As we continue to develop and grow our business globally, our success will depend in large part on our ability to anticipate and effectively manage these risks. The expansion of our existing international operations and entry into additional international markets will require significant management attention and financial resources. Our failure to successfully manage our international operations and the associated risks could limit the future growth of our business.
4,808
—
Sales to such government entities include, but are not limited to, the following risks:
•2024年8月5日、カリフォルニア州西部地区の連邦裁判所で、CrowdStrike, Inc. に対して、カリフォルニア州不公正競争法の過失や違反などを理由に集団訴訟が提起されました。申立人は、特定の期間にフライトが遅延またはキャンセルされ、不特定の金銭的損害、特定の差止命令による救済、費用、弁護士費用を求めている特定のカリフォルニア州、オハイオ州、およびペンシルベニア州の市民の全国クラスの認定を求めています。2024年11月6日、この訴訟は下記の2024年8月19日の訴訟と統合され、暫定集団弁護士が任命されました。統合された苦情は 30 同梱注文の日数。
以下の私たちの財務状況および業績に関する議論と分析は、この四半期報告書のForm 10-Qの他の部分に含まれる簡易化された連結財務諸表および関連する注記と合わせて読む必要があります。また、2024年1月31日に終了した年度のAnnual Report on Form 10-KがSECに提出されています。この議論と分析に含まれる情報や、この四半期報告書のForm 10-Qの他の部分に記載されている情報には、ビジネスに関する私たちの計画や戦略に関する情報が含まれており、リスクと不確実性を伴う将来予測的な発言が含まれています。これは、この四半期報告書のForm 10-Qの目次の後に記載されている「将来予測に関する特別注記」の見出しの下に説明されています。重要な要因についての議論は、実際の結果が以下の議論と分析に含まれる将来予測的な発言で示された結果と実質的に異なる可能性があることを示しているため、Part II, Item 1A, "リスク要因"の下の開示を確認する必要があります。
July 19 Incident. On July 19, 2024, we released a content configuration update for our Falcon sensor that resulted in system crashes for certain Windows systems (the “July 19 Incident”). As a result of the July 19 Incident, we are subject to lawsuits, claims and inquiries as described in Note 8, “Commitments and Contingencies,” to our condensed consolidated financial statements in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, significant legal and professional services and other general and administrative expenses associated with the July 19 Incident in future periods. It is not reasonably possible to quantify the precise impact of the July 19 Incident, but the incident has adversely affected our results of operations, and we currently expect a number of factors relating to the incident to adversely affect our key metrics and results of operations in future periods. While we have not experienced high levels of customer churn following the incident, we have experienced delays in creating sales opportunities and longer sales cycles, including delays in customer purchasing decisions. We expect sales cycles to continue to be elongated in future periods. In addition, because our customers typically sign contracts with terms of twelve months or longer, customer churn and any corresponding impact to our key metrics and revenue may occur in future periods. Customer commitment packages introduced following the July 19 Incident may include discounting, additional modules, professional services, flexible payment terms or subscription period extensions. Our customer commitment packages have resulted, and are expected to continue to result, in increased contraction, due to elongated subscription terms, and decreased upsell dollar values.
We monitor the following key metrics to help us evaluate our business, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans, and make strategic decisions.
Annual Recurring Revenue (“ARR”)
ARR is calculated as the annualized value of our customer subscription contracts as of the measurement date, assuming any contract that expires during the next 12 months is renewed on its existing terms. To the extent that we are negotiating a renewal with a customer after the expiration of the subscription, we continue to include that revenue in ARR if we are actively in discussion with such organization for a new subscription or renewal, or until such organization notifies us that it is not renewing its subscription.
The following table sets forth our ARR as of the dates presented (dollars in thousands):
As of October 31,
2024
2023
Annual recurring revenue
$
4,017,540
$
3,153,243
Year-over-year growth
27
%
35
%
ARR grew to $4.0 billion as of October 31, 2024, of which $153.0 million and $582.3 million was net new ARR added for the three and nine months ended October 31, 2024, respectively. ARR grew to $3.2 billion as of October 31, 2023, of which $223.1 million and $593.5 million was net new ARR added for the three and nine months ended October 31, 2023, respectively.
While we normally recognize ARR contraction in the quarter a transaction is subject to renew, in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, we excluded approximately $26.0 million from ARR after a distributor in the federal space provided notice of its intention to exercise transferability rights with respect to a transaction, and we concluded that the transaction would not recur.
Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate
Our dollar-based net retention rate compares our ARR from a set of subscription customers against the same metric for those subscription customers from the prior year. Our dollar-based net retention rate reflects customer renewals, expansion, contraction, and churn, and excludes revenue from our incident response and proactive services. We calculate our dollar-based net retention rate as of period end by starting with the ARR from all subscription customers as of 12 months prior to such period end, or Prior Period ARR. We then calculate the ARR from these same subscription customers as of the current period end, or Current Period ARR. Current Period ARR includes any expansion and is net of contraction or churn over the trailing 12 months but excludes revenue from new subscription customers in the current period. We then divide the Current Period ARR by the Prior Period ARR to arrive at our dollar-based net retention rate. For the purposes of calculating our dollar-based net retention rate, we define a subscription customer as a separate legal entity that has entered into a distinct subscription agreement for access to our Falcon platform for which the term has not ended or with which we are negotiating a renewal contract. We do not consider our channel partners as customers, and we treat managed service security providers, who may purchase our products on behalf of multiple companies, as a single customer.
Our dollar-based net retention rate was 115% as of October 31, 2024. Our dollar-based net retention rate can fluctuate from period to period due to large customer contracts in a given period and ongoing increased contraction associated with our customer commitment packages, which may reduce our dollar-based net retention rate in subsequent periods.
Subscription Revenue. Subscription revenue primarily consists of subscription fees for our Falcon platform and additional cloud modules that are supported by our cloud-based platform. Subscription revenue is driven primarily by the number of subscription customers, the number of endpoints per customer, and the number of cloud modules included in the subscription. We recognize subscription revenue ratably over the term of the agreement, which is generally one to three years. Because the majority of our subscription customers are billed upfront, we have recorded significant deferred revenue. Consequently, a substantial portion of the revenue that we report in each period is attributable to the recognition of deferred revenue relating to subscriptions that we entered into during previous periods. The majority of our customers are invoiced annually in advance or multi-year in advance.
Professional Services Revenue. Professional services revenue includes incident response and proactive services, forensic and malware analysis, and attribution analysis. Professional services are generally sold separately from subscriptions to our Falcon platform, although customers frequently enter into a separate arrangement to purchase subscriptions to our Falcon platform at the conclusion of a professional services arrangement. Professional services are available through hourly rate and fixed fee contracts, one-time and ongoing engagements, and retainer-based agreements. For time and materials and retainer-based arrangements, revenue is recognized as services are performed. Fixed fee contracts account for an immaterial portion of our revenue.
Cost of Revenue
Subscription Cost of Revenue. Subscription cost of revenue consists primarily of costs related to hosting our cloud-based Falcon platform in data centers, amortization of our capitalized internal-use software, employee-related costs such as salaries and bonuses, stock-based compensation expense, benefits costs associated with our operations and support personnel, software license fees, property and equipment depreciation, amortization of acquired intangibles, and an allocated portion of facilities and administrative costs.
As new customers subscribe to our platform and existing subscription customers increase the number of endpoints on our Falcon platform, our cost of revenue will increase due to greater cloud hosting costs related to powering new cloud modules and the incremental costs for storing additional data collected for such cloud modules and employee-related costs. We intend to continue to invest additional resources in our cloud platform and our customer support organizations as we grow our business. The level and timing of investment in these areas could affect our cost of revenue in the future.
Professional Services Cost of Revenue. Professional services cost of revenue consists primarily of employee-related costs, such as salaries and bonuses, stock-based compensation expense, consulting expense, and an allocated portion of facilities and administrative costs.
Gross Profit and Gross Margin
Gross profit and gross margin have been and will continue to be affected by various factors, including the timing of our acquisition of new subscription customers, renewals from existing subscription customers, sales of additional modules to existing subscription customers, the data center and bandwidth costs associated with operating our cloud platform, the extent to which we expand our customer support and cloud operations organizations, and the extent to which we can increase the efficiency of our technology, infrastructure, and data centers through technological improvements. We expect our gross profit to increase in dollar amount and our gross margin to increase modestly over the long term as we grow our business, although our gross margin could fluctuate from period to period depending on the interplay of these factors. Demand for our incident response services is driven by the number of breaches experienced by non-customers. Also, we view our professional services solutions in the context of our larger business and as a significant lead generator for new subscriptions. Because of these factors, our services revenue and gross margin may fluctuate over time.
Operating Expenses
Our operating expenses consist of sales and marketing, research and development and general administrative expenses. For each of these categories of expense, employee-related expenses are the most significant component, which include salaries, employee bonuses, sales commissions, and employer payroll tax. Operating expenses also include an allocated portion of overhead costs for facilities and IT.
Sales and Marketing. Sales and marketing expenses primarily consist of employee-related expenses such as salaries, commissions, and bonuses. Sales and marketing expenses also include stock-based compensation; expenses related to our marketing programs; an allocated portion of facilities and administrative expenses; amortization of acquired intangibles; and cloud hosting and related services costs related to proof of value efforts. Sales and marketing expenses also include sales commissions and any other incremental payments made upon the initial acquisition of a subscription or upsells to existing customers, which are capitalized and amortized over the estimated customer life. We also capitalize and amortize any such expenses paid for the renewal of a subscription over the term of the renewal.
We expect sales and marketing expenses to increase in dollar amount as we continue to make significant investments in our sales and marketing organization to drive additional revenue, further penetrate the market, and expand our global customer base. However, we anticipate sales and marketing expenses to decrease as a percentage of our total revenue over time as we grow our business, although our sales and marketing expenses may fluctuate as a percentage of our total revenue from period to period depending on the timing of these expenses.
Research and Development. Research and development expenses primarily consist of employee-related expenses such as salaries and bonuses; stock-based compensation; cloud hosting and related costs; and an allocated portion of facilities and administrative expenses. Our cloud platform is software-driven, and our research and development teams employ software engineers in the design, and the related development, testing, certification, and support of these solutions.
We expect research and development expenses to increase in dollar amount as we continue to increase investments in our technology architecture and software platform. However, we anticipate research and development expenses to decrease as a percentage of our total revenue over time as we grow our business, although our research and development expenses may fluctuate as a percentage of our total revenue from period to period depending on the timing of these expenses.
General and Administrative. General and administrative expenses consist of employee-related expenses such as salaries and bonuses; stock-based compensation; and related expenses for our executive, finance, human resources, and legal organizations. In addition, general and administrative expenses include outside legal, accounting, and other professional fees; and an allocated portion of facilities and administrative expenses.
We expect general and administrative expenses to increase in dollar amount over time. General and administrative expenses may fluctuate as a percentage of our total revenue from period to period depending on the timing of these expenses.
Interest Expense. Interest expense consists primarily of amortization of debt issuance costs, contractual interest expense for our Senior Notes issued in January 2021, and amortization of debt issuance costs on our Revolving Facility.
Interest Income. Interest income consists primarily of income earned on our cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments.
Other Income (Expense), Net. Other income (expense), net consists primarily of gains and losses on strategic investments and foreign currency transaction gains and losses.
Provision for Income Taxes. Provision for income taxes consists of state income taxes in the United States, foreign income taxes, and withholding taxes related to customer payments in certain foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct business. We maintain a full valuation allowance on our U.S. federal and state and certain foreign deferred tax assets, including net operating loss carryforwards and tax credits, which we have determined are not realizable on a more-likely-than-not basis. We regularly evaluate the need for a valuation allowance. For the three and nine months endedOctober 31, 2024, we computed our U.S. tax provision on a discrete basis.
Net Income Attributable to Non-controlling Interest. Net income attributable to non-controlling interest consists of the Falcon Funds’ non-controlling interest share of gains and losses and interest income from our strategic investments.
The following table presents the components of our condensed consolidated statements of operations as a percentage of total revenue for the periods presented:
Three Months Ended October 31,
Nine Months Ended October 31,
2024
2023
2024
2023
%
%
Revenue
Subscription
95
%
93
%
95
%
94
%
Professional services
5
%
7
%
5
%
6
%
Total revenue
100
%
100
%
100
%
100
%
Cost of revenue
Subscription
21
%
20
%
21
%
21
%
Professional services
4
%
4
%
4
%
4
%
Total cost of revenue
25
%
25
%
25
%
25
%
Gross profit
75
%
75
%
75
%
75
%
Operating expenses
Sales and marketing
40
%
36
%
38
%
38
%
Research and development
27
%
25
%
26
%
25
%
General and administrative
13
%
13
%
12
%
13
%
Total operating expenses
80
%
75
%
76
%
77
%
Income (loss) from operations
(6)
%
—
%
(1)
%
(1)
%
Interest expense
(1)
%
(1)
%
(1)
%
(1)
%
Interest income
5
%
5
%
5
%
5
%
Other income (expense), net
—
%
—
%
—
%
—
%
Income (loss) before provision for income taxes
(1)
%
5
%
3
%
2
%
Provision for income taxes
1
%
1
%
1
%
1
%
Net income (loss)
(2)
%
3
%
3
%
2
%
Net income attributable to non-controlling interest
—
%
—
%
—
%
—
%
Net income (loss) attributable to CrowdStrike
(2)
%
3
%
3
%
2
%
Comparison of the Three Months Ended October 31, 2024 and 2023
Revenue
The following shows total revenue from subscriptions and professional services for the three months endedOctober 31, 2024 as compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):
Three Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
Subscription
$
962,735
$
733,463
$
229,272
31
%
Professional services
47,443
52,551
(5,108)
(10)
%
Total revenue
$
1,010,178
$
786,014
$
224,164
29
%
Total revenue increased by $224.2 million, or 29%, for the three months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023. Subscription revenue accounted for 95% and 93% of our total revenue for the three months ended October 31, 2024 and October 31, 2023, respectively. Professional services revenue accounted for 5% and 7% of our total revenue for the three months ended October 31, 2024 and October 31, 2023, respectively.
Subscription revenue increased by $229.3 million, or 31%, for the three months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023, which was primarily driven by a combination of the addition of new customers and the sale of additional sensors and modules to existing customers.
Professional services revenue decreased by $5.1 million, or 10%, for the three months ended October 31, 2024, compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023, which was primarily driven by a decrease in services provided based on billable and non-billable hours.
Cost of Revenue, Gross Profit, and Gross Margin
The following shows cost of revenue related to subscriptions and professional services for the three months ended October 31, 2024 as compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):
Three Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
Subscription
$
216,301
$
159,830
$
56,471
35
%
Professional services
38,786
35,174
3,612
10
%
Total cost of revenue
$
255,087
$
195,004
$
60,083
31
%
Total cost of revenue increased by $60.1 million, or 31%, for the three months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023. Subscription cost of revenue increased by $56.5 million, or 35%, for the three months ended October 31, 2024, compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023. The increase in subscription cost of revenue was primarily due to an increase in employee-related expenses of $13.9 million driven by a 30% increase in average headcount, an increase in cloud hosting and related services cost of $10.5 million, an increase in depreciation of data center equipment of $9.4 million, an increase in stock-based compensation expense of $7.1 million, an increase in allocated overhead costs of $5.5 million, an increase in amortization of internal-use software of $5.4 million, an increase in hardware maintenance costs of $1.4 million, and an increase in employee benefits of $1.2 million.
Professional services cost of revenue increased by $3.6 million, or 10%, for the three months ended October 31, 2024, compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023. The increase in professional services cost of revenue was primarily due to an increase in employee-related expenses of $3.2 million driven by an 20% increase in average headcount, an increase in stock-based compensation expense of $1.9 million, and an increase in allocated overhead costs of $1.6 million, partially offset by a decrease in consulting expense of $3.3 million.
The following shows gross profit and gross margin for subscriptions and professional services for the three months ended October 31, 2024 as compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):
Three Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
Subscription gross profit
$
746,434
$
573,633
$
172,801
30
%
Professional services gross profit
8,657
17,377
(8,720)
(50)
%
Total gross profit
$
755,091
$
591,010
$
164,081
28
%
Three Months Ended October 31,
Change %
2024
2023
Subscription gross margin
78
%
78
%
—
%
Professional services gross margin
18
%
33
%
(15)
%
Total gross margin
75
%
75
%
—
%
Subscription gross margin was flat for the three months ended October 31, 2024, compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023.
Professional services gross margin decreased by 15% for the three months ended October 31, 2024, compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023. The decrease in professional services gross margin was primarily due to an increase in consulting expense and decreased utilization during the three months ended October 31, 2024.
The following shows sales and marketing expenses for the three months ended October 31, 2024 as compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):
Three Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
Sales and marketing expenses
$
408,267
$
286,186
$
122,081
43
%
Sales and marketing expenses increased by $122.1 million, or 43%, for the three months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023. The increase in sales and marketing expenses was primarily due to an increase in employee-related expenses of $46.8 million driven by a 16% increase in average headcount, an increase in marketing programs of $22.9 million, $15.1 million of expenses relating to the July 19 Incident, an increase in stock-based compensation expense of $13.7 million, an increase in allocated overhead costs of $8.9 million, an increase in travel expenses of $3.8 million, an increase in cloud hosting and related costs of $1.5 million, an increase in employee benefits of $1.5 million, an increase in term-based software licenses of $1.3 million, and an increase in other labor expenses of $1.1 million.
Research and Development
The following shows research and development expenses for the three months ended October 31, 2024 as compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):
Three Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
Research and development expenses
$
275,602
$
196,072
$
79,530
41
%
Research and development expenses increased by $79.5 million, or 41%, for the three months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023. This increase was primarily due to an increase in stock-based compensation expense of $29.5 million, an increase in employee-related expenses of $22.8 million driven by a 20% increase in average headcount, an increase in cloud hosting and related costs of $11.6 million, an increase in allocated overhead costs of $7.4 million, $3.5 million of expenses relating to the July 19 Incident, an increase in term-based software licenses of $1.5 million, and an increase in employee benefits of $1.0 million, partially offset by a decrease in other labor expenses of $2.7 million.
General and Administrative
The following shows general and administrative expenses for the three months ended October 31, 2024 as compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):
Three Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
General and administrative expenses
$
126,945
$
105,589
$
21,356
20
%
General and administrative expenses increased by $21.4 million, or 20%, for the three months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023. The increase in general and administrative expenses was primarily due to $15.3 million of expenses relating to the July 19 Incident, an increase in employee-related expenses of $6.6 million driven by a 19% increase in average headcount, an increase in corporate insurance of $3.6 million, an increase in allocated overhead costs of $2.0 million, an increase in term-based software licenses of $1.0 million, and an increase in leased airfare costs of $1.0 million, partially offset by a decrease in stock-based compensation expense of $2.9 million, a decrease in legal expense of $4.9 million unrelated to the July 19 Incident, and a decrease in consulting expense of $1.8 million.
Interest Expense, Interest Income, and Other Expense, Net
The following shows interest expense, interest income, and other expense, net for the three months ended October 31, 2024 as compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):
Three Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
Interest expense
$
(6,587)
$
(6,503)
$
(84)
1
%
Interest income
$
52,201
$
40,086
$
12,115
30
%
Other expense, net
$
(429)
$
(474)
$
45
(9)
%
Interest expense consists primarily of amortization of debt issuance costs, contractual interest expense, accretion of debt discount for our Senior Notes issued in January 2021, and amortization of debt issuance costs on our Revolving Facility.
The increase in interest income for the three months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023 was driven by an increase in our cash and cash equivalents.
The decrease in other expense, net for the three months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023 was primarily due to gains on deferred compensation assets and fluctuations in foreign currency transaction gains and losses.
Provision for Income Taxes
The following shows the provision for income taxes for the three months ended October 31, 2024 as compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentage):
Three Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
Provision for income taxes
$
6,281
$
9,603
$
(3,322)
(35)
%
The decrease in provision for income taxes of $3.3 million during the three months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the three months ended October 31, 2023 was primarily attributable to the tax benefit of effective settlement, offset by income taxes from pre-tax earnings and withholding taxes related to customer payments in certain foreign jurisdictions in which the Company conducts business.
Comparison of the Nine Months Ended October 31, 2024 and 2023
Revenue
The following shows total revenue from subscriptions and professional services for the nine months endedOctober 31, 2024 as compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):
Nine Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
Subscription
$
2,753,164
$
2,074,610
$
678,554
33
%
Professional services
141,922
135,610
6,312
5
%
Total revenue
$
2,895,086
$
2,210,220
$
684,866
31
%
Total revenue increased by $684.9 million, or 31%, for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023. Subscription revenue accounted for 95% and 94% of our total revenue for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 and October 31, 2023, respectively. Professional services revenue accounted for 5% and 6% of our total revenue for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 and October 31, 2023, respectively.
Subscription revenue increased by $678.6 million, or 33%, for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023, which was primarily driven by a combination of the addition of new customers and the sale of additional sensors and modules to existing customers.
Professional services revenue increased by $6.3 million, or 5%, for the nine months ended October 31, 2024, compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023, which was primarily attributable to an increase in the number of professional service hours performed.
Cost of Revenue, Gross Profit, and Gross Margin
The following shows cost of revenue related to subscriptions and professional services for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 as compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):
Nine Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
Subscription
$
605,868
$
455,236
$
150,632
33
%
Professional services
111,623
91,915
19,708
21
%
Total cost of revenue
$
717,491
$
547,151
$
170,340
31
%
Total cost of revenue increased by $170.3 million, or 31%, for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023. Subscription cost of revenue increased by $150.6 million, or 33%, for the nine months ended October 31, 2024, compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023. The increase in subscription cost of revenue was primarily due to an increase in employee-related expenses of $43.0 million driven by a 29% increase in average headcount, an increase in depreciation of data center equipment of $28.0 million, an increase in stock-based compensation expense of $18.7 million, an increase in cloud hosting and related services cost of $18.5 million, an increase in amortization of internal-use software of $16.3 million, an increase in allocated overhead costs of $14.4 million, an increase in hardware maintenance costs of $4.7 million, and an increase in employee health benefits of $2.4 million.
Professional services cost of revenue increased by $19.7 million, or 21%, for the nine months ended October 31, 2024, compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023. The increase in professional services cost of revenue was primarily due to an increase in employee-related expenses of $9.5 million driven by a 19% increase in average headcount, an increase in stock-based compensation expense of $5.1 million, and an increase in allocated overhead costs of $3.5 million.
The following shows gross profit and gross margin for subscriptions and professional services for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 as compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):
Nine Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
Subscription gross profit
$
2,147,296
$
1,619,374
$
527,922
33
%
Professional services gross profit
30,299
43,695
(13,396)
(31)
%
Total gross profit
$
2,177,595
$
1,663,069
$
514,526
31
%
Nine Months Ended October 31,
Change %
2024
2023
Subscription gross margin
78
%
78
%
—
%
Professional services gross margin
21
%
32
%
(11)
%
Total gross margin
75
%
75
%
—
%
Subscription gross margin was flat for the nine months ended October 31, 2024, compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023.
Professional services gross margin decreased by 11% for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023. The decrease in professional services gross margin was primarily due to an increase in consulting expenses and decreased utilization during the nine months ended October 31, 2024.
The following shows sales and marketing expenses for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 as compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):
Nine Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
Sales and marketing expenses
$
1,113,852
$
850,209
$
263,643
31
%
Sales and marketing expenses increased by $263.6 million, or 31%, for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023. The increase in sales and marketing expenses was primarily due to an increase in employee-related expenses of $108.3 million driven by a 13% increase in average headcount, an increase in marketing programs of $43.4 million, an increase in stock-based compensation expense of $36.2 million, an increase in allocated overhead costs of $19.5 million, $18.2 million of expenses relating to the July 19 Incident, an increase in travel expenses of $9.3 million, an increase in company events expenses of $5.4 million, an increase in term-based software licenses of $3.8 million, an increase in cloud hosting and related costs of $3.4 million, an increase in employee health benefits of $2.8 million, an increase in other labor expenses of $2.5 million, and an increase in consulting expense of $1.5 million, partially offset by a decrease in taxes and licenses of $1.3 million.
Research and Development
The following shows research and development expenses for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 as compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):
Nine Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
Research and development expenses
$
761,759
$
554,499
$
207,260
37
%
Research and development expenses increased by $207.3 million, or 37%, for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023. This increase was primarily due an increase in stock-based compensation expense of $80.7 million, an increase in employee-related expenses of $69.3 million driven by a 15% increase in average headcount, an increase in cloud hosting and related costs of $21.9 million, an increase in allocated overhead costs of $17.7 million, $4.6 million of expenses relating to the July 19 Incident, an increase in term-based software licenses of $3.0 million, an increase in employee related benefits of $2.5 million, an increase in travel expenses of $2.4 million, and an increase in consulting expense of $1.1 million.
General and Administrative
The following shows general and administrative expenses for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 as compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):
Nine Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
General and administrative expenses
$
337,113
$
290,027
$
47,086
16
%
General and administrative expenses increased by $47.1 million, or 16%, for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023. The increase in general and administrative expenses was primarily due to an increase in employee-related expenses of $21.0 million driven by an 17% increase in average headcount, $16.3 million of expenses relating to the July 19 Incident, an increase in allocated overhead costs of $4.4 million, an increase in consulting expense of $2.8 million, an increase in leased airfare costs of $2.6 million, an increase in tax and licenses of $1.6 million, and an increase in company events expenses of $1.0 million, partially offset by a decrease in legal expense of $7.5 million unrelated to the July 19 Incident.
Interest Expense, Interest Income, and Other Income (Expense), Net
The following shows interest expense, interest income, and other income (expense), net for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 as compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentages):
Nine Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
Interest expense
$
(19,647)
$
(19,334)
$
(313)
2
%
Interest income
$
149,577
$
107,245
$
42,332
39
%
Other income (expense), net
$
6,196
$
(1,978)
$
8,174
(413)
%
Interest expense consists primarily of amortization of debt issuance costs, contractual interest expense, accretion of debt discount for our Senior Notes issued in January 2021, and amortization of debt issuance costs on our Revolving Facility.
The increase in interest income for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023 was driven by increases in market interest rates and an increase in our cash and cash equivalents.
The increase in other income (expense), net for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023 was primarily due to gains on sales of our strategic investments of $6.2 million and an increase in net foreign currency transaction gains of $1.1 million.
Provision for Income Taxes
The following shows the provision for income taxes for the nine months ended October 31, 2024 as compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023 (in thousands, except percentage):
Nine Months Ended October 31,
Change $
Change %
2024
2023
Provision for income taxes
$
24,862
$
18,623
$
6,239
34
%
The increase in provision for income taxes of $6.2 million during the nine months ended October 31, 2024 compared to the nine months ended October 31, 2023 was primarily attributable to the increase in pre-tax earnings and withholding taxes related to customer payments in certain foreign jurisdictions in which the Company conducts business.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our primary sources of liquidity as of October 31, 2024, consisted of: (i) $4.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents, which mainly consists of cash on hand and highly liquid investments in money market funds and U.S. Treasury bills, (ii) cash we expect to generate from operations, and (iii) available capacity under our $750.0 million Revolving Facility. It is not currently possible to reasonably estimate the amount of loss or range of possible loss that might result from adverse judgments, settlements, penalties, or other resolution of proceedings resulting from the July 19 Incident. However, despite such uncertainties, we expect that the combination of our existing cash and cash equivalents, cash flows from operations, and the Revolving Facility will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs for working capital and capital expenditures for at least the next 12 months.
Our short-term and long-term liquidity requirements primarily arise from: (i) business acquisitions and investments we may make from time to time, (ii) working capital requirements, (iii) interest and principal payments related to our outstanding indebtedness, (iv) research and development and capital expenditure needs, and (v) license and service arrangements integral to our business operations. Our ability to fund these requirements will depend, in part, on our future cash flows, which are determined by our future operating performance and, therefore, subject to prevailing global macroeconomic conditions and financial, business and other factors, some of which are beyond our control.
We have historically generated operating losses prior to fiscal 2024 and during the three months ended October 31, 2024, which corresponds to the third quarter of fiscal 2025, as reflected in our accumulated deficit of $1.0 billion as of October 31, 2024. We expect to continue to make investments, particularly in sales and marketing and research and development. As a result, we may require additional capital resources in the future to execute strategic initiatives to grow our business.
We typically invoice our subscription customers annually in advance. Therefore, a substantial source of our cash is from such prepayments, which are included on our condensed consolidated balance sheets as deferred revenue. Deferred revenue primarily consists of billed fees for our subscriptions, prior to satisfying the criteria for revenue recognition, which are subsequently recognized as revenue in accordance with our revenue recognition policy. As of October 31, 2024, we had deferred revenue of $3.2 billion, of which $2.4 billion was recorded as a current liability and is expected to be recorded as revenue in the next 12 months, provided all other revenue recognition criteria have been met.
We do not have any relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as structured finance or special purpose entities. We do not have any outstanding derivative financial instruments, off-balance sheet guarantees, interest rate swap transactions, or foreign currency forward contracts.
Cash Flows
The following table summarizes our cash flows for the periods presented (in thousands):
Nine Months Ended October 31,
2024
2023
Net cash provided by operating activities
$
1,036,005
$
819,191
Net cash used in investing activities
(211,569)
(361,045)
Net cash provided by financing activities
60,822
59,698
Net change in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash
884,617
514,433
Operating Activities
Net cash provided by operating activities during the nine months ended October 31, 2024 was $1,036.0 million, which resulted from net income of $76.1 million, adjusted for non-cash charges of $984.9 million and net cash outflow of $25.0 million from changes in operating assets and liabilities. Non-cash charges primarily consisted of $592.9 million in stock-based compensation expense, $227.7 million of amortization of deferred contract acquisition costs, $137.9 million of depreciation and amortization, $18.7 million of amortization of intangibles assets, $11.1 million of non-cash operating lease costs, $2.7 million of non-cash interest expense, and $2.3 million of accretion of short-term investments purchased at a discount, partially offset by $6.2 million realized gains on strategic investments and $2.1 million of deferred income taxes. The net cash outflow from changes in operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to a $361.4 million increase in deferred contract acquisition costs, a $42.8 million increase in prepaid expenses and other assets, and a $11.8 million decrease in operating lease liabilities, partially offset by a $142.2 million increase in deferred revenue, an $89.9 million increase in accrued payroll and benefits, an $85.7 million increase in accrued expenses and other liabilities, a $39.2 million decrease in accounts receivable, and a $34.1 million increase in accounts payable.
Investing Activities
Net cash used in investing activities of $211.6 million during the nine months ended October 31, 2024 was primarily due to purchases of property and equipment of $167.6 million, business acquisitions, net of cash acquired, of $96.4 million, which was related to the Flow Security acquisition, capitalized internal-use software and website development costs of $41.3 million, purchases of strategic investments of $12.7 million, and purchases of deferred compensation investments of $1.8 million, partially offset by proceeds from maturities of short-term investments of $97.3 million and proceeds from sales of strategic investments of $10.9 million.
Financing Activities
Net cash provided by financing activities of $60.8 million during the nine months ended October 31, 2024 was primarily due to proceeds from our employee stock purchase plan of $56.1 million, capital contributions from non-controlling interests of $5.5 million, and proceeds from the exercise of stock options of $3.3 million, partially offset by distributions to non-controlling interest holders of $4.1 million.
Our Senior Notes are guaranteed on a senior, unsecured basis by CrowdStrike, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (the “subsidiary guarantor,” and together with CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc., the “Obligor Group”). The guarantee is full and unconditional and is subject to certain conditions for release. See Note 4, “Debt,” to our condensed consolidated financial statements in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, for a brief description of the Senior Notes.
We conduct our operations almost entirely through our subsidiaries. Accordingly, the Obligor Group’s cash flows and ability to service the notes will depend on the earnings of our subsidiaries and the distribution of those earnings to the Obligor Group, whether by dividends, loans or otherwise. Holders of the guaranteed registered debt securities will have a direct claim only against the Obligor Group.
Summarized financial information is presented below for the Obligor Group on a combined basis after elimination of intercompany transactions and balances within the Obligor Group and equity in the earnings from and investments in any non-guarantor subsidiary. The revenue amounts presented in the summarized financial information include substantially all of our condensed consolidated revenue, and there is no intercompany revenue from the non-guarantor subsidiaries. This summarized financial information has been prepared and presented pursuant to Regulation S-X Rule 13-01, “Financial Disclosures about Guarantors and Issuers of Guaranteed Securities” and is not intended to present the financial position or results of operations of the Obligor Group in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
Statement of Operations
Nine Months Ended October 31, 2024
(in thousands)
Revenue
$
2,891,704
Cost of revenue
740,626
Operating expenses
2,197,725
Loss from operations
(46,647)
Net income
63,365
Net income attributable to CrowdStrike
63,365
October 31, 2024
January 31, 2024
(in thousands)
Current assets (excluding current intercompany receivables from non-Guarantors)
$
5,403,852
$
4,563,521
Current intercompany receivables from non-Guarantors
25,660
24,716
Noncurrent assets (excluding noncurrent intercompany receivables from non-Guarantors)
1,796,543
1,605,308
Noncurrent intercompany receivables from non-Guarantors
392,279
280,426
Current liabilities (excluding current intercompany payables to non-Guarantors)
2,882,966
2,605,892
Current intercompany payables to non-Guarantors
506
—
Noncurrent liabilities (excluding noncurrent intercompany payables to non-Guarantors)
1,663,028
1,586,566
Noncurrent intercompany payables to non-Guarantors
In July 2019, we agreed to commit up to $10.0 million to a newly formed entity, CrowdStrike Falcon Fund LLC (the “Original Falcon Fund”) in exchange for 50% of the sharing percentage of any distribution by the Original Falcon Fund. In December 2021, we agreed to commit an additional $50.0 million to a newly formed entity, CrowdStrike Falcon Fund II LLC (“Falcon Fund II”) in exchange for 50% of the sharing percentage of any distribution by Falcon Fund II. Further, entities associated with Accel also agreed to commit up to $10.0 million and $50.0 million, respectively, to the Original Falcon Fund and Falcon Fund II (collectively, the “Falcon Funds”), and collectively own the remaining 50% of the sharing percentage of the Falcon Funds. Both Falcon Funds are in the business of purchasing, selling, and investing in minority equity and convertible debt securities of privately-held companies that develop applications that have potential for substantial contribution to us and our platform. We are the manager of the Falcon Funds and control their investment decisions and day-to-day operations and accordingly have consolidated each of the Falcon Funds. Each Falcon Fund has a duration of ten years and may be extended for three additional years. At dissolution, the Falcon Funds will be liquidated, and the remaining assets will be distributed to the investors based on their respective sharing percentage.
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
During the nine months ended October 31, 2024, there were no significant changes to our debt obligations related to the Senior Notes or our contractual obligations under our non-cancelable real estate arrangements, as presented in Part II, Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024.
We have non-cancellable purchase commitments with various parties to purchase products and services entered in the normal course of business totaling $2.8 billion as of October 31, 2024, with remaining terms in excess of 12 months. We expect to fund these obligations with cash flows from operations and cash and cash equivalents on our balance sheet.
As of October 31, 2024, our unrecognized tax benefits included $12.3 million, which were classified as long-term liabilities due to the inherent uncertainty with respect to the timing of future cash outflows associated with our unrecognized tax benefits.
As of October 31, 2024, we had non-cancellable unfunded commitments from our financing arrangements totaling approximately $49.3 million.
On November 5, 2024, we entered into an agreement to acquire all of the ownership interests in A.S. Adaptive Shield Ltd. The acquisition was closed on November 20, 2024 and the total consideration transferred consisted of $213.8 million in cash, net of $13.8 million of cash acquired, and $0.7 million representing the fair value of replacement equity awards attributable to pre-acquisition service, subject to customary net working capital and purchase price adjustments. We are in the process of finalizing the intangible assets valuation and purchase price allocation.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our condensed consolidated financial statements were prepared in accordance with U.S GAAP. The preparation of the condensed consolidated financial statements requires our management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates and judgments on our historical experience, knowledge of factors affecting our business and our belief as to what could occur in the future considering available information and assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances.
The accounting estimates we use in the preparation of our condensed consolidated financial statements will change as new events occur, more experience is acquired, additional information is obtained and our operating environment changes. Changes in estimates are made when circumstances warrant. Such changes in estimates and refinements in estimation methodologies are reflected in our reported results of operations and, if material, the effects of changes in estimates are disclosed in the notes to our condensed consolidated financial statements. By their nature, these estimates and judgments are subject to an inherent degree of uncertainty and actual results could differ materially from the amounts reported based on these estimates.
There have been no significant changes in our critical accounting policies and estimates during the nine months ended October 31, 2024, as compared to the critical accounting policies and estimates disclosed in Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2024, filed with the SEC on March 6, 2024.
We enter into both single and multi-year subscription contracts for our solutions. We generally invoice our customers at contract signing prior to commencement of subscription period. Until such time as these amounts are invoiced, they are not recorded in deferred revenue or elsewhere in our condensed consolidated financial statements, and are considered by us to be backlog. As of October 31, 2024, we had backlog of approximately $2.2 billion. We expect backlog will change from period to period for several reasons, including the timing and duration of customer agreements, varying billing cycles of subscription agreements, and the timing and duration of customer renewals. Because revenue for any period is a function of revenue recognized from deferred revenue under contracts in existence at the beginning of the period, as well as contract renewals and new customer contracts during the period, backlog at the beginning of any period is not necessarily indicative of future revenue performance. We do not utilize backlog as a key management metric internally.
Seasonality
Given the annual budget approval processes of many of our customers, we see seasonal patterns in our business. Net new ARR generation is typically greater in the second half of the year, particularly in the fourth quarter, as compared to the first half of the year. In addition, we also experience seasonality in our operating margin, typically with a lower margin in the first half of our fiscal year due to a step up in costs for payroll taxes and annual sales and marketing events. This also impacts the timing of operating cash flow.
Employees
As of October 31, 2024, we had 9,666 full-time employees. We also engage temporary employees and consultants as needed to support our operations. None of our employees in the United States are represented by a labor union or subject to a collective bargaining agreement. In certain countries in which we operate, we are subject to local labor law requirements which may automatically make our employees subject to industry-wide collective bargaining agreements. We have not experienced any work stoppages, and we consider our relations with our employees to be good.
Corporate Information
Our principal executive offices are located at 206 E. 9th Street, Suite 1400, Austin, Texas 78701 and our telephone number is (888) 512-8906. We are a holding company and all of our business operations are conducted through our subsidiaries, including CrowdStrike, Inc. Our website address is www.crowdstrike.com. Information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website does not constitute part of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
See Note 1, “Description of Business and Significant Accounting Policies,” to our condensed consolidated financial statements in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, for more information about the impact of certain recent accounting pronouncements on our condensed consolidated financial statements.
ITEM 3. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
There have been no material changes to our market risks during the three and nine months ended October 31, 2024 compared to our disclosures in Part II, Item 7A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024.
ITEM 4. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
We maintain “disclosure controls and procedures,” as defined in Rule 13a–15(e) and Rule 15d–15(e) under the Exchange Act that are designed to provide reasonable assurance that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to provide reasonable assurance that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act 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.
Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of October 31, 2024. Based on such evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of October 31, 2024, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as of such date, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
There was no change in our internal control over financial reporting identified in connection with the evaluation required by Rule 13a-15(d) and Rule 15d-15(d) of the Exchange Act that occurred during the period covered by this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls
A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Inherent limitations in all control systems include the realities that judgments in decision making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of a simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people or by management override of the controls. The design of any system of controls also is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions; over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost–effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.
PART II. OTHER INFORMATION
ITEM 1. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
We are currently a party to, and may from time to time in the future be involved in, various litigation matters and subject to claims that arise in the ordinary course of business, including claims asserted by third parties in the form of letters and other communications. For information regarding legal proceedings and other claims asserted against us, including in relation to the July 19 Incident, see Note 8, “Commitments and Contingencies,” to our condensed consolidated financial statements in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
For any claims for which we believe a liability is both probable and reasonably estimable, we record a liability in the period in which we make this determination. Other than as disclosed in Note 8, there is no pending or threatened legal proceeding to which we are a party that, in our opinion, is likely to have a material adverse effect on our business and our condensed consolidated financial statements; however, the results of legal proceedings and claims are inherently unpredictable. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on our business because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources, and other factors. In addition, the expense of litigation and the timing of this expense from period to period are difficult to estimate, subject to change and could adversely affect our condensed consolidated financial statements.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
A description of the risks and uncertainties associated with our business is set forth below. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, as well as the other information in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including our condensed consolidated financial statements and the related notes and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The occurrence of any of the events or developments described below, or of additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial, could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and growth prospects. In such an event, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
The July 19 Incident has had, and is expected to continue to have, an adverse effect on our business, sales, customer and partner relations, reputation, results of operations and financial condition.
On July 19, 2024, we released a content configuration update for our Falcon sensor that resulted in system crashes for certain Windows systems (the “July 19 Incident”). We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, significant costs and expenses related to the incident, including in connection with remediation efforts, customer and partner relations, measures taken to address the damage to our reputation, and other measures taken in response to the incident. Our management and other personnel are devoting significant time and resources to address the impacts of the July 19 Incident. We may also hire additional personnel to assist with our ongoing efforts. Any real or perceived failure, by us or the third-party service providers we engage, to remediate and respond to the July 19 Incident could adversely impact our business. While we are investing in enhancements to software resiliency, testing and customer controls following the July 19 Incident, we cannot guarantee that such enhancements will be effective, or that our products do not have or will not have defects, errors, or vulnerabilities.
The July 19 Incident has harmed, and is expected to continue to harm, our business, sales, customer and partner relations, and our reputation. As a result of the incident, certain of our existing or prospective customers have elected to, and may in the future elect to, defer purchasing decisions relating to our products and services or not purchase our products and services at all. Customers have also decided, and may in the future decide, to terminate or not renew their agreements with us. The July 19 Incident has negatively impacted, and may in the future negatively impact, our existing or prospective partners’ ability or willingness to promote our products or services. Certain of our competitors have aggressively approached our current and prospective customers and partners to attempt to capitalize on the incident, and may continue to do so. Furthermore, we have agreed to, and expect to agree to in the future, provide incentives in connection with our commercial arrangements with our customers, including subscription period extensions, discounts or promotional modules. The July 19 Incident has received negative media coverage and harmed our reputation and brand. If we are unable to regain the trust of our current and prospective customers and partners, or if negative media coverage and publicity continues, our reputation and brand may suffer further, exacerbating the effects discussed herein. These factors may result in harm to our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We are party to a number of legal proceedings relating to the July 19 Incident, such as lawsuits filed by or on behalf of third parties, including securities litigation brought on behalf of certain purchasers of our Class A common stock, derivative litigation asserting claims against certain officers and directors, and putative class actions brought by individual consumers. We have also received inquiries from governmental authorities and other third parties, and governmental authorities may seek to impose undertakings, injunctive relief, consent decrees or other penalties, which could, among other things, materially increase our expenses or otherwise require us to alter how we operate our business. Third parties, including governmental authorities, may take certain actions in response to the July 19 Incident that may negatively impact our business and operations and may result in additional costs and expenses relating to compliance, product development or other matters. Some customers and other third parties claiming to have been impacted by the incident have asserted claims against us or otherwise communicated their intent to seek indemnification or compensation from us. Additional claims may also be asserted by or on behalf of customers, customers’ insurers, partners, stockholders or others seeking monetary damages or other relief. These lawsuits, claims and inquiries are resulting, and are expected to result in the future, in the incurrence of significant costs and expenses, the diversion of management’s attention from the operation of our business and other negative impacts on our business and operations.
While we maintain insurance policies that may cover certain costs, claims and liabilities in connection with the July 19 Incident, we expect that our insurance coverage will not cover all costs, claims and liabilities actually incurred, and we cannot be certain that our insurance will continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our financial condition, results of operations and reputation.
We have experienced rapid growth in recent periods, and if we do not manage our future growth, our business and results of operations will be adversely affected.
We have experienced rapid revenue growth in recent periods and we expect to continue to invest broadly across our organization to support our growth. For example, our headcount grew from 4,965 employees as of January 31, 2022, to 9,666 employees as of October 31, 2024. Although we have experienced rapid growth historically, we may not sustain our current growth rates and our investments to support our growth may not be successful. The growth and expansion of our business will require us to invest significant financial and operational resources and the continuous dedication of our management team. Our future success will depend in part on our ability to manage our growth effectively, which will require us to, among other things:
•effectively attract, integrate, and retain a large number of new employees, particularly members of our sales and marketing and research and development teams;
•further improve our Falcon platform, including our cloud modules, and IT infrastructure, including expanding and optimizing our data centers, to support our business needs;
•enhance our information and communication systems to ensure that our employees and offices around the world are well coordinated and can effectively communicate with each other and our growing base of channel partners and customers; and
•improve our financial, management, and compliance systems and controls.
If we fail to achieve these objectives effectively, our ability to manage our expected growth, ensure uninterrupted operation of our Falcon platform and key business systems, and comply with the rules and regulations applicable to our business could be impaired. Additionally, the quality of our platform and services could suffer and we may not be able to adequately address competitive challenges. Any of the foregoing could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We have a history of losses, and while we have achieved profitability in certain periods, including fiscal 2024, we may not be able to achieve or sustain profitability in the future.
We have incurred net losses each year prior to fiscal 2024, and we may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future. We experienced net gains of $89.3 million for fiscal 2024, and net losses of $183.2 million, and $234.8 million for fiscal 2023, and fiscal 2022, respectively. As of October 31, 2024, we had an accumulated deficit of $1.0 billion. While we have experienced significant growth in revenue in recent periods, and have achieved profitability during certain periods, including fiscal 2024, we cannot assure you when or whether we will reach sustained profitability. We also expect our operating expenses to increase in the future as we continue to invest for our future growth, which will negatively affect our results of operations if our total revenue does not increase. We cannot assure you that these investments will result in substantial increases in our total revenue or improvements in our results of operations. We also have incurred and expect to continue to incur significant additional legal, accounting, and other expenses as a public company. Any failure to increase our revenue as we invest in our business or to manage our costs could prevent us from achieving or maintaining profitability or positive cash flow.
If organizations do not adopt cloud-based SaaS-delivered endpoint security solutions, our ability to grow our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.
We believe our future success will depend in large part on the growth, if any, in the market for cloud-based SaaS-delivered endpoint security solutions. The use of SaaS solutions to manage and automate security and IT operations is at an early stage and rapidly evolving. As such, it is difficult to predict its potential growth, if any, customer adoption and retention rates, customer demand for our solutions, customer consolidation on our platform, or the success of existing competitive products. Any expansion in our market depends on a number of factors, including the cost, performance, and perceived value associated with our solutions and those of our competitors. If our solutions do not achieve widespread adoption or there is a reduction in demand for our solutions due to a lack of customer acceptance, technological challenges, damage to our reputation including as a result of the July 19 Incident, competing products, privacy concerns, decreases in corporate spending, weakening economic conditions or otherwise, it could result in early terminations, reduced customer retention rates, or decreased revenue, any of which would adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial results. We do not know whether the trend in adoption of cloud-based SaaS-delivered endpoint security solutions we have experienced in the past will continue in the future. Furthermore, to the extent we or other SaaS security providers experience security incidents, loss or disclosure of customer data, disruptions in delivery, or other problems, the market for SaaS solutions as a whole, including our security solutions, could be negatively
affected. You should consider our business and prospects in light of the risks and difficulties we encounter in this new and evolving market.
If we are unable to successfully enhance our existing products and services and introduce new products and services in response to rapid technological changes and market developments as well as evolving security threats, our competitive position and prospects will be harmed.
Our ability to increase revenue from existing customers and attract new customers will depend in significant part on our ability to anticipate and respond effectively to rapid technological changes and market developments as well as evolving security threats. The success of our Falcon platform depends on our ability to take such changes into account and invest effectively in our research and development organization to increase the reliability, availability and scalability of our existing solutions and introduce new solutions. If we fail to effectively anticipate, identify or respond to such changes in a timely manner, or at all, our business could be harmed. Even if we adequately fund our research and development efforts there is no guarantee that we will realize a return on such efforts.
Success in delivering enhancements and new solutions depends on several factors, including the timely completion, introduction and market acceptance of the enhancement or new solution, the risk that such enhancement or new solution may have quality or other defects or deficiencies (such as we experienced in connection with the July 19 Incident), especially in the early stages of introduction, as well as our ability to seamlessly integrate all of our product and service offerings and develop adequate sales capabilities in new markets. Failure to effectively deliver, integrate, and manage perceptions with respect to enhancements and new solutions could erode our competitive position, significantly impair our revenue growth, and negatively impact our operating results.
If we are unable to attract new customers, our future results of operations could be harmed.
To expand our customer base, we need to convince potential customers to allocate a portion of their discretionary budgets to purchase our Falcon platform. Our sales efforts often involve educating our prospective customers about the uses and benefits of our Falcon platform. Enterprises and governments that use legacy security products, such as signature-based or malware-based products, firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and antivirus, for their IT security may be hesitant to purchase our Falcon platform if they believe that these products are more cost effective, provide substantially the same functionality as our Falcon platform or provide a level of IT security that is sufficient to meet their needs. We may have difficulty convincing prospective customers of the value of adopting our solution. Even if we are successful in convincing prospective customers that a cloud native platform like ours is critical to protect against cyberattacks, they may not decide to purchase our Falcon platform for a variety of reasons, some of which are out of our control. For example, any deterioration in general economic conditions, including as a result of the geopolitical environment, the outbreak of diseases or other public health crises, volatility in the banking and financial services sector, or inflation (as well as government policies such as raising interest rates in response to inflation), have in the past and may in the future cause our current and prospective customers to delay or cut their overall security and IT operations spending, and such delays or cuts may fall disproportionately on cloud-based security solutions like ours. Economic weakness, customer financial difficulties, constrained spending on security and IT operations, and the impact of the July 19 Incident may result in decreased revenue, reduced sales, an increase in multi-phase subscription start dates, shorter terms for customer subscriptions, lengthened sales cycles, increased churn, lower demand for our products, and adversely affect our results of operations and financial conditions. Furthermore, we may need to exercise more flexibility in customer payment terms as customers navigate a more challenging economic environment. Additionally, if the incidence of cyberattacks were to decline, or be perceived to decline, or if organizations adopt endpoints that use operating systems we do not adequately support, our ability to attract new customers and expand sales of our solutions to existing customers could be adversely affected. If organizations do not continue to adopt our Falcon platform, our sales will not grow as quickly as anticipated, or at all, and our business, results of operations, and financial condition would be harmed.
If our customers do not renew their subscriptions for our products and add additional cloud modules to their subscriptions, our future results of operations could be harmed.
In order for us to maintain or improve our results of operations, it is important that our customers renew their subscriptions for our Falcon platform when existing contract terms expire, and that we expand our commercial relationships with our existing customers by selling additional cloud modules and by deploying to more endpoints in their environments. Our customers have no obligation to renew their subscription for our Falcon platform after the expiration of their contractual subscription period, which is generally one year, and in the normal course of business, some customers have elected not to renew. In addition, customers that previously signed multi-year subscription contracts may renew for shorter contract subscription lengths, and customers may cease using certain cloud modules altogether. Even if customers choose to renew their subscription of certain cloud modules, they may
decline to purchase additional cloud modules or choose not to consolidate onto our Falcon platform. Our customer retention and expansion may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including our customers’ satisfaction with our services, our pricing, customer security and networking issues and requirements, our customers’ spending levels, decreases in the number of endpoints to which our customers deploy our solutions, mergers and acquisitions involving our customers, industry developments, competition, the impact of the July 19 Incident, and general economic and geopolitical conditions. If our efforts to maintain and expand our relationships with our existing customers are not successful, our business, results of operations, and financial condition may materially suffer.
Our sales cycles can be long and unpredictable, and our sales efforts require considerable time and expense.
Our revenue recognition is difficult to predict because of the length and unpredictability of the sales cycle for our Falcon platform. Customers often view the subscription to our Falcon platform as a significant strategic decision and, as a result, frequently require considerable time to evaluate, test and qualify our Falcon platform prior to entering into or expanding a relationship with us. Large enterprises and government entities in particular often undertake a significant evaluation process that further lengthens and adds uncertainty to our sales cycle. In addition, uncertain economic conditions may lead to additional scrutiny of budgets by current and prospective customers, which has resulted in, for example, longer sales cycles for products and services, and may result in shifting demand for IT products and services, and slower adoption of new technologies. We have also experienced, and expect to continue to experience, longer sales cycles in connection with the July 19 Incident.
Our direct sales team develops relationships with our customers, and works with our channel partners on account penetration, account coordination, sales and overall market development. We spend substantial time and resources on our sales efforts without any assurance that our efforts will produce a sale. Security solution purchases are frequently subject to budget constraints, multiple approvals and unanticipated administrative, processing and other delays. As a result, it is difficult to predict whether and when a sale will be completed. The failure of our efforts to secure sales after investing resources in a lengthy sales process could adversely affect our business and results of operations.
We face intense competition and could lose market share to our competitors, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
The market for security and IT operations solutions is intensely competitive, fragmented, and characterized by rapid changes in technology, customer requirements, industry standards, increasingly sophisticated attackers, and by frequent introductions of new or improved products or services to combat security threats. We expect to continue to face intense competition from current competitors, as well as from new entrants into the market. If we are unable to anticipate or react to these challenges, our competitive position could weaken, and we could experience a decline in revenue or reduced revenue growth, and loss of market share that would adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Our ability to compete effectively depends upon numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including, but not limited to:
•product capabilities, including performance and reliability, of our Falcon platform, including our cloud modules, services, and features compared to those of our competitors;
•our ability, and the ability of our competitors, to improve existing products, services, and features, or to develop new ones to address evolving customer needs;
•our ability to attract, retain, and motivate talented employees;
•our ability to establish and maintain relationships with channel partners and direct customers;
•the strength of our sales and marketing efforts;
•the strength of our reputation and brand, including the impact to our reputation and brand as a result of the July 19 Incident; and
•acquisitions or consolidation within our industry, which may result in more formidable competitors.
Our competitors include the following by general category:
•legacy antivirus product providers who offer a broad range of approaches and solutions including traditional signature-based anti-virus protection;
•alternative endpoint security providers who generally offer a mix of on-premise and cloud-hosted products that rely heavily on malware-only or application whitelisting techniques;
•network security vendors who are supplementing their core perimeter-based offerings with endpoint or cloud security solutions;
•cloud security vendors, including those who focus on public cloud infrastructure and services;
•identity security vendors that seek to identify and secure user accounts and related activities; and
•professional service providers who offer cybersecurity response services.
Many of our competitors have greater financial, technical, marketing, sales, and other resources, greater name recognition, longer operating histories, and a larger base of customers than we do. They may be able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion, and sale of services than we can, and they may offer lower pricing than we do. Further, they may have greater resources for research and development of new technologies, the provision of customer support, and the pursuit of acquisitions. Our larger competitors have substantially broader and more diverse product and services offerings as well as routes to market, which allows them to leverage their relationships based on other products or incorporate functionality into existing products to gain business in a manner that discourages users from purchasing our platform, including our cloud modules. Conditions in our market could change rapidly and significantly as a result of technological advancements, including with respect to AI. Our competitors may more successfully incorporate AI into their products, gain or leverage superior access to certain AI technologies, and achieve higher market acceptance of their AI solutions. Conditions in our market could also change rapidly and significantly due to partnering or acquisitions by our competitors or continuing market consolidation. Some of our competitors have recently made acquisitions of businesses or have established cooperative relationships that may allow them to offer more directly competitive and comprehensive solutions than were previously offered and adapt more quickly to new technologies and customer needs. These competitive pressures in our market or our failure to compete effectively may result in price reductions, fewer orders, reduced revenue and gross margins, increased net losses and loss of market share. Further, competitors that specialize in providing protection from a single type of security threat may be able to deliver these targeted security products to the market quicker than we can or convince organizations that these limited products meet their needs. Even if there is significant demand for cloud-based security solutions like ours, if our competitors include functionality that is, or is perceived to be, equivalent to or better than ours in legacy products that are already generally accepted as necessary components of an organization’s IT security architecture, we may have difficulty increasing the market penetration of our solutions. Furthermore, even if the functionality offered by other security and IT operations providers is more limited than the functionality of our platform, organizations may elect to accept such limited functionality in lieu of adding products from additional vendors like us. If we are unable to compete successfully, or if competing successfully requires us to take aggressive pricing or other actions, our business, financial condition, and results of operations would be adversely affected.
Competitive pricing pressure may reduce our gross profits and adversely affect our financial results.
If we are unable to maintain our pricing due to competitive pressures or other factors, our margins will be reduced and our gross profits, business, results of operations, and financial condition would be adversely affected. The subscription prices for our Falcon platform, cloud modules, and professional services may decline for a variety of reasons, including competitive pricing pressures, discounts, anticipation of the introduction of new solutions by our competitors, or promotional programs offered by us or our competitors. The cybersecurity market remains very competitive, and competition may further increase in the future. Competitors may reduce the price of products or subscriptions that compete with ours or may bundle them with other products and subscriptions.
If our solutions fail or are perceived to fail to detect or prevent incidents or have or are perceived to have defects, errors, or vulnerabilities, our brand and reputation would be harmed, which would adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Real or perceived defects, errors or vulnerabilities in our Falcon platform and cloud modules, the failure of our platform to detect or prevent incidents, including advanced and newly developed attacks, misconfiguration of our solutions, or the failure of customers to take action on attacks identified by our platform could harm our reputation and adversely affect our business, financial position and results of operations. Because our cloud native security platform is complex, it has contained, and may in the future contain defects, errors or vulnerabilities that are not detected until after deployment. For example, the July 19 Incident harmed our brand and reputation, business and results of operations. If we fail to timely detect defects or errors before deployment in the future, our brand and reputation, business and results of operations will suffer further. We cannot assure you that our
products will detect all cyberattacks, especially in light of the rapidly changing security threat landscape that our solution seeks to address. Due to a variety of both internal and external factors, including, without limitation, defects or misconfigurations of our or third-party solutions, our solutions could be or become vulnerable to security incidents (both from intentional attacks and accidental causes) that cause them to fail to secure endpoints and detect and block attacks. Furthermore, any defects, errors or vulnerabilities in third-party technology or solutions we rely on could result in disruptions to our operations and adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, because the techniques used by computer hackers to access or sabotage networks and endpoints change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, there is a risk that an advanced attack could emerge that our cloud native security platform is unable to detect or prevent until after some of our customers are affected. Additionally, our Falcon platform may falsely indicate a cyberattack or threat that does not actually exist, which may lessen customers’ trust in our solutions.
Moreover, as our cloud native security platform is adopted by an increasing number of enterprises and governments, individuals and organizations behind advanced cyberattacks may intensify their efforts to defeat our security platform. If this happens, our systems and subscription customers could be specifically targeted by attackers and could result in vulnerabilities in our platform or undermine the market acceptance of our Falcon platform and could adversely affect our reputation as a provider of security solutions. Because we host customer data on our cloud platform, which in some cases may contain personally-identifiable information or potentially confidential information, a security compromise, or an accidental or intentional misconfiguration or malfunction of our platform or third-party platforms, could result in personally-identifiable information and other customer data being accessible such as to attackers or to other customers. Further, if a high profile security breach occurs with respect to another next-generation or cloud-based security system, our customers and potential customers may lose trust in cloud solutions generally, and cloud-based security solutions such as ours in particular.
Organizations are increasingly subject to a wide variety of attacks on their networks, systems, and endpoints. No security solution, including our Falcon platform, can address all possible security threats or block all methods of penetrating a network or otherwise perpetrating a security incident. If any of our customers experiences a successful cyberattack while using our solutions or services, such customer could be disappointed with our Falcon platform, regardless of whether our solutions or services blocked the theft of any of such customer’s data, if the customer failed to protect its own credentials, or if the attack would have otherwise been mitigated or prevented if the customer had fully deployed aspects of our Falcon platform. Similarly, if our solutions detect attacks against a customer but the customer does not address the vulnerability, customers and the public may erroneously believe that our solutions were not effective. Security breaches against customers that use our solutions may result in customers and the public believing that our solutions failed. Our Falcon platform may fail to detect or prevent malware, viruses, worms or similar threats for any number of reasons, including our failure to enhance and expand our Falcon platform to reflect the increasing sophistication of malware, viruses and other threats. Real or perceived security breaches of our customers’ networks could cause disruption or damage to their networks or other negative consequences and could result in negative publicity to us, damage to our reputation, and other customer relations issues, and may adversely affect our revenue and results of operations.
As a cybersecurity provider, we have been, and expect to continue to be, a target of cyberattacks. If our or our service providers’ internal networks, systems, or data are or are perceived to have been compromised, our reputation may be damaged and our financial results may be negatively affected.
As a provider of security solutions, we have in the past been, and may in the future be, specifically targeted by bad actors for attacks intended to circumvent our security capabilities or to exploit our Falcon platform as an entry point into customers’ endpoints, networks, or systems. In particular, because we have been involved in the identification of organized cybercriminals and nation-state actors, we have been the subject of intense efforts by sophisticated cyber adversaries who seek to compromise our systems. Such efforts may also intensify as geopolitical tensions increase. In addition, bad actors have attempted to leverage the July 19 Incident to facilitate malicious activity, including, for example, through sending phishing emails posing as CrowdStrike support. Such activity, whether or not successful, could result in additional harm to our business. We are also susceptible to inadvertent compromises of our systems and data, including those arising from process, coding, or human errors. Moreover, we utilize third-party service providers to, among other things, host, transmit, or otherwise process electronic data in connection with our business activities, including our supply chain, operations, and communications. Our third-party service providers and other vendors have faced and may continue to face cyberattacks, compromises, interruptions in service, or other security incidents from a variety of sources. A successful attack or other incident that results in an interruption of service or that compromises our or our service providers’ internal networks, systems, or data could have a significant negative effect on our operations, reputation, financial resources, and the value of our intellectual property. We cannot assure you that any of our efforts to manage this risk, including adoption of a comprehensive incident response plan and process for detecting, mitigating, and investigating security incidents that we regularly test through table-top exercises, testing of our security protocols through additional techniques, such as penetration testing, debriefing after security incidents, to improve our security and responses, and
regular briefing of our directors and officers on our cybersecurity risks, preparedness, and management, will be effective in protecting us from such attacks.
It is virtually impossible for us to entirely eliminate the risk of such attacks, compromises, interruptions in service, or other security incidents affecting our internal systems or data, or that of our third-party service providers and vendors. Organizations are subject to a wide variety of attacks on their supply chain, networks, systems, and endpoints, and techniques used to sabotage or to obtain unauthorized access to networks in which data is stored or through which data is transmitted change frequently. Furthermore, employee error or malicious activity could compromise our systems. As a result, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate measures to prevent an intrusion into our networks, which could result in unauthorized access to customer data, intellectual property including access to our source code, and information about vulnerabilities in our product, which in turn, could reduce the effectiveness of our solutions, or lead to cyberattacks or other intrusions of our customers’ networks, litigation, governmental audits and investigations and significant legal fees, any or all of which could damage our relationships with our existing customers and could have a negative effect on our ability to attract and retain new customers. We have expended, and anticipate continuing to expend, significant resources in an effort to prevent security breaches and other security incidents impacting our systems and data. Since our business is focused on providing reliable security services to our customers, we believe that an actual or perceived security incident affecting our internal systems or data or data of our customers would be especially detrimental to our reputation, customer confidence in our solution, and our business.
In addition, while we maintain insurance policies that may cover certain liabilities in connection with a cybersecurity incident, we cannot be certain that our insurance coverage will be adequate for liabilities actually incurred, that insurance will continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including our financial condition, results of operations and reputation.
We rely on third-party data centers, such as Amazon Web Services, and our own colocation data centers to host and operate our Falcon platform, and any disruption of or interference with our use of these facilities may negatively affect our ability to maintain the performance and reliability of our Falcon platform which could cause our business to suffer.
Our customers depend on the continuous availability of our Falcon platform. We currently host our Falcon platform and serve our customers using a mix of third-party data centers, primarily Amazon Web Services, Inc., or AWS, and our data centers, hosted in colocation facilities. Consequently, we may be subject to service disruptions as well as failures to provide adequate support for reasons that are outside of our direct control. We have experienced, and expect that in the future we may experience interruptions, delays and outages in service and availability from time to time due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, website hosting disruptions and capacity constraints.
The following factors, many of which are beyond our control, can affect the delivery, availability, and the performance of our Falcon platform:
•the development and maintenance of the infrastructure of the internet;
•the performance and availability of third-party providers of cloud infrastructure services, such as AWS, with the necessary speed, data capacity and security for providing reliable internet access and services;
•decisions by the owners and operators of the data centers where our cloud infrastructure is deployed to terminate our contracts, discontinue services to us, shut down operations or facilities, increase prices, change service levels, limit bandwidth, declare bankruptcy or prioritize the traffic of other parties;
•physical or electronic break-ins, acts of war or terrorism, human error or interference (including by disgruntled employees, former employees or contractors) and other catastrophic events;
•cyberattacks, including denial of service attacks, targeted at us, our data centers, or the infrastructure of the internet;
•failure by us to maintain and update our cloud infrastructure to meet our data capacity requirements;
•errors, defects or performance problems in our software, including third-party software incorporated in our software;
•improper deployment or configuration of our solutions;
•the failure of our redundancy systems, in the event of a service disruption at one of our data centers, to provide failover to other data centers in our data center network; and
•the failure of our disaster recovery and business continuity arrangements.
The adverse effects of any service interruptions on our reputation, results of operations, and financial condition may be disproportionately heightened due to the nature of our business and the fact that our customers have a low tolerance for interruptions of any duration. Interruptions or failures in our service delivery could result in a cyberattack or other security threat to us or to one of our customers during such periods of interruption or failure. Additionally, interruptions or failures in our service could cause customers to terminate their subscriptions with us, adversely affect our renewal rates, and harm our ability to attract new customers. Our business would also be harmed if our customers believe that a cloud-based SaaS-delivered endpoint security solution is unreliable. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, service interruptions and other performance problems due to a variety of factors. The occurrence of any of these factors, or if we are unable to rapidly and cost-effectively fix such errors or other problems that may be identified, could damage our reputation, negatively affect our relationship with our customers or otherwise harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We rely on our key technical, sales and management personnel to grow our business, and the loss of one or more key employees could harm our business.
Our future success is substantially dependent on our ability to attract, retain, and motivate the members of our management team and other key employees throughout our organization. In particular, we are highly dependent on the services of George Kurtz, our President and Chief Executive Officer, who is critical to our future vision and strategic direction. We rely on our leadership team in the areas of operations, security, research and development, marketing, sales, support and general and administrative functions. Although we have entered into employment agreements with our key personnel, our employees, including our executive officers, work for us on an “at-will” basis, which means they may terminate their employment with us at any time. Leadership transitions can be inherently difficult to manage. In particular, they can cause operational and administrative inefficiencies, and could impact relationships with key customers and vendors. If Mr. Kurtz, or one or more of our key employees, or members of our management team resigns or otherwise ceases to provide us with their service, our business could be harmed.
If we are unable to attract and retain qualified personnel, our business could be harmed.
There is significant competition for personnel with the skills and technical knowledge that we require across our technology, cyber, sales, professional services, and administrative support functions. Competition for these personnel is intense, especially for experienced sales professionals and for engineers experienced in designing and developing cloud applications and security software. We have from time to time experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining employees with appropriate qualifications. For example, in recent years, recruiting, hiring and retaining employees with expertise in the cybersecurity industry has become increasingly difficult as the demand for cybersecurity professionals has increased as a result of the recent cybersecurity attacks on global corporations and governments. Additionally, our incident response and proactive services team is small and comprised of personnel with highly technical skills and experience, who are in high demand, and who would be difficult to replace. More generally, the technology industry is subject to substantial and continuous competition for engineers with high levels of experience in designing, developing and managing software and Internet-related services. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we have. Our competitors also may be successful in recruiting and hiring members of our management team or other key employees, and it may be difficult for us to find suitable replacements on a timely basis, on competitive terms, or at all. We have in the past, and may in the future, be subject to allegations that employees we hire have been improperly solicited, or that they have divulged proprietary or other confidential information or that their former employers own such employees’ inventions or other work product, or that they have been hired in violation of non-compete provisions or non-solicitation provisions.
In addition, job candidates and existing employees often consider the value of the equity awards they receive in connection with their employment. Therefore, volatility or lack of performance in our stock price could affect our ability to attract and retain our key employees. Also, many of our employees have become, or will soon become, vested in a substantial amount of equity awards, which may give them a substantial amount of personal wealth. This may make it more difficult for us to retain and motivate these employees, and this wealth could affect their decision about whether or not they continue to work for us. Any
failure to successfully attract, integrate or retain qualified personnel to fulfill our current or future needs could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
If we do not effectively expand and train our direct sales force, we may be unable to add new customers or increase sales to our existing customers, and our business will be adversely affected.
We depend on our direct sales force to obtain new customers and increase sales with existing customers. Our ability to achieve significant revenue growth will depend, in large part, on our success in recruiting, training and retaining sufficient numbers of sales personnel, particularly in international markets. We have expanded our sales organization significantly in recent periods and expect to continue to add additional sales capabilities in the near term. There is significant competition for sales personnel with the skills and technical knowledge that we require. New hires require significant training and may take significant time before they achieve full productivity, and this delay is accentuated by our long sales cycles. Our recent hires and planned hires may not become productive as quickly as we expect, and we may be unable to hire or retain sufficient numbers of qualified individuals in the markets where we do business or plan to do business. In addition, a large percentage of our sales force is new to our company and selling our solutions, and therefore this team may be less effective than our more seasoned sales personnel. Furthermore, hiring sales personnel in new countries, or expanding our existing presence, requires upfront and ongoing expenditures that we may not recover if the sales personnel fail to achieve full productivity. We cannot predict whether, or to what extent, our sales will increase as we expand our sales force or how long it will take for sales personnel to become productive. If we are unable to hire and train a sufficient number of effective sales personnel, or the sales personnel we hire are not successful in obtaining new customers or increasing sales to our existing customer base, our business and results of operations will be adversely affected.
Because we recognize revenue from subscriptions to our platform over the term of the subscription, downturns or upturns in new business will not be immediately reflected in our results of operations.
We generally recognize revenue from customers ratably over the terms of their subscription, which is generally one year. As a result, a substantial portion of the revenue we report in each period is attributable to the recognition of deferred revenue relating to agreements that we entered into during previous periods. Consequently, any increase or decline in new sales or renewals in any one period will not be immediately reflected in our revenue for that period. Any such change, however, would affect our revenue in future periods. Accordingly, the effect of downturns or upturns in new sales and potential changes in our rate of renewals, including as a result of the July 19 Incident, may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. In addition, customer commitment packages introduced following the July 19 Incident that extend subscription periods will lengthen the applicable term over which we recognize revenue, which has adversely affected, and is expected to continue to adversely affect, our results. We may also be unable to timely reduce our cost structure in line with a significant deterioration in sales or renewals that would adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.
Our results of operations may fluctuate significantly, which could make our future results difficult to predict and could cause our results of operations to fall below expectations.
Our results of operations may vary significantly from period to period, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our results of operations have varied significantly from period to period, and we expect that our results of operations will continue to vary as a result of a number of factors, many of which are outside of our control and may be difficult to predict, including:
•our ability to attract new and retain existing customers;
•the budgeting cycles, seasonal buying patterns, and purchasing practices of customers;
•economic difficulties confronting our customers, which may impact the number of modules or endpoint deployments they are willing or able to purchase;
•insolvency or credit difficulties confronting our customers, affecting their ability to purchase or pay for our solutions, including in connection with our customer and end-user financing arrangements;
•the timing and length of our sales cycles;
•changes in customer or channel partner requirements or market needs;
•any disruption in our relationship with channel partners;
•changes in the growth rate of the cloud-based SaaS-delivered endpoint security solutions market;
•the timing and success of new product and service introductions by us or our competitors or any other competitive developments, including consolidation among our customers or competitors;
•decisions by organizations to purchase security solutions from larger, more established security vendors or from their primary IT equipment vendors;
•changes in our pricing policies or those of our competitors;
•the level of awareness of cybersecurity threats, particularly advanced cyberattacks, and the market adoption of our Falcon platform;
•significant security breaches of, technical difficulties with or interruptions to, the use of our Falcon platform;
•the impact to our business from the July 19 Incident;
•negative media coverage or publicity;
•our ability to successfully expand our business domestically and internationally;
•the amount and timing of operating costs (including new hires), tightening of labor markets and capital expenditures related to the expansion of our business;
•extraordinary expenses such as litigation or other dispute-related settlement payments or outcomes;
•increases or decreases in our expenses caused by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates;
•future accounting pronouncements or changes in our accounting policies or practices;
•developments relating to our valuation allowances for our deferred tax assets;
•deteriorating or volatile conditions in the global economy and financial markets, including as a result of weak or negative gross domestic product growth, uncertainty or disruptions in the capital and credit markets, changing interest rates, inflation, bank failures or adverse conditions impacting financial institutions, and supply-chain disruptions; and
•political events, geopolitical unrest or tension, acts of war and terrorism.
In addition, we experience seasonal fluctuations in our financial results as we typically receive a higher percentage of our annual orders from new customers, as well as renewal orders from existing customers, in the second half of the fiscal year as compared to the first half of the year due to the annual budget approval processes of many of our customers. In addition, we also experience seasonality in our operating margin, typically with a lower margin in the first half of our fiscal year. Any of the above factors, individually or in the aggregate, may result in significant fluctuations in our financial and other results of operations from period to period. As a result of this variability, our historical results of operations should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. Moreover, this variability and unpredictability could result in our failure to meet our operating plan or the expectations of investors or analysts for any period. If we fail to meet such expectations for these or other reasons, our stock price could fall substantially, and we could face costly lawsuits, including securities class action suits. For example, we are currently party to securities litigation brought in connection with the July 19 Incident on behalf of certain purchasers of our Class A common stock.
If we are not able to maintain and enhance our CrowdStrike and Falcon brand and our reputation as a provider of high-efficacy security solutions, our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.
We believe that maintaining and enhancing our CrowdStrike and Falcon brand and our reputation as a provider of high-efficacy security solutions is critical to our relationship with our existing customers, channel partners, and technology alliance partners and our ability to attract new customers and partners. The successful promotion of our CrowdStrike and Falcon brand depends on a number of factors, including our marketing efforts, our ability to continue to develop additional cloud modules and features for our Falcon platform, our ability to successfully differentiate our Falcon platform from competitive cloud-based or legacy security solutions and, ultimately, our ability to detect and stop breaches. Although we believe it is important for our growth, our brand promotion activities may not be successful or yield increased revenue.
In addition, independent industry or financial analysts and research firms often test our solutions and provide reviews of our Falcon platform, as well as the products of our competitors, and perception of our Falcon platform in the marketplace may be significantly influenced by these reviews. If these reviews are negative, or less positive as compared to those of our competitors’ products, our brand may be adversely affected. Our solutions may fail to detect or prevent threats in any particular test for a number of reasons that may or may not be related to the efficacy of our solutions in real world environments. To the extent potential customers, industry analysts or testing firms believe that the occurrence of a failure to detect or prevent any particular threat is a flaw or indicates that our solutions or services do not provide significant value, we may lose customers, and our reputation, financial condition and business would be harmed. Additionally, the performance of our channel partners and technology alliance partners may affect our brand and reputation if customers do not have a positive experience with these partners. In addition, we have in the past worked, and continue to work, with high profile private and public customers as well as assist in analyzing and remediating high profile cyberattacks, which sometimes involve nation-state actors. Our work with such customers has exposed us to publicity and media coverage. Changing political environments in the United States and abroad may amplify the media and political scrutiny we face. Negative publicity about us, including about our management, the efficacy and reliability of our Falcon platform, our products offerings, our professional services, and the customers we work with, even if inaccurate, has in the past adversely affected, and may in the future adversely affect, our reputation and brand. For example, the July 19 Incident, which received significant media attention and negative publicity, harmed our reputation and brand.
If we are unable to maintain successful relationships with our channel partners and technology alliance partners, or if our channel partners or technology alliance partners fail to perform, our ability to market, sell and distribute our Falcon platform will be limited, and our business, financial position and results of operations will be harmed.
In addition to our direct sales force, we rely on our channel partners to sell and support our Falcon platform. The vast majority of sales of our Falcon platform flow through our channel partners, and we expect this to continue for the foreseeable future. Additionally, we have entered, and intend to continue to enter, into technology alliance partnerships with third parties to support our future growth plans. The loss of a substantial number of our channel partners or technology alliance partners, or the failure to recruit additional partners, could adversely affect our results of operations. Our ability to achieve revenue growth in the future will depend in part on our success in maintaining successful relationships with our channel partners and in training our channel partners to independently sell and deploy our Falcon platform. If we fail to effectively manage our existing sales channels, or if our channel partners are unsuccessful in fulfilling the orders for our solutions, or if we are unable to enter into arrangements with, and retain a sufficient number of, high quality channel partners in each of the regions in which we sell solutions and keep them motivated to sell our products, our ability to sell our products and results of operations will be harmed.
Our international operations and plans for future international expansion expose us to significant risks, and failure to manage those risks could adversely impact our business.
We derived approximately 28%, 30%, 32% and 32% of our total revenue from our international customers for fiscal 2022, fiscal 2023, fiscal 2024 and the nine months ended October 31, 2024, respectively. We are continuing to adapt to and develop strategies to address international markets and our growth strategy includes expansion into target geographies, but there is no guarantee that such efforts will be successful. We expect that our international activities will continue to grow in the future, as we continue to pursue opportunities in international markets. These international operations will require significant management attention and financial resources and are subject to substantial risks, including:
•greater difficulty in negotiating contracts with standard terms, enforcing contracts and managing collections, and longer collection periods;
•higher costs of doing business internationally, including costs incurred in establishing and maintaining office space and equipment for our international operations;
•management communication and integration problems resulting from cultural and geographic dispersion;
•risks associated with trade restrictions and foreign legal requirements, including any importation, certification, and localization of our Falcon platform that may be required in foreign countries;
•greater risk of unexpected changes in regulatory practices, tariffs, and tax laws and treaties;
•compliance with anti-bribery laws, including, without limitation, compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, or FCPA, the U.S. Travel Act and the U.K. Bribery Act 2010, or Bribery Act, violations of which could lead to significant fines, penalties, and collateral consequences for our company;
•heightened risk of unfair or corrupt business practices in certain geographies and of improper or fraudulent sales arrangements that may impact financial results and result in restatements of, or irregularities in, financial statements;
•the uncertainty of protection for intellectual property rights in some countries;
•general economic and political conditions in these foreign markets;
•foreign exchange controls or tax regulations that might prevent us from repatriating cash earned outside the United States;
•political and economic instability in some countries;
•double taxation of our international earnings and potentially adverse tax consequences due to changes in the tax laws of the United States or the foreign jurisdictions in which we operate;
•unexpected costs for the localization of our services, including translation into foreign languages and adaptation for local practices and regulatory requirements (including, but not limited to data localization requirements);
•requirements to comply with foreign privacy, data protection, and information security laws and regulations and the risks and costs of noncompliance;
•greater difficulty in identifying, attracting and retaining local qualified personnel, and the costs and expenses associated with such activities;
•greater difficulty identifying qualified channel partners and maintaining successful relationships with such partners;
•differing employment practices and labor relations issues; and
•difficulties in managing and staffing international offices and increased travel, infrastructure, and legal compliance costs associated with multiple international locations.
Additionally, nearly all of our sales contracts are currently denominated in U.S. dollars. However, a strengthening of the U.S. dollar could increase the cost of our solutions to our international customers, which could adversely affect our business and results of operations. In addition, an increasing portion of our operating expenses is incurred outside the United States; is denominated in foreign currencies, such as the Australian Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Euro, Indian Rupee, and Japanese Yen; and is subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. If we become more exposed to currency fluctuations and are not able to successfully hedge against the risks associated with currency fluctuations, our results of operations could be adversely affected.
As we continue to develop and grow our business globally, our success will depend in large part on our ability to anticipate and effectively manage these risks. The expansion of our existing international operations and entry into additional international markets will require significant management attention and financial resources. Our failure to successfully manage our international operations and the associated risks could limit the future growth of our business.
Our business depends, in part, on sales to government organizations, and significant changes in the contracting or fiscal policies of such government organizations could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Our future growth depends, in part, on increasing sales to government organizations. Demand from government organizations is often unpredictable, subject to budgetary uncertainty and typically involves long sales cycles. We have made significant investment to address the government sector, but we cannot assure you that these investments will be successful, or that we will be able to maintain or grow our revenue from the government sector. U.S. federal, state and local government sales as well as foreign government sales are subject to a number of challenges and risks that may adversely impact our business.
Sales to such government entities include, but are not limited to, the following risks:
•selling to governmental agencies can be highly competitive, expensive and time consuming, often requiring significant upfront time and expense without any assurance that such efforts will generate a sale;
•we may be required to obtain personnel security clearances and facility clearances to perform on classified contracts for government agencies, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to obtain or maintain such clearances;
•government certification, software supply chain, or source code transparency requirements applicable to us or our products are constantly evolving and, in doing so, restrict our ability to sell to certain government customers until we have attained the new or revised certification or meet other applicable requirements, which we are not guaranteed to do. For example, although we are currently certified under the U.S. Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP, such certification is costly to maintain and if we lose our certification, it would restrict our ability to sell to government customers;
•government product requirements are often technically complex and assessors may require us to make costly changes to our products to meet such requirements without any assurance that such changes will generate a sale or improve the efficacy of our products;
•government demand and payment for our Falcon platform may be impacted by public sector budgetary cycles and funding authorizations, with funding reductions or delays in the government appropriations or procurement processes adversely affecting public sector demand for our Falcon platform, including as a result of abrupt events such as war, incidents of terrorism, natural disasters, and public health concerns or epidemics;
•government attitudes towards us as a company, our platform or the capabilities that we offer as a viable software solution may change, and reduce interest in our products and services as acceptable solutions;
•changes in the political environment, including before or after a change to the leadership within the government administration, can create uncertainty or changes in policy or priorities and reduce available funding for our products and services;
•third parties may compete intensely with us on pending, new or existing contracts with government products, which can also lead to appeals, disputes, or litigation relating to government procurement, including but not limited to bid protests by unsuccessful bidders on potential or actual awards of contracts to us or our partners by the government;
•even if we are awarded a sale, the terms of such contracts may be unusually burdensome;
•governments routinely investigate and audit government contractors’ administrative processes, and any unfavorable audit could result in the government refusing to continue buying our Falcon platform, which would adversely impact our revenue and results of operations, or institute fines or civil or criminal liability if the audit were to uncover improper or illegal activities; and
•governments may require certain products to be manufactured, hosted, or accessed solely in their country or in other relatively high-cost manufacturing locations, and we may not manufacture all products in locations that meet these requirements, affecting our ability to sell these products to governmental agencies.
The occurrence of any of the foregoing risks could cause governments and governmental agencies to delay or refrain from purchasing our solutions in the future or otherwise have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
We may not timely and cost-effectively scale and adapt our existing technology to meet our customers’ performance and other requirements.
Our future growth is dependent upon our ability to continue to meet the needs of new customers and the expanding needs of our existing customers as their use of our solutions grow. As our customers gain more experience with our solutions, the number of endpoints and events, the amount of data transferred, processed and stored by us, the number of locations where our platform and services are being accessed, have in the past, and may in the future, expand rapidly. In order to meet the performance and other requirements of our customers, we intend to continue to make significant investments to increase capacity and to develop and implement new technologies in our service and cloud infrastructure operations. These technologies, which include databases, applications and server optimizations, network and hosting strategies, and automation, are often advanced, complex, new and untested. We may not be successful in developing or implementing these technologies. In addition, as our business grows, we must continue to improve and expand our information technology infrastructure. It takes a significant amount of time to plan, develop and test improvements to our technologies and infrastructure, and we may not be able to accurately forecast demand or predict the results we will realize from such improvements. We rely on external ecosystems, such as operating systems, to operate and make our products and services available to customers. If we are unable to adapt to product or policy changes in such ecosystems, or if we do not effectively operate with such ecosystems, demand for and availability of our products or services could decline. To the extent that we do not effectively scale our operations and infrastructure to meet the needs of our business, our growing customer base and to maintain performance as our customers expand their use of our solutions, we may not be able to grow as quickly as we anticipate, our customers may reduce or cancel use of our solutions and we may be unable to compete as effectively and our business and results of operations may be harmed.
Additionally, we have and will continue to make substantial investments to support growth at our data centers and improve the profitability of our cloud platform. For example, because of the importance of AWS’ services to our business and AWS’ position in the cloud-based server industry, any renegotiation or renewal of our agreement with AWS may be on terms that are significantly less favorable to us than our current agreement. If our cloud-based server costs were to increase, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected. Although we expect that we could receive similar services from other third parties, if any of our arrangements with AWS are terminated, we could experience interruptions on our Falcon platform and in our ability to make our solutions available to customers, as well as delays and additional expenses in arranging alternative cloud infrastructure services. Ongoing improvements to cloud infrastructure may be more expensive than we anticipate, and may not yield the expected savings in operating costs or the expected performance benefits. In addition, we may be required to re-invest any cost savings achieved from prior cloud infrastructure improvements in future infrastructure projects to maintain the levels of service required by our customers. We may not be able to maintain or achieve cost savings from our investments, which could harm our financial results.
Our ability to maintain customer satisfaction depends in part on the quality of our customer support.
Once our Falcon platform is deployed within our customers’ networks, our customers depend on our customer support services to resolve any issues relating to the implementation and maintenance of our Falcon platform. If we do not provide effective ongoing support, customer renewals and our ability to sell additional modules as part of our Falcon platform to existing customers could be adversely affected and our reputation with potential customers could be damaged. Many of our larger organizational customers have more complex networks and require higher levels of support than smaller customers and we offer premium services for these customers. Failure to maintain high-quality customer support could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We may need to raise additional capital to expand our operations and invest in new solutions, which capital may not be available on terms acceptable to us, or at all, and which could reduce our ability to compete and could harm our business.
We expect that our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs for working capital and capital expenditures for at least the next 12 months. Retaining or expanding our current levels of personnel and product and service offerings may require additional funds to respond to business challenges, including the need to develop new products or services and enhancements to our Falcon platform, improve our operating infrastructure, or acquire complementary businesses and technologies. Our failure to raise additional capital or generate the significant capital necessary to expand our operations and invest in new products or services could reduce our ability to compete and could harm our business. Accordingly, we may need to engage in additional equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. If we raise additional equity financing, our stockholders may experience significant dilution of their ownership interests and the market price of our Class A common stock could decline. If we engage in additional debt financing, the holders of such debt would have priority over the holders of our Class A common stock, and we may be required to accept terms that further restrict our operations or our ability to incur additional indebtedness or to take other actions that would otherwise be in the interests of the debt holders. Any of the above could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
If we cannot maintain our company culture as we grow, we could lose the innovation, teamwork, passion, and focus on execution that we believe contribute to our success and our business may be harmed.
We believe that our corporate culture has been a contributor to our success, which we believe fosters innovation, teamwork, passion and focus on building and marketing our Falcon platform. As we grow, we may find it difficult to maintain our corporate culture. Any failure to preserve our culture could harm our future success, including our ability to retain and recruit personnel, innovate and operate effectively and execute on our business strategy. Additionally, our productivity and the quality of our solutions may be adversely affected if we do not integrate and train our new employees quickly and effectively. If we experience any of these effects in connection with future growth, it could impair our ability to attract new customers, retain existing customers and expand their use of our Falcon platform, all of which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on a limited number of suppliers for certain components of the equipment we use to operate our cloud platform. Supply chain disruptions could delay our ability to expand or increase the capacity of our global data center network, replace defective equipment in our existing data centers and impact our operating costs.
We rely on a limited number of suppliers for several components of the equipment we use to operate our cloud platform and provide services to our customers. We generally purchase these components on a purchase order basis, and do not have long-term contracts guaranteeing supply. Our reliance on these suppliers exposes us to risks, including reduced control over production costs and constraints based on the then current availability, terms and pricing of these components. If we experience disruption or delay from our suppliers, we may not be able to obtain supplies or components from alternative suppliers on a timely basis or on terms that are favorable to us, if at all. The technology industry has experienced widespread component shortages and delivery delays, including as a result of geopolitical tensions, public health crises and natural disasters. While we have taken steps to mitigate our supply chain risk, supply chain disruptions and delays could nevertheless adversely impact our operations by, among other things, causing us to delay opening new data centers, delay increasing capacity or replacing defective equipment at existing data centers, and experience increased operating costs.
We are exposed to the credit risks of certain of our customers and end-users, which could adversely impact our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We provide financing arrangements for certain of our customers and end-users to purchase our products and services. Such financing activities expose us to the credit risks of our customers and end-users and these risks may be more pronounced if our customers and end-users are negatively impacted by a global economic downturn or periods of economic uncertainty. There can be no assurance that our efforts to monitor and mitigate these credit risks will be effective. If we are unable to adequately control these risks, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be harmed.
Risks Related to Intellectual Property, Legal, and Regulatory Matters
The success of our business depends in part on our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights.
We believe our intellectual property is an essential asset of our business, and our success and ability to compete depend in part upon protection of our intellectual property rights. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions, to establish and protect our intellectual property rights in the United States and abroad, all of which provide only limited protection. The efforts we have taken to protect our intellectual property may not be sufficient or effective, and our trademarks, copyrights and patents may be held invalid or unenforceable. Moreover, we cannot assure you that any patents will be issued with respect to our currently pending patent applications in a manner that gives us adequate defensive protection or competitive advantages, or that any patents issued to us will not be challenged, invalidated or circumvented. We have filed for patents in the United States and in certain non-U.S. jurisdictions, but such protections may not be available in all countries in which we operate or in which we seek to enforce our intellectual property rights, or may be difficult to enforce in practice. For example, many foreign countries have compulsory licensing laws under which a patent owner must grant licenses to third parties. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against certain third parties, including government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, patents may provide limited or no benefit. Moreover, we may need to expend additional resources to defend our intellectual property rights in these countries, and our inability to do so could impair our business or adversely affect our international expansion. Our currently issued patents and any patents that may be issued in the future with respect to pending or future patent applications may not provide sufficiently broad protection or they may not prove to be enforceable in actions against alleged infringers.
We may not be effective in policing unauthorized use of our intellectual property, and even if we do detect violations, litigation or technical changes to our products may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights. Protecting against the unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights, technology and other proprietary rights is expensive and difficult, particularly outside of the United States. Any enforcement efforts we undertake, including litigation, could be time-consuming and expensive and could divert management’s attention, which could harm our business and results of operations. Further, attempts to enforce our rights against third parties could also provoke these third parties to assert their own intellectual property or other rights against us, or result in a holding that invalidates or narrows the scope of our rights, in whole or in part. The inability to adequately protect and enforce our intellectual property and other proprietary rights could seriously harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. Even if we are able to secure our intellectual property rights, we cannot assure you that such rights will provide us with competitive advantages or distinguish our services from those of our competitors or that our competitors will not independently develop similar technology, duplicate any of our technology, or design around our patents.
Claims by others that we infringe their proprietary technology or other intellectual property rights could result in significant costs and substantially harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
Claims by others that we infringe their proprietary technology or other intellectual property rights could harm our business. A number of companies in our industry hold a large number of patents and also protect their copyright, trade secret and other intellectual property rights, and companies in the networking and security industry frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of patent infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. As we face increasing competition and grow, the possibility of intellectual property rights claims against us also grows. In addition, to the extent we hire personnel from competitors, we may be subject to allegations that such personnel have divulged proprietary or other confidential information to us. From time to time, third parties have in the past and may in the future assert claims of infringement of intellectual property rights against us.
Third parties may in the future also assert claims against our customers or channel partners, whom our standard license and other agreements obligate us to indemnify against claims that our solutions infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties. As the number of products and competitors in the security and IT operations market increases and overlaps occur, claims of infringement, misappropriation, and other violations of intellectual property rights may increase. While we intend to increase the size of our patent portfolio, many of our competitors and others may now and in the future have significantly larger and more mature patent portfolios than we have. In addition, future litigation may involve non-practicing entities, companies or other patent owners who have no relevant product offerings or revenue and against whom our own patents may therefore provide little or no deterrence or protection. Any claim of intellectual property infringement by a third party, even a claim without merit, could cause us to incur substantial costs defending against such claim, could distract our management from our business and could require us to cease use of such intellectual property.
Additionally, our insurance may not cover intellectual property rights infringement claims that may be made. In the event that we fail to successfully defend ourselves against an infringement claim, a successful claimant could secure a judgment or otherwise require payment of legal fees, settlement payments, ongoing royalties or other costs or damages; or we may agree to a settlement that prevents us from offering certain services or features; or we may be required to obtain a license, which may not be available on reasonable terms, or at all, to use the relevant technology. If we are prevented from using certain technology or intellectual property, we may be required to develop alternative, non-infringing technology, which could require significant time, effort and expense and may ultimately not be successful. Additionally, we may be unable to continue to offer our affected services or features while developing such technology.
Although third parties may offer a license to their technology or other intellectual property, the terms of any offered license may not be acceptable, and the failure to obtain a license or the costs associated with any license could cause our business, financial condition and results of operations to be adversely affected. In addition, some licenses may be nonexclusive, and therefore our competitors may have access to the same technology licensed to us. If a third party does not offer us a license to its technology or other intellectual property on reasonable terms, or at all, we could be enjoined from continued use of such intellectual property. As a result, we may be required to develop alternative, non-infringing technology, which could require significant time, effort and expense and may ultimately not be successful. Additionally, we may be unable to continue to offer our affected products, subscriptions or services, while developing such technology. Furthermore, a successful claimant could secure a judgment or we may agree to a settlement that prevents us from distributing certain products, providing certain subscriptions or performing certain services. Any such judgment or settlement could also require us to pay substantial damages, royalties or other fees. Any of these events could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We license technology from third parties, and our inability to maintain those licenses could harm our business.
We currently incorporate, and will in the future incorporate, technology that we license from third parties, including software, into our solutions. We cannot be certain that our licensors do not or will not infringe on the intellectual property rights of third parties or that our licensors have or will have sufficient rights to the licensed intellectual property in all jurisdictions in which we may sell our Falcon platform. Some of our agreements with our licensors may be terminated by them for convenience, or otherwise provide for a limited term. If we are unable to continue to license technology because of intellectual property infringement claims brought by third parties against our licensors or against us, or if we are unable to continue our license agreements or enter into new licenses on commercially reasonable terms, our ability to develop and sell solutions and services containing or dependent on that technology would be limited, and our business could be harmed. Additionally, if we are unable to license technology from third parties, we may be forced to acquire or develop alternative technology, which we may be unable to do in a commercially feasible manner or at all, and may require us to use alternative technology of lower quality or performance standards. This could limit or delay our ability to offer new or competitive solutions and increase our costs. As a result, our margins, market share, and results of operations could be significantly harmed.
We are required to comply with stringent, complex and evolving laws, rules, regulations and standards in many jurisdictions, as well as contractual obligations, relating to data privacy and security. Any actual or perceived failure to comply with these requirements could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We are required to comply with stringent, complex and evolving laws, rules, regulations and standards in many jurisdictions, as well as contractual obligations, relating to data privacy and security. Ensuring compliance with such requirements may increase operating costs, impact our data processing practices and policies and the development of new products or services, and reduce operational efficiency, any of which could adversely affect our business and operations.
In the United States, there are numerous federal, state and local data privacy and security laws, rules, and regulations governing the collection, sharing, use, retention, disclosure, security, transfer, storage and other processing of personal information, including federal and state data privacy and security laws, data breach notification laws, and data disposal laws. For example, at the federal level, we are subject to, among other laws and regulations, the rules and regulations promulgated under the authority of the Federal Trade Commission (which has the authority to regulate and enforce against unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, including acts and practices with respect to data privacy and security), as well as the Electronic Communication Privacy Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and the Gramm Leach Bliley Act. The United States Congress also has considered, is currently considering, and may in the future consider, various proposals for comprehensive federal data privacy and security legislation, to which we may become subject if passed.
At the state level, we are subject to laws and regulations such as the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (collectively, the “CCPA”). The CCPA broadly defines personal information and gives California residents expanded privacy rights and protections, such as affording them the right to access and request deletion of their information and to opt out of certain sharing and sales of personal information. The CCPA provides for severe civil penalties and statutory damages for violations and a private right of action for certain data breaches that result in the loss of unencrypted personal information. This private right of action is expected to increase the likelihood of, and risks associated with, data breach litigation. Numerous other states have also enacted, or are in the process of enacting or considering, comprehensive state-level data privacy and security laws, rules, and regulations that share similarities with the CCPA. Moreover, laws in all 50 U.S. states require businesses to provide notice under certain circumstances to consumers whose personal information has been disclosed as a result of a data breach.
Internationally, virtually every jurisdiction in which we operate has established its own data privacy and security legal framework with which we must comply. For example, we are required to comply with the European Union (“EU”) General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and its equivalent in the U.K. (“U.K. GDPR”), which impose stringent obligations regarding the collection, control, use, sharing, disclosure and other processing of personal data and create mandatory breach notification requirements under certain circumstances. While the GDPR and U.K. GDPR remain substantially similar for the time being, the U.K. government has announced that it would seek to chart its own path on data protection and reform its relevant laws, including in ways that may differ from the GDPR. While these developments increase uncertainty with regard to data protection regulation in the U.K., even in their current, substantially similar form, the GDPR and U.K. GDPR can expose businesses to divergent parallel regimes that may be subject to potentially different interpretations and enforcement actions for certain violations and related uncertainty. Failure to comply with the GDPR or the U.K. GDPR can result in significant fines and other liability, including, under the GDPR, fines of up to EUR 20 million (or GBP 17.5 million under the U.K. GDPR) or four percent (4%) of annual global revenue, whichever is greater. European data protection authorities have already imposed fines for GDPR violations of up to, in some cases, hundreds of millions of Euros.
Legal developments in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) have created complexity and uncertainty regarding processing and transfers of personal data from the EEA to the United States and other so-called third countries outside the EEA, including in the context of website cookies. Similar complexities and uncertainties also apply to transfers from the U.K. to third countries. While we have taken steps to mitigate the impact on us, such as implementing the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses (“SCCs”) and the U.K.’s international Data Transfer Agreement (or the U.K.’s international data transfer addendum that can be used with the SCCs), the efficacy and longevity of these mechanisms remains uncertain. On July 10, 2023, the European Commission adopted an adequacy decision concluding that the U.S. ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the EU to the U.S. under the recently adopted EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (followed on October 12, 2023 with the adoption of an adequacy decision in the U.K. for the U.K.-U.S. Data Bridge); however, such new adequacy decision has been challenged in EU courts, and is likely to face additional challenges. Moreover, although the U.K. currently has an adequacy decision from the European Commission, such that SCCs are not required for the transfer of personal data from the EEA to the U.K., that decision will sunset in June 2025 unless extended and it may be revoked in the future by the European Commission if the U.K. data protection regime is reformed in ways that deviate substantially from the GDPR. The EU has also proposed legislation that would regulate non-personal data and establish new cybersecurity standards, and other countries, including the U.K., may similarly do so in the future. If we are otherwise unable to transfer data, including personal data, between and among countries and regions in which we operate, it could affect the manner in which we provide our services, the geographical location or segregation of our relevant systems and operations, and could adversely affect our financial results. While we have implemented new controls and procedures designed to comply with the requirements of the GDPR, U.K. GDPR and the data privacy and security laws of other jurisdictions in which we operate, such procedures and controls may not be effective in ensuring compliance or preventing unauthorized transfers of personal data.
Moreover, while we strive to publish and prominently display privacy policies that are accurate, comprehensive, and compliant with applicable laws, rules regulations and industry standards, we cannot ensure that our privacy policies and other statements regarding our practices will be sufficient to protect us from claims, proceedings, liability or adverse publicity relating to data privacy and security. Although we endeavor to comply with our privacy policies, we may at times fail to do so or be alleged to have failed to do so. If our public statements about our use, collection, disclosure and other processing of personal information, whether made through our privacy policies, information provided on our website, press statements or otherwise, are alleged to be deceptive, unfair or misrepresentative of our actual practices, we may be subject to potential government or legal investigation or action, including by the Federal Trade Commission or applicable state attorneys general.
Our compliance efforts are further complicated by the fact that data privacy and security laws, rules, regulations and standards around the world are rapidly evolving, may be subject to uncertain or inconsistent interpretations and enforcement, and may conflict among various jurisdictions. In many jurisdictions, enforcement actions and consequences for non-compliance with data privacy and security laws, rules, regulations, standards, certifications, contractual requirements or other obligations are rising. Data subjects may also have a private right of action, as well as support from consumer privacy advocates or organizations, to lodge complaints with supervisory authorities, seek judicial remedies and obtain compensation for damages resulting from violations of applicable data privacy and security laws, rules and regulations. In addition, privacy advocates and industry groups have proposed, and may propose in the future, self-regulatory standards that may legally or contractually apply to us or be alleged to apply to us. Any failure or perceived failure by us or any third parties with which we do business to comply with applicable privacy policies, data privacy or security laws, rules, regulations, standards, certifications or contractual obligations, or any compromise of security that results in unauthorized access to, or unauthorized loss, destruction, use, modification, acquisition, disclosure, release, transfer or other processing of personal information, may result in requirements to modify or cease certain operations or practices, the expenditure of substantial costs, time and other resources, proceedings or actions against us, legal liability, governmental investigations, enforcement actions, claims, fines, judgments, awards, penalties, sanctions and costly litigation (including class actions). There also has been increased regulatory scrutiny from the SEC with respect to adequately disclosing risks concerning cybersecurity and data privacy. Such scrutiny from the SEC increases the risk of investigations into the cybersecurity practices, and related disclosures, of companies within its jurisdiction. Any of the foregoing could harm our reputation, distract our management and technical personnel, increase our costs of doing business, adversely affect the demand for our products and services, and ultimately result in the imposition of liability, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Failure to comply with laws and regulations applicable to our business could subject us to fines and penalties and could also cause us to lose customers or negatively impact our ability to contract with customers, including those in the public sector.
Our business is subject to regulation by various federal, state, local and foreign governmental agencies, including agencies responsible for monitoring and enforcing data privacy and security laws and regulations, employment and labor laws, workplace safety, product safety, environmental laws, consumer protection laws, anti-bribery laws, import and export controls, federal securities laws and tax laws and regulations. In certain jurisdictions, these regulatory requirements may be more stringent than in the United States. Increased scrutiny may also lead to new laws and regulations, or new applications of existing laws and regulations, that target topics such as AI, critical infrastructure software resiliency and concentration risk. Noncompliance by us, our employees, representatives, contractors, channel partners, agents, intermediaries, or other third parties with applicable regulations or requirements could subject us to:
•investigations, enforcement actions and sanctions;
•mandatory changes to our Falcon platform;
•disgorgement of profits, fines and damages;
•civil and criminal penalties or injunctions;
•claims for damages by our customers or channel partners;
•termination of contracts;
•loss of intellectual property rights;
•loss of our license to do business in the jurisdictions in which we operate; or
•temporary or permanent debarment from sales to government organizations.
If any governmental sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal litigation, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and an increase in professional fees. Enforcement actions and sanctions could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We endeavor to properly classify employees as exempt versus non-exempt under applicable law. Although there are no pending or threatened material claims or investigations against us asserting that some employees are improperly classified as exempt, the possibility exists that some of our current or former employees could have been incorrectly classified as exempt employees.
These laws and regulations impose added costs on our business, and failure by us, our employees, representatives, contractors, channel partners, agents, intermediaries, or other third parties to comply with these or other applicable regulations and requirements could lead to claims for damages, penalties, termination of contracts, loss of exclusive rights in our intellectual property and temporary suspension or permanent debarment from government contracting. Any such damages, penalties, disruptions or limitations in our ability to do business with customers, including those in the public sector, could result in reduced sales of our products or services, substantial product inventory write-offs, reputational damage, penalties, and other sanctions, any of which could harm our business, reputation, and results of operations.
We are subject to governmental export controls and economic sanctions laws that could impair our ability to compete in international markets and subject us to liability if we are not in full compliance with applicable laws.
Our products, services and business activities, including our collection of information about cyber threats, are subject to various restrictions under U.S. export controls and trade and economic sanctions laws, including the U.S. Commerce Department’s Export Administration Regulations and economic and trade sanctions regulations maintained by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The U.S. export control laws and U.S. economic sanctions laws include prohibitions on the sale or supply of certain products and services to U.S. embargoed or sanctioned countries, governments, persons and entities and also require authorization for the export of encryption items. In addition, various countries regulate the import of certain encryption technology, including through import and licensing requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our products or service or could limit our customers’ ability to implement our service in those countries. Changes in our products or services or changes in these laws and regulations may create delays in the introduction of our products or services into international markets, prevent our customers with international operations from deploying our products or services globally or, in some cases, prevent the export or import of our products or services to certain countries, governments or persons altogether. Any decreased use of our products or services or limitation on our ability to export to or sell our products or services in international markets would likely adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results. Obtaining the necessary authorizations, including any required license, for a particular transaction may be time-consuming, is not guaranteed, and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities. If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations, we and certain of our employees could be subject to civil or criminal penalties, including the possible loss of export privileges and monetary penalties. Although we take precautions to prevent our products or services from being provided in violation of such laws, our products or services may have been in the past, and could in the future be, provided in violation of such laws, despite the precautions we take. This could result in negative consequences to us, including government investigations, penalties and harm to our reputation.
We are subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery and similar laws, and non-compliance with such laws can subject us to criminal penalties or significant fines and harm our business and reputation.
We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended (“FCPA”), the U.K. Bribery Act 2010 and other anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering and similar laws in the United States and other countries in which we conduct activities. Anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws have been enforced aggressively in recent years and are interpreted broadly and prohibit companies and their employees and agents from promising, authorizing, making or offering improper payments or other benefits to government officials and others in the private sector. As we increase our international sales and business, our risks under these laws may increase.
In addition, we use channel partners, agents and other third-parties to sell our products or conduct business on our behalf. We or such third parties may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities and under certain circumstances we could be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of such partners, and our employees, representatives, contractors, partners, and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities. We have implemented an anti-corruption compliance program but cannot ensure that all our employees and agents, as well as those companies to which we outsource certain of our business operations, will not take actions in violation of our policies and applicable law, for which we may be ultimately held responsible.
Noncompliance with the FCPA, other applicable anti-corruption, anti-bribery, or anti-money laundering laws could subject us to investigations, whistleblower complaints, sanctions, settlements, prosecution, and other enforcement actions within the U.S. and internationally. Any violation of these laws could result in disgorgement of profits, significant fines, damages, other civil and criminal penalties or injunctions, adverse media coverage, loss of export privileges, severe criminal or civil sanctions, suspension or debarment from U.S. government contracts and other consequences, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Some of our technology incorporates “open source” software, which could negatively affect our ability to sell our Falcon platform and subject us to possible litigation.
Our products and subscriptions contain third-party open source software components, and failure to comply with the terms of the underlying open source software licenses could restrict our ability to sell our products and subscriptions. The use and distribution of open source software may entail greater risks than the use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code and they can change the license terms on which they offer the open source software. Many of the risks associated with use of open source software cannot be eliminated and could negatively affect our business. In addition, the wide availability of source code used in our solutions could expose us to security vulnerabilities.
Some open source licenses contain requirements that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon the type of open source software we use. If we combine our proprietary software with open source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain open source licenses, be required to release the source code of our proprietary software to the public, including authorizing further modification and redistribution, or otherwise be limited in the licensing of our services, each of which could provide an advantage to our competitors or other entrants to the market, create security vulnerabilities in our solutions, require us to re-engineer all or a portion of our Falcon platform, and could reduce or eliminate the value of our services. This would allow our competitors to create similar products with lower development effort and time and ultimately could result in a loss of sales for us.
The terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. courts, and there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in ways that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize products and subscriptions incorporating such software. Moreover, we cannot assure you that our processes for controlling our use of open source software in our products and subscriptions will be effective. From time to time, we may face claims from third parties asserting ownership of, or demanding release of, the open source software or derivative works that we developed using such software (which could include our proprietary source code), or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license. These claims could result in litigation. Litigation could be costly for us to defend, have a negative effect on our results of operations and financial condition or require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our solutions. Responding to any infringement or noncompliance claim by an open source vendor, regardless of its validity, discovering certain open source software code in our Falcon platform, or a finding that we have breached the terms of an open source software license, could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition, by, among other things:
•resulting in time-consuming and costly litigation;
•diverting management’s time and attention from developing our business;
•requiring us to pay monetary damages or enter into royalty and licensing agreements that we would not normally find acceptable;
•causing delays in the deployment of our Falcon platform or service offerings to our customers;
•requiring us to stop offering certain services or features of our Falcon platform;
•requiring us to redesign certain components of our Falcon platform using alternative non-infringing or non-open source technology, which could require significant effort and expense;
•requiring us to disclose our software source code and the detailed program commands for our software; and
•requiring us to satisfy indemnification obligations to our customers.
We utilize AI, which could expose us to liability or adversely affect our business.
We incorporate novel uses of AI technologies, including generative AI, into our products and operations, such as our Falcon platform. AI is complex and rapidly evolving, and we face significant competition from other companies who may incorporate AI into their products more quickly or more successfully than us, as well as an evolving regulatory landscape. The introduction of AI, and particularly generative AI, a relatively new and emerging technology in the early stages of commercial use, into new or existing products, and our operations, may result in new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, litigation, confidentiality, ethical concerns, or other complications that could adversely affect our business, reputation, or financial results. For example, generative AI has been known to produce a false or “hallucinatory” interferences or output, and certain generative AI uses machine learning and predictive analytics, which may be flawed, insufficient, of poor quality, reflect unwanted forms of bias, or contain other errors or inadequacies, any of which may not be easily detectable. Our customers or others may rely on or use this flawed content to their detriment, which may expose us to brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, and/or legal liability. In addition, the use of AI by other companies has resulted in, and may in the future result in, data breaches and cybersecurity incidents that implicate the personal information of AI users. Further, the use of AI presents emerging ethical and social issues, and if we enable or offer solutions that draw scrutiny or controversy due to their perceived or actual impact on customers or on society as a whole, we may experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, and/or legal liability.
The technologies underlying AI and its uses are subject to a variety of laws and regulations, including intellectual property, privacy, data protection cybersecurity, consumer protection, competition, and equal opportunity laws and regulations, and are expected to be subject to new laws and regulations or new applications of existing laws and regulations. AI is the subject of ongoing review by various U.S. governmental and regulatory agencies, and various U.S. states and other foreign jurisdictions are applying, or are considering applying, their cybersecurity and data protection laws to AI or are considering general legal frameworks for AI. For example, in Europe, the EU’s AI Act was published in the Official Journal of the EU on July 12, 2024 and entered into force on August 1, 2024. The AI Act establishes, among other things, a risk-based governance framework for regulating AI systems in the EU by categorizing AI systems, based on the risks associated with such AI systems’ intended purposes, as creating unacceptable or high risks, with all other AI systems being considered low risk. This regulatory framework is expected to have a material impact on the way AI is regulated in the EU and beyond. As further indication of a trend in increased regulatory and legislative oversight of the use and development of AI, in 2024, California enacted a range of laws regulating the use and development of AI, which generally relate to transparency, privacy and fairness, among other concerns.
As a fast-evolving and complicated technology subject to significant government attention, AI-related legislation and regulation may be developed and apply to AI in unexpected ways. We may not be able to anticipate how to respond to or comply with these rapidly evolving frameworks, and we may need to expend resources to adjust our offerings in certain jurisdictions if the legal frameworks are inconsistent across jurisdictions. The cost to comply with such frameworks could be significant and may increase our operating expenses. Additionally, if we do not have sufficient rights to use the data or other material or content on which our AI technologies rely, we may incur liability through the violation of applicable laws or regulations, third-party intellectual property, privacy or other rights, or contracts to which we are a party. Further, any content or other output created by our use of AI-powered tools may not be subject to copyright protection, which may adversely affect our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights. Because AI technology itself is highly complex and rapidly developing, it is not possible to predict all of the legal, operational or technological risks that may arise relating to the use of AI.
We provide service level commitments under some of our customer contracts. If we fail to meet these contractual commitments, we could be obligated to provide credits for future service and our business could suffer.
Certain of our customer agreements contain service level commitments, which contain specifications regarding the availability and performance of our Falcon platform. Any failure of or disruption to our infrastructure could impact the performance of our Falcon platform and the availability of services to customers. To the extent we are unable to meet our stated service level commitments or to the extent we suffer extended periods of poor performance or unavailability of our Falcon platform, we may be contractually obligated to provide affected customers with service credits for future subscriptions, and, in certain cases, refunds. To date, there has not been a material failure to meet our service level commitments, and we do not currently have any material liabilities accrued on our balance sheets for such commitments. Our revenue, other results of operations and financial condition could be harmed to the extent we suffer performance issues or downtime that exceeds the service level commitments under our agreements with our customers.
We are currently, and may in the future become, involved in litigation that may adversely affect us.
We are regularly subject to claims, suits, and government investigations and other proceedings including patent, product liability, class action, whistleblower, personal injury, property damage, labor and employment (including allegations of wage and hour violations), commercial disputes, securities litigation, compliance with laws and regulatory requirements and other matters, and we may become subject to additional types of claims, suits, investigations and proceedings as our business develops or in connection with the July 19 Incident. Such claims, suits, and government investigations and proceedings are inherently uncertain and their results cannot be predicted with certainty. Regardless of the outcome, any of these types of legal proceedings can have an adverse impact on us because of legal costs and diversion of management attention and resources, and could cause us to incur significant expenses or liability, adversely affect our brand recognition, and/or require us to change our business practices. The expense of litigation and the timing of this expense from period to period are difficult to estimate, subject to change and could adversely affect our results of operations. It is possible that a resolution of one or more such proceedings could result in substantial damages, settlement costs, fines and penalties that could adversely affect our business, condensed consolidated financial position, results of operations, or cash flows in a particular period. These proceedings could also result in reputational harm, sanctions, consent decrees, or orders requiring a change in our business practices. Because of the potential risks, expenses and uncertainties of litigation, we may, from time to time, settle disputes, even where we have meritorious claims or defenses, by agreeing to settlement agreements. Because litigation is inherently unpredictable, we cannot assure you that the results of any of these actions will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. Any of these consequences could adversely affect our business and results of operations.
We have in the past experienced, and may in the future experience, warranty claims, product returns, and claims related to product liability and product defects from real or perceived defects in our solutions or their misuse by our customers or third parties and indemnity provisions in various agreements potentially expose us to substantial liability for intellectual property infringement and other losses.
We may be subject to liability claims for damages related to errors or defects in our solutions, and we are currently subject to claims, and may in the future become subject to additional claims, arising out of the July 19 Incident. A material liability claim or other occurrence that harms our reputation or decreases market acceptance of our products may harm our business and results of operations. Although we generally have limitation of liability provisions in our terms and conditions of sale, these provisions may not cover all of our indemnification obligations and they may not fully or effectively protect us from claims as a result of federal, state, or local laws or ordinances, or unfavorable judicial decisions in the United States or other countries. The sale and support of our products also entail the risk of product liability claims.
Additionally, our agreements with customers and other third parties typically include indemnification or other provisions under which we agree to indemnify or otherwise be liable to them for losses suffered or incurred as a result of claims regarding intellectual property infringement, breach of agreement, including confidentiality, privacy and security obligations, violation of applicable laws, damages caused by failures of our solutions or to property or persons, or other liabilities relating to or arising from our products and services, or other acts or omissions. These contractual provisions often survive termination or expiration of the applicable agreement. We have received, and may continue to receive, claims in connection with the July 19 Incident.
If our customers or other third parties we do business with make intellectual property rights or other indemnification claims against us, we will incur significant legal expenses and may have to pay damages, license fees, and/or stop using technology found to be in violation of the third party’s rights. We may also have to seek a license for the technology. Such license may not be available on reasonable terms, if at all, and may significantly increase our operating expenses or may require us to restrict our business activities and limit our ability to deliver certain solutions or features. We may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology, which could require significant effort and expense and/or cause us to alter our products and services, which could harm our business. Large indemnity obligations, whether for intellectual property or other claims, could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Additionally, our Falcon platform may be used by our customers and other third parties who obtain access to our solutions for purposes other than for which our platform was intended. For example, our Falcon platform might be misused by a customer to monitor its employee’s activities in a manner that violates the employee’s privacy rights under applicable law.
During the course of performing certain solution-related services and our professional services, our teams may have significant access to our customers’ networks. We cannot be sure that an employee may not take advantage of such access which may make our customers vulnerable to malicious activity by such employee. Any such misuse of our Falcon platform could result in negative press coverage and negatively affect our reputation, which could result in harm to our business, reputation, and results of operations.
We maintain insurance to mitigate potential losses arising from certain claims associated with the use of our products, but our insurance coverage may not adequately cover all claims asserted against us, including our liability related to the July 19 Incident. In addition, even claims that ultimately are unsuccessful could result in our expenditure of funds in litigation, divert management’s time and other resources, and harm our business and reputation. We offer our Falcon Complete customers a limited warranty, subject to certain conditions. While we maintain insurance relating to our warranty, we cannot be certain that our insurance coverage will be adequate to cover such claims, that such insurance will continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will not deny coverage as to any claim. Any failure or refusal of our insurance providers to provide the expected insurance benefits to us after we have paid the warranty claims would cause us to incur significant expense or cause us to cease offering this warranty which could damage our reputation, cause us to lose customers, expose us to liability claims by our customers, negatively impact our sales and marketing efforts, and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock
The market price of our Class A common stock may be volatile regardless of our operating performance, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
We cannot predict the prices at which our Class A common stock will trade. The market price of our Class A common stock depends on a number of factors, including those described in this “Risk Factors” section, many of which are beyond our control and may not be related to our operating performance. These fluctuations could cause you to lose all or part of your investment in our Class A common stock. Factors that could cause fluctuations in the market price of our Class A common stock include the following:
•actual or anticipated changes or fluctuations in our results of operations;
•the financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in these projections or our failure to meet these projections;
•announcements by us or our competitors of new products or services or new or terminated significant contracts, commercial relationships or capital commitments;
•industry or financial analyst or investor reaction to our press releases, other public announcements and filings with the SEC;
•rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry;
•price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market from time to time;
•changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of other technology companies generally, or those in our industry in particular;
•failure of industry or financial analysts to maintain coverage of us, changes in financial estimates by any analysts who follow our company, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;
•actual or anticipated developments in our business or our competitors’ businesses or the competitive landscape generally;
•litigation involving us, our industry or both, or investigations by regulators into our operations or those of our competitors;
•developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property rights or our solutions, or third-party proprietary rights;
•announced or completed acquisitions of businesses or technologies by us or our competitors;
•new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business;
•any major changes in our management or our board of directors, particularly with respect to Mr. Kurtz;
•effects of public health crises, pandemics and epidemics;
•the emergence of new or different information relating to the impact of the July 19 Incident;
•general economic conditions and slow or negative growth of our markets; and
•other events or factors, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism or responses to these events.
In addition, the stock market in general, and the market for technology companies in particular, has experienced
extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. Broad market and industry factors may seriously affect the market price of our Class A common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market prices of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against that company. We are currently party to securities litigation asserted against us arising out of the July 19 Incident. Any securities litigation could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention and resources from our business. This could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Sales of substantial amounts of our Class A common stock in the public markets, or the perception that they might occur, could reduce the price that our Class A common stock might otherwise attain and may dilute your voting power and your ownership interest in us.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock in the public market, including shares of Class A stock that have been converted from shares of Class B common stock, and particularly sales by our directors, executive officers and significant stockholders, or the perception that these sales could occur, could adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock. As of November 15, 2024, we had 233,851,230 shares of Class A common stock outstanding and 12,460,182 shares of Class B common stock outstanding.
In addition, certain holders of our Class B common stock are entitled to rights with respect to registration of these shares under the Securities Act pursuant to our amended and restated registration rights agreement. If these holders of our Class B common stock, by exercising their registration rights, sell a large number of shares, they could adversely affect the market price for our Class A common stock.
We may also issue our shares of Class A common stock or securities convertible into shares of our Class A common stock from time to time in connection with a financing, acquisition, investments or otherwise. Any such issuance could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline.
If industry or financial analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or if they issue inaccurate or unfavorable research regarding our Class A common stock, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our Class A common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. We do not control these analysts or the content and opinions included in their reports. If any of the analysts who cover us issues an inaccurate or unfavorable opinion regarding our stock price, our stock price would likely decline. In addition, the stock prices of many companies in the technology industry have declined significantly after those companies have failed to meet, or significantly exceed, the financial guidance publicly announced by the companies or the expectations of analysts. If our financial results fail to meet, or significantly exceed, our announced guidance or the expectations of analysts or public investors, analysts could downgrade our Class A common stock or publish unfavorable research about us. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, our visibility in the financial markets could decrease, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with those stockholders who held our capital stock (or options or other securities convertible into or exercisable for our capital stock) prior to the completion of our initial public offering, including our executive officers, employees, directors, principal stockholders, and their affiliates, which will limit your ability to influence the outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval.
Our Class B common stock has 10 votes per share, and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with those stockholders who held our capital stock (or options or other securities convertible into or exercisable for our capital stock) prior to our initial public offering, including our executive officers, employees, directors, principal stockholders, and their affiliates, which will limit your ability to influence the
outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of our directors and the approval of any change in control transaction. Future transfers by holders of Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting to Class A common stock, which will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long term.
As of October 31, 2024, our executive officers, directors, one of our current stockholders and its respective affiliates held, in aggregate, 35% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock. As a result, these stockholders, acting together, have control over most matters that require approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. They may also have interests that differ from yours and may vote in a way with which you disagree and which may be adverse to your interests. This concentration of ownership may have the effect of delaying, preventing or deterring a change of control or other liquidity event of our company, could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their shares of common stock as part of a sale or other liquidity event and might ultimately affect the market price of our common stock.
Further, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, the doctrine of “corporate opportunity” does not apply to Accel, or its respective affiliates, in a manner that would prohibit them from investing in competing businesses or doing business with our partners or customers.
We do not intend to pay dividends in the foreseeable future. As a result, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our Class A common stock.
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings for use in the operation of our business and do not anticipate paying any dividends in the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Additionally, our ability to pay dividends is limited by restrictions on our ability to pay dividends or make distributions under the terms of our credit facility. Accordingly, investors must rely on sales of their Class A common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.
Certain provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of our company more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove members of our board of directors or current management, and may adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that could delay or prevent a change in control of our company. These provisions could also make it difficult for stockholders to elect directors that are not nominated by the current members of our board of directors or take other corporate actions, including effecting changes in our management. These provisions include:
•our dual class common stock structure, which provides our holders of Class B common stock with the ability to significantly influence the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, even if they own significantly less than a majority of the shares of our outstanding Class A and Class B common stock;
•a classified board of directors with three-year staggered terms, which could delay the ability of stockholders to change the membership of a majority of our board of directors;
•the ability of our board of directors to issue shares of preferred stock and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval, which could be used to significantly dilute the ownership of a hostile acquirer;
•the exclusive right of our board of directors to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of our board of directors or the resignation, death or removal of a director, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our board of directors;
•a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent, which forces stockholder action to be taken at an annual or special meeting of our stockholders, which prohibition will take effect on the first date on which the number of outstanding shares of our Class B common stock represents less than 10% of the aggregate number of outstanding shares of our Class A common stock and our Class B common stock, taken together as a single class;
•the requirement that a special meeting of stockholders may be called only by the chairperson of our board of directors, chief executive officer or by the board of directors acting pursuant to a resolution adopted by a majority of our board of directors, which could delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors;
•certain amendments to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation require the approval of two-thirds of the then-outstanding voting power of our capital stock; and
•advance notice procedures with which stockholders must comply to nominate candidates to our board of directors or to propose matters to be acted upon at a stockholders’ meeting, which may discourage or deter a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us.
These provisions may prohibit large stockholders, in particular those owning 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock, from merging or combining with us for a certain period of time.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, and to the extent enforceable, the federal district courts of the United States, will be the exclusive forum for certain disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for:
•any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf;
•any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty;
•any action asserting a claim against us arising under the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws;
•any action to interpret, apply, enforce or determine the validity of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws; and
•any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal-affairs doctrine.
However, this exclusive forum provision does not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act. In addition, our amended and restated bylaws provide that the federal district courts of the United States will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, subject to and contingent upon a final adjudication in the State of Delaware of the enforceability of such exclusive forum provision.
These exclusive-forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees.
Risks Related to our Indebtedness
Our indebtedness could adversely affect our financial condition.
As of October 31, 2024, we had $750.0 million principal amount of indebtedness outstanding (excluding intercompany indebtedness), and there is additional availability under our revolving facility of up to $750.0 million (excluding issued but undrawn letters of credit). Our indebtedness could have important consequences, including:
•limiting our ability to obtain additional financing to fund future working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions or other general corporate requirements;
•requiring a portion of our cash flows to be dedicated to debt service payments instead of other purposes, thereby reducing the amount of cash flows available for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes;
•increasing our vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions; and
•exposing us to the risk of increased interest rates as certain of our borrowings, including borrowings under our revolving facility, are at variable rates of interest; and increasing our cost of borrowing.
We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service all of our indebtedness, including the notes, and may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness, which may not be successful.
Our ability to make scheduled payments on or to refinance our debt obligations, including the Senior Notes, depends on our financial condition and results of operations, which in turn are subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and to certain financial, business and other factors beyond our control. We may not be able to maintain a level of cash flows from operating activities sufficient to permit us to pay the principal, premium, if any, and interest on our indebtedness, including the notes.
If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we could face substantial liquidity problems and may be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures, or to sell assets, seek additional capital or restructure or refinance our indebtedness, including the Senior Notes. Our ability to restructure or refinance our debt will depend on, among other things, the condition of the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. Any refinancing of our debt could be at higher interest rates and may require us to comply with more onerous covenants, which could further restrict our business operations. The terms of existing or future debt instruments and the indenture that governs the Senior Notes may restrict us from adopting some of these alternatives. In addition, any failure to make payments of interest and principal on our outstanding indebtedness on a timely basis would likely result in a reduction of our credit rating, which could harm our ability to incur additional indebtedness. In the absence of such cash flows and resources, we could face substantial liquidity problems and might be required to dispose of material assets or operations to meet our debt service and other obligations.
Further, our credit agreement contains provisions that restrict our ability to dispose of assets and use the proceeds from any such disposition. We may not be able to consummate those dispositions or to obtain the proceeds that we could realize from them and these proceeds may not be adequate to meet any debt service obligations then due. These alternative measures may not be successful and may not permit us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations.
If we cannot make scheduled payments on our indebtedness, we will be in default and holders of our Senior Notes could declare all outstanding principal and interest to be due and payable, the lenders under our revolving facility could terminate their commitments to loan money, our secured lenders could foreclose against the assets securing their borrowings and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation. If we breach the covenants under our debt instruments, we would be in default under such instruments. The holders of such indebtedness could exercise their rights, as described above, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation.
Our revolving facility and the indenture that governs our Senior Notes contain terms which restrict our current and future operations, particularly our ability to respond to changes or to take certain actions.
Our revolving facility and the indenture that governs our Senior Notes contain a number of restrictive covenants that impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us and may limit our ability to engage in acts that may be in our long-term best interest, including, among other things, restrictions on our ability to:
•incur additional indebtedness and guarantee indebtedness;
•prepay, redeem or repurchase certain indebtedness;
•sell or otherwise dispose of assets;
•incur liens;
•enter into transactions with affiliates;
•alter the businesses we conduct;
•enter into agreements restricting our subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends; and
•consolidate, merge with, or sell all or substantially all of our assets to, another person.
The covenants in the indenture and supplemental indenture that govern the Senior Notes are subject to exceptions and qualifications.
In addition, the restrictive covenants in the credit agreement governing our revolving facility require us to maintain specified financial ratios and satisfy other financial condition tests. Our ability to meet those financial ratios and tests can be affected by events beyond our control, and we may not be able to meet them. These restrictive covenants could adversely affect our ability to:
•finance our operations;
•make needed capital expenditures;
•make strategic acquisitions or investments or enter into joint ventures;
•withstand a future downturn in our business, the industry or the economy in general;
•engage in business activities, including future opportunities, that may be in our best interest; and
•plan for or react to market conditions or otherwise execute our business strategies.
These restrictions may affect our ability to expand our business, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
As a result of these restrictions, we will be limited as to how we conduct our business and we may be unable to raise additional debt or equity financing to compete effectively or to take advantage of new business opportunities. The terms of any future indebtedness we may incur could include more restrictive covenants. We cannot assure you that we will be able to maintain compliance with these covenants in the future and, if we fail to do so, that we will be able to obtain waivers from the lenders and/or amend the covenants.
Our failure to comply with the restrictive covenants described above and/or the terms of any future indebtedness from time to time could result in an event of default, which, if not cured or waived, could result in our being required to repay these borrowings before their due date. If we are forced to refinance these borrowings on less favorable terms or cannot refinance these borrowings, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our revolving facility and the indenture that governs our Senior Notes contain cross-default provisions that could result in the acceleration of all of our indebtedness.
A breach of the covenants under our revolving facility or the indenture that governs our Senior Notes could result in an event of default under the applicable indebtedness. Such a default may allow the creditors to accelerate the related indebtedness and may result in the acceleration of any other indebtedness to which a cross-acceleration or cross-default provision applies. In addition, an event of default under the credit agreement governing our revolving facility would permit the lenders under our revolving facility to terminate all commitments to extend further credit under that facility. Furthermore, if we were unable to repay amounts due and payable under our revolving facility, those lenders could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure that indebtedness. In the event our lenders or noteholders accelerate the repayment of our borrowings, we and our guarantors may not have sufficient assets to repay that indebtedness. Additionally, we may not be able to borrow money from other lenders to enable us to refinance our indebtedness.
If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be impaired.
We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“Sarbanes-Oxley Act”), the rules and regulations of Nasdaq, and other securities rules and regulations that impose various requirements on public companies. Our management and other personnel devote substantial time and resources to comply with these rules and regulations. Such compliance has increased, and will continue to increase our legal, accounting and financial compliance costs; make some activities more difficult, time-consuming and costly, and place significant strain on our personnel, systems and resources. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We are continuing to develop and refine our disclosure controls, internal control over financial reporting and other procedures that are designed to ensure information required to be disclosed by us in our condensed consolidated financial statements and in the reports that we file with the SEC is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms, and information required to be disclosed in reports under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our principal executive and financial officers.
Our current controls and any new controls we develop may become inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. Additionally, to the extent we acquire other businesses, the acquired company may not have a sufficiently robust system of internal controls and we may uncover new deficiencies. Weaknesses in our internal controls may be discovered in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls, or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement, could harm our results of operations, may result in a restatement of our condensed consolidated financial statements for prior periods, cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations, and could result in an adverse opinion regarding our internal control over financial reporting from our independent registered public accounting firm, and lead to investigations or sanctions by regulatory authorities.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires our management to certify financial and other information in our quarterly and annual reports and provide an annual management report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. We are also required to have our independent registered public accounting firm attest to, and issue an opinion on, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if, when required, our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which would cause the price of our Class A common stock to decline.
Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could have a material and adverse effect on our business and results of operations and could cause a decline in the price of our stock.
Future acquisitions, strategic investments, partnerships, or alliances could be difficult to identify and integrate, divert the attention of key management personnel, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
As part of our business strategy, we have in the past made, and expect to continue to make, investments in and/or acquire complementary companies, services or technologies. Our ability as an organization to acquire and integrate other companies, services or technologies in a successful manner in the future is not guaranteed. We may not be able to find suitable acquisition candidates, and we may not be able to complete such acquisitions on favorable terms, if at all. If we do complete acquisitions, we may not ultimately strengthen our competitive position or ability to achieve our business objectives, and any acquisitions we complete could be viewed negatively by our end-customers or investors. In addition, our due diligence may fail to identify all of the problems, liabilities or other shortcomings or challenges of an acquired business, product or technology, including issues related to intellectual property, product quality or product architecture, regulatory compliance practices, revenue recognition or other accounting practices or issues with employees or customers. If we are unsuccessful at integrating such acquisitions, or the technologies associated with such acquisitions, into our company, the revenue and results of operations of the combined company could be adversely affected. Any integration process may require significant time and resources, and we may not be able to manage the process successfully. We may not successfully evaluate or utilize the acquired technology or personnel, or accurately forecast the financial impact of an acquisition transaction, causing unanticipated write-offs or accounting charges. We may have to pay cash, incur debt or issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisition, each of which could adversely affect our financial condition and the market price of our Class A common stock. The sale of equity or issuance of debt to finance any such acquisitions could result in dilution to our stockholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed obligations and could also include covenants or other restrictions that would impede our ability to manage our operations.
Additional risks we may face in connection with acquisitions include:
•diversion of management time and focus from operating our business to addressing acquisition integration challenges;
•coordination of research and development and sales and marketing functions;
•integration of administrative systems, employee, product and service offerings;
•retention of key employees from the acquired company;
•changes in relationships with strategic partners as a result of product acquisitions or strategic positioning resulting from the acquisition;
•the need to implement or improve controls, procedures, and policies at a business that prior to the acquisition may have lacked sufficiently effective controls, procedures and policies;
•additional legal, regulatory or compliance requirements;
•financial reporting, revenue recognition or other financial or control deficiencies of the acquired company that we do not adequately address and that cause our reported results to be incorrect;
•liability for activities of the acquired company before the acquisition, including intellectual property infringement claims, violations of laws, commercial disputes, tax liabilities and other known and unknown liabilities; and
•litigation or other claims in connection with the acquired company, including claims from terminated employees, customers, former stockholders or other third parties.
Our failure to address these risks or other problems encountered in connection with acquisitions and investments could cause us to fail to realize the anticipated benefits of these acquisitions or investments, cause us to incur unanticipated liabilities, and harm our business generally.
Our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements are subject to the tax laws of various jurisdictions, and we could be obligated to pay additional taxes, which would harm our results of operations.
We are expanding our international operations and staff to support our business in international markets. We generally conduct our international operations through wholly-owned subsidiaries and are or may be required to report our taxable income in various jurisdictions worldwide based upon our business operations in those jurisdictions. Our intercompany relationships are subject to complex transfer pricing regulations administered by taxing authorities in various jurisdictions. The amount of taxes we pay in different jurisdictions may depend on the application of the tax laws of the various jurisdictions, including the United States, to our international business activities, changes in tax rates, new or revised tax laws or interpretations of existing tax laws and policies, and our ability to operate our business in a manner consistent with our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements. The relevant taxing authorities may disagree with our determinations as to the income and expenses attributable to specific jurisdictions. If such a disagreement were to occur, and our position was not sustained, we could be required to pay additional taxes, interest and penalties, which could result in one-time tax charges, higher effective tax rates, reduced cash flows and lower overall profitability of our operations.
We are subject to federal, state, and local income, sales, and other taxes in the United States and income, withholding, transaction, and other taxes in numerous foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in evaluating our tax positions and our worldwide provision for taxes. During the ordinary course of business, there are many activities and transactions for which the ultimate tax determination may be uncertain. In addition, our tax obligations and effective tax rates could be adversely affected, among other things, by (i) changes in the relevant tax, accounting and other laws, regulations, principles and interpretations, including increases in corporate tax rates and greater taxation of international income and changes relating to income tax nexus, (ii) recognizing tax losses or lower than anticipated earnings in jurisdictions where we have lower statutory rates and higher than anticipated earnings in jurisdictions where we have higher statutory rates, (iii) changes in foreign currency exchange rates, or (iv) changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities. We may be audited in various jurisdictions, and such jurisdictions may assess additional taxes, sales taxes and value added taxes against us. Although we believe our tax estimates are reasonable, the final determination of any tax audits or litigation could be materially different from our historical tax provisions
and accruals, which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations or cash flows in the period or periods for which a determination is made.
In addition, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) has published proposals covering a number of issues, including country-by-country reporting, permanent establishment rules, transfer pricing rules, tax treaties and taxation of the digital economy. On October 8, 2021, the OECD/G20 inclusive framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (the “Inclusive Framework”) published a statement updating and finalizing the key components of a two-pillar plan on global tax reform originally agreed on July 1, 2021, and a timetable for implementation by 2023. The timetable for implementation has since been extended to 2024 and, with respect to certain components of the plan, to 2025. Under Pillar Two, the Inclusive Framework has agreed on a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15% for companies with revenue above €750 million, calculated on a jurisdictional basis. While substantial work remains to be completed by the OECD and national governments on the implementation of these proposals, future tax reform resulting from these developments may result in changes to long-standing tax principles, which could adversely affect our effective tax rate or result in higher cash tax liabilities. On February 1, 2023, the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") indicated that they believe the minimum tax imposed under Pillar Two is an alternative minimum tax, and, accordingly, deferred tax assets and liabilities associated with the minimum tax would not be recognized or adjusted for the estimated future effects of the minimum tax but would be recognized in the period incurred. In addition, the OECD’s proposed solution envisages new international tax rules and the removal of all Digital Services Taxes (“DST”). Notwithstanding this, some countries, in the European Union and beyond, continue to operate existing DST regimes to capture tax revenue on digital services more immediately. Such laws may increase our tax obligations in those countries or change the manner in which we operate our business. We have analyzed jurisdictional Pillar Two regulations, as well as the OECD Model Rules, and have assessed no material Pillar Two impact on the income tax provision for the nine months ended October 31, 2024.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
As of January 31, 2024, we had aggregate U.S. federal and California net operating loss carryforwards of $1.5 billion and $243.9 million, respectively, which may be available to offset future taxable income for income tax purposes. The federal net operating losses are carried forward indefinitely, and California net operating loss carryforwards will begin to expire in fiscal 2032. As of January 31, 2024, we had net operating loss carryforwards for other states of $0.8 billion that will begin to expire in fiscal 2025. As of January 31, 2024, we had federal and California research and development credit carryforwards of $113.9 million and $27.4 million, respectively. The federal research and development credit carryforwards will begin to expire in fiscal 2036, and the California carryforwards are carried forward indefinitely. As of January 31, 2024, we had aggregate United Kingdom net operating loss carryforwards of $78.0 million and Israel net operating loss carryforwards of $51.5 million, which are carried forward indefinitely. Realization of these net operating loss and research and development credit carryforwards depends on future income, and there is a risk that our existing carryforwards could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
In addition, under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50% change (by value) in ownership by “5 percent shareholders” over a rolling three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryovers and other pre-change tax attributes, such as research and development credits, to offset its post-change income or taxes may be limited. We may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of shifts in our stock ownership. As a result, if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-change net operating loss carryforwards to offset U.S. federal taxable income may be subject to limitations, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us.
Taxing authorities may successfully assert that we should have collected or in the future should collect sales and use, value added or similar taxes, and we could be subject to liability with respect to past or future sales, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
We do not collect sales and use, value added or similar taxes in all jurisdictions in which we have sales because we have been advised that such taxes are not applicable to our services in certain jurisdictions. Sales and use, value added, and similar tax laws and rates vary greatly by jurisdiction. Certain jurisdictions in which we do not collect such taxes may assert that such taxes are applicable, which could result in tax assessments, penalties and interest, to us or our customers for the past amounts, and we may be required to collect such taxes in the future. If we are unsuccessful in collecting such taxes from our customers, we could be held liable for such costs, which may adversely affect our results of operations.
If our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect or financial reporting standards or interpretations change, our results of operations could be adversely affected.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in our condensed consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as discussed in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant assumptions and estimates used in preparing our condensed consolidated financial statements include those related to revenue recognition; allowance for credit losses; valuation of common stock and redeemable convertible preferred stock warrants; carrying value and useful lives of long-lived assets; loss contingencies; and the provision for income taxes and related deferred taxes. Our results of operations may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our results of operations to fall below the expectations of industry or financial analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the market price of our Class A common stock.
Additionally, we regularly monitor our compliance with applicable financial reporting standards and review new pronouncements and drafts thereof that are relevant to us. As a result of new standards, changes to existing standards and changes in their interpretation, we might be required to change our accounting policies, alter our operational policies and implement new or enhance existing systems so that they reflect new or amended financial reporting standards, or we may be required to restate our published financial statements. Such changes to existing standards or changes in their interpretation may have an adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial position and profit, or cause an adverse deviation from our revenue and operating profit target, which may negatively impact our financial results.
We are subject to risks associated with our equity investments, including partial or complete loss of invested capital, and significant changes in the fair value of this portfolio could adversely impact our financial results.
Through our Falcon Funds, we invest in early to late stage private companies, and we may not realize a return on our equity investments. Many such companies generate net losses and the market for their products, services, or technologies may be slow to develop or never materialize. These companies are often dependent on the availability of later rounds of financing from banks or investors on favorable terms to continue their operations. The financial success of our investment in any company is typically dependent on a liquidity event, such as a public offering, acquisition, or other favorable market event reflecting appreciation to the cost of our initial investment. The capital markets for public offerings and acquisitions are dynamic and the likelihood of liquidity events for the companies in which we have invested could deteriorate, which could result in a loss of all or a substantial part of our investment in these companies. In addition, our ability to realize gains on investments may be impacted by our contractual obligations to hold securities for a set period of time. For example, to the extent a company we have invested in undergoes an initial public offering, we may be subject to a lock-up agreement that restricts our ability to sell our securities for a period of time after the public offering or otherwise impedes our ability to mitigate market volatility in such securities.
Further, valuations of non-marketable equity investments are inherently complex due to the lack of readily available market data. In addition, we may experience additional volatility to our statements of operations due to changes in market prices of our marketable equity investments, the valuation and timing of observable price changes or impairments of our non-marketable equity investments, and changes in the proportionate share of earnings and losses or impairment of our equity investments accounted for under the equity method. This volatility could be material to our results in any given quarter and may cause our stock price to decline.
Expectations of our performance relating to environmental, social and governance factors may impose additional costs and expose us to new risks.
There is an increasing focus from regulators, certain investors, and other stakeholders concerning environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) matters, both in the United States and internationally. We have undertaken and expect to continue to undertake certain ESG-related initiatives, goals and commitments, which we have communicated on our website, in our SEC filings and elsewhere. These initiatives, goals, or commitments could be difficult to achieve and costly to implement. We could fail to achieve, or be perceived to fail to achieve, our ESG-related initiatives, goals, or commitments. In addition, we could be criticized for the timing, scope or nature of these initiatives, goals, or commitments, or for any revisions to them. Stakeholders could also challenge the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of our ESG-related disclosures. Our actual or perceived failure to achieve some or all of our ESG-related initiatives, goals, or commitments or maintain ESG practices that meet evolving stakeholder expectations or regulatory requirements could harm our reputation, adversely impact our ability to attract and retain
employees or customers and expose us to increased scrutiny from ESG-focused investors, regulatory authorities and others, or subject us to liability. Damage to our reputation or reduced demand for our products may adversely impact our business, financial condition, or results of operations.
Our business is subject to the risks of catastrophic events, including, but not limited to, natural events such as earthquakes, fire, floods, and the outbreak of diseases, as well as man-made problems such as power disruptions, computer viruses or data security breaches.
Our principal executive offices are located in Austin, Texas, and we also maintain other office locations around the world, including in California and India, that are prone to natural disasters including severe weather and seismic activity. A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, a fire, a flood, or significant power outage and other catastrophic events, including the occurrence of a contagious disease or illness, such as COVID-19, could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Natural disasters and other catastrophic events such as public health crises, could affect our personnel, recovery of our assets, data centers, supply chain, manufacturing vendors, or logistics providers’ ability to provide materials and perform services such as manufacturing products or assisting with shipments on a timely basis. In addition, climate change could result in an increase in the frequency or severity of natural disasters. If our or our service providers’ information technology systems or manufacturing or logistics abilities are hindered by any of the events discussed above, shipments could be delayed, resulting in missed financial targets, such as revenue and shipment targets, for a particular quarter. In addition, computer malware, viruses and computer hacking, fraudulent use attempts, and phishing attacks have become more prevalent in our industry and may be further enhanced in frequency or effectiveness through threat actors’ use of AI, and our internal systems may be victimized by such attacks. Although we maintain incident management and disaster response plans, in the event of a major disruption caused by a catastrophic event, such as a natural disaster, or man-made problem, we may be unable to continue our operations and may endure system interruptions, reputational harm, delays in our development activities, lengthy interruptions in service, breaches of data security and loss of critical data, and our insurance may not cover such events or may be insufficient to compensate us for the potentially significant losses we may incur. All of the aforementioned risks may be further increased if the disaster recovery plans for us and our suppliers prove to be inadequate. To the extent that any of the above should result in delays or cancellations of customer orders, delays in the manufacture, deployment or shipment of our products, or delays in the rendering of our services, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.
ITEM 2. UNREGISTERED SALES OF EQUITY SECURITIES AND USE OF PROCEEDS
The following table provides information with respect to purchases by the Company of shares of Class A Common Stock during the three months ended October 31, 2024:
Period
(a) Total number of shares (or units) purchased (1)
(b) Average price paid per share (or unit)
(c) Total number of shares (or units) purchased as part of publicly announced plans or programs
(d) Maximum number (or approximate dollar value) of shares (or units) that may yet be purchased under the plans or programs
August 1, 2024 to August 31, 2024
—
$
—
—
—
September 1, 2024 to September 30, 2024
23
$
309.85
—
—
October 1, 2024 to October 31, 2024
—
$
—
—
—
(1) We repurchased, in open market transactions, 23 shares in connection with the administration of the 2019 Plan.
ITEM 3. DEFAULTS UPON SENIOR SECURITIES
Not applicable.
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not applicable.
ITEM 5. OTHER INFORMATION
On November 26, 2024, the Company’s board of directors adopted and approved, effective immediately, amended and restated bylaws of the Company (as amended and restated, the “Amended and Restated Bylaws”). The amendments set forth in the Amended and Restated Bylaws, among other things, enhance and clarify certain procedural and disclosure requirements related to shareholder nominations of directors and submissions of proposals regarding other business at annual or special meetings of shareholders, including with respect to (x) the information about any such shareholders and Stockholder Associated Persons (as defined in the Amended and Restated Bylaws) required to be disclosed to the Company and (y) certain other updates in light of the “universal proxy” rules adopted by the SEC pursuant to Rule 14a-19 of the Exchange Act. The Amended and Restated Bylaws also include updates to matters related to officer appointments and removals, and certain other technical, clarifying and conforming changes.
The foregoing summary of the Amended and Restated Bylaws does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the Amended and Restated Bylaws, which is attached as Exhibit 3.2 to this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 6. EXHIBITS
We have filed the exhibits listed on the accompanying Exhibit Index, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Cover Page Interactive Data File – the cover page XBRL tags are embedded within the Inline Instance XBRL document
†
Indicates management contract or compensatory plan, contract or agreement.
*
The certifications furnished in Exhibit 32.1 hereto are deemed to accompany this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and will not be deemed “filed” or purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and are not to be incorporated by reference into any of CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc.’s filings under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, irrespective of any general incorporation language contained in such filing.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized on the day of November 26, 2024.