Item 1A.
RISK FACTORS
An investment in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below and the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our other public filings before making an investment decision. Our business, prospects, financial condition, or operating results could be harmed by any of these risks, as well as other risks not currently known to us or that we currently consider immaterial. If any such risks and uncertainties actually occurs, our business, financial condition or operating results could differ materially from the plans, projections and other forward-looking statements included in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and elsewhere in this report and in our other public filings. The trading price of our common stock could decline due to any of these risks, and, as a result, you may lose all or part of your investment.
Risks Related to Our Business and Strategy
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have materially affected how we and our customers are operating our businesses, and the duration and extent to which this will impact our future results of operations and overall financial performance remains uncertain.
In December 2019, a novel coronavirus disease (“COVID-19”), was reported and in January 2020, the World Health Organization (“WHO”) declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. On February 28, 2020, the WHO raised its assessment of the COVID-19 threat from high to very high at a global level due to the continued increase in the number of cases and affected countries, and on March 11, 2020, the WHO characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic, (the “pandemic”). The pandemic, which has continued to spread, and the related adverse public health developments, including orders to shelter-in-place, travel restrictions, and mandated business closures, have adversely affected workforces, organizations, customers, economies, and financial markets globally, leading to an economic downturn and increased market volatility. It has also disrupted the normal operations of many businesses, including ours.
Our operations have also been impacted by a range of external factors related to the pandemic that are not within our control. For example, many cities, counties, states, and even countries have imposed or may impose a wide range of restrictions on the physical movement of our employees, partners and customers to limit the spread of the pandemic, including physical distancing, travel bans and restrictions, closure of non-essential business, quarantines, work-from-home directives, shelter-in-place orders, and limitations on public gatherings. These measures have caused, and are continuing to cause, business slowdowns or shutdowns in affected areas, both regionally and worldwide. In March 2020, we temporarily closed our global offices, including our corporate headquarters, suspended all company-related travel, and all HubSpot employees globally were required to work from home for several months during the height of the pandemic. We shifted our Solutions Partner events and INBOUND 2020 to virtual-only experiences and have cancelled other customer and industry events. Although we have begun to slowly re-open our offices on a staggered, region-by-region basis in accordance with local authority guidelines, we may deem it advisable to similarly alter, postpone or cancel entirely additional customer, employee or industry events in the future. All of these changes may disrupt the way we operate our business. Given that the economic consequences of the pandemic have been exceptionally challenging for many of our customers and prospects, we have also implemented certain changes to our pricing structure, including reducing prices on our Starter Growth Suite, offering certain product functionality free of charge for a limited time, suspending marketing email send limits for a limited time, and offering a one-time six-month advance on commissions to certain of our Solutions Partners.
Moreover, the conditions caused by the pandemic may affect the rate of spending on software products and may adversely affect our customers’ ability or willingness to purchase our offerings; the timing of our current or prospective customers’ purchasing decisions; pricing discounts or extended payment terms; reductions in the amount or duration of customers’ subscription contracts; or increase customer attrition rates, all of which could adversely affect our future sales, operating results and overall financial performance. If the pandemic has a substantial impact on the ability of our customers to purchase our offerings, our results of operations and overall financial performance may be harmed.
The duration and extent of the impact from the pandemic depends on future developments that cannot be accurately predicted at this time, such as the severity and transmission rate of the virus, the extent and effectiveness of containment actions, the disruption caused by such actions, and the impact of these and other factors on our employees, customers, partners and vendors. If we are not able to respond to and manage the impact of such events effectively, our business will be harmed.
To the extent the pandemic adversely affects our business and financial results, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, including, in particular, risks related to our dependence on customer renewals, the addition of new customers and increased revenue from existing customer, risks that our operating results could be negatively affected by changes in the sizes or types of businesses that purchase our platform and the risk that weakened global economic conditions may harm our industry, business and results of operations.
We are dependent upon customer renewals, the addition of new customers, increased revenue from existing customers and the continued growth of the market for a CRM Platform.
We derive, and expect to continue to derive, a substantial portion of our revenue from the sale of subscriptions to our CRM Platform. The market for inbound marketing, sales and customer service products is still evolving, and competitive dynamics may cause pricing levels to change as the market matures and as existing and new market participants introduce new types of point applications and different approaches to enable businesses to address their respective needs. As a result, we may be forced to reduce the prices we charge for our platform and may be unable to renew existing customer agreements or enter into new customer agreements at the same prices and upon the same terms that we have historically. In addition, our growth strategy involves a scalable pricing model (including freemium versions of our products) intended to provide us with an opportunity to increase the value of our customer relationships over time as we expand their use of our platform, sell to other parts of their organizations, cross-sell our sales products to existing marketing product customers and vice versa through touchless or low touch in product purchases, and upsell additional offerings and features. If our cross-selling efforts are unsuccessful or if our existing customers do not expand their use of our platform or adopt additional offerings and features, our operating results may suffer.
Our subscription renewal rates may decrease, and any decrease could harm our future revenue and operating results.
Our customers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions for our platform after the expiration of their subscription periods, substantially all of which are one year or less. In addition, our customers may seek to renew for lower subscription tiers, for fewer contacts or seats, or for shorter contract lengths. Also, customers may choose not to renew their subscriptions for a variety of reasons. Our renewal rates may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including limited customer resources, pricing changes, the prices of services offered by our competitors, adoption and utilization of our platform and add-on applications by our customers, adoption of our new products, customer satisfaction with our platform, mergers and acquisitions affecting our customer base, reductions in our customers’ spending levels or declines in customer activity as a result of economic downturns or uncertainty in financial markets. If our customers do not renew their subscriptions for our platform or decrease the amount they spend with us, our revenue will decline and our business will suffer. In addition, a subscription model creates certain risks related to the timing of revenue recognition and potential reductions in cash flows. A portion of the subscription-based revenue we report each quarter results from the recognition of deferred revenue relating to subscription agreements entered into during previous quarters. A decline in new or renewed subscriptions in any period may not be immediately reflected in our reported financial results for that period, but may result in a decline in our revenue in future quarters. If we were to experience significant downturns in subscription sales and renewal rates, our reported financial results might not reflect such downturns until future periods.
We face significant competition from both established and new companies offering marketing, sales and customer service software and other related applications, as well as internally developed software, which may harm our ability to add new customers, retain existing customers and grow our business.
The marketing, sales, customer service, and content management software market is evolving, highly competitive and significantly fragmented. With the introduction of new technologies and the potential entry of new competitors into the market, we expect competition to persist and intensify in the future, which could harm our ability to increase sales, maintain or increase renewals and maintain our prices.
We face intense competition from other software companies that develop marketing, sales, customer service, and content management software and from marketing services companies that provide interactive marketing services. Competition could significantly impede our ability to sell subscriptions to our CRM Platform on terms favorable to us. Our current and potential competitors may develop and market new technologies that render our existing or future products less competitive, or obsolete. In addition, if these competitors develop products with similar or superior functionality to our platform, we may need to decrease the prices or accept less favorable terms for our platform subscriptions in order to remain competitive. If we are unable to maintain our pricing due to competitive pressures, our margins will be reduced and our operating results will be negatively affected.
Our competitors include:
•
cloud-based marketing automation providers;
•
email marketing software vendors;
•
sales force automation and CRM software vendors;
•
large-scale enterprise suites;
•
customer service software providers; and
•
content management systems.
In addition, instead of using our platform, some prospective customers may elect to combine disparate point applications, such as content management, marketing automation, CRM, analytics and social media management. We expect that new competitors, such as enterprise software vendors that have traditionally focused on enterprise resource planning or other applications supporting back office functions, will develop and introduce applications serving customer-facing and other front office functions. This development could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, sales force automation and CRM vendors could acquire or develop applications that compete with our marketing software offerings. Some of these companies have acquired social media marketing and other marketing software providers to integrate with their broader offerings.
Our current and potential competitors may have significantly more financial, technical, marketing and other resources than we have, be able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion, sale and support of their products and services, may have more extensive customer bases and broader customer relationships than we have, and may have longer operating histories and greater name recognition than we have. As a result, these competitors may respond faster to new technologies and undertake more extensive marketing campaigns for their products. In a few cases, these vendors may also be able to offer marketing, sales, customer service and content management software at little or no additional cost by bundling it with their existing suite of applications. To the extent any of our competitors has existing relationships with potential customers for either marketing software or other applications, those customers may be unwilling to purchase our platform because of their existing relationships with our competitor. If we are unable to compete with such companies, the demand for our CRM Platform could substantially decline.
In addition, if one or more of our competitors were to merge or partner with another of our competitors, our ability to compete effectively could be adversely affected. Our competitors may also establish or strengthen cooperative relationships with our current or future strategic distribution and technology partners or other parties with whom we have relationships, thereby limiting our ability to promote and implement our platform. We may not be able to compete successfully against current or future competitors, and competitive pressures may harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
We have experienced rapid growth and organizational change in recent periods and expect continued future growth. If we fail to manage our growth effectively, we may be unable to execute our business plan, maintain high levels of service or address competitive challenges adequately.
Our head count and operations have grown substantially. For example, we had 4,225 full-time employees as of December 31, 2020, as compared with 3,387 as of December 31, 2019 and we have opened 8 international offices since 2012. We also plan to open additional offices in the future. This growth has placed, and will continue to place, a significant strain on our management, administrative, operational and financial infrastructure. We anticipate further growth will be required to address increases in our product offerings and continued expansion. Our success will depend in part upon our ability to recruit, hire, train, manage and integrate a significant number of qualified managers, technical personnel and employees in specialized roles within our company, including in technology, sales and marketing. Furthermore, preservation of our corporate culture has been made more difficult as our work force has been working from home in connection with restrictions placed upon businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A long-term continuation of these restrictions could, among other things, negatively impact employee morale and productivity. Any failure to preserve our culture could harm our future success, including our ability to retain and recruit personnel, innovate and operate effectively and execute on our business strategy. If we experience any of these effects in connection with future growth, if our new employees perform poorly, or if we are unsuccessful in recruiting, hiring, training, managing and integrating these new employees, or retaining these or our existing employees, it could materially impair our ability to attract new customers, retain existing customers and expand their use of our platform, all of which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, to manage the expected continued growth of our head count, operations and geographic expansion, we will need to continue to improve our information technology infrastructure, operational, financial and management systems and procedures. Our anticipated additional head count and capital investments will increase our costs, which will make it more difficult for us to address any future revenue shortfalls by reducing expenses in the short term. If we fail to successfully manage our growth, we will be unable to successfully execute our business plan, which could have a negative impact on our business, results of operations or financial condition.
Failure to effectively develop and expand our marketing, sales, customer service, and content management capabilities could harm our ability to increase our customer base and achieve broader market acceptance of our platform.
To increase Total Customers and achieve broader market acceptance of our CRM Platform, we will need to expand our marketing, sales, customer service and content management operations, including our sales force and third-party channel partners. We will continue to dedicate significant resources to inbound sales and marketing programs. The effectiveness of our inbound sales and marketing and third-party channel partners has varied over time and may vary in the future and depends on our ability to maintain and improve our CRM Platform. All of these efforts will require us to invest significant financial and other resources. Our business will be seriously harmed if our efforts do not generate a correspondingly significant increase in revenue. We may not achieve anticipated
revenue growth from expanding our sales force if we are unable to hire, develop and retain talented sales personnel, if our new sales personnel are unable to achieve desired productivity levels in a reasonable period of time or if our sales and marketing programs are not effective.
The rate of growth of our business depends on the continued participation and level of service of our Solutions Partners.
We rely on our Solutions Partners to provide certain services to our customers, as well as pursue sales of our CRM Platform to customers. To the extent we do not attract new Solutions Partners, or existing or new Solutions Partners do not refer a growing number of customers to us, our revenue and operating results would be harmed. In addition, if our Solutions Partners do not continue to provide services to our customers, we would be required to provide such services ourselves either by expanding our internal team or engaging other third-party providers, which would increase our operating costs.
If we fail to maintain our inbound thought leadership position, our business may suffer.
We believe that maintaining our thought leadership position in inbound marketing, sales, services and content management is an important element in attracting new customers. We devote significant resources to develop and maintain our thought leadership position, with a focus on identifying and interpreting emerging trends in the inbound experience, shaping and guiding industry dialog and creating and sharing the best inbound practices. Our activities related to developing and maintaining our thought leadership may not yield increased revenue, and even if they do, any increased revenue may not offset the expenses we incurred in such effort. We rely upon the continued services of our management and employees with domain expertise with inbound marketing, sales, services, and content management, and the loss of any key employees in this area could harm our competitive position and reputation. If we fail to successfully grow and maintain our thought leadership position, we may not attract enough new customers or retain our existing customers, and our business could suffer.
If we fail to further enhance our brand and maintain our existing strong brand awareness, our ability to expand our customer base will be impaired and our financial condition may suffer.
We believe that our development of the HubSpot brand is critical to achieving widespread awareness of our existing and future inbound experience solutions, and, as a result, is important to attracting new customers and maintaining existing customers. In the past, our efforts to build our brand have involved significant expenses, and we believe that this investment has resulted in strong brand recognition in the B2B market. Successful promotion and maintenance of our brands will depend largely on the effectiveness of our marketing efforts and on our ability to provide a reliable and useful CRM Platform at competitive prices. Brand promotion activities may not yield increased revenue, and even if they do, any increased revenue may not offset the expenses we incurred in building our brand. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brand, our business could suffer.
If we fail to adapt and respond effectively to rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards and changing customer needs or requirements, our CRM Platform may become less competitive.
Our future success depends on our ability to adapt and innovate our CRM Platform. To attract new customers and increase revenue from existing customers, we need to continue to enhance and improve our offerings to meet customer needs at prices that our customers are willing to pay. Such efforts will require adding new functionality and responding to technological advancements, which will increase our research and development costs. If we are unable to develop new applications that address our customers’ needs, or to enhance and improve our platform in a timely manner, we may not be able to maintain or increase market acceptance of our platform. Our ability to grow is also subject to the risk of future disruptive technologies. Access and use of our CRM Platform is provided via the cloud, which, itself, was disruptive to the previous enterprise software model. If new technologies emerge that are able to deliver inbound marketing software and related applications at lower prices, more efficiently, more conveniently or more securely, such technologies could adversely affect our ability to compete.
If we fail to offer high-quality customer support, our business and reputation may suffer.
High-quality education, training and customer support are important for the successful marketing, sale and use of our CRM Platform and for the renewal of existing customers. Providing this education, training and support requires that our personnel who manage our online training resource, HubSpot Academy, or provide customer support have specific inbound experience domain knowledge and expertise, making it more difficult for us to hire qualified personnel and to scale up our support operations. The importance of high-quality customer support will increase as we expand our business and pursue new customers. If we do not help our customers use multiple applications within our CRM Platform and provide effective ongoing support, our ability to sell additional functionality and services to, or to retain, existing customers may suffer and our reputation with existing or potential customers may be harmed.
We may not be able to scale our business quickly enough to meet our customers’ growing needs and if we are not able to grow efficiently, our operating results could be harmed.
As usage of our CRM Platform grows and as customers use our platform for additional inbound applications, such as sales and services, we will need to devote additional resources to improving our application architecture, integrating with third-party systems and maintaining infrastructure performance. In addition, we will need to appropriately scale our internal business systems and our services organization, including customer support and professional services, to serve our growing customer base, particularly as our customer demographics change over time. Any failure of or delay in these efforts could cause impaired system performance and reduced customer satisfaction. These issues could reduce the attractiveness of our CRM Platform to customers, resulting in decreased sales to new customers, lower renewal rates by existing customers, the issuance of service credits, or requested refunds, which could impede our revenue growth and harm our reputation. Even if we are able to upgrade our systems and expand our staff, any such expansion will be expensive and complex, requiring management’s time and attention. We could also face inefficiencies or operational failures as a result of our efforts to scale our infrastructure. Moreover, there are inherent risks associated with upgrading, improving and expanding our information technology systems. We cannot be sure that the expansion and improvements to our infrastructure and systems will be fully or effectively implemented on a timely basis, if at all. These efforts may reduce revenue and our margins and adversely affect our financial results.
Our ability to introduce new products and features is dependent on adequate research and development resources. If we do not adequately fund our research and development efforts, we may not be able to compete effectively and our business and operating results may be harmed.
To remain competitive, we must continue to develop new product offerings, applications, features and enhancements to our existing CRM Platform. Maintaining adequate research and development personnel and resources to meet the demands of the market is essential. If we are unable to develop our platform internally due to certain constraints, such as high employee turnover, lack of management ability or a lack of other research and development resources, we may miss market opportunities. Further, many of our competitors expend a considerably greater amount of funds on their research and development programs, and those that do not may be acquired by larger companies that would allocate greater resources to our competitors’ research and development programs. Our failure to maintain adequate research and development resources or to compete effectively with the research and development programs of our competitors could materially adversely affect our business.
Changes in the sizes or types of businesses that purchase our platform or in the applications within our CRM Platform purchased or used by our customers could negatively affect our operating results.
Our strategy is to sell subscriptions to our CRM Platform to mid-sized businesses, but we have sold and will continue to sell to organizations ranging from small businesses to enterprises. Our gross margins can vary depending on numerous factors related to the implementation and use of our CRM Platform, including the sophistication and intensity of our customers’ use of our platform and the level of professional services and support required by a customer. Sales to enterprise customers may entail longer sales cycles and more significant selling efforts. Selling to small businesses may involve greater credit risk and uncertainty. If there are changes in the mix of businesses that purchase our platform or the mix of the product plans purchased by our customers, our gross margins could decrease and our operating results could be adversely affected.
We have in the past completed acquisitions and may acquire or invest in other companies or technologies in the future, which could divert management’s attention, fail to meet our expectations, result in additional dilution to our stockholders, increase expenses, disrupt our operations or harm our operating results.
We have in the past acquired, and we may in the future acquire or invest in, businesses, products or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our platform, enhance our technical capabilities or otherwise offer growth opportunities, for example, the acquisition of PieSync in 2019. We may not be able to fully realize the anticipated benefits of these or any future acquisitions. The pursuit of potential acquisitions may divert the attention of management and cause us to incur various expenses related to identifying, investigating and pursuing suitable acquisitions, whether or not they are consummated.
There are inherent risks in integrating and managing acquisitions. If we acquire additional businesses, we may not be able to assimilate or integrate the acquired personnel, operations and technologies successfully or effectively manage the combined business following the acquisition and our management may be distracted from operating our business. We also may not achieve the anticipated benefits from the acquired business due to a number of factors, including: unanticipated costs or liabilities associated with the acquisition; incurrence of acquisition-related costs, which would be recognized as a current period expense; inability to generate sufficient revenue to offset acquisition or investment costs; the inability to maintain relationships with customers and partners of the acquired business; the difficulty of incorporating acquired technology and rights into our platform and of maintaining quality and security standards consistent with our brand; delays in customer purchases due to uncertainty related to any acquisition; the need to integrate or implement additional controls, procedures and policies; challenges caused by distance, language and cultural differences; harm to our existing business relationships with business partners and customers as a result of the acquisition; the potential loss of key
employees; use of resources that are needed in other parts of our business and diversion of management and employee resources; the inability to recognize acquired deferred revenue in accordance with our revenue recognition policies; and use of substantial portions of our available cash or the incurrence of debt to consummate the acquisition. Acquisitions also increase the risk of unforeseen legal liability, including for potential violations of applicable law or industry rules and regulations, arising from prior or ongoing acts or omissions by the acquired businesses which are not discovered by due diligence during the acquisition process. Generally, if an acquired business fails to meet our expectations, our operating results, business and financial condition may suffer. Acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition.
In addition, a significant portion of the purchase price of companies we acquire may be allocated to goodwill and other intangible assets, which must be assessed for impairment at least annually. If our acquisitions do not ultimately yield expected returns, we may be required to make charges to our operating results based on our impairment assessment process, which could harm our results of operations.
Because our long-term growth strategy involves further expansion of our sales to customers outside the United States, our business will be susceptible to risks associated with international operations.
A component of our growth strategy involves the further expansion of our operations and customer base internationally. We have opened 8 international offices since 2012. We also plan to open additional offices in the future. These international offices focus primarily on sales, professional services and support. We also have a development team in Dublin, Ireland. Our current international operations and future initiatives will involve a variety of risks, including:
•
difficulties in maintaining our company culture with a dispersed and distant workforce;
•
more stringent regulations relating to data security and the unauthorized use of, or access to, commercial and personal information, particularly in the European Union;
•
unexpected changes in regulatory requirements, taxes or trade laws;
•
differing labor regulations, especially in the European Union, where labor laws are generally more advantageous to employees as compared to the United States, including deemed hourly wage and overtime regulations in these locations;
•
challenges inherent in efficiently managing an increased number of employees over large geographic distances, including the need to implement appropriate systems, policies, benefits and compliance programs;
•
difficulties in managing a business in new markets with diverse cultures, languages, customs, legal systems, alternative dispute systems and regulatory systems;
•
currency exchange rate fluctuations and the resulting effect on our revenue and expenses, and the cost and risk of entering into hedging transactions if we chose to do so in the future;
•
global economic uncertainty caused by global political events, including the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, on January 31, 2020, or "Brexit", and similar geopolitical developments;
•
limitations on our ability to reinvest earnings from operations in one country to fund the capital needs of our operations in other countries;
•
limited or insufficient intellectual property protection;
•
political instability or terrorist activities;
•
likelihood of potential or actual violations of domestic and international anticorruption laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act, or of U.S. and international export control and sanctions regulations, which likelihood may increase with an increase of sales or operations in foreign jurisdictions and operations in certain industries; and
•
adverse tax burdens and foreign exchange controls that could make it difficult to repatriate earnings and cash.
Our limited experience in operating our business internationally increases the risk that any potential future expansion efforts that we may undertake will not be successful. If we invest substantial time and resources to expand our international operations and are unable to do so successfully and in a timely manner, our business and operating results will suffer. We continue to implement policies and procedures to facilitate our compliance with U.S. laws and regulations applicable to or arising from our international business. Inadequacies in our past or current compliance practices may increase the risk of inadvertent violations of such laws and regulations, which could lead to financial and other penalties that could damage our reputation and impose costs on us.
Risks Related to Employee Matters
If we cannot maintain our company culture as we grow, we could lose the innovation, teamwork, passion and focus on execution that we believe contribute to our success and our business may be harmed.
We believe that a critical component to our success has been our company culture, which is based on transparency and personal autonomy. We have invested substantial time and resources in building our team within this company culture. Any failure to preserve our culture could negatively affect our ability to retain and recruit personnel and to effectively focus on and pursue our corporate objectives. As we grow as and continue to develop the infrastructure of a public company, we may find it difficult to maintain these important aspects of our company culture. If we fail to maintain our company culture, our business may be adversely impacted.
We rely on our management team and other key employees, and the loss of one or more key employees could harm our business.
Our success and future growth depend upon the continued services of our management team, including our co-founders, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, and other key employees in the areas of research and development, marketing, sales, services, content management, and general and administrative functions. From time to time, there may be changes in our management team resulting from the hiring or departure of executives, which could disrupt our business. We also are dependent on the continued service of our existing software engineers and information technology personnel because of the complexity of our platform, technologies and infrastructure. We may terminate any employee’s employment at any time, with or without cause, and any employee may resign at any time, with or without cause. We do not have employment agreements with any of our key personnel. The loss of one or more of our key employees could harm our business.
The failure to attract and retain additional qualified personnel could prevent us from executing our business strategy.
To execute our business strategy, we must attract and retain highly qualified personnel. In particular, we compete with many other companies for software developers with high levels of experience in designing, developing and managing cloud-based software, as well as for skilled information technology, marketing, sales and operations professionals, and we may not be successful in attracting and retaining the professionals we need. Also, inbound sales, marketing, services, and content management domain experts are very important to our success and are difficult to replace. We have from time to time in the past experienced, and we expect to continue to experience in the future, difficulty in hiring and difficulty in retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. In particular, we have experienced a competitive hiring environment in the Greater Boston area, where we are headquartered. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we do. In addition, in making employment decisions, particularly in the software industry, job candidates often consider the value of the stock options or other equity incentives they are to receive in connection with their employment. If the price of our stock declines, or experiences significant volatility, our ability to attract or retain key employees will be adversely affected. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our growth prospects could be severely harmed.
Risks Related to Our Technical Operations Infrastructure and Dependence on Third Parties
Interruptions or delays in service from our third-party data center providers could impair our ability to deliver our platform to our customers, resulting in customer dissatisfaction, damage to our reputation, loss of customers, limited growth and reduction in revenue.
We currently serve the majority of our platform functions from third-party data center hosting facilities operated by Amazon Web Services located in northern Virginia and Google Cloud Platform located in Frankfurt, Germany. In addition, we serve ancillary functions for our customers from third-party data center hosting facilities operated by Rackspace located in Dallas, Texas, with a backup facility in Chicago, Illinois. Our operations depend, in part, on our third-party facility providers’ abilities to protect these facilities against damage or interruption from natural disasters, such as earthquakes and hurricanes, power or telecommunications failures, criminal acts and similar events. In the event that any of our third-party facilities arrangements is terminated, or if there is a lapse of service or damage to a facility, we could experience interruptions in our platform as well as delays and additional expenses in arranging new facilities and services.
Any damage to, or failure of, the systems of our third-party providers could result in interruptions to our platform. Despite precautions taken at our data centers, the occurrence of spikes in usage volume, a natural disaster, such as earthquakes or hurricane, an act of terrorism, vandalism or sabotage, a decision to close a facility without adequate notice, or other unanticipated problems at a facility could result in lengthy interruptions in the availability of our on-demand software. Even with current and planned disaster recovery arrangements, our business could be harmed. Also, in the event of damage or interruption, our insurance policies may not adequately compensate us for any losses that we may incur. These factors in turn could further reduce our revenue, subject us to liability and cause us to issue credits or cause customers to fail to renew their subscriptions, any of which could materially adversely affect our business.
If our CRM Platform has outages or fails due to defects or similar problems, and if we fail to correct any defect or other software problems, we could lose customers, become subject to service performance or warranty claims or incur significant costs.
Our platform and its underlying infrastructure are inherently complex and may contain material defects or errors. We release modifications, updates, bug fixes and other changes to our software several times per day, without traditional human-performed quality control reviews for each release. We have from time to time found defects in our software and may discover additional defects in the future. We may not be able to detect and correct defects or errors before customers begin to use our platform or its applications. Consequently, we or our customers may discover defects or errors after our platform has been implemented. For example, in March 2019, we had a product outage due to the failure of one of the infrastructure systems that supports multiple parts of our platform. Although no data from prior to the outage was lost, our customers experienced disruptions in using our platform during the outage. Defects or errors could result in product outages and could also cause inaccuracies in the data we collect and process for our customers, or even the loss, damage or inadvertent release of such confidential data. We implement bug fixes and upgrades as part of our regular system maintenance, which may lead to system downtime. Even if we are able to implement the bug fixes and upgrades in a timely manner, any history of product outages, defects or inaccuracies in the data we collect for our customers, or the loss, damage or inadvertent release of confidential data could cause our reputation to be harmed, and customers may elect not to purchase or renew their agreements with us. Furthermore, these issues could subject us to service performance credits (whether offered by us or required by contract), warranty claims or increased insurance costs. The costs associated with product outages, any material defects or errors in our platform or other performance problems may be substantial and could materially adversely affect our operating results.
In addition, third-party apps and features on our CRM Platform may not meet the same quality standards that we apply to our own development efforts and, to the extent they contain bugs, vulnerabilities or defects, they may create disruptions in our customers’ use of our products, lead to data loss, unauthorized access to customer data, damage our brand and reputation and affect the continued use of our products, any of which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We are dependent on the continued availability of third-party data hosting and transmission services.
A significant portion of our operating cost is from our third-party data hosting and transmission services. If the costs for such services increase due to vendor consolidation, regulation, contract renegotiation, or otherwise, we may not be able to increase the fees for our CRM Platform or services to cover the changes. As a result, our operating results may be significantly worse than forecasted.
If we do not or cannot maintain the compatibility of our CRM Platform with third-party applications that our customers use in their businesses, our revenue will decline.
A significant percentage of our customers choose to integrate our platform with certain capabilities provided by third-party application providers using application programming interfaces (“APIs”) published by these providers. The functionality and popularity of our CRM Platform depends, in part, on our ability to integrate our platform with third-party applications and platforms, including CRM, CMS, e-commerce, call center, analytics and social media sites that our customers use and from which they obtain data. Third-party providers of applications and APIs may change the features of their applications and platforms, restrict our access to their applications and platforms, or alter the terms governing use of their applications and APIs and access to those applications and platforms in an adverse manner. Such changes could functionally limit or terminate our ability to use these third-party applications and platforms in conjunction with our platform, which could negatively impact our offerings and harm our business. If we fail to integrate our platform with new third-party applications and platforms that our customers use for marketing, sales, services or content management purposes, or fail to renew existing relationships pursuant to which we currently provide such integration, we may not be able to offer the functionality that our customers need, which would negatively impact our ability to generate new revenue or maintain existing revenue and adversely impact our business.
We rely on data provided by third parties, the loss of which could limit the functionality of our platform and disrupt our business.
Select functionality of our CRM Platform depends on our ability to deliver data, including search engine results and social media updates, provided by unaffiliated third parties, such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter. Some of this data is provided to us pursuant to third-party data sharing policies and terms of use, under data sharing agreements by third-party providers or by customer consent. In the future, any of these third parties could change its data sharing policies, including making them more restrictive, or alter its algorithms that determine the placement, display, and accessibility of search results and social media updates, any of which could result in the loss of, or significant impairment to, our ability to collect and provide useful data to our customers. These third parties could also interpret our, or our service providers’, data collection policies or practices as being inconsistent with their policies, which could result in the loss of our ability to collect this data for our customers. Any such changes could impair our ability to deliver data to our customers and could adversely impact select functionality of our platform, impairing the return on investment that our customers derive from using our solution, as well as adversely affecting our business and our ability to generate revenue.
Privacy concerns and end users’ acceptance of Internet behavior tracking may limit the applicability, use and adoption of our CRM Platform.
Privacy concerns may cause end users to resist providing the personal data necessary to allow our customers to use our platform effectively. We have implemented various features intended to enable our customers to better protect end user privacy, but these measures may not alleviate all potential privacy concerns and threats. Even the perception of privacy concerns, whether or not valid, may inhibit market adoption of our platform, especially in certain industries that rely on sensitive personal information. Privacy advocacy groups and the technology and other industries are considering various new, additional or different self-regulatory standards that may place additional burdens on us. The costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by these groups’ policies and actions may limit the use and adoption of our CRM Platform and reduce overall demand for it, or lead to significant fines, penalties or liabilities for any noncompliance or loss of any such action.
If our or our customers’ security measures are compromised or unauthorized access to data of our customers or their customers is otherwise obtained, our CRM Platform may be perceived as not being secure, our customers may be harmed and may curtail or cease their use of our platform, our reputation may be damaged and we may incur significant liabilities.
Our operations involve the storage and transmission of data of our customers and their customers, including personally identifiable information. Our storage is typically the sole source of record for portions of our customers’ businesses and end user data, such as initial contact information and online interactions. Security incidents could result in unauthorized access to, loss of or unauthorized disclosure of this information, litigation, indemnity obligations and other possible liabilities, as well as negative publicity, which could damage our reputation, impair our sales and harm our customers and our business. Cyber-attacks and other malicious Internet-based activity continue to increase generally, and cloud-based platform providers of marketing services have been targeted. If our security measures are compromised as a result of third-party action, employee or customer error, malfeasance, stolen or fraudulently obtained log-in credentials or otherwise, our reputation could be damaged, our business may be harmed and we could incur significant liability. If third parties with whom we work, such as vendors or developers, violate applicable laws, our security policies or our acceptable use policy, such violations may also put our customers’ information at risk and could in turn have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, if the security measures of our customers are compromised, even without any actual compromise of our own systems, we may face negative publicity or reputational harm if our customers or anyone else incorrectly attributes the blame for such security breaches to us or our systems. We may be unable to anticipate or prevent techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems because they change frequently and generally are not detected until after an incident has occurred. As we increase our customer base and our brand becomes more widely known and recognized, we may become more of a target for third parties seeking to compromise our security systems or gain unauthorized access to our customers’ data. Additionally, we provide extensive access to our database, which stores our customer data, to our development team to facilitate our rapid pace of product development. If such access or our own operations cause the loss, damage or destruction of our customers’ business data, their sales, lead generation, support and other business operations may be permanently harmed. As a result, our customers may bring claims against us for lost profits and other damages.
Our internal computer systems and those of our current and any future strategic collaborators, vendors, and other contractors or consultants are vulnerable to damage from cyber-attacks, computer viruses, unauthorized access, natural disasters, cybersecurity threats, terrorism, war and telecommunication and electrical failures. Cyber incidents have been increasing in sophistication and frequency and can include third parties gaining access to employee or customer data using stolen or inferred credentials, computer malware, viruses, spamming, phishing attacks, ransomware, card skimming code, and other deliberate attacks and attempts to gain unauthorized access. Because the techniques used by computer programmers who may attempt to penetrate and sabotage our network security or our website change frequently and may not be recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques.
If we were to experience a cyberattack and suffer interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our development programs and our business operations, whether due to a loss of our trade secrets or other proprietary information or other disruptions. These cyber-attacks could be carried out by threat actors of all types (including but not limited to nation states, organized crime, other criminal enterprises, individual actors and/or advanced persistent threat groups). In addition, we may experience intrusions on our physical premises by any of these threat actors. To the extent that any disruption or security breach were to result in a loss of, or damage to, our data or applications, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential or proprietary information, we could incur liability and our competitive position could be harmed. Any breach, loss, or compromise of personal data may also subject us to civil fines and penalties, or claims for damages either under the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) and relevant member state law in the European Union, other foreign laws, and other relevant state and federal privacy laws in the United States.
Many governments have enacted laws requiring companies to notify individuals of data security incidents or unauthorized transfers involving certain types of personal data. In addition, some of our customers contractually require notification of any data security compromise. Security compromises experienced by our competitors, by our customers or by us may lead to public disclosures, which may lead to widespread negative publicity. Any security compromise in our industry, whether actual or perceived, could harm our reputation, erode customer confidence in the effectiveness of our security measures, negatively impact our ability to attract new customers, cause existing customers to elect not to renew their subscriptions or subject us to third-party lawsuits, regulatory fines or other action or liability, which could materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.
There can be no assurance that any limitations of liability provisions in our contracts for a security breach would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any such liabilities or damages with respect to any particular claim. We also cannot be sure that our existing general liability insurance coverage and coverage for errors or omissions will continue to be available on acceptable terms or will be available in sufficient amounts to cover one or more large claims, or that the insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.
Risks Related to Intellectual Property
Our business may suffer if it is alleged or determined that our technology infringes the intellectual property rights of others.
The software industry is characterized by the existence of a large number of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and other intellectual and proprietary rights. Companies in the software industry, including those in marketing software, are often required to defend against litigation claims based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. Many of our competitors and other industry participants have been issued patents and/or have filed patent applications and may assert patent or other intellectual property rights within the industry. Moreover, in recent years, individuals and groups that are non-practicing entities, commonly referred to as “patent trolls,” have purchased patents and other intellectual property assets for the purpose of making claims of infringement in order to extract settlements. From time to time, we may receive threatening letters or notices or may be the subject of claims that our services and/or platform and underlying technology infringe or violate the intellectual property rights of others. Responding to such claims, regardless of their merit, can be time consuming, costly to defend in litigation, divert management’s attention and resources, damage our reputation and brand and cause us to incur significant expenses. Our technologies may not be able to withstand any third-party claims or rights against their use. Claims of intellectual property infringement might require us to redesign our application, delay releases, enter into costly settlement or license agreements or pay costly damage awards, or face a temporary or permanent injunction prohibiting us from marketing or selling our platform. If we cannot or do not license the infringed technology on reasonable terms or at all, or substitute similar technology from another source, our revenue and operating results could be adversely impacted. Additionally, our customers may not purchase our CRM Platform if they are concerned that they may infringe third-party intellectual property rights. The occurrence of any of these events may have a material adverse effect on our business.
In our subscription agreements with our customers, we generally do not agree to indemnify our customers against any losses or costs incurred in connection with claims by a third party alleging that a customer’s use of our services or platform infringes the intellectual property rights of the third party. There can be no assurance, however, that customers will not assert a common law indemnity claim or that any existing limitations of liability provisions in our contracts would be enforceable or adequate, or would otherwise protect us from any such liabilities or damages with respect to any particular claim. Our customers who are accused of intellectual property infringement may in the future seek indemnification from us under common law or other legal theories. If such claims are successful, or if we are required to indemnify or defend our customers from these or other claims, these matters could be disruptive to our business and management and have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
If we fail to adequately protect our proprietary rights, in the United States and abroad, our competitive position could be impaired and we may lose valuable assets, experience reduced revenue and incur costly litigation to protect our rights.
Our success is dependent, in part, upon protecting our proprietary technology. We rely on a combination of copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade secret laws and contractual restrictions to establish and protect our proprietary rights in our products and services. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property may be inadequate. We will not be able to protect our intellectual property if we are unable to enforce our rights or if we do not detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property. Any of our trademarks or other intellectual property rights may be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation. Furthermore, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are uncertain. Despite our precautions, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to copy our technology and use information that we regard as proprietary to create products and services that compete with ours. Some license provisions protecting against unauthorized use, copying, transfer and disclosure of our offerings may be unenforceable under the laws of certain jurisdictions and foreign countries. In addition, the laws of some countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. To the extent we expand our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying and use of our technology and proprietary information may increase.
We enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and enter into confidentiality agreements with the parties with whom we have strategic relationships and business alliances. No assurance can be given that these agreements will be effective in controlling access to and distribution of our products and proprietary information. Further, these agreements may not prevent our competitors from independently developing technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our platform and offerings.
We may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights and to protect our trade secrets. Such litigation could be costly, time consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our proprietary technology against unauthorized copying or use, as well as any costly litigation, could delay further sales or the implementation of our platform and offerings, impair the functionality of our platform and offerings, delay introductions of new features or enhancements, result in our substituting inferior or more costly technologies into our platform and offerings, or injure our reputation.
Our use of “open source” software could negatively affect our ability to offer our platform and subject us to possible litigation.
A substantial portion of our cloud-based platform incorporates so-called “open source” software, and we may incorporate additional open source software in the future. Open source software is generally freely accessible, usable and modifiable. Certain open source licenses may, in certain circumstances, require us to offer the components of our platform 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 derivative works under the terms of the particular open source license. If an author or other third party that distributes open source software we use 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, including being enjoined from the offering of the components of our platform that contained the open source software and being required to comply with the foregoing conditions, which could disrupt our ability to offer the affected software. We could also be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software. Litigation could be costly for us to defend, have a negative effect on our operating results and financial condition and require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our products.
Risks Related to Government Regulation
We are subject to governmental regulation and other legal obligations, particularly related to privacy, data protection and information security, and our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could harm our business. Compliance with such laws could also impair our efforts to maintain and expand our customer base, and thereby decrease our revenue.
Our handling of data is subject to a variety of laws and regulations, including regulation by various government agencies, including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, and various state, local and foreign agencies. We collect personally identifiable information and other data from our customers and leads. We also handle personally identifiable information about our customers’ customers. We use this information to provide services to our customers, to support, expand and improve our business. We may also share customers’ personally identifiable information with third parties as authorized by the customer or as described in our privacy policy.
The U.S. federal and various state and foreign governments have adopted or proposed limitations on the collection, distribution, use and storage of personal information of individuals. In the United States, the FTC and many state attorneys general are applying
federal and state consumer protection laws as imposing standards for the online collection, use and dissemination of data. However, these obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other requirements or our practices. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with privacy or security laws, policies, legal obligations or industry standards or any security incident that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of personally identifiable information or other customer data may result in governmental enforcement actions, litigation, fines and penalties and/or adverse publicity, and could cause our customers to lose trust in us, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business.
Laws and regulations concerning privacy, data protection and information security are evolving, and changes to such laws and regulations could require us to change features of our platform or restrict our customers’ ability to collect and use email addresses, page viewing data and personal information, which may reduce demand for our platform. Our failure to comply with federal, state and international data privacy laws and regulations could harm our ability to successfully operate our business and pursue our business goals. For example, California recently enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, that, among other things, require covered companies to provide new disclosures to California consumers and afford such consumers new abilities to opt-out of certain sales of personal information. The CCPA recently was amended and it is not yet fully clear how the CCPA will be enforced and how certain of its requirements will be interpreted. We cannot yet predict the impact of the CCPA on our business or operations, but it may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply.
Additionally, a new California ballot initiative, the California Privacy Rights Act, or CPRA, was passed in November 2020. Effective starting on January 1, 2023, the CPRA imposes additional obligations on companies covered by the legislation and will significantly modify the CCPA, including by expanding consumers’ rights with respect to certain sensitive personal information. The CPRA also creates a new state agency that will be vested with authority to implement and enforce the CCPA and the CPRA. The effects of the CCPA and the CPRA are potentially significant and may require us to modify our data collection or processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply and increase our potential exposure to regulatory enforcement and/or litigation.
Certain other state laws impose similar privacy obligations and we also expect anticipate that more states to may enact legislation similar to the CCPA, which provides consumers with new privacy rights and increases the privacy and security obligations of entities handling certain personal information of such consumers. The CCPA has prompted a number of proposals for new federal and state-level privacy legislation. Such proposed legislation, if enacted, may add additional complexity, variation in requirements, restrictions and potential legal risk, require additional investment of resources in compliance programs, impact strategies and the availability of previously useful data and could result in increased compliance costs and/or changes in business practices and policies.
In addition, several foreign jurisdictions, including the European Union and Canada, have regulations dealing with the collection and use of personal information obtained from their residents, which are often more restrictive than those in the U.S. Laws and regulations in these jurisdictions apply broadly to the collection, use, storage, disclosure and security of personal information that identifies or may be used to identify an individual. In relevant part, these laws and regulations may affect our ability to engage in lead generation activities by imposing heightened requirements, such as affirmative opt-ins or consent prior to sending commercial correspondence or engaging in electronic tracking activities. For example, a recent ruling of the European Court of Justice in Case C-673/17 provides that a pre-checked opt-in is insufficient to constitute a valid active consumer consent to cookie storage.
Within the European Union, legislators have adopted the GDPR and which became effective in May 2018 which may impose additional obligations and risk upon our business and which may increase substantially the penalties to which we could be subject in the event of any non-compliance. In addition, further to the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union on January 31, 2020, the GDPR ceased to apply in the United Kingdom at the end of the transition period on December 31, 2020. However, as of January 1, 2021, the United Kingdom’s European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 incorporated the GDPR (as it existed on December 31, 2020 but subject to certain United Kingdom specific amendments) into United Kingdom law (the “UK GDPR”). The UK GDPR and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 set out the United Kingdom’s data protection regime, which is independent from but aligned to the European Union’s data protection regime. Non-compliance with the UK GDPR may result in monetary penalties of up to £17.5 million or 4% of worldwide revenue, whichever is higher. The United Kingdom, however, is now regarded as a third country under the European Union’s GDPR which means that transfers of personal data from the European Economic Area to the United Kingdom will be restricted unless an appropriate safeguard, as recognized by the European Union’s GDPR, has been put in place. However, under the EU-UK Trade Cooperation Agreement it is lawful to transfer personal data between the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area for a 6 month period following the end of the transition period, with a view to achieving an adequacy decision from the European Commission during that period. Like the European Union GDPR, the UK GDPR restricts personal data transfers outside the United Kingdom to countries not regarded by the United Kingdom as providing adequate protection (this means that personal data transfers from the United Kingdom to the European Economic Area remain free flowing).
On July 12, 2016, the European Commission adopted the EU-US Privacy Shield, a framework for the transfer of personal data from the European Union to the United States, as a successor to the Safe Harbor framework that was invalidated by the European Court of Justice in October 2015. We certified to the EU-US Privacy Shield. On July 16, 2020, the European Court of Justice
invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield ruling that it failed to offer adequate protections for European Union personal data transferred to the United States. The European Court of Justice, in the same decision, deemed that the Standard Contractual Clauses, or SCCs, approved by the European Commission for transfers of personal data between European Union controllers and non-European Union processors are valid, however the European Court of Justice deemed that transfers made pursuant to the SCCs need to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis to ensure the European Union’s standards of data protection are met. Our customer agreements include SCCs. However, as a result of this decision, companies may be required to adopt additional measures to accomplish transfers of personal data to the United States and other third countries in compliance with the GDPR, and there continue to be concerns about whether the SCCs will face additional challenges. Until the remaining legal uncertainties regarding how to legally continue these transfers are settled, we will continue to face uncertainty as to whether our customers will be permitted to transfer personal data to the United States for processing by us as part of our platform services. If such data transfer to the United States is not permitted, it could have a negative effect on our existing business and on our ability to attract and retain new customers. Our customers may view alternative data transfer mechanisms as being too costly, too burdensome, too legally uncertain or otherwise objectionable and therefore decide not to do business with us. For example, some of our customers or potential customers who do business in the European Union may require their vendors to host all personal data within the European Union and may decide to do business with one of our competitors who hosts personal data within the European Union instead of doing business with us.
The regulatory framework governing the collection, processing, storage, use and sharing of certain information, particularly financial and other personal information, is rapidly evolving and is likely to continue to be subject to uncertainty and varying interpretations. It is possible that these laws may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our existing data management practices or the features of our services and platform capabilities. Any failure or perceived failure by us, or any third parties with which we do business, to comply with our posted privacy policies, changing consumer expectations, evolving laws, rules and regulations, industry standards, or contractual obligations to which we or such third parties are or may become subject, may result in actions or other claims against us by governmental entities or private actors, the expenditure of substantial costs, time and other resources or the incurrence of significant fines, penalties or other liabilities. In addition, any such action, particularly to the extent we were found to be guilty of violations or otherwise liable for damages, would damage our reputation and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We publicly post documentation regarding our practices concerning the collection, processing, use and disclosure of data. Although we endeavor to comply with our published policies and documentation, we may at times fail to do so or be alleged to have failed to do so. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our privacy policies or any applicable privacy, security or data protection, information security or consumer-protection related laws, regulations, orders or industry standards could expose us to costly litigation, significant awards, fines or judgments, civil and/or criminal penalties or negative publicity, and could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. The publication of our privacy policy and other documentation that provide promises and assurances about privacy and security can subject us to potential state and federal action if they are found to be deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our actual practices, which could, individually or in the aggregate, materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If our privacy or data security measures fail to comply with current or future laws and regulations, we may be subject to claims, legal proceedings or other actions by individuals or governmental authorities based on privacy or data protection regulations and our commitments to customers or others, as well as negative publicity and a potential loss of business. Moreover, if future laws and regulations limit our subscribers’ ability to use and share personal information or our ability to store, process and share personal information, demand for our solutions could decrease, our costs could increase, and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.
We could face liability, or our reputation might be harmed, as a result of the activities of our customers, the content of their websites or the data they store on our servers.
As a provider of a cloud-based inbound marketing, sales and customer service software platform, we may be subject to potential liability for the activities of our customers on or in connection with the data they store on our servers. Although our customer terms of use prohibit illegal use of our services by our customers and permit us to take down websites or take other appropriate actions for illegal use, customers may nonetheless engage in prohibited activities or upload or store content with us in violation of applicable law or the customer’s own policies, which could subject us to liability or harm our reputation. Furthermore, customers may upload, store, or use content on our CRM Platform that may violate our policy on acceptable use which prohibits content that is threatening, abusive, harassing, deceptive, false, misleading, vulgar, obscene, or indecent. While such content may not be illegal, use of our CRM Platform for such content could harm our reputation resulting in a loss of business.
Several U.S. federal statutes may apply to us with respect to various customer activities:
•
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, or DMCA, provides recourse for owners of copyrighted material who believe that their rights under U.S. copyright law have been infringed on the Internet. Under the DMCA, based on our
current business activity as an Internet service provider that does not own or control website content posted by our customers, we generally are not liable for infringing content posted by our customers or other third parties, provided that we follow the procedures for handling copyright infringement claims set forth in the DMCA. Generally, if we receive a proper notice from, or on behalf, of a copyright owner alleging infringement of copyrighted material located on websites we host, and we fail to expeditiously remove or disable access to the allegedly infringing material or otherwise fail to meet the requirements of the safe harbor provided by the DMCA, the copyright owner may seek to impose liability on us. Technical mistakes in complying with the detailed DMCA take-down procedures could subject us to liability for copyright infringement.
•
The Communications Decency Act of 1996, or CDA, generally protects online service providers, such as us, from liability for certain activities of their customers, such as the posting of defamatory or obscene content, unless the online service provider is participating in the unlawful conduct. Under the CDA, we are generally not responsible for the customer-created content hosted on our servers. Consequently, we do not monitor hosted websites or prescreen the content placed by our customers on their sites. However, the CDA does not apply in foreign jurisdictions and we may nonetheless be brought into disputes between our customers and third parties which would require us to devote management time and resources to resolve such matters and any publicity from such matters could also have an adverse effect on our reputation and therefore our business.
•
In addition to the CDA, the Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act, or the SPEECH Act, provides a statutory exception to the enforcement by a U.S. court of a foreign judgment for defamation under certain circumstances. Generally, the exception applies if the defamation law applied in the foreign court did not provide at least as much protection for freedom of speech and press as would be provided by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution or by the constitution and law of the state in which the U.S. court is located, or if no finding of defamation would be supported under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution or under the constitution and law of the state in which the U.S. court is located. Although the SPEECH Act may protect us from the enforcement of foreign judgments in the United States, it does not affect the enforceability of the judgment in the foreign country that issued the judgment. Given our international presence, we may therefore, nonetheless, have to defend against or comply with any foreign judgments made against us, which could take up substantial management time and resources and damage our reputation.
Although these statutes and case law in the United States have generally shielded us from liability for customer activities to date, court rulings in pending or future litigation may narrow the scope of protection afforded us under these laws. In addition, laws governing these activities are unsettled in many international jurisdictions, or may prove difficult or impossible for us to comply with in some international jurisdictions. Also, notwithstanding the exculpatory language of these bodies of law, we may become involved in complaints and lawsuits which, even if ultimately resolved in our favor, add cost to our doing business and may divert management’s time and attention. Finally, other existing bodies of law, including the criminal laws of various states, may be deemed to apply or new statutes or regulations may be adopted in the future, any of which could expose us to further liability and increase our costs of doing business.
The standards that private entities use to regulate the use of email have in the past interfered with, and may in the future interfere with, the effectiveness of our CRM Platform and our ability to conduct business.
Our customers rely on email to communicate with their existing or prospective customers. Various private entities attempt to regulate the use of email for commercial solicitation. These entities often advocate standards of conduct or practice that significantly exceed current legal requirements and classify certain email solicitations that comply with current legal requirements as spam. Some of these entities maintain “blacklists” of companies and individuals, and the websites, internet service providers and internet protocol addresses associated with those entities or individuals that do not adhere to those standards of conduct or practices for commercial email solicitations that the blacklisting entity believes are appropriate. If a company’s internet protocol addresses are listed by a blacklisting entity, emails sent from those addresses may be blocked if they are sent to any internet domain or internet address that subscribes to the blacklisting entity’s service or purchases its blacklist.
From time to time, some of our internet protocol addresses may become listed with one or more blacklisting entities due to the messaging practices of our customers. There can be no guarantee that we will be able to successfully remove ourselves from those lists. Blacklisting of this type could interfere with our ability to market our CRM Platform and services and communicate with our customers and, because we fulfill email delivery on behalf of our customers, could undermine the effectiveness of our customers’ email marketing campaigns, all of which could have a material negative impact on our business and results of operations.
Existing federal, state and foreign laws regulate Internet tracking software, the senders of commercial emails and text messages, website owners and other activities, and could impact the use of our CRM Platform and potentially subject us to regulatory enforcement or private litigation.
Certain aspects of how our customers utilize our platform are subject to regulations in the United States, European Union and elsewhere. In recent years, U.S. and European lawmakers and regulators have expressed concern over the use of third-party cookies or web beacons for online behavioral advertising, and legislation adopted recently in the European Union requires informed consent for the placement of a cookie on a user’s device. Regulation of cookies and web beacons may lead to restrictions on our activities, such as efforts to understand users’ Internet usage. New and expanding “Do Not Track” regulations have recently been enacted or proposed that protect users’ right to choose whether or not to be tracked online. These regulations seek, among other things, to allow end users to have greater control over the use of private information collected online, to forbid the collection or use of online information, to demand a business to comply with their choice to opt out of such collection or use, and to place limits upon the disclosure of information to third party websites. These policies could have a significant impact on the operation of our CRM Platform and could impair our attractiveness to customers, which would harm our business.
Many of our customers and potential customers in the healthcare, financial services and other industries are subject to substantial regulation regarding their collection, use and protection of data and may be the subject of further regulation in the future. Accordingly, these laws or significant new laws or regulations or changes in, or repeals of, existing laws, regulations or governmental policy may change the way these customers do business and may require us to implement additional features or offer additional contractual terms to satisfy customer and regulatory requirements, or could cause the demand for and sales of our CRM Platform to decrease and adversely impact our financial results.
In addition, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, or the CAN-SPAM Act, establishes certain requirements for commercial email messages and specifies penalties for the transmission of commercial email messages that are intended to deceive the recipient as to source or content. The CAN-SPAM Act, among other things, obligates the sender of commercial emails to provide recipients with the ability to opt out of receiving future commercial emails from the sender. The ability of our customers’ message recipients to opt out of receiving commercial emails may minimize the effectiveness of the email components of our CRM Platform. In addition, certain states and foreign jurisdictions, such as Australia, Canada and the European Union, have enacted laws that regulate sending email, and some of these laws are more restrictive than U.S. laws. For example, some foreign laws prohibit sending unsolicited email unless the recipient has provided the sender advance consent to receipt of such email, or in other words has “opted-in” to receiving it. A requirement that recipients opt into, or the ability of recipients to opt out of, receiving commercial emails may minimize the effectiveness of our platform.
While these laws and regulations generally govern our customers’ use of our platform, we may be subject to certain laws as a data processor on behalf of, or as a business associate of, our customers. For example, laws and regulations governing the collection, use and disclosure of personal information include, in the United States, rules and regulations promulgated under the authority of the Federal Trade Commission, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 and state breach notification laws, and internationally, the Data Protection Directive in the European Union and the Federal Data Protection Act in Germany. If we were found to be in violation of any of these laws or regulations as a result of government enforcement or private litigation, we could be subjected to civil and criminal sanctions, including both monetary fines and injunctive action that could force us to change our business practices, all of which could adversely affect our financial performance and significantly harm our reputation and our business.
We are subject to governmental export controls and economic sanctions laws that could impair our ability to compete in international markets and subject us to liability if we are not in full compliance with applicable laws.
Our business activities are subject to various restrictions under U.S. export controls and trade and economic sanctions laws, including the U.S. Commerce Department’s Export Administration Regulations and economic and trade sanctions regulations maintained by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations, we and certain of our employees could be subject to civil or criminal penalties and reputational harm. Obtaining the necessary authorizations, including any required license, for a particular transaction may be time-consuming, is not guaranteed, and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities. Furthermore, U.S. export control laws and economic sanctions laws prohibit certain transactions with U.S. embargoed or sanctioned countries, governments, persons and entities. Although we take precautions to prevent transactions with U.S. sanction targets, the possibility exists that we could inadvertently provide our solutions to persons prohibited by U.S. sanctions. This could result in negative consequences to us, including government investigations, penalties and reputational harm.
Risks Related to Taxation
We may be subject to additional obligations to collect and remit sales tax and other taxes, and we may be subject to tax liability for past sales, which could harm our business.
State, local and foreign jurisdictions have differing rules and regulations governing sales, use, value added, Digital Services Tax, and other taxes, and these rules and regulations are subject to varying interpretations that may change over time. In particular, the applicability of such taxes to our CRM Platform in various jurisdictions is unclear. Further, these jurisdictions’ rules regarding tax nexus are complex and vary significantly. As a result, we could face the possibility of tax assessments and audits, and our liability for these taxes and associated penalties could exceed our original estimates. A successful assertion that we should be collecting additional sales, use, value added or other taxes in those jurisdictions where we have not historically done so and do not accrue for such taxes could result in substantial tax liabilities and related penalties for past sales, discourage customers from purchasing our application or otherwise harm our business and operating results.
Changes in tax laws or regulations that are applied adversely to us or our customers could increase the costs of our CRM Platform and adversely impact our business.
New income, sales, use or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be enacted at any time. Any new taxes could adversely affect our domestic and international business operations, and our business and financial performance. Further, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified or applied adversely to us. These events could require us or our customers to pay additional tax amounts on a prospective or retroactive basis, as well as require us or our customers to pay fines and/or penalties and interest for past amounts deemed to be due. If we raise our prices to offset the costs of these changes, existing and potential future customers may elect not to continue or purchase our CRM Platform in the future. Additionally, new, changed, modified or newly interpreted or applied tax laws could increase our customers’ and our compliance, operating and other costs, as well as the costs of our platform. Any or all of these events could adversely impact our business and financial performance.
We are a multinational organization faced with increasingly complex tax issues in many jurisdictions, and we could be obligated to pay additional taxes in various jurisdictions.
As a multinational organization, we may be subject to taxation in several jurisdictions around the world with increasingly complex tax laws, the application of which can be uncertain. The amount of taxes we pay in these jurisdictions could increase substantially as a result of changes in the applicable tax principles, including increased tax rates, new tax laws or revised interpretations of existing tax laws and precedents, which could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and operating results. Changes in tax laws, such as tax reform in the United States or changes in tax laws resulting from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s multi-jurisdictional plan of action to address “base erosion and profit shifting,” could impact our effective tax rate. In addition, the authorities in these jurisdictions could review our tax returns and impose additional tax, interest and penalties, and the authorities could claim that various withholding requirements apply to us or our subsidiaries or assert that benefits of tax treaties are not available to us or our subsidiaries, any of which could have a material impact on us and the results of our operations.
We may not be able to utilize a significant portion of our net operating loss carryforwards, which could adversely affect our profitability.
We have incurred losses during our history and do not expect to become profitable in the near future, and we may never achieve profitability. As of December 31, 2020, we had $760 million of U.S. federal and $508 million state net operating loss carryforwards due to prior period losses, which, if not utilized, some of which will begin to expire in 2027 for federal purposes and begin to expire in 2023 for state purposes. These net operating loss carryforwards could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities, which could adversely affect our profitability. Our U.S federal and certain state net operating loss carryforwards incurred for periods beginning on or after January 1, 2018 would not expire unused because they can be carried forward indefinitely. In addition, under Section 382 and Section 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, which we refer to as the Code, our ability to utilize net operating loss carryforwards or other tax attributes, such as research tax credits, in any taxable year may be further limited if we experience an “ownership change”. An ownership change generally occurs if one or more stockholders or groups of stockholders who own at least 5% of our stock increase their ownership by more than 50 percentage points over their lowest ownership percentage within a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws. We may have experienced an ownership change in the past, and future issuances of our stock could cause an ownership change. It is possible that any such ownership change could have a material effect on the use of our net operating loss carryforwards or other tax attributes accrued prior to such ownership change, which could adversely affect our profitability.
Risks Related to Our Operating Results and Financial Condition
We have a history of losses and may not achieve profitability in the future.
We generated net losses of $85.0 million in 2020, $53.7 million in 2019, and $63.8 million in 2018. As of December 31, 2020, we had an accumulated deficit of $483.2 million. We will need to generate and sustain increased revenue levels in future periods to become profitable, and, even if we do, we may not be able to maintain or increase our level of profitability. We intend to continue to expend significant funds to grow our marketing, sales, customer service, and content management operations, develop and enhance our CRM Platform, scale our data center infrastructure and services capabilities and expand into new markets. Our efforts to grow our business may be more costly than we expect, and we may not be able to increase our revenue enough to offset our higher operating expenses. We may incur significant losses in the future for a number of reasons, including the other risks described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications and delays and other unknown events. If we are unable to achieve and sustain profitability, the market price of our common stock may significantly decrease.
From time to time, we may invest funds in social impact investment funds, and may receive no return on our investment or lose our entire investment.
From time to time, we may invest in social impact investment funds. For example, in December 2020, we committed $20 million to social impact investing. Our first allocation of those funds was a $12.5 million investment in the Black Economic Development Fund (“BEDF”). The BEDF is managed by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (“LISC”), which expects to make investments from the BEDF in the form of bank deposits, bridge financing, and other financing to Black-led businesses, financial institutions, and anchor institutions. There is no guarantee as to the performance of this investment or any similar investments we make in the future. Depending on the performance of this investment and future investments we may make, we may not receive any return on our investment or we may lose our entire investment, which could have an adverse effect on our business.
We may experience quarterly fluctuations in our operating results due to a number of factors, which makes our future results difficult to predict and could cause our operating results to fall below expectations or our guidance.
Our quarterly operating results have fluctuated in the past and are expected to fluctuate in the future due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result, our past results may not be indicative of our future performance, and comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. In addition to the other risks described in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, factors that may affect our quarterly operating results include the following:
•
changes in spending on marketing, sales and customer service software by our current or prospective customers;
•
pricing our CRM Platform subscriptions effectively so that we are able to attract and retain customers without compromising our profitability;
•
attracting new customers for our marketing, sales, customer service, and content management software, increasing our existing customers’ use of our platform and providing our customers with excellent customer support;
•
customer renewal rates and the amounts for which agreements are renewed;
•
global awareness of our thought leadership and brand;
•
changes in the competitive dynamics of our market, including consolidation among competitors or customers and the introduction of new products or product enhancements;
•
changes to the commission plans, quotas and other compensation-related metrics for our sales representatives;
•
the amount and timing of payment for operating expenses, particularly research and development, sales and marketing expenses and employee benefit expenses;
•
the amount and timing of costs associated with recruiting, training and integrating new employees while maintaining our company culture;
•
our ability to manage our existing business and future growth, including increases in the number of customers on our platform and the introduction and adoption of our CRM Platform in new markets outside of the United States;
•
unforeseen costs and expenses related to the expansion of our business, operations and infrastructure, including disruptions in our hosting network infrastructure and privacy and data security;
•
foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; and
•
general economic and political conditions in our domestic and international markets.
We may not be able to accurately forecast the amount and mix of future subscriptions, revenue and expenses and, as a result, our operating results may fall below our estimates or the expectations of public market analysts and investors. If our revenue or operating results fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, or below any guidance we may provide, the price of our common stock could decline.
If we do not accurately predict subscription renewal rates or otherwise fail to forecast our revenue accurately, or if we fail to match our expenditures with corresponding revenue, our operating results could be adversely affected.
Because our recent growth has resulted in the rapid expansion of our business, we do not have a long history upon which to base forecasts of renewal rates with customers or future operating revenue. As a result, our operating results in future reporting periods may be significantly below the expectations of the public market, equity research analysts or investors, which could harm the price of our common stock.
Because we generally recognize revenue from subscriptions ratably over the term of the agreement, near term changes in sales may not be reflected immediately in our operating results.
We offer our CRM Platform primarily through a mix of monthly, quarterly and single-year subscription agreements and generally recognize revenue ratably over the related subscription period. As a result, much of the revenue we report in each quarter is derived from agreements entered into during prior months, quarters or years. In addition, we do not record deferred revenue beyond amounts invoiced as a liability on our balance sheet. A decline in new or renewed subscriptions or marketing solutions agreements in any one quarter is not likely to be reflected immediately in our revenue results for that quarter. Such declines, however, would negatively affect our revenue and deferred revenue balances in future periods, and the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our platform, and potential changes in our rate of renewals, may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. Our subscription model also makes it difficult for us to rapidly increase our total revenue and deferred revenue balance through additional sales in any period, as revenue from new customers must be recognized over the applicable subscription term.
Risks Related to Our Notes
Servicing our debt may require a significant amount of cash. We may not have sufficient cash flow from our business to pay our indebtedness, and we may not have the ability to raise the funds necessary to settle for cash conversions of the Notes or to repurchase the Notes for cash upon a fundamental change, which could adversely affect our business and results of operations.
We incurred indebtedness in the aggregate principal amount of $400.0 million in connection with the issuance of our 0.25% convertible senior notes due June 1, 2022 (the “2022 Notes”). In June 2020, the Company exchanged approximately $272.1 million in aggregate principal amount of the 2022 Notes in privately-negotiated transactions for an aggregate of approximately $283.0 million in cash and 1.6 million shares of common stock. As of December 31, 2020, $125.8 million of principal remains outstanding on the 2022 Notes. In June 2020, concurrent with the partial repurchase of the 2022 Notes, we incurred indebtedness in the aggregate principal amount of $460.0 million in connection with the issuance of our 0.375% convertible senior notes due June 1, 2025 (the “2025 Notes”) and together with the 2022 Notes (the “Notes”). Our ability to make scheduled payments of the principal of, to pay interest on or to refinance our indebtedness, including the Notes, depends on our future performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive and other factors beyond our control. Our business may not continue to generate cash flow from operations in the future sufficient to service our debt and make necessary capital expenditures. If we are unable to generate such cash flow, we may be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as selling assets, restructuring debt or obtaining additional debt financing or equity capital on terms that may be onerous or highly dilutive. Our ability to refinance any future indebtedness will depend on the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. We may not be able to engage in any of these activities or engage in these activities on desirable terms, which could result in a default on our debt obligations. In addition, any of our future debt agreements may contain restrictive covenants that may prohibit us from adopting any of these alternatives. Our failure to comply with these covenants could result in an event of default which, if not cured or waived, could result in the acceleration of our debt.
In addition, holders of the Notes have the right to require us to repurchase their Notes upon the occurrence of a fundamental change at a fundamental change repurchase price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the Notes to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any. Upon conversion of the Notes, unless we elect to deliver solely shares of our common stock to settle such conversion (other than paying cash in lieu of delivering any fractional share), we will be required to make cash payments in respect of the Notes being converted. We may not have enough available cash or be able to obtain financing at the time we are required to make repurchases of Notes surrendered therefor or Notes being converted. In addition, our ability to repurchase the Notes or to pay cash upon conversions of the Notes may be limited by law, by regulatory authority or by agreements governing our future indebtedness. Our failure to repurchase Notes at a time when the repurchase is required by the indenture governing the notes or to pay any cash payable on future conversions of the Notes as required by such indenture would constitute a default under such indenture. A default under the indenture or the fundamental change itself could also lead to a default under agreements governing our future indebtedness.
If the repayment of the related indebtedness were to be accelerated after any applicable notice or grace periods, we may not have sufficient funds to repay the indebtedness and repurchase the Notes or make cash payments upon conversions thereof.
In addition, our indebtedness, combined with our other financial obligations and contractual commitments, could have other important consequences. For example, it could:
•
make us more vulnerable to adverse changes in general U.S. and worldwide economic, industry and competitive conditions and adverse changes in government regulation;
•
limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and our industry;
•
place us at a disadvantage compared to our competitors who have less debt; and
•
limit our ability to borrow additional amounts to fund acquisitions, for working capital and for other general corporate purposes.
Any of these factors could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, if we incur additional indebtedness, the risks related to our business and our ability to service or repay our indebtedness would increase.
The conditional conversion feature of the Notes, if triggered, may adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.
In the event the conditional conversion feature of the 2022 Notes or the 2025 Notes is triggered, the holders thereof will be entitled to convert the 2022 Notes or the 2025 Notes respectively, at any time during specified periods at their option.
Because the last reported sale price of our common stock for at least 20 trading days during the period of 30 consecutive trading days ending on the last trading day of the calendar quarter ended December 31, 2020 was equal to or greater than 130% of the applicable conversion price on each applicable trading day, the 2022 Notes are convertible at the option of the holders thereof during the calendar quarter ending March 31, 2021. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the Company settled $2 million of principal balance of the 2022 Notes in cash. Between the end of the most recently completed fiscal quarter and February 12, 2021, the Company additionally settled $8.3 million of principal balance of the 2022 Notes in cash in response to conversion notices received prior to December 31, 2020. As of February 12, 2021, the Company has received additional conversion notices subsequent to year-end for approximately $36.1 million of the principal balance of the 2022 Notes, which will be settled in cash during the quarter ended March 31, 2021. Because the last reported sale price of the Company’s common stock for at least 20 trading days during the period of 30 consecutive trading days ending on the last trading day of the calendar quarter ended December 31, 2020 was equal to or greater than 130% of the applicable conversion price on each applicable trading day, the 2025 Notes are convertible at the option of the holders thereof during the calendar quarter ending March 31, 2021. As of February 12, 2021, no holders have converted or indicated their intention to convert the 2025 Notes. Whether the Notes that remain outstanding will be convertible following the calendar quarter ending December 31, 2020 will depend on the continued satisfaction of this condition or another conversion condition in the future. If one or more holders elect to convert their Notes, unless we elect to satisfy our conversion obligation by delivering solely shares of our common stock (other than paying cash in lieu of delivering any fractional share), we would be required to settle a portion or all of our conversion obligation through the payment of cash, which could adversely affect our liquidity. In addition, even if holders do not elect to convert their Notes, we could be required under applicable accounting rules to reclassify all or a portion of the outstanding principal of the Notes as a current rather than long-term liability, which would result in a material reduction of our net working capital. The Notes are currently classified as long-term debt, except for $7.8 million, classified as current as of December 31, 2020, for conversion notices received prior to year-end, for which the principal amount, net of discount, is expected to be cash-settled within the next fiscal quarter.
The accounting method for convertible debt securities that may be settled in cash, such as the Notes, could have a material effect on our reported financial results.
Under Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification 470-20, Debt with Conversion and Other Options, which we refer to as ASC 470-20, an entity must separately account for the liability and equity components of convertible debt instruments (such as the Notes) that may be settled entirely or partially in cash upon conversion in a manner that reflects the issuer’s economic interest cost. ASC 470-20 requires the value of the conversion option of the Notes, representing the equity component, to be recorded as additional paid-in capital within stockholders’ equity in our consolidated balance sheet and as a discount to the Notes, which reduces their initial carrying value. The carrying value of the Notes, net of the discount recorded, will be accreted up to the principal amount of the Notes from the issuance date until maturity, which will result in non-cash charges to interest expense in our consolidated statement of operations. Accordingly, we will report lower net income or higher net loss in our financial results because ASC 470-20 requires interest to include both the current period’s accretion of the debt discount and the instrument’s coupon interest, which could adversely affect our reported or future financial results, the trading price of our common stock and the trading price of the Notes.
In addition, under certain circumstances, convertible debt instruments (such as the Notes) that may be settled entirely or partly in cash are currently accounted for utilizing the treasury stock method, the effect of which is that the shares issuable upon conversion of the Notes are not included in the calculation of diluted earnings per share except to the extent that the conversion value of the Notes exceeds their principal amount. Under the treasury stock method, for diluted earnings per share purposes, the transaction is accounted for as if the number of shares of common stock that would be necessary to settle such excess, if we elected to settle such excess in shares, are issued.
In August 2020, the FASB issued guidance simplifying ASC 470-20 by reducing the number of accounting models for convertible debt instruments and convertible preferred stock. Under the new guidance, we will no longer be required to separately account for the liability and equity components of convertible debt instruments. This will have the impact of reducing non-cash interest expense, and thereby increasing net income (or decreasing net losses). Additionally, the new guidance eliminates the treasury stock method for calculating diluted earnings per share for convertible instruments and requires use of the “if-converted” method, which would decrease (increase) our diluted net income (loss) per share. The new standard is effective beginning in January 2022, with early adoption permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact of the new guidance on our consolidated financial statements.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
Our stock price may be volatile and you may be unable to sell your shares at or above the price you purchased them.
The trading prices of the securities of technology companies, including providers of software via the cloud-based model, have been highly volatile. Since shares of our common stock were sold in our initial public offering in October 2014 at a price of $25.00 per share, our stock price has ranged from $25.79 to $420.61, through December 31, 2020. The market price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:
•
actual or anticipated fluctuations in our revenue and other operating results, including as a result of the addition or loss of any number of customers;
•
announcements by us or our competitors of significant technical innovations, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments;
•
the financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in these projections or our failure to meet these projections;
•
failure of securities analysts to initiate or maintain coverage of us, changes in ratings and financial estimates and the publication of other news by any securities analysts who follow our company, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;
•
changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of cloud-based software or other technology companies, or those in our industry in particular;
•
price and volume fluctuations in the trading of our common stock and in the overall stock market, including as a result of trends in the economy as a whole;
•
sales of large blocks of our common stock or the dilutive effect of our Notes or any other equity or equity-linked financings;
•
new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business or industry, including data privacy and data security;
•
lawsuits threatened or filed against us;
•
changes in key personnel; and
•
other events or factors, including changes in general economic, industry and market conditions and trends.
In addition, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many technology companies. Stock prices of many technology companies have fluctuated in a manner unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies.
In the past, stockholders have instituted securities class action litigation following periods of market volatility. If we were to become involved in securities litigation, it could subject us to substantial costs, divert resources and the attention of management from our business and adversely affect our business.
If we fail to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be impaired.
As a public company we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or the Dodd-Frank Act, and the rules and regulations of the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE. We expect that compliance with these rules and regulations will continue to increase our legal, accounting and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time consuming and costly, and place significant strain on our personnel, systems and resources.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting annually and the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures quarterly. In particular, Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404, requires us to perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on, and our independent registered public accounting firm to attest to, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Our compliance with applicable provisions of Section 404 requires that we incur substantial accounting expense and expend significant management time on compliance-related issues as we implement additional corporate governance practices and comply with reporting requirements. Moreover, if we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 applicable to us in a timely manner, or if we or our independent registered public accounting firm identifies deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, the market price of our stock could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources.
Furthermore, investor perceptions of our company may suffer if deficiencies are found, and this could cause a decline in the market price of our stock. Irrespective of compliance with Section 404, any failure of our internal control over financial reporting could have a material adverse effect on our stated operating results and harm our reputation. If we are unable to implement these requirements effectively or efficiently, it could harm our operations, financial reporting, or financial results and could result in an adverse opinion on our internal controls from our independent registered public accounting firm.
Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and Delaware law may delay or prevent an acquisition of our company.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws and Delaware law contain provisions that may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of us or changes in our management. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws include provisions that:
•
authorize “blank check” preferred stock, which could be issued by the board without stockholder approval and may contain voting, liquidation, dividend and other rights superior to our common stock;
•
provide for a classified board of directors whose members serve staggered three-year terms;
•
specify that special meetings of our stockholders can be called only by our board of directors, the chairperson of the board, the chief executive officer or the president;
•
prohibit stockholder action by written consent;
•
establish an advance notice procedure for stockholder approvals to be brought before an annual meeting of our stockholders, including proposed nominations of persons for election to our board of directors;
•
provide that our directors may be removed only for cause;
•
provide that vacancies on our board of directors may be filled only by a majority of directors then in office, even though less than a quorum;
•
specify that no stockholder is permitted to cumulate votes at any election of directors;
•
authorize our board of directors to modify, alter or repeal our amended and restated bylaws; and
•
require supermajority votes of the holders of our common stock to amend specified provisions of our charter documents.
These provisions, alone or together, could delay or prevent hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our management.
In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which limits the ability of stockholders owning in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock to merge or combine with us in certain circumstances.
Any provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or amended and restated bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our common stock.
General Risks
Failure to comply with laws and regulations could harm our business.
Our business is subject to regulation by various federal, state, local and foreign governmental agencies, including agencies responsible for monitoring and enforcing employment and labor laws, workplace safety, environmental laws, consumer protection laws, anti-bribery laws, import/export controls, federal securities laws and tax laws and regulations. In certain jurisdictions, these regulatory requirements may be more stringent than those in the United States. Noncompliance with applicable regulations or requirements could subject us to investigations, sanctions, mandatory recalls, enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, fines, damages, civil and criminal penalties or injunctions.
We are exposed to fluctuations in currency exchange rates.
We face exposure to movements in currency exchange rates, which may cause our revenue and operating results to differ materially from expectations. As we have expanded our international operations our exposure exchange rate fluctuations has increased, in particular with respect to the Euro, British Pound Sterling, Australian Dollar, Singapore Dollar, Japanese Yen and Colombian Peso. As exchange rates vary, revenue, cost of revenue, operating expenses and other operating results, when re-measured, may differ materially from expectations. In addition, our operating results are subject to fluctuation if our mix of U.S. and foreign currency denominated transactions and expenses changes in the future. Furthermore, global political events, including Brexit and similar geopolitical developments, fluctuating commodity prices and trade tariff developments, have caused global economic uncertainty, which could amplify the volatility of currency fluctuations. Such volatility, even when it increases our revenues or decreases our expenses, impacts our ability to predict our future results and earnings accurately. Although we may apply certain strategies to mitigate foreign currency risk, these strategies might not eliminate our exposure to foreign exchange rate fluctuations and would involve costs and risks of their own, such as ongoing management time and expertise, external costs to implement the strategies and potential accounting implications. Additionally, as we anticipate growing our business further outside of the United States, the effects of movements in currency exchange rates will increase as our transaction volume outside of the United States increases.
Weakened global economic conditions may harm our industry, business and results of operations.
Our overall performance depends in part on worldwide economic conditions. Global financial developments and downturns seemingly unrelated to us or the software industry may harm us. The United States and other key international economies have been affected from time to time by falling demand for a variety of goods and services, restricted credit, poor liquidity, reduced corporate profitability, volatility in credit, equity and foreign exchange markets, bankruptcies, and overall uncertainty with respect to the economy, including with respect to tariff and trade issues. In particular, the economies of countries in Europe have been experiencing weakness associated with high sovereign debt levels, weakness in the banking sector, uncertainty over the future of the Euro zone and volatility in the value of the pound sterling and the Euro, including instability surrounding Brexit. We have operations, as well as current and potential new customers, throughout most of Europe. If economic conditions in Europe and other key markets for our platform continue to remain uncertain or deteriorate further, it could adversely affect our customers’ ability or willingness to subscribe to our platform, delay prospective customers’ purchasing decisions, reduce the value or duration of their subscriptions or affect renewal rates, all of which could harm our operating results.
Our ability to raise capital in the future may be limited, and our failure to raise capital when needed could prevent us from growing.
Our business and operations may consume resources faster than we anticipate. In the future, we may need to raise additional funds to invest in future growth opportunities. Additional financing may not be available on favorable terms, if at all. If adequate funds are not available on acceptable terms, we may be unable to invest in future growth opportunities, which could seriously harm our business and operating results. If we incur debt, the debt holders would have rights senior to common stockholders to make claims on our assets, and the terms of any debt could restrict our operations, including our ability to pay dividends on our common stock. Furthermore, if we issue equity securities, stockholders will experience dilution, and the new equity securities could have rights senior to those of our common stock. The Notes are and any additional equity or equity-linked financings would be dilutive to our stockholders. Because our decision to issue securities in any future offering will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond
our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing or nature of our future offerings. As a result, our stockholders bear the risk of our future securities offerings reducing the market price of our common stock and diluting their interest.
ITEM 1B.
ITEM 1B.
UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.
ITEM 2.
ITEM 2.
Properties
We occupy approximately 443,000 square feet of office space in Cambridge, Massachusetts pursuant to lease agreements that expire through 2029. We also maintain offices in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Dublin, Ireland, Sydney, Australia, Singapore, Tokyo, Japan, Berlin, Germany, Bogotá, Colombia, Paris, France, and Ghent, Belgium. We believe that our current facilities are suitable and adequate to meet our current needs. We intend to add new facilities or expand existing facilities as we add employees, and we believe that suitable additional or substitute space will be available as needed to accommodate any such expansion of our operations.
ITEM 3.
ITEM 3.
Legal Proceedings
From time to time we may become involved in legal proceedings or be subject to claims arising in the ordinary course of our business. Although the results of litigation and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, we currently believe that the ultimate costs to resolve any pending matter will not have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition or cash flows. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.
ITEM 4.
ITEM 4.
Mine Safety Disclosures
Not Applicable.
PART II
ITEM 5.
ITEM 5.
Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information for Common Stock
Our common stock has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “HUBS” since October 9, 2014. Prior to that date, there was no public trading market for our common stock. Our initial public offering was priced at $25.00 per share on October 8, 2014.
As of February 12, 2021, we had 27 holders of record of our common stock. The actual number of shareholders is greater than this number of record holders, and includes shareholders who are beneficial owners, but whose shares are held in street name by brokers and other nominees. This number of holders of record also does not include shareholders whose shares may be held in trust by other entities.
Dividends
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock. We currently anticipate that we will retain future earnings to fund development and growth of our business, and do not anticipate declaring or paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to pay dividends will be, subject to applicable law, at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend upon, among other factors, our results of operations, financial condition, contractual restrictions, and capital requirements.
Performance Graph
The following performance graph shall not be deemed “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the Securities and Exchange Commission for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that Section, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing of the company under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) or the Exchange Act.
The following graph shows a comparison of the cumulative total return for our common stock, the Nasdaq Computer Index and the S&P 500 Index for each of the last six fiscal years ended December 31, 2020. The graph assumes an initial investment of $100 in each of the Company’s common stock, the Nasdaq Computer Index and the S&P 500. Such returns are based on historical results and are not intended to suggest future performance.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
None.
Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
None.
Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans
See Item 12, “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters,” for information regarding securities authorized for issuance.
Outstanding Convertible Senior Notes, Convertible Note Hedge, and Warrant
In May 2017, we issued $400.0 million aggregate principal amount of 0.25% convertible senior notes (the “2022 Notes”) due June 1, 2022, of which $272.1 million was repurchased in June 2020 and $2 million was settled in cash during the fourth quarter of 2020. As of December 31, 2020, $125.8 million of principal remains outstanding on the 2022 Notes. Also in June 2020, we issued $460 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due June 1, 2025 (the “2025 Notes”).
In connection with the offering of the 2025 Notes, the Company purchased capped call options (“Capped Call Options”) that give the Company the option to purchase up to approximately 1.6 million shares of its common stock for $282.52 per share. In connection with the offering of the 2022 Notes, the Company entered into convertible note hedge transactions (the “Convertible Note Hedges”) with certain counterparties in which the Company has the option to purchase (subject to adjustment for certain specified events) shares of the Company’s common stock at a price of approximately $94.77 per share. In addition, the Company sold warrants (the “Warrants”) to certain bank counterparties whereby the holders of the warrants have the option to purchase (subject to adjustment for certain specified events) shares of the Company’s common stock at a price of $115.8 per share. As of December 31, 2020, Convertible Note Hedges corresponding to approximately 1.3 million shares of the Company’s common stock and Warrants corresponding to approximately 1.3 million shares of the Company’s common stock remain outstanding. See Note 9 in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for more information.
ITEM 6.
ITEM 6.
Selected Consolidated Financial Data
You should read the selected consolidated financial data below in conjunction with “Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations” and the consolidated financial statements, related notes and other financial information included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The selected consolidated financial data in this section are not intended to replace the consolidated financial statements and are qualified in their entirety by the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
The following selected consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019, and 2018, and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements not included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
(1)
Stock-based compensation included in the consolidated statements of operations data above was as follows:
(2)
See Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements for further details on the calculation of basic and diluted net loss per share attributable to common stockholders.
ITEM 7.
ITEM 7.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes that appear elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. As discussed in the section titled “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” the following discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those identified below, and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” included under Part I, Item 1A within this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Company Overview
We provide a cloud-based customer relationship management (“CRM”) Platform. Our CRM Platform is comprised of Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub and content management system (“CMS”) Hub as well as other tools and integrations that enable companies to attract, engage, and delight customers throughout the customer experience.
At the core of our CRM Platform is our CRM that our customers use which creates a single view of all interactions a prospective or existing customer has with their marketing, sales and customer service teams. The CRM shares data across every application in the CRM Platform, automatically informing more personalized emails, website content, ads, and conversations, and enables more accurate timing cues for our customer’s internal teams. In addition, the CRM Platform was built to easily and seamlessly integrate third party applications to further customize to an individual company’s industry or needs. We designed and built our CRM Platform to serve a broad range of customers globally. Our CRM Platform starts completely free and grows with our customers to meet their needs at different stages in their life-cycles. It supports multiple languages and currencies and offers an array of sophisticated features, including content partitioning at the enterprise level for companies operating in or serving multiple countries.
We focus on selling to mid-market business-to-business, or B2B, companies, which we define as companies that have between two and 2,000 employees. While our CRM Platform was built to grow with any company, we focus on selling to mid-market businesses because we believe we have significant competitive advantages attracting and serving this market segment. These mid-market businesses seek an integrated, easy-to-implement and easy-to-use solution to reach customers and compete with organizations that have larger marketing, sales, and customer service budgets. We efficiently reach these businesses at scale through our proven inbound methodology, our Solutions Partners, and our “freemium” model. A Solutions Partner is a service provider that helps businesses with strategy, execution, and implementation of go-to-market activities and technology solutions. Our freemium model attracts customers who begin using our CRM Platform through our free products and then upgrade to our paid products. As of December 31, 2020, we had 4,225 full-time employees and 103,994 Total Customers of varying sizes in more than 120 countries, representing almost every industry.
Our CRM Platform is a multi-tenant, single code-based and globally available software-as-a-service product delivered through web browsers or mobile applications. We sell our CRM Platform on a subscription basis. Our total revenue increased to $883.0 million in 2020, from $674.9 million in 2019, and from $513.0 million in 2018, representing year-over-year increases of 31% in 2020 and 32% in 2019. We had net losses of $85.0 million in 2020, $53.7 million in 2019, and $63.8 million in 2018, primarily due to investments in our growth.
We derive most of our revenue from subscriptions to our cloud-based CRM Platform and related professional services, which consist of customer on-boarding and training services. Subscription revenue accounted for 97% of our total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020, 96% of our total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2019 and 95% of our total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2018. We sell multiple product plans at different base prices on a subscription basis, each of which includes our CRM and integrated applications to meet the needs of the various customers we serve. Customers pay additional fees if the number of contacts stored and tracked in the customer’s database exceeds specified thresholds. We also generate additional revenue based on the purchase of additional subscriptions and products, and the number of account users and subdomains. Most of our customers’ subscriptions are one year or less in duration.
Subscriptions are billed in advance on various schedules. Because the mix of billing terms for orders can vary from period to period, the annualized value of the orders we enter into with our customers will not be completely reflected in deferred revenue at any single point in time. Accordingly, we do not believe that change in deferred revenue is an accurate indicator of future revenue.
Many of our customers purchase on-boarding and training services which are designed to help customers enhance their ability to attract, engage and delight their customers using our CRM Platform. Professional services and other revenue accounted for 3% of total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020, 4% of total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2019 and 5% of total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2018. We expect professional services and other margins to range from a moderate loss to breakeven for the foreseeable future.
COVID-19 Update
In March 2020, the World Health Organization, or WHO, declared the outbreak of a disease caused by a novel strain of the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) to be a pandemic (the “pandemic”). This pandemic is having widespread, rapidly-evolving, and unpredictable impacts on global societies, economies, financial markets, and business practices. Federal and state governments have implemented measures in an effort to contain the virus, including physical distancing, travel bans and restrictions, closure of non-essential businesses, quarantines, work-from-home directives, shelter-in-place orders, and limitations on public gatherings. These measurements have caused, and are continuing to cause, business slowdowns or shutdowns in affected areas, both regionally and worldwide.
Our focus remains on promoting employee health and safety, serving our customers, and ensuring business continuity. In March 2020, we temporarily closed our global offices, including our corporate headquarters, suspended all company-related travel, and all HubSpot employees globally were required to work from home. We shifted our Solutions Partner events and INBOUND 2020 to virtual-only experiences and have cancelled other customer and industry events. During the third quarter of 2020, we began to slowly re-open our offices on a staggered, region-to-region basis in accordance with local authority guidelines while ensuring that our return to work was thoughtful, prudent, and handled with an abundance of caution with the health of our employees being the top priority. During the fourth quarter of 2020, due to surges in COVID-19 cases at almost all of our office locations, we elected to close all of our global offices. We are closely monitoring the impact of the pandemic and will continue to be thoughtful about employee safety and well-being.
Given that the economic consequences of the pandemic have been exceptionally challenging for many of our customers and prospects, we also implemented certain changes to our pricing structure in March 2020, including reducing prices on our Starter Growth Suite, offering certain product functionality free of charge for a limited time, suspending marketing email send limits for a limited time, and offering a one-time six-month advance on commissions to certain of our Solutions Partners.
While the pandemic has not had a material adverse financial impact on our business to date, the broader implications of the pandemic on our results of operations and overall financial performance will depend on future developments and conditions. The pandemic and its adverse effects are prevalent in the locations where we, our customers, and partners conduct business. As a result, at the outset of the pandemic, we experienced, and may again experience in the future, curtailed customer demand that could adversely impact our business, results of operations and overall financial performance in future periods. Specifically, we may be impacted by changes in our customers’ ability or willingness to purchase our offerings; changes in the timing of our current or prospective customers’ purchasing decisions; pricing discounts or extended payment terms; reductions in the amount or duration of customers’ subscription contracts; or increased customer attrition rates. While our revenue, customer retention, and earnings are relatively predictable as a result of our subscription-based business model, the effect of the pandemic will not be fully reflected in our results of operations and overall financial performance until future periods.
While the implications of the pandemic remain uncertain, we plan to continue to make investments to support business growth. We believe that the growth of our business is dependent on many factors, including our ability to expand our customer base, increase adoption of our CRM Platform within existing customers, develop new products and applications to extend the functionality of our CRM Platform and provide a high level of customer service. We expect to invest in sales and marketing to support customer growth. We also expect to invest in research and development as we continue to introduce new products and applications to extend the functionality of our CRM Platform. We also intend to maintain a high level of customer service and support which we consider critical for our continued success. We plan to continue to invest in our data center infrastructure and services capabilities in order to support continued customer growth. We also expect to continue to incur general and administrative expenses to support our business and to maintain the infrastructure required to be a public company. We expect to use our cash flow from operations and the proceeds from our convertible debt and stock offerings to fund these growth strategies and support our business despite the potential impact from the pandemic and do not expect to be profitable in the near term.
Key Business Metrics
The following key business metrics are presented in this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in our press releases announcing our financial results which are furnished on Form 8-K. We use these key business metrics to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business and results of operations, formulate financial projections and make strategic decisions. These key business metrics may be calculated in a manner different than similar key business metrics used by other companies.
Total Customers. We believe that our ability to increase our customer base is an indicator of our market penetration and growth of our business as we continue to expand our sales force and invest in marketing efforts. We define our Total Customers at the end of a particular period as the number of business entities or individuals with one or more paid subscriptions to our CRM Platform either paid directly or through a Solutions Partner. We do not include in Total Customers business entities or individuals with one or more paid subscriptions solely for our legacy Sales Hub ($10) product or any PieSync product. A single customer may have separate paid subscriptions for separate websites, sales licenses or seats, or our Sales Hub, Marketing Hub, Service Hub, or CMS Hub products, but we count these as one customer if certain customer-provided information such as company name, URL, or email address indicate that these subscriptions are managed by the same business entity or individual.
Total Average Subscription Revenue per Customer. We believe that our ability to increase the Total Average Subscription Revenue per Customer is an indicator of our ability to grow the long-term value of our existing customer relationships. We define Total Average Subscription Revenue per Customer during a particular period as subscription revenue, excluding revenue from our legacy Sales Hub ($10) and PieSync products, from our Total Customers during the period divided by the average Total Customers during the same period.
Total Subscription Dollar Retention Rate. We believe that our ability to retain and expand a customer relationship is an indicator of the stability of our revenue base and the long-term value of our customers. We assess our performance in this area using a metric we refer to as our Total Subscription Dollar Retention Rate. We compare the aggregate Total Contractual Monthly Subscription Revenue of our Total Customer base as of the beginning of each month, which we refer to as Total Retention Base Revenue, to the aggregate Total Contractual Monthly Subscription Revenue of the same group of Total Customers at the end of that month, which we refer to as Total Retained Subscription Revenue. We define Total Contractual Monthly Subscription Revenue as the total amount of subscription fees contractually committed to be paid for a full month under all of our Total Customer agreements, excluding any commissions owed to our Solutions Partners. Our Total Subscription Dollar Retention Rate for a given period is calculated by first dividing Total Retained Subscription Revenue by Total Retention Base Revenue for each month in the period, calculating the weighted average of these rates using the Total Retention Base Revenue for each month in the period, and then annualizing the resulting rates.
Key Components of Consolidated Statements of Operations
Revenue
We derive our revenue from two major sources, revenue from subscriptions to our CRM Platform and professional services and other revenue consisting mainly of on-boarding and training services fees.
Subscription based revenue is derived from customers using our CRM Platform for their inbound marketing, sales, service, and content management needs. Our CRM Platform features integrated applications that create a cohesive and adaptable customer experience. These integrated applications include a CRM, search engine optimization, blogging, website content management, messaging, chatbots, social media, marketing automation, email, predictive lead scoring, sales productivity, ticketing and helpdesk tools, customer NPS surveys, analytics, and reporting. Subscriptions are billed in advance on various schedules. All subscription fees that are billed in advance of service are recorded in deferred revenue. Subscription based revenue is recognized net of consideration paid to Solutions Partners when those Partners purchase a subscription to our CRM Platform.
Professional services and other revenue are derived primarily from customer on-boarding and training services. The on-boarding and training services provided to customers typically involves an implementation specialist. An implementation specialist will typically work with our customers to enhance their understanding of how to attract leads and convert them into customers through search engine optimization, social media, blogging and other content. Training is generally sold in connection with a customer’s initial
subscription and is billed in advance. The training is also available to be purchased separately following a customer’s purchase of its initial subscription and our Solutions Partners routinely provide the same training to customers. The Company recognizes revenue from on-boarding and training services as the services are provided.
Cost of Revenue and Operating Expenses
Cost of Revenue
Cost of subscription revenue consists primarily of managed hosting providers and other third-party service providers, employee-related costs including payroll, benefits and stock-based compensation expense for our customer support team, amortization of capitalized software development costs and acquired technology, and allocated overhead costs, which we define as rent, facilities, depreciation of fixed assets, and costs related to information technology.
Cost of professional services and other revenue consists primarily of personnel costs of our professional services organization, including salaries, benefits, bonuses and stock-based compensation, amortization of capitalized software development costs associated with our internally built software platform, as well as allocated overhead costs.
We expect that cost of subscription and professional services and other revenue will increase in absolute dollars as we continue to invest in growing our business. Over time, we expect to gain benefits of scale associated with our costs of hosting our CRM Platform relative to subscription revenues, resulting in improved subscription gross margin, exclusive of stock-based compensation. We expect professional services and other margins to range from a moderate loss to breakeven for the foreseeable future, exclusive of stock-based compensation.
Research and Development
Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel costs of our development team, including payroll, benefits and stock-based compensation expense and allocated overhead costs. We capitalize certain software development costs that are attributable to developing new products and adding incremental functionality to our CRM Platform and amortize such costs as costs of subscription revenue over the estimated life of the new product or incremental functionality, which is generally two years. We also capitalize certain development costs that are attributable to developing our internally developed software platforms and amortize such costs throughout the consolidated statement of operations over the estimated life of our internally developed software platforms, which is generally five years. We focus our research and development efforts on improving our products and developing new ones, delivering new functionality and enhancing the customer experience. We believe delivering new functionality for our customers is an integral part of our solution and provides our customers with access to a broad array of options and information critical to their marketing, sales, and customer service efforts. We expect to continue to make investments in and expand our offerings to enhance our customers’ experience and satisfaction and attract new customers. We expect research and development expenses to increase in absolute dollars as we continue to increase the functionality of our CRM Platform.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel costs of our sales and marketing employees, including sales commissions and incentives, benefits and stock-based compensation expense, marketing programs, including lead generation, costs of our annual INBOUND conference, other brand building expenses, amortization of capitalized software development costs associated with our internally built software platforms, and allocated overhead costs. We defer certain sales commissions related to acquiring new contracts and amortize them ratably over a period of benefit that we have determined to be approximately one to three years. Sales and marketing expenses also include commissions paid to our Solutions Partners in instances where the end customer purchases and pays for a subscription to our CRM Platform.
We plan to continue to expand sales and marketing to grow our customer base and increase sales to existing customers. This growth will include adding sales personnel and expanding our marketing activities to continue to generate additional leads and build brand awareness. We expect sales and marketing expenses will increase as a result of hiring net new quota-carrying sales representatives in the United States and worldwide and adding to our marketing staff. Over time, we expect sales and marketing expenses will decline as a percentage of total revenue, exclusive of stock-based compensation.
General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses consist of personnel costs and related expenses for executive, finance, legal, human resources, employee-related information technology, administrative personnel, including payroll, benefits and stock-based compensation expense; professional fees for external legal, accounting and other consulting services, amortization of capitalized software development costs associated with our internally built software platforms, and allocated overhead costs. We expect that
general and administrative expenses will increase on an absolute dollar basis but decrease as a percentage of total revenue, exclusive of stock-based compensation expense, as we focus on processes, systems and controls to enable our internal support functions to scale with the growth of our business. We also anticipate continuing increases to general and administrative expenses as we incur the costs of compliance associated with being a publicly traded company, including audit and consulting fees.
Other Expense
Interest income primarily consists of interest earned on invested cash and cash equivalents balances and investments. Interest expense primarily consists of amortization of the debt discount, issuance costs and contractual interest expense related to our Notes, and the loss on early extinguishment of our 2022 Notes. Other expense primarily consists of the impact of foreign currency transaction gains and losses associated with monetary assets and liabilities.
Income Tax Expense
The income tax expense consists of current and deferred taxes for U.S. and foreign jurisdictions. We have historically had a taxable loss in our most significant jurisdiction, the U.S., and a full valuation allowance against the majority of our deferred tax assets. We expect this to continue in the near term.
Results of Operations
The following tables set forth certain consolidated financial data in dollar amounts and as a percentage of total revenue.
*
Percentages are based on actual values. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
Year Ended December 31, 2020 Compared to the Year Ended December 31, 2019
Revenue
Subscription revenue increased during 2020 due to an increase throughout the year in Total Customers, which grew from 73,483 as of December 31, 2019 to 103,994 as of December 31, 2020. Total Average Subscription Revenue per Customer decreased from $9,920 for the year ended December 31, 2019 to $9,582 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The growth in Total Customers was primarily driven by our increased sales representative capacity to meet market demand as well as our freemium product offering and lower priced starer products. The decrease in average subscription revenue per customer was driven primarily by the volume of continued purchases of our lower priced starter products.
The 5% increase in professional services and other revenue resulted primarily from the increase in Total Customers and from the delivery of on-boarding services for the additional subscriptions sold, slightly offset by fewer classroom trainings being held due to social gathering restrictions and travel bans implemented due to the pandemic.
Total cost of revenue increased 28% during 2020 primarily due to an increase in subscription and hosting costs, employee-related costs, amortization of capitalized software development costs, and allocated overheard expenses, offset by a decrease in amortization of acquired technology due to certain acquired technology reaching the end of its useful life during the year ended December 31, 2020. Gross margin remained consistent year-over-year.
The increase in subscription cost of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019 was primarily due to the following:
Subscription and hosting costs increased primarily due to growth in our Total Customer base from 73,483 at December 31, 2019 to 103,994 at December 31, 2020. Additionally, we saw higher subscription and hosting costs as we focus on the security, reliability and performance of our CRM Platform. Employee-related costs increased as a result of increased headcount as we continue to grow our customer support organization to support our customer growth and improve service levels and offerings, offset slightly by reduced discretionary spending as a result of the pandemic. Amortization of capitalized software development costs increased due to the increased number of developers working on our software platform as we continue to develop new products and increased functionality. Allocated overhead expenses increased due to the expansion of our leased space and infrastructure as we continued to grow our business and expand headcount. Amortization of acquired technology decreased due to certain acquired technology reaching the end of its useful life during the year ended December 31, 2020.
The increase in professional services and other cost of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019 was primarily due to the following:
Employee-related costs increased as a result of increased headcount as we continue to grow our professional services organization to support our customer growth.
Research and Development
The increase in research and development expense for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019 was primarily due to the following:
Employee-related costs increased as a result of increased headcount as we continue to grow our engineering organization to develop new products, increase functionality and to maintain our existing CRM Platform, slightly offset by reduced discretionary spending as a result of the pandemic. Allocated overhead expense increased due to expanding our leased space and infrastructure as we continue to grow our business and expand headcount.
Sales and Marketing
The increase in sales and marketing expense for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019 was primarily due to the following:
Employee-related costs increased as a result of increased headcount as we continue to expand our selling and marketing organizations to grow our customer base, offset by reduced discretionary spending as a result of the pandemic. Marketing programs increased due to the timing and size of certain marketing efforts as we continue to make investments in attracting new customers. Solutions Partner commissions increased as a result of increased revenue generated through our partners. Allocated overhead expenses increased due to expanding our leased space and infrastructure as we continue to grow our business and expand headcount.
General and Administrative
The increase in general and administrative expense for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019 was primarily due to the following:
Employee-related costs increased as a result of increased headcount as we continue to grow our business and require additional personnel to support our expanded operations, offset by reduced discretionary spending as a result of the pandemic. Allocated overhead expenses increased due to expanding our leased space and infrastructure as we continue to grow our business and expand headcount. Customer credit card fees increased due to increased customer transactions as we continue to grow our business.
Other Expense
*
not meaningful
Interest income primarily consists of interest earned on invested cash and cash equivalents balances and investments. The decrease during the year is due to a decrease in yields on our investment balances, offset by an increase in the amount of investment holdings from the proceeds received from the issuance of the 2025 Notes.
Interest expense primarily consists of amortization of the debt discount and issuance costs and contractual interest expense related to our Notes, and the loss on early extinguishment of our 2022 Notes. The increase during the year ended December 31, 2020 was primarily due to the $10.5 million loss on the early extinguishment of our 2022 Notes and amortization of the debt discount and issuance costs related to the 2025 Notes.
Other expense primarily consists of the impact of foreign currency transaction gains and losses associated with monetary assets and liabilities. The increase was primarily due to exchange rate fluctuations.
Income Tax expense
Income tax expense consists of current and deferred taxes for U.S. and foreign income taxes. The increase in the income tax expense was primarily driven by increased income in jurisdictions outside of the United States that are profitable from a tax perspective.
Year Ended December 31, 2019 Compared to the Year Ended December 31, 2018
Revenue
Subscription revenue increased during 2019 due to an increase throughout the year in Total Customers, which grew from 56,628 as of December 31, 2018 to 73,483 as of December 31, 2019. Total Average Subscription Revenue per Customer increased from $9,904 for the year ended December 31, 2018 to $9,920 for the year ended December 31, 2019. The growth in Total Customers was primarily driven by our increased sales representative capacity to meet market demand as well as the freemium model. The increase in
average subscription revenue per customer was driven primarily by existing customers increasing their use of our products, existing customers purchasing additional subscriptions, and new customers purchasing our higher price product plans. The increase in average subscription revenue per customer was partially offset by the continued adoption of our freemium model.
The 12% increase in professional services and other revenue resulted primarily from the increase in Total Customers and from delivery of on-boarding and training services for the additional subscriptions sold.
Total Cost of Revenue, Gross Profit and Gross Margin
Total cost of revenue increased 29% during 2019 primarily due to an increase in subscription and hosting costs, employee-related costs, amortization of capitalized software development costs, amortization of acquired technology, and allocated overheard expenses. The increase in gross margin was primarily driven by changes to our service offerings for our products offset by increased hosting costs in subscription revenue as we focus on the reliability of our CRM Platform.
The increase in subscription cost of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2019 compared to the year ended December 31, 2018 was primarily due to the following:
Subscription and hosting costs increased primarily due to growth in our Total Customer base from 56,628 at December 31, 2018 to 73,483 at December 31, 2019, as we focus on the reliability of our CRM Platform. Employee-related costs increased as a result of increased headcount as we continue to grow our customer support organization to support our customer growth and improve service levels and offerings. Amortization of capitalized software development costs increased due to the increased number of developers working on our software platform as we continue to develop new products and increased functionality. Amortization of acquired technology increased due to a full year of amortization of acquired technology that was placed into service the second half of 2018. Allocated overhead expenses increased due to expansion of our leased space and infrastructure as we continue to grow our business and expand headcount.
The increase in professional services and other cost of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2019 compared to the year ended December 31, 2018 was primarily due to the following:
Employee-related costs increased as a result of increased headcount as we continue to grow our professional services organization to support our customer growth.
Research and Development
The increase in research and development expense for the year ended December 31, 2019 compared to the year ended December 31, 2018 was primarily due to the following:
Employee-related costs increased as a result of increased headcount as we continue to grow our engineering organization to develop new products, increase functionality and to maintain our existing CRM Platform. Allocated overhead expense increased due to expanding our leased space and infrastructure as we continue to grow our business and expand headcount.
Sales and Marketing
The increase in sales and marketing expense for the year ended December 31, 2019 compared to the year ended December 31, 2018 was primarily due to the following:
Employee-related costs increased as a result of increased headcount as we continue to expand our selling and marketing organizations to grow our customer base. Solutions Partner commissions increased as a result of increased revenue generated through our Partners. Allocated overhead expenses increased due to expanding our leased space and infrastructure as we continue to grow our business and expand headcount. Marketing programs increased due to the timing and size of certain marketing efforts as we continue to make investments in attracting new customers.
General and Administrative
The increase in general and administrative expense for the year ended December 31, 2019 compared to the year ended December 31, 2018 was primarily due to the following:
Employee-related costs increased as a result of increased headcount as we continue to grow our business and require additional personnel to support our expanded operations. Customer credit card fees increased due to increased customer transactions as we continue to grow our business. Allocated overhead expenses increased due to expanding our leased space and infrastructure as we continue to grow our business and expand headcount.
Other Expense
*
not meaningful
Interest income primarily consists of interest earned on invested cash and cash equivalents balances and investments. The increase is primarily due to the increase in the amount of investment holdings from the proceeds received from the common stock offering that occurred during the first quarter of 2019.
Interest expense primarily consists of amortization of the debt discount and issuance costs related to the 2022 Notes that is recorded as interest expense and contractual interest expense on the 2022 Notes. The increase was primarily due to the use of the effective-interest method to amortize the debt discount and issuance costs related to the 2022 Notes.
Other expense primarily consists of the impact of foreign currency transaction gains and losses associated with monetary assets and liabilities. The decrease was primarily due to exchange rate fluctuations.
Income Tax Expense
Income tax expense consists of current and deferred taxes for U.S. and foreign income taxes. The increase in the income tax expense was primarily driven by increased income in jurisdictions outside of the United States that are profitable from a tax perspective.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our principal sources of liquidity to date have been cash and cash equivalents, net accounts receivable, our common stock offerings, and our convertible notes offerings.
The following table shows cash and cash equivalents, working capital, net cash and cash equivalents provided by operating activities, net cash and cash equivalents used in investing activities, and net cash and cash equivalents provided by financing activities for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018:
Our cash and cash equivalents at December 31, 2020 was held for working capital purposes. We believe our working capital is sufficient to support our operations for at least the next 12 months. At December 31, 2020, $83.7 million of our cash and cash equivalents was held in accounts outside the United States. As of December 31, 2018, we no longer assert indefinite reinvestment of our foreign earnings because these earnings have been subject to U.S. Federal tax. While we have concluded that any incremental tax incurred upon ultimate distribution of these earnings to be immaterial, our current plans do not demonstrate a need to repatriate undistributed earnings to fund our U.S. operations.
Net Cash and Cash Equivalents Provided by Operating Activities
Net cash and cash equivalents provided by operating activities consists primarily of net loss adjusted for certain non-cash items, including stock-based compensation, depreciation and amortization and other non-cash charges, net.
Net cash and cash equivalents provided by operating activities during the year ended December 31, 2020 primarily reflected our net loss of $85.0 million, the portion of the repayment of the 2022 Notes attributable to the debt discount of $49.0 million, benefit for deferred income taxes of $2.2 million and accretion of bond discounts of $3.7 million, offset by non-cash expenses that included $37.1 million of depreciation and amortization, $121.5 million in stock-based compensation, $10.5 million of loss on early extinguishment of 2022 Notes and $24.9 million of amortization of debt discount and issuance costs. Working capital sources of cash and cash equivalents primarily included a $72.6 million increase in deferred revenue primarily resulting from the growth in the number of customers invoiced during the period, a $26.0 million increase in accrued expenses, a $3.7 million increase in accounts payable related to timing of bill payments, and a $31.4 million increase in right-of-use asset. These sources of cash and cash equivalents were offset by a $31.6 million decrease in lease liabilities, a $30.0 million increase in accounts receivable as a result of increased billings to customers consistent with the overall growth of the business, $19.3 million increase in deferred commissions and a $17.0 million increase in prepaid and other assets.
Net cash and cash equivalents provided by operating activities during the year ended December 31, 2019 primarily reflected our net loss of $53.7 million and accretion of bond discount of $14.2 million offset by non-cash expenses that included $28.8 million of depreciation and amortization, $97.8 million in stock-based compensation, and $21.8 million of amortization of debt discount and issuance costs. Working capital sources of cash and cash equivalents primarily included a $49.3 million increase in deferred revenue primarily resulting from the growth in the number of customers invoiced during the period, a $7.8 million increase in accrued expenses, a $3.9 million increase in accounts payable related to timing of bill payments, and a $22.7 million increase in right-of-use asset. These sources of cash and cash equivalents were offset by a $15.8 million decrease in lease liabilities, a $15.4 million increase in accounts receivable as a result of increased billings to customers consistent with the overall growth of the business, $9.7 million increase in deferred commissions and a $3.3 million increase in prepaid and other assets.
Net cash and cash equivalents provided by operating activities during the year ended December 31, 2018 primarily reflected our net loss of $63.8 million and accretion of bond discount of $6.8 million offset by non-cash expenses that included $23.4 million of depreciation and amortization, $76.3 million in stock-based compensation, $2.3 million of non-cash rent expense and $20.3 million of amortization of debt discount and issuance costs. Working capital sources of cash and cash equivalents primarily included a $49.3 million increase in deferred revenue primarily resulting from the growth in the number of customers invoiced during the period and a $11.9 million increase in accrued expenses, a $5.8 million increase in deferred rent, a $3.9 million decrease in prepaid and other assets, and a $3.3 million increase in accounts payable related to timing of bill payments. These sources of cash and cash equivalents were offset by a $17.7 million increase in accounts receivable as a result of increased billings to customers consistent with the overall growth of the business, and a $23.9 million increase in deferred commissions.
Net Cash and Cash Equivalents Used in Investing Activities
Our investing activities have consisted primarily of purchases, maturities and sale of investments, property and equipment purchases, an acquisition of a business, strategic investments, and capitalization of software development costs. Capitalized software development costs are related to new products or improvements to our existing software platform that expands the functionality for our customers.
Net cash and cash equivalents used in investing activities during the year ended December 31, 2020 consisted primarily of $1.5 billion in purchases of investments, $37.3 million of purchased property and equipment, $2.5 million of purchases of strategic investments, and $21.6 million of capitalized software development costs. These uses of cash were offset by $1.4 billion received related to the maturity of investments and $10.9 million received for sale of investments.
Net cash and cash equivalents used in investing activities during the year ended December 31, 2019 consisted primarily of $1.3 billion of purchases of investments, $40.4 million of purchased property and equipment, $13.5 million of capitalized software development costs, a $23.3 million business acquisition and $0.6 million related to the purchase of strategic investments. These uses of cash were offset by $1.1 billion received related to the maturity of investments.
Net cash and cash equivalents used in investing activities during the year ended December 31, 2018 consisted primarily of $681.6 million of purchases of investments, $22.3 million of purchased property and equipment, $11.2 million of capitalized software development costs and $0.5 million related to the purchase of strategic investments. These uses of cash were offset by $644.4 million received related to the maturity of investments.
Net Cash and Cash Equivalents Provided by Financing Activities
Our financing activities have consisted primarily of our stock offerings, the various components of our 2025 Notes offering, the various components of our 2022 Notes repayment, the issuance of common stock under our stock plans, payments of employee taxes related to the net share settlement of stock-based awards, and repayments of our finance lease obligations.
For the year ended December 31, 2020, cash provided by financing activities consisted of $450.1 million of net proceeds from the issuance of the 2025 Notes, $363.6 million of proceeds from the settlement of the Convertible Note Hedges related to the 2022 Notes, and $30.4 million of proceeds related to issuance of common stock under stock plans. This source of cash was offset by $236.0 million used for repayment of the 2022 Notes attributable to the principal, $327.5 million for payment to settle the Warrants related to the 2022 Notes, $50.6 million for payment of the Capped Call Options related to the 2025 Notes, and $7.4 million used for payment of employee taxes related to the net share settlement of stock-based awards.
For the year ended December 31, 2019, cash and cash equivalents provided by financing activities consisted primarily of $342.6 million of net proceeds related to common stock offering and $23.6 million of proceeds related to issuance of common stock under stock plans. These sources of cash were offset by $6.2 million used for payment of employee taxes related to the net share settlement of stock-based awards, $0.3 million for repayment of debt associated with our business acquisition and $0.3 million used for repayments of finance leases.
For the year ended December 31, 2018, cash and cash equivalents provided by financing activities consisted primarily of $21.6 million of proceeds related to issuance of common stock under stock plans. These sources of cash were offset by $8.0 million used for payment of employee taxes related to the net share settlement of stock-based awards and $0.7 million used for repayments of finance leases.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations is based on our consolidated financial statements which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. In preparing our financial statements, we make estimates, assumptions and judgments that can have a significant impact on our reported revenues, results of operations and net income or loss, as well as on the value of certain assets and liabilities on our balance sheet during and as of the reporting periods. These estimates, assumptions and judgments are necessary because future events and their effects on our results and the value of our assets cannot be determined with certainty and are made based on our historical experience and on other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. These estimates may change as new events occur or additional information is obtained, and we may periodically be faced with uncertainties, the outcomes of which are not within our control and may not be known for a prolonged period of time. Because the use of estimates is inherent in the financial reporting process, actual results could differ from those estimates.
We believe that of our significant accounting policies, which are described in Note 2 “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” to our consolidated financial statements, the following accounting policies and specific estimates involve a greater degree of judgment and complexity.
Revenue Recognition
We generate revenue from arrangements with multiple performance obligations, which typically include subscriptions to our online software solutions and professional services which include on-boarding and training services. Our customers do not have the right to take possession of the online software products. Revenue from online software products is recognized ratably over the subscription period beginning on the date the online software product is made available to customers. We recognize revenue from on-boarding and training services as the services are provided. Amounts billed that have not yet met the applicable revenue recognition criteria are recorded as deferred revenue.
We allocate the transaction price to each distinct performance obligation based on the standalone selling price (“SSP”) of each good or service. We calculate SSP for each type of online software product and professional service offering by averaging the selling price of all purchases within the trailing four calendar quarters. We use four quarters of transaction data to determine SSP as most of our customer arrangements are one year or less and pricing may be subject to change upon each customer’s renewal. In instances where there are not sufficient data points, or the average selling prices for a particular online software product or professional service offering are disparate, we estimate the SSP using other observable inputs, such as similar products or services. If the actual selling price for the sale of an online software product or professional service offering within a multiple performance obligation arrangement substantially differs from the SSP of that offering, we use the relative SSP to allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract.
Costs to Obtain a Contract with a Customer
Sales commissions earned by our sales force are considered incremental, recoverable costs of obtaining a contract with a customer. Sales commissions for initial contracts are deferred and then amortized on a straight-line basis over a period of benefit that we have determined to be approximately one to three years. The one to three-year period has been determined by taking into consideration the type of product sold, the commitment term of the customer contract, the nature of the Company’s technology development life-cycle, and an estimated customer relationship period. Sales commissions for upgrade contracts are deferred and amortized on a straight-line basis over the remaining estimated customer relationship period of the related customer.
Capitalized Software Development Costs
Software development costs consist of certain payroll and stock compensation costs incurred to develop functionality for our CRM Platform and internally-built software platforms, as well as certain upgrades and enhancements that are expected to result in enhanced functionality. We capitalize certain software development costs for new offerings as well as upgrades to our existing software platforms, while costs associated with planning new developments and maintaining our CRM Platform software and internally built software platforms are expensed as incurred.. We amortize these development costs over the estimated useful life of two to five years on a straight-line basis. We determined that a two- to five- year life is appropriate for our internal-use software based on our best estimate of the useful life of the internally developed software after considering factors such as continuous developments in the technology, obsolescence, and anticipated life of the service offering before significant upgrades. Management evaluates the useful lives of these assets on a quarterly basis and tests for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances occur that could impact the recoverability of these assets.
We determine the amount of internal software costs to be capitalized based on the amount of time spent by our developers on projects in the application stage of development. There is judgment involved in estimating the time allocated to a particular project in the application stage. A significant change in the time spent on each project could have a material impact on the amount capitalized and related amortization expense in subsequent periods.
Leases
On January 1, 2019, we adopted the new lease guidance using a modified retrospective transition method applied to those leases which were not completed as of January 1, 2019.
We lease office facilities under non-cancelable operating leases that expire at various dates through May 2031. Certain leases contain optional termination dates.
We determine if an arrangement contains a lease at inception and does not separate lease and non-lease components of an arrangement determined to contain a lease. Operating and finance leases with a duration of less than 12 months are excluded from right-of-use-assets and lease liabilities and related expense is recorded as incurred.
We use our estimated incremental borrowing rate, which is derived from information available at the lease commencement date, in determining the present value of operating lease payments. To determine the estimated incremental borrowing rate, we use publicly available credit ratings for peer companies. We estimate the incremental borrowing rate using yields for maturities that are in line with the duration of the lease payments, which requires judgment.
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
Contractual obligations are cash that we are obligated to pay as part of certain contracts that we have entered during our course of business. Certain of our leases contain optional termination dates. The table below only includes payments up to the optional termination date. If we were to extend leases beyond the optional termination date, the future commitments would increase by approximately $90.8 million. Below is a table that shows the projected outlays as of December 31, 2020:
Letters of Credit
As of December 31, 2020, we had a total of $3.4 million in letters of credit outstanding substantially in favor of certain landlords for office space. These irrevocable letters of credit, which are not included in the table of contractual obligations above, are expected to remain in effect, in some cases, until 2029.
Off Balance Sheet Arrangements
We have no material off-balance sheet arrangements at December 31, 2020 or 2019 exclusive of items described above and indemnifications of officers, directors and employees for certain events or occurrences while the officer, director or employee is, or was, serving at our request in such capacity.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
For information on recent accounting pronouncements, see Recent Accounting Pronouncements in the notes to the consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
ITEM 7A.
ITEM 7A.
Qualitative and Quantitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Foreign Currency Exchange Risk
We have foreign currency risks related to our revenue and operating expenses denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, primarily the Euro, British Pound Sterling, Australian dollar, Singaporean dollar, Japanese Yen, and Colombian Peso. Since we translate foreign currencies into U.S. dollars for financial reporting purposes, currency fluctuations can have an impact on our financial results.
We have experienced and will continue to experience fluctuations in our net loss as a result of transaction gains or losses related to revaluing certain current asset and current liability balances that are denominated in currencies other than the functional currency of the entities in which they are recorded. We recognized immaterial amounts of foreign currency gains and losses in each of the periods presented. We have not engaged in the hedging of our foreign currency transactions to date, we are evaluating the costs and benefits of initiating such a program and may in the future hedge selected significant transactions denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar as we expand our international operation, and our risk grows.
Interest Rate Sensitivity
Our portfolio of cash and cash equivalents and short- and long-term investments is maintained in a variety of securities, including government agency obligations, corporate bonds and money market funds. Investments are classified as available-for-sale securities and carried at their fair market value with cumulative unrealized gains or losses recorded as a component of accumulated other comprehensive loss within stockholders' equity. A sharp rise in interest rates could have an adverse impact on the fair market value of certain securities in our portfolio. We do not currently hedge our interest rate exposure and do not enter into financial instruments for trading or speculative purposes.
Inflation Risk
We do not believe that inflation has had a material effect on our business. However, if our costs, in particular personnel, sales and marketing and hosting costs, were to become subject to significant inflationary pressures, we may not be able to fully offset such higher costs through price increases. Our inability or failure to do so could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Market Risk and Market Interest Risk
In May 2017, we issued $400.0 million aggregate principal amount of 0.25% convertible senior due June 1, 2022, of which $272.1 million was repurchased in June 2020 and $2 million was settled in cash in the fourth quarter of 2020. As of December 31, 2020, $125.8 million of principal remains outstanding on the 2022 Notes. Also in June 2020, we issued $460 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due June 1, 2025. The fair value of our convertible senior notes is subject to interest rate risk, market risk and other factors due to the convertible feature. The fair value of the convertible senior notes will generally increase as our common stock price increases and will generally decrease as our common stock price declines in value. The interest and market value changes affect the fair value of our convertible senior notes but do not impact our financial position, cash flows or results of operations due to the fixed nature of the debt obligation. Generally, the fair values of 2022 Notes and the 2025 Notes (the “Notes”) will increase as interest rates fall and decrease as interest rates rise. Additionally, we carry the convertible senior notes at face value less unamortized discount on our balance sheet, and we present the fair value for required disclosure purposes only.
The table below provides a sensitivity analysis of hypothetical 10% changes of our stock price as of December 31, 2020 and the estimated impact on the fair value of the Notes. The selected scenarios are not predictions of future events, but rather are intended to illustrate the effect such event may have on the fair value of the Notes.
2022 Notes
2025 Notes
ITEM 8.
ITEM 8.
FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Page
Reports of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
Error! Bookmark not defined.
Consolidated Balance Sheets
Consolidated Statements of Operations
Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss
Consolidated Statement of Stockholders’ Equity
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of HubSpot, Inc.
Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of HubSpot, Inc. and its subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, and the related consolidated statements of operations, of comprehensive loss, of stockholders’ equity and of cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2020, including the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). We also have audited the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).
In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2020 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the COSO.
Change in Accounting Principle
As discussed in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company changed the manner in which it accounts for leases in 2019.
Basis for Opinions
The Company's management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting appearing under Item 9A. Our responsibility is to express opinions on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and on the Company's internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. 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 audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.
Our audits of the consolidated financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated 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 consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.
Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Critical Audit Matters
The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (i) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (ii) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.
Capitalized software development costs - estimate of time and related costs eligible for capitalization
As described in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company’s consolidated capitalized software development costs, net balance was $24.9 million as of December 31, 2020. The Company capitalizes certain software development costs for new offerings as well as upgrades to existing software platforms. Management determines the amount of internal software costs to be capitalized based on the amount of time spent by developers on projects in the application stage of development. There is judgment involved in estimating time allocated to a particular project in the application stage.
The principal considerations for our determination that performing procedures relating to the estimate of time and related costs eligible for capitalization as capitalized software development costs is a critical audit matter are the significant judgment by management when determining the amount of time to capitalize for projects; this in turn led to a high degree of auditor judgment, subjectivity, and effort in performing procedures and evaluating audit evidence related to management’s determination of capitalized costs and management’s judgment related to the amount of time incurred by developers on projects in the application stage.
Addressing the matter involved performing procedures and evaluating audit evidence in connection with forming our overall opinion on the consolidated financial statements. These procedures included testing the effectiveness of controls relating to capitalized software development costs, including controls over management’s estimate of time and related costs eligible for capitalization. These procedures also included, among others (i) testing management’s process for determining the time and related costs eligible for capitalization in the current year, (ii) evaluating whether the time and related costs were eligible for capitalization, (iii) testing the completeness and accuracy of underlying data used in management’s estimate of eligible time and related costs, and (iv) evaluating the reasonableness of significant assumptions used by management in estimating eligible time and related costs. Evaluating management’s assumptions related to eligible software development time for capitalization involved evaluating whether the assumptions used by management were reasonable considering (i) inquiries with management and IT product development managers in evaluating the software development costs capitalized for a sample of capitalized projects, and (ii) evaluating management’s estimate of hours through inquiry with a sample of individual software developers regarding the nature, timing and extent of time worked on development activities.
/s/ PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Boston, Massachusetts
February 16, 2021
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2016.
HUBSPOT, INC.
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(In thousands, except per share amounts)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the consolidated financial statements.
HUBSPOT, INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(In thousands, except per share amounts)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the consolidated financial statements.
HUBSPOT, INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE LOSS
(In thousands)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the consolidated financial statements.
HUBSPOT, INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
(In thousands, except per share amounts)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the consolidated financial statements.
HUBSPOT, INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(In thousands)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of the consolidated financial statements
HUBSPOT, INC.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
1. Organization and Operations
HubSpot, Inc. (the “Company”) provides a cloud-based CRM Platform, that enables companies to attract, engage, and delight customers throughout the customer experience. The Company’s CRM Platform, comprised of Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, and a CMS Hub features integrated applications and tools that enable businesses to create a cohesive and adaptable customer experience.
In March 2020, the World Health Organization (“WHO”) declared the outbreak of a disease caused by a novel strain of the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) to be a global pandemic (the “pandemic”). The Company has assessed the impact of the pandemic, and while the broader implications of the pandemic on the results of operations and overall financial performance remain uncertain, the Company assessed the potential impact on the December 31, 2020 financial statements and determined there were no material adjustments necessary with respect to these consolidated financial statements.
Given that the economic consequences of the pandemic have been exceptionally challenging for many customers, in March 2020, the Company implemented certain changes to pricing and packaging, including reducing prices on certain products and offering certain product functionality free of charge for a limited time. The Company also made a one-time payment to certain Solutions Partners for six months of commissions in advance of them being earned. While revenue, customer retention, and earnings are relatively predictable under a subscription-based business model, the potential effect of the pandemic will not be fully reflected in the results of operations and overall financial performance of the Company until future periods given the current macro-economic uncertainty.
In March 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act was signed into law by the United States. The CARES Act provides a substantial stimulus and assistance package intended to address the impact of the pandemic, including tax relief and government loans, grants, and investments. In June 2020, the Jobs Support Scheme (“JSS”) was announced by the Singapore government to provide support to employers and help enterprises retain their local employees during the pandemic. The CARES Act and the JSS did not have a material impact with respect to these consolidated financial statements.
2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Basis of Presentation -The consolidated financial statements have been prepared in U.S. dollars, in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”). The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly owned subsidiaries. All intercompany transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.
Use of Estimates -The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.
Operating Segments -The Company operates as one operating segment. Operating segments are defined as components of an enterprise for which separate financial information is regularly evaluated by the chief operating decision maker (“CODM”), which is the Company’s chief executive officer, in deciding how to allocate resources and assess performance. The Company’s CODM evaluates the Company’s financial information and resources and assess the performance of these resources on a consolidated basis. Since the Company operates in one operating segment, all required financial segment information can be found in the consolidated financial statements.
Loss Per Share - Basic net loss per share is computed by dividing net loss by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted net loss per share is computed by giving effect to all potential dilutive common stock equivalents outstanding for the period. For purposes of this calculation, options to purchase common stock, restricted stock units (“RSUs”), shares issued pursuant to the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“ESPP”), the Warrants (defined below), the Conversion Option of the 2022 Notes, and the Conversion Option of the 2025 Notes (the “Conversion Options”) (Note 9) are considered to be potential common stock equivalents.
A reconciliation of the denominator used in the calculation of basic and diluted loss per share is as follows:
Since the Company incurred net losses for each of the periods presented, diluted net loss per share is the same as basic net loss per share. All of the Company’s outstanding stock options, RSUs, and shares issuable under the ESPP, as well as the Warrants and Conversion Options were excluded in the calculation of diluted net loss per share as the effect would be anti-dilutive.
The Company expects to settle the principal amount of the Notes (Note 9) in cash, and therefore, the Company uses the treasury stock method for calculating any potential dilutive effect of the Warrants and Conversion Options on diluted net income per share, if applicable. As a result, only the amount by which the conversion cost of the Notes, if settled in shares, exceeds the aggregated principal amount of the Notes (the “Conversion Spread”) is considered in the diluted earnings per share computation. The Conversion Spread has a dilutive impact on net income per share when the average market price of the Company’s common stock for a given period of time exceeds the initial conversion price of $94.77 per share for the 2022 Notes and $282.52 for the 2025 Notes. The average stock price for the year ended December 31, 2020 was $240.59.
As the last reported sale price of the Company’s common stock for at least 20 trading days during the period of 30 consecutive trading days ending on the last trading day of the calendar quarter ended December 31, 2020 was equal to or greater than 130% of the conversion price of $94.77 on each applicable trading day, the 2022 Notes are convertible at the option of the holders thereof during the calendar quarter ended March 31, 2021. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the Company settled approximately $2 million of the principal balance of the 2022 Notes in cash. Between the end of the most recently completed fiscal quarter and February 12, 2021, the Company additionally settled $8.3 million of principal balance of the 2022 Notes in cash in response to conversion notices received prior to December 31, 2020. As of February 12, 2021, the Company has received additional conversion notices subsequent to year-end for approximately $36.1 million of the principal balance of the 2022 Notes, which will be settled in cash during the quarter ended March 31, 2021. For disclosure purposes, the potentially dilutive effect of the Conversion Spread is calculated and included in the table below.
As the last reported sale price of the Company’s common stock for at least 20 trading days during the period of 30 consecutive trading days ending on the last trading day of the calendar quarter ended December 31, 2020 was equal to or greater than 130% of the conversion price of $282.52 on each applicable trading day, the 2025 Notes are convertible at the option of the holders thereof during the calendar quarter ended March 31, 2021. As of February 12, 2021, no holders have converted or indicated their intention to convert the 2025 Notes. For disclosure purposes, the potentially dilutive effect of the Conversion Spread is calculated and included in the table below.
The following table contains all potentially dilutive common stock equivalents.
Cash and Cash Equivalents -
The Company considers all highly liquid investments purchased with original maturity of three months or less to be cash equivalents. Cash and cash equivalents consist of cash held in bank deposit accounts and short-term, highly-liquid investments with remaining maturities of three months or less at the date of purchase, consisting primarily of money-market funds.
Investments - Investments consist of commercial paper, corporate debt securities and U.S. Treasury securities. Securities having remaining maturities of more than three months at the date of purchase and less than one year from the date of the balance sheets are classified as short-term, and those with maturities of more than one year from the date of the balance sheet are classified as long-term in the consolidated balance sheets. The Company classifies its debt investments with readily determinable market values as available-for-sale. These investments are classified as investments on the consolidated balance sheets and are carried at fair market value, with unrealized gains and losses considered to be temporary in nature reported as accumulated other comprehensive loss, a separate component of stockholders’ equity. The Company reviews all investments for reductions in fair value that are other-than-temporary. When such reductions occur, the cost of the investment is adjusted to fair value through recording a loss on investments in the consolidated statements of operations. Gains and losses on investments are calculated on the basis of specific identification.
Investments are considered to be impaired when a decline in fair value below cost basis is determined to be other-than-temporary. The Company periodically evaluates whether a decline in fair value below cost basis is other-than-temporary by considering available evidence regarding these investments including, among other factors: the duration of the period that, and extent to which, the fair value is less than cost basis; the financial health of, and business outlook for the issuer, including industry and sector performance and operational and financing cash flow factors; overall market conditions and trends and the Company’s intent and ability to retain its investment in the security for a period of time sufficient to allow for an anticipated recovery in market value. Once a decline in fair value is determined to be other-than-temporary, a write-down is recorded and a new cost basis in the security is established.
Strategic investments - Strategic investments consist of non-controlling equity investments in privately held companies. These investments without readily determinable fair values for which the Company does not have the ability to exercise significant influence are accounted for using the measurement alternative. Under the measurement alternative, the non-marketable securities are carried at cost less any impairments, plus or minus adjustments resulting from observable price changes in orderly transactions for identical or similar investments of the same issuer.
Accounts Receivable and Allowance for Doubtful Accounts - Accounts receivable are carried at the original invoiced amount less an allowance for doubtful accounts based on the probability of future collection. The probability of future collection is based on specific considerations of historical loss patterns and an assessment of the continuation of such patterns based on past collection trends and known or anticipated future economic events that may impact collectability. The probability of future collection is also assessed by geography. To date, losses resulting from uncollected receivables have not exceeded management’s expectations.
The following is a roll forward of the Company’s allowance for doubtful accounts (in thousands):
(1)
Deductions include actual accounts written-off, net of recoveries.
Restricted Cash -The Company had restricted cash of $3.0 million at December 31, 2020 and $8.8 million at December 31, 2019 related to letters of credit for it leased facilities. The following table provides a reconciliation of the cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash within the consolidated balance sheets that sum to the total of the same such amounts shown in the statement of cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.
Property and Equipment -Property and equipment are stated at cost and depreciated using the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the related assets. Expenditures for maintenance and repairs are charged to expense as incurred, whereas major betterments are capitalized as additions to leasehold improvements. Depreciation is recorded over the following estimated useful lives:
The Company capitalizes certain payroll and stock compensation costs incurred to develop functionality for certain of the Company’s internally built software platforms. The costs incurred during the preliminary stages of development are expensed as incurred. Once a piece of incremental functionality has reached the development stage certain internal costs are capitalized until the functionality is ready for its intended use. Internal-use software is included within property and equipment on the balance sheet. The costs are generally amortized on a straight-line basis over an estimated useful life of approximately five years.
Impairment of Long-Lived Assets -Long-lived assets are reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the asset may not be recoverable or that the useful lives of those assets are no longer appropriate. Management considers the following potential indicators of impairment of its long-lived assets (asset group): a substantial decrease in the Company’s stock price, a significant adverse change in the extent or manner in which a long-lived asset (asset group) is being used, a significant adverse change in legal factors or in the business climate that could affect the value of the long-lived asset (asset group), an accumulation of costs significantly in excess of the amount originally expected for the acquisition or construction of a long-lived asset (asset group), and a current expectation that, more likely than not, a long lived asset (asset group) will be sold or otherwise disposed of significantly before the end of its previously estimated useful life. When such events occur, the Company compares the carrying amounts of the assets to their undiscounted expected future cash flows. If this comparison indicates that there may be an impairment, the amount of the impairment is calculated as the difference between the carrying value and fair value. For the years presented, the Company did not recognize an impairment charge.
Intangible Assets - Intangible assets consist of acquired technology, trade name and customer relationships. The Company records acquired intangible assets at fair value on the date of acquisition and amortize such assets in a pattern reflective of the expected economic benefits consumption over the expected useful life of the asset. If this pattern cannot be reliably determined, a straight-line amortization method is used. The estimated useful life of acquired technology is two to seven years and is based on the period over which economic benefits will be derived from each acquired intangible asset. The Company evaluates the useful lives of these assets on an annual basis and tests for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances occur that could impact the recoverability of these assets. If the estimate of an intangible asset’s remaining useful life is changed, the remaining carrying value of the intangible asset is amortized prospectively over the revised remaining useful life.
Goodwill -Goodwill represents the excess of cost over the fair value of the net tangible and identifiable intangible assets acquired in a business combination. Goodwill is not subject to amortization but is monitored annually for impairment or more frequently if there are indicators of impairment. Management considers the following potential indicators of impairment: significant underperformance relative to historical or projected future operating results, significant changes in the Company’s use of acquired assets or the strategy of the Company’s overall business, significant negative industry or economic trends and a significant decline in the Company’s stock price for a sustained period. The Company performs its annual impairment test on November 30. Currently, the Company’s goodwill is evaluated at the entity level as it has been determined there is one operating segment comprised of one reporting unit. When assessing goodwill for impairment the Company first performs a qualitative assessment to determine whether it is necessary to perform a quantitative analysis. If the Company determines it is unlikely that the reporting unit fair value is less than its carrying value then no quantitative assessment is performed. If the Company cannot determine that it is likely that the reporting unit fair value is more than its carrying value, then the Company performs a quantitative assessment. Based on the qualitative assessment performed on November 30, 2020, the Company determined it was unlikely that it’s reporting unit fair value was less than its carrying value and no quantitative assessment was required. There were no indicators that the Company’s goodwill had become impaired since that date, and as such, there was no impairment of goodwill as of November 30, 2020 or December 31, 2020.
For the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, the Company did not recognize an impairment charge.
Business Combinations - The Company uses its best estimates and assumptions to assign fair value to assets acquired and liabilities assumed. Significant judgment is used in determining fair values of assets acquired and liabilities assumed, as well as acquired assets and their estimated useful lives. Fair value and useful life determinations are based on, among other factors, estimates
of future expected cash flows attributable to the acquired intangible assets and appropriate discount rates used in computing present values. Goodwill represents the excess of the purchase price over the estimated fair values of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed.
The Company’s estimates are inherently uncertain and subject to refinement. During the measurement period, which may be up to one year from the acquisition date, the Company may record adjustments to the fair value of these tangible and intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed, with the corresponding offset to goodwill. The Company continues to collect information and reevaluates these estimates and assumptions quarterly and records any adjustments to the Company’s preliminary estimates to goodwill provided that the Company is within the measurement period. Upon the conclusion of the measurement period or final determination of the fair value of assets acquired or liabilities assumed, whichever comes first, any subsequent adjustments are recorded to the Company’s consolidated statement of operations.
Advertising Expense -The Company expenses advertising as incurred, which is included in sales and marketing expense in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations. The Company incurred $21.9 million of advertising expense in 2020, $14.9 million in 2019, and $8.4 million in 2018.
Leases - On January 1, 2019, the Company adopted the new lease guidance using a modified retrospective transition method applied to those leases which were not completed as of January 1, 2019. The Company determines if an arrangement contains a lease at inception and does not separate lease and non-lease components of an arrangement determined to contain a lease. Operating leases are included in right-of-use (“ROU”) assets, current operating lease liabilities and operating lease liabilities, net of current portion, on the Company’s consolidated balance sheet. Finance leases are included in property and equipment, net, accrued expenses, and other current liabilities on the Company’s consolidated balance sheet. Operating and finance leases with a duration of less than 12 months are excluded from right-of-use-assets and operating lease liabilities and related expense is recorded as incurred.
ROU assets represent the Company's right to use an underlying asset for the lease term and the corresponding lease liabilities represent its obligation to make lease payments arising from the lease. Lease ROU assets and lease liabilities are recognized based on the present value of the future minimum lease payments over the lease term at the lease commencement date. The lease ROU asset includes any initial direct costs incurred and is reduced for tenant incentives. As the Company’s operating leases do not provide an implicit rate, the net present value of future minimum lease payments is determined using the Company’s incremental borrowing rate. To determine the estimated incremental borrowing rate, the Company uses publicly available credit ratings for peer companies. The Company estimates the incremental borrowing rate using yields for maturities that are in line with the duration of the lease payments.
Lease expense for minimum lease payments for operating leases is recognized on a straight-line basis over the lease term. Finance leases use the effective interest method to record expense which results in a front-loaded expense recognition pattern.
Asset retirement obligations (“ARO”)
On the lease commencement date the Company establishes an ARO based on the present value of contractually required estimated future costs to retire long-lived assets at the termination or expiration of a lease. The asset associated with the ARO is amortized over the corresponding lease term to operating expense and the ARO is accreted to the end of lease obligation value over the same term.
Revenue Recognition - The Company generates revenue from arrangements with multiple performance obligations, which typically include subscriptions to its online software products and professional services which include on-boarding and training services. The Company’s customers do not have the right to take possession of the online software products. The Company recognizes revenue from contracts with customers using a five-step model, which is described below:
•
Identify the customer contract;
•
Identify performance obligations that are distinct;
•
Determine the transaction price;
•
Allocate the transaction price to the distinct performance obligations; and
•
Recognize revenue as the performance obligations are satisfied.
Identify the customer contract
A customer contract is generally identified when the Company and a customer have executed an arrangement that calls for the Company to grant access to its online software products and provide professional services in exchange for consideration from the customer.
Identify performance obligations that are distinct
A performance obligation is a promise to provide a distinct good or service or a series of distinct goods or services. A good or service that is promised to a customer is distinct if the customer can benefit from the good or service either on its own or together with other resources that are readily available to the customer, and a company’s promise to transfer the good or service to the customer is separately identifiable from other promises in the contract. The Company has determined that subscriptions for its online software products are distinct because, once a customer has access to the online software product that it purchased, the online software product is fully functional and does not require any additional development, modification, or customization. Professional services sold are distinct because the customer benefits from the on-boarding and training to make better use of the online software products it purchased.
Determine the transaction price
The transaction price is the amount of consideration to which the Company expects to be entitled in exchange for transferring goods or services to a customer, excluding sales taxes that are collected on behalf of government agencies. The Company estimates any variable consideration to which it will be entitled at contract inception, and reassesses at each reporting date, when determining the transaction price. The Company does not include variable consideration to the extent that it is probable that a significant reversal in the amount of cumulative revenue recognized will occur when any uncertainty associated with the variable consideration is resolved.
Allocate the transaction price to the distinct performance obligations
The transaction price is allocated to each performance obligation based on the relative standalone selling prices (“SSP”) of the goods or services being provided to the customer. The Company determines the SSP of its goods and services based upon the average sales prices for each type of online software product and professional services sold. In instances where there are not sufficient data points, or the selling prices for a particular online software product or professional service are disparate, the Company estimates the SSP using other observable inputs, such as similar products or services.
Recognize revenue as the performance obligations are satisfied
Revenues are recognized when or as control of the promised goods or services is transferred to customers. Revenue from online software products is recognized ratably over the subscription period beginning on the date the Company’s online software products are made available to customers. Most subscription contracts are one year or less. The Company recognizes revenue from on-boarding and training services as the services are provided. Cash payments received in advance of providing subscription or services are recorded to deferred revenue until the performance obligation is satisfied.
Solutions Partner Commissions
The Company pays its Solutions Partners a commission based on the online software product sales price for sales to end-customers. The classification of the commission paid in the Company’s consolidated statements of operations depends on who purchases the online software product. In instances where an end-customer purchases from the Company, the commission paid to the Solutions Partner is recorded as sales and marketing expense. When a Solutions Partner purchases from the Company, the commission paid to the Solutions Partner is netted against the associated revenue recognized.
Concentrations of Credit Risk and Significant Customers -Financial instruments that potentially expose the Company to concentrations of credit risk consist primarily of cash, investments and accounts receivable.
The Company's cash and cash equivalents are generally held with large financial institutions. Although the Company's deposits may exceed federally insured limits, the financial institutions that the Company uses have high investment-grade credit ratings and, as a result, the Company believes that, as of December 31, 2020, its risk relating to deposits exceeding federally insured limits was not significant.
The Company’s investments consist of highly rated corporate debt securities and U.S. Treasury securities. The Company limits the amount of investments in any single issuer, except U.S. Treasuries. The Company believes that, as of December 31, 2020, its concentration of credit risk related to investments was not significant.
The Company has no significant off-balance sheet risk such as foreign exchange contracts, option contracts, or other hedging arrangements.
The Company generally does not require collateral from its customers and generally requires payment 30 days from the invoice date. The Company maintains an allowance for doubtful accounts based on its assessment of the collectability of accounts receivable. Credit risk arising from accounts receivable is mitigated as a result of transacting with a large number of geographically dispersed customers spread across various industries.
At December 31, 2020 and 2019, there were no customers that represented more than 10% of the net accounts receivable balance. There were no customers that individually exceeded 10% of the Company’s revenue in any of the periods presented.
Foreign Currency -The functional currency of the Company’s foreign subsidiaries is the local currency. Assets and liabilities denominated in a foreign currency are translated into U.S. dollars at the exchange rates in effect at the balance sheet dates, with the resulting translation adjustments directly recorded to a separate component of accumulated other comprehensive loss. Income and expense accounts are translated at the weighted-average exchange rates during the period. Foreign currency transaction gains and losses are recorded in other expense.
Research and Development -Research and development expenses include payroll, employee benefits and other expenses associated with product development. Also included is a benefit related to an Irish research and development tax credit, under which the Company is able to obtain a refundable credit of up to 25% of eligible research and development expenses incurred. The credit is recorded as a reduction of research and development expenses in the period in which the eligible expenses are recorded in the consolidated financial statements.
Capitalized Software Development Costs -Certain payroll and stock compensation costs incurred to develop functionality for the Company’s software and internally built software platforms, as well as certain upgrades and enhancements that are expected to result in enhanced functionality are capitalized. The costs incurred in the preliminary stages of development are expensed as incurred. Once an application has reached the development stage, the Company capitalizes certain software development costs for new offerings as well as upgrades to existing software platforms. Capitalized software development costs are amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful life of two to five years. Management evaluates the useful lives of these assets on a quarterly basis and tests for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances occur that could impact the recoverability of these assets.
The Company determines the amount of internal software costs to be capitalized based on the amount of time spent by the developers on projects in the application stage of development. There is judgment involved in estimating time allocated to a particular project in the application stage. Costs associated with building or significantly enhancing the CRM Platform and internally built software platforms are capitalized, while costs associated with planning new developments and maintaining the CRM Platform software and internally built software platforms are expensed as incurred.
Capitalized software development costs, exclusive of those costs recorded within property and equipment, consisted of the following:
Amortization of capitalized software development costs, exclusive of costs recorded within property and equipment, was $16.0 million in 2020, $11.6 million in 2019, and $9.2 million in 2018. Amortization expense is included in cost of revenue in the consolidated statements of operations.
Income Taxes -Deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for the differences between the financial statement carrying amounts and the tax bases of existing assets and liabilities using tax rates expected to be in effect in the years in which the differences are expected to reverse. Deferred tax assets are reduced by a valuation allowance if it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized.
Accounting for uncertainty in income taxes recognized in the financial statements is in accordance with accounting authoritative guidance, which prescribes a two-step process to determine the amount of tax benefit to be recognized. First, the tax position must be evaluated to determine the likelihood that it will be sustained upon external examination. If the tax position is deemed “more-likely-than-not” to be sustained, the tax position is then assessed to determine the amount of benefit to recognize in the financial statements. The amount of the benefit that may be recognized is the largest amount that has a greater than 50 percent likelihood of being realized upon ultimate settlement.
Stock-Based Compensation - The Company accounts for all stock options and awards granted to employees and nonemployees using a fair value method. Stock-based compensation is recognized as an expense and is measured at the fair value of the award. The measurement date for awards is generally the date of the grant. For stock options, the Black-Scholes option pricing model is used to measure the fair value of the grant. The fair value of the Company’s common stock is the closing price of the stock on the date of the grant. The expected term of options granted to employees was calculated using the simplified method, which represents the average of the contractual term of the option and the weighted-average vesting period of the option. The Company considers this appropriate as there is no other method that would be more indicative of exercise activity. The expected volatility for the Company’s common stock was based on an average of the historical volatility of a peer group of similar public companies. The determine the Company’s peer companies, the following criteria was used: software or software-as-a-service companies; similar histories and relatively comparable financial leverage; sufficient public company trading history; similar talent pool; and in similar businesses and geographical markets. The risk-free interest rate is based on the rate on U.S. Treasury securities with maturities consistent with the estimated expected term of the awards. The assumed dividend yield is based upon the Company’s expectation of not paying dividends in the foreseeable future.
Stock-based compensation costs are recognized as expense over the requisite service period, which is generally the vesting period for awards, on a straight-line basis.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements- Recent accounting standards not included below are not expected to have a material impact on our consolidated financial position and results of operations.
Accounting Pronouncements Adopted in 2019:
On January 1, 2019, the Company adopted the lease guidance using a modified retrospective transition method applied to those leases which were not completed as of January 1, 2019. Results for reporting periods beginning after December 31, 2018 are presented under the new guidance, while prior period comparative amounts are not adjusted and continue to be reported in accordance with historical guidance. The Company applied the new standard using the package of practical expedients permitted under the transition guidance where the Company:
•
did not reassess whether any expired or existing contracts contain a lease;
•
did not reassess the classification of existing leases; and
•
did not reassess initial direct costs for any existing leases.
In addition, the Company elected the hindsight practical expedient to determine the lease term for existing leases.
The resulting impact, as of the adoption date, to the consolidated balance sheet of applying the new guidance in 2019 versus the prior guidance was an increase to right-of-use assets of $152.2 million, a decrease to other assets of $0.3 million, an increase to total assets of $151.9 million, an increase to short-term lease liabilities of $14.1 million, a decrease to accrued expenses and other current liabilities of $0.5 million, an increase to total current liabilities of $13.5 million, an increase to long-term lease liabilities of $164.8 million, a decrease to deferred rent, net of current portion of $26.4 million and an increase to total liabilities of $151.9 million. There was no impact to stockholders’ equity or the consolidated statements of operations as a result of adopting the new guidance. There was no impact to total operating or financing cash flows of applying the new guidance in 2019 versus the prior guidance other than renaming or adding line items to the statements of cash flows to conform to the accounting for, and presentation of, the new standard.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements Adopted in 2020:
In January 2017, the FASB issued guidance simplifying the accounting for goodwill impairment by removing Step 2 of the goodwill impairment test. Under previous guidance, Step 2 of the goodwill impairment test required entities to calculate the implied fair value of goodwill in the same manner as the amount of goodwill recognized in a business combination by assigning the fair value of a reporting unit to all of the assets and liabilities of the reporting unit. The carrying value in excess of the implied fair value was recognized as goodwill impairment. Under the new guidance, goodwill impairment is recognized based on Step 1 of the current guidance, which calculates the carrying value in excess of the reporting unit’s fair value. The guidance was adopted effective January 1, 2020 and did not have a material impact on the consolidated financial statements.
In June 2016, the FASB issued guidance that introduces a new methodology for accounting for credit losses on financial instruments. The guidance establishes a new forward-looking "expected loss model" that requires entities to estimate current expected credit losses on accounts receivable and other financial instruments by using all practical and relevant information. The guidance was adopted effective January 1, 2020 and did not have a material impact on the consolidated financial statements.
In December 2019, the FASB issued guidance simplifying the accounting for incomes taxes by removing (i) the exception to the incremental approach for intraperiod tax allocation when there is a loss from continuing operations and income or a gain from other items, (ii) the exception to recognize a deferred tax liability for equity method investments when a foreign subsidiary becomes an equity method investment, and (iii) the exception to the general methodology for calculating income taxes in an interim period when a year-to-date loss exceeds the anticipated loss for the year. The guidance also improves consistent application of and simplifies GAAP for other areas accounting for income taxes. The guidance was adopted effective January 1, 2020, using a prospective approach and did not have a material impact on the consolidated financial statements.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements to be Adopted in Future Periods:
In August 2020, the FASB issued guidance simplifying the accounting for convertible instruments by reducing the number of accounting models for convertible debt instruments and convertible preferred stock. Limiting the accounting models results in fewer embedded conversion features being bifurcated from the host contract and separately recognized as compared with current GAAP. In addition, it eliminates the treasury stock method for calculating diluted earnings per share for convertible instruments and requires the use of the if-converted method. The new standard will be effective for the Company on January 1, 2022, with early adoption permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of adoption of the standard on its consolidated financial statements.
3. Revenues
Disaggregation of Revenue
The Company provides disaggregation of revenue based on geographic region (Note 10) and based on the subscription versus professional services and other classification on the consolidated statements of operations as it believes these best depict how the nature, amount, timing and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows are affected by economic factors.
Deferred Revenue and Deferred Commission Expense
Amounts that have been invoiced are recorded in accounts receivable and deferred revenue or revenue, depending on whether the revenue recognition criteria have been met. Deferred revenue represents amounts billed for which revenue has not yet been recognized. Deferred revenue that will be recognized during the succeeding 12-month period is recorded as current deferred revenue, and the remaining portion is recorded as long-term deferred revenue. Deferred revenue during the year ended December 31, 2020 increased by $82.4 million resulting from $965.4 million of calculated billings and was offset by revenue recognized of $883.0 million during the same period. $232.0 million of revenue was recognized during the year ended December 31, 2020 that was included in deferred revenue at the beginning of the period. As of December 31, 2020, approximately $255.6 million of revenue is expected to be recognized from remaining performance obligations for contracts with original performance obligations that exceed one year. The Company expects to recognize revenue on approximately 93% of these remaining performance obligations over the next 24 months, with the balance recognized thereafter.
Additional contract liabilities $1.7 million and $1.4 million were included in accrued expenses and other current liabilities as of December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019.
The incremental direct costs of obtaining a contract, which primarily consist of sales commissions paid for new subscription contracts, are deferred and amortized on a straight-line basis over a period of approximately one to three years. The one to three-year period has been determined by taking into consideration the type of product sold, the commitment term of the customer contract, the nature of the Company’s technology development life-cycle, and an estimated customer relationship period. Sales commissions for upgrade contracts are deferred and amortized on a straight-line basis over the remaining estimated customer relationship period of the related customer. Deferred commission expense that will be recorded as expense during the succeeding 12-month period is recorded as current deferred commission expense, and the remaining portion is recorded as long-term deferred commission expense.
Deferred commission expense during the year ended December 31, 2020 increased by $21.7 million as a result of deferring incremental costs of obtaining a contract of $65.6 million and was offset by amortization of $43.9 million during the same period.
4. Leases
The Company leases office facilities under non-cancelable operating leases that expire at various dates through May 2031.
Operating lease expense costs were $44.6 million in 2020 and $32.2 million in 2019.
The Company subleases some of its unused spaces to third parties. Operating sublease income generated under all operating lease agreements for the year ended 2020 and 2019 are as follows:
The following table provides a reconciliation between non-cancelable lease commitments and lease liabilities as of December 31, 2020:
Certain leases contain optional termination dates, and the Company is not reasonably certain to extend its lease agreements beyond those dates. The Company evaluates whether it will extend these lease agreements each reporting period and updates its lease liabilities accordingly. If the Company were to extend leases beyond the optional termination date, the future commitments would increase by approximately $90.8 million.
Lease Term and Discount Rate
The Company uses its estimated incremental borrowing rate, which is derived from information available at the lease commencement date, in determining the present value of operating lease payments. To determine the estimated incremental borrowing rate, the Company uses publicly available credit ratings for peer companies. The Company estimates the incremental borrowing rate using yields for maturities that are in line with the duration of the lease payments.
The following table provides weighted average remaining lease terms and weighted average discount rate for operating and finance leases as of December 31, 2020:
Other Information
Cash payments related to operating lease liabilities were $48.8 million in 2020 and $28.8 million in 2019.
5. Fair Value of Financial Instruments
The Company measures certain financial assets at fair value. Fair value is determined based upon the exit price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants, as determined by either the principal market or the most advantageous market. Inputs used in the valuation techniques to derive fair values are classified based on a three-level hierarchy, as follows:
Level 1 - Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.
Level 2 - Observable inputs other than Level 1 prices such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities; quoted prices in markets with insufficient volume or infrequent transactions (less active markets); or model-derived valuations in which all significant inputs are observable or can be derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data for substantially the full term of the assets or liabilities.
Level 3 - Unobservable inputs to the valuation methodology that are significant to the measurement of fair value of assets or liabilities.
The following table details the fair value measurements within the fair value hierarchy of the Company’s financial assets and liabilities at December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019 :
The Company considers all highly liquid investments purchased with a remaining maturity of three months or less to be cash equivalents. The fair value of the Company’s investments in certain money market funds is their face value and such instruments are classified as Level 1 and are included in cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash (within other long-term assets) on the consolidated balance sheets. At December 31, 2020 and 2019, Level 2 securities were priced by pricing vendors. These pricing vendors utilize the most recent observable market information in pricing these securities or, if specific prices are not available for these securities, use other observable inputs like market transactions involving identical or comparable securities.
As of December 31, 2020, the fair value of the 2022 Notes was $526.1 million and the fair value of the 2025 Notes was $718.8 million (Note 9). The fair value was determined based on the quoted price of the 2022 and 2025 Notes in an inactive market on the last trading day of the reporting period and has been classified as Level 2 within the fair value hierarchy.
For certain other financial instruments, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, finance leases and other current liabilities, the carrying amounts approximate their fair value due to the relatively short maturity of these balances.
Restricted cash is comprised of money market funds and certificates of deposit related to landlord guarantees for leased facilities. These restricted cash balances have been excluded from our cash and cash equivalents balance on our consolidated balance sheets.
Strategic investments consist of non-controlling equity investments in privately held companies. The Company elected the measurement alternative for these investments without readily determinable fair values and for which the Company does not have the ability to exercise significant influence. These investments are accounted for under the cost method of accounting. Under the cost method of accounting, the non-marketable equity securities are carried at cost less any impairment, plus or minus adjustments resulting from observable price changes in orderly transactions for the identical or a similar investment of the same issuer, which is recorded within the statement of operations. The Company holds $6.7 million of strategic investments without readily determinable fair values at December 31, 2020 and $4.4 million of strategic investments without readily determinable fair values at December 31, 2019. These investments are included in other assets on the consolidated balance sheets. For the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company recorded an impairment of $250 thousand and there have been no adjustments to the carrying value of the strategic investments in 2019 or 2018.
The following tables summarize the composition of our short- and long-term investments at December 31, 2020 and 2019:
For all of our securities for which the amortized cost basis was greater than the fair value at December 31, 2020 and 2019, the Company has concluded that there is no plan to sell the security nor is it more likely than not that the Company would be required to sell the security before its anticipated recovery. In making the determination as to whether the unrealized loss is other-than-temporary, the Company considered the length of time and extent the investment has been in an unrealized loss position, the financial condition and near-term prospects of the issuers, the issuers’ credit rating and the time to maturity.
Contractual Maturities
The contractual maturities of short-term and long-term investments held as follows:
6. Property and Equipment
Property and equipment consists of the following:
Depreciation and amortization expense was $20.6 million in 2020, $15.0 million in 2019, and $12.9 million in 2018.
The Company capitalized asset retirement costs of $4.4 million at December 31, 2020 and $3.3 million at December 31, 2019 within leasehold improvements and the related liability is within other long-term liabilities on the consolidated balance sheet. These costs represent future lease restoration obligations as required by Company’s leases.
The changes in the asset retirement obligation balance during the year ending December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019 are as follows:
7. Business Acquisitions
On October 31, 2019, the Company acquired 100% of the equity interests of PieSync, a Belgian-based technology company that operates an integration platform as a service (“iPaaS”) solution which continuously syncs customer data bi-directionally across various software applications. PieSync is one of the only iPaaS technologies that provides both a current and historical two-way sync of customer data that operates in the background, which will offer customers a more efficient way of managing multiple applications. The total cash purchase price for the acquisition was $23.3 million, net of cash acquired, which includes a working capital settlement of $0.3 million. Other liabilities assumed includes $333 thousand of debt, which the Company repaid in 2019. There was approximately $2.7 million of potential consideration that was not included in the purchase price allocation as it is not associated with pre-combination services. This potential additional payment is contingent upon post-acquisition employment and will be recognized as compensation expense in the consolidated statement of operations over a period of 2 years. Through December 31, 2020, $1.6 million of this consideration had been earned and recorded as operating expense in the consolidated statements of operations. The transaction costs associated with the acquisition were approximately $527 thousand and were recorded in general and administrative expense.
The following table summarizes the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed as of the date of acquisition:
The excess of the purchase consideration over the fair value of net tangible and identifiable intangible assets and liabilities acquired was recorded as goodwill. The Company will derive significant value from this acquisition through synergies such as cross selling opportunities and a stronger platform that offers a suite of products not directly matched by competitors. The goodwill recognized is not deductible for foreign income tax purposes.
The Company applied variations of the income approach to estimate the fair values of the intangible assets acquired. The primary intangible asset acquired in the business combination was developed technology and the fair value of the developed technology of $9.8 million was determined based on the estimated present value of expected after-tax cash flows attributable to the technology using an excess earnings method. The Company applied significant estimates and assumptions with respect to forecasted
revenue growth rates, the revenue attributable to the acquired intangible asset over its estimated economic life, and the discount rate. The fair values assigned to the other tangible and identifiable intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed as part of the business combination were based on management’s estimates and assumptions.
The Company began amortizing the acquired technology on the date of acquisition. The acquired technology is being amortized over seven years using a method reflective of the expected economic benefit consumption over the expected useful life of the asset. The weighted average amortization period for the acquired technology is approximately 4.3 years. The amortization expense is recorded to cost of subscription revenue in the consolidated statements of operations.
The Company has included the operating results of PieSync, which are not material, in its consolidated financial statements since the date of the acquisition. The acquisition did not have a material effect on the revenue or earnings in the consolidated income statement for the reporting periods presented. The pro forma results of the Company as if the acquisition had taken place on the first day of 2018 were not materially different from the amounts reflected in the accompanying consolidated financial statements.
8. Intangible Assets and Goodwill
Intangible assets acquired through business combinations
Intangible assets as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 consist of the following:
Other intangible assets include trade name and customer relationship.
The estimated useful life of acquired technology is two to seven years. The Company evaluates the useful lives of these assets on an annual basis and tests for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances occur that could impact the recoverability of these assets.
Amortization expense related to intangible assets was $2.6 million in 2020, $3.2 million in 2019, and $1.4 million in 2018. Amortization expense of acquired technology is included in cost of subscription revenue in the consolidated statements of operations.
Estimated future amortization expense for intangible assets as of December 31, 2020 is as follows:
Goodwill
Goodwill represents the excess of the purchase price in a business combination over the fair value of net assets acquired and is generally not deductible for tax purposes. Goodwill amounts are not amortized, but rather tested for impairment annually.
The changes in the carrying amounts of goodwill consist of the following:
9. Convertible Senior Notes
2025 Convertible Senior Notes and Capped Call Options
In June 2020, the Company issued $400 million aggregate principal amount of 0.375% convertible senior notes due June 1, 2025 (the “2025 Notes”) in a private offering and an additional $60 million aggregate principal amount of the 2025 Notes pursuant to the exercise in full of the over-allotment options of the initial purchasers. The interest rate is fixed at 0.375% per annum and is payable semi-annually in arrears on June 1 and December 1 of each year. The total net proceeds from the debt offering, after deducting initial purchase discounts and debt issuance costs, were approximately $450.1 million.
Each $1,000 of principal amount of the 2025 Notes will initially be convertible into 3.5396 shares of the Company’s common stock (the “Conversion Option of the 2025 Notes”), which is equivalent to an initial conversion price of approximately $282.52 per share, subject to adjustment upon the occurrence of certain specified events. On or after March 1, 2025 until the close of business on the second scheduled trading day immediately preceding the maturity date, holders may convert their 2025 Notes at any time. The 2025 Notes will be convertible at the option of the holders prior to the close of business on the business day immediately preceding March 1, 2025 under certain circumstances as described in the indenture governing the 2025 Notes (the “Indenture”). Upon conversion, the Company will pay or deliver, as the case may be, cash, shares of the Company’s common stock or a combination of cash and shares of the Company’s common stock, at the Company’s election. The Company expects to settle the principal amount of the 2025 Notes in cash. If the Company undergoes a fundamental change prior to the maturity date, holders of the notes may require the Company to repurchase for cash all or any portion of their notes at a repurchase price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the notes to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest to, but excluding, the fundamental change repurchase date. In addition, if specific corporate events occur prior to the applicable maturity date or if the Company delivers a notice of redemption, the Company will increase the conversion rate for a holder who elects to convert their notes in connection with such a corporate event or convert its 2025 Notes called for redemption in connection with such notice of redemption, as permitted by the Indenture. During the year ended December 31, 2020, the conditions allowing holders of the 2025 Notes to convert have not been met and are therefore not convertible during the year ended December 31, 2020. Because the last reported sale price of the Company’s common stock for at least 20 trading days during the period of 30 consecutive trading days ending on the last trading day of the calendar quarter ended December 31, 2020 was equal to or greater than 130% of the applicable conversion price on each applicable trading day, the 2025 Notes are convertible at the option of the holders thereof during the calendar quarter ending March 31, 2021. As of February 12, 2021, no holders have converted or indicated their intention to convert the 2025 Notes. The 2025 Notes are classified as long-term debt.
In accounting for the issuance of the 2025 Notes, the Company separated the 2025 Notes into liability and equity components. The carrying amount of the liability component was calculated by measuring the fair value of a similar debt instrument that does not have an associated convertible feature. The carrying amount of the equity component representing the Conversion Option was $98.7 million and was determined by deducting the fair value of the liability component from the par value of the 2025 Notes. The equity component is recorded in additional paid-in capital in the consolidated balance sheets and is not remeasured as long as it continues to meet the conditions for equity classification. The excess of the principal amount of the liability component over its carrying amount (the "Debt Discount") is amortized to interest expense at an effective interest rate of 5.71% over the contractual term of the 2025 Notes.
In accounting for the debt issuance costs of $9.9 million related to the 2025 Notes, the Company allocated the total amount incurred to the liability and equity components of the 2025 Notes based on their relative values. Issuance costs attributable to the liability component were $7.8 million and will be amortized to interest expense using the effective interest method over the contractual terms of the 2025 Notes. Issuance costs attributable to the equity component were $2.1 million and are netted with the equity component of the 2025 Notes in stockholders’ equity.
The difference in the book and tax allocation between the liability and equity components of the 2025 Notes resulted in a difference between the carrying amount and tax basis of the 2025 Notes. This taxable temporary difference resulted in the Company
recognizing a deferred tax liability and a corresponding reduction in the Company's valuation allowance on its US deferred tax assets, resulting in no net deferred tax impact.
The net carrying amount of the liability component of the 2025 Notes is as follows:
The net carrying amount of the equity component of the 2025 Notes is as follows:
Interest expense related to the 2025 Notes is as follows:
In connection with the offering of the 2025 Notes, the Company purchased capped call options (“Capped Call Options”) with respect to its common stock for $50.6 million. The Capped Call Options are purchased call options that give the Company the option to purchase up to approximately 1.6 million shares of its common stock for $282.52 per share, which corresponds to the approximate initial conversion price of the 2025 Notes. The Capped Call Options were purchased in order to offset potential dilution to the Company’s common stock upon any conversion of the 2025 Notes, subject to a cap of $426.44 per share, and expire concurrently with the 2025 Notes. The Capped Call Options automatically settle in components commencing on April 16, 2025 and are subject to either adjustment or termination upon the occurrence of specified extraordinary events affecting the Company, including a merger event; a tender offer; and a nationalization, insolvency or delisting involving the Company. In addition, the Capped Call Options are subject to certain specified additional disruption events that may give rise to a termination of the Capped Call Options, including changes in law, insolvency filings, and hedging disruptions. Since the transaction meets certain accounting criteria, the $50.6 million paid for the Capped Call Options is recorded in stockholders’ equity as a reduction in additional paid-in capital and are not accounted for as separate derivative financial instruments.
2022 Convertible Senior Notes, Convertible Note Hedge and Warrant
In May 2017, the Company issued $350 million aggregate principal amount of 0.25% convertible senior notes due June 1, 2022 (the “2022 Notes”) in a private offering and an additional $50 million aggregate principal amount of such notes pursuant to the exercise in full of the over-allotment options of the initial purchasers of the 2022 Notes. The interest rate is fixed at 0.25% per annum and is payable semi-annually in arrears on June 1 and December 1 of each year. The total net proceeds from the debt offering, after deducting initial purchase discounts and debt issuance costs, were approximately $389.2 million.
Each $1,000 principal amount of the 2022 Notes are currently convertible into 10.5519 shares of the Company’s common stock (the “Conversion Option of the 2022 Notes”), which is equivalent to an initial conversion price of approximately $94.77 per share, subject to adjustment upon the occurrence of specified events. On or after February 1, 2022 until the close of business on the second scheduled trading day immediately preceding the maturity date, holders may convert their notes at any time. The 2022 Notes are convertible at the option of the holders prior to the close of business on the business day immediately preceding February 1, 2022 under certain circumstances. Upon conversion, the Company will pay or deliver, as the case may be, cash, shares of the Company’s common stock or a combination of cash and shares of the Company’s common stock, at the Company’s election. The Company expects to settle the principal amount of the 2022 Notes in cash. Because the last reported sale price of the Company’s common stock for at least 20 trading days during the period of 30 consecutive trading days ending on the last trading day of the calendar quarter ended December 31, 2020 was equal to or greater than 130% of the applicable conversion price on each applicable trading day, the 2022 Notes are convertible at the option of the holders thereof during the calendar quarter ending March 31, 2021. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the Company settled $2 million of principal balance of the 2022 Notes in cash. Between the end of the most recently completed fiscal quarter and February 12, 2021, the Company additionally settled $8.3 million of principal balance of the 2022 Notes in cash in response to conversion notices received prior to December 31, 2020. As of February 12, 2021, the Company has received additional conversion notices subsequent to year-end for approximately $36.1 million of the principal balance of the 2022 Notes, which will be settled in cash during the quarter ended March 31, 2021.
The 2022 Notes are classified as long-term debt, except for $7.8 million classified as current as of December 31, 2020 for conversion notices received prior to year-end, for which the principal amount is expected to be cash-settled within the next fiscal quarter. The equity component of the 2022 Notes will continue to be classified as additional paid-in capital because the Company has the option to settle the principal amount in shares and the maturity date of the 2022 Notes is more than 12 months away. However, it is the Company’s intent to settle the principal amount of the 2022 Notes in cash.
In connection with the offering of the 2022 Notes, the Company entered into convertible note hedge transactions (the “Convertible Note Hedges”) with certain counterparties in which the Company has the option to purchase (subject to adjustment for certain specified events) up to approximately 4.2 million shares of the Company’s common stock at a price of approximately $94.77 per share. The Convertible Note Hedges will be settled in cash or shares, or any combination thereof, in accordance with the settlement method of the 2022 Notes in excess of the par amount, and are expected to settle concurrently with the conversion of the 2022 Notes. The total cost of the Convertible Note Hedges was $78.9 million. In addition, the Company sold warrants (the “Warrants”) to certain bank counterparties whereby the holders of the Warrants have the option to initially purchase (subject to adjustment for certain specified events) a total of approximately 4.2 million shares of the Company’s common stock at a price of $115.8 per share. The amount by which the settlement price exceeds the strike price may be settled in shares or cash at the Company’s election. The Warrants are expected to settle three business days from each trading day commencing on September 1, 2022 and ending on the 79th trading day thereafter. The Company received $58.9 million in cash proceeds, net of issuance costs of $200 thousand, from the sale of these Warrants. The purchase of the Convertible Note Hedges and the sale of Warrants is intended to effectively increase the overall conversion price from $94.77 to $115.83 per share. As these transactions meet certain accounting criteria, the net $20.0 million paid for the Convertible Note Hedges and Warrants is recorded in stockholders’ equity and are not accounted for as separate derivative financial instruments.
In June 2020, the Company used part of the net proceeds from the issuance of the 2025 Notes for the partial repurchase of the 2022 Notes, which consisted of a repurchase of $272.1 million aggregate principal amount of the 2022 Notes for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $283.0 in cash and approximately 1.6 million shares of its common stock at $207.17 per share. Of the $613.5 million in aggregate consideration, $248.7 million was allocated to the fair value of the debt component of the repurchase, and $364.8 million was allocated to the equity component (the associated Conversion Option of the 2022 Notes) of the repurchases, utilizing a discount rate of 4.9% to determine the fair value of the liability component. This rate was based on the Company’s estimated borrowing rate for a similar liability with the same maturity, but without the associated conversion option. To derive this effective discount rate, the Company utilized observable market rates for liabilities with similar estimated credit characteristics. As of the partial repurchase date, the carrying value of the 2022 Notes subject to the 2022 Notes partial repurchase, net of unamortized debt discount and issuance costs, was $238.2 million. The 2022 Notes partial repurchase and issuance of the 2025 Notes were deemed to have substantially different terms due to the significant difference between the value of the conversion option immediately prior to and after the exchange, and accordingly, the 2022 Notes partial repurchase was accounted for as a debt extinguishment. The 2022 Notes partial repurchase resulted in a $10.5 million loss on early extinguishment of debt, which is recorded within interest expense on the Company’s statements of operations. The loss on extinguishment was determined by comparing the consideration attributed to the fair value of the debt component with the carrying value of the debt component, which includes the proportionate amounts of unamortized debt discount and the remaining unamortized debt issuance costs. In connection with the partial repurchase of the 2022 Notes, the consideration allocated to the equity component of $364.8 million was recorded as a reduction to additional paid-in capital on the Company’s consolidated balance sheet. The Company also reversed a corresponding portion of the associated deferred tax liability and increased the Company’s valuation allowance on its US deferred tax assets, resulting in no net deferred tax impact. As of December 31, 2020, $125.8 million of principal remains outstanding on the 2022 Notes.
In connection with the partial repurchase of the 2022 Notes, the Company terminated Convertible Note Hedges corresponding to approximately 2.9 million shares of the Company’s common stock in exchange for cash consideration of $362.5 million, and certain counterparties terminated Warrants corresponding to approximately 2.9 million shares of the Company’s common stock in exchange for cash consideration of $327.6 million. The net proceeds of $34.9 million received from these transactions were recorded as an increase to additional paid-in capital. As of December 31, 2020, Convertible Note Hedges giving the Company the option to purchase approximately 1.3 million shares of the Company’s common stock and Warrants giving certain counterparties the option to acquire up to 1.3 million shares of the Company’s common stock remain outstanding.
The net carrying amount of the liability component of the 2022 Notes is as follows:
The net carrying amount of the equity component of the 2022 Notes is as follows:
Interest expense related to the 2022 Notes is as follows:
The net equity impact, included in additional paid-in capital, of the above components of the 2022 Notes is as follows:
10. Segment Information and Geographic Data
As more fully described in the Company’s Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, the Company operates in one operating segment. Revenue and long-lived assets by geographic region, based on physical location of the operations recording the sale or the assets are as follows:
Revenues by geographical region:
Revenue derived from customers outside the United States (international) was approximately 43% of total revenue in 2020, 40% of total revenue in 2019 and 37% of total revenue in 2018.
Total long-lived assets by geographical region:
11. Commitments and Contingencies
The Company leases its office facilities under non-cancelable operating leases that expire at various dates through May 2031. Rent expense for non-cancellable operating leases with free rental periods or scheduled rent increases is recognized on a straight-line basis over the terms of the leases. Improvement reimbursements from landlords of $21.8 million are being amortized on a straight-line basis into rent expense over the terms of the corresponding leases. Certain leases contain optional termination dates. The table below only includes payments up to the optional termination date. If the Company were to extended leases beyond the optional termination date the future commitments would increase by approximately $90.8 million.
Future minimum payments under all operating lease agreements as of December 31, 2020, are as follows:
The Company has entered into certain non-cancelable arrangements (“Vendor Commitments”), which require the future purchase of goods or services.
Future minimum payments under all Vendor Commitments as of December 31, 2020, are as follows:
In December 2020, the Company committed to invest $12.5 million in the Black Economic Development Fund managed by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation to support Black-led financial institutions, community centers, anchor institutions, and business transactions.
Legal Contingencies
From time to time the Company may become involved in legal proceedings or be subject to claims arising in the ordinary course of its business. Although the results of litigation and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, the Company currently believes that
the final outcome of these ordinary course matters will not have a material adverse effect on its business, operating results, financial condition or cash flows. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on the Company because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.
12. Changes in Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss
The following table summarizes the changes in accumulated other comprehensive loss, which is reported as a component of stockholders’ equity, for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019:
13. Stockholders’ Equity and Stock-Based Compensation
Common Stock Reserved - As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, the Company has authorized 500 million shares of common stock. The number of shares of common stock reserved for the vesting of restricted stock units (“RSUs”), and exercise of common stock options are as follows (in thousands):
For shares reserved for issuance for the Conversion Options, Warrants and Capped Call Options of the Notes, see Note 9.
Equity Incentive Plan -The Company’s 2007 Equity Incentive Plan (the “2007 Plan”) was terminated in connection with the IPO, and accordingly, no shares are available for issuance under the 2007 Plan. The 2007 Plan will continue to govern outstanding awards granted thereunder, the 2007 Plan provided for the grant of qualified incentive stock options and nonqualified stock options or other awards such as RSUs to the Company’s employees, officers, directors and outside consultants. The term of each option is fixed by the Company’s compensation committee and may not exceed 10 years from the date of grant. As of December 31, 2020, 472 thousand options to purchase common stock and no RSUs remained outstanding under the 2007 Plan.
On September 25, 2014, the Company’s board of directors adopted and the Company’s stockholders approved the 2014 Stock Option and Incentive Plan (the “2014 Plan”). The 2014 Plan became effective upon the closing of the Company’s IPO in the fourth quarter of 2014. The Company initially reserved 1,973,551 shares of its common stock, or the Initial Limit, for the issuance of awards under the 2014 Plan. The 2014 Plan provides that the number of shares reserved and available for issuance under the plan automatically increases each January 1, by 5% of the outstanding number of shares of the Company’s common stock on the immediately preceding December 31 or such lesser number of shares as determined by the compensation committee. This number is subject to adjustment in the event of a stock split, stock dividend or other change in the Company’s capitalization. The term of each option is fixed by the Company’s compensation committee and may not exceed 10 years from the date of grant. As of December 31, 2020, 549 thousand options to purchase common stock and 1.6 million RSUs remained outstanding under the 2014 Plan.
Equity Compensation Expense -The Company’s equity compensation expense is comprised of awards of options to purchase common stock, RSUs, and stock issued under the Company’s employee stock purchase plan (“ESPP”).
The following two tables show stock compensation expense by award type and where the stock compensation expense is recorded in the Company’s consolidated statements of operations:
Excluded from stock-based compensation expense is $3.6 million of capitalized software development costs in 2020, $2.4 million in 2019, and $2.4 million in 2018.
Stock Options -The fair value of employee options is estimated on the date of each grant using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model with the following assumptions:
The weighted-average grant-date fair value of options granted was $70.98 per share in 2020, $69.44 per share in 2019, and $51.48 per share in 2018.
The interest rate was based on the U.S. Treasury bond rate at the date of grant with a maturity approximately equal to the expected term. The expected term of options granted to employees was calculated using the simplified method, which represents the average of the contractual term of the option and the weighted-average vesting period of the option. The expected volatility for the Company’s common stock was based on an average of the historical volatility of a peer group of similar public companies. The assumed dividend yield is based upon the Company’s expectation of not paying dividends in the foreseeable future. Forfeitures of share-based awards prior to vesting results in a reversal of previously recorded stock-compensation expense associated with such forfeited awards. The fair value of the Company’s common stock is the closing price of the stock on the date of grant.
The stock option activity for the year ended December 31, 2020 is as follows:
Total unrecognized compensation cost related to the nonvested options was $9.8 million at December 31, 2020. That cost is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of 2.4 years as of December 31, 2020.
Restricted Stock Units -RSUs vest upon achievement of a service condition. The service condition is a time-based condition met over a period of four years, with 25% met after one year, and then in equal monthly or quarterly installments over the succeeding three years, or over a period of four years, with equal quarterly installments over those four years. As soon as practicable following each vesting date, the Company will issue to the holder of the RSUs the number of shares of common stock equal to the aggregate number of RSUs that have vested. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Company may, in its sole discretion, in lieu of issuing shares of common stock to the holder of the RSUs, pay the holder an amount in cash equal to the fair market value of such shares of common stock. . The total stock-based compensation expense expected to be recorded over the remaining life of outstanding RSUs is approximately $213.4 million at December 31, 2020. That cost is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of 2.6 years. As of December 31, 2020, there are 1.6 million RSUs expected to vest with an aggregate intrinsic value of $618.5 million. The total fair value of RSUs vested was approximately $101.2 million in 2020, $85.2 million in 2019, and $65.0 million in 2018.
The following table summarizes the activity related to RSUs for the year ended December 31, 2020:
Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“ESPP”)- The ESPP authorizes the issuance of up to a total of 2,005,274 shares of common stock to participating employees and allows eligible employees to purchase shares of common stock at a 15% discount from the fair market value of the stock as determined on specific dates at six-month intervals. The offering periods for the ESPP commence on June 1 and December 1 of each year.
The fair value of employee options is estimated using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model with the following assumptions:
The interest rate was based on the U.S. Treasury bond rate at the date of grant with a maturity approximately equal to the expected term. The expected term is based on the offering period. The expected volatility for the Company’s common stock was based on an average of the historical volatility of a peer group of similar public companies. The assumed dividend yield is based upon the Company’s expectation of not paying dividends in the foreseeable future. The fair value of the Company’s common stock is the closing price of the stock on the date the offering period starts.
The following table summarizes the activity related to ESPP:
14. Income Taxes
Loss before provision for income taxes was as follows:
The (provision) benefit for income taxes consists of the following:
The following reconciles the differences between income taxes computed at the federal statutory rate of 21% for 2020, 2019 and 2018 and the provision for income taxes:
On December 22, 2017, the United States of America signed tax legislation (the “2017 Act”) which enacted a wide range of changes to the U.S. corporate income tax system. The 2017 Act reduced the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% effective January 1, 2018, broadened the tax base and changes rules for expensing and capitalizing business expenditures, established a territorial tax system for foreign earnings as well as a minimum tax on certain foreign earnings, provided for a one-time transition tax on previously undistributed foreign earnings, and introduced new rules for the treatment of certain export sales.
In 2020, the Company reversed the 2019 recognized tax benefit under the item-by-item method and recorded a tax expense of $116 thousand.
Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities -Deferred income taxes reflect the net effects of temporary differences between the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities for financial reporting purposes and the amounts used for income tax purposes. Significant components of the Company’s deferred tax assets and liabilities were as follows:
The Company reviews all available evidence to evaluate the realizability of its deferred tax assets, including its recent history of accumulated losses over the most recent three years as well as its ability to generate income in future periods. The Company has provided a valuation allowance against its U.S. net deferred tax assets as it is more likely than not that these assets will not be realized given the nature of the assets and the likelihood of future utilization.
The valuation allowance increased by $47.0 million in 2020, $47.3 million in 2019 and $36.1 million in 2018, primarily due to the increase in the U.S. net operating loss deferred tax asset. The Company does not expect any significant changes in its valuation allowance positions within the next 12 months.
Prior to the 2017 Act, the Company had asserted that the earnings of its foreign subsidiaries were indefinitely reinvested in the operations of those subsidiaries. In 2018, the Company completed its accounting for the impact of the 2017 Act and determined that it would no longer assert indefinite reinvestment of its foreign earnings. Earnings through December 31, 2017 have been subject to U.S. federal income tax via the one-time transition tax on previously undistributed foreign earnings. The 2017 Act eliminated the U.S. federal income tax cost for qualified repatriation beginning in 2018. The Company has determined that any incremental tax incurred upon ultimate distribution of these earnings to the U.S. would not be material.
The Company had federal and state net operating loss carryforwards of $760 million and $508 million at December 31, 2020 and $568 million and $379 million at December 31, 2019. The Company also had international net operating loss carryforwards of $8 million at December 31, 2020 and $6 million at December 31, 2019. As a result of the 2017 Act all federal net operating losses, created after January 1, 2018, have an indefinite carryforward period. All federal net operating losses, created before January 1, 2018, are subject to a 20 year carryforward period and will expire at various dates through 2037. State net operating losses will expire at various dates through 2040. The Company has a federal interest expense carryforward of $35.2 million at December 31, 2020, and $13.0 million at December 31, 2019, which have an indefinite carryforward period.
The Company had federal research and development credit carryforwards of $31.0 million at December 31, 2020 that expire at various dates through 2040. The Company also has state research and investment tax credit carryforwards of $15.7 million, that expire at various dates through 2035.
Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, substantial changes in the Company's ownership may limit the amount of net operating loss carryforwards that could be utilized annually in the future to offset taxable income. Specifically, this limitation may arise in the event of a cumulative change in ownership of the Company of more than 50% within a three-year period. Any such annual limitation may significantly reduce the utilization of net operating loss carryforwards before they expire.
Uncertain Tax Positions -The Company accounts for uncertainty in income taxes using a two-step process. The Company first determines whether it is more likely than not that a tax position will be sustained upon examination by a tax authority, including resolutions of any related appeals or litigation processes, based on technical merit. If a tax position meets the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold it is then measured to determine the amount of benefit to recognize in the financial statements. The tax position is measured as the largest amount of benefit that is greater than 50% likely of being realized upon ultimate settlement.
The following summarizes activity related to unrecognized tax benefits:
All of the gross unrecognized tax benefits represent a reduction to the research and development tax credit carryforward. The gross decrease to prior period positions is a result of the Company completing its documentation of credits generated between 2015 and 2018.
All of the unrecognized tax benefits decrease deferred tax assets with a corresponding decrease to the valuation allowance. None of the unrecognized tax benefits would affect the Company’s effective tax rate if recognized in the future.
The Company has elected to recognize interest and penalties related to uncertain tax positions as a component of income tax expense. No interest or penalties have been recorded through December 31, 2020 because the Company has no tax due because of significant NOL carryforwards.
The Company does not expect any significant change in its unrecognized tax benefits within the next 12 months.
The Company files tax returns in the United States and various jurisdictions throughout the world where the Company has operations or established a taxable presence. All of the Company’s tax years remain open to examination in the United States, as carryforward attributes generated in past years may still be adjusted upon examination by the Internal Revenue Service or state tax authorities if they have or will be used in future periods. The Company remains open to examination for varying periods in the other foreign jurisdictions and is routinely examined by various taxing authorities.
15. Employee Benefit Plan
The Company maintains a defined contribution savings plan under Section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code. This plan covers certain employees who meet minimum age and service requirements and allows participants to defer a portion of their annual compensation on a pretax basis, subject to legal limitations. Total employer contributions were $5.9 million in 2020, $4.8 million in 2019, and $4.0 million in 2018.
16. Subsequent Event
On February 8, 2021, the Company acquired 100% of the outstanding equity securities of Hustle Con Media, Inc. (the “Hustle”) for approximately $20 million. The Hustle is a media company that produces a newsletter, podcast, and premium research content for innovative professionals.
17. Quarterly Financial Results (unaudited)
ITEM 9.
ITEM 9.
Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure
None.
ITEM 9A.
ITEM 9A.
Controls and Procedures
(a)
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act)), as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Based on such evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have concluded that as of December 31, 2020 , our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level.
(b)
Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Internal control over financial reporting is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) or 15d-15(f) promulgated under the Exchange Act as a process designed by, or under the supervision of, the company's principal executive and principal financial officers and effected by the company’s board of directors, management and other personnel, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and includes those policies and procedures that:
•
pertain to the maintenance of records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company;
•
provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and
•
provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Our management assessed the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020. In making this assessment, our management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”) in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013).
Based on our assessment, management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, concluded that, as of December 31, 2020, our internal control over financial reporting was effective based on those criteria.
The effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020 has been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in its report, which is included under Item 8 of this annual report on Form 10-K.
(c)
Inherent Limitations of Internal Controls
Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or our internal control over financial reporting will prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within the Company have been detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of a simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people, or by management override of the control. The design of any system of controls also is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions. Over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. Because of the inherent limitations, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.
(d)
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
No change in our internal control over financial reporting occurred during the quarter ended December 31, 2020 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
ITEM 9B.
ITEM 9B.
Other Information
None.
PART III
ITEM 10.
ITEM 10.
Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
The complete response to this Item regarding the backgrounds of our executive officers and directors and other information required by Items 401, 405 and 407 of Regulation S-K will be contained in our definitive proxy statement for our 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
Code of Business Conduct and Ethics
We have adopted a code of business conduct and ethics that is applicable to all of our employees, officers and directors including our chief executive officer and senior financial officers, which is available on our website under “Investor Relations-Leadership & Governance.”
ITEM 11.
ITEM 11.
Executive Compensation
The information required by this Item is incorporated by reference herein to our definitive proxy statement for our 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
ITEM 12.
ITEM 12.
Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters
The information required by this Item is incorporated by reference herein to our definitive proxy statement for our 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
ITEM 13.
ITEM 13.
Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence
The information required by this Item is incorporated by reference herein to our definitive proxy statement for our 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
ITEM 14.
ITEM 14.
Principal Accountant Fees and Services
The information required by this Item is incorporated by reference herein to our definitive proxy statement for our 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
PART IV
ITEM 15.
ITEM 15.
Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules
(a)
Documents Filed as Part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K
1.
Financial Statements (included in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K):
•
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
•
Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2020 and 2019
•
Consolidated Statements of Operations for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018
•
Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018
•
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018
•
Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018
•
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
2.
Financial Statement Schedules
Financial statements schedules are omitted as they are either not required or the information is otherwise included in the consolidated financial statements.
3.
The exhibits required by Item 601 of Regulation S-K are listed in the Exhibit List on the following page and are incorporated herein.
ITEM 16.
10-K Summary
Not applicable.
EXHIBIT LIST
#
Indicates a management contract or compensatory plan.
**
Filed herewith.
Ÿ
The certifications furnished in Exhibit 32.1 hereto are deemed to accompany this Annual Report on Form 10-K and will not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such certifications will not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filings under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, except to the extent that the Registrant specifically incorporates any of them by reference.
(1)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.1 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on February 24, 2016.
(2)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.2 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on November 11, 2020.
(3)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.1 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Amendment No. 1 to Registration Statement on Form S-1 (SEC File No. 333-198333) filed on September 26, 2014.
(4)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.2 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (SEC File No. 333-198333) filed on August 25, 2014.
(5)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.1 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Form 8-K filed on May 10, 2017.
(6)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.2 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed on June 5, 2020.
(7)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.5 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on February 12, 2020.
(8)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on February 12, 2019.
(9)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed May 4, 2016.
(10)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.3 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on February 12, 2020.
(11)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.4 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on February 12, 2020.
(12)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.5 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on February 12, 2020.
(13)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.4 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (SEC File No. 333-198333) filed on August 25, 2014.
(14)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.5 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (SEC File No. 333-198333) filed on August 25, 2014.
(15)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.8 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Amendment No. 2 to Registration Statement on Form S-1 (SEC File No. 333-198333) filed on October 6, 2014.
(16)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.10 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Amendment No. 1 to Registration Statement on Form S-1 (SEC File No. 333-198333) filed on September 26, 2014.
(17)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Form 8-K filed on May 10, 2017.
(18)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.2 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Form 8-K filed on May 10, 2017.
(19)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.13 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on February 12, 2020.
(20)
Incorporated by reference to Exhibit 10.1 to HubSpot, Inc.’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed on June 5, 2020.
Signatures
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the city of Cambridge, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on the 16th day of February 2021 .
POWER OF ATTORNEY
We, the undersigned directors and officers of HubSpot, Inc. (the “Company”), hereby and severally constitute and appoint Brian Halligan, Kate Bueker, and John Kelleher and each of them singly, our true and lawful attorneys, with full power to them, and each of them singly, to sign for us and in our names in the capacities indicated below, and to file any and all amendments to this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto, and other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, granting unto said attorneys-in-fact and agents, and each of them, full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing, requisite and necessary to be done in connection therewith, as fully to all intents and purposes as each of us might or could do in person and hereby ratifying and confirming all that said attorneys and each of them, or their substitutes, shall do or cause to be done by virtue of this Power of Attorney.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.
/s/ Jill Ward
Director
February 16, 2021
Jill Ward