UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
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ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended
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TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Yes ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
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If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes
The aggregate market value of the registrant's common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of January 31, 2021 (the last business day of the registrant's most recently completed second fiscal quarter) was approximately $
As of August 31, 2021, the registrant had
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
As noted herein, certain information called for by Parts II and III is incorporated by reference to specified portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement to be filed in conjunction with the registrant’s 2021 annual meeting of stockholders, which is expected to be filed not later than 120 days after the registrant's fiscal year ended July 31, 2021.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations |
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Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk |
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Item 9. Change in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting Financial Disclosure |
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Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance |
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Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions and Director Independence |
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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains express and implied forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended ("Securities Act"), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended ("Exchange Act"), which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Other than statements of historical fact, all statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, our business strategy and plans and our objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. The words "believe," "may," "will," "potentially," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "plan," "intend," "could," "would," "expect," or words or expressions of similar substance or the negative thereof, that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K include, but are not limited to, statements regarding:
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We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short-term and long-term business operations and objectives and financial needs in light of the information currently available to us. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in Part I, Item 1A. "Risk Factors" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment and new risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for us to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained or implied in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events and trends discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements.
You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, performance, or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or will occur. The forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation, and expressly disclaim any obligation, to update, alter or otherwise revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated or subsequent events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.
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PART I
ITEM 1. Business
Overview
Nutanix, Inc. ("we," "us," "our" or "Nutanix") provides a leading enterprise cloud platform, which we call the Nutanix Cloud Platform, that consists of software solutions and cloud services that power our customers’ enterprise infrastructure. Our solutions run across private-, hybrid- and multicloud environments, and allow organizations to seamlessly "lift and shift" their workloads, including enterprise applications, high-performance databases, end-user computing and virtual desktop infrastructure ("VDI") services, cloud native workloads, and analytics applications, between different cloud environments. Our goal is to provide a single, simple, open software platform for all hybrid and multicloud applications and data.
Founded in 2009, we pioneered the hyperconverged infrastructure ("HCI") category, initially combining the disparate IT silos of compute, storage and networking into a single on-premises product which offered total cost of ownership, scalability and customer choice. We continued to innovate and developed Acropolis Hypervisor ("AHV") - our native hypervisor designed to run all virtualized applications. To give our customers even more choice, we engineered our software solutions to run on a variety of server platforms, decoupling our software from our Nutanix-branded hardware appliances and powering a variety of on-premises private cloud deployments; a significant step in our transition from a hardware to a software company. That transition has continued with the adoption of "cloud" as a mainstream IT paradigm, which has motivated IT professionals to move toward hybrid cloud architectures that allow businesses to simultaneously utilize a private cloud powered by Nutanix software, along with third-party public cloud infrastructures for maximum flexibility. We continue to transform our software solutions into a comprehensive enterprise cloud platform, based on web-scale engineering principles and with a focus on operational simplicity, which allows our customers to power nearly any scale IT deployment. Although today our customers primarily use our enterprise cloud platform to power their on-premises private cloud deployments, our solutions also simplify the complexities of multicloud environments with a single management console for automation, cost governance and compliance. The end result will be an enterprise cloud platform that empowers our customers to unify various clouds - on-premises private, public and distributed - into one seamless cloud, allowing IT to choose the right cloud for each application.
To provide our customers with the freedom to choose the best consumption model based on their specific business needs, we have also continued to reshape our licensing by moving toward a subscription-based business model. A subscription-based business model means one in which our products, including associated support and entitlement arrangements, are sold with a defined term. For more information, see the section titled "Components of Our Results of Operations" included in Part II, Item 7, as well as Note 2 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Furthermore, as part of our transition to a subscription-based business model, we have transitioned to a sales compensation structure that is based on Annual Contract Value ("ACV"). These transitions have caused, and will continue to cause, our traditional life-of-device licensing models to become increasingly replaced by term-based licenses, providing our customers with a subscription option which are portable across hybrid- and multicloud deployments. We believe that these transitions - from hardware to software solutions, and from life-of-device to subscription models - will contribute to our long-term growth, although they have resulted in lower revenues during the period of transition. In fiscal 2021, our subscription billings increased to 89.0% of total billings, up 8 percentage points from fiscal 2020, and our subscription revenue reached $1.2 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of 20.7%. In fiscal 2021, ACV billings was $594.3 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 17.6%.
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The Nutanix Cloud Platform
Leveraging the foundation of our core HCI technology, the Nutanix Cloud Platform delivers a rich set of products, solutions and services to enable our customers to manage their private cloud and, increasingly, their public and hybrid multicloud environments. All of our offerings are supported by a unified control plane, unified Application Program Interfaces ("APIs"), security, and lifecycle management. The Nutanix Cloud Platform is available in private cloud deployment, and is increasingly available on public cloud, through managed service providers and telcos, and in the future, as-a-Service.
We recently announced continued product portfolio simplification, to help streamline the products and offerings that we have developed over the years. The description of our products and offerings below are based on our new simplified product portfolio, but will also refer, in parentheses, to the product names that we have used in the past.
Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure – Our offerings in hybrid cloud infrastructure combine our core HCI software stack (AOS) and our native, enterprise-grade hypervisor (AHV), and also add in support for virtual networking, containers, network security and disaster recovery.
Acropolis (AOS). AOS converges virtualization, storage, and networking services into a turnkey solution. AOS is comprised of three foundational components:
Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV). AHV is a native, enterprise-grade virtualization solution that is included with our enterprise cloud platform with no additional software components to license, install or manage. AHV is built upon a widely-used open source hypervisor technology, known as KVM and extends its base functionality to include additional features such as virtual machine high availability and live migration. AHV also includes such features as flexible migrations, automated workload placement, security hardening, network virtualization, data protection and disaster recovery and rich analytics.
Our offerings in hybrid cloud infrastructure also provide for automated deployment and management of Kubernetes clusters to simplify the provisioning, operations and lifecycle management of cloud-native environments, containerized applications and microservices (Nutanix Karbon).
In addition, our entire hybrid cloud infrastructure stack can not only be run in private cloud environments, but can also be deployed in a public cloud environment like Amazon Web Services ("AWS") bare-metal through Nutanix Clusters, and also allows the customer to move applications between private and public clouds, regardless of where they were originally deployed. Nutanix Clusters also provides a single plane to manage private and public cloud infrastructure.
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Cloud Management – Our offerings in cloud management combine multicloud governance, orchestration and operations, for private cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud deployments. Our offerings in cloud management include our control plane providing management and analytics across the enterprise cloud platform, which delivers integrated management, capacity planning, robust operational analytics, self-service capabilities and one-click administration, and enables efficient centralized administration to manage multiple clusters within a single datacenter, or across multiple sites (Prism Pro). We also provide cloud governance (Nutanix Beam) as well as automation services that streamline application lifecycle management, provide self-service provisioning via an application marketplace, and deliver powerful multicloud orchestration (Nutanix Calm).
Emerging Products – We have also developed a number of emerging products that complement our hybrid cloud infrastructure and cloud management offerings to further expand our customers’ ability to manage their hybrid cloud infrastructure.
Unified Storage (Nutanix Files and Nutanix Objects) – Our Unified Storage product offering includes scale-out storage services that consolidate management of structured and unstructured data. Nutanix customers can simplify storage operations, while delivering enterprise-grade NFS and SMB files services (Nutanix Files), as well as S3-compatible object services (Nutanix Objects), at nearly any scale.
Database Automation and Database-as-a-Service (Nutanix Era) – We also provide automated database management to simplify database administration and to efficiently manage database copies that proliferate in most IT environments (Nutanix Era). Era supports a variety of databases, both proprietary and open source, and can run both in the private datacenter and in the public cloud through Nutanix Clusters.
Desktop-as-a-Service (Nutanix Frame) – Our Desktop-as-a-Service product offering provides a rich set of end-user computing ("EUC") services that can reduce the cost of delivering virtualized desktops and applications, while improving performance and scalability. Services include virtualization, file storage, security and networking for traditional VDI environments. We also provide desktop-as-a-service (Nutanix Frame) to deliver virtual apps or desktops to users from multiple public cloud environments and/or an enterprises private cloud datacenter, which can be easily accessed from any browser.
Delivery of Our Solutions
The Nutanix Cloud Platform can be deployed on-premises running on a variety of qualified hardware platforms, in popular public cloud environments such as Amazon Web Services through Nutanix Clusters, or, in the case of our cloud-based software and software-as-a-service ("SaaS") offerings, via hosted service. Non-portable software licenses for our platform are delivered or sold alongside configured-to-order appliances, with a license term equal to the life of the associated appliance. Our subscription term-based licenses are sold separately, or can also be sold alongside configured-to-order appliances. Our subscription term-based licenses typically have terms ranging from one to five years. Our cloud-based SaaS subscriptions have terms extending up to five years. We expect to continue delivering the majority of our products through subscription term-based licenses or cloud-based SaaS subscriptions.
Our enterprise cloud platform typically includes one or more years of support and entitlements, which provides customers with the right to software upgrades and enhancements as well as technical support. Purchases of non-portable software are typically accompanied by the purchase of a separate support and entitlement agreement. Purchases of term-based licenses and SaaS subscriptions have support and entitlements built into the license.
Our Partners
We have established relationships with channel, OEM, ecosystem and cloud partners, all of which help to drive the adoption and sale of our solutions with our end customers, and we sell our solutions primarily through our partners. Our solutions can be purchased through one of our channel partners, original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs"), or directly from Nutanix.
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Channel Partners. Our channel partners sell our solutions to end customers, and in certain cases, may also deliver our solutions to end customers through a managed or integrated offering. Our Elevate Partner Program simplifies engagement for our partner ecosystem using a consistent set of tools, resources, and marketing platforms. Our channel partners include distributors, resellers, managed service providers, telcos, global systems integrators, and independent software vendors. Arrow Electronics, Inc., a distributor to our end customers, represented 24%, 29% and 32% of our total revenue for fiscal 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively. Tech Data Corporation, another distributor to our end customers, represented 13%, 14% and 15% of our total revenue for fiscal 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively.
OEM Partners. OEMs typically pre-install our software on hardware appliances and sell to end customers, and our offerings may also be sold through our OEMs and delivered directly to our end customers.
Super Micro Computer, Inc. ("Supermicro") and Flextronics Systems Limited ("Flextronics") pre-install our software on Nutanix-branded NX configured-to-order hardware appliances. Dell Technologies ("Dell"), Lenovo Group Ltd. ("Lenovo"), International Business Machines Corporation ("IBM"), Fujitsu Technology Solutions GmbH ("Fujitsu"), Hewlett Packard Enterprise ("HPE") and Inspur Group ("Inspur") pre-install our software on their hardware to create the Dell XC Series, Lenovo Converged HX Series, IBM CS Series, Fujitsu XF Series, HPE DX Series and Inspur inMerge 1000 Series appliances, respectively. HPE also delivers our software with HPE Proliant Servers as a service through the HPE Greenlake offering. Some of our OEM partners also sell associated support offerings.
Ecosystem Partners. We have developed relationships with a broad range of leading technology companies that help us deliver world-class solutions to our customers. Through the Technology Alliance Partner arm of our Elevate Partner Program, our developer, application, hardware and infrastructure partners receive access to resources that allow them to validate and integrate their products with Nutanix solutions and engage in joint sales training and enablement. In addition, we work closely with our technology partners through co-marketing and lead-generation activities in an effort to broaden our marketing reach and help us win new customers and retain existing ones. We have also developed and announced strategic technology partnerships that bring together best-in-class solutions across the ecosystem into integrated offerings and demonstrated interoperability and support for our customers.
Cloud Partners. Our partnerships with public cloud providers help us to realize our vision of a hybrid multicloud. The deployment of Nutanix Clusters on AWS extends the availability of our core HCI software, along with all of our solutions, to bare metal Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud instances on AWS. We have also announced a partnership with Microsoft Corporation ("Microsoft") to offer a hybrid cloud solution on Azure by extending Nutanix Clusters to Azure environments and ultimately enabling hybrid cloud management, on-premises or in Azure, through the Azure Arc control plane.
Our Support Programs
Product Support. We offer varying levels of software support to our customers based on their needs. We also offer hardware support for customers who purchase the Nutanix-branded NX configured-to-order hardware appliances.
Professional Services. We provide consulting and implementation services to customers through our professional services team for assessment, design, deployment and optimizing of their Nutanix environments. We typically provide these services at the time of initial installation to help the customer with configuration and implementation.
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Our End Customers
Our solutions serve a broad range of workloads, including enterprise applications, databases, virtual desktop infrastructure, and big data analytics, and we support both virtualized and container-based applications. We have end customers across a broad range of industries, such as automotive, consumer goods, education, energy, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, media, public sector, retail, technology and telecommunications. We also sell to service providers, who utilize our enterprise cloud platform to provide a variety of cloud-based services to their customers. We had a broad and diverse base of over 20,000 end customers as of July 31, 2021, including approximately 980 Global 2000 enterprises. We define the number of end customers as the number of end customers for which we have received an order by the last day of the period, excluding partners to which we have sold products for their own demonstration purposes. A single organization or customer may represent multiple end customers for separate divisions, segments, or subsidiaries.
Growth Strategy
Key elements of our growth strategy include:
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Sales and Marketing
Sales. We primarily engage our end customers through our global sales force who directly interact with key IT decision makers while also providing sales development, opportunity qualification and support to our channel partners. We have established relationships with our channel partners, who represent many of the key resellers and distributors of datacenter infrastructure software and systems in each of the geographic regions where we operate. We also engage our end customers through our OEM partners, which license our software and package it with their hardware and sell through their direct sales forces and channel partners. We expect to continue leveraging our relationships with our channel and OEM partners, and deepening relationships with our cloud and ecosystem partners, to reach our end customers.
Marketing. We supplement our sales efforts with marketing programs that include online advertising, corporate and third-party events, demand generation activities, social media promotions, media and analyst relations and community programs. More recently, in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, we have transformed nearly all of our in-person marketing programs into digital experiences. For example, we converted both our 2020 and 2021 .NEXT Conferences to a completely digital format. We also establish deep integration with our ecosystem of third-party technology partners and engage in joint marketing activities with them. Our channel partners have joined our integrated partner program, the Nutanix Elevate Partner Program, which provides market development funds, preferred pricing through deal registration, sales enablement and product training, innovative marketing campaigns and dedicated account support. We also coordinate with our OEM partners on joint marketing activities.
Research and Development
Our research and development efforts are focused primarily on improving current technology, developing new technologies in current and adjacent markets and supporting existing end customer deployments. Our research and development teams primarily consist of distributed systems software and user interface engineers. A large portion of our research and development team is based in San Jose, California. We also maintain research and development centers in India, North Carolina, Washington, Serbia, and Germany. We plan to dedicate significant resources to our continued research and development efforts and intend to continue to grow our global research and development and engineering teams to enhance our solutions, improve integration with new and existing ecosystem partners and broaden the range of IT infrastructure technologies that we converge into our enterprise cloud platform. We believe that these investments will contribute to our long-term growth, although they may adversely affect our profitability in the near term.
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Research and development expense was $500.7 million, $554.0 million and $557.0 million for fiscal 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Manufacturing
We do not manufacture any hardware. The Nutanix-branded NX series appliances, including those that are delivered by us, are manufactured for us based on our specifications by two manufacturers, Supermicro and Flextronics. Supermicro and Flextronics assemble and test the Nutanix-branded NX series appliances and they generally procure the components used in the NX series appliances directly from third-party suppliers. Our agreement with Supermicro was renewed in May 2021 for one year and will automatically renew for successive one-year periods thereafter, with the option to terminate upon each annual renewal. Our agreement with Flextronics will expire in November 2021. Distributors handle fulfillment and shipment for certain end customers, but do not hold inventory.
Backlog
We typically accept and deliver orders within a short time frame. In general, customers may cancel or reschedule orders without penalty prior to delivery, and delivery schedules requested by customers in their purchase orders vary based upon each customer’s particular needs. As a result, we do not believe that our backlog at any particular time is a reliable indicator of future revenue.
Competition
We operate in the intensely competitive IT infrastructure market and compete primarily with companies that sell software to build and operate private clouds, integrated systems and standalone storage and servers, as well as providers of public cloud infrastructure solutions. These markets are characterized by constant change and rapid innovation. Our main competitors fall into the following categories:
In addition, we compete against vendors of hyperconverged infrastructure products, such as Cisco, HPE, Dell, VMware and many smaller emerging companies. As our market grows, we expect it will continue to attract new companies as well as existing larger vendors. Some of our competitors may also expand their product offerings, acquire competing businesses, sell at lower prices, bundle with other products, provide closed technology platforms, partner with other companies to develop joint solutions, or otherwise attempt to gain a competitive advantage. Furthermore, as we expand our product offerings, we may expand into new markets and we may encounter additional competitors in such markets. Additionally, as companies increasingly offer competing solutions, they may be less willing to cooperate with us as an OEM or otherwise.
We believe the principal competitive factors in our market include:
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We are also venturing into a number of markets that are adjacent to our core HCI market, both through the expansion of HCI in hybrid multicloud as well as through our emerging products. These adjacent markets include areas such as disaster recovery, cloud management, files and object storage, database automation and database-as-a-service, and desktop-as-a-service. Competitors in these markets include large, sophisticated companies who may have more experience or longer operating histories in these markets as well as new entrants.
We believe we are positioned favorably against our competitors based on these factors. However, many of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical and other resources, greater brand recognition, larger sales forces and marketing budgets, a larger existing customer base, broader distribution and larger and more mature intellectual property portfolios.
Intellectual Property
Our success depends in part upon our ability to protect and use our core technology and intellectual property. We rely on patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secret laws, confidentiality procedures and employee nondisclosure and invention assignment agreements to protect our intellectual property rights. As of July 31, 2021, we had 290 United States patents that have been issued and 221 non-provisional patent applications pending in the United States. Our issued U.S. patents expire between 2031 and 2039. We also leverage open source software in most of our products.
See Item 1A, "Risk Factors," for further discussion of risks related to protecting our intellectual property.
Facilities
Our corporate headquarters are located in San Jose, California where, under lease agreements that expire through May 2024, we currently lease approximately 439,000 square feet of space. We also maintain offices in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. We lease all of our facilities and do not own any real property. While we expect to add facilities as we grow our employee base and expand geographically, we are also evaluating our longer-term facilities plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential for a hybrid work environment. We believe that our facilities are adequate to meet our needs for the immediate future and that, should it be needed, suitable additional space will be available to accommodate the expansion of our operations.
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Government Regulation
Our business activities are subject to various federal, state, local and foreign laws, rules and regulations. Compliance with these laws, rules and regulations has not had, and is not expected to have, a material effect on our capital expenditures, results of operations or competitive position as compared to prior periods. Nevertheless, compliance with existing or future governmental regulations, including, but not limited to, those pertaining to global trade, acquisitions, data protection and data privacy, employment and labor, and taxes could have a material impact on our business in subsequent periods. See Item 1A, "Risk Factors," for further discussion of risks related to the potential impact of government regulation on our business.
Employees and Human Capital
We had approximately 6,080 employees worldwide as of July 31, 2021. None of our employees in the United States are represented by a labor organization or is a party to any collective bargaining arrangement. In certain of the European countries in which we operate, we are subject to, and comply with, local labor law requirements in relation to the establishment of works councils and/or industry-wide collective bargaining agreements. We are often required to consult and seek the consent or advice of these works councils. We have never had a work stoppage and we consider our relationship with our employees to be good.
We understand the importance of human capital and prioritize building our culture, talent development, compensation and benefits, and diversity and inclusion. Our human capital resources objectives include identifying, recruiting, retaining, incentivizing and integrating our existing and new employees, advisors and consultants. The principal purposes of our equity and cash incentive plans are to attract, retain and reward personnel through the granting of stock-based and cash-based compensation awards, in order to increase stockholder value and the success of our company by motivating such individuals to perform to the best of their abilities and achieve our objectives.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
At Nutanix, we value that our differences make us stronger: our diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives when shared, make us a more innovative and resilient team, and we can better delight and serve our customers when our teams reflect the diversity of businesses and communities we serve. Attracting, fostering, and retaining a diverse, inclusive culture is essential to the continued success of our business.
Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in our workforce is one of our key corporate objectives, and to further support this objective we have implemented a number of initiatives, including by expanding our employee resource groups, enhancing our company-wide and unconscious bias and diversity training and overall education efforts, as well as mentorship programs, and forming Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Councils both at the executive level – led by our CEO, Rajiv Ramaswami – and the broader employee level.
Total Rewards
We believe a robust, equitable, and competitive Total Rewards portfolio is essential to attracting and retaining diverse talent that moves Nutanix forward. We design reward and recognition programs that resonate wherever our talent sits in the world. Our reward packages are carefully crafted to offer physical, mental/emotional, and financial support to our employees and their families. We regularly review our programs and encourage employee feedback about what they value most. In addition to specifically tailored packages for each country based on local market practice and the competitive landscape, we also provide a range of globally available support programs such as an Employee Assistance Program, online health engagement and child development support.
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Health, Wellness, and Safety
Our priority is the health and safety of our employees. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have continued to implement a number of precautionary measures to ensure the continued safety of our employees. This has included the implementation of a remote work policy. We also continue to support the well-being and continued development of our now primarily remote workforce by instituting during the pandemic quarterly well-being days, during which all employees can collectively take a mental and physical break, and launching programs like quarterly well-being workshops, no-meeting Fridays, flexible work schedules, mindfulness sessions, and internal social media well-being challenges.
Growth and Development
One of our culture principles is to Believe in Striving -- to constantly learn, continuously improve, and eternally evolve -- and to that end we invest significant resources to actively foster a learning culture throughout the company and to empower our employees to drive their personal and professional growth by equipping them with various learning programs, as well as extensive onboarding and training programs. Our learning programs are available for our employees at all levels of career progression and include digital learning programs, speed coaching sessions, customized learning workshops, management enablement and skills training for current, new and future managers, language learning programs, and employee wellness programs. We believe that by empowering our employees as they strive to grow personally and professionally, we will be able to build a flexible and resilient workforce and maintain and nurture a robust pipeline of talent to fuel our future growth and strategy.
Information about Segment and Geographic Areas
The segment and geographic information required herein is contained in Note 12 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Corporate Information
We were incorporated in Delaware in September 2009 as Nutanix, Inc. Our principal executive offices are located at 1740 Technology Drive, Suite 150, San Jose, California 95110, and our telephone number is (408) 216-8360. We have operations throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. Our website address is www.nutanix.com. Information contained on or accessible through our website is neither a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K nor incorporated by reference herein, and any references to our website and the inclusion of our website address in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are intended to be inactive textual references only.
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Available Information
Our website is located at www.nutanix.com and our investors relations website is located at ir.nutanix.com. We file reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), which maintains an internet site (http://www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers, including us, that file electronically with the SEC. This Annual Report on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, our Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, are made available free of charge on the investor relations portion of our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. We also provide a link to the section of the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov that has, or will have, all of our public filings, including this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, all amendments to those reports, our Proxy Statements and other ownership-related filings. We use our investor relations website as well as social media as channels of distribution for important company information. For example, webcasts of our earnings calls and certain events we participate in or host with members of the investment community are on our investor relations website. Additionally, we announce investor information, including news and commentary about our business and financial performance, SEC filings, notices of investor events and our press and earnings releases, on our investor relations website. It is possible that the information we post on social media could be deemed to be material information. Therefore, we encourage investors, the media and others interested in our company to review the information we post on social media channels listed on our investor relations website. Investors and others can receive notifications of new information posted on our investor relations website in real time by signing up for email alerts and RSS feeds. Further corporate governance information, including our corporate governance guidelines, board committee charters and code of business conduct and ethics, is also available on our investor relations website under the heading "Governance." Information contained on or accessible through our websites are neither a part of nor incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report or document we file with or furnish to the SEC, and any references to our websites and the inclusion of our website addresses in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are intended to be inactive textual references only.
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Item 1A. Risk Factors
You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes, before making a decision to invest in our securities. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones 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 affect our business. If any of the following risks occur, our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects could be materially harmed. In that event, the price of our securities could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. In addition, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and any worsening of the economic environment may exacerbate the risks described below, any of which could have a material impact on us. The situation is changing rapidly, and additional impacts may arise that we are not currently aware of.
Summary Risk Factors
Our business and an investment in our securities are subject to a number of risks, including risks that may prevent us from achieving our business objectives or may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, and prospects. These risks are discussed more fully below and include, but are not limited to, risks related to:
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
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Risks Related to Our Long-Term Debt
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Securities
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Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the actions taken in response, including our own, have materially affected, and will continue to materially affect, how we and our customers and partners are operating our businesses, and the extent to which the effects of the pandemic and such actions will impact our business, financial performance, results of operations and stock price remain highly uncertain and difficult to predict.
The ongoing and rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic has caused, and continues to cause, significant disruptions, volatility and uncertainty to the global economy and is putting unprecedented strains on governments, health care systems, educational institutions, businesses and individuals around the world, including in nearly all of the regions in which we operate. In response to the pandemic, authorities, businesses, and individuals have implemented, and are continuing to implement, numerous unprecedented measures, including travel bans and restrictions, quarantines, shelter-in-place, stay-at-home, remote work and social distancing orders, and shutdowns. Such measures have impacted and will continue to impact our workforce and operations, as well as those of our customers, vendors, suppliers, and partners, and may result in a prolonged recession or depression that could further materially and adversely affect the global economy and our business even beyond the duration of the pandemic. Furthermore, different jurisdictions are in varying stages of restrictions and have achieved varying degrees of success at controlling the spread of the pandemic, with many jurisdictions seeing a resurgence in COVID-19 cases and subsequently having to halt or reverse their reopening plans. As such, we cannot predict, with any degree of certainty, the ultimate duration and severity of the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken in response to the pandemic on the global economy and our business, or the likelihood or frequency of future resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic or other similar major public health concerns.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have taken steps to protect and assist our employees, customers, vendors, suppliers, and partners, including by: temporarily closing all of our offices around the world (including our California headquarters); encouraging our employees to work remotely; implementing travel restrictions that prohibit all non-essential business travel; and postponing, cancelling, withdrawing from, or converting to virtual-only experiences (where possible and appropriate) our in-person customer, industry, analyst, investor, and employee events, including our 2021 .NEXT customer and partner events, our 2021 Investor Day, and our fiscal 2022 sales kick off.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken in response to the pandemic, including our own measures, have already caused, and may continue to cause, various adverse effects on the global economy and our business. Those effects include, but are not limited to:
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The duration, scope and ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the actions taken in response on the global economy and our business remain highly fluid, cannot be predicted with any degree of certainty, and will be highly dependent upon numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including the actions of governments, businesses and other enterprises in response to the pandemic and the extent and effectiveness of those actions. While governments and central banks in several parts of the world have enacted fiscal and monetary stimulus measures to counteract the negative macroeconomic impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, the effectiveness and adequacy of such stimulus measures, as well as their future availability, remain uncertain. The discontinuation or reduction in scope of such stimulus measures may cause a further decline in the global macroeconomic conditions and financial hardships for our customers and partners, thereby exacerbating the adverse effects of the pandemic on our business, including those described above. If we are not able to effectively respond to and manage the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, our business, operations and financial performance, and the price of our securities will be negatively affected, potentially materially.
We have a history of losses and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability in the future.
We have incurred net losses in all periods since our inception, and we expect that we will continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future. We experienced net losses of $621.2 million, $872.9 million and $1.0 billion for fiscal 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively. As of July 31, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $3.6 billion. In addition to the investments we expect to continue to make to grow our business, we also incur and expect to continue incurring significant additional legal, accounting and other expenses as a public company. If we fail to increase our revenue and manage our expenses, we may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future.
Our transition to a subscription-based business model has resulted in, and may continue to result in, a compression to our topline results, and if we fail to successfully manage the transition, our business, operating results and free cash flow may be adversely affected.
We are currently transitioning to a subscription-based business model and may undergo additional business model changes in the future in order to adapt to changing market demands. Our transition to a subscription-based business model entails significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to complete the transition to a subscription-based business model, or manage the transition successfully and in a timely manner. If we do not complete the transition, or if we fail to manage the transition successfully and in a timely manner, our revenues, business and operating results may be adversely affected. Moreover, we may not realize all of the anticipated benefits of the subscription transition, even if we successfully complete the transition. The transition to a subscription-based business model also means that our historical results, especially those achieved before we began the transition, may not be indicative of our future results.
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Regardless of how we manage the transition, our total billings and revenue have been and will continue to be adversely impacted by the transition, particularly when compared to historical periods, due primarily to two factors. First, subscription-based sales, including sales of term-based licenses where revenue is currently recognized upfront, may in some instances have a lower total dollar value than sales of licenses for the life of the device because they may be of a shorter term than the actual or assumed life of the device. If we are unable to increase the volume of our subscription-based sales in any given period to make up for the lower total dollar value of certain subscription-based sales, our total billings and revenue for such period will be negatively impacted. Second, and of lesser significance, the revenue associated with certain SaaS subscription purchases will be recognized ratably over the term of the subscription, resulting in less upfront revenue as compared to our term-based licenses and historical life-of-device licenses. These factors may also make it difficult to increase our revenue in a given period through additional sales in the same period.
In addition, due to the generally shorter terms of subscription-based licenses as compared to our historical life-of-device licenses, maintaining our historically high customer renewal rates and minimizing customer churn will become increasingly important. Our subscription customers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions for our solutions after the expiration of the subscription term, and may decide not to renew their subscriptions, or to renew only for a portion of our solutions or on pricing terms that are less favorable to us. Our customers’ renewal rates may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including their level of satisfaction with our solutions, their ability to continue their operations and spending levels, the pricing of our solutions and the availability of competing solutions at the time of renewal or hardware refresh. We anticipate that our subscription-based model will require us to dedicate additional resources toward educating our existing and potential customers as to the benefits of the subscription model and our solutions generally, and to re-train our seasoned sales employees, who have historically focused on appliance sales and selling software licenses for the life of the device, on selling subscription-based licenses in order to maintain and increase their productivity. As a result, our sales and marketing costs may increase.
In addition, we have adjusted, and may in the future need to further adjust, our go-to-market cost structure, particularly as it relates to how we structure, effect, and compensate our sales teams, including for renewal transactions, to become more efficient as we transition to the subscription-based business model. In particular, to align with the new subscription-based business model, starting in fiscal 2021, we adjusted our sales compensation structure, which was previously based primarily on total contract value, to one that is based primarily on annual contract value ("ACV"), which has caused our average contract term lengths to decline and could negatively impact our operating and free cash flows, potentially significantly. Those adjustments may negatively affect the productivity of our sales teams, cause our sales teams to prioritize shorter-term transactions, cause a change in the mix of solutions sold and the mix of revenue among solutions sold, and cause our renewal rates to fluctuate or decline, and there is no assurance that we will be able to successfully implement the adjustments in a timely or cost-effective manner, or that we will be able to realize all or any of the expected benefits from such adjustments. If our customers do not renew their subscriptions for our solutions, demand pricing or other concessions prior to renewal, or if our renewal rates fluctuate or decline, our total billings and revenue will fluctuate or decline, and our business and financial results will be negatively affected. Furthermore, our future financial profitability will depend significantly on renewals driving topline growth at a much lower cost than new customer contracts, and renewal rates failing to meet our expectations could also harm our operating results and delay our profitability.
Additional risks associated with our transition to a subscription-based business model include, but are not limited to:
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Finally, our transition to a subscription-based business model as an IT infrastructure and platform company has few, if any, precedents, and there are many risks or uncertainties that may remain unknown to us until we have gathered more information as part of the transition. If we fail to anticipate these unknowns, whether due to a lack of information, precedent, or otherwise, or if we fail to properly manage expected risks and/or execute on our transition to a subscription-based business model, our business and operating results, and our ability to accurately forecast our future operating results, may be adversely affected.
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The markets in which we compete are rapidly evolving, which make it difficult to forecast end customer adoption rates and demand for our solutions.
The markets in which we compete are rapidly evolving. Accordingly, our future financial performance will depend in large part on the allocation of spending in traditional IT markets and on our ability to adapt to new market demands. Currently, sales of our solutions are dependent in large part upon replacement of spending in traditional markets, including x86 servers, storage systems and virtualization software. In addition, as we continue to develop new solutions designed to address new market demands, sales of our solutions will in part depend on capturing new spending in these markets, including public cloud and hybrid cloud services. If these markets experience a shift in customer demand, or if customers in these markets focus their new spending on, or shift their existing spending to, public cloud solutions or other solutions that do not interoperate with our solutions more quickly or more extensively than expected, our solutions may not compete as effectively, if at all. It is also difficult to predict end customer demand or adoption rates for our solutions or the future growth of our market.
In addition, we have estimated the size of our total addressable market based on internally generated data and assumptions, as well as data published by third parties, which we have not independently verified. While we believe these estimates are reasonable, such information is inherently imprecise and subject to a high degree of uncertainty. If our third-party or internally generated data prove to be inaccurate or we make errors in our assumptions based on that data, our actual market may be more limited than our estimates. In addition, these inaccuracies or errors may cause us to misallocate capital and other critical business resources, which could harm our business. Even if our total addressable market meets our size estimates and experiences growth, we may not continue to grow our share of the market.
If end customers do not adopt our solutions, our ability to grow our business and operating results may be adversely affected.
Traditional IT infrastructure architecture is entrenched in the datacenters of many of our end customers because of their historical financial investment in existing IT infrastructure architecture and the existing knowledge base and skillsets of their IT administrators. As a result, our sales and marketing efforts often involve extensive efforts to educate our end customers as to the benefits and capabilities of our solutions, particularly as we introduce new products and continue to pursue large organizations as end customers. If we fail to achieve market acceptance of our solutions, our ability to grow our business and our operating results will be adversely affected.
Our historical financial performance, including revenue growth, may not be indicative of our future performance.
Our historical financial performance, including revenue growth, may not be indicative of our future performance. For example, while we have historically experienced significant revenue growth, our total revenue growth slowed in recent periods, due in large part to our transitions from hardware to software-only sales, and from life-of-device to a subscription license model, and these transitions make it difficult to compare historical results.
In addition, as a result of our transition toward a subscription-based model, our revenue may continue to be impacted in the short term. The revenue associated with certain subscription purchases will be recognized ratably over the term of the subscription, resulting in less upfront revenue as compared to our historical life-of-device and term-based software-only transactions. Also, the revenue we recognize from subscription sales, even if recognized upfront, may in some instances have a lower total dollar value than those associated with licenses for the life of the device because they may be of a shorter term than the life of the device. Furthermore, such downward impact on average term lengths may be further exacerbated by our transition to an ACV-based sales compensation structure during fiscal 2021. This may also make it difficult to rapidly increase our revenue in any period through additional sales.
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Following our transition to software-only sales and due to the ongoing transition toward a subscription-based model, our success will also depend heavily on the ability of our sales team to adjust their strategy to focus on software-only and subscription-based sales effectively and in a timely manner. Furthermore, our customers may not understand these changes to our product sales, and investors, industry and financial analysts may have difficulty understanding the changes to our business model, resulting in changes in financial estimates or failure to meet investor expectations. As our business changes, the transitions may make it more difficult to accurately project our operating results or plan for future growth. Accordingly, you should not rely on our revenue growth for any prior periods as an indication of our future revenue or revenue growth.
We have experienced rapid growth in prior periods and we may not be able to sustain or manage any future growth effectively.
We have expanded our overall business and operations significantly in prior periods. Our employee headcount increased significantly since our inception, and we may have significant headcount increases in the future. We anticipate that our operating expenses will increase in the long term as we scale our business, including in developing and improving our new and existing solutions, expanding our sales and marketing capabilities and global coverage, and in providing general and administrative resources to support our growth. However, as discussed in the section titled "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Investment in Growth," we have proactively taken steps to reduce our expenses and increase our go-to-market productivity, as a result, our operating expenses may fluctuate from quarter to quarter in the near-term. In addition, as we continue to grow our business in the long-term, we must effectively train, integrate, develop, motivate and retain a large number of new employees, as well as existing employees who are promoted or moved into new roles, while maintaining the effectiveness of our business execution. The failure to manage these changes could significantly delay the achievement of our strategic objectives. In particular, our success depends heavily on our ability to ramp new sales teams in a fast and effective manner and retain those sales teams. We have also recently seen higher than normal attrition among our sales representatives and while we are actively recruiting additional sales representatives, it will take time to replace, train, and ramp them to full productivity, and if we are unable to do so, we may not be able to achieve our growth targets. We must also continue to improve and expand our IT and financial infrastructure, management systems and product management and sales processes. We expect that our future growth will continue to place a significant strain on our management, operational and financial resources, and we may not be able to sustain or manage any future growth effectively. We may incur costs associated with future growth prior to or without realizing the anticipated benefits, and the return on these investments may be lower, if any, or may develop more slowly than we expect. For example, as part of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have shifted many of our demand generation activities to digital initiatives. If the returns on these initiatives are not as high as expected or take longer to realize than expected, the failure to generate the results we expect may negatively impact our revenue growth and profitability.
If we are unable to sustain or manage our growth effectively, we may not be able to take advantage of market opportunities. We also may fail to satisfy end customers’ requirements, maintain product quality, execute on our business plan or respond to competitive pressures, any of which could adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects.
We believe our long-term value as a company will be greater if we focus on growth, which may negatively impact our profitability in the near term.
Part of our business strategy is to primarily focus on our long-term growth. As a result, our profitability may be lower in the near term than it would be if our strategy was to maximize short-term profitability. Expenditures related to expanding our research and development efforts, sales and marketing efforts, our transition to a subscription-based business model, infrastructure and other such investments may not ultimately grow our business or cause long-term profitability. If we are ultimately unable to achieve profitability at the level anticipated by analysts and our stockholders, the price of our securities may decline, potentially significantly.
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The enterprise IT market is rapidly changing and expanding, and we expect competition to continue to intensify in the future from both established competitors and new market entrants.
We operate in the intensely competitive enterprise infrastructure market and compete primarily with companies that sell software to build and operate enterprise clouds, integrated systems and standalone storage and servers, as well as providers of public cloud infrastructure solutions. These markets are characterized by constant change and rapid innovation. Our main competitors fall into the following categories:
In addition, we compete against vendors of hyperconverged infrastructure and software-defined storage products, such as Cisco, HPE, Dell, VMware and many smaller emerging companies. As our market grows, we expect it will continue to attract new companies as well as existing larger vendors. Some of our competitors may also expand their product offerings, acquire competing businesses, sell at lower prices, bundle with other products, provide closed technology platforms, partner with other companies to develop joint solutions, or otherwise attempt to gain a competitive advantage. Furthermore, as we expand our product offerings, we may expand into new markets and we may encounter additional competitors in such markets. Additionally, as companies increasingly offer competing solutions, they may be less willing to cooperate with us as an original equipment manufacturer ("OEM" and, collectively, "OEMs") or otherwise.
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Many of our existing competitors have, and some of our potential competitors may have, competitive advantages over us, such as longer operating histories, significantly greater financial, technical, marketing or other resources, stronger brand awareness and name recognition, larger intellectual property portfolios and broader global presence and distribution networks. Moreover, our current or potential competitors may be acquired by third parties with greater available resources and the ability to initiate or withstand substantial price competition. Furthermore, some of our competitors have access to larger customer bases and supply a wide variety of products to, and have well-established relationships with, our current and prospective end customers. Some of these competitors have in the past and may in the future take advantage of their existing relationships with end customers, distributors or resellers to provide incentives to such current or prospective end customers that make their products more economically attractive or to interfere with our ability to offer our solutions to our end customers. Our competitors may also be able to offer products or functionality similar to ours at a more attractive price, such as by integrating or bundling their solutions with their other product offerings or those of technology partners or establishing cooperative relationships with other competitors, technology partners or other third parties. Potential end customers may prefer to purchase from their existing suppliers rather than a new supplier, especially given the significant investments that they have historically made in their legacy infrastructures. Some of our competitors may also have stronger or broader relationships with technology partners than we do, which could make their products more attractive than ours. We are also venturing into a number of markets that are adjacent to our core HCI market, both through the expansion of HCI in hybrid multicloud as well as through our emerging products, and some of our competitors in these adjacent markets have more experience with those markets and more resources targeted at penetration those markets than we do. As a result, we cannot assure you that our solutions will compete favorably, and any failure to do so could adversely affect our business, operating results and prospects.
Developments or improvements in enterprise IT infrastructure technologies may materially and adversely affect the demand for our solutions.
Significant developments in enterprise IT infrastructure technologies, such as advances in storage, virtualization, containers, networking, disaster recovery, edge computing, management software and public cloud and hybrid cloud infrastructure solutions, may materially and adversely affect our business, operating results and prospects in ways we do not currently anticipate. Any failure by us to develop new or enhanced technologies or processes, to react to changes or advances in existing technologies or to correctly anticipate these changes or advances as we create and invest in our product roadmap, could materially delay our development and introduction of new solutions, which could result in the loss of competitiveness of our solutions, decreased revenue and a loss of market share to competitors. In addition, public cloud infrastructure offers alternatives to the on-premises infrastructure deployments that our platform currently primarily supports. Various factors could cause the rate of adoption of public cloud infrastructure to increase, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, continued or accelerated decreases in the price of public cloud offerings, increased interoperability with on-premises infrastructure solutions that compete with our solutions, and improvements in the ability of public cloud providers to deliver reliable performance, enhanced security, better application compatibility and more precise infrastructure control. Any of these factors could make our platform less competitive as compared to the public cloud, and could materially and adversely affect the demand for our solutions.
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If other IT vendors do not cooperate with us to ensure that our solutions interoperate with their products, including by providing us with early access to their new products or information about their new products, our product development efforts may be delayed or impaired, which could adversely affect our business, operating results and prospects.
Our solutions provide a platform on which software applications and hypervisors from different software providers run. As a result, our solutions must interoperate with our end customers’ existing hardware and software infrastructure, specifically their networks, servers, software and operating systems, as well as the applications that they run on this infrastructure, which may be manufactured and provided by a wide variety of vendors and OEMs. In addition to ensuring that our solutions interoperate with these hardware and software products initially, we must occasionally update our software to ensure that our solutions continue to interoperate with new or updated versions of these hardware and software products. Current or future providers of hardware, software applications, hypervisors or data management tools could make changes that would diminish the ability of our solutions to interoperate with them, and significant additional time and effort may be necessary to ensure the continued compatibility of our solutions, which might not be possible at all. Even if our solutions are compatible with those of other providers, if they do not certify or support our solutions for their systems or cooperate with us to coordinate troubleshooting and hand off of support cases, end customers may be reluctant to buy our solutions, which could decrease demand for our solutions and harm our ability to achieve a return on the investments and resources that we have dedicated to ensuring compatibility. Developing solutions that interoperate properly requires substantial partnering, capital investment and employee resources, as well as the cooperation of the vendors or developers of the software applications and hypervisors both with respect to product development and product support. Vendors may not provide us with early or any access to their technology and products, assist us in these development efforts, certify our solutions, share with or sell to us any APIs, formats, or protocols we may need, or cooperate with us to support end customers. If they do not provide us with the necessary access, assistance or proprietary technology on a timely basis or at all, we may experience product development delays or be unable to ensure the compatibility of our solutions with such new technology or products. To the extent that vendors develop products that compete with ours, they have in the past, and may again in the future, withhold their cooperation, decline to share access, certify our solutions or sell or make available to us their proprietary APIs, protocols or formats or engage in practices to actively limit the functionality, or compatibility, and certification of our products. If any of the foregoing occurs, our product development efforts may be delayed or impaired, our solutions could become less attractive to end customers resulting in a decline in sales, and our business, operating results and prospects may be adversely affected.
If we fail to successfully execute on our plan to sell more cloud services, which would be sold on a ratable subscription-basis, our results of operations could be adversely affected.
We have sold and anticipate selling more of our products and services as cloud-based offerings - which include offerings hosted on public cloud infrastructure as well as part of our own Nutanix Cloud Platform - on a ratable subscription basis. While cloud-based offerings currently make up a small portion of our business, this shift has required and will continue to require a considerable investment of resources and will continue to divert resources and increase costs, especially in cost of license and other revenues, in any given period. We have also made, and intend to continue to make, investments in the supporting infrastructure for such cloud-based offerings that we host, and may not recoup the costs of such investments. Such investments of resources may also not improve our long-term growth and results of operations. Further, the increase in some costs associated with our cloud-based services may be difficult to predict over time, especially in light of our lack of historical experience with the costs of delivering cloud-based versions of our solutions.
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We believe our plan has certain advantages; however, it also presents a number of risks to us including, but not limited to, the following:
If we fail to properly execute on our plan to sell more of our products and services as cloud-based offerings on a ratable subscription basis, our business and operating results would be adversely affected, and the price of our securities could decline.
If we fail to develop or introduce new or enhanced solutions on a timely or cost-effective basis, our ability to attract and retain end customers could be impaired and our brand, reputation and competitive position could be harmed.
We operate in a dynamic environment characterized by rapidly changing technologies and industry standards and technological obsolescence. We will need to continue to create valuable software solutions and integrate these solutions across hardware platforms. To compete successfully, we must design, develop, market and sell new or enhanced solutions that provide increasingly higher levels of performance, capacity, scalability, security, interoperability, application mobility and reliability and meet the cost expectations of our end customers. The introduction of new products by our competitors, the market acceptance of products based on new or alternative technologies, or the emergence of new industry standards could render our existing or future solutions obsolete or less attractive to end customers. Any failure to anticipate or develop new or enhanced solutions or technologies in a timely or cost-effective manner in response to technological shifts, could result in decreased revenue and harm to our business and prospects. Any new feature or application that we develop or acquire may not be introduced in a timely or cost-effective manner and may not achieve broad market acceptance and investments in research and development or efforts to optimize our engineering cost structure may not be successful. In particular, if we fail to timely release new products, technology or services that we previously announced, our brand and reputation could be harmed. In addition, we have recently announced plans to shift from offerings based on individual products to offerings based on solutions. If we fail to introduce new or enhanced solutions that meet the needs of our end customers or penetrate new markets in a timely fashion, we will lose market share and our business, operating results and prospects will be adversely affected.
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If we are not successful in executing our strategy to increase sales of our solutions to new and existing large organizations, service providers and government entities, our operating results may suffer.
Our growth strategy is dependent in large part upon increasing sales of our solutions to new and existing large enterprises, service providers and government entities, particularly when such sales result in large orders for our solutions. Sales to these end customers involve risks that may not be present, or that are present to a lesser extent, with sales to smaller end customers, which can act as a disincentive to our sales team to pursue these larger end customers. These risks include:
Large organizations often undertake a significant evaluation process that results in a lengthy sales cycle. Although we have a channel sales model, our sales representatives typically engage in direct interaction with our prospective end customers as well as our distributors and resellers. We typically provide evaluation products to these end customers and may spend substantial time, effort and money in our sales efforts to these prospective end customers. In addition, product purchases by large organizations are frequently subject to budget constraints, multiple approvals and unanticipated administrative, processing and other delays. Finally, large organizations typically have longer implementation cycles, require greater product functionality and scalability, require a broader range of services, demand that vendors take on a larger share of risks, require acceptance provisions that can lead to a delay in revenue recognition and expect greater payment flexibility. Given these variables, it can be difficult for us to estimate when an expected sale from a large organization, service provider or government entity may occur, and our ability to accurately forecast our future operating results may be adversely affected. If we fail to realize an expected sale from a large end customer in a particular quarter or at all, our business and operating results could be adversely affected. All of these factors can add further risk to business conducted with these end customers.
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Our growth depends on our existing end customers making additional purchases of software licenses and software upgrades and renewing and upgrading their subscriptions and support and entitlement agreements, and the failure of our end customers to do so could harm our business and operating results.
Our future success depends in part on purchases by our existing end customers of additional software licenses and appliances as well as renewals and upgrades to their subscription and support and entitlement agreements. If our end customers do not purchase additional software licenses or appliances or software upgrades, or renew or upgrade their subscription and support and entitlement agreements, our revenue may decline and our operating results may be harmed. In order for us to maintain or improve our operating results, we depend on our existing end customers renewing their subscription agreements as well as their support and entitlement agreements, or purchasing additional solutions. End customers may choose not to renew their subscription agreements or support and entitlement agreements, or purchase additional solutions, because of several factors, including dissatisfaction with our prices or features relative to competitive offerings, reductions in our end customers’ spending levels or other causes outside of our control. If our existing end customers do not purchase new solutions, or renew or upgrade their subscription agreements or support and entitlement agreements, our revenue may grow more slowly than expected or may decline, and our business and operating results may be adversely affected.
We rely on our key personnel, and our Chief Executive Officer in particular, to grow our business, and the loss of one or more such key employees or the inability to attract, hire, integrate, train, retain, and motivate qualified personnel could harm our business.
Our success and future growth depends to a significant degree on the skills and continued services of our executive officers and key personnel. If we lose the services of any member of management or any key personnel, we may not be able to locate a suitable or qualified replacement, and we may incur additional expenses to recruit and train a replacement, which could severely disrupt our business and growth. For example, in December 2020, we appointed Rajiv Ramaswami as our President and Chief Executive Officer. The loss of the services of Mr. Ramaswami could disrupt our business and negatively impact our operating results, prospects and future growth and cause a significant decline in the price of our securities. In addition, we do not have life insurance policies that cover any of our executive officers or other key employees. The loss of the services of any of our executive officers or key employees, and any failure to have in place and execute an effective succession plan for key executives, could disrupt our business and have a significant negative impact our operating results, prospects and future growth.
In addition, our future success also depends substantially on our ability to continue to attract, hire, integrate, train, retain, and adequately incentivize qualified and highly skilled personnel, in particular, in engineering and sales. We may need to invest significant amounts of cash and equity to attract and retain new employees, and we may never realize returns on these investments. Moreover, ineffective management of any leadership transitions, especially within our sales organization, or the inability of our recently hired sales personnel to effectively ramp to target productivity levels could negatively impact our growth and operating margins. Competition for highly skilled personnel, particularly in engineering, is frequently intense, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, where we are headquartered and have a substantial need for such personnel. Furthermore, the industry in which we operate generally experiences high employee attrition, and we expect such trends to worsen as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Although we have entered into employment offer letters with our key personnel, these agreements have no specific duration and constitute at-will employment. Volatility or lack of performance in the price of our securities may also affect our ability to attract and retain our key employees. We cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully attract or retain qualified personnel. Additionally, potential changes in U.S. immigration and work authorization laws and regulations, including in reaction to COVID-19, may make it difficult to renew or obtain visas for any highly skilled personnel that we have hired or are actively recruiting. Our inability to attract and retain the necessary personnel could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
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If we do not effectively expand, train, motivate and retain our sales force, we may be unable to add new end customers or increase sales to our existing end customers and our business will be adversely affected.
Although we have a channel sales model, our sales representatives typically engage in direct interaction with our prospective end customers. Therefore, we continue to be substantially dependent on our sales force to obtain new end customers and sell additional solutions to our existing end customers. There is significant competition for sales personnel with the skills and technical knowledge that we require. Our ability to achieve revenue growth will depend, in large part, on our success in recruiting, training and retaining sufficient numbers of sales personnel to support our growth. New hires require significant training and may take significant time before they achieve full productivity; we estimate based on past experience that our average sales team members typically do not fully ramp and are not fully productive until around the time of the start of their fourth quarter of employment with us. Our recent hires and planned hires may not become productive as quickly as we expect, and we may be unable to hire or retain sufficient numbers of qualified individuals, particularly individuals who are focused on sales of our solutions to new and existing large enterprises, service providers and government entities, in the markets where we do business or plan to do business. Hiring sales personnel in new countries also requires additional set up, upfront and ongoing costs that we may not recover if the sales personnel fail to achieve full productivity. In addition, as a result of our rapid growth, a large percentage of our sales force is new to our company and our solutions and therefore less effective than our more seasoned employees. Moreover, as we complete our transition to focus on software-only transactions and continue our transition to a subscription-based business model, we are also re-training our seasoned sales employees, who have historically focused on appliance sales and selling software licenses for the life of the device, in order to maintain or increase their productivity. We have adjusted and also anticipate needing to further adjust our go-to-market cost structure, particularly as it relates to how we compensate our sales teams for life-of-device and renewal transactions.
If our new sales employees, particularly those focused on sales of our solutions to new and existing large enterprises, service providers and government entities, do not become fully productive on the timelines that we have projected, or if we are unable to successfully re-train our more seasoned sales employees as we focus on software-only and subscription-based sales or adjust our go-to-market cost structure, our revenue will not increase at anticipated levels and our ability to achieve long-term projections may be negatively impacted. If we are unable to hire, train and maintain sufficient numbers of effective sales personnel, or our new or existing sales personnel are not successful in obtaining new end customers, convincing existing customers to renew their subscription-based purchases, or increasing sales to our existing customer base generally, our business, operating results and prospects will be adversely affected.
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If we do not effectively compose, structure and compensate our sales force to focus on the end customers and activities that will primarily drive our growth strategy, our business will be adversely affected.
As indicated above, our growth is dependent in large part on the success of our sales force and in particular our ability to structure our sales force and sales compensation structure in a way that aligns with our growth strategy. As part of our efforts to appropriately structure and compensate our sales force such that their incentives are properly aligned with our growth strategy, we have made changes to our sales processes, sales segmentation, and leadership structures for our global sales teams and may need to make additional changes in the future. Such changes may take longer than anticipated to successfully implement, and we may not be able to realize the full benefits thereof, which may have a material adverse impact on our sales productivity as well as our business and operational results generally. In particular, as indicated above, our growth continues to be substantially dependent on our ability to increase our sales to large enterprises, particularly when those sales result in large orders for our solutions. Competition for sales employees who have the knowledge and experience necessary to effectively penetrate major enterprise accounts is fierce, and we may not be successful in hiring such employees, or hiring them on the timelines we anticipate, which will negatively impact our ability to target and penetrate major enterprise accounts. In addition, we anticipate that the sales cycles associated with major accounts will be longer than our traditional sales cycles, which will increase the time it will take our new global account managers to become fully productive. In addition, as our organization continues to focus on major accounts and large deals, the productivity of our traditional sales teams may be impacted.
Additionally, as we continue with our transition to a subscription-based business model, we have adjusted and may need to further adjust the compensation structure of our sales force, particularly as it relates to how we compensate our sales teams for life-of-device and renewal transactions. In particular, to align with the new subscription-based business model, starting in fiscal 2021 we have adjusted our sales compensation structure, which was previously based on total contract value, to one that is based primarily on ACV, which has caused our average contract term lengths to decline and could negatively impact our operating and free cash flows, potentially significantly. These business model transitions and compensation structure changes may lead to fluctuations in sales productivity that will make it more difficult to accurately project our operating results or plan for future growth. If we are unable to effectively manage these changes or implement new sales structures in a timely manner, or if our decision to segment our sales force is not successful in obtaining large sales of our solutions, our growth and ability to achieve long-term projections may be negatively impacted, and our business and operating results will be adversely affected.
We rely primarily on indirect sales channels for the distribution of our solutions, and disruption within these channels could adversely affect our business, operating results and cash flows.
We primarily sell our solutions through indirect sales channels, including channel partners, such as distributors, our OEMs, value added resellers and system integrators. Our OEMs may in turn distribute our solutions through their own networks of channel partners with whom we have no direct relationships.
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We rely, to a significant degree, on our channel partners to select, screen and maintain relationships with their distribution networks and to distribute our solutions in a manner that is consistent with applicable law, regulatory requirements and our quality standards. If our channel partners or a partner in their distribution network violates applicable law or regulatory requirements or misrepresents the functionality of our solutions, our reputation and brand could be damaged and we could be subject to potential liability. Additionally, if we are unable to establish relationships with strong channel partners in key growth regions, our ability to sell our solutions in these regions may be adversely affected. Our agreements with our channel partners are non-exclusive, meaning our channel partners may offer end customers the products of several different companies, including products that compete with ours. If our channel partners do not effectively market and sell our solutions, choose to use greater efforts to market and sell their own products or those of our competitors, or fail to meet the needs of our end customers, our business, operating results and prospects may be adversely affected. Our channel partners may cease marketing our solutions with limited or no notice and with little or no penalty. The loss of a substantial number of our channel partners, together with our inability to replace them, or the failure to recruit additional channel partners or establish an alternative distribution network could materially and adversely affect our business and operating results. For example, sales through Arrow Electronics, Inc. and Tech Data Corporation to our end customers represented 32% and 15%, respectively, of our total revenue for fiscal 2021. In addition, if a channel partner offers its own products or services that are competitive to our solutions, is acquired by a competitor or reorganizes or divests its reseller business units, our revenue derived from that partner may be adversely impacted or eliminated altogether.
Recruiting and retaining qualified channel partners and training them in the use of our technologies requires significant time and resources. If we fail to devote sufficient resources to support and expand our network of channel partners, our business may be adversely affected. Maintaining strong indirect sales channels for our products and effectively leveraging our channel partners and OEMs is important to our growth strategy, and the failure to effectively manage these relationships may lead to higher costs and reduced revenue. Also, in certain international markets, we are in the process of transitioning our distribution model from contracting directly with hundreds of individual resellers to contracting with a smaller number of larger global distributors. Although we believe that this transition will make our sales channels more efficient and broader reaching in the long term in these markets, there is no guarantee that this new distribution model will increase our sales in the short term or allow us to sustain our gross margins. Any potential delays or confusion during the transition process to our new partners may negatively affect our relationship with our existing end customers and channel partners and may cause us to lose prospective end customers or additional business from existing end customers or cause a decline in renewal rates with existing end customers. Upon completion of the transition to the new sales model, we will be more reliant on fewer channel partners, which may reduce our contact with our end customers making it more difficult for us to establish brand awareness, ensure proper delivery and installation of our software, support ongoing end customer requirements, estimate end customer demand, respond to evolving end customer needs and obtain subscription renewals from end customers.
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All of our sales to government entities have been made indirectly through our channel partners. Government entities may have statutory, contractual or other legal rights to terminate contracts with our channel partners for convenience or due to a default, and, in the future, if the portion of government contracts that are subject to renegotiation or termination at the election of the government are material, any such termination or renegotiation may adversely impact our future operating results. Additionally, we sometimes rely on our channel partners to satisfy certain regulatory obligations that we would otherwise have to satisfy if we sold directly to the government entities, and our channel partners may be unable or unwilling to satisfy these obligations in the future. In the event of such termination or change, it may be difficult for us to arrange for another channel partner to sell our solutions to these government entities in a timely manner, and we could lose sales opportunities during the transition. Governments routinely investigate and audit government contractors’ (including subcontractors') administrative processes, and any unfavorable audit could result in the government refusing to continue buying our solutions, our channel partners changing their business models or refusing to continue to sell our solutions under current models, a reduction of revenue or fines, or civil or criminal liability if the audit uncovers improper or illegal activities.
If our indirect distribution channel is disrupted, particularly if we are reliant on a fewer number of channel partners, or if we are required to directly satisfy certain regulatory obligations imposed by government entities as a result of our efforts to expand our sales to government entities, we may be required to devote more time and resources to distribute our solutions directly and support our end customers, which may not be as effective and could lead to higher costs, reduced revenue and growth that is slower than expected.
Our operating results may fluctuate significantly, which could make our future results difficult to predict and could cause our operating results to fall below expectations.
Our operating results may fluctuate due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. If our revenue or operating results in any particular period fall below investor expectations, the price of our securities would likely decline. Factors that are difficult to predict and that could cause our operating results to fluctuate include, but are not limited to:
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The occurrence of any one of these risks could negatively affect our operating results in any particular quarter, which could cause the price of our securities to decline.
Our gross margins are impacted by a variety of factors and may be subject to variation from period to period.
Our gross margins may be affected by a variety of factors, including fluctuations in the pricing of our products, including as a result of competitive pricing pressures or increases in component pricing, and the degree to which we are successful in selling the value of incremental feature improvements and upgrades, changes in the cost of components of our hardware appliances, changes in the mix between direct versus indirect sales, changes in the mix of products sold and the timing and amount of recognized and deferred revenue, particularly as a result of our continued transition to a subscription-based business model. If we are unable to manage these factors effectively, our gross margins may decline, and fluctuations in gross margin may make it difficult to manage our business and to achieve or maintain profitability, which could adversely affect our business and operating results.
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Our sales cycles can be long and unpredictable and our sales efforts require considerable time and expense. As a result, it can be difficult for us to predict when, if ever, a particular customer will choose to purchase our solutions, which may cause our operating results to fluctuate significantly.
Our sales efforts involve educating our end customers about the uses and benefits of our solutions, including their technical capabilities and cost saving potential. End customers often undertake an evaluation and testing process that can result in a lengthy sales cycle. Increasing competition and the emergence of new hyperconverged infrastructure product offerings and consumption models often result in customers evaluating multiple vendors at the same time, which can further lengthen the sales cycle. We spend substantial time and resources on our sales efforts without any assurance that our efforts will produce any sales. Platform purchases are frequently subject to budget constraints, multiple approvals and unanticipated administrative, processing and other delays. The broad nature of the technology shift that our solutions represent and the legacy relationships our end customers have with existing IT vendors sometimes lead to unpredictable sales cycles, which make it difficult for us to predict when end customers may purchase solutions from us. The unpredictable nature of our sales cycles may be increased in future periods as we continue to focus our sales efforts more heavily on major accounts and large deals, and as we educate our customers about our ongoing transition to a subscription-based business model. Our business and operating results will be significantly affected by the degree to which and speed with which organizations adopt our solutions.
Because we depend on manufacturers of hardware, including our OEM partners, to timely and cost-effectively produce and ship the hardware on which our software runs, we are susceptible to delays, supply chain restrictions and pricing fluctuations, which could cause our business to be adversely affected.
We rely on manufacturers, including our OEM partners, to produce the hardware appliances on which our software runs, including both our Nutanix-branded NX series appliances and the various third-party appliances that are included on our hardware compatibility list, which exposes us to direct and indirect risks beyond our control, including reduced control over quality assurance, product costs, product supply and timing, supply chain disruptions and delays, and potential reputational harm and brand damage. We may not be able to discover, manage, and/or remediate such risks successfully and in a timely manner. For example, key components of the servers on which our software runs have been affected by the ongoing chip shortage, and customers may delay their purchase of our software if they expect that the delivery of the servers on which they intend to operate the software will be delayed for many months. Furthermore, our orders for NX series appliances represent a relatively small percentage of the overall orders received by such hardware manufacturers from their customers. Therefore, fulfilling our orders may not be a priority in guiding their business decisions and operational commitments. If we fail to manage our relationships with these manufacturers effectively, or if any of them experience delays, disruptions or increased manufacturing lead times, component lead-time disruptions, capacity constraints or quality control problems in their operations or are unable to meet our or our end customers’ requirements for timely delivery, our ability to sell our solutions to our end customers could be severely impaired due to the lack of availability of certified hardware appliances, and our customers' ability, or willingness, to consume our software will be materially delayed, which will adversely affect our business and operating results, competitive position, brand and reputation, as well as our relationships with affected customers.
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In particular, we rely substantially on Supermicro to manufacture, as well as assemble and test, the Nutanix-branded NX series appliances, including those that are delivered by us. Our agreement with Supermicro was renewed in May 2021 for one year and will automatically renew for successive one-year periods following the expiration of such renewal term, with the option to terminate upon each annual renewal, and does not contain any minimum long-term commitment to manufacture NX-branded appliances. If we are required to change the manufacturer or contract manufacturers for the assembly and testing of our NX-branded appliances, we may lose revenue, incur increased costs and damage our channel partner and end customer relationships. We may also decide to switch or bring on additional contract manufacturers for the assembly and testing of our NX-branded appliances in order to better meet our needs. Switching to or bringing on a new OEM partner or contract manufacturer and commencing production is expensive and time-consuming and may cause delays in order fulfillment at our existing OEM partners and contract manufacturers or cause other disruptions.
Our agreement with Supermicro does not contain any price assurances, and increases in component costs, without a corresponding increase in the price of our NX series solutions, could reduce the amount that an end customer pays for our software, thereby adversely affecting our billings and revenue. Furthermore, we may need to increase our component purchases, manufacturing capacity and internal test and quality functions if we experience increased demand. The inability of Supermicro or other manufacturers to produce adequate supplies of hardware appliances could cause a delay in customers’ ability to consume our software and our order fulfillment, and our business, operating results and prospects would be adversely affected. As of July 31, 2021, we had approximately $48.0 million in the form of guarantees to our OEM partners related to certain components.
There are a limited number of suppliers, and in some cases single-source suppliers, for several key components in our NX-branded appliances as well as other hardware appliances that our software is certified to operate on, and any delay or disruption in the availability or quality of these components could delay shipments of the NX-branded appliances and damage our channel partner or end customer relationships, or cause our customers to delay purchasing our software.
We rely on a limited number of suppliers, and in some cases single-source suppliers, for several key hardware components of the Nutanix-branded NX series appliances. These components are generally purchased on a purchase order basis through Supermicro or Flextronics and we do not have long-term supply contracts with our suppliers. Our reliance on key suppliers exposes us to risks, including reduced control over product quality, production and component costs, timely delivery and capacity. It also exposes us to the potential inability to obtain an adequate supply of required components because we do not have long-term supply commitments, and replacing some of these components would require a lengthy product qualification process. Furthermore, we extensively test and qualify the components that are used in NX-branded appliances and other appliances on our hardware compatibility list, including hardware appliances from our OEM partners, to ensure that they meet certain quality and performance specifications. If our supply of certain components is disrupted or delayed, or if we need to replace existing suppliers on the qualified hardware configuration, there can be no assurance that additional supplies or components can serve as adequate replacements for the existing components, will be available when required or that supplies will be available on terms that are favorable to us, and we may be required to modify our solutions to interoperate with the replacement components. Any of these developments could extend our lead times, increase the costs of our components or costs of product development, cause us to miss market windows for product launch and adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
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We generally maintain minimal inventory for repairs and a number of evaluation and demonstration units, and generally acquire components only as needed. We do not enter into long-term supply contracts for these components. As a result, our ability to respond to channel partner or end customer orders efficiently may be constrained by the then-current availability, terms and pricing of these components. The technology industry has experienced component shortages and delivery delays in the past, and is currently experiencing a global chip shortage, and we may experience shortages or delays of critical components in the future as a result of strong demand in the industry, component availability constraints, or other factors. If we or our suppliers inaccurately forecast demand for our solutions or we ineffectively manage our enterprise resource planning processes, our suppliers may have inadequate inventory, which could increase the prices we must pay for substitute components or result in our inability to meet demand for our solutions, as well as damage our channel partner or end customer relationships.
If the suppliers of the components of compatible hardware appliances increase prices of components, experience delays, disruptions, capacity constraints, quality control problems in their manufacturing operations or adverse changes to their financial condition, our ability to ship appliances to our channel partners or end customers in a timely manner and at competitive prices could be impaired, and our customers' ability to acquire hardware on which to run our software could be impaired, and our competitive position, brand, reputation, and operating results could be adversely affected. Qualifying a new component is expensive and time-consuming. If we are required to change key suppliers or assume internal manufacturing operations, we may lose revenue and damage our channel partner or end customer relationships which could adversely impact our revenue and operating results.
We enter into arrangements with certain of our OEM partners that could require us to purchase certain minimum levels of inventory or meet certain performance commitments, which could result in us incurring losses that may negatively impact our business and operating results.
From time to time, in the normal course of business, we enter into arrangements with certain of our OEM partners whereby we make commitments to ensure them a minimum level of financial consideration for their investment in our joint solutions. These commitments are based on performance targets or on-hand inventory and non-cancelable purchase orders for non-standard components. For arrangements related to inventory, we commit to the purchase of certain quantities of components from our OEMs. If we are unable to use the inventory within a specified period, we may be required to purchase it, or to pay the OEM partner the difference between the price at which the OEM partner purchased the inventory and the price at which the OEM partner is ultimately able to sell the inventory to a third party. As a result, if we inaccurately or mistakenly forecast our need for any such components, or if the market price of any such components decreases after the components are purchased by an OEM partner, we may suffer losses with respect to such inventory, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected. For arrangements related to performance targets, we commit to our OEM partner that we will help them reach certain performance targets. If we fail to meet such targets, we are obligated to reimburse our OEM partner for their investment in our joint solution.
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We rely upon third parties for the warehousing and delivery of appliances and replacement parts for support, and we therefore have less control over these functions than we otherwise would.
We outsource the warehousing and delivery of appliances to a third-party logistics provider for worldwide fulfillment. In addition, some of our support offerings commit us to replace defective parts in our appliances as quickly as four hours after the initial customer support call is received, which we satisfy by storing replacement parts inventory in various third-party supply depots in strategic worldwide locations. As a result of relying on third parties, we have reduced control over shipping and logistics transactions and costs, quality control, security and the supply of replacement parts for support. Consequently, we may be subject to shipping disruptions and unanticipated costs as well as failures to provide adequate support for reasons that are outside of our direct control. If we are unable to have appliances or replacement products shipped in a timely manner, end customers may cancel their contracts with us, we may suffer reputational harm and our business, operating results and prospects may be adversely affected.
Our ability to sell our solutions is dependent in part on ease of use and the quality of our technical support, and any failure to offer high-quality technical support would harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Once our solutions are deployed, our end customers depend on our support organization to resolve any technical issues relating to our solutions. Furthermore, because of the emerging nature of our solutions, our support organization often provides support for and troubleshoots issues for products of other vendors running on our solutions, even if the issue is unrelated to our solutions. There is no assurance that we can solve issues unrelated to our solutions, or that vendors whose products run on our solutions will not challenge our provision of technical assistance to their products. Our ability to provide effective support is largely dependent on our ability to attract, train and retain personnel who are not only qualified to support our solutions, but also well versed in some of the primary applications and hypervisors that our end customers run on our solutions. Furthermore, as we expand our operations internationally, our support organization will face additional challenges, including those associated with delivering support, training and documentation in languages other than English. In addition, as we continue to expand our product portfolio to include additional solutions our ability to provide high-quality support will become more difficult and will involve more complexity. Any failure to maintain high-quality installation and technical support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality support, could harm our reputation and brand, adversely affect our ability to sell our solutions to existing and prospective end customers, and could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
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Our solutions are highly technical and may contain undetected defects, which could cause data unavailability, unauthorized access to, loss, or corruption that might, in turn, result in liability to our end customers and harm to our reputation, brand and business.
Our solutions are highly technical and complex and are often used to store information critical to our end customers’ business operations. Our solutions may contain undetected errors, defects or security vulnerabilities that could result in data unavailability, unauthorized access to, loss, corruption or other harm to our end customers’ data, including personal or identifying information regarding their employees, customers, and suppliers, as well as their finance and payroll data, and other sensitive business information. In addition, as we expand our platform and introduce new cloud-based products that may hold more of our customer's data, any undetected or unresolved errors, defects or security vulnerabilities may result in data unavailability, unauthorized access to, loss, corruption or other harm to our end-customers' data. Some errors or defects in our solutions may only be discovered after they have been installed and used by end customers. We previously conducted an in-field replacement of equipment manufactured by our previous outsourced manufacturer, and may be required to do so again in the future. In addition, we may make certain commitments to our OEMs regarding the time frames within which we will correct any security vulnerabilities in our software. If any hardware or software errors, defects or security vulnerabilities are discovered in our solutions after commercial release, a number of negative effects in our business could result, including but not limited to:
In addition, we could face legal claims for breach of contract, product liability, tort or breach of warranty. While many of our contracts with end customers contain provisions relating to warranty disclaimers and liability limitations, these provisions might not be upheld or might not provide adequate protection if we face such legal claims. Defending a lawsuit, regardless of its merit, could be costly and may divert management’s attention and adversely affect the market’s perception of us and our solutions. In addition, our business liability insurance coverage could prove inadequate with respect to a claim and future coverage may be unavailable on terms favorable or acceptable to us or at all. These product-related issues could result in claims against us and our business could be adversely impacted.
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Our business depends, in part, on sales to government organizations, and significant changes in the contracting or fiscal policies of such government organizations could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.
We derive a portion of our revenue from contracts with federal, state, local and foreign governments, and we believe that the success and growth of our business will continue to depend on our successful procurement of government contracts. However, demand is often unpredictable from government organizations, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain or grow our revenue from the public sector. Government agencies are subject to budgetary processes and expenditure constraints that could lead to delays or decreased capital expenditures in IT spending, particularly in light of continued uncertainties about government spending levels, such as recent changes to, or failure to appoint new, government leaders. The budget and approval process for government agencies also experiences a longer sales cycle relative to our other end customers, and it may be difficult for us to accurately forecast the impact of these contracts on our future operating results. If government organizations reduce or shift their capital spending patterns, our business, operating results and prospects may be harmed. Factors that could impede our ability to maintain or increase the amount of revenue derived from government contracts, include, but are not limited to:
The occurrence of any of the foregoing could cause governments and governmental agencies to delay or refrain from purchasing our solutions in the future or otherwise have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and prospects.
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Third-party claims that we are infringing intellectual property, whether successful or not, could subject us to costly and time-consuming litigation or expensive licenses, and our business could be harmed.
A number of companies, both within and outside of the enterprise and cloud computing infrastructure industry, hold a large number of patents covering aspects of storage, servers, networking, desktop, security and virtualization products. In addition to these patents, participants in this industry typically also protect their technology through copyrights and trade secrets. As a result, there is frequent litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation or other violations of intellectual property rights. We have received, and in the future may receive, inquiries from other intellectual property holders and may become subject to claims that we infringed or are infringing their intellectual property rights, particularly as we expand our presence in the market and face increasing competition. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in defending against these allegations or reaching a business resolution that is satisfactory to us. In addition, parties may claim that the names and branding of our solutions infringe their trademark rights in certain countries or territories. If such a claim were to prevail, we may have to change the names and branding of our solutions in the affected territories and we could incur other costs.
We currently have a number of agreements in effect pursuant to which we have agreed to defend, indemnify and hold harmless our end customers, suppliers and channel and other partners from damages and costs which may arise from the infringement by our solutions of third-party patents or other intellectual property rights. The scope of these indemnity obligations varies, but may, in some instances, include indemnification for damages and expenses, including attorneys’ fees. A claim that our solutions infringe a third party’s intellectual property rights, even if untrue, could harm our relationships with our end customers and/or channel partners, may deter future end customers from purchasing our solutions and could expose us to costly litigation and settlement expenses. Even if we are not a party to any litigation between a customer and a third party relating to infringement by our solutions, an adverse outcome in any such litigation could make it more difficult for us to defend our solutions against intellectual property infringement claims in any subsequent litigation in which we are a named party. Any of these results could harm our brand and operating results.
Our defense of intellectual property rights claims brought against us or our end customers, suppliers and channel partners, with or without merit, could be time-consuming, expensive to litigate or settle, divert management resources and attention and force us to acquire intellectual property rights and licenses, which may involve substantial royalty or other payments. Further, a party making such a claim, if successful, could secure a judgment that requires us to pay substantial damages. An adverse determination also could prevent us from offering our solutions to our end customers and may require that we procure or develop substitute solutions that do not infringe, which could require significant effort and expense. We may have to seek a license for the technology, which may not be available on terms favorable or acceptable to us or at all, and as a result may significantly increase our operating expenses or require us to restrict our business activities in one or more respects. Any of these events could adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects.
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The success of our business depends in part on our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights.
We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, service mark, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual restrictions and covenants, to establish and protect our proprietary rights, all of which provide only limited protection. We cannot assure you that any patents will be issued with respect to our currently pending patent applications in a manner that gives us adequate defensive protection or competitive advantages, if at all, or that any patents issued to us will not be challenged, invalidated or circumvented. We have filed for patents in the United States and in certain international jurisdictions, but such protections may not be available in all countries in which we operate or in which we seek to enforce our intellectual property rights, or may be difficult to enforce in practice. Our currently issued patents and any patents that may be issued in the future with respect to pending or future patent applications may not provide sufficiently broad protection or they may not prove to be enforceable in actions against alleged infringers. We cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will prevent unauthorized use of our technology or the reverse engineering of our technology. Moreover, others may independently develop technologies that are competitive to ours or infringe our intellectual property.
Protecting against the unauthorized use of our intellectual property, solutions and other proprietary rights is expensive and difficult, particularly internationally. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce or defend our intellectual property rights or to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. Any such litigation could result in substantial costs and diversion of management resources, either of which could harm our business, operating results and financial condition. Further, many of our current and potential competitors have the ability to dedicate substantially greater resources to defending intellectual property infringement claims and to enforcing their intellectual property rights than we have. Attempts to enforce our rights against third parties could also provoke these third parties to assert their own intellectual property or other rights against us, or result in a holding that invalidates or narrows the scope of our rights, in whole or in part. Effective patent, trademark, service mark, copyright and trade secret protection may not be available in every country in which our solutions are available. An inability to adequately protect and enforce our intellectual property and other proprietary rights could seriously harm our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects.
If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be impaired.
As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 ("Sarbanes-Oxley Act") and the rules and regulations of the Nasdaq Stock Market. We expect that the requirements of these rules and regulations will continue to increase our legal, accounting and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time-consuming and costly, and place significant strain on our personnel, systems and resources.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We are continuing to develop and refine our disclosure controls, internal control over financial reporting and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we will file with the SEC, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms, and that information required to be disclosed in reports under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our principal executive and financial officers.
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Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. Further, weaknesses in our internal controls may be discovered in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls, or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and may result in a restatement of our financial statements for prior periods. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal controls also could adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and annual independent registered public accounting firm attestation reports regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting that we are required to include in our periodic reports we will file with the SEC under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Ineffective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information, which would likely have a negative effect on the market price of our securities.
In order to maintain and improve the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting to comply with the SEC rules that implement Sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we have expended and anticipate that we will continue to expend significant resources and undertake various actions, including incurring accounting-related costs and implementing new internal controls and procedures, and providing significant management oversight. In addition, our independent registered public accounting firm is also required to formally attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and may issue a report that is adverse in the event it is not satisfied with the level at which our controls are documented, designed or operating. Any failure to maintain the adequacy of our internal controls, or consequent inability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis, or an adverse report from our independent auditors, could increase our operating costs and could materially impair our ability to operate our business and could have a material and adverse effect on our operating results and could cause a decline in the price of our securities. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to remain listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Failure to comply with laws and regulations applicable to our business could subject us to fines and penalties and could also cause us to lose end customers in the public sector or negatively impact our ability to contract with the public sector.
Our business is subject to regulation by various federal, state, local and foreign governmental agencies, including agencies responsible for monitoring and enforcing employment and labor laws, antitrust laws, workplace safety, product safety, environmental laws, consumer protection laws, anti-bribery laws, import/export controls, federal securities laws and tax laws and regulations. In certain jurisdictions, these regulatory requirements may be more stringent than in the United States. Noncompliance with applicable regulations or requirements could subject us to investigations, sanctions, mandatory product recalls, enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, fines, damages and civil and criminal penalties or injunctions. If any governmental sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal litigation, our business, reputation, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and an increase in third-party professional fees. Enforcement actions and sanctions could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
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In addition, we must comply with laws and regulations relating to the formation, administration and performance of contracts with the public sector, including U.S. federal, state and local governmental organizations, which affect how we and our channel partners do business with governmental agencies. Selling our solutions to the U.S. government, whether directly or through channel partners, also subjects us to certain regulatory and contractual requirements. Failure to comply with these requirements by either us or our channel partners could subject us to investigations, fines and other penalties, which could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects. As an example, the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") and the General Services Administration ("GSA") have in the past pursued claims against and financial settlements with IT vendors under the False Claims Act and other statutes related to pricing and discount practices and compliance with certain provisions of GSA contracts for sales to the federal government. The DOJ and GSA continue to actively pursue such claims. Violations of certain regulatory and contractual requirements could also result in us being suspended or debarred from future government contracting. Any of these outcomes could have an adverse effect on our revenue, operating results, financial condition and prospects.
These laws and regulations impose added costs on our business, and failure to comply with these or other applicable regulations and requirements, including noncompliance in the past, could lead to claims for damages from our channel partners, penalties, termination of contracts, loss of exclusive rights in our intellectual property and temporary suspension or permanent debarment from government contracting. Any such damages, penalties, disruptions or limitations in our ability to do business with the public sector could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.
We are subject to governmental regulation and other legal obligations, particularly related to privacy, data protection and information security, and our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could adversely affect our business and operating results. Compliance with such laws could also impair our efforts to maintain and expand our customer base, and thereby decrease our revenue.
Personal privacy, data protection and information security are significant issues in the United States and the other jurisdictions where we offer our solutions. The regulatory framework for privacy and security issues worldwide is rapidly evolving and is likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. Our handling of data is subject to a variety of laws and regulations, including regulation by various government agencies, including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") and various state, local and foreign bodies and agencies.
The U.S. federal and various state and foreign governments have adopted or proposed limitations on the collection, distribution, use and storage of personal information of individuals, including end customers and employees. In the United States, the FTC and many state attorneys general are applying federal and state consumer protection laws to the online collection, use and dissemination of data. Additionally, many foreign countries and governmental bodies, including in Australia, Brazil, the European Union ("EU"), India, Japan and numerous other jurisdictions in which we operate or conduct our business, have laws and regulations concerning the collection and use of personal information obtained from their residents or by businesses operating within their jurisdiction. These laws and regulations often are more restrictive than those in the United States. Such laws and regulations may require companies to implement new privacy and security policies, permit individuals to access, correct and delete personal information stored or maintained by such companies, inform individuals of security breaches that affect their personal information, and, in some cases, obtain individuals’ consent to use personal information for certain purposes. In addition, a foreign government could require that any personally identifiable information collected in a country not be disseminated outside of that country, and we are not currently equipped to comply with such a requirement.
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We also expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws, regulations and industry standards concerning privacy, data protection and information security in the United States, the European Union and other jurisdictions, and we cannot yet determine the impact such future laws, regulations and standards may have on our business. For example, California has enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA"), which went into effect on January 1, 2020 and, among other things, requires covered companies to provide new disclosures to California consumers and afford such consumers new abilities to opt-out of certain sales of personal information. In addition, in November 2020, California voters passed the California Privacy Rights Act ("CPRA"), which significantly amends the CCPA and generally expands consumers’ privacy rights and protections with respect to their personal information. We cannot yet predict the full impact of the CCPA or the CPRA on our business or operations, but it has and may continue to require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply. Additionally, the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), which became effective in May 2018, superseded prior EU data protection legislation, imposes more stringent EU data protection requirements, provides an enforcement authority which substantially increases compliance costs, and imposes large penalties for noncompliance. Certain other jurisdictions, including Brazil, have adopted or are considering legislation with obligations that are similar to the GDPR.
Moreover, as a result of current and proposed data protection and privacy laws aimed at using personal data for marketing purposes, including the ePrivacy Regulation to replace the ePrivacy Directive in the European Union, we face an increased difficulty in marketing to current and potential customers, which impacts our ability to spread awareness of our products and services and, in turn, grow a customer base in some regions. There also remains significant uncertainty surrounding the regulatory framework for the future of personal data transfers from the EU or the European Economic Area ("EEA"), as applicable, to the United States. For example, in July 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU") invalidated the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework ("Privacy Shield"), one of the mechanisms we use to legitimize the transfer of personal data from the EEA to the U.S. The CJEU decision also drew into question the long-term viability of an alternative means of data transfer upon which we rely, the standard contractual clauses, for transfers of personal data from the EU or the EEA to the U.S. This CJEU decision may lead to increased scrutiny on data transfers from the EU or the EEA to the U.S. generally and increase our liability and costs of compliance with data privacy legislation. Furthermore, we may experience a reluctance from current or prospective European customers to use our products and may find it necessary to make changes to our handling of personal data of our EEA customers.
Additionally, following a referendum in June 2016 in which voters in the United Kingdom approved an exit from the EU, the United Kingdom government has initiated a process to leave the EU, known as Brexit. Brexit has created uncertainty with regard to the regulation of data protection in the United Kingdom. In particular, while the Data Protection Act of 2018, which 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 under the GDPR. Now that the United Kingdom is a "third country" under the GDPR, we cannot fully predict how the Data Protection Act and other United Kingdom data protection laws or regulations may develop in the medium to longer term, affecting how data transfers to and from the United Kingdom will be regulated. We continue to monitor and review the impact of any resulting changes to EU or United Kingdom law that could affect our operations. We may incur liabilities, expenses, costs, and other operational losses under the GDPR and privacy laws of applicable EU member states and the United Kingdom in connection with any measures we take to comply with them.
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As we begin to offer more cloud-based services, we will increasingly be positioned as a data processor, which imposes additional obligations under the foregoing and other laws and regulations relating to privacy and data protection, and may increase our liability exposure by operation of law, contract, or penalties for noncompliance. Additionally, we expect that existing laws, regulations and standards may be interpreted in new manners in the future. Current or future laws, regulations, standards and other obligations, as well as changes in the interpretation of existing laws, regulations, standards and other obligations could impair our or our customers’ ability to collect, use or disclose information relating to individuals, which could decrease demand for our solutions, require us to restrict our business operations, increase our costs and impair our ability to maintain and grow our customer base and increase our revenue.
Although we are working to comply with those federal, state and foreign laws and regulations, industry standards, contractual obligations and other legal obligations that apply to us, those laws, regulations, standards and obligations are evolving and may be modified, interpreted and applied in an inconsistent manner from one jurisdiction to another, and may conflict with one another, other requirements or legal obligations, our practices or the features of our solutions. As such, we cannot assure ongoing compliance with all such laws or regulations, industry standards, contractual obligations and other legal obligations. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with federal, state or foreign laws or regulations, industry standards, contractual obligations or other legal obligations, or any actual or suspected security incident, whether or not resulting in unauthorized access to, or acquisition, release or transfer of personal information or other data, may result in governmental enforcement actions and prosecutions, private litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity and could cause our customers to lose trust in us, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation, brand and business. Any inability to adequately address privacy and security concerns, even if unfounded, or comply with applicable laws, regulations, policies, industry standards, contractual obligations or other legal obligations could result in additional cost and liability to us, damage our reputation and brand, inhibit sales and adversely affect our business and operating results.
Failure to comply with anticorruption and anti-money laundering laws, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended ("FCPA"), and similar laws associated with our activities outside of the United States could subject us to penalties and other adverse consequences.
We are subject to the FCPA, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, the United Kingdom Bribery Act of 2010 ("U.K. Bribery Act") and possibly other anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in countries in which we conduct activities. We face significant risks if we fail to comply with the FCPA and other anticorruption laws that prohibit companies and their employees and third-party intermediaries from authorizing, offering or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or benefits to foreign government officials, political parties and private-sector recipients for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business, directing business to any person or securing any advantage. In many foreign countries, particularly in countries with developing economies, it may be a local custom that businesses engage in practices that are prohibited by the FCPA or other applicable laws and regulations. In addition, we use various third parties to sell our solutions and conduct our business abroad. We or our third-party intermediaries may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities and we can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of these third-party intermediaries, our employees, representatives, contractors, partners and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities. We continue to update and implement our FCPA/anti-corruption compliance program and no assurance can be given that all of our employees and agents, as well as those companies to which we outsource certain of our business operations, will not take actions in violation of our policies and applicable law, for which we may be ultimately held responsible.
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Any violation of the FCPA, other applicable anticorruption laws and anti-money laundering laws could result in whistleblower complaints, adverse media coverage, investigations, loss of export privileges, severe criminal or civil sanctions and, in the case of the FCPA, suspension or debarment from U.S. government contracts, which could have a material and adverse effect on our reputation, brand, business, operating results and prospects. In addition, responding to any enforcement action may result in a materially significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and significant defense costs and other third-party professional fees.
We are subject to governmental export and import controls that could impair our ability to compete in international markets or subject us to liability if we violate the controls.
Our solutions are subject to U.S. export controls, including the Export Administration Regulations and economic sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and we incorporate encryption technology into certain of our solutions. These encryption products and the underlying technology may be exported outside of the United States only with the required export authorizations, including by license, a license exception or other appropriate government authorizations, including the filing of an encryption registration.
Furthermore, our activities are subject to the 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 U.S. government has recently 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 the delay or loss of sales opportunities even if the export license ultimately may be granted. While we take precautions to prevent our solutions from being exported in violation of these laws, including obtaining authorizations for our encryption products, implementing IP address blocking and screenings against U.S. government and international lists of restricted and prohibited persons, we cannot guarantee that the precautions we take will prevent violations of export control and sanctions laws. Violations of U.S. sanctions or export control laws can result in significant fines or penalties and possible incarceration for responsible employees and managers could be imposed for criminal violations of these laws.
We also note that if our channel partners fail to obtain appropriate import, export or re-export licenses or permits, we may also be adversely affected, through reputational harm as well as other negative consequences including government investigations and penalties. We presently incorporate export control compliance requirements into our channel partner agreements; however, no assurance can be given that our channel partners will be able to comply with such requirements.
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 solutions or could limit our end customers’ ability to implement our solutions in those countries. Changes in our solutions or future changes in export and import regulations may create delays in the introduction of our solutions in international markets, prevent our end customers with international operations from deploying our solutions globally or, in some cases, prevent the export or import of our solutions to certain countries, governments, or persons altogether. From time to time, various governmental agencies have proposed additional regulation of encryption technology, including the escrow and government recovery of private encryption keys. Any change in export or import regulations, economic sanctions or related legislation, increased export and import controls stemming from U.S. government policies, or change in the countries, governments, persons or technologies targeted by such regulations, could result in decreased use of our solutions by, or in our decreased ability to export or sell our solutions to, existing or potential end customers with international operations. Any decreased use of our solutions or limitation on our ability to export or sell our solutions would adversely affect our business, operating results and prospects.
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Our international operations expose us to additional risks, and failure to manage those risks could adversely affect our business, operating results and cash flows.
We derive a significant portion of our revenue from end customers and channel partners outside the United States. We derived approximately 45%, 46% and 46% of our total revenue from our international customers based on bill-to-location for fiscal 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively. We are continuing to adapt to and develop strategies to address international markets but there is no guarantee that such efforts will have the desired effect. As of July 31, 2021, approximately 54% of our full-time employees were located outside of the United States. We expect that our international activities will continue to grow over the foreseeable future as we continue to pursue opportunities in existing and new international markets, which will require significant management attention and financial resources. We are subject to risks associated with having significant worldwide operations, including, but not limited to:
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As we expand our business globally, our success will depend, in large part, on our ability to anticipate and effectively manage these risks. These factors and other factors could harm our ability to gain future international revenue and, consequently, materially impact our business, operating results and financial condition. The expansion of our existing international operations and entry into additional international markets will require significant management attention and financial resources. Our failure to successfully manage our international operations and the associated risks effectively could limit the future growth of our business.
A number of our solutions incorporate software provided under open source licenses which may restrict or impose certain obligations on how we use or distribute our solutions or subject us to various risks and challenges, which could result in increased development expenses, delays or disruptions to the release or distribution of those solutions, inability to protect our intellectual property rights and increased competition.
Certain significant components of our solutions incorporate or are based upon open source software, and we may incorporate open source software into other solutions in the future. Such open source software is generally licensed under open source licenses, including, for example, the GNU General Public License, the GNU Lesser General Public License, "Apache-style" licenses, "BSD-style" licenses and other open source licenses. The use of open source software subjects us to a number of risks and challenges, including, but not limited to:
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If we are unable to successfully address the challenges of integrating offerings based upon open source technology into our business, our business and operating results may be adversely affected and our development costs may increase.
Adverse or uncertain macroeconomic or geopolitical conditions or reduced IT spending may adversely impact our business, revenues and profitability.
Our business, operations and performance are dependent in part on worldwide economic conditions and events that may be outside of our control, such as political and social unrest, terrorist attacks, hostilities, malicious human acts, climate change, natural disasters (including extreme weather), pandemics or other major public health concerns and other similar events, and the impact these conditions and events have on the overall demand for enterprise computing infrastructure solutions and on the economic health and general willingness of our current and prospective end customers to purchase our solutions and to continue spending on IT in general. The global macroeconomic environment has been, and may continue to be, inconsistent, challenging and unpredictable due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, international trade disputes or tensions, tariffs, including those imposed by the U.S. government on Chinese imports to the U.S., restrictions on sales and technology transfers, uncertainties related to changes in public policies such as domestic and international regulations and fiscal and monetary stimulus measures, taxes, or international trade agreements, actual or potential government shutdowns, elections and any related political instability, including potential additional U.S. government shutdowns and developments resulting from the 2020 U.S. presidential election, geopolitical turmoil and civil unrests, instability in the global credit markets, uncertainties regarding the effects of the United Kingdom’s separation from the European Union, commonly known as "Brexit," and other disruptions to global and regional economies and markets.
These macroeconomic challenges and uncertainties, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have, and may continue to, put pressure on global economic conditions and overall IT spending and may cause our end customers to modify spending priorities or delay or abandon purchasing decisions, thereby lengthening sales cycles and potentially lowering prices for our solutions, and may make it difficult for us to forecast our sales and operating results and to make decisions about future investments, any of which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
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We are exposed to fluctuations in currency exchange rates, which could negatively affect our operating results.
Our sales contracts are denominated in U.S. dollars, and therefore, substantially all of our revenue is not subject to foreign currency risk. However, a relative strengthening of the U.S. dollar could increase the real cost of our solutions to our end customers outside of the United States, which could adversely affect our financial condition and operating results. In addition, an increasing portion of our operating expenses is incurred outside the United States, is denominated in foreign currencies such as the Euro, the Pound Sterling, the Indian Rupee, the Canadian Dollar and the Australian Dollar, and is subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. In particular, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused, and may continue to cause, significant volatility in the currency exchange rates, and such volatility may continue for the duration of and possibly beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. If we become more exposed to currency fluctuations and are not able to successfully hedge against the risks associated with currency fluctuations, our operating results could be adversely affected. Furthermore, such currency fluctuations may also adversely impact our ability to accurately predict our future financial results. To date, we have not entered into any hedging arrangements with respect to foreign currency risk or other derivative instruments.
Taxing authorities may successfully assert that we should have collected or in the future should collect sales and use, value added or similar taxes, and we could be subject to liability with respect to past or future sales, which could adversely affect our operating results.
We do not collect sales and use, value added or similar taxes in all jurisdictions in which we have sales, and we have been advised that such taxes are not applicable to our products and services in certain jurisdictions. Sales and use, value added and similar tax laws and rates vary greatly by jurisdiction. Certain jurisdictions in which we do not collect such taxes may assert that such taxes are applicable. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. increases states’ ability to assert taxing jurisdiction on out-of-state retailers could result in additional jurisdictions asserting that sales and use or other taxes apply to our products and services. The assertion that such taxes are applicable by a jurisdiction in which we do not collect such taxes could result in tax assessments, penalties and interest, to us or our end customers for the past amounts, and we may be required to collect such taxes in the future. If we are unsuccessful in collecting such taxes from our end customers, we could be held liable for such costs, which may adversely affect our operating results.
Our international operations may subject us to potential adverse tax consequences.
We have expanded and, in the long-term, anticipate continuing to expand our international operations and staff to better support our growth into the international markets. Our corporate structure and associated transfer pricing policies contemplate the business flows and future growth into the international markets, and consider the functions, risks and assets of the various entities involved in the intercompany transactions. The amount of taxes we pay in different jurisdictions may depend on the application of the tax laws of the various jurisdictions, including the United States, to our international business activities, changes in tax rates, new or revised tax laws or interpretations of existing tax laws and policies and our ability to operate our business in a manner consistent with our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements. The taxing authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies for pricing intercompany transactions pursuant to the intercompany arrangements or disagree with our determinations as to the income and expenses attributable to specific jurisdictions. If such a challenge or disagreement were to occur, and our position was not sustained, we could be required to pay additional taxes, interest and penalties, which could result in one-time tax charges, higher effective tax rates, reduced cash flows and lower overall profitability of our operations. Our financial statements could fail to reflect adequate reserves to cover such a contingency.
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Changes in global tax laws could increase our worldwide tax rate and could have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, results of operations or financial conditions.
Global tax developments applicable to multinational businesses may have a material impact to our business, cash flow from operating activities, or financial results. The Biden administration has proposed increases to the U.S. corporate income tax rate, minimum tax on book income, and increased taxation of international business operations. International organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, have published Base Erosion and Profit Shifting action plans that, if adopted by countries where we do business, could increase our tax obligations in these countries. In addition, several countries have proposed or enacted Digital Services Taxes ("DST"), many of which would apply to revenues derived from digital services. We will continue to assess the ongoing impact of these current and pending changes to global tax legislation and the impact on the Company's future financial statements upon the finalization of laws, regulations and additional guidance. In addition, as we continue to evaluate our corporate structure, any changes to the taxation of undistributed foreign earnings could also change our plans regarding reinvestment of such earnings. Due to the large scale of our U.S. and international business activities, many of these enacted and proposed changes to the taxation of our activities could increase our worldwide effective tax rate and have an adverse effect on our operating results, cash flow or financial condition.
Certain EU and other jurisdictions have introduced anti-hybrid provisions, which came into force in EU member states on January 1, 2020 (subject to relevant derogations). The scope of these rules is wide-reaching and can apply to disallow certain deductions for corporate tax purposes where hybrid entities exist within a company structure. These provisions may place additional burden on our management to assess the impact of the rules and potentially create additional tax costs. EU countries and other jurisdictions will continue to interpret or issue additional guidance on how provisions of the anti-hybrid will be applied, which, if applicable, may materially impact our financial statements and cash flow. Separately, as a result of the complexity of, and lack of clear precedent or authority with respect to, the application of various income tax laws to our corporate structure, tax authorities may challenge how we report our transactions, which may increase our costs and impact our operations.
We are subject to income taxes as well as non-income-based taxes, in both the U.S. and various foreign jurisdictions. Many judgments are required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities, and we are under audit by various tax authorities, which often do not agree with positions taken by us on our income and non-income-based tax returns. Although we believe that our estimates are reasonable, the ultimate tax outcome may differ from the amounts recorded in our consolidated financial statements and may materially affect our financial results in the period or periods for which such determination is made.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
In general, under Section 382 of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the "Code"), a corporation that undergoes an ownership change is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change net operating losses ("NOLs"), and other tax attributes to offset future taxable income. An ownership change occurs when a company’s "five-percent shareholders" (as defined in Section 382 of the Code) collectively increase their ownership in the company by more than 50 percentage points (by value) over a rolling three-year period. Similar limitations may apply for state tax purposes. If our existing NOLs are subject to limitations arising from previous ownership changes, our ability to utilize NOLs could be limited by Section 382 of the Code. We may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership. In addition, at the state level, there may be periods during which the use of net operating losses is suspended or otherwise limited, including a recent California franchise tax law change limiting the usability of California state net operating losses to offset taxable income in tax years beginning after 2019 and before 2023.
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Our business is subject to the risks of natural disasters (including extreme weather), man-made problems, pandemics and other major public health concerns and other similar events that may be outside of our control.
Significant natural disasters (such as earthquakes, fires, floods, and extreme weather), man-made problems (such as significant power outages, security breaches, acts of terrorism or war, civil unrests, or geopolitical turmoil), pandemics or other major public health concerns (such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic) and other similar events that may be outside of our control could have an adverse impact on our business and operating results. For example, despite the implementation of network security measures, our networks also may be vulnerable to computer viruses, break-ins and similar disruptions from unauthorized tampering with our solutions. Further, both our corporate headquarters and our main contract manufacturers are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for seismic activity. In addition, natural disasters (including extreme weather), man-made problems and pandemics or other major public health concerns could cause disruptions in our or our end customers’ or channel partners’ businesses, our suppliers’ and manufacturers’ operations or the global economy as a whole. We also rely on IT systems to communicate among our workforce and with third parties. Any disruption to our communications, whether caused by a natural disaster or by man-made problems, such as power disruptions, could adversely affect our business. We do not have a formal disaster recovery plan or policy in place and do not currently require that our manufacturing partners have such plans or policies in place. To the extent that any such disruptions result in delays or cancellations of orders or impede our suppliers’ or our manufacturers’ ability to timely deliver our solutions and product components, or the deployment of our solutions, our business, operating results and financial condition would be adversely affected. We do maintain what we believe are commercially reasonable levels of business interruption insurance. However, such insurance may not adequately cover our losses in the event of a significant disruption in our business.
If we are the victim of a cyber attack or other cyber security incident and our networks, computer systems or software solutions are breached or unauthorized access to sensitive or proprietary information, including employee or customer data, otherwise occurs, our business operations may be interrupted, our reputation and brand may be damaged, and we may incur significant liabilities.
Cyber attacks designed to gain access to sensitive or proprietary information by breaching mission critical systems of large organizations are constantly evolving, and high-profile electronic security breaches leading to the unauthorized release of sensitive or proprietary information, including employee and customer information, have occurred at a number of large companies in recent years. Companies in our industry have reported that they have been subject to such cyber attacks, including attacks potentially from nation-state actors, and we could be and have been subject to similar attempted attacks. More generally, computer malware, viruses, social engineering (predominantly spear phishing attacks) and general hacking have become prevalent in our industry, particularly against cloud services, and we and companies like us can suffer security breaches from a variety of causes, whether due to third-party action, software bugs or vulnerabilities or coding errors, physical break-ins, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise. We regularly face a wide variety of attempted attacks of this nature, some of which may be successful, although none to-date have had a significant impact on our business. As we transition to offering more cloud-based solutions, as well as those based on our partnerships with third party public cloud providers, we and our third-party public cloud providers may increasingly be the target of cyber threats.
Because the techniques used and vulnerabilities exploited to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently, and generally are not identified until they are launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or vulnerabilities or implement adequate preventative measures. We may also experience security breaches that may remain undetected for an extended period.
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If any unauthorized access to or security breach of our solutions occurs, such an event could result in the loss of data, loss of intellectual property or trade secrets, loss of business, severe reputational or brand damage adversely affecting end customer or investor confidence, regulatory investigations and orders and other enforcement actions, litigation, indemnity obligations, damages for contract breach and penalties for violation of privacy, data protection and other applicable laws, regulations or contractual obligations. We may also be subject to potentially significant costs for remediation that may include liability for stolen assets or information and repair of system damage that may have been caused or incentives offered to end customers or other business partners in an effort to maintain business relationships after a breach and other liabilities. Additionally, any such event or perceived event could impact our reputation and brand, harm customer confidence, hurt our sales and expansion into existing and new markets or cause us to lose potential or existing end customers. Any actual, potential or anticipated attack may cause us to incur increasing costs, including costs to deploy additional personnel and protection technologies, train employees and engage third-party experts and consultants.
Furthermore, a high-profile security breach suffered, or perceived to have been suffered, by an industry peer may entail a general loss of trust in our industry and thereby have a similar adverse impact on our business and financial performance as a direct breach suffered by us. We could be required to expend significant capital and other resources to alleviate problems caused by such actual or perceived breaches and to remediate our systems, we could be exposed to a risk of loss, litigation or regulatory action and possible liability, and our ability to operate our business may be impaired.
In addition, if the security measures of our end customers, partners, vendors, or suppliers are compromised, even without any actual compromise of our own systems or of our solutions used by such end customers, partners, vendors, or suppliers, we may face negative publicity, reputational harm or brand damage if our end customers, partners, vendors, or suppliers or anyone else incorrectly attributes the blame for such security breaches to us or our solutions. If end customers believe that our solutions do not provide adequate security for the storage of personal or other sensitive or proprietary information or the transmission of such information over the internet, our business will be harmed. End customers’ concerns about security or privacy may deter them from using our solutions for activities that involve personal or other sensitive information, which may significantly affect our business and operating results.
Moreover, we have acquired a number of companies, products, services and technologies over the years. Although we devote significant resources to address any security issues with respect to such acquisitions, we may still inherit additional risks as we integrate these companies, products, services and technologies into our business and solutions.
We have expanded and may further expand through acquisitions of, or investments in, other companies, each of which may divert our management’s attention, resulting in additional dilution to our stockholders and consumption of resources that are necessary to sustain and grow our business.
Our business strategy may, from time to time, include acquiring other complementary products, technologies or businesses. We also may enter into relationships with other businesses in order to expand our solutions, which could involve preferred or exclusive licenses, additional channels of distribution or discount pricing or investments in other companies. Negotiating these transactions can be time-consuming, difficult and expensive, and our ability to close these transactions may be subject to third-party approvals, such as government regulatory approvals, which are beyond our control. Consequently, we can make no assurance that these transactions once undertaken and announced, will close.
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These kinds of acquisitions or investments may result in unforeseen expenditures and operating and integration difficulties, especially if the acquisitions or investments are more complex in structure and scope, including due to the geographic location of the acquired company. In particular, we may encounter difficulties assimilating or integrating the businesses, technologies, products, personnel or operations of companies that we may acquire, particularly if the key personnel of the acquired business choose not to work for us. We may have difficulty retaining the customers of any acquired business or the acquired technologies or research and development expectations may prove unsuccessful. Acquisitions may also disrupt our ongoing business, divert our resources, require significant management attention that would otherwise be available for development of our business and may be viewed negatively by our end customers, investors or securities analysts. We may not successfully evaluate or utilize the acquired technology or personnel, or accurately forecast the financial impact of an acquisition transaction, including accounting charges. Any acquisition or investment could expose us to unknown liabilities and risks, and we may incur additional costs and expenses necessary to address an acquired company’s failure to comply with laws and governmental rules and regulations. Moreover, we cannot assure you that the anticipated benefits of any acquisition or investment would be realized in a timely manner, if at all, or that we would not be exposed to unknown liabilities. In connection with these types of transactions, we may issue additional equity securities that would dilute our stockholders, use cash that we may need in the future to operate our business, incur debt on terms unfavorable to us or that we are unable to repay, incur large charges or substantial liabilities, encounter difficulties integrating diverse business cultures and become subject to adverse tax consequences, substantial depreciation or deferred compensation charges. These challenges related to acquisitions or investments could adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects.
Risks Related to Our Long-Term Debt
In January 2018, we issued $575.0 million in aggregate principal amount of 0% convertible senior notes due 2023 (the "2023 Notes"), in private placements to qualified institutional buyers. In September 2020, we issued $750.0 million in aggregate principal amount of 2.50% convertible senior notes due 2026 (the "2026 Notes," together with the 2023 Notes, the "Notes"). The 2026 Notes bear interest at a rate of 2.50% per annum, with such interest to be paid in kind on the 2026 Notes held by Bain Capital through an increase in the principal amount of the 2026 Notes and in cash on the 2026 Notes transferred to entities not affiliated with Bain Capital. Interest on the 2026 Notes accrues from the date of issuance and is added to the principal amount of such Notes on a semi-annual basis thereafter.
We may not have the ability to raise the funds necessary to settle conversions of the Notes in cash or to repurchase the Notes upon a fundamental change, and our future debt may contain limitations on our ability to pay cash upon conversion or repurchase of the Notes.
Holders of the Notes will have the right to require us to repurchase all or a portion of their Notes upon the occurrence of a fundamental change before the maturity date at a repurchase price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the Notes to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid special interest, if any. In addition, upon conversion of the Notes, unless we elect to deliver solely shares of our Class A common stock to settle such conversion (other than paying cash in lieu of delivering any fractional share), we will be required to make cash payments in respect of the Notes being converted. Moreover, we will be required to repay the Notes in cash at their maturity unless earlier converted or repurchased. However, we may not have enough available cash or be able to obtain financing at the time we are required to make repurchases of Notes surrendered therefor or pay cash with respect to Notes being converted or at their maturity.
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In addition, our ability to repurchase Notes or to pay cash upon conversions of Notes or at their maturity may be limited by law, regulatory authority or agreements governing our future indebtedness. Our failure to repurchase Notes at a time when the repurchase is required by the indenture or to pay cash upon conversions of Notes or at their maturity as required by the indenture would constitute a default under the indenture. A default under the indenture or the fundamental change itself could also lead to a default under agreements governing our future indebtedness. Moreover, the occurrence of a fundamental change under the indenture could constitute an event of default under any such agreement. If the payment of the related indebtedness were to be accelerated after any applicable notice or grace periods, we may not have sufficient funds to repay the indebtedness or to pay cash amounts due upon conversion, upon required repurchase or at maturity of the Notes.
The conditional conversion feature of the Notes, if triggered, may adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.
In the event the conditional conversion feature of the Notes is triggered, holders of the Notes will be entitled to convert their Notes at any time during specified periods at their option. If one or more holders elect to convert their Notes, unless we elect to satisfy our conversion obligation by delivering solely shares of our Class A common stock (other than paying cash in lieu of delivering any fractional share), we would be required to settle a portion or all of our conversion obligation in cash, which could adversely affect our liquidity. In addition, even if holders of Notes do not elect to convert their Notes, we could be required under applicable accounting rules to reclassify all or a portion of the outstanding principal of the Notes as a current rather than long-term liability, which would result in a material reduction of our net working capital.
The accounting method for convertible debt securities that may be settled in cash, such as the Notes, could have a material effect on our reported financial results.
Under Accounting Standards Codification 470-20, Debt with Conversion and Other Options ("ASC 470-20"), an entity must separately account for the liability and equity components of the convertible debt instruments, such as the Notes, that may be settled entirely or partially in cash upon conversion in a manner that reflects the issuer’s economic interest cost. The effect of ASC 470-20 on the accounting for the Notes is that the equity component is required to be included in the additional paid-in capital section of stockholders’ equity on our consolidated balance sheet at the issuance date and the value of the equity component would be treated as debt discount for the purpose of accounting for the debt component of the Notes. As a result, we are required to record non-cash interest expense as a result of the amortization of the discounted carrying value of the Notes to their face amount over the term of the Notes. We will report larger net losses (or lower net income) in our financial results because ASC 470-20 will require interest to include the amortization of the debt discount, which could adversely affect our reported or future financial results or the trading price of our Class A common stock.
In addition, under certain circumstances, convertible debt instruments (such as the Notes) that may be settled entirely or partly in cash may be accounted for utilizing the treasury stock method, the effect of which is that the shares issuable upon conversion of such Notes are not included in the calculation of diluted earnings per share except to the extent that the conversion value of such Notes exceeds their principal amount. Under the treasury stock method, for diluted earnings per share purposes, the transaction is accounted for as if the number of shares of Class A common stock that would be necessary to settle such excess, if we elected to settle such excess in shares, are issued.
On August 1, 2021, we adopted Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") 2020-06. Our adoption of this new standard requires us to use the if-converted method for our diluted earnings per share calculation, the effect of which is that the transaction is accounted for as if all of the outstanding Notes were to be converted into shares of Class A common stock. As a result, our diluted earnings per share could be adversely affected. For more information on our adoption of ASU 202-06, refer to Note 1 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
53
The convertible note hedge and warrant transactions may affect the value of the Notes and our Class A common stock.
In connection with the pricing of the 2023 Notes, we entered into convertible note hedge transactions with one or more of the initial purchasers of the 2023 Notes and/or their respective affiliates or other financial institutions, or the option counterparties. We also entered into warrant transactions with the option counterparties pursuant to which we will sell warrants for the purchase of our Class A common stock. The convertible note hedge transactions are expected generally to reduce the potential dilution upon any conversion of 2023 Notes and/or offset any cash payments we are required to make in excess of the principal amount upon conversion of any 2023 Notes. The warrant transactions could separately have a dilutive effect to the extent that the market price per share of our Class A common stock exceeds the strike price of the warrants.
The option counterparties and/or their respective affiliates may modify their hedge positions by entering into or unwinding various derivatives with respect to our Class A common stock and/or purchasing or selling our Class A common stock in secondary market transactions prior to the maturity of the 2023 Notes (and are likely to do so during any observation period related to a conversion of 2023 Notes or following any repurchase of 2023 Notes by us on any fundamental change repurchase date or otherwise). This activity could also cause or avoid an increase or a decrease in the market price of our Class A common stock. In addition, if any such convertible note hedge and warrant transactions fail to become effective, the option counterparties may unwind their hedge positions with respect to our Class A common stock, which could adversely affect the value of our Class A common stock.
The potential effect, if any, of these transactions and activities on the market price of our Class A common stock will depend in part on market conditions and cannot be ascertained at this time. Any of these activities could adversely affect the value of our Class A common stock.
We are subject to counterparty risk with respect to the convertible note hedge transactions.
The option counterparties will be financial institutions or affiliates of financial institutions, and we will be subject to the risk that one or more of such option counterparties may default under the convertible note hedge transactions. Our exposure to the credit risk of the option counterparties will not be secured by any collateral. If any option counterparty becomes subject to bankruptcy or other insolvency proceedings, we will become an unsecured creditor in those proceedings with a claim equal to our exposure at that time under our transactions with that option counterparty. Our exposure will depend on many factors but, generally, an increase in our exposure will be correlated to an increase in our Class A common stock market price and in the volatility of the market price of our Class A common stock. In addition, upon a default by an option counterparty, we may suffer adverse tax consequences and dilution with respect to our Class A common stock. We can provide no assurance as to the financial stability or viability of any option counterparty.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Securities
The market price of our securities may be volatile and may decline.
The market price of our securities has fluctuated and may continue to fluctuate substantially. The market price of our securities depends on a number of factors, including those described in this "Risk Factors" section, many of which are beyond our control and may not be related to our operating performance. These fluctuations could cause you to lose all or part of your investment in our securities. Factors that could cause fluctuations in the market price of our securities include the following:
54
55
In addition, the stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. Broad market and industry factors may seriously affect the market price of our securities, regardless of our actual operating performance. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market prices of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against that company. For example, following our earnings release in February 2019, the price of our Class A common stock fell significantly and, as a result, multiple class action securities lawsuits have been filed against us, as well as multiple shareholder derivative claims. These securities litigation matters, as well as any additional securities litigation matters that may be instituted against us, could result in substantial costs, divert our management’s attention and resources from our business, and adversely impact our reputation and brand. This could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
Sales of substantial amounts of our Class A common stock in the public markets, or the perception that they might occur, could reduce the price that our securities might otherwise attain and may dilute your voting power and your ownership interest in us.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock in the public markets, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers and significant stockholders, or the perception that these sales could occur, could adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock.
We have reserved a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock for issuance upon vesting or exercise of our equity compensation plans, upon conversion of the Notes and in relation to warrant transactions we entered into in connection with the pricing of the 2023 Notes.
We have also registered the offer and sale of all shares of Class A and Class B common stock that we may issue under our equity compensation plans.
We may also issue our shares of Class A common stock or additional securities convertible into shares of our Class A common stock from time to time in connection with a financing, acquisition, investments or otherwise. Any such issuance could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline.
Conversion of our Notes may dilute the ownership interest of existing stockholders, or may otherwise depress the price of our securities.
The conversion of some or all of our Notes, to the extent we deliver shares upon conversion thereof will dilute the ownership interests of existing stockholders, reduce our earnings per share and potentially have an adverse effect on the price of our securities. Any sales in the public market of our Class A common stock issuable upon such conversion could adversely affect prevailing market prices of our securities. In addition, the existence of the Notes may encourage short selling by market participants because the conversion of the Notes could be used to satisfy short positions, or anticipated conversion of the Notes into shares of our Class A common stock could depress the price of our securities.
The dual class structure of our common stock as contained in our charter documents has the effect of concentrating voting control with a limited number of stockholders that held our stock prior to our IPO, including our directors, executive officers, and employees, and their affiliates, and significant stockholders, which will limit your ability to influence corporate matters.
Our Class B common stock has 10 votes per share, and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. As a result, such stockholders will have significant influence over the management and affairs of our company and over the outcome of all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger, consolidation or sale of substantially all of our assets.
56
The ten-to-one voting ratio between our Class B and Class A common stock will limit your ability to influence corporate matters, and, as a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected. These holders of our Class B common stock may also have interests that differ from yours and may vote in a way with which you disagree and which may be adverse to your interests, and, unless earlier converted at the election of the holders of 67% of our outstanding Class B common stock, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides for a dual class stock structure for 17 years following the completion of our IPO.
Future transfers, whether or not for value, by holders of Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting to Class A common stock, subject to limited exceptions, such as certain transfers affected for estate planning purposes. The conversion of shares of our Class B common stock into shares of our Class A common stock will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long term. If one or more significant holders of our Class B common stock decides to convert or sell their shares, it could result in a different group of Class B common stock holders having the power to exert significant influence over our company, which may or may not align with the strategy and direction set by our management. Any such changes could adversely affect the market price of our securities.
If financial or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, if they have a difficulty understanding the changes to our business model, or if they issue inaccurate or unfavorable research regarding our securities, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our securities will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. We do not control these analysts or the content and opinions included in their reports. In addition, we are in a period of transition to a subscription-based business model in the long term, which analysts may not have historically reflected, or may not accurately in the future reflect, in their research. The foregoing factors could affect analysts' ability to accurately forecast our results and make it more likely that we fail to meet their estimates. In the event we obtain industry or financial analyst coverage, if any of the analysts who cover us issue an inaccurate or unfavorable opinion regarding our securities, the price of our securities would likely decline. In addition, the stock prices of many companies in the high technology industry have declined significantly after those companies have failed to meet, or often times significantly exceeded, the financial guidance publicly announced by the companies or the expectations of analysts. If our financial results fail to meet (or significantly exceed) our announced guidance or the expectations of analysts or public investors, analysts could downgrade our Class A common stock or publish unfavorable research about us. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause the price of our securities or trading volume to decline, potentially significantly.
Certain provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of our company more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove members of our Board of Directors or current management and may adversely affect the market price of our securities.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that could delay or prevent a change in control of our company. These provisions could also make it difficult for stockholders to elect directors that are not nominated by the current members of our Board of Directors or take other corporate actions, including effecting changes in our management. These provisions include:
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In addition, as a Delaware corporation, we are subject to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. These provisions may prohibit large stockholders, in particular those owning 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock, from merging or combining with us for a certain period of time.
We do not intend to pay dividends in the foreseeable future. As a result, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our Class A common stock.
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our Class A common stock. We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings for use in the operation and expansion of our business and do not anticipate paying any dividends on our Class A common stock in the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors. Accordingly, investors must rely on sales of their Class A common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.
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Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
Not Applicable.
Item 2. Properties
Our corporate headquarters are located in San Jose, California where, under lease agreements that expire through May 2024, we currently lease approximately 439,000 square feet of space. We also maintain offices in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. We lease all of our facilities and do not own any real property. We expect to add facilities as we grow our employee base and expand geographically. We believe that our facilities are adequate to meet our needs for the immediate future and that, should it be needed, suitable additional space will be available to accommodate the expansion of our operations.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
The information set forth under the "Legal Proceedings" subheading in Note 7 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K is incorporated herein by reference.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not Applicable.
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PART II
Item 5. Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information for Common Stock
Our Class A common stock began trading publicly on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the ticker symbol "NTNX" on September 30, 2016. Prior to that time, there was no public market for our Class A common stock. The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, the high and low sale prices of our Class A common stock as reported on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.
|
|
Fiscal 2020 |
|
|
Fiscal 2021 |
|
||||||||||
Fiscal Quarter: |
|
High |
|
|
Low |
|
|
High |
|
|
Low |
|
||||
First quarter |
|
$ |
29.51 |
|
|
$ |
18.20 |
|
|
$ |
28.71 |
|
|
$ |
20.84 |
|
Second quarter |
|
$ |
37.35 |
|
|
$ |
26.62 |
|
|
$ |
33.86 |
|
|
$ |
23.36 |
|
Third quarter |
|
$ |
37.42 |
|
|
$ |
12.49 |
|
|
$ |
35.07 |
|
|
$ |
25.65 |
|
Fourth quarter |
|
$ |
25.35 |
|
|
$ |
17.64 |
|
|
$ |
39.95 |
|
|
$ |
26.54 |
|
Our Class B common stock is not listed nor traded on any stock exchange.
Holders of Record
As of July 31, 2021, there were 88 holders of record of our Class A common stock. This figure does not include a substantially greater number of "street name" holders or beneficial holders of our common stock whose shares are held of record by banks, brokers and other financial institutions. As of July 31, 2021, there were approximately 24 stockholders of record of our Class B common stock.
Dividend Policy
We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our common stock. We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings for use in the operation of our business and do not anticipate paying any dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to declare dividends will be made at the discretion of our Board of Directors, subject to applicable laws and will depend on our financial condition, operating results, capital requirements, general business conditions and other factors that our Board of Directors may deem relevant.
Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds
None.
Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer
Share Repurchase Program
The following table provides information with respect to the shares of our Class A common stock we repurchased during the fiscal year ended July 31, 2021:
Period |
|
Total Number |
|
|
Average |
|
|
Total Number |
|
|
Approximate |
|
||||
October 1, 2020 - October 31, 2020 |
|
|
5,175,539 |
|
|
$ |
24.15 |
|
|
|
5,175,539 |
|
|
$ |
— |
|
|
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Stock Performance Graph
The following graph shows a comparison from September 30, 2016 (the date our Class A common stock commenced trading on the NASDAQ Stock Market) through July 31, 2021 of the cumulative total return for our Class A common stock based on the closing price on the last day of each respective period. The graph assumes an initial investment of $100 on September 30, 2016 in the common stock of Nutanix, Inc., the NASDAQ Composite Index and NASDAQ Computer Index and assumes reinvestment of any dividends. The stock price performance on the following graph is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.
|
|
Fiscal Year |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
9/30/16 |
|
|
7/31/17 |
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|
7/31/18 |
|
|
7/31/19 |
|
|
7/31/20 |
|
|
7/31/21 |
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||||||
Nutanix, Inc. |
|
$ |
100 |
|
|
$ |
57.42 |
|
|
$ |
132.14 |
|
|
$ |
61.35 |
|
|
$ |
59.97 |
|
|
$ |
97.35 |
|
Nasdaq Composite Index |
|
$ |
100 |
|
|
$ |
120.60 |
|
|
$ |
147.29 |
|
|
$ |
158.70 |
|
|
$ |
210.72 |
|
|
$ |
289.81 |
|
Nasdaq Computer Index |
|
$ |
100 |
|
|
$ |
126.46 |
|
|
$ |
162.30 |
|
|
$ |
181.40 |
|
|
$ |
268.24 |
|
|
$ |
397.95 |
|
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The information on the above graph shall not be deemed to be "filed" for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section or Sections 11 and 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act, and shall not be incorporated by reference into any registration statement or other document filed by us with the SEC, whether made before or after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, regardless of any general incorporation language in such filing, except as shall be expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing.
Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans
The information required by this item is incorporated herein by reference to our definitive proxy statement for our 2021 annual meeting of stockholders, which will be filed no later than 120 days after the end of our fiscal year ended July 31, 2021.
Item 6. Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data
Part II, Item 6 is no longer required as the Company has adopted certain provisions within the amendments to Regulation S-K that eliminate Item 301.
62
NUTANIX, INC.
Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The last day of our fiscal year is July 31. Our fiscal quarters end on October 31, January 31, April 30 and July 31. This discussion contains forward-looking statements based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth under "Risk Factors" or in other parts of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. See also "Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" above.
Overview
Nutanix, Inc. ("we," "us," "our" or "Nutanix") provides a leading enterprise cloud platform, which we call the Nutanix Cloud Platform, that consists of software solutions and cloud services that power our customers’ enterprise infrastructure. Our solutions run across private-, hybrid- and multicloud environments, and allow organizations to seamlessly "lift and shift" their workloads, including enterprise applications, high-performance databases, end-user computing and virtual desktop infrastructure ("VDI") services, cloud native workloads, and analytics applications, between different cloud environments. Our goal is to provide a single, simple, open software platform for all hybrid and multicloud applications and data – a true hybrid cloud infrastructure.
Our enterprise cloud platform can be deployed on a variety of qualified hardware platforms or, in the case of our cloud-based software and software as a service ("SaaS") offerings, via hosted service or delivered pre-installed on an appliance that is configured to order. Non-portable software licenses are delivered or sold alongside configured-to-order appliances and can be used over the life of the associated appliance. Our subscription term-based licenses are sold separately, or can be sold alongside configured-to-order appliances. Configured-to-order appliances, including our Nutanix-branded NX hardware line, can be purchased from one of our channel partners, original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs") or in limited cases, directly from Nutanix. Our enterprise cloud platform typically includes one or more years of support and entitlements, which provides customers with the right to software upgrades and enhancements as well as technical support.
Product revenue is generated primarily from the licensing of our solutions. Support, entitlements and other services revenue is primarily derived from the related support and maintenance contracts. Prior to fiscal 2019, we delivered most of our solutions on an appliance, thus our revenue included the revenue associated with the appliance and the included non-portable software, which lasts for the life of the associated appliance. However, starting in fiscal 2018, as a result of our business model transition toward software-only sales, more of our customers began buying appliances directly from our OEMs while separately buying licenses for our software solutions from us or one of our channel partners. In addition, starting in fiscal 2019, as a result of our transition towards a subscription-based business model, more of our customers began purchasing separately sold subscription term-based licenses that could be deployed on a variety of hardware platforms. As we continue our transition to a subscription-based business model, we expect a greater portion of our products to be delivered through subscription term-based licenses or cloud-based SaaS subscriptions.
63
NUTANIX, INC.
Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (Continued)
We had a broad and diverse base of approximately 20,130 end customers as of July 31, 2021, including approximately 980 Global 2000 enterprises. We define the number of end customers as the number of end customers for which we have received an order by the last day of the period, excluding partners to which we have sold products for their own demonstration purposes. A single organization or customer may represent multiple end customers for separate divisions, segments or subsidiaries, and the total number of end customers may contract due to mergers, acquisitions, or other consolidation among existing end customers. Since shipping our first product in fiscal 2012, our end customer base has grown rapidly.
Our solutions are primarily sold through channel partners, including distributors, resellers and OEMs, and delivered directly to our end customers. Our solutions serve a broad range of workloads, including enterprise applications, databases, virtual desktop infrastructure, unified communications and big data analytics, and we support both virtualized and container-based applications. We have end customers across a broad range of industries, such as automotive, consumer goods, education, energy, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, media, public sector, retail, technology and telecommunications. We also sell to service providers, who utilize our enterprise cloud platform to provide a variety of cloud-based services to their customers.
We continue to invest in the growth of our business over the long-run, including the development of our solutions and investing in sales and marketing to capitalize on our market opportunities, while improving our operating cash flow performance by focusing on go-to-market efficiencies. By maintaining this balance, we believe we can drive toward our high growth potential without sacrificing our overall financial health. As discussed further in the "Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic" and "Factors Affecting Our Performance" sections below, both in response to the ongoing and rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic and as part of our overall efforts to improve our operating cash flow performance, we have proactively taken steps to manage our expenses. As a result, our overall spending on such efforts will fluctuate, and may decline, from quarter to quarter in the near-term.
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
The ongoing and rapidly evolving pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus (collectively with any variants or related strains thereof, "COVID-19" and the ongoing pandemic caused thereby, the "COVID-19 pandemic") has significantly curtailed the movement of people, goods and services worldwide, imposed unprecedented strains on governments, health care systems, educational institutions, businesses and individuals around the world, including in nearly all of the regions in which we operate, and has resulted in significant volatility and uncertainty in the global economy. In response to the pandemic, authorities, businesses, and individuals have implemented numerous unprecedented measures, including travel bans and restrictions, quarantines, shelter-in-place, stay-at-home, remote work and social distancing orders, and shutdowns. Even as efforts to contain the pandemic have made progress and some restrictions have relaxed, new variants of the virus are causing additional outbreaks. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted and will continue to impact our workforce and operations, as well as those of our customers, vendors, suppliers, partners, and communities, and there is substantial uncertainty in the nature and degree of its continued effects over time.
64
NUTANIX, INC.
Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (Continued)
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have also taken a number of actions to protect and assist our employees, customers, and partners, including: temporarily closing all of our offices (including our California headquarters) around the world; requiring our employees to work remotely; implementing travel restrictions that allow only the most essential business travel; and postponing, cancelling, withdrawing from, or converting to virtual-only experiences (where possible and appropriate) our in-person customer, industry, analyst, investor, and employee events. As a result of such actions, as well as the general effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, our business and operations have experienced and may continue to experience numerous negative impacts, including: curtailed demand for certain of our solutions; reduced IT spending; delays in or abandonment of planned or future purchases; lengthened sales cycles, particularly with new customers and partners who do not have prior experience with our solutions; supply chain disruptions; increased cybersecurity risks or other security challenges; delays or disruptions to our product roadmap and our ability to deliver new products, features, or enhancements; and voluntary and involuntary delays in the ability to ship, and the ability of our end customers to accept delivery of, the hardware platforms on which our software solutions run. We also expect the reduced manufacturing capacity caused by the pandemic to result in increases in the prices of certain components used to manufacture such hardware platforms, which may increase the price of those hardware platforms for our end customers. Travel bans, shutdowns, social distancing restrictions and remote work policies also make it difficult or impossible to deliver on-site services to our partners and end customers, and to meet with our current and potential end customers in person. We have also seen positive impacts, including increased demand for our virtual desktop, desktop-as-a-service, and end-user computing solutions as a result of our end customers enabling their employees to work remotely.
We have also quickly adapted to the new work environment, leveraging digital, video, and other collaborative tools to enable our teams to stay connected with each other, and our sales, marketing and support teams to continue to engage with and remain responsive to our partners and end customers. Additionally, we have seen a reduction in our operating expenses in recent quarters, including sales and marketing expenses, some of which is due to a number of proactive actions that we took to manage our operating expenses in light of the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and some of which is a natural result of the continued restrictions on travel and in-person events from the pandemic. Although the full impact of these actions is uncertain, some of these cost savings measures are temporary. While we do expect to see some of our operating expenses increase from the suppressed levels in recent quarters as some of the proactive cost savings measures expire and some level of travel and other related expenses return, we are focused on improving our operating cash flow performance and we do not expect that travel or other related expenses will return to pre-pandemic levels. See the section titled "Risk Factors" for further discussion of the possible impact of these actions on our business and financial performance.
The duration, scope and ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy and our business remain highly fluid and cannot be predicted with certainty, and the full effect of the pandemic and the actions we have taken in response may not be fully reflected in our results of operations and financial performance until future periods. Our management team is focused on guiding our company through the emerging challenges presented by COVID-19 and remains committed to driving positive business outcomes. Although we do not currently expect the pandemic to affect our financial reporting systems, internal control over financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures, the continued impact of the pandemic on our business and financial performance will be highly dependent upon numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control. See the section titled "Risk Factors" for further discussion of the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the actions we have taken in response, on our business and financial performance.
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NUTANIX, INC.
Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (Continued)
Key Financial and Performance Metrics
We monitor the following key financial and performance metrics:
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As of and for the Fiscal Year Ended July 31, |
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2019 |
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2020 |
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2021 |
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(in thousands, except percentages) |
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Total revenue |
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$ |
1,236,143 |
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$ |
1,307,682 |
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$ |
1,394,364 |
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Year-over-year percentage increase |
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7.0 |
% |
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5.8 |
% |
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6.6 |
% |
Subscription revenue |
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$ |
648,415 |
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$ |
1,030,180 |
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$ |
1,243,621 |
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Total billings |
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$ |
1,514,660 |
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$ |
1,580,092 |
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$ |
1,521,096 |
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Subscription billings |
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$ |
916,000 |
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$ |
1,276,413 |
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$ |
1,354,155 |
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Annual contract value ("ACV") billings |
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$ |
428,564 |
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$ |
505,179 |
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$ |
594,292 |
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Annual recurring revenue ("ARR") |
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$ |
217,566 |
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$ |
481,250 |
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$ |
878,733 |
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Run-rate ACV |
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$ |
944,444 |
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$ |
1,219,965 |
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$ |
1,535,360 |
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Gross profit |
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$ |
932,015 |
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$ |
1,020,993 |
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$ |
1,102,458 |
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Adjusted gross profit |
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$ |
965,287 |
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$ |
1,063,655 |
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$ |
1,147,730 |
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Gross margin |
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75.4 |
% |
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78.1 |
% |
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79.1 |
% |
Adjusted gross margin |
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78.1 |
% |
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81.3 |
% |
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82.3 |
% |
Total deferred revenue |
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$ |
910,044 |
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$ |
1,183,441 |
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$ |
1,312,923 |
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Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities |
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$ |
42,168 |
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$ |
(159,885 |
) |
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$ |
(99,810 |
) |
Free cash flow |
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$ |
(76,284 |
) |
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$ |
(249,373 |
) |
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$ |
(158,457 |
) |
Non-GAAP operating expenses |
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$ |
1,239,567 |
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$ |
1,518,697 |
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$ |
1,428,760 |
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Total end customers |
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14,180 |
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17,360 |
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20,130 |
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Disaggregation of Revenue and Billings
The following table depicts the disaggregation of revenue and billings by type, consistent with how we evaluate our financial performance:
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Fiscal Year Ended July 31, |
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2019 |
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2020 |
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2021 |
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(in thousands) |
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Disaggregation of revenue: |
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