ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risk factors set forth below, as compared to the risk factors presented in Rovi’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and TiVo’s Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2016 prior to the completion of the TiVo Acquisition. You should consider these risk factors together with other matters described in Rovi’s and TiVo’s Annual Reports on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and January 31, 2016, respectively, as well as the other information contained or incorporated by reference in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission before investing in our securities. If any of the following risks are realized, our business, operating results, financial condition, and prospects could be materially and adversely affected, which in turn could adversely affect our ability to repay our outstanding convertible senior notes or other indebtedness. In those events, the price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial may also adversely affect our business.
Risks Related to the Merger of Rovi Corporation and TiVo Inc.
We have incurred and expect to continue to incur significant restructuring and integration-related costs following the merger of Rovi Corporation with TiVo Inc. and may not realize our anticipated synergies and cost savings with respect to our integration and restructuring initiatives.
Following completion of the
TiVo Acquisition
, we initiated our plan to integrate TiVo and Rovi’s businesses. We expect to incur material transaction, restructuring, transition and integration-related costs in connection with integrating TiVo's operations with the operations of Rovi. This integration may not be achieved in a timely and efficient manner, and we may not fully realize the anticipated cost savings and synergies for a variety of reasons. Some of the risks related to this integration include failure to obtain expected cost savings due to cost overruns, failure to consolidate our disparate administrative and engineering operations and employment and other law, rules, regulations or other limitations that could have an impact on timing, amounts or costs of achieving expected synergies. In addition, these restructuring, integration and cost reduction plans are designed to reduce our fixed costs and our operating expenses, which include the future consolidation of existing office locations, elimination of redundant information systems, product integration and consolidation efforts, and employee-related costs. These restructuring and integration activities are likely to result in significant restructuring charges that will adversely affect, our results of operations for the periods in which such charges occur. Additionally, actual costs related to such restructuring plans have in the past, and may in the future, exceed the amounts that we previously estimated, leading to additional charges as actual costs are incurred. And further, if the expected cost savings and synergy benefits are not realized, our business will be harmed.
TiVo Corporation will be required to make a cash payment to stockholders who validly exercise appraisal rights in connection with the merger between Rovi Corporation and TiVo Inc. and the amount of such payment has not been determined.
Under Delaware law, holders of common stock of TiVo Inc. who did not vote to approve the TiVo Acquisition and who properly assert and exercise their appraisal rights with respect to their shares (“Dissenting Holders”) are entitled to receive a cash payment in an amount equal to the fair value of their shares (as determined in accordance with the provisions of Delaware law) in lieu of the shares of TiVo Corporation which they would otherwise have been entitled to receive if they commence an appraisal action in the Delaware Court of Chancery and proceed to a verdict. As of September 7, 2016 (the “TiVo Acquisition Date”), the date of the merger, Dissenting Holders, who owned in the aggregate approximately
9.9 million
shares of TiVo Inc., provided written notice to TiVo Corporation regarding their intent to exercise their appraisal rights. The merger consideration for those shares is currently held in an account by the exchange agent in the TiVo Acquisition. If the Dissenting Holders do not elect to receive the merger consideration, they have until 120 days from the TiVo Acquisition Date to file a petition petition for appraisal in the Delaware Court of Chancery. If the action proceeds to a verdict, the Dissenting Holders will be entitled to receive a cash payment in an amount equal to the fair value of their shares (as determined in accordance with the provisions of Delaware law), plus prejudgment interest on any appraisal award, which would be calculated at a rate of 5% above the Federal Reserve Discount Rate compounded quarterly. The amount of cash that will be required to be paid to the Dissenting Holders is
uncertain and may be greater than the amount currently in an account with the exchange agent in the TiVo Acquisition. Any significant increase in the obligation to the Dissenting Holders could have a material adverse effect on TiVo Corporation’s cash position and financial condition.
Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Capital Needs
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards (NOLs) may be limited; stock transfer restrictions in our certificate of incorporation may act as an anti-takeover device.
As of December 31, 2015, we had U.S. federal NOLs of
$1.2 billion
. The
$1.2 billion
in U.S. federal NOLs will begin to expire in various years between 2020 and 2033, if not limited by triggering events prior to such time. Under the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, changes in our ownership, in certain circumstances, will limit the amount of U.S. federal NOLs that can be utilized annually in the future to offset taxable income. In particular, Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code imposes limitations on a company’s ability to use NOLs upon certain changes in such ownership. Calculations pursuant to Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code can be very complicated and no assurance can be given that upon further analysis, our ability to take advantage of our NOLs may be limited to a greater extent than we currently anticipate. If we are limited in our ability to use our NOLs in future years in which we have taxable income, we will pay more taxes than if we were able to utilize our NOLs fully. We may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership that we cannot predict or control that could result in further limitations being placed on our ability to utilize our federal NOLs.
On September 7, 2016, upon the effective time of the merger with TiVo Inc., our certificate of incorporation was amended and restated to include certain transfer restrictions intended to preserve our tax benefits pursuant to Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code that apply to transfers made by 5% stockholders, transferees related to a 5% stockholder, transferees acting in coordination with a 5% stockholder, or transfers that would result in a stockholder becoming a 5% stockholder. Such transfer restrictions will expire on the earlier of (i) the repeal of Section 382 or any successor statute if our board of directors determines that such restrictions are no longer necessary or desirable for the preservation of certain tax benefits, (ii) the beginning of a taxable year to which the Board determines that no tax benefits may be carried forward or (iii) such other date as our Board shall fix in accordance with the certificate of incorporation.
The transfer restrictions described above could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire, or could discourage a third party from acquiring, a large block of our common stock. This may adversely affect the marketability of our common stock by discouraging existing or potential investors from acquiring our stock or additional shares of our stock. It is also possible that the transfer restrictions could delay or frustrate the removal of incumbent directors and could make more difficult a merger, tender offer or proxy contest involving us, or impede an attempt to acquire a significant or controlling interest in us, even if such events might be beneficial to us and our stockholders.
We have indebtedness which could adversely affect our financial position.
As of September 30, 2016, we had total debt with a par value of
$1.3 billion
, which included
$684.3 million
under our
Term Loan Facility B
,
$345.0 million
under our
2020 Convertible Notes
and
$230.0 million
under our
2021 Convertible Notes
. Our
Term Loan Facility B
is guaranteed by us and certain of our domestic and foreign subsidiaries and is secured by substantially all of our, the subsidiary guarantors and the co-borrowers’ assets. Our indebtedness may:
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limit our ability to borrow additional funds for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions or other general business purposes;
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limit our ability to use our cash flow or obtain additional financing for future working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions or other general business purposes;
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require us to use a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to make debt service payments;
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limit our flexibility to plan for, or react to, changes in our business and industry;
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place us at a competitive disadvantage compared to our less leveraged competitors; and
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increase our vulnerability to the impact of adverse economic and industry conditions.
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Our ability to meet our debt service obligations will depend on our future performance, which will be subject to financial, business, and other factors affecting its operations, many of which are beyond our control.
Covenants in our debt agreements restrict our business in many ways and if we do not effectively manage our covenants, our financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our Term Loan Facility B contains various covenants that limit our ability and/or our restricted subsidiaries’ ability to, among other things:
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incur or assume liens or additional debt or provide guarantees in respect of obligations of other persons;
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issue redeemable preferred stock;
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pay dividends or distributions or redeem or repurchase capital stock;
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prepay, redeem or repurchase certain debt;
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make loans, investments and capital expenditures;
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enter into agreements that restrict distributions from our subsidiaries;
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sell assets and capital stock of our subsidiaries;
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enter into certain transactions with affiliates; and
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consolidate or merge with or into, or sell substantially all of our assets to, another person.
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A breach of any of these covenants could result in a default under our Term Loan Facility B and/or our other indebtedness, which could in turn result a substantial portion of our indebtedness becoming due prior to its scheduled maturity date. In such event, we may be unable to repay all of the amounts that would become due under our indebtedness. If we were unable to repay those amounts, the lenders under our Term Loan Facility B could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure that indebtedness. In any case, if a significant portion of our debt was accelerated, we might be forced to seek bankruptcy protection.
We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service our debt obligations.
Our ability to make payments on and to refinance our indebtedness will depend on our financial and operating performance, which is subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and to certain financial, business and other factors beyond our control. We may be unable to maintain a level of cash flows from operating activities sufficient to permit us to pay the principal and interest on our indebtedness.
If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we may be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures, or to sell assets, seek additional capital or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. These alternative measures may not be successful and may not permit us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations. In the absence of such operating results and resources, we could face substantial liquidity problems and might be required to dispose of material assets or operations to meet our debt service and other obligations. Our Term Loan Facility B restricts our ability to dispose of assets, use the proceeds from any disposition of assets and refinance our indebtedness. We may not be able to consummate those dispositions or to maximize the proceeds that we could realize from them and these proceeds may not be adequate to meet any debt service obligations then due.
In addition, borrowings under our Term Loan Facility B are, and are expected to continue to be, at variable rates of interest and expose us to interest rate risk. If interest rates increase, our debt service obligations on the variable rate indebtedness would increase even though the amount borrowed remained the same, and our net income would decrease.
Repayment of debt is dependent on cash flow generated by our subsidiaries and their respective subsidiaries.
Our subsidiaries, including Rovi Guides Inc., Rovi Solutions Corporation and TiVo Solutions Inc. (also known as TiVo Inc.), own a significant portion of our assets and conduct substantially all of our operations. Each subsidiary is a distinct legal entity and, under certain circumstances, legal and contractual restrictions may limit our ability to obtain cash from our subsidiaries. In the event Rovi Corporation does not receive distributions from its subsidiaries, it may be unable to make required principal and interest payments on its debt obligations, including the 2020 Convertible Notes. Accordingly, repayment of Rovi Corporation's indebtedness depends, to a significant extent, on the generation of cash flow by its subsidiaries, including Rovi Guides, Inc. and Rovi Solutions Corporation, the senior secured position of their bank debt, and their ability to make cash available to Rovi Corporation, by dividend, debt repayment or otherwise. Because they are not guarantors or a co-issuer of the 2020 Convertible Notes, Rovi Corporation’s subsidiaries do not have any obligation to pay amounts due on those notes or to make funds available for that purpose. Conversely, the ability of Rovi Solutions Corporation and Rovi Guides, Inc. to repay their indebtedness under our Term Loan Facility B depends, in part, on the generation of cash flow by their respective subsidiaries. Our subsidiaries may not be able to, or may not be permitted to, make distributions to enable us to make payments in respect of our indebtedness. Additionally, distributions from our non-U.S. subsidiaries may be subject to foreign withholding
taxes and would be subject to U.S. federal and state income tax which could reduce the net cash available for principal and interest payments.
Despite our current level of indebtedness, we may incur more indebtedness. This could increase the risks associated with our indebtedness.
We and our subsidiaries may incur additional indebtedness in the future. The terms of our debt do not prohibit us or our subsidiaries from incurring additional indebtedness, although such debt terms impose restrictions on our ability to do so. If we incur any additional indebtedness that ranks equally with existing indebtedness, the holders of that indebtedness will be entitled to share ratably with the holders of our existing debt obligations in any proceeds distributed in connection with any insolvency, liquidation, reorganization, dissolution or other winding-up of us. If new indebtedness is added to our current debt levels, the related risks that we and our subsidiaries now face could intensify.
The nature of our business requires the application of complex revenue recognition rules. Significant changes in U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) from the adoption of recently issued accounting standards could materially affect our financial position and results of operations.
The accounting rules and regulations we comply with regarding revenue recognition are complex. From time to time the Financial Accounting Standards Board (the “FASB”) modifies the accounting standards applicable to our financial statements. In May 2014, the FASB issued an amended accounting standard for revenue recognition, Accounting Standards Update No. 2014-09,
Revenue from Contracts with Customers
(“Topic 606”). Further, in April 2016, the FASB amended Topic 606 to provide additional guidance on revenue recognition as it pertains to licenses of intellectual property. Topic 606 and its related amendments are effective for us in the first quarter of 2018 and may be applied using a full retrospective or modified retrospective approach. We have not selected a transition method and continue to evaluate what effect, if any, the amendments and transition alternatives could have on our financial position and results of operations. Regardless of the transition method selected, application of Topic 606 may significantly impact the amount and timing of revenue recognition, such as recognizing revenue from existing contracts in periods other than when historically reported under existing GAAP or the revenue recognized under existing GAAP could be eliminated as part of the effect of adoption. Further, adoption of Topic 606 could result in changes to the periods when revenue is recognized in the future compared with management’s current expectations under existing GAAP. While the adoption of Topic 606 does not change the cash flows received from our contracts with customers, the adoption of Topic 606 could have a material adverse effect on our financial position or results of operations.
We utilize non-GAAP reporting in our quarterly earnings press releases.
As part of our quarterly earnings press releases, we publish measures compiled in accordance with GAAP as well as non-GAAP financial measures along with a reconciliation between the GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. The reconciling items have adjusted amounts reported in accordance with GAAP for certain items which are described in detail in each such quarterly earnings press release. We believe that this presentation may be meaningful to investors in analyzing the results of operations and income generation as this is how our business is managed. The market price of our stock may fluctuate based on future non-GAAP results if investors base their investment decisions on such non-GAAP financial measures. If we decide to alter or curtail use of non-GAAP financial measures in our quarterly earnings press releases, the market price of our stock could be affected if investors analyze our performance in a different manner.
The investment of our cash, cash equivalents and investments in money market funds and marketable debt securities are subject to risks which may cause losses and affect the liquidity of these investments.
Our investments include various money market funds and marketable debt securities, such as corporate debt securities, U.S. Treasury securities, bank certificates of deposit and commercial paper. Weakened financial markets have at times adversely impacted the general credit, liquidity, market prices and interest rates for these and other types of debt securities. Additionally, changes in monetary policy by the Federal Open Market Committee and concerns about the rising U.S. government debt level may cause a decrease in the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar and adversely affect our investment portfolio. Furthermore, if there is a default or downgrade of U.S. government or agency debt securities, our investment portfolio may be adversely impacted, requiring impairment charges that could adversely affect our liquidity, financial position, results of operations, or cash flows. The financial market and monetary risks associated with our investment portfolio may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, liquidity, results of operations, or cash flows.
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
If we fail to develop and timely deliver innovative technologies and services in response to changes in the technology and entertainment industries, our business could decline.
The markets for our products, services and technologies are characterized by rapid change and technological evolution. We will need to continue to expend considerable resources on research and development in the future in order to continue to design and deliver enduring, innovative entertainment products, services and technologies. Despite our efforts, we may not be able to develop timely and effectively market new products, technologies and services that adequately or competitively address the needs of the changing marketplace. In addition, we may not correctly identify new or changing market trends at an early enough stage to capitalize on market opportunities. At times, such changes can be dramatic, as were the shift from VHS videocassettes to DVDs for consumer playback of movies in homes and elsewhere and the transition from packaged media to internet distribution. Our future success depends to a great extent on our ability to develop and timely deliver innovative technologies that are widely adopted in response to changes in the technology and entertainment industries and that are compatible with the technologies, services or products introduced by other entertainment industry participants.
Despite our efforts and investments in developing new products, services and technologies:
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we may not receive significant revenue from our current research and development efforts for several years, if at all;
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we cannot assure you that the level of funding and significant resources we are committing for investments in new products, services and technologies will be sufficient or result in successful new products, services or technologies;
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we cannot assure you that our newly developed products, services or technologies can be successfully protected as proprietary intellectual property ("IP") rights or will not infringe the intellectual property rights of others;
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we cannot assure you that any new products or services that we develop will achieve market acceptance;
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our products, services and technologies may become obsolete due to rapid advancements in technology and changes in consumer preferences;
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we cannot assure you that revenue from new products, services or technologies will offset any decline in revenue from our products, services and technologies which may become obsolete; and
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our competitors and/or potential customers may develop products, services or technologies similar to those developed by us, resulting in a reduction in the potential demand for our newly developed products, services or technologies.
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Our failure to successfully develop new and improved products, services and technologies, including as a result of any of the risks described above, may reduce our future growth and profitability and may adversely affect our business, results and financial condition.
Our business may be adversely affected by fluctuations in the number of cable television, telecommunications television, and digital broadcast satellite subscribers if the availability of OTT content services causes consumers to cancel their pay TV subscriptions.
For some of our technologies, we are paid a royalty based on the number of subscribers or set top-boxes our pay TV customers have. The ability to enjoy digital entertainment content downloaded or streamed over the internet has caused some consumers to elect to cancel their pay TV subscriptions. If our pay TV customers are unable to maintain their subscriber bases, the royalties they owe us may decline.
Our business may be adversely affected by fluctuations in demand for CE devices incorporating our technologies.
We derive significant revenues from CE manufacturer license fees for our solutions that are based on the number of units shipped. We primarily depend on the cooperation of CE manufacturers to incorporate our technologies into their products. Generally, our license agreements do not require manufacturers to include our technology in any specific number or percentage of units, and only some of these agreements guarantee a minimum aggregate license fee. Purchases of new CE devices, including television sets, integrated satellite receiver decoders, DVRs, DVD recorders, personal computers and internet appliances are largely discretionary and may be adversely impacted by increasing market saturation, durability of products in the marketplace, new competing products, alternate consumer entertainment options and general economic trends in the countries or regions in which these products are offered. Economic downturns have in the past, and may in the future, significantly impact demand for such CE devices. As a result, our future operating results may be adversely impacted by fluctuations in sales of CE devices employing our technologies.
The decision by manufacturers to incorporate our solutions into their products is a function of what other technologies, products and services are available. Our future operating results may be adversely impacted as a result of CE manufacturers opting not to incorporate our technology into their devices as a result of other available alternatives.
We are exposed to risks associated with our changing technology base through strategic acquisitions, investments and divestitures.
We have expanded our technology base in the past through strategic acquisitions of companies with complementary technologies or IP and intend to do so in the future. Acquisitions hold special challenges in terms of successful integration of technologies, products, services and employees. We may not realize the anticipated benefits of these acquisitions or the benefits of any other acquisitions we have completed or may complete in the future, and we may not be able to incorporate any acquired services, products or technologies with our existing operations, or integrate personnel from the acquired businesses, in which case our business could be harmed.
Acquisitions, divestitures and other strategic investments involve numerous risks, including:
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problems integrating and divesting the operations, technologies, personnel, services or products over geographically disparate locations;
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unanticipated costs, taxes, litigation and other contingent liabilities;
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continued liability for pre-closing activities of divested businesses or certain post-closing liabilities which we may agree to assume as part of the transaction in which a particular business is divested;
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adverse effects on existing business relationships with suppliers and customers;
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cannibalization of revenue as customers may seek multi-product discounts;
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risks associated with entering into markets in which we have no, or limited, prior experience;
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incurrence of significant restructuring charges if acquired products or technologies are unsuccessful;
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significant diversion of management's attention from our core business and diversion of key employees' time and resources;
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licensing, indemnity or other conflicts between existing businesses and acquired businesses;
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inability to retain key customers, distributors, suppliers, vendors and other business relations of the acquired business; and
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potential loss of our key employees or the key employees of an acquired organization.
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Financing for future acquisitions may not be available on favorable terms, or at all. If we identify an appropriate acquisition candidate for any of our businesses, we may not be able to negotiate the terms of the acquisition successfully, finance the acquisition or integrate the acquired business, products, service offerings, technologies or employees into our existing business and operations. Future acquisitions and divestitures may not be well-received by the investment community, which may cause the value of our stock to fall. We cannot ensure that we will be able to identify or complete any acquisition or divestiture in the future. Further, the terms of our indebtedness constrains our ability to make and finance additional acquisitions or divestitures.
If we acquire businesses, new products, service offerings or technologies in the future, we may incur significant acquisition-related costs. In addition, we may be required to amortize significant amounts of finite-lived intangible assets and we may record significant amounts of goodwill or indefinite-lived intangible assets that would be subject to testing for impairment. We have in the past and may in the future be required to write off all or part of the intangible assets or goodwill associated with these investments that could harm our operating results. If we consummate one or more significant future acquisitions in which the consideration consists of stock or other securities, our existing stockholders' ownership could be significantly diluted. If we were to proceed with one or more significant future acquisitions in which the consideration included cash, we could be required to use a substantial portion of our cash and investments. Acquisitions could also cause operating margins to fall depending on the businesses acquired.
Our strategic investments may involve joint development, joint marketing, or entry into new business ventures, or new technology licensing. Any joint development efforts may not result in the successful introduction of any new products or services by us or a third party, and any joint marketing efforts may not result in increased demand for our products or services. Further, any current or future strategic acquisitions and investments by us may not allow us to enter and compete effectively in new markets or enhance our business in our existing markets and we may have to impair the carrying amount of our investments.
Our success is heavily dependent on our proprietary technologies.
We believe that our future success will depend on our ability to continue to introduce proprietary solutions for digital content and technologies. We rely on a combination of patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret laws, nondisclosure and other contractual provisions, and technical measures to protect our IP rights. Our patents, trademarks and copyrights may be challenged and invalidated or circumvented. Our patents may not be of sufficient scope or strength or be issued in all countries where products or services incorporating our technologies can be sold. We have filed applications to expand our patent claims and for improvement patents to extend the current periods of patent coverage. However, expiration of some of our patents may harm our business. If we are not successful in protecting our IP, our business would be harmed.
Others may develop technologies that are similar or superior to our technologies, duplicate our technologies or design around our patents. Effective IP protection may be unavailable or limited in some foreign countries. Despite efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or otherwise use aspects of processes and devices that we regard as proprietary. Policing unauthorized use of our proprietary information is difficult, and the steps we have taken may not prevent misappropriation of our technologies. Such competitive threats could harm our business.
Our ability to maintain and enforce our trademark rights has a large impact on our ability to prevent third party infringement of our brand and technologies and if we are unable to maintain and strengthen our brands, our business could be harmed.
Maintaining and strengthening our brands is important to maintaining and expanding our business, as well as to our ability to enter into new markets for our technologies, products and services. If we fail to promote and maintain these brands successfully, our ability to sustain and expand our business and enter into new markets may suffer. Much of the promotion of our brand depends, among other things, on hardware device manufacturing companies and service providers displaying our trademarks on their products. If these companies choose for any reason not to display our trademarks on their products, or if these companies use our trademarks incorrectly or in an unauthorized manner, the strength of our brand may be diluted or our ability to maintain or increase our brand awareness may be harmed. We generally rely on enforcing our trademark rights to prevent unauthorized use of our brand and technologies. Our ability to prevent unauthorized uses of our brand and technologies would be negatively impacted if our trademark registrations were overturned in the jurisdictions where we do business. We also have trademark applications pending in a number of jurisdictions that may not ultimately be granted, or if granted, may be challenged or invalidated, in which case we would be unable to prevent unauthorized use of our brand and logo in such jurisdiction. We have not filed trademark registrations in all jurisdictions where our brand and logo are used.
We may not be able to join standards bodies, license technologies or integrate with platforms that are necessary or helpful to our product or services businesses because of the encumbrances that the proposed associated agreements place on our patents.
Standards bodies often require, as a condition of joining such bodies, that potential members license, agree to license, disclose or place other burdens on their patents. Similarly, technology licensors and platform operators often require that licensees cross license, or agree not to assert, their patents. In order to develop, provide or distribute certain products or services, we may find it necessary or helpful to join these standard bodies, license these technologies or contract with these platform operators. However, in order to do so, we might have to sign agreements under which we would have to license or agree not to assert patents without being able to collect royalties or for fees that we believe are less than those that we could otherwise collect. Similarly, these agreements could require us to disclose invention-related information that we would otherwise prefer to keep confidential. If we choose not to be part of standards bodies, to license certain technologies, or to contract with certain platform operators, our business could be harmed.
For our business to succeed, we need to attract and retain qualified employees and manage our employee base effectively.
Our success depends on our ability to hire and retain qualified employees and to manage our employee base effectively. Because of the specialized nature of our business, our future success will depend on our continuing ability to identify, attract, train and retain highly skilled managerial, technical, sales and marketing personnel, particularly as we enter new markets. Competition for people with the skills that we require is intense, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where our headquarters are located, and in Southern California where we have significant operations, and the high cost of living in these areas makes our recruiting and compensation costs higher. Moreover, changes in our management or executive leadership team could lead to disruption of our business or distraction of our employees as the organization adapts to such management changes. If we are unable to hire and retain qualified employees, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
Qualifying, certifying and supporting our technologies, products and services is time consuming and expensive.
We devote significant time and resources to qualify and support our software products on various personal computer, CE and mobile platforms, including operating systems from Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft. In addition, we maintain high-quality standards for products that incorporate our technologies and products through a quality control certification process. To the extent that any previously qualified, certified and/or supported platform or product is modified or upgraded, or we need to qualify, certify or support a new platform or product, we could be required to expend additional engineering time and resources, which could add significantly to our development expenses and adversely affect our operating results.
The success of certain of our solutions depends on the interoperability of our technologies with consumer hardware devices.
To be successful, we design certain of our solutions to interoperate effectively with a variety of consumer hardware devices, including personal computers, DVD players and recorders, Blu-ray players, digital still cameras, digital camcorders, portable media players, digital TVs, home media centers, set-top boxes, video game consoles, MP3 devices, multi-media storage devices, mobile tablets and smartphones. We depend on significant cooperation with manufacturers of these devices and the components integrated into these devices, as well as software providers that create the operating systems for such devices, to incorporate certain of our technologies into their product offerings and ensure consistent playback of encoded files. Currently, a limited number of devices are designed to support certain of our technologies. If we are unsuccessful in causing component manufacturers, device manufacturers and software providers to integrate certain of our technologies into their product offerings, those technologies may become less accessible to consumers, which would adversely affect our revenue potential.
We have made and expect to make significant investments in infrastructure which, if ineffective, may adversely affect our business results.
We have made and expect to make significant investments in infrastructure, tools, systems, technologies and content, including initiatives relating to digital asset and rights management, cloud-based systems and technologies and data warehouses, aimed to create, assist in the development or operation of, or enhance our ability to deliver innovative products and services across multiple media, digital and emerging platforms. These investments may ultimately cost more than is anticipated, their implementation may take longer than expected and they may not meaningfully contribute to or result in successful new or enhanced products, services or technologies.
Our products and services could be susceptible to errors, defects, or unintended performance problems that could result in lost revenues, liability or delayed or limited market acceptance.
We develop and offer complex solutions, which we license and otherwise provide to customers. The performance of these solutions typically involves working with sophisticated software, computing and communications systems. Due to the complexity of these products and services, and despite our quality assurance testing, the products may contain undetected defects or errors that may affect the proper use or application of such products or services by the customer. Because certain of our products and services are embedded in digital content and other software, or rely on stable transmissions, our solutions' performance could unintentionally jeopardize our customers' product performance. Because customers rely on our products and services as used in their software and applications, defects or errors in our products or services may discourage customers from purchasing our products or services. These defects or errors could also result in product liability, service level agreement claims or warranty claims. Although we attempt to reduce the risk of losses resulting from these claims through warranty disclaimers and limitation of liability clauses in our agreements, these contractual provisions may not be enforceable in every instance. Any such defects, errors, or unintended performance problems in existing or new products or services, and any inability to meet customer expectations in a timely manner, could result in loss of revenue or market share, failure to achieve market acceptance, diversion of development resources, injury to our reputation, increased insurance costs and increased service costs, any of which could materially harm our business.
Business interruptions could adversely affect our future operating results.
The provision of certain of our products and services depends on the continuing operation of communications and transmission systems and mechanisms, including satellite, cable, wire, internet, over the air broadcast communications and transmission systems and mechanisms. These communication and transmission systems and mechanisms are subject to significant risks and any damage to or failure of these systems and mechanisms could result in an interruption of the provision of our products and services.
Several of our major business operations are subject to interruption by earthquake, fire, power shortages, terrorist attacks and other hostile acts, and other events beyond our control. The majority of our research and development activities, our corporate headquarters, our principal information technology systems, and other critical business operations are located near major seismic faults. Our operating results and financial condition could be materially harmed in the event of a major earthquake or other natural or man-made disaster that disrupts our business. The communications and transmission systems and mechanisms that we depend on are not fully redundant, and our disaster recovery planning cannot account for all eventualities.
If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate financial statements could be impaired, which could increase our operating costs and affect our ability to operate our business.
We have a complex business that is international in scope. Ensuring that we have adequate internal controls and procedures in place to help ensure that we can produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis is a costly and time-consuming effort that needs to be re-evaluated frequently. We are continually in the process of documenting, reviewing and, if appropriate, improving our internal controls and procedures in connection with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which requires annual management assessments of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and a report by our independent registered public accountants on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting. If we or our independent registered public accountants identify areas for further attention or improvement, implementing any appropriate changes to our internal controls may require specific compliance training of our directors, officers and employees, entail substantial costs in order to modify our existing accounting systems, and take a significant period of time to complete. We have in the past identified, and may in the future identify, significant deficiencies in the design and operation of our internal controls, which have been or will in the future need to be remediated. Furthermore, our independent registered public accountants may interpret the Section 404 requirements and the related rules and regulations differently from how we interpret them, or our independent registered public accountants may not be satisfied with our internal control over financial reporting or with the level at which these controls are documented, operated or reviewed in the future. Finally, in the event we make a significant acquisition, or a series of smaller acquisitions, we may face significant challenges in implementing the required processes and procedures in the acquired operations. As a result, our independent registered public accountants may decline or be unable to report on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting or may issue a qualified report in the future. This could result in an adverse reaction in the financial markets due to investors' perceptions that our internal controls are inadequate or that we are unable to produce accurate financial statements.
We will incur costs and demands on management as a result of complying with the laws and regulations affecting public companies, which could affect our operating results.
We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, significant legal, accounting and other expenses associated with corporate governance and public company reporting requirements, including complying with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as well as rules implemented by the SEC and NASDAQ. As long as the SEC requires the current level of compliance or more for public companies of our size, we expect these rules and regulations to require significant legal and accounting compliance costs and to make some activities time-consuming and costly. These rules and regulations may make it more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage than was previously available. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified individuals to serve on our board of directors or as our executive officers.
If we fail to comply with the laws and regulations relating to the collection of sales tax and payment of income taxes in the various states and foreign jurisdictions in which we do business, we could be exposed to unexpected costs, expenses, penalties, and fees as a result of our noncompliance in which case our business could be harmed.
As our business grows and expands, we have started to do business in an increasing number of states nationally and foreign jurisdictions. By engaging in business activities in these states and foreign jurisdictions, we become subject to their various laws and regulations, including possible requirements to collect sales tax from our sales within those states and foreign jurisdictions and the payment of income taxes on revenue generated from activities in those states and foreign jurisdictions. The laws and regulations governing the collection of sales tax and payment of income taxes are numerous, complex, and vary among states and foreign jurisdictions. If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations requiring the collection of sales tax and payment of income taxes in one or more states and foreign jurisdictions where we do business, we could be subject to significant costs, expenses, penalties, and fees in which case our business would be harmed.
Because many of our technologies, products and services are designed to comply with industry standards, to the extent we cannot distinguish our technologies, products and services from those sold by our competitors, our current distributors and customers may choose alternate technologies, products and services or choose to purchase them from multiple vendors.
We cannot provide any assurance that the industry standards for which we develop new technologies, products and services will allow us to compete effectively with companies possessing greater financial and technological resources than we have to market, promote and exploit sales opportunities as they arise in the future. Technologies, products and services that are designed to comply with standards may also be viewed as interchangeable commodities by certain customers. We may be unable to compete effectively if we cannot produce technologies, products and services more quickly or at lower cost than our competitors. Further, any new technologies, products and services developed may not be introduced in a timely manner or in advance of our competitors' comparable offerings and may not achieve the broad market acceptance necessary to generate significant revenues.
Our competitors may be able to respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements than we do, which could reduce demand for our products or services or render them obsolete and if competition increases or if we are unable to effectively compete with existing or new competitors, the result could be price reductions, fewer customers and loss of market share, any of which could result in less revenue and harm our business.
Our IPGs face competition from companies that produce and market program guides as well as television schedule information in a variety of formats, including passive and interactive on-screen electronic guide services, online listings, over the top applications, printed television guides in newspapers and weekly publications, and local cable television guides.
Our IPG products also compete against customers and potential customers who choose to build their own IPG, including both those who do and those who don't elect to license our patents.
We believe that our set-top box digital-to-analog copy protection, DVD digital-to-analog copy protection and videocassette copy protection systems currently have limited competition. It is possible, however, that alternative copy protection technologies could become competitive. Additionally, new competitors or alliances among competitors may emerge and rapidly acquire significant market share in any of these areas. It is also possible that the overall demand for copy protection systems may decline more quickly than anticipated.
The markets for the consumer hardware and software products sold by our customers are competitive and price sensitive. Licensing fees for our technologies, products and services, particularly in the physical media, CE and personal computer areas, may decline due to competitive pricing pressures and changing consumer demands. In addition, we may experience pricing pressures in other parts of our business. These trends could make it more difficult for us to increase or maintain our revenue and could adversely affect our operating results. To increase per unit royalties, we must continue to introduce new, highly functional versions of our technologies, products and services for which we can charge higher amounts. Any inability to introduce such technologies, products and services in the future or other declines in the amounts we can charge would also adversely affect our revenues.
Some of our current or future competitors may have significantly greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources than we do, may enjoy greater brand recognition than we do, or may have more experience or advantages than we have in the markets in which they compete. Further, many of the consumer hardware and software products that include our technologies also include technologies developed by our competitors. As a result, we must continue to invest significant resources in product development in order to enhance our technologies and our existing products and services and introduce new high-quality technologies, products and services to meet the wide variety of such competitive pressures. Our ability to generate revenues from our business will suffer if we fail to do so successfully.
We face a number of competitive challenges in the sale and marketing of the TiVo service direct to retail consumers as well as to our service provider customers.
The DVR and advanced television solutions market is rapidly evolving, and we face significant competition. Moreover, the market for in-home entertainment is intensely competitive and subject to rapid technological change. As a result of this intense competition, we could incur increased subscription acquisition costs that could adversely affect our retail consumer business in the future. If new technologies (such as internet streaming) render the retail DVR market obsolete, we may be unable to generate sufficient revenue to cover the expenses and obligations in our retail consumer business.
Our service provider revenues depend both upon our ability to successfully negotiate agreements with service provider customers and, in turn, upon our customers' successful commercialization of our licensed products and technology through their marketing of the TiVo service and related DVRs to consumers.
We compete with other consumer electronics products and home entertainment services for consumer spending.
DVRs and the TiVo service compete in markets that are crowded with other consumer electronics products and home entertainment services. The competition for consumer spending is intense, and many consumers may choose other products and services over ours. DVRs compete for consumer spending with products such as DVD players, satellite television systems, personal computers, video game consoles, and other dedicated over-the-top video streaming devices (such as Roku, AppleTV, and Amazon Fire TV). The TiVo service competes with home entertainment services such as cable and satellite television, movie rentals, pay-per-view, video on demand, and mail-order DVD services. Such competition could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Many of these products or services have established markets, broad user bases, and proven consumer acceptance.
In addition, many of the manufacturers and distributors of these competing devices and services have substantially greater brand recognition, market presence, distribution channels, advertising and marketing budgets and promotional activities, and more strategic partners. Faced with this competition, we may be unable to effectively differentiate our products, including DVRs, and the TiVo service from other consumer electronics devices or entertainment services and our business, financial condition, and results of operations would be harmed.
Consumers may not be willing to pay for our products and services, we may be forced to discount our products and services, and we may introduce products and services at lower price points which could adversely impact our revenues.
Many of our customers already pay monthly fees for cable or satellite television. We must convince these consumers to pay a separate subscription fee to receive the TiVo service. Consumers may perceive the TiVo service and related DVR and non-DVR products as too expensive. In order to continue to grow our subscription base, we have lowered the price of our DVRs in the past and raised our subscription pricing and alternatively we may choose to raise our DVR pricing and lower our subscription pricing in the future. As a result of lower hardware pricing and higher subscription pricing, the profitability of such newly acquired customers was shifted outward in time as we need to first recoup the expenses incurred in connection with the sale of a heavily subsidized DVR. For competitive and financial reasons, we may need to change the pricing of our DVRs and our service fees again in the future. Furthermore, we have introduced non-DVR products such as TiVo Mini meant to expand the TiVo experience throughout the home, but such a product has a lower hardware cost and lower associated service fees and it may impact our total revenues as well as our ARPU per subscription to the extent these products are offered at lower subscription price points. The availability of competing services that do not require subscription fees or that are enabled by low or no cost DVRs will harm our ability to effectively attract and retain subscriptions, and in such an event our retail consumer business would be harmed.
Growth in our TiVo-Owned subscriptions and related revenues could be harmed by offerings by our television distribution partners who also would be able to offer the TiVo service in the future.
Our ability to grow our TiVo-Owned subscriptions and related revenues could be harmed by competition from our television distribution partners, such as RCN, Suddenlink, and others, who may be able to offer TiVo-branded DVR and non-DVR solutions to their customers at more attractive pricing than we may be able to offer the TiVo service to our TiVo-Owned customers. Furthermore, if we are unable to sufficiently differentiate the TiVo service offered direct to consumers by TiVo from the TiVo-branded DVR solutions offered by our licensing partners, customers who would have otherwise chosen the TiVo service offered direct to consumers by us may instead choose to purchase the TiVo-branded DVR solution from our licensing partners. Additionally, to the extent that potential customers defer subscribing to the TiVo service in order to wait for announced, but not yet deployed in their geographic area, TiVo-branded DVR solutions from our licensing partners, the growth of our TiVo-Owned subscriptions could be reduced. If the number of our TiVo-Owned subscriptions fails to grow or decreases in the future, our retail consumer business will be harmed.
It is expensive to establish a strong brand.
We believe that establishing and strengthening the TiVo brand is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our products and services and to establishing key strategic relationships. The importance of brand recognition will increase as current and potential competitors enter the advanced television services market with competing products and services. Our ability to promote and position our brand depends largely on the success of our marketing efforts and our ability to provide high quality services and customer support. These activities are expensive and we may not generate a corresponding increase in subscriptions or revenues to justify these costs. If we fail to establish and maintain our brand, or if our brand value is damaged or diluted, we may be unable to attract subscriptions and effectively compete in the DVR market.
We rely on our retail partners and service providers to market and distribute our products and services.
In addition to our own efforts, our retail partners distribute our products that enable the TiVo service. We rely on their sales forces,
marketing budgets, and brand images to promote and support our products and the TiVo service. Additionally, we now have arrangements with many service providers, both domestically and internationally, to market and promote the TiVo service. We expect to continue to rely on our relationships with these companies to promote and support DVRs and other devices that enable the TiVo service. The loss of one or more of these companies or the failure of one or more of these companies to provide anticipated marketing support could require us to undertake more of these activities on our own. Further, if any of our service providers elect to support a competing technology, our business could be harmed despite the fact that many of our agreements with our service providers include exclusivity provisions, minimum deployment commitments, or minimum financial commitments. As a result, we would spend significant resources to support the TiVo service and the DVRs and other devices that enable the TiVo service or we would otherwise see a reduction in new and existing service provider deployments from such service providers. If we are unable to provide adequate marketing support for our products and the TiVo service, our ability to attract additional subscriptions to the TiVo service will be limited.
We face competitive risks in the provision of an entertainment offering involving the distribution of digital content through broadband, including from broadband devices connected directly to the TV or through a PC or other device connected to the TV or to mobile devices.
We have previously launched access to the entertainment offerings of Amazon Video, Netflix, Hulu Plus, VUDU, Pandora, and others for the distribution of digital content directly to broadband-connected TiVo devices. Our offerings with Amazon Video, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, and others typically involve no significant long-term commitments. We face competitive, technological, and business risks in our ongoing provision of an entertainment offering involving the distribution of digital content through broadband to consumer televisions with Amazon, Netflix, and others, including the availability of premium and high-definition content, as well as the speed and quality of the delivery of such content to TiVo devices. For instance, we face increased competition from a growing number of broadband-enabled devices from providers such as Roku, AppleTV, Amazon, and Google that provide broadband delivered digital content directly to a consumer's television connected to such a device. Additionally, we face competition from online content providers and other PC software providers who deliver digital content directly to a consumer's personal computer, which in some cases may then be viewed on a consumer's television. If we are unable to provide a competitive entertainment offering with Amazon Video, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, and our other partners, on our own, or an equivalent offering with other third-parties, the attractiveness of the TiVo service to new subscribers would be harmed as consumers increasingly look for new ways to receive and view digital content and our ability to retain and attract subscribers would be harmed.
Establishing and maintaining licensing relationships with companies are important to build and support a worldwide entertainment technology licensing ecosystem and to expand our business, and failure to do so could harm our business and prospects.
Our future success depends on our ability to establish and maintain licensing relationships with companies in related business fields, including:
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operators of entertainment content distributors, including PPV and VOD networks;
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consumer electronics, digital PPV/VOD set-top hardware manufacturers, DVD hardware manufacturers and personal computer manufacturers;
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semiconductor and equipment manufacturers;
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content rights holders;
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retailers and advertisers;
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internet portals and other digital distribution companies.
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Substantially all of our license agreements are non-exclusive, and therefore our licensees are free to enter into similar agreements with third parties, including our competitors. Our licensees may develop or pursue alternative technologies either on their own or in collaboration with others, including our competitors.
Some of our third party license arrangements require that we license others' technologies and/or integrate our solutions with others. In addition, we rely on third parties to report usage and volume information to us. Delays, errors or omissions in this information could harm our business. If these third parties choose not to support integration efforts or delay the integration of our solutions, our business could be harmed.
If we fail to maintain and expand our relationships with a broad range of participants throughout the entertainment industry, including motion picture studios, broadcasters, pay TV operators and manufacturers of CE products, our business and
prospects could be materially harmed. Relationships have historically played an important role in the entertainment industries that we serve. If we fail to maintain and strengthen these relationships, these industry participants may not purchase and use our technologies, which could materially harm our business and prospects. In addition to directly providing a substantial portion of our revenue, these relationships are also critical to our ability to have our technologies adopted. Moreover, if we fail to maintain our relationships, or if we are not able to develop relationships in new markets in which we intend to compete in the future, including markets for new technologies and expanding geographic markets, our business, operating results and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, if major industry participants form strategic relationships that exclude us, our business and prospects could be materially adversely affected.
We generate a significant portion of our revenue from patent license agreements with a small number of major pay TV operators which would lead to substantial revenue loss and possible litigation if not renewed.
We generate a significant amount of revenue from our contracts with AT&T Inc. (including DIRECTV), Comcast and Charter Communications (including Time Warner Cable which was acquired by Charter in May 2016). In December 2015, our contract with AT&T (including DIRECTV) was extended to December 2022. In June 2016, we amended our license agreement with Charter Communications to cover Time Warner Cable. Our contract with Comcast expired in March 2016 and we filed litigation against Comcast for patent infringement in April 2016. The expiration of our license with Comcast, as well as litigation initiated against Comcast, may result in a reduction of revenue and an increase in litigation costs. We cannot assure you that the resolution with Comcast will be on terms acceptable to us. And while the Company anticipates that Comcast will eventually execute a new license, the length of time that Comcast is out of license prior to executing a license is uncertain. In addition, the amount of revenue recognized in the reporting period a license is executed is uncertain and will depend on a variety of factors including license terms such as duration, pricing, licensed products and fields of use, and the duration of the out-of-license period. In addition, while litigation costs may increase, whether the litigation initiated against Comcast will cause total expenses to increase or decrease longer-term will be a function of several factors, including the length of time Comcast is out of license. Furthermore, we cannot assure you that these license agreements with major pay TV operators will not be terminated under certain circumstances. If that occurs and we are unable to replace the revenue associated with these agreements through similar or other business arrangements, our revenues and profit margins would decline and our business would be harmed as a result.
Some software we provide may be subject to “open source” licenses, which may restrict how we use or distribute our software or require that we release the source code of certain products subject to those licenses.
Some of the products we support and some of our proprietary technologies incorporate open source software such as open source codecs that may be subject to the Lesser Gnu Public License or other open source licenses. The Lesser Gnu Public License and other open source licenses may require that source code subject to the license be released or made available to the public. Such open source licenses may mandate that software developed based on source code that is subject to the open source license, or combined in specific ways with such open source software, become subject to the open source license. We take steps to ensure that proprietary software we do not wish to disclose is not combined with, or does not incorporate, open source software in ways that would require such proprietary software to be subject to an open source license. However, few courts have interpreted the Lesser Gnu Public License or other open source licenses, and the manner in which these licenses may be interpreted and enforced is therefore subject to some uncertainty. We often take steps to disclose source code for which disclosure is required under an open source license, but it is possible that we have or will make mistakes in doing so, which could negatively impact our brand or our adoption in the community, or could expose us to additional liability. In addition, we rely on multiple software programmers to design our proprietary products and technologies. Although we take steps to ensure that our programmers (both internal and outsourced) do not include open source software in products and technologies we intend to keep proprietary, we cannot be certain that open source software is not incorporated into products and technologies we intend to keep proprietary. In the event that portions of our proprietary technology are determined to be subject to an open source license, or are intentionally released under an open source license, we could be required to publicly release the relevant portions of our source code, which could reduce or eliminate our ability to commercialize our products and technologies. Also, in relying on multiple software programmers to design products and technologies that we intend, or ultimately end up releasing in the open source community, we may discover that one or multiple such programmers have included code or language that would be embarrassing to us, which could negatively impact our brand or our adoption in the community, or could expose us to additional liability. Such additional liability could include claims that result in litigation, require us to seek licenses from third-parties in order to keep offering our software, require us to re-engineer our software, require us to release proprietary source code, require us to provide indemnification or otherwise subject us to liability to a customer or supplier, or require us to discontinue the sale of a product in the event re-engineering cannot be accomplished in a timely manner, any of which could adversely affect our business.
Some terms of our agreements with licensees could be interpreted in a manner that could adversely affect licensing revenue under those agreements.
Some of our license agreements contain “most favored nation” clauses. These clauses typically provide that if we enter into an agreement with another licensee on more favorable terms, we must offer some of those terms to our existing licensees. We have entered into a number of license agreements with terms that differ in some respects from those contained in other agreements. These agreements may obligate us to provide different, more favorable, terms to licensees, which could, if applied, result in lower revenues or otherwise adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations. While we believe that we have appropriately complied with the most favored nation terms included in our license agreements, these contracts are complex and other parties could reach a different conclusion that, if correct, could have an adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations.
Limitations on control of our IPG Inc. joint venture may adversely impact our operations in Japan.
We hold a 46% interest in IPG Inc., as a joint venture with non-affiliated third parties, which hold the remaining interest. As a result of such arrangement, we may be unable to control the operations, strategies and financial decisions of IPG Inc. which could in turn result in limitations on our ability to implement strategies that we may favor, or to cause dividends or distributions to be paid. In addition, our ability to transfer our interests in IPG Inc. may be limited under the joint venture arrangement.
We generate a significant amount of revenue from our settlement agreements with DISH, AT&T and Verizon and our agreement with DIRECTV which expire in 2018, and if we are unable to renew or replace these revenues, our business would be harmed.
In 2011, TiVo Solutions entered into a settlement and patent license agreement with Dish and in 2012 we entered into settlement and patent license agreements with AT&T and Verizon. The agreements with DISH, AT&T and Verizon will generate recurring revenues for us until 2018. We generate a significant amount of revenues as a result of these settlement and patent license agreements. If we are unable to renew or replace these revenues through similar or other business arrangements, our revenues would decline and our business would be harmed as a result.
Our contract for TiVo service and software with DIRECTV, which was acquired by AT&T (who is also a TiVo licensee), expires on February 15, 2018. We cannot assure you that our license agreement with DIRECTV will be renewed on terms acceptable to us or at all. If we are unable to replace the revenue associated with this agreement through similar or other business arrangements, our revenues and profit margins would decline and our business would be harmed as a result. While it is our intent to renew both our DIRECTV and AT&T agreements, as a result of AT&T's acquisition of DIRECTV, the timing and structure of such renewals with AT&T/DIRECTV could have a negative impact on our future revenues. We also cannot assure you that these license agreements will be renewed. Additionally, we may become involved in litigation with these licensees in connection with attempting to negotiate new agreements. The existence and/or outcome of such litigation could harm our business.
Dependence on the cooperation of pay TV operators, television broadcasters, hardware manufacturers, data providers and delivery mechanisms could adversely affect our revenues.
We rely on third party providers to deliver our IPG data to some of the CE devices that include our IPG. Further, our national data network provides customized and localized listings to our IPG service for pay TV and licensees of our data used in third party IPGs for pay TV. In addition, we purchase certain Metadata from commercial vendors that we redistribute. The quality, accuracy and timeliness of that Metadata may not continue to meet our standards or be acceptable to consumers. There can be no assurance that commercial vendors will distribute data to us without error or that the agreements that govern some of these relationships can be maintained on favorable economic terms. Technological changes may also impede the ability to distribute Metadata. Our inability to renew these existing arrangements on terms that are favorable to us, or enter into alternative arrangements that allow us to effectively transmit our Metadata to CE devices could have a material adverse effect on our CE IPG and IPG data business.
We are dependent on third parties for Metadata, third party images and content.
We distribute, as a revenue generating activity, Metadata. In the future, we may not be able to obtain this content, or may not be able to obtain it on the same terms. Such a failure to obtain the content, or obtain it on the same terms, could damage the attractiveness of our Metadata offerings to our customers, or could increase the costs associated with providing our Metadata offerings, and could thus cause revenues or margins to decrease.
We depend on a limited number of third-parties to manufacture, distribute, and supply critical components, technologies, assemblies, and services for the products that enable the TiVo service. We may be unable to operate our business if these parties do not perform their obligations or we are unable to incorporate such critical components or technologies into our products.
The TiVo service is enabled through the use of products, including DVR and non-DVR products, manufactured for us by a third-party contract manufacturer. In addition, we rely on sole suppliers for a number of key components and technologies for these DVRs and other devices we manufacture. We also rely on third-parties with whom we outsource supply-chain activities related to inventory warehousing, order fulfillment, distribution, and other direct sales logistics. We cannot be sure that these parties will perform their obligations as expected or that any revenue, cost savings, or other benefits will be derived from the efforts of these parties. If any of these parties breaches or terminates its agreement with us or otherwise fails to perform its obligations in a timely manner or we are unable to purchase or license such third party components or technologies, we may be delayed or prevented from commercializing our products and services. Because our relationships with these parties are non-exclusive, they may also support products and services that compete directly with us, or offer similar or greater support to our competitors. Any of these events could require us to undertake unforeseen additional responsibilities or devote additional resources to commercialize our products and services or require us to remove certain features or functionalities from our products which may decrease the commercial appeal of our products for our customers. Any of these outcomes would harm our ability to compete effectively and achieve increased market acceptance and brand recognition.
In addition, we face the following risks in relying on these third-parties:
Unsuccessful or lost manufacturing relationships
. If our manufacturing relationships are not successful, we may be unable to satisfy demand for our products and services. We manufacture DVRs and non-DVRs that enable the TiVo service through a third-party contract manufacturer, Flextronics. Delays, product shortages, and other problems could impair our distribution and brand image and make it difficult for us to attract subscriptions and service our Pay-TV Operator customers. In addition, as we are dependent on Flextronics as our sole third-party contract manufacturer, the loss of this manufacturer would require us to identify and contract with alternative sources of manufacturing, which we may be unable to do or which could prove time-consuming and expensive.
Dependence on sole suppliers and third party components and technologies.
We are dependent on sole suppliers for key components, technologies and services. If these suppliers fail to perform their obligations or we are unable to purchase or license such third party components, technologies or services, we may be unable to find alternative suppliers or deliver our products and services to our customers on time or with the features and functionality they expect. We currently rely on sole suppliers for a number of the key components used in the TiVo-enabled DVRs and the TiVo service, of which we may not have written supply agreements with certain sole suppliers for key components or services for our products. For example, Broadcom is the sole supplier of the system controller for our DVR. We do not currently have a long-term written supply agreement with Broadcom although we do have limited rights to continue to purchase from Broadcom in the event Broadcom notifies us a product is being discontinued. Therefore, Broadcom is not contractually obligated to supply us with these key components on a long-term basis or at all. In addition, because we are dependent on sole suppliers for key components and services, our ability to manufacture our DVRs and other devices is subject to increased risks of supply shortages (without immediately available alternatives), exposure to unexpected cost increases in such sole supplied components, as well as other risks to our business if we were to fail to comply with conflict mineral requirements due to our reliance on these suppliers. Additionally, certain features and functionalities of our TiVo service and DVRs are dependent on third party components and technologies. If we are unable to purchase or license such third party components or technologies, we would be unable to offer certain related features and functionalities to our customers. In such a case, the desirability of our products to our customers could be reduced, thus harming our business.
If our arrangements with Broadcom or with our third-party contract manufacturer or other suppliers of critical third party components or technologies were to terminate or expire without a replacement arrangement in place, or if we or our manufacturers were unable to obtain sufficient quantities of these components, technologies, or required program guide data from our suppliers, our search for alternate suppliers could result in significant delays, added expense or disruption in product or service availability.
We depend upon third-parties to provide supply chain services related to inventory management, order fulfillment, and direct sales logistics. We rely on third-party vendors to provide cost-effective and efficient supply chain services. Among other activities, these outsourced services relate to direct sales logistics, including order fulfillment, inventory management and warehousing, and distribution of inventory to third-party retailers. If one or several of our third-party supply chain partners
were to discontinue services for us, our ability to fulfill direct sales orders and distribute inventory timely, cost effectively, or at all, would be hindered which could in turn harm our business.
We are dependent on our major retail partners for distribution of our hardware products to consumers. We currently rely on our relationships with major retail distributors including Best Buy, Amazon, and others for distribution of TiVo-enabled DVRs and non-DVR products. We do not typically enter into long-term volume commitments with our major retail distributors. If one or several of our major retail partners were to discontinue selling our products, the volume of TiVo-enabled DVRs and non-DVR products sold to consumers could decrease which could in turn harm our business.
If cable operators were to cease supporting and providing CableCARDs to consumers or cable operators were to transmit television programs using technology that prevents our retail products from receiving and displaying television programs, the functionality of our current retail products would be severely limited, in which case our business would be harmed.
The cable industry in the United States is currently required to provide access to digital high definition television signals to retail products by supplying separable security functionality to decrypt encrypted signals. Traditionally, cable operators have satisfied this separable security requirement by supplying CableCARD conditional access security cards. We rely on cable operators to supply CableCARDs for certain types of our DVRs to receive encrypted digital television signals without a cable operator supplied set-top box. With the limited exception of high definition over the air broadcast channels, our DVRs presently are limited to using CableCARDs to access digital cable, high definition, and premium cable channels (such as HBO) that are delivered in a linear fashion where all programs are broadcast to all subscribers all the time. Our retail cable products are unable to access the encrypted digital television signals of satellite providers such as DIRECTV and DISH as well as alternative television service providers such as AT&T U-verse and Google Fiber. And without CableCARDs, there presently is no alternative way for us to sell a retail cable product that works across cable systems nationwide. Furthermore, to the extent more pay TV customers obtain television service from satellite television providers and alternative television providers such AT&T U-verse and Google Fiber, the desirability of our retail products and service will be harmed.
In November 2014, Congress passed the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization ("STELAR"). Among other things, STELAR repealed an FCC requirement that cable operators employ separable security (i.e., CableCARDs) in the set-top boxes they lease to their subscribers effective December 4, 2015. STELAR did not alter the requirement that cable operators provide separable security to retail devices and the cable industry has represented to Congress that it would continue to provide and support retail CableCARD devices in compliance with the separable security requirement. However, without continued use by operator leased devices, the prices charged by operators to consumers for CableCARDs could increase and support for retail CableCARD devices could deteriorate.
As part of STELAR, the FCC Chairman established a working group of technical experts, including a representative from TiVo, representing a wide range of stakeholders, to identify, report, and recommend performance objectives, technical capabilities, and technical standards of a not unduly burdensome uniform, and technology and platform neutral software based downloadable security system designed to allow retail devices to access multichannel video programming.
The working group submitted its report to the FCC on August 28, 2015. On February 18, 2016, the FCC initiated a proceeding proposing rules intended to allow companies to build retail devices or software solutions that can navigate the universe of multichannel video programming with a competitive user interface while also requiring continued support for retail CableCARD devices. If cable operators were to cease supporting and providing CableCARDs to consumers without providing TiVo with a commercially viable alternative method of accessing digital cable, high definition, and premium cable channels that works across cable systems nationwide, we would be unable to sell most of our current retail products, may be unable to create future retail products that receive pay TV programming, and our business would be harmed as the market for devices which only receive over the air broadcast television signals is significantly smaller than the current pay TV market. In June 2016, the cable industry proposed an alternative to the FCC’s proposed rules. The cable industry proposal involves the use of apps to allow consumers access to subscription-based video programming directly on their internet-connected televisions and other television-connected devices. We have objected to the cable industry proposal because we believe that the adoption of the proposal would result in competitive devices, such as ours, losing some of the functionalities that they currently offer consumers. This would make them less attractive and consumers would have less of an incentive to purchase our products and services. The FCC was scheduled to vote at its September 29, 2016, meeting on proposed rules that would have included an app approach but required support for widely-deployed platforms (including the TiVo platform). The FCC subsequently postponed the vote and has not set a new date for a decision. We cannot predict the ultimate outcome of this proceeding or the impact of any new technical equipment regulations on our business and operations.
Certain cable operators are deploying switched digital video technologies to transmit television programs in an on demand fashion (switched digital) only to subscribers who request to watch a particular program. Although cable operators are deploying a solution to enable our retail products to receive channels delivered with switched technologies (known as the “Tuning Adapter”), if this technology is not successful or is not accepted by our customers (due to cost, complexity, functionality, or other reasons), then the increased use of switched technologies and the continued inability of our products to receive switched cable programming without a Tuning Adapter may reduce the desirability and competitiveness of our products and services and adversely affect sales of our TiVo-Owned subscriptions in which case our business would be harmed.
Similarly, if cable operators implement new technologies in the future to transmit television programming that do not allow programs to be received and displayed on our retail products, the desirability and competitiveness of our products and services will be adversely affected and impact the sales of our TiVo-Owned products and services, in which case our business would be harmed.
We have limited control over existing and potential customers' and licensees' decisions to include our technology in their product and service offerings.
In general, we are dependent on our customers and licensees to incorporate our technology into their products and services. Although we have license agreements with many of these companies, many of these license agreements do not require any minimum purchase commitments, or are on a non-exclusive basis, or do not require incorporation of our technology in their products and services. If our customers were to determine that the benefits of our technology do not justify the cost of licensing the technology, then demand for our technology would decline. Furthermore, while we may be successful in having one or more industry standards-setting organizations require that our technology be used in order for a product to be compliant with the standards promulgated by such organizations, there is no guarantee that products associated with these standards will be successful in the market. Our licensees and other manufacturers might not utilize our technology in the future. If this were to occur, our business would be harmed.
If we fail to adequately manage our increasingly complex distribution agreements, including licensing, development, and engineering services, we could be subjected to unexpected delays in the deployment of TiVo's advanced television solutions, increased costs, possible penalties and adverse accounting and contractual consequences, including termination of such distribution arrangements. In any such event, our business would be harmed.
In connection with our deployment arrangements for TiVo, we engage in complex licensing, development, and engineering services arrangements with our marketing partners and distributors. These deployment agreements with television service providers usually provide for some or all of the following deliverables: software engineering services, solution integration services, hosting of the TiVo service, maintenance, and support. In general, these contracts are long-term and complex and often rely on the timely performance of such television service provider's third-party vendors that are outside TiVo's control. The engineering services and technology we agree to provide and/or develop may be essential to the functionality of the licensed software and delivered product or such software may involve significant customization and modification for each customer. We have experienced or may experience delays in delivery with television service providers including, for example, Com Hem and Virgin, as well as significant increases in expected costs of development and performance in certain instances in the past. Additional delays could lead to additional costs and adverse accounting treatments forcing us to recognize costs earlier than expected. If we are unable to deliver the contracted for technology, including specified customizations and modifications, and services in a timely manner or at all, then we could face penalties in the form of unreimbursed engineering development work, loss of subscriber or minimum financial commitments on the part of our partners or in extreme cases the early termination of such distribution agreements. In any such case our business would be harmed.
In addition, when we enter into such deployment agreements with television service providers, we are typically required to make cost estimates based on historical experience and various other assumptions. These estimates are assessed continually during the term of the contract and revisions are reflected when the conditions become known. Using different cost estimates related to engineering services may produce materially different operating results, in addition to differences in timing and income statement classification of related expenses and revenues. An unfavorable change in estimates could result in a reduction of profit due to higher cost or the recording of a loss once such a loss becomes known to us that would be borne solely by us. We also recognize revenues for software engineering services that are essential to the functionality of the software or involve significant customization or modification using the percentage-of-completion method. We recognize revenue by measuring progress toward completion based on the ratio of costs incurred, principally labor, to total estimated costs of the project, an input method. If we are unable to properly measure and estimate our progress toward completion in such circumstances, we could incur unexpected additional costs, be required to recognize certain costs earlier than expected, or otherwise be required to delay recognition of revenues unexpectedly. A material inability to properly manage, estimate, and perform these development and engineering services for our television service provider customers could cause us to incur
unexpected losses and reduce or even eliminate any profit from these arrangements, and in such a case our business would be harmed.
The nature of some of our business relationships may restrict our ability to operate freely in the future.
From time to time, we have engaged and may engage in the future in discussions with other parties concerning business relationships, which have included and may in the future include exclusivity provisions (such as geographic or product specific limitations), most favored customer limitations, and patent licensing arrangements. While we believe that such business relationships have historically enhanced our ability to finance and develop our business model or otherwise were justified by the terms of the particular relationship, the terms and conditions of such business relationships may place some restrictions on the operation of our business, including where we operate, who we work with, and what kinds of activities we may engage in, in the future.
We face significant risks in overseeing our outsourcing of manufacturing processes as well as in the management of our inventory, and failure to properly oversee our manufacturing processes or to effectively manage our inventory levels may result in product recalls or supply imbalances that could harm our business.
We have contracted for the manufacture of certain TiVo-enabled DVRs and non-DVR products with a contract manufacturer. We sell these units to retailers and distributors, as well as through our own online sales channels. Product manufacturing is outside our core business and we face significant risks if our contract manufacturer does not perform as expected. If we fail to effectively oversee the manufacturing process, including the work performed by our contract manufacturer, we could suffer from product recalls, poorly performing product, and higher than anticipated warranty costs.
In connection with our manufacturing operations, we maintain a finished goods inventory of the DVR and non-DVR units we produce throughout the year. Due to the seasonality in our business and our long-lead time product development and manufacturing cycles, we need to make forecasts of demand and commit significant resources towards manufacturing of our DVR and non-DVR units well in advance of our peak selling periods. We also have risks with respect to changing hardware forecasts with our television service provider partners who may revise their purchase forecasts lower or higher after we have committed manufacturing resources to meeting such forecasts due to long-lead times and prior to the time in which such television service provider forecasts become contractually binding. As such, we are subject to significant risks in managing the inventory needs of our business during the year, including estimates of the appropriate mix of demand across our older and newer DVR and non-DVR models. If we were to overestimate demand for our products, we may end up with inventories that exceed currently forecasted demand which would require us to record additional write-downs. If we were to underestimate demand for our products, we may end up with inventory shortages causing us to fail to meet actual customer demand. Should actual market conditions differ from our estimates, our future results of operations could be materially affected. In the future, we may be required to record write-downs of finished products and materials on-hand and/or additional charges for excess purchase commitments as a result of future changes in our sales forecasts.
We face significant risks to our business when we engage in the outsourcing of engineering work, including outsourcing of software work overseas, which, if not properly managed, could result in the loss of valuable intellectual property, increased costs due to inefficient and poor work product, and subject us to export control restrictions which could impede or prevent us from working with partners internationally, which could harm our business, including our financial results, reputation, and brand.
We have from time-to-time outsourced engineering work related to the design and development of the software in our products, typically to save money and gain access to additional engineering resources. We have worked, and expect to in the future work, with companies located in jurisdictions outside of the United States, including, but not limited to, Romania, India, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. We have limited experience in the outsourcing of engineering and software development to third-parties located internationally that operate under different laws and regulations than those in the United States. If we are unable to properly manage and oversee the outsourcing of this engineering and other work related to our products, we could suffer the loss of valuable intellectual property, or the loss of the ability to claim such intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyrights. We could also be subjected to increased regulatory and other scrutiny related to export control restrictions which could impede or prevent us from working with international partners. Additionally, instead of saving money, we could in fact incur significant additional costs as a result of inefficient or delayed engineering services or poor work product. As a result, our business would be harmed, including our financial results, reputation, and brand.
The markets for our advertising platform may not develop and we may fail in our ability to fully exploit these opportunities if these markets do not develop as we anticipate.
The market for interactive television advertising is at an early stage of development and we cannot assure you that we will succeed in our efforts to develop our advertising platform as a medium widely accepted by consumers and advertisers. In addition, pay TV operators who have a patent license from us are not required to provide advertising or utilize our technology, although some have. Therefore, our ability to derive advertising revenues from our patent licensees also depends on the implementation of compatible interactive advertising technologies by such licensees.
Consolidation of the telecommunications, cable and satellite broadcasting industry could adversely affect existing agreements.
We have entered into agreements with a large number of pay TV operators for the licensing or distribution of our technology, products and services. If consolidation of the telecommunications, cable and satellite broadcasting industry continues, some of these agreements may be affected by mergers, acquisitions or system swaps which could result in an adverse effect on the amount of revenue we receive under these types of agreements.
A significant portion of our revenue is derived from international sales. Economic, political, regulatory and other risks associated with our international business or failure to manage our global operations effectively could have an adverse effect on our operating results.
As of December 31, 2015, we had three major locations (defined as a location with more than 50 employees) and employed approximately 487 employees outside the U.S. We face challenges inherent in efficiently managing employees over large geographic distances and across multiple office locations, including the need to implement appropriate systems, controls, policies, benefits and compliance programs. Our inability to successfully manage our global organization could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
We expect that international and export sales will continue to represent a substantial portion of our revenues for the foreseeable future. Our future growth will depend to a large extent on worldwide acceptance and deployment of our solutions.
To the extent that foreign governments impose restrictions on importation of programming, technology or components from the U.S., the demand for our solutions in these markets could diminish. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries may not protect our IP rights to the same extent as do the laws of the U.S., which increases the risk of unauthorized use of our technologies. Such laws also may not be conducive to copyright protection of digital content, which may make our content protection technology less effective and reduce the demand for it.
Because we sell our products and services worldwide, our business is subject to the risks associated with conducting business internationally, including:
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foreign government regulation;
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changes in diplomatic and trade relationships;
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changes in, or imposition of, foreign laws and regulatory requirements and the costs of complying with such laws (including consumer and data protection laws);
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changes in, or weakening of copyright and IP (patent) laws;
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difficulty of effective enforcement of contractual provisions in local jurisdictions or difficulty in obtaining export licenses for certain technology;
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import and export restrictions and duties, including tariffs, quotas or taxes and other trade barriers and restrictions;
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fluctuations in our effective income tax rate driven by changes in the pre-tax profits that we derive from international sources, as well as changes in tax laws in jurisdictions in which we have a presence;
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changes in a specific country's or region's political or economic condition, including changes resulting from the threat of terrorism;
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difficulty in staffing and managing foreign operations, including compliance with laws governing labor and employment; and
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fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates.
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Our business could be materially adversely affected if foreign markets do not continue to develop, if we do not receive additional orders to supply our technologies, products or services for use by foreign pay TV operators, CE and set-top box manufacturers, PPV/VOD providers and others or if regulations governing our international businesses change. Any changes to
the statutes or the regulations with respect to export of encryption technologies could require us to redesign our products or technologies or prevent us from selling our products and licensing our technologies internationally.
We face risks with respect to conducting business in China due to China's historically limited recognition and enforcement of intellectual property and contractual rights and because of certain political, economic and social uncertainties relating to China.
We have direct license relationships with many consumer hardware device manufacturers located in China and a number of the electronics companies that license our technologies utilize captive or third-party manufacturing facilities located in China. We expect consumer hardware device manufacturing in China to continue to increase due to its lower manufacturing cost structure as compared to other industrialized countries. As a result, we face additional risks in China, in large part due to China's historically limited recognition and enforcement of contractual and IP rights. In particular, we have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, problems with China-based consumer hardware device manufacturers underreporting or failing to report shipments of their products that incorporate our technologies, or incorporating our technologies or trademarks into their products without our authorization or without paying us licensing fees. We may also experience difficulty enforcing our IP rights in China, where IP rights are not as respected as they are in the U.S., Japan and Europe. Unauthorized use of our technologies and IP rights by China-based consumer hardware device manufacturers may dilute or undermine the strength of our brands. If we cannot adequately monitor the use of our technologies by China-based consumer hardware device manufacturers, or enforce our IP rights in China, our revenue could be adversely affected.
Our systems and networks are subject to security and stability risks that could harm our business and reputation and expose us to litigation or liability.
Online business activities depend on the ability to store and transmit confidential information and licensed IP securely on our systems, third party systems and over private, hybrid and public networks. Any compromise of our ability to store or transmit such information and data securely or reliably, and any costs associated with preventing or eliminating such problems, could harm our business. Storage and online transmissions are subject to a number of security and stability risks, including:
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our own or licensed encryption and authentication technology, or access or security procedures, may be compromised, breached or otherwise be insufficient to ensure the security of customer information or IP;
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we could experience unauthorized access, computer viruses, system interference or destruction, “denial of service” attacks and other disruptive problems, whether intentional or accidental, that may inhibit or prevent access to our websites or use of our products and services, or cause customer information or other sensitive information to be disclosed to a perpetrator, others or the general public;
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someone could circumvent our security measures and misappropriate our, our business relations or customers' proprietary information or content or interrupt operations, or jeopardize our licensing arrangements, many of which are contingent on our sustaining appropriate security protections;
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our computer systems could fail and lead to service interruptions or downtime for television or other guidance systems, or websites, which may include e-commerce websites;
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we could inadvertently disclose customer information; or
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we may need to grow, reconfigure or relocate our data centers in response to changing business needs, which may be costly and lead to unplanned disruptions of service.
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The occurrence of any of these or similar events could damage our business, hurt our ability to distribute products and services and collect revenue, threaten the proprietary or confidential nature of our technology, harm our reputation, and expose us to litigation or liability. Because some of our technologies and businesses are intended to inhibit use of or restrict access to our customers' IP, we may become the target of hackers or other persons whose use of or access to our customers' IP is affected by our technologies. Also, hackers may, for financial gain or other motives, seek to infiltrate or damage our systems, or obtain sensitive business information or customer information. We also may be exposed to customer claims, or other liability, in connection with any security breach or inadvertent disclosure. We may be required to expend significant capital or other resources to protect against the threat of security breaches, hacker attacks or system malfunctions or to alleviate problems caused by such breaches, attacks or failures.
Our product and service offerings rely on a variety of systems, networks and databases, many of which are maintained by us at our data centers or third party data centers. We do not have complete redundancy for all of our systems, and we do not maintain real-time back-up of our data, so in the event of significant system disruption, particularly during peak periods, we could experience loss of data processing capabilities, which could cause us to lose customers and could harm our operating results. Notwithstanding our efforts to protect against “down time” for products and services, we do occasionally experience
unplanned outages or technical difficulties. In order to provide products and services, we must protect the security of our systems, networks, databases and software.
We need to safeguard the security and privacy of our customers’ confidential data and remain in compliance with laws that govern such data, and any inability to do so may harm our reputation and brand and expose us to legal action.
Our products and services and back-end information technology systems can collect and allow us to store individual viewer and account preferences and other data our customers may consider confidential. To provide better consumer experiences and to operate effectively, and for our analytics business and other businesses, we collect certain information from users. Collection and use of such information may be subject to U.S. federal and state privacy and data collection laws and regulations, standards used by credit card companies applicable to merchants processing credit card details, and foreign laws such as the European Union's Data Protection Directive (which may be added to or amended by the proposed General Data Protection Regulation or other regulations in the future). We may also be subject to third party privacy policies and permissions and obligations we owe to third parties, including, for example, those of pay TV operators. We post our privacy policies concerning the collection, use and disclosure of user data, including that involved in interactions between client and server. Privacy concerns, however, could create uncertainty in the marketplace for digital video recording and for our products and services more generally. Any failure by us to comply with privacy policies or contractual obligations, any failure to comply with standards set by credit card companies relating to privacy or data collection, any failure to conform the privacy policy to changing aspects of our business or applicable law, or any existing or new legislation regarding privacy issues could impact our data collection efforts and subject us to fines, litigation or other liability.
In addition, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act imposes civil and criminal penalties on persons collecting personal information from children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly distribute harmful materials to minors, direct our websites or services to children under the age of 13, or collect personal information from children under the age of 13. However, we are not able to control the ways in which consumers use our technology, and our technology may be used for purposes that violate this or other similar laws. The manner in which such laws may be interpreted and enforced cannot be fully determined, and future legislation could subject us to liability if we were deemed to be non-compliant.
Further, if our technological security measures are compromised, our customers may curtail or stop use of our products and services. Our products and services such as DVRs may contain the private information of our customers, and security breaches could expose us to a risk of loss of this information, which could result in potential liability and litigation. Like all services that connect with the Internet, our service, including our website, is vulnerable to break-ins, attacks, attempts to overload our servers with denial-of-service or other attacks and similar disruptions from unauthorized use of our computer systems, any of which could lead to interruptions, delays, or shutdowns of our service, causing loss of critical data or the unauthorized disclosure or use of personally identifiable or other confidential information. If we experience compromises to our security that result in service and website performance or availability problems, the complete shutdown of our service or website, or the loss or unauthorized disclosure of confidential information, our customers may lose trust and confidence in us, and decrease or discontinue their use of our service. Further, outside parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to our information or our customers' information. It is also possible that one of our employees could gain access to our information or our customer's information and use it in violation of our internal policies and procedures. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems change frequently and often are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to proactively address these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures from either external or internal threats. We may be required to make significant expenditures to protect against security breaches or to remedy problems caused by any breaches. Additionally, the laws governing such data are constantly changing and evolving and we must comply with these laws or our business, including our reputation, brand and financial results will be harmed. Failure to protect our information and our customer's information from external or internal threats could negatively impact our ability to attract new customers, cause existing customers to cancel their subscriptions, cause commercial partners to cease doing business with us, subject us to third-party lawsuits, regulatory fines or other actions or liabilities, thereby harming our business and operating results.
We and the third-party vendors we work with will need to remain compliant with the Payment Card Industry requirements for security and protection of customer credit card information and an inability to do so by us or our third-party vendors will adversely affect our business.
As a merchant who processes credit card payments from its customers, we are required to comply with the payment card industry requirements imposed on us for the protection and security of our customers' credit card information. If we are unable to successfully remain compliant with the payment card industry requirements imposed on us as a credit card merchant, our business would be harmed because we could be prevented in the future from transacting customer subscription payments by means of a credit card.
Risks Related to the Ownership of Our Common Stock
Our revenue levels or rate of revenue growth on a quarterly or annual basis may fluctuate, which may cause us to not be able to sustain our operating results, which may cause our common stock price to decline.
Our revenues, expenses and operating results could vary significantly in the future and period-to-period comparisons should not be relied on as indications of future performance. We may not be able to sustain our revenue levels, or our rate of revenue growth, on a quarterly or annual basis. In addition, we may be required to delay or extend recognition of revenue on more complex licensing arrangements as required under generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S. Fluctuations in our operating results have in the past caused, and may in the future cause, the price of our common stock to decline.
Other factors that could affect our operating results include:
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the acceptance of our technologies by pay TV operators and CE manufacturers and other customers;
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the timing and introduction of new services and features;
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expenses related to, and the financial impact of, possible acquisitions of other businesses and the integration of such businesses;
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expenses related to, and the financial impact of, the dispositions of businesses, including post-closing indemnification obligations;
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the timing and ability of signing high-value licensing agreements during a specific period;
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the extent to which new content technologies or formats replace technologies to which our solutions are targeted;
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the pace at which our analog and older products sales decline compared to the pace at which our digital and new product revenues grow; and
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adverse changes in the level of economic activity in the U.S. or other major economies in which we do business as a result of the threat of terrorism, military actions taken by the U.S. or its allies, or generally weak and uncertain economic and industry conditions.
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Our operating results may also fluctuate depending on when we receive royalty reports from certain licensees. We recognize a portion of our license revenue only after we receive royalty reports from our licensees regarding the manufacture of their products that incorporate our technologies. As a result, the timing of our revenue is dependent on the timing of our receipt of those reports, some of which are not delivered until late in the reporting period or after the end of the reporting period. In addition, it is not uncommon for royalty reports to include corrective or retroactive royalties that cover extended periods of time. Furthermore, there have been times in the past when we have deferred an unusually large amount of licensing revenue from a licensee in a given reporting period because not all of the revenue recognition criteria were met. The subsequent satisfaction of the revenue recognition criteria can result in a large amount of licensing revenue from a licensee being recorded in a given reporting period that is not necessarily indicative of the amounts of licensing revenue to be received from that licensee in future reporting periods, thus causing fluctuations in our operating results.
Seasonal trends may cause our quarterly operating results to fluctuate and our inability to forecast these trends may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
Consumer electronic product sales have traditionally been much higher during the holiday shopping season than during other times of the year. Although predicting consumer demand for our products is very difficult, we have experienced that sales of DVRs and other retail products and new subscriptions to the TiVo service have been higher during the holiday shopping season when compared to other times of the year. If we are unable to accurately forecast and respond to consumer demand for our products, our reputation and brand will suffer and the market price of our common stock would likely fall.
The price of our common stock may be volatile.
The market price of our common stock has been, and in the future could be, significantly affected by factors such as:
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actual or anticipated fluctuations in operating results;
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announcements of renewal or termination of major contracts;
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announcements of technical innovations;
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new products, services or contracts;
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announcements by competitors or their customers;
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announcements by our customers;
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governmental regulatory and copyright action;
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developments with respect to patents or proprietary rights;
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announcements regarding acquisitions or divestitures;
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announcements regarding court cases, litigation or regulatory matters;
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changes in financial estimates or coverage by securities analysts;
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changes in interest rates which affect the value of our investment portfolio;
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changes in tax law or the interpretation of tax laws; and
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general market conditions.
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Announcements by satellite television operators, cable television operators, major content providers or others regarding CE business or pay TV operator combinations, evolving industry standards, consumer rights activists' “wins” in government regulations or the courts, motion picture production or distribution or other developments could cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate.
There can be no assurance that our historic trading prices, or those of technology companies in general, will be sustained. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company's securities, some companies have been named in class action suits.
Further, economic uncertainty may adversely affect the global financial markets, which could cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate.
Our Certificate of Incorporation, Bylaws and Delaware law could discourage a third-party from acquiring us and consequently decrease the market value of our common stock.
In the future, we could become the subject of an unsolicited attempted takeover of our Company. Although an unsolicited takeover could be in the best interests of our stockholders, certain provisions of Delaware law and our organizational documents could be impediments to such a takeover. We are subject to the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, an anti-takeover law. In general, the statute prohibits a publicly held Delaware corporation from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person became an interested stockholder, unless the business combination is approved in a prescribed manner. As discussed above, our certificate of incorporation was amended and restated to include stock transfer restrictions applicable to 5% or greater stockholders. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws also require that any action required or permitted to be taken by our stockholders must be effected at a duly called annual or special meeting of the stockholders and may not be effected by a consent in writing. In addition, special meetings of our stockholders may be called only by a majority of the total number of authorized directors, the chairman of the board, our president or the holders of 20% or more of our common stock. These provisions of Delaware law, our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and Amended and Restated Bylaws could make it more difficult for us to be acquired by another company, even if our acquisition is in the best interests of our stockholders. Any delay or prevention of a change of control or change in management could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
Legal and Regulatory Risks
Changes in, or interpretations of, tax rules and regulations, may adversely affect our effective tax rates.
We are subject to U.S. federal and state income taxes, as well as foreign income taxes. Our future effective tax rates could be unfavorably affected by changes in tax rates, tax laws or the interpretation of tax laws, by changes in the amount of pre-tax income derived from countries with high statutory income tax rates, or by changes in our deferred tax assets and liabilities, including changes in our ability to realize our deferred tax assets. Our effective income tax rate could be unfavorably affected by changes in the amount of sales to customers in countries with high withholding tax rates.
In addition, U.S. federal, U.S. state, and foreign tax jurisdictions may examine our income tax returns, including income tax returns of acquired companies and acquired tax attributes included therein. We regularly assess the likelihood of outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes. In making such assessments, we exercise judgment in estimating our provision for income taxes. While we believe our estimates are reasonable, we cannot assure you that the final determination from these examinations will not be materially different from that reflected in our historical income tax provisions and accruals. Any adverse outcome from these examinations may have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results.
We may make patent assertions, or initiate patent infringement or patent interference actions or other litigation to protect our IP, which could be costly and harm our business.
We are currently engaged in litigation, and litigation may be necessary in the future, to enforce our patents and other IP rights, to protect our trade secrets or to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. For example, we have initiated patent infringement litigation against Comcast and expect to incur significant expenses in connection with this patent infringement case. If we are unable to reach favorable license terms with Comcast or otherwise experience an adverse outcome in patent infringement lawsuits, our revenues could be adversely impacted and our ability to license our intellectual property on favorable terms to other third parties in the future, each of which would harm our business.
We, and many of our current and potential competitors, dedicate substantial resources to protection and enforcement of IP rights. We believe that companies will continue to take steps to protect their technologies, including, but not limited to, seeking patent protection. Companies in the technology and content-related industries have frequently resorted to litigation regarding IP rights. Disputes regarding the ownership of technologies and their associated rights are likely to arise in the future and we may be forced to litigate to determine the validity and scope of other parties' proprietary rights. Any such litigation is inherently risky, the outcome is uncertain, could be costly, could distract our management from focusing on operating our business, could delay recognition of revenue until a settlement or decision is ultimately reached, could result in the invalidation or adverse claims construction of patents, and might ultimately be unsuccessful. The existence and/or outcome of such litigation could harm our business.
In 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States decided the Alice Corp v. CSL Bank International ("Alice") case. The Alice case generally addresses patentable subject matter, and specifically an exception to patentable subject matter for "abstract ideas." In the Alice case, the court provides some general interpretive guidance to be considered when determining whether patent claims are directed to patent-ineligible abstract ideas, along with a two-step test for determining patentable subject matter eligibility going-forward. Practically, the effects of the Alice decision are still being assessed by patent holders, attorneys, the United States Patent & Trademark Office and various courts, all of which are attempting to determine the appropriate analysis and boundaries of the Alice decision on other patents. In any event, the Alice decision will provide potential licensees and accused infringers of certain patents - including our patents - new arguments to challenge the validity of such patents, which could cause some delays or risk in pending or future patent negotiations or litigation.
Additionally, the relationships with our customers, suppliers and technology collaborators may be disrupted or terminated as a result of patent assertions that we may make against them, which could harm our business.
Finally, adverse legal rulings could result in the invalidation of our patents, the narrowing of the claims of our patents, or fostering of the perception by licensees or potential licensees that a judicial finding of their infringement is unlikely. Such results or perceptions could decrease the likelihood that licensees or potential licensees may be interested in licensing our patents, or could decrease the amounts of license fees that they are willing to pay, which could harm our business.
We may be subject to IP infringement claims or other litigation, which are costly to defend and could limit our ability to use certain technologies, result in the loss of significant rights, require us to alter our current product and business strategy and force us to cease operating our business, in which case our business would be harmed.
From time to time we receive claims and inquiries from third parties alleging that our internally developed technology, technology we have acquired or technology we license from third parties may infringe other third parties' proprietary rights (especially patents). Third parties have also asserted and most likely will continue to assert claims against us alleging infringement of copyrights, trademark rights or other proprietary rights relating to video or music content, or alleging unfair competition or violations of privacy rights. We have faced such claims in the past, we currently face such claims, and we expect to face similar claims in the future. Regardless of the merits of such claims, any disputes with third parties over IP rights could materially and adversely impact our business, including by resulting in the diversion of management time and attention from our core business, the significant cost to defend ourselves against such claims or reducing the willingness of licensees to incorporate our technologies into their products or services. For example, many patents covering interactive television technologies have been granted but have not been commercialized. A number of companies in the advanced-television industry earn substantial profits from technology licensing, and the introduction of new technologies by us is likely to provoke lawsuits from such companies. A successful claim of infringement against us, our inability to obtain an acceptable license from the holder of the patent or other right, or our inability to design around an asserted patent or other right could cause our manufacturers to cease manufacturing products that incorporate our technologies, including devices that enable the TiVo service, our retailers to stop selling our products or us to cease providing our service, or all of the above, which would eliminate our ability to generate revenues.
Additionally, we have been asked by content owners to stop the display or hosting of copyrighted materials by our users or ourselves through our service offerings, including notices provided to us pursuant to the DMCA. We have and will promptly respond to legitimate takedown notices or complaints, including but not limited to those submitted pursuant to the DMCA, notifying us that we are providing unauthorized access to copyrighted content by removing such content and/or any links to such content from our services or products. Nevertheless, we cannot guarantee that our prompt removal of content, including removal pursuant to the provisions of the DMCA, will prevent disputes with content owners, that infringing content will not exist on our services, or that we will be able to resolve any disputes that may arise with content providers or users regarding such infringing content.
If any of these claims were to prevail, we could be forced to pay damages, comply with injunctions, or stop distributing our products or providing our services while we re-engineer them or seek licenses to necessary technology, which might not be available on reasonable terms or at all. We could also be subject to indemnification claims resulting from open source software violations or from infringement claims made against our customers, other companies with whom we have relationships or the current owners of businesses that we divested. Such indemnification claims could increase our defense costs and potential damages, in addition to forcing the Company to incur material additional expenses. For example, we have received notices and lawsuits from certain customers requesting indemnification in patent-related lawsuits. We evaluate the requests and assess whether we believe we are obligated to provide such indemnification to such customers on a case-by-case basis. Customers or other companies making such requests could become unwilling or hesitant to do business with us if we decline such requests. An adverse determination with respect to such requests or in any of these events described above could require us to change our business practices and have a material impact on our business and results of operations. Furthermore, these types of disputes can be asserted by our licensees or prospective licensees or by other third parties as part of negotiations with us or in private actions seeking monetary damages or injunctive relief. Any disputes with our licensees or potential licensees or other third parties could harm our reputation and expose us to additional costs and other liabilities.
Litigation could harm our business and result in:
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Substantial expenditures for legal fees and costs to defend the Company and/or our customers;
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substantial settlement, damage awards or related costs, including indemnification of customers and our required payment of royalties and/or licensing fees;
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diversion of management and technical attention and resources to help defend the Company, including as part of pre-trial discovery;
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either our customers discontinuing to use or ourselves discontinuing to sell infringing products or services;
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our expending significant resources to develop and implement non-infringing technology;
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our obtaining, or being required to obtain, licenses to infringed technology, which could be costly or unavailable;
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an injunction forcing us to limit the functionality of our products and services, stop importing our products and services into certain markets, or cease operating our business altogether; and
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delays in product delivery and new service introduction.
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We are involved in the business of powering the discovery and enjoyment of digital entertainment, including over the internet. There has been, and we believe that there will continue to be, an increasing level of litigation to determine the applicability of current laws to, and impact of new technologies on, the use and distribution of content over the internet and through new devices. As we develop products and services that protect, provide or enable the provision of content in such ways, the risk of litigation against us may increase.
We may be subject to legal liability for the provision of third-party products, services, content or advertising.
We periodically enter into arrangements to offer third-party products, services, content or advertising under our brands or in connection with our various products or service offerings. For example, we license or incorporate certain entertainment Metadata into our data offerings. Certain of these arrangements involve enabling the distribution of digital content owned by third parties, which may subject us to third party claims related to such products, services, content or advertising, including defamation, violation of privacy laws, misappropriation of publicity rights and infringement of IP rights. We require users of our services to agree to terms of use that prohibit, among other things, the posting of content that violates third party intellectual property rights, or that is obscene, hateful or defamatory. We have implemented procedures to enforce such terms of use on certain of our services, including taking down content that violates our terms of use for which we have received notification, or that we are aware of, and/or blocking access by, or terminating the accounts of, users determined to be repeat violators of our terms of use. Despite these measures, we cannot guarantee that such unauthorized content will not exist on our services, that these procedures will reduce our liability with respect to such unauthorized third party conduct or content, or that we will be able to resolve any disputes that may arise with content providers or users regarding such conduct or content. Our agreements with these parties may not adequately protect us from these potential liabilities. It is also possible that, if any information
provided directly by us contains errors or is otherwise negligently provided to users, third parties could make claims against us, including, for example, claims for IP infringement, publicity rights violations or defamation. Investigating and defending any of these types of claims is expensive, even if the claims do not result in liability. If any of these claims results in liability, we could be required to pay damages or other penalties, which could harm our business and our operating results.
Entertainment companies and other content owners may claim that some of the features of our TiVo DVRs or other products, such as our advertising products and features, and services violate copyright or trademark laws, which could force us to incur significant costs in defending such actions and affect our ability to market the TiVo service and the products that enable the TiVo service.
Although we have not been the subject of such actions to date, a past competitor's DVRs were the subject of several copyright infringement lawsuits by a number of major entertainment companies, including major television networks. These lawsuits alleged that the competitor's DVRs violate copyright laws by allowing users to skip commercials, delete recordings only when instructed and use the Internet to send recorded materials to other users. TiVo-enabled DVRs have some similar features, including the ability to fast-forward as well as skip (in certain newer models) through commercials, the ability to speed up the play back of recordings (in certain newer models), the ability to delete recordings only when instructed and the ability to transfer recordings from a TiVo-enabled DVR to a personal computer and/or portable media devices. Based on market or consumer pressures, we may decide in the future to add additional features that may be objectionable to entertainment companies. If similar actions are filed against us based on current or future features of our DVRs and non-DVR products, entertainment companies may seek injunctions to prevent us from including these features and/or damages. Such litigation can be costly, even if we prevail in the litigation, and may divert the efforts of our management. Furthermore, if we were ordered to remove features from our DVRs or other products and services, we may experience increased difficulty in marketing the TiVo service and related TiVo products and services and may suffer reduced revenues as a result.
New governmental regulations or new interpretation of existing laws, including legislative initiatives seeking to, or judicial or regulatory decisions that, weaken patent protection or copyright law, could cause legal uncertainties and result in harm to our business.
The standards that courts use to interpret patents are not always applied predictably or uniformly and may evolve, particularly as new technologies develop. For example, the Supreme Court of the United States has modified some legal standards applied by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in examination of U.S. patent applications, which may decrease the likelihood that we will be able to obtain patents and may increase the likelihood of challenges to patents we obtain or license. Additionally, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (the "Leahy-Smith Act") includes a number of significant changes to the U.S. patent laws, such as, among other things, changing from a "first to invent" to a "first inventor to file" system, establishing new procedures for challenging patents and establishing different methods for invalidating patents. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is still in the process of implementing regulations relating to these changes, and the courts have yet to address many of the new provisions of the Leahy-Smith Act. Some of these changes or potential changes may not be advantageous to the Company, and it may become more difficult to obtain adequate patent protection or to enforce the Company's patents against third parties. While the Company cannot predict the impact of the Leahy-Smith Act at this time, these changes or potential changes could increase the costs and uncertainties surrounding the prosecution of the Company's patent applications and adversely affect the Company's ability to protect its IP.
Consumer rights advocates and other constituencies also continuously challenge copyright law, notably the DMCA, through both legislative and judicial actions. Legal uncertainties surrounding the application of the DMCA may adversely affect our business. If copyright law is compromised, or devices that can circumvent our technology are permitted by law and become prevalent, this could result in reduced demand for our technologies, and our business would be harmed.
Many laws and regulations are pending and may be adopted in the U.S., individual states and local jurisdictions and other countries with respect to the internet. These laws may relate to many areas that impact our business, including IP rights, digital rights management, copyright, property ownership, privacy, taxation, and the consumer electronics and television industry. These types of regulations are likely to differ between countries and other political and geographic divisions. Other countries and political organizations are likely to impose or favor more and different regulation than that which has been proposed in the U.S., thus furthering the complexity of regulations. In addition, state and local governments may impose regulations in addition to, inconsistent with, or stricter than federal regulations. Changes to or the interpretation of these laws could increase our costs, expose us to increased litigation risk, substantial defense costs and other liabilities or require us or our customers to change business practices. It is not possible to predict whether or when such legislation may be adopted, and the adoption of such laws or regulations and uncertainties associated with their validity, interpretation, applicability and enforcement, could materially and adversely affect our business. For example, legislation regarding customer privacy or copyright could be enacted or expanded in ways that apply to the TiVo service, which could adversely affect our business. Laws
or regulations could be interpreted to prevent or limit access to some or all television signals by certain consumer electronics devices, or impose limits on the number of copies, the ability to transfer or move copies, or the length of time a consumer may retain copies of some or all types of television programming. New or existing copyright laws could be applied to restrict the capture of television programming, which would adversely affect our business. It is unknown whether existing laws and regulations will apply to the digital video recorder market.
In addition, the satellite transmission, cable and telecommunications industries are subject to pervasive federal regulation, including FCC licensing and other requirements, as well as extensive regulation by local and state authorities. The FCC could promulgate new regulations or interpret existing regulations in a manner that would cause us to incur significant compliance costs or force us to alter or eliminate certain features or functionality of our products or services, which may adversely affect our business. For example, the FCC could determine that certain of our products fail to comply with regulations concerning matters such as electrical interference, copy protection, digital tuners, or display of television programming based on rating systems. The FCC could also impose limits on the number of copies, the ability to transfer or move copies, the length of time a consumer may retain copies, or the ability to access some or all types of television programming. Furthermore, FCC regulations may affect cable television providers and other multi-channel video programming distributors ("MVPDs"), which are the primary customers for certain of our products and services. Although FCC regulations no longer prohibit MVPDs (except DBS providers) from deploying navigation devices (e.g., set-top boxes) with combined security and non-security functions acquired after July 1, 2007 (the “integration ban”), further developments with respect to these issues or other related FCC action could impact the availability and/or demand for “plug and play” devices, including set-top boxes, all of which could affect demand for IPGs incorporated in set-top boxes or CE devices and correspondingly affect our license fees. The FCC has granted a number of requests for waiver of the integration ban, and denied several petitions for waivers or deferrals. Petitions for reconsideration of the decisions denying waivers are pending before the FCC. Accordingly, new regulations, or new interpretations of existing regulations, could reduce the desirability of our products and services, require us to make changes to our products or services, or increase our compliance costs.
It is difficult to anticipate the impact of current or future laws and regulations on our business. We may have significant expenses associated with staying appraised of and in compliance with local, state, federal, and international legislation and regulation of our business and in presenting the Company’s positions on proposed laws and regulations.
We advertise, market, and sell our services directly to consumers; many of these activities are highly regulated by constantly evolving state and federal laws and regulations and violations of these laws and regulations could harm our business.
We engage in various advertising, marketing, and other promotional activities. For instance, in the past, we have offered gift subscriptions and mail-in-rebates to consumers, which are subject to state and federal laws and regulations. A constantly evolving network of state and federal laws is increasingly regulating these promotional activities. Additionally, we enter into subscription service contracts directly with consumers which govern both our provision of and the consumers' payment for the TiVo service. For example, consumers who activate new monthly subscriptions to the TiVo service may be required to commit to pay for the TiVo service for a minimum of one year or be subject to an early termination fee if they terminate prior to the expiration of their commitment period. If the terms of our subscription service contracts with consumers, such as our imposition of an early termination fee, or our previously offered rebate or gift subscription programs were to violate state or federal laws or regulations, we could be subject to suit, penalties, and/or negative publicity in which case our business would be harmed.
Legislation, laws or regulations relating to environmental issues, including conflict minerals, may adversely impact our business in the future.
It is possible that future proposed environmental regulations on consumer electronic devices, such as DVRs and set-top boxes, may regulate and increase the production, manufacture, use, and disposal costs incurred by us and our customers. For example, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 directs the Department of Energy to prescribe labeling or other disclosure requirements for the energy use of standalone digital video recorder boxes. This and future energy regulations could potentially make it more costly for us to design, manufacture, and sell certain products to our customers thus harming the growth of our business.
Additionally, under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, or the “Dodd-Frank Act,” the SEC adopted new requirements for companies that use certain minerals and metals, known as conflict minerals, in their products, whether or not these products are manufactured by third-parties. These requirements mandate that companies perform due diligence, disclose and report whether or not such minerals originate from the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries. These new requirements could adversely affect the sourcing, availability, and pricing of minerals used in
the manufacture of certain of our products and the numerous components that go into certain of our products. For instance, a number of our key components in certain of our products are supplied from a single source, and finding alternatives components that would be conflict mineral free in some cases could be expensive and cause delays in our ability to manufacture those products and meet customer demand. In addition, we have and will incur additional costs to comply with the disclosure requirements, including costs related to determining the source of any of the relevant minerals and metals used in our products. Since our supply chain is complex, we may not be able to sufficiently verify the origins for these minerals and metals used in our products through our due diligence procedures, which may harm our reputation. In such event, we may also face difficulties in satisfying customers who require that all of the components of our products are certified as conflict mineral free. Therefore, regulations related to “conflict minerals” may force us to incur additional expenses, may make our supply chain more complex and may result in damage to our reputation with customers, which would harm our business.
Privacy concerns and laws, evolving regulation of television viewing behavior and cloud computing, cross-border data transfer restrictions and other domestic or foreign regulations may limit the use and adoption of our services and adversely affect our business.
Regulation related to the provision of services similar to those we provide through the Internet is increasing, as federal, state and foreign governments continue to adopt new laws and regulations addressing data privacy and the collection, processing, storage and use of personal information, including television viewing data. In some cases, foreign data privacy laws and regulations, such as the European Union’s Data Protection Directive, and the country-specific laws and regulations that implement that directive, also govern the processing of personal information. Further, laws are increasingly aimed at the use of personal information for marketing purposes, such as the European Union’s e-Privacy Directive, and the country-specific regulations that implement that directive and the new General Data Privacy Regulations which is due to come into force in 2018. Such laws and regulations are subject to new and differing interpretations and may be inconsistent among jurisdictions. These and other requirements could reduce demand for our services or restrict our ability to store and process data or, in some cases, impact our ability to offer our services in certain locations or our customers' ability to deploy our solutions globally and/or transfer data outside certain jurisdictions. The costs of compliance with and other burdens imposed by laws, regulations and standards may limit the use and adoption of our services, reduce overall demand for our services, lead to significant fines, penalties or liabilities for noncompliance, or slow the pace at which we sign new operator customers outside the U.S., any of which could harm our business.
We are subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) and similar anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws in the U.S. and other jurisdictions, and our failure to comply with such laws and regulations thereunder could result in penalties which could harm our reputation, business, and financial condition.
We are subject to the FCPA, which generally prohibits companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or keeping business. The FCPA also requires companies to maintain adequate record-keeping and internal accounting practices to accurately reflect the transactions of the company. Under the FCPA, U.S. companies may be held liable for actions taken by their strategic or local partners or representatives. The FCPA and similar laws in other countries can impose civil and criminal penalties for violations.
If we do not properly implement practices and controls with respect to compliance with the FCPA and similar anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws in the U.S. and other jurisdictions, or if we fail to enforce those practices and controls properly, we may be subject to regulatory sanctions, including administrative costs related to governmental and internal investigations, civil and criminal penalties, injunctions and restrictions on our business activities, all of which could harm our reputation, business and financial condition.