Item 1A. Risk Factors
ITEM 1A. Risk Factors
We have disclosed below, as well as under the heading “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 a number of risks which may materially affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. You should carefully consider these Risk Factors and the other information set forth elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. You should be aware that these risk factors and other information may not describe every risk facing our Company. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us may also materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and/or results of operations.
Our business, results of operations and financial condition have been adversely affected, and could in the future be materially adversely affected, by the coronavirus pandemic.
In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of a disease caused by a novel strain of the coronavirus (COVID-19) to be a global pandemic. This global pandemic is having widespread, rapidly-evolving and unpredictable impacts on global societies, economies, financial markets and business practices. COVID-19 has affected us, our customers, employees, contractors, suppliers and business partners, who have been prevented from conducting business activities as usual, including due to the many and varying health and safety measures in response to COVID-19, including travel restrictions, quarantines, curfews, shelter in place and safer-at-home orders, and business shutdowns, as well as multi-step reopening policies. The continued spread of COVID-19 and the measures taken by governmental authorities disrupted the
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continuity of our provision of services to our customers and adversely impacted our business, results of operations and financial condition-, see Part 1, Item 2 “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
The global spread of COVID-19 has created significant volatility and uncertainty and economic disruption. The ultimate impact of COVID-19 on our business, operations and financial results remains unknown and will depend on numerous evolving factors that we may not be able to accurately predict, including: the duration, scope and severity of the pandemic; governmental, business and individuals’ actions that have been and continue to be taken in response to the pandemic; the impact of the pandemic on economic activity and actions taken in response; the effect on our clients and client demand for our services and our solutions; our ability to sell and provide our services and solutions, including as a result of travel restrictions and people working from home; the ability of our clients to pay for our services and solutions; any closures of our and our clients' offices and facilities, and any additional preventative or protective actions that we, our clients, and governments may implement that may result in a period of continued business interruption.
In the U.S., India, the Philippines, Europe and South Africa, we have large concentrations of employees performing critical operations, which are in varying stages of restrictions and re-opening to address COVID-19. Certain jurisdictions have begun re-opening but have returned to restrictions in the face of increases in new COVID-19 cases. There is considerable uncertainty regarding how current and future health and safety measures implemented in response to the pandemic will impact our business, including whether they will result in further changes in demand from our clients for our services and solutions, further increases in operating costs (whether as a result of changes to our supply chain or increases in employee costs, operating costs or otherwise), how they will further impact our supply chain. An extended period of mass remote work by our employees may reduce our employees’ efficiency and productivity, which may cause delays in service delivery, disrupt employee relations, hamper innovation and may have other unforeseen adverse effects on our business. For those employees who are permitted to come onsite, while we have implemented personal safety measures at all such locations, any actions we take with respect to our workforce may not be sufficient to mitigate the risk of infection by COVID-19 and further disruption to our business.
In addition, the effects of COVID-19 could affect our business in many ways, including, but not limited to, the following factors:
• the impact of the pandemic on the economies and financial markets of the countries and regions in which we operate, including a potential global recession, a decline in customer confidence and spending;
• our inability to obtain rent deferrals or other relief from many of our landlords with respect to our leased corporate offices that were or still remain closed, which could result in litigation or other disruptions;
• COVID-19 and remote-work oriented phishing and similar cybersecurity attack attempts;
• remote work solutions may be limited in their ability to replicate the operational oversight and security controls of our office environments and we may suffer operational and information security failures as a result of the changed controls;
• we may be required to revise certain accounting estimates and judgments such as, but not limited to, those related to the valuation of long-lived assets and deferred tax assets, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial position and results of operations;
• governmental actions in the geographies in which we operate may prevent us from adjusting the size of our workforce or modifying compensation terms; and
• COVID-19 may also have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and cash flows. If our business does not generate sufficient cash flows from operating activities, and sufficient funds are not otherwise available to us from borrowings under our credit facility or other sources, we may not be able to cover our expenses, fund our other liquidity and working capital needs, or execute on our strategic initiatives, each of which could significantly harm our business.
The measures taken to date will impact our business for the third quarter of 2020 and potentially beyond. Management expects that all of its business segments, across all of its geographies, will be impacted to some degree, but the significance of the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and the duration for which it may have an impact cannot be determined at this time. Any of these events could cause or contribute to risks and uncertainties enumerated in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q or our other filings with the SEC, and could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and/or stock price.
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Text extracted from the filing as submitted to EDGAR. Formatting, tables and exhibits are simplified for reading; the original document is authoritative for anything you rely on.