ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Market Risks
The COVID-19 pandemic has had, and may continue to have, an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
A significant number of our corporate and enterprise customers in the United States have continued remote work policies instituted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, slowed the pace of opening new offices and closed offices due to global economic conditions. We believe the rapid spread of the Delta and Omicron variants during 2021 influenced corporate customers to delay or rescind their plans to end their remote work policies. In 2023 more corporate customers increased their in-office requirements, nevertheless, the prevalence of hybrid or fully remote work environments during the pandemic has caused some companies to transition to such environments on a permanent basis, and we do not know what impact this may have on demand for commercial office space and for our services. As a result, through much of the year ended December 31, 2023, we saw corporate customers continue to take a cautious approach to adding new services and upgrading existing services as well as reduced demand for connecting smaller satellite offices. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have experienced a deteriorating real estate market in the buildings we serve. Vacancy rates for many of our MTOBs have risen as a result of many tenants terminating leases and exiting buildings and as a result of lower new leasing activity. The impact of this greater level of vacancy rates was more pronounced in certain cities, particularly in California and the Pacific Northwest and less impactful elsewhere.
In addition, the shift of our own employees to working remotely at certain times during the past few years has amplified certain risks to our business, including increased demand on our information technology resources and systems, increased phishing and other cybersecurity attacks and an increase in the number of points of potential attack, such as laptops and mobile devices (both of which are now being used in increased numbers), to be secured. Any failure to effectively manage these risks, including to timely identify and appropriately respond to any cyberattacks, may adversely affect our business.
We may find it difficult to retain existing employees or to hire new employees because we have required all employees to return to the office on a full-time basis and in the United States to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and boosters.
In the second half of 2021, we notified our employees worldwide that they would be required to return to the office on a full-time basis when permitted by local regulations. For employees in the United States, our return to office began in September 2021. As other countries relaxed their COVID regulations, our employees in those countries returned to the office as well. Except for a brief period at the beginning of 2022 when we temporarily shifted a portion of our workforce to remote work, we have maintained our requirement that all employees work in our offices.
In August 2021, we also notified employees in the United States that they would be required to attest that they were fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus unless they received a medical or religious exemption. We subsequently mandated that all U.S. employees receive a COVID-19 booster vaccine no later than six weeks after first becoming eligible for such vaccine. We required that the employees of the Sprint Business in the United States attest and provide proof that they are fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus unless they received a medical or religious exemption. Our employees have largely complied with our vaccine mandate in the United States.
However, we experienced an increase in employee departures, particularly within our sales department, beginning in the second half of 2021 and continuing into 2022. The departure rate returned to our long-term historical rates in 2023. We believe that the rise in departures was attributable, in part, to the unwillingness of some employees to work in a full-time, in-office environment. In the United States, we believe the rise in departures was also attributable to the unwillingness of some employees to be vaccinated. If we continue to require employees to work in the office on a full-time basis and/or to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations in the United States, we may find it difficult to retain existing employees or hire new employees. Further, a resurgence of COVID-19 due to
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immunity-resistant variants may cause employees to be more reluctant to continue in, or make new employees more reluctant to accept, a full-time, in-office position due to concerns about COVID-19. If this occurs, this may impact our revenue growth and profitability.
Our growth and financial health are subject to a number of economic risks.
A downturn in the world economy, especially the economies of North America and Europe, would negatively impact our growth. Our net-centric business would be particularly impacted by a decline in the development of new applications and businesses that make use of the Internet. Our corporate business would be particularly impacted by an increase in vacancy rates in the MTOBs that we serve. Our total revenue growth is predicated on growth in the use of the Internet that makes up for the declining prices of Internet service. An economic downturn could impact the Internet business more significantly than other businesses that are less dependent on new applications and growth in the use of those applications and less susceptible to increases in office vacancy rates resulting from the retrenchment by consumers and businesses that typically occurs in an economic downturn.
Our historical reductions in our prices are expected to continue in an inflationary economy even as our costs may increase.
Many of the regions in which we operate continue to experience an increase in inflation rates. Due to the nature of our product offerings and the industry in which we operate, which is deflationary, we may be unable to raise our prices. We expect that our historical pricing patterns will continue for the foreseeable future.
These historical pricing patterns are occurring against the backdrop of a general increase in prices due to inflation. In particular, the cost of electricity has increased greatly in all countries where we purchase power. While we have negotiated contracts that cap price increases due to inflation or that have fixed the price of electricity, we have experienced and may continue to experience increases in the costs of electricity and other services that we cannot pass on to our customers or may only be able to pass on partially to our customers. If these price increases continue, this may impact our profitability.
Events beyond our control may impact our ability to provide our services to our customers or increase the costs or reduce the profitability of providing our services.
Catastrophic events, such as major natural disasters, extreme weather, fire, flooding or similar events as well as the continued threat of terrorist activity and other acts of war or hostility have had, and may continue to have, an adverse effect on our headquarters, other offices, our network, infrastructure or equipment or our customers and prospective customers, which could adversely affect our business. These events may also have an adverse impact on business, financial and general economic conditions around the world. We have certain locations through which a large amount of our Internet traffic passes. Examples are facilities in which we exchange traffic with other carriers, the facilities through which our transoceanic traffic passes, and certain of our network hub sites. We are particularly vulnerable to acts of terrorism because our largest customer concentration is located in New York, our headquarters is located in Washington, D.C., and we have significant operations in Paris, Madrid and London, cities that have historically been targets for terrorist attacks and may be vulnerable to pandemics.
If these or any other of our key facilities were destroyed or seriously damaged, a significant amount of our network traffic could be disrupted. Because of the large volume of traffic passing through these facilities our ability (and the ability of carriers with whom we exchange traffic) to quickly restore service would be challenged. There could be parts of our network or the networks of other carriers that could not be quickly restored or that would experience substantially reduced service for a significant time. If such a disruption occurs, our reputation could be negatively impacted which may cause us to lose customers and adversely affect our ability to attract new customers, resulting in an adverse effect on our business and operating results.
Risks Relating to Our Acquisition of the Sprint Business
We may not realize the anticipated benefits of the acquisition of the Sprint Business, and the integration of the Sprint Business may disrupt our business and management.
The success of our acquisition of the Sprint Business, including the realization of anticipated benefits and cost savings, will depend, in part, on our ability to successfully combine our business and the Sprint Business. The integration may be more difficult, costly or time consuming than expected. The integration process involves numerous risks. These risks include:
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● inability to retain key personnel of the Sprint Business;
● the effects of complex accounting requirements on our reported results;
● Transition Services (as defined below) costs for longer than anticipated;
● incompatibility of business cultures.
If we experience difficulties during the integration process and are unable to integrate the Sprint Business successfully or in a timely manner, we may not realize the benefits of the Transaction to the extent anticipated. These integration matters could have an adverse effect on us during the transition period and on the combined company for an undetermined period after completion of the Transaction.
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Business Risks
We need to retain existing customers and continue to add new customers in order to become consistently profitable and cash flow positive.
In order to be consistently profitable and consistently cash flow positive, we need to both retain existing customers and continue to add a large number of new customers. The precise number of additional customers required is dependent on a number of factors, including the turnover of existing customers, the pricing of our product offerings and the revenue mix among our customers. We may not succeed in adding customers if our sales and marketing efforts are unsuccessful. In addition, many of our targeted customers are businesses that are already purchasing Internet access services from one or more providers, often under a contractual commitment. It has been our experience that such targeted customers are often reluctant to switch providers due to costs and effort associated with switching providers. Further, as some of our customers grow larger, they may decide to build their own Internet backbone networks or enter into direct connection agreements with telephone and cable companies that provide Internet service to consumers. A migration of a few very large Internet users to their own networks, or to closed networks that may be offered by major telephone and cable providers of last mile broadband connections to consumers, or the loss or reduced purchases from several significant customers could impair our growth, cash flow and profitability.
We have customers who depend on the U.S. government’s E-rate program for funding. There can be no assurance that the E-rate program will continue or that other governmental programs that fund governments and organizations that are or might become customers will continue. A failure of such programs to continue could result in a loss of customers and impair our growth, cash flow and profitability.
A substantial and long-term shift to remote work may impact our ability to add new customers and to retain existing customers.
Through much of 2021, 2022, and 2023, we saw corporate customers continue their remote work policies and take a cautious approach to new services and upgrades, as well as a reduced demand for connecting smaller satellite offices. We also witnessed a deteriorating real estate market in and around the buildings we service, with rising vacancy levels and falling lease initiations or renewals resulting in fewer sales opportunities for our salesforce. As a result, we experienced a slowdown in new sales to our corporate customers which negatively impacted our corporate revenue growth. If a significant number of our corporate customers or potential customers decide to retain remote work policies, we may experience increased customer turnover, fewer upgrades of existing customer configurations and fewer new tenant opportunities. These trends may negatively impact our revenue growth, cash flows and profitability.
Lower vacancy rates as a result of diminished lease terminations and increased leasing and subleasing activity will be a key factor in driving renewed growth in our corporate business.
During the pandemic, we saw increasing vacancy rates in many of our buildings due to higher lease terminations and lower leasing activity. Throughout the year concluding on December 31, 2023, we observed a gradual reduction in vacancy rates and an upward trend in office occupancy rates but elevated vacancy rates remain in a number of markets, predominantly in California and the Pacific Northwest. Concurrently, there were encouraging developments in our corporate business. Despite these positive indicators, the precise timing and trajectory of these trends remain uncertain. The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic introduce an element of unpredictability, and we may continue to see increased corporate customer turnover, fewer upgrades of existing corporate customer configurations and fewer new tenant opportunities, which would negatively affect our corporate revenue growth.
Our business and operations are growing rapidly, and we may not be able to efficiently manage our growth.
We have grown our Company rapidly through network expansion, by obtaining new customers through our sales efforts and by our acquisition of the Sprint Business. Our expansion places significant strains on our management, operational and financial infrastructure. Our ability to manage our growth will be particularly dependent upon our ability to:
● expand, develop and retain an effective sales force and qualified personnel;
● maintain the quality of our operations and our service offerings;
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If we fail to implement these measures successfully, our ability to manage our growth will be impaired.
We may be unable to retain existing enterprise customers, maintain the level of services provided to enterprise customers or attract new enterprise customers.
In connection with the acquisition of the Sprint Business, we acquired an enterprise customer base, a type of customer that we have not traditionally served. We have established an enterprise sales team within our sales force to focus on retaining these customers and attracting new enterprise customers. Enterprise customers differ from our existing corporate and net-centric customers in that they have larger, more geographically diverse operations that require a greater percentage of off-net services from us. In addition, enterprise customers are more likely to require customized solutions and processes and to look for a single provider to meet their connectivity needs. We may encounter difficulties retaining such customers, in converting such customers from their legacy services to newer technologies or in attracting new enterprise customers. Our inability to retain or attract such customers or to convert them to our services, could impair our growth, cash flow and profitability.
Demand from certain employees to work remotely may reduce the attractiveness of our business as an employer versus some competitors who are allowing employees to work remotely.
In the fall of 2021, we began to implement an in-office work policy designed to return the vast majority of our employees to an in-office work environment. Except for a brief return to remote work at the beginning of 2022 for a portion of our workforce, we have, with the exception of a limited number of employees who become eligible for hybrid work on a quarterly basis, maintained our requirement that all employees work in our offices wherever possible. A small minority of our workforce declined to return to full-time in-office employment and left our employment. We are experiencing modest competitive challenges versus some competitors who are offering some employees a hybrid work option. Increasing demands to work in a hybrid work style may reduce our ability to attract and retain employees, in particular attracting and retaining salespeople.
We may not successfully make or integrate acquisitions or enter into strategic alliances.
As part of our growth strategy, we may pursue selected acquisitions and strategic alliances. To date, we have completed 14 significant acquisitions, including our recent acquisition of the Sprint Business. However, we are very selective with respect to such acquisitions and alliances and, prior to the acquisition of the Sprint Business, we had not undertaken either for more than 17 years. We compete with other companies for acquisition opportunities and we cannot assure you that we will be able to execute future acquisitions or strategic alliances on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Even if we enter into these transactions, we may experience:
● delays in realizing or a failure to realize the benefits we anticipate;
● attrition of key personnel from acquired businesses;
● unexpected costs or charges; and
In the past, our acquisitions have often included assets, service offerings and financial obligations that are not compatible with our core business strategy. We have expended management attention and other resources to the divestiture of assets, modification of products and systems as well as restructuring financial obligations of acquired operations. In most acquisitions, we have been successful in renegotiating the agreements that we have acquired. If we are unable to satisfactorily renegotiate such agreements in the future or with respect to future acquisitions, we may be exposed to large claims for payment for services and facilities we do not need.
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Consummating these transactions could also result in the incurrence of additional debt and related interest expense, as well as unforeseen contingent liabilities, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Because we have typically purchased financially distressed companies or their assets, and may continue to do so in the future, we have largely not had, and may not in the future have, the opportunity to perform extensive due diligence or obtain contractual protections and indemnifications that are customarily provided in acquisitions. As a result, we may face unexpected contingent liabilities arising from these acquisitions. We may also issue additional equity in connection with these transactions, which would dilute our existing shareholders.
Following an acquisition, we have experienced a decline in revenue attributable to acquired customers as these customers’ contracts have expired and they have entered into our standard customer contracts at generally lower rates or have chosen not to renew service with us. We anticipate that we would experience similar revenue declines with respect to customers we may acquire in the future.
Our data center expansions could involve significant risks to our business.
To sustain our growth in various existing and emerging markets, we may need to expand an existing data center, lease a new facility, or acquire suitable land, with or without existing structures. Undertaking such projects exposes us to numerous risks that could adversely impact our financial condition and operational results. The prevailing global supply chain challenges and inflation have further heightened these risks, introducing additional uncertainties into our business.
The selection of suitable sites is a critical factor in our expansion plans. It is possible that there may be a lack of available properties in our target markets with the required combination of high-power capacity and fiber connectivity, or the options may be limited. Anticipating ongoing challenges in power availability and grid constraints in various markets, coupled with shortages of associated equipment due to heightened demand and the finite nature of these resources, we may encounter difficulties in site selection, leading to construction delays, increased costs, lower interconnection revenue, reduced margins, and potential negative implications for customer retention over time.
Currently, we are dealing with escalating construction costs attributed to the rising expenses of labor and raw materials, logistical challenges in the supply chain, and heightened demand in our sector. Despite having invested in building up a reserve of materials to address supply chain issues and inflation, there exists the possibility that it may not be sufficient. Persistent delays, difficulties in finding replacement products, and continued high inflation could potentially affect our business and growth, significantly affecting our overall business standing. Any unforeseen disruptions to our supply chain or inflationary pressures might substantially impact the costs associated with our planned expansion projects, potentially hindering our ability to fulfill commitments to customers who have contracted for space in new data centers under construction.
Construction projects are dependent on receiving permits from public agencies and utility companies. Any delay in receiving permits could delay our construction projects and affect our growth. While we do not currently anticipate any material long-term negative impact to our business because of construction delays, these types of delays and stoppages related to receiving permits from public agencies and utility companies could worsen and have an adverse effect on our bookings, revenue or growth.
Furthermore, construction related projects require us to carefully select and rely on the experience of one or more designers, general contractors, and associated subcontractors during the design and construction process. Should a designer, general contractor, significant subcontractor or key supplier experience financial problems or other problems during the design or construction process, we could experience significant delays, increased costs to complete the project and/or other negative impacts to our expected returns.
Our commitments and disclosures regarding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters expose us to potential reputational and legal risks.
The perception of our ESG profile as less attractive to customers or employees may impact our brand and reputation. Our level of commitment to ESG initiatives could influence our ability to attract or retain customers and employees. The timing, scope, or nature of these initiatives, goals, or commitments, as well as any revisions, may lead to criticism. Scrutiny regarding the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of ESG disclosures may arise. Any perceived failure to achieve our ESG-related initiatives, goals, commitments, or mandates could adversely affect our reputation and materially harm our business.
The growing emphasis on ESG matters has prompted the adoption of legal and regulatory requirements to address climate change effects and necessitate additional disclosures. If new laws or regulations surpass current requirements, we may face heightened compliance burdens and increased costs. Our selection of voluntary disclosure frameworks and standards, as well as their
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interpretation or application, may change and might not align with investor or stakeholder expectations. Achieving our ESG commitments is contingent on numerous external factors beyond our control, including evolving and potentially inconsistent regulatory requirements, supplier availability meeting our standards, and the recruitment, development, and retention of diverse talent.
Competitive Risks
Our connections to the Internet require us to establish and maintain relationships with other providers, which we may not be able to maintain.
The Internet is composed of various network providers who operate their own networks that interconnect at public and private interconnection points. Our network is one such network. In order to obtain Internet connectivity for our network, we must establish and maintain relationships with other ISPs and certain of our larger customers. These providers may be customers (who connect their network to ours by buying Internet access from us) or may be other large ISPs to whom we connect on a settlement-free peering basis as described below. Both customers and settlement-free peers may be competitors of ours.
By entering into what are known as settlement-free peering arrangements, providers agree to exchange traffic between their respective networks without charging each other. Our ability to avoid the higher costs of acquiring paid dedicated network capacity (transit or paid peering) and to maintain high network performance is dependent upon our ability to establish and maintain settlement-free peering relationships and to increase the capacity or to add additional locations of the interconnections provided by these relationships. The terms and conditions of our settlement-free peering relationships may also be subject to adverse changes, which we may not be able to control. If we are not able to maintain or increase our settlement-free peering relationships in all of our markets on favorable terms or to upgrade the capacity of our existing settlement-free peering relationships, customers may not upgrade their connections with us or we may not be able to provide our customers with high performance, affordable or reliable services, which could cause us to lose existing and potential customers, damage our reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business. Additionally, certain of our current customers may seek to become settlement-free peers with us.
We cannot assure you that we will be able to continue to establish and maintain relationships with other ISPs, favorably resolve disputes with such providers, or increase the capacity of our settlement-free peering interconnections with such providers.
The sector in which we operate is highly competitive, and we may not be able to compete effectively.
We face significant competition from incumbent carriers, Internet service providers and facilities-based network operators. Relative to us, many of these providers have significantly greater financial resources, more well-established brand names, larger customer bases, and more diverse strategic plans and service offerings. A number of these providers also have large bases of consumers, which makes their networks particularly attractive to content providers as they can provide a direct connection to their customers.
Intense competition from these traditional and new communications companies has led to declining prices and margins for many communications services, and we expect this trend to continue as competition intensifies in the future. Decreasing prices for high-speed Internet services have somewhat diminished the competitive advantage that we have enjoyed as a result of our service pricing.
Our business is premised on the idea that customers want simple Internet access and private networks rather than a combination of such services with other services such as voice services and complex managed services. Our competitors offer such services. Should the market come to favor such services our ability to acquire and keep customers would be impaired. Our competitors may also upgrade their existing services or introduce new technologies or services, such as satellite-based Internet or 5G services that could make our services less attractive to potential customers.
Moreover, the continuous evolution of technology may empower our competitors to upgrade their existing services or introduce new, more advanced offerings that could potentially diminish our sales of VPN and colocation services. As a consequence, we may face challenges in acquiring and retaining customers.
Our business could suffer because telephone companies and cable companies may provide better delivery of certain Internet content, including content originating on their own networks, than content on the public Internet.
Broadband connections provided by cable TV, telephone, and fixed and mobile companies have become the predominant means by which consumers connect to the Internet. The providers of these broadband connections may treat Internet content or other broadband content delivered from different sources differently. The possibility of this has been characterized as an issue of “net
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neutrality.” As many of our customers operate websites and services that deliver content to consumers, our ability to sell our services would be negatively impacted if Internet content delivered by us was less easily received by consumers than Internet content delivered by others. The FCC had promulgated rules that would have banned practices such as blocking and throttling of Internet traffic, but those rules were rescinded by the FCC in December 2017. In October 2023 the FCC voted to move ahead with a plan that would restore net neutrality rules and common-carrier regulation of Internet service providers. The proposal would reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service, a designation that allows the FCC to regulate ISPs under the common-carrier provisions in Title II of the Communications Act. Some US states have either issued or are considering their own net neutrality rules. Also, the European Union and other countries in which we operate have issued similar net neutrality rules. We also do not know the extent to which the providers of broadband Internet access to consumers may favor certain content or providers in ways that may disadvantage us.
Operational Risks
Our network may be the target of potential cyber-attacks and other security breaches that could have significant negative consequences.
We rely on computer systems, hardware, software, technology infrastructure and online sites and networks for both internal and external operations that are critical to our business (collectively, “IT Systems”). We own and manage some of these IT Systems but also rely on third parties for a range of IT Systems and related products and services, including but not limited to cloud computing services.
Our business depends on our ability to limit and mitigate interruptions to or degradation of the security of our network. We face numerous and evolving cybersecurity risks that threaten the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our IT Systems, as well as trade secrets, intellectual property, personal information or other Company confidential information (collectively “Confidential Information”). We are considered a critical infrastructure provider and therefore may be more likely to be the target of cyber-attacks. Our IT Systems are subject and vulnerable to unauthorized access, social engineering/phishing, malware (including ransomware), malfeasance by insiders, human or technological error, and as a result of bugs, misconfigurations or exploited vulnerabilities in software or hardware, computer viruses, cyber-attacks, distributed denial of service (“DDOS”), and other cybersecurity risks.
We and our employees are the target of phishing attempts and compromised links, and our IT Systems are the target of attempts at unauthorized access, a small number of which have been successful in accessing non-critical areas of our IT Systems. Our customer-facing network firewall regularly suppresses cyber-attacks and our network routinely manages DDOS attacks. Although none of the incidents, individually or in the aggregate, have materially impacted our operations or business, we cannot guarantee material incidents will not occur in the future. An attack on or security breach of our network could result in theft Confidential Information, the interruption, degradation, or cessation of services, an inability to meet our service level commitments or our financial reporting obligations, and potentially compromise customer data stored on or transmitted over our network.
Cyber-attacks are expected to accelerate on a global basis in frequency and magnitude as threat actors are becoming increasingly sophisticated in using techniques and tools – including artificial intelligence – that circumvent security controls, evade detection and remove forensic evidence. As a result, we may be unable to detect, investigate, remediate or recover from future attacks or incidents, or avoid a material adverse impact to our IT Systems, Confidential Information or business. Moreover, as cyber warfare becomes a tool in asymmetric conflicts between the United States and other nations, we, as a US provider, may be targeted with increasing frequency. We cannot guarantee that our security measures will not be circumvented, thereby resulting in security events, network failures or interruptions that could impact our network security or availability and have a material adverse effect on our business, our ability to meet our financial reporting obligations, financial condition and operational results.
We may be required to expend significant resources to protect against such threats, and may experience a reduction in revenues, litigation (including class action lawsuits), and a diminution in goodwill, caused by a compromise of our cybersecurity. Although our customer contracts limit our liability, affected customers and third parties may seek to recover damages from us under various legal theories. We cannot guarantee that any costs and liabilities incurred in relation to an attack or incident will be covered by our existing insurance policies or that applicable insurance will be available to us in the future on economically reasonable terms or at all. In response to past attacks, we have implemented further controls and taken and planned for other preventative actions to further strengthen our systems against future attacks. However, we cannot assure you that such measures will provide absolute security, that we will be able to react in a timely manner, or that our remediation efforts following any past or future attacks will be successful. There can also be no assurance that our cybersecurity risk management program and processes, including our policies, controls or procedures, will be fully implemented, complied with or effective in protecting our IT Systems and Confidential Information. Any adverse impact to the availability, integrity or confidentiality of our IT Systems or Confidential Information can result in legal claims or proceedings (such as class actions), regulatory investigations and enforcement actions, fines and penalties, negative reputational
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impacts that cause us to lose existing or future customers, and/or significant incident response, system restoration or remediation and future compliance costs. Any or all of the foregoing could materially adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
If the information systems that we depend on to support our customers, network operations, sales, billing and financial reporting do not perform as expected, our operations and our financial results may be adversely affected.
We rely on complex information systems to operate our network and support our other business functions. Our ability to track sales leads, close sales opportunities, provision services, bill our customers for our services and prepare our financial statements depends upon the effective integration of our various information systems. In 2020, we developed and deployed our own customer relationship management software for our sales force. We may have difficulty maintaining this software and adding features that our sales representatives require. If our information systems, individually or collectively, fail or do not perform as expected, our ability to make sales, to process and provision orders, to make timely payments to vendors, to ensure that we collect amounts owed to us and prepare and file our financial statements would be adversely affected. Such failures or delays could result in increased capital expenditures, customer and vendor dissatisfaction, loss of business or the inability to add new customers or additional services, and the inability to prepare accurate and timely financial statements all of which would adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Our insurance coverage may be insufficient to fully protect against potential risks.
We maintain various insurance policies, including liability, property, and others, to safeguard our company against insurable risks. Our choice of insurance types, coverage limits, and deductibles is determined by our unique risk profile, the balance between insurance costs and perceived benefits, and prevailing industry norms. There is a possibility that any of the insurance limits we secure, whether for flood or other risks, might be insufficient. Such inadequacy could significantly and negatively affect our business, financial health, and operational outcomes.
Cogent has not signed a Legacy Registration Services Agreement with the American Registry for Internet Numbers (“ARIN”) or any other regional Internet registry (“RIR”) with respect to a substantial portion of our IPv4 addresses.
Many of the IPv4 addresses we own were originally allocated prior to the creation of ARIN and the other RIRs. As such, ARIN requires us (and any other legacy resource holder) to enter into a Legacy Registration Services Agreement to obtain access to the full range of ARIN services, including, its Resource Public Key Infrastructure (“RPKI”) and Internet Routing Registry (“IRR”). We have elected not to enter into a Legacy Registration Services Agreement with ARIN. As a result, while the IPv4 addresses appear in the ARIN database as under our ownership and control and we have access to a limited set of ARIN services, the Company cannot implement RPKI on these IPv4 addresses.
RPKI is a framework that enables network operators to secure routing infrastructure by associating IPv4 address ranges with autonomous system numbers. By doing so, RPKI greatly reduces the possibility of route hijacking and leaks when using Border Gateway Protocol (“BGP”) on the Internet. Our inability to obtain access to RPKI services and authentication may cause some customers to prefer to lease IPv4 addresses from companies that offer RPKI, leading to a loss of revenue for us. In addition, without RPKI, we are unable to monitor its network proactively with respect to these IPv4 addresses and these IPv4 addresses are at a greater risk for route hijacking. Moreover, since these IPv4 addresses do not have RPKI certification, the process for reclaiming a hijacked route is prolonged and requires the assistance of other network operators. This increased potential for route hijacking and longer recovery time may also result in some customers opting to lease IPv4 addresses from our competitors.
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Network Augmentation and Maintenance Risks
Our network is comprised of a number of separate components, and we may be unable to obtain or maintain the agreements necessary to augment or maintain our network.
Our network is primarily composed of (i) leased capacity on transoceanic optical fiber; (ii) terrestrial inter-city dark optical fiber; (iii) intra-city dark optical fiber; (iv) right-of+-way agreements; and (v) the buildings that we serve and the associated optical fiber connecting those buildings. We both own and lease portions of our optical fiber and obtain access to the buildings on our network, both CNDCs and MTOBs, from a number of vendors. A number of our leases, both for fiber and building access, are up for renewal in any given year. A deterioration in our existing relationship with these operators could impact our network, harm our sales and marketing efforts and could substantially reduce our potential customer base. In addition, portions of our long-haul optical fiber and metro optical fiber are nearing the end of their original projected useful life. While we believe that this fiber will remain usable beyond the projected end date, we face the risk that portions of our network may need to be replaced in the future.
We expect to enter additional agreements with carriers and operators to obtain additional facilities, whether optical fiber, leased transoceanic capacity or buildings, for our network in order to add capacity to our network and to expand our addressable market. However, we cannot assure you that we will be able to enter into such agreements in the future, be able to do so on economically attractive terms or find an adequate substitute if we are unable to reach an agreement. Failure to acquire new facilities to augment our network could keep us from adding new markets, capacity or buildings to our network and negatively impact our growth opportunities.
Our off-net business could suffer delays and problems due to the actions of “last mile” providers on whom we are partially dependent.
Our off-net customers are connected to our network by means of fiber optic capacity that are provided as services by local telephone and cable companies and others. We may experience problems with the installation, maintenance and pricing of these lines which could adversely affect our results of operations and our plans to add additional off-net customers to our network using such services. We have historically experienced installation and maintenance delays when the network provider is devoting resources to other services, such as traditional telephony, cable TV services and private network services. We have also experienced pricing problems when a lack of alternatives allows a provider to charge high prices for capacity in a particular area or to a particular building. We attempt to reduce this problem by using many different providers so that we have alternatives for linking an off-net customer to our network. Competition among the providers tends to improve installation intervals, maintenance and pricing. Additionally, these providers are often competing with us for the same customers and have marketed their own service to our off-net customers when our initial contract with our customer nears the end of its term.
Our business could suffer from an interruption of service from our fiber providers.
The optical fiber cable owners from whom we have obtained our inter-city and intra-city dark fiber maintain that dark fiber. We are contractually obligated under the agreements with these carriers to pay maintenance fees, and if we are unable to continue to pay such fees, we would be in default under these agreements. If these carriers fail to maintain the fiber or disrupt our fiber connections due to our default or for other reasons, such as business disputes with us, bankruptcy, and governmental takings, our ability to provide service in the affected markets or parts of markets would be impaired unless we have or can obtain alternative fiber routes. Some of the companies that maintain our inter-city dark fiber and some of the companies that maintain our intra-city dark fiber are also competitors of ours in portions of our business. Consequently, they may have incentives to act in ways unfavorable to us. While we have successfully mitigated the effects of prior service interruptions and business disputes in the past, we may incur significant delays and costs in restoring service to our customers in connection with future service interruptions, and as a result we may lose customers.
With the Sprint Business acquisition, our reliance on agreements with landowners has increased.
Since the acquisition of the Sprint Business, our reliance on rights-of-way, license agreements, franchises, and authorizations from governmental bodies, railway companies, utilities, carriers, and other third parties has increased. These permissions allow us to place a portion of our network equipment on, over, or under their respective properties. However, a significant challenge is that some of these authorizations have set expiration dates within the next five to ten years, and renewing or extending them is essential. The potential adverse impact on our operations looms if any of these authorizations are canceled, terminated, or allowed to lapse, or if landowners request price increases. The uncertainty lies in our ability to successfully extend these arrangements upon expiration or establish new agreements necessary for executing our network expansion initiatives. We cannot guarantee our success in these endeavors, raising concerns about the continuity of our operations and our ability to capitalize on network expansion opportunities.
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Effects of climate change may impose risk of damage to our infrastructure, and our ability to provide services.
Long-term climate change may give rise to extreme weather events, posing a direct threat to network facilities and impeding our ability to construct and maintain segments of our network. Such events could also disrupt suppliers, impacting their ability to deliver products and services essential for ensuring reliable network coverage. Any resulting disruptions have the potential to postpone our network deployment plans, interrupt customer services, escalate our operational costs, and adversely affect our overall operating results. The physical consequences of climate change, including heightened frequency and severity of storms, floods, fires, freezing conditions, and sea-level rise, could negatively impact our operations, infrastructure, and financial performance. Operational setbacks arising from these physical effects, such as damage to our network infrastructure, might lead to increased costs and revenue losses. To address these challenges, we may need to invest significantly in enhancing the climate resilience of our infrastructure and undertaking preparations, responses, and mitigation measures for the physical impacts of climate change. Despite these considerations, accurately predicting the materiality of potential losses or costs associated with these effects remains challenging.
We are responsible for maintenance and repair of our owned fiber network.
With the acquisition of the Sprint Business, our operations now include the ownership of a substantial fiber network. With this ownership, we assume the critical responsibility for the maintenance and repair of the entire fiber infrastructure. This introduces inherent risks that could impact our operational continuity. As we did not own a fiber network historically, the new responsibility necessitates an adjustment in our operational approach and poses challenges affecting the efficiency of maintenance activities. If we are unable to maintain our fiber or adequately and efficiently manage disruptions to our fiber network, our ability to provide services in the affected markets or parts of markets would be impaired unless we have or can obtain alternative fiber routes. In addition, we may incur unexpected and significant costs, delays or other difficulties in maintaining or repairing our fiber infrastructure, resulting in increased disruption in services to our customers. We may, as a result, lose revenue or customers.
Substantially all of our network infrastructure equipment is manufactured or provided by a limited number of network infrastructure vendors.
We purchase our network infrastructure equipment from a small circle of vendors. Historically, we purchased from Cisco Systems, Inc. (“Cisco”) all of the routers and transmission equipment used in our network. We have added a new provider for certain types of IP transport equipment but Cisco remains our primary vendor for IP transport equipment. With the acquisition of the Sprint Business in 2023, we entered into an agreement to purchase routers and transmission from Ciena Corporation (“Ciena”). We use Ciena equipment for optical wave transport services.
If Cisco or Ciena fails to provide equipment on a timely basis or fails to meet our performance expectations, including in the event that either vendor fails to enhance, maintain, upgrade or improve the hardware or software products we purchase from them when and how we need them, we may be delayed or unable to provide services as and when requested by our customers. We also may be unable to upgrade our network and face greater difficulty maintaining and expanding our network.
Transitioning from Cisco or Ciena to another vendor for the types of equipment each provides would be disruptive because of the time and expense required to learn to install, maintain and operate the new vendor’s equipment and to operate a multi-vendor network. Any such disruption could increase our costs, decrease our operating efficiencies and have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Cisco or Ciena may also be subject to litigation with respect to the technology on which we depend, including litigation involving claims of patent infringement. Such claims have been growing rapidly in the communications industry. Regardless of the merit of these claims, they can result in the diversion of technical and management personnel or require us to obtain non-infringing technology or enter into license agreements for the technology on which we depend. There can be no assurance that such non-infringing technology or licenses will be available on acceptable terms and conditions, if at all.
International Operations Risks
Our international operations expose us to numerous risks.
We have expanded our network into 54 countries worldwide on every continent other than Antarctica. We continue to explore expansion opportunities. We have experienced difficulties, ranging from lack of dark fiber, to regulatory issues, to slower revenue growth rates from our operations in these markets. If we are not successful in developing our market presence in these regions, our operating results and revenue growth could be adversely impacted.
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Our international operations involve a number of risks, including:
● difficulties in staffing and managing our foreign operations;
● changes in political and economic conditions; and
● exposure to additional and potentially adverse tax regimes.
As we continue to expand into other countries, our success will depend, in part, on our ability to anticipate and effectively manage these and other risks. Our failure to manage these risks and grow our operations outside the United States may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Litigation Risks
As an Internet service provider, we may incur liabilities for the content disseminated through our network or for network failures, delays or errors in transmissions.
The law relating to the liabilities of ISPs for information carried on or disseminated through their networks is unsettled. As the law in this area develops and as we expand our international operations, the potential imposition of liabilities upon us for the behavior of our customers or the information carried on and disseminated through our network could require us to implement measures to reduce our exposure to such liabilities, which may require the expenditure of substantial resources or the discontinuation of certain products or service offerings. Any costs that are incurred as a result of such measures or the imposition of liabilities could have a material adverse effect on our business.
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Regulatory Risks
Existing and proposed privacy regulations may impact our business.
Many countries in which we operate, including the United States, are considering adopting, or have already adopted, privacy regulations, laws, rules or industry standards that that apply generally to the handling of information about individuals. The primary impact of these rules is on businesses that collect personal information about consumer users of their services. While we do not provide services to individual consumers, we receive, store, handle, transmit, use and otherwise process business information and information related to our employees, representatives of our business customers and service providers. This collection of business information and the personal information of our employees subjects us to a number of privacy regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) in the European Union. These regulations, among other things, require us to make certain disclosures about our privacy policies, limit our ability to process, retain and transfer such information and provide employees with certain rights in relation to the information we collect about them. We also transmit data across the Internet, which data may include personal information collected by our customers. As the applicability of privacy regulations to the types of services we provide remains unsettled, we may be required to adopt additional measures in the future.
Privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act in California vary in scope and in the obligations they impose on us. As new laws are implemented or existing structures are declared insufficient, we may find it difficult to comply with such regulations or find it costly to do so. Moreover, for our customers who collect personal information, increased regulation of the collection, processing and use of personal data may impact their business and their use of services in unknown ways. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with data privacy laws, rules, regulations, industry standards and other requirements could result in proceedings or actions against us by individuals, consumer rights groups, government agencies, or others. If any of these events were to occur, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
Changes in laws, rules, and enforcement could adversely affect us.
We are not subject to substantial regulation by the FCC or the state public utilities commissions in the United States. Internet service is also subject to minimal regulation in Western Europe and in Canada. Elsewhere the regulation is greater, though not as extensive as the regulation for providers of voice services. However, governmental authorities may decide to impose additional regulation and taxes upon providers of Internet access and private network services. In addition, the recent acquisition of the Sprint Business has made us subject to additional or duplicate regulatory obligations, particularly in the countries where the Sprint Business has subsidiaries and related to the Sprint Business. All of these matters could inhibit our ability to remain a low-cost carrier and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and our results of operations.
As with the privacy laws described earlier, much of the law related to the liability of Internet service providers for content on the network and the behavior of our customers and their end users remains unsettled. Some jurisdictions have laws, regulations, or court decisions that impose obligations upon ISPs to restrict access to certain content. Other legal issues, such as the sharing of copyrighted information, data protection, trans-border data flow, unsolicited commercial email (“spam”), universal service, and liability for software viruses could become subjects of additional legislation and legal development and changes in enforcement policies. We cannot predict the impact of these changes on us. They could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and our results of operations.
Changes in laws, rules and enforcement may also adversely affect our customers. For example, a possible repeal or curtailing of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in the United States could have an adverse impact on our customers and, consequently, on us. While our top 25 customers represented approximately 15.2% of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023, several large net-centric customers are or may be the subject of increased regulatory scrutiny, which may impact their businesses and, consequently, their use of our services in unknown ways.
We may be required to censor content on the Internet, which we may find difficult to do and which may impact our ability to provide our services in some countries as well as impact the growth of Internet usage, upon which we depend.
Some governments attempt to limit access to certain content on the Internet. It is impossible for us to filter all content that flows across the Internet connections we provide. For example, some content is encrypted when a secure website is accessed. It is difficult to limit access to websites by blocking a fixed set of Internet addresses when the website operators engage in practices that make it difficult to block them. Should any government require us to perform these types of blocking procedures we could experience
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difficulties ranging from incurring additional expenses to ceasing to provide service in that country. We could also be subject to penalties if we fail to implement the censorship.
Tax Risks
Governments may assert that we are liable for taxes which we have not collected from our customers or paid to our vendors, and we may have to begin collecting a multitude of taxes if Internet services become subject to taxation similar to the taxation of telephone service.
In the United States, Internet services are generally not subject to taxes. Consequently, in the United States we collect few taxes from our customers even though most telecommunications services are subject to numerous taxes. Various local jurisdictions have asserted or may assert that some of our operations or services should be subject to local taxes. If such jurisdictions assess taxes on prior years we may be subject to a liability for unpaid taxes that we may be unable to collect from our customers or former customers. If the taxation of Internet service is expanded, we will need to collect those taxes from our customers. The process of implementing a system to properly bill and collect such taxes may require significant resources. In addition, the FCC is considering changes to its Universal Services Fund that could result in its application to Internet services. This too would require that we expend resources to collect this tax. Finally, the cumulative effect of these taxes levied on Internet services could discourage potential customers from using Internet services to replace traditional telecommunication services and negatively impact our ability to grow our business.
Our private network services, such as our VPN services, are subject to taxes and fees in various jurisdictions including the Universal Service Contribution tax in the US. We believe we collect all required taxes; however, a jurisdiction may assert we have failed to collect certain taxes. The expense of paying any unpaid taxes could be substantial and we might not be able to collect such back taxes from our customers.
We are subject to value-added taxes and other taxes in many jurisdictions outside of the United States. We are also subject to audit of our tax compliance in numerous jurisdictions. These may result in the assessment of amounts due that are material and therefore would have an adverse effect on us.
The utilization of certain of our net operating loss carryforwards is limited and depending upon the amount of our taxable income we may be subject to paying income taxes earlier than planned.
Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code in the United States limits the utilization of net operating losses when ownership changes, as defined by that section, occur. We have performed an analysis of our Section 382 ownership changes and have determined that the utilization of certain of our net operating loss carryforwards in the United States is limited. Further, recent changes to the tax law in the United States and changes to tax laws in other jurisdictions in which we operate may impact our utilization of our net operating losses.
Risk Factors Related to Our Indebtedness
We have substantial debt which we may not be able to repay when due.
Our total indebtedness, at par, at December 31, 2023 was $1.5 billion and includes $500.0 million of our 3.50% senior secured notes due in May 2026 (“2026 Notes”) and $450.0 million of our 7.00% senior unsecured notes due in June 2027 (“2027 Notes”). Our 2026 Notes require annual interest payments of $17.5 million per year and our 2027 Notes require interest payments of $31.5 million per year, each paid semi-annually. All of our noteholders have the right to be paid the principal upon default and upon certain designated events, such as certain changes of control. Our total indebtedness at December 31, 2023 included $484.5 million of finance lease obligations for dark fiber primarily under 15 to 43 year IRUs. Our total indebtedness at December 31, 2023 excludes $398.1 million of operating lease liabilities which were required to be recorded as right-to-use assets and operating lease liabilities. The amount of our IRU finance lease obligations may be impacted due to our expansion activities, the timing of payments and fluctuations in foreign currency rates. We may not have sufficient funds to pay the interest and principal related to these obligations at the time we are obligated to do so, which could result in bankruptcy, or we may only be able to raise the necessary funds on unfavorable terms.
We have assumed the risk associated with variable interest rates under our interest rate swap agreement.
We are party to an interest rate swap agreement (the “Swap Agreement”) that has the economic effect of modifying the fixed interest rate obligation associated with our 2026 Notes to a variable interest rate obligation based on the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) so that the interest payable on the 2026 Notes effectively became variable based on overnight SOFR. The critical
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terms of the Swap Agreement match the terms of the 2026 Notes, including the notional amount and the optional redemption date on February 1, 2026. Under the Swap Agreement, we pay the counterparty a semi-annual payment based upon overnight SOFR plus a contractual interest rate spread, and the counterparty pays us a semi-annual fixed 3.50% interest payment. The settlement payment is made each November and May until the Swap Agreement expires in February 2026. By entering into the Swap Agreement, we have assumed the risk associated with variable interest rates. Changes in interest rates affect the valuation of the Swap Agreement that we recognize in our consolidated statements of comprehensive income.
Our substantial level of indebtedness could adversely affect our financial condition and prevent us from fulfilling our obligations under our notes and our other indebtedness.
We have substantial indebtedness. Our substantial debt may have important consequences. For instance, it could:
Our ability to satisfy our obligations including our debt depends on our future operating performance and on economic, financial, competitive and other factors, many of which are beyond our control. Our business may not generate sufficient cash flow, and future financings may not be available to provide sufficient net proceeds, to meet these obligations or to successfully execute our business strategy.
Despite our leverage we may still be able to incur more debt. This could further exacerbate the risks that we and our subsidiaries face.
We and our subsidiaries may incur additional indebtedness, including additional secured indebtedness, in the future. The terms of our debt indentures restrict, but do not completely prohibit, us from doing so. In addition, the indentures allow us to issue additional notes and other indebtedness secured by the collateral under certain circumstances. Moreover, we are not prevented from incurring other liabilities that do not constitute indebtedness as defined in the indentures, including additional operating leases obligations and finance lease obligations in the form of IRUs. These liabilities may represent claims that are effectively prior to the claims of our note holders. If new debt or other liabilities are added to our debt levels, the related risks that we and our subsidiaries now face could intensify.
The agreements governing our various debt obligations impose restrictions on our business and could adversely affect our ability to undertake certain corporate actions.
The agreements governing our various debt obligations include covenants imposing significant restrictions on our business. These restrictions may affect our ability to operate our business and may limit our ability to take advantage of potential business opportunities as they arise. These covenants place restrictions on our ability to, among other things:
● incur additional debt;
● create liens;
● make certain investments;
● enter into certain transactions with affiliates;
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● consolidate, merge or transfer or sell all or substantially all of our assets.
Our ability to comply with these agreements may be affected by events beyond our control, including prevailing economic, financial and industry conditions. These covenants could have an adverse effect on our business by limiting our ability to take advantage of financing, merger and acquisition or other corporate opportunities. The breach of any of these covenants or restrictions could result in a default under the agreements governing our debt obligations.
To service our indebtedness, we will require a significant amount of cash. However, our ability to generate cash depends on many factors, many of which are beyond our control.
Our ability to make payments on and to refinance our indebtedness and to fund planned capital expenditures will depend on our ability to generate cash in the future, which, in turn, is subject to general economic, financial, competitive, regulatory and other factors, many of which are beyond our control.
Our business may not generate sufficient cash flow from operations, and we may not have available to us future borrowings in an amount sufficient to enable us to pay our indebtedness or to fund our other liquidity needs. In these circumstances, we may need to refinance all or a portion of our indebtedness on or before maturity. We may not be able to refinance any of our indebtedness on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Without this financing, we could be forced to sell assets or secure additional financing to make up for any shortfall in our payment obligations under unfavorable circumstances. However, we may not be able to secure additional financing on terms favorable to us or at all and, in addition, the terms of the indentures governing our notes limit our ability to sell assets and also restrict the use of proceeds from such a sale. We may not be able to sell assets quickly enough or for sufficient amounts to enable us to meet our obligations, including our obligations under our notes.
We maintain our cash and cash equivalents at financial institutions in amounts in excess of insured limits.
The Company maintains the majority of its cash and cash equivalents in accounts with U.S. and multi-national financial institutions, and our deposits at certain of these institutions, including the counterparty to our Swap Agreement, exceed insured limits. Market conditions can affect the viability of these institutions. In the event of failure of any of the financial institutions where we maintain our cash and cash equivalents, there can be no assurance that we would be able to access uninsured funds in a timely manner or at all. Any inability to access or delay in accessing these funds could adversely affect our business and financial position.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.
ITEM 1C. CYBERSECURITY
We have developed and implemented a cybersecurity risk management program intended to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our critical systems and information. We design and assess our program based on the Center for Internet Security (CIS) control objectives and benchmarks. This does not imply that we meet any particular technical standards, specifications, or requirements, only that we use the CIS objectives and benchmarks as a guide to help us identify, assess, and manage cybersecurity risks relevant to our business.
Our cybersecurity risk management program is integrated into our overall enterprise risk management program, and shares common methodologies, reporting channels and governance processes that apply across the enterprise risk management program to other legal, compliance, strategic, operational, and financial risk areas.
Key elements of our cybersecurity risk management program include, but are not limited to, the following:
o cybersecurity awareness training and communications for employees;
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We have not identified risks from known cybersecurity threats, including as a result of any prior cybersecurity incidents, that have materially affected us, including our operations, business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition. We face risks from cybersecurity threats that, if realized, are reasonably likely to materially affect us, including our operations, business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition. See “Risk Factors – Our network may be the target of potential cyber-attacks and other security breaches that could have significant negative consequences.”
The Audit Committee of our Board of Directors is tasked with oversight of the Company network and data security efforts and is responsible for the Company’s policies and practices with respect to cybersecurity and enterprise risk management. We have a dedicated Cybersecurity Engineer in our Information Technology department who reports directly to the CIO. Our Cybersecurity Engineer is primarily responsible for continuously evaluating our security efforts and coordinating with our CIO and other management employees as necessary. The CIO meets with our Audit Committee regularly to update the Audit Committee on any new or identified cybersecurity threats, the Company’s cybersecurity efforts and plans for the upcoming quarters. Our Audit Committee also meets regularly with senior management, including our CIO, to receive updates and about the Company’s cybersecurity initiatives.
Our CEO regularly meets with our CIO to discuss, in part, any significant cybersecurity issues. In addition to the CIO, our Cybersecurity Engineer and the Information Technology team are responsible for the day to day monitoring of the cybersecurity landscape, the Company’s monitoring and response processes and training of Company employees. The Chief Legal Officer, Vice President of Network Strategy and VP of Network Engineering may also be involved, as necessary.
Our CIO’s experience includes over twenty years of experience in risk management and compliance, incident response, crisis management and security architecture and technology integration. Our Cybersecurity Engineer is a certified information systems security professional by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium, and his experience includes cybersecurity architecture, engineering and administration together with the development of cybersecurity policies, practices and training.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
As part of the acquisition of the Sprint Business, we acquired a portfolio of owned properties totaling approximately 1.9 million square feet. The properties are made up of technical facilities in the United States, including core switch facilities, PoP sites, regeneration and fiber pass through locations as well as warehouse buildings that support the acquired Sprint Network. The largest 45 properties, which are in the process of being evaluated and/or converted to commercial data centers, range in size from 5,000 to 110,000 square feet and total approximately 1.3 million square feet and are in the process of being evaluated and converted to commercial data centers. We also own two data centers in Paris, France and Grenoble, France.
We lease space for offices, data centers, colocation facilities, and points-of-presence. We lease a total of approximately 1.1 million square feet of space for our data centers, offices and operations centers. Certain of these leases are with entities controlled by our Chief Executive Officer.
We believe that our facilities, both owned and leased are generally in good condition. Our leased properties and the vast majority of our owned properties are generally suitable for our operations, and we are in the process of repurposing any owned properties as necessary.
Our headquarters facility consists of 43,117 square feet located in Washington, D.C. The lease for our headquarters is with an entity controlled by our Chief Executive Officer and expires in May 2025. The lease may be cancelled by us upon 60 days’ notice.
On January 6, 2023, we entered into two lease agreements (the “New Leases”), one with Thorium LLC ('Thorium") and one with Germanium LLC (“Germanium”), entities owned by our Chief Executive Officer, David Schaeffer. The first of the New Leases is with Thorium for approximately 54,803 square feet of office space, which serves as office space replacing a portion of its office space in the Northern Virginia area (“Office Lease”). The second of the New Leases is with Germanium LLC for approximately 1,587 square feet of technical space which serves as network operations space (“Network Operations Lease”). The term for each of the New Leases is five years beginning on April 1, 2023. Both of the New Leases are cancellable by us without penalty upon 60 days written
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notice. We took occupancy of the office space and network operations space in April 2023. We are responsible for paying our proportionate share of the building’s operating expenses that exceed a 2023 base year and we are also responsible for paying our metered utility costs and a proportionate share of the building’s other operating expenses that exceed a 2023 base year.
On July 25, 2023 we entered into a Second Amendment to the lease agreement (the “Amendment”), with Germanium which amends the Network Operations Lease to lease an additional 7,369 square feet on the first floor of the building, beginning on August 1, 2023, in connection with the planned expansion of the technical space. This includes 4,987 square feet for an auditorium suitable for training and 2,382 square feet for the data center in the building. The amended Network Operations Lease remains cancellable by us without penalty upon 60 days written notice. We are responsible for paying a proportionate share of real estate taxes and operating expenses and separately metered utilities expense.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
We are involved in legal proceedings in the ordinary course of our business that we do not expect to have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. For a discussion of the significant proceedings in which we are involved, see Note 6 to our consolidated financial statements.
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not applicable.
PART II
Our sole class of common equity is our common stock, par value $0.001, which is currently traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “CCOI.” Prior to March 6, 2006, our common stock traded on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol “COI.” Prior to February 5, 2002, no established public trading market for our common stock existed.
As of February 1, 2024, there were 112 holders of record of shares of our common stock holding 47,425,367 shares of our common stock.
Performance Graph
Our common stock currently trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market. The chart below compares the relative changes in the cumulative total return of our common stock for the period from December 31, 2018 to December 31, 2023, against the cumulative total return for the same period of the (1) The Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) Index and (2) the NASDAQ Telecommunications Index. The comparison below assumes $100 was invested on December 31, 2018 in our common stock, the S&P 500 Index and the NASDAQ Telecommunications Index, with dividends, if any, reinvested.
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The stock price performance included in this graph is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Our Board of Directors authorized a plan to permit the repurchase of up to $50.0 million of our common stock in negotiated and open market transactions through December 31, 2024. As of December 31, 2023, $30.4 million remained available for such negotiated and open market transactions concerning our common stock. We may purchase shares from time to time depending on market, economic, and other factors. We did not purchase shares of our common stock during the year ended December 31, 2023.
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You should read the following discussion and analysis together with our consolidated financial statements and related notes included in this report. The discussion in this report contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements of our plans, objectives, expectations and intentions. The cautionary statements made in this report should be read as applying to all related forward-looking statements wherever they appear in this report. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include those discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” as well as those discussed elsewhere. You should read “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed here. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include, but are not limited to:
Our acquisition of Sprint Communications (as defined below), including difficulties integrating our business with the Sprint Business, which may result in the combined company not operating as effectively and efficiently as expected; transition services required to support the Sprint Business and the related costs continuing for a period longer than expected, the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying government policies worldwide; vaccination and in-office requirements, delays in the delivery of network equipment or optical fiber, loss of key right-of-way agreements, future economic instability in the global economy, including the risk of economic recession and recent bank failures and liquidity concerns at certain other banks, which could affect spending on Internet services; the impact of changing foreign exchange rates (in particular the Euro to US dollar and Canadian dollar to US dollar exchange rates) on the translation of our non-US dollar denominated revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities into US dollars; legal and operational difficulties in new markets; the imposition of a requirement that we contribute to the US Universal Service Fund on the basis of our Internet revenue; changes in government policy and/or regulation, including rules regarding data protection, cyber security and net neutrality; increasing competition leading to lower prices for our services; our ability to attract new customers and to increase and maintain the volume of traffic on our network; the ability to maintain our Internet peering and right-of-way arrangements on favorable terms; our ability to renew our long-term leases of optical fiber and right-of-way agreements that comprise our network; our reliance on a limited number of equipment vendors, and the potential for hardware or software problems associated with such equipment; the dependence of our network on the quality and dependability of third-party fiber and right-of-way providers; our ability to retain certain customers that comprise a significant portion of our revenue base; the management of network failures and/or disruptions; our ability to make payments on our indebtedness as they become due and outcomes in litigation, risks associated with variable interest rates under our Swap Agreement as well as other risks discussed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.
Acquisition of Sprint Communications
On May 1, 2023 (the “Closing Date”), Cogent Infrastructure, Inc., a Delaware corporation and our direct wholly owned subsidiary, closed on its acquisition of the U.S. long-haul fiber network (including the non-U.S. extensions thereof) of Sprint Communications and its Subsidiaries (the “Sprint Business”) in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Membership Interest Purchase Agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”), dated September 6, 2022, by and among us, Sprint Communications LLC, a Kansas limited liability company (“Sprint Communications”) and an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of T-Mobile US, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“T-Mobile”), and Sprint LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of T-Mobile (the “Seller”). On the Closing Date, we purchased from the Seller all of the issued and outstanding membership interests (the “Purchased Interests”) of Wireline Network Holdings LLC, a Delaware limited liability company that, following an internal restructuring and divisive merger, holds Sprint Communications’ assets and liabilities relating to the Sprint Business (such transactions contemplated by the Purchase Agreement, collectively, the “Transaction”).
Purchase Price
The Transaction closed on May 1, 2023 (the “Closing Date”). On the Closing Date, we consummated the Transaction pursuant to the terms of the Purchase Agreement, providing a purchase price of $1 payable to the Seller for the Purchased Interests, subject to customary adjustments, including working capital (the “Working Capital Adjustment”), as set forth in the Purchase Agreement. As consideration for the Purchased Interests, the Working Capital Adjustment (primarily related to acquired cash and cash equivalents of an estimated $43.4 million at the Closing Date in order to fund the international operations of the Sprint Business) was $66.1 million, of which $61.1 million was paid to the Seller on the Closing Date. During the third quarter of 2023, an additional Working Capital Adjustment of $5.0 million was accrued due to the Seller.
The Purchase Agreement also includes an estimated payment of $52.3 million as of December 31, 2023, from Seller to Buyer related to acquired short-term lease obligations (the “Short-term Lease Payment”). The Short-term Lease Payment will be paid from the Seller to the Company in four equal payments in months 55 to 58 after the Closing Date. The Short-term Lease Payment was
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recorded at its present value resulting in a discount of $15.6 million. The interest rate used in determining the present value was derived considering rates on similar issued debt instruments with comparable durations, amongst other market factors. The determination of the discount rate requires some judgment. The amortization of the discount resulted in interest income of $26.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. The Seller is disputing approximately $24.2 million of the Short-term Lease Payment amount. The Purchase Agreement also includes reimbursement from Seller to Buyer for qualifying severance expenses incurred, which were $16.2 million in 2023. A final determination of the Working Capital Adjustment and the Short-term Lease Payment is expected by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
IP Transit Services Agreement
On the Closing Date, Cogent Communications, Inc. and T-Mobile USA, Inc., a Delaware corporation and direct subsidiary of T-Mobile (“TMUSA”), entered into an agreement for IP transit services (“IP Transit Services Agreement”), pursuant to which TMUSA will pay us an aggregate of $700.0 million, consisting of (i) $350.0 million in equal monthly installments of $29.2 million per month during the first year after the Closing Date and (ii) $350.0 million in equal monthly installments of $8.3 million per month over the subsequent 42 months. We concluded that the $700.0 million cash consideration was not separately identifiable from the business combination. As a result, the IP Transit Services Agreement was recorded in connection with the Transaction. During the year ended December 31, 2023, TMUSA paid us $204.2 million under the IP Transit Agreement.
Transition Services Agreement
On the Closing Date, we entered into a transition services agreement (the “TSA”) with the Seller, pursuant to which the Seller will provide to us, and we will provide to the Seller on an interim basis following the Closing Date, certain specified services (the “Transition Services”) to ensure an orderly transition following the separation of the Sprint Business from Sprint Communications. The services to be provided by the Seller to us include, among others, information technology support, back office and finance, real estate and facilities, vendor and supply chain management including payments to vendors of the Sprint Business for us reimbursed at cost and human resources. The services to be provided by us to the Seller include, among others, information technology and network support, finance and back office and other wireless business support.
The Transition Services are generally intended to be provided for a period of up to two years following the Closing Date, although such period may be extended for an additional one-year term by either party upon 30 days’ prior written notice. The fees for the Transition Services are calculated using either a per service monthly fee or an hourly rate for the employees allocated to provide such services. Any third-party costs incurred in providing the Transition Services are passed on to the party receiving such services at cost for the two-year period.
Either party to the TSA may terminate the agreement (i) with respect to any individual service in full for convenience upon 30 days’ prior written notice for certain services and reduced for other services after a 90-day period. The TSA may be terminated in its entirety if the other party has failed to perform any of its material obligations and such failure is not cured within 30 days. The TSA provides for customary indemnification and limits on liability. During the year ended December 31, 2023, we were billed $284.1 million under the TSA primarily for reimbursement at cost of payment to vendors of the Sprint Business. During the year ended December 31, 2023 we paid $217.2 million to the Seller under the TSA. Amounts billed under the TSA are due 30 days from receipt of the related invoice. As of December 31, 2023, we owed $66.9 million to the Seller and the Seller owed $4.5 million to us under the TSA. The amounts due from the Seller are primarily reimbursements for severance costs related to Sprint Business employees and services provided by us for the Seller.
Other Services Provided to Seller
In addition, on the Closing Date, we entered into a commercial agreement with TMUSA (“Commercial Agreement”) for colocation and connectivity services, pursuant to which we will provide such services to TMUSA for a per service monthly fee plus certain third-party costs incurred in providing the services. During the year ended December 31, 2023 we recorded $23.9 million from TMUSA under the Commercial Agreement. As of December 31, 2023, TMUSA owed $1.6 million to us under the Commercial Agreement.
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Results of Operations
Year Ended December 31, 2023 Compared to the Year Ended December 31, 2022
In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022. For a discussion of the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021, please refer to Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022.
Our management reviews and analyzes several key financial measures in order to manage our business and assess the quality and variability of our service revenue, operating results and cash flows. The following summary tables present a comparison of our results of operations with respect to certain key financial measures. The comparisons illustrated in the tables are discussed in greater detail below.
Year Ended
December 31, Percent
(in thousands)
Non-core revenues 28,840 673 NM
Acquisition costs - Sprint Business 18,492 2,248 722.6 %
Gain on foreign exchange - 2024 Notes — 31,561 NM
Loss on debt extinguishment and redemption – 2024 Notes — 11,885 NM
Gain on bargain purchase – Sprint Business 1,406,435 — NM
Interest income – IP Transit Services Agreement 26,796 — NM
Income tax benefit (expense) 53,964 (21,230) NM
NM - not meaningful
Year Ended
December 31, Percent
Other Operating Data
Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU)
Average price per megabit $ 0.27 $ 0.28 (3.6) %
Customer Connections—end of period
NM - not meaningful
Service Revenue. We continually work to grow our total service revenue by increasing the number of potential customers that we can reach on our network. We do this by investing capital to expand the geographic footprint of our network, increasing the number of buildings that we are connected to, including CNDC’s and MTOB’s, and increasing our penetration rate into our existing buildings.
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These efforts broaden the global reach of our network and increase the size of our potential addressable market. We also seek to grow our service revenue by investing in our sales and marketing team. We typically sell corporate connections at similar pricing to our competitors, but our customers benefit from our significantly faster speeds, greater aggregate throughput, enhanced service level agreements and rapid installation times. In the net-centric market, we offer comparable services in terms of capacity but typically at significantly lower prices.
Our service revenue increased by 56.9% from the year ended December 31, 2022 to the year ended December 31, 2023. In connection with our acquisition of the Sprint Business, on the Closing Date, we acquired $39.4 million of monthly Sprint Business revenue. In November 2023, we fully integrated billing for the acquired Sprint Business customer contracts into our billing platform. Exchange rates positively affected our increase in service revenue by $2.1 million. All foreign currency comparisons herein reflect results for the year ended December 31, 2023 translated at the average foreign currency exchange rates for the year ended December 31, 2022. We increased our total service revenue by our acquisition of the Sprint Business, expanding our network, adding additional buildings to our network, increasing our penetration into the buildings connected to our network and gaining market share by offering our services at lower prices than our competitors.
Revenue recognition standards include guidance relating to any tax assessed by a governmental authority that is directly imposed on a revenue-producing transaction between a seller and a customer and may include, but is not limited to, gross receipts taxes, Universal Service Fund fees and certain state regulatory fees. We record these taxes billed to our customers on a gross basis (as service revenue and network operations expense) in our consolidated statements of comprehensive income. The impact of these taxes including the Universal Service Fund resulted in an increase to our revenues of $34.8 million from the year ended December 31, 2022 to the year ended December 31, 2023.
Revenue and customer connections by customer type
In connection with our acquisition of the Sprint Business, on the Closing Date, we classified $39.4 million of monthly Sprint Business revenue as $20.0 million of enterprise revenue, $12.9 million of corporate revenue and $6.5 million of net-centric revenue.
Our corporate customers generally purchase their services on a price per connection basis. Our net-centric customers generally purchase their services on a price per megabit-metered basis. We began to serve enterprise customers in connection with our acquisition of the Sprint Business. We define “enterprise” customers as large corporations (typically, Fortune 500 companies with greater than $5 billion in annual revenue) running Wide Area Networks (“WAN”) with several dozen to several hundred sites. Our enterprise customers generally purchase our services on a price per location basis. Revenues from our corporate, net-centric customers and enterprise customers represented 47.2%, 36.5% and 16.3% of total service revenue, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2023. Revenues from our corporate and net-centric customers represented 57.1% and 42.9% of total service revenue, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2022. Revenues from corporate customers increased by 29.5% to $443.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022. Revenues from our net-centric customers increased by 33.7% to $343.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the year ended December 31, 2022. Revenues from our enterprise customers were $153.6 million, from May 1, 2023 (the Closing Date) to December 31, 2023. Certain of our historical corporate and net-centric customers (in total approximately 400 customers representing approximately $0.3 million in monthly recurring revenue) have been reclassified from our legacy net-centric and corporate revenue and customer connections to enterprise revenue and customer connections. Certain of the customer connections we acquired in the Sprint Business were classified as corporate and net-centric revenue and customer connections. We acquired a total of 46,743 customer connections with the Sprint Business that we classified as 17,823 corporate customer connections, 5,711 net-centric customer connections and 23,209 enterprise customer connections.
Our revenue from our corporate customers increased primarily due to an increase in our number of corporate customers and from corporate customer connections acquired with the Sprint Business. Our corporate customers take advantage of our superior speeds, greater aggregate throughput, service levels and installation times versus our competitors. The growing trend of customers installing second lines for redundancy in order to construct virtual private networks (“VPNs”) has also led to our ability to increase our corporate revenues. Beginning with and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we witnessed a deteriorating real estate market in and around the buildings we service in central business districts in North America. Because of the rising vacancy levels and falling lease initiations or renewals, we experienced a slowdown in new sales to our corporate customers, which negatively affected our corporate revenue results. During the year ended December 31, 2023, we slowly began to see declining vacancy rates and rising office occupancy rates. In addition, we began to see positive trends in our corporate business. As the option to fully or partially work from home becomes permanently established at many companies, our corporate customers are integrating some of the new applications that became part of the remote work environment, which benefits our corporate business as these customers upgrade their Internet access infrastructure to higher capacity connections and mitigates the overall impact of remote work policies on our corporate business.
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Further, if and when companies eventually return to the buildings in which we operate, we believe it will present an opportunity for increased sales. However, the exact timing and path of these positive trends remains uncertain, and as the after effects of the COVID-19 pandemic linger, we may continue to see increased corporate customer turnover, fewer upgrades of existing corporate customer configurations and fewer new tenant opportunities, which would negatively affect our corporate revenue growth.
Our revenue from our net-centric customers increased primarily due to an increase in our number of net-centric customers and growth in network traffic from these customers and from net-centric customer connections acquired with the Sprint Business. Our net-centric customers purchase our services on a price per megabit basis. The net-centric market exhibits significant pricing pressure due to the continued introduction of new technology, which lowers the marginal cost of transmission and routing, and the commodity nature of the service where price is typically the only differentiating factor for these customers. Our average price per megabit of our installed base of customers decreased by 3.6% from the year ended December 31, 2022 to the year ended December 31, 2023. The impact of foreign exchange rates has a more significant impact on our net-centric revenues.
Revenue and customer connections by network connection type
In connection with our acquisition of the Sprint Business, on the Closing Date, we classified $39.4 million of monthly Sprint Business revenue as $2.5 million of on-net revenue, $32.2 million of off-net revenue and $4.7 million of non-core revenue. Additionally, in connection with our acquisition of the Sprint Business, on the Closing Date, we classified 46,743 of Sprint Business customer connections as 1,560 on-net customer connections, 24,667 off-net customer connections and 20,516 non-core customer connections.
Our on-net revenues increased by 14.5% from the year ended December 31, 2022 to the year ended December 31, 2023. Our on-net revenues increased as we increased the number of our on-net customer connections by 7.4% at December 31, 2023 from December 31, 2022. On-net customer revenues increased at a greater rate than on-net customer connections due to an increase in our on-net ARPU from the year ended December 31, 2022 to the year ended December 31, 2023 and from on-net revenue acquired with the Sprint Business. On-net ARPU is determined by dividing on-net revenue for the period by the average on-net customer connections for that period. In connection with our acquisition of the Sprint Business, we expanded our offering of optical wavelength and optical transport services over our fiber network, classified as on-net revenue.
Our off-net revenues increased by 169.2% from the year ended December 31, 2022 to the year ended December 31, 2023. Our off-net revenues increased primarily from the increase in the number of our off-net customer connections from December 31, 2022 to December 31, 2023 including off-net customer connections acquired with the Sprint Business. Off-net customer revenues increased at a greater rate than off-net customer connections primarily due to an increase in our off-net ARPU from the year ended December 31, 2022 to the year ended December 31, 2023. Off-net ARPU is determined by dividing off-net revenue for the period by the average off-net customer connections for that period.
Our non-core revenues increased from the year ended December 31, 2022 to the year ended December 31, 2023 from the acquisition of non-core revenues from customers acquired in the Sprint Business.
Network Operations Expenses. Network operations expenses include the costs of personnel associated with service delivery, network management and customer support, network facilities costs, right-of-way fees, fiber and equipment maintenance fees, leased circuit costs, access and facilities fees paid to building owners and excise taxes billed to our customers and recorded on a gross basis. Our network operations expenses, including non-cash equity-based compensation expense, increased by 138.5% from the year ended December 31, 2022 to the year ended December 31, 2023. Non-cash equity-based compensation expense is included in network operations expenses consistent with the classification of the employee’s salary and other compensation. The increase in network operations expense is primarily attributable to an increase in costs related to our acquisition of the Sprint Business primarily leased circuits to provide off-net revenue services, network right-of-way costs and facilities costs.
Selling, General, and Administrative (“SG&A”) Expenses. Our SG&A expenses, including non-cash equity-based compensation expense, increased by 68.9% from the year ended December 31, 2022 to the year ended December 31, 2023. Non-cash equity-based compensation expense is included in SG&A expenses consistent with the classification of the employee’s salary and other compensation. SG&A expenses increased primarily from an increase in salaries and benefits from an 80.9% increase in our total headcount, including 942 employees added to our headcount from our acquisition of the Sprint Business on the Closing Date. Our sales force headcount, inclusive of sales management, was 847 at December 31, 2023 and 698 at December 31, 2022, and our total headcount was 1,947 at December 31, 2023 and 1,076 at December 31, 2022. The Sprint Business added 114 employees to our sales force headcount on the Closing Date.
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Acquisition-Related Costs
In connection with the Transaction and negotiation of the Purchase Agreement, we incurred professional fees and $16.2 million of reimbursed severance costs, in the year ended December 31, 2023, with such professional fees and reimbursed severance costs totaling $18.5 million and $2.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
Depreciation and Amortization Expenses. Our depreciation and amortization expense increased by 151.8% from the year ended December 31, 2022 to the year ended December 31, 2023. The increase is primarily due to the depreciation expense associated with the increase in deployed fixed assets and depreciation and amortization expense from assets, including a finance lease totaling $160.9 million being amortized over forty-four months, acquired with the Sprint Business.
Gain on Bargain Purchase
We accounted for our acquisition of the Sprint Business as a business combination. The identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed were recorded at their fair values as of the acquisition date. Assigning fair market values to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed at the date of an acquisition requires the use of significant judgment regarding estimates and assumptions. The fair value of the identifiable assets acquired was $1.9 billion (including amounts due under the IP Transit Services Agreement) and was in excess of the $0.9 billion liabilities assumed and the $0.6 billion net consideration to be received from the Seller resulting in a gain on bargain purchase of $1.4 billion.
Interest Income - IP Transit Services Agreement
On the Closing Date, we entered into the IP Transit Services Agreement with TMUSA, pursuant to which TMUSA will pay us an aggregate of $700.0 million, consisting of (i) $350.0 million in equal monthly installments during the first year after the Closing Date and (ii) $350.0 million in equal monthly installments over the subsequent 42 months.
We accounted for the Transaction as a business combination under ASC Topic 805 Business Combinations (“ASC 805”). Under ASC 805, we concluded that the $700.0 million of payments to be made represent consideration received to complete the acquisition of a distressed business. We also evaluated whether the IP Transit Services Agreement was in the scope of ASU No. 2014-09 Revenue from Contracts with Customers (“ASC 606”). We concluded that TMUSA did not represent a “customer” as defined by ASC 606, the stated contract price did not represent consideration for services to be delivered, and the transaction did not satisfy the definition of revenue, which excluded this arrangement from the scope of ASC 606. As a result, the IP Transit Services Agreement was recorded in connection with the Transaction at its discounted present value resulting in a discount of $79.6 million. The amortization of the discount resulted in interest income of $26.8 million from May 1, 2023 (the Closing Date) to December 31, 2023.
Foreign Exchange Gain 2024 Notes. Our 2024 Notes were issued in Euros and were reported in our reporting currency – US Dollars until they were fully extinguished in June 2022. The gain on foreign exchange on our 2024 Notes from converting our 2024 Notes into USD was $31.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2022.
Interest Expense and Loss on Debt Extinguishment and Redemption. Our interest expense resulted from interest incurred on our 2024 Notes until these notes were fully extinguished in June 2022, interest incurred on our $500.0 million aggregate principal amount of our 2026 Notes, interest incurred on our $450.0 million aggregate principal amount of our 2027 Notes and interest incurred on our finance lease obligations. Our interest expense increased by 58.0% from the year ended December 31, 2022 to the year ended December 31, 2023. The increase was primarily due to the increase in interest rates on our 2027 Notes as compared to the 2024 Notes, $21.5 million of interest expense paid in May 2023 and November 2023 associated with our Swap Agreement and the impact of the finance lease acquired with the Sprint Business. Our finance leases include a lease totaling $160.9 million being amortized over forty-four months, acquired with the Sprint Business. In June 2022, we extinguished our 2024 Notes at 101.094% of par value resulting in a loss on debt extinguishment and redemption of $11.9 million.
Change in Valuation - Interest Rate Swap Agreement. As of December 31, 2023, the fair value of our Swap Agreement was a net liability of $38.7 million. We recorded an unrealized gain for the non-cash change in the valuation of the Swap Agreement of $13.4 million in the year ended December 31, 2023 and an unrealized loss of $43.1 million in the year ended December 31, 2022.
Under the Swap Agreement settlement payment made in November 2021, we received $0.6 million from the counterparty for a net cash savings of $0.6 million for the period from August 9, 2021 (the Swap Agreement inception date) to October 31, 2021, in May 2022, we received $1.2 million from the counterparty for a net cash savings of $1.2 million for the period from November 1, 2021 to April 30, 2022. Under the Swap Agreement settlement payment made in November 2022, we paid $3.4 million to the counterparty for
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a net cash interest cost of $3.4 million for the period from May 1, 2022 to October 31, 2022. Under the Swap Agreement settlement payment made in May 2023, we paid $9.5 million to the counterparty for a net cash interest cost of $9.5 million for the period from November 1, 2022 to April 30, 2023. Under the Swap Agreement settlement payment made in November 2023, we paid $12.0 million to the counterparty for a net cash interest cost of $12.0 million for the period from May 1, 2023 to October 31, 2023. The valuation of the Swap Agreement changes from payments made and changes in interest rates.
Income Tax(Benefit) Expense. Our income tax benefit was $54.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 and our income tax expense was $21.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The decrease in our income tax expense is related to operating results related to the Sprint Business acquisition, the reversal of deferred tax liabilities acquired with the Sprint Business and the reversal of a valuation allowance on our business interest expense deferred tax asset.
Buildings On-net. As of December 31, 2023 and 2022, we had a total of 3,277 and 3,155 on-net buildings connected to our network, respectively. The increase in our on-net buildings was a result of our disciplined network expansion program. We anticipate adding a similar number of buildings to our network for the next several years.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Acquisition of Sprint Communications
The Sprint Business’s cash flow was negative at the time of negotiations and during its recent history. Due to the dire financial condition of the Sprint Business, it was understood that a payment from T-Mobile to any potential buyer would be required to execute a transaction to give a buyer sufficient cash inflows to offset losses that would be expected until a buyer could optimize the business. Based on management’s internal modeling at the culmination of the due diligence process, management determined this cash payment to be $700.0 million. Management intends to reduce the negative cash flow of the Sprint Business through the payments from the IP Transit Services Agreement, reducing operating costs and increasing revenue primarily by providing optical wavelength and optical transport services over our fiber network, including the owned network we acquired with the Sprint Business. We are selling these services to our existing customers, customers we acquired with the Sprint Business and to new customers who require dedicated optical transport connectivity without the capital and ongoing expenses associated with owning and operating network infrastructure. As part of the Transaction, we began incurring costs associated with the TSA. The amount of these costs will be dependent upon our ability to integrate the operations of the Sprint Business into our operations. Our cash flow requirements related to the acquisition of the Sprint Business will be dependent upon our ability to reduce the acquired operating costs, our success in retaining the acquired customers and our ability to sell optical wavelength and optical transport services over our fiber network.
Under the IP Transit Services Agreement, TMUSA will pay us an aggregate of $700.0 million, consisting of (i) $350.0 million in equal monthly installments of $29.2 million per month during the first year after the Closing Date and (ii) $350.0 million in equal monthly installments of $8.3 million per month over the subsequent 42 months. During 2023, we received seven monthly payments totaling $204.2 million under the IP Transit Services Agreement, reflected as cash from investing activities in our consolidated statement of cash flows. As our business has grown as a result of an increasing customer base, the Transaction, broader geographic coverage and increased traffic on our network, we have historically produced a growing level of cash provided by operating activities. During 2023, we experienced a $140.1 million reduction of cash provided by operating activities from the impact of the Transaction. Combining the $204.2 million cash received from the IP Transit Services Agreement in 2023, which was designed to offset operating losses associated with the Sprint Business, with our $33.6 million of cash provided by operating activities for 2023, totals $237.7 million. Increasing our cash provided by operating activities is, in part, dependent upon our ability to reduce the operating costs of the Sprint Business while retaining its revenue, expanding our geographic footprint and increasing our network capacity.
During 2024, we expect to receive a total of $204.2 million under the monthly payments under the IP Transit Services Agreement. This includes an additional five monthly payments of $29.2 million each, totaling $145.8 million, and seven monthly payments of $8.3 million each, totaling $58.3 million. Increasing our combined cash provided by operating activities and cash provided by the IP Transit Service Agreement is, in part, dependent upon our ability to reduce the operating costs of the Sprint Business while retaining its revenue.
In assessing our liquidity, management reviews and analyzes our current cash balances, payments under the IP Transit Services Agreement, accounts receivable, accounts payable, accrued liabilities, capital expenditure commitments, and required finance lease and debt payments and other obligations. Because of the operating leverage of our network, our annual capital expenditures measured as a percentage of revenues has fallen over the last decade but increased in 2023 to 13.8% from 13.2% for 2022, from capital expenditures associated with the Transaction.
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We have also had increasing success in raising capital by issuing notes and arranging financing and leases that have had a lower cost and more flexible terms. The combination of this improved operating performance and access to capital has enhanced our financial flexibility and increased our ability to make distributions to stockholders in the form of cash dividends or through share repurchases. Since our initial public offering, we have returned $1.4 billion to our stockholders through share repurchases and dividends. We will continue to assess our capital and liquidity needs and, where appropriate, return capital to stockholders.
Over the next several years, we have significant contractual and anticipated cash outlays including our indicative dividend payments on our common stock, our maturing debt obligations, interest payments on our debt obligations and Swap Agreement and our projected capital expenditure requirements in order to help execute our business plan including the integration of Sprint Business. Based upon the historical growth rate of our dividend, we expect that we would have to provide approximately $379 million in order to meet our expected quarterly dividend payments over the next two years. Our $500.0 million of 2026 Notes accrue interest at 3.50%, mature in May 2026 and include annual interest payments of $17.5 million until maturity. In June 2022, we redeemed our 2024 Notes with the proceeds from our issuance of $450.0 million of our 2027 Notes. Our 2024 Notes accrued interest at 4.375% and our 2027 Notes accrue interest at 7.00%. Our $450.0 million of 2027 Notes mature in June 2027 and include annual interest payments of $31.5 million until maturity.
Under our Swap Agreement, we pay the counterparty a semi-annual payment based upon overnight SOFR plus a contractual interest rate spread, and the counterparty pays us a semi-annual fixed 3.50% interest payment. These settlement payments are made in November and May of each year until the Swap Agreement expires in February 2026. As of December 31, 2023, $38.7 million of our cash and cash equivalents are restricted for use under our Swap Agreement. We have made a $38.8 million deposit with the counterparty to the Swap Agreement. If the fair value of the Swap Agreement exceeds a net liability of $38.8 million, we will be required to deposit additional funds with the counterparty equal to the net liability fair value. As of December 31, 2023, $38.7 million of the deposit was restricted and $0.1 million was unrestricted.
We may need to, or elect to, refinance all or a portion of our indebtedness at or before maturity and we cannot provide assurances that we will be able to refinance any such indebtedness on commercially reasonable terms or at all. In addition, we may elect to secure additional capital in the future, at acceptable terms, to improve our liquidity or fund acquisitions or for general corporate purposes. In addition, in an effort to reduce future cash interest payments as well as future amounts due at maturity or to extend debt maturities, we may, from time to time, issue new debt, enter into interest rate swap agreements, enter into debt for debt, or cash transactions to purchase our outstanding debt securities in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions. We will evaluate any such transactions in light of the existing market conditions. The amounts involved in any such transaction, individually or in the aggregate, may be material. We or our affiliates may, at any time and from time to time, seek to retire or purchase our outstanding debt through cash purchases and/or exchanges for equity or debt, in open-market purchases, privately negotiated transactions or otherwise. Such repurchases or exchanges, if any, will be upon such terms and at such prices as we may determine, and will depend on prevailing market conditions, our liquidity requirements, contractual restrictions and other factors. The amounts involved may be material.
In light of the economic uncertainties associated with the global recessionary economy, the cash flow requirements of the Sprint Business, the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and recent bank failures and liquidity concerns at certain other banks, our executive officers and Board of Directors have continued to carefully monitor our liquidity and cash requirements. Based on current circumstances, we currently plan to continue our current dividend policy. Given uncertainties regarding the lingering business impact of the pandemic, the cash flow requirements of the Sprint Business and the timing for economic recovery, we will continue to monitor our capital spending. As we do each year, we will continue to monitor our future sources and uses of cash, and anticipate that we will make adjustments to our capital allocation strategies when, as and if determined by our Board of Directors.
Impact of COVID-19 on Our Liquidity and Operating Performance
As of December 31, 2023, we had cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of $113.8 million. The COVID-19 pandemic has not impacted our credit rating to date, nor do we believe that it has materially changed our cost of capital. We believe we are able to timely service our debt obligations and will not require any concessions to do so. We believe we will have access to additional capital from a variety of sources and the public capital markets for debt and equity.
In late March 2020, we adopted a mandatory policy through which we required all employees to work from home and follow shelter in place guidelines issued by state and local authorities. In July 2021, we allowed all employees to return voluntarily to all offices in the United States. In August 2021, we notified our employees that they would be required to return to the office on a full-time basis in the United States beginning in September 2021 and that they would be required to attest that they were fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus to do so. Employees had until October 11, 2021 to provide their vaccine self-attestation. Fully vaccinated
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employees in the United States returned to our offices on a full-time basis in early September 2021. In October 2021, we opened most of our non-US offices for employees to return on a voluntary basis and, where permitted, on a mandatory basis in November 2021.
The spread of the Omicron variant around the world in December 2021 caused us to modify further our office environment. First, we mandated that all U.S. employees receive a COVID-19 booster vaccine no later than six weeks after first becoming eligible for such vaccine. Second, we mandated that all U.S. employees provide proof of vaccination to us. Third, for offices around the world that had not been closed by government order, we shifted much of our workforce to fully remote status on a temporary basis at the end of 2021 in order to reduce the density of our offices. Sales representatives with less than 12 months tenure, sales representatives on performance improvement plans and their managers remained working in our offices on a full-time basis, as we believe that the training and coaching required by new and underperforming sales representatives is significantly more effective when provided in an in-office environment. In March 2022, all of our US employees returned to our offices on a full-time basis, and our employees around the world have returned to the office as and when permitted by local regulations.
Our employees have largely complied with our vaccine mandate in the United States. However, we experienced an increase in both voluntary and involuntary employee departures, particularly within our sales department, beginning in the second half of 2021 and continuing into 2022. We believe this rise in departures is attributable both to an increased focus on managing underperforming sales representatives and to the unwillingness of some employees to be vaccinated and/or to return to a full-time, in-office environment. As a result of our decisions to mandate COVID vaccination and to require employees to return to our offices on a full-time basis, we may find it difficult to retain existing employees or hire new employees. Further, a resurgence of COVID-19 due to immunity-resistant variants may cause employees to be more reluctant to continue in, or make new employees more reluctant to accept, a full-time, in-office position due to concerns about COVID-19. If this occurs, we may experience lower sales, revenue and profitability.
We have experienced certain corporate customers taking a more cautious approach to new configurations and upgrades as well as a reduction in demand for connecting smaller satellite offices as a result of the challenges and uncertainties of the remote work environment that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. We also have witnessed a deteriorating real estate market in and around the buildings we service with rising vacancy levels and falling lease initiations or renewals which resulted in fewer sales opportunities for our salesforce and a reduction in VPN opportunities. As a result, we experienced a slowdown in new sales to our corporate customers which negatively impacted our corporate revenue growth.
Following the end of the pandemic, during the year ended December 31, 2023, we slowly began to see declining vacancy rates and rising office occupancy rates in certain markets in which we operate. Other markets, particularly those in California and the Pacific Northwest, continue to see markedly higher vacancy rates. In addition, we began to see positive trends in our corporate business. This was due partially to the increase in office occupancy rates and leasing activity in some markets but also to new demands for services from corporate customers. As the option to fully or partially work from home becomes permanently established at many companies, our corporate customers are integrating some of the new applications that became part of the remote work environment, which benefits our corporate business as these customers upgrade their Internet access infrastructure to higher capacity connections, and mitigates the overall impact of remote work policies on our corporate business. Further, if and when companies eventually return to the buildings in which we operate, we believe it will present an opportunity for increased sales.
While we believe that demand for office space in the buildings in which we operate will remain among the strongest in the markets in which they are located, and that most employers will eventually require their employees to return to their offices on at least a hybrid basis, the timing and scope of a return to office, particularly in a number of key markets we serve, remains uncertain. In some markets, office occupancy rates may never return to pre-pandemic levels. As a result, we may continue to experience increased customer turnover, fewer upgrades of existing customer configurations and fewer new tenant opportunities. A potential resurgence of COVID-19 due to new immunity-resistant variants could cause companies to continue to delay the return of their employees to the office, to cause companies to shift workers in the office back to remote work and to delay further opening new offices. These trends may negatively impact our revenue growth, cash flows and profitability.
We cannot predict whether new COVID-19 variants will arise and spread widely, the impact of the spread of new COVID-19 variants on the global economy, how national and local governments may react to the spread of new variants nor predict the impact the variants and any measures taken in response may have on our operations, employee retention, revenue growth, cash flows and our profitability.
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Cash Flows
The following table sets forth our consolidated cash flows.
Year Ended December 31,
(in thousands)
Effect of exchange rates on cash 1,649 (2,599) (2,193)
Net Cash Provided By Operating Activities. Our primary source of operating cash is receipts from our customers who are billed on a monthly basis for our services. Our primary uses of operating cash are payments made to our vendors, payments under the TSA, payments to employees and interest payments made to our finance lease vendors and our note holders. Our changes in cash provided by operating activities are primarily due to changes in our operating profit and changes in our interest payments. On the Closing Date, we entered into a TSA with the Seller, pursuant to which the Seller will provide to us, and we will provide to the Seller on an interim basis following the Closing Date, Transition Services to ensure an orderly transition following the separation of the Sprint Business from Sprint Communications. Amounts billed under the TSA are due 30 days from receipt of the related invoice. During the year ended December 31, 2023, we were billed $284.1 million under the TSA primarily for reimbursement at cost of payment to vendors of the Sprint Business. During the year ended December 31, 2023 we paid $217.2 million to the Seller under the TSA. As of December 31, 2023, we owed $66.9 million to the Seller and the Seller owed $4.5 million to us under the TSA agreement. Cash provided by operating activities for the years ending December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021 included interest payments on our note obligations of $49.0 million, $40.6 million and $50.1 million, respectively. Cash provided by operating activities for 2023, 2022 and 2021 included interest payments (receipts) related to our Swap Agreement of $21.5 million, $2.2 million and $(0.6) million, respectively.
Net Cash Provided by (Used In) Investing Activities. Our primary use of investing cash is for purchases of property and equipment. These amounts were $129.6 million, $79.0 million and $69.9 million for 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively. The annual changes in purchases of property and equipment are primarily due to the timing and scope of our network expansion activities, including geographic expansion and adding buildings to our network and purchases in anticipation of the closing of our acquisition of the Sprint Business. We paid $61.1 million, net of $47.1 million of cash acquired, and received $16.2 million in reimbursed severance payments for a net total of $2.1 million received for our acquisition of the Sprint Business. On the Closing Date, we entered into the IP Transit Services Agreement pursuant to which TMUSA will pay us an aggregate of $700.0 million, consisting of (i) $350.0 million in equal monthly installments during the first year after the Closing Date and (ii) $350.0 million in equal monthly installments over the subsequent 42 months. During the year ended December 31, 2023 we were paid $204.2 million under the IP Transit Services Agreement.
Net Cash Used In Financing Activities. Our primary uses of cash for financing activities are for payments to redeem and extinguish our debt, dividend payments and principal payments under our debt and finance lease obligations. During the years ending December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, we paid $181.7 million, $169.9 million and $150.3 million, respectively, for our quarterly dividend payments. Our quarterly dividend payments have increased due to regular increases in our quarterly dividend per share amounts. Principal payments under our finance lease obligations were $77.4 million, $45.5 million and $23.1 million for the years ending December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively, and are impacted by the timing and extent of our network expansion activities, including geographic expansion and adding buildings to our network and purchases in anticipation of the closing of our acquisition of the Sprint Business.
We completed a series of debt redemptions and issuances in 2022 and 2021. In June 2022, we paid $375.4 million to redeem and extinguish our 2024 Notes at 101.094% of par value, and we issued $450.0 million of our 2027 Notes for net proceeds of $446.0 million. In March 2021, we paid $119.7 million to redeem and extinguish $115.9 million of our 2022 Notes at 103.24% of par value. In May 2021, we redeemed and extinguished the remaining $329.1 million of our 2022 Notes at par value and deposited funds with the trustee to pay $11.5 million of interest through December 1, 2021. The total payments to redeem our 2022 Notes were $459.3 million. In May 2021, we issued $500.0 million of our 2026 Notes for net proceeds of $496.9 million.
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Indebtedness
Our total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at December 31, 2023 were $113.8 million and our net accounts receivable were $135.5 million. In November 2023, we converted all Sprint Business customers from the Sellers billing platform to our billing platform and processes. This conversion resulted in a temporary delay in cash collections from the Sprint Business customers at year-end. Customer collections resumed to a typical pattern in the first quarter of 2024.
We believe this level of liquidity reduces our exposure to refinancing risk, potential underperformance of the business or other unforeseen challenges and enhances our ability to pursue acquisitions or operating opportunities. We intend to hold levels of cash and cash equivalents sufficient to maintain our ability to fund operations, refinance indebtedness and make dividend payments to our stockholders.
Our total indebtedness at December 31, 2023, at par value, was $1.5 billion. Our total indebtedness at December 31, 2023 includes $484.5 million of finance lease obligations for dark fiber under long-term IRU agreements.
On May 15, 2014, pursuant to the Agreement and Plan of Reorganization (the “Merger Agreement”) by and among Cogent Communications Group, Inc. (“Group”), a Delaware corporation, Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Holdings”) and Cogent Communications Merger Sub, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Merger Sub”), Group adopted a new holding company organizational structure whereby Group is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Holdings. Holdings is a “successor issuer” to Group pursuant to Rule 12g-3(a) under the Exchange Act.
Senior unsecured 2027 notes—$450.0 million
In June 2022, Group issued $500.0 million of 2027 Notes. The 2027 Notes were sold in private offerings for resale to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to SEC Rule 144A and mature on June 15, 2027. Interest accrues at 7.00% and is paid semi-annually in arrears on June 15 and December 15 of each year. Holdings provided a guarantee of the 2027 Notes, but Holdings is not subject to the covenants under the indenture.
Senior secured 2026 notes—$500.0 million
In May 2021, Group issued $500.0 million of 2026 Notes. The 2026 Notes were sold in private offerings for resale to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to SEC Rule 144A and mature on May 1, 2026. Interest accrues at 3.50% and is paid semi-annually in arrears on May 1 and November 1 of each year. Holdings provided a guarantee of the 2026 Notes, but Holdings is not subject to the covenants under the indenture.
Senior unsecured 2024 notes—€350.0 million
In June 2019, Group completed an offering of €135.0 million of 2024 Notes. In June 2020, Group completed an offering of €215.0 million of 2024 Notes. The 2024 Notes were sold in private offerings for resale to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to SEC Rule 144A and were scheduled to mature on June 30, 2024. Interest accrued at 4.375% and was paid semi-annually in arrears on June 30 and December 30 of each year. In June 2022, the 2024 Notes were redeemed with the proceeds from our 2027 Notes.
Limitations under the Indentures
The 2027 Notes Indenture and the 2026 Notes Indenture (the “Indentures”), among other things, limit the Company’s ability to incur indebtedness; to pay dividends or make other distributions; to make certain investments and other restricted payments; to create liens; to consolidate, merge, sell or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of its assets; to incur restrictions on the ability of a subsidiary to pay dividends or make other payments; and to enter into certain transactions with its affiliates. There are certain exceptions to the limitations on the Company’s ability to incur indebtedness under the Indentures, including IRU agreements incurred in the normal course of business and any additional indebtedness if the Company’s consolidated leverage ratio, as defined in the Indentures, is less than 6.0 to 1.0 or the Company’s fixed charge coverage ratio, as defined in the Indentures, is 2.0 to 1.0 or greater. The Company can also incur unlimited liens (which can be used, together with capacity under the debt covenant, to incur additional secured indebtedness) if the Company’s consolidated secured leverage ratio, as defined in the Indentures, is less than 4.0 to 1.0. Under the Indentures, the Company can pay dividends, make other distributions, make certain investments and make other restricted payments under certain circumstances, including if, after giving pro forma effect to such restricted payment, the Company could still incur $1 of indebtedness, as defined (i.e., either its consolidated leverage ratio is less than 6.0 to 1.0 or its fixed charge coverage ratio is 2.0 to 1.0 or greater). As of December 31, 2023, the Company’s consolidated leverage ratio was below 6.0, the Company’s
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consolidated secured leverage ratio was below 4.0, and the Company’s fixed charge coverage ratio was above 2.0. As of December 31, 2023, a total of $511.3 million (inclusive of a $250.0 general basket) was unrestricted and permitted for restricted payments, including dividends and stock purchases.
Summarized Financial Information of Holdings
Holdings is a guarantor under the 2027 and 2026 Notes. Under the Indentures, we are required to disclose financial information of Holdings including its assets, liabilities and its operating results (“Holdings Financial Information”). The Holdings Financial Information as of and for the year ended December 31, 2023 is detailed below (in thousands).
(Unaudited)
Cash and cash equivalents $ 420
Accrued interest receivable 2
Total assets $ 422
Investment from subsidiaries $ 603,314
Common stock 49
Accumulated deficit (602,941)
Total equity $ 422
Year Ended
(Unaudited)
Equity‐based compensation expense $ 30,466
Interest income 565
Common Stock Buyback Program
Our Board of Directors has approved through December 31, 2024, purchases of our common stock under a buyback program (the “Buyback Program”). There were no purchases of common stock during the years ended December 31, 2023, December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021. As of December 31, 2023, there was a total of $30.4 million available under the Buyback Program.
Dividends on Common Stock
Dividends are recorded as a reduction to retained earnings. Dividends on unvested restricted shares of common stock are paid as the awards vest. Our initial quarterly dividend payment was made in the third quarter of 2012. On February 28, 2024, our Board of Directors approved the payment of our quarterly dividend of $0.965 per common share. The dividend for the first quarter of 2024 will be paid to holders of record on March 15, 2024. This estimated $45.7 million dividend payment is expected to be made on April 9, 2024. The payment of any future dividends and any other returns of capital, including stock buybacks, will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors and may be reduced, eliminated or increased and will be dependent upon our financial position, results of operations, available cash, cash flow, capital requirements, limitations under our debt indentures and other factors deemed relevant by the our Board of Directors. We are a Delaware Corporation and under the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware distributions may be restricted including a restriction that distributions, including stock purchases and dividends, do not result in an impairment of a corporation’s capital, as defined under Delaware Law. The indentures governing our notes limit our ability to return cash to our stockholders. See Note 4 “Long-term Debt” to our consolidated financial statements for additional discussion of limitations on distributions.
Future Capital Requirements
We believe that our cash on hand and cash generated from our operating activities and cash from the IP Transit Services Agreement will be adequate to meet our working capital, capital expenditure, debt service, dividend payments and other cash requirements for the next twelve months and beyond the next twelve months if we execute our business plan.
Any future acquisitions or other significant unplanned costs or cash requirements in excess of amounts we currently hold may require that we raise additional funds through the issuance of debt or equity. We cannot assure you that such financing will be
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available on terms acceptable to us or our stockholders, or at all. Insufficient funds may require us to delay or scale back the number of buildings and markets that we add to our network, reduce our planned increase in our sales and marketing efforts, reduce our planned dividend payments, or require us to otherwise alter our business plan or take other actions that could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. If issuing equity securities raises additional funds, substantial dilution to existing stockholders may result.
We may need to, or elect to, refinance all or a portion of our indebtedness at or before maturity and we cannot provide assurances that we will be able to refinance any such indebtedness on commercially reasonable terms or at all. In addition, we may elect to secure additional capital in the future, at acceptable terms, to improve our liquidity or fund acquisitions or for general corporate purposes. In addition, in an effort to reduce future cash interest payments as well as future amounts due at maturity or to extend debt maturities, we may, from time to time, issue new debt, enter into debt for debt, or cash transactions to purchase our outstanding debt securities in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions. We will evaluate any such transactions in light of the existing market conditions. The amounts involved in any such transaction, individually or in the aggregate, may be material.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We do not have relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as structured finance or special purpose entities, which would have been established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements or other contractually narrow or limited purposes. In addition, we do not engage in trading activities involving non-exchange traded contracts. As such, we are not materially exposed to any financing, liquidity, market or credit risk that could arise if we had engaged in these relationships.
Income Taxes
Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code in the United States limits the utilization of net operating losses when ownership changes, as defined by that section, occur. We have performed an analysis of our Section 382 ownership changes and have determined that the utilization of certain of our net operating loss carryforwards in the United States is limited.
Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Estimates
Our discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based upon our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, and the related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.
The accounting policies we believe to be most critical to understanding our financial results and condition or that require complex, significant and subjective management judgments are discussed below.
Acquisition accounting
In connection with our acquisition of the Wireline Business we made the following significant changes to our critical accounting policies and significant estimates. For the fair values of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed, we used the cost, income and market approaches, including market participant assumptions.
In connection with the Transaction, the identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed were recorded at their fair values as of the acquisition date. Assigning fair market values to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed at the date of an acquisition requires the use of significant judgment regarding estimates and assumptions. We acquired property and equipment comprised of the legacy Sprint network and consists of optical fiber, related equipment, and owned real estate. Management valued these assets using factors which represent an orderly liquidation value, to approximate the highest and best use of assets acquired in a distressed business.
The valuation of the optical fiber requires the estimation of the total replacement cost per mile of fiber and a factor to reflect the orderly liquidation value. There is not active market data for these assumptions and these assumptions are inherently subjective. Market participants could have differing views on these assumptions, which could result in a materially different fair value of the optical fiber.
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On the Closing Date, we entered into the IP Transit Services Agreement. We evaluated what elements were part of the business combination and the consideration exchanged to complete the Transaction. We concluded that the payments to be made represent consideration received from T-Mobile to complete the acquisition of a distressed business. We concluded that T-Mobile did not represent a customer, the stated contract price did not represent consideration for services to be delivered, and the transaction did not satisfy the definition of revenue. We also considered whether the IP Transit Services Agreement would be considered separable from the business combination. We concluded that the cash consideration was not separately identifiable from the business combination and was therefore not meant to be in exchange for a distinct good or service. As a result, the IP Transit Services Agreement was recorded in connection with the Transaction at its discounted present value resulting in a discount. The interest rate used in determining the present value was derived considering rates on similar issued debt instruments with comparable durations, amongst other market factors. The determination of the discount rate and the conclusions reached related to the IP Transit Services Agreement required significant judgment.
The Purchase Agreement includes an estimated payment from Seller to Buyer related to short-term lease obligations. This amount was recorded at its present value resulting in a discount. The interest rate used in determining the present value was derived considering rates on similar issued debt instruments with comparable durations, amongst other market factors. The determination of the discount rate requires some judgment.
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
We are exposed to certain market risks. These risks, which include interest rate risk and foreign currency exchange risk, arise in the normal course of business rather than from trading activities.
Interest Rate Risk
Interest Expense and Restricted Cash
Our cash flow exposure due to changes in interest rates related to our 2027 Notes is limited as our 2027 Notes have a fixed interest rate. Beginning in August 2021, we used a derivative financial instrument to manage our interest rate risk on our 2026 Notes. As of December 31, 2023, we were counterparty to our Swap Agreement that has the economic effect of modifying our fixed-interest rate obligation associated with our 2026 Notes to a variable interest rate obligation based on SOFR. The Swap Agreement is recorded at its fair value at each reporting period and we incur gains and losses due to changes in market interest rates. The values that we report for the Swap Agreement as of each reporting date are recognized as an additional non-cash expense or a reduction to expense with the corresponding amount included in liabilities or assets, respectively, in our consolidated balance sheets. By entering into this Swap Agreement, we have assumed the risk associated with variable interest rates based upon SOFR related to our 2026 Notes. We have not entered into hedge agreements related to our 2027 Notes, and we do not use derivative financial instruments for trading purposes. We have a $38.9 million interest-bearing deposit with the counterparty to a Swap Agreement. If the fair value of the Swap Agreement exceeds a net liability of $38.9 million, we will be required to deposit additional funds with the counterparty equal to the net liability that is in excess of $38.9 million. As of December 31, 2023, the fair value of the Swap Agreement was a liability of $38.8 million, and as a result, $38.8 million of the $38.9 million deposit was restricted and $0.1 million was unrestricted. A 1.0% change in interest rates as of December 31, 2023 would impact the change in our valuation of our Swap Agreement by approximately $10.9 million.
Interest Income
Our interest income is sensitive to changes in the general level of interest rates. However, based upon the nature and current level of our investments, which consist of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, we believe that there is no material interest rate exposure related to our investments.
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Foreign Currency Exchange Risk
Our operations outside of the United States expose us to potentially unfavorable adverse movements in foreign currency rate changes. We have not entered into forward exchange contracts related to our foreign currency exposure. While we record financial results and assets and liabilities from our international operations in the functional currency, which is generally the local currency, these results are reflected in our consolidated financial statements in US dollars. Therefore, our reported results are exposed to fluctuations in the exchange rates between the US dollar and the local currencies, in particular the Euro and the Canadian dollar. In addition, we may fund certain cash flow requirements of our international operations in US dollars. Accordingly, in the event that the local currencies strengthen versus the US dollar to a greater extent than planned, the revenues, expenses and cash flow requirements associated with our international operations may be significantly higher in US-dollar terms than planned. During the year ended December 31, 2023, our foreign activities accounted for 17.9% of our consolidated revenue. A 1.0% change in foreign exchange rates would impact our consolidated annual revenue by approximately $1.3 million. Changes in foreign currency rates could adversely and materially affect our operating results and cash flow.
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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Page
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID: 42) 50
Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2023 and 2022 52
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements 56
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Report of Ernst & Young LLP, Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc.
Opinion on the Financial Statements