Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Our business involves significant risks, some of which are described below. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risk and uncertainties that we are unaware of or that we deem immaterial may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. The realization of any of these risks and uncertainties could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations, growth and future prospects as well as our ability to accomplish our strategic objectives. In that event, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline and you could lose part or all of your investment.
Risks Related to Our Limited Operating History and Early Stage of Growth
Our limited operating history and our evolving business make it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and the risks and challenges we may encounter.
Our limited operating history and evolving business make it difficult to evaluate and assess the success of our business to date, our future prospects and the risks and challenges that we may encounter. These risks and challenges include our ability to:
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attract new consumers to our platform and position our platform as an important way to make purchasing decisions for prescription medications and other healthcare products and services;
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retain our consumers and encourage them to continue to utilize our platform when purchasing healthcare products and services;
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attract new and existing consumers to rapidly adopt new offerings on our platform;
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increase the number of consumers that use our subscription offerings or the number of subscription programs that we manage;
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increase and retain our consumers that subscribe to our subscription offerings, such as Gold and Kroger Savings;
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attract and retain industry players for inclusion in our platform, including pharmacies, PBMs, pharma manufacturers and telehealth providers;
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comply with existing and new laws and regulations applicable to our business and in our industry;
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anticipate and respond to macroeconomic changes, changes in medication pricing and industry pricing benchmarks and changes in the markets in which we operate;
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react to challenges from existing and new competitors;
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maintain and enhance the value of our reputation and brand;
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effectively manage our growth;
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hire, integrate and retain talented people at all levels of our organization;
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maintain and improve the infrastructure underlying our platform, including our apps and websites, including with respect to data protection and cybersecurity; and
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successfully update our platform, including expanding our platform and offerings into different healthcare products and services, develop and update our apps, features, offerings and services to benefit our consumers and enhance the consumer experience.
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If we fail to address the risks and difficulties that we face, including those associated with the challenges listed above and those described elsewhere in this Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Further, because we have limited historical financial data and our business continues to evolve and expand within the U.S. healthcare industry, any predictions about our future revenue and expenses may not be as accurate as they would be if we had a longer operating history, operated a more predictable business or operated in a less regulated industry. We have encountered in the past, and will encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies with limited operating histories and evolving businesses that operate in highly regulated and competitive industries. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan and operate our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our results of operations could differ materially from our expectations and our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.
Our recent growth rates may not be sustainable or indicative of future growth and we expect our growth rate to slow.
We have experienced significant growth since our founding in 2011. Our historical rate of growth may not be sustainable or indicative of our future rate of growth. We believe that our continued growth in revenue, as well as our ability to improve or maintain margins and profitability, will depend upon, among other factors, our ability to address the challenges, risks and difficulties described elsewhere in this Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors” and the extent to which our various offerings grow and contribute to our results of operations. We cannot provide assurance that we will be able to successfully manage any such challenges or risks to our future growth. In addition, our base of consumers may not continue to grow or may decline due to a variety of possible risks, including increased competition, changes in the regulatory landscape and the maturation of our business. Any of these factors could cause our revenue growth to decline and may adversely affect our margins and profitability. Failure to continue our revenue growth or improve margins would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. You should not rely on our historical rate of revenue growth as an indication of our future performance.
Our results of operations vary and may fluctuate significantly from period-to-period.
Our quarterly and annual results of operations have historically varied from period-to-period and we expect that our results of operations will continue to do so for a variety of reasons, many of which are outside of our control and are difficult to predict. We have presented many of the factors that may cause our results of operations to fluctuate in this Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” including the extent to which our various offerings, such as our telehealth offerings, grow and contribute to our results of operations. In addition, we typically experience stronger consumer demand during the first and fourth quarters of each year, which coincide with generally higher consumer healthcare spending, doctor office visits, annual benefit enrollment season and seasonal cold and flu trends. The rapid growth of our business may have masked these trends to date, and we expect the impact of seasonality to be more pronounced in the future. The cumulative effects of such factors could result in large fluctuations and unpredictability in our quarterly and annual results of operations. As a result, comparing our results of operations on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful and investors should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance.
This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet the expectations of industry or financial analysts or investors for any period. If our revenue or results of operations fall below the expectations of analysts or investors or below any guidance we may provide, or if the guidance we provide is below the expectations of analysts or investors, the price of our Class A common stock could decline substantially. Such a stock price decline could occur even when we have met any previously publicly stated guidance we may provide.
We may be unable to manage our future growth effectively, which could make it difficult to execute our business strategy.
Since 2011, we have experienced rapid growth in our business operations and the number of consumers that use our offerings, and we may continue to experience growth in the future. This growth has placed, and may continue to place, significant demands on our management and our operational and financial infrastructure. Our ability to manage our growth effectively and to integrate new employees, technologies and acquisitions into our existing business will require us to continue to expand our operational and financial infrastructure and to continue to retain, attract, train, motivate and manage employees. Management of growth is particularly difficult when employees work from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Continued growth could strain our ability to develop and improve our operational, financial and management controls, enhance our reporting systems and procedures, recruit, train and retain highly skilled personnel and maintain consumer satisfaction. Additionally, if we do not effectively manage the growth of our business and operations, the quality
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of our platform and offerings could suffer, which could negatively affect our reputation and brand, business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may experience lower margins as GoodRx Care continues to grow as a portion of our overall business.
GoodRx Care has experienced significant growth and we expect it to continue to grow in the future. However, the telehealth market is rapidly developing and is subject to significant price competition, and we may be unable to achieve satisfactory prices for our GoodRx Care offering or maintain prices at competitive levels. Due in part to this price competition, GoodRx Care currently generates lower margins than our other offerings. If we are unable to maintain our prices, or if our costs increase and we are unable to offset such increase with an increase in our prices, our margins could decline. In addition, as GoodRx Care continues to grow as a portion of our overall business, we expect such growth to have an adverse impact on our margins. We will continue to be subject to significant pricing pressure, and expect that GoodRx Care will continue to grow as a source of revenue, which would likely have a material adverse effect on our margins.
Risks Related to Our Business
We may be unsuccessful in achieving broad market education and changing consumer purchasing habits.
Our success and future growth largely depend on our ability to increase consumer awareness of our platform and offerings, and on the willingness of consumers to utilize our platform to access information, discounted prices for prescription medications and other healthcare products and services, including telehealth services. We believe the vast majority of consumers make purchasing decisions for healthcare products and services on the basis of traditional factors, such as insurance coverage, availability at nearby pharmacies and availability of nearby medical testing. This traditional decision-making process does not always account for restrictive and complex insurance plans, high deductibles, expensive co-pays and other factors, such as discounts or savings available at alternative pharmacies or practices. To effectively market our platform, we must educate consumers about the various purchase options and the benefits of using GoodRx codes when purchasing prescription medications and other healthcare products and services without using their health insurance benefits. We focus our marketing and education efforts on consumers, but also aim to educate and inform healthcare providers, pharmacists and other participants that interact with consumers, including at the point of purchase. However, we cannot assure you that we will be successful in changing consumer purchasing habits or that we will achieve broad market education or awareness among consumers. Even if we are able to raise awareness among consumers, they may be slow in changing their habits and may be hesitant to use our platform for a variety of reasons, including:
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lack of experience with our company and platform, and concerns that we are relatively new to the industry;
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perceived health, safety or quality risks associated with the use of a new platform and applications to shop for discounted prices for prescription medications;
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lack of awareness that there is a disparity of pricing for prescription medicines and other medical products and services;
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perception that our platform does not provide adequate discounted prices or only offers savings for a limited selection of prescription medications;
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perception that discounted prices offered through our platform are less competitive than insurance coverage;
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perception regarding acceptance rates of pharmacies for our GoodRx codes available through our platform;
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traditional or existing relationships with pharmacies, pharmacists or other providers that sell healthcare products and services;
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concerns about the privacy and security of the data that consumers share with or through our platform;
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competition and negative selling efforts from competitors, including competing platforms and price matching programs; and
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perception regarding the time and complexity of using our platform or using and applying our GoodRx codes available through our platform at the point of purchase.
If we fail to achieve broad market education of our platform and/or the options for purchasing healthcare products and services, or if we are unsuccessful in changing consumer purchasing habits, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.
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We may be unable to continue to attract, acquire and retain consumers, or may fail to do so in a cost-effective manner.
Our success depends in part on our ability to cost-effectively attract and acquire new consumers, retain our existing consumers and encourage our consumers to continue to utilize our platform when making purchasing decisions for prescription medications and other healthcare products and services. To expand our base of consumers, we must appeal to consumers who have historically used traditional outlets for their healthcare products and services, and who may be unaware of the possibility or benefits of using discounted prices to purchase healthcare products and services outside of insurance programs. We have made significant investments related to consumer acquisition and expect to continue to spend significant amounts to acquire additional customers. We cannot assure you that this spending will be effective or that revenue from new consumers that we acquire will ultimately exceed the cost of acquiring those consumers. If we fail to deliver reliable and significant discounted prices for prescription medications, we may be unable to acquire or retain consumers. If we are unable to acquire or retain consumers who use our platform in volumes and with recurrence sufficient to grow our business, we may be unable to maintain the scale necessary for operational efficiency and to drive beneficial and self-reinforcing network effects across the broader healthcare ecosystem, including pharmacies, PBMs, pharma manufacturers and telehealth providers. Consequently, we may not be able to present the same quality or range of solutions on our platform or otherwise, which may adversely impact consumer interest in our platform, in which case our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.
We believe that our paid and non-paid marketing initiatives have been critical in promoting consumer awareness of our platform and offerings, which in turn has driven new consumer growth and increased the extent to which existing consumers have used our platform. Our paid marketing initiatives include television, search engine marketing, mail to consumers and healthcare provider offices, email, display, radio and magazine advertising and social media marketing. For example, we actively market our platform and offerings through television and we rely on direct mail to distribute marketing materials to consumers. If we are unable to cost-effectively market to consumers and drive traffic to our apps and websites, our ability to acquire new consumers and our financial condition would be materially and adversely affected. We also buy search advertising primarily through search engines such as Google and Bing, and use internal analytics and external vendors for bid optimization and channel strategy. Our non-paid advertising efforts include search engine optimization, non-paid social media and e-mail marketing. Search engines frequently modify their search algorithms and these changes can cause our websites to receive less favorable placements, which could reduce the number of consumers who visit our websites. The costs associated with advertising through search engines can also vary significantly from period to period, and have generally increased over time. We may be unable to modify our strategies in response to any future search algorithm changes made by the search engines, which could require a change in the strategy we use to generate consumer traffic to our websites. In addition, our websites must comply with search engine guidelines and policies, which are complex and may change at any time. If we fail to follow such guidelines and policies properly, search engines may rank our content lower in search results or could remove our content altogether from their indices. Although consumer traffic to our apps is not reliant on search results, growth in mobile device usage may not decrease our overall reliance on search results if consumers use our mobile websites rather than our apps or use search to initially find our apps. In fact, growth in mobile device usage may exacerbate the risks associated with how and where our websites are displayed in search results because mobile device screens are smaller than desktop computer screens and therefore display fewer search results.
In addition, we actively encourage new and existing consumers to use our apps to access our platform. We believe that our apps help to facilitate increased consumer retention and that consumers that access our platform through our apps are more likely to utilize GoodRx codes at the final point of purchase. While we have invested and will continue to invest in the development of our apps to improve consumer utilization, there can be no assurance that our efforts to drive adoption and use of our apps will be effective.
Our consumer education, acquisition and retention initiatives can be expensive and may be ineffective in driving consumer education or interest in our platform. Further, if new or existing consumers do not perceive that the discounted prices presented through our platform are reliable or meaningful, or if we fail to offer new and relevant offerings and application features, we may not be able to attract or retain consumers or increase the extent to which they use our platform and applications for other or future purchases. If we fail to continue to grow our base of consumers, retain existing consumers or increase consumer engagement, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.
We rely significantly on our prescription transactions offering and may not be successful in expanding our offerings within our markets, particularly the U.S. prescriptions market, or to other segments of the healthcare industry.
To date, the vast majority of our revenue has been derived from our prescription transactions offering. When a consumer uses a GoodRx code to fill a prescription and saves money compared to the list price at that pharmacy, we receive fees from our partners, primarily PBMs. Revenue from our prescription transactions offering represented 80%, 89% and 94% of our revenue for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Substantially all of this revenue was
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generated from consumer transactions at brick and mortar pharmacies. The introduction of competing offerings with lower prices for consumers, fluctuations in prescription prices, changes in consumer purchasing habits, including an increase in the use of mail delivery prescriptions, changes in the regulatory landscape, and other factors could result in changes to our contracts or a decline in our revenue, which may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Because we derive a vast majority of our revenue from our prescription transactions offering, any material decline in the use of such offering or in the fees we receive from our partners in connection with such offering would have a pronounced impact on our future revenue and results of operations, particularly if we are unable to expand our offerings overall.
We seek to expand our offerings within the prescriptions market, the pharma manufacturer solutions market and the telehealth market in the United States. We are actively investing in each of these growth areas. However, expanding our offerings and entering into new markets requires substantial additional resources, and our ability to succeed is not certain. During and following periods of active investment, we may experience a decrease in profitability or margins, particularly if the area of investment generates lower margins than our other offerings. For example, our telehealth offering, GoodRx Care, generates substantially lower margins than our other offerings and we expect that it will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. As we expand our offerings, we will need to take additional steps, such as hiring additional personnel, partnering with new third parties and incurring considerable research and development expenses, in order to pursue such an expansion successfully. Any such expansion would be subject to additional uncertainties and would likely be subject to additional laws and regulations. As a result, we may not be successful in future efforts to expand into or achieve profitability from new markets, new business models or strategies or new offering types, and our ability to generate revenue from our current offerings and continue our existing business may be negatively affected. If any such expansion does not enhance our ability to maintain or grow revenue or recover any associated development costs, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our business is subject to changes in medication pricing and is significantly impacted by pricing structures negotiated by industry participants.
Our platform aggregates and analyzes pricing data from a number of different sources. The discounted prices that we present through our platform are based in large part upon pricing structures negotiated by industry participants. We do not control the pricing strategies of pharma manufacturers, wholesalers, PBMs and pharmacies, each of which is motivated by independent considerations and drivers that are outside our control and has the ability to set or significantly impact market prices for different prescription medications. While we have contractual and non-contractual relationships with certain industry participants, such as pharmacies, PBMs and pharma manufacturers, these and other industry participants often negotiate complex and multi-party pricing structures, and we have no control over these participants and the policies and strategies that they implement in negotiating these pricing structures.
Pharma manufacturers generally direct medication pricing by setting medication list prices and offering rebates and discounts for their medications. List prices are impacted by, among other things, market considerations such as the number of competitor medications and availability of alternative treatment options. Wholesalers can impact medication pricing by purchasing medications in bulk from pharma manufacturers and then reselling such medications to pharmacies. PBMs generally impact medication pricing through their bargaining power, negotiated rebates with pharma manufacturers and contracts with different pharmacy providers and health insurance companies. PBMs work with pharmacies to determine the negotiated rate that will be paid at the pharmacy by consumers. Medication pricing is also impacted by health insurance companies and the extent to which a health insurance plan provides for, among other things, covered medications, preferred tiers for different medications and high or low deductibles. A vast majority of the utilization of our platform relates to generic medications.
Our ability to present discounted prices through our platform, the value of any such discounts and our ability to generate revenue are directly affected by the pricing structures in place amongst these industry participants, and changes in medication pricing and in the general pricing structures that are in place could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, changes in the negotiated rates of the PBMs on our platform at pharmacies could negatively impact the prices that we present through our platform, and changes in insurance plan coverage for specific medications could reduce demand for and/or our ability to offer competitive discounts for certain medications, any of which could have an adverse effect on our ability to generate revenue and business. In addition, changes in the fee and pricing structures among industry participants, whether due to regulatory requirements, competitive pressures or otherwise, that reduce or adversely impact fees generated by PBMs would have an adverse effect on our ability to generate revenue and business. Due in part to existing pricing structures, we generate a small portion of our revenue through contracts with pharma manufacturers and other intermediaries. Changes in the roles of industry participants and in general pricing structures, as well as price competition among industry participants, could have an adverse impact on our business. For example, integration of PBMs and pharmacy providers could result in pricing structures whereby such entities would have greater pricing power and flexibility or industry players could implement direct to consumer
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initiatives that could significantly alter existing pricing structures, either of which would have an adverse impact on our ability to present competitive and low prices to consumers and, as a result, the value of our platform for consumers and our results of operations.
We generally do not control the categories and types of prescriptions for which we can offer savings or discounted prices.
The categories and brands of medications for which we can present discounted prices are largely determined by PBMs. PBMs work with insurance companies, employers and other organizations and enter into contracts with pharmacies to determine negotiated rates. They also negotiate rebates with pharma manufacturers. The terms that different PBMs negotiate with each pharmacy are generally different and result in different negotiated rates available via each PBM’s network, all of which is outside our control. Different PBMs prioritize and allocate discounts across different medications, and continuously update these allocations in accordance with their internal strategies and expectations. As we have agreements with PBMs to market their negotiated rates through our platform, our ability to present discounted prices is dependent upon the arrangements that PBMs have negotiated with pharmacies and upon the resulting availability and allocation of discounts for medications subject to these arrangements. In general, industry participants are less likely to allocate or provide for discounts or rebates on brand medications that are covered by patents. As a result, the discounted prices that we are able to present for brand medications may not be as competitive as for generic medications. Similar to the total prescription volume in the United States, the vast majority of the utilization of our platform relates to generic medications.
Changes in the categories and types of medications for which we can present pricing through our platform could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, demand for our offerings and the use and utility of our platform is impacted by the value of the discounts that we are able to present and the extent to which there is inconsistency in the price of a particular prescription across the market. If pharmacies, PBMs or others do not allocate or otherwise facilitate adequate discounts for these medications, or if there is significant price similarity or competition across PBMs and pharmacies, the perceived value of our platform and the demand for our offerings would decrease and there would be a significant impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on a limited number of industry participants.
There is currently significant concentration in the U.S. healthcare industry, and in particular there are a limited number of PBMs, including pharmacies’ in-house PBMs, and a limited number of national pharmacy chains. If we are unable to retain favorable contractual arrangements with our PBMs, including any successor PBMs should there be further consolidation of PBMs, we may lose them as customers, or the negotiated rates provided by such PBMs may become less competitive, which could have an adverse impact on the discounted prices we present through our platform.
A limited number of PBMs generate a significant percentage of the discounted prices that we present through our platform and, as a result, we generate a significant portion of our revenue from contracts with a limited number of PBMs. We work with more than a dozen PBMs that maintain cash networks and prices, and the number of PBMs we work with has significantly increased over time, limiting the extent to which any one PBM contributes to our overall revenue; however, we may not expand beyond our existing PBM partners and the number of our PBM partners may even decline. Revenue from each PBM fluctuates from period to period as the discounts and prices available through our platform change, and different PBMs experience increases and decreases in the volume of transactions processed through their respective networks. Our three largestPBM partners accounted for 34% of our revenue in 2021, 42% of our revenue in 2020, and 55% of our revenue in 2019. In 2021, Express Scripts and Navitus each accounted for more than 10% of revenue. In 2020, Navitus, MedImpact and Express Scripts each accounted for more than 10% of revenue. In 2019, Navitus and MedImpact each accounted for more than 10% of revenue. The loss of any of these large PBMs may negatively impact the breadth of the pricing that we are able to offer consumers.
Most of our PBM contracts provide for monthly payments from PBMs, including our contracts with MedImpact, Navitus, and Express Scripts. Our PBM contracts generally can be divided into two categories: PBM contracts featuring a percentage of fee arrangement, where fees are a percentage of the fees that PBMs charge to pharmacies, and PBM contracts featuring a fixed fee per transaction arrangement. Our percentage of fee contracts often also include a minimum fixed fee per transaction. The majority of our PBM contracts, including our contracts with MedImpact and Navitus, are percentage of fee contracts, and a minority of our contracts, including our PBM contract with Express Scripts, provide for fixed fee per transaction arrangements. Our PBM contracts generally, including our contracts with MedImpact, Navitus, and Express Scripts, have a tiered fee structure based on volume generated in the applicable payment period. Our PBM contracts, including our contracts with MedImpact, Navitus, and Express Scripts, do not contain minimum volume requirements, and thus do not provide for any assurance as to minimum payments to us. Our PBM contracts generally renew automatically, including our contracts with MedImpact and Navitus. In addition, our PBM contracts generally provide for continuing
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payments to us after such contracts are terminated, including our contracts with MedImpact, Navitus and Express Scripts. Some of our PBM contracts provide for these continuing payments for so long as negotiated rates related to the applicable PBM contract continue to be used after termination, and other contracts provide for these continuing payments for specified multi-year payment periods after termination. Our contracts with MedImpact, Navitus, and Express Scripts provide for periods of five years, three years, and five years, respectively, during which payments will be made as negotiated rates related to the applicable PBM contract continue to be used. Between contract renewals, our contracts generally provide for limited termination rights and do not provide for termination for convenience.
In addition, our PBM contracts typically include provisions that prevent PBMs from circumventing our platform, redirecting volumes outside of our platform and other protective measures. For example, our PBM contracts, including our contracts with MedImpact, Navitus, and Express Scripts, contain provisions that limit PBM use of our intellectual property related to our brand and platform and require PBMs to maintain the confidentiality of our data. While we have consistently renewed and extended the term of our contracts with PBMs over time, there can be no assurance that PBMs will enter into future contracts or renew existing contracts with us, or that any future contracts they enter into will be on equally favorable terms. Changes that limit or otherwise negatively impact our ability to receive fees from these partners would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Consolidation of PBMs or the loss of a PBM could negatively impact the discounts and prices that we present through our platform and may result in less competitive discounts and prices on our platform.
Our consumers use GoodRx codes at the point of purchase at nearby pharmacies. These codes can be used at over 70,000 pharmacies in the United States. The U.S. prescriptions market is dominated by a limited number of national and regional pharmacy chains, such as CVS, Kroger, Walmart and Walgreens. These pharmacy chains represent a significant portion of overall prescription medication transactions in the United States. Similarly, a significant portion of our discounted prices are used at a limited number of pharmacy chains and, as a result, a significant portion of our revenue is derived from transactions processed at a limited number of pharmacy chains.
We do not generate a significant percentage of revenue from mail delivery service. If one or more of these pharmacy chains terminates its cash network contracts with PBMs that we work with or enters into cash network contracts with PBMs that we work with at less competitive rates, our business may be negatively affected. This could be exacerbated by further consolidation of PBMs or pharmacy chains. If such changes, individually or in the aggregate, are material, they would have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. If there is a decline in revenue generated from any of the PBMs we contract with, as a result of consolidation of PBMs or pharmacy chains, pricing competition among industry participants or otherwise, if we are unable to maintain or grow our relationships with PBMs or if we lose one or more of the PBMs we contract with and cannot replace the PBM in a timely manner or at all, there would be an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We operate in a very competitive industry and we may fail to effectively differentiate our offerings and services from those of our competitors, which could impair our ability to attract and acquire new consumers and retain existing consumers.
The U.S. prescriptions market, pharma manufacturer solutions market and telehealth market are highly competitive and subject to ongoing innovation and development. Our ability to remain competitive is dependent upon our ability to appeal to consumers and attract and acquire new consumers to our platform, including through our apps. Our ability to remain competitive is also dependent upon our ability to retain existing consumers and encourage them to continue to use our platform as a tool for purchasing healthcare products and services. We operate in a highly competitive environment and in an industry that is subject to significant market pressures brought about by consumer demands, a limited number of major PBMs, fluctuations in medication pricing, legislative and regulatory activity, significant changes in demand and interest in telehealth and other market factors.
We compete with companies that provide savings on prescriptions, as well as companies that offer telehealth services and advertising and market access for pharma manufacturers. Within the prescriptions discounts and price comparison market, our competition is fragmented and consists of competitors that are larger and smaller than us in scale, including large e-commerce companies. There can be no assurance that competitors will not develop and market similar offerings to ours, or that industry participants, such as integrated PBMs and pharmacy providers, will not seek to leverage our platform to drive consumer demand and traffic to their networks and eventually away from, or outside of, our platform. We may face increased competition from those that attempt to replicate our business model or marketing tactics, such as discount websites, e-commerce websites, apps, cash back and loyalty programs and new comparison shopping sites from various industry participants, any of which could impact our ability to attract and retain consumers. We also face competition in the telehealth market from a range of companies, including providers of telehealth services that are larger than us, and which usually provide telehealth services on behalf of employers and insurance plans, such as Teladoc, Amwell, MDLIVE, and Doctor on Demand. Our pharma manufacturer solutions offering competes for advertising and market access budget allocation against traditional direct to consumer and other platforms on which pharmaceutical manufacturers can reach
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consumers, such as through physicians, health-related apps and websites, television advertisements and services supporting patient access. A competitor’s offerings, reputation and marketing strategies can have a substantial impact on its ability to attract and retain consumers, and we may face competition from existing or new market entrants with greater resources and better offerings, reputations and market strategies, which would have a negative impact on our business. Any such competitor may be better able to respond quickly to new technologies, develop deeper relationships with consumers and industry participants, including pharmacies, PBMs and telehealth providers, or offer more competitive discounts or pricing. While we negotiate protective terms related to our discounted prices, our intellectual property and our consumers with PBMs, our contracts with these parties are not exclusive and PBMs work with others in the industry to drive volume to their networks. For example, our contracts include provisions that, among others, restrict the ability of PBMs to compete with us and solicit our consumers. We aim to differentiate our business through scale and by innovating and delivering offerings and services, including medical care and advice through our telehealth offerings, that demonstrate value to our new and existing consumers, particularly in response to frequent changes in medication pricing and the cost of medical care. Our failure to innovate and deliver offerings and services that demonstrate value, or to market such offerings and services effectively, may affect our ability to acquire or retain consumers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We may also face competition from companies that we do not yet know about. If existing or new companies develop or market an offering similar to ours, develop an entirely new solution for access to affordable healthcare, acquire one of our existing competitors or form a strategic alliance with one of our competitors or other industry participants, our ability to compete effectively could be significantly impacted, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
A pandemic, epidemic or outbreak of an infectious disease in the United States, including the outbreak of COVID-19, could adversely impact our business.
Global health concerns relating to the COVID-19 pandemic have been weighing on the macroeconomic environment, and the pandemic has significantly increased economic uncertainty. GoodRx is closely monitoring how the spread of COVID-19 and its variants is affecting its employees, customers and business operations. The outbreak has resulted in authorities implementing numerous measures to try to contain the virus, such as travel bans and restrictions, quarantines, shelter-in-place orders, and business shutdowns. In particular for our business, governmental authorities have also recommended, and in certain cases, required, that elective or other medical appointments be suspended or cancelled to avoid non-essential patient exposure to medical environments and potential infection. These and other measures have not only negatively impacted consumer spending and business spending habits, they have adversely impacted and may further impact our workforce and operations and the operations of healthcare professionals, pharmacies, consumers, PBMs and others in the broader healthcare ecosystem. Although certain of these measures have eased, overall measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic may remain in place for a significant period of time, and certain geographic regions are experiencing resurgences of COVID-19 infections. The duration and severity of this pandemic is unknown and the extent of the business disruption and financial impact depend on factors beyond our knowledge and control.
Given the uncertainty around the duration and extent of the COVID-19 pandemic, we expect it to continue to impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and liquidity, but cannot accurately predict at this time the future potential impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations or liquidity. Various government measures, community self-isolation practices and shelter-in-place requirements, as well as the perceived need by individuals to continue such practices to avoid infection, have generally reduced the extent to which consumers visit healthcare professionals in-person, seek treatment for certain conditions or ailments, and receive and fill new prescriptions. Consumers may also increasingly elect to receive prescriptions by mail delivery instead of at the pharmacy, which could have an adverse impact on our prescription transactions offering. In addition, many pharmacies and healthcare providers have reduced staffing, closed locations or otherwise limited operations, and many prescribing healthcare professionals have reduced or postponed treatment of certain patients. The number of Monthly Active Consumers and our prescription transactions offering were adversely impacted principally in the second quarter of 2020 by consumers’ decisions to avoid visiting healthcare professionals and pharmacies in-person, which we believe has had a similar effect across the industry. The number of Monthly Active Consumers then increased starting from the third quarter of 2020 as the number of physician visits increased and as consumers partially resumed their interaction with the healthcare system. Even though we saw improved activity in our prescription transactions offering subsequent to the second quarter of 2020, we believe COVID-19 continues to have an adverse impact on the growth of our prescription transactions offering, due to the cumulative impact of lower healthcare utilization for almost two years since the pandemic began, and continued improvement in future periods remains uncertain. Any decrease in the number of consumers seeking to fill prescriptions could negatively impact demand for and use of certain of our offerings, particularly our prescription and subscription offerings, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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The spread of COVID-19 has also caused us to modify our business practices (including employee travel, employee work locations, and the cancellation of physical participation in meetings, events and conferences), and we may take further actions as may be required by government authorities or that we determine are in the best interests of our employees, consumers and partners. For example, we have implemented work-from-home measures, which have required us to provide technical support to our employees to enable them to connect to our systems from their homes. In addition, COVID-19 and the determination of appropriate measures and business practices has diverted management’s time and attention. If our employees are not able to effectively work from home, or if our employees contract COVID-19 or another contagious disease due to their return to work or otherwise, we may experience a decrease in productivity and operational efficiency, which would negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. There is also no certainty that the measures we have taken to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on our business will be sufficient or otherwise be satisfactory to government authorities. Further, because most of our employees are working remotely in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, we may experience an increased risk of security breaches, loss of data, and other disruptions as a result of accessing sensitive information from remote locations.
While the potential economic impact brought by and the duration of any pandemic, epidemic or outbreak of an infectious disease, including COVID-19, may be difficult to assess or predict, the widespread COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in, and may continue to result in, significant disruption of global financial markets, reducing our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity.
The full extent to which the outbreak of COVID-19 will impact our business, results of operations and financial condition is still unknown and will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including, but not limited to, the duration and spread of the pandemic, its severity, the actions to contain the virus or treat its impact, the effectiveness and availability of vaccines and how quickly and to what extent normal economic and operating conditions can resume. Even after the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, we may experience materially adverse impacts to our business as a result of its global economic impact, including any recession that has occurred or may occur in the future.
To the extent the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects our business, financial condition and results of operations, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors.”
Our estimated addressable market is subject to inherent challenges and uncertainties. If we have overestimated the size of our addressable market or the various markets in which we operate, our future growth opportunities may be limited.
Our TAM is based on internal estimates and third-party estimates regarding the size of each of the U.S. prescriptions market, pharma manufacturer solutions market and telehealth market, and is subject to significant uncertainty and is based on assumptions that may not prove to be accurate. In particular, we calculated the TAM for our prescription opportunity based on data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regarding the expected size of the U.S. prescription market in 2020, plus our estimated value of prescriptions that are written but not filled. This estimate is based on third-party reports and is subject to significant assumptions and estimates. Additionally, we calculated the TAM for our pharma manufacturer solutions opportunity based on data published in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association regarding the amount of advertising and marketing spending by U.S. pharma manufacturers in 2016. We calculated the TAM for our telehealth opportunity based on a report by McKinsey & Company regarding the extent to which amounts spent on outpatient office and home health visits in 2020 can be addressed via telehealth offerings. These estimates, as well as the estimates and forecasts elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K relating to the size and expected growth of the markets in which we operate, may change or prove to be inaccurate. While we believe the information on which we base our TAM is generally reliable, such information is inherently imprecise. In addition, our expectations, assumptions and estimates of future opportunities are necessarily subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described herein. If third-party or internally generated data prove to be inaccurate or we make errors in our assumptions based on that data, our future growth opportunities may be affected. Additionally, our TAM for our prescription transactions offering includes medications for which we are currently not able to offer savings on the prices paid by non-insured and insured consumers and for which we may not be able to provide savings on in the future. If our TAM, or the size of any of the various markets in which we operate, proves to be inaccurate, our future growth opportunities may be limited and there could be a material adverse effect on our prospects, business, financial condition and results of operations.
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We calculate certain operational metrics using internal systems and tools and do not independently verify such metrics. Certain metrics are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.
We present certain operational metrics in our SEC filings, including Monthly Active Consumers, Monthly Visitors, subscribers, subscription plans, GMV, savings and other metrics. We calculate these metrics using internal systems and tools that are not independently verified by any third party. These metrics may differ from estimates or similar metrics published by third parties or other companies due to differences in sources, methodologies or the assumptions on which we rely. Our internal systems and tools have a number of limitations, and our methodologies for tracking these metrics may change over time, which could result in unexpected changes to our metrics, including the metrics we publicly disclose on an ongoing basis. If the internal systems and tools we use to track these metrics undercount or overcount performance or contain algorithmic or other technical errors, the data we present may not be accurate. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our metrics for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring savings, the use of our platform and offerings and other metrics. For example, we believe that there are consumers who access our offerings through multiple accounts or channels, and that there are groups of consumers, such as families, who access our offerings through single accounts or channels, both of which impact our number of Monthly Visitors, as each channel is counted independently. In addition, limitations or errors with respect to how we measure data or with respect to the data that we measure may affect our understanding of certain details of our business, which would affect our long-term strategies. If our operating metrics or our estimates are not accurate representations of our business, or if investors do not perceive our operating metrics to be accurate, or if we discover material inaccuracies with respect to these figures, our reputation may be significantly harmed, and our operating and financial results could be adversely affected.
The telehealth market is immature and volatile, and if it does not develop, or if it develops more slowly than we expect, the growth of our business will be harmed.
The telehealth market is relatively new and unproven, and it is uncertain whether it will achieve and sustain high levels of demand, consumer acceptance and market adoption. The success of our telehealth offerings will depend to a substantial extent on the willingness of our consumers to use, and to increase the frequency and extent of their utilization of, our platform, as well as on our ability to demonstrate the value of telehealth to employers, health plans, government agencies and other purchasers of healthcare for beneficiaries. If any of these events do not occur or do not occur quickly, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our telehealth offerings depend in part on our ability to maintain and expand a network of skilled telehealth providers.
The success of our telehealth offerings depends in part on our continued ability to maintain a network of skilled and qualified telehealth providers. There is significant competition in the telehealth market for qualified telehealth providers, and if we are unable to recruit or retain physicians and other healthcare professionals and service providers, it would negatively impact the growth of our telehealth offerings and would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Negative media coverage could adversely affect our business.
We receive a high degree of media coverage in the United States. Unfavorable publicity regarding, for example, the healthcare industry, litigation or regulatory activity, the actions of the entities included or otherwise involved in our platform, negative perceptions of prescriptions included on our platform, medication pricing, pricing structures in place amongst the industry participants, our data privacy or data security practices, our platform or our revenue could materially adversely affect our reputation. Such negative publicity also could have an adverse effect on our ability to attract and retain consumers, partners, or employees, and result in decreased revenue, which would materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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We may be unable to successfully respond to changes in the market for prescription pricing, and may fail to maintain and expand the use of GoodRx codes through our apps and websites.
In recent years, we believe that consumer preferences and access to prescription medication discounts has increasingly shifted from traditional offline or analog channels, such as newspapers and by direct mail, to digital or electronic channels, such as apps, websites and by email. It is difficult to predict whether the pace of the transition from traditional to digital channels will continue at the same rate and whether the growth of the digital channel will continue. While we actively promote the use of our apps and websites, if the demand for digital channels does not continue to grow as we expect, or if we fail to successfully address this demand through our platforms, our business could be harmed. Consumer access and preferences for purchasing medications may evolve in ways which may be difficult to predict. Further, if PBMs or pharmacy chains elect to directly distribute pricing information through their own digital channels, or if new or existing competitors are faster or better at addressing consumer demand and preferences for digital channels, or are able to offer more accessible discounted prices to consumers, our ability and success in presenting discounted prices on our platform may be impeded and our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected. If we cannot maintain a sufficient offering of discounted prices on our platform, new consumers and existing consumers may perceive our platform as less relevant, consumer traffic to our platform could decline and, as a result, new consumers and existing consumers may decrease their use of our platform or subscription offerings, which would affect our contracts with certain partners included or otherwise involved in our platform and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may be unable to maintain a positive perception regarding our platform or maintain and enhance our brand.
A decrease in the quality or perceived quality of the discounted prices available through our platform, or of our telehealth offerings, could harm our reputation and damage our ability to attract and retain consumers and partners included or otherwise involved in our platform, which could adversely affect our business. Many factors that impact the perception of our offerings are beyond our control. For example, the success and perception of the GoodRx Telehealth Marketplace depends in part on the number, availability, and quality of service delivered by the telehealth providers included on the marketplace. While we can control which providers we include on the GoodRx Telehealth Marketplace, there can be no assurance that all such providers will consistently deliver the quality of service necessary to fulfill consumer expectations, and any negative experiences could have an adverse impact on our brand and reputation, which could impact consumer demand for our telehealth offerings and the extent to which providers seek to be included on or associated with the marketplace.
Maintaining and enhancing our GoodRx brand and the branding and image of our various offerings, such as GoodRx Care, is critical to our business and our ability to attract new and existing consumers to our platform. We expect that the promotion of our brand will require us to make substantial investments and as our market becomes more competitive, these branding initiatives may become increasingly difficult and expensive. The successful promotion of our brand will depend largely on our marketing and public relations efforts. If we do not successfully maintain and enhance our brand, we could lose consumer traffic, which could, in turn, cause PBMs and others to terminate or reduce the extent of their relationship with us. Our brand promotion activities may not be successful or may not yield net revenues sufficient to offset this cost, which could adversely affect our reputation and business.
We are obligated to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and any failure to maintain effective internal controls may cause us to not be able to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our Class A common stock.
As a public company, we are required, pursuant to Section 404 of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Section 404, to furnish a report by management on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. This assessment includes disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. We are also required to comply with, among other requirements, the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404.
Our compliance with Section 404 requires that we incur substantial costs and expend significant management efforts. We have engaged outside consultants who function in the capacity of an internal audit group, and we plan to continue to hire additional consultants, accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting
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knowledge as needed to maintain the system and process documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404.
We have had material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting in the past, and we cannot assure you that there will not be material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting in the future. Any failure to maintain internal control over financial reporting could severely inhibit our ability to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations. If we are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm determines that we have a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations, which could cause investors to lose confidence in our company, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy future material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.
Use of social media, emails and text messages may adversely impact our reputation, subject us to fines or other penalties or be an ineffective source to market our offerings.
We use social media, emails and text messages as part of our omnichannel approach to marketing and consumer outreach. Changes to these social networking services’ terms of use or terms of service that limit promotional communications, restrictions that would limit our ability or our consumers’ ability to send communications through their services, disruptions or downtime experienced by these social networking services or reductions in the use of or engagement with social networking services by consumers and potential consumers could also harm our business. As laws and regulations rapidly evolve to govern the use of these channels, the failure by us, our employees or third parties acting at our direction to abide by applicable laws and regulations in the use of these channels could adversely affect our reputation or subject us to fines or other penalties. In addition, our employees or third parties acting at our direction may knowingly or inadvertently make use of social media in ways that could lead to the loss or infringement of intellectual property, as well as the public disclosure of proprietary, confidential or sensitive personal information of our business, employees, consumers or others. Any such inappropriate use of social media, emails and text messages could also cause reputational damage and adversely affect our business.
Our consumers may engage with us online through our social media pages, including, for example, our presence on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, by providing feedback and public commentary about all aspects of our business. Information concerning us or our offerings and brands, whether accurate or not, may be posted on social media pages at any time and may have a disproportionately adverse impact on our brand, reputation or business. The harm may be immediate without affording us an opportunity for redress or correction and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Additionally, we use emails and text messages to communicate with consumers and we collect consumer data, including email addresses and phone numbers, to further our marketing efforts with such consenting consumers. If we fail to adequately or accurately collect such data or if our data collection systems are breached, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed. Further, any failure, or perceived failure, by us, or any third parties processing such data, to comply with privacy policies or with any federal or state privacy or consumer protection-related laws, regulations, industry self-regulatory principles, industry standards or codes of conduct, regulatory guidance, orders to which we may be subject or other legal obligations relating to privacy or consumer protection would adversely affect our reputation, brand and business, and may result in claims, proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities, consumers, suppliers or others or other liabilities or may require us to change our operations and/or cease using certain data sets.
We rely on information technology to operate our business and maintain competitiveness, and must adapt to technological developments or industry trends.
Our ability to attract new consumers and increase revenue from our existing consumers depends in large part on our ability to enhance and improve our existing offerings, increase adoption and usage of our offerings, and introduce new features and capabilities. The markets in which we compete are relatively new and subject to rapid technological change, evolving industry standards, and changing regulations, as well as changing consumer needs, requirements and preferences. The success of our business will depend, in part, on our ability to adapt and respond effectively to these changes on a timely basis.
We depend on the use of information technologies and systems. As our operations grow, we must continuously improve and upgrade our systems and infrastructure while maintaining or improving the reliability and integrity of our infrastructure. Our future success also depends on our ability to adapt our systems and infrastructure to meet rapidly evolving consumer trends and demands while continuing to improve the performance, features and reliability of our solutions in response to competitive services and offerings. The emergence of alternative platforms such as smartphones and tablets and the
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emergence of niche competitors who may be able to optimize offerings, services or strategies for such platforms will require new investment in technology. New developments in other areas, such as cloud computing, have made it easier for competition to enter our markets due to lower up-front technology costs. In addition, we may not be able to maintain our existing systems or replace or introduce new technologies and systems as quickly as we would like or in a cost-effective manner. There is also no guarantee that we will possess the financial resources or personnel, for the research, design and development of new applications or services, or that we will be able to utilize these resources successfully and avoid technological or market obsolescence. Further, there can be no assurance that technological advances by one or more of our competitors or future competitors will not result in our present or future applications and services becoming uncompetitive or obsolete. If we were unable to enhance our offerings and platform capabilities to keep pace with rapid technological and regulatory change, or if new technologies emerge that are able to deliver competitive offerings at lower prices, more efficiently, more conveniently or more securely than our offerings, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We depend on our information technology systems, and those of our third-party vendors, contractors and consultants, and any failure or significant disruptions of these systems, security breaches or loss of data could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We collect and maintain information in digital form that is necessary to conduct our business, and we are increasingly dependent on information technology systems and infrastructure (“IT Systems”) to operate our business. In the ordinary course of our business, we collect, store and transmit large amounts of confidential information, including intellectual property, proprietary business information and personal information. It is critical that we do so in a secure manner to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of such confidential information. We have established physical, electronic and organizational measures to safeguard and secure our systems to prevent a data compromise, and rely on commercially available systems, software, tools, and monitoring to provide security for our IT Systems and the processing, transmission and storage of digital information. We have also outsourced elements of our IT Systems and data storage systems, and as a result a number of third-party vendors may or could have access to our confidential information.
Despite the implementation of preventative and detective security controls, such IT Systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption from a variety of sources, including telecommunications or network failures or interruptions, system malfunction, natural disasters, malicious human acts, terrorism and war. Such IT Systems, including our servers, are additionally vulnerable to physical or electronic break-ins, security breaches from inadvertent or intentional actions by our employees, third-party service providers, contractors, consultants, business partners, and/or other third parties, or from cyber-attacks by malicious third parties (including the deployment of harmful malware, ransomware, denial-of-service attacks, social engineering, and other means to affect service reliability and threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information). As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we may face increased cybersecurity risks due to our reliance on internet technology and the number of our employees who are working remotely, which may create additional opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit vulnerabilities. We may not be able to anticipate all types of security threats, and we may not be able to implement preventive measures effective against all such security threats. The techniques used by cyber criminals change frequently, may not be recognized until launched, and can originate from a wide variety of sources, including outside groups such as external service providers, organized crime affiliates, terrorist organizations, or hostile foreign governments or agencies.
In addition, the prevalent use of mobile devices that access confidential information increases the risk of data security breaches, which could lead to the loss of confidential information or other intellectual property. We can provide no assurance that our current IT Systems, or those of the third parties upon which we rely, are fully protected against cybersecurity threats. It is possible that we or our third-party vendors may experience cybersecurity and other breach incidents that remain undetected for an extended period. Even when a security breach is detected, the full extent of the breach may not be determined immediately. The costs to us to mitigate network security problems, bugs, viruses, worms, malicious software programs and security vulnerabilities could be significant, and while we have implemented security measures to protect our data security and IT Systems, our efforts to address these problems may not be successful, and these problems could result in unexpected interruptions, delays, cessation of service and other harm to our business and our competitive position. If such an event were to occur and cause interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our offerings to consumers. Moreover, we and our third-party vendors collect, store and transmit sensitive data, including health-related information, personally identifiable information, intellectual property and proprietary business information in the ordinary course of our business. If a computer security breach affects our systems or results in the unauthorized release of personally identifiable information, our reputation could be materially damaged. In addition, such breaches may require notification to governmental agencies, the media or individuals pursuant to various federal and state privacy and security laws, if applicable, including HIPAA as well as regulations promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") and state breach notification laws. We would also be exposed to a risk of loss or litigation and potential liability, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
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If our or our third-party vendors’ security measures fail or are breached, it could result in unauthorized access to confidential and proprietary business information, intellectual property, sensitive consumer data (including health-related information) or other personally identifiable information of our consumers, employees, partners or contractors, a loss of or damage to our data, or an inability to access data sources, process data or provide our services. Such failures or breaches of our or our third-party vendors’ security measures, or our or our third-party vendors’ inability to effectively resolve such failures or breaches in a timely manner, could severely damage our reputation, adversely impact consumer, partner, or investor confidence in us, and reduce the demand for our solutions and services. In addition, we could face litigation, significant damages for contract breach or other breaches of law, significant monetary penalties, or regulatory actions for violation of applicable laws or regulations, and incur significant costs for remedial measures to prevent future occurrences and mitigate past violations. The costs related to significant security breaches or disruptions could be material and exceed the limits of the cybersecurity insurance we maintain against such risks. If the IT Systems of our third-party vendors become subject to disruptions or security breaches, we may have insufficient recourse against such third parties and we may have to expend significant resources to mitigate the impact of such an event, and to develop and implement protections to prevent future events of this nature from occurring. Any disruption or loss to IT Systems on which critical aspects of our operations depend could have an adverse effect on our business.
Government regulation of the internet and e-commerce is evolving, and unfavorable changes or failure by us to comply with these laws and regulations could substantially harm our business and results of operations.
We are subject to general business regulations and laws specifically governing the internet and e-commerce. Furthermore, the regulatory landscape impacting these areas is constantly evolving. Existing and future regulations and laws could impede the growth of the internet, e-commerce or other online services. These regulations and laws may involve taxation, tariffs, privacy and data security, anti-spam, data protection, content, copyrights, distribution, electronic contracts, electronic communications, money laundering, electronic payments and consumer protection. It is not clear how existing laws and regulations governing issues such as property ownership, sales and other taxes, libel and personal privacy apply to the internet as the vast majority of these laws and regulations were adopted prior to the advent of the internet and do not contemplate or address the unique issues raised by the internet or e-commerce. It is possible that general business regulations and laws, or those specifically governing the internet or e-commerce may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices.
We cannot assure you that our practices have complied, comply or will in the future comply with all such laws and regulations. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with any of these laws or regulations could result in damage to our reputation, a loss in business, and proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others. For example, recent automatic renewal laws, which require companies to adhere to enhanced disclosure requirements when entering into automatically renewing contracts with consumers, resulted in class action lawsuits against companies that offer online products and services on a subscription or recurring basis. These and similar proceedings or actions could hurt our reputation, force us to spend significant resources in defense of these proceedings, distract our management, increase our costs of doing business, and cause consumers and paid merchants to decrease their use of our platform, and may result in the imposition of monetary liability. We may also be contractually liable to indemnify and hold harmless third parties from the costs or consequences of non-compliance with any such laws or regulations. In addition, it is possible that governments of one or more countries may seek to censor content available on our apps and websites or may even attempt to completely block access to our platform. Adverse legal or regulatory developments could substantially harm our business.
Our business relies on email, mail and other messaging channels and any technical, legal or other restrictions on the sending of such correspondence or a decrease in consumer willingness to receive such correspondence could adversely affect our business.
Our business depends in part upon the emailing and mailing of promotional materials, cards with GoodRx codes and other information to consumers and healthcare providers, and is also significantly dependent on email and other messaging channels, such as text messages. We distribute pricing information and other promotional materials in the mail, and also provide emails, mobile alerts and other messages to consumers informing them of the discounted prices available on our apps and websites. These communications help generate a significant portion of our revenues. Because email, mail and other messaging channels are important to our business, if we are unable to successfully deliver messages to consumers through these channels, if there are legal restrictions on delivering such messages to consumers, if consumers do not or cannot open or otherwise utilize our messages or if consumers reject the receipt of communications referencing particular prescriptions or conditions, our revenues and profitability would be adversely affected.
Actions taken by third parties that block, impose restrictions on or charge for the delivery of these communications could also harm our business. For example, from time to time, internet service providers or other third parties may block bulk communications or otherwise experience difficulties that result in our inability to successfully deliver communications to consumers. In addition, our use of mail, email and other messaging channels to send communications about our platform
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or other matters, including health related topics referencing particular prescriptions or conditions, may result in legal claims against us, which if successful might limit or prohibit our ability to send such communications.
We rely on a single third-party service provider for the delivery of substantially all of our mailing communications and rely on third-party service providers for delivery of emails, text messages and other forms of electronic communication. If we were unable to use any one of our current service providers, alternate providers are available; however, we believe our revenue could be impacted for some period as we transition to a new provider, and the new provider may be unable to provide equivalent or satisfactory services. Any disruption or restriction on the distribution of our communications, termination or disruption of our relationships with our third-party service providers, particularly our single third-party service provider for the delivery of mail communications, or any increase in the associated costs, may be beyond our control and would adversely affect our business.
We face the risk of litigation resulting from unauthorized text messages sent in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
We send short message service (“SMS”) text messages to individuals who are eligible to use our service. The actual or perceived improper sending of text messages may subject us to potential risks, including liabilities or claims relating to consumer protection laws. Numerous class action suits under federal and state laws have been filed in recent years against companies who conduct SMS texting programs, with many resulting in multi-million-dollar settlements to the plaintiffs. We have been, and in the future may be subject to such litigation, which could be costly and time-consuming to defend. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991, a federal statute that protects consumers from unwanted telephone calls, faxes and text messages, restricts telemarketing and the use of automated SMS text messages without proper consent. Federal or state regulatory authorities or private litigants may claim that the notices and disclosures we provide, form of consents we obtain or our SMS texting practices are not adequate or violate applicable law. This has resulted and may in the future result in civil claims against us. The scope and interpretation of the laws that are or may be applicable to the delivery of text messages are continuously evolving and developing. If we do not comply with these laws or regulations or if we become liable under these laws or regulations, we could face direct liability, could be required to change some portions of our business model, could face negative publicity and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Even an unsuccessful challenge of our SMS texting practices by our consumers, regulatory authorities or other third parties could result in negative publicity and could require a costly response from and defense by us.
Actual or perceived failures to comply with applicable data protection, privacy and security, advertising and consumer protection laws, regulations, standards and other requirements could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on a variety of marketing techniques, including email and social media marketing and postal mailings, and we are subject to various laws, regulations and regulatory interpretations that govern such marketing and advertising practices. A variety of federal and state laws, regulations and regulatory interpretations govern the collection, use, retention, sharing and security of consumer data, particularly in the context of online advertising, which we rely upon to attract new consumers.
Laws, regulations and regulatory interpretations relating to privacy, data protection, marketing and advertising, and consumer protection are evolving and subject to potentially differing interpretations, particularly as they involve classes of data deemed to be sensitive. These requirements may be interpreted and applied in a manner that varies from one jurisdiction to another and/or may conflict with other law, regulations and regulatory interpretations. As a result, our practices may not have complied or may not comply in the future with all such laws, regulations, requirements and obligations. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us or any of our third-party partners, data centers, or service providers to comply with privacy policies or federal or state privacy or consumer protection-related laws, regulations, regulatory interpretations, industry self-regulatory principles, industry standards or codes of conduct, regulatory guidance, orders to which we may be subject, or other legal obligations relating to privacy or consumer protection, could adversely affect our reputation, brand and business, and may result in claims, proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities, consumers, suppliers or others. These proceedings may result in financial liabilities or may require us to change our operations, including ceasing the use or sharing of certain data sets, or modifying marketing and other user engagement programs and plans. Any such claims, proceedings or actions could hurt our reputation, brand and business, force us to incur significant expenses in defense of such proceedings or actions, distract our management, increase our costs of doing business, result in a loss of consumers, suppliers, and contracts with PBMs and others and result in the imposition of monetary penalties. We are also contractually required to indemnify and hold harmless certain third parties from the costs or consequences of non-compliance with any laws, regulations, regulatory interpretations, or other legal obligations relating to privacy or consumer protection or any inadvertent or unauthorized use or disclosure of data that we store or handle as part of operating our business. Federal and state governmental authorities continue to evaluate the privacy implications inherent in the use of third-party cross-site behavioral advertising technologies and other methods of online tracking for behavioral advertising and other purposes.
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The U.S. federal and state governments have enacted, and may in the future enact legislation, regulations and regulatory interpretations impacting the ability of companies and individuals to engage in these activities, such as by regulating the level of consumer notice and consent required before a company can employ cross-site behavioral advertising technologies or other electronic tracking tools or the use of data gathered with such tools. Additionally, some providers of consumer devices and web browsers have implemented, or announced plans to implement, limits on behavioral or targeted advertising and/or means to make it easier for internet users to prevent the placement of cross-site behavioral advertising technologies or to block other tracking technologies, which could, if widely adopted, result in the decreased effectiveness or use of third-party cross-site behavioral advertising technologies and other methods of online tracking, targeting or re-targeting. The regulation of the use of these cross-site behavioral advertising technologies and other current online tracking and advertising practices or a loss in our ability to make effective use of services that employ such technologies could increase our costs of operations and limit our ability to acquire new consumers on cost-effective terms and consequently, materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The CCPA, which became effective on January 1, 2020, creates individual privacy rights for California consumers and increases the privacy and security obligations of entities handling certain personal data. For example, the CCPA gives California residents expanded rights to access and require deletion of their personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing and receive detailed information about how their personal information is used. Failure to comply with the CCPA may result in attorney general enforcement action and damage to our reputation. We have enacted and will continue to enact changes to ensure compliance with the CCPA. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation.
In addition, self-regulatory organizations may expand current laws, regulations and regulatory interpretations, enact new laws, regulations and regulatory interpretations or issue revised rules or guidance regarding privacy, data protection, consumer protection, and advertising. For example, the California Privacy Rights Act (the “CPRA”) recently passed in California. The CPRA will impose additional data protection obligations on companies doing business in California, including additional consumer rights processes, limitations on data uses, new audit requirements for higher risk data, and opt outs for certain uses of sensitive data. It will also create a new California data protection agency authorized to issue substantive regulations and could result in increased privacy and information security enforcement. The majority of the provisions will go into effect on January 1, 2023, and additional compliance investment and potential business process changes may be required. Further, certain states have passed similar laws and many similar laws have been proposed at the federal level and in other states. For instance, the state of Nevada enacted a law that went into force on October 1, 2019 and requires companies to honor consumers’ requests to no longer sell their data. Violators may be subject to injunctions and civil penalties.
Additionally, the interpretations of existing federal and state consumer protection laws relating to online collection, use, dissemination, and security of health related and other personal information adopted by the FTC state attorneys general, private plaintiffs, and courts have evolved, and may continue to evolve, over time. Consumer protection and certain state data privacy laws like the CCPA require us to publish statements that describe how
we handle personal information and choices individuals may have about the way we handle or provide access to their personal information. If such information that we publish is considered untrue, we may be subject to government claims of unfair or deceptive trade practices, which could lead to significant liabilities and consequences. Furthermore, according to the FTC, violating consumers’ privacy rights or failing to take appropriate steps to keep consumers’ personal information secure may constitute unfair acts or practices in or affecting commerce and thus violate Section 5(a) of the FTC Act. The FTC expects a company’s data security measures to be reasonable and appropriate in light of the sensitivity and volume of consumer information it holds, the size and complexity of its business, and the cost of available tools to improve security and reduce vulnerabilities. Individually identifiable health information is considered sensitive data that merits stronger safeguards. In March 2020, we received a letter from the FTC indicating its intent to investigate our privacy and security practices to determine whether such practices comply with Section 5 of the FTC Act. In April 2020, the FTC sent an initial request for information to us regarding our sharing of data regarding individuals’ use of our website, app and services with service providers, including Google and Facebook. Since April 2020, we have timely responded to the FTC’s information requests and follow-up questions. On October 14, 2021, staff at the FTC notified us that it intends to recommend that the agency pursue an enforcement action against us and certain of our officers and employees. On January 12, 2022, staff at the FTC sent us a draft complaint and consent order. We believe we have complied with applicable laws, regulations and regulatory interpretations and that we have meritorious defenses to any claims or assertions to the contrary, and therefore intend to defend ourselves vigorously. No assurance can be given regarding the outcome of this matter. For further information regarding the FTC matter, see Note 13 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
As a result of pending or any future regulatory enforcement proceedings and inquiries, there may be settlements, enforcement actions, or related litigation that could include monetary penalties and/or compliance requirements that may (1) impose significant and material costs, (2) require us to make modifications to our data practices and our marketing programs, (3) result in negative publicity, or (4) have a negative impact on consumer demand for our products and services,
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or on our commercial or industry relationships. There may also be significant and material resource burdens on us, require certain aspects of our operations to be overseen by an independent monitor, and/or limit or eliminate our ability to use certain targeting marketing strategies or work with certain third-party vendors. Any of these events could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results
In addition, HIPAA, which applies to parts of our business, imposes on entities within its jurisdiction, among other things, certain standards relating to the privacy, security, transmission and breach reporting of individually identifiable health information. For example, HIPAA imposes privacy, security and breach reporting obligations with respect to individually identifiable health information upon “covered entities” (health plans, health care clearinghouses and certain health care providers), and their respective business associates, individuals or entities that create, receive, maintain or transmit protected health information in connection with providing a service for or on behalf of a covered entity. HIPAA mandates the reporting of certain breaches of health information to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS"), affected individuals and if the breach is large enough, the media. We have experienced such breaches in the past and could be exposed to a risk of loss or litigation and potential liability, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Certain states have adopted or are considering adopting comparable privacy and security laws, regulations and regulatory interpretations, some of which may be more stringent or expansive than HIPAA. In addition, legislative proposals on the federal level include comparable privacy and security laws, regulations and regulatory interpretations, which may be more stringent or expansive than HIPAA. Such laws, regulations and regulatory interpretations will be subject to interpretation by various courts and other governmental authorities, thus creating potentially complex compliance issues for us and our consumers and strategic partners.
Our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
Under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”) if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change” (generally defined as a change (by value) in its equity ownership by more than 50 percentage points over a rolling three-year period), the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss (“NOL”), carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes to offset its post-change income may be limited. As of December 31, 2021, we completed a study to assess whether an ownership change under Section 382 of the Code has occurred, or whether there have been multiple ownership changes since our formation. We determined that a Section 382 ownership change occurred in 2018, however did not materially impact our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes generated that year. We may also experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership. If finalized, Treasury Regulations currently proposed under Section 382 of the Code may further limit our ability to utilize our pre-change NOLs or credits if we undergo a future ownership change. Further, U.S. tax laws limit the time during which NOL carryforwards generated before January 1, 2018 may be applied against future taxes. While NOL carryforwards generated on or after January 1, 2018 are not subject to expiration, the deductibility of such NOL carryforwards is limited to 80% of our taxable income for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2021. For these reasons, our ability to utilize NOL carryforwards and other tax attributes to reduce future tax liabilities may be limited.
We rely on the performance of members of management and highly skilled personnel, and if we are unable to attract, develop, motivate and retain well-qualified employees, our business could be harmed.
Our ability to maintain our competitive position is largely dependent on the services of our senior management and other key personnel. In addition, our future success depends on our continuing ability to attract, develop, motivate and retain highly qualified and skilled employees. Competition for such personnel is extremely intense. We have experienced and may continue to experience difficulties in hiring and retaining these personnel at compensation levels consistent with our existing compensation and salary structure. Some of the companies with which we compete for experienced employees have greater resources than we have and may be able to offer more attractive terms of employment. In addition, the loss of any of our senior management or other key employees or our inability to recruit and develop mid-level managers could materially and adversely affect our ability to execute our business plan and we may be unable to find adequate replacements. All of our employees are at-will employees, meaning that they may terminate their employment relationship with us at any time, and their knowledge of our business and industry would be extremely difficult to replace. If we fail to retain talented senior management and other key personnel, or if we do not succeed in attracting well-qualified employees or retaining and motivating existing employees, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.
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General economic factors, natural disasters or other unexpected events may adversely affect our business, financial performance and results of operations.
Although we only operate in the United States, our business, financial performance and results of operations depend in part on worldwide macroeconomic economic conditions and their impact on consumer spending. Recessionary economic cycles, higher interest rates, volatile fuel and energy costs, inflation, levels of unemployment, conditions in the residentialreal estate and mortgage markets, access to credit, consumer debt levels, unsettled financial markets and other economic factors that may affect costs of manufacturing prescription medications, consumer spending or buying habits could materially and adversely affect demand for our offerings. Volatility in the financial markets has also had and may continue to have a negative impact on consumer spending patterns. In addition, negative national or global economic conditions may materially and adversely affect the PBMs we contract with and their associated pharmacy networks, financial performance, liquidity and access to capital. This may affect their ability to renew contracts with us on the same or better terms, which could impact the competitiveness of the discounted prices we are able to offer our consumers, which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Economic factors such as increased insurance and healthcare costs, commodity prices, shipping costs, inflation, higher costs of labor, and changes in or interpretations of other laws, regulations and taxes may also increase our costs and our make our offerings less competitive, increase general and administrative expenses, and otherwise adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, public health crises, natural disasters, such as earthquakes and wildfires, and other adverse weather and climate conditions, political crises, such as terrorist attacks, war and other political instability or other unexpected events, could disrupt our operations, internet or mobile networks or the operations of PBMs and their pharmacy networks. For example, our corporate headquarters and other facilities are located in California, which in the past has experienced both severe earthquakes and wildfires. If any of these events occurs, our business could be adversely affected.
We may seek to grow our business through acquisitions of, or investments in, new or complementary businesses, technologies or products, or through strategic alliances, and the failure to manage these acquisitions, investments or alliances, or to integrate them with our existing business, could have a material adverse effect on us.
We have completed a number of strategic acquisitions in the past, including Sappira Inc. (d.b.a. GoodRx Care, f.k.a. HeyDoctor) and FocusScript LLC in 2019, Scriptcycle, LLC ("Scriptcycle") in 2020, and HealthiNation, RxSaver and RxNXT LLC in 2021, and may in the future consider opportunities to acquire or make investments in new or complementary businesses, technologies, offerings, or products, or enter into strategic alliances, that may enhance our capabilities, expand our pharmacy or PBM networks and healthcare platform in general, complement our current offerings or expand the breadth of our markets. Our ability to successfully grow through these types of strategic transactions depends upon our ability to identify, negotiate, complete and integrate suitable target businesses, technologies and products and to obtain any necessary financing, and is subject to numerous risks, including:
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failure to identify acquisition, investment or other strategic alliance opportunities that we deem suitable or available on favorable terms;
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problems integrating the acquired business, technologies or products, including issues maintaining uniform standards, procedures, controls and policies;
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unanticipated costs associated with acquisitions, investments or strategic alliances;
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adverse impacts on our overall margins;
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diversion of management’s attention from our existing business;
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adverse effects on existing business relationships with consumers, pharmacies and PBMs;
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risks associated with entering new markets in which we may have limited or no experience;
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potential loss of key employees of acquired businesses; and
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increased legal and accounting compliance costs.
In addition, a significant portion of the purchase price of companies we acquire may be allocated to acquired goodwill and other intangible assets. In the future, if our acquisitions do not yield expected returns, we may be required to take impairment charges to our results of operations based on our impairment assessment process, which could harm our results of operations.
If we are unable to identify suitable acquisitions or strategic relationships, or if we are unable to integrate any acquired businesses, technologies and products effectively, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be
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materially and adversely affected. Also, while we employ several different methodologies to assess potential business opportunities, the new businesses may not meet or exceed our expectations.
Restrictions in our debt arrangements could adversely affect our operating flexibility, and failure to comply with any of these restrictions could result in acceleration of our debt.
As of December 31, 2021, we had $674.1 million of principal amounts outstanding under a term loan that requires quarterly principal payments through September 2025. We also have a revolving credit facility and as of December 31, 2021, we had no borrowings outstanding under our revolving credit facility (see Note 12 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further details). Our current and additional debt arrangements that we expect to enter into in the future may limit our ability to, among other things:
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incur or guarantee additional debt;
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pay dividends and make other restricted payments;
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make certain investments and acquisitions;
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incur certain liens or permit them to exist;
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consolidate, merge or otherwise transfer, sell or dispose of all or substantially all of our assets;
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enter into certain types of restrictive agreements; and
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enter into certain types of transactions with affiliates.
We are also required to comply with certain financial ratios set forth in our existing debt arrangements. Certain provisions in our current and future debt arrangements may affect our ability to obtain future financing and to pursue attractive business opportunities and our flexibility in planning for, and reacting to, changes in business conditions. As a result, restrictions in our current and future debt arrangements could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with the provisions of our current and future debt arrangements could result in a default or an event of default that could enable our lenders to declare the outstanding principal of that debt, together with accrued and unpaid interest, to be immediately due and payable. If we were unable to repay those amounts, the lenders under our existing and any other future secured debt agreements could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure that indebtedness.
We have pledged substantially all of our subsidiaries’ assets, including, among other things, equity interests of GoodRx, Inc. and its subsidiaries, as collateral under our existing debt arrangements. If the payment of outstanding amounts under our existing debt arrangement is accelerated, our assets may be insufficient to repay such amounts in full, and our common stockholders could experience a partial or total loss of their investment.
Our business depends on network and mobile infrastructure and our ability to maintain and scale our technology. Any significant interruptions or delays in service on our apps or websites or any undetected errors or design faults could result in limited capacity, reduced demand, processing delays and loss of consumers.
A key element of our strategy is to generate a significant number of visitors to, and their use of, our apps and websites. Our reputation and ability to acquire, retain and serve our consumers are dependent upon the reliable performance of our apps and websites and the underlying network infrastructure. As our base of consumers and the amount of information shared on our apps and websites continue to grow, we will need an increasing amount of network capacity and computing power. We have spent and expect to continue to spend substantial amounts on computing, including cloud computing and the related infrastructure, to handle the traffic on our apps and websites. The operation of these systems is complex and could result in operational failures. In the event that the traffic of our consumers exceeds the capacity of our current network infrastructure or in the event that our base of consumers or the amount of traffic on our apps and websites grows more quickly than anticipated, we may be required to incur significant additional costs to enhance the underlying network infrastructure. Interruptions or delays in these systems, whether due to system failures, computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins, undetected errors, design faults or other unexpected events or causes, could affect the security or availability of our apps and websites and prevent our consumers from accessing our apps and websites. If sustained or repeated, these performance issues could reduce the attractiveness of our offerings. In addition, the costs and complexities involved in expanding and upgrading our systems may prevent us from doing so in a timely manner and may prevent us from adequately meeting the demand placed on our systems. Any internet or mobile platform interruption or inadequacy that causes performance issues or interruptions in the availability of our apps or websites could reduce consumer satisfaction and result in a reduction in the number of consumers using our offerings.
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We depend on the development and maintenance of the internet and mobile infrastructure. This includes maintenance of reliable internet and mobile infrastructure with the necessary speed, data capacity and security, as well as timely development of complementary offerings, for providing reliable internet and mobile access. Our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected if for any reason the reliability of our internet and mobile infrastructure is compromised.
We currently rely upon third-party data storage providers, including cloud storage solution providers, such as Amazon Web Services and some specific uses of Google Cloud Platform. Nearly all of our data storage and analytics are conducted on, and the data and content we create associated with sales on our apps and websites are processed through, servers hosted by these providers, particularly Amazon Web Services. We also rely on email service providers, bandwidth providers, internet service providers and mobile networks to deliver email and “push” communications to consumers and to allow consumers to access our websites. If our third-party vendors are unable or unwilling to provide the services necessary to support our business, or if our agreements with such vendors are terminated, our operations could be significantly disrupted. Some of our vendor agreements may be unilaterally terminated by the licensor for convenience, including with respect to Amazon Web Services, and if such agreements are terminated, we may not be able to enter into similar relationships in the future on reasonable terms or at all.
Any damage to, or failure of, our systems or the systems of our third-party data centers or our other third-party providers could result in interruptions to the availability or functionality of our apps and websites. As a result, we could lose consumer data and miss opportunities to acquire and retain consumers, which could result in decreased revenue. If for any reason our arrangements with our data centers or third-party providers are terminated or interrupted, such termination or interruption could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We exercise little control over these providers, which increases our vulnerability to problems with the services they provide. We could experience additional expense in arranging for new facilities, technology, services and support. In addition, the failure of our third-party data centers or any other third-party providers to meet our capacity requirements could result in interruption in the availability or functionality of our apps and websites.
The satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our apps, websites, transaction processing systems and technology infrastructure are critical to our reputation and our ability to acquire and retain consumers, as well as to maintain adequate consumer service levels. Our revenue depends in part on the number of consumers that visit and use our apps and websites in fulfilling their healthcare needs. Unavailability of our apps or websites could materially and adversely affect consumer perception of our brand. Any slowdown or failure of our apps, websites or the underlying technology infrastructure could harm our business, reputation and our ability to acquire, retain and serve our consumers.
The occurrence of a natural disaster, power loss, telecommunications failure, data loss, computer virus, an act of terrorism, cyberattack, vandalism or sabotage, act of war or any similar event, or a decision to close our third-party data centers on which we normally operate or the facilities of any other third-party provider without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems at these facilities could result in lengthy interruptions in the availability of our apps and websites. Cloud computing, in particular, is dependent upon having access to an internet connection in order to retrieve data. If a natural disaster, blackout or other unforeseen event were to occur that disrupted the ability to obtain an internet connection, we may experience a slowdown or delay in our operations. While we have some limited disaster recovery arrangements in place, our preparations may not be adequate to account for disasters or similar events that may occur in the future and may not effectively permit us to continue operating in the event of any problems with respect to our systems or those of our third-party data centers or any other third-party facilities. Our disaster recovery and data redundancy plans may be inadequate, and our business interruption insurance may not be sufficient to compensate us for the losses that could occur. If any such event were to occur to our business, our operations could be impaired and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
We rely on third-party platforms such as the Apple App Store and Google Play App Store, to distribute our platform and offerings.
Our apps are accessed and operate through third-party platforms or marketplaces, including the Apple App Store and Google Play App Store, which also serve as significant online distribution platforms for our apps. As a result, the expansion and prospects of our business and our apps depend on our continued relationships with these providers and any other emerging platform providers that are widely adopted by consumers. We are subject to the standard terms and conditions that these providers have for application developers, which govern the content, promotion, distribution and operation of apps on their platforms or marketplaces, and which the providers can change unilaterally on short or no notice. Our business would be harmed if the providers discontinue or limit our access to their platforms or marketplaces; the platforms or marketplaces decline in popularity; the platforms modify their algorithms, communication channels available to developers, respective terms of service or other policies, including fees; the providers adopt changes or updates to their technology that impede integration with other software systems or otherwise require us to modify our technology or update our apps in order to ensure that consumers can continue to access and use our GoodRx codes and pricing information.
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If alternative providers increase in popularity, we could be adversely impacted if we fail to create compatible versions of our apps in a timely manner, or if we fail to establish a relationship with such alternative providers. Likewise, if our current providers alter their operating platforms, we could be adversely impacted as our offerings may not be compatible with the altered platforms or may require significant and costly modifications in order to become compatible. If our providers do not perform their obligations in accordance with our platform agreements, we could be adversely impacted.
In the past, some of these platforms or marketplaces have been unavailable for short periods of time. If this or a similar event were to occur on a short- or long-term basis, or if these platforms or marketplaces otherwise experience issues that impact the ability of consumers to download or access our apps and other information, it could have a material adverse effect on our brand and reputation, as well as our business, financial condition and operating results.
We rely on software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) technologies from third parties.
We rely on SaaS technologies from third parties in order to operate critical functions of our business, including financial management services, relationship management services, marketing services and data storage services. For example, we rely on Amazon Web Services for a substantial portion of our computing and storage capacity, and rely on Google for storage capacity and advertising services. Amazon Web Services provides us with computing and storage capacity pursuant to an agreement that continues until terminated by either party. Amazon Web Services may terminate its agreement with us by providing 30 days prior written notice. Similarly, Google provides us with storage capacity and advertising services, and may update the terms of its services unilaterally by providing advance notice and posting changed terms on its website. Google may also terminate its agreements with us immediately upon notice. Our other vendor agreements may be unilaterally terminated by the counterparty for convenience. If these services become unavailable due to contract cancellations, extended outages or interruptions or because they are no longer available on commercially reasonable terms or prices, or for any other reason, our expenses could increase, our ability to manage our finances could be interrupted, our processes for managing our offerings and supporting our consumers and partners could be impaired and our ability to access or save data stored to the cloud may be impaired until equivalent services, if available, are identified, obtained and implemented, all of which could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We depend on our relationships with third parties and would be adversely impacted by system failures or other disruptions in the operations of these parties.
We use and rely on services from third parties, such as our telecommunications services, and those services may be subject to outages and interruptions that are not within our control. Failures by our telecommunications providers may interrupt our ability to provide phone support to our consumers and distributed denial of service attacks directed at our telecommunication service providers could prevent consumers from accessing our websites. In addition, we have in the past and may in the future experience down periods where our third-party credit card processors are unable to process the payments of our consumers, disrupting our ability to process or receive revenue from our subscription offerings. Disruptions to our consumer support, website and credit card processing services could lead to consumer dissatisfaction, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Changes in consumer sentiment or laws, rules or regulations regarding the use of cookies and other tracking technologies and other privacy matters could have a material adverse effect on our ability to generate net revenues and could adversely affect our ability to collect proprietary data on consumer behavior.
Consumers may become increasingly resistant to the collection, use and sharing of information online, including information used to deliver and optimize advertising, and take steps to prevent such collection, use and sharing of information. For example, consumer complaints and/or lawsuits regarding online advertising or the use of cookies or other tracking technologies in general and our practices specifically could adversely impact our business.
Consumers can currently opt out of the placement or use of most cookies for online advertising purposes by either deleting or disabling cookies on their browsers, visiting websites that allow consumers to place an opt-out cookie on their browsers, which instructs participating entities not to use certain data about consumers’ online activity for the delivery of targeted advertising, or by downloading browser plug-ins and other tools that can be set to: identify cookies and other tracking technologies used on websites; prevent websites from placing third-party cookies and other tracking technologies on the consumer’s browser; or block the delivery of online advertisements on apps and websites.
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Various software tools and applications have been developed that can block advertisements from a consumer’s screen or allow consumers to shift the location in which advertising appears on webpages or opt out of display, search and internet-based advertising entirely. In particular, Apple’s mobile operating system permits these technologies to work in its mobile Safari browser. In addition, changes in device and software features could make it easier for internet users to prevent the placement of cookies or to block other tracking technologies. In particular, the default settings of consumer devices and software may be set to prevent the placement of cookies unless the user actively elects to allow them. For example, Apple’s Safari browser currently has a default setting under which third-party cookies are not accepted and users must activate a browser setting to enable cookies to be set, and Apple has announced that its new mobile operating system will require consumers to opt in to the use of Apple’s resettable device identifier for advertising purposes. Various industry participants have worked to develop and finalize standards relating to a mechanism in which consumers choose whether to allow the tracking of their online search and browsing activities, and such standards may be implemented and adopted by industry participants at any time.
We currently use cookies, pixel tags and similar technologies from third-party advertising technology providers to provide and optimize our advertising. If consumer sentiment regarding privacy issues or the development and deployment of new browser solutions or other Do Not Track mechanisms result in a material increase in the number of consumers who choose to opt out or block cookies and other tracking technologies or who are otherwise using browsers where they need to, and fail to, allow the browser to accept cookies, or otherwise result in cookies or other tracking technologies not functioning properly, our ability to advertise effectively and conduct our business, and our results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected.
The increasing focus on environmental sustainability and social initiatives could increase our costs, harm our reputation and adversely impact our financial results.
There has been increasing public focus by investors, environmental activists, the media and governmental and nongovernmental organizations on a variety of environmental, social and other sustainability matters. We experience pressure to make commitments relating to sustainability matters that affect us, including the design and implementation of specific risk mitigation strategic initiatives relating to sustainability. If we are not effective in addressing environmental, social and other sustainability matters affecting our business, or setting and meeting relevant sustainability goals, our reputation may suffer. In addition, we may experience increased costs in order to execute upon our sustainability goals and measure achievement of those goals, which could have an adverse impact on our business and financial condition.
Risks Related to Intellectual Property
We may be unable to establish, maintain, protect and enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights or prevent third parties from making unauthorized use of our technology.
Our business depends on proprietary technology and content, including software, processes, databases, confidential information and know-how, the protection of which is crucial to the success of our business. We rely on a combination of trademark, patent, copyright, domain name and trade secret-protection laws, in addition to confidentiality agreements and other practices to protect our brands, proprietary information, technologies and processes.
Our most material trademark asset is the registered trademark “GoodRx.” Our trademarks are valuable assets that support our brand and consumers’ perception of our offerings. We also hold the rights to the “goodrx.com” internet domain name, which are subject to internet regulatory bodies and trademark and other related laws of each applicable jurisdiction. If we are unable to protect our trademarks or domain names in the United States or in other jurisdictions in which we may ultimately operate, our brand recognition and reputation would suffer, we would incur significant re-branding expenses and our operating results could be adversely impacted. As of December 31, 2021, we owned four issued patents and three pending patent applications in the United States. One issued patent relates to our ability to combine prices from multiple PBMs together in a single consumer interface. Our issued patents begin expiring in 2034, excluding any patent term adjustment. Our issued patents and those that may be issued in the future may not provide us with competitive advantages, may be of limited territorial reach and may be held invalid or unenforceable if successfully challenged by third parties, and our patent applications may never be issued. Even if issued, there can be no assurance that these patents will adequately protect our intellectual property or survive a legal challenge, as the legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of patent and other intellectual property rights are uncertain. Our limited patent protection may restrict our ability to protect our technologies and processes from competition. It is also possible that third parties, including our competitors, may obtain patents relating to technologies that overlap or compete with our technology. If third parties obtain patent protection with respect to such technologies, they may assert that our technology infringes their patents and seek to charge us a licensing fee or otherwise preclude the use of our technology.
In order to protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect these rights. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights and to protect our trade
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secrets. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our proprietary technology against unauthorized copying or use, as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management’s attention and resources, could delay the introduction and implementation of new technologies, result in our substituting inferior or more costly technologies into our software or injure our reputation. We will not be able to protect our intellectual property if we are unable to enforce our rights or if we do not detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property. Moreover, policing unauthorized use of our technologies, trade secrets and intellectual property may be difficult, expensive and time-consuming, particularly in foreign countries where the laws may not be as protective of intellectual property rights as those in the United States and where mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights may be weak. If we fail to meaningfully establish, maintain, protect and enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We may be sued by third parties for infringement, misappropriation, dilution or other violation of their intellectual property or proprietary rights.
Internet, advertising and e-commerce companies frequently are subject to litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation, dilution or other violations of intellectual property rights. Some internet, advertising and e-commerce companies, including some of our competitors, as well as non-practicing entities, own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, which they may use to assert claims against us.
Third parties have asserted, and may in the future assert, that we have infringed, misappropriated or otherwise violated their intellectual property rights.
For instance, the use of our technology to provide our offerings could be challenged by claims that such use infringes, dilutes, misappropriates or otherwise violates the intellectual property rights of a third party. In addition, we may in the future be exposed to claims that content published or made available through our apps or websites violates third-party intellectual property rights.
As we face increasing competition and as a public company, the possibility of intellectual property rights claims against us grows. Such claims and litigation may involve patent holding companies or other adverse intellectual property rights holders who have no relevant product revenue, and therefore our own pending patents and other intellectual property rights may provide little or no deterrence to these rights holders in bringing intellectual property rights claims against us. There may be intellectual property rights held by others, including issued or pending patents and trademarks, that cover significant aspects of our technologies, content, branding or business methods, and we cannot assure that we are not infringing or violating, and have not violated or infringed, any third-party intellectual property rights or that we will not be held to have done so or be accused of doing so in the future. We expect that we may receive in the future notices that claim we or our partners, or clients using our solutions and services, have misappropriated or misused other parties’ intellectual property rights, particularly as the number of competitors in our market grows and the functionality of applications amongst competitors overlaps.
Any claim that we have violated intellectual property or other proprietary rights of third parties, with or without merit, and whether or not it results in litigation, is settled out of court or is determined in our favor, could be time-consuming and costly to address and resolve, and could divert the time and attention of management and technical personnel from our business. Furthermore, an adverse outcome of a dispute may result in an injunction and could require us to pay substantial monetary damages, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees, if we are found to have willfully infringed a party’s intellectual property rights. Any settlement or adverse judgment resulting from such a claim could require us to enter into a licensing agreement to continue using the technology, content or other intellectual property that is the subject of the claim; restrict or prohibit our use of such technology, content or other intellectual property; require us to expend significant resources to redesign our technology or solutions; and require us to indemnify third parties. Royalty or licensing agreements, if required or desirable, may be unavailable on terms acceptable to us, or at all, and may require significant royalty payments and other expenditures. We may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology, which could require significant time and expense. There also can be no assurance that we would be able to develop or license suitable alternative technology, content or other intellectual property to permit us to continue offering the affected technology, content or services to our partners. If we cannot develop or license technology for any allegedly infringing aspect of our business, we would be forced to limit our service and may be unable to compete effectively. Any of these events could materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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Failure to maintain, protect or enforce our intellectual property rights could harm our business and results of operations.
We pursue the registration of our patentable technology, domain names, trademarks and service marks in the United States. We also strive to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law rights, as well as contractual restrictions. We typically enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and confidentiality agreements with parties with whom we conduct business in order to limit access to, and disclosure and use of, our proprietary information. However, we may not be successful in executing these agreements with every party who has access to our confidential information or contributes to the development of our technology or intellectual property rights. Those agreements that we do execute may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any such breach. These contractual arrangements and the other steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property rights may not prevent the misappropriation or disclosure of our proprietary information nor deter independent development of similar technology or intellectual property by others.
Effective trade secret, patent, copyright, trademark and domain name protection is expensive to obtain, develop and maintain, both in terms of initial and ongoing registration or prosecution requirements and expenses and the costs of defending our rights. We may, over time, increase our investment in protecting our intellectual property through additional patent filings that could be expensive and time-consuming. We do not know whether any of our pending patent applications will result in the issuance of additional patents or whether the examination process will require us to narrow our claims or we may otherwise be unable to obtain patent protection for the technology covered in our pending patent applications. Our patents, trademarks and other intellectual property rights may be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation. Moreover, any issued patents may not provide us with a competitive advantage and, as with any technology, competitors may be able to develop similar or superior technologies to our own, now or in the future. In addition, due to a recent U.S. Supreme Court case, it has become increasingly difficult to obtain and assert patents relating to software or business methods, as many such patents have been invalidated for being too abstract to constitute patent-eligible subject matter. We do not know whether this will affect our ability to obtain new patents on our innovations, or successfully assert our patents in litigation or pre-litigation campaigns.
Monitoring unauthorized use of the content on our apps and websites, and our other intellectual property and technology, is difficult and costly. Our efforts to protect our proprietary rights and intellectual property may not have been and may not be adequate to prevent their misappropriation or misuse. Third parties, including our competitors, could be infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating our intellectual property rights. Third parties from time to time copy content or other intellectual property or technology from our solutions without authorization and seek to use it for their own benefit. We generally seek to address such unauthorized copying or use, but we have not always been successful in stopping all unauthorized use of our content or other intellectual property or technology, and may not be successful in doing so in the future. Further, we may not have been and may not be able to detect unauthorized use of our technology or intellectual property, or to take appropriate steps to enforce our intellectual property rights. Any inability to meaningfully enforce our intellectual property rights could harm our ability to compete and reduce demand for our solutions and services. Our competitors may also independently develop similar technology. Effective patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret protection may not be available to us in every jurisdiction in which our solutions or technology are hosted or available. Further, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are uncertain. The laws in the United States and elsewhere change rapidly, and any future changes could adversely affect us and our intellectual property. Our failure to meaningfully protect our intellectual property rights could result in competitors offering solutions that incorporate our most technologically advanced features, which could reduce demand for our solutions.
We may find it necessary or appropriate to initiate claims or litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights, protect our trade secrets or determine the validity and scope of intellectual property rights claimed by others. In any lawsuit we bring to enforce our intellectual property rights, a court may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on grounds that our intellectual property rights do not cover the use or technology in question. Further, in such proceedings, the defendant could counterclaim that our intellectual property is invalid or unenforceable and the court may agree, in which case we could lose valuable intellectual property rights. Litigation is inherently uncertain and any litigation of this nature, regardless of outcome or merit, could result in substantial costs and diversion of management and technical resources, any of which could adversely affect our business and results of operations. If we fail to maintain, protect and enforce our intellectual property, our business and results of operations may be harmed.
We may be unable to continue the use of our trademarks, trade names or domain names, or prevent third parties from acquiring and using trademarks, trade names and domain names that infringe on, are similar to, or otherwise decrease the value of our brands, trademarks or service marks.
The registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names that we own may be challenged, infringed, circumvented, declared generic, lapsed or determined to be infringing on or dilutive of other marks. We may not be able to protect our rights in these trademarks and trade names, which we need in order to build name recognition with potential consumers
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and partners. In addition, third parties have filed, and may in the future file, for registration of trademarks similar or identical to our trademarks, which, if obtained, may impede our ability to build brand identity and possibly lead to market confusion. If they succeed in registering or developing common law rights in such trademarks, and if we are not successful in challenging such third-party rights, we may not be able to use these trademarks to develop brand recognition of our technologies, solutions or services. In addition, there could be potential trade name or trademark infringement claims brought by owners of other registered trademarks or trademarks that incorporate variations of our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names. If we are unable to establish or protect our trademarks and trade names, or if we are unable to build name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names, we may not be able to compete effectively, which could harm our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We have registered domain names for our websites that we use in our business. If we lose the ability to use a domain name, whether due to trademark claims, failure to renew the applicable registration, or any other cause, we may be forced to market our solutions under a new domain name, which could cause us substantial harm, or to incur significant expense in order to purchase rights to the domain name in question. In addition, our competitors and others could attempt to capitalize on our brand recognition by using domain names similar to ours. Domain names similar to ours have been registered in the United States and elsewhere. We may be unable to prevent third parties from acquiring and using domain names that infringe on, are similar to, or otherwise decrease the value of our brands, trademarks or service marks. Protecting and enforcing our rights in our domain names may require litigation, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of management’s attention.
ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the international authority over top-level domain names, has been increasing the number of generic top-level domains (“TLDs”). This may allow companies or individuals to create new web addresses that appear to the right of the “dot” in a web address, beyond such long-standing TLDs as “.com,” “.org” and “.gov.” ICANN may also add additional TLDs in the future. As a result, we may be unable to maintain exclusive rights to all potentially relevant or desirable domain names in the United States, which may harm our business. Furthermore, attempts may be made by third parties to register our trademarks as new TLDs or as domain names within new TLDs, and we may be required to enforce our rights against such registration attempts, which could result in significant expense and the diversion of management’s attention.
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, our business and competitive position would be harmed.
We rely heavily on trade secrets and confidentiality agreements to protect our unpatented know-how, technology, and other proprietary information, including our technology platform, and to maintain our competitive position. With respect to our technology platform, we consider trade secrets and know-how to be one of our primary sources of intellectual property. However, trade secrets and know-how can be difficult to protect. We seek to protect these trade secrets and other proprietary technology, in part, by entering into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to them, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside contractors, consultants, advisors, and other third parties. We also enter into confidentiality and invention or patent assignment agreements with our employees and consultants. The confidentiality agreements are designed to protect our proprietary information and, in the case of agreements or clauses containing invention assignment, to grant us ownership of technologies that are developed through a relationship with employees or third parties. We cannot guarantee that we have entered into such agreements with each party that may have or have had access to our trade secrets or proprietary information, including our technology and processes. Despite these efforts, no assurance can be given that the confidentiality agreements we enter into will be effective in controlling access to such proprietary information and trade secrets. The confidentiality agreements on which we rely to protect certain technologies may be breached, may not be adequate to protect our confidential information, trade secrets and proprietary technologies and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information, trade secrets or proprietary technology. Further, these agreements do not prevent our competitors or others from independently developing the same or similar technologies and processes, which may allow them to provide a service similar or superior to ours, which could harm our competitive position.
Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts inside and outside the United States are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor or other third party, we would have no right to prevent them from using that technology or information to compete with us. If any of our trade secrets were to be disclosed to or independently developed by a competitor or other third party, it could harm our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
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Issued patents covering our offerings could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged.
The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability. Some of our patents or patent applications (including licensed patents) have been, are being or may be challenged at a future point in time in opposition, derivation, reexamination, inter partes review (“IPR”), post-grant review or interference. Any successful third-party challenge to our patents in this or any other proceeding could result in the unenforceability or invalidity of such patents, which may lead to increased competition to our business, which could harm our business. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications is threatened, regardless of the outcome, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop or commercialize current or future offering candidates.
We utilize open source software, which may pose particular risks to our proprietary software and solutions.
We use open source software in our solutions and will use open source software in the future. Companies that incorporate open source software into their solutions have, from time to time, faced claims challenging the use of open source software and compliance with open source license terms. Some licenses governing the use of open source software contain requirements that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon the open source software, and that we license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of a particular open source license or other license granting third parties certain rights of further use. By the terms of certain open source licenses, we could be required to release the source code of our proprietary software, and to make our proprietary software available under open source licenses to third parties at no cost, if we combine our proprietary software with open source software in certain manners. Although we monitor our use of open source software, we cannot assure you that all open source software is reviewed prior to use in our solutions, that our developers have not incorporated open source software into our solutions, or that they will not do so in the future. Additionally, the terms of many open source licenses to which we are subject have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts. There is a risk that open source software licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to market or provide our solutions. Companies that incorporate open source software into their products have, in the past, faced claims seeking enforcement of open source license provisions and claims asserting ownership of open source software incorporated into their product. If an author or other third party that distributes such open source software were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of an open source license, we could incur significant legal costs defending ourselves against such allegations. In the event such claims were successful, we could be subject to significant damages or be enjoined from the distribution of our software. In addition, the terms of open source software licenses may require us to provide software that we develop using such open source software to others on unfavorable license terms. As a result of our current or future use of open source software, we may face claims or litigation, be required to release our proprietary source code, pay damages for breach of contract, re-engineer our solutions, discontinue making our solutions available in the event re-engineering cannot be accomplished on a timely basis or take other remedial action. Any such re-engineering or other remedial efforts could require significant additional research and development resources, and we may not be able to successfully complete any such re-engineering or other remedial efforts. Further, in addition to risks related to license requirements, use of certain open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of software. Any of these risks could be difficult to eliminate or manage, and, if not addressed, could have a negative effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we fail to comply with our obligations under license or technology agreements with third parties, we may be required to pay damages and we could lose license rights that are critical to our business.