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TENB US Equity

Tenable Holdings, Inc.Information Technology · Services-Prepackaged Software · CIK 1660280 · FY ends Dec 31
$34.38
+0.27 (+0.79%)
USD · as of 2026-08-21 · marketstack

TENB · 10-K · period ended 2020-12-31

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filed 2021-02-23 · EDGAR original ↗

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Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, or this Form 10-K. This Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. These statements are often identified by the use of words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “will,” “would” or the negative or plural of these words or similar expressions or variations. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results and the timing of certain events to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those identified herein, and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors,” set forth in Part I, Item 1A of this Form 10-K and in our other filings with the SEC. Such risks and uncertainties may be amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic and its potential impact on our business and the global economy. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Furthermore, such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this report. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements.

Overview

We are a leading provider of Cyber Exposure solutions. Cyber Exposure is a discipline for managing, measuring and comparing cybersecurity risk in the digital era.

Our enterprise platform offerings include Tenable.io, which is our cloud-delivered software as a service, or SaaS, offering and Tenable.sc, which is our on-premises offering, both of which provide organizations with a risk-based view of traditional and modern attack surfaces. These applications are designed with views, workflows and dashboards to deliver a complete and continuous view of all assets, both known and previously unknown, and any associated vulnerabilities, internal and regulatory compliance violations, misconfigurations and other cybersecurity issues, prioritize these issues for remediation based on risk assessment and predictive analytics, and provide insightful remediation guidance.

Our enterprise platform offerings also include Tenable.ot, which is our on-premises solution that provides threat detection and mitigation, asset tracking, vulnerability management, and configuration control capabilities to protect OT environments, including industrial networks. Tenable.ot is sold as a stand-alone solution and integrates with Tenable.io and Tenable.sc.

Our enterprise platform offerings are primarily sold on a subscription basis with a one-year term. Our subscription terms are generally not longer than three years. These offerings are typically prepaid in advance. To a lesser extent, we recognize revenue ratably from perpetual licenses and from the related ongoing maintenance.

We sell and market our products and services through our field sales force that works closely with our channel partners, which includes a network of distributors and resellers, in developing sales opportunities. We use a two-tiered channel model whereby we sell our enterprise platform offerings to our distributors, which in turn sell to our resellers, which then sell to end users, which we call customers.

Many of our enterprise platform customers initially use either our free or paid version of Nessus, one of the most widely deployed vulnerability assessment solutions in the cybersecurity industry. Nessus, which is the technology that underpins our enterprise platform offerings, is designed to quickly and accurately identify security vulnerabilities, configuration issues and malware. Our free version of Nessus, Nessus Essentials, allows for vulnerability assessment over a limited number of IP addresses. We believe many of our Nessus customers begin with Nessus Essentials and subsequently upgrade to Nessus Professional, the paid version of Nessus; however, we expect many users to continue to use Nessus Essentials.

There have been more than 2.5 million cumulative unique downloads, which refers to an individual email address utilized to register for the use of Nessus Essentials. We believe that the cumulative number of unique downloads of the free version of Nessus is representative of our brand recognition among cybersecurity professionals and that continued growth in this number suggests broader awareness among potential customers. While we believe that the cumulative number of unique downloads may provide an indication of the growth and scale of our thought leadership and brand

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awareness, we do not expect this metric to necessarily correlate to future revenue growth opportunities, and we do not consider this metric a measure of our operating performance.

Revenue in 2020, 2019 and 2018 was $440.2 million, $354.6 million and $267.4 million, respectively, representing year-over-year growth of 24% and 33%, respectively. Our recurring revenue, which includes revenue from subscription arrangements for software and cloud-based solutions and maintenance associated with perpetual licenses, represented 93.6%, 91.8% and 89.4% of revenue in 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. Our net loss in 2020, 2019 and 2018 was $42.7 million, $99.0 million and $73.5 million, respectively, as we continue to invest in our business and market opportunity. Our cash flows from operating activities were $64.2 million, $(10.7) million and $(2.6) million in 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively.

COVID-19 Update

We continue to monitor the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our customers, partners, employees and service providers. While in the near term we may experience reductions in our billing and revenue growth rates, we are proactively managing our expenditures, including reductions of non-critical and discretionary expenses such as travel, meeting and facility usage costs, while preserving strategic investments in sales capacity and research and development. This has and may continue to result in improved leverage related to gross margins as well as sales and marketing, research and development, and general and administrative expenses as a percent of revenue. The full extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will impact our business and operations will depend on future developments that are highly uncertain. We may incur additional costs when we resume business-related travel and return to the office, the timing and extent of which remains unknown. For additional information on the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, financial condition and results of operations, see the "Liquidity and Capital Resources" section below and “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this Form 10-K.

Financial Highlights

Below are our key financial results:

Year Ended December 31,

Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities 64,232 (10,744) (2,559)

Factors Affecting Our Performance

Product Leadership

Our enterprise platform offerings provide visibility into the broadest range of traditional and modern IT assets across cloud and on-premises environments. We are intensely focused on continued innovation and ongoing development of our enterprise platform offerings that empower organizations to understand and reduce their cyber exposure. Additionally, we continue to expand the capabilities of our Nessus products, specifically as they relate to the ability to scan for and detect the rapidly expanding volume of vulnerabilities.

We intend to continue to invest in our engineering capabilities and marketing activities to maintain our position in the highly-competitive market for cybersecurity solutions. Our results of operations may fluctuate as we make these investments to drive increased customer adoption and usage.

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New Enterprise Platform Customer Acquisition

We believe that our customer base provides a significant opportunity to expand sales of our enterprise platform offerings and that our ability to continue to grow the number of enterprise platform customers will increase future opportunities for renewals and follow-on sales. We believe that we have significant room to increase our market share.

We expect to grow our enterprise platform customers by continuing to expand our sales organization and leveraging our channel partner network, which we believe will allow us to identify new enterprise customers, enter new markets, including internationally, as well as to convert more of our existing Nessus Professional customers to enterprise platform customers.

We will continue to invest in our partner network and sales and marketing capability in order to grow domestically and internationally.

Retaining and Expanding Revenue from Existing Customers

Our enterprise platform offerings utilize IT asset-based or IP address-based pricing models. Once enterprise customers have licensed our platform offerings, they typically seek broader coverage over their traditional IT assets, including networking infrastructure, desktops and on-premises servers. As customers launch new applications or migrate existing applications to the cloud and deploy web applications, containers, IoT and OT, they often increase the scope of their subscriptions and/or add additional perpetual licenses to our enterprise platforms.

We are also focused on upselling customers from Nessus Professional to our enterprise platform offerings. Nessus Professional customers are typically organizations or independent security consultants that use Nessus Professional for a single vulnerability assessment at a point in time. We seek to convert these customers to our enterprise platform offerings, which provide continuous visibility and insights into their attack surface, as their needs develop.

Further, we plan to expand existing platform capabilities and launch new products, which we believe will drive new product purchases and follow-on purchases over time, thereby contributing to customer renewals. We believe that there is a significant opportunity to drive additional sales to existing customers, and we expect to invest in sales and marketing and customer success personnel and activities to achieve additional revenue growth from existing customers. However, our ability to increase sales to existing customers will depend on a number of factors, including satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our products and services, competition, pricing, current economic conditions or overall changes in our and our clients' spending levels.

We evaluate our ability to expand sales with existing customers by assessing our dollar-based net expansion rate on a last twelve months, or LTM, basis. We calculate our dollar-based net expansion rate as follows:

•Denominator: To calculate our dollar-based net expansion rate as of the end of a reporting period, we first determine the annual recurring revenue, or ARR, from all active subscriptions and maintenance from perpetual licenses as of the last day of the same reporting period in the prior year. This represents recurring payments that we expect to receive in the next 12-month period from the cohort of customers that existed on the last day of the same reporting period in the prior year.

•Numerator: We measure the ARR for that same cohort of customers representing all subscriptions and maintenance from perpetual licenses based on customer orders as of the end of the reporting period.

We calculate dollar-based net expansion rate by dividing the numerator by the denominator.

Our dollar-based net expansion rate for 2020 was approximately 110% on an LTM basis, which was a decline from prior years and was impacted by a more moderate pace of IT asset and IP address expansion in the current economic environment. Our dollar-based net expansion rate may further decline or fluctuate from quarter to quarter if our existing customers choose to reduce or delay technology spending in response to economic conditions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, or as a result of a number of other factors, including our existing customers' satisfaction with our solutions, the pricing of our solutions and the ability of competing solutions and the pricing thereof.

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Investing in Business Growth

Since our founding, we have invested significantly in growing our business. We intend to continue to invest in sales and marketing to grow our sales team, expand brand and Cyber Exposure awareness and optimize our channel partner network. We also intend to continue to invest in our research and development team to further our technological leadership position in Cyber Exposure and enhance the functionality of our solutions. Any investments we make in our sales and marketing and research and development teams will occur in advance of experiencing the benefits from such investments, so it may be difficult for us to determine if we are efficiently allocating resources in those areas. We may also explore acquisitions of businesses, technology and/or development personnel that will expand and enhance the functionality of our platform offerings. These investment activities could increase our net losses over the short term if our revenue growth does not increase at higher rates. However, we expect that these investments will ultimately benefit our results of operations.

Key Operating and Financial Metrics

To supplement our consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP, we use certain operating metrics and non-GAAP financial measures, as described below, to understand and evaluate our core operating and financial performance. These non-GAAP financial measures, which may be different than similarly titled measures used by other companies, are presented to enhance investors’ overall understanding of our financial performance and should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP.

We believe that these operating metrics and non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information about our operating and financial performance, enhance the overall understanding of our past performance and future prospects and allow for greater transparency with respect to important metrics used by management for financial and operational decision-making. We present these operating metrics and non-GAAP financial measures to assist investors in seeing our operating and financial performance using a management view and because we believe that these measures provide an additional tool for investors to use in comparing our core operating and financial performance over multiple periods with other companies in our industry.

Calculated Current Billings

We use the non-GAAP measure of calculated current billings, which we believe is a key metric to measure our periodic performance. Given that most of our customers pay in advance, we typically recognize a majority of the related revenue ratably over time. We use calculated current billings to measure and monitor our ability to provide our business with the working capital generated by upfront payments from our customers.

Calculated current billings consists of revenue recognized in a period plus the change in current deferred revenue in the corresponding period. We believe that calculated current billings, which excludes deferred revenue for periods beyond twelve months in a customer’s contractual term, more closely correlates with annual contract value. Variability in total billings, depending on the timing of large multi-year contracts and the preference for annual billing versus multi-year upfront billing, may distort growth in one period over another.

While we believe that calculated current billings provides valuable insight into the cash that will be generated from sales of our subscriptions, this metric may vary from period-to-period for a number of reasons, and therefore has a number of limitations as a quarter-to-quarter or year-over-year comparative measure. Calculated current billings in any one period may be impacted by the overall timing of sales, including early renewals, as well as the timing and amount of multi-year prepaid contracts, which could favorably or unfavorably impact year-over-year comparisons. For example, an increasing number of large sales transactions, for which the timing has and will continue to vary, may occur in quarters subsequent to or in advance of those that we anticipate. Our calculation of calculated current billings may be different from other companies that report similar financial measures. Because of these and other limitations, you should consider calculated current billings along with revenue and our other GAAP financial results.

The adoption of Accounting Standards Codification Topic 606, Revenue From Contracts With Customers at January 1, 2017 resulted in a $55.0 million increase in deferred revenue primarily related to the deferral of perpetual license revenue.

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This cumulative adjustment to deferred revenue at January 1, 2017 increased calculated current billings by $1.9 million, $5.6 million, $11.8 million and $16.7 million in 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively.

The following table presents a reconciliation of revenue, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, to calculated current billings:

Year Ended December 31,

_______________

(1) Deferred revenue (current), beginning of period for 2019 includes $0.4 million related to acquired deferred revenue.

Free Cash Flow

We use the non-GAAP measure of free cash flow, which we define as GAAP net cash flows from operating activities reduced by purchases of property and equipment. We believe free cash flow is an important liquidity measure of the cash (if any) that is available, after purchases of property and equipment, for investment in our business and to make acquisitions. We believe that free cash flow is useful to investors as a liquidity measure because it measures our ability to generate or use cash.

Our use of free cash flow has limitations as an analytical tool and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for an analysis of our results under GAAP. First, free cash flow is not a substitute for net cash flows from operating activities. Second, other companies may calculate free cash flow or similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures differently or may use other measures to evaluate their performance, all of which could reduce the usefulness of free cash flow as a tool for comparison. Additionally, the utility of free cash flow is further limited as it does not reflect our future contractual commitments and does not represent the total increase or decrease in our cash balance for a given period. Because of these and other limitations, you should consider free cash flow along with net cash provided by (used in) operating activities and our other GAAP financial measures.

The following table presents a reconciliation of net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, to free cash flow:

Year Ended December 31,

_______________

(1) Our employee stock purchase plan impacted free cash flow by $0.9 million, $(0.9) million and $6.3 million in 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. Proceeds from lease incentives were $14.2 million in 2020 and capital expenditures related to our new headquarters were $17.2 million and $11.4 million in 2020 and 2019, respectively. Cash payments associated with the Indegy acquisition were $0.7 million and $13.1 million in 2020 and 2019, respectively. Free cash flow for 2020 was reduced by approximately $17 million as a result of the accelerated timing of payments for cloud software subscriptions, insurance and rent.

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Enterprise Platform Customers

We believe that our customer base provides a significant opportunity to expand sales of our enterprise platform offerings. The following tables summarize key components of our customer base:

Year Ended December 31,

Number of new enterprise platform customers added in period(1) 1,455 1,511 1,178

_______________

(1) We define an enterprise platform customer as a customer that has licensed Tenable.io or Tenable.sc for an annual amount of $5,000 or greater. New enterprise platform customers represent new customer logos during the periods presented and do not include customer conversions from Nessus Professional to enterprise platforms.

At December 31,

Non-GAAP Income (Loss) from Operations and Non-GAAP Operating Margin

We use non-GAAP income (loss) from operations along with non-GAAP operating margin as key indicators of our financial performance. We define these non-GAAP financial measures as their respective GAAP measures, excluding the effects of stock-based compensation, acquisition-related expenses and amortization of acquired intangible assets. Acquisition-related expenses include transaction expenses and costs related to the transfer of acquired intellectual property.

We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information about our core operating results over multiple periods. There are a number of limitations related to the use of the non-GAAP financial measures as compared to GAAP loss from operations and operating margin, including that non-GAAP income (loss) from operations and non-GAAP operating margin exclude stock-based compensation expense, which has been, and will continue to be, a significant recurring expense in our business and an important part of our compensation strategy.

The following table presents a reconciliation of loss from operations, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, to non-GAAP income (loss) from operations, and operating margin, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP, to non-GAAP operating margin:

Year Ended December 31,

Acquisition-related expenses 339 3,970 —

Amortization of acquired intangible assets 2,314 620 603

Operating margin (8) % (26) % (27) %

Non-GAAP operating margin 6 % (12) % (18) %

Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss), Non-GAAP Earnings (Loss) Per Share and Pro Forma Non-GAAP Earnings (Loss) Per Share

We use non-GAAP net income (loss), which excludes the effect of the accretion of Series A and B redeemable convertible preferred stock, stock-based compensation, acquisition-related expenses and amortization of acquired intangible assets, as well as the related tax impact, to calculate non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share and pro forma non-

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GAAP earnings (loss) per share. Pro forma non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share is calculated by giving effect to the conversion of our redeemable convertible preferred stock into common stock as though the conversion occurred at the beginning of 2018. We believe that these non-GAAP measures provide important information to management and investors because they facilitate comparisons of our core operating results over multiple periods.

The following table presents a reconciliation of net loss and net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, the most comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP, to non-GAAP net income (loss), non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share and pro forma non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share:

Year Ended December 31,

Net loss attributable to common stockholders $ (42,731) $ (99,013) $ (73,955)

Accretion of Series A and B redeemable convertible preferred stock — — 434

Tax impact of stock-based compensation(1) 1,299 (95) (218)

Acquisition-related expenses 339 3,970 —

Tax impact of acquisition(2) — 10,582 —

Amortization of acquired intangible assets(3) 2,314 620 603

Accretion of Series A and B redeemable convertible preferred stock — — 0.01

Tax impact of stock-based compensation(1) 0.01 — —

Acquisition-related expenses — 0.04 —

Tax impact of acquisition(2) — 0.11 —

Amortization of acquired intangible assets(3) 0.02 0.01 0.01

Adjustment to diluted earnings per share(4) (0.01) — —

Non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share, diluted $ 0.19 $ (0.42) $ (0.94)

Pro forma non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share, diluted $ 0.19 $ (0.42) $ (0.59)

________________

(1)The tax impact of stock-based compensation is based on the tax treatment for applicable tax jurisdictions.

(2) The tax impact of the Indegy acquisition in 2019 includes $6.3 million of current tax expense and $4.2 million of deferred tax expense related to the transfer of acquired intellectual property.

(3) The tax impact of amortization of acquired intangible assets is not material.

(4) Adjustment to reconcile GAAP net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, which excludes potentially dilutive shares, to non-GAAP earnings per share, which includes potentially dilutive shares.

(5) In periods in which there is a non-GAAP net loss, basic and diluted weighted average shares outstanding are the same, as potentially dilutive shares would be antidilutive.

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Components of Our Results of Operations

Revenue

We generate revenue from subscription arrangements for our software and cloud-based solutions, perpetual licenses, maintenance associated with perpetual licenses and professional services.

Our subscription arrangements generally have annual or multi-year contractual terms to use our software or cloud-based solutions, including ongoing software updates during the contractual period. Revenue is recognized ratably over the subscription term given the critical utility provided by the ongoing updates that are released throughout the contract period.

Our perpetual licenses are generally sold with one or more years of maintenance, which includes ongoing software updates. Given the critical utility provided by the ongoing software updates and updated ability to identify network vulnerabilities included in maintenance, we combine the perpetual license and the maintenance into a single performance obligation. Perpetual license arrangements generally contain a material right related to the customer’s ability to renew maintenance at a price that is less than the initial license fee. We apply a practical alternative to allocating a portion of the transaction price to the material right performance obligation and estimate a hypothetical transaction price which includes fees for expected maintenance renewals based on the estimated economic life of perpetual license contracts. We allocate the transaction price between the cybersecurity subscription provided in the initial contract and the material right related to expected contract renewals based on the hypothetical transaction price. We recognize the amount allocated to the combined license and maintenance performance obligation over the initial contractual period, which is generally one year. We recognize the amount allocated to the material right over the expected maintenance renewal period, which begins at the end of the initial contractual term and is generally four years. We have estimated the five-year economic life of perpetual license contracts based on historical contract attrition, expected renewal periods, the lifecycle of our technology and other factors. This estimate may change over time.

Professional services and other revenue is primarily comprised of advisory services and training related to the deployment and optimization of our products. These services do not result in significant customization of our products. Professional services and other revenue is recognized as the services are performed.

We have historically experienced, and expect in the future to experience, seasonality in entering into agreements with customers. We typically enter into a significantly higher percentage of agreements with new customers, as well as renewal agreements with existing customers, in the third and fourth quarters of the year. The increase in customer agreements in the third quarter is primarily attributable to U.S. government and related agencies, and the increase in the fourth quarter is primarily attributable to large enterprise account buying patterns typical in the software industry. The ratable nature of our subscription revenue makes this seasonality less apparent in our overall financial results.

Cost of Revenue, Gross Profit and Gross Margin

Cost of revenue includes personnel costs related to our technical support group that provides assistance to customers, including salaries, benefits, bonuses, payroll taxes, stock-based compensation and any severance. Cost of revenue also includes cloud infrastructure costs, the costs related to professional services and training, depreciation, amortization of acquired and developed technology and allocated overhead costs, which consist of information technology and facilities.

We intend to continue to invest additional resources in our cloud-based platform and customer support team as we grow our business. The level and timing of investment in these areas could affect our cost of revenue in the future.

Gross profit, or revenue less cost of revenue, and gross margin, or gross profit as a percentage of revenue, have been and will continue to be affected by various factors, including the timing of our acquisition of new customers and our renewals of and follow-on sales to existing customers, the costs associated with operating our cloud-based platform, the extent to which we expand our customer support team and the extent to which we can increase the efficiency of our technology and infrastructure through technological improvements.

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We expect our gross profit to increase in absolute dollars but our gross margin to decrease over time, as we expect revenue from our cloud-based subscriptions to increase as a percentage of revenue. Our gross margin could fluctuate from period to period depending on the interplay of all of these factors, particularly as it relates to cloud infrastructure costs.

Operating Expenses

Our operating expenses consist of sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative expenses. Personnel costs are the most significant component of operating expenses and consist of salaries, benefits, bonuses, payroll taxes, stock-based compensation and any severance. Operating expenses also include depreciation and amortization as well as allocated overhead costs, including IT and facilities costs.

Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing expense consists of personnel costs, sales commissions, marketing programs, travel and entertainment, expenses for conferences and events and allocated overhead costs. We capitalize sales commissions, including related fringe benefit costs, and recognize the expense over an estimated period of benefit, which ranges between three and four years for subscription arrangements and five years for perpetual license arrangements. Sales commissions on contract renewals are capitalized and amortized ratably over the contract term, with the exception of contracts with renewal periods that are one year or less, in which case the incremental costs are expensed as incurred. Sales commissions on professional services arrangements are expensed as incurred as the contractual periods of these arrangements are generally less than one year.

We intend to continue to make investments in our sales and marketing teams to grow revenue, further penetrate the market and expand our global customer base. We expect our sales and marketing expense to increase in absolute dollars annually and to be our largest operating expense category for the foreseeable future. However, as our revenue increases, we expect our sales and marketing expense to decrease as a percentage of our revenue over the long term. Our sales and marketing expense may fluctuate from period to period due to the timing and extent of these expenses, including sales commissions, which may fluctuate depending on the mix of sales and related expense recognition.

Research and Development

Research and development expense consists of personnel costs, software used to develop our products, travel and entertainment, consulting and professional fees for third-party development resources as well as allocated overhead. Our research and development expense supports our efforts to continue to add capabilities to our existing products and enable the continued detection of new network vulnerabilities.

We expect our research and development expense to continue to increase annually in absolute dollars for the foreseeable future as we continue to invest in research and development efforts to enhance the functionality of our cloud-based platform. However, we expect our research and development expense to decrease as a percentage of our revenue over the long term, although our research and development expense may fluctuate from period to period due to the timing and extent of these expenses.

General and Administrative

General and administrative expense consists of personnel costs for our executive, finance, legal, human resources and administrative departments. Additional expenses include travel and entertainment, professional fees, insurance, allocated overhead, and acquisition-related costs.

We expect our general and administrative expense to continue to increase annually in absolute dollars for the foreseeable future due to additional costs associated with accounting, compliance, insurance and investor relations as a public company. However, we expect our general and administrative expense to decrease as a percentage of our revenue over the long term, although our general and administrative expense may fluctuate from period to period due to the timing and extent of these expenses.

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Interest Income, Net

Interest income, net consists primarily of interest income earned on cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments and interest expense in connection with our credit facility, including unused and letter of credit fees.

Other Expense, Net

Other expense, net consists primarily of foreign currency remeasurement and transaction gains and losses.

Provision for Income Taxes

Provision for income taxes consists of income taxes in certain foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct business and the related withholding taxes on sales with customers. We have recorded deferred tax assets for which a full valuation allowance has been provided, including net operating loss carryforwards and tax credits. We expect to maintain this full valuation allowance for the foreseeable future as it is more likely than not that some or all of those deferred tax assets may not be realized based on our history of losses. In 2019, the provision for income taxes included the tax impact related to the transfer of acquired intellectual property.

Results of Operations

The following tables set forth our consolidated results of operations for the periods presented:

Year Ended December 31,

Operating expenses:

_______________

(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:

Year Ended December 31,

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Comparison of 2020 and 2019

Revenue

The following table presents the increase in revenue:

Year Ended December 31, Change

U.S. revenue increased $43.0 million, or 19%. International revenue increased $42.6 million, or 33%.

Cost of Revenue, Gross Profit and Gross Margin

Year Ended December 31, Change

Gross margin 82 % 83 %

The increase in cost of revenue of $16.7 million was primarily due to:

•a $7.0 million increase in personnel costs, primarily due to support for cloud-based products, including a $0.3 million increase in stock-based compensation;

•a $6.7 million increase in third-party cloud infrastructure costs;

•a $1.7 million increase in the amortization of acquired intangible assets;

•a $1.0 million increase in the amortization of internal use software; and

•a $0.7 million increase in allocated overhead costs driven by both the increase in average headcount and the overall increase in such costs on a year-over-year basis; partially offset by

•a $1.1 million decrease in travel and meeting expenses.

Operating Expenses

Sales and Marketing

Year Ended December 31, Change

The decrease in sales and marketing expense of $3.8 million was primarily due to:

•a $7.7 million decrease in selling expenses, including travel and meeting costs and software subscriptions; and

•a $6.4 million decrease in expenses for demand generation programs, including advertising, sponsorships, and brand awareness efforts; partially offset by

•a $8.9 million increase in personnel costs, primarily due to an increase in average headcount, including a $3.8 million increase in stock-based compensation;

•a $1.0 million increase in allocated overhead costs; and

•a $0.7 million increase in depreciation.

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Research and Development

Year Ended December 31, Change

The increase in research and development expense of $14.6 million was primarily due to:

•a $14.8 million increase in personnel costs, largely associated with an increase in average headcount, including a $5.9 million increase in stock-based compensation and a decrease of $2.6 million of development costs and stock-based compensation capitalized related to internal use software;

•a $2.0 million increase in allocated overhead; and

•a $0.5 million increase in software subscriptions; partially offset by

•a $1.6 million decrease in travel and meeting costs; and

•a $0.9 million decrease in third-party cloud infrastructure costs.

General and Administrative

Year Ended December 31, Change

The increase in general and administrative expense of $3.7 million was primarily due to:

•an $8.7 million increase in personnel costs, including a $6.1 million increase in stock-based compensation; and

•a $1.3 million increase in allocated overhead; partially offset by

•a $3.6 million decrease in acquisition-related expenses;

•a $2.3 million decrease in professional fees; and

•a $1.5 million decrease in travel and meeting costs.

Comparison of 2019 and 2018

Revenue

The following table presents the increase in revenue:

Year Ended December 31, Change

U.S. revenue increased $46.8 million, or 26%. International revenue increased $40.4 million, or 45%.

Cost of Revenue, Gross Profit and Gross Margin

Year Ended December 31, Change

Gross margin 83 % 84 %

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The increase in cost of revenue of $17.7 million was primarily due to:

•a $7.3 million increase in personnel costs, primarily due to increased headcount, including a $1.1 million increase in stock-based compensation;

•a $7.0 million increase in third-party cloud infrastructure costs, largely associated with the increased adoption of Tenable.io, as well as the launch of Tenable Lumin;

•a $0.9 million increase in allocated overhead costs driven by both the increase in headcount and the overall increase in such costs on a year-over-year basis;

•a $0.6 million increase in professional fees;

•a $0.6 million increase in depreciation and amortization; and

•a $0.5 million increase in software subscriptions.

Operating Expenses

Sales and Marketing

Year Ended December 31, Change

The increase in sales and marketing expense of $54.7 million was primarily due to:

•a $32.1 million increase in personnel costs, largely associated with an increase in headcount, including a $9.1 million increase in stock-based compensation;

•a $10.0 million increase in sales commissions, including sales commission draws, due to increased sales and the amortization of deferred commissions;

•a $5.7 million increase in selling expenses, including travel and meeting costs and software subscriptions;

•a $3.4 million increase in allocated overhead costs driven by both the increase in headcount and the overall increase in such costs on a year-over-year basis; and

•a $3.2 million increase in expenses for demand generation programs, including advertising, sponsorships, and brand awareness efforts aimed at acquiring new customers.

Research and Development

Year Ended December 31, Change

The increase in research and development expense of $10.4 million was primarily due to:

•an $8.1 million increase in personnel costs, largely associated with an increase in headcount, including a $3.3 million increase in stock-based compensation, and net of $1.7 million of development costs and stock-based compensation capitalized related to internal use software;

•a $2.0 million increase in third-party cloud infrastructure costs related to the development of new and future offerings;

•a $0.9 million increase in software subscriptions; and

•a $0.7 million increase in allocated overhead driven by both the increase in headcount and the overall increase in such costs on a year-over-year basis; partially offset by

•a $0.9 million decrease in travel and meeting costs.

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General and Administrative

Year Ended December 31, Change

The increase in general and administrative expense of $22.7 million was primarily due to:

•a $12.3 million increase in personnel costs, largely associated with an increase in headcount, including a $6.4 million increase in stock-based compensation;

•a $4.0 million increase in acquisition-related expenses, including $2.1 million related to the transfer of acquired intellectual property;

•a $3.7 million increase in professional fees, which includes costs associated with being a public company; and

•a $1.1 million increase in allocated overhead driven by both the increase in headcount and the overall increase in such costs on a year-over-year basis.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

At December 31, 2020, we had $178.2 million of cash and cash equivalents, which consisted of bank deposits, money market funds and commercial paper, and $113.6 million short-term investments, which consisted of commercial paper, U.S. Treasury and agency obligations and corporate bonds.

Since our inception and prior to our IPO, we financed our operations through cash provided by operations, including payments received from customers using our software products and services, and we did not raise any primary institutional capital. The proceeds of our Series A and Series B redeemable convertible preferred stock financings were used to repurchase shares of capital stock from former stockholders. Upon the completion of our IPO in July 2018, we received net proceeds of $264.6 million. We have generated significant operating losses, as reflected by our accumulated deficit of $607.9 million at December 31, 2020.

We typically invoice our customers annually in advance and, to a lesser extent, multi-year in advance. Therefore, a substantial source of our cash is from such prepayments, which are included on our consolidated balance sheets as deferred revenue. Deferred revenue consists primarily of the unearned portion of billed fees for our subscriptions and perpetual licenses, which is subsequently recognized as revenue in accordance with our revenue recognition policy. At December 31, 2020, we had deferred revenue of $434.5 million, of which $328.8 million was recorded as a current liability and is expected to be recognized as revenue in the next 12 months, provided all other revenue recognition criteria are met.

Our principal uses of cash in recent periods have been funding our operations, expansion of our sales and marketing and research and development activities, investments in infrastructure, including the build-out of our new headquarters, and acquiring complementary businesses and technology. We expect to continue incurring operating losses in the near term. Even though we generated positive cash flows from operations and free cash flow in 2020, we may not be able to sustain these cash flows in the near term. We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments will be sufficient to fund our operating and capital needs for at least the next 12 months. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our revenue growth rate, subscription renewal activity, the timing and extent of spending to support further infrastructure and research and development efforts, the timing and extent of additional capital expenditures to invest in new and existing office spaces, the expansion of sales and marketing and international operating activities, the timing of our introduction of new product capabilities and enhancements of our platform and the continuing market acceptance of our platform. In addition, on February 10, 2021, we announced our agreement to acquire Alsid SAS, a leader in active directory security, for a total purchase price of $98 million in cash, subject to customary purchase price adjustments. The acquisition is expected to close early in the second quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

The full extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacts our business and operations will depend on future developments that are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, such as the duration of the outbreak, the duration and effect of business disruptions, the ultimate effectiveness of the travel restrictions, quarantines, social

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distancing requirements and business closures in the United States and other countries to contain and treat the disease, and the availability, timing and effectiveness of a vaccine, both domestically and globally. We also do not yet know the full extent of potential impacts on our business and operations, or those of our partners and customers, or the global economy as a whole. Accordingly, the current results and financial conditions discussed herein may not be indicative of our future operating results and trends. See the section titled “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this Form 10-K.

We may in the future enter into arrangements to acquire or invest in complementary businesses, services and technologies, including intellectual property rights. We may be required to seek equity or debt financing. In the event that financing is required from outside sources, we may not be able to raise it on terms acceptable to us or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital when desired, or if we cannot expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities because we lack sufficient capital, our business, operating results and financial condition would be adversely affected.

Credit Facility

In July 2020, we entered into a new $45.0 million senior secured credit facility, or the 2020 Credit Facility, with Silicon Valley Bank in connection with the expiration of our $25.0 million revolving credit facility, or the 2017 Credit Facility. The 2020 Credit Facility bears interest at either LIBOR plus 2%, with a 1% LIBOR floor, or the base rate plus 1%, and terminates on July 24, 2022. A commitment fee of 0.35% per annum is payable quarterly in arrears based on the unused portion. The obligations under 2020 Credit Facility are secured by a lien on our tangible and intangible property except intellectual property and certain subsidiaries and by a pledge of all of the equity interests of our material direct and indirect domestic subsidiaries and 65% of each class of capital stock of any material first-tier foreign subsidiaries, subject to limited exceptions. The 2020 Credit Facility includes a $45.0 million uncommitted expansion, as well as a $10.0 million sublimit for the issuance of letters of credit and a swingline sub-facility of up to $10.0 million, and has a financial covenant requiring a minimum consolidated quick ratio of at least 1.5:1.0 on the last day of each quarter.

In 2020 and 2019, there were no amounts outstanding under our 2020 Credit Facility or, prior to its expiration, the 2017 Credit Facility. At December 31, 2020, we were in compliance with the financial covenant and our borrowing capacity was reduced by $5.5 million related to standby letters of credit. We do not currently intend to draw on the 2020 Credit Facility.

Cash Flows

The following table summarizes our cash flows for the periods presented:

Year Ended December 31,

Operating Activities

In 2020, net cash provided by operating activities was $64.2 million, which primarily consisted of our $42.7 million net loss, adjusted for stock-based compensation expense of $59.6 million and depreciation and amortization of $10.6 million, as well as a net cash inflow of $35.5 million from changes in operating assets and liabilities. The net inflow from changes in operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to a $71.4 million increase in deferred revenue primarily due to increased subscription sales, as a majority of our customers are invoiced in advance, and a $8.9 million increase in operating lease liabilities due to $14.2 million of proceeds in lease incentives net of operating lease payments, partially offset by a $20.0 million increase in accounts receivable, an increase of approximately $17 million in accelerated payments for cloud software subscriptions, insurance and rent, and a $6.6 million increase in deferred commissions.

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In 2019, net cash used in operating activities was $10.7 million, which primarily consisted of our $99.0 million net loss, adjusted for stock-based compensation expense of $41.6 million and depreciation and amortization of $6.9 million, as well as a net cash inflow of $36.3 million from changes in operating assets and liabilities. The net inflow from changes in operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to a $72.8 million increase in deferred revenue, primarily due to increased subscription sales, as a majority of our customers are invoiced in advance, partially offset by a $25.9 million increase in accounts receivable and a $12.8 million increase in deferred commissions.

In 2018, net cash used in operating activities was $2.6 million, which primarily consisted of our $73.5 million net loss, adjusted for stock-based compensation expense of $22.9 million and depreciation and amortization of $6.2 million, as well as a net cash inflow of $41.4 million from changes in operating assets and liabilities. The net inflow from changes in operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to an increase of $64.1 million in deferred revenue, primarily due to increased subscription sales as a majority of our customers are invoiced in advance, partially offset by a $17.4 million increase in accounts receivable.

Investing Activities

From 2019 to 2020, cash flows from investing activities increased by $117.1 million, primarily due to a decrease in cash paid for acquisitions of $74.6 million and an increase in our sales, net of purchases, of investments of $42.1 million.

From 2018 to 2019, net cash used in investing activities decreased by $10.2 million, primarily due to a decrease in our purchases, net of sales, of short-term investments of $100.0 million, partially offset by cash paid for acquisitions of $74.9 million and capital expenditures for our new corporate headquarters of $11.4 million.

Financing Activities

From 2019 to 2020, net cash provided by financing activities increased by $2.2 million, primarily due to proceeds from a loan agreement of $2.0 million and an increase in proceeds from the exercise of stock options of $2.7 million, which was partially offset by a decrease in stock issued in connection with the employee stock purchase plan of $2.1 million.

From 2018 to 2019, net cash provided by financing activities decreased by $230.6 million, primarily due to proceeds from our IPO, net of underwriting discounts and commissions, of $268.5 million, less payments of offering costs related to our IPO of $3.9 million in 2018, partially offset by proceeds from the exercise of stock options of $19.0 million and stock issued in connection with the employee stock purchase plan of $15.1 million in 2019.

Contractual Obligations

The following table summarizes our contractual obligations at December 31, 2020:

(in thousands) Total Less than 1 year 1 - 3 years 3 - 5 years More than 5 years

Not included in the table above is $7.1 million of unrecognized tax benefits and $1.2 million of asset retirement obligations because the timing of future cash outflows is uncertain.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

At December 31, 2020, we did not have any relationships with unconsolidated organizations or financial partnerships, such as structured finance or special purpose entities, which would have been established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements or other contractually narrow or limited purposes.

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Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Our financial statements are prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, as well as related disclosures. We evaluate our estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis. Our estimates are based on historical experience and various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Our actual results could differ from these estimates.

The critical accounting estimates, assumptions and judgments that we believe have the most significant impact on our consolidated financial statements are described below.

Revenue Recognition

We recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which we expect to be entitled to in exchange for those goods or services. In recognizing revenue, we apply the following steps:

•Identify the contract with a customer

•Identify the performance obligations in the contract

•Determine the transaction price

•Allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract

•Recognize revenue when or as performance obligations are satisfied

In situations where we enter into a contractual arrangement that includes non-standard terms and conditions, such as acceptance provisions and options to purchase additional products and services, as well as contract modifications, we apply judgment in identifying and assessing the impact on revenue recognition.

We generate revenue from subscription arrangements for our software and cloud-based solutions, perpetual licenses, maintenance associated with perpetual licenses and professional services and other revenue.

Subscription Revenue

Our subscription arrangements generally have annual or multi-year contractual terms and allow customers to use our software or cloud solutions, including ongoing software updates and the ability to identify the latest cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Revenue is recognized ratably over the subscription term given the critical utility provided by the ongoing updates that are released throughout the contract period.

Perpetual License and Maintenance Revenue

Our perpetual licenses are generally sold with one or more years of maintenance, which include ongoing software updates and the ongoing ability to identify the latest cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Given the critical utility provided by the ongoing software updates and updated ability to identify network vulnerabilities included in maintenance, we combine the perpetual license and the maintenance into a single performance obligation. Perpetual license arrangements generally contain a material right related to the customer’s ability to renew maintenance at a price that is less than the initial license fee. We apply a practical alternative to allocating a portion of the transaction price to the material right performance obligation and estimate a hypothetical transaction price which includes fees for expected maintenance renewals based on the estimated economic life of the perpetual license contracts. We allocate the transaction price between the cybersecurity subscription provided in the initial contract and the material right related to expected contract renewals based on the hypothetical transaction price. We recognize the amount allocated to the combined license and maintenance performance obligation over the initial contractual period, which is generally one year. We recognize the amount allocated to the material right over the expected maintenance renewal period, which begins at the end of the initial contractual term and is generally four years. We have estimated the five-year economic life of perpetual license contracts based on historical contract attrition, expected renewal periods, the lifecycle of the our technology and other factors. While we believe that the estimates we have made are reasonable and appropriate, different assumptions and estimates could materially impact our reported financial results.

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Professional Services and Other Revenue

Professional services and other revenue is primarily comprised of advisory services and training related to the deployment and optimization of our products. These services do not result in significant customization of our products. Professional services and other revenue is recognized as the services are performed.

Contracts with Multiple Performance Obligations

In cases where our contracts with customers contain multiple performance obligations, the contract transaction price is allocated on a relative standalone selling price basis. We typically determine standalone selling price based on observable selling prices of our products and services.

Variable Consideration

We record revenue from sales at the net sales price, which is the transaction price, including estimates of variable consideration when applicable. Certain of our customers may be entitled to receive credits and in certain circumstances, refunds, if service level commitments are not met. We have not historically experienced significant incidents affecting the ability to meet these service level commitments and any estimated refunds related to these agreements have not been material.

Sales through our channel partner network of distributors and resellers are generally discounted as compared to the price that we would sell to an end user. Revenue for sales through our channel network, which is fixed, is recorded net of any distributor or reseller margin.

Deferred Commissions

Sales commissions, including related incremental fringe benefit costs, are considered to be incremental costs of obtaining a contract, and therefore are deferred over an estimated period of benefit, which ranges between three and four years for subscription arrangements and five years for perpetual license arrangements. We have estimated the period of benefit based on the expected contract term including renewal periods, the lifecycle of our technology and other factors. Sales commissions on contract renewals are capitalized and amortized ratably over the contract term, with the exception of contracts with renewal periods that are one year or less, in which case the incremental costs are expensed as incurred. While we believe that the estimates we have made are reasonable and appropriate, different assumptions and estimates could materially impact our reported financial results.

Stock-Based Compensation

Stock-based compensation expense related to our stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, or RSUs, and purchase rights issued under our 2018 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or the 2018 ESPP, is calculated based on the fair value of the awards granted and is recognized on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period, which is generally two to four years. RSUs that include performance-based vesting conditions and are expensed using the accelerated attribution method. We account for forfeitures as they occur.

Estimating the fair value of stock options and purchase rights under the 2018 ESPP using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model requires assumptions as to the fair value of our underlying common stock, the estimated term of the option, the risk free interest rates, the expected volatility of the price of our common stock and the expected dividend yield. The assumptions used to estimate the fair value of the option awards reflect our best estimates. If any of the assumptions change significantly, stock-based compensation for future awards may differ significantly compared with the awards granted previously.

The assumptions and estimates are as follows:

•Fair Value of Common Stock. See “Valuations” discussion below.

•Expected Term. This is the period of time that the options granted are expected to remain unexercised. We employ the simplified method to calculate the average expected term.

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•Volatility. This is a measure of the amount by which a financial variable, such as a share price, has fluctuated (historical volatility) or is expected to fluctuate (expected volatility) during a period. We have identified several public entities of similar size, complexity and stage of development and estimate our volatility based on the volatility of the common stock of these companies. In 2021, we intend to use the volatility of Tenable stock when calculating the fair value of purchase rights under the 2018 ESPP.

•Risk-Free Interest Rate. This is the U.S. Treasury rate, having a term that most closely resembles the expected life of the stock option.

•Dividend Yield. We have not and do not expect to pay dividends on our common stock.

Valuations

Following our IPO, we use the market price of our common stock at the date of grant as the fair value. Prior to our IPO, the lack of an active public market for our common stock required our board of directors to exercise reasonable judgment and consider a number of factors in order to make the best estimate of fair value of our common stock, in accordance with the technical practice-aid issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Practice Aid entitled Valuation of Privately-Held Company Equity Securities Issued as Compensation. Factors considered in connection with estimating the fair value of our common stock underlying our award of restricted stock and stock option awards when performing the fair value calculations with the Black Scholes option-pricing model included:

•The results of independent third-party valuations of our common stock

•Recent arm’s length transactions involving the sale or transfer of our common stock

•The rights, preferences and privileges of our Series A and Series B redeemable convertible preferred stock relative to those of our common stock

•Our historical financial results and future financial projections

•The market value of equity interests in substantially similar businesses, which equity interests can be valued through nondiscretionary, objective means

•The lack of marketability of our common stock

•The likelihood of achieving a liquidity event, such as an IPO given prevailing market conditions

•Industry outlook

•General economic outlook including economic growth, inflation and unemployment, interest rate environment and global economic trends

As described above, the exercise price of our stock option awards was determined by our board of directors, with input from management, taking into account the factors described above, using a combination of valuation methodologies with varying weighting applied to each methodology as of the grant date.

Application of these approaches involved the use of estimates, judgment and assumptions that were highly complex and subjective, such as those regarding our expected future revenue, expenses and future cash flows, discount rates, market multiples, the selection of comparable companies and the probability of possible future events. Changes in any or all of these estimates and assumptions or the relationships between those assumptions would have impacted our valuations as of each valuation date and may have had a material impact on the valuation of our common stock.

The fair value of each stock option was estimated on the grant date based on the following assumptions:

Year Ended December 31,

Expected term (in years) 6.3

Expected volatility 41.3% — 43.3%

Risk-free interest rate 2.7% — 2.9%

Expected dividend yield —

Expected forfeiture rate —

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The fair value of each 2018 ESPP purchase right was estimated on the offering or modification dates based on the following assumptions:

Year Ended December 31,

Expected dividend yield — — —

Business Combinations

We account for business combinations by recognizing the fair value of acquired assets and liabilities. The excess purchase consideration over the fair value of acquired assets and liabilities is recorded as goodwill. When determining the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed, we make estimates and assumptions, especially with respect to intangible assets. Estimates in valuing certain identifiable intangible assets require significant judgment and include, but are not limited to, expected long-term market growth, future expected operating expenses, costs of capital, and appropriate discount rates. Our estimate of fair value is based upon assumptions we believe to be reasonable, but which are inherently uncertain and, as a result, actual results may differ from estimates. During the measurement period, we may make adjustments to the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed, with offsetting adjustments to goodwill. Any adjustments made after the measurement period will be reflected in the consolidated statements of operations. Acquisition-related transaction costs are expensed as incurred.

Goodwill

The excess purchase consideration over the fair value of acquired assets and liabilities is recorded as goodwill. We perform our annual impairment assessment on October 1, or more frequently, when events or circumstances indicate impairment may have occurred. We operate as one reporting unit and have elected to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of the Company as a whole is less than its carrying amount, including goodwill. The qualitative assessment includes an evaluation of relevant events and circumstances, including macroeconomic, industry and market conditions, our overall financial performance, and trends in the value of our common stock. During the periods presented, there were no indications of impairment and it was not more likely than not that goodwill was impaired.

Income Taxes

We are subject to federal, state and local taxes in the United States as well as numerous international jurisdictions. These foreign jurisdictions have different statutory tax rates than the United States. Earnings generated by our international entities are related to transfer pricing requirements as applicable under local jurisdiction tax laws.

We record a provision for income taxes under the asset and liability method, which requires recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of temporary differences between the financial statement carrying amounts and the tax basis of existing assets and liabilities, net operating loss carryforwards and tax credit carryforwards. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using the tax rates that are expected to apply to taxable income for the years in which those tax assets and liabilities are expected to be realized or settled. A valuation allowance is provided if it is more likely than not that some or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. We have valuation allowances in all jurisdictions against deferred tax assets net of deferred tax liabilities that will reverse and provide a source of taxable income. Our evaluation of valuation allowances could change in the future and the impact could have a material impact on our financial statements.

We recognize tax benefits from an uncertain tax position if it is more likely than not to be sustained upon audit by the relevant taxing authority. Interest and penalties associated with such uncertain tax positions are classified as a component of income tax expense.

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In December 2019, subsequent to our acquisition of Indegy Ltd. we transferred the acquired Indegy intellectual property from Israel to the U.S. and Ireland through an intercompany transaction. The sale of Indegy's intellectual property for tax purposes resulted in $6.3 million of current tax expense and $4.2 million of deferred tax expense in Israel. The valuation of the intellectual property for tax purposes required significant judgment and assumptions with respect to forecasted operating results and discount rates.

Depending on the jurisdiction, distributions of earnings could be subject to withholding taxes at rates applicable to the distributing jurisdiction. As we intend to continue to reinvest the earnings of foreign subsidiaries indefinitely, we have not provided for a U.S. income tax liability and foreign withholding taxes on undistributed foreign earnings of foreign subsidiaries.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements

Refer to Note 1 to our consolidated financial statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for more information regarding recently issued accounting pronouncements.

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

We are exposed to market risks in the ordinary course of our business, including interest rate, foreign currency exchange and inflation risks.

Interest Rate Risk

At December 31, 2020, we had $178.2 million of cash and cash equivalents, which consisted of cash deposits, money market funds and commercial paper. We also had $113.6 million of short-term investments, which consisted of commercial paper, U.S. treasury and agency securities and corporate bonds. Our investments are carried at their fair market values with cumulative unrealized gains or losses recorded as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income within stockholders' equity. The primary objectives of our investment activities are the preservation of capital, the fulfillment of liquidity needs and the fiduciary control of cash and investments. We do not enter into investments for trading or speculative purposes. Interest-earning instruments carry a degree of interest rate risk; however, a hypothetical 10% change in interest rates during any of the periods presented would not have had a material impact on our financial statements.

We have not had any borrowings under our $45.0 million 2020 Credit Facility since it was established in July 2020. Any borrowings under the 2020 Credit Facility would bear interest at a variable rate. We do not have any other long-term debt or financial liabilities with floating interest rates that would subject us to interest rate fluctuations.

Foreign Currency Exchange Risk

Substantially all of our sales contracts are denominated in U.S. dollars, with a limited number of contracts denominated in foreign currencies, including foreign denominated leases. A portion of our operating expenses are incurred outside the United States, denominated in foreign currencies and subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates, particularly changes in the Euro, British Pound, Australian dollar and Israeli New Shekel. Additionally, fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates may cause us to recognize remeasurement and transaction gains (losses) in our consolidated statements of operations. As the impact of foreign currency exchange rates has not been material to our historical operating results, we have not entered into derivative or hedging transactions, but we may do so in the future if our exposure to foreign currency becomes more significant.

Inflation Risk

We do not believe that inflation has had a material effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition. Nonetheless, if our costs were to become subject to significant inflationary pressures, we may not be able to fully offset such higher costs. Our inability or failure to do so could harm our business, results of operations, or financial condition.

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Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Page

Reports of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm 62

Financial Statements

Consolidated Balance Sheets 65

Consolidated Statements of Operations 66

Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss 67

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows 69

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements 70

1. Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies 70

3. Cash and Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments 77

4. Fair Value Measurements 77

5. Property and Equipment, Net 78

6. Acquisition, Goodwill and Intangible Assets 79

9. Redeemable Convertible Preferred Stock and Common Stock 82

10. Stock-Based Compensation 82

11. Net Loss Per Share Attributable to Common Stockholders 85

13. Geographic Information 88

15. Subsequent Events 89

16. Quarterly Results (unaudited) 89

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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of Tenable Holdings, Inc.

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Tenable Holdings, Inc. (the Company) as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive loss, redeemable convertible preferred stock and stockholders' equity (deficit) and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2020, and the related notes and the financial statement schedule listed in the Index at item 15(a)(2) (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 2020 and 2019, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2020, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) and our report dated February 22, 2021 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective or complex judgments. The communication of a critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

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/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2014

Tysons, Virginia

February 22, 2021

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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Stockholders and Board of Directors of Tenable Holdings, Inc.

Opinion on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

We have audited Tenable Holdings, Inc.’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) (the COSO criteria). In our opinion, Tenable Holdings, Inc. (the Company) maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020, based on the COSO criteria.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the consolidated balance sheets of Tenable Holdings, Inc. as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive loss, redeemable convertible preferred stock and stockholders' equity (deficit) and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2020, and the related notes and the financial statement schedule listed in the Index at item 15(a)(2) (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”) and our report dated February 22, 2021 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting included in the accompanying Management's Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

Tysons, Virginia

February 22, 2021

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TENABLE HOLDINGS, INC.

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

December 31,

(in thousands, except per share data) 2020 2019

Assets

Current assets:

Prepaid expenses and other current assets 44,462 27,369

Deferred commissions (net of current portion) 46,733 43,766

Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity

Current liabilities:

Accounts payable and accrued expenses $ 5,731 $ 10,168

Deferred revenue (net of current portion) 105,691 88,779

Operating lease liabilities (net of current portion) 54,529 40,663

Stockholders’ equity:

Accumulated other comprehensive income 10 50

Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity $ 690,589 $ 558,612

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

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TENABLE HOLDINGS, INC.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

Year Ended December 31,

Operating expenses:

Accretion of Series A and B redeemable convertible preferred stock — — (434)

Net loss attributable to common stockholders $ (42,731) $ (99,013) $ (73,955)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

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TENABLE HOLDINGS, INC.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE LOSS

Year Ended December 31,

Other comprehensive (loss) income, net of tax:

Unrealized (loss) gain on available-for-sale securities (40) 50 —

Other comprehensive (loss) income (40) 50 —

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

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TENABLE HOLDINGS, INC.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF REDEEMABLE CONVERTIBLE

PREFERRED STOCK AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY (DEFICIT)

Accumulated Total

Redeemable Convertible Preferred Stock Additional Other Stockholders'

Series A Series B Common Stock Paid-in Comprehensive Accumulated Equity

Repurchase of common stock — — — — (7) (1) (74) — — (75)

Stock-based compensation — — — — — — 23,022 — — 23,022

Vesting of restricted stock units — — — — 479 5 (5) — — —

Stock-based compensation — — — — — — 41,928 — — 41,928

Other comprehensive income — — — — — — — 50 — 50

Vesting of restricted stock units — — — — 1,504 15 (15) — — —

Stock-based compensation — — — — — — 59,782 — — 59,782

Other comprehensive loss — — — — — — — (40) — (40)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

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TENABLE HOLDINGS, INC.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

Year Ended December 31,

Cash flows from operating activities:

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:

Other current and noncurrent liabilities 8,808 (4,097) (1,490)

Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities 64,232 (10,744) (2,559)

Cash flows from investing activities:

Sales and maturities of short-term investments 209,148 224,594 —

Business combination, net of cash acquired (276) (74,911) —

Cash flows from financing activities:

Proceeds from loan agreement 2,000 — —

Repurchases of common stock — — (75)

Payments of costs related to initial public offering — — (3,932)

Supplemental disclosure of cash flow information:

Supplemental cash flow information related to leases:

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

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TENABLE HOLDINGS, INC.

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

1. Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Business Description

Tenable Holdings, Inc. (the “Company,” “we,” "us," or “our”) is a provider of Cyber Exposure solutions, which is a discipline for managing, measuring and comparing cybersecurity risk in the digital era. Our platform offerings provide broad visibility into security issues such as vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, internal and regulatory compliance violations and other indicators of the state of an organization’s security across IT infrastructure and applications, cloud environments and industrial internet of things and operational technology environments.

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Tenable Holdings, Inc. and our wholly owned subsidiaries and have been prepared in conformity with United States generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). All intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

Initial Public Offering

On July 30, 2018, we completed our initial public offering ("IPO"), in which we issued and sold 12,535,000 shares of common stock at a price to the public of $23.00 per share, including 1,635,000 shares of common stock purchased by our underwriters from the full exercise of their over-allotment option. All of the shares sold in the IPO were sold by the Company. We received net proceeds of $264.6 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses.

Upon the completion of our IPO, all 15,847,500 shares of our Series A Redeemable Convertible Preferred Stock ("Series A") and 39,538,354 shares of our Series B Redeemable Convertible Preferred Stock ("Series B") automatically converted into an aggregate of 55,385,854 shares of our common stock. Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation adopted in connection with the IPO authorizes a total of 500,000,000 shares of common stock and 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. These estimates include, but are not limited to, the determination of the estimated economic life of perpetual licenses for revenue recognition, the estimated period of benefit for deferred commissions, the useful lives of long-lived assets, the fair value of acquired intangible assets, the valuation of stock-based compensation, including the estimated underlying fair value of our common stock prior to our IPO, the incremental borrowing rate for operating leases, and the valuation of deferred tax assets. We base these estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable. Actual results could differ significantly from these estimates.

Foreign Currency

The functional currency for all of our foreign subsidiaries is the U.S. dollar. Assets and liabilities denominated in other currencies are remeasured into U.S. dollars at current exchange rates for monetary assets and liabilities and at historical exchange rates for non-monetary assets and liabilities. We bill our customers in U.S. dollars. Expenses incurred in non U.S. dollar currencies are remeasured into U.S. dollars when incurred. Remeasurement losses in currencies other than the functional currency were $1.7 million, $1.1 million and $1.0 million in 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively, and are included as a component of other expense, net in the consolidated statements of operations.

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Revenue Recognition

We recognize revenue in order to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration we expect to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. To achieve this, we apply the following steps:

•Identify the contract with a customer

•Identify the performance obligations in the contract

•Determine the transaction price

•Allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract

•Recognize revenue when or as performance obligations are satisfied

In situations where we enter into a contractual arrangement that includes non-standard terms and conditions, such as acceptance provisions or options to purchase additional products and services, as well as contract modifications, we apply judgment in identifying and assessing the impact on revenue recognition.

We generate revenue from subscription arrangements for software and cloud-based solutions, perpetual licenses, maintenance associated with perpetual licenses, and professional services and other revenue. We begin to recognize revenue when control of our software or services is transferred to the customer, which for sales made through distributors is concurrent with the transfer to the end user.

Subscription Revenue

Subscription arrangements generally have annual or multi-year contractual terms and allow customers to use our software or cloud solutions, including ongoing software updates and the ability to identify the latest cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Revenue is recognized ratably over the subscription term given the critical utility provided by the ongoing updates that are released throughout the contract period.

Perpetual License and Maintenance Revenue

Our perpetual licenses are generally sold with one or more years of maintenance, which include ongoing software updates and the ongoing ability to identify the latest cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Given the critical utility provided by the ongoing software updates and updated ability to identify network vulnerabilities included in maintenance, we combine the perpetual license and the maintenance into a single performance obligation. Perpetual license arrangements generally contain a material right related to the customer’s ability to renew maintenance at a price that is less than the initial license fee. We apply a practical alternative to allocating a portion of the transaction price to the material right performance obligation and estimate a hypothetical transaction price which includes fees for expected maintenance renewals based on the estimated economic life of the perpetual license contracts. We allocate the transaction price between the cybersecurity subscription provided in the initial contract and the material right related to expected contract renewals based on the hypothetical transaction price. We recognize the amount allocated to the combined license and maintenance performance obligation over the initial contractual period, which is generally one year. We recognize the amount allocated to the material right over the expected maintenance renewal period, which begins at the end of the initial contractual term and is generally four years. We have estimated the five-year economic life of perpetual license contracts based on historical contract attrition, expected renewal periods, the lifecycle of the our technology and other factors. While we believe that the estimates we have made are reasonable and appropriate, different assumptions and estimates could materially impact our reported financial results.

Professional Services and Other Revenue

Professional services and other revenue is primarily comprised of advisory services and training related to the deployment and optimization of our products. These services do not result in significant customization of our products. Professional services and other revenue is recognized as the services are performed.

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Contracts with Multiple Performance Obligations

In cases where our contracts with customers contain multiple performance obligations, the contract transaction price is allocated on a relative standalone selling price basis. We typically determine standalone selling price based on observable selling prices of our products and services.

Variable Consideration

We record revenue from sales at the net sales price, which is the transaction price, including estimates of variable consideration when applicable. Certain of our customers may be entitled to receive credits and in certain circumstances, refunds, if service level commitments are not met. We have not historically experienced significant incidents affecting the ability to meet these service level commitments and any estimated refunds related to these agreements have not been material.

Sales through our channel network of distributors and resellers are generally discounted as compared to the price that we would sell to an end user. Revenue for sales through our channel network is recorded net of any distributor or reseller margin.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

We consider all highly liquid financial instruments with an original maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents.

At December 31, 2020 and 2019, cash and cash equivalents included $0.4 million of restricted cash, which is related to collateral for a lease and credit card deposits. At December 31, 2020 and 2019, cash and cash equivalents excluded $0.2 million and $0.3 million, respectively, of restricted cash, which is related to an account established as collateral for a lease arrangement and is included in other assets on the consolidated balance sheets.

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

Fair value is defined as the price that would be received from selling an asset, or paid to transfer a liability, in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. We apply fair value accounting for all financial assets and liabilities that are recognized or disclosed at fair value in the financial statements on a recurring basis. We measure cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments at fair value using a fair value hierarchy of inputs. We approximate fair value by using the carrying amounts for accounts receivable, accounts payable and accrued expenses due to their short-term nature.

Investments

We currently invest in commercial paper, corporate bonds, and U.S. treasury and agency obligations. Our investments are classified as available-for-sale and recorded at fair value, with unrealized gains and losses reported in accumulated other comprehensive income within stockholders’ equity (deficit).

We evaluate potential impairments of available-for-sale debt securities due to credit-related and non-credit-related factors, including market risk, and if it is more-likely-than-not that we would have to sell the security before the recovery of the amortized cost basis. Identified credit-related impairments would be recognized as a charge in the statement of operations.

Accounts Receivable

Accounts receivable are recorded at the invoiced amount, less an allowance for doubtful accounts, and do not bear interest. We maintain an allowance for doubtful accounts at an amount estimated to be sufficient to cover the risk of collecting less than full payment of the receivables. At each balance sheet date, we evaluate our receivables and assess the allowance for doubtful accounts based on specific customer collection issues and historical write-off trends.

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Our allowance for doubtful accounts reflects our best estimate of expected future credit losses. We consider various factors that may impact our ability to collect on accounts receivable, including our historical collection experience, age of accounts receivable balances, current conditions, reasonable and supportable forecasts of future economic conditions, as well as other factors. However, given the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, these estimates may change and future credit losses may differ from our estimates. Expected credit losses from accounts receivable are recognized as expense in our statement of operations.

Deferred Commissions

Sales commissions, including related fringe benefit costs, are considered to be incremental costs of obtaining a contract. Sales commissions on initial sales are not commensurate with sales commissions on contract renewals and therefore are recognized over an estimated period of benefit, which ranges between three and four years for subscription arrangements and five years for perpetual license arrangements. We estimated the period of benefit based on the expected contract term including renewal periods, the lifecycle of our technology, and other factors. Sales commissions on contract renewals are capitalized and amortized ratably over the contract term as part of sales and marketing expense, with the exception of contracts with renewal periods that are one year or less, in which case the incremental costs are expensed as incurred.

Property and Equipment, net

Property and equipment, net is stated at historical cost less accumulated depreciation. Depreciation is computed using the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the assets: three years for computer software and equipment and five years for furniture and fixtures. Leasehold improvements are amortized using the straight-line method over the shorter of the estimated useful lives of the assets or the terms of the respective leases. Property and equipment, net includes right-of-use assets acquired under finance leases. Amortization of assets acquired under finance leases is included in depreciation expense. Repairs and maintenance costs are expensed as incurred.

Leases

We determine if an arrangement contains a lease and the classification of that lease, if applicable, at inception. We have elected to not recognize a lease liability or right-of-use ("ROU") asset for short-term leases (leases with a term of twelve months or less). For contracts with lease and non-lease components, we have elected to not allocate the contract consideration, and account for the lease and non-lease components as a single lease component. Additionally, we enter into arrangements to use shared office spaces and other facilities, and have determined that these arrangements do not contain leases as we do not have the right to use an identified asset. Operating leases are included in operating lease ROU assets, operating lease liabilities and operating lease liabilities (net of current portion) in our consolidated balance sheets. Finance leases are included in property and equipment, other current liabilities and other liabilities in our consolidated balance sheets.

ROU assets represent our right to use an underlying asset for the lease term and lease liabilities represent our obligation to make lease payments under the lease. Operating lease ROU assets and liabilities are recognized at the lease commencement date based on the present value of lease payments over the lease term. The implicit rate within our operating leases are generally not determinable and we use our incremental borrowing rate at the lease commencement date to determine the present value of lease payments. The determination of our incremental borrowing rate requires judgment. We determine our incremental borrowing rate for each lease using our current borrowing rate, adjusted for various factors including level of collateralization, term and currency to align with the terms of the lease. The operating lease ROU asset also includes any lease prepayments, offset by lease incentives. Certain of our leases include options to extend or terminate the lease. An option to extend the lease is considered in connection with determining the ROU asset and lease liability when it is reasonably certain we will exercise that option. An option to terminate is considered unless it is reasonably certain we will not exercise the option.

Lease expense for lease payments is recognized on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease.

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Impairment of Long-Lived Assets

We evaluate our long-lived assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstance indicate that the carrying amount may not be fully recoverable. Recoverability of the long-lived assets is measured by a comparison of the carrying amount of the assets to future undiscounted net cash flows expected to be generated by the assets. If such assets are considered to be impaired, the impairment to be recognized is measured as the excess of the carrying amount over the fair value. There was no impairment of long-lived assets in 2020, 2019 or 2018.

Business Combinations

We account for business combinations by recognizing the fair value of acquired assets and liabilities. The excess purchase consideration over the fair value of acquired assets and liabilities is recorded as goodwill. When determining the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed, we make estimates and assumptions, especially with respect to intangible assets. Estimates in valuing certain identifiable intangible assets include, but are not limited to, projected revenue growth rates, future expected operating expenses, obsolescence projections and an appropriate discount rate. Our estimate of fair value is based upon assumptions we believe to be reasonable, but which are inherently uncertain and, as a result, actual results may differ from estimates. During the measurement period, we may make adjustments to the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed, with offsetting adjustments to goodwill. Any adjustments made after the measurement period will be reflected in the consolidated statements of operations. Acquisition-related transaction costs are expensed as incurred.

Goodwill

The excess of the purchase consideration over the fair value of acquired assets and liabilities is recorded as goodwill. We perform our annual impairment assessment on October 1, or more frequently, when events or circumstances indicate impairment may have occurred. We operate as one reporting unit and have elected to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of the Company as a whole is less than its carrying amount, including goodwill. The qualitative assessment includes an evaluation of relevant events and circumstances, including macroeconomic, industry and market conditions, our overall financial performance, and trends in the value of our common stock. During the periods presented, there were no indications of impairment and it was not more likely than not that goodwill was impaired.

Advertising

Advertising costs are expensed as they are incurred. We incurred advertising costs of $8.2 million, $5.3 million and $3.3 million in 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively, which are included in sales and marketing expense in the consolidated statements of operations.

Software Development Costs

Research and development costs to develop software to be sold, leased or marketed are expensed as incurred up to the point of technological feasibility for the related software product. We have not capitalized development costs for software to be sold, leased or marketed to date, as the software development process is essentially completed concurrent with the establishment of technological feasibility. As such, these costs are expensed as incurred and recognized in research and development costs in the consolidated statements of operations.

Software developed for internal use, with no substantive plans to market such software at the time of development, are capitalized and included in property and equipment, net in the consolidated balance sheets. Costs incurred during the preliminary planning and evaluation and post implementation stages of the project are expensed as incurred. Costs incurred during the application development stage of the project are capitalized. In 2020, 2019 and 2018, we capitalized $1.6 million, $4.2 million and $2.4 million, respectively, of development costs related to internal use software.

Stock-Based Compensation

Stock-based compensation expense related to our restricted stock units ("RSUs"), purchase rights issued under our

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2018 Employee Stock Purchase Plan ("2018 ESPP"), stock options and restricted stock is calculated based on the fair value of the awards granted and is recognized on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period, which is generally two to four years. RSUs that include performance-based vesting conditions and are expensed using the accelerated attribution method. We account for forfeitures as they occur.

The fair value of RSUs is based on the estimated fair value of our common stock on the date of grant. The fair value of stock options and 2018 ESPP purchase rights is estimated on the grant date using the Black-Scholes option pricing model, which requires us to make assumptions and judgments, including the expected term, expected volatility, and risk-free interest rates. Prior to our IPO, we estimated the fair value of our common stock at the date of grant. Following our IPO, we use the market price of our common stock at the date of grant.

Net Loss per Share

We calculate basic and diluted net loss per share attributable to common stockholders in conformity with the two-class method required for participating securities. Under the two-class method, the net loss attributable to common stockholders is not allocated to the redeemable convertible preferred stock as the holders of our redeemable convertible preferred stock do not have a contractual obligation to share in losses.

Under the two-class method, basic net loss per share attributable to common stockholders is computed by dividing the net loss attributable to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of shares of common stock outstanding during the period. Net loss attributable to common stockholders is calculated by adjusting net loss by the current period accretion of redeemable convertible preferred stock.

Upon the completion of our IPO, all of our Series A and Series B redeemable convertible preferred stock automatically converted into shares of our common stock.

Diluted earnings per share attributable to common stockholders is computed by giving effect to all potentially dilutive common stock equivalents in the period, including unvested RSUs, stock options, unvested restricted shares, redeemable convertible preferred stock and shares to be issued under our 2018 ESPP. As we have reported losses for all periods presented, all potentially dilutive securities have been excluded from the calculation of diluted net loss per share attributable to common stockholders as their effect would be antidilutive.

Segment Information

We operate as one operating segment as our chief executive officer, who is our chief operating decision maker, reviews financial information on a consolidated basis for purposes of making operating decisions, allocating resources, and evaluating financial performance.

Income Taxes

Income taxes are accounted for under the asset and liability method. This method requires recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of temporary differences between the financial statement carrying amounts and the tax basis of existing assets and liabilities, net operating loss carryforwards, and tax credit carryforwards. A valuation allowance is provided if it is more likely than not that some or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized.

We recognize tax benefits from an uncertain tax position if it is more likely than not to be sustained upon audit by the relevant taxing authority. Interest and penalties associated with such uncertain tax positions are classified as a component of income tax expense.

Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

We adopted Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") No. 2016-13 — Financial Instruments-Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments, effective January 1, 2020 using the modified retrospective approach. The new standard replaces the previous incurred loss impairment methodology with a methodology that reflects

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current expected credit losses for financial assets, including trade receivables, which are not measured at fair value, through net income. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on our condensed consolidated financial statements.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements

In December 2019, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued ASU No. 2019-12 - Income Taxes (Topic 740): Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes. This ASU eliminates previously allowed exceptions and clarifies existing guidance in the accounting for income taxes, including in the areas of franchise taxes, the tax basis of goodwill and interim period effects of changes in tax laws. This guidance was effective for us beginning January 1, 2021. We do not expect the impact of adopting this standard to be material for our consolidated financial statements.

2. Revenue

Disaggregation of Revenue

The following table presents a summary of revenue:

Year Ended December 31,

Concentrations

We sell and market our products and services through our field sales force that works closely with our channel partners, which includes a network of distributors and resellers, in developing sales opportunities. We use a two-tiered channel model whereby we sell our products and services to our distributors, which in turn sell to resellers, which then sell to end users. We derived 91%, 90% and 88% of revenue through our channel network in 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. One of our distributors accounted for 43%, 43% and 46% of revenue in 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. That same distributor accounted for 41% and 40% of accounts receivable at December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Contract Balances

We generally bill our customers in advance and accounts receivable are recorded when we have the right to invoice the customer. Contract liabilities consist of deferred revenue and include customer billings and payments received in advance of performance under the contract. In 2020, 2019 and 2018, we recognized revenue of $274.3 million, $214.0 million and $154.9 million, respectively, that was included in the deferred revenue balance at the beginning of each of the respective periods.

Remaining Performance Obligations

At December 31, 2020, the future estimated revenue related to unsatisfied performance obligations was $443.2 million, of which approximately 76% is expected to be recognized as revenue over the succeeding twelve months, and the remainder expected to be recognized over the four years thereafter.

Deferred Commissions

Source: SEC EDGAR (public domain) · 10-K for the period ended 2020-12-31, filed 2021-02-23 · accession 0001660280-21-000027

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