Vertical First Trust（“VFT”）成立于公司位于澳洲悉尼的新全球总部的施工项目（“澳大利亚总部物业”）。2023财政年度，公司完成了将VFT的控股权以非货币形式出售给第三方买家的交易，作为买家投资并开发澳大利亚总部物业的战略交易之一。公司保留了少数股权，为VFt的普通股单位形式，对VFt具有重大影响力。公司对VFt的权益使用权益法进行会计处理，在简明合并基本报表中体现。根据权益法，公司记录其在VFT的收益或损失的比例份额。 13%形式的普通股单位，对VFt具有重大影响力。公司对VFt的权益采用权益法在简明合并财务报表中予以反映。根据权益法，公司记录其对VFT收益或损失的比例份额。
2023年3月、4月和8月， 三 在美国特拉华州地区法院针对公司董事会成员和部分高管提交了股东派生诉讼，案件标题为 Silva v. Cannon-Brookes，案号1:23-cv-00283； Keane v. Cannon-Brookes，案号1:23-cv-00399；和 Azzawi v. Cannon-Brookes，案号1:23-cv-00884。公司被命名为名义被告。这些股东派生诉讼在很大程度上基于与虚拟类诉讼相同的主张，包括与公司在类期间披露有关的主张，以及在某些情况下涉嫌内幕交易。诉讼声称要求赔偿，其中包括违反受托责任、公司浪费、不当得利以及违反《交易所法》第10(b)条和据此制定的规则100亿.5。这些投诉寻求未确定数额的赔偿和其他救济，据称代表公司。2023年5月和8月，法庭将Silva、Keane和Azzawi的行动合并为 关于Atlassian公司股东派生诉讼案，案号1:23-cv-00283-GBW（“合并诉讼”），并在虚拟类诉讼中任何解除驳回动议的解决之前暂停了合并诉讼。在虚拟类诉讼被驳回后，2024年10月18日主动撤销了合并诉讼，但不会受到前置条件的限制。，案号1:23-cv-00283-GBW（“合并诉讼”），在虚拟类诉讼的任何解除驳回动议期间暂停了合并诉讼。虚拟类诉讼被驳回后，合并诉讼于2024年10月18日主动撤销，但不受限制。
2023年9月6日，在美国加利福尼亚州北区联邦地区法院对公司董事会成员和部分高管提起了股东派生诉讼，案件标题为 Capistrano 诉 Cannon-Brookes，案号为4:23-cv-04584（“Capistrano 诉 Cannon-Brookes 诉讼”）。公司被列为名义被告。起诉书主要基于与 Class Period 期间的披露相关的相同指控，以及在某些情况下涉及涉嫌内幕交易。这些诉讼声称要求赔偿董事陪审权等多项索赔，包括违反忠实义务、企业浪费、不当得利以及违反《交易法》第10（b）条款和规则
Total revenues by deployment options were as follows:
Three Months Ended September 30,
(in thousands, except percentage data)
2024
2023
$ Change
% Change
Cloud
$
792,306
$
604,647
$
187,659
31
%
Data Center
335,594
242,943
92,651
38
Server
—
78,752
(78,752)
(100)
Marketplace and other
59,881
51,433
8,448
16
Total revenues
$
1,187,781
$
977,775
$
210,006
21
%
按地区划分的总收入如下：
截至9月30日的三个月
(以千为单位，除百分比数据外)
2024
2023
$ 变化
百分比变动
美洲
$
584,499
$
489,528
$
94,971
19
%
欧洲、中东、非洲
469,269
378,006
91,263
24
亚洲太平洋
134,013
110,241
23,772
22
总收入
$
1,187,781
$
977,775
$
210,006
21
%
Cost of Revenues
Three Months Ended September 30,
(in thousands, except percentage data)
2024
2023
$ Change
% Change
Cost of revenues
$
217,624
$
178,029
$
39,595
22
%
Gross margin
82
%
82
%
Cost of revenues increased $39.6 million, or 22%, in the three months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the three months ended September 30, 2023. The overall increase was primarily attributable to an increase of $22.5 million in hosting fees paid to third-party providers, an increase of $6.2 million in compensation expense for employees (which includes an increase of $1.4 million in stock-based compensation), and an increase of $4.3 million in amortization from acquired intangible assets.
Operating Expenses
Research and Development
Three Months Ended September 30,
(in thousands, except percentage data)
2024
2023
$ Change
% Change
Research and development
$
603,101
$
481,738
$
121,363
25
%
Research and development expenses increased $121.4 million, or 25%, in the three months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the three months ended September 30, 2023. The overall increase was primarily attributable to an increase of $105.8 million in compensation expenses for employees (which includes an increase of $43.0 million in stock-based compensation).
Marketing and Sales
Three Months Ended September 30,
(in thousands, except percentage data)
2024
2023
$ Change
% Change
Marketing and sales
$
252,393
193,567
$
58,826
30
%
Marketing and sales expenses increased$58.8 million, or 30%, for the three months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the three months ended September 30, 2023. The overall increase was primarily attributable to an increase of $34.9 million in compensation expenses for employees (which includes an increase of $3.7 million in stock-based compensation), and an increase of $17.9 million in advertising and marketing event expenses.
30
General and Administrative
Three Months Ended September 30,
(in thousands, except percentage data)
2024
2023
$ Change
% Change
General and administrative
$
146,641
143,310
$
3,331
2
%
General and administrative expenses increased$3.3 million, or 2% in the three months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the three months ended September 30, 2023. The overall increase was primarily attributable to an increase of $3.1 million in compensation expense for employees (which includes an increase of $2.5 million in stock-based compensation).
Other Expense, net
Three Months Ended September 30,
(in thousands, except percentage data)
2024
2023
$ Change
% Change
Other expense, net
$
(19,432)
$
(8,335)
$
(11,097)
133
%
Other expense, net increased$11.1 million, or 133%, in the three months ended September 30, 2024, compared to the three months ended September 30, 2023. The increase in other expense was primarily attributable to an increase of $8.5 millionrelated to our share of loss from an equity method investment, and an increase of $1.9 million in contributions to the Atlassian Foundation.
Interest Income
Three Months Ended September 30,
(in thousands, except percentage data)
2024
2023
$ Change
% Change
Interest income
28,564
25,226
$
3,338
13
%
Interest income increased $3.3 million, or 13% in the three months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the three months ended September 30, 2023. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in investment income as a result of increased investment balances.
Interest Expense
Three Months Ended September 30,
(in thousands, except percentage data)
2024
2023
$ Change
% Change
Interest expense
$
(7,318)
$
(8,976)
$
1,658
(18)
%
Interest expense decreased $1.7 million, or 18% in the three months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the three months ended September 30, 2023.The decrease was primarily attributable to a decrease in interest expense on our outstanding debt as a result of the issuance of the Notes (as defined below), and repayment of the Term Loan (as defined below) in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024.
Provision for Income Taxes
Three Months Ended September 30,
(in thousands, except percentage data)
2024
2023
$ Change
% Change
Provision for income taxes
$
(93,605)
$
(20,929)
$
(72,676)
347
%
Effective tax rate
*
*
* Not meaningful
Provision for income taxes increased $72.7 million for the three months ended September 30, 2024, as compared to the three months ended September 30, 2023. The increase was primarily attributable to the change in the mix of earnings and losses in foreign jurisdictions. See Note 14, “Income Taxes,” of the notes to our condensed consolidated financial statements for additional information.
Our future effective annual tax rate may be materially impacted by the expense or benefit from tax amounts associated with our foreign earnings that are taxed at rates different from the federal statutory rate, level of profit before tax, accounting for uncertain tax positions, business combinations, changes in our valuation allowances to
31
the extent sufficient positive evidence becomes available, closure of statute of limitations or settlement of tax audits, and changes in tax laws.
A significant amount of our earnings is generated by our Australian subsidiaries. Our future effective tax rates may be adversely affected to the extent earnings are lower than anticipated in countries where we have lower statutory tax rates. Changes in our global operations could result in changes to our effective tax rates, future cash flows, and overall profitability of our operations.
We recognize the tax benefit of an uncertain tax position only if we conclude it is more likely than not that the position is sustainable upon examination by the taxing authority, based on the technical merits. The tax benefit recognized is measured as the largest amount of benefit which is greater than 50 percent likely to be realized upon settlement with the taxing authority. We believe we have provided adequate reserves for income tax uncertainties in all open tax years. Based on the information currently available, we do not anticipate a material change in unrecognized tax benefits in the next 12 months.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development introduced a framework for a global minimum corporate income tax of 15% known as the Global Anti-Base Erosion rules. This legislation has been enacted in certain jurisdictions where we operate and is effective for our fiscal year 2025. As of September 30, 2024, the global minimum tax does not have a significant impact on our financial statements. As additional jurisdictions enact legislation, transitional rules lapse, and other provisions of the global minimum tax legislation become effective, our effective tax rate and cash tax payments may increase in future years.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
As of September 30, 2024, we had cash and cash equivalents totaling $2.1 billion, marketable securities totaling $161.4 million and accounts receivables totaling $484.1 million. Since our inception, we have primarily financed our operations through cash flows generated by operations and corporate debt.
Our cash flows from operating activities, investing activities, and financing activities for the periods presented were as follows (in thousands):
Three Months Ended September 30,
2024
2023
Net cash provided by operating activities
$
80,492
$
166,956
Net cash used in investing activities
(18,690)
(56,903)
Net cash used in financing activities
(186,753)
(65,879)
Effect of foreign exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash
3,564
(3,280)
Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash
$
(121,387)
$
40,894
Our primary source of cash is through collections from our customers. Our primary uses of cash from operating activities are general business expenses including employment expenses, cloud platform and other infrastructure services, income taxes, professional services fees, marketing expenses, software expenses, and facility expenses.
Net cash provided by operating activities decreased by $86.5 million for the three months ended September 30, 2024, compared to the three months ended September 30, 2023. The net decrease was primarily attributable to an increase in cash paid to employees, including higher annual employee bonus payments, cash paid to suppliers, and cash used to pay income taxes, partially offset by an increase in cash received from customers.
Net cash used in investing activities decreased by $38.2 million during the three months ended September 30, 2024, compared to the three months ended September 30, 2023. The net decrease was primarily attributable to a decrease in net outflows of $71.8 million related to marketable securities activity, partially offset by an increase in net outflows of $26.1 million related to strategic investment activity and an increase in cash outflows for acquisitions, net of cash acquired, of approximately $5.0 million.
Net cash used in financing activities increased by $120.9 million for the three months ended September 30, 2024, compared to the three months ended September 30, 2023. The net increase was primarily attributable to an increase in repurchases of Class A Common Stock of $117.7 million.
32
Material Cash Requirements
Debt
As of September 30, 2024, we had $500.0 million aggregate principal amount of 5.250% senior notes due 2029 (the “2029 Notes”) and $500.0 million aggregate principal amount of 5.500% senior notes due 2034 (the “2034 Notes,” and together with the 2029 Notes, the “Notes”). The 2029 Notes and the 2034 Notes will mature on May 15, 2029 and May 15, 2034, respectively. Interest on the Notes will be paid semi-annually in arrears on May 15 and November 15 of each year, starting from November 15, 2024.
In August 2024, our prior credit facility was amended and restated to provide for a $750 million senior unsecured revolving credit facility (the “2024 Credit Facility”). We may repay outstanding loans under the 2024 Credit Facility at any time, without premium or penalty, and we have an option to request an increase of $250 million in certain circumstances. The 2024 Credit Facility replaced our prior credit facility entered into in October 2020, which provided for a $1 billion senior unsecured delayed-draw term loan facility (the “Term Loan”) and a $500 million senior unsecured revolving credit facility. Refer to Note 9, “Debt,” to our condensed consolidated financial statements for additional information.
Share Repurchase Programs
In January 2023, the Board of Directors authorized a program to repurchase up to $1.0 billion of our outstanding Class A Common Stock (the “2023 Repurchase Program”). In September 2024, the Board of Directors authorized a new program under which we may repurchase up to an additional $1.5 billion of our outstanding Class A Common Stock (the “2024 Repurchase Program” and, together with the 2023 Repurchase Program, the “Repurchase Programs”). The 2024 Repurchase Program will commence following completion of the 2023 Repurchase Program. The Share Repurchase Programs do not have a fixed expiration date, may be suspended or discontinued at any time, and do not obligate us to repurchase any specific dollar amount or to acquire any specific number of shares.
During the three months ended September 30, 2024, we repurchased and subsequently retired approximately 1.1 million shares of our Class A Common Stock for approximately $183.9 million at an average price per share of $162.57. All repurchases were made in open market transactions. As of September 30, 2024, we were authorized to purchase a remaining $267.9 million and $1.5 billion of our Class A Common Stock under the 2023 Share Repurchase Program and 2024 Share Repurchase Program, respectively.
Contractual Obligations
Our principal commitments consist of contractual commitments for our cloud services platform and other infrastructure services, and obligations under leases for office space including obligations for leases that have not yet commenced. There were no material changes outside the ordinary course of business to our contractual obligations disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal year 2024.
Other Future Obligations
We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, together with cash generated from operations, and borrowing capacity from the 2024 Credit Facility will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs for at least the next 12 months. Our other future cash requirements will depend on many factors including our growth rate, the timing and extent of spend on research and development efforts, employee headcount, marketing and sales activities, payments to tax authorities, acquisitions of additional businesses and technologies, the introduction of new software and services offerings, enhancements to our existing software and services offerings and the continued market acceptance of our products.
As of September 30, 2024, we are not party to any off-balance sheet arrangements that have or are reasonably likely to have a current or future material effect on our financial condition, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures, or capital resources.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In addition to the measures presented in our condensed consolidated financial statements, we regularly review other measures that are not presented in accordance with GAAP, defined as non-GAAP financial measures by the SEC, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends, prepare financial forecasts and make strategic decisions. The key measures we consider are non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP net income per diluted
33
share and free cash flow (collectively, the “Non-GAAP Financial Measures”). These Non-GAAP Financial Measures, which may be different from similarly titled non-GAAP measures used by other companies, provide supplemental information regarding our operating performance on a non-GAAP basis that excludes certain gains, losses and charges of a non-cash nature or that occur relatively infrequently and/or that management considers to be unrelated to our core operations. Management believes that tracking and presenting these Non-GAAP Financial Measures provides management, our board of directors, investors and the analyst community with the ability to better evaluate matters such as: our ongoing core operations, including comparisons between periods and against other companies in our industry; our ability to generate cash to service our debt and fund our operations; and the underlying business trends that are affecting our performance.
Our Non-GAAP Financial Measures include:
•Non-GAAP gross profit and non-GAAP gross margin. Excludes expenses related to stock-based compensation and amortization of acquired intangible assets.
•Non-GAAP operating income and non-GAAP operating margin. Excludes expenses related to stock-based compensation and amortization of acquired intangible assets.
•Non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per diluted share. Excludes expenses related to stock-based compensation, amortization of acquired intangible assets, gain on a non-cash sale of a controlling interest of a subsidiary and the related income tax adjustments.
•Free cash flow. Free cash flow is defined as net cash provided by operating activities less capital expenditures, which consists of purchases of property and equipment.
We understand that although these Non-GAAP Financial Measures are frequently used by investors and the analyst community in their evaluation of our financial performance, these measures have limitations as analytical tools, and you should not consider them in isolation or as substitutes for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. We compensate for such limitations by reconciling these Non-GAAP Financial Measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures.
The following table presents a reconciliation of our Non-GAAP Financial Measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measure for the three months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023 (in thousands, except percentage and per share data):
34
Three Months Ended September 30,
2024
2023
Gross profit
GAAP gross profit
$
970,157
$
799,746
Plus: Stock-based compensation
18,214
16,821
Plus: Amortization of acquired intangible assets
10,116
5,772
Non-GAAP gross profit
$
998,487
$
822,339
Gross margin
GAAP gross margin
82%
82%
Plus: Stock-based compensation
1
2
Plus: Amortization of acquired intangible assets
1
—
Non-GAAP gross margin
84%
84%
Operating income
GAAP operating loss
$
(31,978)
$
(18,869)
Plus: Stock-based compensation
286,146
235,581
Plus: Amortization of acquired intangible assets
13,882
8,231
Non-GAAP operating income
$
268,050
$
224,943
Operating margin
GAAP operating margin
(3)%
(2)%
Plus: Stock-based compensation
25
24
Plus: Amortization of acquired intangible assets
1
1
Non-GAAP operating margin
23%
23%
Net income
GAAP net loss
$
(123,769)
$
(31,883)
Plus: Stock-based compensation
286,146
235,581
Plus: Amortization of acquired intangible assets
13,882
8,231
Less: Gain on a non-cash sale of a controlling interest of a subsidiary
—
(1,378)
Adjustment for: Income tax (1)
23,441
(41,571)
Non-GAAP net income
$
199,700
$
168,980
Net income per share
GAAP net loss per share - diluted
$
(0.48)
$
(0.12)
Plus: Stock-based compensation
1.11
0.91
Plus: Amortization of acquired intangible assets
0.05
0.03
Less: Gain on a non-cash sale of a controlling interest of a subsidiary
—
(0.01)
Adjustment for: Income tax (1)
0.09
(0.16)
Non-GAAP net income per share - diluted
$
0.77
$
0.65
Weighted-average diluted shares outstanding
Weighted-average shares used in computing diluted GAAP net loss per share
260,477
257,907
Plus: Dilution from dilutive securities (2)
298
1,008
Weighted-average shares used in computing diluted non-GAAP net income per share
260,775
258,915
Free cash flow
GAAP net cash provided by operating activities
$
80,492
$
166,956
Less: Capital expenditures
(6,151)
(3,669)
Free cash flow
$
74,341
$
163,287
35
(1) We utilize a fixed long-term projected non-GAAP tax rate in our computation of the non-GAAP income tax adjustments in order to provide better consistency across interim reporting periods. In projecting this long-term non-GAAP tax rate, we utilized a three-year financial projection that excludes the direct and indirect income tax effects of the other non-GAAP adjustments reflected above. Additionally, we considered our current operating structure and other factors such as our existing tax positions in various jurisdictions and key legislation in major jurisdictions where we operate. For fiscal year 2025, we determined the projected non-GAAP tax rate to be 26%. This fixed long-term projected non-GAAP tax rate eliminates the effects of non-recurring and period specific items which can vary in size and frequency. Examples of the non-recurring and period specific items include but are not limited to changes in the valuation allowance related to deferred tax assets, effects resulting from acquisitions, and unusual or infrequently occurring items. We will periodically re-evaluate this long-term rate, as necessary, for significant events. The rate could be subject to change for a variety of reasons, for example, significant changes in the geographic earnings mix or fundamental tax law changes in major jurisdictions where we operate.
(2) The effects of these dilutive securities were not included in the GAAP calculation of diluted net loss per share for the three months ended September 30, 2024 and September 30, 2023 because the effect would have been anti-dilutive.
ITEM 3. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURE ABOUT MARKET RISK
There have been no material changes to our market risk from the information presented in Part II, Item 7A, Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk, in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2024.
ITEM 4. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, after evaluating the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act) as of September 30, 2024, have concluded that, as of such date, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective to provide reasonable assurance that the information required to be disclosed by us in reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is (1) recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms, and (2) is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting identified in connection with the evaluation required by Rules 13a-15(d) and 15d-15(d) under the Exchange Act that occurred during the quarter ended September 30, 2024 that has materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls and Procedures
In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. In addition, the design of disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and that management is required to apply its judgment in evaluating the benefits of possible controls and procedures relative to their costs.
36
PART II
ITEM 1. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
On February 3, 2023, a putative securities class action (the “Putative Class Action”) was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, captioned City of Hollywood Firefighters’ Pension Fund vs. Atlassian Corporation, Case No. 3:23-cv-00519, naming the Company and certain of its officers as defendants. The lawsuit was purportedly brought on behalf of purchasers of the Company’s securities between August 5, 2022 and November 3, 2022 (the “Class Period”). The complaint alleged claims under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, based on allegedly false and misleading statements about the Company’s business and prospects during the Class Period. The lawsuit sought unspecified damages. On January 22, 2024, the court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ complaint with leave to amend. Plaintiffs filed a second amended complaint on March 1, 2024 and the defendants filed a motion to dismiss on April 19, 2024. On August 13, 2024, the court issued a ruling granting the defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ second amended complaint. Plaintiffs did not file a third amended complaint or an appeal.
In March, April and August 2023, three stockholder derivative lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware against the members of the Company’s board of directors and certain of its officers, captioned Silva v. Cannon-Brookes, Case No. 1:23-cv-00283; Keane v. Cannon-Brookes, Case No. 1:23-cv-00399; and Azzawi v. Cannon-Brookes, Case No. 1:23-cv-00884. The Company is named as a nominal defendant. These stockholder derivative lawsuits are based largely on the same allegations as the Putative Class Action, including allegations relating to the Company’s disclosures during the Class Period as well as, in certain instances, alleged insider trading. The lawsuits purport to assert claims for, among other things, breach of fiduciary duty, corporate waste, unjust enrichment, and violations of Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act, and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder. The complaints seek unspecified damages and other relief purportedly on the Company’s behalf. In May and August 2023, the Court consolidated the Silva, Keane, and Azzawi actions into In re Atlassian Corporation Stockholder Derivative Litigation, Case No. 1:23-cv-00283-GBW (the “Consolidated Action”), and stayed the Consolidated Action pending resolution of any motion(s) to dismiss in the Putative Class Action. Following the dismissal of the Putative Class Action, the Consolidated Action was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice on October 18, 2024.
On September 6, 2023, a stockholder derivative lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the members of the Company’s board of directors and certain of its officers, captioned Capistrano v. Cannon-Brookes, Case No. 4:23-cv-04584 (the “Capistrano Action”). The Company is named as a nominal defendant. The complaint is based largely on the same allegations as the Putative Class Action and the Consolidated Action, including allegations relating to the Company’s disclosures during the Class Period as well as, in certain instances, alleged insider trading. The lawsuits purport to assert claims for, among other things, breach of fiduciary duty, corporate waste, unjust enrichment, and violations of Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act, and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder. The complaints seek unspecified damages and other relief purportedly on the Company’s behalf. On October 31, 2023, the Court stayed the Capistrano Action pending resolution of any motion(s) to dismiss in the Putative Class Action. Following the dismissal of the Putative Class Action, the Capistrano Action was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice on October 17, 2024.
In addition to the matters discussed above, from time to time, the Company is party to litigation and other legal proceedings in the ordinary course of business. While the Company does not believe the ultimate resolutions of these other pending legal matters not described above are likely to have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial position, the results of any litigation or other legal proceedings are uncertain and as such the resolution of such legal proceedings, either individually or in the aggregate, could have a material adverse effect on its business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows. The Company accrues for loss contingencies when it is both probable that it will incur the loss and when it can reasonably estimate the amount of the loss or range of loss. For the periods presented, the Company has not recorded any liabilities as a result of the litigation or other legal proceedings in its condensed consolidated financial statements.
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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
A description of the risks and uncertainties associated with our business is set forth below. You should carefully consider such risks and uncertainties, together with the other information contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and in our other public filings. If any such risks and uncertainties actually occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations could differ materially from the plans, projections and other forward-looking statements included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and in our other public filings. In addition, if any of the following risks and uncertainties, or if any other risks and uncertainties, actually occur, our business, financial condition, or results of operations could be harmed substantially.
Risk Factor Summary
Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those highlighted in this section titled “Risk Factors” and summarized below. We have various categories of risks, including risks related to our business and industry, risks related to information technology, intellectual property, data security and privacy, risks related to legal, regulatory, accounting, and tax matters, risks related to ownership of our Class A Common Stock, risks related to our indebtedness, and general risks, which are discussed more fully below. As a result, this risk factor summary does not contain all of the information that may be important to you, and you should read this risk factor summary together with the more detailed discussion of risks and uncertainties set forth following this summary, as well as elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. These risks include, but are not limited, to the following:
•Our historical rapid growth makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects, and we may not be able to sustain our revenue growth rate or achieve profitability in the future.
•The continuing global economic and geopolitical volatility, and measures taken in response, could harm our business and results of operations.
•The markets in which we participate are intensely competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
•Our quarterly results have fluctuated in the past and may fluctuate significantly in the future and may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business.
•Our use of generative AI and machine learning in our products, platform, and business, as well as our potential failure to effectively implement, use, and market these technologies, may result in reputational harm or liability, or could otherwise adversely affect our business.
•We may encounter challenges to our business as we transition our business to focusing more on our Cloud offerings.
•Our business depends on our customers renewing their subscriptions and purchasing additional licenses or subscriptions from us, and any decline in our customer retention or expansion could harm our future results of operations.
•If we are not able to develop new products and enhancements to our existing products that achieve market acceptance and that keep pace with technological developments, our business and results of operations could be harmed.
•If we fail to effectively manage our growth, our business and results of operations could be harmed.
•If our marketing model is not effective in attracting new customers or we are unable to realize the benefits of our free trial strategy, our business and results of operations could be harmed.
•Our business model relies on a high volume of transactions and affordable pricing. As lower cost or free products are introduced by our competitors, our ability to generate new customers could be harmed.
•We may encounter challenges as we develop our enterprise sales force.
•If our security controls are compromised, leading to unauthorized or inappropriate access to customer data, our products could be perceived as insecure, and such perception may result in the loss of existing customers, hinder our ability to attract new ones, and expose us to significant liabilities.
•Interruptions or performance problems associated with our technology and infrastructure could harm our business and results of operations.
•Real or perceived errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs in our products or in the products on Atlassian Marketplace could harm our business and results of operations.
•Privacy concerns and laws as well as evolving regulation of cloud computing, AI services, cross-border data transfer restrictions and other domestic or foreign regulations may limit the use and adoption of our services and adversely affect our business and results of operation.
•Our current and future indebtedness may limit our flexibility in obtaining additional financing and in pursuing other business opportunities or operating activities.
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•Our global operations and structure subject us to potentially adverse tax consequences.
•The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with certain stockholders, in particular, our Co-Founders and their affiliates, which will limit our other stockholders’ ability to influence the outcome of important transactions, including a change in control.
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
Our historical rapid growth makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects, and we may not be able to sustain our revenue growth rate or achieve profitability in the future.
We have experienced rapid growth in recent years and such growth rate should not be considered indicative of our future performance and may decline in the future. This rapid growth also makes it more challenging to evaluate our future prospects. Our revenue growth rate has fluctuated in prior periods and, in future periods, our revenue could grow more slowly than it has in the past or decline for a number of reasons, including any reduction in demand for our products, increase in competition, limitations on our ability to, or any decision not to, increase pricing, slower than anticipated adoption of or migration to our Cloud offerings, failure to capitalize on growth opportunities, contraction in our overall market, or impact from broader macroeconomic factors. Additionally, we ceased sales of new perpetual license Server offerings for our products in February 2021, and, subject to limited exceptions, ended maintenance and support for Server products in February 2024. Our revenue growth rates and profitability may be negatively impacted by Server customers that did not transition to our Cloud or Data Center offerings or Data Center customers that do not migrate to our Cloud offerings in the future. We make assumptions regarding the risks and uncertainties associated with our growth as we plan and operate our business. If our assumptions are incorrect or change, or if we do not address risks successfully, our operating and financial results could differ materially from our expectations, our growth rates may slow, and our business would suffer.
In addition, we expect our expenses to increase substantially in the near term, particularly as we continue to make significant investments in research and development and technology infrastructure for our Cloud offerings, expand our operations globally and develop new products and features for, and enhancements of, our existing products, including our AI products. As a result of these significant investments, and in particular stock-based compensation associated with our growth, we have not in the past and may not in the future be able to achieve profitability as determined under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). The additional expenses we will incur may not lead to sufficient additional revenue to maintain historical revenue growth rates and profitability.
The continuing global economic and geopolitical volatility, and measures taken in response, could harm our business and results of operations.
Large-scale international events in recent years, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical instability and war in regions including Ukraine and the Middle East, have negatively impacted the global economy, disrupted global supply chains, and created significant volatility and disruption of financial markets. There was recently also a period of historically high inflation, which caused the Federal Reserve and other global central banks to tighten monetary policy, including issuing a series of interest rate hikes. This contributed to the failures of certain banking institutions and otherwise uncertain economic conditions.
Our business depends on demand for business software applications generally and for collaboration software solutions in particular. The market adoption of our products and our revenue is dependent on the number of users of our products. The continuing global economic and geopolitical volatility and uncertainty has and may continue to cause us and our customers to experience decreased demand for our products and services, increases in our operating costs (including our labor costs), reduced liquidity, and limits on our ability to access credit or otherwise raise capital. They could reduce the number of personnel providing development or engineering services, decrease technology spending, including the purchasing of software products, adversely affect demand for our products, affect our ability to accurately forecast our future results, cause some of our paid customers or suppliers to file for bankruptcy protection or go out of business, impact expected spending from new customers or renewals, expansions or reductions in paid seats from existing customers, negatively impact collections of accounts receivable, result in elongated sales cycles, and otherwise harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
In particular, we have revenue exposure to customers who are small- and medium-sized businesses. If these customers’ business operations and finances are negatively affected, they may not purchase or renew our products, may reduce or delay spending, or request extended payment terms or price concessions, which would negatively
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impact our business, results of operations, and financial condition. For example, rising interest rates and uncertain economic conditions contributed to the failures of banking institutions, such as Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank, in 2023. While we have not had any direct exposure to failed banking institutions to date, if other banks and financial institutions enter receivership or become insolvent in the future in response to financial conditions affecting the banking system and financial markets, our ability or our customers’ ability to access existing cash, cash equivalents, and investments may be threatened and affect our customers’ ability to pay for our products and could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
The extent to which global economic and geopolitical factors ultimately impact our business, results of operations, and financial position will depend on future developments, which are uncertain and cannot be fully predicted at this time. As a result of recent events, we have seen the revenue growth from existing customers moderate and experienced volatility in the trading prices for our Class A Common Stock, and such volatility may continue in the long term. Any sustained adverse impacts from these and other recent macroeconomic events could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, and earnings guidance that we may issue from time to time, which could have a material effect on the value of our Class A Common Stock. They could also heighten many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section.
The markets in which we participate are intensely competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
The markets for our solutions are fragmented, rapidly evolving, highly competitive, and have relatively low barriers to entry. We face competition from both traditional, larger software vendors offering full collaboration and productivity suites and smaller companies offering point products for features and use cases. Our principal competitors vary depending on the product category and include Microsoft (including GitHub), IBM, Alphabet, ServiceNow, PagerDuty, Gitlab, Freshworks, BMC Software (Remedy), Asana, Monday.com, Notion and Smartsheet. In addition, some of our competitors have made acquisitions to offer a more comprehensive product or service offering, which may allow them to compete more effectively with our products. We expect this trend to continue as companies attempt to strengthen or maintain their market positions in an evolving industry. Following such potential consolidations, companies may create more compelling product offerings and be able to offer more attractive pricing options, making it more difficult for us to compete effectively.
Many of our current and potential competitors have greater resources than we do, with established marketing relationships, large enterprise sales forces, access to larger customer bases, pre-existing customer relationships, and major distribution agreements with consultants, system integrators and resellers. Our competitors, particularly our competitors with greater financial and operating resources, may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards, or customer requirements. With the adoption of new technologies, such as AI and machine learning, the evolution of our products, and new market entrants, we expect competition to intensify in the future. For example, our competitors may more successfully incorporate AI into their products, gain or leverage superior access to certain AI technologies, or achieve higher market acceptance of their AI solutions.In addition, as we continue to expand our focus into new use cases or other product offerings beyond software development teams, we expect competition to increase. Pricing pressures and increased competition generally could result in reduced sales, reduced margins, losses, or the failure of our products to achieve or maintain more widespread market acceptance, any of which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. Additionally, some current and potential customers, particularly large organizations, have elected, and may in the future elect, to develop or acquire their own internal collaboration and productivity software tools that would reduce or eliminate the demand for our solutions.
Our products seek to serve multiple markets, and we are subject to competition from a wide and varied field of competitors. Some competitors, particularly new and emerging companies with sizeable venture capital investment, could focus all their energy and resources on one product line or use case and, as a result, any one competitor could develop a more successful product or service in a particular market we serve which could decrease our market share and harm our brand recognition and results of operations. For all of these reasons and others we cannot anticipate today, we may not be able to compete successfully against our current and future competitors, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our quarterly results have fluctuated in the past and may fluctuate significantly in the future and may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business.
Our quarterly financial results have fluctuated in the past and may fluctuate in the future as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. If our quarterly financial results fall below the
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expectations of investors or any securities analysts who follow us, the price of our Class A Common Stock could decline substantially. Factors that may cause our revenue, results of operations and cash flows to fluctuate from quarter to quarter include, but are not limited to:
•our ability to attract new customers, retain and increase sales to existing customers, and satisfy our customers’ requirements;
•the timing of customer renewals;
•changes in our or our competitors’ pricing policies and offerings;
•new products, features, enhancements, or functionalities introduced by our competitors;
•the amount and timing of operating costs and capital expenditures related to the operations and expansion of our business;
•significant security breaches, technical difficulties, or interruptions to our products or the third-party products on which we rely;
•our increased focus on our Cloud offerings, including customer migrations to our Cloud products;
•our ability to incorporate artificial intelligence solutions and features into our products, platform and business;
•the number of new employees added or, conversely, any reductions in force;
•changes in foreign currency exchange rates or adding additional currencies in which our sales are denominated;
•the amount and timing of acquisitions or other strategic transactions;
•extraordinary expenses such as litigation, tax settlements, adverse audit rulings or other dispute-related settlement payments;
•general economic conditions, including any inflationary pressures and interest rate changes, that may adversely affect either our customers’ ability or willingness to purchase additional licenses, subscriptions, delay a prospective customer’s purchasing decisions, reduce the value of new license or subscription, or affect customer retention;
•the impact of U.S. and international political and social unrest, armed conflict, natural disasters, climate change, diseases and pandemics, and any associated economic downturn, on our results of operations and financial performance;
•seasonality in our operations;
•the impact of new accounting pronouncements and associated system implementations; and
•the timing of the grant or vesting of equity awards to employees, contractors, or directors.
Many of these factors are outside of our control, and the occurrence of one or more of them might cause our revenue, results of operations, and cash flows to vary widely. As such, we believe that quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our revenue, results of operations, and cash flows may not be meaningful and should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance.
Our use of generative AI and machine learning in our products, platform, and business, as well as our potential failure to effectively implement, use, and market these technologies, may result in reputational harm or liability, or could otherwise adversely affect our business.
We have incorporated and expect to continue to incorporate AI and machine learning solutions, products and features, including generative AI solutions, products and features, into our products, platform, and business, which act on data-driven insights derived from both first and third-party applications. AI and machine learning solutions, products and features may become more important to our operations or to our future growth over time. There can be no assurance that the use of AI and machine learning solutions, products and features will enhance our products or services, produce intended results, or be beneficial to our business, including our efficiency or profitability, and we may fail to properly implement or market our AI and machine learning solutions, products and features. Our
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investments in AI solutions, products and features have and may continue to negatively impact our operating margins until we are able to increase revenue enough to offset these investments. Our competitors or other third parties may incorporate AI into their products, offerings, and solutions more quickly or more successfully than us, which could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our results of operations. In addition, suppliers of the third-party AI models we use in our products and platform could terminate their relationship with us, cease to make certain models available to us, or make certain models more expensive for us to use. Our ability to effectively implement and market our AI products, solutions and features will also depend, in part, on our ability to attract and retain employees with AI expertise, and we expect significant competition for professionals with such skills and technical knowledge.
Additionally, our use of AI and machine learning technologies may expose us to additional claims, demands, and proceedings by private parties and regulatory authorities and subject us to legal liability as well as brand and reputational harm. There are significant risks involved in utilizing AI and machine learning technologies, and in particular, generative AI technologies. For example, AI and machine learning algorithms may be flawed, insufficient, or of poor quality, reflect unwanted forms of bias, or contain other errors or inadequacies, any of which may not easily be detectable. AI and machine learning technologies have also been known to produce false or “hallucinatory” inferences or outputs. Further, inappropriate or controversial data practices by developers and end-users, or other factors adversely affecting public opinion regarding the use of AI and machine learning, could impair the acceptance of AI and machine learning solutions, including those incorporated into our products and services. If the AI and machine learning tools incorporated into our products and platform, or the content generated by such tools, is harmful, biased, inaccurate, discriminatory or controversial, our results of operations could suffer, including due to legal, competitive and reputational harm. Our customers may be less likely to utilize our AI and machine learning tools or may cease using our products or platform altogether. If we do not have sufficient rights to use the output of such AI and machine learning tools, or the data or other material or content on which the AI and machine learning tools we use rely, we also may incur liability through the violation of applicable laws and regulations, third-party intellectual property, privacy or other rights, or contracts to which we are a party.
In addition, we are subject to the risks of new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, litigation, or other legal liability, ethical concerns, negative consumer perceptions as to automation and AI and machine learning technologies, any of which could adversely affect our business, reputation, or financial results. The technologies underlying AI and machine learning and their uses are subject to a variety of laws and regulations related to online services, intermediary liability, intellectual property rights, privacy, data security and data protection, consumer protection, competition and equal opportunity laws, and are expected to be subject to increased regulation and new laws or new applications of existing laws and regulations. AI and machine learning technologies are the subject of ongoing review by various federal, state and foreign governments and regulators, which are applying, or are considering applying, their platform moderation, privacy, data security and data protection laws and regulations to such technologies or are implementing, or are considering implementing, general legal frameworks for the appropriate use of AI and machine learning. As the legal, regulatory, and policy environments around AI and machine learning evolve, we may become subject to new legal and regulatory obligations in connection with our use of AI and machine learning technology, which could require us to make significant changes to our policies and practices, necessitating expenditure of significant time, expense, and other resources. We may not be able to anticipate how to respond to rapidly evolving legal frameworks, and we may have to expend resources to adjust our offerings in certain jurisdictions if the legal frameworks on AI and machine learning products are not consistent across jurisdictions. Accordingly, it is not possible to predict all of the risks related to the use of AI and machine learning technologies that we may face, and changes in laws, rules, directives, and regulations governing the use of AI and machine learning technologies may adversely affect our ability to use or sell these technologies or subject us to legal liability.
We may encounter challenges to our business as we transition our business to focusing more on our Cloud offerings.
We currently offer and sell both Data Center and Cloud offerings of certain of our products. For these products, our Cloud offering enables quicker setup and subscription pricing, while our Data Center offering permits more customization, a term license fee structure, and complete application control. Although a substantial majority of our revenue was historically generated from customers using our Server and Data Center products, over time our customers have moved and we expect them to continue to move to our Cloud offerings, resulting in our Cloud offerings becoming more central to our distribution model. As a part of this transition, we ceased sales of new
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perpetual licenses for our Server products in February 2021 and, subject to limited exceptions, ended maintenance and support for Server products in February 2024.
We may be subject to additional competitive and pricing pressures for our Cloud offerings compared to our Data Center offerings, which could harm our business. Further, revenues from our Cloud offerings are typically lower in the initial year compared to our Data Center offerings, which may impact our near-term revenue growth rates and margins, and we incur higher or additional costs to supply our Cloud offerings, such as fees associated with hosting our Cloud infrastructure. We have and expect to continue to see increased expenses and lower margins due such hosting costs increasing in this transition. Additionally, we offered discounts to certain of our enterprise-level Server customers to incentivize migration to our Cloud offerings, which impacted our near-term revenue growth. Our revenue growth rates and profitability may also be negatively impacted by Server customers that did not transition to our Cloud or Data Center offerings or Data Center customers that do not migrate to our Cloud offerings in the future. If our Cloud offerings do not develop as quickly as we expect, if we are unable to continue to scale our systems to meet the requirements of successful, large Cloud offerings, or if we lose customers currently using our Data Center products due to our increased focus on our Cloud offerings or our inability to successfully migrate them to our Cloud products, our business could be harmed. We are directing a significant portion of our financial and operating resources to implement robust Cloud offerings for our products and to migrate our existing customers to our Cloud offerings, but even if we continue to make these investments, we may be unsuccessful in growing or implementing our Cloud offering that competes successfully against our current and future competitors and our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
Our business depends on our customers renewing their subscriptions and purchasing additional licenses or subscriptions from us, and any decline in our customer retention or expansion could harm our future results of operations.
In order for us to maintain or improve our results of operations, it is important that our customers renew their licenses or subscriptions when existing contract terms expire and that we expand our commercial relationships with our existing customers. Our customers have no obligation to renew their licenses or subscriptions, and our customers may not renew licenses or subscriptions with a similar contract duration or with the same or greater number of users. Our customers generally do not enter into long-term contracts; rather, they primarily have monthly or annual terms. Some of our customers have elected not to renew their agreements with us in the past and it is difficult to accurately predict long-term customer retention.
Our customer retention and expansion may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including our customers’ satisfaction with our products, new market entrants, our product support, our prices and pricing plans, the prices of competing software products, reductions in our customers’ spending levels, new product releases and changes to the packaging of our product offerings, mergers and acquisitions affecting our customer base, our increased focus on our Cloud offerings, our decision to end the sale of new perpetual licenses for our products, or the effects of global economic conditions and any related impacts on us or our customers, partners and suppliers. Additionally, we may be unable to timely address any retention issues with specific customers, which could harm our results of operations. If our customers do not purchase additional licenses or renew their subscriptions, renew on less favorable terms, or fail to add more users, our revenue may decline or grow less quickly, which could harm our future results of operations and prospects.
If we are not able to develop new products and enhancements to our existing products that achieve market acceptance and that keep pace with technological developments, our business and results of operations could be harmed.
Our ability to attract new customers and retain and increase revenue from existing customers depends in large part on our ability to enhance and improve our existing products and to introduce compelling new products that reflect the changing nature of our markets. The success of any enhancement to our products depends on several factors, including timely completion and delivery, competitive pricing, adequate quality testing, integration with existing technologies and our platform, and overall market acceptance. Any new product that we develop may not be introduced in a timely or cost-effective manner, may contain bugs or other defects, or may not achieve the market acceptance necessary to generate significant revenue.
The markets for our products are subject to rapid technological change, evolving industry standards, and changing regulations, as well as changing customer needs, requirements and preferences. These are all uncertain and we cannot predict the consequences, effects, or introduction of new, disruptive, emerging technologies or the manner and pace at which our markets develop over time, and our ability to compete in these markets depends on predicting and adapting to these changing circumstances. The success of our business will depend, in part, on our
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ability to adapt and respond effectively to these changes on a timely basis, and anticipating these factors requires that we allocate significant resources without any guarantee that any such investments and efforts will result in initial or enhanced adoption of our products in the marketplace. For example, with the development of next-generation solutions that utilize new and advanced features, including AI and machine learning, we have and expect to continue to commit significant resources to developing new products and enhancements incorporating AI and machine learning, and there is no guarantee that our investments and efforts will result in wider adoption of our products in the marketplace. If new technologies emerge that can deliver competitive products and services at lower prices, more efficiently, more reliably, more conveniently or more securely or if new products are introduced into the market that could render our existing products obsolete, such technologies and products could adversely impact our ability to compete effectively and may lead to customers reducing or terminating their usage of our products.
If we are unable to successfully develop new products, enhance our existing products to meet customer requirements, or otherwise gain market acceptance, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
If we cannot continue to expand the use of our products beyond our initial focus on software developers, our ability to grow our business could be harmed.
Our ability to grow our business depends in part on our ability to persuade current and future customers to expand their use of our products to additional use cases beyond software developers, including information technology and business teams. If we fail to predict customer demands or achieve further market acceptance of our products within these additional areas and teams, or if a competitor establishes a more widely adopted product for these applications, our ability to grow our business could be harmed.
We invest significantly in research and development, and to the extent our research and development investments do not translate into new products or material enhancements to our current products, or if we do not use those investments efficiently, our business and results of operations would be harmed.
A key element of our strategy is to invest significantly in our research and development efforts to develop new products and enhance our existing products to address additional applications and markets. In fiscal years 2024 and 2023, our research and development expenses were 50% and 53% of our revenue, respectively. If we do not spend our research and development budget efficiently or effectively on compelling innovation and technologies, our business could be harmed and we may not realize the expected benefits of our strategy. Moreover, research and development projects can be technically challenging and expensive. The nature of these research and development cycles may cause us to experience delays between the time we incur expenses associated with research and development and the time we are able to offer compelling products and generate revenue, if any, from such investment. Additionally, anticipated customer demand for a product we are developing could decrease after the development cycle has commenced, and we would nonetheless be unable to avoid substantial costs associated with the development of any such product. If we expend a significant amount of resources on research and development and our efforts do not lead to the successful introduction or improvement of products that are competitive in our current or future markets, it could harm our business and results of operations.
If we fail to effectively manage our growth, our business and results of operations could be harmed.
We have experienced and expect to continue to experience rapid growth, both in terms of employee headcount and number of customers, which has placed, and may continue to place, significant demands on our management, operational, and financial resources. We operate globally and sell our products to customers in approximately 200 countries and territories. Further, we have employees in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Poland, South Korea, Turkey, the U.S., and the United Kingdom (the “UK”), and many of our employees have been with us for fewer than 24 months. We plan to continue to invest in and grow our team, and to expand our operations into other countries in the future, which will place additional demands on our resources and operations. As our business expands across numerous jurisdictions, we may experience difficulties, including in hiring, training, and managing a diffuse and growing employee base.
We have also experienced significant growth in the number of customers, users, transactions and data that our products and our associated infrastructure support. If we fail to successfully manage our anticipated growth and change, the quality of our products may suffer, which could negatively affect our brand and reputation and harm our ability to retain and attract customers. Finally, our organizational structure is becoming more complex and if we fail to scale and adapt our operational, financial, and management controls and systems, as well as our reporting systems and procedures, to manage this complexity, our business, results of operations, and financial condition
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could be harmed. We will require significant capital expenditures and the allocation of management resources to grow and change in these areas.
Our corporate values have contributed to our success, and if we cannot maintain these values as we grow, we could lose the innovative approach, creativity, and teamwork fostered by our values, and our business could be harmed.
We believe that a critical contributor to our success has been our corporate values, which we believe foster innovation, teamwork, and an emphasis on customer-focused results. In addition, we believe that our values create an environment that drives and perpetuates our product strategy and low-cost distribution approach. As we undergo growth in our customers and employee base, maintain a remote-first “Team Anywhere” work environment, and continue to develop the infrastructure of a public company, we may find it difficult to maintain our corporate values. Any failure to preserve our values could harm our future success, including our ability to retain and recruit personnel, innovate and operate effectively, and execute on our business strategy.
If our marketing model is not effective in attracting new customers or we are unable to realize the benefits of our free trial strategy, our business and results of operations could be harmed.
Our marketing model has relied on the strength of our products and organic user demand, driven by word-of-mouth marketing and viral expansion within organizations. We offer free trials, limited free versions and affordable starter licenses for certain products in order to promote additional usage, brand and product awareness, and adoption. If we are not able to organically attract customers, our revenue may grow more slowly than expected, or decline. In addition, high levels of customer satisfaction and market adoption are central to our marketing model. Any decrease in our customers’ satisfaction with our products, including as a result of our own actions or actions outside of our control, could harm word-of-mouth referrals and our brand. If our customer base does not continue to grow with our marketing model, we may be required to incur significantly higher marketing and sales expenses in order to acquire new subscribers, which could harm our business and results of operations.
In addition, our strategy of offering free trials, limited free versions or affordable starter licenses for certain products could be ineffective. Users may not perceive value in the additional benefits and services we offer beyond our free trials or limited free versions and, historically, a majority of users never convert to a paid version of our products from these free trials or limited free versions or upgrade beyond the starter license. Our marketing strategy also depends in part on persuading users who use free trials, limited free versions or starter licenses of our products to convince others within their organization to purchase and deploy our products. To the extent that these users do not become, or lead others to become, customers, we will not realize the intended benefits of this marketing strategy, and our ability to grow our business could be harmed.
Our business model relies on a high volume of transactions and affordable pricing. As lower cost or free products are introduced by our competitors, our ability to generate new customers could be harmed.
Our business model is based in part on selling our products at prices lower than competing products from other commercial vendors. For example, we offer entry-level or free pricing for certain products for small teams at a price that typically does not require capital budget approval and is orders-of-magnitude less than the price of traditional enterprise software. As a result, our software is frequently purchased by first-time customers to solve specific problems and not as part of a strategic technology purchasing decision. We have historically increased, and will continue to increase, prices from time to time. As competitors enter the market with low cost or free alternatives to our products, it may become increasingly difficult for us to compete effectively and our ability to garner new customers could be harmed. Additionally, some customers may consider our products to be discretionary purchases, which may contribute to reduced demand for our offerings in times of economic uncertainty, inflation and interest rate increases. If we are unable to sell our software in high volume, across new and existing customers, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.
We may encounter challenges as we develop our enterprise sales force.
In recent years, we have focused on strategically growing our sales force to expand and deepen our relationships with our existing customers, particularly in the enterprise. As our sales force develops, we may encounter challenges in identifying, recruiting, training, and retaining a qualified sales force, and we expect this growth to require significant time, expense, and attention. Expanding our sales infrastructure also has impacts on our cost structure and results of operations, and we may have to reduce other expenses, such as our research and development expenses, in order to accommodate a corresponding increase in marketing and sales expenses and maintain positive free cash flow.
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As our sales teams grow, we may face increased costs, longer sales cycles, greater competition and less predictability in completing our sales. For enterprise customers, the evaluation process may be longer and more involved, and require us to invest more in educating our customers about our products, services, and solutions, particularly because the decision to use our products, services, and solutions is often an enterprise-wide decision. We may be required to submit more robust proposals, participate in extended proof-of-concept evaluation cycles and engage in more extensive contract negotiations. In addition, our enterprise customers often demand more complex configurations and additional integration services and product features. Adverse macroeconomic conditions have in the past, and may in the future, cause delays in our enterprise customers’ purchasing decisions. Due to these factors, we often must devote greater sales support to certain enterprise customers, which increases our costs and time required, without assurance that potential customers will ultimately purchase our solutions. We also may be required to devote more services resources to implementation, which increases our costs, without assurance that customers receiving these services will renew or renew at the same level. Since the sales cycles for our enterprise offerings are multi-phased and complex, it is often unpredictable when a given sales cycle will close. Our revenue from enterprise customers may be affected by longer-than-expected sales and implementation cycles, extended collection cycles, potential deferral of revenue, and alternative licensing arrangements.
We derive a majority of our revenue from Jira and Confluence.
We derive a majority of our revenue from Jira and Confluence. As such, the market acceptance of these products is critical to our success. Demand for these products and our other products is affected by a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control, such as continued market acceptance of our products by customers for existing and new use cases, the timing of development and release of new products, features, functionality and lower cost alternatives introduced by our competitors, technological changes and developments within the markets we serve, and growth or contraction in our addressable markets. If we are unable to continue to meet customer demands or to achieve more widespread market acceptance of our products, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
We recognize certain revenue streams over the term of our subscription contracts. Consequently, downturns in new sales may not be immediately reflected in our results of operations and may be difficult to discern.
We generally recognize subscription revenue from customers ratably over the terms of their contracts. As a result, a significant portion of the revenue we report in each quarter is derived from the recognition of deferred revenue relating to subscription plans entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed licenses and subscriptions in any single quarter may only have a small impact on our revenue results for that quarter. However, such a decline will negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our products, and potential changes in our pricing policies or rate of expansion or retention, may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. For example, the impact of economic uncertainties may cause customers to request concessions, including better pricing, which may not be reflected immediately in our results of operations. In addition, customers have in the past and may continue in the future to slow their rate of expansion or edition upgrades or reduce their number of licenses. We may also be unable to reduce our cost structure in line with a significant deterioration in sales. In addition, a significant majority of our costs are expensed as incurred, while a significant portion of our revenue is recognized over the life of the agreement with our customer. As a result, increased growth in the number of our customers could continue to result in our recognition of more costs than revenue in the earlier periods of the terms of certain of our customer agreements. Our subscription revenue also makes it more difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue through additional sales in any period, as revenue from certain new customers must be recognized over the applicable term.
If the Atlassian Marketplace does not continue to be successful, our business and results of operations could be harmed.
We operate the Atlassian Marketplace, an online marketplace, for selling third-party, as well as Atlassian-built, apps. We rely on the Atlassian Marketplace to supplement our promotional efforts and build awareness of our products, and we believe that third-party apps from the Atlassian Marketplace facilitate greater usage and customization of our products. If we do not continue to add new vendors and developers, are unable to sufficiently grow the number of cloud apps our customers demand, or our existing vendors and developers stop developing or supporting the apps that they sell on the Atlassian Marketplace, our business could be harmed.
In addition, third-party apps on the Atlassian Marketplace may not meet the same quality standards that we apply to our own development efforts and, in the past, third-party apps have caused disruptions affecting multiple
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customers. To the extent these apps contain bugs, vulnerabilities, or defects, such apps have in the past and may in the future create disruptions in our customers’ use of our products, lead to data loss or unauthorized access to customer data, damage our brand and reputation, and affect the continued use of our products, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Any failure to offer high-quality product support could harm our relationships with our customers and our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
In deploying and using our products, our customers depend on our product support teams to resolve complex technical and operational issues. We may be unable to respond quickly enough to accommodate short-term increases in customer demand for product support. We also may be unable to modify the nature, scope and delivery of our product support to compete with changes in product support services provided by our competitors. Increased customer demand for product support, without corresponding revenue, could increase costs and harm our results of operations. In addition, as we continue to grow our operations and reach a global and vast customer base, we need to be able to provide efficient product support that meets our customers’ needs globally at scale. The number of our customers has grown significantly and that has put additional pressure on our product support organization. End customers may also reach out to us requesting support for third-party apps sold on the Atlassian Marketplace. In order to meet these needs, we have relied in the past and will continue to rely on third-party vendors to fulfill requests about third-party apps and self-service product support to resolve common or frequently asked questions for Atlassian products, which supplement our customer support teams. If we are unable to provide efficient product support globally at scale, including through the use of third-party vendors and self-service support, our ability to grow our operations could be harmed and we may need to hire additional support personnel, which could harm our results of operations. For example, in April 2022, a subset of our customers experienced a full outage across their Atlassian Cloud products due to a faulty script used during a maintenance procedure. While we restored access for these customers with minimal to no data loss, these affected customers experienced disruptions in using our Cloud products during the outage. Our sales are highly dependent on our business reputation and on positive recommendations from our existing customers. Any failure to maintain high-quality product support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality product support, could harm our reputation, our ability to sell our products to existing and prospective customers, and our business, results of operations and financial condition.
If we are unable to develop and maintain successful relationships with our solution partners, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
We have established relationships with certain solution partners to distribute our products. We believe that continued growth in our business is dependent upon identifying, developing, and maintaining strategic relationships with our existing and potential solution partners that can drive substantial revenue and provide additional value-added services to our customers. For fiscal year 2024, we derived over 50% of our revenue from channel partners’ sales efforts.
Successfully managing our indirect channel distribution efforts is a complex process across the broad range of geographies where we do business or plan to do business. Our solution partners are independent businesses we do not control. Notwithstanding this independence, we still face legal risk and reputational harm from the activities of our solution partners including, but not limited to, export control violations, workplace conditions, corruption, and anti-competitive behavior.
Our agreements with our existing solution partners are non-exclusive, meaning they may offer customers the products of several different companies, including products that compete with ours. They may also cease marketing our products with limited or no notice and with little or no penalty. We expect that any additional solution partnerships we identify and develop in the future will be similarly non-exclusive and unbound by any requirement to continue to market our products. If we fail to identify additional solution partners in a timely and cost-effective manner, or at all, or are unable to assist our current and future solution partners in independently distributing and deploying our products, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed. If our solution partners do not effectively market and sell our products, or fail to meet the needs of our customers, our reputation and ability to grow our business could also be harmed.
If we are not able to maintain and enhance our brand, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.
We believe that maintaining and enhancing our reputation as a differentiated and category-defining company is critical to our relationships with our existing customers and to our ability to attract new customers. The successful promotion of our brand attributes will depend on a number of factors, including our and our solution partners’
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marketing efforts, our ability to continue to develop high-quality products, our ability to minimize and respond to errors, failures, outages, vulnerabilities, or bugs, and our ability to successfully differentiate our products from competitive products. In addition, independent industry analysts often provide analyses of our products, as well as the products offered by our competitors, and perception of the relative value of our products in the marketplace may be significantly influenced by these analyses. If these analyses are negative, or less positive as compared to those of our competitors’ products, our brand may be harmed.
The promotion of our brand requires us to make substantial expenditures, and we anticipate that the expenditures will increase as our market becomes more competitive, as we expand into new markets, and as more sales are generated through our solution partners. To the extent that these activities yield increased revenue, this revenue may not offset the increased expenses we incur. If we do not successfully maintain and enhance our brand, our business may not grow, we may have reduced pricing power relative to competitors, and we could lose customers or fail to attract new customers, any of which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
If we fail to integrate our products with a variety of operating systems, software applications, platforms and hardware that are developed by others, our products may become less marketable, less competitive, or obsolete and our results of operations could be harmed.
Our products must integrate with a variety of network, hardware, and software platforms, and we need to continuously modify and enhance our products to adapt to changes in hardware, software, networking, browser and database technologies. In particular, we have developed our products to be able to easily integrate with third-party applications, including the applications of software providers that compete with us, through the interaction of application programming interfaces (“APIs”). In general, we rely on the fact that the providers of such software systems continue to allow us access to their APIs to enable these customer integrations. To date, we have not relied on long-term written contracts to govern our relationship with these providers. Instead, we are subject to the standard terms and conditions for application developers of such providers, which govern the distribution, operation and fees of such software systems, and which are subject to change by such providers from time to time. Our business could be harmed if any provider of such software systems:
•discontinues or limits our access to its APIs;
•modifies its terms of service or other policies, including fees charged to, or other restrictions on us or other application developers;
•changes how customer information is accessed by us or our customers;
•establishes more favorable relationships with one or more of our competitors; or
•develops or otherwise favors its own competitive offerings over ours.
We believe a significant component of our value proposition to customers is the ability to optimize and configure our products with these third-party applications through our respective APIs. If we are not permitted or able to integrate with these and other third-party applications in the future, demand for our products could decline and our business and results of operations could be harmed.
In addition, an increasing number of organizations and individuals within organizations are utilizing mobile devices to access the internet and corporate resources and to conduct business. We have designed and continue to design mobile applications to provide access to our products through these devices. If we cannot provide effective functionality through these mobile applications as required by organizations and individuals that widely use mobile devices, we may experience difficulty attracting and retaining customers. Failure of our products to operate effectively with future infrastructure platforms and technologies could also reduce the demand for our products, resulting in customer dissatisfaction and harm to our business. If we are unable to respond to changes in a cost-effective manner, our products may become less marketable, less competitive or obsolete and our results of operations could be harmed.
Acquisitions of, or investments in, other businesses, products, or technologies could disrupt our business, and we may be unable to integrate acquired businesses and technologies successfully or achieve the expected benefits of such acquisitions.
We have completed a number of acquisitions and strategic investments and continue to evaluate and consider additional strategic transactions, including acquisitions of, or investments in, businesses, technologies, services, products, and other assets in the future. For example, in fiscal year 2024, we acquired Loom, Inc., an
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asynchronous video messaging platform that helps users communicate through instantly shareable videos. We also from time to time enter into strategic relationships with other businesses to expand our products, which could involve preferred or exclusive licenses, additional channels of distribution, discount pricing or investments in other companies.
Any acquisition, investment or business relationship may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. In particular, we may encounter difficulties assimilating or integrating the businesses, technologies, products, personnel, or operations of the acquired companies, particularly if the key personnel of the acquired companies choose not to work for us, their software and services are not easily adapted to work with our products, or we have difficulty retaining the customers of any acquired business due to changes in ownership, management or otherwise. Acquisitions may also disrupt our business, divert our resources, and require significant management attention that would otherwise be available for the development of our existing business. 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. Moreover, the anticipated benefits of any acquisition, investment, or business relationship may not be realized or we may be exposed to unknown risks or liabilities.
In the future, we may not be able to find suitable acquisition or strategic investment candidates, and we may not be able to complete acquisitions or strategic investments on favorable terms, or at all. Our previous and future acquisitions or strategic investments may not achieve our goals, and any future acquisitions or strategic investments we complete could be viewed negatively by users, customers, developers or investors.
Negotiating these transactions can be time consuming, difficult and expensive, and our ability to complete these transactions may often be subject to approvals that are beyond our control. Consequently, these transactions, even if announced, may not be completed. For one or more of those transactions, we may:
•issue additional equity securities that would dilute our existing stockholders;
•use cash that we may need in the future to operate our business;
•incur large charges, expenses, or substantial liabilities;
•incur debt on terms unfavorable to us or that we are unable to repay;
•encounter difficulties retaining key employees of the acquired company or integrating diverse software codes or business cultures; and/or
•become subject to adverse tax consequences, substantial depreciation, impairment, or deferred compensation charges.
Risks Related to Information Technology, Intellectual Property, and Data Security and Privacy
If our security controls are compromised, leading to unauthorized or inappropriate access to customer data, our products could be perceived as insecure, and such perception may result in the loss of existing customers, hinder our ability to attract new ones, and expose us to significant liabilities.
Use of our products involves the storage, transmission, and processing of our customers’ proprietary data, including potentially personal or identifying information. Unauthorized or inappropriate access to, or security breaches of, our products could result in unauthorized or inappropriate access to data and information, and the loss, compromise or corruption of such data and information. In the event of a security breach, we could suffer loss of business, severe reputational damage adversely affecting customer or investor confidence, regulatory investigations and orders, litigation, indemnity obligations, damages for contract breach, penalties for violation of applicable laws or regulations, significant costs for remediation, and other liabilities. In addition, we rely on third-party service providers to host or otherwise process some of such data, and any failure by a third party, or any other entity in our collective supply chain, to prevent or mitigate data security breaches or improper access to, or use, acquisition, disclosure, alteration, or destruction of, such data could have similar adverse consequences for us. We have incurred and expect to incur significant expenses to prevent security breaches, including costs related to deploying additional personnel and protection technologies, training employees, and engaging third-party solution providers and consultants. Our errors and omissions insurance covering certain security and privacy damages and claim expenses may not be sufficient to compensate for all liabilities we may incur.
Although we expend significant resources to create security protections that shield our customer data against potential theft and security breaches, the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to systems or sabotage systems, or disable or degrade services, change frequently and are often unrecognizable until launched against a
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target, and therefore such measures cannot provide absolute security. We have in the past experienced breaches of our security measures and other inappropriate access to our systems. Certain of these incidents have resulted in unauthorized access to certain data processed through our products. Our products are at risk for future breaches and inappropriate access, including, without limitation, inappropriate access that may be caused by errors or breaches that may occur as a result of third-party action, or employee, vendor or contractor error or malfeasance, and other causes. We have in the past been, and may in the future be, a target of security threats, including from state actors. While these incidents have not materially affected our business, reputation or financial results, there is no guarantee they will not in the future. Third parties may also utilize our products and platforms for malicious purposes, such as to upload abhorrent content or host malware, which could result in reputational harm to us and negatively impact our business.
Additionally, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine may result in a heightened threat environment and create unknown cyber risks, including increased risk of retaliatory cyber-attacks from Russian actors against non-Russian companies. Our remote-first “Team Anywhere” work environment may pose additional data security risks. We also continue to build AI and machine learning into our products, which may result in security incidents or otherwise increase cybersecurity risks. Further, AI technologies may be used in connection with certain cybersecurity attacks, resulting in heightened risks of security breaches and incidents.
As we further transition to selling our products via our Cloud offerings, continue to collect more personal and sensitive information, and operate in more countries, our risks continue to increase and evolve. For instance, we rely on third-party partners to develop apps on the Atlassian Marketplace that connect with and enhance our Cloud offerings for our customers. These apps may not meet the same quality standards that we apply to our own development efforts and have in the past, and may in the future, contain bugs, vulnerabilities, or defects that pose data security risks to our customer or lead to the unauthorized access of user data. Our ability to mandate security standards and ensure compliance by these third parties may be limited. Additionally, our products may be subject to vulnerabilities in the third-party software on which we rely. We have in the past identified a vulnerability in an open source software application we used and similar incidents may occur in the future and could have a material adverse effect on our business. We are likely to face increased risks that real or perceived vulnerabilities of our systems could seriously harm our business and our financial performance, by tarnishing our reputation and brand and limiting the adoption of our products.
Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to 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 to implement adequate preventative measures. We may also experience security breaches that may remain undetected for an extended period and, therefore, have a greater impact on the products we offer, the proprietary data processed through our services, and, ultimately, on our business.
Data security breaches could also expose us to liability under various laws and regulations across jurisdictions and increase the risk of litigation and governmental or regulatory investigation. Due to concerns about data security and integrity, a growing number of legislative and regulatory bodies have adopted breach notification and other requirements in the event that information subject to such laws is accessed by unauthorized persons and additional regulations regarding security of such data are possible. We may need to notify governmental authorities and affected individuals with respect to such incidents. For example, laws in the EU and UK and all 50 U.S. states may require businesses to provide notice to individuals whose personal information has been disclosed as a result of a data security breach. Complying with such numerous and complex regulations in the event of a data security breach would be expensive and difficult, and failure to comply with these regulations could subject us to regulatory scrutiny and additional liability. We may also be contractually required to notify customers or other counterparties of a security incident, including a data security breach. Regardless of our contractual protections, any actual or perceived data security breach, or breach of our contractual obligations, could harm our reputation and brand, expose us to potential liability or require us to expend significant resources on data security and in responding to any such actual or perceived breach.
Interruptions or performance problems associated with our technology and infrastructure could harm our business and results of operations.
We rely heavily on our network infrastructure and information technology systems for our business operations, and our continued growth depends in part on the ability of our existing and potential customers to access our solutions at any time and within an acceptable amount of time. In addition, we rely almost exclusively on our websites for the downloading of, and payment for, all our products. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, disruptions, data loss and corruption, outages and other performance problems with our infrastructure and websites due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, introductions of new functionality, human
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or software errors, capacity constraints, denial of service attacks, or other security-related incidents. In some instances, we have not been able to, and in the future may not be able to, identify the cause or causes of these performance problems within an acceptable period of time. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve our performance, especially during peak usage times and as our products and websites become more complex and our user traffic increases.
If our products and websites are unavailable, if our users are unable to access our products within a reasonable amount of time, or at all, or if our information technology systems for our business operations experience disruptions, delays or deficiencies, our business could be harmed. Moreover, we provide service level commitments under certain of our paid customer cloud contracts, pursuant to which we guarantee specified minimum availability. If we fail to meet these contractual commitments, we could be obligated to provide credits for future service, or face contract termination with refunds of prepaid amounts related to unused subscriptions, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition. From time to time, we have granted, and in the future will continue to grant, credits to paid customers pursuant to, and sometimes in addition to, the terms of these agreements. For example, in April 2022, a subset of our customers experienced a full outage across their Atlassian Cloud products due to a faulty script used during a maintenance procedure. While we restored access for these customers with minimal to no data loss, these affected customers experienced disruptions in using our Cloud products during the outage. We incurred certain costs associated with offering service level credits and other concessions to these customers, although the overall impact did not have a material impact on our results of operations or financial condition. However, other future events like this may materially and adversely impact our results of operations or financial condition. Further, disruptions, data loss and corruption, outages and other performance problems in our cloud infrastructure may cause customers to delay or halt their transition to our Cloud offerings, to the detriment of our increased focus on our Cloud offerings, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Additionally, we depend on services from various third parties, including Amazon Web Services, to maintain our infrastructure and distribute our products via the internet. Any disruptions in these services, including as a result of actions outside of our control, would significantly impact the continued performance of our products. In the future, these services may not be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Any loss of the right to use any of these services could result in decreased functionality of our products until equivalent technology is either developed by us or, if available from another provider, is identified, obtained and integrated into our infrastructure. To the extent that we do not effectively address capacity constraints, upgrade our systems as needed, and continually develop our technology and network architecture to accommodate actual and anticipated changes in technology, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.
Real or perceived errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs in our products or in the products on Atlassian Marketplace could harm our business and results of operations.
Errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs may occur in our products, especially when updates are deployed or new products are rolled out. Our solutions are often used in connection with large-scale computing environments with different operating systems, system management software, equipment, and networking configurations, which may cause errors, failures of products, or other negative consequences in the computing environment into which they are deployed. In addition, deployment of our products into complicated, large-scale computing environments may expose errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs in our products. Any such errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs have in the past not been, and in the future may not be, found until after they are deployed to our customers. Real or perceived errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs in our products have and could result in negative publicity, loss of or unauthorized access to customer data, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our products, loss of competitive position, or claims by customers for losses sustained by them, all of which could harm our business and results of operations.
In addition, third-party apps on Atlassian Marketplace may not meet the same quality standards that we apply to our own development efforts and, in the past, third-party apps have caused disruptions affecting multiple customers. To the extent these apps contain bugs, vulnerabilities, or defects, such apps may create disruptions in our customers’ use of our products, lead to data loss or unauthorized access to customer data, they may damage our brand and reputation, and affect the continued use of our products, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
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Privacy concerns and laws as well as evolving regulation of cloud computing, AI services, cross-border data transfer restrictions and other domestic or foreign regulations may limit the use and adoption of our services and adversely affect our business and results of operation.
Regulation related to the provision of services over the internet is evolving, as federal, state and foreign governments continue to adopt new, or modify existing, laws and regulations addressing data privacy, cybersecurity, data protection, data sovereignty and the collection, processing, storage, hosting, transfer and use of data, generally. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission and state regulators enforce a variety of data privacy issues, such as promises made in privacy policies or failures to appropriately protect information about individuals, as unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act or similar state laws. In addition, new U.S. state data privacy laws, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”), and laws that have recently passed and/or gone into effect in many other states similarly impose new obligations on us and many of our customers, potentially as both businesses and service providers. These laws continue to evolve, and as various states introduce similar proposals, we and our customers could be exposed to additional regulatory burdens. In the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and the UK, data privacy laws and regulations, such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (“EU GDPR”) and United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018 (collectively, the “UK GDPR,” and, together with the EU GDPR, the “GDPR”), impose comprehensive obligations directly on Atlassian as both a data controller and a data processor, as well as on many of our customers, in relation to our collection, processing, sharing, disclosure and other use of personal data.
We are also subject to evolving privacy laws on cookies, tracking technologies and e-marketing. For example, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 establishes certain requirements for commercial email messages and specifies penalties for the transmission of commercial email messages that are intended to deceive the recipient as to source or content. In addition, certain states and foreign jurisdictions, such as Australia, Canada and the European Union (“EU”), have enacted laws that regulate sending email, and some of these laws are more restrictive than U.S. laws. In the EU and UK, informed consent is required for the placement of certain cookies or similar tracking technologies on an individual’s device and for direct electronic marketing. Consent is tightly defined and includes a prohibition on pre-checked consents and a requirement to obtain separate consents for each type of cookie or similar technology. Recent European court and regulator decisions are driving increased attention to cookies and similar tracking technologies.
In addition, various safe harbors have historically been provided to those who hosted content provided by others, such as safe harbors from monetary damages for copyright infringement arising from copyrighted content provided by customers and others, and for defamation and other torts arising from information provided by customers and others. There is an increasing demand for repealing or limiting these safe harbors by either judicial decision or legislation. Loss of these safe harbors may require altering or limiting some of our services or may require additional contractual terms to avoid liabilities for our customers’ misconduct.
We monitor the regulatory, judicial and legislative environment and have invested in addressing these developments, and these new laws may require us to make additional changes to our practices and services to enable us or our customers to meet the new legal requirements, and may also increase our potential liability exposure through new or higher potential penalties for noncompliance, including as a result of penalties, fines and lawsuits related to data breaches. For instance, the Digital Services Act (“DSA”) in the EU came into force on November 16, 2022 and the majority of its substantive provisions took effect in February 2024. The DSA imposes new obligations around illegal services or content on our platform, traceability of business users, and enhanced transparency measures, and failure to comply can result in fines of up to 6% of total annual worldwide turnover. Record-breaking enforcement actions globally have shown that regulators wield their right to impose substantial fines for violations of privacy regulations, and these enforcement actions could result in guidance from regulators that would require changes to our current compliance strategy. Furthermore, privacy laws and regulations are subject to differing interpretations and may be inconsistent among jurisdictions. These and other requirements are causing increased scrutiny among customers, particularly in the public sector and highly regulated industries, and may be perceived differently from customer to customer. These developments could reduce demand for our services, require us to take on more onerous obligations in our contracts, restrict our ability to store, transfer and process data, require us to fundamentally change our business activities and practices or modify our products, or, in some cases, impact our ability or our customers' ability to offer our services in certain locations, to deploy our solutions, to reach current and prospective customers, or to derive insights from customer data globally. For example, in July 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) invalidated the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, one of the mechanisms that allowed companies, including Atlassian, to transfer personal data from the European Economic Area (“EEA”) to the United States. Even though the CJEU decision upheld the Standard
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Contractual Clauses as an adequate transfer mechanism, the decision created uncertainty around the validity of all EU-to-U.S. data transfers. While the EU and U.S. governments have recently adopted the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework to foster EU-to-U.S. data transfers and address the concerns raised in the aforementioned CJEU decision, it is uncertain whether this framework will eventually be overturned in court like the previous two EU-U.S. bilateral cross-border transfer frameworks. Certain countries outside of the EEA have also passed or are considering passing laws requiring varying degrees of local data residency. By way of further example, statutory damages available through a private right of action for certain data breaches under the CPRA and potentially other U.S. states’ laws, may increase our and our customers’ potential liability and the demands our customers place on us. As another example, jurisdictions are considering legal frameworks on AI, which is a trend that may increase now that the first such framework has entered into force in the EU.
The costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, privacy laws, regulations and standards may limit the use and adoption of our services, reduce overall demand for our services, make it more difficult to meet expectations from our commitments to customers and our customers’ users, lead to significant fines, penalties or liabilities for noncompliance, impact our reputation, or slow the pace at which we close sales transactions, in particular where customers request specific warranties and unlimited indemnity for noncompliance with privacy laws, any of which could harm our business. We have adopted and continue to adopt data residency in certain territories. These services may enhance our ability to attract and retain customers operating in the relevant jurisdictions, but may also increase the cost and complexity of supporting those customers, the scope of our residency offering may not align with customer needs, and our customers may request similar offerings in other territories.
In addition to government activity, privacy advocates and other industry groups have established or may establish new self-regulatory standards that may place additional burdens on our ability to provide our services globally. Our customers expect us to meet voluntary certification and other standards established by third parties. If we are unable to maintain these certifications or meet these standards, it could adversely affect our ability to provide our solutions to certain customers and could harm our business. In addition, we have seen a trend toward the private enforcement of data protection obligations, including through private actions for alleged noncompliance, which could harm our business and negatively impact our reputation. In addition, a shift in consumers’ data privacy expectations or other social, economic or political developments could impact the regulatory enforcement of privacy regulations, which could require our cooperation and increase the cost of compliance with the imposed regulations.
Further, any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our posted privacy policies, our privacy-related obligations to users or other third parties, or any other legal obligations or regulatory requirements relating to privacy, data protection or information security may result in governmental investigations or enforcement actions, litigation, claims or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others and could result in significant liability, cause our users to lose trust in us, and otherwise materially and adversely affect our reputation and business. Furthermore, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, the laws, regulations and policies that are applicable to the businesses of our users may limit the adoption and use of, and reduce the overall demand for, our platform. Additionally, if third parties we work with violate applicable laws, regulations or agreements, such violations may put our users’ data at risk, could result in governmental investigations or enforcement actions, fines, litigation, claims, or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others and could result in significant liability, cause our users to lose trust in us and otherwise materially and adversely affect our reputation and business. Further, public scrutiny of, or complaints about, technology companies or their data handling or data protection practices, even if unrelated to our business, industry or operations, may lead to increased scrutiny of technology companies, including us, and may cause government agencies to enact additional regulatory requirements, or to modify their enforcement or investigation activities, which may increase our costs and risks.
Our business also increasingly relies on AI to improve our services and tailor our interactions with our customers. However, in recent years use of these methods has come under increased regulatory scrutiny. New laws, guidance and/or decisions in this area may limit our ability to use our AI models, or require us to make changes to our operations that may decrease our operational efficiency, result in an increase to operating costs and/or hinder our ability to improve our services. For example, there are specific rules on the use of automated decision making under the GDPR that require the existence of automated decision making to be disclosed to the data subject with a meaningful explanation of the logic used in such decision making in certain circumstances, and safeguards must be implemented to safeguard individual rights, including the right to obtain human intervention and to contest any decision.
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Finally, the uncertain and shifting regulatory environment and trust climate may raise concerns regarding data privacy and cybersecurity, which may cause our customers or our customers’ users to resist providing the data necessary to allow our customers to use our services effectively. In addition, new products we develop or acquire may expose us to liability or regulatory risk. Even the perception that the privacy and security of personal information are not satisfactorily protected or do not meet regulatory requirements could inhibit sales of our products or services and could limit adoption of our cloud offerings.
We may be sued by third parties for alleged infringement or misappropriation of their intellectual property rights.
There is considerable patent and other intellectual property development activity in our industry. Our future success depends in part on not infringing upon or misappropriating the intellectual property rights of others. We have received, and may receive in the future, communications and lawsuits from third parties, including practicing entities and non-practicing entities, claiming that we are infringing upon or misappropriating their intellectual property rights, and we may be found to be infringing upon or misappropriating such rights. We may be unaware of the intellectual property rights of others that may cover some or all of our technology, or technology that we obtain from third parties. Furthermore, the intellectual property ownership and license rights, including copyright, surrounding AI technologies has not been fully addressed by courts or national or local laws or regulations, and the use or adoption of third-party AI technologies into our products and services may result in exposure to claims of copyright infringement or other intellectual property misappropriation. Any claims or litigation could cause us to incur significant expenses and, if successfully asserted against us, could require that we pay substantial damages or ongoing royalty or license payments, prevent us from offering our products or using certain technologies, require us to implement expensive workarounds, refund fees to customers or require that we comply with other unfavorable terms. In the case of infringement or misappropriation caused by technology that we obtain from third parties, any indemnification or other contractual protections we obtain from such third parties, if any, may be insufficient to cover the liabilities we incur as a result of such infringement or misappropriation. We may also be obligated to indemnify our customers or business partners in connection with any such claims or litigation and to obtain licenses, modify our products or refund fees, which could further exhaust our resources. Even if we were to prevail in the event of claims or litigation against us, any claim or litigation regarding our intellectual property could be costly and time-consuming and divert the attention of our management and other employees from our business operations and disrupt our business.
•changes in accounting standards, policies, guidelines, interpretations or principles;
•new laws or regulations, new interpretations of existing laws, or the new application of existing regulations to our business;
•major changes to our board of directors or management;
•additional shares of Class A Common Stock being sold into the market by us or our existing stockholders or the anticipation of such sales;
•the existence of our Share Repurchase Programs (as defined below) and purchases made pursuant to the Share Repurchase Programs or any failure to repurchase shares as planned, including failure to meet expectations around the timing, price or amount of share repurchases, and any reduction, suspension or termination of the Share Repurchase Programs;
•cyber-security and privacy breaches;
•lawsuits threatened or filed against us;
•general economic conditions and macroeconomic factors, such as inflationary pressures, recession or financial institution instability; and
•other events or factors, including those resulting from geopolitical risks, natural disasters, climate change, diseases and pandemics, or incidents of terrorism or war, such as in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as responses to any of these events
•the preference for localized software and licensing programs and localized language support;
•reduced protection for intellectual property rights in some countries and practical difficulties associated with enforcing our legal rights abroad;
•imposition of travel restrictions, modifications of employee work locations, or cancellation or reorganization of certain sales and marketing events as a result of pandemics or public health emergencies;
•compliance with the laws of numerous foreign taxing jurisdictions, including withholding obligations, and overlapping of different tax regimes; and
