Item 1A.Risk Factors
Investing in our common stock involves substantial risk. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including our financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, before deciding whether to invest in shares of our common stock. You should consider all of the factors described as well as the other information in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 26, 2021, (the “Annual Report”), including our financial statements and the related notes and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” when evaluating our business. The risk factors set forth below that are marked with an asterisk (*) contain changes to the similarly titled risk factors included in the Annual Report. We describe below what we believe are currently the material risks and uncertainties we face, but they are not the only risks and uncertainties we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and future prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our common stock could decline and you could lose part or all of your investment.
Summary of Risk Factors
Below is a summary of the principal factors that make an investment in our common stock speculative or risky. This summary does not address all of the risks that we face. Additional discussion of the risks summarized in this risk factor summary, and other risks that we face, can be found below and should be carefully considered, together with other
information in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and our other filings with the SEC, before making an investment decision regarding our common stock.
•The effects of health epidemics, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic, could have an adverse impact on our business, operations and the markets and communities in which we, our partners and customers operate.
•We obtain several key components from limited or sole sources, and if these sources fail to satisfy our supply requirements or we are unable to properly manage our supply requirements with our third-party manufacturers, we may lose sales and experience increased component costs.
•We depend on a limited number of third-party manufacturers for substantially all of our manufacturing needs. If these third-party manufacturers experience any delay, disruption, or quality control problems in their operations, including due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we could lose market share and our brand may suffer.
•If disruptions in our transportation network occur or our shipping costs substantially increase, we may be unable to sell or timely deliver our products, and our operating expenses could increase.
•If we lose the services of key personnel, we may not be able to execute our business strategy effectively.
•We expect our results of operations to fluctuate on a quarterly and annual basis, which could cause our stock price to fluctuate or decline.
•If we fail to continue to introduce or acquire new products or services that achieve broad market acceptance on a timely basis, or if our products or services are not adopted as expected, we will not be able to compete effectively and we will be unable to increase or maintain revenue and gross margin.
•We may need additional financing to meet our future long-term capital requirements and may be unable to raise sufficient capital on favorable terms or at all.
•Some of our competitors have substantially greater resources than we do, and to be competitive we may be required to lower our prices or increase our sales and marketing expenses, which could result in reduced margins and loss of market share.
•We entered into an asset purchase agreement (the “Asset Purchase Agreement”) and supply agreement (the “Supply Agreement”) with Verisure Sàrl (“Verisure”) that will give Verisure exclusive marketing and distribution rights for our products in Europe as well as the ability to sell our products through their direct channel globally. We cannot provide assurance that the arrangement with Verisure will continue to be a successful collaboration.
•We are dependent on information technology systems, infrastructure and data. System security risks, breaches of data protection, cyber-attacks, and erroneous or non-malicious actions or failures to act by our employees or others with authorized access to our networks could disrupt our products, services, internal operations, or information technology systems, and could lead to theft of our intellectual property, and any such disruption could reduce our expected revenue, increase our expenses, damage our reputation, and cause our stock price to decline significantly.
•Our future success depends on our ability to increase sales of our paid subscription services.
•Interruptions with the cloud-based systems that we use in our operations provided by an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc. ("Amazon"), which is also one of our primary competitors, may materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
•Our current and future products may experience quality problems, including defects or errors, from time to time that can result in adverse publicity, product recalls, litigation, regulatory proceedings, and warranty claims resulting in significant direct or indirect costs, decreased revenue, and operating margin, and harm to our brand.
•We rely on a limited number of traditional and online retailers and wholesale distributors for a substantial portion of our sales, and our revenue could decline if they refuse to pay our requested prices or reduce their level of purchases or if there is significant consolidation in our sales channels, which results in fewer sales channels for our products.
Risks Related to Our Business
*The effects of health epidemics, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic, could have an adverse impact on our business, operations and the markets and communities in which we, our partners and customers operate.
Our business and operations could be adversely affected by health epidemics, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic, impacting the markets and communities in which we, our partners and our customers operate. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced that COVID-19, a respiratory illness, caused by a novel coronavirus is a pandemic. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many state, local and foreign governments have put in place, and others in the future may put in place, quarantines, executive orders, shelter-in-place orders and similar government orders and restrictions in order to control the spread of the disease. Such orders or restrictions, or the perception that such orders or restrictions could occur, have resulted in business closures, work stoppages, slowdowns and delays, work-from-home policies, travel restrictions and cancellation of events, among other effects that could negatively impact productivity and disrupt our operations and those of our partners and our customers. For example, we have implemented a work-from-home policy for the vast majority of employees, and we may take further actions that alter our operations as may be required by federal, state or local authorities, or which we determine are in the best interests of our employees, customers, partners and stockholders.
In addition, while the potential impact and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy and our business in particular may be difficult to assess or predict, the pandemic has resulted in, and may continue to result in significant disruption of global financial markets, reducing our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity. The COVID-19 pandemic also could reduce demand for our products and services as our largest channel partners focus on selling essential goods, temporarily close stores or experience decreases in foot traffic. In addition, a recession or market correction resulting from the spread of COVID-19 could further decrease technology spending, adversely affecting demand for our products and services, our business and the value of our common stock.
The COVID-19 pandemic may adversely affect the ability of our third-party manufacturers and other suppliers to fulfill their obligations to us. We rely on these manufacturers to procure components and, in some cases, subcontract engineering work. We cannot guarantee that our third-party manufacturers or other suppliers will be able to meet our near-term or long-term manufacturing requirements. If we experience supply constraints from our third-party manufacturers, we may be required to allocate the affected products amongst our customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our relationships with these customers and on our financial condition. In addition, if we are unable to meet customer demand due to fluctuating or late supply from our third-party manufacturers and other suppliers, it could result in lost sales and have a material adverse effect on our business. We also rely on other suppliers such as cloud infrastructure services providers, distribution centers and logistics and transportation services providers. If our manufacturers and other suppliers are unable to fulfill their obligations to us, we could face products shortages, delay in new product introductions, services to our customers could be interrupted, and our products distribution could be delayed and thus adversely affecting our revenue. For example, increased demand for electronics as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, effects of the U.S. trade war with China, increased demand for chips in the automotive industry and certain other factors have led to a global
shortage of semiconductors. As a result, we have experienced component shortages, including longer lead times for components and supply constraints, that have affected both our ability to meet scheduled product deliveries and worldwide demand for our products. Also, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, our supply chain partners are limited by production capacity, constrained by material availability, labor shortages, factory uptime and freight capacity, each of which constrains our ability to capitalize fully on end market demand. As of October 3, 2021, international freight capacity has dropped, causing air and ocean freight rates to materially increase. Furthermore, transit times have also increased, causing us to rely more on air freight in order to meet our customers' demands. For the three and nine months ended October 3, 2021, we saw a 244% and 134% increase in freight-in expense compared to the prior year periods, respectively, as a result of the higher sea and air freight rates and component shortages which necessitated use of air freight to meet customer requested delivery dates. We expect supply chain constraints to exist through 2021 and potentially beyond. While we have been successful in navigating COVID-19 related challenges to date, any further disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic to our supply chain and operations could have a significant negative impact on our net revenue, gross and operating margin performance.
The global pandemic of COVID-19 continues to rapidly evolve, and we will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely. The ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar health epidemic is highly uncertain and subject to change. We do not yet know the full extent of potential delays or impacts on our business, operations or the global economy as a whole.
*We obtain several key components from limited or sole sources, and if these sources fail to satisfy our supply requirements or we are unable to properly manage our supply requirements with our third-party manufacturers, we may lose sales and experience increased component costs.
Any shortage or delay in the supply of key product components would harm our ability to meet scheduled product deliveries. Many of the components used in our products are specifically designed for use in our products, some of which are obtained from sole source suppliers. These components include lens, lens-sensors, and passive infrared (“PIR”) sensors that have been customized for the Arlo application, as well as custom-made batteries that provide power conservation and safety features. In addition, the components used in our end products have been optimized to extend battery life. Our third-party manufacturers generally purchase these components on our behalf, and we do not have any contractual commitments or guaranteed supply arrangements with our suppliers. If demand for a specific component increases, we may not be able to obtain an adequate number of that component in a timely manner. In addition, if worldwide demand for the components increases significantly, the availability of these components could be limited. For example, increased demand for electronics as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, effects of the U.S. trade war with China, increased demand for chips in the automotive industry and certain other factors have led to a global shortage of semiconductors. Due to such shortage, starting in the fourth quarter of 2020 and in the first quarter of 2021 we experienced component shortages, including longer lead times for components, and supply constraints, which we expect to continue in 2021. Such shortages and constraints affected our ability to meet scheduled product deliveries and worldwide demand for our products in the first quarter of 2021, and may affect our ability for the remainder of 2021 and potentially beyond. Further, our suppliers may experience financial or other difficulties as a result of uncertain and weak worldwide economic conditions. Other factors that may affect our suppliers’ ability or willingness to supply components to us include internal management or reorganizational issues, such as roll-out of new equipment which may delay or disrupt supply of previously forecasted components, or industry consolidation and divestitures, which may result in changed business and product priorities among certain suppliers. It could be difficult, costly, and time consuming to obtain alternative sources for these components, or to change product designs to make use of alternative components. In addition, difficulties in transitioning from an existing supplier to a new supplier could create delays in component availability that would have a significant impact on our ability to fulfill orders for our products.
We provide our third-party manufacturers with a rolling forecast of demand, which they use to determine our material and component requirements. Lead times for ordering materials and components vary significantly and depend on various factors, such as the specific supplier, contract terms, and demand and supply for a component at a given time. Some of our components have long lead times, such as wireless local area network chipsets, physical layer transceivers, connector jacks, and metal and plastic enclosures. If our forecasts are not timely provided or are less than our actual
requirements, our third-party manufacturers may be unable to manufacture products in a timely manner. If our forecasts are too high, our third-party manufacturers will be unable to use the components they have purchased on our behalf. The cost of the components used in our products tends to drop rapidly as volumes increase and the technologies mature. Therefore, if our third-party manufacturers are unable to promptly use components purchased on our behalf, our cost of producing products may be higher than our competitors due to an oversupply of higher-priced components. Moreover, if they are unable to use components ordered at our direction, we will need to reimburse them for any losses they incur.
If we are unable to obtain a sufficient supply of components, or if we experience any interruption in the supply of components, our product shipments could be reduced or delayed or our cost of obtaining these components may increase. For example, in December 2018 we announced a delay in the expected timing of shipment of our Ultra product due to a battery-related issue from one of our suppliers. Component shortages and delays affect our ability to meet scheduled product deliveries, damage our brand and reputation in the market, and cause us to lose sales and market share. For example, component shortages and disruptions in supply in the past have limited our ability to supply all the worldwide demand for our products, and our revenue was affected. At times, we have elected to use more expensive transportation methods, such as air freight, to make up for manufacturing delays caused by component shortages, which reduces our margins. In addition, at times sole suppliers of highly specialized components have provided components that were either defective or did not meet the criteria required by our retailers, distributors, or other channel partners, resulting in delays, lost revenue opportunities, and potentially substantial write-offs.
We depend on a limited number of third-party manufacturers for substantially all of our manufacturing needs. If these third-party manufacturers experience any delay, disruption, or quality control problems in their operations, including due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we could lose market share and our brand may suffer.
All of our products are manufactured, assembled, tested and generally packaged by a limited number of third-party original design manufacturers (“ODMs”). In most cases, we rely on these manufacturers to procure components and, in some cases, subcontract engineering work. We currently outsource manufacturing to Foxconn Cloud Network Technology Singapore Pte. Ltd., Pegatron Corporation, and Sky Light Industrial Ltd. We do not have any long-term contracts with any of these third-party manufacturers, although we have executed product supply agreements with these manufacturers, which typically provide indemnification for intellectual property infringement, epidemic failure clauses, agreed-upon price concessions, and certain product quality requirements. Some of these third-party manufacturers produce products for our competitors. In addition, one of our principal manufacturers, Foxconn closed its acquisition of Belkin International in September 2018, which includes the WeMo brand of home automation products, which may compete directly with us. Due to changing economic conditions, including due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the viability of some of these third-party manufacturers may be at risk. The loss of the services of any of our primary third-party manufacturers could cause a significant disruption in operations and delays in product shipments. Qualifying a new manufacturer and commencing volume production is expensive and time consuming. Ensuring that a contract manufacturer is qualified to manufacture our products to our standards is time consuming. In addition, there is no assurance that a contract manufacturer can scale its production of our products at the volumes and in the quality that we require. If a contract manufacturer is unable to do these things, we may have to move production for the products to a new or existing third-party manufacturer, which would take significant effort and our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. In addition, as we contemplate moving manufacturing into different jurisdictions, we may be subject to additional significant challenges in ensuring that quality, processes, and costs, among other issues, are consistent with our expectations. For example, while we expect our manufacturers to be responsible for penalties assessed on us because of excessive failures of the products, there is no assurance that we will be able to collect such reimbursements from these manufacturers, which causes us to take on additional risk for potential failures of our products.
Our reliance on third-party manufacturers also exposes us to the following risks over which we have limited control:
•unexpected increases in manufacturing and repair costs;
•inability to control the quality and reliability of finished products;
•inability to control delivery schedules;
•potential liability for expenses incurred by third-party manufacturers in reliance on our forecasts that later prove to be inaccurate;
•potential lack of adequate capacity to manufacture all or a part of the products we require; and
•potential labor unrest affecting the ability of the third-party manufacturers to produce our products.
All of our products must satisfy safety and regulatory standards and some of our products must also receive government certifications. Our third-party manufacturers are primarily responsible for conducting the tests that support our applications for most regulatory approvals for our products. If our third-party manufacturers fail to timely and accurately conduct these tests, we would be unable to obtain the necessary domestic or foreign regulatory approvals or certificates to sell our products in certain jurisdictions. As a result, we would be unable to sell our products and our sales and profitability could be reduced, our relationships with our sales channel could be harmed, and our reputation and brand would suffer.
Specifically, substantially all of our manufacturing and assembly occurs in the Asia Pacific region, primarily in Vietnam, and any disruptions due to natural disasters, health epidemics, and political, social, and economic instability in the region would affect the ability of our third-party manufacturers to manufacture our products. In particular, in the event the labor market in Vietnam becomes saturated, our third-party manufacturers in Vietnam may increase our costs of production. If these costs increase, it may affect our margins and ability to lower prices for our products to stay competitive. Labor unrest may also affect our third-party manufacturers, as workers may strike and cause production delays. If our third-party manufacturers fail to maintain good relations with their employees or contractors, and production and manufacturing of our products are affected, then we may be subject to shortages of products and the quality of products delivered may be affected. Further, if our manufacturers or warehousing facilities are disrupted or destroyed, we could have no other readily available alternatives for manufacturing and assembling our products, and our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
In the future, we may work with more third-party manufacturers on a contract manufacturing basis, which could result in our exposure to additional risks not inherent in a typical ODM arrangement. Such risks may include our inability to properly source and qualify components for the products, lack of software expertise resulting in increased software defects, and lack of resources to properly monitor the manufacturing process. In our typical ODM arrangement, our ODMs are generally responsible for sourcing the components of the products and warranting that the products will work according to a product’s specification, including any software specifications. In a contract manufacturing arrangement, we would take on much more, if not all, of the responsibility around these areas. If we are unable to properly manage these risks, our products may be more susceptible to defects, and our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
If disruptions in our transportation network occur or our shipping costs substantially increase, including due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we may be unable to sell or timely deliver our products, and our operating expenses could increase.
We are highly dependent upon the transportation systems we use to ship our products, including surface, ocean and air freight. Our attempts to closely match our inventory levels to our product demand intensify the need for our transportation systems to function effectively and without delay. On a quarterly basis, our shipping volume also tends to steadily increase as the quarter progresses, which means that any disruption in our transportation network in the latter half of a quarter will likely have a more material effect on our business than a disruption at the beginning of a quarter.
The transportation network is subject to disruption or congestion from a variety of causes, including labor disputes or port strikes, acts of war or terrorism, natural disasters, and congestion resulting from higher shipping volumes. Labor disputes among freight carriers and at ports of entry are common, particularly in Europe, and we expect labor unrest and its effects on shipping our products to be a continuing challenge for us. A port worker strike, work slow-down, or other
transportation disruption in Long Beach, California, where we import our products to fulfill our American orders, could significantly disrupt our business. Our international freight is regularly subject to inspection by governmental entities. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, international freight capacity has dropped, causing air and ocean freight rates to materially increase. Transit times have also increased. If our delivery times increase unexpectedly for these or any other reasons, our ability to deliver products on time would be materially adversely affected and result in delayed or lost revenue as well as customer imposed penalties. In addition, if increases in fuel prices occur, our transportation costs would likely increase. Moreover, the cost of shipping our products by air freight is greater than by other methods. From time to time in the past, we have shipped products using extensive air freight to meet unexpected spikes in demand and shifts in demand between product categories, to bring new product introductions to market quickly and to timely ship products previously ordered. If we continue to rely more heavily upon air freight to deliver our products, our overall shipping costs will increase. A prolonged transportation disruption or a significant increase in the cost of freight could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
If we lose the services of key personnel, we may not be able to execute our business strategy effectively.
Our future success depends in large part upon the continued services of our key technical, engineering, sales, marketing, finance, and senior management personnel. The competition for qualified personnel with significant experience in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and sales in the markets in which we operate is intense, both where our U.S. operations are based, including Silicon Valley, and in global markets in which we operate. Our inability to attract qualified personnel, including hardware and software engineers and sales and marketing personnel, could delay the development and introduction of, and harm our ability to sell, our products and services. Decreases in our stock price may negatively affect our efforts to attract and retain qualified personnel. Changes to U.S. immigration policies that restrict our ability to attract and retain technical personnel may negatively affect our research and development efforts. We will continue to replace key personnel, from within or looking outside, wherever we find the best candidates.
We do not maintain any key person life insurance policies. Our business model requires extremely skilled and experienced senior management who are able to withstand the rigorous requirements and expectations of our business. Our success depends on senior management being able to execute at a very high level. The loss of any of our senior management or other key engineering, research, development, sales, or marketing personnel, particularly if lost to competitors, could harm our ability to implement our business strategy and respond to the rapidly changing needs of our business. If we suffer the loss of services of any key executive or key personnel, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. In addition, we may not be able to have the proper personnel in place to effectively execute our long-term business strategy if key personnel retire, resign or are otherwise terminated.
We expect our results of operations to fluctuate on a quarterly and annual basis, which could cause our stock price to fluctuate or decline.
Our results of operations are difficult to predict and may fluctuate substantially from quarter-to-quarter or year-to-year for a variety of reasons, many of which are beyond our control. If our actual results were to fall below our estimates or the expectations of public market analysts or investors, our quarterly and annual results would be negatively impacted and the price of our stock could decline. Other factors that could affect our quarterly and annual operating results include, but are not limited to:
•changes in the pricing policies of, or the introduction of new products by, us or our competitors;
•delays in the introduction of new products by us or market acceptance of these products;
•health epidemics and other outbreaks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which could significantly disrupt our operations;
•introductions of new technologies and changes in consumer preferences that result in either unanticipated or unexpectedly rapid product category shifts;
•competition with greater resources may cause us to lower prices and in turn could result in reduced margins and loss of market share;
•epidemic or widespread product failure, or unanticipated safety issues, in one or more of our products;
•slow or negative growth in the connected lifestyle, home electronics, and related technology markets;
•seasonal shifts in end-market demand for our products;
•unanticipated decreases or delays in purchases of our products by our significant retailers, distributors, and other channel partners;
•component supply constraints from our vendors;
•unanticipated increases in costs, including air freight, associated with shipping and delivery of our products;
•the inability to maintain stable operations by our suppliers and other parties with whom we have commercial relationships;
•discovery of security vulnerabilities in our products, services or systems, leading to negative publicity, decreased demand, or potential liability;
•foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations in the jurisdictions where we transact sales and expenditures in local currency;
•excess levels of inventory and low turns;
•changes in or consolidation of our sales channels and wholesale distributor relationships or failure to manage our sales channel inventory and warehousing requirements;
•delay or failure to fulfill orders for our products on a timely basis;
•delay or failure of our retailers, distributors, and other channel partners to purchase at their historic volumes or at the volumes that they or we forecast;
•changes in tax rates or adverse changes in tax laws that expose us to additional income tax liabilities;
•changes in U.S. and international tax policy, including changes that adversely affect customs, tax or duty rates such as tariffs on product imports, as well as income tax legislation and regulations that affect the countries where we conduct business;
•operational disruptions, such as transportation delays or failure of our order processing system, particularly if they occur at the end of a fiscal quarter;
•disruptions or delays related to our financial and enterprise resource planning systems;
•our inability to accurately forecast product demand, resulting in increased inventory exposure;
•allowance for credit losses exposure with our existing retailers, distributors and other channel partners and new retailers, distributors and other channel partners, particularly as we expand into new international markets;
•geopolitical disruption, including sudden changes in immigration policies, leading to disruption in our workforce or delay or even stoppage of our operations in manufacturing, transportation, technical support, and research and development;
•terms of our contracts with channel partners or suppliers that cause us to incur additional expenses or assume additional liabilities;
•an increase in price protection claims, redemptions of marketing rebates, product warranty and stock rotation returns or allowance for credit losses;
•litigation involving alleged patent infringement;
•failure to effectively manage our third-party customer support partners, which may result in customer complaints and/or harm to the Arlo brand;
•our inability to monitor and ensure compliance with our code of ethics, our anti-corruption compliance program, and domestic and international anti-corruption laws and regulations, whether in relation to our employees or with our suppliers or retailers, distributors, or other channel partners;
•labor unrest at facilities managed by our third-party manufacturers;
•workplace or human rights violations in certain countries in which our third-party manufacturers or suppliers operate, which may affect the Arlo brand and negatively affect our products’ acceptance by consumers;
•unanticipated shifts or declines in profit by geographical region that would adversely impact our tax rate;
•failure to implement and maintain the appropriate internal controls over financial reporting, which may result in restatements of our financial statements; and
•any changes in accounting rules.
As a result, period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations may not be meaningful, and you should not rely on them as an indication of our future performance.
If we fail to continue to introduce or acquire new products or services that achieve broad market acceptance on a timely basis, or if our products or services are not adopted as expected, we will not be able to compete effectively and we will be unable to increase or maintain revenue and gross margin.
We operate in a highly competitive, quickly changing environment, and our future success depends on our ability to develop or acquire and introduce new products and services that achieve broad market acceptance. Our future success will depend in large part upon our ability to identify demand trends in the connected lifestyle market and quickly develop or acquire, and design, manufacture and sell, products and services that satisfy these demands in a cost-effective manner.
In order to differentiate our products and services from our competitors’ products, we must continue to increase our focus and capital investment in research and development, including software development. We have committed a substantial amount of resources to the manufacture, development and sale of our Arlo Secure services and our wire-free smart Wi-Fi cameras, advanced baby monitors, and smart lights, and to introducing additional and improved models in
these lines. In addition, we plan to continue to introduce new categories of smart connected devices to the Arlo platform in the near future. If our existing products and services do not continue, or if our new products or services fail, to achieve widespread market acceptance, if existing customers do not subscribe to our paid subscription services such as Arlo Secure, if those services do not achieve widespread market acceptance, or if we are unsuccessful in capitalizing on opportunities in the connected lifestyle market, as well as in the related market in the small business segment, our future growth may be slowed and our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. Successfully predicting demand trends is difficult, and it is very difficult to predict the effect that introducing a new product or service will have on existing product or service sales. It is possible that Arlo may not be as successful with its new products and services, and as a result our future growth may be slowed and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. Also, we may not be able to respond effectively to new product or service announcements by our competitors by quickly introducing competitive products and services.
In addition, we may acquire companies and technologies in the future and, consistent with our vision for Arlo, introduce new product and service lines in the connected lifestyle market. In these circumstances, we may not be able to successfully manage integration of the new product and service lines with our existing suite of products and services. If we are unable to effectively and successfully further develop these new product and service lines, we may not be able to increase or maintain our sales, and our gross margin may be adversely affected.
We may experience delays and quality issues in releasing new products and services, which may result in lower quarterly revenue than expected. In addition, we may in the future experience product or service introductions that fall short of our projected rates of market adoption. Currently, reviews of our products and services are a significant factor in the success of our new product and service launches. If we are unable to generate a high number of positive reviews or quickly respond to negative reviews, including end-user reviews posted on various prominent online retailers, our ability to sell our products and services will be harmed. Any future delays in product and service development and introduction, or product and service introductions that do not meet broad market acceptance, or unsuccessful launches of new product and service lines could result in:
•loss of or delay in revenue and loss of market share;
•negative publicity and damage to our reputation and brand;
•a decline in the average selling price of our products and services;
•adverse reactions in our sales channels, such as reduced shelf space, reduced online product visibility, or loss of sales channels; and
•increased levels of product returns.
Throughout the past few years, Arlo has significantly increased the rate of new product and service introductions, with the introduction of new lines of Arlo cameras, smart lights, and doorbell products, as well as the introduction of our Arlo Secure services. If we cannot sustain that pace of product and service introductions, either through rapid innovation or acquisition of new products and services or product and service lines, we may not be able to maintain or increase the market share of our products and services or expand further into the connected lifestyle market in accordance with our current plans. In addition, if we are unable to successfully introduce or acquire new products and services with higher gross margin, our revenue and overall gross margin would likely decline.
*We may need additional financing to meet our future long-term capital requirements and may be unable to raise sufficient capital on favorable terms or at all.
We have recorded a net loss of $15.2 million and $49.2 million for the three and nine months ended October 3, 2021, respectively, and we have a history of losses and may continue to incur operating and net losses for the foreseeable future. As of October 3, 2021, our accumulated deficit was $282.0 million.
As of October 3, 2021, our cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $166.1 million. In November 2019, we entered into a business financing agreement with Western Alliance Bank providing for a credit facility to up to $40.0 million and as of October 3, 2021, we have not borrowed against this credit facility. Refer to Note 8. Debt in the Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 1 of Part I of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for further details on such business financing agreement. While based on our current plans, the business financing agreement with Western Alliance Bank, and market conditions, we believe that such sources of liquidity will be sufficient to satisfy our anticipated cash requirements for at least the next 12 months, we may require additional funds, either through equity or debt financings or collaborative agreements or from other sources. We have no commitments to obtain such additional financing, and we may not be able to obtain any such additional financing on terms favorable to us, or at all. If adequate financing is not available, we may further delay, postpone or terminate product and service expansion and curtail certain selling, general and administrative operations. The inability to raise additional financing may have a material adverse effect on our future performance. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has already resulted in a significant disruption of global financial markets. If the disruption persists and deepens, we could experience an inability to access additional capital.
Some of our competitors have substantially greater resources than we do, and to be competitive we may be required to lower our prices or increase our sales and marketing expenses, which could result in reduced margins and loss of market share.
We compete in a rapidly evolving and fiercely competitive market, and we expect competition to continue to be intense, including price competition. Our principal competitors include Amazon (Blink and Ring), Google (Nest), Swann, Night Owl, Wyze, Foxconn Corporation (Belkin), Samsung, D-Link, and Canary. Other competitors include numerous local vendors such as Netatmo, Logitech, Bosch, Instar, and Uniden. In addition, these local vendors may target markets outside of their local regions and may increasingly compete with us in other regions worldwide. Many of our existing and potential competitors have longer operating histories, greater brand recognition, and substantially greater financial, technical, sales, marketing, and other resources. These competitors may, among other things, undertake more extensive marketing campaigns, adopt more aggressive pricing policies, obtain more favorable pricing from suppliers and manufacturers, and exert more influence on sales channels than we can. In addition, certain competitors may have different business models, such as integrated manufacturing capabilities, that may allow them to achieve cost savings and to compete on the basis of price. Other competitors may have fewer resources, but may be more nimble in developing new or disruptive technology or in entering new markets.
We anticipate that current and potential competitors will also intensify their efforts to penetrate our target markets. For example, price competition is intense in our industry in certain geographical regions and product categories. Many of our competitors price their products significantly below our product costs. Average sales prices have declined in the past and may again decline in the future. These competitors may have more advanced technology, more extensive distribution channels, stronger brand names, greater access to shelf space in retail locations, bigger promotional budgets, and larger retailers, distributors, and other channel partners, and end-user bases than we do.
In addition, many of these competitors leverage a broader product portfolio and offer lower pricing as part of a more comprehensive end-to-end solution. These companies could devote more capital resources to develop, manufacture, and market competing products than we could.
Amazon is both a competitor and a distribution channel for our products as well as a provider of services to support our cloud-based storage. If Amazon decided to end our distribution channel relationship or ceased providing cloud storage services to us, our sales and product performance could be harmed, which could seriously harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.
Our competitors may also acquire other companies in the market and leverage combined resources to gain market share. If any of these companies are successful in competing against us, our sales could decline, our margins could be
negatively impacted, and we could lose market share, any of which could seriously harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
*We entered into an asset purchase agreement (the “Asset Purchase Agreement”) and supply agreement (the “Supply Agreement”) with Verisure Sàrl (“Verisure”) that will give Verisure exclusive marketing and distribution rights for our products in Europe as well as the ability to sell our products through their direct channel globally. We cannot provide assurance that the arrangement with Verisure will continue to be a successful collaboration.
Verisure has the exclusive right to market and distribute our products in Europe. Our results of operations may be negatively impacted if Verisure is not successful in continuing to sell our products in Europe. Even though the Supply Agreement provides for minimum purchase commitments, if Verisure fails to pay on a timely basis, or at all, including because of effects from COVID-19, or otherwise does not perform under the Supply Agreement, our cash flow would be reduced. We are also exposed to increased credit risk if Verisure fails or becomes insolvent. We also cannot provide any assurance that we will successfully develop custom products as specified by Verisure under the Supply Agreement.
The Purchase Agreement and Supply Agreement with Verisure contain customary representations and warranties regarding, the Business and the Assets, indemnification provisions, termination rights, certain financial covenants and other customary provisions. Additionally, we have agreed not to engage in any business that competes with the Business for a period of three years. Our failure to comply with these provisions may have a material adverse effect on our future performance.
*We are dependent on information technology systems, infrastructure and data. System security risks, breaches of data protection, cyber-attacks, and erroneous or non-malicious actions or failures to act by our employees or others with authorized access to our networks could disrupt our products, services, internal operations, or information technology systems, and could lead to theft of our intellectual property, and any such disruption could reduce our expected revenue, increase our expenses, damage our reputation, and cause our stock price to decline significantly.
Information security risks have significantly increased in recent years in part due to the proliferation of new technologies and the increased sophistication and activities of organized crime, hackers, terrorists and other external parties, including foreign private parties and state actors. Our products and services may contain unknown security vulnerabilities. For example, the firmware, software, and open source software that we or our manufacturing partners have installed on our products may be susceptible to hacking, unauthorized manipulation, or misuse. In addition, we offer a comprehensive online cloud management service, Arlo Secure, paired with our end products, including our cameras, baby monitors, and smart lights and we recently launched our direct to consumer store to sell our products directly to our customers. If malicious actors compromise this cloud service or our direct to consumer store, or if customer confidential information is accessed without authorization, our business will be harmed. Operating an online cloud service and direct to consumer store are a relatively new businesses for us, and we may not have the expertise to properly manage risks related to data security and systems security. We rely on third-party providers for a number of critical aspects of our cloud services and customer support, including web hosting services, billing, and payment processing, and consequently we do not maintain direct control over the security or stability of the associated systems. If we or our third-party providers are unable to properly secure our system or successfully prevent breaches of security relating to our products, services, or user private information, including user videos and user personal identification information, or if these third-party systems fail for other reasons, our management could need to spend increasing amounts of time and effort in this area. As a result, we could incur substantial expenses, our brand and reputation could suffer and our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
Maintaining the security of our computer information systems and communication systems is a critical issue for us and our customers and we devote considerable internal and external resources to network security, data encryption, and other security measures to protect our systems, customers, and users, but these security measures cannot provide absolute security. The multitude and complexity of our computer systems may make them vulnerable to service interruption or destruction, breaches of security, disruption of data integrity, inadvertent errors that expose our data or systems, malicious
intrusion, or random attacks. Likewise, data privacy or security incidents or intentional or non-malicious breaches by employees or others may pose a risk that sensitive data, including our intellectual property, trade secrets or personal information of our employees, customers or users, or other business partners may be exposed to unauthorized persons or to the public, or that risk of loss or misuse of this information could occur, resulting in litigation and potential liability for us, damage our brand and reputation, or otherwise materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Malicious actors may develop and deploy malware that is designed to manipulate our systems, including our internal network, or those of our vendors or customers. Additionally, outside parties may attempt to fraudulently induce our employees to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to our information technology systems, our data or our customers’ data. We have established a crisis management plan and business continuity program. While we regularly test the plan and the program, there can be no assurance that the plan and program can withstand an actual disruption in our business, including a cyber-attack, hacking, fraud, social engineering, or other forms of deception. While we have established service-level and geographic redundancy for our critical systems, our ability to utilize these redundant systems must be tested regularly, failing over to such systems always carries risk and we cannot be assured that such systems are fully functional. For example, much of our order fulfillment process is automated and the order information is stored on our servers. A significant business interruption could result in losses or damages and harm our business. If our computer systems and servers become unavailable at the end of a fiscal quarter, for example, our ability to recognize revenue may be delayed until we are able to utilize back-up systems and continue to process and ship our orders. This could cause our stock price to decline significantly. Changes in how our employees work and access our systems during the current COVID-19 pandemic also could lead to additional opportunities for bad actors to launch cyberattacks or for employees to cause inadvertent security risks or incidents.
The effects of a security breach or privacy violation could be further amplified during the current COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the cost and operational consequences of implementing further data protection measures could be significant and theft of our intellectual property or proprietary business information could require substantial expenditures to remedy. Further, we cannot be certain that (a) our liability insurance will be sufficient in type or amount to cover us against claims related to security breaches, cyberattacks and other related breaches; (b) such coverage will cover any indemnification claims against us relating to any incident, will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all; or (c) any insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our future success depends on our ability to increase sales of our paid subscription services.
Our future success is largely dependent on increasing sales of our paid subscription services. Even if we are successful in selling our smart connected devices and accessories, if we are unable to maintain or increase sales of Arlo Secure services, our revenue and overall gross margin would likely decline.
Interruptions with the cloud-based systems that we use in our operations provided by an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc. ("Amazon"), which is also one of our primary competitors, may materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We host our platform using Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) data centers, a provider of cloud infrastructure services, and may in the future use other third-party cloud-based systems in our operations. All of our solutions currently reside on systems leased and operated by us in these locations. Accordingly, our operations depend on protecting the virtual cloud infrastructure hosted in AWS by maintaining its configuration, architecture, features, and interconnection specifications, as well as the information stored in these virtual data centers and which third-party internet service providers transmit. Although we have disaster recovery plans that utilize multiple AWS locations, any incident affecting their infrastructure that may be caused by human error, fire, flood, severe storm, earthquake, or other natural disasters, cyber-attacks, terrorist or other attacks, and other similar events beyond our control could negatively affect our platform. A prolonged AWS service disruption affecting our platform for any of the foregoing reasons would negatively impact our ability to serve our end-users and could damage our reputation with current and potential end-users, expose us to liability,
cause us to lose customers, or otherwise harm our business. We may also incur significant costs for using alternative equipment or taking other actions in preparation for, or in reaction to, events that damage the AWS services we use. Further, if we were to make updates to our platforms that were not compatible with the configuration, architecture, features, and interconnection specifications of the third-party platform, our service could be disrupted.
Amazon produces the Amazon Cloud Cam, which competes with our security camera products, and recently acquired two of our competitors, Blink and Ring. Amazon may choose to hamper our competitive efforts, using provision of AWS services as leverage. In the event that there is a lapse of service, elimination of AWS services or features that we use, interruption of internet service provider connectivity, or damage to such facilities, we could experience interruptions in access to our platform as well as significant delays and additional expense in arranging or creating new facilities and services and/or re-architecting our solutions for deployment on a different cloud infrastructure service provider, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our current and future products may experience quality problems, including defects or errors, from time to time that can result in adverse publicity, product recalls, litigation, regulatory proceedings, and warranty claims resulting in significant direct or indirect costs, decreased revenue, and operating margin, and harm to our brand.
We sell complex products that could contain design and manufacturing defects in their materials, hardware, and firmware. These defects could include defective materials or components that can unexpectedly interfere with the products’ intended operations or cause injuries to users or property damage. Although we extensively and rigorously test new and enhanced products and services before their release, we cannot assure we will be able to detect, prevent, or fix all defects. Failure to detect, prevent, or fix defects, or an increase in defects, could result in a variety of consequences, including a greater number of product returns than expected from users and retailers, increases in warranty costs, regulatory proceedings, product recalls, and litigation, each of which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. We generally provide a one-year hardware warranty on all of our products. The occurrence of real or perceived quality problems or material defects in our current and future products could expose us to warranty claims in excess of our current reserves. If we experience greater returns from retailers or users, or greater warranty claims, in excess of our reserves, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be harmed. In addition, any negative publicity or lawsuits filed against us related to the perceived quality and safety of our products could also adversely affect our brand, decrease demand for our products and services, and materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
In addition, epidemic failure clauses are found in certain of our customer contracts. If invoked, these clauses may entitle the customer to return for replacement or obtain credits for products and inventory, as well as assess liquidated damage penalties and terminate an existing contract and cancel future or then-current purchase orders. In such instances, we may also be obligated to cover significant costs incurred by the customer associated with the consequences of such epidemic failure, including freight and transportation required for product replacement and out-of-pocket costs for truck rolls to end-user sites to collect the defective products. Costs or payments we make in connection with an epidemic failure could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
If our products contain defects or errors, or are found to be noncompliant with industry standards, we could experience decreased sales and increased product returns, loss of customers and market share, and increased service, warranty, and insurance costs. In addition, defects in, or misuse of, certain of our products could cause safety concerns, including the risk of property damage or personal injury. If any of these events occurred, our reputation and brand could be damaged, and we could face product liability or other claims regarding our products, resulting in unexpected expenses and adversely impacting our operating results. For instance, if a third party were able to successfully overcome the security measures in our products, such a person or entity could misappropriate end-user data, third-party data stored by our users, and other information, including intellectual property. If that happens, affected end-users or others may file actions against us alleging product liability, tort, or breach of warranty claims.
*We rely on a limited number of traditional and online retailers and wholesale distributors for a substantial portion of our sales, and our revenue could decline if they refuse to pay our requested prices or reduce their level of
purchases or if there is significant consolidation in our sales channels, which results in fewer sales channels for our products.
We sell a substantial portion of our products through traditional and online retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy Co., Inc. ("Best Buy"), and Costco Wholesale Corporation (“Costco”) and Verisure and their respective affiliates. For the three and nine months ended October 3, 2021, we derived 15.8% and 15.1% of our revenue from Best Buy and its affiliates and 27.8% and 27.6% of our revenue from Verisure and its affiliates, respectively. In addition, we sell to wholesale distributors, including Ingram Micro, Inc., D&H Distributing Company, and Synnex Corporation. We expect that a significant portion of our revenue will continue to come from sales to a small number of such retailers, distributors, and other channel partners. In addition, because our accounts receivable are often concentrated within a small group of retailers, distributors, and other channel partners, the failure of any of them to pay on a timely basis, or at all, would reduce our cash flow. If Best Buy or other retailers closes any of its retail stores due to COVID-19 pandemic, our revenue could be adversely impacted. We are also exposed to increased credit risk if any one of these limited numbers of retailer and distributor channel partners fails or becomes insolvent. We generally have no minimum purchase commitments or long-term contracts with any of these retailers, distributors and other channel partners. These purchasers could decide at any time to discontinue, decrease, or delay their purchases of our products. If our retailers, distributors, and other channel partners increase the size of their product orders without sufficient lead-time for us to process the order, our ability to fulfill product orders would be compromised. These channel partners have a variety of suppliers to choose from and therefore can make substantial demands on us, including demands on product pricing and on contractual terms, which often results in the allocation of risk to us as the supplier. Accordingly, the prices that they pay for our products are subject to negotiation and could change at any time. We have historically benefited from NETGEAR’s strong relationships with these retailers, distributors, and other channel partners, and we may not be able to maintain these relationships following our separation from NETGEAR. Our ability to maintain strong relationships with these channel partners is essential to our future performance. If any of our major channel partners reduce their level of purchases or refuse to pay the prices that we set for our products, our revenue and results of operations could be harmed. The traditional retailers that purchase from us have faced increased and significant competition from online retailers. If our key traditional retailers continue to reduce their level of purchases from us, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
Additionally, concentration and consolidation among our channel partner base may allow certain retailers and distributors to command increased leverage in negotiating prices and other terms of sale, which could adversely affect our profitability. In addition, if, as a result of increased leverage, channel partner pressures require us to reduce our pricing such that our gross margin is diminished, we could decide not to sell our products to a particular channel partner, which could result in a decrease in our revenue. Consolidation among our channel partner base may also lead to reduced demand for our products, elimination of sales opportunities, replacement of our products with those of our competitors, and cancellations of orders, each of which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. If consolidation among the retailers, distributors, or other channel partners who purchase our products becomes more prevalent, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
In particular, the retail and connected home markets in some countries, including the United States, are dominated by a few large retailers with many stores. These retailers have in the past increased their market share and may continue to do so in the future by expanding through acquisitions and construction of additional stores. These situations concentrate our credit risk with a relatively small number of retailers, and, if any of these retailers were to experience a shortage of liquidity, it could increase the risk that their outstanding payables to us may not be paid. In addition, increasing market share concentration among one or a few retailers in a particular country or region increases the risk that if any one of them substantially reduces its purchases of our devices, we may be unable to find a sufficient number of other retail outlets for our products to sustain the same level of sales. Any reduction in sales by our retailers could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We depend on large, recurring purchases from certain significant retailers, distributors, and other channel partners, and a loss, cancellation, or delay in purchases by these channel partners could negatively affect our revenue.
The loss of recurring orders from any of our more significant retailers, distributors, and other channel partners could cause our revenue and profitability to suffer. Our ability to attract new retailers, distributors, and other channel partners will depend on a variety of factors, including the cost-effectiveness, reliability, scalability, breadth, and depth of our products. In addition, a change in the mix of our retailers, distributors, and other channel partners, or a change in the mix of direct and indirect sales, could adversely affect our revenue and gross margin.
Although our financial performance may depend on large, recurring orders from certain retailers, distributors, and other channel partners, we do not generally have binding commitments from them. For example:
•our channel partner agreements generally do not require minimum purchases;
•our retailers, distributors, and other channel partners can stop purchasing and stop marketing our products at any time; and
•our channel partner agreements generally are not exclusive.
Further, our revenue may be impacted by significant one-time purchases that are not intended to be repeatable. While such purchases are reflected in our financial statements, we do not rely on and do not forecast for continued significant one-time purchases. As a result, lack of repeatable one-time purchases will adversely affect our revenue. Additionally, we may from time to time grant our retailers, distributors, and other channel partners the exceptional right to return certain products, based on the best interests of our mutual businesses, and such returns, if material, could adversely affect our revenue and gross margin.
Because our expenses are based on our revenue forecasts, a substantial reduction or delay in sales of our products to, or unexpected returns from, channel partners, or the loss of any significant channel partners, could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Although our largest channel partners may vary from period to period, we anticipate that our results of operations for any given period will continue to depend on large orders from a small number of channel partners.
The average selling prices of our products typically decrease rapidly over the sales cycle of the product, which may negatively affect our revenue and gross margin.
Our products typically experience price erosion, a fairly rapid reduction in the average unit selling prices over their sales cycles. In order to sell products that have a falling average unit selling price and maintain margins at the same time, we need to continually reduce product and manufacturing costs. To manage manufacturing costs, we must partner with our third-party manufacturers to engineer the most cost-effective design for our products. In addition, we must carefully manage the price paid for components used in our products, and we must also successfully manage our freight and inventory costs to reduce overall product costs. We also need to continually introduce new products with higher sales prices and gross margin in order to maintain our overall gross margin. If we are unable to manage the cost of older products or successfully introduce new products with higher gross margin, our revenue and overall gross margin would likely decline.
The reputation of our services may be damaged, and we may face significant direct or indirect costs, decreased revenue, and operating margins if our services contain significant defects or fail to perform as intended.
Our services, including our intelligent cloud and App platform and our Arlo Secure services, are complex, and may not always perform as intended due to outages of our systems or defects affecting our services. Systems outages could be disruptive to our business and damage the reputation of our services and result in potential loss of revenue.
Significant defects affecting our services may be found following the introduction of new software or enhancements to existing software or in software implementations in varied information technology environments. Internal quality assurance testing and end-user testing may reveal service performance issues or desirable feature enhancements that
could lead us to reallocate service development resources or postpone the release of new versions of our software. The reallocation of resources or any postponement could cause delays in the development and release of future enhancements to our currently available software, damage the reputation of our services in the marketplace, and result in potential loss of revenue. Although we attempt to resolve all errors that we believe would be considered serious by our partners and customers, the software powering our services is not error-free. Undetected errors or performance problems may be discovered in the future, and known errors that we consider minor may be considered serious by our channel partners and end-users.
System disruptions and defects in our services could result in lost revenue, delays in customer deployment, or legal claims and could be detrimental to our reputation.
*Because we store, process, and use data, some of which contain personal information, we are subject to complex and evolving federal, state, and foreign laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, and other related matters, which are subject to change.
We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States and other countries that involve matters central to our business, including with respect to user privacy, rights of publicity, data protection, content, protection of minors, and consumer protection. These laws can be particularly restrictive in countries outside the United States. Both in the United States and abroad, these laws and regulations are constantly evolving and remain subject to significant change. In addition, the application and interpretation of these laws and regulations are often unpredictable and uncertain, particularly in the new and rapidly evolving industry in which we operate. Because we store, process, and use data, some of which contain personal information, we are subject to complex and evolving federal, state, and foreign laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, and other matters. Alleged violations of any of these laws and regulations could result in investigations, claims, changes to our business practices, increased cost of operations, and declines in user growth, retention, or engagement, any of which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
In the EU/EEA, the General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679) (“GDPR”) went into effect in 2018 and replaced Directive 95/46/EC (the EU Privacy Directive), becoming directly applicable in all European Union member states. The GDPR establishes new requirements applicable to the processing of personal data (i.e., data which identifies an individual or from which an individual is identifiable), affords new data protection rights to individuals (e.g., the right to erasure of personal data) and imposes penalties for serious data breaches. Individuals also have a right to compensation under GDPR for financial or non-financial losses. Additionally, Brexit took effect in January 2020, which will lead to further legislative and regulatory changes. While the Data Protection Act of 2018, that “implements” and complements the GDPR achieved Royal Assent on May 23, 2018 and is now effective in the United Kingdom, it is still unclear whether transfer of data from the EEA to the United Kingdom will remain lawful in the long term under GDPR. With the expiry of the transition period on December 31, 2020, companies will have to comply with the GDPR and the GDPR as incorporated into United Kingdom national law, which has the ability to separately fine up to the greater of £17.5 million or 4% of global turnover. On June 28, 2021, the European Commission announced a decision of “adequacy” concluding that the UK ensures an equivalent level of data protection to the GDPR, which provides some relief regarding the legality of continued personal data flows from the EEA to the UK. Some uncertainty remains, however, as this adequacy determination must be renewed after four years and may be modified or revoked in the interim. We cannot fully predict how the Data Protection Act, the UK GDPR, and other UK data protection laws or regulations may develop in the medium to longer term nor the effects of divergent laws and guidance regarding how data transfers to and from the UK will be regulated.
California also recently enacted legislation that has been dubbed the first “GDPR-like” law in the U.S. Known as the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), it creates new individual privacy rights for consumers (as that word is broadly defined in the law) and places increased privacy and security obligations on entities handling personal data of consumers or households. The CCPA, which went into effect on January 1, 2020, requires covered companies to provide new disclosures to California consumers, and provides such consumers new ways to opt-out of certain sales of personal information. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation. The CCPA may increase our compliance costs and potential liability.
Further, California voters approved a new privacy law, the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”) in the November 3, 2020 election. Effective starting on January 1, 2023, the CPRA 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. New legislation proposed or enacted in various other states will continue to shape the data privacy environment nationally. For example, on March 2, 2021, Virginia enacted the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act ("CDPA") which becomes effective on January 1, 2023, and on June 8, 2021, Colorado enacted the Colorado Privacy Act ("CPA") which takes effect on July 1, 2023. The CPA and CDPA are similar to the CCPA and CPRA but aspects of these state privacy statutes remain unclear, resulting in further legal uncertainty and potentially requiring us to modify our data practices and policies and to incur substantial additional costs and expenses in an effort to comply. Complying with the GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, CDPA, CPA, or other laws, regulations, amendments to or re-interpretations of existing laws and regulations, and contractual or other obligations relating to privacy, data protection, data transfers, data localization, or information security may require us to make changes to our services to enable us or our customers to meet new legal requirements, incur substantial operational costs, modify our data practices and policies, and restrict our business operations. Any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with these laws, regulations, or other obligations may lead to significant fines, penalties, regulatory investigations, lawsuits, significant costs for remediation, damage to our reputation, or other liabilities.
Some observers have noted that the CCPA, CPRA, CDPA, and CPA could mark the beginning of a trend toward more stringent privacy legislation in the U.S., which could increase our potential liability and adversely affect our business. GDPR and CCPA will impose additional responsibility and liability in relation to our processing of personal data. GDPR, CCPA, and CPRA may require us to change our policies and procedures and, if we are not compliant, could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We are subject to financial and operating covenants in our business financing agreement with Western Alliance Bank (the “Credit Agreement”) and any failure to comply with such covenants, or obtain waivers in the event of non-compliance, could limit our borrowing availability under the Credit Agreement, resulting in our being unable to borrow under the Credit Agreement and materially adversely impact our liquidity. In addition, our operations may not provide sufficient cash to meet the repayment obligations of debt incurred under the Credit Agreement.
The Credit Agreement contains provisions that limit our future borrowing availability to the lesser of (x) $40.0 million and (y) an amount equal to 60% of our eligible receivables and eligible accounts receivable, less such reserves as Western Alliance Bank may deem proper and necessary from time to time. The Credit Agreement also contains other customary covenants, including certain restrictions on maintaining a minimum cash balance, our ability to incur additional indebtedness, consolidate or merge, enter into acquisitions, pay any dividend or distribution on our capital stock, redeem, retire or purchase shares of our capital stock, make investments or pledge or transfer assets, in each case subject to limited exceptions.
There can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with the financial and other covenants in the Credit Agreement, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic may increase the risk of our inability to comply with such covenants. Our failure to comply with these covenants could cause us to be unable to borrow under the Credit Agreement and may constitute an event of default which, if not cured or waived, could result in the acceleration of the maturity of any indebtedness then outstanding under the Credit Agreement, which would require us to pay all amounts then outstanding. If we are unable to repay those amounts, the Lender could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure that debt, which would seriously harm our business. Such an event could materially adversely affect our financial condition and liquidity. Additionally, such events of non-compliance could impact the terms of any additional borrowings and/or any credit renewal terms. Any failure to comply with such covenants may be a disclosable event and may be perceived negatively. Such perception could adversely affect the market price for our common stock and our ability to obtain financing in the future.
Global economic conditions could materially adversely affect our revenue and results of operations.
Our business has been and may continue to be affected by a number of factors that are beyond our control, such as general geopolitical, economic, and business conditions, conditions in the financial markets, and changes in the overall demand for connected lifestyle products. Our products and services may be considered discretionary items for our consumer and small business end-users. A severe and/or prolonged economic downturn, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, could adversely affect our customers’ financial condition and the levels of business activity of our customers. Weakness in, and uncertainty about, global economic conditions may cause businesses to postpone spending in response to tighter credit, negative financial news and/or declines in income or asset values, which could have a material negative effect on the demand for our products.
In the recent past, various regions worldwide have experienced slow economic growth. In addition, current economic challenges in China, including any global economic ramifications of these challenges, may continue to put negative pressure on global economic conditions. If conditions in the global economy, including Europe, China, Australia and the United States, or other key vertical or geographic markets deteriorate, such conditions could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. If we are unable to successfully anticipate changing economic and political conditions, we may be unable to effectively plan for and respond to those changes, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. In addition, the economic problems affecting the financial markets and the uncertainty in global economic conditions resulted in a number of adverse effects, including a low level of liquidity in many financial markets, extreme volatility in credit, equity, currency, and fixed income markets, instability in the stock market, and high unemployment.
For example, the challenges faced by the European Union to stabilize some of its member economies, such as Greece, Portugal, Spain, Hungary, and Italy, have had international implications, affecting the stability of global financial markets and hindering economies worldwide. Many member nations in the European Union have been addressing the issues with controversial austerity measures. In addition, the potential consequences of the “Brexit” process in the United Kingdom have led to significant uncertainty in the region. Should the European Union monetary policy measures be insufficient to restore confidence and stability to the financial markets, or should the United Kingdom’s “Brexit” decision lead to additional economic or political instability, the global economy, including the U.S. and European Union economies where we have a significant presence, could be hindered, which could have a material adverse effect on us. There could also be a number of other follow-on effects from these economic developments on our business, including the inability of customers to obtain credit to finance purchases of our products, customer insolvencies, decreased customer confidence to make purchasing decisions, decreased customer demand, and decreased customer ability to pay their trade obligations.
In addition, availability of our products from third-party manufacturers and our ability to distribute our products into non-U.S. jurisdictions may be impacted by factors such as an increase in duties, tariffs, or other restrictions on trade; raw material shortages, work stoppages, strikes and political unrest; economic crises and international disputes or conflicts; changes in leadership and the political climate in countries from which we import products; and failure of the United States to maintain normal trade relations with China and other countries.
A portion of our global and U.S. sales are comprised of goods assembled and manufactured in our facilities in Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China, and components for a number of our goods are sourced from suppliers in the People’s Republic of China. When tariffs, duties, or other restrictions are placed on goods imported into the United States from China or any related counter-measures are taken by China, our revenue and results of operations may be materially harmed.
On September 17, 2018, President Trump announced the imposition of an additional 10% ad valorem duty on approximately $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, known as List 3, pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative concurrently published the final list of products that are subject to the additional duty, effective September 24, 2018. On May 10, 2019, the President increased the additional duty to 25% ad valorem, and has since proposed a further increase of this rate to 30%, though the increase is not currently scheduled to take effect. In addition, on August 20, 2019, the President announced an additional 15% import duty on other Chinese
imports, known as List 4, with the additional duties on certain items (List 4A) effective September 1, 2019, and the remainder (List 4B) effective December 15, 2019. While the additional duty on List 4A has gone into effect, the implementation of the additional duty on List 4B has been suspended in definitely. Further, as of February 14, 2020, the additional duty rate on items listed on List 4A is reduced from 15% to 7.5%. We are actively addressing the risks related to these additional and potential ad valorem duties, which have affected, or have the potential to affect, at least some of our imports from China. Although we have already taken some steps to mitigate these risks, including by moving a significant portion of our manufacturing and assembly to Vietnam and other areas in the Asia Pacific region outside of China, if these duties are imposed, the cost of our products may increase. These duties may also make our products more expensive for consumers, which may reduce consumer demand. We may need to offset the financial impact by, among other things, moving even more of our product manufacturing to other locations, modifying other business practices or raising prices. If we are not successful in offsetting the impact of any such duties, our revenue, gross margins, and operating results may be materially adversely affected.
Our stock price may be volatile and your investment in our common stock could suffer a decline in value.
There has been significant volatility in the market price and trading volume of securities of technology and other companies, including recently in connection with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which may be unrelated to the financial performance of these companies. These broad market fluctuations may negatively affect the market price of our common stock.
Some specific factors that may have a significant effect on the market price of our common stock include:
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our results of operations or our competitors’ operating results;
•actual or anticipated changes in the growth rate of the connected lifestyle market, our growth rate or our competitors’ growth rates;
•delays in the introduction of new products by us or market acceptance of these products;
•conditions in the financial markets in general or changes in general economic conditions, including due to the COVID-19 pandemic;
•changes in governmental regulation, including taxation and tariff policies;
•interest rate or currency exchange rate fluctuations;
•our ability to forecast or report accurate financial results; and
•changes in stock market analyst recommendations regarding our common stock, other comparable companies, or our industry generally.
*We depend substantially on our sales channels, and our failure to maintain and expand our sales channels would result in lower sales and reduced revenue.
To maintain and grow our market share, revenue, and brand, we must maintain and expand our sales channels. Our sales channels consist primarily of traditional retailers, online retailers, and wholesale distributors, but also include service providers such as wireless carriers and telecommunications providers. We generally have no minimum purchase commitments or long-term contracts with any of these third parties.
Traditional retailers have limited shelf space and promotional budgets, and competition is intense for these resources. A competitor with more extensive product lines and stronger brand identity may have greater bargaining power with these retailers. Any reduction in available shelf space or increased competition for such shelf space would require us
to increase our marketing expenditures simply to maintain current levels of retail shelf space, which would harm our operating margin. Our traditional retail customers have faced increased and significant competition from online retailers. If we cannot effectively manage our business amongst our online customers and traditional retail customers, our business would be harmed. The recent trend in the consolidation of online retailers has resulted in intensified competition for preferred product placement, such as product placement on an online retailer’s internet home page. In addition, our efforts to realign or consolidate our sales channels may cause temporary disruptions in our product sales and revenue, and these efforts may not result in the expected longer-term benefits that prompted them.
In addition, to the extent our retail and distributor channel partners supply products that compete with our own, it is possible that these channel partners may choose not to offer our products to end-users or to offer our products to end-users on less favorable terms, including with respect to product placement. If this were to occur, we may not be able to increase or maintain our sales, and our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. For example, Amazon, one of our primary retailers, produces the Amazon Cloud Cam, which competes with our security camera products, and also recently acquired two of our competitors, Blink and Ring. For the three and nine months ended October 3, 2021, we derived 6.1% and 8.8% of our revenue from Amazon and its affiliates.
We must also continuously monitor and evaluate emerging sales channels. If we fail to establish a presence in an important developing sales channel, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
If we do not effectively manage our sales channel inventory and product mix, we may incur costs associated with excess inventory, or lose sales from having too few products.
If we are unable to properly monitor, control, and manage our sales channel inventory and maintain an appropriate level and mix of products with our distributors and within our sales channels, we may incur increased and unexpected costs associated with this inventory. We generally allow distributors and traditional retailers to return a limited amount of our products in exchange for other products. Under our price protection policy, if we reduce the list price of a product, we are often required to issue a credit in an amount equal to the reduction for each of the products held in inventory by our wholesale distributors and retailers. If our wholesale distributors and retailers are unable to sell their inventory in a timely manner, we might lower the price of the products, or these parties may exchange the products for newer products. Also, during the transition from an existing product to a new replacement product, we must accurately predict the demand for the existing and the new product.
We determine production levels based on our forecasts of demand for our products. Actual demand for our products depends on many factors, which makes it difficult to forecast. We have experienced differences between our actual and our forecasted demand in the past and expect differences to arise in the future. If we improperly forecast demand for our products, we could end up with too many products and be unable to sell the excess inventory in a timely manner, if at all, or, alternatively, we could end up with too few products and not be able to satisfy demand. This problem is exacerbated because we attempt to closely match inventory levels with product demand, leaving limited margin for error. If these events occur, we could incur increased expenses associated with writing off excessive or obsolete inventory, lose sales, incur penalties for late delivery, or have to ship products by air freight to meet immediate demand, thereby incurring incremental freight costs above the sea freight costs, a preferred method, and suffering a corresponding decline in gross margin.
If we are unable to secure and protect our intellectual property rights, our ability to compete could be harmed.
We rely on a combination of copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret laws, nondisclosure agreements with employees, consultants, and suppliers, and other contractual provisions to establish, maintain, and protect our intellectual property and technology. Despite efforts to protect our intellectual property, unauthorized third parties may attempt to design around, copy aspects of our product design or obtain and use technology or other intellectual property associated with our products. Furthermore, our competitors may independently develop similar technology or design around our
intellectual property. Our inability to secure and protect our intellectual property rights could materially adversely affect our brand and business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We rely upon third parties for technology that is critical to our products, and if we are unable to continue to use this technology and future technology, our ability to develop, sell, maintain, and support technologically innovative products would be limited.
We rely on third parties to obtain non-exclusive patented hardware and software license rights in technologies that are incorporated into and necessary for the operation and functionality of most of our products. In these cases, because the intellectual property we license is available from third parties, barriers to entry into certain markets may be lower for potential or existing competitors than if we owned exclusive rights to the technology that we license and use. Moreover, if a competitor or potential competitor enters into an exclusive arrangement with any of our key third-party technology providers, or if any of these providers unilaterally decides not to do business with us for any reason, our ability to develop and sell products containing that technology would be severely limited. In addition, certain of Arlo’s firmware and the AI-based algorithms that we use in our Arlo Secure services incorporate open source software, the licenses for which may include customary requirements for, and restrictions on, use of the open source software.
If we are offering products or services that contain third-party technology that we subsequently lose the right to license, then we will not be able to continue to offer or support those products or services. In addition, these licenses may require royalty payments or other consideration to the third-party licensor. Our success will depend, in part, on our continued ability to access these technologies, and we do not know whether these third-party technologies will continue to be licensed to us on commercially acceptable terms, if at all. In addition, if these third-party licensors fail or experience instability, then we may be unable to continue to sell products and services that incorporate the licensed technologies, in addition to being unable to continue to maintain and support these products and services. We do require escrow arrangements with respect to certain third-party software which entitle us to certain limited rights to the source code, in the event of certain failures by the third party, in order to maintain and support such software. However, there is no guarantee that we would be able to fully understand and use the source code, as we may not have the expertise to do so. We are increasingly exposed to these risks as we continue to develop and market more products containing third-party technology and software. If we are unable to license the necessary technology, we may be forced to acquire or develop alternative technology, which could be of lower quality or performance standards. The acquisition or development of alternative technology may limit and delay our ability to offer new or competitive products and services and increase our costs of production. As a result, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
We also utilize third-party software development companies and contractors to develop, customize, maintain, and support software that is incorporated into our products and services. If these companies and contractors fail to timely deliver or continuously maintain and support the software, as we require of them, we may experience delays in releasing new products and services or difficulties with supporting existing products, services, and our users.
*Our sales and operations in international markets expose us to operational, financial and regulatory risks.
International sales comprise a significant amount of our overall revenue. International sales were 35.0% and 32.9% of overall revenue for the three months ended October 3, 2021 and September 27, 2020, respectively, and 35.6% and 28.9% of overall revenue for the nine months ended October 3, 2021 and September 27, 2020, respectively. We continue to be committed to growing our international sales, and while we have committed resources to expanding our international operations and sales channels, these efforts may not be successful and could be impacted by COVID-19 pandemic. International operations are subject to a number of risks, including but not limited to:
•exchange rate fluctuations;
•political and economic instability, international terrorism, and anti-American sentiment, particularly in emerging markets;
•potential for violations of anti-corruption laws and regulations, such as those related to bribery and fraud;
•preference for locally branded products, and laws and business practices favoring local competition;
•potential consequences of, and uncertainty related to, the “Brexit” process in the United Kingdom, which could lead to additional expense and complexity in doing business there;
•increased difficulty in managing inventory;
•delayed revenue recognition;
•less effective protection of intellectual property;
•stringent consumer protection and product compliance regulations, including but not limited to General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union, European competition law, the Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive and the European Ecodesign directive, that are costly to comply with and may vary from country to country;
•difficulties and costs of staffing and managing foreign operations;
•business difficulties, including potential bankruptcy or liquidation, of any of our worldwide third-party logistics providers; and
•changes in local tax and customs duty laws or changes in the enforcement, application, or interpretation of such laws.
We are also required to comply with local environmental legislation, and those who sell our products rely on this compliance in order to sell our products. If those who sell our products do not agree with our interpretations and requirements of new legislation, they may cease to order our products and our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
Governmental regulations of imports or exports affecting internet security could affect our revenue.
Any additional governmental regulation of imports or exports or failure to obtain required export approval of our encryption technologies could adversely affect our international and domestic sales. The United States and various foreign governments have imposed controls, export license requirements, and restrictions on the import or export of some technologies, particularly encryption technology. In addition, from time to time, governmental agencies have proposed additional regulation of encryption technology, such as requiring the escrow and governmental recovery of private encryption keys. In response to terrorist activity, governments could enact additional regulation or restriction on the use, import, or export of encryption technology. This additional regulation of encryption technology could delay or prevent the acceptance and use of encryption products and public networks for secure communications, resulting in decreased demand for our products and services. In addition, some foreign competitors are subject to less stringent controls on exporting their encryption technologies. As a result, they may be able to compete more effectively than we can in the United States and the international internet security market.
We are involved in litigation matters in the ordinary course and may in the future become involved in additional litigation, including litigation regarding intellectual property rights, which could be costly and subject us to significant liability.
Our industry is characterized by the existence of a large number of patents and frequent claims and related litigation regarding infringement of patents, trade secrets, and other intellectual property rights. From time to time, third parties have asserted, and may continue to assert, exclusive patent, copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property
rights against us, demanding license or royalty payments or seeking payment for damages, injunctive relief, and other available legal remedies through litigation. These also include third-party non-practicing entities who claim to own patents or other intellectual property that they believe cover our products. If we are unable to resolve these matters or obtain licenses on acceptable or commercially reasonable terms, we could be sued or we may be forced to initiate litigation to protect our rights. The cost of any necessary licenses and litigation related to alleged infringement could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
In the event successful claims of infringement are brought by third parties, and we are unable to obtain licenses or independently develop alternative technology on a timely basis, we may be subject to indemnification obligations, be unable to offer competitive products, or be subject to increased expenses. If we do not resolve these claims on a favorable basis, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
As part of growing our business, we may make acquisitions. If we fail to successfully select, execute, or integrate our acquisitions, then our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected and our stock price could decline.
From time to time, we may undertake acquisitions to add new product and service lines and technologies, acquire talent, gain new sales channels, or enter into new sales territories. Acquisitions involve numerous risks and challenges, including relating to the successful integration of the acquired business, entering into new territories or markets with which we have limited or no prior experience, establishing or maintaining business relationships with new retailers, distributors, or other channel partners, vendors, and suppliers, and potential post-closing disputes.
We cannot ensure that we will be successful in selecting, executing, and integrating acquisitions. Failure to manage and successfully integrate acquisitions could materially harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, if stock market analysts or our stockholders do not support or believe in the value of the acquisitions that we choose to undertake, our stock price may decline.
The success of our business depends on customers’ continued and unimpeded access to our platform on the internet.
Our users must have internet access in order to use our platform. Some providers may take measures that affect their customers’ ability to use our platform, such as degrading the quality of the data packets we transmit over their lines, giving those packets lower priority, giving other packets higher priority than ours, blocking our packets entirely, or attempting to charge their customers more for using our platform.
In December 2010, the Federal Communications Commission (the “FCC”), adopted net neutrality rules barring internet providers from blocking or slowing down access to online content, protecting services like ours from such interference. Recently, the FCC voted in favor of repealing the net neutrality rules, and it is currently uncertain how the U.S. Congress will respond to this decision. To the extent network operators attempt to interfere with our services, extract fees from us to deliver our solution, or otherwise engage in discriminatory practices, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. Within such a regulatory environment, we could experience discriminatory or anti-competitive practices that could impede our domestic and international growth, cause us to incur additional expense, or otherwise materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Changes in tax laws or exposure to additional income tax liabilities could affect our future profitability.
Factors that could materially affect our future effective tax rates include, but are not limited to:
•changes in tax laws or the regulatory environment;
•changes in the valuation allowance against deferred tax assets;
•increases in interests and penalties related to income taxes;
•changes in accounting and tax standards or practices;
•changes in the composition of operating income by tax jurisdiction; and
•changes in our operating results before taxes.
We are subject to income taxes in the United States and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Because we do not have a long history of operating as a separate company and we have significant expansion plans, our effective tax rate may fluctuate in the future. Future effective tax rates could be affected by operating losses in jurisdictions where no tax benefit can be recognized under GAAP, changes in the composition of earnings in countries with differing tax rates, changes in deferred tax assets and liabilities, or changes in tax laws.
As of December 31, 2020, our U.S. federal and state net operating loss carryforwards were approximately $93.1 million and approximately $48.5 million respectively. Moreover, our U.S. federal and state research and development tax credits were approximately $3.7 million and approximately $2.6 million, respectively. The utilization of our net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards may be subject to annual limitation due to ownership changes as provided by Sections 382 and 383 of the Code and similar state provisions. Such an annual limitation could result in the expiration of portions of our net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards before utilization. In the event that we experience ownership changes due to future transactions in our stocks, the utilization of net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards to reduce our future taxable income and tax liabilities may be limited.
The Internal Revenue Services ("IRS") and several foreign tax authorities have increasingly focused attention on intercompany transfer pricing with respect to sales of products and services and the use of intangibles. Tax authorities could disagree with our intercompany charges, cross-jurisdictional transfer pricing or other matters and assess additional taxes. If we do not prevail in any such disagreements, our profitability may be affected.
In addition, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) have been working on new laws on the taxation of the digital economy to provide taxing rights to jurisdictions where the customers or users are located. Some countries have enacted, and others have proposed the new laws to tax digital transactions. These developments may result in material impacts to our financial statements.
We must comply with indirect tax laws in multiple jurisdictions, as well as complex customs duty regimes worldwide. Audits of our compliance with these rules may result in additional liabilities for taxes, duties, interest and penalties related to our international operations which would reduce our profitability.
Our operations are routinely subject to audit by tax authorities in various countries. Many countries have indirect tax systems where the sale and purchase of goods and services are subject to tax based on the transaction value. These taxes are commonly referred to as value-added tax (“VAT”) or goods and services tax (“GST”). In addition, the distribution of our products subjects us to numerous complex customs regulations, which frequently change over time. Failure to comply with these systems and regulations can result in the assessment of additional taxes, duties, interest, and penalties. While we believe we are in compliance with local laws, we cannot assure that tax and customs authorities will agree with our reporting positions and upon audit such tax and customs authorities may assess additional taxes, duties, interest, and penalties against us.
Additionally, some of our products are subject to U.S. export controls, including the Export Administration Regulations and economic sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. We also incorporate encryption technology into certain of our solutions. These encryption solutions and underlying technology may be exported outside of the United States only with the required export authorizations or exceptions, including by license, a license exception, appropriate classification notification requirement, and encryption authorization.
Furthermore, our activities are subject to U.S. economic sanctions laws and regulations that prohibit the shipment of certain products and services without the required export authorizations, including to countries, governments, and persons targeted by U.S. embargoes or sanctions. Additionally, the Trump administration has been critical of existing trade agreements and may impose more stringent export and import controls. Obtaining the necessary export license or other authorization for a particular sale may be time consuming, and may result in delay or loss of sales opportunities even if the export license ultimately is granted. While we take precautions to prevent our solutions from being exported in violation of these laws, including using authorizations or exceptions for our encryption products and implementing IP address blocking and screenings against U.S. government and international lists of restricted and prohibited persons and countries, we have not been able to guarantee, and cannot guarantee, that the precautions we take will prevent all violations of export control and sanctions laws, including if purchasers of our products bring our products and services into sanctioned countries without our knowledge. Violations of U.S. sanctions or export control laws can result in significant fines or penalties and incarceration could be imposed on employees and managers for criminal violations of these laws.
Also, various countries, in addition to the United States, regulate the import and export of certain encryption and other technology, including import and export licensing requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our products and services or our end-users’ ability to utilize our solutions in their countries. Changes in our products and services or changes in import and export regulations may create delays in the introduction of our products in international markets. Furthermore, recent actions by the Trump administration announcing increased duties on products imported from China may severely impact the price of our goods imported into the United States in the future, and other countries may follow suit and increase duties on goods produced in China.
Adverse action by any government agencies related to indirect tax laws could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We are subject to, and must remain in compliance with, numerous laws and governmental regulations concerning the manufacturing, use, distribution, and sale of our products, as well as any such future laws and regulations. Some of our customers also require that we comply with their own unique requirements relating to these matters. Any failure to comply with such laws, regulations, and requirements, and any associated unanticipated costs, could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We manufacture and sell products which contain electronic components, and such components may contain materials that are subject to government regulation in both the locations where we manufacture and assemble our products, as well as the locations where we sell our products. For example, certain regulations limit the use of lead in electronic components. To our knowledge, we maintain compliance with all applicable current government regulations concerning the materials utilized in our products for all the locations in which we operate. Since we operate on a global basis, this is a complex process which requires continual monitoring of regulations and an ongoing compliance process to ensure that we and our suppliers are in compliance with all existing regulations. There are areas where new regulations have been enacted which could increase our cost of the components that we utilize or require us to expend additional resources to ensure compliance. For example, the SEC’s “conflict minerals” rules apply to our business, and we are expending resources to ensure compliance. The implementation of these requirements by government regulators and our partners and/or customers could adversely affect the sourcing, availability and pricing of minerals used in the manufacture of certain components used in our products. In addition, the supply-chain due diligence investigation required by the conflict minerals rules will require expenditures of resources and management attention regardless of the results of the investigation. If there is an unanticipated new regulation which significantly impacts our use of various components or requires more expensive components, that regulation could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
One area that has a large number of regulations is environmental compliance. Management of environmental pollution and climate change has produced significant legislative and regulatory efforts on a global basis, and we believe this will continue both in scope and in the number of countries participating. These changes could directly increase the cost of energy, which may have an impact on the way we manufacture products or utilize energy to produce our products. In addition, any new regulations or laws in the environmental area might increase the cost of raw materials we use in our products. Environmental regulations require us to reduce product energy usage, monitor and exclude an expanding list of
restricted substances, and participate in required recovery and recycling of our products. While future changes in regulations are certain, we are currently unable to predict how any such changes will impact us and if such impacts will be material to our business. If there is a new law or regulation that significantly increases our costs of manufacturing or causes us to significantly alter the way that we manufacture our products, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our selling and distribution practices are also regulated in large part by U.S. federal and state as well as foreign, antitrust and competition laws and regulations. In general, the objective of these laws is to promote and maintain free competition by prohibiting certain forms of conduct that tend to restrict production, raise prices or otherwise control the market for goods or services to the detriment of consumers of those goods and services. Potentially prohibited activities under these laws may include unilateral conduct or conduct undertaken as the result of an agreement with one or more of our suppliers, competitors, or customers. The potential for liability under these laws can be difficult to predict as it often depends on a finding that the challenged conduct resulted in harm to competition, such as higher prices, restricted supply, or a reduction in the quality or variety of products available to consumers. We utilize a number of different distribution channels to deliver our products to customers and end-users and regularly enter into agreements with resellers of our products at various levels in the distribution chain that could be subject to scrutiny under these laws in the event of private litigation or an investigation by a governmental competition authority. In addition, many of our products are sold to consumers via the internet. Many of the competition-related laws that govern these internet sales were adopted prior to the advent of the internet and, as a result, do not contemplate or address the unique issues raised by online sales. New interpretations of existing laws and regulations, whether by courts or by the state, federal, or foreign governmental authorities charged with the enforcement of those laws and regulations, may also impact our business in ways we are currently unable to predict. Any failure on our part or on the part of our employees, agents, distributors, or other business partners to comply with the laws and regulations governing competition can result in negative publicity and diversion of management time and effort and may subject us to significant litigation liabilities and other penalties.
We are exposed to the credit risk of some of our customers and sublease counterparties and to credit exposures in certain markets, which could result in material losses.
A substantial portion of our sales are on an open credit basis, with typical payment terms of 30 to 60 days in the United States and, because of local customs or conditions, longer in some markets outside the United States. We monitor individual customer financial viability in granting such open credit arrangements, seek to limit such open credit to amounts we believe the customers can pay and maintain reserves we believe are adequate to cover exposure for doubtful accounts.
Any bankruptcies or illiquidity among our customer base or sublease counterparties could harm our business and have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. To the degree that turmoil in the credit markets makes it more difficult for some customers or sublease counterparties to obtain financing, our customers’ or sublease counterparties' ability to pay could be adversely impacted, which in turn could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
If our products are not compatible with some or all leading third-party IoT products and protocols, we could be materially adversely affected.
A core part of our solution is the interoperability of our platform with third-party IoT products and protocols. The Arlo platform seamlessly integrates with third-party IoT products and protocols, such as Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Apple TV, Google Assistant, IFTTT, Stringify, and Samsung SmartThings. If these third parties were to alter their products, we could be adversely impacted if we fail to timely create compatible versions of our products, and such incompatibility could negatively impact the adoption of our products and solutions. A lack of interoperability may also result in significant redesign costs, and harm relations with our customers. Further, the mere announcement of an incompatibility problem relating to our products could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
In addition, to the extent our competitors supply products that compete with our own, it is possible these competitors could design their technologies to be closed or proprietary systems that are incompatible with our products or work less effectively with our products than their own. As a result, end-users may have an incentive to purchase products that are compatible with the products and technologies of our competitors over our products.
The marketability of our products may suffer if wireless telecommunications operators do not deliver acceptable wireless services.
The success of our business depends, in part, on the capacity, affordability, reliability, and prevalence of wireless data networks provided by wireless telecommunications operators and on which our IoT hardware products and solutions operate. Growth in demand for wireless data access may be limited if, for example, wireless telecommunications operators cease or materially curtail operations, fail to offer services that customers consider valuable at acceptable prices, fail to maintain sufficient capacity to meet demand for wireless data access, delay the expansion of their wireless networks and services, fail to offer and maintain reliable wireless network services, or fail to market their services effectively.
We are exposed to adverse currency exchange rate fluctuations in jurisdictions where we transact in local currency, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Because a significant portion of our business is conducted outside the United States, we face exposure to adverse movements in foreign currency exchange rates. These exposures may change over time as business practices evolve, and they could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Although a portion of our international sales are currently invoiced in U.S. dollars, we have implemented and continue to implement for certain countries and customers both invoicing and payment in foreign currencies. Our primary exposure to movements in foreign currency exchange rates relates to non-U.S. dollar-denominated sales primarily in Europe and Australia, as well as our global operations, and non-U.S. dollar-denominated operating expenses and certain assets and liabilities. In addition, weaknesses in foreign currencies for U.S. dollar-denominated sales could adversely affect demand for our products. Conversely, a strengthening in foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar could increase foreign currency-denominated costs. As a result, we may attempt to renegotiate pricing of existing contracts or request payment to be made in U.S. dollars. We cannot be sure that our customers would agree to renegotiate along these lines. This could result in customers eventually terminating contracts with us or in our decision to terminate certain contracts, which would adversely affect our sales.
We established a hedging program after the IPO to hedge our exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates as a response to the risk of changes in the value of foreign currency-denominated assets and liabilities. We may enter into foreign currency forward contracts or other instruments. We expect that such foreign currency forward contracts will reduce, but will not eliminate, the impact of currency exchange rate movements. For example, we may not execute forward contracts in all currencies in which we conduct business. In addition, we may hedge to reduce the impact of volatile exchange rates on revenue, gross profit and operating profit for limited periods of time. However, the use of these hedging activities may only offset a portion of the adverse financial effect resulting from unfavorable movements in foreign exchange rates.
Risks Related to Our Separation from NETGEAR
If the Distribution, together with certain related transactions, does not qualify as a transaction that is generally tax-free for U.S. federal income tax purposes, NETGEAR, Arlo and Arlo stockholders could be subject to significant tax liabilities, and, in certain circumstances, we could be required to indemnify NETGEAR for material taxes and other related amounts pursuant to indemnification obligations under the tax matters agreement.
NETGEAR received an opinion from outside tax counsel regarding qualification of the Distribution, together with certain related transactions, as a transaction that is generally tax-free for U.S. federal income tax purposes under Sections 355 and 368(a)(1)(D) of the Code. The opinion was based upon and relied on, among other things, certain facts and assumptions, as well as certain representations, statements and undertakings of NETGEAR and us, including those
relating to the past and future conduct of NETGEAR and us. If any of these representations, statements or undertakings are, or become, incomplete or inaccurate, or if we or NETGEAR breach any of the respective covenants in any of the separation-related agreements, the opinion of the outside tax counsel could be invalid and the conclusions reached therein could be jeopardized.
Notwithstanding the opinion of the outside tax counsel, the IRS could determine on an audit that the Distribution, together with certain related transactions, should be taxable if it determines that any of the facts, assumptions, representations, statements or undertakings were incorrect or had been violated, or if it disagrees with the conclusions in the opinion. The opinion of counsel is not binding on the IRS or the courts, and we cannot assure that the IRS or a court would not assert a contrary position. NETGEAR has not requested, and does not intend to request, a ruling from the IRS with respect to the treatment of the Distribution or certain related transactions for U.S. federal income tax purposes.
The consolidated U.S federal income tax return for the calendar year 2018 that we filed with NETGEAR to report the Distribution together with certain related transactions is currently under audit by the IRS. If the Distribution, together with certain related transactions, were to fail to qualify as a tax-free transaction for U.S. federal income tax purposes under Sections 355 and 368(a)(1)(D) of the Code, in general, NETGEAR would recognize taxable gain as if it had sold our common stock in a taxable sale for its fair market value, and NETGEAR stockholders who receive shares of our common stock in the Distribution would be subject to tax as if they had received a taxable distribution equal to the fair market value of such shares.
We entered into the tax matters agreement with NETGEAR to indemnify NETGEAR for any taxes (and any related costs and other damages) resulting from the Separation and Distribution, and certain other related transactions, to the extent such amounts were to result from (i) an acquisition after the Distribution of all or a portion of our equity securities, whether by merger or otherwise (and regardless of whether we participated in or otherwise facilitated the acquisition), (ii) other actions or failures to act by us or (iii) any of the representations or undertakings contained in any of the Separation-related agreements or in the documents relating to the opinion of counsel being incorrect or violated. Any such indemnity obligations arising under the tax matters agreement could be material.
NETGEAR has agreed to indemnify us for certain liabilities. However, we cannot assure that the indemnity will be sufficient to insure us against the full amount of such liabilities, or that NETGEAR’s ability to satisfy its indemnification obligation will not be impaired in the future.
Pursuant to the master separation agreement entered into between us and NETGEAR and certain other agreements with NETGEAR, NETGEAR has agreed to indemnify us for certain liabilities. The master separation agreement provides for cross-indemnities principally designed to place financial responsibility for the obligations and liabilities of our business with us and financial responsibility for the obligations and liabilities of NETGEAR’s business with NETGEAR. Under the intellectual property rights cross-license agreement entered into between us and NETGEAR, each party, in its capacity as a licensee, indemnifies the other party, in its capacity as a licensor, as well as its directors, officers, agents, successors and subsidiaries against any losses suffered by such indemnified party as a result of the indemnifying party’s practice of the intellectual property licensed to such indemnifying party under the intellectual property rights cross-license agreement. Also, under the tax matters agreement entered into between us and NETGEAR, each party is liable for, and indemnifies the other party and its subsidiaries from and against any liability for, taxes that are allocated to such party under the tax matters agreement. In addition, we have agreed in the tax matters agreement that each party will generally be responsible for any taxes and related amounts imposed on us or NETGEAR as a result of the failure of the Distribution, together with certain related transactions, to qualify as a transaction that is generally tax-free, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, under Sections 355 and 368(a)(1)(D) and certain other relevant provisions of the Code, to the extent that the failure to so qualify is attributable to actions, events or transactions relating to such party’s respective stock, assets or business, or a breach of the relevant representations or covenants made by that party in the tax matters agreement. The transition services agreement generally provides that the applicable service recipient indemnifies the applicable service provider for liabilities that such service provider incurs arising from the provision of services other than liabilities arising from such service provider’s gross negligence, bad faith or willful misconduct or material breach of the transition services agreement, and that the applicable service provider indemnifies the applicable service recipient for liabilities that such
service recipient incurs arising from such service provider’s gross negligence, bad faith or willful misconduct or material breach of the transition services agreement. Pursuant to the registration rights agreement, we have agreed to indemnify NETGEAR and its subsidiaries that hold registrable securities (and their directors, officers, agents and, if applicable, each other person who controls such holder under Section 15 of the Securities Act) registering shares pursuant to the registration rights agreement against certain losses, expenses and liabilities under the Securities Act, common law or otherwise. NETGEAR and its subsidiaries that hold registrable securities similarly indemnify us but such indemnification will be limited to an amount equal to the net proceeds received by such holder under the sale of registrable securities giving rise to the indemnification obligation.
However, third parties could also seek to hold us responsible for any of the liabilities that NETGEAR has agreed to retain, and we cannot assure that an indemnity from NETGEAR will be sufficient to protect us against the full amount of such liabilities, or that NETGEAR will be able to fully satisfy its indemnification obligations in the future. Even if we ultimately succeed in recovering from NETGEAR any amounts for which we are held liable, we may be temporarily required to bear these losses. Each of these risks could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
We may change our dividend policy at any time.
Although we currently intend to retain future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business and therefore do not anticipate paying cash dividends on our capital stock in the foreseeable future, our dividend policy may change at any time without notice to our stockholders. The declaration and amount of any future dividends to holders of our common stock will be at the discretion of our board of directors in accordance with applicable law and after taking into account various factors, including our financial condition, results of operations, current and anticipated cash needs, cash flows, impact on our effective tax rate, indebtedness, contractual obligations, legal requirements, and other factors that our board of directors deems relevant. As a result, we cannot assure you that we will pay dividends at any rate or at all.
*Future sales, or the perception of future sales, of our common stock may depress the price of our common stock.
The market price of our common stock could decline significantly as a result of sales or other distributions of a large number of shares of our common stock in the market. The perception that these sales might occur could depress the market price of our common stock. These sales, or the possibility that these sales may occur, might also make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate.
The 11,747,250 shares of our common stock sold in the IPO are freely tradable in the public market. On December 31, 2018, NETGEAR completed the Distribution to its stockholders of the 62,500,000 shares of Arlo common stock that it owned. As of October 3, 2021, we have 84,266,833 shares of common stock outstanding.
In the future, we may issue our securities in connection with investments or acquisitions. The number of shares of our common stock issued in connection with an investment or acquisition could constitute a material portion of our then-outstanding shares of our common stock.
Any impairment of goodwill, other intangible assets, and long-lived assets could negatively impact our results of operations.
Under generally accepted accounting principles, we review our intangible assets and long-lived assets for impairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable. Goodwill is required to be tested for impairment at least annually. Factors that may be considered when determining if the carrying value of our goodwill, other intangible assets and long-lived assets may not be recoverable include a significant decline in our expected future cash flows or a sustained, significant decline in our stock price and market capitalization.
If, in any period our stock price decreases to the point where the fair value of our assets (as partially indicated by our market capitalization) is less than our book value, this could indicate a potential impairment and we may be required to record an impairment charge in that period. Our valuation methodology for assessing impairment requires management to make judgments and assumptions based on projections of future operating performance. We operate in highly competitive environments and projections of future operating results and cash flows may vary significantly from actual results. As a result, we may incur substantial impairment charges to earnings in our financial statements should an impairment of our goodwill, other intangible assets and long-lived assets be determined resulting in an adverse impact on our results of operations. If there is a decline in the Company’s stock price based on market conditions and deterioration of the Company’s business, the Company may have to record a charge to its earnings for the associated goodwill impairment of up to $11.0 million.
*We are subject to securities class action and derivative litigation.
We are subject to various securities class action and derivative complaints, as more fully discussed in the heading under “Litigation and Other Legal Matters” in Note 9, Commitments and Contingencies, in Notes to Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 1 of Part I of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
Regardless of the merits or ultimate results of the above-described litigation matters, they could result in substantial costs, which would hurt the Company's financial condition and results of operations and divert management’s attention and resources from our business. At this point, however, it is too early to reasonably estimate any financial impact to the Company resulting from these litigation matters.
Your percentage ownership in Arlo may be diluted in the future.
In the future, your percentage ownership in Arlo may be diluted because of equity awards that Arlo may grant to Arlo’s directors, officers, and employees or otherwise as a result of equity issuances for acquisitions or capital market transactions. In addition, following the Distribution, Arlo and NETGEAR employees hold awards in respect of shares of our common stock as a result of the conversion of certain NETGEAR stock awards (in whole or in part) to Arlo stock awards in connection with the Distribution. Such awards have a dilutive effect on Arlo’s earnings per share, which could adversely affect the market price of Arlo common stock. From time to time, Arlo will issue additional stock-based awards to its employees under Arlo’s employee benefits plans.
In addition, Arlo’s amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes Arlo to issue, without the approval of Arlo’s stockholders, one or more classes or series of preferred stock having such designation, powers, preferences and relative, participating, optional and other special rights, including preferences over Arlo’s common stock respecting dividends and distributions, as Arlo’s board of directors generally may determine. The terms of one or more classes or series of preferred stock could dilute the voting power or reduce the value of our common stock. For example, Arlo could grant the holders of preferred stock the right to elect some number of Arlo’s directors in all events or on the happening of specified events or the right to veto specified transactions. Similarly, the repurchase or redemption rights or liquidation preferences that Arlo could assign to holders of preferred stock could affect the residual value of the common stock.
We are an emerging growth company, and we cannot be certain if the reduced reporting requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make our common shares less attractive to investors.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including exemption from compliance with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of (1)
December 31, 2023, (2) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual revenue of at least $1.07 billion, (3) the last day of the fiscal year in which we become a large accelerated filer, which means that we have been public for at least 12 months, have filed at least one annual report and the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the last day of our then most recently completed second fiscal quarter, or (4) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.
Even after we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, we may still qualify as a “smaller reporting company,” which would allow us to take advantage of many of the same exemptions from disclosure requirements including exemption from compliance with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 and reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements.
We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our share price may be more volatile.
Certain provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws and of Delaware law may prevent or delay an acquisition of Arlo, which could decrease the trading price of our common stock.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain, and Delaware law contains, provisions that are intended to deter coercive takeover practices and inadequate takeover bids by making such practices or bids unacceptably expensive to the bidder and to encourage prospective acquirers to negotiate with our board of directors rather than to attempt a hostile takeover. These provisions include, among others:
•the inability of our stockholders to call a special meeting;
•the inability of our stockholders to act without a meeting of stockholders;
•rules regarding how stockholders may present proposals or nominate directors for election at stockholder meetings;
•the right of our board of directors to issue preferred stock without stockholder approval;
•the division of our board of directors into three classes of directors, with each class serving a staggered three-year term, and this classified board provision could have the effect of making the replacement of incumbent directors more time consuming and difficult;
•a provision that stockholders may only remove directors with cause while the board of directors is classified; and
•the ability of our directors, and not stockholders, to fill vacancies on our board of directors.
In addition, because we have not elected to be exempt from Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”), this provision could also delay or prevent a change of control that you may favor. Section 203 provides that, subject to limited exceptions, persons that acquire, or are affiliated with a person that acquires, more than 15% of the outstanding voting stock of a Delaware corporation (an “interested stockholder”) shall not engage in any business combination with that corporation, including by merger, consolidation or acquisitions of additional shares, for a three-year period following the date on which the person became an interested stockholder, unless (i) prior to such time, the board of directors of such corporation approved either the business combination or the transaction that resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder; (ii) upon consummation of the transaction that resulted in the stockholder becoming an interested stockholder, the interested stockholder owned at least 85% of the voting stock of such corporation at the time the transaction commenced (excluding for purposes of determining the voting stock outstanding (but not the
outstanding voting stock owned by the interested stockholder) the voting stock owned by directors who are also officers or held in employee benefit plans in which the employees do not have a confidential right to tender or vote stock held by the plan); or (iii) on or subsequent to such time the business combination is approved by the board of directors of such corporation and authorized at a meeting of stockholders by the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the outstanding voting stock of such corporation not owned by the interested stockholder.
We believe these provisions will protect our stockholders from coercive or otherwise unfair takeover tactics by requiring potential acquirers to negotiate with our board of directors and by providing our board of directors with more time to assess any acquisition proposal. These provisions are not intended to make Arlo immune from takeovers. However, these provisions will apply even if the offer may be considered beneficial by some stockholders and could delay or prevent an acquisition that our board of directors determines is not in the best interests of Arlo and its stockholders. These provisions may also prevent or discourage attempts to remove and replace incumbent directors.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation contains exclusive forum provisions that may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors and officers.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that unless the board of directors otherwise determines, the state courts in the State of Delaware or, if no state court located within the State of Delaware has jurisdiction, the federal court for the District of Delaware, will be the sole and exclusive forum for the following types of actions or proceedings under Delaware statutory or common law: any derivative action or proceeding brought on behalf of Arlo, any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any director or officer of Arlo to Arlo or Arlo’s stockholders, any action asserting a claim against Arlo or any director or officer of Arlo arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL or Arlo’s amended and restated certificate of incorporation or bylaws, or any action asserting a claim against Arlo or any director or officer of Arlo governed by the internal affairs doctrine under Delaware law. This provision would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all such Securities Act actions. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. To prevent having to litigate claims in multiple jurisdictions and the threat of inconsistent or contrary rulings by different courts, among other considerations, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation further provides that the federal district courts of the United States will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. While the Delaware courts have determined that such choice of forum provisions are facially valid, a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring a claim in a venue other than those designated in the exclusive forum provisions. In such instance, we would expect to vigorously assert the validity and enforceability of the exclusive forum provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. This may require significant additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions and there can be no assurance that the provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions. These exclusive forum provisions may limit the ability of Arlo’s stockholders to bring a claim in a judicial forum that such stockholders find favorable for disputes with Arlo or Arlo’s directors or officers, which may discourage such lawsuits against Arlo and Arlo’s directors and officers. Alternatively, if a court were to find one or more of these exclusive forum provisions inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings described above, Arlo may incur further significant additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions or forums, all of which could materially and adversely affect Arlo’s business, financial condition, or results of operations.
Our board of directors has the ability to issue blank check preferred stock, which may discourage or impede acquisition attempts or other transactions.
Our board of directors has the power, subject to applicable law, to issue series of preferred stock that could, depending on the terms of the series, impede the completion of a merger, tender offer or other takeover attempt. For instance, subject to applicable law, a series of preferred stock may impede a business combination by including class voting rights, which would enable the holder or holders of such series to block a proposed transaction. Our board of directors will make any determination to issue shares of preferred stock on its judgment as to our and our stockholders’ best interests. Our board of directors, in so acting, could issue shares of preferred stock having terms which could discourage an
acquisition attempt or other transaction that some, or a majority, of the stockholders may believe to be in their best interests or in which stockholders would have received a premium for their stock over the then prevailing market price of the stock.
General Risks
The market price of our common stock could be volatile and is influenced by many factors, some of which are beyond our control.
The market price of our common stock could be volatile and is influenced by many factors, some of which are beyond our control, including those described above in “Risks Related to Our Business” and the following:
•the failure of securities analysts to cover our common stock or changes in financial estimates by analysts;
•the inability to meet the financial estimates of securities analysts who follow our common stock or changes in earnings estimates by analysts;
•strategic actions by us or our competitors;
•announcements by us or our competitors of significant contracts, acquisitions, joint marketing relationships, joint ventures or capital commitments;
•our quarterly or annual earnings, or those of other companies in our industry;
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our operating results and those of our competitors;
•general economic and stock market conditions;
•the public reaction to our press releases, our other public announcements and our filings with the SEC;
•risks related to our business and our industry, including those discussed above;
•changes in conditions or trends in our industry, markets or customers;
•the trading volume of our common stock;
•future sales of our common stock or other securities; and
•investor perceptions of the investment opportunity associated with our common stock relative to other investment alternatives.
In particular, the realization of any of the risks described in these “Risk Factors” could have a material adverse impact on the market price of our common stock in the future and cause the value of your investment to decline. In addition, the stock market in general has experienced extreme volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market and industry factors may materially reduce the market price of our common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In addition, price volatility may be greater if the public float and trading volume of our common stock is low.
We incur significant costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management devotes substantial time to complying with public company regulations.
Prior to the Separation, we historically operated our business as a segment of a public company. As a standalone public company, we have additional legal, accounting, insurance, compliance, and other expenses that we had not incurred
historically. We are obligated to file with the SEC annual and quarterly reports and other reports that are specified in Section 13 and other sections of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). We are also required to ensure that we have the ability to prepare financial statements that are fully compliant with all SEC reporting requirements on a timely basis. In addition, we are and will continue to become subject to other reporting and corporate governance requirements, including certain requirements of the NYSE, and certain provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“Sarbanes-Oxley”) and the regulations promulgated thereunder, which will impose significant compliance obligations upon us.
Sarbanes-Oxley, as well as rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and the NYSE, have imposed increased regulation and disclosure and required enhanced corporate governance practices of public companies. We are committed to maintaining high standards of corporate governance and public disclosure, and our efforts to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards in this regard are likely to result in increased selling and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. These changes will require a significant commitment of additional resources. We may not be successful in implementing these requirements and implementing them could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, if we fail to implement the requirements with respect to our internal accounting and audit functions, our ability to report our operating results on a timely and accurate basis could be impaired. If we do not implement such requirements in a timely manner or with adequate compliance, we might be subject to sanctions or investigation by regulatory authorities, such as the SEC and the NYSE. Any such action could harm our reputation and the confidence of investors and customers in us and could materially adversely affect our business and cause our share price to fall.
Failure to achieve and maintain effective internal controls in accordance with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and stock price.
As a public company, we are required to document and test our internal control procedures in order to satisfy the requirements of Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley (“Section 404”). Upon loss of status as an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (“JOBS Act”), an annual report by our independent registered public accounting firm that addresses the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting will be required. During the course of our testing, we may identify deficiencies which we may not be able to remediate in time to meet our deadline for compliance with Section 404. Testing and maintaining internal control can divert our management’s attention from other matters that are important to the operation of our business. We also expect the regulations under Sarbanes-Oxley to increase our legal and financial compliance costs, make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified officers and members of our board of directors, particularly to serve on our audit committee, and make some activities more difficult, time consuming, and costly. We may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over our financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 or our independent registered public accounting firm may not be able or willing to issue an unqualified report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. If we conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective, we cannot be certain as to the timing of completion of our evaluation, testing and remediation actions or their effect on our operations because there is presently no precedent available by which to measure compliance adequacy. If either we are unable to conclude that we have effective internal control over our financial reporting or our independent auditors are unable to provide us with an unqualified report as required by Section 404, then investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our stock.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, if they adversely change their recommendations regarding our stock, or if our operating results do not meet their expectations, our stock price could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research, reports and recommendations that industry or securities analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline. Moreover, if one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrades our stock or if our operating results do not meet their expectations, our stock price could decline.
Item 6.Exhibits
Exhibit Index
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Incorporated by Reference
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Exhibit Number
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Exhibit Description
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Form
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Date
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Number
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Filed Herewith
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8-K
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8/7/2018
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3.1
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8-K
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8/7/2018
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3.2
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S-1/A
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7/23/2018
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4.1
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8-K
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8/3/2021
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10.1
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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101.INS
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Inline XBRL Instance Document - the instance document does not appear in the Interactive Data File because its XBRL tags are embedded within the Inline XBRL document.
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X
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101.SCH
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document
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101.CAL
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document
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X
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101.DEF
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document
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X
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101.LAB
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document
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X
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101.PRE
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Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document
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X
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104
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104 Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as Inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101)
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X
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#
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This certification is deemed to accompany this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and will not be filed for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section. This certification will not be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act, except to the extent that the registrant specifically incorporates it by reference.
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