until the earliest of: (a) December 31, 2024, (b) the last date of our fiscal year in which we have a total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, (c) the date on which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer” under the rules of the SEC with at least $700.0 million of outstanding securities held by non-affiliates or (d) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the previous three years.
We may choose to take advantage of some but not all of these reduced reporting requirements. If we take advantage of any of these reduced reporting requirements in future filings, the information that we provide our security holders may be different than the information you might get from other public companies in which you hold equity interests. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions.
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) sales practice requirements may limit a stockholder’s ability to buy and sell our shares of common stock.
FINRA has adopted rules that require that in recommending an investment to a customer, a broker-dealer must have reasonable grounds for believing that the investment is suitable for that customer. Prior to recommending speculative low-priced securities to their non-institutional customers, broker-dealers must make reasonable efforts to obtain information about the customer’s financial status, tax status, investment objectives and other information. Under interpretations of these rules, FINRA believes that there is a high probability that speculative low-priced securities will not be suitable for certain customers.
FINRA requirements will likely make it more difficult for broker-dealers to recommend that their customers buy our shares of common stock, which may have the effect of reducing the level of trading activity in our common stock. As a result, fewer broker-dealers may be willing to make a market in our common stock, reducing a stockholder’s ability to resell shares of our common stock.