RBBN US Equity☆

rbbn-20231231

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023

For the transition period from to

Commission File Number 001-38267

RIBBON COMMUNICATIONS INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

6500 Chase Oaks Boulevard, Suite 100, Plano, Texas75023

(Address of principal executive offices)(Zip Code)

(978) 614-8100

(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered

Common Stock, par value $0.0001 RBBN The Nasdaq Global Select Market

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐No☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐No☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management's assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant's executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

The aggregate market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $199,304,000 based on the closing price on June 30, 2023. As of February 23, 2024, the registrant had172,461,725 shares of common stock outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the definitive Proxy Statement to be delivered to stockholders in connection with the registrant's 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this report.

RIBBON COMMUNICATIONS INC.

FORM 10-K

YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Item Page

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements 3

Part I

1. Business 4

1A. Risk Factors 16

1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 36

1C. Cybersecurity 36

2. Properties 37

3. Legal Proceedings 37

4. Mine Safety Disclosures 38

Part II

6. [Reserved] 40

7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 57

8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 58

9A. Controls and Procedures 109

9B. Other Information 111

9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 111

Part III

10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 111

11. Executive Compensation 111

14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 111

Part IV

15. Exhibit and Financial Statement Schedules 112

Exhibit Index 113

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this report, including statements regarding impacts from the terrorist attacks in Israel and the resulting war, our future expenses and restructuring activities, results of operations and financial position, capital structure and the anticipated refinancing of our credit facility, credit facility compliance, expected impacts from the war in Ukraine and the financial sanctions and trade restrictions imposed in connection therewith, beliefs about our business strategy, availability of components for the manufacturing of our products, ongoing litigation, plans and objectives of management for future operations and manufacturing are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words "anticipates", "believes", "could", "estimates", "expects", "intends", "may", "plans", "seeks" and other similar language, whether in the negative or affirmative, are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding our business, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are unknown and/or difficult to predict and that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to,supply chain disruptions resulting from component availability and/or geopolitical instabilities and disputes (including those related to the wars in Israel and Ukraine); the closure, on a temporary basis, of our offices in Israel as a result of the war and the impact of military call-ups of our employees in Israel; material litigation; unpredictable fluctuations in quarterly revenue and operating results; the impact of fluctuations in interest rates; the impact of fluctuations of our EBITDA on compliance under our credit facility and our ability to refinance the credit facility; material cybersecurity and data intrusion incidents, including any security breaches resulting in the theft, transfer, or unauthorized disclosure of customer, employee, or company information; our ability to comply with applicable domestic and foreign information security and privacy laws, regulations and technology platform rules or other obligations related to data privacy and security; failure to compete successfully against telecommunications equipment and networking companies; failure to grow our customer base or generate recurring business from our existing customers; credit risks; the timing of customer purchasing decisions and our recognition of revenues; macroeconomic conditions, including inflation; the impact of restructuring and cost-containment activities; our ability to adapt to rapid technological and market changes; our ability to generate positive returns on our research and development; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights and obtain necessary licenses; our ability to maintain partner, reseller, distribution and vendor support and supply relationships; the potential for defects in our products; risks related to the terms of our credit agreement; higher risks in international operations and markets; increases in tariffs, trade restrictions or taxes on our products; currency fluctuations; unanticipated adverse changes in legal, regulatory or tax laws; future accounting pronouncements or changes in our accounting policies; and/or failure or circumvention of our controls and procedures. We therefore caution you against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. Additional important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in these forward-looking statements are discussed in this report, including in Item 1A., "Risk Factors" of Part I. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this report speaks only as of the date on which this report was first filed. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.

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PART I

Item 1. Business

Company Overview

We are a leading global provider of communications technology to service providers and enterprises. We provide a broad range of software and high-performance hardware products, network solutions, and services that enable the secure delivery of data and voice communications, and high-bandwidth networking and connectivity for residential consumers and for small, medium, and large enterprises and industry verticals such as finance, education, government, utilities, and transportation. Our mission is to create a recognized global technology leader providing cloud-centric solutions that enable the secure exchange of information, with unparalleled scale, performance and elasticity. We are headquartered in Plano, Texas, and have a global presence with research and development or sales and support locations in over 30 countries around the world.

Company History

The Ribbon name was created by the merger of Sonus Networks, Inc. and GENBAND US LLC ("GENBAND") in October 2017, with both companies specializing in secure high-performance Voice Over Internet Protocol ("VoIP") technology and solutions. Prior to that, GENBAND acquired assets of Nortel’s Carrier division in 2010, which included a world-class engineering and sales team, a broad deployment base of products and technology, and a recognized industry reputation and pedigree with customers around the world.

Since our formation in 2017, we have completed several acquisitions to strengthen and expand our portfolio of product offerings to service providers and enterprises. Recent notable acquisitions include:

•Edgewater Networks Inc. (August 2018): Expanded our portfolio of security and signaling solutions for the enterprise network edge.

•Anova Data, Inc. (February 2019): Expanded our portfolio with additional network optimization, security, and data monetization applications, enabled by an advanced Big Data Analytics and Machine Learning platform.

•ECI Telecom Group Ltd. ("ECI") (March 2020) (the "ECI Acquisition"): Further expanded our focus and strategy to include optical transport and Internet Protocol ("IP") networking, switching, and routing products and solutions, and helped us create an industry-leading communications software and networking company with a comprehensive portfolio of advanced voice, security, data and IP optical networking and transport solutions.

Industry Background

Today’s communications service providers ("CSPs") and enterprises are investing in their networks to compete in an ever-changing technology and customer experience landscape driven largely by cloud computing, mobile workforces requiring hyper-connectivity, new high-performance applications and use cases, and an insatiable demand for bandwidth by end-customers and the applications they use. The exponential growth in traffic has largely been driven by the consumption of video and in the next several years, it is expected that new applications leveraging large language model ("LLM") AI will dramatically increase the amount of network bandwidth usage. As a result, service providers and enterprises must constantly seek out new technologies to refresh their networks to provide increased flexibility, programmability, scalability, and reliability, to enable these new applications and services with an expedited time to market. These investments provide a competitive advantage and bring value-added services to increase network efficiency, increase customer satisfaction and produce new revenue streams. Within this broad industry context, investment in our products and services is driven by several key industry trends and strategic priorities.

Deployment of 5G Mobile Technology

One of the most significant investments being made by mobile carriers across the world is the deployment of 5G broadband cellular technology. This architecture shift impacts the entire ecosystem, from handsets and Radio Access Network through the metro and core network and back-office systems. The ultimate goal is a step-function improvement in capacity and coverage, as well as to unlock new revenue generating applications for consumers and businesses. The increased bandwidth unlocked by the higher capacity radio infrastructure enables new use cases such as Fixed Wireless Access, displacing lower capacity wired internet access solutions, and we believe new mobile applications will emerge, such as Reality/Virtual Reality, cloud gaming,

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telehealth, Internet of Things, and Industry 4.0, all made possible by the massive bandwidth increases, low latency and highly secure infrastructure that 5G provides.

As deployments increase, the access and aggregation layers of the mobile network also require significant upgrades and investment, driving fiber and IP Networking to the very edges of the network. This investment cycle and technology disruption is an opportunity for new innovative suppliers to be selected.

Demand for Hyper-Connectivity and Bandwidth Driving Fiber Access Deployment

Our global information society is overflowing with telecommunications data traffic, for business, entertainment, education, surveillance, industrial control, online retail, and many other applications. These applications, increasingly delivered from the cloud, generate a huge amount of data driven largely by the video and image components. This exponential growth in data traffic is expected to continue and even accelerate, straining existing broadband and mobile networks. While 5G, and next generation WiFi, are the technologies of choice for the wireless network, there is also a surge of investment targeted at addressing the bottle neck of the broadband access network with higher capacity fiber connections.

Governments in many countries around the world are investing to address and help close the “Digital Divide” and extend ultra-broadband services and connectivity to underserved communities. As an example, in the United States, the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program, the FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, the 5G Fund for Rural America, and the USDA Rural Development Broadband ReConnect Program expect to provide billions of dollars in funding to deliver broadband connectivity to rural communities in the U.S. Whether working or learning from home, streaming 4K television, or playing the latest online video games, rural subscribers require dependable, high-speed Internet access to participate and thrive in the digital world. Forward-looking service providers are taking advantage of government funding programs to expand network capacity and transform the communities they serve. Next-generation rural broadband networks help service providers grow their revenues by extending service reach and diversity, and by satisfying the massive pent-up demand for high-speed Internet connectivity. Next-generation broadband networks will also leverage new technologies like fixed-wireless access, while laying the foundation for future revenue opportunities like 5G backhaul transport services.

At the foundation, high performance Optical connections and advanced IP networking are needed to keep pace with the advancements in communications. This hyper-connectivity will be a key enabler and deliver disruptive ultra-low cost-per-bit communications within and between networks and the cloud, while also delivering on the promise of latency sensitive networking demanded by many of the applications.

Increased Adoption of Cloud Communications and Collaboration

The shift to cloud-based communications began several years ago driven largely by the advantages of running applications in a virtual cloud environment and reducing dependency on on-premises computing and communications technologies. The Coronavirus Disease 2019 ("COVID-19") pandemic accelerated this trend significantly, driven by the need for more remote working and commerce for many businesses and industries. As a result, businesses and consumers have rapidly shifted from brick-and-mortar facilities and travel to work-from-home, or hybrid work-in-the-office and work-from home, using cloud communications and collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom Phone and others, and require these communications platforms to be highly secure and scalable. New applications enabled by LLM AI will dramatically increase the traffic from the subscriber device to the data center.

Evolution of Communications Service Provider Networks to Reduce Total Cost of Ownership

CSPs of all types operate in a hyper-competitive environment as consumers and businesses have an increasing number of choices for their communication needs. It is imperative that Providers invest to capture new revenue streams, while reducing the cost to operate their networks. Legacy services such as IP Multiprotocol Label Switching ("MPLS") circuits, Centrex lines, and TDM phone are increasingly expensive to operate, and Providers need to migrate customers to new offerings or risk high margin revenue streams. All these factors are causing service providers to re-think and evolve, or even over-haul, the way networks are designed, architected, managed, and optimized to deliver services to their customers with disruptive economics. They are migrating services to new software platforms that can be deployed in both private and/or public cloud environments (referred to as the "Telco Cloud") using cloud-native technologies, architectures and operational processes with automation and concepts such as Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery ("CI/CD"). Increasingly, network operators are also pursuing open, multi-layer optimized and disaggregated IP and Optical networking solutions, where they have the flexibility to assemble networks based on transport and control subsystems from different vendors with software-defined networking.

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Service providers in some global regions, as mandated by governments or voluntarily, are also replacing certain incumbent vendor communications equipment and technology in their networks because of concerns for security. This presents a significant growth and market share opportunity.

This technology evolution challenge extends beyond service providers to many enterprises as well as Federal, State, and Local governments. In particular, the US Federal government and agencies have a significant need to modernize their voice communications infrastructure, replacing legacy on-premise systems with modern cloud-based voice and video solutions. However, the unique requirements regarding security and survivability are not easily met by off-the-shelf enterprise applications, creating significant opportunity for companies that specialize in this area.

Need for Reliable, Secure, High-Bandwidth Enterprise and Critical Infrastructure Communications

The “critical infrastructure” market vertical is defined as those companies whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered vital to a country’s national interest. Critical infrastructure providers are under increasing pressure to support new services, reduce carbon emission, improve security, expand automation, and increase safety. Achieving these goals requires a transition to a modernized, secure communications network that provides seamless IP connectivity and services and very high capacity optical transport. With an integrated IP and optical transport solution, a critical infrastructure network operator can provide a highly reliable, secure, future proof communications solution optimized for critical industries.

Data is the lifeblood of any business, and it must be easily accessible across the enterprise to power business applications and to support services to end-customers. It must also be replicated across multiple locations for business continuity and disaster recovery and must be protected from inappropriate access, theft, and corruption. Enterprises deploy optical networking, secured by optical encryption, to attain the needed performance and security. Similarly, command and control groups within today’s defense forces have a need for high performance secure networks as their strategic sensors and assault systems are becoming more integrated. In this ecosystem, effective decision-making requires the pooling and analysis of data from a vast array of sensors and other information sources. The data must be delivered securely, in real-time, to wherever it is required. These solutions integrate intelligent optical transport with agile IP networking to provide a converged, secure, communication network that can be rapidly configured and deployed in challenging environmental conditions.

Strategy Overview

Our mission is to create a recognized global technology leader providing open, cloud-centric solutions spanning multiple network layers that enable the secure exchange of communications and information, with unparalleled scale, performance, and elasticity. Our transformative acquisition of ECI in 2020 dramatically expanded our addressable market beyond secure voice communications into IP Networking, Optical Transport, and Software-Defined Networking ("SDN") Management and Automation. We are implementing a focused strategy to target our broad global base of service provider and enterprise customers to establish us as key supplier of networking solutions. Key elements of the strategy include:

•Operational Integration – In order to provide laser focus on the unique aspects of our portfolio, we initially adopted a business unit model following the acquisition of ECI, along with regional sales teams and an integrated corporate organization. As the number of opportunities to leverage the combined portfolio emerged, we evolved the organization in 2023 and integrated the two business units under a single leader and established a Chief Operating Officer position. We have tightened the alignment further in 2024 with the integration of several software research and development ("R&D") teams and an integrated customer support and services organization. Similarly, the go-to-market team was combined under a single Global Sales Leader role. Internally we launched the "Ribbon 3.0" program, reflecting our continued transformation and drive towards best-in-class operational efficiencies and execution.

•Cross-Selling and Tier One Service Provider Growth - We are laser-focused on marketing and selling our combined post-acquisition broad portfolio to our global deployed base of service provider and enterprise customers to expand our presence and share of the larger IP and Optical networking and transport market and cross-sell our complete portfolio. In particular, we are focused on penetrating the largest service providers around the world in order to drive long term growth and improved competitiveness.

•North American IP Optical Networks Market Share – We expect to continue to unlock the value of our former ECI portfolio by growing IP Optical Networks market share in the North American market by leveraging the extensive deployment base and ongoing business that we have with service providers and enterprise customers. We have identified opportunities where we have been able to combine technology from both our Voice and IP Routing portfolios in order to address a clear customer need and differentiate our offering. We have seen significant success

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with regional service providers in the U.S., bolstered by the federal funding programs focused on improving internet access to underserved markets.

•Participate in the 5G Opportunity – We have made significant R&D investments in our IP Optical product portfolio in order to address multiple opportunities tied to the deployment of 5G mobile networks. We are focused specifically on the access and aggregation layer of the network including cell-site routers, optical transport, and IP aggregation and routing. In many cases, the build-out of this part of the network lags or follows the up-front investment in the RAN portion of the network, and increases as traffic levels grow. We believe 5G is a multi-year opportunity as global service providers roll out the new capital-intensive technology and build out the needed network infrastructure over the next decade. We have reported several recent strategic wins in this area and believe this will be a key catalyst for growth.

•Software-Centric and Cloud-Native Offerings - The value of virtual, cloud-native, and software-driven solutions deployable in the cloud has only grown because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the migration of network services to the Telco Cloud, which underscores another area of major focus for us. As a strategy, we continue to aggressively transition a significant portion of our product portfolio and business model towards more software, cloud-native offerings with automation and as-a-Service selling model. We believe this transition is instrumental in continuing to improve our profitability and competitiveness, and in growing the recurring revenue portion of our business.

•Enterprise Offerings - The market need and growth rate are higher at the network edge than at the core. Our solution portfolio includes secure Unified Communications software-centric applications and IP and Optical network connectivity solutions. Together, these solutions address a wide number of critical infrastructure, federal defense, large enterprise, and medium-size businesses. We leverage partnerships with key go-to-market channels and solutions providers such as Dell and Microsoft, as well as other popular unified communications and collaboration ("UC&C") platforms such as Zoom Phone and similar service provider UC&C offerings.

•Partnerships - We continually look to form industry partnerships that will enhance our current solution offerings to our customers.

Customers

Our customers are comprised of a diverse set of service providers and enterprises located in over 140 countries around the world. Service provider customers include telephone companies ("telcos") offering fixed and wireless communications services, cable Multi-System Operators ("MSOs") and Communications as a service providers. Our service provider customers include many of the largest CSPs globally. Enterprise customers include small, medium, and large businesses and industry verticals such as transportation, utilities, government/public sector, finance, and education.

Customers trust us to solve their most challenging communications requirements, enabling people and devices to connect anytime, anywhere. Our customer-centric culture shapes all of our activities and inspires our team members to make a positive impact with our clients, investors, and communities.

In the year ended December 31, 2023, Verizon Communications Inc. ("Verizon") accounted for approximately 11% of our revenue. Verizon is a service provider that offers interconnect, fixed line and mobile communications services, and our software solutions are sold across their business divisions supporting their large enterprises, SMB and consumer telecommunications and cable-related offerings. Our top five customers represented approximately 34% of our revenue in the year ended December 31, 2023.

Segment Information

Our Chief Operating Decision Maker ("CODM") assesses our performance based on the performance of two separate lines of our business: the Cloud and Edge segment ("Cloud and Edge") and the IP Optical Networks segment ("IP Optical Networks").

Cloud and Edge Business Segment

The Cloud and Edge segment provides secure and reliable software and hardware products, solutions, and services for VoIP communications, Voice Over LTE ("VoLTE") and Voice Over 5G ("VoNR") communications, as well as UC&C services to both service provider and enterprise customers. Our Cloud and Edge products are increasingly software-centric and cloud-native for deployment on private, public, or hybrid cloud infrastructures, in data centers, on enterprise premises, and within service provider private networks.

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Cloud and Edge Products and Solutions

Our Cloud and Edge portfolio delivers multiple solutions for enabling VoIP, VoLTE, VoNR, and UC&C in network, on-premises, or via the Telco Cloud for a broad range of service provider and enterprise customers. The solutions provided with this portfolio include those for:

•Securing and providing resilient connectivity and calling via direct routing for Operator Connect - Microsoft Teams, Zoom and other cloud-based UC&C applications.

•Securing contact center applications.

•Securing service provider hosted and managed unified communications ("UC") services.

•Securing network interconnects for communications services.

•Network transformation of fixed service provider voice services networks to help evolve, consolidate, and modernize legacy networks to VoIP and onto virtualized network environments or the Telco Cloud.

•Implementing IP Multimedia Subsystem ("IMS") networks required by mobile service providers for VoLTE service deployments and for 5G voice services.

•Modernizing, evolving, and securing enterprise and industry vertical UC environments, supporting both on-premises and cloud-based deployments.

•Securing voice sessions and protecting VoIP communications connectivity infrastructures, contact centers, Private Branch Exchanges and media servers.

•Providing identity assurance that helps mitigate robocalls, prevent fraud by determining phone caller identity, intent, and reputation.

•Analytics to provide visibility, security, and service assurance to enhance communication network operations and customer experiences.

Our Cloud and Edge market-leading product portfolio consists of two main categories – Session Border Controller ("SBC") products and Network Transformation products:

Our SBC product portfolio encompasses a full range of deployment platforms including:

•High performance carrier-grade compute platforms leveraging the latest advancements in silicon including NVIDIA GPU processors.

•Feature-rich virtualized and cloud-native software products for deployment in both private and public cloud environments such as Amazon Web Services ("AWS"), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.

•Fully cloud-native implementation supporting as-a-Service ("aaS") offers and business models.

•On-premises dedicated appliances that scale up and down to meet the most demanding performance and security requirements.

Our SBC portfolio consists of the following categories of products:

•Core network SBCs that are deployable by customers in their core networks, or on private or public clouds, and used to identify, manage, and protect voice communications traffic as it moves through and between communication networks. SBCs secure and interwork different voice communications protocols at IP network boundaries, both within and between service provider and enterprise networks. The portfolio also includes Policy and Routing products that work in heterogeneous voice networks and are used to intelligently manage communications sessions based on multiple policies such as least cost and Quality of Service routing, media type, source or destination, and time of day or week.

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•Enterprise Session Border Controllers and Edge products, deployable on premises or in the cloud, to enable the deployment and migration to secure cloud-based UC&C applications such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom Phone and service provider UC&C offerings, as well as securing cloud contact center offerings. Enterprise SBCs provide service assurance and visibility within the enterprise for service-provider hosted and managed UC services. The EdgeMarc multi-service gateway portfolio provide support for enterprise voice interfaces such as PRI, T1, and FXO, as well as aggregation and transport of local data traffic. Our products are also provided as-a-service through our Ribbon Connect for Microsoft Teams Direct Routing platform, a cloud-based aaS offering for securing calls to the public telephone network from the enterprise.

•Ribbon Call TrustTM is an aaS offering for providing identity assurance. The identity assurance portfolio, using information from deployed network elements including SBCs, helps mitigate robocalls and prevent fraud by determining phone caller identity, intent, and reputation. With this information, it is possible to help determine if a call is from a legitimate person, for a legitimate purpose, and without malicious intent. Our customers utilize these capabilities to provide a better call experience to their end-customers. We are an industry leader in the development and deployment of the STIR (Secure Telephone Identity Revisited) and SHAKEN (Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENS) standards, with deployments throughout North America and Europe.

•A cloud-native Analytics Platform with applications that aid customers in gathering actionable intelligence from their communications network elements, including SBCs in the core and edge of their networks, to provide them with network performance visibility, service assurance, security, and fraud mitigation.

Our Network Transformation product portfolio is deployed in the most demanding environments and enables the modernization of fixed, mobile and enterprise voice communications networks to support network and Telco Cloud-based services and the next generation of IP-based voice communications services and includes multiple software-centric platforms and products including:

•Signaling products that provide network signaling for communications services.

•Call Controllers that provide call processing within networks for voice communications services and applications.

•Media Gateways that perform the interworking or translation of media, or voice sessions and the corresponding network protocols both within and across VoIP and legacy communications networks and use codecs (coder-decoder) and digital signal processors to do so.

•A multi-tenant and highly scalable Application Server that enables the deployment of VoIP and UC&C services and applications.

Cloud and Edge Competition

Competition in the market for the Cloud and Edge portfolio remains strong. The market is shifting from an environment dominated by a few large telecommunications legacy hardware equipment companies, such as Ericsson LM Telephone Company ("Ericsson"), Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. ("Huawei"), and Nokia Corporation ("Nokia"), to a market that is characterized by cloud-native software network function virtualization, hybrid private public cloud compute environments, and open interoperable interfaces. We believe this shift creates opportunities for us to differentiate and gain share from competitors such as:

•Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, Oracle Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc. ("Cisco") and AudioCodes Ltd. for our SBCs, Enterprise Edge products and Ribbon Connect.

•Neustar, Inc., Metaswitch Networks ("Metaswitch"), First Orion Corp., Secure Logix Corporation, TransNexus, Inc. and Transaction Network Services, Inc. for our Identity Assurance and Ribbon Call Trust offerings.

•NETSCOUT Systems, Inc., Mobileum, Empirix Inc. and Ericsson for our Analytics offerings.

•Huawei, Metaswitch, Nokia and Ericsson for our Network Transformation offerings.

Other smaller private and public companies are also focusing on similar market opportunities. Mergers among any of the above companies or other competitors, as well as additional competitors with significant financial resources entering our markets,

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could further intensify competition. Mergers between service providers may also increase competition for a smaller number of more concentrated customers and channels for products and solutions.

IP Optical Networks Business Segment

The global information society is generating a very high volume of telecommunications traffic for business, entertainment, education, surveillance, industrial control, and other applications. Technologies like 5G, distributed cloud computing and corresponding applications are predicted to continue this exponential traffic growth. IP and Optical networks are at the foundation of this information economy, and indeed are one of its key enablers, delivering ultra-low cost-per-bit transport and multi-service flexibility. Our IP Optical Networks segment provides high-performance, secure, and reliable hardware and software products and solutions for IP networking, switching, and routing, and optical transport. This portfolio is offered to service provider, enterprise and industry verticals with critical transport network infrastructures including utilities, government, defense, transportation and education and research.

IP Optical Networks Products and Solutions

Our IP Optical Networks portfolio delivers multiple solutions spanning access, metro, regional, and long-haul geographies, and using ring, mesh, and point-to-point topologies. MPLS and other protocols provide a broad range of networking services for our customers. Our solutions for optical and IP transport and networking include 5G-native solutions for mobile-backhaul, metro and edge aggregation, core networking, data center interconnect, multi-service access, and transport solutions for wholesale carriers. High availability and security also make the solutions ideal for critical infrastructure delivering mission-critical services.

Our IP Optical Networks multi-layer product portfolio includes:

•The Apollo product line provides programmable and open Optical Transport Network ("OTN") capabilities over Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing ("DWDM") support. The OTN layer maps Ethernet and other services into OTN bit streams for transparent optical transmission, and DWDM routes wavelengths of light containing the OTN-encapsulated bit streams across wide areas, greatly increasing the efficiency and capacity of fiber facilities. Our Apollo hardware and software products deliver reconfigurable and programmable low-latency optical transport that simultaneously speeds up provisioning of new services while maximizing traffic throughput at the lowest cost per bit. Apollo provides customers with a choice of two transmission optimizations. Capacity-reach optimization uses industry-leading 5nm-140Gbaud technology that maximizes channel capacity for any given distance. It supports optical transmission speeds ranging from 400 gigabits per second for ultra-long haul applications to 1.2 terabits per second for short haul applications. Power-cost optimization uses low power consumption and cost effective 400 gigabit per second technology, which delivers strong enough performance for metro applications. The Apollo product line provides state-of-the-art transparent and flexible DWDM and OTN transport with integrated packet switching capabilities. A modular architecture allows optimized solutions across access, metro, regional, and long-haul networks. Apollo combines high performance, low-latency OTN transport, and OTN switching with software-configurable optical routing for maximum efficiency. Apollo can dynamically reconfigure optimal links in the event of fiber failures to maintain service availability. Apollo is “self-aware,” with intelligent reporting for efficient and SDN-ready operations. Apollo also provides deployment choice, whether as an integrated solution or as standalone subsystems for disaggregated open architecture multivendor solutions. A key security feature of Apollo that is used broadly in critical infrastructure and enterprise deployments is Layer 1 Optical Encryption. This uses AES-256 encryption, which is the strongest and most robust encryption standard that is commercially available today, and also supports a choice of standard, Post Quantum Computing, and Quantum Key Distribution key exchange mechanisms.

•The Neptune product line of high-performance switching and routing solutions are optimized to provide the converged multi-service, service-aware aggregation needed for cost/performance optimized connectivity between consumers and the applications and services they are using. Neptune supports multiple services delivered over multiple access network technologies. Ethernet interfaces ranging from Gigabit Ethernet ("GbE") through to 100GbE allow all IP/MPLS and Ethernet access networks to be supported, and pluggables providing XGS-PON, EPON and TDM circuit emulation allow PON access networks and legacy TDM access network to be supported. Traffic from the access networks is aggregated and connected to the services, applications, and compute platforms, meeting the specific service level agreements required for each service, including guaranteed latency, jitter, capacity, or reliability. To achieve this, Neptune uses a range of protocols such as IP/MPLS, MPLS-TP and segment routing traffic engineered ("SR-TE"). As services, applications and compute platforms become increasingly distributed across the network, located in local data centers and multi-access Edge compute platforms, Neptune, in conjunction with MUSE, can dynamically route the connectivity wherever it is required, whilst still meeting the performance requirements. In addition, Neptune provides a 400G ZR+

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pluggable capability, allowing it to support both single layer IP over DWDM connectivity or multi-layer optimized IPoOTN/DWDM connectivity, whichever best meets the network operator's needs. With these capabilities, Neptune is ideally suited for residential broadband backhaul, business services, MSOs and private enterprise networks. With Flexible Ethernet, enhanced timing and synchronization capabilities, 25GbE and 50GbE interfaces and high-capacity, high-density platforms, Neptune is also ideal for 5G deployments. These capabilities and unique form factors such as DIN-rail mounting, street cabinet deployment and environmental capabilities also make Neptune a compelling solution for mission critical enterprises.

•The Muse SDN multi-layer Domain Orchestrator and cognitive software is a suite of cloud-native applications that deliver SDN domain orchestration for underlying multi-layer Neptune IP and Apollo Optical networks. This covers complete lifecycle management and automation to speed up time to revenue, reduce total cost of ownership, and facilitate integration into wider ecosystems. It is powered by a carrier-grade, cloud-native Platform as a Service and works in conjunction with our LightSOFTTM network management system. Built for a 5G services world, Muse enables network operators to programmatically configure and combine hard and soft slicing technologies to create slices appropriate to different sets of 5G-enabled services and customer sub-networks. Then, using a rich set of tools, operators can design, provision, and assure a broad array of services on top of the slices. Muse's suite of advanced service and network control applications empower service providers to do more, through simple service creation and lifecycle management, proactive network assurance, network optimization, and automation. Muse ensures that people and systems receive the right tools to monetize the network effectively through intuitive graphical user interfaces or industry-standard Application Programmable Interfaces.

IP Optical Networks Competition

Competition in the markets addressed by our IP Optical Networks products is strong. The market is shifting from an ecosystem dominated by a few large telecommunications legacy hardware equipment companies with proprietary solutions such as Ciena Corporation ("Ciena"), Cisco, and Nokia, to a market that is characterized by a combination of closed and open solutions, software-defined networking, and dis-aggregation ready for next generation networks, services and applications including 5G, leveraging merchant silicon technology. We believe this shift creates opportunities for us to increase our share in the market as compared to direct competitors such as Cisco, Juniper Networks, Inc., Huawei, Nokia, Ciena, Infinera Corporation, Adtran Networks, and Fujitsu Limited. We believe a key differentiation from these competitors is our optimized and integrated multi-layer IP optical solutions. These solutions leverage our SDN, IP routing and optical networking and control plane technologies for both IP and Optical networking layers to create a truly integrated IP Optical Network that optimizes resource utilization in real time, and provides the best overall economics to customers differentiating us from our competitors. Advanced planning algorithms design multi-layer IP Optical networks that maximize traffic handling with failure resiliency by looking holistically at all network layers, providing the best return on capital expenditures. These multi-layer optimized networks can then meet specific customer and service needs on a case-by-case basis.

Services and Support

As communication networks continue to grow increasingly vital to society and business, and complexity grows with every new technology introduction cycle, service providers are increasingly challenged to control costs and find the expertise to operate, maintain, and repair these platforms. We have a rich history of providing service-based solutions to complement our products and to help service providers and enterprises grow revenues, serve their customers, reduce costs, and improve productivity. Our Global Services organization provides a wide range of services to enable our customers to achieve those goals. Our Professional Services team includes hundreds of cloud communications, VoIP, IMS, IP and Optical networking specialists offering technical depth, network breadth and proprietary tools to assist customers in all aspects of network modernization, design, operation and deployment. Our Maintenance Support offerings deliver a comprehensive support strategy for all of our products, applications, and solutions sold. Our Managed Services offer proactive monitoring to keep customers' production communications running smoothly so they can concentrate on operating their business. In addition, our Education Services are designed to equip customers with the technical knowledge and skills needed to accelerate service readiness and delivery goals and to help customers get the most out of our products and solutions.

Sales and Marketing

We sell our portfolio of products and solutions to service provider and enterprise customers around the globe through both direct sales and indirectly through channel partners, including independent resellers, distributors, service providers and system integrators. Most of our sales to service providers are done directly and most sales to enterprises are done through channel partners. To support our customers' requirements, our direct sales team is organized geographically and by major customers. Our sales teams sell our full portfolio of products and solutions from both segments to customers in each salesperson's assigned

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region. Our direct sales teams and resellers are supported by a highly trained technical sales engineering staff who work closely with our customers to develop technical proposals and design systems to optimize system performance and economic benefits for our customers.

Our marketing organization is responsible for building awareness of our brand in the markets served and driving engagement with our strategies, solutions, and products. It promotes our brand and portfolio value propositions to key stakeholders, including our customers, channel partners, and prospects globally. The organization develops all of our corporate and portfolio messaging for different target audiences, and manages all customer and industry communication channels, including public relations, digital content (including for the web and social media), events, and trade shows, as well as demand generation and account-based marketing campaigns in conjunction with our sales force.

Manufacturing

We rely on global contract manufacturers and original design manufacturers to manufacture, assemble, test and ship our products. We typically utilize long-term relationships with our contract manufacturers and regularly review business relationships in an attempt to reduce cost of goods and supply risks. We employ formal quality, environmental and ethics management programs with all of our contract manufacturers.

Our leading manufacturers have presence in multiple international locations. This enables us to implement a flexible manufacturing and logistics landscape for each product line and target markets. This structure also facilitates redundancy and business continuity to mitigate risks related to adverse trade tariff, taxation, and natural disasters. Moreover, we wholly own the intellectual property related to fabrication files, assembly, testing algorithms and manufacturing operating procedures, thus reducing sole dependency on a specific contract manufacturer.

Inventory Suppliers and Sourcing

We work with strategic global suppliers for our key integrated circuit components, systems, and software. Certain of our networking products use third-party optical modules embedded on board or configured as pluggable units. These modules are designed and manufactured by leading optical technology vendors and supplied to us based on agreed-upon controlled performance specifications.

Our policy is to purchase major components directly from original suppliers or from authorized distributors. We regularly review market trends and volume demand for newly introduced products with our suppliers and distributors to negotiate reduced component pricing as the products mature. We carefully manage end-of-sale and end-of-life transitions to maximize return on investment and minimize wasted material, while maximizing customer satisfaction. When we must source such end-of-life components from distributors and brokers, we typically encounter increased component pricing. In some cases, when such parts cannot be sourced reliably any longer in the open market, we undertake redesign efforts with alternative components.

In order to maintain competitive lead time for our customers, we employ sophisticated demand and supply management systems. We also utilize agility and safety stock processes to help meet higher-than-forecasted customer demand to stock raw material and sub-assembly inventory. Occasionally, we experience unforeseen demand drops of certain products or sub-assemblies due to technology evolution, customer consumption behavior, or shortened product lifecycle. For example, we encountered supply chain disruptions in 2021 due to component demand and logistics complications. We regularly review current inventory levels to ensure adequate reserves for excess and obsolete inventory arising from shortened product life cycle or demand drops.

The worldwide supply chain disruptions that started mid-2020 have affected multiple aspects of our product realization processes, including extended component lead-times, part shortages, higher input costs, and increased logistics complexity. This has largely moderated in 2023, however some higher input costs remain, and our inventory levels are somewhat elevated. We continue to implement specific actions to manage these issues, including investment in key re-design of sub-assemblies to improve product availability and lower costs.

The ongoing war in the Middle East has caused some disruption to material supply chain and production operations in that region. We have successfully avoided any significant impacts thus far by carefully managing the flow of material, and enacting our established business continuity processes with alternate suppliers and production operation centers.

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Research and Development

Our global R&D workforce is geographically distributed across a balanced set of centers of excellence. This allows us to distribute work in a cost-effective manner and provide time-zone sensitive support to our global sales team and customers. We supplement our deep in-house expertise with a small set of long-term contracting partners, allowing us to flex up and down as required to match customer demand.

To maintain our position as a leader in product and solution development, we continue to invest in our development methodologies, leveraging and adopting industry best practices in the domains of DevOPs, Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery ("CI/CD"), cloud-native software, and Security and Test Automation.

In addition to delivering product-specific feature requests from our customers, our R&D resources that are focused on our Cloud and Edge business segment continue to focus on leading edge technology that will allow our customers to move from purpose-built appliances to fully virtualized and cloud-native solutions, including private, public, hybrid and multi-cloud deployment models as they modernize their networks. We are also investing in aaS variants of our products, fully integrated with cloud-native operational models.

Our IP Optical Networks R&D team continues to focus on empowering our customers with better performance and cost-efficient solutions, improved cost-per-bit, and reduced power and space requirements to lower operating costs. We create innovative solutions that address the exponential increases in bandwidth consumption with improving operational efficiency. Our unique value-add is demonstrated by advanced well-integrated optical and packet solutions managed by state-of-the-art cross platform SDN management system.

We leverage modern technologies and industry best practices across all of our products and solutions to provide security at each layer of the solution, enabling end to end security of the overall system. We continue to invest in analytics and automation using the latest artificial intelligence and machine learning ("AI/ML") technology, to allow our customers to operate our solutions at scale with end-to-end visibility and control over the robustness, security, and efficiency of the solution.

Intellectual Property

We believe intellectual property is fundamental to our business and success, and we depend upon our ability to develop, maintain and protect our technology. We seek to safeguard our investments in technology and rely on a combination of U.S. and foreign patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright law and contractual restrictions to protect the proprietary aspects of our technology. As of December 31, 2023, we had 688 issued patents in the U.S., 631 of which expire between 2024 and 2042, and we had 41 in-process patent applications in the U.S. As of such date, we also had 335 issued patents in foreign jurisdictions, and we had 87 in-process patent applications in foreign jurisdictions. As of December 31, 2023, we had 30 trademarks registered or pending in the U.S. and 120 trademarks registered or pending in foreign jurisdictions.

In addition to the protections described above, we seek to safeguard our intellectual property by employing measures to protect against the unauthorized use or disclosure of the source and object code for our software, documentation and other written materials; licensing our software pursuant to signed license agreements, which impose restrictions on others' ability to use our software; and seeking to limit disclosure of our intellectual property by requiring employees and consultants with access to our proprietary information to execute confidentiality agreements.

We have incorporated third-party licensed technology into certain of our products and may be required to license additional technology from third parties to develop new products or to enhance existing products. Although many companies are often willing to enter into such licensing agreements, no assurance can be provided that such licenses can be negotiated on reasonable terms, or at all. The failure to enter into technology development or licensing agreements, when necessary, could limit our ability to develop new products and could harm our business.

Despite our efforts to protect our technology and proprietary rights as discussed above, unauthorized parties may still obtain and use our technology and software. We have defended, and intend to vigorously defend when necessary, our intellectual property from infringement. Other companies in the communications and technology industries frequently threaten litigation or file suit against us (directly or indirectly through customers to whom we could owe indemnification) based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. We are currently subject to, and expect to face in the future, allegations that we have infringed the intellectual property rights of third parties, including those of our competitors and non-practicing entities.

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Regulatory Considerations

As a company with global operations, we are subject to complex U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, including trade regulations, tariffs, import and export regulations, anti-bribery and corruption laws, antitrust or competition laws, cybersecurity, privacy and data protection, among others. In addition, our operations are also subject to a number of environmental regulations such as the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive ("WEEE") and the Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment ("RoHS"). We have developed policies and procedures to assist us in complying with these laws and regulations. Our historical compliance costs, including those related to environmental regulations, have not resulted in a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition. We expect the laws and regulations to which we are subject will continue to increase and the future costs of compliance with existing or new regulations could materially impact our business in the future.

Our Employees

As a global company with employees in more than 30 countries, we focus on creating an inclusive global community, aligning our resources, processes, and platforms to build a work culture that reflects and expresses our core values. This enables us to work efficiently across borders and functions. Our aim is to create a workplace that is engaging, inspiring, challenging, and inclusive. We strive to be a great employer for our current employees and for future employees who are seeking an opportunity to join our dynamic business, positioned at the nexus of global communications technology and social transformation.

As of December 31, 2023, we had a total of 3,107 employees worldwide, located geographically as follows:

Number of employees Percentage of total

Approximately 657 employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements or works councils and we believe that our relations with the labor unions are generally good.

Ribbon takes pride in conducting business in accordance with the highest ethical standards. Our Code of Conduct outlines the importance of employees acting in an honest and ethical manner. Ribbon employees are familiar with this policy. The principles of integrity, accountability and fair dealing are the cornerstone of our business and are critical to our future success. All of our employees understand that adherence to proper conduct helps us improve our competitive positioning and business outcomes. To assist in this, we are deliberate in making sure that each employee is aware that they play a role in fostering a work environment that encourages mutual respect and congenial relationships among employees.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ("DEI"). We believe that a culture which encourages all team members, regardless of race, sex, background, or affiliation, to take pride in their individual contributions and work together as a team is key to our success. In 2023, our DEI Council focused on conducting educational initiatives to increase awareness of different employee backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. One example of an initiative designed to increase DEI awareness was having employees write blogs on the topics of Korean Heritage and Celebrating Hispanic Roots to highlight their background and culture for their colleagues. Ribbon is committed to fostering and maintaining a culture of diversity and inclusion for employees.

Employee Hiring, Turnover and Engagement. Our turnover and hiring metrics are refreshed on a weekly basis. This up-to-date information allows us to quantify our success with employee retention, implement timely and selective retention initiatives as needed, and measure the speed at which we attract and onboard qualified candidates. In 2023, we experienced an improved retention rate compared to the previous year. Our voluntary turnover rate in 2023 was 5.9% compared to 13.3% in 2022. This increased employee retention rate in 2023 was a result of our internal retention efforts, as well as the overall slowdown of the external job market.

This lower turnover rate in 2023 resulted in a decreased need to hire externally. For the year ended December 31, 2023, we hired 149 employees globally. This compares to the 407 employees that we hired in 2022. We have a formalized employee referral program in place as we have found that employees who join us through employee referrals are a good cultural fit and remain with us longer than those who have no personal connection to us. Approximately one-third of our hires in 2023 came from employee referrals. The average time to fill a position in 2023 was just over 31 days.

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Our employee management process includes conducting exit interviews with all employees that leave us voluntarily. The data obtained from this questionnaire and an in-person exit interview is referenced when creating and updating benefit plans and other employee offerings.

Our recognition program, “Real Time Rewards”, which was launched in 2022 and continued in 2023, reinforces our “thank you culture.” Our employees are able to recognize the achievements and contributions of their teammates, peers, and managers. In 2023, approximately 3,000 such awards were given, whereby 48% of our employees were recognized and rewarded for their contributions. These rewards are comprised of both monetary and non-monetary awards and are also used to recognize service anniversaries, birthdays, and other notable events.

Learning and Development (L&D). We believe that investing in our employees' personal and professional development enables them to perform their current roles with maximum effectiveness and to be prepared for roles of greater responsibility in the future. Our strong L&D programs deliver employee empowerment, boost workplace engagement and relationships, and retain talent. These learning programs utilize a combination of in-person and online curriculum and include core modules, some of which are mandatory, relating to ethical conduct, products and services, cybersecurity, safety, human rights and anti-corruption, as well as additional tailored programs on topics such as leadership, management, excellence in service, project management and competency development. In 2023, we delivered more than 21 live training webinars, 4 manager/leader development programs, 6 Excellence in Service Programs and approximately 13 training hours per employee across our workforce, matching the total hours in 2022.

Safety, Health and Well-being. Our objective is to provide a safe and hazard-free work environment for all employees. Compliance with applicable safety regulations is a top priority and we strive to maintain our strong track record for safety, which continues to be reinforced through regular training modules at all of our locations.

Also, we regularly promotes our Employee Assistance Program (the “EAP”) that is offered to all employees and their families which provides customized sessions to meet varying needs globally. The EAP is a confidential support service to help our employees and their dependents at no cost to our employees.

In addition, as a company consistently advocating for a healthy, balanced lifestyle, we offer a Wellness Program, which is available to all of our employees and their families. This program includes a variety of monthly wellness related topics delivered through activities such as webinars, exercise sessions, and engaging challenges.

In 2023, we continued our Hybrid Work Model where employees spend a minimum of two days per week working from one of our offices. This encourages collaboration, innovation, and socialization while maintaining the flexibility to work remotely as well.

Community Investment. We value the communities in which we work. We encourage a service mindset among our employees wherever they are and support community involvement and engagement. Our Employee Engagement committees have developed ongoing relationships with local Non-Profit organizations where Ribbon and our employees are contributing both time and funds to provide needed support. Ribbon also sponsors events and campaigns that support organizations such as the American Heart Association, Make a Wish Foundation, and the United Way. In addition, since 2010, we have provided a day of paid time off for all employees to participate in our Global Day of Service, during which employees and their families are encouraged to volunteer and contribute to local charitable organizations in their communities.

For additional information on Ribbon’s talent and our current engagement activities, please see our most recent sustainability report, which is available at ribboncommunications.com/company/company-policies/sustainability-report.

Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility

We are committed to operating ethically, efficiently and inclusively. We believe we contribute to the communities in which we operate through the mitigation of climate change and other global sustainable development priorities. We aim to help improve the quality of the lives of people, society and the health of the planet through leveraging our expertise in transforming networks, enhancing security and delivering world-class solutions. We believe that communications technology and continuous innovation form the backbone upon which sustainable development largely depends. Major technology trends supported by our solutions include the accelerated adoption of collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom; the 5G revolution; accelerating customers' ability to transfer carbon-intensive data storage from using local physical environments to the cloud; supporting service providers’ increased network demands to allow more people to work from home; and using our analytics solutions to maximize network efficiencies.

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We have taken a more strategic position to our environmental, social and governance ("ESG") practices. Our ESG materiality study reviewed the expectations and requirements of both our stakeholders and our competitors to focus on the ESG practices that are most critical to our business and those where we believe we can make the largest positive impact. From this materiality study, we published a strategy, which we review with the Board of Directors from time to time, which we believe will positively impact our future environmental performance, and deliver social benefits for our customers, employees and society at large. Additionally, we believe the governance improvements made as a result of our strategy will result in enhancements in our accountability and that of our suppliers and partners.

We are committed to protecting the environment and preventing pollution within a product's lifecycle through responsible product design and requiring suppliers to adhere to sustainable practices. An example of this is our focus on continuously improving the power and space efficiency of our products to reduce overall energy consumption in our customers' networks at our own facilities. We align our compliance goals with component directives such as RoHS legislation in the European Union and China and with the European WEEE directive. We also hold a host of internationally recognized certifications for our global offerings, including ISO 9001: 2015 - Quality Management Systems; ISO 14001: 2015 - Environmental Management Systems; and SI 10000: 2013 - Social Responsibility (covering our sites in Israel).

It has always been paramount to our way of doing business to act with the utmost integrity, honesty and transparency. Our commitment to ethical business practices guide us in our compliance with national and international laws and regulations, including anti-corruption, anti-bribery and unfair competition, antitrust and human rights. We maintain a Code of Conduct that applies to all of our directors, employees, contractors and suppliers. We are committed to strong corporate governance practices, which include building long-term value and assuring success for our stockholders and other stakeholders, including employees, customers and the communities in which we operate.

For additional information regarding our corporate governance and our social responsibility goals and initiatives, please see “Corporate Governance” on our investor relations website (investors.ribboncommunications.com) and our most recent sustainability report, which is available at ribboncommunications.com/company/company-policies/sustainability-report.

Seasonality

We have experienced quarterly fluctuations in customer activity due to seasonal considerations. We typically experience increases in order volume in the fourth quarter due to greater spending on operating and capital expenditures by our service provider customers. We typically experience reductions in order volume toward the beginning of the calendar year, when our service provider customers are operationalizing their annual budgets and plans, which may result in lower revenue in the first quarter. These typical seasonal effects may vary. Accordingly, they should not be considered a reliable indicator of our future operating results.

Additional Information

Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed with or furnished to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), are available free of charge through the SEC's Internet site (http://www.sec.gov) or our Internet site (http://www.ribboncommunications.com) as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. Information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website does not constitute a part of this annual report and is not incorporated by reference herein.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

Our business faces significant risks and uncertainties. Certain important factors may have a material adverse effect on our business prospects, financial condition and results of operations, and they should be carefully considered. Accordingly, in evaluating our business, we encourage you to consider the following discussion of risk factors in its entirety in addition to other information contained in or incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other public filings with the SEC. These are factors which, individually or in the aggregate, we think could cause our actual results to differ significantly from anticipated or historical results. In addition to understanding the key risks described below, investors should understand that it is not possible to predict or identify all risk factors, and consequently, the following is not a complete discussion of all potential risks or uncertainties. Other events that we do not currently anticipate or that we currently deem immaterial may also affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, investors should not interpret the disclosure of a risk to imply that the risk has not already materialized.

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Risk Factors Summary

The following is a summary of the principal risks that could adversely affect our business, operations and financial results:

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

•Our quarterly revenue and operating results are unpredictable and may fluctuate significantly quarter to quarter.

•Failure to compete successfully could impair our ability to increase revenues and/or remain profitable.

•Our future success is dependent on growing our base of customers and expanding our recurring revenue.

•Consolidation in the telecommunications industry could harm our business.

•Restructuring activities could adversely affect our ability to execute our business strategy.

•Exposure to the credit risk of some of our customers and to credit exposures in fragile financial markets could result in material losses.

•Disruptions to relationships with distributors, resellers, system integrators and other channel partners could adversely affect our revenues.

•Failure to align our strategic plan with our customers' investments, or failure of products and services to meet customers' demands, could impact our revenues.

•Failure of our products to interoperate with our customers' existing networks could result in customer losses.

•Delay in the anticipated shift to more virtualized networks, or failure for customers to adopt our new products and services focused on virtualized networks, could reduce our revenues.

•Failure by our strategic partners or by us in integrating products could harm our business.

•We rely on contract manufacturers.

•We rely on single or limited sources for supply of some components of our products.

•Failure to correctly estimate future requirements for end-of-production products purchased from third parties could harm our operating results or business.

•Products may have errors or defects that we find only after full deployment.

•Government sales are subject to potential delays and cutbacks, may require specific testing efforts, or impose significant compliance obligations.

•Future investments, mergers or acquisitions could be difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute shareholder value and harm our financial condition.

•Failure to hire and retain key personnel could negatively impact our ability to meet our business objectives and impair future growth.

•Man-made problems, such as terrorism, and natural catastrophic events may disrupt our operations and harm our operating results.

Risks Related to Our International Operations

•Worldwide global economic conditions and uncertainties may have a material adverse impact on our business.

•The wars in Israel and Ukraine could materially impact our sales to customers in that region.

•Conditions in Israel may materially and adversely affect our business.

•Risks associated with our international operations could impair our ability to grow our international revenue.

•Increases in tariffs, trade restrictions or taxes on our products could have an adverse impact on our operations.

•Fluctuations in currency exchange rates could negatively impact our financial results and cash flows.

•Use and reliance upon research and development resources in global locations may expose us to unanticipated costs and/or liabilities.

Risks Related to Intellectual Property

•Our business could be jeopardized if we are unable to protect our intellectual property.

•Failure to obtain necessary licenses or ongoing maintenance and support of third-party technology at acceptable prices on acceptable terms, or at all, it could harm our operating results or business.

•A breach of the security of our information systems or those of our third-party providers could adversely affect our operating results.

Risks Related to Regulation

•Data privacy issues, including evolving laws, regulations and associated compliance, may adversely impact our business and financial results.

•Failure to comply with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), the U.K. Bribery Act ("UKBA") and similar regulations could subject us to significant civil or criminal penalties.

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•Governmental export and import controls could subject us to liability, require a license from the U.S. government or impair our ability to compete in international markets.

•Changes in governmental regulation, especially with respect to the telecommunications industry, could harm our operating results and future prospects.

Risks Related to Our Indebtedness and Accounting Matters

•The terms of our credit agreement could adversely affect our operating flexibility and pose risks of default, which would negatively impact our liquidity and operations.

•The terms of the Series A Preferred Stock and warrants impose additional challenges on our ability to raise capital.

•Impairment of our goodwill or intangible assets may require us to record a significant charge to earnings.

•Failure to maintain appropriate internal controls in the future may adversely affect our stock price and our business.

Risks Related to Ownership of our Common Stock

•The choice of forum provision in our Certificate of Incorporation could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or agents.

•Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of us more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management and may negatively affect the market price of our common stock.

•Our Series A Preferred Stock has rights, preferences, and privileges that are not held by, and are preferential to, the rights of holders of our common stock.

•The existence of the liquidation preference of the Series A Preferred Stock may reduce the value of our common stock.

•The outstanding warrants are exercisable for common stock, which would increase the number of shares eligible for future resale in the public market and result in dilution to stockholders.

•We may issue debt and equity securities that are senior to our common stock, which could negatively affect the value of our common stock.

Risks Related to Ownership of our Series A Preferred Stock and Warrants

•Obligations to pay dividends or make distributions and potential liquidation payments in respect of the Series A Preferred Stock are subordinate.

•Holders of our Series A Preferred Stock have limited voting rights.

•Holders of our Series A Preferred Stock bear dividend risk.

•We may issue preferred stock in the future that ranks senior to or equally with the Series A Preferred Stock.

•The outstanding warrants are speculative in nature and may not have any value.

•Holders of our warrants will have no rights as a common stockholder until they acquire our common stock.

•An active trading market for the Series A Preferred Stock and warrants does not exist and may not develop.

General Risk Factors

•Litigation and government investigations could result in significant legal expenses and settlement payments, fines or damage awards.

•Our stock price has been and may continue to be volatile.

•We are party to a stockholders' agreement with certain stockholders which provides such stockholders with certain rights that may differ from the rights of our other stockholders.

•Delaware law and our charter documents contain provisions that could discourage or prevent a potential takeover.

For a more complete discussion of the material risks facing our business, see below.

Risks Related to our Business and Industry

Our quarterly revenue and operating results are unpredictable and may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and the trading price of our common stock.

Our revenue and operating results may vary significantly from quarter to quarter due to a number of factors, many of which are outside of our control and any of which may cause our stock price to fluctuate. Material factors that may affect our revenue and operating results include those discussed below under “Risks Related to our Business and Industry.”

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Equipment purchases by CSPs and enterprises continue to be unpredictable. As with other telecommunications product suppliers, we typically recognize a portion of our revenue in a given quarter from sales booked and shipped in the last weeks of that quarter. As a result, delays in customer orders may result in delays in shipments and recognition of revenue beyond the end of a given quarter. Additionally, we rely on the revenue provided by certain large customers. It can be difficult for us to predict the timing of receipt of major customer orders, and we are unable to control their timing decisions. We have experienced significant variability in the spending patterns and purchasing practices of our customers on a quarterly and annual basis, and we expect that this variability will continue. Consequently, our quarterly operating results are difficult to predict, even in the short term, and a delay in an anticipated sale past the end of a particular quarter may negatively impact our results of operations for that quarter, or in some cases, that year. Therefore, we believe that quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our operating results are not a good indication of our future performance. If our revenue or operating results fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts or below any guidance we may provide to the market, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. Such a stock price decline could also occur even if we meet our publicly stated revenue and/or earnings guidance.

A significant portion of our operating expenses is fixed in the short term. If revenue for a particular quarter is below expectations, we may not be able to reduce costs and expenses proportionally for that quarter. Any such revenue shortfall would, therefore, have a significant effect on our operating results for that quarter.

If we fail to compete successfully against telecommunications equipment and networking companies, our ability to increase our revenue and remain profitable will be impaired.

Competition in the telecommunications market is intense. The market is shifting from an ecosystem dominated by a few large incumbent telecommunications equipment companies, such as Ericsson LM Telephone Company, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Nokia Corporation, Ciena Corporation and Cisco Systems, Inc., to a market with competitors that are characterized by network virtualization, migration to the cloud, and open interfaces. We believe this shift creates opportunities for us, as well as our direct competitors in telecommunications and networking. The shift also creates opportunities for new entrants, including some that may currently be our strategic partners, that could become competitors in the industry. See Item 1. "Business – Competition". Mergers among any of these or other competitors could strengthen their ability to compete against us, and additional competitors with significant financial resources entering our markets could further intensify competition.

To compete effectively, we must deliver innovative products that provide extremely high reliability and quality; deploy and scale easily and efficiently; interoperate with existing network infrastructures and multivendor solutions; provide effective network management, as well as comprehensive customer support and professional services; provide a cost-effective and space-efficient solution for enterprises and service providers; meet price competition from low cost equipment providers; and offer solutions that are timely for the market and support where the industry is heading.

Many of our current and potential competitors have significantly greater selling and marketing, technical, manufacturing, financial and other resources than we have. Further, some of our competitors sell significant amounts of other products to our current and prospective customers and have the ability to offer lower prices to win business. Our competitors' broad product portfolios, coupled with already existing relationships, may cause our customers to buy our competitors' products or harm our ability to attract new customers.

If we are unable to compete successfully against our current and future competitors, we could experience price reductions, order cancellations and loss of customers and revenue, and our operating results could be adversely affected.

Our future success is dependent on growing our base of customers and expanding our recurring revenue from our existing customers.

We rely on certain key customers, and our future success will depend on our ability to generate recurring business from our existing customers and to attract additional customers beyond our current customer base. One customer, Verizon, contributed approximately 11% of our revenue in the year ended December 31, 2023. Our top five customers contributed approximately 34% of our revenue in 2023. Factors that may affect our ability to grow our customer base include, but are not limited to, economic conditions that discourage potential new customers from making the capital investments required to adopt new technologies; deterioration in the general financial condition of service providers and enterprises, or their ability to raise capital or access lending sources; new product introductions by our competitors; and the success of our channel partner program. If we are unable to expand our customer base, the loss of any significant customer, or any substantial reduction in purchase orders or deferral of purchasing decisions from these customers, could materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

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Consolidation in the telecommunications industry could harm our business.

The telecommunications industry, including many of our customers, has experienced consolidation, including, in the carrier space, the merger between Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. (April 2023), the acquisition of certain Lumen Technologies assets by Brightspeed (2022), the merger between T-Mobile US, Inc. and Sprint Corporation (2020) and the acquisition of Blue Face Ltd. by Comcast Corporation (2020).Further, consolidation has also occurred in the telecommunications supplier and vendor space, including the proposed acquisition of Juniper Networks by Hewlett Packard Enterprises (January 2024), the combination of ADTRAN, Inc. and ADVA (2022) and the acquisition of Acacia Communications, Inc. by Cisco Systems, Inc. (2021).

We expect this trend to continue. Consolidation among our customers may cause delays or reductions in capital expenditure plans by such customers and/or increased competitive pricing pressures as the number of available customers declines and the relative bargaining power of customers increases in relation to suppliers. Any of these factors could materially adversely affect our business.

Restructuring activities could adversely affect our ability to execute our business strategy.

We recorded restructuring expense of $16.2 million and $10.8 million in 2023 and 2022, respectively, including severance and related costs, facilities restructuring and accelerated amortization of lease assets. In 2024, we expect to record additional restructuring expense of approximately $5 million as we look to further streamline operations and consolidate our global footprint to reflect, among other things, a greater percentage of our workforce working from home on a go-forward basis.

Our current restructuring and any future restructuring, should it become necessary for us to further restructure our business due to market conditions or other factors that reduce the demand for our products and services, could adversely affect our ability to execute our business strategy in a number of ways, including through loss of key employees; diversion of management's attention from normal daily operations of the business; diminished ability to respond to customer requirements related to both products and services; disruption of our engineering and manufacturing processes, which could adversely affect our ability to introduce new products and to deliver products both on a timely basis and in accordance with the highest quality standards; and/or reduced ability to execute effectively internal administrative processes, including the implementation of key information technology programs.

There can be no assurance that any restructuring actions we have taken in the past, or may take in the future, will improve our financial condition or results of operations.

We are exposed to the credit risk of some of our customers and to credit exposures in fragile financial markets, which could result in material losses.

Due to our reliance on significant customers, we are dependent on the continued financial strength of our customers. If one or more of our significant customers experience financial difficulties, it could result in uncollectible accounts receivable and our loss of significant customers and anticipated revenue.

Most of our sales are on an open credit basis, with typical payment terms of 30 to 90 days. In our IP Optical Networks segment, some payment terms may be as long as 180 days or, in limited circumstances, even longer. We evaluate and monitor individual customer payment capability in granting such open credit arrangements, maintain reserves that we believe are adequate to cover exposure for doubtful accounts, and in some cases, insure credit risk. However, there can be no assurance that our open credit customers will pay the amounts they owe us or that the reserves we maintain will be adequate to cover such credit exposure. Our sales derived through distributors, in particular, represent sources of increased credit risk as distributors tend to have more limited financial resources than other resellers and end-user customers.

Our customers' failure to pay and/or our failure to maintain sufficient reserves could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. Additionally, in the event that turmoil in the credit markets makes it more difficult for some customers to obtain financing, those customers' ability to pay could be adversely impacted, which in turn could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Disruptions to, or our failure to effectively develop relationships with and manage, distributors, resellers, system integrators and other channel partners, and the processes and procedures that support them, could adversely affect our ability to generate revenue from the sale of our products and services.

We continue to enhance our sales strategy, which we expect will include more partner sales engagements to resell our products and services through authorized distributors, value-added resellers ("VARs"), system integrators and other channel partners. Our future success is dependent upon establishing and maintaining successful relationships with a variety of distributors, VARs,

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system integrators and other channel partners. We may also need to pursue strategic partnerships with vendors that have broader technology or product offerings in order to compete with end-to-end solution providers. In addition, many of the enterprise markets we are pursuing require a broad network of resale partners in order to achieve effective distribution.

Many of our distribution and channel partners sell competitive products and services, and the loss of, or reduction in sales by, these partners could materially reduce our revenue. Our sales through channel partners typically involve the use of our products as components of a larger solution being implemented by systems integrators. In these instances, the purchase and sale of our products are dependent on the channel partners, who typically control the timing, prioritization and implementation of projects. If we fail to maintain relationships with our distribution, VAR and systems integration partners, fail to develop new relationships with other partners in new markets, fail to manage, train or provide incentives to our existing partners effectively, or if these partners are not successful in their sales efforts, sales of our products and services may decrease and our operating results could suffer. Moreover, if we do not have adequate personnel, experience and resources to manage the relationships with our partners and to fulfill our responsibilities under such arrangements, any such shortcomings could have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations.

If our strategic plan, including our research and development of innovative new products and the improvement of existing products, is not aligned with our customers’ investments in the evolution of their networks, or if our products and services do not meet customers’ demands, customers may not buy our products or use our services.

We spend a significant amount of time, money and resources developing new technology, products and solutions to help keep up with rapid technology and market changes. Our strategic plan, includes a continued shift in our investments from mature technologies that previously generated significant revenue for us toward certain networking technologies. Our choices of specific technologies to pursue, and those to de-emphasize, may prove to be inconsistent with our customers' investment spending. Moreover, if we invest in the development of technologies, products and solutions that do not function as expected, are not adopted by the industry, are not ready in time, are not accepted by our customers as quickly as anticipated or at all, mature more quickly than we anticipated or are not successful in the marketplace, our sales and earnings may suffer and, as a result, our stock price could decline.

To achieve market acceptance for our products, we must effectively anticipate, and adapt in a timely manner to, customer requirements and offer products and services that meet changing customer demands. Prospective customers may require product features and capabilities that our current products do not have. The introduction of new or enhanced products also requires that we carefully manage the transition from older products in order to minimize disruption in customer ordering patterns and ensure that adequate supplies of new products can be delivered to meet anticipated customer demand. If we fail to develop products and offer services that satisfy customer requirements or if we fail to effectively manage the transition from older products, our ability to create or increase demand for our products and services could be seriously harmed, we may lose current and prospective customers and our results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.

If our products do not interoperate with our customers' existing networks, we may not retain current customers or attract new customers.

Many of our customers will require that our products be designed to interface with their existing networks, each of which may have different specifications. Issues caused by an unanticipated lack of interoperability may result in significant warranty, support and repair costs, divert the attention of our engineering personnel from our hardware and software development efforts and cause significant customer relations problems. If our products do not interoperate with those of our customers' networks, installations could be delayed or orders for our products could be canceled, which would seriously harm our gross margins and result in loss of revenue or customers.

We believe the telecommunications industry is in a major architectural shift to the virtualization of networks. If the architectural shift does not occur, if it does not occur at the pace we predict, or if the products and services we have developed are not attractive to our customers after such shift takes place, our revenue could decline.

We believe the telecommunications industry remains in the early stages of transitioning to the virtualization of networks. While we anticipate that the industry shift to a software-centric cloud-based architecture is likely to happen, fundamental changes like this often take time to accelerate. In addition, our customers may adapt to such changes at varying rates. As our customers take time to determine their future network architectures, we may encounter delayed timing of orders, deferred purchasing decisions and reduced expenditures by our customers. These longer decision cycles and reduced expenditures may negatively impact our revenue or make it difficult for us to accurately predict our revenue, either of which could materially adversely affect our results of operations and cause our stock price to decline.

Virtualization of our product portfolio, particularly in our Cloud and Edge segment, to increasingly focus on more software-based products could also adversely impact our revenue growth. As we virtualize our product portfolio, we expect our margins

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to improve due to decreased costs tied to production and sales of our appliance products, however, our revenue may decline as a result of the decreases in sales of appliance products, many of which have generated higher revenue on a per-unit basis than certain of our software products.

Failure by our strategic partners or by us in integrating products provided by our strategic partners could harm our business.

Our solutions include the integration of products supplied by strategic partners. We rely on these strategic partners in the timely and successful deployment of our solutions to our customers. If the products provided by these partners have defects or do not operate as expected, if the services provided by these partners are not completed in a timely manner, if our partners have organizational or supply issues, or if we do not effectively integrate and support products supplied by these strategic partners, then we may have difficulty with the deployment of our solutions that may result in loss of, or delay in, revenue; increased service, support and warranty costs and a diversion of development resources; and/or network performance penalties.

In addition to cooperating with our strategic partners, such as Dell and Microsoft, on specific customer projects, we also may compete in some areas with these same partners. If these strategic partners fail to perform or choose not to cooperate with us on certain projects, in addition to the effects described above, we could experience loss of customers and market share, or fail to attract new customers.

If our contract manufacturers fail to perform, or if we change or consolidate manufacturers, we may fail to meet the demands of our customers and damage our customer relationships, which could materially adversely affect our business.

We currently rely on a small number of large global contract manufacturers to assemble our products according to our specifications and to fulfill orders on a timely basis. Reliance on a third-party manufacturer involves a number of risks, including a lack of control over the manufacturing process, inventory management and the potential absence or unavailability of adequate capacity. These risks are amplified by any global supply chain disruptions. As we do not have internal manufacturing capabilities, any difficulties or failures to perform by our contract manufacturers could cause delays in customer product shipments, which could negatively affect our relationships with customers and result in delayed revenue.

In addition, any future changes to or consolidations of our current contract manufacturers could lead to material shortages or delays in the supply of our products. Qualifying a new contract manufacturer to commence commercial scale production or consolidating to a reduced number of contract manufacturers are expensive and time-consuming activities and could result in a significant delay in the supply of our products, which could negatively affect our relationships with customers and result in delayed revenue.

We and our contract manufacturers rely on single or limited sources for supply of some components of our products and if we fail to adequately predict our manufacturing requirements or if our supply of any of these components is disrupted, we will be unable to ship our products in a timely manner, or at all.

We and our contract manufacturers both purchase several key components of our products. Depending upon the component, there may or may not be alternative sources of substitutes. If we overestimate our component and finished goods requirements, we could have excess inventory, which would increase our costs. If we or our contract manufacturers underestimate our requirements, we may not have an adequate supply, which could interrupt manufacturing of our products and result in delays in shipments and revenue. If any of our sole or limited source suppliers experience capacity constraints, work stoppages or other reductions or disruptions in output, it may not be able to meet, or may choose not to meet, our delivery schedules. Moreover, we have agreed to compensate our contract manufacturers in the event of termination or cancellation of orders, discontinuance of product or excess material.

We generally do not have long-term supply contracts with our component suppliers and they are not required to supply us with components for any specified periods, in any specified quantities or at any set price, except as may be specified in a particular purchase order. In the event of a disruption or delay in supply or our inability to obtain components, we may not be able to develop an alternate source in a timely manner or at favorable prices, or at all. While we regularly monitor our inventory of supplies, a failure to find acceptable alternative sources could hurt our ability to deliver high-quality products to our customers and negatively affect our operating margins.

Reliance on our suppliers also exposes us to potential quality variations and unforeseen price increases. Any disruption in the supply of key components would seriously adversely affect our ability to meet committed delivery dates and could result in loss of customers, harm to our ability to attract new customers, or legal action. Additionally, any unforeseen increases in the prices of components could reduce our profitability or force us to increase our prices, which could result in a loss of customers or harm our ability to attract new customers and could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

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Our customer contracts may allow customers to reschedule delivery dates or cancel orders within certain time frames before shipment without penalty and outside those times frames with a penalty. Because of these and other factors, there are risks of excess or inadequate inventory that could negatively affect our expenses and results of operations.

If we are unable to correctly estimate future requirements for products and components that we purchase from our third-party vendors that have reached the end of their production cycle, it could harm our operating results or business.

Some of the products and components that we purchase from our third-party vendors have reached the end of their new production availability. It may be difficult for us to maintain appropriate levels of the discontinued products or components to adequately ensure that we do not have a shortage or surplus of inventory of these products. If we do not correctly forecast the demand for such products that utilize third-party components, we could have excess inventory and may need to write off the costs related to such purchases and such write-offs could materially adversely affect our operating results. However, if we underestimate our forecast and our customers place orders to purchase more products than are available, we may not have sufficient inventory to support their needs. If we are unable to provide our customers with enough of these products, it could make it difficult to retain certain customers, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business.

Our products may have errors or defects that we find only after full deployment.

Many of our products are sophisticated and are designed to be deployed in large and complex networks around the world. Because of the nature of our products, they can only be fully tested when substantially deployed in these networks. Some of our customers may discover errors or defects in the software or hardware, or the products may not operate as expected only after full deployment. Our customers expect us to establish a support infrastructure and maintain demanding support standards to ensure that their networks maintain high levels of availability and performance. As we continue to expand our distribution channel through distributors and resellers, we will need to rely on and support their service and support organizations. If we, or our distributors and resellers, are unable to fix errors or other performance problems that may be identified after full deployment of our products, or provide the expected level of support and service to our customers, we could experience increased service, support and warranty costs and a diversion of development resources, loss of customers, network performance penalties and/or legal actions by our customers, which could materially adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Disruptions to, or our failure to effectively develop, manage and maintain our government customer relationships could adversely affect our ability to generate revenue from these customers. Further, such government sales are subject to potential delays and cutbacks, may require specific testing efforts, or impose significant compliance obligations.

A portion of our total revenue from product sales comes from sales to government agencies in the U.S. and other foreign countries. Disruptions to or our failure to effectively develop, manage and maintain our government customer relationships could adversely affect our ability to generate revenue from sales to such customers. Governments routinely investigate and audit government contractors’ administrative processes, and any unfavorable audit could result in a government refusing to continue buying our products and services, a reduction of revenue or fines or civil or criminal liability if the audit uncovers improper or illegal activities, which could materially adversely impact our operating results.

Factors that could impact federal government spending on our products and services include a significant decline in, or reapportioning of, spending by the federal government customers, changes, delays or cancellations of government programs or requirements, the adoption of new laws or regulations, government shutdowns or other delays in the government budget and/or appropriations process, changes in the political climate and general economic conditions. The loss or significant curtailment of any government contracts or subcontracts, whether due to our performance or due to interruptions or changes in governmental funding, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Further, sales to government customers may require specific testing efforts or impose significant compliance or certification obligations. For example, the U.S. Department of Defense ("DOD") has issued specific requirements for IP networking products for features and interoperability. In order for our products to be used to connect to the DOD network, that product must pass a series of significant tests and be certified by the Joint Interoperability Test Command (“JITC”). While certain of our products are certified by JITC, if we are unable to obtain future JITC certification as needed, our DOD sales and results of operations, may suffer.

Any future investments, mergers or acquisitions we make or enter into, as applicable, could be difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute shareholder value and seriously harm our financial condition.

We have a history of significant acquisitions, including the recent ECI Acquisition, and we may merge with or acquire additional businesses, products or technologies in the future or sell a portion of our business.No assurance can be given that any future merger, acquisition or disposition will be successful or will not materially adversely affect our business, operating

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results or financial condition.We continue to review opportunities to merge with or acquire other businesses or technologies that would add to our existing product line, complement and enhance our current products, expand the breadth of our product and service offerings, enhance our technical capabilities or otherwise offer growth opportunities.If we enter into a merger or make acquisitions in the future, we could, among other things issue stock that would dilute existing stockholders' percentage ownership; incur significant debt or assume significant liabilities; materially reduce our cash; incur significant amortization expenses related to intangible assets; and/or incur large and immediate write-offs for in-process research and development and stock-based compensation.

Mergers, acquisitions and dispositions are inherently risky and subject to many factors outside of our control.Therefore, we cannot be certain that we would be successful in overcoming problems in connection with our past or future acquisitions.Our inability to do so could significantly harm our business, revenue, and results of operations.

Failure to hire and retain key personnel could negatively impact our ability to meet our business objectives and impair our future growth.

Our business depends upon highly skilled technical, managerial, engineering, sales, marketing and customer support personnel. Competition for these personnel is intense, especially during times of economic recovery or growth. Any failure to hire, assimilate in a timely manner and retain key qualified personnel, particularly engineering and sales personnel, could impair our growth and make it difficult to meet key objectives, such as timely and effective product introductions. In addition, our ability to attract and retain key employees could be adversely impacted if we do not have a sufficient number of shares available under the Amended and Restated 2019 Stock Incentive Plan, as amended, to issue to our employees. We may not be able to locate suitable employees for any key employee who leaves or offer employment to potential replacements on reasonable terms.

Our future success also depends upon the continued services of our executive officers who have critical industry experience and relationships that we rely on to implement our business plan. None of our officers or key employees is bound by an employment agreement for any specific term. The loss of the services of any of our executive officers or key employees could delay the development and introduction of, and negatively impact our ability to sell, our products and achieve our business objectives.

Man-made problems, such as war, terrorism, and natural catastrophic events may disrupt our operations and harm our operating results.

The ongoing wars in Israel and Ukraine, as well as the continued threat of terrorism and heightened security and military action in response to this threat, or any future acts of terrorism, may cause disruptions to the economies of the United States and other countries. Events such as work stoppages or widespread blackouts could have similar negative impacts. Such disruptions or uncertainties could result in delays or cancellations of customer orders or the manufacture or shipment of our products and have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Natural catastrophic events, such as earthquakes, fires, floods, tornadoes, or pandemics (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) may also affect our or our customers' operations. For example, we have offices located in Mexico City, Mexico; and Tokyo, Japan, regions known for seismic activity, which could be impacted in the event of an earthquake. A significant natural disaster, such as wildfires, earthquakes or floods, could have a material adverse effect on our business in these locations.

Risks Related to our International Operations

Worldwide economic conditions and uncertainties in the geopolitical environment have been and may continue to be materially adverse to our business.

A factor that significantly affects our operating results is the impact of economic conditions on the willingness of our current and potential customers to make capital investments. Given the general uncertainty regarding global economic conditions and other factors, such as inflation, high interest rates and foreign exchange rate fluctuations, we believe that customers have tried to maintain or improve profitability through cost control and constrained capital spending, which places additional pressure on IT departments to demonstrate acceptable return on investment. Some of our customers have canceled or delayed, and current and prospective customers may continue to cancel and delay, spending on the development or roll-out of capital and technology projects with us due to economic uncertainty and, consequently, our results of operations have been, and may continue to be, adversely affected. In addition, current uncertain worldwide economic and political environments make it increasingly difficult for us, our customers and our suppliers to accurately forecast future product demand, which could result in an inability to satisfy demand for our products and a loss of market share. Our revenue is likely to decline in such circumstances, which may result in erosion of our profit margins and significant losses.

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Moreover, economic conditions worldwide may contribute to slowdowns in the communications and networking industries, as well as to specific segments and markets in which we operate, particularly the telecom sector, resulting in, among other things, reduced demand for our products and services as a result of our customers choosing to refrain from building capital intensive networks; increased price competition for our products, not only from our competitors, but also as a consequence of customers disposing of unutilized products; and risk of excess and obsolete inventories. Continuing turmoil in the geopolitical environment in many parts of the world may continue to put pressure on global economic conditions which in turn, could materially adversely affect our operating results. For example, following recent border clashes with China, India has enacted bans on the import of some goods manufactured in China. These bans are expected to expand to include our products that are currently manufactured in China and, as a result, we had to identify new manufacturing locations for such products. While we have developed plans to relocate our manufacturing sites, the timing required for relocation could impact our ability to sell such products or timely deliver the products, and could result in lower or lost sales in India. The need to move the manufacturing of such products could also negatively impact the margin earned on the sale of such products. If these or other sanctions are enacted, they may limit our ability to provide products and services in an important country or region for our business.

The war between Russia and Ukraine, and the sanctions imposed as a result, could materially impact our sales to customers in that region.

In 2023, approximately 6% of our sales were to customers in Eastern European countries, including Ukraine, Russia, and the surrounding countries. In February 2022, Russia commenced a military action in Ukraine. The uncertainty and the threat of an expansion of the war has resulted in some of our customers delaying purchases from us. Further, the U.S. and other European countries have imposed sanctions against Russia in connection with the war. These sanctions currently prohibit our ability to sell certain products and services to customers in Russia. The sanctions continue to evolve and further changes in the sanctions could further limit our ability to sell products and services to customers in Russia and our ability to collect on outstanding accounts receivable from such customers. We attempt to mitigate some of the risk in this region by requiring a portion of the purchase orders to be paid in advance. Since the start of the war, our customers have continued to meet their obligations to pay us. If we are further limited in our ability to sell products and services to customers in Russia and other countries for an extended period, it could have a material impact on our financial results.

Conditions in Israel may materially and adversely affect our business.

We have a significant number of employees located in Israel. As a result, political, economic and military conditions in Israel may directly affect our business. In October 2023, Hamas conducted several terrorist attacks in Israel resulting in ongoing war across the country, forcing the closure of our offices in Israel for several days. In addition, there continue to be hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon which resulted in rockets being fired into Israel, causing casualties and disruption of economic activities. Popular uprisings in various countries in the Middle East over the last few years have also affected the political stability of those countries and have led to a decline in the regional security situation. Such instability may also lead to deterioration in the political and trade relationships that exist between Israel and these countries. The ongoing war against Hamas and any additional conflicts, terrorist activities or political instability involving Israel or other countries in the region could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, cash flows and prospects. Although the Israeli Government currently covers the reinstatement value of direct damages that are caused by terrorist attacks or acts of war, we cannot ensure stockholders that this coverage will be maintained or will be adequate in the event we submit a claim.

A number of countries, principally in the Middle East, still restrict doing business with Israel and Israeli companies, and additional countries may impose restrictions on doing business with Israel and Israeli companies if hostilities in Israel or political instability in the region continue or increase. In addition, there have been increased efforts by activists to cause companies and consumers to boycott Israeli goods based on Israeli Government policies. Such actions, particularly if they become more widespread, may adversely impact our ability to sell our products.

Our operations could also be disrupted by the absence for significant periods of one or more key employees or a significant number of other employees because of military service. Some of our employees in Israel are obliged to perform military reserve duty, which generally accumulates over a period of three years from several days to up to a maximum of 84 days (and up to 108 days, in special circumstances specified under applicable law) and, in certain emergency circumstances, employees may be called to immediate and unlimited active duty. In response to the Hamas terrorist attacks in October 2023, a number of our employees in Israel have been activated for military duty and we expect that additional employees may also be activated if the war in Israel continues or expands into additional geographic areas.While we have business continuity plans in place to address the military call-ups of our employees, any of these circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, cash flows and prospects.

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We may face risks associated with our international operations that could impair our ability to grow our international revenue.

We have expanded, and expect to continue to expand, our operations in international and emerging markets. International operations are a significant part of our business, accounting for approximately 58% of total revenues in 2023. We expect such operations to continue to require significant management attention and financial resources to successfully grow. In addition, our international operations are subject to other inherent risks, including:

•greater reliance on channel partners;

•difficulties collecting accounts receivable and longer collection cycles;

•difficulties and costs of staffing and managing international operations;

•impacts of differing technical standards;

•compliance with international trade, customs and export control regulations;

•foreign government regulations limiting or prohibiting potential sales or increasing the cost of doing business in such markets, including adverse tax policies, tariffs, customs regulations, trade protection measures, export quotas and qualifications to transact business;

•foreign currency exchange controls, restrictions on repatriation of cash and changes in currency exchange rates;

•any need to adapt and localize our products for specific countries;

•our ability to effectively price our products in competitive international markets; and

•political, social and economic instability, including as a result of the fragility of global financial markets, health pandemics or epidemics and/or acts of war or terrorism.

Our international revenue, both as a percentage of total revenue and absolute dollars, may vary from one period to the next, and accordingly, current data may not be indicative of future periods. If we are unable to support our business operations in international and emerging markets, or their further expansion, while balancing the higher operational and financial risks associated with these markets, our business and results of operations could be harmed.

In addition, we may not be able to develop international market demand for our products, which could impair our ability to grow our revenue. In many international markets, long-standing relationships between potential customers and their local suppliers and protective regulations, including local content requirements and approvals, create barriers to entry. We have limited experience marketing, distributing and supporting our products in certain international locations and, to do so, we expect that we will need to develop versions of our products that comply with local standards. Moreover, difficulties in foreign financial markets and economies and of foreign financial institutions, particularly in emerging markets, could adversely affect demand from customers in the affected countries.

Increases in tariffs, trade restrictions or taxes on our products, as well as other risks of international operations, could have an adverse impact on our operations.

We manufacture certain of our appliance products and purchase a portion of our raw materials and components from suppliers in Mexico, Malaysia, China and other foreign countries. The commerce we conduct in the international marketplace makes us subject to tariffs, trade restrictions and other taxes when the raw materials or components we purchase, and the products we ship, cross international borders. Import tariffs and/or other mandates recently imposed by the United States have and could in the future lead to retaliatory actions by affected countries, including China, resulting in “trade wars,” and could significantly increase the prices on raw materials, the manufacturing of our equipment, and/or increased costs for goods imported into the United States, all of which are critical to our business. While we have developed plans to adjust manufacturing locations, if necessary, to avoid tariffs or other restrictions, any such tariffs could reduce customer demand for our products if our customers have to pay increased prices for our products as a result of such tariffs. In addition, tariff increases may have a similar impact on other suppliers and certain other customers, which could increase the negative impact on our operating results or future cash flows.

We are exposed to fluctuations in currency exchange rates that could negatively impact our financial results and cash flows.

Because a portion of our business is conducted outside the United States, we face exposure to adverse movements in foreign currency exchange rates. These exposures may change over time as business practices evolve, and they could have a material adverse impact on our financial results and cash flows. An increase in the value of the U.S. dollar could increase the real cost to our customers of our products in those markets outside the United States where we often sell in dollars, and a weakened U.S. dollar could increase the cost of local operating expenses and procurement of raw materials from sources outside the United States. Therefore, changes in the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies will affect our revenue, income from operations, net income and the value of balance sheet items originally denominated in other currencies. There is no guarantee that our financial results will not be adversely affected by currency exchange rate fluctuations.

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Our use and reliance upon R&D resources in global locations may expose us to unanticipated costs and/or liabilities.

We have R&D offices in various global locations, including the United States, Canada, India and Israel. Our development efforts and other operations in these locations could involve significant risks, including, among others, difficulty hiring and retaining appropriate engineering and management resources due to intense competition for such resources and resulting wage inflation; knowledge transfer related to our technology and resulting exposure to misappropriation of intellectual property or information that is proprietary to us, our customers and other third parties; and heightened exposure to changes in economic, security and global political conditions.

Difficulties resulting from the factors noted above and other risks related to our global operations could increase our expenses, impair our development efforts, harm our competitive position and damage our reputation.

Risks Related to Intellectual Property

Our business could be jeopardized if we are unable to protect our intellectual property. Additionally, in some jurisdictions, our rights may not be as strong as those we currently enjoy in the United States.

We rely on a combination of security countermeasures within our deployed products, as well as patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws and contractual restrictions on disclosure to protect our intellectual property rights. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or otherwise misappropriate our products or technology. Monitoring unauthorized use of our products is difficult and we cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will prevent unauthorized use of our technology, particularly in foreign countries where the laws may not protect our proprietary rights as fully as in the United States. The legal systems of many foreign countries do not protect or honor intellectual property rights to the same extent as the legal system of the United States. It may be very difficult, time-consuming and costly for us to attempt to enforce our intellectual property rights, especially in these foreign jurisdictions. If competitors are able to use our technology, our ability to compete effectively could be harmed, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

If we are unable to obtain necessary licenses or on-going maintenance and support of third-party technology at acceptable prices, on acceptable terms, or at all, it could harm our operating results or business.

We have incorporated third-party licensed technology, including open source software, into our current products. From time to time, we may be required to license additional technology from third parties to develop new products or product enhancements. Third-party licenses and on-going maintenance and support may not be available or continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms or may be available to us but only at significantly escalated pricing. Additionally, we may not be able to replace the functionality provided by third-party software currently offered with our products if that software becomes obsolete, defective or incompatible with future versions of our products or is not adequately maintained or updated. If we are unable to maintain or re-license any third-party licenses required in our current products or obtain any new third-party licenses to develop new products and product enhancements, or in the case of any defects in these third-party software products, we could be required to obtain substitute technology of lower quality or performance standards or at greater cost, and we may be delayed or prevented from making these products or enhancements, any of which could seriously harm our sales and the competitiveness of our products unless and until we can secure an alternative source.

A breach of the security of our information systems or those of our third-party providers could adversely affect our operating results.

We rely upon our information systems and, in certain circumstances, those of our third-party providers, such as vendors, consultants and contract manufacturers, to protect our sensitive or proprietary information and information of or about our customers, to develop and provide our products and services to customers, and to otherwise operate our business. Our information systems and those of our third-party providers are vulnerable to threats such as computer hacking, cyber-terrorism or other unauthorized activity that may result in third party access to or modification, corruption or deletion of our or our customers' sensitive or proprietary information or other disruptions to our business. Such cyberattacks and other cyber incidents are occurring more frequently, are constantly evolving, are becoming more sophisticated and can take many forms. For example, we are aware of a third party gaining unauthorized access to a portion of our network in the first quarter of 2021, although we do not believe they were able to obtain any material internal or customer data or otherwise disrupt our information systems before the intrusion was detected and remediated. While we believe that we leverage appropriate detection and prevention systems and services and that we focus on continuous improvement based upon the latest attack vectors in the industry, we cannot guarantee that there will never be any information technology system failures, including future breaches of our or our third-party providers' data security measures through a cyberattack, other cyber incident or otherwise, or the theft or loss of laptops, other mobile devices or electronic records used to back up our systems or our third-party providers' systems, which could result in a disclosure of customer, employee, or our information or otherwise disrupt our ability to function in the normal course of business by potentially causing, among other things, delays in the fulfillment or cancellation of customer

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orders or disruptions in the manufacture or shipment of products or delivery of services, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

Additionally, the compromise of our information systems, or the information systems of our third party providers and our customers, could lead to unauthorized tampering with our products. Unauthorized tampering may result in, among other things, the disruption of our customers' businesses, errors or defects occurring in the software due to such unauthorized tampering, and our products not operating as expected after such unauthorized tampering. These types of security breaches could also create exposure to lawsuits, regulatory investigations, and increased legal liability. As a provider of secure real-time communications solutions, the reputational harm of any actual or perceived breach, compromise, defect or error relating to the security of our information systems and the products and services we provide may result in substantial harm to our reputation, even if the legal or regulatory impact is minimal. In addition, the costs to remediate any cyberattack could be significant. Such consequences could be exacerbated if we or our third-party providers are unable to adequately recover critical systems in a timely manner following a systems failure. Our insurance coverage may be insufficient to cover all losses related to cyberattacks.

Risks Related to Regulation

Risks associated with data privacy issues, including evolving laws, regulations and associated compliance efforts, may adversely impact our business and financial results.

Legislation in various countries around the world with regard to cybersecurity, privacy and data protection is rapidly expanding and creating a complex compliance environment. We are subject to many privacy and data protection laws and regulations in the U.S. and around the world, some of which place restrictions on our ability to process personal data across our business. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation has caused more stringent data protection requirements in the U.K. and the European Union, which has adopted similar regulations. These privacy laws impose onerous accountability obligations requiring data controllers and processors to maintain a record of their data processing and implement policies as part of its mandated privacy governance framework. It also requires data controllers to be transparent and disclose to data subjects how their personal information is to be used; imposes limitations on retention of personal data; introduces mandatory data breach notification requirements; and sets higher standards for data controllers to demonstrate that they have obtained valid consent for certain data processing activities. We are subject to the supervision of local data protection authorities in those E.U. jurisdictions where we are established or otherwise subject to these privacy regulations. Certain breaches of the privacy requirements could result in substantial fines. In addition to the foregoing, a breach of privacy regulations could result in regulatory investigations, reputational damage, orders to cease/change our use of data, enforcement notices, as well potential civil claims including class action type litigation where individuals suffered harm.

Similarly, California and other states have enacted privacy laws that purport to create individual privacy rights for consumers and increase the privacy and security obligations of entities handling certain personal data. These laws also provide for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation. These laws may increase our compliance costs and potential liability. Many similar laws have been proposed at the federal level and in the other states. Any liability from our failure to comply with the requirements of these laws could adversely affect our financial condition.

We have invested, and continue to invest, human and technology resources in our privacy regulation compliance efforts and our data privacy compliance efforts. These compliance efforts may be time-intensive and costly. Despite those efforts, there is a risk that we may be subject to fines and penalties, litigation and reputational harm if we fail to protect the privacy of third party data or comply with the applicable regimes.

Failure to comply with the FCPA, the UKBA and similar regulations could subject us to significant civil or criminal penalties.

We earn a significant portion of our total revenue from international sales generated through our foreign direct and indirect operations. As a result, we are subject to the FCPA and the UKBA, which prohibit bribery in the conduct of business. The FCPA generally prohibits U.S. companies and their intermediaries from making corrupt payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or keeping business or otherwise obtaining favorable treatment and requires companies to maintain adequate record-keeping and internal accounting practices to accurately reflect the transactions of the company. The UKBA is much broader and prohibits all bribery, in both the public and private sectors. Under the FCPA and the UKBA, U.S. companies, their subsidiaries, employees, senior officers and/or directors may be held liable for actions taken by strategic or local partners or representatives. In addition, the U.S. government or the U.K. government, as applicable, may seek to hold us liable for successor liability violations committed by companies we have acquired or may in the future acquire. If we or our intermediaries fail to comply with the requirements of the FCPA and the UKBA, governmental authorities in the United States and the United Kingdom, as applicable, could seek to impose civil and/or criminal penalties, which could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, results of operations and the trading price of our common stock.

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We are subject to governmental export and import controls that could subject us to liability, require a license from the U.S. government or impair our ability to compete in international markets.

Certain of our products with encryption technology are subject to export controls and may be exported only with the required level of export license or through an export license exception. Under these laws and regulations, we are responsible for obtaining all necessary licenses or other approvals, if required, for exports. If we were to fail to comply with existing or future export licensing, customs regulations, economic sanctions and other laws, we could be subject to substantial civil and criminal penalties, including fines and incarceration for responsible employees and managers, and the possible loss of export or import privileges. Similarly, various countries regulate the import of certain encryption technology and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our products or our customers' ability to implement our products in those countries.

In addition, if our distributors fail to obtain appropriate import, export or re-export licenses or permits, we may also be adversely affected through reputational harm and penalties. Obtaining export licenses can be difficult and time-consuming, and in some cases a license may not be available on a timely basis or at all. Changes in import/export regulations could also lead to delays in new product introductions or limit our ability to sell existing or future products in certain locations, which could adversely impact our business.

Export control laws and economic sanctions prohibit the shipment of certain products to embargoed or sanctioned countries, governments and persons, including Russia as a result of its military action against Ukraine. We cannot assure that a violation of these regulations will not occur, whether knowingly or inadvertently. Any such shipment could have negative consequences including government investigations, penalties, fines, civil and criminal sanctions, and reputational harm.

Regulation of the telecommunications industry, or changes in governmental regulation, interpretation or legislative reform could harm our operating results and future prospects.

The telecommunications industry is highly regulated and our business and financial condition could be adversely affected by changes in the regulations relating to the telecommunications industry. Currently, there are few laws or regulations that apply directly to access to or delivery of voice services on IP networks. We could be adversely affected by regulation of IP networks and commerce in any country where we operate, including the United States. Such regulations could include matters such as voice over the Internet or using Internet Protocol, encryption technology, and access charges for service providers. The adoption of such regulations could decrease demand for our products, and at the same time increase the cost of selling our products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Risks Related to Our Indebtedness and Accounting Matters

The terms of our credit agreement could adversely affect our operating flexibility and pose risks of default, which would negatively impact our liquidity and operations.

Our Senior Secured Credit Facilities Credit Agreement, as amended, provides $475 million of commitments, comprised of a $400 million term loan (the “2020 Loan Facility”) and a $75 million revolving facility (the “2020 Revolving Credit Facility” and, together with the 2020 Loan Facility, the "2020 Credit Facility"). Terms in the 2020 Credit Facility impose limitations on our ability to, among other things, incur additional indebtedness, create liens, make acquisitions or engage in mergers, enter into transactions with affiliates, dispose of assets, make certain investments and amend or repay certain junior debt. These terms could adversely affect our operating flexibility and pose risks of default which would negatively impact our liquidity and operations. In addition, we may not be able to refinance our debt or obtain additional financing on favorable terms, or at all.

In addition, we are required to meet certain financial covenants for financings of this type, including a minimum Consolidated Fixed Charge Coverage Ratio and a maximum Consolidated Net Leverage Ratio (each as defined in the 2020 Credit Agreement) which are tested on a quarterly basis. The maximum Consolidated Net Leverage Ratio covenant uses our EBITDA (calculated in accordance with the 2020 Credit Agreement) for the last 12 months (as of the testing date) to determine compliance. While we were in compliance with the covenants at December 31, 2023, the maximum Consolidated Net Leverage Ratio and the minimum Consolidated Fixed Charge Coverage Ratio we are required to maintain under the 2020 Credit Agreement will decrease and increase, respectively, in future quarters. As a result, it could impact our ability to continue to satisfy these requirements in future periods. Our failure to comply with these covenants may result in the declaration of an event of default, which could cause us to be unable to borrow under the credit facility or result in the acceleration of the maturity of indebtedness outstanding under the 2020 Credit Facility at such time.

If we are prevented from borrowing or if we are unable to extend, renew or replace the credit facilities under the 2020 Credit Facility by the maturity dates, on favorable terms, or at all, this could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and cause our business, operations and financial condition to suffer. In addition, we may not have sufficient funds available for

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repayment or we may not have the ability to borrow or obtain sufficient funds to replace the indebtedness on terms acceptable to us, or at all.

We cannot be sure that our current cash and available borrowings under our 2020 Credit Facility will be sufficient to meet our future needs. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flows in the future, and if availability under our current facility is not sufficient to support our operations, we may need to refinance our debt or obtain additional financing. We expect to refinance our 2020 Credit Facility in 2024, however, no assurance can be provided that we will refinance our debt or obtain additional financing on favorable terms or at all.

The terms of the Series A Preferred Stock and warrants impose additional challenges on our ability to raise capital.

The terms of our Series A Preferred Stock and our outstanding warrants contain a number of restrictive covenants that may impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us while the Series A Preferred Stock and warrants remain outstanding, unless the restrictions are waived by the consent of at least 662∕3% of the then-issued and outstanding shares of Series A Preferred Stock. These restrictions include, but are not limited to, restrictions on our ability to pay dividends or make other distributions or repurchase or redeem our capital stock; issue additional equity ranking senior or pari passu to the Series A Preferred Stock; and enter into certain transactions, among other restrictions.

A breach of the covenants or restrictions under the agreements related to the sale of the Series A Preferred Stock and warrants and related agreements governing our indebtedness could result in an event of default under such agreements. As a result of these restrictions, we may be limited in how we conduct our business, unable to finance our operations through additional debt or equity financings and/or unable to compete effectively or to take advantage of new business opportunities.

Further, while we could potentially receive up to an aggregate of $18.3 million in gross proceeds from the exercise of the outstanding warrants, no assurances can be made that the holders of such warrants will elect to exercise any or all of such warrants and, accordingly, no assurance that we will receive any proceeds from the exercise of the warrants. We believe the likelihood that the holders will exercise the warrants, and therefore the amount of cash proceeds that we would receive, is dependent upon the trading price of our common stock, which as of the date this filing was below the exercise price of $3.77 for the warrants. If the trading price for our common stock is less than the exercise price for the warrants, we believe the holders of such warrants will be unlikely to exercise their warrants. Accordingly, we may not receive cash proceeds with respect to the warrants, and we are restricted in our ability to conduct additional debt or equity financings.

If our goodwill or intangible assets become impaired, we may be required to record a significant charge to earnings.

As of December 31, 2023, we had $300.9 million of goodwill and $238.1 million of intangible assets. Goodwill is tested annually for impairment and, along with our intangible assets, is also reviewed for impairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable. Based on the results of impairment testing for 2021, we determined that the carrying value of our IP Optical Networks segment exceeded its fair value and accordingly, we recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $116.0 million, which had a material impact on both our net loss and loss per share for the year ended December 31, 2021. Factors that may be considered a change in circumstances indicating that the carrying value of our goodwill or intangible assets may not be recoverable include significant underperformance relative to plan or long-term projections, strategic changes in business strategy, significant negative industry or economic trends, significant change in circumstances relative to a large customer, significant decline in our stock price for a sustained period and decline in our market capitalization to below net book value. Any additional material impairment of goodwill or intangible assets could adversely affect our results of operations.

If we fail to maintain appropriate internal controls in the future, we may not be able to report our financial results accurately, which may adversely affect our stock price and our business.

Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the related regulations require our management to report on, and our independent registered public accounting firm to attest to, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. We have committed and will be required to continue to commit significant financial and managerial resources in order to comply with these requirements.

Further, we are required to integrate any acquired businesses into our system of disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. Such companies may not have previously been required to implement or maintain the disclosure controls and procedures or internal control over financial reporting that are required of U.S. public companies. We cannot provide assurance as to the effectiveness of those integrations.

Internal control over financial reporting has inherent limitations, including human error, the possibility that controls could be circumvented or become inadequate because of changed conditions, and fraud. If we are unable to maintain effective internal controls, we may not have adequate or timely financial information, and we may be unable to meet our reporting obligations as

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