UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
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ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended January 31, 2020
or
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TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
Commission File Number: 001-38828
SEACHANGE INTERNATIONAL, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware |
04-3197974 |
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) |
(IRS Employer Identification No.) |
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500 Totten Pond Road |
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Waltham, MA |
02451 |
(Address of principal executive offices) |
(Zip Code) |
(978)-897-0100
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(b) Of The Act:
Title of each class |
Trading Symbol(s) |
Name of each exchange on which registered |
Common Stock, $0.01 par value |
SEAC SEAC |
Nasdaq Global Select Market Nasdaq Global Select Market |
Series A Participating Preferred Stock Purchase Rights |
Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(g) Of The Act:
None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer |
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Accelerated filer |
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Non-accelerated filer |
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Smaller reporting company |
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Emerging growth company |
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If an emerging growth company, indicate by a check mark if the registrant has elected to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒
As of July 31, 2019, the aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based upon the closing price for the registrant’s Common Stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on such date was $60,364,119. For the purposes of this calculation, shares owned by officers and directors (and their affiliates) have been excluded. This exclusion is not intended, nor shall it be deemed, to be an admission that such persons are affiliates of the registrant. The registrant does not have any non-voting common stock outstanding.
The number of shares of the registrant’s Common Stock outstanding as of the close of business on April 6, 2020 was 37,208,434.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE:
Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for the 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Regulation 14A are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the extent stated herein.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT FOR PURPOSES OF THE "SAFE HARBOR" PROVISIONS OF THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995
The statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (“Form 10-K”) of SeaChange International, Inc. ("SeaChange," the "Company," "us," or "we"), including, but not limited to the statements contained in Item 1., "Business," and Item 7., "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” along with statements contained in other reports that we have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), external documents and oral presentations, which are not historical facts, are considered to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements which may be expressed in a variety of ways, including the use of forward looking terminology (although not all forward-looking statements contain these words), such as "believe," "expect," "seek," "intend," "may," "will," "should," "could," "potential," "continue," "estimate," "plan," or "anticipate," or the negatives thereof, other variations thereon or compatible terminology, relate to, among other things, our transition to being a company that primarily provides software solutions, the effect of certain legal claims against us, projected changes in our revenue, earnings and expenses (including taxes), exchange rate sensitivity, interest rate sensitivity, liquidity, product introductions, industry changes, general market conditions, our continued limited number of customers, geographic location of sales and a reduction in workforce and the impact thereof. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. We disclaim any undertaking to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in our expectations with regard thereto or any changes in events, conditions or circumstances on which such statements are based.
These forward-looking statements, and any forward-looking statements contained in other public disclosures of the Company which make reference to the cautionary factors contained in this Form 10-K, reflect our current beliefs, expectations and projections, are based on assumptions that involve (known and unknown) risks and uncertainties and are subject to change based on the considerations described below. We discuss many of these risks and uncertainties in greater detail in Item 1A., “Risk Factors,” of this Form 10-K, but many of these factors are beyond our ability to control or predict. These and other risks and uncertainties may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
The following discussion should be read in conjunction with Part II, Item 7, "Management Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," and our financial statements and footnotes contained in this Form 10-K.
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PART I |
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Item 1. |
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Item 1A. |
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8 |
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Item 1B. |
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29 |
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Item 2. |
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29 |
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Item 3. |
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29 |
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Item 4. |
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29 |
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PART II |
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Item 5. |
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Item 6. |
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Item 7. |
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MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS |
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Item 7A. |
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Item 8. |
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Item 9. |
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CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE |
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Item 9A. |
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PART III |
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Item 10. |
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Item 11. |
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Item 12. |
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SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS |
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Item 13. |
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CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE |
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Item 14. |
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87 |
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PART IV |
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Item 15. |
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Item 16. |
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GENERAL
SeaChange International, Inc., a Delaware corporation founded on July 9, 1993, is an industry leader in the delivery of multiscreen, advertising and premium over the top (“OTT”) video management solutions headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Our software products and services facilitate the aggregation, licensing, management and distribution of video and advertising content for service providers, telecommunications companies, satellite operators and broadcasters. We sell our software products and services worldwide, primarily to service providers including: operators, such as Liberty Global, plc., Altice NV, Cox Communications, Inc. and Rogers Communications, Inc.; telecommunications companies, such as Verizon Communications, Inc., AT&T, Inc. and Frontier Communications Corporation; satellite operators such as Direct TV and Dish Network Corporation; and broadcasters.
Our software products and services are designed to empower video providers to create, manage and monetize the increasingly personalized, highly engaging experiences that viewers demand. Using our products and services, we believe customers can increase revenue by offering services such as video-on-demand (“VOD”) programming on a variety of consumer devices, including televisions (“TVs”), mobile telephones (“smart phones”), personal computers (“PCs”), tablets and OTT streaming players. Our solutions enable service providers to offer other interactive television services that allow subscribers to receive personalized services and interact with their video devices, thereby enhancing their viewing experience. Our products also allow our customers to insert advertising into broadcast and VOD content.
SeaChange serves an exciting global marketplace where multiscreen viewing is increasing, consumer device options are evolving rapidly, and viewing habits are shifting. The primary driver of our business is enabling the delivery of video assets in the changing multiscreen television environment. Through strategic collaborations, we have expanded our capabilities, products and services to address the delivery of content to devices other than television set-top boxes, namely PCs, tablets, smart phones and OTT streaming players. We believe that our strategy of expanding into adjacent product lines will also position us to further support and maintain our existing service provider customer base. Providing our customers with more scalable software platforms enables them to further reduce their infrastructure costs, improve reliability and expand service offerings to their customers. Additionally, we believe we are well positioned to capitalize on new customers entering the multiscreen marketplace and increasingly serve adjacent markets. Our core technologies provide a foundation for software products and services that can be deployed in next generation video delivery systems capable of increased levels of subscriber activity across multiple devices.
In February 2019, we acquired Xstream A/S, a leading OTT media cloud platform provider with its primary operations in Warsaw, Poland. Xstream provides a managed service, OTT video solution that serves more than five million active subscribers globally. Xstream’s MediaMaker video platform has enhanced the SeaChange end-to-end video framework. We have used the acquisition of Xstream to accelerate our penetration in OTT and new market segments and a fully cloud-based end-to-end video platform that operates in a hosted managed service environment.
We have initiated restructuring programs during the past three years, to help us improve operations and optimize our cost structure. In fiscal 2019, we began taking steps to reduce our costs further by implementing a restructuring plan (the “2019 Restructuring Plan”), the primary element of which was staff reductions across all of our functions and geographic areas and for which we expect annualized cost savings of approximately $6.0 million. In fiscal 2020 we continued to streamline our operations and closed our service organizations in Ireland and the Netherlands for which we expect additional annualized cost savings of approximately $6.0 million. Overall, we expect to have annualized cost savings of approximately $12.0 million as a result of the restructuring programs that have been initiated over the past two fiscal years.
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Notwithstanding the success of our restructuring programs, during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019, we experienced a decline in our stock price and actual operating results and, accordingly, revised our forecasts. These events were a trigger for an impairment review, as a result of which we determined that the carrying value of goodwill and certain long-lived assets exceeded their fair value, such that we recorded a $17.0 million impairment charge to reduce the carrying value of our building, included in property, plant and equipment, the remaining net book value of our intangible assets and our goodwill to fair value. The impact of this impairment charge is excluded from our non-GAAP operating results included in this report.
On February 28, 2019, we entered into a Cooperation Agreement with TAR Holdings LLC and Karen Singer (collectively, “TAR Holdings”). As of the date of the Cooperation Agreement, TAR Holdings beneficially owned approximately 20.6% of our outstanding common stock. Pursuant to the Cooperation Agreement, we agreed to set the size of the Board at eight members, appoint Robert Pons to the Board as a Class II Director with a term to expire at the 2019 annual meeting of stockholders, and appoint Jeffrey Tuder to the Board as a Class III Director with a term to expire at the 2020 annual meeting of stockholders. Mr. Pons and Mr. Tuder were accordingly appointed to our Board upon execution of the Cooperation Agreement on February 28, 2019.
On March 4, 2019, our Board approved and adopted a Tax Benefits Preservation Plan (the “Tax Benefits Preservation Plan”) to deter acquisitions of our common stock that would potentially limit our ability to use net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes (“NOLs”) to reduce our potential future federal income tax obligations. In connection with the Tax Benefits Preservation Plan, we declared a dividend of one preferred share purchase right for each share of our common stock issued and outstanding as of March 15, 2019 to our stockholders of record on that date. The Tax Benefits Preservation Plan was approved by our stockholders at our 2019 annual meeting of stockholders.
FRAMEWORK
Our business is focused on offering an end-to-end video delivery platform (“Framework”). Framework is a value-based engagement, which provides content and service providers with a complete software delivery platform for linear, VOD and time shift TV (“TSTV”) over managed and unmanaged networks. Framework includes, but is not limited to, the following modules: video back-office, media asset management, targeted advertising management, analytics and the client interface for set-top boxes (“STBs”), Smart-TVs and mobile devices. Our revenue sources consist of Framework revenue from these areas as well as related services. Framework is available as a product, SaaS, and/or managed service, on-premises, cloud and hybrid.
Video Back-Office
The back-office is a comprehensive software platform that enables content and service providers to manage, monetize and deliver a seamless viewing experience to subscribers across TVs, PCs, tablets, smart phones and other IP-enabled devices. It is a modular software solution allowing customers to gradually adopt new functionality and features to expand multiscreen television distribution capabilities.
Media Asset Management
In today’s multiscreen viewing environment, programming or advertisements are reproduced with numerous variants to serve the unique requirements of multiple network types, consumer devices and geographies. Metadata, such as poster, description and pricing, associated with the programming, is also managed by the platform. At the point of content ingest, our media asset management software is used to receive, manage and publish video content for viewing on televisions, tablets, PCs and other consumer devices. Our media asset management simplifies the increasingly complex tasks of movie and television program asset tracking, metadata management, and overall content workflow processing.
Advanced Advertising Platform
As more video content is served to multiple consumer devices, the ability to generate additional revenue by inserting advertising across multiple platforms becomes crucial to service providers seeking to offset content rights costs and
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reduce subscriber fees for viewing the content. The advanced advertising platform enables service providers to maximize advertising revenue across multiscreen, broadcast, on-demand and OTT viewing and reach their audiences while viewers watch content across multiple devices. The advanced advertising platform also enables targeted, real time and programmatic advertisement insertion to optimize the revenue generation.
Client Application
The client application empowers service providers and content owners to optimize live and on-demand video consumption on multiscreen and OTT services. The client application’s features and functionality allow operators to fully leverage the extensive content management, delivery and monetization capabilities of our platforms. The client application products provide a ready-to-deploy multiscreen user experience coupled with a UX Manager cloud service that has been designed to optimize the management of the TV screen’s user experience and customization.
Analytics
Analytics equips operators with valuable insight into subscriber engagement with their video service in order to optimize retention and monetization. Extensive, pre-built dashboards and reports provide a robust view of VOD catalog engagement, channel lineup utilization, and promotion effectiveness for increased transactional revenues. The benefits of analytic insights include, but are not limited to, identifying at-risk subscribers to incentivize them and reduce the risk of churn, determining effective promotions to increase VOD revenues and catalog productivity, and tracking asset popularity to make accurate business decisions about content providers and VOD price points.
Services
SeaChange offers comprehensive technical support and maintenance including an onsite dedicated engineer for Framework projects. We have developed extensive capabilities in systems integration, implementation and customer engineering. We also provide managed services capabilities offering end-to-end management of video platform in the cloud, including remote monitoring and proactive system maintenance, to help our customers quickly and confidently establish new on-demand and multiscreen capabilities.
STRATEGY
Our goal is to strengthen our position as a leading global provider of multiscreen video delivery and advertising solutions by enabling service providers and content owners to increase revenue opportunities by delivering transformative multiscreen video services to their end users. Key elements of our strategy include:
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We intend to continue providing our current and future customer base with industry-leading solutions through our focus on product innovation and substantial investment in research and development for our latest feature-rich software products and services; |
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We intend to continue providing pre-packaged integrated solutions, known as end-to-end solutions, with the goal of better enabling new and existing customers to drive the adoption of subscription-based, SaaS models through service offerings hosted and/or managed by us; |
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We intend to continue pursuing strategic collaborations that we believe will strengthen our industry leadership position, expand our geographic presence, open new markets or allow us to expand to new products or services, or enhance our existing ones; |
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We may enter strategic relationships to help our customers address deficiencies in their market space; and |
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We intend to continue to focus on both selling our products to support a single screen and to upgrade our services to support multiple devices as service providers expand their reach. We intend to continue to be able to scale to enable platforms as part of the initial sale. |
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We have focused and streamlined our research and development efforts in recent years. We believe that our success will depend on our ability to develop and rapidly introduce new integrated solutions and enhancements to our existing products that meet changing customer requirements in our current and future customer base as well as new markets. We have made substantial investments in developing and bringing to market our next generation software products which utilize microservices-based software architectures and advanced orchestration. Our current research and development activities are focused on developing cloud-based multiscreen television platforms, content management solutions, additional user experience applications, advertising solutions and integrating the solutions we currently offer. The majority of our research and development efforts are performed by our engineering and development team in Warsaw, Poland.
SELLING AND MARKETING
Our sales cycle has historically been long, in some instances 12-24 months. Framework engagements can be large and span for multiple years and it can be difficult to predict in what fiscal period the sale will occur. While currently a small portion of our revenue, our newer SaaS offerings have shorter sales and deployment cycles as our customers’ subscribers are added to existing managed services in the cloud. We primarily utilize a direct sales process and work closely with customers to understand and define their needs. We use several marketing programs to support the sale and distribution of Framework. We also market certain features of Framework to systems integrators and value-added resellers. We attend and exhibit Framework at a limited number of prominent industry trade shows and conferences and we present our technology at seminars and smaller conferences to promote awareness.
OUR CUSTOMERS
We currently sell our products primarily to video service providers, such as cable system operators and telecommunications companies, as well as content providers. Historically, a significant portion of our revenue in any given fiscal period has been derived from substantial orders placed by these large organizations. For the fiscal year ended January 31, 2020, no customer accounted for more than 10% of our total revenue.
We expect that we will continue to be dependent upon a limited number of customers for a significant portion of our revenue in the near future, even as we intend to penetrate new markets and customers. As a result of this customer concentration, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected by the failure of anticipated orders to materialize and by deferrals or cancellations of orders because of changes in customer requirements or new product announcements or introductions. In addition, the concentration of customers may cause variations in revenue, expenses and operating results on a quarterly basis due to seasonality of orders, the timing and relative size of orders received and accepted during a fiscal quarter, or the timing and size of orders for which revenue recognition criteria have been satisfied during a fiscal quarter.
COMPETITION
The markets in which we compete are characterized by intense competition, with many suppliers providing different types of products to different segments of the markets. In new markets for our products, we compete based on price, functionality and delivery capabilities. In markets in which we have an established presence, we compete principally based on the breadth of our products’ features and benefits, including the flexibility, scalability, professional quality, ease of use, reliability and cost effectiveness of our products, and our reputation and the depth of our expertise, customer service and support. While we believe that we currently compete favorably overall with respect to these factors and that our ability to provide integrated solutions to manage and distribute digital video differentiates us from our competitors, in the future we may not be able to continue to compete successfully with respect to these factors.
In the market for multiscreen video, we compete with various larger companies offering video platforms and applications such as Synamedia, Arris Group Inc., TiVo and MediaKind, as well as in-house solutions built by the service providers. Increasingly, we are also seeing competition from integrated end-to-end solutions and many OTT providers. We expect the competition in each of the markets in which we operate to intensify in the future with existing and new competitors with significant market presence and financial resources.
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Many of our current and prospective competitors have significantly greater financial, technical, manufacturing, sales, marketing and other resources than we do. As a result, these competitors may be able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion, sale and support of their products. Moreover, these companies may introduce additional products that are competitive with ours or enter strategic relationships to offer complete solutions. Therefore, our products may not be able to compete effectively with these products from these companies in the future.
PATENTS AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Our success and our ability to compete are dependent, in part, upon the proprietary rights of our intellectual property. We currently have 24 patents worldwide. In addition, we rely on a combination of contractual rights, trademark laws, trade secrets and copyright laws to establish and protect our proprietary rights in our products. It is possible that the validity of these patents would not be upheld.
It is also possible that the steps taken by us to protect our intellectual property will be inadequate to prevent misappropriation of our technology or that our competitors will independently develop technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our technology. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries in which our products are or may be distributed do not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. Currently, we are not party to intellectual property litigation, but we may be a party to litigation in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights or because of an allegation that we infringe others’ intellectual property.
EMPLOYEES
As of January 31, 2020, we had 182 employees, of which 3 were part-time. We also use other temporary employees and contractors in the ordinary course of our business. We believe that our relations with our employees are good. None of our employees are represented by a collective bargaining agreement. Employees in certain foreign jurisdictions are represented by local works council as may be customary or required in those jurisdictions.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
SeaChange is subject to the informational requirements pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). SeaChange files periodic reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. Such reports, proxy statements and other information may be accessed through the SEC’s Interactive Data Electronic Applications system at http://www.sec.gov.
Financial and other information about SeaChange, including our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct and charters for our Audit Committee, Compensation Committee and Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee, is available on the Investor Relations section of our website at www.seachange.com. We make available free of charge on our website our Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q (“Form 10-Q”), Current Reports on Form 8-K (“Form 8-K”) and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this document and should not be considered a part of this Form 10-K. Our website address is included in this document as an inactive textual reference only.
We wish to caution each reader of this Form 10-K to consider the following factors and other factors discussed herein and in other past reports, including but not limited to prior year Form 10-K and Form 10-Q reports filed with the SEC. Our business and results of operations could be materially affected by any of the following risks. The factors discussed herein are not exhaustive. Therefore, the factors contained herein should be read together with other reports that we file with the SEC from time to time, which may supplement, modify, supersede, or update the factors listed in this document. You should also refer to the other information contained in this Form 10-K, including our consolidated Financial Statements and the related notes.
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Our business is dependent on customers’ continued spending on video solutions and services. A reduction in spending by customers would adversely affect our business.
Our performance is dependent on customers’ continued spending for video solutions and services. Spending for these systems and services is cyclical and can be curtailed or deferred on short notice. A variety of factors affect the amount of spending, and, therefore, our sales and profits, including:
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general economic conditions; customer specific financial or stock market conditions; |
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availability and cost of capital; |
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governmental regulation; |
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demand for services; |
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competition from other providers of video solutions and services; |
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acceptance by our customers; and |
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real or perceived trends or uncertainties in these factors. |
Any reduction in spending by our customers would adversely affect our business. We continue to have limited visibility into the capital spending plans of our current and prospective customers. Fluctuations in our revenue can lead to even greater fluctuations in our operating results. Our planned expense levels depend in part on our expectations of future revenue. Our planned expenses include significant investments, particularly within our research and development organization, which we believe are necessary to continue to provide innovative solutions to meet our current and prospective customers’ needs. As a result, it is difficult to forecast revenue and operating results. If our revenue and operating results are below the expectations of our investors and market analysts, it could cause a decline in the price of our common stock.
Our efforts to introduce SaaS-based multiscreen service offerings may either not succeed or impair the sale of our on-site licensed offerings, the occurrence of either of which may adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.
We have devoted, and will continue to devote, considerable resources, including the allocation of capital expenditures to growing our SaaS service offering revenue over the next several years. There can be no assurance that we will meet our revenue targets for this service and if we fail to achieve our revenue goals, our growth and operating results will be materially adversely affected. Additionally, new or existing customers may choose to purchase our SaaS services rather than our on-premise solutions. If our customers’ purchases trend away from perpetual licenses toward our SaaS, or to the extent customers defer orders due to evaluation of SaaS, our product revenue, and our timing of revenue generally, may be adversely affected, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.
If we fail to develop and consistently deliver innovative technologies and services in response to changes in the technology and entertainment industries, our business could decline.
The markets for our products, services and technologies is characterized by rapid change and technological evolution. We will need to continue to expend considerable resources on research and development in the future in order to continue to design and deliver enduring, innovative entertainment products, services and technologies. Despite our efforts, we may not be able to consistently develop and effectively market new products, technologies and services that adequately or competitively address the needs of the changing marketplace. In addition, we may not correctly identify new or changing market trends at an early enough stage to capitalize on market opportunities. Our future success depends to a great extent on our ability to develop and consistently deliver innovative technologies that are widely adopted in response to changes in the technology and entertainment industries and that are compatible with the technologies, services or products introduced by other entertainment industry participants.
Despite our efforts and investments in developing new products, services and technologies:
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we may not receive significant revenue from our current research and development efforts for several years, if at all; |
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we cannot assure you that our newly developed products, services or technologies can be successfully protected as proprietary intellectual property rights or will not infringe the intellectual property of others; |
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we cannot assure you that any new products or services that we develop will achieve market acceptance; |
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our products, services and technologies may become obsolete due to rapid advancements in technology and changes in consumer preferences; |
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we cannot assure you that revenue from new products, services or technologies will offset any decline in revenue from our products, services and technologies which may become obsolete; and |
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our competitors and/or potential customers may develop products, services or technologies similar to those developed by us, resulting in a reduction in the potential demand for our newly developed products, services or technologies. |
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Our failure to successfully develop new and improved products, services and technologies, including as a result of any of the risks described above, may reduce our future growth and profitability and may adversely affect our business, results and financial condition.
We operate in a relatively new and rapidly developing market, which makes it difficult to evaluate our business and future prospects.
The market for our products and services is relatively new and rapidly developing, which makes it difficult to evaluate our business and future prospects. We have encountered, and will continue to encounter, risks and difficulties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries, including those related to:
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market acceptance of our current and future products and services; |
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customer renewal rates; |
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our ability to compete with other companies that are currently in, or may in the future enter, the market for our products; |
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our ability to successfully expand our business, especially internationally; |
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our ability to control costs, including our operating expenses; |
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the amount and timing of operating expenses, particularly sales and marketing expenses, related to the maintenance and expansion of our business, operations and infrastructure; |
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network outages or security breaches and any associated expenses; |
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foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; |
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write-downs, impairment charges or unforeseen liabilities in connection with acquisitions; |
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our ability to successfully manage acquisitions; and |
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general economic and political conditions in our domestic and international markets. |
If we do not manage these risks successfully, our business will be harmed.
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Our future success is dependent on the manner in which the multiscreen video and OTT markets develop, and if these markets develop in a manner that does not facilitate inclusion of our products and services, our business may not continue to grow.
A large portion of our anticipated revenue growth is expected to come from sales and services related to our multiscreen video and OTT products. These markets continue to develop as commercial markets, both within and outside North America. In addition to the potential size of these markets and the timing of their development being uncertain, so too is the technological manner in which they will develop. The success of these markets will require that video service providers continue to upgrade their cable networks to service and successfully market multiscreen video, OTT and similar services to their cable television subscribers in a manner that permits inclusion of our products and services. If cable system operators and telecommunications companies fail to make the capital expenditures necessary to upgrade their networks or determine that broad deployment of multiscreen video and OTT services is not viable as a business proposition or if our products cannot support a substantial number of subscribers while maintaining a high level of performance, our revenue will not grow as we have planned.
We may be unsuccessful in our efforts to become a company that primarily provides software solutions.
Our efforts to become a company that primarily provides software solutions may result in a reduction in both the range of products and services we offer and in the range of our current and potential future customers. Each of these factors may increase the level of execution risk in our strategy, in that there may be increased variability in our revenue. If we are unsuccessful in this transition, our business, financial condition and results of operation may be adversely affected, and the market price of our common stock may decrease.
If we are unable to successfully compete in our marketplace, our financial condition and operating results may be adversely affected.
We currently compete against companies offering video software solutions and have increasingly seen competition from integrated end-to-end solutions and a large number of OTT players. To the extent the products developed are competitive with and not complementary to our products, they may be more cost-effective than our solutions, which could result in cable television system operators and telecommunications companies discontinuing their purchases of our on-demand products. Due to the rapidly evolving markets in which we compete, additional competitors with significant market presence and financial resources, such as in-house solutions and online video platforms, may enter those markets, thereby further intensifying competition. Increased competition could result in price reductions, cancellations of purchase orders, losses of business with current customers to competitors, and loss of market share which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Many of our current and potential competitors have greater financial, selling and marketing, technical and other resources than we do. They may be in better position to withstand any significant reduction in capital spending by customers in our markets and may not be as susceptible to downturns in a particular market. Moreover, our competitors may also foresee the course of market developments more accurately than we do. Although we believe that we have certain technological and other advantages over our competitors, realizing and maintaining these advantages will require a continued high level of investment by us in research and product development, marketing and customer service and support. In the future, we may not have sufficient resources to continue to make these investments or to make the technological advances necessary to compete successfully with our existing competitors or with new competitors. If we are unable to compete effectively, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results would be materially adversely affected because of the difference in our operating results from the assumptions on which our business model is based.
If we fail to respond to rapidly changing technologies related to multiscreen video, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially adversely affected because the competitive advantage of our products and services relative to those of our competitors would decrease.
The markets for our products are characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards and frequent new product introductions and enhancements. Future technological advances in the television and video industries may result in the availability of new products or services that could compete with the solutions provided by us or reduce the cost of existing products or services, any of which could enable our existing or potential customers to fulfill their video needs better and more cost efficiently than with our products. Our future success will
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depend on our ability to enhance our existing video products, including the development of new applications for our technology, and to develop and introduce new products to meet and adapt to changing customer requirements and emerging technologies such as the OTT market. In the future, we may not be successful in enhancing our video products or developing and marketing new products which satisfy customer needs or achieve market acceptance. In addition, there may be services, products or technologies developed by others that render our products or technologies uncompetitive, unmarketable or obsolete, or announcements of currently planned or other new product offerings either by us or our competitors that cause customers to defer or fail to purchase our existing solutions.
We have taken and continue to take measures to address the variability in the market for our products and services, which could have long-term negative effects on our business or impact our ability to adequately address a rapid increase in customer demand.
We have taken and continue to take measures to address the variability in the market for our products and services, including due to the impact of worldwide economic cycles, to increase average revenue per unit of our sales and to reduce our operating expenses, rationalize capital expenditure and minimize customer turnover. These measures include shifting more of our operations to lower cost regions by outsourcing and off-shoring, implementing cost reduction programs and reducing and rationalizing planned capital expenditures and expense budgets. We cannot ensure that the measures we have taken will not impair our ability to effectively develop and market products and services, to remain competitive in the industries in which we compete, to operate effectively, to operate profitably during slowdowns or to effectively meet a rapid increase in customer demand. These measures may have long-term negative effects on our business by reducing our pool of technical talent, decreasing or slowing improvements in our products and services, making it more difficult to hire and retain talented individuals and to quickly respond to customers or competitors in an upward cycle.
Because our customer base has been highly concentrated among a limited number of large customers, the loss of reduced demand by, or the return of product by one or more of these customers or the failure of revenue acceptance criteria to have been satisfied in a given fiscal quarter, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our customer base is highly concentrated among a limited number of large customers, and, therefore, a limited number of customers account for a significant percentage of our revenue in any fiscal period. Our sales to specific customers tend to vary significantly from year to year and from quarter to quarter depending upon these customers’ budgets for capital expenditures and our new product introductions. We believe that a significant amount of our revenue will continue to be derived from a limited number of large customers in the future. The loss of, reduced demand for products or related services by, or return of a product previously purchased by any of our major customers or the failure of revenue acceptance criteria to have been satisfied in a given fiscal quarter, could materially and adversely affect, either in a particular quarter or on a more long-term basis, our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we are unable to retain our existing customers, our revenue and results of operations will be adversely affected.
A portion of our business is subscription-based and as we seek to accelerate our penetration in OTT and serving new market segments with a SaaS revenue model, we will expand our subscription-based model. Our customers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions after their subscription period expires, and we will experience losses of customers that elect not to renew, in some cases, for reasons beyond our control. Even if subscriptions are renewed, they may not be renewed on the same or on more profitable terms. As a result, our ability to retain our existing customers and grow depends in part on subscription renewals. We may not be able to accurately predict future trends in customer renewals, and our customers’ renewal rates have and may continue to fluctuate because of several factors, including their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our services, the cost of our services and the cost of services offered by our competitors, reductions in our customers’ and their end users’ spending levels or the introduction by competitors of attractive features and functionality. If our customer retention rate decreases, we may need to increase the rate at which we add new customers in order to maintain and grow our revenue, which may require us to incur significantly higher sales and marketing expenses than we currently anticipate, or our revenue may decline. If our customers do not renew their subscriptions for our services, renew on less favorable terms, or do not purchase additional functionality or subscriptions, our revenue may grow more slowly than expected or decline, and our profitability and gross margins may be harmed or affected. Our Framework subscription model was
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introduced in fiscal 2020 and as such we do not have historical renewal data to rely on to help us predict our future renewal rates and we will not have relevant renewal data for a number of years.
Consolidations in the markets we serve could result in delays or reductions in purchases of products, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.
The markets we serve have historically experienced, and continue to experience, the consolidation of many industry participants. For example, AT&T acquired Direct TV, Charter Communications acquired Time Warner Cable, Altice NV acquired HOT, Suddenlink Communications and Cablevision Systems Corp., and Frontier Communications Corporation bought select assets from Verizon Communications Inc. When consolidations occur, it is possible that the acquirer will not continue using the same suppliers, possibly resulting in an immediate or future elimination of sales opportunities for us or our competitors. Even if sales are not reduced, consolidation can also result in pressure from customers for lower prices or better terms, reflecting the increase in the total volume of products purchased or the elimination of a price differential between the acquiring customer and the company acquired. Consolidations also could result in delays in purchasing decisions by the affected companies prior to completion of the transaction and by the merged businesses. The purchasing decisions of the merged companies could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Cancellation or deferral of purchases of our products or final customer acceptance could cause a substantial variation in our operating results, resulting in a decrease in the market price of our common stock and making period-to-period comparisons of our operating results less meaningful.
We have historically derived a substantial portion of our revenue from purchase orders that have exceeded one million dollars in value. A significant cancellation or deferral of purchases of our products or receiving final customer acceptance could result in a substantial variation in our operating results in any particular quarter due to the resulting decrease in revenue and gross margin. In addition, to the extent significant sales occur earlier than expected, operating results for subsequent quarters may be adversely affected because our operating costs and expenses are based, in part, on our expectations of future revenue, and we may be unable to adjust spending in a timely manner to compensate for any revenue shortfall. Because of these factors, in some future quarter our operating results may be below guidance that we may issue or the expectations of public market analysts and investors, either of which may adversely affect the market price of our common stock. In addition, these factors may make period-to-period comparisons of our operating results less meaningful.
Adoption of our value based selling approach for our products and services may adversely impact our revenues and operating results.
In February 2019, we began providing our products and services to customers on the basis of our value based selling approach, under which customers would license our products and services, including specified upgrades, for a fixed period of time for a fixed price. If we do not correctly understand the magnitude of expenses we will incur in connection with these new agreements, our operating results would be materially affected. In addition, our revenues may be adversely affected if the new approach results in a delay in our ability to recognize revenue, in which case our revenues and operating results would be materially affected.
Due to the lengthy sales cycle involved in the sale of our products, our quarterly results may vary and should not be relied on as an indication of future performance.
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Our software products and related services are relatively complex and their purchase generally involves a significant commitment of capital, with attendant delays frequently associated with large capital expenditures and implementation procedures within an organization. Moreover, the purchase of these products typically requires coordination and agreement among a potential customer’s corporate headquarters and its regional and local operations. For these and other reasons, the sales cycle associated with the purchase of our software products and services is typically lengthy and subject to a number of significant risks, including customers’ budgetary constraints and internal acceptance reviews, over which we have little or no control. Based upon all of the foregoing, we believe that our quarterly revenue and operating results are likely to vary significantly in the future, that period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations are not necessarily meaningful and that these comparisons should not be relied upon as indications of future performance.
If there were a decline in demand or average selling prices for our products and services, our revenue and operating results would be materially affected.
A decline in demand or average selling prices for our products or services in the foreseeable future, whether as a result of new product introductions by others, price competition, technological change, inability to enhance the products in a timely fashion, or otherwise, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Increasingly, we are seeing competition from integrated end-to-end solutions and a large number of OTT players, each of which may reduce the demand for or average selling prices of our products and services and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We must manage product transitions successfully to remain competitive.
The introduction of a new product or product line is a complex task, involving significant expenditures in research and development, training, promotion and sales channel development. However, we cannot assure that we will be able to execute product transitions in an efficient manner or that product transitions will be executed without harming our operating results. Failure to develop products with required features and performance levels or any delay in bringing a new product to market could significantly reduce our revenue and harm our competitive position.
We may fail to achieve our financial forecasts due to inaccurate sales forecasts or other factors.
Our revenue is difficult to forecast, and as a result, our quarterly operating results can fluctuate substantially. We use a “pipeline” system, a common industry practice, to forecast sales and trends in our business. Our sales personnel monitor the status of all proposals and estimate when a customer will make a purchase decision and the dollar amount of the sale. These estimates are aggregated periodically to generate a sales pipeline. Our pipeline estimates can prove to be unreliable both in a particular quarter and over a longer period of time, in part because the “conversion rate” or “closure rate” of the pipeline into contracts can be very difficult to estimate. A reduction in the conversion rate, or in the pipeline itself, could cause us to plan or budget incorrectly and adversely affect our business or results of operations. In particular, a slowdown in capital spending or economic conditions generally can unexpectedly reduce the conversion rate in particular periods as purchasing decisions are delayed, reduced in amounts or cancelled. The conversion rate can also be affected by the tendency of some of our customers to wait until the end of a fiscal period in the hope of obtaining more favorable terms, which can also impede our ability to negotiate, execute and deliver upon these contracts in a timely manner.
In addition to the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, the following risks could cause fluctuations in our quarterly operating results:
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our ability to retain existing customers and attract new customers; |
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the rates at which our customers renew; |
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the amount of revenue generated from our customers’ use of our products or services in excess of their committed contractual entitlements; |
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the timing and amount of costs of new and existing sales and marketing efforts; |
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the timing and amount of operating costs and capital expenditures relating to expansion of our business, operations and infrastructure; and |
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the cost and timing of the development and introduction of new product and service offerings by us or our competitors. |
Because a significant portion of our cost structure is largely fixed in the short-term, revenue shortfalls tend to have a disproportionately negative impact on our profitability. The number of large new software licenses transactions increases the risk of fluctuations in our quarterly results because a delay in even a small number of these transactions could cause our quarterly revenue and profitability to fall significantly short of our predictions.
Restructuring programs could have a material negative impact on our business.
To increase strategic focus and operational efficiency we have implemented restructuring programs. In fiscal 2017, we undertook significant cost-saving actions and established an additional company-wide cost savings program in the second half of fiscal 2017. The 2017 restructuring program allowed us to achieve approximately $38 million in annualized cost savings since their commencement and resulted in aggregate charges of approximately $9 million as of January 31, 2018 in severance and restructuring costs. In fiscal 2019, we further implemented a cost restructuring program (the “2019 Restructuring Program”), the primary element of which was staff reductions across all of our functions and geographic areas. In fiscal 2020, we continued to streamline our operations and closed our service organizations in Ireland and the Netherlands for which we expect additional annualized costs savings of $6.0 million. As a result of these restructuring programs, our total number of employees significantly decreased. We may incur additional restructuring costs or not realize the expected benefits of these new initiatives. Further, we could experience delays, business disruptions, decreased productivity, unanticipated employee turnover and increased litigation-related costs in connection with past and future restructuring and other efficiency improvement activities, and there can be no assurance that our estimates of the savings achievable by restructuring will be realized. As a result, our restructuring and our related cost reduction activities could have an adverse impact on our financial condition or results of operations.
If we are unable to manage our efforts to focus our business and grow in targeted areas, our business may be harmed through a diminished ability to monitor and control effectively our operations, and a decrease in the quality of work and innovation of our employees.
Our ability to successfully focus our business and grow in targeted areas requires effective planning and management. We are also continuing to transition towards greater reliance on our software products and services for a significant portion of our total revenue. In light of the growing complexities in managing our expanding portfolio of products and services, our anticipated future operations may continue to strain our operational and administrative resources. To manage future growth effectively, we must continue to improve our operational controls and internal controls over financial reporting, integrate new personnel and the businesses we have acquired, or will acquire, and manage our expanding international operations. A failure to manage our growth may harm our business through a decreased ability to monitor and control effectively our operations, and a decrease in the quality of work and innovation of our employees upon which our business is dependent.
Because our business is susceptible to risks associated with international operations, we may not be able to maintain or increase international sales of our products and services.
Approximately 53% of our total revenue was generated from sales outside the United States (“U.S.”) during the most recent fiscal year. Our international operations are expected to continue to account for a significant portion of our business in the foreseeable future. However, in the future we may be unable to maintain or increase international sales of our products and services. Our international operations are subject to a variety of risks, including:
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difficulties in establishing and managing international distribution channels; |
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difficulty in staffing and managing foreign operations; |
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inability to collect accounts receivable; |
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difficulties in selling, servicing and supporting overseas products and services and in translating products and services into foreign languages; |
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the uncertainty of laws and enforcement in certain countries relating to the protection of intellectual property; |
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fluctuations in currency exchange rates; |
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multiple and possibly overlapping tax structures; |
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negative tax consequences such as withholding taxes and employer payroll taxes; |
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differences in labor laws and regulations affecting our ability to hire and retain employees and engage in restructuring activities; |
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business and operational disruptions or delays caused by political, social and economic instability and unrest, including risks related to terrorist activity; |
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changes in economic policies by foreign governments, including the imposition and potential continued expansion of economic sanctions by the U.S. and the European Union (the “EU”) or the Russian Federation; |
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the burden of complying with a wide variety of foreign laws, treaties and technical standards; |
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cultural differences in the conduct of business; |
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natural disasters and pandemics; and |
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growth and stability of the economy or political changes in international markets. |
The impact of one or more of these international risks could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flow.
We are exposed to fluctuations in currency exchange rates that could negatively impact our financial results and cash flows.
Because a significant portion of our business is conducted outside the U.S., we face exposure to adverse movements in foreign currency exchange rates. These exposures may change over time as business practices evolve, and they could have a material adverse impact on our financial results and cash flows. An increase in the value of the U.S. dollar could increase the real cost to our customers of our products in those markets outside the U.S. where we often sell in dollars, and a weakened dollar could increase local currency operating costs. In preparing our consolidated financial statements, certain financial information is required to be translated from foreign currencies to the U.S. dollar using either the spot rate or the weighted average exchange rate. If the U.S. dollar weakens or strengthens relative to applicable local currencies, there is a risk our reported sales, operating expenses and net income could significantly fluctuate. We are not able to predict the degree of exchange rate fluctuations; nor can we estimate the effect any future fluctuations may have upon our future operations.
Economic conditions and regulatory changes following the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
The U.K. formally left the EU on January 31, 2020, typically referred to as “Brexit.” Pursuant to the formal withdrawal arrangements agreed between the U.K. and EU, the U.K. will be subject to a transition period until December 31, 2020 during which EU rules will continue to apply. Negotiations between the U.K. and EU are expected to continue in relation to the customs and trading relationship between the U.K. and EU following the expiration of the transition period. The uncertainty concerning the U.K.’s legal, political and economic relationship with the EU after the transition period may be a source of instability in international markets, create significant currency fluctuations and otherwise adversely affect trading agreements or similar cross-border cooperation arrangements, whether economic, tax, fiscal, legal, regulatory or otherwise. While the full effects of Brexit will not be known for some time, Brexit could cause disruptions to, and create uncertainty surrounding, our business and results of operations. For example, following the transition period, the U.K. could lose the benefits of global trade agreements negotiated by the EU on behalf of its members, which may result in increased trade barriers that could make our doing business in the EU and the European Economic Area more difficult. Ongoing global market volatility and a deterioration in economic conditions due to uncertainty surrounding the future relationship between
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the U.K. and EU could significantly disrupt the markets in which we operate and lead our customers to closely monitor their costs and delay capital spending decisions.
Additionally, Brexit has resulted in the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies in which we conduct business. Although this strengthening has been somewhat ameliorated by the implementation of the transition period, because we translate revenue denominated in foreign currency into U.S. dollars for our financial statements, during periods of a strengthening U.S. dollar, our reported revenue from foreign operations is reduced. As a result of Brexit and the continued negotiations between the U.K. and EU, there may be further periods of volatility in the currencies in which we conduct business.
The effects of Brexit will depend on any agreements the U.K. makes to retain access to EU markets following the transition period. The measures could potentially disrupt the markets we serve and may cause us to lose customers and employees. In addition, Brexit could lead to legal uncertainty and potentially divergent national laws and regulations as the U.K. determines which EU laws to replace or replicate, which could present new regulatory costs and challenges.
Any of these effects of Brexit could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our ability to compete could be jeopardized if we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights from third-party challenges.
Our success and ability to compete depends upon our ability to protect our proprietary technology that is incorporated into our products. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws and restrictions on disclosure to protect our intellectual property rights. Although we have issued patents, we cannot assure that any additional patents will be issued or that the issued patents will not be invalidated. We also enter confidentiality or license agreements with our employees, consultants and corporate partners, and control access to and distribution of our software, documentation and other proprietary information. Despite these precautions, it may be possible for a third-party to copy or otherwise misappropriate and use our products or technology without authorization, particularly in foreign countries where the laws may not protect our proprietary rights as fully as in the U.S. We may need to resort to litigation in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets or to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. If competitors are able to use our technology, our ability to compete effectively could be harmed.
We have been and, in the future, could become subject to litigation regarding intellectual property rights, which could seriously harm our business and require us to incur significant legal costs to defend our intellectual property rights.
The industry in which we operate is characterized by vigorous protection and pursuit of intellectual property rights or positions, which on occasion, have resulted in significant and often protracted litigation. We have from time to time received, and may in the future receive, communications from third-parties asserting infringements on patent or other intellectual property rights covering our products or processes. We may be a party to litigation in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights or because of an allegation that we infringe others’ intellectual property. Any parties asserting that our products infringe upon their proprietary rights would force us to defend ourselves and possibly our customers or manufacturers against the alleged infringement, as many of our commercial agreements require us to defend and/or indemnify the other party against intellectual property infringement claims brought by a third-party with respect to our products. We have received certain claims for indemnification from customers but have not been made party to any litigation involving intellectual property infringement claims as a result. These claims and any resulting lawsuit, if successful, could subject us to significant liability for damages and invalidation of our proprietary rights. This possibility of multiple damages serves to increase the incentive for plaintiffs to bring such litigation. In addition, these lawsuits, regardless of their success, would likely be time-consuming and expensive to resolve and would divert management time and attention away from our operations. Although we carry general liability insurance, our insurance may not cover potential claims of this type or may not be adequate to indemnify us for all liability that may be imposed. In addition, any potential intellectual property litigation also could force us to stop selling, incorporating or using the products that use the infringed intellectual property or obtain from the owner of the infringed intellectual property right a license to sell or use the relevant technology, although this license may not be available on reasonable terms, or at all, or redesign those products that use the
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infringed intellectual property. If we are forced to take any of the foregoing actions, our business may be seriously harmed.
If content providers limit the scope of content licensed for use in the digital VOD and OTT market, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be negatively affected because the potential market for our products would be more limited than we currently believe and have communicated to the financial markets.
The success of the multiscreen video market is contingent on content providers permitting their content to be licensed for use in this market. Content providers may, due to concerns regarding either or both marketing and illegal duplication of the content, limit the extent to which they provide content to their subscribers. A limitation of content for the VOD and OTT market would indirectly limit the market for our products that are used in connection with that market.
If we are not able to obtain necessary licenses, services or distribution rights for third-party technology at acceptable prices, or at all, our products could become obsolete or we may not be able to deliver certain product offerings.
We have incorporated third-party licensed technology into our current products and our product lines. From time to time, we may be required to license additional technology or obtain services from third-parties to develop new products or product enhancements or to provide specific solutions. Third-party providers may not be available or continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms. The inability to maintain or re-license any third-party products required in our current products or to obtain any new third-party licenses and services necessary to develop new products and product enhancements or provide specific solutions could require us to obtain substitute technology of lower quality or performance standards or at greater cost. Such inabilities could delay or prevent us from making these products or services, which could seriously harm the competitiveness of our solutions.
A portion of the technology licensed by us incorporates “open source” software, and we may incorporate open source software in the future. Such open source software is generally licensed by its authors or other third parties under open source licenses. Although we monitor our use of open source closely, the terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. courts, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our products. In addition, if we fail to comply with these licenses, we may be subject to certain conditions, including requirements that we offer our services that incorporate the open source software for no cost, that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon, incorporating or using the open source software and that we license such modifications or alterations under the terms of the particular open source license. 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 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 the foregoing conditions, which could disrupt the distribution and sale of some of our services. We could also be required to seek licenses from third-parties to continue offering our products, to re-engineer our products or to discontinue the sale of our products in the event re-engineering cannot be accomplished on a timely or successful basis, any of which could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our products are subject to warranty claims.
We sell our products with warranties as to the products’ performance in accordance with standard published specifications in effect at the time of delivery. There can be no assurance that the provision in our financial statements for estimated product warranty expense will be sufficient. We cannot ensure you that our efforts to reduce our risk through warranty disclaimers will effectively limit our liability. Any significant occurrence of warranty expense in excess of estimates could have a material adverse effect on our operating results, financial condition and cash flow. Further, we provide maintenance support to our customers and allocate a portion of the product purchase price to the initial warranty period and recognize revenue on a straight-line basis over that warranty period related to both the warranty obligation and the maintenance support agreement. We cannot be sure that the cost of such maintenance support will be adequately provided for in our financial statements and any
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additional maintenance expenses could likewise have a material adverse effect on our operating results, financial condition and cash flow.
If our software products contain serious errors or defects, then we may lose revenue and market acceptance and may incur costs to defend or settle claims.
Complex software applications such as ours often contain errors or defects, particularly when first introduced or when new versions or enhancements are released. Despite internal testing and testing by our customers, our current and future products may contain serious defects, which could result in lost revenue, lost customers, slower growth or a delay in market acceptance.
Since our customers use our products for critical business applications, errors, defects or other performance problems could result in damage to our customers. These errors and defects could result in product liability, services level agreement claims or warranty claims. Although our customer agreements typically contain provisions designed to limit our exposure to claims, including warranty disclaimers, existing or future laws or unfavorable judicial decisions could negate these limitations. Even if not successful, a claim brought against us would likely be time-consuming and costly and could seriously damage our reputation in the marketplace, making it harder for us to sell our products and/or collect payment from our customers.
We may not fully realize the benefits of our completed acquisitions or it may take longer than we anticipate for us to achieve those benefits. Future acquisitions may be difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value or divert management attention.
As part of our business strategy, we have acquired and may in the future seek to acquire or invest in new businesses, products or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our business, augment our market coverage, enhance our technical capabilities or otherwise offer growth opportunities. For example, in February 2019, we acquired Xstream A/S, an OTT media cloud platform provider based in Copenhagen, Denmark and Warsaw, Poland for approximately $4.6 million in cash and 541,738 shares of our common stock. Acquisitions could create risks for us, including:
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difficulties in assimilation of acquired personnel, operations, technologies or products that may affect our ability to develop new products and services and compete in our rapidly changing marketplace due to a resulting decrease in the quality of work and innovation of our employees upon which our business is dependent; |
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delays in realizing, or failure to realize, the anticipated benefits of an acquisition. Even if we can integrate these businesses and operations successfully, we may not realize the full benefits we expect to achieve, within the anticipated timeframe, or at all. If a company we purchase does not perform as we expected, our investment could become impaired or we could discontinue the operations and our financial results could be negatively impacted; |
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adverse effects on the business relationships with pre-existing suppliers and customers of both companies. This may be important to our business because we sell our products to a limited number of large customers, we purchase certain components used in manufacturing our products from sole suppliers and we use a limited number of third-party manufacturers to manufacture our product; and |
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uncertainty among current and prospective employees regarding their future roles with our company, which might adversely affect our ability to retain, recruit and motivate key personnel. |
Acquisitions or divestitures may adversely affect our financial condition.
We could acquire additional products, technologies or businesses, or enter joint venture arrangements, to complement or expand our business, or engage in divestitures. As previously noted, we acquired Xstream A/S in February 2019. Negotiation of potential acquisitions, divestitures or joint ventures and our integration or transfer of acquired or divested products, technologies or businesses, could divert management’s time and resources.
As part of our strategy for growth, we may continue to explore acquisitions, divestitures, or strategic collaborations, which may not be completed or may not be ultimately beneficial to us.
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Acquisitions or divestitures may pose risks to our operations, including:
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problems and increased costs in connection with the integration or divestiture of the personnel, operations, technologies, or products of the acquired or divested businesses; |
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unanticipated costs; |
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potential disruption of our business and the diversion of management’s attention from our core business during the acquisition or divestiture process; |
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inability to make planned divestitures of businesses on favorable terms in a timely manner or at all; |
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acquired assets becoming impaired because of technical advancements or worse-than-expected performance by the acquired company; and |
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entering markets in which we have no, or limited, prior experience. |
Additionally, in connection with any acquisitions or investments we could:
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issue stock that would dilute our existing stockholders’ ownership percentages, such as occurred in connection with our February 2019 acquisition of Xstream A/S; |
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incur debt and assume liabilities; |
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record contingent liabilities estimated for potential earnouts based on achieving financial targets; |
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obtain financing on unfavorable terms; |
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incur amortization expenses related to acquired intangible assets or incur large and immediate write-offs; |
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incur large expenditures related to office closures of the acquired companies, including costs relating to the termination of employees and facility and leasehold improvement charges resulting from our having to vacate the acquired companies’ premises; and |
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reduce the cash that would otherwise be available to fund operations or for other purposes. |
We face the risk that capital needed for our business will not be available when we need it or that it would result in substantial dilution to our stockholders.
To the extent that our existing cash and investments are insufficient to fund our future activities, we may need to raise additional funds through public or private equity or debt financings. If unfavorable capital market conditions exist and we were to seek additional funding, we may not be able to raise sufficient capital on favorable terms and on a timely basis, if at all. Failure to obtain capital when required by our business circumstances would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, our stockholders may incur substantial dilution from any financing that we undertake given our current stock price.
We may not have access in the future to sufficient funding to finance desired growth and operations.
If we cannot secure future funds or financing on acceptable terms, we may be unable to support our future operations or growth strategy. We use cash for strategic collaborations and other investments, both of which are elements of our growth strategy, and the timing and size of our collaboration or investment efforts cannot be readily predicted. If we experience deficits in our cash flows from operating activities in the future or we are unable to obtain new financing, there could be limitations on the availability of funds resulting in limitations in our financial flexibility, thereby inhibiting our future operations or growth strategy and that may result in our need to seek capital through additional debt financing arrangements, debt offerings, or equity offerings, which either may not be available to us or may not be available to us on favorable terms, including resulting in significant dilution of our stockholders.
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If our indefinite-lived or other long-lived assets become impaired, we may be required to record a significant charge to earnings.
Our valuation methodology for assessing impairment requires management to make judgments and assumptions based on projections of future operating performance. We operate in highly competitive environments and projections of future operating results and cash flows may vary materially from actual results. We may be required to record a significant noncash charge to earnings in our financial statements during the period in which any impairment of our indefinite-lived assets or other long-lived assets is determined, such as the $17.0 million impairment charges we recorded in fiscal 2019, to our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss as a result of our impairment testing of our goodwill and other long-lived assets.
Our ability to utilize our net operating losses, or NOLs, and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
As of January 31, 2020, we had federal NOLs of $108.9 million. Federal and state tax laws impose restrictions on the utilization of NOLs and tax credit carryforwards in the event of an “ownership change” as defined by Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (“Section 382”). Generally, an “ownership change” occurs if the percentage of the value of the stock that is owned by one or more direct or indirect “five percent shareholders” increases by more than 50% over their lowest ownership percentage at any time during an applicable testing period (typically, three years). Under Section 382, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” such corporation’s ability to use its pre-change NOL and tax credit carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes to offset its post-change income may be limited. While no “ownership change” has resulted in annual limitations, future changes in our stock ownership, which may be outside of our control, may trigger an “ownership change.” In addition, future equity offerings or acquisitions that have equity as a component of the consideration could result in an “ownership change.” If an “ownership change” occurs in the future, utilization of our NOL and tax credit carryforwards or other tax attributes may be limited, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us. Any limitation on our ability to use NOLs may adversely impact our financial results. In March 2019, we adopted a Tax Benefits Preservation Plan in the form of a stockholder rights agreement with an ownership trigger threshold of 4.9% to assist in the preservation of our ability to use NOLs and tax credit carryforwards, which was approved by our stockholders at our last annual meeting of stockholders.
We may not be able to hire and retain highly skilled employees, which could affect our ability to compete effectively because our business is technology-based.
Our success depends to a significant degree upon the continued contributions of our key personnel, many of whom would be difficult to replace. We believe that our future success will also depend in large part upon our ability to attract and retain highly skilled managerial, engineering, customer service, selling and marketing, finance, administrative and manufacturing personnel, as our business is technology-based. Because competition for these personnel is intense, we may not be able to attract and retain qualified personnel in the future. The loss of the services of any of the key personnel, the integration of new personnel, the inability to attract or retain qualified personnel in the future or delays in hiring required personnel, particularly software engineers and sales personnel, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations because our business is technology-based.
We have experienced turnover in our senior management, which could result in operational and administrative inefficiencies and could hinder the execution of our growth strategy.
We have recently experienced turnover in our senior management. For example, Mr. Yossi Aloni joined us as Chief Commercial Officer in January 2019 and was appointed as Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and President in August 2019, and our Chief Financial Officer joined us in October 2019. Lack of management continuity could harm our customer relationships, delay product development processes, adversely affect our ability to successfully execute our growth strategy, result in operational and administrative inefficiencies and added costs, and could impede our ability to recruit new talented individuals to senior management positions, which could adversely impact our results of operations, stock price and customer relationships. Our success largely depends on our ability to integrate any new senior management within our organization in order to achieve our operating objectives, and changes in other key positions may affect our financial performance and results of operations as new members of management become familiar with our business.
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We face significant risks to our business when we engage in the outsourcing of engineering work, including outsourcing of software work overseas, which, if not properly managed, could result in the loss of valuable intellectual property and increased costs due to inefficient and poor work product, which could harm our business, including our financial results, reputation, and brand.
We may, from time-to-time, outsource engineering work related to the design and development of our products, typically to save money and gain access to additional engineering resources. We have worked, and expect to work in the future, with companies located in jurisdictions outside of the U.S., including, but not limited to Poland and the Netherlands. We have limited experience in the outsourcing of engineering and other work to third-parties located internationally that operate under different laws and regulations than those in the U.S. If we are unable to properly manage and oversee the outsourcing of this engineering and other work related to our products, we could suffer the loss of valuable intellectual property, or the loss of the ability to claim such intellectual property, including patents and trade names. Additionally, instead of saving money, we could in fact incur significant additional costs because of inefficient engineering services and poor work product. As a result, our business would be harmed, including our financial results, reputation, and brand.
We may have additional tax liabilities.
We are subject to income taxes in both the U.S. and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes. In the ordinary course of our business, there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. We are regularly under audit by various tax jurisdictions. Although we believe our tax estimates are reasonable, the final determination of tax audits and any related litigation could be materially different from our historical income tax provisions and accruals. The results of an audit or litigation could have a material effect on our income tax provision, net income, or cash flows in the period or periods for which that determination is made. In addition, we are subject to sales, use and similar taxes in many countries, jurisdictions and provinces, including those states in the U.S. where we maintain a physical presence or have a substantial nexus. These taxing regimes are complex. For example, in the U.S., each state and local taxing authority has its own interpretation of what constitutes a sufficient physical presence or nexus to require the collection and remittance of these taxes. Similarly, each state and local taxing authority has its own rules regarding the applicability of sales tax by customer or product type.
If our security measures are breached and unauthorized access is obtained to a customer’s data or our data on our systems, our service may be perceived as not being secure, customers may curtail or stop using our service and we may incur significant legal and financial exposure and liabilities.
Cyber criminals and hackers may attempt to penetrate our network security, misappropriate our proprietary information or cause business interruptions. Our service involves the transmission of customers’ proprietary information and security breaches could expose us to a risk of loss of this information or a network disruption, which may result in litigation and possible liability. These security measures may be breached as a result of third-party action, including intentional misconduct by computer hackers, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise and result in unauthorized publication of our confidential business or proprietary information, cause an interruption in our operations, result in the unauthorized release of customer or employee data, result in a violation of privacy or other laws, expose us to a risk of litigation or damage our reputation, which could harm our business and operating results. Additionally, third-parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees or customers into disclosing sensitive information such as user names, passwords or other information to gain access to our customers’ data or our data or IT systems. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, or to sabotage systems, change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. In addition, our customers may authorize third-party technology providers to access their customer data. Because we do not control our customers and third-party technology providers, or the processing of such data by third-party technology providers, we cannot ensure the integrity or security of such transmissions or processing. Malicious third-parties may also conduct attacks designed to temporarily deny customers access to our services. Any security breach could result in a loss of confidence in the security of our service, damage our reputation, negatively impact our future sales, disrupt our business operations and lead to legal liability from customers, third parties and governmental authorities. While we believe that we have taken appropriate security measures to minimize these risks to our data and information systems, there can be no assurance that our efforts will prevent breakdowns or breaches in our systems that could adversely affect our business.
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Recently reported hacking attacks on government and commercial computer systems raise the risks that such an attack may compromise, in a material respect, one or more of our computer systems and permit hackers access to our proprietary information and data. If such an attack does, in fact, allow access to or theft of our proprietary information or data, our business, operating results and reputation could be materially and adversely affected.
Evolving data privacy regulations, including the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), and the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), may subject us to significant penalties.
In May 2018, the EU’s GDPR came into effect, and changed how businesses can collect, use and process the personal data of EU residents. The GDPR has extraterritorial effect and imposes a mandatory duty on businesses to self-report personal data breaches to authorities, and, under certain circumstances, to affected individuals. The GDPR also grants individuals the right to erasure (commonly referred to as the right to be forgotten), which may put a burden on us to erase records upon request. Compliance with the GDPR’s new requirements may increase our legal, compliance, and operational costs. Non-compliance with the GDPR’s requirements can result in significant penalties, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, expose us to legal and regulatory costs, and impair our reputation.
Other jurisdictions, including certain U.S. states and non-U.S. jurisdictions where we conduct business, have also enacted or are considering enacting their own versions of “GDPR-like” data privacy legislation, which could create additional compliance challenges, heightened regulatory scrutiny, administrative burden and potentially expose us to significant penalties. For example, in June 2018, California’s legislature passed the CCPA, which went into effect on January 1, 2020. Any failure or perceived failure by us, our business partners, or third party service providers to comply with GDPR, CCPA, other privacy-related or data protection laws and regulations, or the privacy commitments in contracts could result in proceedings against us by governmental entities or others and significant fines, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results and harm our reputation.
In addition, some countries have or are considering legislation requiring local storage and processing of data that, if enacted, could increase the cost and complexity of offering our products, software and services or maintaining our business operations in those jurisdictions.
Interruptions or delays in service from our third-party data center hosting facilities or our enterprise cloud computing providers could impair the delivery of our service, adversely affect our financial results and otherwise harm our business.
We use third-party data center hosting facilities for customers buying our SaaS product offering, and we use enterprise cloud computing providers in connection with certain other aspects of our business, including cloud-based data processing, storage and other services. In the case of data center hosting facilities, while we control the actual computer and storage systems upon which our software runs, and deploy them to the data center hosting facilities, we do not control the operation or availability of these facilities. We similarly do not have control over the operation or availability of enterprise cloud computing providers that we use. Any changes in third-party service levels at these facilities or any errors, defects, disruptions or other performance problems at or related to these facilities that affect our services could harm our reputation and may damage our customers’ businesses. Interruptions in our service may reduce our revenue, cause us to issue credits or pay penalties, cause customers to terminate their subscriptions and adversely affect our attrition rates and our ability to attract new customers. Our business will also be harmed if our customers and potential customers believe our service is unreliable. We do not control the operation of any of these facilities, and they are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, floods, fires, power loss, telecommunications failures and similar events. They may also be subject to break-ins, sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism and similar misconduct. Despite precautions taken at these facilities, the occurrence of a natural disaster or an act of terrorism, a decision to close the facilities without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems at these facilities could result in lengthy interruptions in our service. Even with the disaster recovery arrangements, our service could be interrupted.
A disruption to our information technology systems could significantly impact our operations and impact our revenue and profitability.
Our data processing and financial reporting systems are cloud-based and hosted by a third-party. An interruption to the third-party systems or in the infrastructure that allows us to connect to the third-party systems for an extended
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period may impact our ability to operate the business and process transactions which could result in a decline in sales and affect our ability to achieve or maintain profitability. It may also result in our inability to comply with SEC regulations in a timely manner.
Our stock price may be volatile and an investment in our stock may decline. If we fail to comply with the continuing listing standards of The NASDAQ Global Select Market, our securities could be delisted.
Historically, the market for technology stocks has been extremely volatile. Our common stock has experienced, and may continue to experience, substantial price volatility. The occurrence of any one or more of the factors noted in these risk factors could cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate or decline below the $1.00 Nasdaq minimum price requirement such that we become subject to delisting proceedings. Any delisting of our securities could have an adverse effect on the market price of, and the efficiency of the trading market for our securities, not only in terms of the number of shares that can be bought and sold at a given price, but also through delays in the timing of transactions and less coverage of us by securities analysts, if any. Also, if in the future we were to determine that we need to seek additional equity capital, having been delisted or being subject to delisting proceedings could have an adverse effect on our ability to raise capital in the public or private markets. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against such companies.
Actions that may be taken by significant stockholders may divert the time and attention of our Board of Directors and management from our business operations.
Campaigns by significant investors to effect changes at publicly-traded companies continue to be prevalent. There can be no assurance that one or more current or future stockholders will not pursue actions to effect changes in our management and strategic direction, including through the solicitation of proxies from our stockholders. If a proxy contest were to be pursued by a stockholder, it could result in substantial expense to us, consume significant attention of our management and Board of Directors, and disrupt our business. On February 28, 2019, we entered into a cooperation agreement with Karen Singer and TAR Holdings LLC. Pursuant to the terms of the cooperation agreement, we appointed both Robert Pons and Jeffrey Tuder to our Board. Certain of our significant stockholders expressed disagreement with the cooperation agreement and it is possible that some of our stockholders may conduct a “vote no” campaign against the election of all or certain of our board members standing for election at our upcoming annual meeting of stockholders and cause the Board to consider the resignation of any candidate who does not achieve the support of a majority of votes cast in an uncontested election. Similar to a proxy contest, this could result in substantial expense to us, consume significant attention of our management and Board of Directors, and disrupt our business.
Securities analysts may not publish favorable research or reports about our business or may publish no information, which could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
The trading market for our common stock is influenced by the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us and our business. We do not control these analysts. BWS Financial Inc. ceased to cover us in March 2019, and we are currently covered by only a limited number of analysts. If any of the analysts who cover us issue an adverse opinion regarding our stock price, our business or stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports covering us, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause our stock price or trade volume to decline.
We utilize non-GAAP reporting in our quarterly earnings press releases.
We publish non-GAAP financial measures in our quarterly earnings press releases, along with a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to those measures determined in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”). The reconciling items have adjusted for certain non-cash or non-recurring items and are described in detail in each such quarterly earnings press release. We believe that this presentation may be meaningful to investors in analyzing the results of operations and income generation as this is how our business is managed. The market price of our stock may fluctuate based on future non-GAAP results if investors base their investment decisions upon such non-GAAP financial measures. If we decide to curtail use of
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non-GAAP financial measures in our quarterly earnings press releases, the market price of our stock could be affected if investors analyze our performance in a different manner.
Changes in financial accounting standards may cause adverse unexpected revenue fluctuations and affect our reported results of operations.
We prepare our consolidated financial statements in accordance with GAAP. These principles are subject to interpretations by the SEC and various bodies formed to interpret and create appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles can have a significant effect on our reported results and may even affect our reporting of transactions completed before the change is effective. The adoption of new or revised accounting principles may require that we make significant changes to our systems, processes and controls.
Any weakness identified in our system of internal controls by us and our independent registered public accounting firm pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 could have an adverse effect on our business.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires that companies evaluate and report on their systems of internal control over financial reporting. In addition, our independent registered public accounting firm must express an opinion on our internal controls over financial reporting based on their audit. There can be no assurance that no weakness in our internal control over financial reporting will occur in future periods, or that any weakness will not have a material adverse effect on our business or financial results, including our ability to report our financial results in a timely manner.
We use estimates in accounting for our contracts. Changes in our estimates could adversely affect our future financial results.
Contract accounting requires judgment relative to assessing risks, estimating revenue and costs and making assumptions including, in the case of our professional services contracts, the total amount of labor required to complete a project and the complexity of the development and other technical work to be completed. Due to the size and nature of many of our contracts, the estimation of total revenue and cost at completion is complicated and subject to many variables. Assumptions must be made regarding the length of time to complete the contract because costs also include estimated third-party vendor and contract labor costs. Penalties related to performance on contracts are considered in estimating sales and profit and are recorded when there is sufficient information for us to assess anticipated performance. Third-party vendors’ assertions are also assessed and considered in estimating costs and margin.
Because of the significance of the judgments and estimation processes described above, it is likely that materially different sales and profit amounts could be recorded if we used different assumptions or if the underlying circumstances were to change. Changes in underlying assumptions, circumstances or estimates may adversely affect future period financial performance.
Our ability to deliver products and services that satisfy customer requirements is heavily dependent on the performance of our third-party vendors.
We rely on other companies to provide products and to perform some of the services that we provide to our customers. If one or more of our third-party vendors experience delivery delays or other performance problems, we may be unable to meet commitments to our customers. In addition, if one or more of the products which we depend on becomes unavailable or is available only at very high prices, we may be unable to deliver one or more of our products in a timely fashion or at budgeted costs. In some instances, we depend upon a single source of supply. Any service disruption from one of these third-party vendors, either due to circumstances beyond the supplier’s control or because of performance problems or financial difficulties, could have a material adverse effect on our ability to meet commitments to our customers or increase our operating costs.
We enter into fixed-price contracts, which could subject us to losses if we have cost overruns.
While firm fixed-price contracts enable us to benefit from performance improvements, cost reductions and efficiencies, they also subject us to the risk of reduced margins or incurring losses if we are unable to achieve
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estimated costs and revenue. If our estimated costs exceed our estimated price, we will recognize a loss, which can significantly affect our reported results. The long-term nature of many of our contracts makes the process of estimating costs and revenue on fixed-price contracts inherently risky. Fixed-price development contracts are generally subject to more uncertainty than fixed-price production contracts. Many of these development programs have highly complex designs. If we fail to meet the terms specified in those contracts, our related margin could be reduced. In addition, technical or quality issues that arise during development could lead to schedule delays and higher costs to complete, which could result in a material charge or otherwise adversely affect our financial condition.
Because we purchase certain components used in assembling some of our products from sole suppliers, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected by a failure of these suppliers to provide these components.
We rely on a limited number of third-parties who provide certain components used in our products. We may experience quality control problems, where products did not meet specifications or were damaged in shipping, and delays in the receipt of these components. These risks could be heightened during a substantial economic slowdown or if a sole supplier were adversely affected by a natural disaster because our suppliers are more likely to experience adverse changes in their financial condition and operations during such a period. While we believe that there are alternative suppliers available for these components, we believe that the procurement of these components from alternative suppliers could take a significant amount of time. In addition, these alternative components may not be functionally equivalent or may not be available on a timely basis or on similar terms. The inability to obtain sufficient key components as required, or to develop alternative sources if and as required in the future, could result in delays or reductions in product shipments which, in turn, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. While to date there has been suitable component capacity readily available at acceptable quality levels, in the future there may not be suppliers that can meet our future volume or quality requirements at a price that is favorable to us. Any financial, operational, production or quality assurance difficulties experienced by these suppliers that result in a reduction or interruption in supply to us could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our products are often integrated with other third-party products. Third-party delays could adversely affect our future financial operating results.
We sell our products in accordance with our standard product specifications. There can be instances where our products are integrated into a larger solution with other third-party products, the delivery of which is controlled by third party providers. We have little, if any, control over the timing of delivery of third-party products, and a delay from the time of our product delivery to the production launch of the larger solution can materially impact our financial operating results.
We may experience risks in our investments due to changes in the market, which could adversely affect the value or liquidity of our investments.
We maintain a portfolio of marketable securities in a variety of instruments, which may include commercial paper, certificates of deposit, money market funds, government debt securities and corporate bonds. These investments are subject to general credit, liquidity, market, and interest rate risks. As a result, we may experience a reduction in value or loss of liquidity of our investments. These market risks associated with our investment portfolio may have a negative adverse effect on our results of operations, liquidity and financial condition.
The performance of the companies in which we have made and may in the future make equity investments could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
We have made non-controlling equity investments in complementary companies in the past and we may make additional investments in the future. These investments may require additional capital and may not generate the expected rate of return that we believed possible at the time of making the investment. This may adversely affect our financial condition or results of operations. Also, investments in development-stage companies may generate other than temporary declines in the fair value of our investment that would result in impairment charges.
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The success of our business model could be influenced by changes in the regulatory environment, such as changes that either would limit capital expenditures by television, cable or telecommunications operators or reverse the trend towards deregulation in the industries in which we compete.
The telecommunications and media industries are subject to extensive regulation which may limit the growth of our business, both in the U.S. and other countries. The growth of our business internationally is dependent in part on deregulation of the telecommunications industry abroad, like that which has occurred in the U.S., and the timing and magnitude of this growth, which is uncertain. Video service providers are subject to extensive government regulation by the Federal Communications Commission and other federal, state and international regulatory agencies. These regulations could have the effect of limiting capital expenditures by video service providers and thus could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. The enactment by federal, state or international governments of new laws or regulations, changes in the interpretation of existing regulations or a reversal of the trend toward deregulation in these industries could adversely affect our customers, and thereby materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Uncertainties of regulation of the Internet and data traveling over the Internet could have a material and adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations.
Currently, few laws or regulations apply directly to access to or commerce on the Internet. With more business being conducted over the Internet, there have been calls for more stringent copyright protection, tax, consumer protection, cybersecurity, data localization and content restriction laws, both in the U.S. and abroad. We could be materially, adversely affected by regulation of the Internet and Internet commerce in any country where we operate. Such regulations could include matters such as net neutrality. Further, governments may regulate or restrict the sales, licensing, distribution, and export or import of certain technologies to certain countries. The adoption of regulation of Internet and Internet commerce could decrease demand for our products and, at the same time, increase the cost of selling our products and services, which could have a material and adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the enactment of new federal, state, or foreign data privacy laws and regulations could cause customers not to be able to take advantage of all the features or capabilities of our products and services, which in turn could reduce demand for certain of our products and services.
There is no assurance that the current cost of Internet connectivity and network access will not rise with the increasing popularity of online media services.
We rely on third-party service providers for our principal connections to the Internet and network access, and to deliver media to consumers. As demand for online media increases, there can be no assurance that Internet and network service providers will continue to price their network access services on reasonable terms. The distribution of online media requires delivery of digital content files and providers of network access and distribution may change their business models and increase their prices significantly, which could slow the widespread adoption of such services. In order for our services to be successful, there must be a reasonable price model in place to allow for the continuous distribution of digital media files. We have limited or no control over the extent to which any of these circumstances may occur, and if network access or distribution prices rise, our business, financial condition and results of operations would likely be adversely affected.
We are subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), and our failure to comply could result in penalties that could harm our reputation, business, and financial condition.
We are subject to the FCPA, which generally prohibits companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to foreign officials to obtain or keep business. The FCPA also requires companies to maintain adequate record-keeping and internal accounting practices to accurately reflect the transactions of the Company. Under the FCPA, U.S. companies may be held liable for actions taken by their strategic or local partners or representatives. The FCPA and similar laws in other countries can impose civil and criminal penalties for violations.
If we do not properly implement practices and controls with respect to compliance with the FCPA and similar laws, or if we fail to enforce those practices and controls properly, we may be subject to regulatory sanctions, including administrative costs related to governmental and internal investigations, civil and criminal penalties, injunctions and restrictions on our business activities, all of which could harm our reputation, business and financial condition.
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Terrorist acts, conflicts, wars and geopolitical uncertainties may seriously harm our business and revenue, costs and expenses and financial condition and stock price.
Terrorist acts, conflicts, wars (wherever located around the world) or geopolitical uncertainties may cause damage or disruption to our business, our employees, facilities, partners, suppliers, distributors, resellers or customers, or adversely affect our ability to manage logistics, operate our transportation and communication systems or conduct certain other critical business operations. The potential for future attacks, the national and international responses to attacks or perceived threats to national security, and other actual or potential conflicts or wars, have created many economic and political uncertainties. In addition, as a multinational company with headquarters and significant operations located in the U.S., actions against or by the U.S. may impact our business or employees. Although it is impossible to predict the occurrences or consequences of any such events, if they occur, they could result in a decrease in demand for our products, make it difficult or impossible to provide services or deliver products to our customers or to receive components from our suppliers, create delays and inefficiencies in our supply chain and result in the need to impose employee travel restrictions. We are predominately uninsured for losses and interruptions caused by terrorist acts, conflicts and wars.
Delaware law and our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain anti-takeover provisions, and our Board of Directors has adopted a Tax Benefits Preservation Plan in the form of a stockholder rights agreement, any of which could delay or discourage a merger, tender offer, or assumption of control of the Company not approved by our Board that some stockholders may consider favorable.
Delaware law and our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain certain provisions, and our Board of Directors recently adopted Tax Benefits Preservation Plan in the form of a stockholder rights agreement with an ownership trigger threshold of 4.9%, any of which could render more difficult, or discourage a merger, tender offer, or assumption of control of the Company that is not approved by our Board of Directors. The Tax Benefits Preservation Plan, however, should not interfere with any merger, tender or exchange offer or other business combination approved by our Board of Directors. Nor does the rights agreement prevent our Board of Directors from considering any offer that it considers to be in the best interest of the Company’s stockholders.
The recent COVID-19 outbreak may adversely affect our revenues, results of operations and financial condition.
The U.S. and other countries are experiencing outbreaks of COVID-19, which is continuing to spread to other countries, including countries in which we, our customers and our suppliers do business. Governments in affected regions have implemented and may continue to implement safety precautions, including quarantines, travel restrictions, business closures, cancellations of public gatherings and other measures. Other organizations and individuals are taking additional steps to avoid or reduce infection, including limiting travel and staying home from work. These measures are disrupting normal business operations both in and outside of affected areas. We continue to monitor our operations and government recommendations and have made appropriate modifications to our operations because of COVID-19, including substantial modifications to employee travel, employee work locations, virtualization or cancellation of customer and employee events, and remote sales, implementation, and support activities, among other modifications. These decisions may delay or reduce sales and harm productivity and collaboration. The cancellation of major industry events in the region reduces our ability to meet with existing and potential new customers. Our customers’ businesses could be disrupted or they could seek to limit spending, either of which could foreclose future business opportunities, could negatively impact the willingness of our customers to enter into or renew contracts with us and ultimately could adversely affect our revenues. The pandemic has impacted our ability to complete certain implementations, negatively impacting our ability to recognize revenue, and could also negatively impact the payment of accounts receivable and collections. Although we are unable to predict the precise impact of COVID-19 on our business, our mobile communications business in particular depends to a large extent on travel and the willingness of customers to enter into or renew contracts with us. We anticipate that, unless the outbreak is swiftly contained, governmental, individual, business and other organizational measures to limit the spread of the virus will adversely affect our revenues, results of operations and financial condition, perhaps materially. This or any other outbreak and any additional preventative or protective actions that may be taken in response to this or any other global health threat or pandemic may result in additional business and/or operational disruption.
Additionally, global economic disruptions like COVID-19 could negatively impact our supply chain and cause delays in the delivery of raw materials, components and other supplies that we need to conduct our operations. We
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may be unable to locate replacement materials, components or other supplies, and ongoing delays could reduce sales and adversely affect our revenues and results of operations. The extent to which COVID-19 will impact our business will depend on many factors beyond our control, including the speed of contagion, the development and implementation of effective preventative measures and possible treatments, the scope of governmental and other restrictions on travel and other activity, and public reactions to these factors.
None.
Location |
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Principal Use |
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Square Feet |
|
|
Leased Facilities |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Waltham, MA |
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Corporate Headquarters, Engineering, |
|
|
17,077 |
|
|
|
Customer Services, Sales and Marketing |
|
|
|
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Warsaw, Poland |
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Engineering and Customer Services |
|
|
26,189 |
|
We also lease or sublease offices in Ireland and Turkey but do not consider these leases or subleases to be material. We believe that existing facilities are adequate to meet our foreseeable requirements and can renew our existing leases or obtain alternative space on terms that would not have a material impact on our financial condition.
We are not currently a party to any material legal proceedings. From time to time, we may be subject to various legal proceedings and claims that arise in the ordinary course of our business activities. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have a material adverse effect on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources, and other factors.
Not applicable.
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ITEM 5. |
MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES |
Certain Information Regarding the Trading of Our Common Stock
Our common stock is traded on NASDAQ under the symbol “SEAC”.
Holders of Our Common Stock
On April 20, 2020, there were 113 holders of record of our common stock. Because many of the shares of our common stock are held by brokers and other institutions on behalf of stockholders, we are unable to estimate the total number of stockholders represented by these recordholders.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Equity Securities
None.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
We did not purchase any of our registered equity securities during the period from November 1, 2019 to January 31, 2020.
Dividends
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock, since inception, and do not expect to pay cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. We currently intend to retain all our future earnings for use in operations and to finance the expansion of our business.
Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans
Information regarding our equity compensation plans and the securities authorized for issuance thereunder is set forth herein under Part III, Item 12 below.
We are a smaller reporting company, as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, for this reporting period and are not required to provide the information required under this item.
30
The following discussion should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes included in this Form 10-K. When reviewing the discussion, you should keep in mind the substantial risks and uncertainties that characterize our business. In particular, we encourage you to review the risks and uncertainties described under Item 1A., “Risk Factors,” of this Form 10-K. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those forecasted in forward-looking statements or implied by past results and trends. Forward-looking statements are statements that attempt to project or anticipate future developments in our business; we encourage you to review the discussion of forward-looking statements under “Cautionary Statement for Purposes of the “Safe Harbor” Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995,” at the beginning of this report. These statements, like all statements in this report, speak only as of the date of this report (unless another date is indicated), and we undertake no obligation to update or revise such statements as a result of future developments. Unless otherwise specified, any reference to a “year” is to a fiscal year ended January 31st.
Business Overview
SeaChange International, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“SeaChange,” the “Company,” “us,” or “we”) founded on July 9, 1993, is an industry leader in the delivery of multiscreen, advertising and premium over the top (“OTT”) video management solutions headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Our software products and services facilitate the aggregation, licensing, management and distribution of video and advertising content for service providers, telecommunications companies, satellite operators and broadcasters. We sell our software products and services worldwide, primarily to service providers including: operators, such as Liberty Global, plc., Altice NV, Cox Communications, Inc. and Rogers Communications, Inc.; telecommunications companies, such as Verizon Communications, Inc., AT&T, Inc. and Frontier Communications Corporation; satellite operators such as Direct TV and Dish Network Corporation; and broadcasters.
Our software products and services are designed to empower video providers to create, manage and monetize the increasingly personalized, highly engaging experiences that viewers demand. Using our products and services, we believe customers can increase revenue by offering services such as video-on-demand (“VOD”) programming on a variety of consumer devices, including televisions (“TVs”), mobile telephones (“smart phones”), personal computers (“PCs”), tablets and OTT streaming players. Our solutions enable service providers to offer other interactive television services that allow subscribers to receive personalized services and interact with their video devices, thereby enhancing their viewing experience. Our products also allow our customers to insert advertising into broadcast and VOD content.
SeaChange serves an exciting global marketplace where multiscreen viewing is increasing, consumer device options are evolving rapidly, and viewing habits are shifting. The primary driver of our business is enabling the delivery of video assets in the changing multiscreen television environment. Through strategic collaborations, we have expanded our capabilities, products and services to address the delivery of content to devices other than television set-top boxes, namely PCs, tablets, smart phones and OTT streaming players. We believe that our strategy of expanding into adjacent product lines will also position us to further support and maintain our existing service provider customer base. Providing our customers with more scalable software platforms enables them to further reduce their infrastructure costs, improve reliability and expand service offerings to their customers. Additionally, we believe we are well positioned to capitalize on new customers entering the multiscreen marketplace and increasingly serve adjacent markets. Our core technologies provide a foundation for software products and services that can be deployed in next generation video delivery systems capable of increased levels of subscriber activity across multiple devices.
In February 2019, we acquired Xstream A/S, a leading OTT media cloud platform provider with its primary operations in Warsaw, Poland. Xstream provides a managed service, OTT video solution that serves more than five million active subscribers globally. Xstream’s MediaMaker video platform has enhanced the SeaChange end-to-end video framework. We have used the acquisition of Xstream to accelerate our penetration in OTT and new market segments and fully cloud-based end-to-end video platform that operates in a hosted managed service environment.
31
We have initiated restructuring programs in the past three years, to help us improve operations and optimize our cost structure. In fiscal 2019, we further implemented a cost restructuring program (the “2019 Restructuring Program”), the primary element of which was staff reductions across all of our functions and geographic areas and for which we have annualized cost savings of approximately $6.0 million. In fiscal 2020, we continued to streamline our operations and closed our service organizations in Ireland and the Netherlands for which we expect additional annualized cost savings of approximately $6.0 million. Overall, we expect to have annualized cost savings of approximately $12.0 million as a result of the restructuring programs that have been initiated over the past two fiscal years.
Notwithstanding the success of our restructuring programs, during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019, we experienced a decline in our stock price and actual operating results and, accordingly, revised our forecasts. These events were a trigger for an impairment review, as a result of which we determined that the carrying value of goodwill and certain long-lived assets exceeded their fair value, such that we recorded a $17.0 million impairment charge to reduce the carrying value of our building, included in property, plant and equipment, the remaining net book value of our intangible assets and our goodwill to fair value. The impact of this impairment charge is excluded from our non-GAAP operating results included in this report.
On February 28, 2019, we entered into a Cooperation Agreement with TAR Holdings LLC and Karen Singer (collectively, “TAR Holdings”). As of the date of the Cooperation Agreement, TAR Holdings beneficially owned approximately 20.6% of our outstanding common stock. Pursuant to the Cooperation Agreement, we agreed to set the size of the Board at eight members, appoint Robert Pons to the Board as a Class II Director with a term to expire at the 2019 annual meeting of stockholders, and appoint Jeffrey Tuder to the Board as a Class III Director with a term to expire at the 2020 annual meeting of stockholders. Mr. Pons and Mr. Tuder were accordingly appointed to our Board upon execution of the Cooperation Agreement on February 28, 2019.
On March 4, 2019, our Board approved and adopted a Tax Benefits Preservation Plan to deter acquisitions of our common stock that would potentially limit our ability to use net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes (“NOLs”) to reduce our potential future federal income tax obligations. In connection with the Tax Benefits Preservation Plan, we declared a dividend of one preferred share purchase right for each share of our common stock issued and outstanding as of March 15, 2019 to our stockholders of record on that date. The Tax Benefits Preservation Plan was approved by our stockholders at our 2019 annual meeting of stockholders.
Results of Operations
The following discussion summarizes the key factors our management believes are necessary for an understanding of our consolidated financial statements.
32
The components of our total revenue and gross profit are described in the following table:
|
|
For the Fiscal Years Ended January 31, |
|
|
Change |
|
||||||||||
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|
$ |
|
|
% |
|
||||
|
|
(Amounts in thousands, except for percentage data) |
|
|||||||||||||
Revenue: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Product |
|
$ |
39,914 |
|
|
$ |
20,655 |
|
|
$ |
19,259 |
|
|
|
93.2 |
% |
Service |
|
|
27,240 |
|
|
|
41,747 |
|
|
|
(14,507 |
) |
|
|
(34.7 |
%) |
Total revenue |
|
|
67,154 |
|
|
|
62,402 |
|
|
|
4,752 |
|
|
|
7.6 |
% |
Cost of product revenue |
|
|
6,179 |
|
|
|
3,460 |
|
|
|
2,719 |
|
|
|
78.6 |
% |
Cost of service revenue |
|
|
17,473 |
|
|
|
21,612 |
|
|
|
(4,139 |
) |
|
|
(19.2 |
%) |
Total cost of revenue |
|
|
23,652 |
|
|
|
25,072 |
|
|
|
(1,420 |
) |
|
|
(5.7 |
%) |
Gross profit |
|
$ |
43,502 |
|
|
$ |
37,330 |
|
|
$ |
6,172 |
|
|
|
16.5 |
% |
Gross product profit margin |
|
|
84.5 |
% |
|
|
83.2 |
% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1.3 |
% |
Gross service profit margin |
|
|
35.9 |
% |
|
|
48.2 |
% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
(12.4 |
%) |
Gross profit margin |
|
|
64.8 |
% |
|
|
59.8 |
% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
5.0 |
% |
International revenue accounted for 53% and 62% of total revenue in fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2019, respectively. The decrease in international sales as a percentage of total revenue in fiscal 2020, as compared to fiscal 2019, is primarily due to a decrease in revenue generated from one major customer in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa during fiscal 2020 compared to fiscal 2019.
Product Revenue
Product revenue increased by $19.3 million for fiscal 2020 from fiscal 2019 primarily due to a $18.3 million increase in revenues related to our end-to-end Framework product, which is inclusive of video platform, user experience, and advertising solutions previously sold separately.
Service Revenue
Service revenue decreased by $14.5 million in fiscal 2020 from fiscal 2019 primarily due to a $6.1 million decrease in revenues related to installation and customized development services as a result of our Framework product’s out-of-the-box functionality as well as a $7.0 million decrease in post-warranty maintenance revenues associated with decommissioned legacy products.
Gross Profit and Margin
Cost of revenue consists primarily of the cost of resold third-party products and services, purchased components and subassemblies, labor and overhead, testing and implementation, and ongoing maintenance of complete systems.
Our gross profit margin increased by 5% in fiscal 2020 from fiscal 2019 primarily due to a shift in sales to our higher-margin Framework product in fiscal 2020. Product profit margin increased by 1% in fiscal 2020 from fiscal 2019 due to an increase in higher-margin Framework revenue in fiscal 2020. Service profit margins decreased by 12% in fiscal 2020 from fiscal 2019 primarily due to fixed costs related to the decommissioning of our legacy products in fiscal 2020.
33
Research and Development
Research and development expenses consist of salaries and related costs, including stock-based compensation, for personnel in software development and engineering functions as well as contract labor costs, depreciation of development and test equipment and an allocation of related facility expenses. The following table provides information regarding the change in research and development expenses during the periods presented:
|
|
For the Fiscal Years Ended January 31, |
|
|
Change |
|
||||||||||
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|
$ |
|
|
% |
|
||||
|
|
(Amounts in thousands, except for percentage data) |
|
|||||||||||||
Research and development expenses |
|
$ |
16,050 |
|
|
$ |
19,705 |
|
|
$ |
(3,655 |
) |
|
|
(18.5 |
%) |
% of total revenue |
|
|
23.9 |
% |
|
|
31.6 |
% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Research and development expenses decreased by $3.7 million in fiscal 2020 from fiscal 2019 primarily due to a $2.4 million decrease in labor costs associated with the lower headcount resulting from the cost-savings efforts implemented in fiscal 2019 as part of our restructuring program, as well as a $1.2 million decrease in outside services.
Selling and Marketing
Selling and marketing expenses consist of salaries and related costs, including stock-based compensation, for personnel engaged in selling and marketing functions, as well as commissions, travel expenses, certain promotional expenses and an allocation of related facility expenses. The following table provides information regarding the change in selling and marketing expenses during the periods presented:
|
|
For the Fiscal Years Ended January 31, |
|
|
Change |
|
||||||||||
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|
$ |
|
|
% |
|
||||
|
|
(Amounts in thousands, except for percentage data) |
|
|||||||||||||
Selling and marketing expenses |
|
$ |
12,179 |
|
|
$ |
14,414 |
|
|
$ |
(2,235 |
) |
|
|
(15.5 |
%) |
% of total revenue |
|
|
18.1 |
% |
|
|
23.1 |
% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Selling and marketing expenses decreased by $2.2 million in fiscal 2020 from fiscal 2019 primarily due to a $1.5 million decrease in labor costs associated with the lower headcount resulting from the cost-savings efforts implemented in fiscal 2019 as part of our restructuring program as well as a $0.8 million decrease in outside services.
General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses consist of salaries and related costs, including stock-based compensation, for personnel in executive, finance, legal, human resources, information technology and administrative functions, as well as legal and accounting services, insurance premiums and an allocation of related facilities expenses. The following table provides information regarding the change in general and administrative expenses during the periods presented:
|
|
For the Fiscal Years Ended January 31, |
|
|
Change |
|
||||||||||
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|
$ |
|
|
% |
|
||||
|
|
(Amounts in thousands, except for percentage data) |
|
|||||||||||||
General and administrative expenses |
|
$ |
15,211 |
|
|
$ |
19,618 |
|
|
$ |
(4,407 |
) |
|
|
(22.5 |
%) |
% of total revenue |
|
|
22.7 |
% |
|
|
31.4 |
% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
General and administrative expenses decreased by $4.4 million in fiscal 2020 from fiscal 2019 primarily due to a $1.8 million decrease in stock-based compensation, a $1.4 million decrease in labor costs associated with lower
34
headcount resulting from the cost-savings efforts implemented in fiscal 2019 as part of our restructuring program, and a $1.1 million decrease in our provision for bad debt.
Severance and Restructuring Costs
Severance consist of employee-related severance charges not related to a restructuring plan. Restructuring costs consist of charges related to restructuring including employee-related severance charges, remaining lease obligations and termination costs, and the disposal of equipment.
|
|
For the Fiscal Years Ended January 31, |
|
|
Change |
|
||||||||||
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|
$ |
|
|
% |
|
||||
|
|
(Amounts in thousands, except for percentage data) |
|
|||||||||||||
Severance and restructuring costs |
|
$ |
3,523 |
|
|
$ |
2,381 |
|
|
$ |
1,142 |
|
|
|
48.0 |
% |
% of total revenue |
|
|
5.2 |
% |
|
|
3.8 |
% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Severance and restructuring costs increased by $1.1 million in fiscal 2020 from fiscal 2019 primarily due to the closing of our service organizations in Ireland and the Netherlands, for which we expect annualized cost savings of approximately $6.0 million. Charges to restructuring also included cost reduction initiatives implemented during the second half of fiscal 2019 (the “2019 Restructuring Program”), for which will expect additional annualized cost savings of $6.0 million once completed.
Loss on Sale of Fixed Assets
In December 2019, the Company sold its corporate headquarters in Acton, MA for $0.5 million, net of disposal costs. At the time of the sale, the Company disposed of all building and land related assets as well as non-building related assets. The net book value of all assets disposed of was $5.9 million. We recorded a net loss on the sale of the fixed assets of $5.4 million in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss in fiscal 2020.
Loss on Impairment of Goodwill and Long-Lived Assets
Loss on impairment of goodwill and long-lived assets was $17.0 million in fiscal 2019. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019, we performed impairment reviews of our goodwill and long-lived assets. The impairment reviews were triggered by a decline in our stock price, actual operating results and revised forecasts, which we considered to be triggering events for such reviews.
As a result of the impairment tests, in fiscal 2019 we recorded an impairment charge of $1.2 million to reduce the carrying value of our building from $4.7 million to $3.5 million and we recorded an impairment charge of $0.3 million to reduce the carrying value of our intangible assets from $0.3 million to zero, representing the fair values of these long-lived assets. The fair value for the building was determined using market data, and the fair value of the intangible assets was determined using a discounted cash flow approach. Also as a result of the impairment tests, in fiscal 2019 we recorded an impairment charge of $15.5 million to reduce goodwill from $24.3 million to $8.8 million based on the difference between our carrying value, after accounting for the impairment charges of long-lived assets, and our fair value determined using a discounted cash flow approach.
There was no loss on impairment of goodwill and long-lived assets in fiscal 2020.
35
The table below provides detail regarding our other income (expense), net:
|
|
For the Fiscal Years Ended January 31, |
|
|
Change |
|
||||||||||
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
|
$ |
|
|
% |
|
||||
|
|
(Amounts in thousands, except for percentage data) |
|
|||||||||||||
Gain on sale of investment in affiliate |
|
|
1,495 |
|
|
|
175 |
|
|
|
1,320 |
|
|
>100.0% |
|
|
Interest income, net |
|
|
361 |
|
|
|
301 |
|
|
|
60 |
|
|
19.9% |
|
|
Foreign exchange loss, net |
|
|
(2,126 |
) |
|
|
(4,653 |
) |
|
|
2,527 |
|
|
(54.3%) |
|
|
Miscellaneous income (expense), net |
|
|
281 |
|
|
|
(40 |
) |
|
|
321 |
|
|
>(100.0%) |
|
|
|
|
$ |
11 |
|
|
$ |
(4,217 |
) |
|
$ |
4,228 |
|
|
|
|
|
Gain on Sale of Investment in Affiliate
In connection with the sale of our investment in Layer3 TV, Inc. (“Layer 3”), a company in which we had a cost-method investment, we received $4.6 million in fiscal 2018. We were entitled to additional payments of up to $2.1 million, subject to satisfaction of provisions associated with the transaction, of which we received $0.2 million in fiscal 2019. We recorded a gain on sale of investment in affiliate of $0.2 million in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss in fiscal 2019 related to this payment. We received our final Layer3 payment of $1.8 million in fiscal 2020, which was partially offset by a $0.3 million loss on an unrelated investment. We recorded a net gain on sale of investment in affiliate of $1.5 million in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss in fiscal 2020.
Foreign Exchange Loss, Net
Foreign exchange loss, net, was $2.1 million in fiscal 2020 compared to $4.7 million in fiscal 2019. Our foreign exchange loss, net, is primarily due to the revaluation of intercompany notes receivable.
Income Tax Provision (Benefit)
We recorded an income tax expense of $48 thousand in fiscal 2020 and an income tax benefit of $2.0 million in fiscal 2019. In fiscal 2020, our tax expense was largely driven by foreign withholding taxes. In fiscal 2019, we recorded a tax benefit largely due to our ability to carryback a loss in the Netherlands to obtain a refund of taxes paid with our fiscal 2018 tax return filing. Our effective tax rate in fiscal 2020 and in future periods may fluctuate on a quarterly basis, as a result of changes in our jurisdictional forecasts where losses cannot be benefitted due to the existence of valuation allowances on our deferred tax assets, changes in actual results versus our estimates, or changes in tax laws, regulations, accounting principles, or interpretations thereof.
The U.S. Tax Cuts and Job Act (the “Tax Reform Act”) introduced significant changes to U.S. income tax law. Changes include, but are not limited to, a corporate tax rate decrease from 35% to 21% effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, the transition of U.S. international taxation from a worldwide tax system to a territorial system and a one-time tax on the mandatory deemed repatriation of cumulative foreign earnings (the “Transition Tax”) as of December 31, 2017.
In fiscal 2019 other significant provisions of the Tax Reform Act came into effect that may impact our income taxes. These provisions consist of: an exemption from U.S. tax on dividends of future foreign earnings, limitations on the deductibility of certain executive compensation, deductions related to foreign derived intangible income, and a minimum tax on certain foreign earnings in excess of 10% of the foreign subsidiaries’ tangible assets (i.e., global intangible low-taxed income or “GILTI”).
36
Liquidity and Capital Resources
The following table includes key line items of our consolidated statements of cash flows:
|
|
For the Fiscal Years Ended January 31, |
|
|||||
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
||
|
|
(Amounts in thousands) |
|
|||||
Net cash used in operating activities |
|
$ |
(14,794 |
) |
|
$ |
(21,524 |
) |
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities |
|
|
3,762 |
|
|
|
(2,047 |
) |
Net cash provided by financing activities |
|
|
472 |
|
|
|
40 |
|
Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash |
|
|
(460 |
) |
|
|
187 |
|
Net decrease in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash |
|
$ |
(11,020 |
) |
|
$ |
(23,344 |
) |
Historically, we have financed our operations and capital expenditures primarily with our cash and investments. Our cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and marketable securities totaled $13.9 million at January 31, 2020.
In fiscal 2019 we implemented the 2019 Restructuring Program and incurred restructuring charges in excess of $2.0 million in taking steps to further reduce our operating costs, primarily through staff reductions across all of our functions and geographic areas, for which we have annualized cost savings of $6.0 million. In fiscal 2020, we incurred an additional $3.4 million in restructuring charges, which was inclusive of $2.1 million of charges in connection with closing our Ireland and Netherlands service organizations in the continued streamlining of our operations. Additional annualized cost savings from this initiative is expected to be approximately $6.0 million and annualized cost savings as a result of the restructuring actions taken in fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2020 are expected to be approximately $12.0 million in the aggregate once completed.
We believe that existing cash and investments and cash expected to be provided by future operating activities, augmented by the plans highlighted above, are adequate to satisfy our working capital, capital expenditure requirements and other contractual obligations for at least the next 12 months.
If our expectations are incorrect, we may need to raise additional funds to fund our operations, to take advantage of unanticipated strategic opportunities or to strengthen our financial position. In the future, we may enter into other arrangements for potential investments in, or acquisitions of, complementary businesses, services or technologies, which could require us to seek additional equity or debt financing. If adequate funds are not available or are not available on acceptable terms, we may not be able to follow through with our operational plans, take advantage of market opportunities to develop new products or to otherwise respond to competitive pressures, or invest in complementary businesses or technologies.
Net cash used in operating activities
Net cash used in operating activities was $14.8 million for fiscal 2020 and was primarily the result of our $8.9 million net loss and changes in our operating assets and liabilities, including a $17.8 million increase in unbilled receivables primarily related to Framework and a $1.5 million gain on sale of investment in affiliate and other investments partially offset by a $7.1 million decrease in accounts receivable due to the timing of payments and a $5.4 loss on the sale of fixed assets.
Net cash used in operating activities was $21.5 million for fiscal 2019 and was primarily the result of our $38.0 million net loss and changes in our working capital of $11.5 million, including a $4.9 million decrease in accounts payable and a $3.4 million decrease in deferred revenue, and a $2.5 million increase in unbilled receivables.
Changes in accounts receivable, unbilled receivables, accounts payable and accrued expenses were generally due to timing of customer and vendor invoicing and payments as well as the timing of Framework engagements.
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities was $3.8 million and ($2.0) million for fiscal 2020 and 2019, respectively. Net cash provided by investing activities in fiscal 2020 was primarily due to the sales and maturities of
37
marketable securities and proceeds from the sale of investments in affiliates, net. Net cash used in investing activities in fiscal 2019 was primarily due to the purchases of marketable securities.
Net cash provided by financing activities
Net cash provided by financing activities was $0.5 million and less than $0.1 million in fiscal 2020 and 2019, respectively. Net cash provided by financing activities in fiscal 2020 and 2019 was primarily from proceeds received for the issuance of common stock.
Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic
In the first quarter of fiscal 2021, concerns related to the spread of COVID-19 began to create global business disruptions as well as disruptions in our operations and to create potential negative impacts on our revenues and other financial results. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. The extent to which COVID-19 will impact our financial condition or results of operations is currently uncertain and depends on factors including the impact on our customers, partners, and vendors and on the operation of the global markets in general. Due to our business model, the effect of COVID-19 on our results of operations may also not be fully reflected for some time.
We are currently conducting business with substantial modifications to employee travel, employee work locations, virtualization or cancellation of customer and employee events, and remote sales, implementation, and support activities, among other modifications. These decisions may delay or reduce sales and harm productivity and collaboration. We have observed other companies and governments making similar alteration to their normal business operations, and in general, the markets are experiencing a significant level of uncertainty at the current time. Virtualization of our team’s sales activities could foreclose future business opportunities, particularly as our customers limit spending, which could negatively impact the willingness of our customers to enter into or renew contracts with us. The pandemic has impacted our ability to complete certain implementations, negatively impacting our ability to recognize revenue, and could also negatively impact the payment of accounts receivable and collections. We may take further actions that alter our business operations as the situation evolves. As a result, the ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of the operational alterations we have made in response on our business, financial condition, liquidity, and financial results cannot be predicted at this time.
On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.” The CARES Act, among other things, includes provisions relating to refundable payroll tax credits, deferment of employer side social security payments, net operating loss carryback periods, alternative minimum tax credit refunds, modifications to the net interest deduction limitations and technical corrections to tax depreciation methods for qualified improvement property. We continue to examine the impacts this CARES Act may have on our business, including our ability to utilize our NOLs.
38
Tax Benefits Preservation Plan
On March 4, 2019, we entered into the a Tax Benefits Preservation Plan in the form of a stockholder rights agreement (“Rights Agreement”) and issued a dividend of one preferred share purchase right (a “Right”) for each share of common stock payable on March 15, 2019 to the stockholders of record of such shares on that date. Each Right entitles the registered holder, under certain circumstances, to purchase from us one one-hundredth of a share of Series A Participating Preferred Stock, par value $0.01 per share (the “Preferred Shares”), of the Company, at a price of $8.00 per one one-hundredth of a Preferred Share represented by a Right (the “Purchase Price”), subject to adjustment. The description and terms of the Rights are set forth in the Rights Agreement.
The Rights are not exercisable until the Distribution Date (as defined in the Rights Agreement). Until a Right is exercised, the holder thereof, as such, will have no rights as a stockholder of the Company, including, without limitation, the right to vote or to receive dividends.
At any time prior to ten (10) business days after the time any Person becomes an Acquiring Person (as defined in the Rights Agreement), the Board may redeem the Rights in whole, but not in part, at a price of $0.0001 per Right (the “Redemption Price”). The redemption of the Rights may be made effective at such time, on such basis and with such conditions as the Board in its sole discretion may establish. Immediately upon any redemption of the Rights, the right to exercise the Rights will terminate and the only right of the holders of Rights will be to receive the Redemption Price.
The Rights will expire on the earlier of (i) the time at which the Rights are redeemed, (ii) the time at which the Rights are exchanged, (iii) the consummation of a reorganization transaction entered into by the Company resulting in stock transfer restrictions similar to the Rights Agreement, (iv) the close of business on the effective date of the repeal of Section 382 (as defined in the Rights Agreement) or if the Rights Agreement is no longer necessary for the preservation of NOLs, (v) the date on which the Board determines that the Rights Agreement is no longer necessary to preserve NOLs, (vi) the beginning of the taxable year to which the Board determines that none of the NOLs may be carried forward or (vii) the close of business on March 4, 2022 (the “Final Expiration Date”).
On June 28, 2019, we entered into an amendment to the Rights Agreement, between us and Computershare Trust Company, N.A., as rights agent, for the purpose of modifying the definition of “Final Expiration Date” to delete the extension of the Final Expiration Date in the event any person becomes an Acquiring Person (as defined in the Rights Agreement).
On August 8, 2019, we entered into an amendment No. 2 to the Rights Agreement, between us and Computershare Trust Company, N.A., as rights agent, for the purpose of modifying the definition of “Acquiring Person” to not include TAR Holdings and their respective affiliates and associates, provided the aggregate beneficial ownership of TAR Holdings does not exceed 25.0% of the Company securities then outstanding.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements as defined in Item 303(a)(4)(ii) of Regulation S-K in fiscal year 2019 or fiscal 2020.
Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP, which requires management to make estimates, judgments and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, expenses and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Our actual results could differ from these estimates under different assumptions and conditions.
39
The significant accounting policies and methods used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements are described in Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” to our consolidated financial statements set forth in Part II, Item 8, of this Form 10-K. We believe the following critical accounting policies reflect the most significant estimates, judgments and assumptions used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.
Revenue Recognition
Our revenue is derived from sales of software licenses and associated hardware and support services, including professional services and maintenance fees related to our software licenses.
Our contracts, including contracts for our end-to-end software delivery platform solution (the “Framework”), often contain multiple performance obligations. For contracts with multiple performance obligations, we account for individual performance obligations separately if they are distinct. The transaction price is allocated to the separate performance obligations on a relative standalone selling price basis when available or expected cost plus margin or residual approach. If the transaction price contains discounts or we expect to provide future price concessions, these elements are considered when determining the transaction price prior to allocation. Variable fees within the transaction price are estimated and recognized as revenue when we satisfy our performance obligations to the extent it is probable that a significant reversal of cumulative revenue recognized will not occur. If the contract grants the client the option to acquire additional products or services, we assess whether or not any discount on the products and services is in excess of levels normally available to similar clients and, if so, we account for that discount as an additional performance obligation.
Framework
We have concluded that Framework has multiple performance obligations. The selling price of Framework is highly variable as a result of our value-based engagement where pricing for our customers is based on the operating expense savings that we enable using the Framework engagement.
Framework Software Licenses
We have concluded that a Framework software license is a distinct performance obligation as the client can benefit from the software on its own. Software license revenue is included in product revenue in our consolidated statement of operations and comprehensive loss and is typically recognized when control is transferred to the client, which is defined as the point in time when the client can use and benefit from the license. The software license is delivered before related services are provided and is functional without services, updates, and technical support. As a result of the highly variable selling price, revenue recognition and consideration related to the Framework software license is allocated under the residual method.
Framework Hardware
We have concluded that Framework hardware, when included in a Framework contract, is a distinct performance obligation as the client can benefit from the product. Framework hardware revenue is included in product revenue in our consolidated statement of operations and comprehensive loss and is typically recognized when control is transferred to the customer, which is defined as the point in time when the client can use and benefit from the hardware. In situations where the hardware is distinct and it is delivered before services are provided and is functional without services, control is transferred upon delivery or acceptance by the customer.
Framework Support Services
We have concluded that Framework support services is a distinct performance obligation. Framework support services is included in services revenue in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss. Support services includes software upgrades on a when-and-if available basis, support, bug fixes or patches and general maintenance support. Framework support services is not sold on a standalone basis. The standalone selling price is determined using a cost-plus approach, and revenue is recognized ratably over the passage of the contractual term.
40
We have concluded that a software license is a distinct performance obligation as the client can benefit from the software on its own. Software license revenue is included in product revenue in our consolidated statement of operations and comprehensive loss and is typically recognized when control is transferred to the client, which is defined as the point in time when the client can use and benefit from the license. The software license is delivered before related services are provided and is functional without services, updates, and technical support.
Legacy Hardware
We have concluded that hardware is a distinct performance obligation as the client can benefit from the product on its own. Hardware revenue is included in product revenue in our consolidated statement of operations and comprehensive loss and is typically recognized when control is transferred to the customer, which is defined as the point in time when the client can use and benefit from the hardware. In situations where the hardware is distinct and it is delivered before services are provided and is functional without services, control is transferred upon delivery or acceptance by the customer.
Legacy Maintenance
Historically, maintenance revenue, which is included in services revenue in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, includes revenue from client support and related professional services. Client support includes software upgrades on a when-and-if available basis, telephone support, bug fixes or patches and general hardware maintenance support. Maintenance is priced as a percentage of the list price of the related software license and hardware. Historically, we determined the standalone selling price of maintenance based on this pricing relationship and observable data from standalone sales of maintenance.
We have identified three separate distinct performance obligations of maintenance:
|
• |
Software upgrades and updates; |
|
• |
Technical support; and |
|
• |
Hardware support. |
These performance obligations are distinct within the contract and, although they are not sold separately, the components are not essential to the functionality of the other components. Each of the performance obligations included in maintenance revenue is a stand ready obligation that is recognized ratably over the passage of the contractual term for products sold on a standalone basis.
Legacy Services
Historically, our services revenue, excluding maintenance revenue, is comprised of software license implementation services, engineering services, training and reimbursable expenses. We have concluded that services are distinct performance obligations, with the exception of engineering services. Engineering services may be provided on a standalone basis or bundled with a license when we are providing custom development.
The standalone selling price for services in time and materials contracts is determined by observable prices in standalone services arrangements and recognized as revenue as the services are performed based on an input measure of hours incurred to total estimated hours.
We estimate the standalone selling price for fixed price services based on estimated hours adjusted for historical experience at time and material rates charged in standalone services arrangements. Revenue for fixed price services is recognized over time as the services are provided based on an input measure of hours incurred to total estimated hours.
41
We occasionally enter into amendments to previously executed contracts that constitute contract modifications. We assess each of these contract modifications to determine:
|
• |
If the additional products and services are distinct from the product and services in the original arrangement; and |
|
• |
If the amount of consideration expected for the added products and services reflects the standalone selling price of those products and services. |
A contract modification meeting both criteria is accounted for as a separate contract. A contract modification not meeting both criteria is considered a change to the original contract and is accounted for on either a prospective basis as a termination of the existing contract and the creation of a new contract or a cumulative catch-up basis.
Significant Judgments
Our contracts with customers often include promises to transfer multiple products and services to a customer. Determining whether products and services are considered distinct performance obligations that should be accounted for separately versus together may require significant judgment. Once we determine the performance obligations, we determine the transaction price, which includes estimating the amount of variable consideration to be included in the transaction price, if any. We then allocate the transaction price to each performance obligation in the contract based on a relative standalone selling price method. The corresponding revenue is recognized as the related performance obligations are satisfied as discussed in the revenue categories above.
Judgment is required to determine the standalone selling price for each distinct performance obligation. We determine standalone selling price based on the price at which the performance obligation is sold separately. If the standalone selling price is not observable through past transactions, we estimate the standalone selling price, taking into account available information such as market conditions, and internally approved pricing guidelines related to the performance obligations. In instances where stand-alone selling price is not directly observable, such as when we don’t sell the product or service separately, we determine the stand-alone selling price based on a cost-plus model as market and other observable inputs are seldom present based on the proprietary nature of our products and services.
Our contracts do not generally include a variable component to the transaction price. With certain statements of work, we explicitly state that we are to be reimbursed for reasonable travel and entertainment expenses incurred as part of the delivery of professional services. In the cases when we are entitled to collect all travel and entertainment expenses incurred, an estimate of the fulfillment costs is made at the onset of the contract in order to determine the transaction price. The revenue associated with travel and entertainment expenses is then recognized over time along with the professional services.
Some of our contracts have payment terms that differ from the timing of revenue recognition, which requires us to assess whether the transaction price for those contracts include a significant financing component. We have elected the practical expedient that permits an entity to not adjust for the effects of a significant financing component if we expect that at the contract inception, the period between when the entity transfers a promised good or service to a customer and when the customer pays for that good or service, will be one year or less. For those contracts in which the period exceeds the one-year threshold, this assessment, as well as the quantitative estimate of the financing component and its relative significance, requires judgment. We estimate the significant financing component provided to our customers with extended payment terms by determining the present value of the future payments by applying a discount rate that reflects the customer’s creditworthiness.
Contract Balances
Contract assets consist of unbilled revenue, which is recognized as work progresses in accordance with agreed-upon contractual terms, either at periodic intervals or upon achievement of contractual milestones. Unbilled receivables expected to be billed and collected within one year are classified as current assets or long-term assets if expected to be billed and collected after one year. Contract liabilities consist of deferred revenue and customer deposits that arise when amounts are billed to or collected from customers in advance of revenue recognition.
42
Costs to Obtain and Fulfill a Contract
We recognize an asset for the incremental costs of obtaining a contract with a customer if we expect the benefit of those costs to be longer than one year. We have determined that commissions and special incentive payments (“Spiffs”) for hardware and software maintenance and support and professional services paid under our sales incentive programs meet the requirements to be capitalized under ASC 340-40. Costs to obtain a contract are amortized as selling and marketing expense over the expected period of benefit in a manner that is consistent with the transfer of the related goods or services to which the asset relates. The judgments made in determining the amount of costs incurred include whether the commissions are in fact incremental and would not have occurred absent the customer contract and the estimate of the amortization period. The commissions and Spiffs related to professional services are amortized over time as work is completed. The commissions and Spiffs for hardware and software maintenance are amortized over the life of the contract. These costs are periodically reviewed for impairment. We determined that no impairment of these assets existed as of January 31, 2020 or 2019. We have elected to apply the practical expedient and recognize the incremental costs of obtaining contracts as an expense when incurred if the amortization period of the assets that we otherwise would have recognized is one year or less.
We capitalize incremental costs incurred to fulfill our contracts that (i) relate directly to the contract, (ii) are expected to generate resources that will be used to satisfy our performance obligation under the contract, and (iii) are expected to be recovered through revenue generated under the contract. Contract fulfillment costs include direct labor for support services, software enhancements, reimbursable expenses and professional services for customized software development costs. The revenue associated with the support services, software enhancements and reimbursable expenses is recognized ratably over time; therefore, the associated costs are expensed as incurred. The professional services associated with the customized software are not recognized until completion. As such, the professional services costs are capitalized and recognized upon completion of the services.
Allowances for Doubtful Accounts
We evaluate our customers’ financial conditions, require advance payments from certain of our customers and maintain reserves for potential credit losses. We perform ongoing credit evaluations of our customers’ financial conditions but generally do not require collateral. For some international customers, we may require an irrevocable letter of credit to be issued by the customer before the purchase order is accepted. We monitor payments from customers and assess any collection issues. We maintain an allowance for specific doubtful accounts for estimated losses resulting from the inability of our customers to make required payments and record these allowances as a charge to general and administrative expenses in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss. We base our general allowances for doubtful accounts on historical collections and write-off experience, current trends, credit assessments, and other analysis of specific customer situations. We charge off trade accounts receivables against the allowance after all means of collection have been exhausted and the potential for recovery is considered remote. Recoveries of trade receivables previously charged off are recorded when received.
Goodwill and Acquired Intangible Assets
We record goodwill when consideration paid in a business acquisition exceeds the value of the net assets acquired. Our estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions believed to be reasonable at that time but such estimates are inherently uncertain and unpredictable. Assumptions may be incomplete or inaccurate, and unanticipated events or circumstances may occur, which may affect the accuracy or validity of such assumptions, estimates or actual results. Goodwill is not amortized, but rather is tested for impairment annually in our third quarter beginning August 1st of each year, or more frequently if facts and circumstances warrant a review, such as the circumstances mentioned in impairment of long-lived assets. We have determined that there is a single reporting unit for the purpose of conducting this goodwill impairment assessment. We assess both the existence of potential impairment and the amount of impairment loss by comparing the fair value of the reporting unit with its carrying amount, including goodwill.
Intangible assets are recorded at their estimated fair values at the date of acquisition. We amortize acquired intangible assets over their estimated useful lives based on the pattern of consumption of the economic benefits or, if that pattern cannot be readily determined, on a straight-line basis.
43
Impairment of Long-Lived Assets
Long-lived assets primarily consist of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets with finite lives. Long-lived assets are evaluated for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset or group of assets may not be recoverable. Recoverability of long-lived assets or groups of assets is assessed based on a comparison of the carrying amount to the estimated future undiscounted cash flows. If estimated future undiscounted net cash flows are less than the carrying amount, the asset is considered impaired and expense is recorded at an amount required to reduce the carrying amount to fair value. Determining the fair value of long-lived assets includes significant judgment by management, and different judgments could yield different results.
We assess the useful lives and possible impairment of existing recognized intangible assets whenever events or changes in circumstances occur that indicate that it is more likely than not that an impairment has occurred. We test intangible assets with definite lives for impairment by comparing the carrying amount to the sum of the net undiscounted cash flows expected to be generated by the asset whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the asset may not be recoverable. If the carrying amount of the asset exceeds its net undiscounted cash flows, then an impairment loss is recognized for the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds its fair value. We use a discounted cash flow approach or other methods, if appropriate, to assess fair value. Factors considered important which could trigger a review include:
|
• |
significant underperformance relative to historical or projected future operating results; |
|
• |
significant changes in the manner of use of the acquired assets or the strategy for our overall business; |
|
• |
identification of other impaired assets within a reporting unit; |
|
• |
significant negative industry or economic trends; |
|
• |
a significant decline in our stock price for a sustained period; and |
|
• |
a decline in our market capitalization relative to net book value. |
Determining whether a triggering event has occurred involves significant judgment.
Income Taxes
Income tax comprises current and deferred tax. Income tax is recognized in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss except to the extent that it relates to items recognized directly within equity or in other comprehensive loss. Income taxes payable, which is included in other accrued expenses in our consolidated balance sheets, is the expected tax payable on the taxable income for the year, using tax rates enacted or substantially-enacted at the reporting date, and any adjustment to tax payable in respect of previous years.
Deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized, using the balance sheet method, for the expected tax consequences of temporary differences between the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities and the amounts used for taxation purposes. Deferred tax is not recognized for the following temporary differences: the initial recognition of goodwill, the initial recognition of assets and liabilities in a transaction that is not a business combination and that affects neither accounting nor taxable profit, and differences relating to investments in subsidiaries to the extent that they probably will not reverse in the foreseeable future. Deferred tax is measured at the tax rates that are expected to be applied to temporary differences when they reverse, based on the laws that have been enacted or substantially-enacted by the reporting date.
A deferred tax asset is recognized for unused tax losses, tax credits and deductible temporary differences, to the extent that it is probable that future taxable profits will be available against which they can be utilized. The ultimate realization of deferred tax assets is dependent upon the generation of future taxable income in the countries where the deferred tax assets originated and during the periods when the deferred tax assets become deductible. Management considers the scheduled reversal of deferred tax liabilities, projected future taxable income, and tax planning strategies in making this assessment.
44
We operate in multiple jurisdictions with complex tax policy and regulatory environments. In certain of these jurisdictions, we may take tax positions that management believes are supportable, but are potentially subject to successful challenge by the applicable taxing authority. These interpretational differences with the respective governmental taxing authorities can be impacted by the local economic and fiscal environment. We evaluate our tax positions and establish liabilities in accordance with the applicable accounting guidance on uncertainty in income taxes. We review these tax uncertainties in light of changing facts and circumstances, such as the progress of tax audits, and adjust them accordingly.
Our policy is to classify interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits, if and when required, as a component of income tax provision (benefit), in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss. We have made a policy election to treat the GILTI tax as a period expense.
Because there are several estimates and assumptions inherent in calculating the various components of our tax provision, certain changes or future events such as changes in tax legislation, geographic mix of earnings, completion of tax audits or earnings repatriation plans could have an impact on those estimates and our effective tax rate.
Stock-Based Compensation
We measure stock options and other stock-based awards granted to employees and directors based on their fair value on the date of the grant and recognize compensation expense of those awards over the requisite service period, which is generally the vesting period of the respective award. We apply the straight-line method of expense recognition to all awards with only service-based vesting conditions and apply the graded-vesting method to all awards with both service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, commencing when achievement of the performance condition becomes probable. We apply the graded-vesting method to awards with market conditions that include graded-vesting features.
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
A description of recently issued accounting pronouncements that may potentially impact our financial position and results of operations is disclosed in Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” to our audited consolidated financial statements appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Form 10-K.
Inflation Risk
During the last two years, inflation and changing prices have not had a material effect on our business. We are unable to predict whether inflation or changing prices will materially affect our business in the foreseeable future.
We are a smaller reporting company, as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, for this reporting period and are not required to provide the information required under this item.
45
Index to the Consolidated Financial Statements
46
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Stockholders and Board of Directors of
SeaChange International, Inc.
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheet of SeaChange International, Inc. (the “Company”) as of January 31, 2020, the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, stockholders’ equity and cash flows for the year ended January 31, 2020, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of January 31, 2020, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year ended January 31, 2020, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) ("PCAOB"), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of January 31, 2020, based on the criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in 2013 and our report dated April 20, 2020, expressed an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's financial statements based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audit included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audit also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
/s/ Marcum llp
Marcum llp
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2019.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
April 20, 2020
47
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
Board of Directors and Stockholders
SeaChange International, Inc.
Opinion on the financial statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheet of SeaChange International, Inc. (a Delaware corporation) and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of January 31, 2019, the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive (loss), stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for the year ended January 31, 2019, and the related notes and financial statement schedule included under Item 15(a) (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of January 31, 2019, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year ended January 31, 2019, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Basis for opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud.
Our audit included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audit also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
/s/ GRANT THORNTON LLP
We have served as the Company’s auditor from 2007 to 2019.
Boston, Massachusetts
April 12, 2019
48
(Amounts in thousands, except share data)
|
|
January 31, |
|
|
January 31, |
|
||
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
||
Assets |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Current assets: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash |
|
$ |
9,297 |
|
|
$ |
20,317 |
|
Marketable securities |
|
|
3,835 |
|
|
|
4,020 |
|
Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $947 and $577 at January 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively |
|
|
12,127 |
|
|
|
19,267 |
|
Unbilled receivables |
|
|
14,279 |
|
|
|
5,448 |
|
Inventory |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
924 |
|
Prepaid expenses and other current assets |
|
|
5,112 |
|
|
|
6,033 |
|
Total current assets |
|
|
44,650 |
|
|
|
56,009 |
|
Property and equipment, net |
|
|
554 |
|
|
|
7,192 |
|
Operating lease right-of-use assets |
|
|
4,860 |
|
|
|
— |
|
Marketable securities, long-term |
|
|
782 |
|
|
|
6,339 |
|
Intangible assets, net |
|
|
2,300 |
|
|
|
— |
|
Goodwill |
|
|
9,775 |
|
|
|
8,753 |
|
Unbilled receivables, long-term |
|
|
9,031 |
|
|
|
— |
|
Other assets |
|
|
938 |
|
|
|
450 |
|
Total assets |
|
$ |
72,890 |
|
|
$ |
78,743 |
|
Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Current liabilities: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Accounts payable |
|
$ |
4,007 |
|
|
$ |
4,503 |
|
Accrued expenses |
|
|
7,986 |
|
|
|
7,762 |
|
Deferred revenue |
|
|
5,041 |
|
|
|
8,104 |
|
Total current liabilities |
|
|
17,034 |
|
|
|
20,369 |
|
Deferred revenue, long-term |
|
|
1,140 |
|
|
|
2,642 |
|
Operating lease liabilities, long-term |
|
|
4,348 |
|
|
|
— |
|
Taxes payable, long-term |
|
|
436 |
|
|
|
429 |
|
Deferred tax liabilities, long-term |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
203 |
|
Total liabilities |
|
|
22,958 |
|
|
|
23,643 |
|
Commitments and contingencies (Note 8) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stockholders' equity: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Common stock, $0.01 par value; 100,000,000 shares authorized at January 31, 2020 and 2019; 37,303,952 shares issued and 37,163,462 shares outstanding at January 31, 2020; 35,946,100 shares issued and 35,905,610 outstanding at January 31, 2019 |
|
|
373 |
|
|
|
359 |
|
Additional paid-in capital |
|
|
245,067 |
|
|
|
242,442 |
|
Treasury stock, at cost; 140,490 shares at January 31, 2020 and 40,490 shares at January 31, 2019 |
|
|
(147 |
) |
|
|
(5 |
) |
Accumulated other comprehensive loss |
|
|
(2,137 |
) |
|
|
(3,393 |
) |
Accumulated deficit |
|
|
(193,224 |
) |
|
|
(184,303 |
) |
Total stockholders' equity |
|
|
49,932 |
|
|
|
55,100 |
|
Total liabilities and stockholders' equity |
|
$ |
72,890 |
|
|
$ |
78,743 |
|
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
49
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE LOSS
(Amounts in thousands, except per share data)
|
For the Fiscal Years Ended January 31, |
|
|||||
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
||
Revenue: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Product |
$ |
39,914 |
|
|
$ |
20,655 |
|
Service |
|
27,240 |
|
|
|
41,747 |
|
Total revenue |
|
67,154 |
|
|
|
62,402 |
|
Cost of revenue: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Product |
|
6,179 |
|
|
|
3,460 |
|
Service |
|
17,473 |
|
|
|
21,612 |
|
Total cost of revenue |
|
23,652 |
|
|
|
25,072 |
|
Gross profit |
|
43,502 |
|
|
|
37,330 |
|
Operating expenses: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Research and development |
|
16,050 |
|
|
|
19,705 |
|
Selling and marketing |
|
12,179 |
|
|
|
14,414 |
|
General and administrative |
|
15,211 |
|
|
|
19,618 |
|
Severance and restructuring costs |
|
3,523 |
|
|
|
2,381 |
|
Loss on sale of fixed assets |
|
5,423 |
|
|
|
— |
|
Loss on impairment of goodwill and long-lived assets |
|
— |
|
|
|
17,015 |
|
Total operating expenses |
|
52,386 |
|
|
|
73,133 |
|
Loss from operations |
|
(8,884 |
) |
|
|
(35,803 |
) |
Other income (expense), net |
|
11 |
|
|
|
(4,217 |
) |
Loss before income taxes |
|
(8,873 |
) |
|
|
(40,020 |
) |
Income tax provision (benefit) |
|
48 |
|
|
|
(2,018 |
) |
Net loss |
$ |
(8,921 |
) |
|
$ |
(38,002 |
) |
Net loss per share, basic |
$ |
(0.24 |
) |
|
$ |
(1.06 |
) |
Net loss per share, diluted |
$ |
(0.24 |
) |
|
$ |
(1.06 |
) |
Weighted average common shares outstanding, basic |
|
36,699 |
|
|
|
35,691 |
|
Weighted average common shares outstanding, diluted |
|
36,699 |
|
|
|
35,691 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Comprehensive loss: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net loss |
$ |
(8,921 |
) |
|
$ |
(38,002 |
) |
Other comprehensive income, net of tax: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Foreign currency translation adjustment |
|
1,212 |
|
|
|
1,992 |
|
Unrealized gains on marketable securities |
|
44 |
|
|
|
49 |
|
Total other comprehensive income |
|
1,256 |
|
|
|
2,041 |
|
Comprehensive loss |
$ |
(7,665 |
) |
|
$ |
(35,961 |
) |
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
50
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(Amounts in thousands)
|
|
For the Fiscal Years Ended January 31, |
|
|||||
|
|
2020 |
|
|
2019 |
|
||
Cash flows from operating activities: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net loss |
|
$ |
(8,921 |
) |
|
$ |
(38,002 |
) |
Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Depreciation and amortization expense |
|
|
2,016 |
|
|
|
2,924 |
|
Loss on sale of fixed assets |
|
|
5,423 |
|
|
|
— |
|
Provision for bad debts |
|
|
628 |
|
|
|
1,779 |
|
Loss on impairment of goodwill and long-lived assets |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
17,015 |
|
Stock-based compensation expense |
|
|
1,151 |
|
|
|
2,939 |
|
Deferred income taxes |
|
|
(203 |
) |
|
|
(4 |
) |
Realized and unrealized foreign currency transaction loss |
|
|
2,126 |
|
|