Item 1A. Risk Factors
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Our operations and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described in Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal period ended October 31, 2021, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, and the trading price of our common stock, including certain risks, which have been modified as follows:
Due to the international nature of our business, political or economic changes and the laws and regulatory regimes applying to international transactions or other factors could harm our future revenue, costs and expenses, and financial condition.
Our business and financial performance depend significantly on worldwide economic conditions and the demand for technology hardware, software and services in the markets in which we compete. Economic weakness and uncertainty may adversely affect demand for our products, services and solutions, may result in increased expenses due to higher allowances for doubtful accounts and potential goodwill and asset impairment charges, and may make it more difficult for us to manage inventory and make accurate forecasts of revenue, gross margin, cash flows and expenses.
Economic weakness and uncertainty could cause our expenses to vary materially from our expectations. Any financial turmoil affecting the banking system and financial markets or any significant financial services institution failures could negatively impact our treasury operations, as the financial condition of such parties may deteriorate rapidly and without notice in times of market volatility and disruption. Poor financial performance of asset markets combined with lower interest rates and the adverse effects of fluctuating currency exchange rates could lead to higher pension and post-retirement benefit expenses. Interest and other expenses could vary materially from expectations depending on changes in interest rates, borrowing costs, currency exchange rates, and costs of hedging activities and the fair value of derivative instruments. Economic downturns also may lead to restructuring actions and associated expenses. Further, ongoing U.S. federal government spending priorities may limit demand for our products, services and solutions from organizations that receive funding from the U.S. government, and could negatively affect macroeconomic conditions in the United States, which could further reduce demand for our products, services and solutions.
Our business and financial performance also could be adversely affected by changes in U.S. trade policy, U.S. export controls and sanctions, and U.S. regulations concerning imports, as well as international laws and regulations relating to global trade. Current U.S. government trade policy includes the imposition of tariffs on certain foreign goods, including information and communication technology products. These measures have materially increased costs for certain goods imported into the United States. This in turn could require us to materially increase prices to our customers which may reduce demand, or, if we are unable to increase prices, result in lowering our margin on products sold. U.S. government trade policy has resulted in, and could result in more, U.S. trading partners adopting responsive trade policy making it more difficult or costly for us to export our products to those countries. Similarly, changes in regulations relating to exports could prevent us from exporting products to certain locations or customers entirely. In addition, changes in requirements relating to making foreign direct investments could increase our cost of doing business in certain jurisdictions, prevent us from shipping products to particular countries or markets, affect our ability to obtain favorable terms for components, increase our operating costs or lead to penalties or restrictions.
Sales outside the United States constituted approximately 68% of our net revenue in fiscal 2021. Our future business and financial performance could suffer due to a variety of international factors, including:
• ongoing instability or changes in a country’s or region’s economic or political conditions, including inflation, recession, interest rate fluctuations and actual or anticipated military or political conflicts, including uncertainties and instability in economic and market conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia/Ukraine conflict;
• inflationary pressures, such as those the market is currently experiencing, which may increase costs for materials, supplies, and services;
• network security, privacy and data sovereignty concerns, which could make foreign customers reluctant to purchase products and services from U.S.-based technology companies;
• longer collection cycles and financial instability among customers;
63
Table of Contents
• local labor conditions and regulations, including local labor issues faced by specific suppliers and original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”), or changes to immigration and labor law policies which may adversely impact our access to technical and professional talent;
• managing our geographically dispersed workforce;
• differing technology standards or customer requirements;
• local content and manufacturing requirements, which could impact our ability to sell into those markets;
• difficulties associated with repatriating earnings in restricted countries, and changes in tax laws; and
• fluctuations in freight costs, limitations on shipping and receiving capacity, and other disruptions in the transportation and shipping infrastructure at important geographic points of exit and entry for our products and shipments.
The factors described above also could disrupt our product and component manufacturing and key suppliers located outside of the United States. For example, we rely on suppliers in Asia for product assembly and manufacture.
The Russia/Ukraine conflict has impacted business and financial performance in that region. HPE is proceeding with an exit of our remaining business in Russia and Belarus.
We implement policies, procedures and training designed to facilitate compliance with anti-corruption laws around the world, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act. But in many foreign countries, particularly in those with developing economies, people may engage in business practices prohibited by anti-corruption laws. Our employees and third parties we work with may take actions in violation of our policies, and those actions could have an adverse effect on our business and reputation.
The revenue and profitability of our operations have historically varied, which makes our future financial results less predictable.
Our revenue, gross margin and profit vary among our diverse products and services, customer groups and geographic markets and therefore will likely be different in future periods than our historical results. Our revenue depends on the overall demand for our products and services. Delays or reductions in IT spending by our customers or potential customers could have a material adverse effect on demand for our products and services, which could result in a significant decline in revenue. In addition, revenue declines in some of our businesses may affect revenue in our other businesses as we may lose cross-selling opportunities. Overall gross margins and profitability in any given period are dependent partially on the product, service, customer and geographic mix reflected in that period’s net revenue.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the trade sanctions imposed by the U.S., European Union (E.U.) and other countries in response have negatively impacted our operations and financial performance in both countries. There could be additional negative impacts to our net revenues, earnings and cash flows should the situation escalate beyond its current scope, including, among other potential impacts, economic recessions in certain neighboring countries or globally, due to inflationary pressures and supply chain cost increases or the geographic proximity of the war relative to the rest of Europe.
Competition, lawsuits, investigations, increases in component and manufacturing costs that we are unable to pass on to our customers, component supply disruptions and other risks affecting our businesses may have a significant impact on our overall gross margin and profitability. Variations in fixed cost structure and gross margins across business units and product portfolios may lead to significant operating profit volatility on a quarterly or annual basis. In addition, newer geographic market opportunities may be relatively less profitable due to our investments associated with entering those markets and local pricing pressures, and we may have difficulty establishing and maintaining the operating infrastructure necessary to support the high growth rate associated with some of those markets. Market trends, industry shifts, competitive pressures, commoditization of products, increased component or shipping costs, regulatory impacts and other factors may result in reductions in revenue or pressure on gross margins of certain segments in a given period, which may lead to adjustments to our operations. Moreover, our efforts to address the challenges facing our business could increase the level of variability in our financial results because the rate at which we are able to realize the benefits from those efforts may vary from period to period.
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.