Washington, D.C. 20549
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company”,company,” and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
The aggregate market value of voting common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $9,077,000,0007,495,000,000 as of June 28, 2019,30, 2020, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter (based on the closing sales price for the common stock on the New York Stock Exchange on such date).
Juniper Networks, Inc.
Form 10-K
Table of Contents
Forward-Looking Statements
This Annual Report on Form 10-K, which we refer to as the Report, including “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding future events and the future results of Juniper Networks, Inc., which we refer to as “we,” “us,” or the “Company,” that are based on our current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about our business, our results of operations, the industry in which we operate and the beliefs and assumptions of our management. All statements other than statement of historical facts are statements that could be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “targets,” “goals,” “projects,” "will," “would,” “could,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” variations of such words, and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain, and these forward-looking statements are only predictions and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict.predict, including the duration, extent, and continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our ability to successfully manage the demand, supply, and operational challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in this Report under the section entitled “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of Part I and elsewhere, and in other reports we file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC. In addition, many of the foregoing risks and uncertainties are, and could be, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and any worsening of the global business and economic environment as a result of the pandemic. While forward-looking statements are based on reasonable expectations of our management at the time that they are made, you should not rely on them. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason, except as required by applicable law.
PART I
ITEM 1. Business
Overview
Juniper Networks designs, develops, and sells products and services for high-performance networks to enable customers to build scalable, reliable, secure, and cost-effective networks for their businesses, while achieving agility and improved operating efficiency through automation. We sell our high-performance network products and service offerings across routing, switching, Wi-Fi, network security, and software-defined networking ("SDN") technologies. In addition to our products, we offer our customers services, including maintenance and support, professional services, Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS"), and education and training programs. We sell our products in more than 150 countries in three geographic regions: Americas; Europe, Middle East, and Africa, which we refer to as EMEA; and Asia Pacific, which we refer to as APAC. We organize and manage our business by major functional departments on a consolidated basis as one operating segment. We sell our high-performance network products and service offerings across routing, switching, and security technologies. In addition to our products, we offer our customers services, including maintenance and support, professional services, and education and training programs.
Our products and services address high-performance network requirements for our customers within our verticals: Cloud, Service Provider, and Enterprise who view the network as critical to their success. We believe our silicon, systems, and software represent innovations that transform the economics and experience of networking, helping our customers achieve superior performance, greater choice, and flexibility, while reducing overall total cost of ownership.
Further, we intend to expandhave been expanding our software business by introducing new software solutions to our product portfolioand service portfolios that simplify the operation of networks, and allow our customers across our key verticals flexibility in consumption and deployment. Our acquisition of Mist Systems, or Mist, in 2019 accelerated our ability to execute this belief in cloud-managed, artificial intelligence ("AI"), or AI-enabled enterprise networking operations through a combination of cloud-based intelligence, enterprise-grade access points, and EX series switches. Machine learning technology simplifies wireless and wired operations and delivers a more agile cloud services platform. In 2020, we acquired 128 Technology and Netrounds. Our acquisition of 128 Technology represents the next evolution of our AI-driven enterprise vision. We believe 128 Technology will enable us to provide a superior standalone SD-WAN experience as compared to all other SD-WAN offerings currently on the market and extend the value of Mist’s secure AI-engine and cloud management capabilities from client to cloud. Also, we believe our acquisition of Netrounds will enable service and cloud providers to rapidly deliver software-defined network services with guaranteed end-to-end service quality.
We were incorporated in California in 1996 and reincorporated in Delaware in 1998. Our corporate headquarters are located in Sunnyvale, California. Our website address is www.juniper.net.
Strategy
We deliver highly scalable, reliable, secure, and cost-effective networks, while transforming the network's agility, efficiency, and value through automation. Our research and development efforts are focused on the following strategic priorities:
•Seize the cloud transition to gain share across our three customer verticals: Cloud, Service Provider, and Enterprise
•Differentiate with innovation in networking, security and software orchestration
•Leverage automation and AI to deliver simplicity of operations for our customers
We believe the network needs for our customers in our Cloud, Service Provider, and Enterprise verticals are converging as these customers recognize the need for high-performance networks and are adopting cloud architectures for their infrastructure and service delivery, such as large public and private data centers and service provider edge data centers, for improved agility and greater levels of operating efficiency. We believe this industry trend presents an opportunity for Juniper Networks, and we have focused our strategy on enabling our customers' transition to cloud architectures through the following strategic priorities:opportunities:
Power Public and Private CloudCloud-Ready Data CentersCenter
We are focused on continuing to power public and private cloud data centers with high performance infrastructure. These data centers are the core of cloud transformation by enabling service delivery in a multicloudhybrid cloud environment, which is a combination of public cloud, private cloud, and Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS delivery. We are a recognized leader in data center networking innovation in both software and hardware solutions. Our Junos Operating System, or Junos OS, application-specific integrated circuits, or ASIC, technology, and management and automation software investments across routing, switching, and network security technologies will continue to be key elements to maintaining our technology leadership and transforming the economics and experience of our public and private cloud customers. In 2019, we introduced our next-generation operating system, Junos OS Evolved. It has the same command-line interface, the same applications and features, the same management and automation tools as Junos OS, but its infrastructure is entirely modernized,Evolved, which enables higher availability, accelerated deployment, greater innovation, and improved operational efficiencies. In 2020, we accelerated our investments in operations experience focused automation, to stay ahead of an industry-wide trend to address size and complexity of data centers driven by a rapidly increasing number of cloud-ready workloads. In recognition of our automated fabrics, best-in-class security, and scalable designs, we have been recognized as a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for the third year in a row.
Our Contrail Networking provides dynamic end-to-endService Provider customers are investing in the build-out of high-performance networks and distributed cloud environments to enable high-speed and low-latency applications. We are committed to support them to rearchitect their infrastructure to enable next-generation mobile network build-outs, or 5G, and Internet of Things, or IoT, service delivery close to their end users. In January 2021, we acquired Apstra, a leader in intent-based networking, policyopen programmability and controlautomated closed loop assurance for any cloud, any workload, and any deployment, from a single user interface. It translates abstract workflows into specific policies, simplifying the orchestrationmanagement of virtual overlay connectivity across all environments.data center networks. Our acquisition of Apstra will expand upon our data center networking portfolio to advance our vision to transform data center operations.
Connect Users and Devices Securely to the Cloud and to Each Other
Automated Wide-Area-Networking Solutions
In developing our solutions, we strive to design and build best-in-class products and solutions for core, edge, and metro networking infrastructure for connecting userusers and devices securely to the cloud and to each other. Cloudcloud providers and Service Providersservice providers have deployed our product offerings in their wide area networks, or WAN, such as our highly efficient Internet Protocol, or IP, transport PTX product which can cost effectively manage incredible capacity from their end users to the data centers from which they deliver value to those customers. We also offer a robust portfolio of software-defined networking, or SDN-enabled MX series routing platforms that provide system capacity, density, security, and performance with longevity.investment protection. MX Series routers areplay at the key toheart of the digital transformation for Service Providers, Cloudthat service providers, cloud providers, and Enterprises in the cloud era.are undergoing. Our SDN Controller for the WAN, NorthStar, enables granular visibility and control of IP/Multiprotocol Label Switching, or IP/MPLS flows for large networks. We believe our acquisition of Netrounds will enhance our automated WAN solutions with innovative testing and service assurance capabilities for fixed and mobile networks. We believe Netrounds’ technology will strengthen and complement our existing capabilities, such as Healthbot, NorthStar, and our partnership with Anuta Networks to simplify network operations. We are committed to continued investment in cost effective and high-performance IP transport platforms and automation software, which forms the basis of these high-performance networks.
Build and Manage Distributed Clouds
Our Service Provider customers are investing in the build-out of high-performance networks and the transformation of existing legacy infrastructure to distributed cloud environments, which resides in multiple, distributed data centers in order to place applications and services closer to end users, such as enabling managed security and low-latency applications. We are committed to this transformation as our Service Provider customers rearchitect their infrastructure to enable next generation mobile network build-outs, or 5G, and Internet of Things, or IoT, service delivery close to their end users. We believe our history of experience in both cloud and WAN architecture positions us well to partner with our Service Provider customers in their strategic transformation initiatives. Our Enterprise customers are moving services from their enterprise edge to the distributed edge. We believe the next generation of WAN for Enterprises is about rearchitecting to metro-based cloud hubs that can also host routing and security services, transform costs, and provide cloud performance.
Cloud-DeliveredSecure AI-Driven Enterprise
Enterprises are consuming more value-as-a-service, where value is delivered in the form of cloud-based software and services. We have introduced cloud management and security products, which enable enterprises to consume cloud infrastructure and services securely. We believe the transition to SaaS presents an opportunity for Juniper to come to market with innovative network and security solutions for our Enterprise customers, which facilitate their transition to cloud architectures.architecture and operational experience.
We believe our understanding of high-performance networking technology, cloud architecture, and our strategy, positions us to capitalize on the industry transition to more automated, cost-efficient, scalable networks. Our acquisition ofstrong growth from Mist in 2019 accelerated our ability to execute thishas validated that belief and established us as a leader in cloud-managed AI-enabled wired and wireless enterprise networking operations. Our acquisition of 128 Technology will accelerate this strategy to next generation user-centric SD-WAN and will enable us to offer customers a unified platform for AI-driven Wireless LAN/Wired LAN/SD-WAN, with a superior user experience from client to cloud.
Customer Verticals
We sell our high-performance network products and service offerings through direct sales; distributors; value-added resellers, or VARs; and original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, to end-users in the following verticals: Cloud, Service Provider, and Enterprise.
Key products presented above are for illustration purposes only.
Further, we believe our networking infrastructure offeringssolutions benefit our key customers by:
•Reducing capital and operational costs by running multiple services over the same network using our secure, high density, highly automated, and highly reliable platforms;
•Creating new or additional revenue opportunities by enabling new services to be offered to new market segments, which includes existing customers and new customers, based on our product capabilities;
•Increasing customer satisfaction, while lowering costs, by enabling customers to self-select automatically provisioned service packages that provideoptimizing the quality, speed,experience of network operators and pricing they desire; their users via automation, AI-enabled troubleshooting and support, and cloud-management;
•Providing increased asset longevity and higher return on investment as our customers' networks can scale to higher throughput based on the capabilities of our platforms;
•Offering network security across every environment—from the data center to campus and branch environments to assist in the protection and recovery of services and applications; and
•Offering operational improvements that enable cost reductions, including lower administrative, training, customer care, and labor costs.
The following is an overview of the trends affecting the market in which we operate by each of our customer verticals. We believe the networking needs for each of our customers will eventually result in cloud-based network architectures for improved agility and greater levels of operating efficiency.
Cloud
Our Cloud vertical includes companies that are heavily reliant on the cloud for their business model’s success. Customers in the Cloud vertical can include cloud service providers, such as the largest public cloud providers, which we refer to as hyperscalers, and Tier-2 cloud providers, as well as enterprises that provide SaaS; infrastructure-as-a-service; or platform-as-a-service.
Cloud providers continue to grow as more organizations take advantage of public infrastructure to run their business. As their businesses grow, we expect they will continue to invest in their networks, which dictates the quality and experience of the products and the services they deliver to their end-customers. Further, as cloud providers begin to early adopt new network technologies, such as the transition to 400-gigabit Ethernet, or 400GbE, we believe this should present further opportunities for Juniperus across our portfolio as our cloud customers value high-performance, highly compact, power efficient infrastructures, which we support and continue to develop.
In addition, SaaS continues to be an important factor for cloud providers as their customers, such as enterprises, prefer to consumeprocure and procureconsume product and service offerings via SaaS models. As a result, we believe that SaaS providers will invest in high performance infrastructure because the quality of experience has proven just as important competitively as software features and functions. Lastly, as a result of new regulations and the need for lower latency and high-performance networking, cloud providers arehave been transitioning to regional network build-outs or distributed cloud environments to address the increasing demand for services, data privacy, data protection, and consumer rights.
As Cloud customers are pushing the envelope in networking, our focus on collaboration combined with networking innovation around automation has made us a strategic partner with these customers, helping them develop high-performance and lower total cost of ownership networking solutions to support their business.
Service Provider
Our Service Provider vertical includes wireline and wireless carriers and cable operators, and we support most of the major carrier and operator networks in the world with our high-performance network infrastructure offerings. In recent years, we have seen increased convergence of these different types of customers through acquisitions, mergers, and partnerships.
Service Provider customers recognize the need for high-performance networks and leveraging the cloud to reduce costs from their network operations. This is dictating a change in business models and their underlying infrastructure, which we believe requires investment in the build-out of high-performance networks and the transformation of existing legacy infrastructure to distributed cloud environments in order to satisfy the growth in mobile traffic and video as a result of the increase in mobile device usage including smartphones, tablets, and connected devices of various kinds.
We expect that Network Function Virtualization, or NFV, and SDN, will be critical elements to enable our Service Provider customers the flexibility to support enhanced mobile video and dynamic new service deployments. We are engaging with these customers to transition their operations to essentially next-generation cloud operations as the need for a highly efficient infrastructure to handle large amounts of data along with low latency, or minimal delay, plays into the need to have a high performance, scalable infrastructure in combination with the automation and flexibility required to drive down operational costs and rapidlyrapid provision applications. We consistently deliver leading technologies that transform the economics and experience of networking-significantlynetworking while significantly improving customer economics by lowering the capital expenditures required to build networks and the operating expenses required to manage and maintain them.
In addition to reducing operating costs, Service Providersservice providers are seeking to create new or additional revenue opportunities to support their evolving business models. These customers are preparing forbeginning to deploy 5G, which we expect towill begin to occurroll out over the next few years, and IoT, which we believe will give rise to new services like connected cars, smart cities, robotic manufacturing, and agricultural transformation. 5G and IoT will require a highly distributed cloud data center architecture from which services are delivered to the end users and will involve a great degree of analytics and embedded security. We expect this trend will present further opportunities for Juniper with our focus on delivering a strong portfolio of network virtualization and software-based orchestration solutions, which position us to deliver on the automation and agility requirements needs of Service Providers.service providers.
Enterprise
Our high-performance network infrastructure offerings are designed to meet the performance, reliability, and security requirements of the world's most demanding enterprises. We offer enterprise solutions and services for data centers as well as branch and campus applications. Our Enterprise vertical includes enterprises not included in the Cloud vertical. In particular, theyThey are industries with high performance, high agility requirements, including financial services; national, federal, state, and local governments; as well as research and educational institutions. We believe that our Enterprise customers are able to deploy our solutions as a powerful component in delivering the advanced network capabilities needed for their leading-edge applications.
We believe that as our Enterprise customers continue to transition their workloads to the cloud, they continue to seek greater flexibility in how they consume networking and security services, such as pay-per-use models. Additionally, Enterprises are deploying multicloud architectures which require end-to-end solutions for managing, orchestrating, and securing distributed cloud resources as a single pool of resources. Also, we are increasingly seeing a convergence of networking and security, resulting in security becoming an embedded capability in each and every solution that we offer to our customers.
High-performance enterprises require IP networks that are global, distributed, and always available. We are innovating in key technology areas to meet the needs of our Enterprise customers whether they plan to move to a public cloud architecture or hybrid cloud architecture (which is a mix of public and private cloud, as well as a growing number of SaaS applications).
In 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017,2018, no single customer accounted for 10% or more of our net revenues.
Products, Services, and Technology
Early in our history, we developed, marketed, and sold the first commercially available purpose-built IP backbone router optimized for the specific high-performance requirements of telecom and cable operators. As the need for core bandwidth continued to increase, the need for service-rich platforms at the edge of the network was created.
We have expanded our portfolio to address multiple domains in the network: core; edge; access and aggregation; data centers; and campus and branch. We have systematically focused on how we innovate in silicon, systems, and software (including our Junos OS and virtual network functions, or VNF) such as firewall, network orchestration, and automation to provide a range of hardware and software solutions in high-performance, secure networking.
Our acquisition of 128 Technology represents the next step in our AI-driven enterprise evolution. We have investedbelieve 128 Technology will enhance our AI-Driven enterprise network portfolio with its session smart networking, accelerating the industry evolution
from network-centric SD-WAN solutions to modern user-centric AI-driven networks. Also, we believe our acquisition of Netrounds, which is an end-to-end assurance solution for our Service Provider customers, will enhance our automated WAN solutions with innovative testing and service assurance capabilities to further simplify operations for service providers and ensure positive end-user experiences. Further, we believe our acquisition of Apstra, a leader in the development of silicon photonics to provide our customers with performanceintent-based networking, open programmability and streaming telemetry while driving downautomated closed loop assurance for the cost per bit.management of data center networks, will expand upon our data center networking portfolio to advance our vision to transform data center operations.
Further, our intent is to expand our software business by introducing new software solutions to our product portfolioand services portfolios that simplify the operation of networks, and allowprovide flexibility in consumption and deployment to our customers across our key verticals, flexibility in consumption and deployment.verticals. Our software offerings include subscriptions, SaaS, and term or time-based perpetual licenses. We believe our software and related services revenues as
a percentage of total revenues will increase over time as we introduce new software solutions designed to better monetize the value of software functionality in our offerings.
Significant Product Development Projects and Solutions
In 2019,2020, we continued to execute on our product and solutionsservice solution strategy and announced several new innovations, including metro, edge, and core innovations to accelerate Service Providers’service providers’ 5G transformation. Our Metro Fabric line expansion includes one and three rack unit ACX700 Universal Metro Routers. We announced a new edge MPC11E line card in the MX2000 Series 5G Universal Routing Platform, delivering an increase in line card and system capacity using our Penta Silicon chip. We also announced our new Triton Silicon enabling end-to-end secure connectivity at scale with 400GbE, and native Media Access Control Security that will be used in the PTX10008 and PTX10016 Universal Chassis. These new solutions will help service providers with their infrastructure transformation to 5G.
Also, we introduced our next-generation, cloud-ready operating system, Junos OS Evolved. It has the same command-line interface, the same applications and features, the same management and automation tools as Junos OS, but its infrastructure is entirely modernized, which enables higher availability, accelerated deployment, greater innovation and improved operational efficiencies.
Moreover, we announced a cloud-managed version of our SD-WAN solution. Our Contrail Service Orchestration now gives enterprises a simple way to manage and secure their WAN infrastructure, and Branch LAN, and Wi-Fi networks. We also released our PTX10003 router and our QFX5220 switch, which are both 400GbE ready.
The following is an overview of our principal product families and service offerings in 2019:2020:
Routing Products
| |
• | ACX Series: Our ACX Series Universal Access Routers cost-effectively address current operator challenges to rapidly deploy new high-bandwidth services. The ACX Series is well positioned to address the growing metro Ethernet and mobile backhaul needs of our customers, as we expect 5G mobile network build-outs to begin to occur•ACX Series: Our ACX Series Universal Access Routers cost-effectively address current operator challenges to rapidly deploy new high-bandwidth services. We believe that the ACX Series is well positioned to address the growing metro Ethernet and mobile backhaul needs of our customers, as we expect 5G mobile network build-outs to roll out over the next few years. The platforms deliver the necessary scale and performance needed to support multi-generation wireless technologies.
•MX Series: Our MX Series is a family of high-performance, SDN-ready, Ethernet routers that function as a Universal Edge platform with high system capacity, density, and performance. The MX Series platforms utilize our custom silicon and provide carrier-class performance, scale, and reliability to support large-scale Ethernet deployments. We also offer the vMX, a virtual version of the MX router, which is a fully featured MX Series 3D Universal Edge Router optimized to run as software on x86 servers.
•PTX Series: Our PTX Series Packet Transport Routers deliver high throughput at a low cost per bit, optimized for the service provider core as well as the scale-out architectures of cloud providers. The PTX Series is built on our custom silicon and utilizes a forwarding architecture that is focused on optimizing IP/MPLS, and Ethernet. This ensures high density and scalability, high availability, and network simplification.
•NorthStar Controller: Our wide-area network SDN controller automates the creation of traffic-engineering paths across the network, increasing network utilization and enabling a customized programmable networking experience.
|
| |
• | MX Series: Our MX Series is a family of high-performance, SDN-ready, Ethernet routers that function as a Universal Edge platform with high system capacity, density, and performance. The MX Series platforms utilize our custom silicon and provide carrier-class performance, scale, and reliability to support large-scale Ethernet deployments. We also offer the vMX, a virtual version of the MX router, which is a fully featured MX Series 3D Universal Edge Router optimized to run as software on x86 servers.
|
| |
• | PTX Series: Our PTX Series Packet Transport Routers deliver high throughput at a low cost per bit, optimized for the Service Provider core as well as the scale-out architectures of Cloud Providers. The PTX Series is built on our custom silicon and utilizes a forwarding architecture that is focused on optimizing IP/MPLS, and Ethernet. This ensures high density and scalability, high availability, and network simplification.
|
| |
• | Cloud Customer Premises Equipment, or CPE, Solution: Our Cloud CPE is a fully automated, end-to-end NFV solution that builds on Juniper Networks Contrail Networking and supports cloud-based and premises-based VNFs. This solution includes Contrail Service Orchestration, a comprehensive management and orchestration platform that delivers and manages virtualized network services such as virtual security, and the NFX security family, a network services platform that can operate as a secure, on-premises device running software defined WAN, or SD-WAN, and multiple virtual services, from Juniper and third parties, simultaneously.
|
| |
• | NorthStar Controller: Our wide-area network SDN controller automates the creation of traffic-engineering paths across the network, increasing network utilization and enabling a customized programmable networking experience.
|
Switching Products
| |
• | EX Series: Our EX Series Ethernet switches address the access, aggregation, and core layer switching requirements of micro branch, branch office, and campus environments, providing a foundation for the fast, secure, and reliable delivery of applications able to support strategic business processes.
|
•EX Series: Our EX Series Ethernet switches address the access, aggregation, and core layer switching requirements of micro branch, branch office, and campus environments, providing a foundation for the fast, secure, and reliable delivery of applications able to support strategic business processes.
| |
• |
•QFX Series: Our QFX Series of core, spine, and top-of-rack data center switches offer a revolutionary approach to switching that are designed to deliver dramatic improvements in data center performance, operating costs, and business agility for enterprises, high-performance computing networks, and cloud providers.
•Juniper Access Points: Our access points provide wireless access and performance, which is automatically optimized through reinforcement learning algorithms. Our access points have a dynamic virtual Bluetooth low energy element antenna array for accurate and scalable location services.
: Our QFX Series of core, spine and top-of-rack data center switches offer a revolutionary approach to switching that are designed to deliver dramatic improvements in data center performance, operating costs, and business agility for enterprises, high-performance computing networks, and cloud providers.
|
| |
• | Mist Access Points: Our access points provide wireless access and performance, which is automatically optimized through reinforcement learning algorithms. Our access points have a dynamic virtual Bluetooth low energy element antenna array for accurate and scalable location services.
|
Security Products
| |
• | •SRX Series Services Gateways for the Data Center and Network Backbone: Our mid-range, high-end and virtual SRX Series platforms provide high-performance, scalability, and service integration, which are ideally suited for medium to large enterprise, data centers and large campus environments, where scalability, high performance, and concurrent services, are essential. Our high-end SRX5800 platform is suited for service provider, large enterprise, and public sector networks. The upgrade to our high-end SRX firewall offering with our Services Process Card 3, or SPC3, with our Advanced Security Acceleration line card enhances the SRX5800 to deliver power for demanding use cases, including high-end data centers, IoT, and 5G.
•Branch SRX, Security Policy and Management: The Branch SRX family provides an integrated firewall and next-generation firewall, or NGFW, capabilities. Security Director is a network security management product that offers efficient, highly scalable, and comprehensive network security policy management. These solutions are designed to enable organizations to securely, reliably, and economically deliver powerful new services and applications to all locations and users with superior service quality.
•Virtual Firewall: Our vSRX Firewall delivers all of the features of our physical firewalls, including NGFW functionality, advanced security, and automated lifecycle management capabilities. The vSRX provides scalable, secure protection across private, public, and hybrid clouds. We also offer the cSRX which has been designed and optimized for container and cloud environments.
•Advanced Malware Protection: Our Advanced Threat Prevention portfolio consists of Sky ATP, a cloud-based service and Juniper ATP, or JATP, a premises-based solution. These products are designed to use both static and dynamic analysis with machine learning to find unknown threat signatures (zero-day attacks).
: Our mid-range, high-end and virtual SRX Series platforms provide high-performance, scalability, and service integration, which are ideally suited for medium to large enterprise, data centers and large campus environments where scalability, high performance, and concurrent services, are essential. Our high-end SRX5800 platform is suited for service provider, large enterprise, and public sector networks. The upgrade to our high-end SRX firewall offering with our Services Process Card 3, or SPC3, with our Advanced Security Acceleration line card enhances the SRX5800 to deliver power for demanding use cases, including high-end data centers, IoT, and 5G.
|
| |
• | Branch SRX, Security Policy and Management: The Branch SRX family provides an integrated firewall and next-generation firewall, or NGFW, capabilities. Security Director is a network security management product that offers efficient, highly scalable, and comprehensive network security policy management. These solutions are designed to enable organizations to securely, reliably, and economically deliver powerful new services and applications to all locations and users with superior service quality.
|
| |
• | Virtual Firewall: Our vSRX Firewall delivers all of the features of our physical firewalls, including NGFW functionality, advanced security, and automated lifecycle management capabilities. The vSRX provides scalable, secure protection across private, public, and hybrid clouds. We also offer the cSRX which has been designed and optimized for container and cloud environments.
|
| |
• | Advanced Malware Protection: Our Advanced Threat Prevention portfolio consists of Sky ATP, a cloud-based service and Juniper ATP, or JATP, a premises-based solution. These products are designed to use both static and dynamic analysis with machine learning to find unknown threat signatures (zero-day attacks).
|
Services
In addition to our products, we offer maintenance and support, professional, SaaS, and educational services. We utilize a multi-tiered support model to deliver services that leverage the capabilities of our own direct resources, channelschannel partners, and other third-party organizations.
We also train our channel partners in the delivery of support, professional, and educational services to ensure these services can be locally delivered.
As of December 31, 2019,2020, we employed 1,8021,887 people in our worldwide customer service and support organization. We believe that a broad range of services is essential to the successful customer deployment and ongoing support of our products, and we employ remote technical support engineers, on-site resident engineers, spare parts planning and logistics staff, professional services consultants, and educators with proven network experience to provide those services.
Platform Strategy
In addition to our major product families and services, our software portfolio has been a key technology element in our goal to be a leader in high-performance networking.
Our Junos Platform enables our customers to expand network software into the application space, deploy software clients to control delivery, and accelerate the pace of innovation with an ecosystem of developers. At the heart of the Junos Platform is Junos OS Evolved. We believe Junos OS Evolved is fundamentally differentiated from other network operating systems not only in its design, but also in its development capabilities. The advantages of Junos OS Evolved include:
•A modular operating system with common base of code and a single, consistent implementation for each control plane feature;
•A highly disciplined and firmly scheduled development process;
•A common modular software architecture that scales across all Junos-based platforms;
•A central database, which is used by not only Junos native applications but also external applications using application programming interfaces, or API's; and
•A fully distributed general-purpose software infrastructure that leverages all the compute resources on the network element.
Junos OS Evolved is designed to improve the availability, performance, and security of business applications running across the network. Junos OS Evolved helps to automate network operations by providing a single consistent implementation of features across the network in a single release train that seeks to minimize the complexity, cost, and risk associated with implementing network features and upgrades.
Orchestration and Monitoring
As many of our customers continue moving to programmable and automated network operations, managing, orchestrating, and securing that complex journey can be a challenge. Network automation is the process of automating the configuration, management, testing, deployment, and operations of physical and virtual devices within a network. We believe the keys to achieving success with network and security automation includes:
•Architecting networking systems with strong APIs, analytics, and autonomous control; and
•Automating operations to become more reliable in the context of IT systems, teams, processes, and network operation and security operation workflows.
We are committed to providing solutions to help our customers to optimize their programmable and automated networking operations with the following offerings:
| |
• | •Contrail: Our Contrail Networking and Contrail Cloud Platform offer an open-source, standards-based platform for SDN and NFV. This platform enables our customers to address their key problems in the area of network automation, agility, and time-to-service deployment by providing a mechanism to virtualize the network over any physical network and automating the provisioning and management of networking services (such as security and load balancing). Contrail Enterprise Multicloud and Contrail Edge Cloud provide packaged solutions designed for Enterprise multicloud and Service Provider Edge environments, respectively. Contrail’s approach is to support multiple cloud and hardware vendors, various types of workloads, and both existing and new deployments.
•Contrail Insights: Contrail Insights (formerly known as AppFormix) is an optimization and management software platform for public, private, and hybrid clouds. This intent-driven software manages automated operations, visibility, and reporting in cloud and NFV use cases. It features machine learning-based policy and smart monitors, application and software-defined infrastructure analytics, and alarms to provide comprehensive visualization, smart analytics, and the ability to manage automatic remediation for service assurance.
•Wired, Wireless, and WAN Assurance driven by Mist AI: We provide visibility all the way down to the individual client, application and session to optimize individual user experiences from client-to-cloud. With customizable service levels that span the LAN, WLAN, and WAN, our solutions enable our customers to set and measure key metrics and proactively assure optimal user experiences on an ongoing basis. In addition, automated workflows are combined with event correlation, predictive analytics, and proactive self-driving operations to simplify IT operations and minimize end-to-end network troubleshooting costs.
•Marvis Virtual Network Assistant driven by Mist AI: Our Marvis Virtual Network Assistant identifies the root cause of issues across the information technology, or IT, domains and automatically resolves many issues proactively. It recommends actions for those connected systems outside of the Mist domain, while offering a real-time network health dashboard that reports issues from configuration to troubleshooting. Marvis has unique Natural Language Processing ("NLP") capabilities with a conversational interface so IT staff can get accurate answers to normal English language queries.
•Netrounds: Netrounds is a programmable, software-based active test and service assurance platform suitable for fixed and mobile networks for the entire service lifecycle. With its unique ability to actively test and monitor networks directly within software-defined virtual services, Netrounds acts as the missing link between services and networks, providing assurance about the quality of service experience from a customer's perspective, with insight to where a problem originated.
: Our Contrail Networking and Contrail Cloud Platform offer an open-source, standards-based platform for SDN and NFV. This platform enables our customers to address their key problems in the area of network automation, agility, and time-to-service deployment by providing a mechanism to virtualize the network over any physical network and automating the provisioning and management of networking services (such as security and load balancing). Contrail Enterprise Multicloud and Contrail Edge Cloud provide packaged solutions designed for Enterprise multicloud and Service Provider Edge environments, respectively. Contrail’s approach is to support multiple cloud and hardware vendors, various types of workloads, and both existing and new deployments.
|
| |
• | Contrail Insights: Contrail Insights (formerly known as AppFormix) is an optimization and management software platform for public, private, and hybrid clouds. This intent-driven software manages automated operations, visibility, and reporting in cloud and NFV use cases. It features machine learning-based policy and smart monitors, application and software-defined infrastructure analytics, and alarms to provide comprehensive visualization, smart analytics, and the ability to manage automatic remediation for service assurance.
|
| |
• | Marvis Actions and AI-driven Virtual Network Assistant: Our Marvis Actions and AI-driven Virtual Network Assistant identifies the root cause of issues across the information technology, or IT, domains and automatically resolves many issues. It recommends actions for those connected systems outside of the Mist domain, while offering a real-time network health dashboard that reports issues from configuration to troubleshooting.
|
Research and Development
We have assembled a team of skilled engineers with extensive experience in the fields of high-end computing, network system design, ASIC design, security, routing protocols, software applications and platforms, and embedded operating systems. As of December 31, 2019,2020, we employed 3,7774,044 people in our worldwide research and development, or R&D, organization.
We believe that strong product development capabilities are essential to our strategy of enhancing our core technology, developing additional applications, integrating that technology, and maintaining the competitiveness and innovation of our product and service offerings. In our products, we are leveraging our software, ASIC and systems technology, developing additional network interfaces
targeted to our customers' applications, and continuing to develop technology to support the build-out of secure high-performance networks and cloud environments. We continue to expand the functionality of our products to improve performance, reliability and scalability, and provide an enhanced user interface.
Our R&D process is driven by our corporate strategy and the availability of new technology, market demand, and customer feedback. We have invested significant time and resources in creating a structured process for all product development projects. Following an assessment of market demand, our R&D team develops a full set of comprehensive functional product specifications based on inputs from the product management and sales organizations. This process is designed to provide a framework for defining and addressing the steps, tasks, and activities required to bring product concepts and development projects to market.
Sales and Marketing
As of December 31, 2019,2020, we employed 2,7042,880 people in our worldwide sales and marketing organization. These sales and marketing employees operate in different locations around the world in support of our customers.
Our sales organization, with its structure of sales professionals, business development teams, systems engineers, marketing teams, channel teams, and an operational infrastructure team, is based on both vertical markets and geographic regions.
Our sales teams operate in their respective regions and generally either engage customers directly or manage customer opportunities through our distribution and reseller relationships as described below.
We sell to a number of Cloud and Service Provider customers directly. Otherwise, we sell to all of our key customer verticals primarily through distributors and resellers.
Direct Sales Structure
The terms and conditions of direct sales arrangements are governed either by customer purchase orders along with acknowledgment of our standard order terms, or by direct master purchase agreements. The direct master purchase agreements with these customers set forth only general terms of sale and generally do not require customers to purchase specified quantities of our products. We directly receive and process customer purchase orders.
Channel Sales Structure
A critical part of our sales and marketing efforts are our channel partners through which we conduct the majority of our sales.
We utilize various channel partners, including, but not limited to the following:
•A global network of strategic distributor relationships, as well as region-specific or country-specific distributors who in turn sell to local VARs who sell to end-user customers. Our distribution channel partners resell routing, switching, and security products, software and services, which are purchased by all of our key customer verticals. These distributors tend to focus on particular regions or countries within regions.countries. For example, we have substantial distribution relationships with Ingram Micro in the Americas and Hitachi in Japan. Our agreements with these distributors are generally non-exclusive, limited by region, and provide product and service discounts and other ordinary terms of sale. These agreements do not require our distributors to purchase specified quantities of our products or services. Further, most of our distributors sell our competitors' products and services, and some sell their own competing products and services.
•VARs and direct value-added resellers, including our strategic worldwide alliance partners referenced below, resell our products to end-users around the world. These channel partners either buy our products and services through distributors, or directly from us, and have expertise in designing, selling, implementing, and supporting complex networking solutions in their respective markets. Our agreements with these channel partners are generally non-exclusive, limited by region, and provide product and service discounts and other ordinary terms of sale. These agreements do not require these channel partners to purchase specified quantities of our products or services. Increasingly, our Cloud and Service Provider customers also resell our products or services to their customers or purchase our products or services for the purpose of providing managed or cloud-based services to their customers.
•Strategic worldwide reseller relationships with established Juniper alliances, comprised of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation; Ericsson Telecom A.B., or Ericsson; International Business Machines, or IBM; NEC Corporation; Fujitsu; and NEC Corporation.Atos. These companies each offer services and products that complement our own product and service offerings and act as a reseller, and in some instances as an integration partner for our products. Our arrangements with these
partners allow them to resell our products and services on a non-exclusive and generally global basis, provide for product and service discounts, and specify other general terms of sale. These agreements do not require these partners to purchase specified quantities of our products or services.
Manufacturing and Operations
As of December 31, 2019,2020, we employed 340 people in worldwide manufacturing and operations who manage our supply chain including relationships with our contract manufacturers, original design manufacturers, component suppliers, warehousing and logistics service providers.
Our manufacturing is primarily conducted through contract manufacturers and original design manufacturers in the United States, or U.S., China, Malaysia, Mexico, and Taiwan. As of December 31, 2019,2020, we utilized Celestica Incorporated, Flextronics International Ltd., Accton Technology Corporation, and Alpha Networks Inc. for the majority of our manufacturing activity. Our contract manufacturers and original design manufacturers are responsible for all phases of manufacturing from prototypes to full production including activities such as material procurement, surface mount assembly, final assembly, test, control, shipment to our customers, and repairs. Together with our contract manufacturers and original design manufacturers, we design, specify, and monitor the tests that are required to ensure that our products meet internal and external quality standards. We believe that these arrangements provide us with the following benefits:
•We can quickly ramp up and deliver products to customers with turnkey manufacturing;
•We gain economies of scale by leveraging our buying power with our contract manufacturers and original design manufacturers when we manufacture large quantities of products;
•We operate with a minimum amount of dedicated space and employees for manufacturing operations; and
•We can reduce our costs by reducing what would normally be fixed overhead expenses.
Our contract manufacturers and original design manufacturers build our products based on our rolling product demand forecasts. Each contract manufacturer procures the components necessary to assemble the products in our forecast and tests the products according to agreed-upon specifications. Products are then shipped to our distributors, resellers, or end-customers. Generally, we do not own the components. Title to the finished goods is generally transferred from the contract manufacturers to us when the products leave the contract manufacturer's or original design manufacturer's location. Customers take title to the
products upon delivery at a specified destination. If the product or components remain unused or the products remain unsold for a specified period, we may incur carrying charges or charges for excess or obsolete materials.
Our contracts with our contract manufacturers and original design manufacturers set forth a framework within which the contract manufacturer and original design manufacturer, as applicable, may accept purchase orders from us. These contracts do not represent long-term commitments.
We also purchase and hold inventory for strategic reasons and to mitigate the risk of shortages of certain critical components; the majority of this inventory is production components. As a result, we may incur additional holding costs and obsolescence charges, particularly resulting from uncertainties in future product demand.
Some of our custom components, such as ASICs, are manufactured primarily by sole or limited sources, each of which is responsible for all aspects of production using our proprietary designs. To ensure the security and integrity of Juniper products during manufacture, assembly and distribution, we have implemented a supply chain risk management framework as part of our overall Brand Integrity Management System. This framework encompasses all aspects of the supply chain as well as enhanced elements specific to security issues applicable to Juniper products and our customers.
By working collaboratively with our suppliers and as members of coalitions such as the Responsible Business Alliance, Responsible Minerals Initiative, and the CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project, or CDP, Supply Chain program, we endeavor to promote socially and environmentally responsible business practices beyond our company and throughout our worldwide supply chain. To this end, we have adopted a business partner code of conduct and promote compliance with such code of conduct to our suppliers. Our business partner code of conduct expresses support for and is aligned with the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact and the Responsible Business Alliance Code of Conduct. The Responsible Business Alliance, a coalition of electronics, retail, auto and toy companies, provides guidelines and resources to drive performance and compliance with critical corporate social responsibility policies. Its goals are to promote ethical business practices, to ensure that working conditions in the electronic industry supply chain are safe, that workers are treated with respect and dignity, and that manufacturing processes are environmentally responsible. By using standard audit
and assessment protocols and tools, we measure and monitor manufacturing partners’ and direct material suppliers’ compliance to the codes of conduct, including but not limited to: onsite audits; risk assessments; CDP climate change and water requests; and conflict minerals surveys. CDP is a global standardized mechanism by which companies can report their environmental performance on climate change, water and forest programs to institutional investors and customers. Our Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability Report, which details our supply chain efforts, and Business Partner Code of Conduct are available on our website.
Backlog
Our sales are made primarily pursuant to purchase orders under master sales agreements either with our distributors, resellers, or end-customers. At any given time, we have backlog orders for products that have not shipped. Because customers may cancel purchase orders or change delivery schedules without significant penalty, we believe that our backlog at any given date may not be a reliable indicator of future operating results. As of December 31, 20192020 and December 31, 2018,2019, our total product backlog was approximately $341.1$419.6 million and $344.3$341.1 million, respectively. Our product backlog consists of confirmed orders for products scheduled to be shipped to our distributors, resellers, or end-customers, generally within the next six months. Backlog excludes certain future revenue adjustments for items such as product revenue deferrals, sales return reserves, service revenue allocations, and early payment discounts.
Seasonality
We, as do many companies in our industry, experience seasonal fluctuations in customer spending patterns. Historically, we have experienced stronger customer demand in the fourth quarter and weaker demand in the first quarter of the fiscal year. This historical pattern should not be considered a reliable indicator of our future net revenues or financial performance.
Competition
We compete in the network infrastructure markets. These markets are characterized by rapid change, converging technologies, and a migration to solutions that combine high performance networking with cloud technologies. In the network infrastructure business, Cisco Systems, Inc., or Cisco, has historically been the dominant player. However, our principal competitors also include Arista Networks, Inc., or Arista;; Dell Technologies, or Dell;Technologies; Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., or HPE; Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., or Huawei; and Nokia Corporation, or Nokia.
Many of our current and potential competitors, such as Cisco, Nokia, HPE, and Huawei, among others, have broader portfolios which enable them to bundle their networking products with other networking and information technology products in a manner that may discourage customers from purchasing our products. Many of our current and potential competitors have greater name recognition, marketing budgets, and more extensive customer bases that they may leverage to compete more effectively. Increased competition could result in price reductions, fewer customer orders, reduced gross margins, and loss of market share, negatively affecting our operating results.
In addition, there are a number of other competitors in the security network infrastructure space, including Palo Alto Networks, Inc., or Palo Alto Networks;; Check Point Software Technologies, Ltd., or Check Point;; F5 Networks, Inc., or F5 Networks;; and Fortinet, Inc., or Fortinet;; among others, who tend to be focused specifically on security solutions and, therefore, may be considered specialized compared to our broader product line.
We expect that over time, large companies with significant resources, technical expertise, market experience, customer relationships, and broad product lines, such as Cisco, Nokia, and Huawei, will introduce new products designed to compete more effectively in the market. There are also several other companies that aim to build products with greater capabilities to compete with our products. Further, there has been significant consolidation in the networking industry, with smaller companies being acquired by larger, established suppliers of network infrastructure products. We believe this trend is likely to continue which may increase the competitive pressure faced by us due to their increased size and breadth of their product portfolios.
In addition to established competitors, a number of public and private companies have announced plans for new products to address the same needs that our products address. We believe that our ability to compete depends upon our ability to demonstrate that our products are superior and cost effective in meeting the needs of our current and potential customers.
As a result, we expect to face increased competition in the future from larger companies with significantly more resources than we have and also from emerging companies that are developing new technologies. Although we believe that our technology and the purpose-built features of our products make them unique and will enable us to compete effectively with these companies, there can be no assurance that new products, enhancements or business strategies will achieve widespread market acceptance.
Material Government Regulations
Our business activities are worldwide and subject us to various federal, state, local, and foreign laws in the countries in which we operate, and our products and services are subject to laws and regulations affecting the sale of our products. To date, costs and accruals incurred to comply with these governmental regulations have not been material to our capital expenditures, results of operations, and competitive position. Although there is no assurance that existing or future governmental laws and regulations applicable to our operations, products or services will not have a material adverse effect on our capital expenditures, results of operations, and competitive position, we do not currently anticipate material expenditures for government regulations. Nonetheless, as discussed below, we believe that environmental and global trade regulations could potentially have a material impact our business.
Environment
We are committed to maintaining compliance with all environmental laws applicable to our operations, products, and services and to reducing our environmental impact across our business and supply chain. Our operations and many of our products are subject to various federal, state, local, and foreign regulations that have been adopted with respect to the environment, such as the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, or WEEE, Directive; Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment, or RoHS; andEquipment; Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals, or REACH,Chemicals; and Substances of Concern In Products, regulations adopted by the European Union, or EU, and China. To date, compliance with federal, state, local, and foreign laws enacted for the protection of the environment has had no material effect on our capital expenditures, earnings, or competitive position. However, see the risk factor entitled "Regulation of our industry in general and the telecommunications industry in particular could harm our operating results and future prospects" in the section entitled Risk Factors in Item 1A of Part I of this Report for additional information concerning regulatory compliance.
Juniper’s greatest impact on the environment is through our products and services. Juniper has an environmental program, based on our new product introduction process that supports a circular economy model for environmental sustainability and focuses on energy efficiency, materials innovation, and recyclability. We consider opportunities to minimize resource impacts and improve efficiencies over a product’s life cycle, from the materials we use and a product’s energy footprint, to packaging and end-of-life, or EOL, activities such as reuse, refurbishment, and recycling. For example, the Juniper Certified Pre-Owned program offers a broad range of refurbished high-performance network solutions from Juniper’s current line and end-of-production hardware portfolios with available Juniper-backed warranty and support services.
We are committed to the environment through our efforts to improve the energy efficiency per gigabit of throughput of key elements in our high-performance network product offerings. Our products are independently tested by third parties for energy efficiency compliance. As an example and part of our continued focus on improving the energy efficiency per gigabit of throughput, our MX10008 and MX10016 products redefine per-slot economics, enabling customers to do more with less while simplifying network design and reducing operating expenses, by consuming 0.6W per Gigabit of throughput. We also released a new line card, MPC11E, using the Penta silicon in 2019, which reduces the power consumption by 40% compared to our earlier generation line card. Additionally, we have redesigned packaging in ways that optimizes costs while minimizing resource impacts.
We are also voluntarily participating in CDP climate change and water disclosures and encourage our direct material suppliers and manufacturing partners to do the same. Additionally, we are a member of the Responsible Business Alliance, or RBA, and have adopted and promote the adoption by our suppliers the RBA Code of Conduct, as discussed above in the section entitled
Manufacturing and Operations. We continue to invest in the infrastructure and systems required to execute on, monitor and drive environmental improvements in our global operations and within our supply chain.
Global Trade
As a global company, the import and export of our products and services are subject to laws and regulations including international treaties, U.S. export controls and sanctions laws, customs regulations, and local trade rules around the world. The scope, nature, and severity of such controls varies widely across different countries and may change frequently over time. Such laws, rules and regulations may delay the introduction of some of our products or impact our competitiveness through restricting our ability to do business in certain places or with certain entities and individuals, or by requiring us to comply with domestic preference programs, laws concerning transfer and disclosure of sensitive or controlled technology or source code, unique technical standards, localization mandates, and duplicative in-country testing and inspection requirements. In particular, the U.S. and other governments have imposed restrictions on the import and export of, among other things, certain telecommunications products and components, particularly those that contain or use encryption technology. Most of our products are telecommunications products and contain or use encryption technology and, consequently, are subject to restrictions. The consequences of any failure to comply with domestic and foreign trade regulations could limit our ability to conduct business globally. We continue to support open trade policies that recognize the importance of integrated cross-border supply chains that are expected to continue to contribute to the growth of the global economy and measures that standardize compliance for manufacturers to ensure that products comply with safety and security requirements.
For additional information concerning regulatory compliance and a discussion of the risks associated with governmental regulations that may materially impact us, please see the section entitled “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of Part I of this Report.
Intellectual Property
Our success and ability to compete are substantially dependent upon our internally developed technology and expertise, as well as our ability to obtain and protect necessary intellectual property rights. While we rely on patent, copyright, trade secret, and trademark law, as well as confidentiality agreements, to protect our technology, we also believe that factors such as the technological and creative skills of our personnel, new product developments, frequent product enhancements, and reliable product maintenance are essential to establishing and maintaining a technology leadership position. There can be no assurance that others will not develop technologies that are similar or superior to our technology.
Patents
As of December 31, 2019,2020, we had over 3,7004,300 patents worldwide and numerous patent applications are pending. Patents generally have a term of twenty years from filing. As our patent portfolio has been built over time, the remaining terms on the individual patents vary. We cannot be certain that patents will be issued on the patent applications that we have filed, that we will be able to obtain the necessary intellectual property rights, or that other parties will not contest our intellectual property rights.
Licenses
In addition, we integrate licensed third-party technology into certain of our products and, from time to time, we need to renegotiate these licenses or license additional technology from third parties to develop new products or product enhancements or to facilitate new business models. There can be no assurance that third-party licenses will be available or continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Our inability to maintain or re-license any third-party licenses required in our products or our inability to obtain third-party licenses necessary to develop new products and product enhancements could require us to
obtain substitute technology of lower quality or performance standards or at a greater cost, any of which could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Trademarks
JUNIPER NETWORKS, JUNIPER, the Juniper Networks logo, JUNOS, RUNNING JUNOS, CONTRAIL, and CONTRAILother trademarks are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Employees
Human Capital Resources
We believe our success in delivering high-performance networks in the digital transformation era relies on our culture, values, and the creativity and commitment of our people. As of December 31, 2019,2020, we had 9,4199,950 full-time employees.employees, of whom approximately 46%, 41% and 13% resided in the Americas, APAC, and EMEA, respectively. We have not experienced any work stoppages,invest in our people. We strive to maintain healthy, safe, and we consider our relations withsecure working conditions - a workplace where our employees are treated with respect and dignity. Our vision is to be good. Competitioncreate an inclusive, diverse and authentic community that inspires collaboration, integrity, engagement, and innovation. We are striving to create a world-class employee experience – one that offers opportunity for qualified personnelpersonal and professional growth, and enable work-life balance that aligns with the core values embodied in The Juniper Way.
The Juniper Way
More than a set of shared values, the Juniper Way reflects the company’s commitment to inspire every Juniper employee to do their best work. This foundation is embodied in three values – Be Bold, Build Trust, and Deliver Excellence, along with a set of refined behaviors for each.
Inclusion and Diversity
As a company committed to innovation and representing diversity in a myriad of ways — including race, ethnicity, age, background, perspectives, tenure, work style, and sexual orientation — we believe that diversity is a competitive asset. At our core, we believe excellence depends on seeking out diverse ideas and fostering a culture where all employees are actively engaged. Also, we are committed to improving inclusivity by being engaged and accountable at the highest level of leadership.
We monitor our progress against our inclusion and diversity strategy of diversifying our talent base, creating an environment where all employees feel included and valued, and driving accountability across the organization. In 2020, we continued to make progress in our industry is intense. inclusion and diversity efforts, including higher female representation in the global leadership.
Employee Engagement
We believeuse a framework called Talent Matters to encourage an open and interactive culture between employees and their manager, where individual needs are recognized and met, and company goals are supported. Our professional development approach includes reviewing and assessing our management teams as well as facilitating personal employee development and growth. For all employees, growth goals are tied to our corporate objectives and key results, to ensure that they are progressing and are supported by management teams. In early 2020, we launched a People Manager Network to create global consistency in how people managers lead teams and support employees, including specific focus on leading during the COVID-19 pandemic. With this program, managers are empowered and provided with the training and resources to scale employee career growth and provide their teams with the necessary tools to facilitate that growth. Managers are encouraged to schedule Conversation Days with their direct reports to identify opportunities for the company to better support employees and set goals for professional and personal growth. 91% of the people managers participated in a People Manager Network experience in 2020.
To ensure our future success depends in part on our continued ability to hire, motivate,employees’ personal and retain qualified personnel. We believe thatprofessional growth, we have been successful in recruiting qualified employees, but there is no assurance that we will continue to be successfuldevelop training courses focused on building personal capabilities as well as skill development. Each year, Juniper employees also receive role-specific training, in addition to trainings, which includes topics, such as human rights, environmental performance, compliance with the future.Juniper Worldwide Code of Business Conduct, engineering and other compliance and industry-specific subjects.
Our future performance depends significantly uponWe consistently work to improve the continued service ofemployee experience by addressing feedback collected through the annual Juniper Voice Survey and topic-specific surveys, including employee benefits and total rewards package and Juniper's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Information about our key technical, sales, and senior management personnel, none of whom are bound by an employment agreement requiring service for any defined period of time. The loss of one or more of our key employees could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Executive Officers of the Registrant
The following sets forth certain information regarding our executive officers as of the filing of this Report:
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Name | | Age | | Position |
Rami Rahim | | 4950 | | Chief Executive Officer and Director |
Anand Athreya | | 5657 | | Executive Vice President, Chief Development Officer |
Manoj Leelanivas | | 5051 | | Executive Vice President, Chief Product Officer |
Brian Martin | | 5859 | | Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary |
Kenneth B. Miller | | 49 | | Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer |
Thomas A. Austin | | 5253 | | Vice President, Corporate Controller and Chief Accounting Officer |
RAMI RAHIM joined Juniper in January 1997 and became Chief Executive Officer of Juniper, and a member of the Board of Directors, in November 2014. From March 2014 until he became Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Rahim served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Juniper Development and Innovation. His responsibilities included driving strategy, development and business growth for routing, switching, security, silicon technology, and the Junos operating system. Previously, Mr. Rahim served Juniper in a number of roles, including Executive Vice President, Platform Systems Division, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Edge and Aggregation Business Unit, or EABU, and Vice President, Product Management for EABU. Prior to that, Mr. Rahim spent the majority of his time at Juniper in the development organization where he helped with the architecture, design and implementation of many Juniper core, edge, and carrier Ethernet products. Mr. Rahim holds a bachelor of science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto and a master of science degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
ANAND ATHREYA joined Juniper in August 2004 and became Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer in August 2017. In this role, he is responsible for Juniper's Engineering organization. Since joining Juniper, Mr. Athreya has held various leadership positions within Engineering, including most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Engineering from May 2014 through August 2017, and Corporate Vice President of Engineering from February 2011 through May 2014. Mr. Athreya joined Juniper from Procket Networks, a maker of routers and routing technology, where he served as Director of Software Engineering. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Engineering at Malibu Networks, a supplier of fixed wireless networking based broadband solutions, Assistant Vice President of Product Management and Strategy at Tiara Networks, a provider of broadband access systems, and held engineering roles at Novell, a software and services company. Mr. Athreya received his bachelor of science degree in Electrical Engineering from Bangalore University, a master of science degree in
Computer Science and Engineering from Osmania University, and an MBA from National University. He is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
MANOJ LEELANIVAS joined Juniper in March 2018 as Executive Vice President, Chief Product Officer. In this role, Mr. Leelanivas leads all aspects of product strategy and direction for Juniper and helps to align products with our go-to-market strategies
and execution, including marketing operations. From June 2013 to September 2017, Mr. Leelanivas was President and Chief Executive Officer of Cyphort, an innovator in scale-out security analytics technology, that was acquired by Juniper in September 2017. From March 1999 to May 2013, he held several key product management positions at Juniper, including Executive Vice President of Advanced Technologies Sales for data center. Mr. Leelanivas holds a bachelor of technology in Computer Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, a master of science degree in Computer Science from the University of Kentucky, and is a graduate of the Stanford University Executive Business Program.
BRIAN MARTIN joined Juniper in October 2015 as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. From January 2018 to October 2018, Mr. Martin also assumed the role of interim Chief Human Resources Officer ("CHRO") while the Company continued its search for a full-time CHRO. From April 2007 to September 2015, Mr. Martin served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of KLA-Tencor Corporation ("KLA-Tencor"), a provider of process control and yield management solutions. Prior to joining KLA-Tencor, Mr. Martin spent ten years in senior legal positions at Sun Microsystems, Inc. ("Sun"), a manufacturer of computer workstations, servers, software, and services for networks, most recently as Vice President, Corporate Law Group, responsible for legal requirements associated with Sun’s corporate securities, mergers, acquisitions and alliances, corporate governance and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, and litigation management. Prior to joining Sun, Mr. Martin was in private practice where he had extensive experience in antitrust and intellectual property litigation. From August 2020 to the present, he has served as an adjunct professor at the Southern University Law Center. Mr. Martin holds a bachelor of science degree in Economics from the University of Rochester and a J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School.
KENNETH B. MILLER joined Juniper in June 1999 and has served as our Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer since February 2016. Mr. Miller served as our interim Chief Accounting Officer while the Company continued to search for a full-time Chief Accounting Officer from February 23, 2019 to September 2019. From April 2014 to February 2016, Mr. Miller served as our Senior Vice President, Finance, where he was responsible for the finance organization across the Company, as well as our treasury, tax and global business services functions. Previously, Mr. Miller served as our Vice President, Go-To-Market Finance, Vice President, Platform Systems Division, Vice President, SLT Business Group Controller and in other positions in our Finance and Accounting organizations. Mr. Miller holds a bachelor of science degree in Accounting from Santa Clara University.
THOMAS A. AUSTIN joined Juniper in September 2019 as our Vice President, Corporate Controller and Chief Accounting Officer. From September 2016 until July 2019, Mr. Austin served as the Vice President of Corporate Finance at Dell Technologies, Inc., a multinational information technology company. From September 2008 until its acquisition by Dell Technologies in September 2016, Mr. Austin served as the Vice President of Corporate Finance at EMC Corporation, a multinational information technology company. EMC Corporation was acquired by Dell Technologies in September 2016. From January 2001 through July 2008, Mr. Austin served as the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer at Arbor Networks, Inc., a network security company. Prior to joining Arbor Networks, Mr. Austin served as a controller for several companies. He began his career in public accounting at PricewaterhouseCoopers, a registered public accounting firm. Mr. Austin holds a bachelor of science degree in Public Accountancy from Providence College and an MBA from Babson College. Mr. Austin is also an adjunct professor of Finance at Providence College School of Business.
Available Information
We file our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and current reports on Form 8-K with the SEC electronically. The SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers, including Juniper Networks that file electronically with the SEC. The address of that website is https://www.sec.gov.
You may obtain a free copy of our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports on our website at http://www.juniper.net or by sending an e-mail message to Juniper Networks Investor Relations at investorrelations@juniper.net. Such reports and other information are available on our website as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. Our Corporate Governance Standards, the charters of our Audit Committee, Compensation Committee, and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, as
well as our Worldwide Code of Business Conduct are also available on our website. Information on our website is not, and will not be deemed, a part of this report or incorporated into any other filings the Company makes with the SEC.
Investors and others should note that we announce material financial and operational information to our investors using our Investor Relations website (http://investor.juniper.net), press releases, SEC filings and public conference calls and webcasts. We also use the Twitter accounts @JuniperNetworks and the Company’s blogs as a means of disclosing information about the Company and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. The social media channels that we use as a means of disclosing information described above may be updated from time to time as listed on our Investor Relations website.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Factors That May Affect Future Results
InvestmentsWe operate in our securities involve significant risks. Even small changes in investor expectations for our future growthrapidly changing economic and earnings, whether as a resulttechnological environments that present numerous risks, many of actualwhich are driven by factors that we cannot control or rumored financial or operating results, changespredict. Some of these risks are highlighted in the mixfollowing discussion, and in Management’s Discussion and Analysis of the productsFinancial Condition and services sold, acquisitions, industry changes, or other factors, could trigger,Results of Operations and have triggered in the past, significant fluctuations in the market price of our common stock.Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk. Investors in our securities should carefully consider all of the relevant factorsrisks disclosed by us including, butbefore investing in our securities. The occurrence of any of these risks or additional risks and uncertainties not limitedpresently known to the following factors,us or that we currently believe to be immaterial could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, and stock price.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR BUSINESS STRATEGY AND INDUSTRY
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected how we and our customers are operating our businesses, and the duration and extent to which this will impact our future results of operations and overall financial performance remains uncertain. The COVID-19 pandemic has, and may continue to, negatively affect our operations, including as a result of external factors beyond our control such as restrictions on the physical movement of our employees, contract manufacturers, partners, and customers to limit the spread of COVID-19 and the availability and acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. Since March 2020, the majority of our global workforce has been working remotely resulting from shelter-in-place requirements and travel restrictions. We continue to follow the guidance of local and national governments, including monitoring the health of employees who have returned to our offices and limiting the gathering size of employee groups in indoor spaces. If the COVID-19 pandemic has a substantial impact on our employees, partners or customers health, attendance or productivity, our results of operations and overall financial performance may be adversely impacted.
Moreover, the conditions caused by the pandemic may affect the overall demand environment for our products and services and could adversely affect our customers’ ability or willingness to purchase our products or services or to make payments on existing contracts with us, delay prospective customers’ purchasing decisions, delay the provisioning of our offerings, lengthen payment terms, or affect attrition rates, all of which could adversely affect our future sales, operating results and overall financial performance. Further, the pandemic has and could continue to adversely affect our ability to provide or deliver products and on-site services to our customers. For example, during fiscal 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused us to experience supply constraints due to both constrained manufacturing capacity as well as shortages of component parts as our component vendors also faced manufacturing challenges. These challenges resulted in extended lead-times to our customers and increased logistics costs, which negatively impacted our ability to recognize revenue and decreased our gross margins for these periods. While our manufacturing capacity continues to improve, we expect several of our component suppliers will remain challenged in the near term. Further, the spread of COVID-19 has and is likely to continue to affect the shipment of goods globally.
The duration and extent of the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic on our business depends on future developments that cannot be accurately forecasted at this time, such as the transmission rate and geographic spread of the disease, the extent and effectiveness of containment actions, the world-wide distribution and acceptance of vaccines, and the impact of these and other factors on our employees, customers, partners, and vendors. If we are not able to respond to and manage the impact of such events effectively and if the macroeconomic conditions of the general economy or the industries in which we operate do not improve, or worsen from present levels, our business, operating results, financial condition and cash flows could continue to be adversely affected.
Our quarterly results are unpredictable and subject to substantial fluctuations; as a result, we may fail to meet the expectations of securities analysts and investors, which could adversely affect the trading price of our common stock.
investors. Our revenues and operating results may vary significantly from quarter-to-quarter due to a number of factors, many of which are outside of our controlcontrol. If our quarterly financial results or our predictions of future financial results fail to meet the expectations of securities analysts and anyinvestors, the trading price of whichour securities could be negatively affected. Our operating results for prior periods may causenot be effective predictors of our stock price to fluctuate.future performance.
The factorsFactors associated with our industry, the operation of our business, and the markets for our products and services that may cause our quarterly results to vary quarter by quarter and be unpredictablefluctuate, include but are not limited to:
•unpredictable ordering patterns and limited or reduced visibility into our customers’ spending plans and associated revenue;
•changes in our customer mix;
changes in the demand for our products and services;
changes inmix, the mix of products and services sold;
changes insold, and the mix of geographies in which our products and services are sold;
•changes in the demand for our products and services, including seasonal fluctuations in customer spending;
•changing market and economic conditions, including the impactconditions;
current and potential customer, partner and supplier consolidation and concentration;
•price and product competition;
long sales, qualification and implementation cycles;
success in new and evolving markets and emerging technologies;
•ineffective legal protection of our intellectual property rights in certain countries;
•how well we execute on our strategy and operating plans and the impact of changes in our business model that could result in significant restructuring charges;model;
ability of our customers, channel partners, contract manufacturers and suppliers to purchase, market, sell, manufacture or supply our products (or components of our products) and services;
•financial stability of our customers, including the solvency of private sector customers, and which may be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic;
•statutory authority for government customers to purchase goods and services;
our ability to achieve targeted cost reductions;
•executive orders, tariffs, changes in tax laws or regulations and accounting rules, or interpretations thereof;
changes in the amount and frequency of share repurchases or dividends;
•regional economic and political conditions;conditions which may be aggravated by unanticipated global events;
seasonality; and
•disruptions in our business operations or target markets caused by, among other factors beyond our controlthings, terrorism or other intentional acts, outbreaks of disease, such as the effects of climate change,COVID-19 pandemic, or earthquakes, floods, or other natural disasters, and pandemics as well as the fear of exposure to a widespread health epidemic, such as the outbreak of a respiratory illness caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China and recently named by the World Health Organization (WHO) as ("COVID-19") , resulting in the WHO declaring a global emergency on January 30, 2020.
For example, we, and many companies in our industry, experience adverse seasonal fluctuations in customer spending, particularly in the first quarter. In addition, while we may have backlog orders for products that have not shipped, we believe that our backlog may not be a reliable indicator of future operating results for a number of reasons, including, but not limited to, project delays, changes in project scope and the fact that our customers may cancel purchase orders or change delivery schedules without significant penalty. Furthermore, market trends, competitive pressures, commoditization of products, rebates and discounting, increased component, manufacturing or logistics costs, issues with product or service quality (including the quality of our components), regulatory impacts, tariffsdisasters; and other factors may result in reductions in revenue or pressure on gross margins in a given period, which may necessitate adjustments to our operations. Such adjustments may be difficult or impossible to execute in the short or medium term.unanticipated extraordinary externalities.
As a result of the factors described above, as well as other variables affecting our operating results, weWe believe that quarter-to-quarter comparisons of operating results are not necessarily a good indication of what our future performance will be. In some prior periods, our operating results have been below our guidance, our long-term financial model or the expectations of securities
analysts or investors, which has at times coincided with a decline in the price of our common stock.investors. This may happen again, in the future, in which caseand the price of our common stock may decline. SuchIn addition, our failure to pay quarterly dividends to our stockholders or the failure to meet our commitments to return capital to our stockholders could have a decline could also occur, and has occurred in the past, even when we have metmaterial adverse effect on our publicly stated revenues and/or earnings guidance.stock price.
We expect our gross margins and operating margins to vary over time.
We expect ourOur product and service gross margins are expected to vary, both in the near-term and in the long-term, and may be adversely affected in the future by numerous factors, some of which have occurred and may occur in the future, including, but not limited to, customer, vertical, product and geographic mix shifts, an increase or decrease in our software sales or services we provide, increased price competition in one or more of the markets in which we compete, changes in the actions of our competitors or their pricing strategies, which may be difficult to predict and respond to, modifications to our pricing strategy in order to gain footprint in certain markets or with certain customers, currency fluctuations that impact our costs or the cost of our products and services to our customers, increases in material, labor, logistics, warranty costs, or inventory carrying costs, excess product component or obsolescence charges from our contract manufacturers, issues with manufacturing or component availability, issues relating to the distribution of our products and provision of our services, quality or efficiencies, increased costs due to changes in component pricing or charges incurred due to inaccurately forecasting product demand, warranty related issues, the impact of tariffs, or our introduction of new products and enhancements, or entry into new markets with different pricing and cost structures. For example, in fiscal year 2019, our gross margin was relatively flat as compared to fiscal year 2018. In fiscal year 2018, our margins decreased as compared to fiscal year 2017, primarily due to lower net revenues and product mix. In fiscal year 2017, our margins decreased as compared to fiscal year 2016, primarily due to lower product net revenues and product mix, resulting from the year-over-year decline in routing revenues, our customers' architectural shifts, and higher costs of certain memory components. Failure to sustain or improve our gross margins reduces our profitability and may have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price.
Further, while we will continue to remain diligent in our long-term financial objective to increase revenue and operating margins and manage our operating expenses as a percentage of revenue, we expect that our margins will vary with our ability to achieve these goals. We can provide no assurance that we will be able to achieve all or any of the goals of these plans or meet our announced expectations, in whole or in part, or that our plans will have the intended effect of improving our margins on the expected timeline, or at all.
A limited number of our customers comprisederive a material portion of our revenues and any changes in the way they purchase products and services from us could affect our business. In addition, there is an ongoing trend toward consolidation in the industry in whicha limited number of our customers, and partners operate. Any decrease in revenues from our customers or partners could have an adverse effect on our net revenues and operating results.
compete in industries that continue to experience consolidation. A material portion of our net revenues, across each customer vertical, depends on sales to a limited number of customers. If such customers and distribution partners. Changes in thechange their business requirements or focus, vendor selection, project prioritization, financial prospects, capital resources, and expenditures, or purchasing behavior, (including product mix purchased or delays in deployment) of our key customers could significantly decrease our salesare parties to such customersconsolidation transactions, they may delay, suspend, reduce or could lead to delays or cancellations of plannedcancel their purchases of our products or services and our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected.
If we are unable to compete effectively, our business and financial results could be harmed. The markets that we serve are rapidly evolving and highly competitive and include a number of well-established companies. We also compete with other public and private companies that are developing competing technologies to our products. In addition, actual or speculated consolidation among competitors, or the acquisition by, or of, our partners and/or resellers by competitors can increase the competitive pressures faced by us as customers may delay spending decisions or not purchase our products at all. Our partners and resellers generally sell or resell competing products on a non-exclusive basis and consolidation could delay spending or require us to increase discounts to compete, which increasescould also adversely affect our business. Several of our competitors have substantially greater resources and can offer a wider range of products and services for the riskoverall network equipment market than we do. Other competitors have become more integrated, including through consolidation and vertical integration, and offer a broader range of quarterly fluctuationsproducts and services, which could make their solutions more attractive to our customers. Many of our competitors also sell networking products as bundled solutions with other IT products. If we are unable to compete effectively against existing or future competitors, we could experience a loss in market share and a reduction in revenues and/or be required to reduce prices, which could reduce our revenuesgross margins and operating results. Any of these factors couldmaterially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
In addition, in recent years, there has been movement towards consolidation in the telecommunications industry (for example, CenturyLink, Inc.'s acquisition of Level 3 Communications, Inc., Vodafone India’s acquisition of Idea Cellular Ltd. and T-Mobile US, Inc.'s proposed acquisition of Sprint Corp., which was recently approved by the U.S. Justice Department.) and that consolidation trend has continued. Certain telecommunications companies have also moved towards vertical consolidation through acquisitions of media and content companies, such as Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo, AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, and Comcast's acquisition of Sky. If our customers or partners are parties to consolidation transactions they may delay, suspend or indefinitely reduce or cancel their purchases of our products or other direct or indirect unforeseen consequences could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Fluctuating economic conditions make it difficult to predict revenues and gross margin for a particular period and a shortfall in revenues or increase in costs of production may harm our operating results.
Our revenues and gross margin depend significantly on general economic conditions and the demand for products in the markets in which we compete. Economic weakness or uncertainty, customer financial difficulties, and constrained spending on network expansion and enterprise infrastructure have in the past resulted in, and may in the future result in, decreased revenues and earnings. Such factors could make it difficult to accurately forecast revenues and operating results and could negatively affect our ability to provide accurate forecasts to our contract manufacturers, and manage our contract manufacturer relationships and other expenses.expenses and to make decisions about future investments. In addition, economic instability or uncertainty, as well as continued turmoil in the
geopolitical environment in many parts of the
world and other events beyond our control, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have, and may continue to, put pressure on economic conditions, which has led and could lead, to reduced demand for our products, to delays or reductions in network expansions or infrastructure projects, and/or higher costs of production. More generally-speaking, economic weakness may also lead to longer collection cycles for payments due from our customers, an increase in customer bad debt, restructuring initiatives and associated expenses, and impairment of investments. Furthermore, instability in the global markets may adversely impact the ability of our customers to adequately fund their expected expenditures, which could lead to delays or cancellations of planned purchases of our products or services. Our operating expenses are largely based on anticipated revenue trends and a high percentage of our expenses is, and will continue to be, fixed in the short and medium term. Uncertainty about future economic conditions also makes it difficult to forecast operating results and to make decisions about future investments. Future or continued economic weakness, failure of our customers and markets to recover from such weakness, customer financial difficulties, increases in costs of production, and reductions in spending on network maintenance and expansion could result in price concessions in certain markets or have a material adverse effect on demand for our products and consequently on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our success depends upon our ability to effectively plan and manage our resources and restructure our business through rapidly fluctuating economic and market conditions, and such actions may have an adverse effect on our financial and operating results.
business. Our ability to successfully offer our products and services in a rapidly evolving market requires an effective planning, forecasting, and management process to enable us to effectively scale and adjust our business and business models in response to fluctuating market opportunities and conditions.
From time to time, we have increased investment in our business by for example, increasing headcount, acquiring companies, and increasing our investment in R&D,research and development, sales and marketing, and other parts of our business. Conversely, in 2017, 2018,the last few years and 2019,in 2020, we have initiated restructuring plans to realign our workforce as a result of organizational and leadership changes align our execution priorities, increase operational efficiencies, and to consolidate facilities which resulted in restructuring charges in each of these years. Some of our expenses related to such efforts are fixed costs that cannot be rapidly or easily adjusted in response to fluctuations in our business or numbers of employees. Rapid changes in the size, alignment or organization of our workforce, including sales account coverage, could adversely affect our ability to develop and deliver products and services as planned or impair our ability to realize our current or future business and financial objectives.charges. Our ability to achieve the anticipated cost savings and other benefits from our restructuringthese initiatives within the expected time frame is subject to many estimates and assumptions, which are subject to significant economic, competitive and other uncertainties, some of which are beyonduncertainties. If our control. If these estimates and assumptions are incorrect or if we are unsuccessful at implementing changes, or if other unforeseen events occur, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected.
We face intense competition thatIntegration of acquisitions or divestitures of businesses could reduce our revenues and adversely affectdisrupt our business and harm our financial results.condition and stock price and equity issued as consideration for acquisitions may dilute the ownership of our stockholders. We have made, and may continue to make, acquisitions in order to enhance our business and invest significant resources to integrate the businesses we acquire. The success of each acquisition depends in part on our ability to realize the business opportunities and manage numerous risks, including, but not limited to: problems combining the purchased operations, technologies or products, unanticipated costs, higher operating expenses, liabilities, litigation, diversion of management's time and attention, adverse effects on existing business relationships with suppliers and customers, risks associated with entering markets in which we have no or limited prior experience, and where competitors in such markets have stronger market positions, initial dependence on unfamiliar supply chains, failure of our due diligence processes to identify significant problems, liabilities or other challenges of an acquired company or technology, and the potential loss of key employees, customers, distributors, vendors, and other business partners of the companies we acquire.
Competition is intenseThere can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully integrate any businesses, products, technologies, or personnel that we might acquire or that the transaction will advance our business strategy, and we may not realize anticipated revenues or other benefits associated with our acquisitions. In addition, we have divested, and may in the marketsfuture, divest businesses, product lines, or assets. These initiatives may also require significant separation activities that could result in the diversion of management’s time and attention, loss of employees, substantial separation costs, and accounting charges for asset impairments.
In connection with certain acquisitions, we serve. The routingmay agree to issue common stock, or assume equity awards, that dilute the ownership of our current stockholders, use a substantial portion of our cash resources, assume liabilities (both known and switching markets have historically been dominated by Cisco with competition coming from other companies such as Nokia, Arista.unknown), record goodwill and Huawei. In the security market, we face intense competition from Cisco and Palo Alto Networks,amortizable intangible assets as well as companies such as Check Point,restructuring and Fortinet. Further, a number of other small public and private companies have products or have announced plans for new products to address the same challenges and markets that our products address.
In addition, actual or speculated consolidation among competitors, or the acquisition by, or of, our partners and/or resellers by competitors can increase the competitive pressures faced by us as customersrelated expenses. We may delay spending decisions or not purchase our products at all. A number of our competitors have substantially greater resources and can offer a wider range of products and services for the overall network equipment market than we do. In addition, some of our competitors have become more integrated, including through consolidation and vertical integration, and offer a broader range of products and services,incur additional acquisition-related debt, which could make their solutions more attractive toincrease our customers. Many of our competitors sell networking products as bundled solutions with other IT products, such as computerleverage and storage systems. If we are unable to compete successfully against existing and future competitors on the basis of product offerings or price, we could experience a loss in market share and revenues and/or be required to reduce prices, which could reduce our gross margins, and which could materially and adverselypotentially negatively affect our business,credit ratings resulting in more restrictive borrowing terms or increased borrowing costs thereby limiting our ability to borrow. Any of the foregoing, and other factors, could harm our ability to achieve anticipated levels of profitability or other financial condition, and resultsbenefits from our acquired or divested businesses, product lines or assets or to realize other anticipated benefits of operations. Our partners and resellers generally selldivestitures or resell competing products on a non-exclusive basis and consolidation could delay spending or require us to increase discounts to compete, which could also adversely affect our business.acquisitions.
The longLong sales and implementation cycles for our products as well as our expectation that some customers will sporadically placeand customer urgency related to ship dates to fill large orders with short lead times, may cause our revenues and operating results to vary significantly from quarter-to-quarter.
A customer's decisionWe experience lengthy sales cycles because our customers' decisions to purchase certain of our products, particularly new products, involvesinvolve a significant commitment of itstheir resources and a lengthy evaluation and product qualification process. As a result, the sales cycle may be lengthy. In particular, customers making critical decisions regarding theCustomers design and implementation ofimplement large network deployments may engage in veryfollowing lengthy procurement processes, thatwhich may delay or impact expected future orders. Throughout the sales cycle, we may spend considerable time educating and providing information to prospective customers regarding the use and benefits of our products. Even after making the decision toFollowing a purchase, customers may also deploy our products slowly and deliberately. Timing of deployment can vary widely and depends on the skill set of the customer, the size of the network deployment, the complexity of the customer's network environment, and the degree of hardware and operating system configuration necessary to deploy the products. Customers with large networks usuallyoften expand their networks in large increments on a periodic basis. Accordingly, we may receive purchasebasis and place large orders for significant dollar amounts on an irregular basis. These longsales and implementation cycles, as well as our expectation that customers will tend to sporadically place large orders with short lead times, both of whichurgent ship dates, may be exacerbated by the impact of global economic weakness, may cause our revenues and operating results to vary significantly and unexpectedly from quarter-to-quarter.
TheOur ability to recognize revenue in a particular period is contingent on the timing of product orders and deliveries and/or our reliance on revenue from sales of certain software, or subscriptions, and professional support and maintenance services may cause us to recognize revenue inservices. In some of our businesses, our quarterly sales have periodically reflected a different period than the onepattern in which a transaction takes place.
Due todisproportionate percentage of each quarter's total sales occurs towards the cost, complexity and custom natureend of configurations required by our customers,the quarter. Further, we generally build our network equipmentcertain products asonly when orders are received. TheSince the volume of orders received late in any given fiscal quarter remains unpredictable. Ifunpredictable, if orders for certaincustom products are received late in any quarter, we may not be able to recognize revenue for these orders in the same period which could adversely affect our ability toor meet our expected revenues for such quarter. quarterly revenues.
Similarly, if we were to take actions to encourage customers to place orders or accept deliveries earlier than anticipated, our ability to meet our expected revenues in future quarters could be adversely affected. We also determine our operating expenses based on our anticipated revenues and technology roadmap and a high percentage of our expenses are fixed in the short and medium term. Any failure or delay in generating or recognizing revenue could cause significant variations in our operating results and operating margin from quarter-to-quarter.
In addition, services revenue accounts for a significant portion of our revenue, comprising 35%36%, 33%35%, and 31%33% of total revenue in fiscal yearyears 2020, 2019, and 2018, and 2017, respectively. SalesWe expect our sales of new or renewal professional services, support, and maintenance contracts may decline and/orto fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, includingdue to end-customers’ level of satisfaction with our products and services, the prices of our products and services or those offered by our competitors, and reductions in our end-customers’ spending levels. We recognize professional services as services arewhen delivered, and we recognize support and maintenance, and SaaS revenue periodically over the term of the relevant service period.
The introduction of new software products and services is part of our intended strategy to expand our software business, andFurther, we recognize certain software revenues may be recognized periodically over the term of the relevant use period or subscription period. Asperiods and as a result, certainthe related software subscription and support and maintenance revenue we report each fiscal quarter is derived from the recognition of deferred revenue from contracts entered into during previous fiscal quarters. Consequently, anyAny fluctuation in such new or renewed contracts in any one fiscal quarter may not be fully or immediately reflected in revenue and could negatively affect our revenue in future fiscal quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in new or renewed sales of certain software products, subscriptions or support and maintenance is not reflected in full in our operating results until future periods. Also, it is difficult for us to rapidly increase such software or services revenue through additional sales in any period, as revenue from those software, subscription and support and maintenance contracts must be recognized over the applicable period.
Additionally, we determine our operating expenses based on our anticipated revenues and technology roadmap and a high percentage of our expenses are fixed in the short and medium term. As a result, a failure or delay in generating or recognizing revenue could cause significant variations in our operating results and operating margin from quarter-to-quarter.RISKS RELATED TO OUR TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS OPERATIONS
We sell our products to customers that use those products to build networks and IP infrastructure, and ifIf the demand for network and IP systems does not continue to grow, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
A substantial portion of our business and revenues depends on the growth of secure IP infrastructure andas well as customers that depend on the continued growth of IP services to deploy our products in their networks and IP infrastructures. As a result of changes in the economy, capital spending, or the building of network capacity in excess of demand (all of which, have in the past, particularly affected telecommunications service providers), spending on IP infrastructure can vary, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, a number of our existing customers are evaluating the build-out of their next generation networks. During the decision-making period when our customers are determining the design
of those networks and the selection of the software and equipment they will use in those networks, such customers may greatly reduce or suspend their spending on secure IP infrastructure. Any reduction or suspension of spending on IP infrastructure is difficult to predict, and may be due to events beyond our control, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This, in turn, can make it more difficult to accurately predict revenues from customers, can cause fluctuations in the level of spending by customers and, even where our products are ultimately selected, can have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
If we do not successfully anticipate technological shifts, market needs and opportunities, and develop products, product enhancements and business strategies that meet those technological shifts, needs and opportunities, or if those products are not made available or strategies are not executed in a timely manner or do not gain market acceptance, we may not be able to compete effectively and our ability to generate revenues will suffer.
The markets for our productsIf we are characterized by rapid technological change, frequent new product introductions, changes in customer requirements, continuous pricing pressures and a constantly evolving industry. We may not be ableunable to anticipate future technological shifts, market needs, and opportunities or be able to develop new products, product enhancements or business strategies to meet such technological shifts, needs or opportunities in a timely manner or at all. For example, the move from traditional WAN infrastructures towards software-defined WAN has been receiving considerable attention. In our view, it will take several years to see the full impact of software-defined WAN, and we believe the successful products and solutions in this market will combine hardware and software elements. If we fail to anticipate market requirements or opportunities, or fail to develop and introduce new products, product enhancements or business strategies to meet those requirements or opportunities in a timely manner or at all, it could cause us to lose customers, and such failure could substantially decrease or delay market acceptance and sales of our present and future products and services, which wouldand significantly harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, if we invest time, energy and resources in developing products for a market that does not develop, it could likewise significantly harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Even if we are able to anticipate, develop, and commercially introduce new products, enhancements or business strategies, there can be no assurance that any new products, enhancements or business strategies will achieve widespread market acceptance.
In recent years, we have announced a number of new products and enhancements toFurther, our hardware and software products across routing, switching and security. The success of our new products depends on several factors, including, but not limited to, component costs, timely completion and introduction of these products, prompt resolution of any defects or bugs in these products, our ability to support these products, differentiation of new products from those of our competitors and market acceptance of these products.
The introduction of new software productsstrategy is part of our intended strategy to expand our software business. We have also begun to disaggregate certain software from certain hardware products, such that customers would be able to purchase or license our hardware and software products independently, which we expect could in time enable our hardware to be deployed with third- party networking applications and services and our software to be used with third-party hardware. The success of our strategy to expand our software business, including our strategy to disaggregate software from certain hardware products, is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including:
•the additional development efforts and costs required to create new software products and/orand to make our disaggregated products compatible with multiple technologies;
•the possibility that our new software products or disaggregated products may not achieve widespread customer adoption;
•the possibility that our strategy could erode our revenue and gross margins;
•the impact on our financial results of longer periods of revenue recognition for certain types of software products
and changes in tax treatment associated with software sales;
•the additional costs associated with regulatory compliance and changes we need to make to our distribution chain in connection with increased software sales;
•the ability of our disaggregated hardware and software products to operate independently and/or to integrate with current and future third-party products; and
•issues with third-party technologies used with our disaggregated products, which may be attributed to us.
If any of our new products or business strategies do not gain market acceptance or meet our expectations for growth, our ability to meet future financial targets may be adversely affected and our competitive position and our business and financial results could be harmed.
If our products do not interoperate with our customers’ networks, installations will be delayed or cancelled and could harm our business. Our products are designed to interface with our customers’ existing networks, each of which have different specifications and utilize multiple protocol standards and products from other vendors. Many of our customers’ networks contain multiple generations of products that have been added over time as these networks have grown and evolved. Our products must interoperate with many or all of the products within these networks as well as future products to meet our customers’ requirements. If we find errors in the existing software or defects in the hardware used in our customers’ networks, we may need to modify our software or hardware to fix or overcome these errors so that our products will interoperate and scale with the existing software and hardware, which could be costly and could negatively affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, if our products do not interoperate with those of our customers’ networks, demand for our products could be adversely affected or orders for our products could be cancelled. This could hurt our operating results, damage our reputation, and seriously harm our business and prospects.
Our products incorporate and rely upon licensed third-party technology. We integrate licensed third-party technology into certain of our products. From time to time, we may be required to renegotiate our current third-party licenses or license additional technology from third parties to develop new products or product enhancements or to facilitate new business models. Third-party licenses may not be available or continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms and some of our agreements with our licensors may be terminated for convenience by them. In addition, we cannot be certain that our licensors are not infringing on the intellectual property rights of third parties or that our licensors have sufficient rights to the licensed intellectual property in all jurisdictions in which we may sell our products. Third-party technology we incorporate into our products that is deemed to infringe on the intellectual property of others may result, and in some cases has resulted, in limitations on our ability to source technology from those third parties, restrictions on our ability to sell products that incorporate the infringing technology, increased exposure to liability that we will be held responsible for incorporating the infringing technology in our products, and increased costs involved in removing that technology from our products or developing substitute technology. Our inability to comply with, maintain or re-license any third-party licenses required in our products or our inability to obtain third-party licenses necessary to develop new products and product enhancements, could require us to develop substitute technology or obtain substitute technology of lower quality or performance standards or at a greater cost, any of which could delay or prevent product shipment and harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may face difficulties enforcing our proprietary rights, which could adversely affect our ability to compete. We rely on a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secret laws and contractual restrictions on disclosure of confidential and proprietary information, to protect our proprietary rights. Although we have been issued numerous patents and other patent applications are currently pending, there can be no assurance that any of our patent applications will result in issued patents with the scope of the claims we seek or that any of our patents or other proprietary rights will not be challenged, invalidated, infringed or circumvented or that our rights will, in fact, provide competitive advantages to us or protect our technology. If we cannot protect our intellectual property rights, we could incur costly product redesign efforts, discontinue certain product offerings and experience other competitive harm.
Unauthorized parties may also attempt to copy aspects of our products or obtain and use our proprietary information. We generally enter into confidentiality or license agreements with our employees, consultants, vendors, and customers, and generally limit access to and distribution of our proprietary information. However, we cannot assure you that we have entered into such agreements with all parties who may have or have had access to our confidential information or that these agreements will not be breached. We cannot guarantee that any of the measures we have taken will prevent misappropriation of our technology. We are dependentalso vulnerable to third parties who illegally distribute or sell counterfeit, stolen or unfit versions of our products, which has happened in the past and could happen in the future. Such sales could have a negative impact on our reputation and business.
In addition, the laws of some foreign countries may not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as do the laws of the U.S. The outcome of any actions taken in these foreign countries may be different than if such actions were determined under the laws of the U.S. If we are unable to protect our proprietary rights, we may be at a competitive disadvantage to others who need not incur the substantial expense, time, and effort required to create innovative products that have enabled our success.
We depend on contract manufacturers and original design manufacturers with whom we do not have long-term supply contracts,as well as single-source and changes to or disruptions in those relationships or manufacturing processes, expected or unexpected, may result in delays that could cause us to lose revenues and damage our customer relationships.
Welimited source suppliers. Our operations depend on independent contractour ability to anticipate our needs for components, products and services, as well as the ability of our manufacturers, and original design manufacturers, (eachand suppliers to deliver sufficient quantities of which is a third-party manufacturerquality components, products and services at reasonable prices and in time for numerous companies)us to meet critical schedules for the delivery of our own products and services. Given the wide variety of solutions that we offer, the large and diverse distribution of our manufactures, and suppliers, and the long lead times required to manufacture, assemble and deliver certain products, problems could arise in production, planning and inventory management that could seriously harm our products. Although we have contracts withbusiness. Any delay in our contract manufacturersability to produce and original design manufacturers, these contracts do not require them to manufacturedeliver our products on a long-term basis in any specific quantity or at any specific price.could cause our customers to purchase alternative products from our competitors. In addition, it isour ongoing efforts to optimize the efficiency of our supply chain could cause supply disruptions and be more expensive, time-consuming and costlyresource-intensive than expected. Other manufacturing and supply problems that we could face are described below.
•Manufacturing Issues. We may experience supply shortfalls or delays in shipping products to qualify and implement additional contract manufacturer and original design manufacturer relationships. Therefore,our customers if we fail to effectively manage our contract manufacturer and original design manufacturer relationships, which could include failing to provide accurate forecasts of our requirements, or if one or more of them experiencesmanufacturers experience delays, disruptions, or quality control problems in their manufacturing operations, or if we hadhave to change or add additional contract manufacturers, original design manufacturers or contract manufacturing sites,locations. Although we have contracts with our abilitymanufacturers that include terms to ship productsprotect us in the event of an early termination, we may not have adequate time to transition all of our customers could be delayed.manufacturing needs to an alternative manufacturer under comparable commercial terms in the event of an early termination. We have experienced in the past and may experience in the future an increase in the expected time required to manufacture our products or ship products. Suchproducts, including delays could result in supply shortfalls that damage our abilitydue to meet customer demand for those productsthe manufacturing restrictions, travel restrictions and could cause our customersshelter-in-place orders to purchase alternative products from our competitors. Also,control the additionspread of manufacturing locations or contract manufacturers, original design manufacturers, or the introduction of new products by us would increase the complexity of our supply chain management.COVID-19. Moreover, a significant portion of our manufacturing is performed in China, Malaysia and other foreign countries and is therefore subject to risks associated with doing business outside of the United States,U.S., including import tariffs, export restrictions, disruptions to our supply chain, pandemics, regional climate-related events, or regional conflicts. For example, in 2018, the United States imposed a tariff on certain networking products imported from China and in 2019, the United States increased the tariffs on these networking products and expanded the list of products subject to the tariff. Certain products that we import into and sell within the United States are included on the list of products subject to these tariffs. We have incurred increased costs due to our efforts to attempt to mitigate the impact of the tariffs. In some cases, the tariffs have been passed on and may continue to be passed on to customers resulting in higher prices for our customers, which may have reduced, or may continue to reduce, customer demand for our products or increased cost of goods sold. Similarly, many of the products that we source from China are transported by air cargo from Hong Kong, which has experienced recent political demonstrations that have resulted in cancellations or delays in flights in and out of Hong Kong. If these demonstrations and their impact on air shipments continue, we could experience delays in product deliveries or be required to change our shipping practices. In addition, increased costs of production or delays in production caused by any relocation of contract manufacturing facilities or delays in product deliveries could impact the global competitiveness of our products. Each of these factors could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Further, the Chinese government has recently imposed certain restrictions on the movement of people and goods, including the temporary closure of factories, businesses, schools, and public spaces, to limit the spread of COVID-19 in and around Wuhan and may extend these restrictions to other affected regions. While our products are not manufactured in Wuhan, any delay in production or delivery of our products or components made in China by our suppliers due to an extended closure of our supplier's plants or other restrictions imposed to limit the spread of COVID-19 could adversely impact our business. In addition, a number of countries have either closed their borders completely or implemented immigration restrictions for visitors traveling from China.
We are dependent on sole source and limited source suppliers, including for key components, which makes us susceptible to shortages, quality issues or price fluctuations in our supply chain, and we may face increased challenges in supply chain management in the future.
•Single-Source Suppliers. We rely on single or limited sources for many of our components due to technology, availability, price, quality, scale or customization needs. In addition, there has been consolidation among certain suppliers of our components. During periods of high demand for electronic products, component shortages are possible, andConsolidation among suppliers can result in the predictabilityreduction of the availabilitynumber of independent suppliers of components available to us, which could negatively impact our ability to access certain component parts or the prices we have to pay for such parts and may impact our gross margins. Additionally, if certain components that we receive from our suppliers have defects or other quality issues, we may have to replace or repair such components, mayand we could be limited. For example, we have experienced industry-widesubject to claims based on warranty, product liability, epidemic or delivery failures that could lead to significant expenses.
•Supply-chain Disruption. Any disruptions to our supply constraints relatedchain or significant increase in component costs could decrease our sales, earnings and liquidity or otherwise adversely affect our business and result in increased costs. Such a disruption could occur as a result of any number of events, including, but not limited to: an extended closure of or any slowdown at our supplier's plants or shipping delays due to power management components.efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19, increases in prices, the imposition of regulations, quotas or embargoes on components, labor stoppages, transportation delays or failures affecting the supply chain and shipment of materials and finished goods, third-party interference in the integrity of the products sourced through the supply chain, the unavailability of raw materials, severe weather conditions, adverse effects of climate change, natural disasters, geopolitical developments, war or terrorism and disruptions in utilities and other services. In addition, some components used in our networking solutions have in the past and maydevelopment, licensing, or acquisition of new products in the future experience extended lead timesmay increase the complexity of supply chain management. Failure to effectively manage the supply of components and higher pricing, given theproducts would adversely affect our business.
•Component Supply Forecast. We provide demand forecasts for our products to our manufacturers, who order components and plan capacity based on these forecasts. If we overestimate our requirements, our manufacturers may assess charges, or we may have liabilities for excess inventory, each of which could negatively affect our gross margins. If we underestimate our requirements, our contract manufacturers may have inadequate time, materials, and/or components required to produce our products. This could increase costs or delay or interrupt manufacturing of our products, resulting in the market.delays in shipments and deferral or loss of revenues and could negatively impact customer satisfaction. Any future spike in growth in our business, in the use of certain components we share in common with other companies, in IT spending, or in the economy in general, is likely to create greater short-term pressurespressure on us and
our suppliers to accurately forecast overall component demand and to establish optimal component inventories. If shortages or delays persist, we may not be able to secure enough components at reasonable prices or of acceptable quality to build and deliver products in a timely manner, and our revenues, gross margins and customer relationships could suffer. Additionally, if certain components that we receive from our suppliers have defects or other quality issues, we may have to replace or repair such components, and we could be subject to claims based on warranty, product liability, epidemic or delivery failures that could lead to significant expenses. We maintain product liability insurance, but there is no guarantee that such insurance will be available or adequate to protect against all such claims. We have experienced, and from time-to-time may experience, component shortages or quality issues that resulted, or could result, in delays
•Alternative Sources of product shipments, revenue charges that impact our gross margins, and/or warranty or other claims or costs. We also currently purchase numerous key components, including ASICs and other semiconductor chips, from single or limited sources and many of our component suppliers are concentrated in China and Korea. In addition, there has been consolidation
among certain suppliers of our components. For example, GLOBALFOUNDRIES acquired IBM’s semiconductor manufacturing business, Avago Technologies Limited acquired Broadcom Corporation, Intel Corporation acquired Altera Corporation ("Altera"), and Cisco has announced its intent to acquire Acacia Communications, Inc. Consolidation among suppliers can result in the reduction of the number of independent suppliers of components available to us, which could negatively impact our ability to access certain component parts or the prices we have to pay for such parts which may impact our gross margins. In addition, our suppliers may determine not to continue a business relationship with us for other reasons that may be beyond our control or may seek to impose significant price increases. Any disruptions to our supply chain or significant increase in components cost could decrease our sales, earnings and liquidity or otherwise adversely affect our business and result in increased costs. Such a disruption could occur as a result of any number of events, including, but not limited to, an extended closure of or any slowdown at our supplier's plants or shipping delays due to efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19, increases in wages that drive up prices, the imposition of regulations, quotas or embargoes on components, labor stoppages, transportation failures affecting the supply chain and shipment of materials and finished goods, third-party interference in the integrity of the products sourced through the supply chain, the unavailability of raw materials, severe weather conditions, adverse effects of climate change, natural disasters, civil unrest, military conflicts, geopolitical developments, war or terrorism and disruptions in utility and other services.
Supply.The development of alternate sources for components is time-consuming, difficult, and costly. In addition, the lead times associated with certain components are lengthylengthy. For example, we have experienced extended lead times of up to 50 weeks on some semiconductor products, and preclude rapid changes in quantitieswe expect these extended lead times to continue for the foreseeable future, which may impact our production and delivery schedules. Also, long-term supply and maintenance obligations to customers increase the duration for which specific components are required, which may further increase the risk of component shortages or the cost of carrying inventory. In the event of a component shortage, supply interruption or significant price increase from these suppliers, we may not be able to develop alternate or second sources in a timely manner. If we are unable to buy these components in quantities sufficient to meet our requirements on a timely basis, we will not be able to deliver products and services to our customers, which would seriously affect present and future sales, whichand would, in turn, adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
In addition,•COVID-19 Impact. Delays in production or in product deliveries due to the development, licensing, or acquisition of new products in the futureCOVID-19 pandemic have adversely affected and may increase the complexity of supply chain management. Failurecontinue to effectively manage the supply of components and products would adversely affect our business.
Ifbusiness, financial condition, and results of operations. For example, during fiscal 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused us to experience supply constraints due to both constrained manufacturing capacity, particularly in China and Malaysia, as well as component parts shortages as our component vendors were also facing manufacturing challenges, and increased logistics costs due to air travel and transport restrictions that limited the availability of flights on which we failship our products. These challenges resulted in extended lead-times to accurately predict our customers and had a negative impact on our ability to recognize associated revenue in each quarter. We continue to work with government authorities and implement safety measures to ensure that we are able to continue manufacturing requirements, we could incur additional costs or experience manufacturing delays, which would harm our business.
We provide demand forecasts forand distributing our products during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, uncertainty resulting from the pandemic as well as the world-wide distribution of the vaccines for COVID-19 could result in an unforeseen disruption to our contract manufacturerssupply chain (for example, a closure of a key manufacturing or distribution facility or the inability of a key supplier or transportation supplier to source and original design manufacturers, who order components and plan capacity based on these forecasts. If we overestimatetransport materials) that could impact our requirements, our original design or contract manufacturers may assess charges, or we may have liabilities for excess inventory, each of which could negatively affect our gross margins. For example, in certain prior quarters, our gross margins were reduced as a result of an inventory charge resulting from inventory we held in excess of forecasted demand. In addition, some optical modules we use are experiencing faster product transitions than our other products, which increases the risk that we could have excess inventory of those modules. Conversely, lead times for required materials and components vary significantly and depend on factors such as the specific supplier, contract terms, and the demand for each component at a given time. Given that our contract manufacturers are third-party manufacturers for numerous other companies, if we underestimate our requirements, as we have in certain prior quarters with respect to certain products, our contract manufacturers may have inadequate time, materials, and/or components required to produce our products. This could increase costs or delay or interrupt manufacturing of our products, resulting in delays in shipments and deferral or loss of revenues and could negatively impact customer satisfaction.operations.
System security risks, data protection breaches, and cyber-attackscyberattacks could compromise our and our customers’ proprietary information, disrupt our internal operations and harm public perception of our products, which could cause our business and reputation to suffer and adversely affect our stock price.
products. In the ordinary course of business, we store sensitive data, including intellectual property, personal data, our proprietary business information and that of our employees, contractors, customers, suppliers, vendors, and other business partners on our networks. In addition, we store sensitive data through cloud-based services that may be hosted by third parties and in data center infrastructure maintained by third parties. The secureSecure maintenance of this information is critical to our operations and business strategy. The growing cyber risk environment means that individuals, companies,On an ongoing and organizations of all sizes, including Juniper,regular basis, we have been, and are increasinglyexpect to be, subject to attackscyberattacks and attempted intrusions including recent attempts, on their and their vendors'our networks and systems by a wide range of actors, including, but not limited to, nation states, criminal enterprises, and terrorist organizations, onand other organizations or individuals, as well as errors, wrongful conduct or malfeasance by employees and third-party service providers (collectively, “malicious parties”). The continued occurrence of high-profile data breaches provides evidence of an ongoing and regular basis. environment increasingly hostile to information security.
Despite our security measures, and those of our third-party vendors, our information technology and infrastructure hashave experienced breaches and may be subject to or vulnerable in the future to breaches or attacks by computer programmers, hackers or sophisticated nation-state and nation-state supported actors or breaches due to employee error or wrongful conduct, malfeasance, or other disruptions.in the future. If any breach or attack compromises our networks or those of our vendors',vendors, creates system disruptions or slowdowns or exploits security vulnerabilities of our products, the information stored on our networks or thosethe networks of our customers,
suppliers or business partners could be accessed and modified, publicly disclosed, lost, destroyed or stolen, and we may be subject to claims for contractual, tort or equitable liability to our customers, suppliers, business partners and others, including regulatory entities, and suffer reputational and financial harm. In addition, malicious parties may compromise our manufacturing supply chain to embed malicious hardware, components and software (including operating system software) and applications that we produce or procure from third parties may contain defects in design or manufacture, including "bugs", vulnerabilities and other problems that could unexpectedly interfere with the operation of our networks, or expose us or our products to cyber attacks, or be exploited to gain unauthorized access to our or our customers’ systems or information we maintain. This can be true even for “legacy” products that have been determined to have reached an end of life engineering status but will continue to operate for a limited amount of time. Furthermore, third parties may attempt to exfiltrate data through the introduction into the Information and Communications Technology supply chain of malicious products and components that are designed to defeat or circumvent encryption and other cybersecurity measures to interfere with the operation of our networks, expose us or our products to cyberattacks, or gain unauthorized access to our or our customers’ systems and if successful,information. If such actions are successful, they could diminish customer trust in our products, harm our business reputation, and adversely affect our business and financial condition.
When vulnerabilities are discovered, we evaluate the risk, apply patches or take other remediation actions and notify customers, business partners, and suppliers as appropriate. All of this requires significant resources and time and attention from management and our employees.
As a result of any actual or perceived breach of network security that occurs in our network or in the network of a customer of our products, regardless of whether the breach is attributable to our products, the market perception of the effectiveness of our products and our overall reputation could be harmed. As a large, well known provider of networking products, cyber attackers regularly and specifically target our products or attempt to imitate us or our products in order to compromise a network. Because the techniques used by attackers, many of whom are highly sophisticated and well-funded,malicious parties to access or sabotage networks change frequently and generally are not recognized until after they are used, we may be unable to anticipate or immediately detect these techniques or the vulnerabilities they have caused. Further, when vulnerabilities are discovered, we evaluate the risk, apply patches or take other remediation actions and notify customers, business partners, and suppliers as appropriate.
All of this requires significant resources and attention from management and our employees, and the economic costs to us to eliminate or alleviate these issues could be significant and may be difficult to anticipate or measure. The market perception of
the effectiveness of our products and our overall reputation could also be harmed as a result of any actual or perceived breach of security that occurs in our network or in the network of a customer of our products, regardless of whether the breach is attributable to our products, the systems of other vendors and/or to actions of malicious parties. This could impede our sales, manufacturing, distribution or other critical functions, which could have an adverse impact on our financial results. The economic costsThese risks to us to eliminate or alleviate cyber or other security problems, bugs, viruses, worms, malicious softwareour systems and security vulnerabilities could be significant and may be difficult to anticipate or measure, becauseincreased during the damage may differ based onCOVID-19 pandemic as the identityhealth of our internal security team members who monitor and motive ofaddress cyber threats and attacks against us and our employees around the attacker, which are often difficult to pinpoint. world is also at risk.
Additionally, we could be subject to measures that regulate the security of the types of products we sell, such as the California Internet of Things (IoT) security law (SB-327), which became enforceable in 2020. Such regulations may result in increased costs and delays in product releases and changes in features to achieve compliance which may impact customer demand for our products, and result in regulatory investigations, potential fines, and litigation in connection with a compliance concern, security breach or related issue, and be liablepotential liability to third parties arising from such breaches. Further, in response to actual or anticipated cybersecurity regulations or contractual security requirements negotiated with our customers, we may need to make changes to existing policies, processes and supplier relationships that could impact product offerings, release schedules and service response times, which could adversely affect the demand for these typesand sales of breaches.
We rely on value-added and other resellers, as well as distribution partners, to sell our products and disruptionsservices. We maintain product liability insurance, but there is no guarantee that such insurance will be available or adequate to protect against all such claims. If our business liability insurance coverage is inadequate, or future coverage is unavailable on acceptable terms or at all, our failure to effectively developfinancial condition and manage,results of operations could be harmed.
Disruption in our distribution channelchannels could seriously harm our future revenue and the processesfinancial condition and procedures that support it could adversely affectincrease our ability to generate revenues from the sale of our products.
Our future success is highly dependent upon establishingcosts and maintaining successful relationships with a variety of value-added and other reseller and distribution partners, including our worldwide strategic partners such as Ericsson, IBM, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation and NEC Corporation. expenses. The majority of our revenues are derived through value-added resellers and distributors, most of which also sell our competitors’ products, and some of which sell their own competing products. Our revenues depend in part on the performance of these partners. The loss of or reduction in sales to our resellers or distributors could materially reduce our revenues. Our competitors may in some cases be effective in leveraging their market share positions or in providing incentives to current or potential resellers and distributors to favor their products or to prevent or reduce sales of our products. If we failare unable to develop and maintain relationships with our partners, fail to develop new relationships with value-added resellers and distributors in new markets, fail to expand the number of distributors and resellers in existing markets, fail to manage, train or motivate existing value-added resellers and distributors effectively, determine that we cannot continue to do business with these partners for any reason or if these partners are not successful in their sales efforts, sales of our products may decrease, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations would suffer.
In addition, we We recognize a portion of our revenues at the time we sell products to our distributors. If these sales are made based on inaccurate or untimely information, the amount or timing of our revenues could be adversely impacted. Further, our distributors may increase orders during periods of product shortages, cancel orders if their inventory is too high, or delay orders in anticipation of new products. They also may adjust their orders in response to the supply of our products and the products of our competitors that are available to them, and in response to seasonal fluctuations in end-user demand.
We are also vulnerable to third parties who illegally distribute or sell counterfeit, stolen or unfit versions of our products, which has happened in the past and could happen in the future. Such sales could have a negative impact on our reputation and business.
Further, in order toTo develop and expand our distribution channel, we must continue to offer attractive channel programs to potential partners and scale and improve our processes and procedures that support the channel. As a result, our programs, processes and procedures may become increasingly complex and inherently difficult to manage. We have previously entered into OEM agreements
with partners pursuant to which they rebrand and resell our products as part of their product portfolios. These types of relationships are complex and require additional processes and procedures that may be costly or challenging and costly to implement, maintain, and manage. Our failure to successfully manage and develop our distribution channel and the programs, processes and procedures that support it could adversely affect our ability to generate revenues from the sale of our products. We also depend on our global channel partners to comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements. To the extent that they failAny failure by our partners to do so, thatcomply with these requirements, could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Our ability to process orders and ship products in a timely manner is dependent in partWe rely on the performance of our business systems and performance of thethird-party systems and processes of third parties as well as the interfaces between our systems and the systems of such third parties. Dependence on outsourced information technology and other administrative functions may impair our ability to operate effectively.
processes. Some of our business processes depend upon our IT systems, the systems and processes of and IT services provided by third parties, and the interfaces between the two. For example, on December 31, 2018, we entered intoIBM provides us with a Master Services Agreementbroad range of information technology services, such as applications, including support, development and certain Statements of Work with IBM pursuant to which we have outsourced significant portions of our ITmaintenance; infrastructure management and other administrative functions.support, including for server storage and network devices, and end user support including service desk. These cloud providers, third party providers, and off-site facilities are vulnerable to damage, interruption, including performance problems from earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, power loss, telecommunications failures, equipment failure, adverse events caused by operator error, cybersecurity attacks, pandemics, and similar events. In addition, because we lease off-site data center facilities, we cannot be assured that we will be able to expand our data center infrastructure to meet user demand in a timely manner, or on favorable economic terms. If we have issues receiving and processing data, this may delay our ability to provide products and services to our customers and business partners and damage our business. We also rely upon the performance of the systems and processes of our contract manufacturers to build and ship our products. If those systems and processes experience interruption or delay, our ability to build and ship our products in a timely manner may be harmed. Since IT is critical to our operations, any failure to perform on the part of our IT providers could impair our ability to operate effectively. Inin addition to the risks outlined above, problems with any of the third parties we rely on for our IT systems and services could result in liabilities to our customers and business partners, lower revenue and unexecuted efficiencies, and impact our results of operations and our stock price.
Integration of acquisitions We could disruptalso face significant additional costs or business disruption if our businessarrangements with these third parties are terminated or impaired and harm our financial condition and stock price and may dilute the ownership of our stockholders.
We have made, and may continuewe cannot find alternative services or support on commercially reasonable terms or on a timely basis or if we are unable to make, acquisitionshire new employees in order to enhanceprovide these services in-house.
Our ability to develop, market, and sell products could be harmed if we are unable to retain or hire key personnel or if our business. For example, we acquired Mist Systems in 2019, HTBase in 2018existing personnel were harmed by COVID-19. Our future success and Cyphort in 2017. Acquisitions involve numerous risks, including, but not limitedability to problems combiningmaintain a technology leadership position depends upon our ability to recruit and retain key management, engineering, technical, sales and marketing, and support personnel as well as to maintain the purchased operations, technologies or products, unanticipated costs, liabilities, litigation, and diversion of management's attention from our core businesses, adverse effects on existing business relationships with suppliers and customers, risks associated with entering markets in which we have no or limited prior experience, and where competitors in such markets have stronger market positions, initial dependence on unfamiliar supply chains or relatively small supply partners, failurehealth of our due diligence processespersonnel during a pandemic, including the COVID-19 pandemic. The supply of highly qualified individuals with technological and creative skills, in particular engineers, in specialized areas with the expertise to identify significant problems, liabilitiesdevelop new products and enhancements for our current products, and provide reliable product maintenance, as well as the number of salespeople with industry expertise, is limited. Competition for people with the specialized technical skills we require is significant. None of our officers or other challenges of an acquired company or technology, and the potential loss of key employees customers, distributors, vendorsis bound by an employment agreement for any specific term. If we fail to attract new personnel or retain and othermotivate our current personnel, the development and introduction of new products could be delayed, our ability to market, sell, or support our products could be impaired, and our business, partnersresults of the companies we acquire.
operations and future growth prospects could suffer. There can be no assurance that weothers will be ablenot develop technologies that are similar or superior to integrate successfully any businesses, products, technologies,our technology.
A number of our team members are foreign nationals who rely on visas and entry permits in order to legally work in the U.S. and other countries. In recent years, the U.S. has increased the level of scrutiny in granting H-1B, L-1 and other business visas. Compliance with new and unexpected U.S. immigration and labor laws could also require us to incur additional unexpected labor costs and expenses or personnel that we might acquire or thatcould restrain our ability to retain and attract skilled professionals. Additionally, pandemics, such as the transaction will advance our business strategy. The integration of businesses that weCOVID-19 pandemic, may acquire is likely to be a complex, time-consuming, and expensive process and we may not realize the anticipated revenues or other benefits associatedinterfere with our acquisitions. If we failability to successfully manage, operatehire or integrate any acquired business or if we are unable to efficiently operate asretain personnel. Any of these restrictions could have a combined organization, including through the use of common information and communication systems, operating procedures, financial controls, and human resources practices, we could be required to write-down investments andmaterial adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected.and financial conditions.
In connection with certain acquisitions, we may agree to issue common stock, or assume equity awards, that dilute the ownership of our current stockholders, use a substantial portion of our cash resources, assume liabilities (both known and unknown), record goodwill and amortizable intangible assets that will be subject to impairment testing on a regular basis and potential periodic impairment charges, incur amortization expenses related to certain intangible assets, and incur large and immediate write-offs and restructuring and other related expenses, all of which could harm our financial condition and results of operations.LEGAL, REGULATORY, AND COMPLIANCE RISKS
We are a party to lawsuits, investigations, proceedings, and other disputes, which are costly to defend and, if determined adversely to us, could require us to pay fines or damages, undertake remedial measures or prevent us from taking certain actions, any or all of which could harm our business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.
We, and certain of our current and former officers and current and former members of our Board of Directors, have been and may become subject to various lawsuits. disputes. We have been served with lawsuits relatednamed a party to litigation involving employment matters, commercial transactions,
and patent infringement, copyrights, trademarks, and other rights to technologies and related standards that are relevant to our products, as well as governmental claims, and securities laws. In addition,laws, and we may be named in additional litigation. For example, certain U.S. governmental agencies previously conducted investigations into possible violations by the Companyus of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or the FCPA, which ultimately resulted in the Company entering into a settlement with the SEC that involved the Company making a payment of $11.8 million in August 2019.
Generally, we cannot predict the duration, scope, outcome or consequences of litigation and government investigations. In connection with any limitation or government investigations, we may agree to settle the matter, we may be required to pay damages and incur other remedies, which may be material, and we may suffer reputational harm. In addition, if we fail to comply with the terms of any settlement agreement, we could face more substantial penalties. The lawsuits and investigations are expensive and time-consuming to defend, settle, and/or resolve, and may require us to implement certain remedial measures that could prove costly or disruptive to our business and operations. The unfavorable resolution of one or more of these matters could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.
We are a party to litigation and claims regarding intellectual property rights, resolution of which may be time-consuming and expensive, as well as require a significant amount of resources to prosecute, defend, or make our products non-infringing.
Our industry is characterized by the existence of a large number of patents and frequent claims and related litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. We expect that infringement claims may increase as the number of products and competitors in our market increases and overlaps occur. Third parties have asserted and may in the future assert claims or initiate litigation related to patent, copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property rights to technologies and related standards that are relevant to our products. The asserted claims and/or initiated litigation may include claims against us or our manufacturers, suppliers, partners, or customers, alleging that our products or services infringe proprietary rights. The expense of initiating and defending, and in some cases settling, such litigation and investigations may be costly, and may cause us to suffer reputational harm, divert management’s attention from day-to-day operations of our business, and may require us to implement certain remedial measures that could disrupt our business and operations. In addition, if we fail to comply with the terms of any settlement agreement, we could face more substantial penalties. An unfavorable resolution of one or more of these matters could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.
Further, increased patent litigation brought by non-practicing entities in recent years may result, and in some cases has resulted, in our customers requesting or requiring us to absorb a portion of the costs of such litigation or providing broader indemnification for litigation, each of which could increase our expenses and negatively affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Regardless of the merit of these claims, they have been and can be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, and may require us to develop non-infringing technologies, enter into license agreements, or cease engaging in certain activities or offering certain products or services. Furthermore, even arguably unmeritorious claims may be settled at significant costs to us because of the potential for high awards of damages or injunctive relief that are not necessarily predictable, even arguably unmeritorious claims may be settled for significant amounts of money. relief.
If any infringement or other intellectual property claim made against us or anyone we are required to indemnify by any third-party is successful ifand we are required to pay significant monetary awards or damages to settle litigation, for significant amountsenter into royalty or licensing arrangements, or satisfy indemnification obligations that we have with some of money, ifour customers, or we fail to develop non-infringing technology ifand we incorporate infringing technology in our products, or if we license required proprietary rights at material expense, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
As we seek to sell more products directly to telecommunications, cable and cloud service provider companies and other large customers, we may be required to agree to terms and conditions that could have an adverse effect on our business or impact the amount of revenues to be recognized.
Telecommunications, cable and cloud service provider companies, which comprise a significant portion of our customer base, and other large companies, generally have greater purchasing power than smaller entities and, accordingly, often request and receive more favorable terms from suppliers. As we seek to sell more products directly to this class of customer, we may be required to agree to such terms and conditions, which may include terms that affect the timing of our ability to recognize revenue, increase our costs and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Consolidation among such large customers can further increase their buying power and ability to require onerous terms.
In addition, these types of customers have purchased products from other vendors who promised but failed to deliver certain functionality and/or had products that caused problems or outages in the networks of these customers. As a result, these customers may request additional features from us and require substantial penalties for failure to deliver such features or may require substantial penalties for any network outages that may be caused by our products. These additional requests and penalties, if we are required to agree to them, may impact the amount of revenue recognition from such sales, which may negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, increased patent litigation brought against customers in recent years, may result, and in some cases has resulted, in customers requesting or requiring vendors to absorb a portion of the costs of such litigation or providing broader indemnification for litigation, each of which could increase our expenses and negatively affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Non-standard contract terms with telecommunications, cable and cloud service provider companies and other large customers, could have an adverse effect on our business or impact the amount of revenues to be recognized. Telecommunications, cable and cloud service provider companies, and other large companies, generally have greater purchasing power than smaller entities and often request and receive more favorable terms from suppliers. We may be required to agree to such terms and conditions, which may include terms that affect the timing of or our ability to recognize revenue,
increase our costs, and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Consolidation among such large customers can further increase their buying power and ability to require onerous terms from us.
In addition, other vendors may have promised but failed to deliver certain functionality to these types of customers and/or had products that caused problems or outages in their networks. As a result, these customers may request additional features from us and require substantial penalties for failure to deliver such features or for any network outages that may or may not have been caused by our products. If we are required to agree to these requests or incur penalties, the amount of revenue recognized from such sales may be negatively impacted and as a result, may negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Regulation of our industry in general and the telecommunications industry in particularor those of our customers could harm our operating results and future prospects.
We are subject to laws and regulations affecting the sale of our products in a number of areas. For example, some governments have regulations prohibiting government entities from purchasing security products that do not meet country-specific safety, conformance or security certification criteria or in-country test requirements. Other regulations that may negatively impact our business include local content or local manufacturing requirements most commonly applicable for government, state-owned enterprise or regulated industry procurements. These types of regulations are in effect or under consideration in several jurisdictions where we do business.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act includes disclosure requirements applicableSEC requires us, as a public company who uses certain raw materials that are considered to public companies regarding the use ofbe “conflict minerals” minedin our products, to report publicly on the extent to which "conflict minerals" are in our supply chain. As a provider of hardware end-products, we are several steps removed from the Democratic Republicmining, smelting or refining of Congoany conflict minerals. Accordingly, our ability to determine with certainty the origin and adjoining countries, whichchain of custody of these raw materials is limited. Our relationships with customers and suppliers could suffer if we referare unable to collectivelydescribe our products as the DRC, and procedures regarding a manufacturer's efforts to prevent the sourcing of such “conflict minerals.“conflict-free.” These minerals are presentWe may also face increased costs in our products. In addition, the European Union reached agreement in late 2016 on an EU-widecomplying with conflict minerals rule under which most EU importers of tin, tungsten, tantalum, gold and their ores will have to conduct due diligence to ensure the minerals do not originate from conflict zones and do not fund armed conflicts. Large manufacturers also will have to disclose how they plan to monitor their sources to comply with the rules. The regulation was adopted in 2017 with compliance required by 2021.disclosure requirements.
In addition, environmentalEnvironmental laws and regulations relevant to electronic equipment manufacturing or operations, including laws and regulations governing the hazardous material content of our products and laws relating to the collection of and recycling of electrical and electronic equipment, may adversely impact our business and financial condition. TheseIn particular, we face increasing complexity in our product design and procurement operations as we adjust to new and future requirements relating to the chemical and material composition of our products, their safe use, the energy consumption associated with those products, climate change laws, and regulations include, among others, the European Union, or EU, Restriction on the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances Directive, or RoHS. The EU RoHS and the similar laws of other jurisdictions limit the content of certain hazardous materials, such as lead, mercury, and cadmium, in electronic equipment, including our products. Currently, our products comply with the EU RoHS requirements. However, certain exemptions are scheduled to lapse. The lapse of any exemption, further changes to this or other laws, or passage of similar laws in the EU or other jurisdictions, wouldproduct take-back legislation, which could require us to cease selling non-compliant products and to reengineer our products to use compliant components compatible with these regulations. This reengineering and component substitutionwhich could result in additional costs to us, disrupt our operations, or logistics, and result in an adverse impact on our operating results. In addition, in validating the compliance ofIf we were to violate or become liable under environmental laws or if our products become non-compliant with applicable hazardous materials restrictions, we rely substantially on affirmations by our component suppliers as to the compliance of their products with respect to those same restrictions. Failure by our component suppliers to furnish accurate and timely information could subject us to penalties or liability for violation of such hazardous materials restrictions, interrupt our supply of products to the EU, and result inenvironmental laws, our customers refusing or being unablemay refuse to purchase our products. Additionally, the EUproducts and a numberwe could incur substantial costs or face other sanctions, which may include restrictions on our products entering certain jurisdictions. The amount and timing of other jurisdictions have adopted regulations requiring producers of electrical and electronic equipmentcosts to assume certain responsibilities for collecting, treating, recycling and disposing of products when they have reached the end of their useful life. Finally, the EU REACH regulations regulate the handling of certain chemical substances that may be used in our products.comply with environmental laws are difficult to predict.
In addition, as a contractor and subcontractor to the U.S. government, departments and agencies, we are subject to federal regulations pertaining to our IT systems. For instance, as a subcontractor to the U.S. Department of Defense, or DOD, the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, or DFARS, requiredsystems that our IT systems complyrequires compliance with thecertain security and privacy controls described in National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-171, or NIST SP 800-171. The DFARS also requires that we flow the security control requirement down to certain of our own subcontractors.controls. Failure to comply with these requirements could result in a loss of federal government business, subject us to claims or other remedies for non-compliance, andor negatively impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
TheMoreover, our customers in the telecommunications industry is highly regulated,may be subject to regulations and our business and financial condition could be adversely affected by changes in such regulations relating to the Internet telecommunications industry. Similarly, while there are currently fewaffecting our customers. Further, we could be affected by new laws or regulations that apply directly toon access to or commerce on IP networks future regulations could include sales taxes on products sold via the Internet and Internet service provider access charges. We could be adversely affected by regulation of IP networks and commerce in any countryjurisdictions where we market equipment and services to service providers or cloud provider companies.our solutions. Regulations governing the range of services and business models that can be offered by service providers or cloud provider companies could adversely affect those customers' needs for products. For instance, in December 2017, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission repealed its 2015 regulations governing aspects of fixed broadband networks and wireless networks. This change in regulatory treatment of networks might impact service provider and cloud provider business models and their need for Internet telecommunications equipment and services. At the same time, several states have enacted their own laws and regulations governing certain aspects of fixed and wireless networks in the manner of the 2015 FCC regulations. These laws and regulations enacted by the states are or will be subject to legal challenges from the federal government and/or regulated providers.
Also, many jurisdictions are evaluating or implementing regulations relating to cyber security,cybersecurity, supply chain integrity, privacy and data protection, any of which can affect the market and requirements for networking and security equipment.
The adoption and implementation of additional regulations such as the Internet of Things (IoT) security law (SB-327) which became enforceable in 2020, could reduce demand for our products, increase the cost of building and selling our products, result in product inventory write-offs, impact our ability to ship products into affected areas and recognize revenue in a timely manner, require us to spend significant time and expense to comply with, and subject us to fines and civil or criminal sanctions or claims if we were to violate or become liable under such regulations. Any of these impacts could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Governmental regulations and economic sanctions affecting the import or export of products generally or affecting products containing encryption capabilities in particular, could negatively affect our revenues and operating results.
The United StatesU.S. and various foreignother governments have imposed controls and restrictions on the import and export of, among other things, certain telecommunications products and components, particularly those that contain or use encryption technology. Most of our products are telecommunications
products and contain or use encryption technology and, consequently, are subject to such controls, requirements and restrictions. Certain governments, like those of Russia and China, control importation and in-country use of encryption items and technology. The scope, nature, and severity of such controls vary widely across different countries and may change frequently over time.
For several years, U.S.In many cases, these government restrictions require a license prior to importing or exporting a good. Such licensing requirements can introduce delays into our operations as we must apply for the license and wait for government officials have had concerns with the security of products and services from certain telecommunications and video providers based in China. As a result, Congress has enacted bans on the use of the covered equipment and services in federal networks and even in the networks of subcontractorsto process it; it is possible that lengthy delays will lead to the federal government.
In 2019, the U.S. Departmentcancellation of Commerce,orders by customers. Moreover, if we fail to obtain necessary licenses prior to importing or Commerce Department, proposed a rule that wouldexporting covered goods, we can be subject to government reviewsanctions, including monetary penalties. Government restrictions on the acquisitionimport or use of information and communication technology, or ICT, goods and services from entities owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction of a foreign adversary. The proposal would be retroactive and apply to transactions dating back to May 15, 2019. If implemented as proposed, the rule could subject acquisition of components, modules, other parts, and any services to lengthy government review processes. This would introduce significant uncertainty into our supply chain planning as we would not be certain which potential acquisitions the government would permit and which it would reject.
Increasingly, governments have begun using export and import controls not only to further national security objectives but also to protect local industries and restrict proliferation of locally developed “emerging or foundational technology." For example, in 2018 the U.S. enacted the Export Control Reform Act, which expands the power of the Commerce Department to use export controls to protect domestic industry and to restrict the export of emerging and foundational technologies not currently subject to controls. In furtherance of that law, on November 19, 2018, the Commerce Department sought public comment on how to define emerging technologies. Ourtechnology can restrict our ability to marketmanufacture and sell our products, overseas may be impacted by such export controls, ifwhich can affect negatively our revenues and when they are imposed.operating results.
In addition, the U.S. and other governments have especially broad sanctions and embargoes prohibiting provision of goods or services to certain countries, and territories, and to certain sanctioned governments, legal entitiesbusinesses, and individuals. Some of these restrictions have been imposed not just to protect national security but also to protect domestic industries and to achieve political aims. For instance, the Commerce Department in 2018 added to its Entity List, a Chinese semiconductor manufacturer on the express basis that it threatens the viability of U.S. competitors; the Entity List traditionally is used to restrict exports to end users that pose a security risk. Particularly far reaching and complex are restrictions imposed by the U.S. and EU on exports to Russia and, in particular, to the disputed region of Crimea. We have implemented systems to detect and prevent sales into these restricted countries or to prohibited entities or individuals, but there can be no assurance that our third party, downstream resellers and distributors will abide by these restrictions or have processes in place to ensure compliance, especially where local government regulation might prohibit adherence to such restrictions.compliance.
Certain governments also impose special local content, certification, testing, source code review, escrow and governmental recovery of private encryption keys, or other cybersecurity feature requirements to protect network equipment and software procured by or for the government. Similar requirements also may be imposed in procurements by state owned entities (“SOE’s”) or even private companies forming part of “critical network infrastructure” or supporting sensitive industries. For example,
In recent years, U.S. government officials have had concerns with the security of products and services from certain telecommunications and video providers based in China, VietnamRussia, and India have promulgated cybersecurity regulations affecting networking products that may impair our ability to profitably market and sell our products there. China, in particular, is expected to require implementation of non-standard Chinese encryption algorithms in products sold into certain government, SOE, critical infrastructure and sensitive industry (such as financial institutions) markets. In the U.S., there are new restrictionsother regions. As a result, Congress has enacted bans on the use of certain Chinese-origin components or systems either (1) in items sold to the U.S. government or (2) in the internal networks of government contractors and subcontractors (even if those
networks are not used for government-related projects). The U.S. government also might restrict or banhas been considering policies that would limit the useability of businesses to acquire certain Chinese-origin componentsgoods and systems in next generation mobile communications networks (e.g. 5G).services from entities with geographic connections to China, Russia, and other untrusted nation-states, including subjecting such acquisitions to government review. Such proposals, if implemented, could introduce significant uncertainty into our supply chain and overall operational planning as we would not be certain which potential acquisitions and transactions the government would permit and which it would reject.
In addition, governments sometimes impose additional taxes on certain imported products. For example, the United StatesU.S. and Chinese governments each have imposed tariffs on certain products, including information and communication technology products originating from the other country. In 2018, the United States imposed tariffs on a large variety of products of China origin. As a result, beginning September 24, 2018,country, which resulted in a large portion of Juniperour products manufactured in China becamebecoming subject to a 10% tarifftariffs on importation into the U.S. pursuant to the U.S. government’s List 3 tariff proceeding. The U.S. President announced on May 5, 2019, that the rate would increase to 25% on May 10, 2019 due to the lack of negotiation progress. On August 1, 2019, the President stated his intent to increase the List 3 tariff to 30%, which he announced would occur on October 15, 2019; this planned increase to 30% has been postponed indefinitely. Similarly, in July 2019, the U.S. President reiterated his readiness to impose tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports (List 4 tariff proceeding) if U.S.-China negotiations remained unresolved. In August 2019, he announced that he would impose a 15% tariff on List 4 imports effective September 1, 2019. Pursuant to a U.S.-China trade deal signed in mid-January, the List 3 rate will remain at 25% but the List 4 rate will decrease from 15% to 7.5%, effective February 14, 2020.
Depending upon their duration and implementation, as well as our ability to mitigate their impact, these tariffs could materially affect our business, including in the form of increased cost of goods sold, increased pricing for customers, and reduced sales.
Governmental regulation of encryption orour IP networking, encryption technology and regulation of imports or exports, or our failure to obtain required import or export approval for our products, or related economic sanctions could harm our international and domestic sales and adversely affect our revenues and operating results. In addition, failure to comply with such regulations could result in harm to our reputation and ability to compete in international markets, penalties, costs, seizure of assets (including source code) and restrictions on import or export privileges or adversely affect sales to government agencies or government-funded projects.
Our actual or perceived failure to adequately protect personal data could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
A wide variety of provincial, state, national, foreign, and international laws and regulations apply to the collection, use, retention, protection, disclosure, transfer, and other processing of personal data. These privacy-privacy and data protection-related laws and regulations are evolving, with new or modified lawsextensive, and regulations proposed and implemented frequently and existing laws and regulations subject to new or different interpretations. Further, our legal and regulatory obligations in foreign jurisdictions are subject to unexpected changes, including the potential for regulatory or other governmental entities to enact new or additional laws or regulations, to issues rulings that invalidate prior laws or regulations, or to increase penalties significantly.complex. Compliance with these laws and regulations can be costly and can delay or impede the development and offering of new products and services. In addition, the interpretation and application of privacy and data protection-related laws in some cases is uncertain, and our legal and regulatory obligations are subject to frequent changes, including the potential for various regulator or other governmental bodies to enact new or additional laws or regulations, to issue rulings that invalidate prior laws or regulations, or to increase penalties. Examples of recent and anticipated developments that have or could impact our business include the following:
For example, the•The General Data Protection Regulation, (“GDPR”), which became effective in May 2018, imposes more stringent data protection requirements and provides for significantly greatersignificant penalties for noncompliance, thannoncompliance. We have relied on the EU lawsuse of model contractual clauses approved by the E.U. Commission to legitimize the transfer of personal data outside of the E.U. to certain jurisdictions, including the United States. The model contractual clauses have been subject to legal challenge. In relation to the recent “Schrems II” decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union and its impact on our data transfer mechanism, we may experience additional costs associated with increased compliance burdens and new
contract negotiations with third parties that previously applied. Additionally, California recently enactedaid in processing of data on our behalf. We may face reluctance or resistance by our current and prospective customers to use our products and services. Further, we may find it necessary to make further changes to our handling of personal data of residents of the European Economic Area (“EEA”). The regulatory environment applicable to the handling of EEA residents’ personal data, and our actions in addressing such environment, may cause us to assume additional liabilities or incur additional costs and could result in our business, operating results and financial condition being harmed. In addition, both we and our customers may face a risk of enforcement actions by data protection authorities in the EEA relating to personal data transfers to us and by us from the EEA. Any such enforcement actions could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources, distract management and technical personnel, and negatively affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.
•On January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom ("U.K.") withdrew from the European Union ("EU"), commonly referred to as "Brexit". There is significant uncertainty related to how data flows in and out of the U.K. will be affected if the U.K. does not receive an adequacy decision in the next six months. We may experience additional costs associated with increased compliance burdens and new contract negotiations with third parties depending on the outcome of the adequacy discussions.
•Data protection legislation is also becoming increasingly common in the U.S. at both the federal and state level. The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), which became effective January 1, 2020. The CCPAand enforceable in 2020 requires, among other things, covered companies to provide new disclosures to California consumers regarding the use of personal information, gives California residents expanded rights to access their personal information and allowallows such consumers new abilities to opt-out of certain sales of personal information. Final regulations by the California Attorney General are expected to be published later this year.
It remains unclear the extent or timing of any modifications that will be made to the CCPA, or how such modifications will be interpreted. The effects of the CCPA potentially are significant and other similar laws may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies, adapt our goods and toservices, and incur substantial costs and expenses to comply. The CCPA also provides for civil penalties for violations and a private right of action for data breaches that may increase the frequency and cost associated with data breach litigation. Further, the new California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”) which was passed in anNovember 2020, significantly modifies the CCPA. These modifications may result in additional uncertainty and require us to incur additional costs and expenses in our effort to comply. We may also be subject to additional obligations relating to personal data by contract that industry standards apply to our practices. Further, other states have also expanded their data protection laws. Additionally, the
•The Federal Trade Commission and many state attorneys general are interpreting federal and state consumer protection laws to impose standards for the online collection, use, dissemination, and security of data. In addition, we may be or become subject to data localization laws mandating that data collected in a foreign country be processed and stored within that country.
•Both U.S. and non-U.S. governments are considering regulating artificial intelligence and machine learning, which may impact our products and services and cause us to incur costs and expenses in order to comply.
Our actual or perceived failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations or other obligations to which we may be subject relating to personal data, or to protect personal data from unauthorized access, use, or other processing, could result in enforcement actions and regulatory investigations against us, claims for damages by customers and other affected individuals, fines, damage to our reputation, and loss of goodwill, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our operations, financial performance, and business. Further, evolving and changing definitions of personal data and personal information, within the EU, the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere, including the classification of IP addresses, machine identification information, location data, and other information, may limit or inhibit our ability to operate or expand our business, including limiting business relationships and partnerships that may involve the sharing or uses of data, and may require significant costs, resources, and efforts in order to comply.
Our ability to develop, market, and sell products could be harmed if we are unable to retain or hire key personnel.FINANCIAL RISKS
Our future success and ability to maintain a technology leadership position depends upon our ability to recruit and retain the services of executive, engineering, sales and marketing, and support personnel. The supply of highly qualified individuals with technological and creative skills, in particular engineers in very specialized technical areas who have the expertise necessary to develop new products and develop enhancements for our current products, and provide reliable product maintenance, or sales people with specialized industry expertise, is limited and competition for such individuals is intense. None of our officers or key employees is bound by an employment agreement for any specific term. The loss of the services of any of our key employees, the inability to attract or retain personnel in the future or delays in hiring required personnel, engineers and sales people, and the complexity and time involved in replacing or training new employees, could delay the development and introduction of new products, and negatively impact our ability to market, sell, or support our products. There can be no assurance that others will not develop technologies that are similar or superior to our technology.
A number of our team members are foreign nationals who rely on visas and entry permits in order to legally work in the United States and other countries. In recent years, the United States has increased the level of scrutiny in granting H-1(B), L-1 and other business visas. In addition, the current U.S. administration has made immigration reform a priority. Compliance with United States immigration and labor laws could require us to incur additional unexpected labor costs and expenses or could restrain our ability to retain skilled professionals. Any of these restrictions could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial conditions.
Our financial condition and results of operations could suffer if there is an impairment of goodwill or purchased intangible assets.
As of December 31, 2019,2020, our goodwill was $3,337.1$3,669.6 million, and our purchased intangible assets were $185.8$266.7 million. We are required to test intangible assets with indefinite lives, including goodwill, annually or, in certain instances, more frequently, if certain circumstances change that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of a reporting unit and intangible assets below their carrying values. When the carrying value of a reporting unit’s goodwill exceeds its implied fair value of goodwill, or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an intangible asset might notmay be recoverable, a chargerequired to operations is recorded. Either event would result in incremental expenses for that quarter,record impairment charges, which would reduce any earnings or increase any loss for the period in which the impairment was determined to have occurred. We have in the past recorded goodwill impairment charges. Declines in our level of revenues or declines in our operating margins, or sustained declines in our stock price, increase the risk that goodwill and intangible assets with indefinite lives may become impaired in future periods.
Our goodwill impairment analysis is sensitive to changes in key assumptions used in our analysis, such as expected future cash flows, the degree of volatility in equity and debt markets, and our stock price.analysis. If the assumptions used in our analysis are not realized, it is possible that an impairment charge may need to be recorded in the future. We cannot accurately predict the amount and timing of any impairment of goodwill or other intangible assets. However, any such impairment would have an adverse effect on our results of operations.
Changes in effective tax rates or adverse outcomes resulting from examination of our income or other tax returns could adversely affect our results.
Our future effective tax rates and the amount of our taxable income could be subject to volatility
or adversely affected by the following: earnings being lower than anticipated in countries where we have lower statutory rates and higher than anticipated earnings in countries where we have higher statutory rates; changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities; expiration of, or lapses in, the R&D tax credit laws applicable to us; transfer pricing adjustments related to certain acquisitions, including the license of acquired intangibles under our intercompany R&D cost sharing arrangement; costs related to intercompany restructuring; tax effects of share-based compensation; challenges to our methodologies for valuing developed technology or intercompany arrangements; limitations on the deductibility of net interest expense; or changes in tax laws, regulations, accounting principles, or interpretations thereof. For example, on November 12, 2019, in Altera Corp. v. Commissioner, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Altera Corporation’s petition for rehearing en banc of its case, following the Ninth Circuit’s decision against Altera issued on June 7, 2019 (the “2019 Opinion”). The 2019 Opinion required related parties in an intercompany cost-sharing arrangement to share expenses related to share-based compensation. Altera appealed this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court on February 10, 2020. Pending final resolution of the Altera case, the Company’s position on cost-sharing of share-based compensation remains unchanged. If the final judicial decision is not in favor of Altera, we expect our effective tax rate and current income tax payable to be higher. We are monitoring this case and any impact the final resolution may have on our financial statements. In addition, the Tax Act made significant changes to the taxation of U.S. business entities, that may have a meaningful impact to our provision for income taxes. These changeswhich included a reduction to the federal corporate income tax rate, the current taxation of certain foreign earnings, the imposition
of base-erosion prevention measures which may limit the deduction of certain transfer pricing payments, and possible limitations on the deductibility of net interest expense or corporate debt obligations. Accounting for the income tax effects of the Tax Act required significant judgments and estimates that are based on current interpretations of the Tax Act. The U.S. Department of the Treasury continues to issue regulations that affect various components of the Act. Our future effective tax rate may be impacted by changes in interpretation of the regulations, as well as additional legislation and guidance regarding the Tax Act.
Furthermore, onin October 5, 2015, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, an international association of 3537 countries including the U.S., published final proposals under its Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, or BEPS, Action Plan. The BEPS Action Plan includes fifteen Actions to address BEPS in a comprehensive manner and represents a significant change to the international corporate tax landscape. These proposals, as adopted by countries, may increase tax uncertainty and adversely affect our provision for income taxes.
In addition, we are generally subject to the continuous examination of our income tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, and other tax authorities. It is possible that tax authorities may disagree with certain positions we have taken and any adverse outcome of such a review or audit could have a negative effect on our financial position and operating results. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes, but the determination of our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities requires significant judgment by management, and there are transactions where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Although we believe that our estimates are reasonable, the ultimate tax outcome may differ from the amounts recorded in our consolidated financial statements and may materially affect our financial results in the period or periods for which such determination is made. There can be no assurance that the outcomes from continuous examinations will not have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may face difficulties enforcing our proprietary rights, which could adversely affect our ability to compete.
We generally rely on a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secret laws and contractual restrictions on disclosure of confidential and proprietary information, to establish and maintain proprietary rights in our technology and products. Although we have been issued numerous patents and other patent applications are currently pending, there can be no assurance that any of our patent applications will result in issued patents or that any of our patents or other proprietary rights will not be challenged, invalidated, infringed or circumvented or that our rights will, in fact, provide competitive advantages to us or protect our technology, any of which could result in costly product redesign efforts, discontinuance of certain product offerings and other competitive harm.
In addition, despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our products or obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. We generally enter into confidentiality or license agreements with our employees, consultants, vendors, and customers, and generally limit access to and distribution of our proprietary information. However, we cannot assure you that we have entered into such agreements with all parties who may have or have had access to our confidential information or that the agreements we have entered into will not be breached. We cannot guarantee that any of the measures we have taken will prevent misappropriation of our technology.
Furthermore, the laws of some foreign countries may not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. The outcome of any actions taken in these foreign countries may be different than if such actions were determined under the laws of the United States. Although we are not dependent on any individual patents or group of patents for particular segments of the business for which we compete, if we are unable to protect our proprietary rights in a market, we may find ourselves at a competitive disadvantage to others who need not incur the substantial expense, time, and effort required to create innovative products that have enabled our success.
We are subject to risks arising from our international operations, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We derive a substantial portion of our revenues from our international operations, and we plan to continue expanding our business in international markets. We conduct significant sales and customer support operations directly and indirectly through our distributors and value-added resellers in countries throughout the world and depend on the operations of our contract manufacturers and suppliers that are located outside of the United States.U.S. In addition, a portion of our R&D and our general and administrative operations are conducted outside the United States. In some countries, we may experience reduced intellectual property protection.
U.S. As a result of our international operations, we are affected by economic, business regulatory, social, and political conditions in foreign countries, including the following:
•changes in general IT spending;
•the impact of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, and any other adverse public health developments, epidemic disease or other pandemic in the countries in which we operate or where our customers are located;
•the imposition of government controls, inclusive of critical infrastructure protection;
•changes in trade controls, economic sanctions, or other international trade regulations, which may affect our ability to import or export our products to or from various countries;
•laws that restrict sales of products that are developed, manufactured, or incorporate components or assemblies from certain countries to specific customers (e.g., U.S. federal government departments and agencies) and industry segments, or for particular uses or more generally;
•varying and potentially conflicting laws and regulations;regulations, changes in laws and interpretation of laws, misappropriation of intellectual property and reduced intellectual property protection;
•political uncertainty, including demonstrations, that could have an impact on product delivery from and into the China region;delivery;
•fluctuations in local economies;
wage inflation or a tightening of the labor market;•fluctuations in currency exchange rates (see Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk for more information);
•tax policies, treaties or laws that could have aan unfavorable business impact;
import tariffs imposed by
•the United Statesnegotiation and reciprocal tariffs imposed by foreign countries;implementation of free trade agreements between the U.S. and other nations;
•data privacy rules and other regulations that affect cross border data flow; and
the impact•theft or unauthorized use or publication of the following on customer spending patterns: political considerations, unfavorable changes in tax treaties or laws, natural disasters, epidemic disease or a pandemic, such as COVID-19 in Greater China, a region of importance to our supply chain and our end market sales, labor unrest, earnings expatriation restrictions, misappropriation of intellectual property military actions, acts of terrorism, political and social unrest and difficulties in staffing and managing international operations.other confidential business information.
Any or all of these factors has or could have a materialan adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
In addition, the U.K.'s formal exit from the EU on January 31, 2020, commonly referred to asmedium and long term consequences of Brexit has caused, and may continue to cause, uncertainty in the global markets. The U.K. is expected to enter a transition period until December 31, 2020 permitting negotiation of a free trade deal between the US and U.K. The consequences for the economies of the U.K. and EU member states as a result of the U.K.'s withdrawal from the EU remain unknown and unpredictable. Any impact from Brexit on the Company will depend, in part, on the outcome of tariff, trade and other negotiations. For example, changes to the way service providers conduct business and transmit data between the U.K. and the EU could require us to make changes to the way we handle customer data. We are also reviewing the impact of any resulting changes to EU or U.K. law that could affect our operations, such as labor policies, financial planning, product manufacturing, and product distribution. Political and regulatory responses to the withdrawal are still developing and we are in the process of assessing the impact the withdrawal may have on our business as more information becomes available, including, but not limited to changes to U.K. immigration policy that may affect our ability to attract and retain talent in EMEA. Nevertheless, because we conduct business in the EU and the U.K., As a consequence, any of theone or more medium and longer term effects of Brexit, including those affecting labor policies, financial planning, product manufacturing, product distribution, and those effects we cannot anticipate, could have a material adverse effect on our business, business opportunities, operating results, financial condition, and cash flows. The lack of certainty given the pending EU-U.K. negotiations creates the risk that, notwithstanding thatflows if we have devoted significant resourcesare unable to preparing for the impact of Brexit, we may not beanticipate and adequately prepared for an unforeseen outcome.address these risks.
Our business is also impacted by the negotiation and implementation of free trade agreements between the United States and other nations. Such agreements can reduce barriers to international trade and thus the cost of conducting business overseas. For instance, the United States reached a new trilateral trade agreement with the Governments of Canada and Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The United States and Mexico have ratified the agreement, with Canada expected to follow suit in the coming months. Even after ratification, the three nations must meet various obligations before the agreement takes effect.
Many of the products that we have manufactured in China are transported by air cargo from Hong Kong. Recently, there have been political demonstrations in Hong Kong that have resulted in cancellations or delays in flights in and out of China. If these demonstrations and their impact on air shipments continue, we could experience delays in product deliveries from China or be required to change our shipping practices, which could adversely impact our business.
Further, the spread of COVID-19from China has affected the manufacturing and shipment of goods. In January 2020, the Chinese government imposed certain restrictions on movement of people and goods to limit the spread of COVID-19 in and around Wuhan. While our products are not manufactured in Wuhan, any delay in production or delivery of our products or components made by our suppliers due to an extended closure of our supplier's plants as a result of efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19 in China could adversely impact our business. In addition, several airlines have canceled flights to and from China, affecting the ability to obtain components needed for manufacturing elsewhere. The United States also imposed flights rules at the beginning of February that redirect flights carrying passengers who have visited China to one of seven U.S. airports. This applies even for flights not originating in China. If any of our products are shipped as cargo on such flights, they could be diverted to those airports.
Moreover, local laws and customs in many countries differ significantly from or conflict with those in the United StatesU.S. or in other countries in which we operate. In many foreign countries, it is common for others to engage in business practices that are prohibited by our internal policies and procedures or U.S. regulations applicable to us. There can be no assurance that our employees, contractors, channel partners, and agents will not take actions in violation of our policies and procedures, which are designed to ensure compliance with U.S. and foreign laws and policies. Violations of laws or key control policies by our employees, contractors, channel partners, or agents could result in termination of our relationship, financial reporting problems, fines, and/or penalties for us, or prohibition on the importation or exportation of our products and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, any theft or unauthorized use or publication of our intellectual property and other confidential business information could harm our competitive position.
Our productsThere are highly technical and if they contain undetected defects, errors or malware or do not meet customer quality expectations, our business could be adversely affected, and we may be subject to additional costs or lawsuits or be required to pay damages in connection with any alleged or actual failure of our products and services.
Our products are highly technical and complex, are critical to the operation of many networks, and, in the case of our security products, provide and monitor network security and may protect valuable information. Our products have contained and may contain one or more undetected errors, defects, malware, or security vulnerabilities. These errors may arise from hardware or software we produce or procure from third parties. Some errors in our products may only be discovered after a product has been installed and used by end-customers.
Any errors, defects, malware or security vulnerabilities discovered in our products after commercial release could result in monetary penalties, negative publicity, loss of revenues or delay in revenue recognition, loss of customers, loss of future business and reputation, penalties, and increased service and warranty cost, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, in the event an error, defect, malware, or vulnerability is attributable to a component supplied by a third-party vendor, we may not be able to recover from the vendor all of the costs of remediation that we may incur. In addition, we could face claims for product liability, tort, or breach of warranty or indemnification. Defending a lawsuit, regardless of its merit, is costly and may divert management’s attention. If our business liability insurance coverage is inadequate, or future coverage is unavailable on acceptable terms or at all, our financial condition and results of operations could be harmed. Moreover, if our products fail to satisfy our customers' quality expectations for whatever reason, the perception of and the demand for our products could be adversely affected.
We are exposed to fluctuations in currency exchange rates, which could negatively affect our financial condition and results of operations.
Because a substantial portion of our business is conducted outside the United States, we face exposure to adverse movements in non-U.S. currency exchange rates. These exposures may change over time as business practices evolve and could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations.
The majority of our revenues and expenses are transacted in U.S. Dollars. We also have some transactions that are denominated in foreign currencies, primarily the British Pound, Chinese Yuan, Euro, and Indian Rupee related to our sales and service operations outside of the United States. An increase in the value of the U.S. Dollar could increase the real cost to our customers of our products in those markets outside the United States in which we sell in U.S. Dollars. This could negatively affect our ability to meet our customers' pricing expectations in those markets and may result in erosion of gross margin and market share. A weakened U.S. Dollar could increase the cost of local operating expenses and procurement of raw materials to the extent we must purchase components in foreign currencies.
Currently, we hedge currency exposuresrisks associated with certain assetsour outstanding and liabilities denominated in nonfunctional currencies and periodically hedge anticipated foreign currency cash flows, with the aim of offsetting the impact of currency fluctuations on these exposures. However, hedge activities can be costly, and hedging cannot fully offset all risks, including long-term declines or
appreciation in the value of the U.S. Dollar. If our attempts to hedge against these risks are not successful, or if long-term declines or appreciation in the value of the U.S. Dollar persist, our financial condition and results of operations could be adversely impacted.
If we fail to adequately evolve our financial and managerial control and reporting systems and processes, our ability to manage and grow our business will be negatively affected.
Our ability to successfully offer our products and implement our business plan in a rapidly evolving market requires an effective planning, forecasting, and management process to enable us to effectively scale and adjust our business and business models in response to fluctuating market opportunities and conditions. We will need to continue to improve our financial and managerial control and our reporting systems and procedures in order to manage our business effectively in the future. If we fail to effectively improve our systems and processes or we fail to monitor and ensure that these systems and processes are being used correctly, our ability to manage our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be negatively affected.
If our products do not interoperate with our customers’ networks, installations will be delayed or cancelled and could harm our business.
Our products are designed to interface with our customers’ existing networks, each of which have different specifications and utilize multiple protocol standards and products from other vendors. Many of our customers’ networks contain multiple generations of products that have been added over time as these networks have grown and evolved. Our products must interoperate with many or all of the products within these networks as well as future products in order to meet our customers’ requirements. If we find errors in the existing software or defects in the hardware used in our customers’ networks, we may need to modify our software or hardware to fix or overcome these errors so that our products will interoperate and scale with the existing software and hardware, which could be costly and could negatively affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, if our products do not interoperate with those of our customers’ networks, demand for our products could be adversely affected or orders for our products could be cancelled. This could hurt our operating results, damage our reputation, and seriously harm our business and prospects.
Our products incorporate and rely upon licensed third-party technology, and if licenses of third-party technology do not continue to be available to us or are not available on terms acceptable to us, our revenues and ability to develop and introduce new products could be adversely affected.
We integrate licensed third-party technology into certain of our products. From time to time, we may be required to renegotiate our current third-party licenses or license additional technology from third-parties to develop new products or product enhancements or to facilitate new business models. Third-party licenses may not be available or continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms. The failure to comply with the terms of any license, including free open source software, may result in our inability to continue to use such license. Some of our agreements with our licensors may be terminated for convenience by them. In addition, we cannot be certain that our licensors are not infringing the intellectual property rights of third parties or that our licensors have sufficient rights to the licensed intellectual property in all jurisdictions in which we may sell our products. Third- party technology we incorporate into our products that is deemed to infringe on the intellectual property of others may result, and in some cases has resulted, in limitations on our ability to source technology from those third parties, restrictions on our ability to sell products that incorporate the infringing technology, increased exposure to liability that we will be held responsible for incorporating the infringing technology in our products and increased costs involved in removing that technology from our products or developing substitute technology. Our inability to maintain or re-license any third-party licenses required in our products or our inability to obtain third-party licenses necessary to develop new products and product enhancements, could require us, if possible, to develop substitute technology or obtain substitute technology of lower quality or performance standards or at a greater cost, any of which could delay or prevent product shipment and harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We rely on the availability and performance of information technology services provided by third parties, including IBM which will manage a significant portion of our systems.
Under the terms of our recent Master Services Agreement and certain Statements of Work, IBM provides us with a broad range of information technology services, such as applications, including support, development and maintenance; infrastructure management and support, including for servers storage and network devices; and end user support including service desk. Our businesses are dependent on the services provided and systems operated for us by IBM and its third-party providers. The failure of one or more of these entities to meet our performance standards and expectations, including with respect to data security, may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.
Our success is dependent on our ability to maintain effective relationships with IBM and other third-party technology and service providers as well as the ability of IBM and any other third-party providers to perform as expected. We may terminate our agreement
with IBM and any and all Statements of Work at any time on short notice for cause, convenience, certain specific performance failures, a breach of warranties by IBM, failure to transform, changes in law, force majeure, or a change in the control of either IBM or us. Depending on the type and timing of a termination, we may be required to pay certain termination amounts to IBM. IBM's only right to terminate the Master Services Agreement is based on our failure to comply with certain terms applying to disputed payments.
This arrangement is subject to various risks, some of which are not within our control. These risks include, but are not limited to, disruption in services and the failure to protect the security and integrity of our data under the terms of the agreement. We are unable to provide assurances that some or all of these risks will not occur. Failure to effectively mitigate these risks, if they occur, could have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial results. In addition, we could face significant additional costs or business disruption if our arrangement with IBM is terminated or impaired and we cannot find alternative IT services or support on commercially reasonable terms or on a timely basis or if we are unable to hire new employees in order to return these services in-house.
We are required to evaluate the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and publicly disclose material weaknesses in our controls. Any adverse results from such evaluation may adversely affect investor perception, and our stock price.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires our management to assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and to disclose in our filing if such controls were unable to provide assurance that a material error would be prevented or detected in a timely manner. We have an ongoing program to review the design of our internal controls framework in keeping with changes in business needs, implement necessary changes to our controls design and test the system and process controls necessary to comply with these requirements. If in the future, our internal controls over financial reporting are determined to be not effective resulting in a material weakness or significant deficiency, investor perceptions regarding the reliability of our financial statements may be adversely affected which could cause a decline in the market price of our stock and otherwise negatively affect our liquidity and financial condition.
Failure to maintain our credit ratings could adversely affect our cost of funds and related margins, liquidity, competitive position and access to capital markets.
The major credit rating agencies routinely evaluate our indebtedness. This evaluation is based on a number of factors, which include financial strength as well as transparency with rating agencies and timeliness of financial reporting. There can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain our credit ratings and failure to do so could adversely affect our cost of funds and related margins, liquidity, competitive position and access to capital markets.
We may be unable to generate sufficient cash flow to satisfy our expenses, make anticipated capital expenditures or service our debt obligations, including the Notes and the Revolving Credit Facility.
As of December 31, 2019,2020, we had $1,700.0$2,123.8 million in aggregate principal amount of senior notes, which we refer to collectively as the Notes.(the "Notes"). In April 2019, we entered into a new credit agreement (the “Credit Agreement”) with certain institutional lenders that provides for a five-year $500.0 million unsecured revolving credit facility which we refer to as the Revolving(the “Revolving Credit Facility, with an option to increase the Revolving Credit Facility by up to an additional $200.0 million, subject to the lenders' approval. The credit agreement will terminate in April 2024, at which point all amounts borrowed must be repaid (subject to two one-year maturity extension options)Facility”). As of December 31, 2019, no amounts were outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility.
We may not be able to generate sufficient cash flow to enable us to satisfy our expenses, make anticipated capital expenditures or service our indebtedness, including the Notes and the Revolving Credit Facility (if drawn upon).Notes. Our ability to pay our expenses, satisfy our debt obligations, refinance our debt obligations and fund planned capital expenditures will depend onis dependent upon our future performance which will be affected by general economic, financial, competitive, legislative, regulatory and other factors beyond our control. Based upon current levels of operations, we believe cash flow from operations and available cash willdiscussed in this section. However, there can be adequate for at least the next twelve months to meet our anticipated requirements for working capital, capital expenditures and scheduled payments of principal and interest on our indebtedness, including the Notes and the Revolving Credit Facility (if drawn upon). However, if we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow from operations or to borrow sufficient funds in the future to service our debt, we may be required to sell assets, reduce capital expenditures, refinance all or a portion of our existing debt (including the Notes) or obtain additional financing. There is no assurance that we will be able to refinance our debt, sell assets or borrow more money on terms acceptable to us, or at all.manage any of these risks successfully.
The indenture that governs the Notes containcontains various covenants that limit our ability and the ability of our subsidiaries to, among other things:
incur liens;
liens, incur sale and leaseback transactions;transactions, and
consolidate or merge with or into, or sell substantially all of our assets to another person.
The Further, the Credit Agreement contains two financial covenants along with customary affirmative and negative covenants that include the following:
•maintenance of a leverage ratio no greater than 3.0x (provided that if a material acquisition has been consummated,
we are permitted to maintain a leverage ratio no greater than 3.5x for up to four quarters) and an interest coverage ratio no less than 3.0x3.0x; and
•covenants that limit or restrict the ability of the Company and its subsidiaries to, among other things, grant liens, merge or consolidate, dispose of all or substantially all of its assets, change their accounting or reporting policies, change their business and incur subsidiary indebtedness, in each case subject to customary exceptions for a credit facility of this size and type.
As a result of these covenants, we are limited in the manner in which we can conduct our business, and we may be unable to engage in favorable business activities or finance future operations or capital needs. Accordingly, these restrictions may limit our ability to successfully operate our business. A failure to comply with these restrictions could lead to an event of default, which could result in an acceleration of the indebtedness, which could result in an event of default under our other debt instruments. Our future operating results may not be sufficient to enable compliance with these covenants to remedy any such default. In addition, in the event of an acceleration, we may not have or be able to obtain sufficient funds to make any accelerated payments, including those under the Notes,applicable U.S. tax laws and the Revolving Credit Facility (if drawn upon).
In addition, certain changes under the Tax Act may result inregulations, there are limitations on the deductibility of our net business interest expenses. The Tax Act generally limits the annual deduction for net business interest expense to an amount equal to 30% of adjusted taxable income. As a result, if our taxable income were to decline, we may not be able to fully deduct our net interest expense. These changes, among others under the Tax Act, could result in increases to our future U.S. tax expenses,expense, which could have a material impact on our business.
A portion of the transaction considerationFurther, we receivedreceive debt ratings from the divestiture of our Junos Pulse product portfolio ismajor credit rating agencies in the formU.S. Factors that influence our credit ratings include financial strength as well as transparency with rating agencies and timeliness of a non-contingent seller promissory note and we may not receive the amount owed to us (including accrued interest), including in the time frame contemplated, by the buyer under the note.
In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, we completed the sale of our Junos Pulse product portfolio to an affiliate of Siris Capital, a private equity firm, for total consideration of $230.7 million, of which $125.0 million was in the form of an 18-month non-contingent interest-bearing promissory note issued to the Company. On May 1, 2017, we received a principal payment in the amount of $75.0 million and outstanding interest on the note, and we and the issuer agreed to further amend the terms of the note with respect to the remaining approximately $58.0 million to, among other things, extend the maturity date from December 31, 2018 to September 30, 2022, provided that interest duefinancial reporting. There can be paid in kind by increasing the outstanding principal amount of the note and subordinate the note to other debt issued by senior lenders. Since a portion of the transaction consideration is in the form of a non-contingent seller promissory note and the note is subordinated to debt issued by senior lenders, there is the risk that we may not receive the amount owed to us (including accrued interest), including in the time frame contemplated, under the note. In the event that the promissory note is not repaid on the terms we contemplate, any collection or restructuring efforts we undertake may be costly and require significant time and attention from our management and there is no guaranteeassurance that we will be able to recover the amounts owed to us in full.
Ourmaintain our credit ratings and failure to pay quarterly dividends todo so could adversely affect our stockholders or the failure to meet our commitments to return capital to our stockholders could have a material adverse effect on our stock price.
Our ability to pay quarterly dividends or achieve our intended capital return policy will be subject to, among other things, our financialcost of funds and related margins, liquidity, competitive position and resultsaccess to capital markets.
In January 2018, we announced that our Board of Directors approved a new $2.0 billion buyback authorization, which replaced our prior authorization and in October 2019, the Board authorized the repurchase of up to an additional $1.0 billion of common stock under the 2018 Stock Repurchase Program. Any failure to meet our commitments to return capital to our stockholders could have a material adverse effect on our stock price.
The investment of our cash balance and ourOur investments in government and corporate debt securities and equity securities are subject to risks, which may cause losses and affect the liquidity of these investments.
At December 31, 2019, we had $1,215.8 million in cash and cash equivalents and $1,327.8 million in short-and long-term investments. We have invested these amounts primarilysubstantial investments in asset-backed securities, certificates of deposit, commercial paper, corporate debt securities, foreign government debt securities, money market funds, mutual funds, time deposits, U.S. government agency securities, and U.S. government securities. We also have $189.8 million in other long-term assets for our investments in privately-held companies. Certain of our investments are subject to general credit, liquidity, market, sovereign debt, and interest rate risks. Our future investment income may fall short of expectations due to changes in interest rates or if the decline in fair value related to creditworthiness of our publicly traded debt or equity investments is judged to be other-than-temporary. Thesematerial. In addition, should financial market conditions worsen in the future, investments in some financial instruments may be subject to risks associated with our investment portfolio mayarising from market liquidity and credit concerns, which could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity, financial condition, and results of operations.
Changes in the method of determining the London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, or the replacement of LIBOR with an alternative reference rate, may adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
current or future indebtedness. Certain of our financial obligations and instruments, including our credit facility, Pulse note, supplierRevolving Credit Facility, accounts receivable finance programs, and floating rate notes that we have invested in, as well as interest rate swapsderivatives that we use as fair value and cash flow hedges, of our fixed-rate 2041 Notes, are or may be made at variable interest rates that use LIBOR (or metrics derived from or related to LIBOR) as a benchmark for establishing the interest rate. On July 27,In 2017, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority announced that it intends to stop persuading or compelling banks to submit LIBOR rates after 2021. These reformsIf LIBOR ceases to exist, we may causeneed to renegotiate our debt arrangements that extend beyond 2021 that utilize LIBOR to perform differently thanas a factor in determining the past or to disappear entirely. These reformsinterest rate, which may also result in new methodsnegatively impact the terms of calculating LIBOR to be established, or alternative reference rates to be established. For example, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has begun publishing a Secured Overnight Funding Rate, or SOFR, which is intended to replace U.S. dollar LIBOR, and central banks in several other jurisdictions have also announced plans for alternative reference rates for other currencies. The potential consequences of these actions cannot be fully predicted and could have an adverse impact on the market value for or value of LIBOR-linked securities, loans, and other financial obligations or extensions of credit held by or due to us.such indebtedness. Changes in market interest rates may influence our financing costs, returns on financial investments and the valuation of derivative contracts and could reduce our earnings and cash flows. In addition, any transition processthe overall financial markets may involve, among other things, increased volatilitybe disrupted as a result of the phase out or illiquidity in markets for instruments that rely on LIBOR, reductionsreplacement of LIBOR. Disruption in the value of certain instruments or the effectiveness of related transactions such as hedges, increased borrowing costs, uncertainty under applicable documentation, or difficult and costly consent processes. Thisfinancial markets could materially and adversely affecthave an adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations, cash flows, and liquidity.
GENERAL RISK FACTORS
Failing to adequately evolve our financial and managerial control and reporting systems and processes, or any weaknesses in our internal controls may adversely affect investor perception, and our stock price. We will need to continue to improve our financial and managerial control and our reporting systems and procedures to manage and grow our business effectively in the future. We are required to assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting annually and to disclose in our filing if such controls were unable to provide assurance that a material error would be prevented or detected in a timely manner. If in the future, our internal controls over financial reporting are determined to not be effective, resulting in a material weakness, investor perceptions regarding the reliability of our financial statements may be adversely affected which could cause a decline in the market price of our stock and otherwise negatively affect our liquidity and financial condition.
Our amended and restated bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.
forum. Our amended and restated bylaws provide that, unless we consent to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or if the Court of Chancery does not have jurisdiction, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware) is the sole and exclusive forum for (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought oncertain actions and proceedings as specified in our behalf; (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of fiduciary duty owed by any of our current or former directors, officers, or other employees to us or to our stockholders; (iii) any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our restated certificate of incorporation, or our bylaws; (iv) any action or proceeding asserting a claim as to which Delaware General Corporation Law confers jurisdiction on the Court of Chancery or (v) any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine.bylaws. The exclusive forum provisions in our bylaws may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our current or former directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our current or former directors, officers, and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find the exclusive forum provisions contained in our bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could have a material and adverse impact on our business.
Uninsured losses could harm our operating results.
We self-insure against many business risks and expenses, such as intellectual property litigation and our medical benefit programs, where we believe we can adequately self-insure against the anticipated exposure and risk or where insurance is either not deemed cost-effective or is not available. We also maintain a program of insurance coverage for various types of property, casualty, and other risks. We place our insurance coverage with various carriers in numerous jurisdictions. The types and amounts of insurance that we obtain vary from time to time and from location to location, depending on availability, cost, and our decisions with respect to risk retention. The policies are subject to deductibles, policy limits, and exclusions that result in our retention of a level of risk on a self-insurance basis. In addition, our insurance coverage may not be adequate to compensate us for all losses or failures that may occur. Losses not covered by insurance could be substantial and unpredictable and could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
Our stock price may fluctuate.
Historically, our common stock has experienced substantial price volatility, particularly as a result of variations between our actual financial results and the published expectations of analysts and as a result of announcements by our competitors and us. Furthermore, speculation in the press or investment community about our strategic position, financial condition, results of operations, business, security of our products, liabilities or significant transactions can cause changes in our stock price. In addition, the stock market has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected the market price of many technology companies in particular and that have often been unrelated to the operating performance of these companies. From time to time, economic weakness has contributed to extreme price and volume fluctuations in global stock markets that have also reduced the market price of many technology company stocks, including ours. These factors, as well as general economic and political conditions and the announcement of proposed and completed acquisitions or other significant transactions, or any difficulties associated with such transactions, by us or our current or potential competitors, may materially adversely affect the market price of our common stock in the future.
ITEM 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
Not applicable.
ITEM 2. Properties
Our corporate headquarters is located on 80 acres of owned land in Sunnyvale, California and includes approximately 0.7 million square feet of owned buildings.
In addition, we lease space (including offices and other facilities) in various locations throughout the United States, Canada, South America, EMEA, and APAC regions, including offices in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. As of December 31, 2019,2020, we leased approximately 1.7 million square feet worldwide, with approximately 35%36% in North America. The respective operating leases expire at various times through November 2029.May 2031. Each leased facility is subject to an individual lease or sublease, which could provide various options
to renew/terminate the agreement or to expand/contract the leased space. We believe that our current offices and other facilities are in good condition and appropriately support our current business needs. We may improve, replace or reduce facilities as considered appropriate to meet the needs of our operations.
For additional information regarding obligations under our leases, see Note 16,15, Commitments and Contingencies, in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report. For additional information regarding properties by geographic region, see Note 13,12, Segments, in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report.
ITEM 3. Legal Proceedings
The information set forth under the heading “Legal Proceedings” in Note 16,15, Commitments and Contingencies, in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report, is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
PART II
ITEM 5. Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information
The principal market in which our common stock is traded is the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, under the symbol JNPR.
Stockholders
As of February 13, 2020,10, 2021, there were 649599 stockholders of record of our common stock and we believe a substantially greater number of beneficial owners who hold shares through brokers, banks or other nominees.
Dividends
We paid cash dividends of $0.19$0.20 per share each quarter, totaling $260.1$264.1 million during the year ended December 31, 2019.2020. In January 2020,2021, we declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share of common stock to be paid on March 23, 202022, 2021 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on March 2, 2020.1, 2021. The declaration and amount of any future cash dividends are at the discretion of the Board of Directors and will depend on our financial performance, economic outlook, and any other relevant considerations.
Unregistered Securities Issued
On April 1, 2019,November 30, 2020, we issued 725,955823,310 shares of our common stock as consideration to threeeight individuals in connection with the Mist128 Technology acquisition in the secondfourth quarter of 2019.2020.
On December 6, 2019, we issued 107,514 shares of our common stock as consideration to an individual in connection with the acquisition of AppFormix in 2016.
The issuance of the above securities was exempt from registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), in reliance upon Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act as transactions by an issuer not involving any public offering and/or the private offering safe harbor provision of Rule 506 of Regulation D promulgated under the Securities Act.
Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
The following table provides stock repurchase activity during the three months ended December 31, 20192020 (in millions, except per share amounts):
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Period | Total Number of Shares Purchased | | Average Price Paid per Share | | Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs(2) | | Maximum Dollar Value of Shares that May Still Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs(2) |
October 1 - October 31, 2019(1) | 6.4 |
| | $ | 25.15 |
| | 6.4 |
| | $ | 1,700.0 |
|
November 1 - November 30, 2019 | — |
| | $ | — |
| | — |
| | $ | 1,700.0 |
|
December 1 - December 31, 2019 | — |
| | $ | — |
| | — |
| | $ | 1,700.0 |
|
Total | 6.4 |
| | $ | — |
| | 6.4 |
| | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Period | Total Number of Shares Purchased | | Average Price Paid per Share | | Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs(*) | | Maximum Dollar Value of Shares that May Still Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs(*) |
October 1 - October 31, 2020 | — | | | $ | — | | | — | | | $ | 1,400.0 | |
November 1 - November 30, 2020 | — | | | $ | — | | | — | | | $ | 1,400.0 | |
December 1 - December 31, 2020 | 3.4 | | | $ | 21.83 | | | 3.4 | | | $ | 1,325.0 | |
Total | 3.4 | | | | | 3.4 | | | |
________________________________
| |
(1)
| As part of the 2018 Stock Repurchase Program, on October 28, 2019, the Company entered into an ASR, to repurchase an aggregate of approximately $200.0 million of the Company’s outstanding common stock. The Company made an up-front payment of $200.0 million pursuant to the ASR and received and retired an initial 6.4 million shares of the Company’s common stock for an aggregate price of $160.0 million. See Note 18, Subsequent Events, in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report for a discussion of the Company's ASR completion subsequent to December 31, 2019.
|
| |
(2)
| Shares were repurchased during the periods set forth in the table above under our stock repurchase program, which had been approved by the Board and authorized us to purchase an aggregate of up to $3.0 billion of our common stock. Future share repurchases under our capital return plan will be subject to a review of the circumstances in place at that time and will be made from time to time in private transactions or open market purchases as permitted by securities laws and other legal requirements. This program may be discontinued at any time. See Note 18, Subsequent Events, for discussion of the Company's ASR completion and stock repurchase activity subsequent to December 31, 2019. For the majority of restricted stock units granted to executive officers of the Company, the number of shares issued on the date the restricted stock units vest is net of shares withheld to meet applicable tax withholding requirements. Although these withheld shares are not issued or considered common stock repurchases under our stock repurchase program and therefore are not included in the preceding
|
(*) Shares were repurchased during the periods set forth in the table above under our stock repurchase program, which had been approved by the Board and authorized us to purchase an aggregate of up to $3.0 billion of our common stock. Future share repurchases under our capital return plan will be subject to a review of the circumstances in place at that time and will be made from time to time in private transactions or open market purchases as permitted by securities laws and other legal requirements. This program may be discontinued at any time. For the majority of restricted stock units granted to executive officers of the Company, the number of shares issued on the date the restricted stock units vest is net of shares withheld to meet applicable tax withholding requirements. Although these withheld shares are not issued or considered common stock repurchases under our stock repurchase program and therefore are not included in the preceding table, they are treated as common stock repurchases in our financial statements as they reduce the number of shares that would have been issued upon vesting, see Note 11,10, Equity, in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report.
Company Stock Performance
The information contained in this Company Stock Performance section shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into other U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, filings; nor deemed to be soliciting material or filed with the Commission or subject to Regulation 14A or 14C or subject to Section 18 of the Exchange Act. The comparisons in the performance graph below are based upon historical data and are not indicative of, or intended to forecast, future performance of our common stock.
The performance graph below shows the cumulative total stockholder return over a five-year period assuming the investment of $100 on December 31, 2014,2015, in each of Juniper Networks' common stock, the Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index (“S&P 500”), and the NASDAQ Telecommunications Index. Total stockholder return assumes reinvestment of all dividends.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| As of December 31, |
| 2015 | | 2016 | | 2017 | | 2018 | | 2019 | | 2020 |
JNPR | $ | 100.00 | | | $ | 104.09 | | | $ | 106.46 | | | $ | 103.21 | | | $ | 97.40 | | | $ | 92.16 | |
S&P 500 | $ | 100.00 | | | $ | 111.95 | | | $ | 136.38 | | | $ | 130.39 | | | $ | 171.44 | | | $ | 202.96 | |
NASDAQ Telecommunications Index | $ | 100.00 | | | $ | 117.59 | | | $ | 141.37 | | | $ | 148.82 | | | $ | 169.12 | | | $ | 210.04 | |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| As of December 31, |
| 2014 |
| 2015 |
| 2016 |
| 2017 |
| 2018 |
| 2019 |
JNPR | $ | 100.00 |
|
| $ | 125.51 |
|
| $ | 130.64 |
|
| $ | 133.63 |
|
| $ | 129.54 |
|
| $ | 122.25 |
|
S&P 500 | $ | 100.00 |
|
| $ | 101.37 |
|
| $ | 113.49 |
|
| $ | 138.26 |
|
| $ | 132.19 |
|
| $ | 173.80 |
|
NASDAQ Telecommunications Index | $ | 100.00 |
|
| $ | 94.70 |
|
| $ | 111.36 |
|
| $ | 133.88 |
|
| $ | 140.93 |
|
| $ | 160.17 |
|
The following selected consolidated financial data is derived from our audited Consolidated Financial Statements. As our operating results are not necessarily indicative of future operating results, this data should be read in conjunction with Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, and the Consolidated Financial Statements and the notes thereto in Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, of this Report, which are incorporated herein by reference.
The information presented below reflects the impact of certain significant transactions and the adoption of certain accounting pronouncements, which makes a direct comparison difficult between each of the last five fiscal years. For a complete description of matters affecting the results in the tables below during the three years ended December 31, 2019, see Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report.
Consolidated Statements of Operations Data
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, |
| 2019 | | 2018(1) | | 2017(2) | | 2016 | | 2015 |
| (In millions) |
Net revenues | $ | 4,445.4 |
| | $ | 4,647.5 |
| | $ | 5,027.2 |
| | $ | 4,990.1 |
| | $ | 4,857.8 |
|
Gross margin | 2,616.8 |
| | 2,741.2 |
| | 3,072.1 |
| | 3,104.5 |
| | 3,078.6 |
|
Operating income | 442.2 |
| | 572.2 |
| | 848.1 |
| | 889.7 |
| | 912.0 |
|
Net income | $ | 345.0 |
| | $ | 566.9 |
| | $ | 306.2 |
| | $ | 592.7 |
| | $ | 633.7 |
|
| |
(1)
| Fiscal year 2018 includes a tax benefit of $133.0 million related to a lapse in the statute of limitations and tax accounting method changes related to deferred revenue. |
| |
(2)
| Fiscal year 2017 includes an estimated $289.5 million of tax expense related to the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and pre-tax restructuring charges of $65.6 million.
|
Per Common Share Data
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, |
| 2019 | | 2018 | | 2017 | | 2016 | | 2015 |
Net income per share: | |
| | | | |
| | |
| | |
|
Basic | $ | 1.01 |
| | $ | 1.62 |
| | $ | 0.81 |
| | $ | 1.55 |
| | $ | 1.62 |
|
Diluted | $ | 0.99 |
| | $ | 1.60 |
| | $ | 0.80 |
| | $ | 1.53 |
| | $ | 1.59 |
|
Cash dividends declared per share of common stock | $ | 0.76 |
| | $ | 0.72 |
| | $ | 0.40 |
| | $ | 0.40 |
| | $ | 0.40 |
|
Consolidated Balance Sheet Data
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| As of December 31, |
| 2019 | | 2018 | | 2017 | | 2016 | | 2015 |
| (In millions) |
Cash, cash equivalents, and investments | $ | 2,543.6 |
| | $ | 3,758.1 |
| | $ | 4,021.0 |
| | $ | 3,657.3 |
| | $ | 3,192.2 |
|
Working capital | 1,665.9 |
| | 2,739.3 |
| | 2,446.3 |
| | 2,236.0 |
| | 1,110.5 |
|
Goodwill | 3,337.1 |
| | 3,108.8 |
| | 3,096.2 |
| | 3,081.7 |
| | 2,981.3 |
|
Total assets(1)(2) | 8,837.7 |
| | 9,363.3 |
| | 9,833.8 |
| | 9,656.5 |
| | 8,607.9 |
|
Total debt(1) | 1,683.9 |
| | 2,139.0 |
| | 2,136.3 |
| | 2,133.7 |
| | 1,937.4 |
|
Total long-term liabilities (excluding long-term debt)(2)(3) | 999.3 |
| | 908.5 |
| | 1,278.4 |
| | 824.4 |
| | 594.1 |
|
Total stockholders' equity(4)(5) | $ | 4,610.6 |
| | $ | 4,823.2 |
| | $ | 4,680.9 |
| | $ | 4,962.5 |
| | $ | 4,574.4 |
|
| |
(1)
| Fiscal year 2016 includes the adoption of Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") No. 2015-03 (Subtopic 835-30) - Simplifying the Presentation of Debt Issuance Costs, requiring that debt issuance costs related to a recognized debt liability be presented in the balance sheet as a direct deduction from the carrying amount of that debt liability, consistent with debt discounts. Other long-term assets and long-term debt in the prior years were retrospectively adjusted to conform to the required presentation.
|
| |
(2)
| Fiscal year 2019 reflects the impact of the adoption of the new lease accounting standard under the modified retrospective approach. |
| |
(3)
| Fiscal year 2017 includes an estimated $394.0 million recorded in long-term income taxes payable related to the one-time transition tax as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. |
| |
(4)
| Fiscal year 2017 includes the adoption of ASU No. 2016-09 (Topic 718) Compensation—Stock Compensation: Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting, which simplified several aspects of the accounting for share-based payment transactions, including the accounting for forfeitures, among other things. We elected to account for forfeitures as they occur using a modified retrospective transition method, rather than estimating forfeitures, resulting in a cumulative-effect adjustment of $9.0 million, which increased the January 1, 2017 opening accumulated deficit balance on the Consolidated Balance Sheets.
|
| |
(5)
| Fiscal year 2018 includes the adoption of ASU No. 2014-09 (Topic 606) Revenue from Contracts with Customers, which provides guidance for revenue recognition that superseded the revenue recognition requirements in Accounting Standards Codification Topic 605, Revenue Recognition and most industry specific guidance. We adopted the standard under the modified retrospective approach, applying the amendments to prospective reporting periods. Upon adoption, we recorded a cumulative effect adjustment of $324.7 million, which decreased the January 1, 2018 opening accumulated deficit balance on the Consolidated Balance Sheet primarily due to the application of the new guidance in the areas of distributor sales, software and related services revenue, variable consideration, revenue allocation, and contract acquisition costs. |
ITEM 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following discussion should be read with the Business in Item 1 of Part I and the Consolidated Financial Statements and the related notes in Item 8 of Part II of this Report.
The following discussion is based upon our Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this Report, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP. In the course of operating our business, we routinely make decisions as to the timing of the payment of invoices, the collection of receivables, the manufacturing and shipment of products, the fulfillment of orders, the purchase of supplies, and the building of inventory and spare parts, among other matters. In making these decisions, we consider various factors including contractual obligations, customer satisfaction, competition, internal and external financial targets and expectations, and financial planning objectives. Each of these decisions has some impact on the financial results for any given period. For further information about our critical accounting policies and estimates, see “Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates” section included in this “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”
To aid in understanding our operating results for the periods covered by this Report, we have provided an executive overview, which includes a summary of our business and market environment along with a financial results and key performance metrics overview. These sections should be read in conjunction with the more detailed discussion and analysis of our consolidated financial condition and results of operations in this Item 7, our “Risk Factors” section included in Item 1A of Part I, and our Consolidated Financial Statements and notes thereto included in Item 8 of Part II of this Report.
Executive Overview
Financial Results and Key Performance Metrics Overview
The following table provides an overview of our financial results and key financial metrics (in millions, except per share amounts, percentages, and days sales outstanding, or DSO):
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| As of and for the Years Ended December 31, |
| 2020 | | 2019 | | $ Change | | % Change |
| | | | | | | |
Net revenues | $ | 4,445.1 | | | $ | 4,445.4 | | | $ | (0.3) | | | — | % |
Gross margin | $ | 2,573.7 | | | $ | 2,616.8 | | | $ | (43.1) | | | (2) | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 57.9 | % | | 58.9 | % | | | | |
Operating income | $ | 353.1 | | | $ | 442.2 | | | $ | (89.1) | | | (20) | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 7.9 | % | | 9.9 | % | | | | |
Net income | $ | 257.8 | | | $ | 345.0 | | | $ | (87.2) | | | (25) | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 5.8 | % | | 7.8 | % | | | | |
Net income per share | | | | | | | |
Basic | $ | 0.78 | | | $ | 1.01 | | | $ | (0.23) | | | (23) | % |
Diluted | $ | 0.77 | | | $ | 0.99 | | | $ | (0.22) | | | (22) | % |
| | | | | | | |
Operating cash flows | $ | 612.0 | | | $ | 528.9 | | | $ | 83.1 | | | 16 | % |
Stock repurchase plan activity | $ | 375.0 | | | $ | 550.0 | | | $ | (175.0) | | | (32) | % |
Cash dividends declared per common stock | $ | 0.80 | | | $ | 0.76 | | | $ | 0.04 | | | 5 | % |
DSO(*) | 71 | | | 66 | | | 5 | | | 8 | % |
| | | | | | | |
Deferred revenue | $ | 1,285.8 | | | $ | 1,223.4 | | | $ | 62.4 | | | 5 | % |
Product deferred revenue | $ | 104.7 | | | $ | 132.6 | | | $ | (27.9) | | | (21) | % |
Service deferred revenue | $ | 1,181.1 | | | $ | 1,090.8 | | | $ | 90.3 | | | 8 | % |
(*) DSO is for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2020, and 2019.
•Net Revenues: Net revenues were flat during 2020 compared to 2019. We experienced growth in our Enterprise and Cloud verticals, which was offset by a decline in our Service Provider vertical. The growth in our Enterprise vertical was primarily driven by Switching, and the growth in our Cloud vertical was primarily driven by Routing. We believe the decline in our Service Provider vertical was partially due to the COVID-19 related supply constraints. Service net revenues increased primarily due to strong renewals of support contracts.
•Gross Margin: Gross margin as a percentage of net revenues decreased primarily due to increased logistics and other supply chain-related costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, customer and product mix, and intangible amortization associated with the acquisition of Mist, partially offset by the impact associated with higher service revenues.
•Operating Margin: Operating income as a percentage of net revenues decreased primarily due to the drivers described in the gross margin discussion above, higher restructuring charges, and higher personnel-related costs. The decrease in operating margin was partially offset by lower travel costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
•Operating Cash Flows: Net cash provided by operations increased primarily due to higher invoicing activity and working capital differences related to customer collections, partially offset by higher payments to indirect suppliers and for employee compensation.
•Capital Return: We continue to return capital to our stockholders. During the fourth quarter of 2019, we entered into an accelerated share repurchase program (the "ASR"), to repurchase an aggregate of $200.0 million in shares. Under
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| As of and for the Years Ended December 31, |
| 2019 | | 2018 | | $ Change | | % Change |
| | | | | | | |
Net revenues | $ | 4,445.4 |
| | $ | 4,647.5 |
| | $ | (202.1 | ) | | (4 | )% |
Gross margin | $ | 2,616.8 |
| | $ | 2,741.2 |
| | $ | (124.4 | ) | | (5 | )% |
Percentage of net revenues | 58.9 | % | | 59.0 | % | | | | |
Operating income | $ | 442.2 |
| | $ | 572.2 |
| | $ | (130.0 | ) | | (23 | )% |
Percentage of net revenues | 9.9 | % | | 12.3 | % | | | | |
Net income | $ | 345.0 |
| | $ | 566.9 |
| | $ | (221.9 | ) | | (39 | )% |
Percentage of net revenues | 7.8 | % | | 12.2 | % | | | | |
Net income per share | | | | | | | |
Basic | $ | 1.01 |
| | $ | 1.62 |
| | $ | (0.61 | ) | | (38 | )% |
Diluted | $ | 0.99 |
| | $ | 1.60 |
| | $ | (0.61 | ) | | (38 | )% |
| | | | | | | |
Operating cash flows | $ | 528.9 |
| | $ | 861.1 |
| | $ | (332.2 | ) | | (39 | )% |
Stock repurchase plan activity | $ | 550.0 |
| | $ | 750.0 |
| | $ | (200.0 | ) | | (27 | )% |
Cash dividends declared per common stock | $ | 0.76 |
| | $ | 0.72 |
| | $ | 0.04 |
| | 6 | % |
DSO(*) | 66 |
| | 58 |
| | 8 |
| | 14 | % |
| | | | | | | |
Deferred revenue | $ | 1,223.4 |
| | $ | 1,213.6 |
| | $ | 9.8 |
| | 1 | % |
Product deferred revenue | $ | 132.6 |
| | $ | 144.4 |
| | $ | (11.8 | ) | | (8 | )% |
Service deferred revenue | $ | 1,090.8 |
| | $ | 1,069.2 |
| | $ | 21.6 |
| | 2 | % |
the ASR, we made an up-front payment of $200.0 million and received and retired 6.4 million shares of our common stock during the fourth quarter of 2019. During the first quarter of 2020, the ASR was completed, and we received and retired an additional 1.8 million shares for a total repurchase of 8.2 million shares of our common stock. During 2020, we repurchased a total of 16.1 million shares of our common stock in the open market at an average price of $23.36 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $375.0 million. During 2020, we paid quarterly dividends of $0.20 per share, for an aggregate amount of $264.1 million. | |
(*)
•DSO: DSO is calculated as the ratio of ending accounts receivable, net of allowances, divided by average daily net revenues for the preceding 90 days. DSO increased, primarily due to higher accounts receivable resulting from higher overall invoicing volume.
•Deferred Revenue: Total deferred revenue increased, primarily due to the timing of maintenance service renewals.
COVID-19 Pandemic Update
The COVID-19 pandemic and the containment measures taken by governments and businesses are expected to continue to have a substantial negative impact on businesses around the world and on global, regional, and national economies. As a result, the pandemic has, and may continue to, negatively affect our operations, including as a result of external factors beyond our control such as restrictions on the physical movement of our employees, contract manufacturers, partners, and customers to limit the spread of COVID-19 and the availability and acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. Since March 2020, the majority of our global workforce has been working remotely due to shelter-in-place requirements and travel restrictions. We continue to follow the guidance of local and national governments, including monitoring the health of our employees who have returned to our offices and limiting the gathering size of employee groups in indoor spaces.
We continue to support healthy customer demand for our products by working with our suppliers and distributors to address supply chain disruptions as well as travel restrictions that have impacted our operations. We have a global supply chain footprint with our primary manufacturing partners located in China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Mexico, and the United States. Our component suppliers are more geographically distributed with vendors from many countries throughout the world. During 2020, the supply constraints we experienced were due to both constrained manufacturing capacity as well as component parts shortages as our component vendors were also facing manufacturing challenges. These challenges resulted in extended lead-times to our customers, increased logistics costs, and impacted the volume of products we were able to deliver, which negatively impacted our ability to recognize revenue and decreased our gross margins.
Challenges to our supply chain due to the impact of the pandemic remain dynamic, including ongoing shortages of component parts, and increased logistics costs due to air travel and transport restrictions that limited the availability of flights on which we were able to ship products in the fourth quarter. However, we saw improvements in our manufacturing capacity during the second half of 2020. We also believe that we have a robust and fairly flexible supply chain. Our supply chain team has been working to meet our customer needs by executing on a strong risk mitigation plan, including multi-sourcing, pre-ordering components, transforming our logistics network, prioritizing critical customers, working with local government agencies to understand challenges, and partnering on solutions that limit disruptions to our operations while ensuring the safety of our employees, partners and suppliers.
The pandemic has not had a substantial net impact to our consolidated operating results or our liquidity position in 2020. We continue to generate operating cash flows to meet our short-term liquidity needs, and we expect to continue to maintain access to the capital markets enabled by our strong credit ratings. In 2020, we did not observe any material impairments of our assets or a significant change in the fair value of assets due to the pandemic.
We enter the first quarter of fiscal year 2021 with healthy backlog in our Cloud and Service Provider verticals. We intend to continue to work with government authorities and implement safety measures to ensure that we are able to continue manufacturing and distributing our products during the pandemic. We may continue to experience constrained supply and increased logistics costs and could experience curtailed customer demand, any of which could adversely impact our business, results of operations, and overall financial performance in future periods.
| DSO is for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2019, and 2018. |
| |
• | Net Revenues: The net revenues decreased primarily due to the Service Provider vertical, partially offset by growth in Enterprise and Cloud. We believe the decline in the Service Provider vertical is due to continued business challenges facing some of our largest Service Provider customers. Our Cloud vertical has returned to year-over-year growth. Certain large Cloud customers were transitioning their network architecture as they continued to add capacity. The transition from purchasing our MX product family to our PTX product family contributed to the decline in our net revenues as the PTX product family has a lower average selling price compared to the MX product family. We believe the MX to PTX transition is largely behind us. Nevertheless, we are focused on the Cloud vertical as well as the transition to 400-gig Ethernet, or 400G, which we believe will present further opportunities for Juniper across our portfolio as our Cloud customers value high-performance, highly compact, power efficient infrastructures, which we support and continue to develop. Our Enterprise vertical grew year-over-year, primarily due to services and to a lesser extent, routing and security, partially offset by a decline in switching. Service net revenues increased primarily due to strong renewal and attach rates of support contracts.
|
| |
• | Gross Margin: The gross margin as a percentage of net revenues decreased primarily due to lower product revenues, higher amortization of intangible assets associated with the acquisition of Mist, customer and product mix, and to a lesser extent, China tariffs, partially offset by higher service revenues and lower service delivery costs.
|
| |
• | Operating Margin: The operating income as a percentage of net revenues decreased primarily due to the drivers described in the gross margin discussion above, and higher restructuring costs during the first half of 2019 that we did not incur during the same period in 2018. The decrease in operating margin was partially offset by lower personnel-related and share-based compensation expenses.
|
| |
• | Operating Cash Flows: Net cash provided by operations decreased primarily due to lower invoicing activity, partially offset by a decrease in cash paid for income taxes and a decrease in payments to suppliers.
|
| |
• | Capital Return: We continue to return capital to our stockholders. During the second quarter of 2019, we entered into an accelerated share repurchase program, or ASR, of $300.0 million. The ASR resulted in a total settlement of 11.6 million shares. During the fourth quarter of 2019, we entered into another ASR to repurchase an aggregate of $200.0 million shares. Under the ASR, we made an up-front payment of $200.0 million and received an initial delivery of 6.4 million shares for an aggregate price of $160.0 million. Upon completion of the ASR in the first quarter of 2020, we received an additional 1.8 million shares from the financial institution. These 1.8 million shares will be retired in the first quarter of 2020. The completion of the ASR resulted in a total settlement of 8.2 million shares of our common stock at a volume weighted average repurchase price, less an agreed upon discount, of $24.44 per share. During 2019, we also paid quarterly dividends of $0.19 per share, for an aggregate amount of $260.1 million.
|
| |
• | DSO: DSO is calculated as the ratio of ending accounts receivable, net of allowances, divided by average daily net revenues for the preceding 90 days. DSO increased, primarily due to higher accounts receivable resulting from higher overall invoicing volume.
|
| |
• | Deferred Revenue: Total deferred revenue increased, primarily due to the timing of the delivery of contractual commitments.
|
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
The preparation of the financial statements and related disclosures in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires us to make judgments, assumptions, and estimates that affect the amounts reported in the Consolidated Financial Statements and the accompanying notes. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates, including those related to sales returns, pricing credits, warranty costs, allowance for doubtful accounts, impairment of long-term assets, especially goodwill and intangible assets, contract manufacturer liabilities, assumptions used in the valuation of share-based compensation, and litigation. We base our estimates and assumptions on current facts, historical experience, and various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. For further information about our significant accounting policies, see Note 2,1, Description of Business, Basis of Presentation and Significant Accounting Policies, in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report, which describes the significant accounting policies and methods used in the preparation of the Consolidated Financial Statements. The accounting policies described below are significantly affected by critical accounting estimates. Such accounting policies require significant judgments, assumptions, and estimates used in the preparation of the Consolidated Financial Statements and actual results could differ materially from the amounts reported based on these policies. To the extent there are material differences between our estimates and the actual results, our future consolidated results of operations may be affected.
| |
• | •Goodwill and Purchased Intangible Assets: We make significant estimates, assumptions, and judgments when valuing goodwill and other intangible assets in connection with the initial purchase price allocation of an acquired entity, as well as when evaluating impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets on an ongoing basis. The purchase price of an acquired entity is allocated between intangible assets and the net tangible assets of the acquired business with the residual of the purchase price recorded as goodwill. The determination of the value of the intangible assets acquired involves certain judgments and estimates. Critical estimates include, but are not limited to, historical and projected customer retention rates, anticipated growth in revenue from the acquired customer and product base, and the expected use of the acquired assets. These factors are also considered in determining the useful life of the acquired intangible assets. These estimates are based upon a number of factors, including historical experience, market conditions, and information obtained from the management of the acquired company. These judgments can include, but are not limited to, the cash flows that an asset is expected to generate in future periods and the appropriate weighted average cost of capital.
We make significant estimates, assumptions, and judgments when valuing goodwill and other intangible assets in connection with the initial purchase price allocation of an acquired entity, as well as when evaluating impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets on an ongoing basis. The purchase price of an acquired entity is allocated between intangible assets and the net tangible assets of the acquired business with the residual of the purchase price recorded as goodwill. The determination of the value of the intangible assets acquired involves certain judgments and estimates. Critical estimates include, but are not limited to, historical and projected customer retention rates, anticipated growth in revenue from the acquired customer and product base, and the expected use of the acquired assets. These factors are also considered in determining the useful life of the acquired intangible assets. These estimates are based upon a number of factors, including historical experience, market conditions, and information obtained from the management of the acquired company. These judgments can include, but are not limited to, the cash flows that an asset is expected to generate in future periods and the appropriate weighted average cost of capital.
|
Goodwill represents the future economic benefits arising from other assets acquired in a business combination that are not individually identified and separately recorded. We evaluate goodwill for impairment on an annual basis, as of November 1st, or more frequently if an event occurs or facts and circumstances change that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of our reporting units below their carrying amount. Goodwill is tested for impairment at the reporting unit level, which is one level below the operating segment, by first performing a qualitative assessment to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of the reporting unit is less than its carrying value. This initial assessment includes, among others, consideration of macroeconomic conditions and financial performance. If the reporting unit does not pass the qualitative assessment then the reporting unit's carrying valueindicates that it is compared to its fair value. Ifmore likely than not that an impairment exists, a quantitative analysis is performed by determining the fair value of theeach reporting unit exceeds the carrying valueusing a combination of the reporting unit, goodwill is not impaired and no further testing is required. If the fair value of the reporting unit does not exceed the carrying value, we perform
the second step of the impairment test. Goodwill is considered impaired if the carrying value of the reporting unit exceeds its fair value. The fair values of the reporting units are estimated using market and discounted cash flow and the market approaches. The discounted cash flow approach uses expected future operating results. The market approach uses comparable company information to determine revenue and earnings multiples to value our reporting units. Failure to achieve these expected results or market multiples may cause a future impairment of goodwill of our reporting units. Goodwill is considered impaired if the carrying value of the reporting unit exceeds its fair value. A goodwill impairment loss is recognized for the amount that the carrying amount of a reporting unit, including goodwill, exceeds its fair value, limited to the total amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit.
We conducted our annual impairment test of goodwill during the fourth quarters of 20192020 and 2018. As of2019. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, we determined that no impairment of the carrying value of goodwill for any reporting units was required.exists. See Note 7,6, Goodwill and Purchased Intangible Assets, in Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report for additional information regarding our Goodwill and Purchased Intangible Assets.
| |
• | •Inventory Valuation and Contract Manufacturer Liabilities: Inventory consists primarily of component parts to be used in the manufacturing process and finished goods in-transit, and is stated at the lower of cost or net realizable value. A provision is recorded when inventory is determined to be in excess of anticipated demand or obsolete, to adjust inventory to its estimated realizable value. In determining the provision, we also consider estimated recovery
rates based on the nature of the inventory. As of December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, our net inventory balances were $221.9 million and $94.2 million, respectively.
Inventory consists primarily of component parts to be used in the manufacturing process and finished goods in-transit, and is stated at lower of cost or net realizable value. A provision is recorded when inventory is determined to be in excess of anticipated demand or obsolete, to adjust inventory to its estimated realizable value. In determining the provision, we also consider estimated recovery rates based on the nature of the inventory. As of December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2018, our net inventory balances were $94.2 million and $82.0 million, respectively.
|
We establish a liability for non-cancelable, non-returnable purchase commitments with our contract manufacturers for quantities in excess of our demand forecasts or obsolete materials charges for components purchased by contract manufacturers based on our demand forecasts or customer orders. We also take estimated recoveries of aged inventory into consideration when determining the liability. As of December 31, 20192020 and December 31, 2018,2019, our contract manufacturer liabilities were $28.6$15.2 million and $30.4$28.6 million, respectively.
Significant judgment is used in establishing our forecasts of future demand, recovery rates based on the nature and age of inventory, and obsolete material exposures. We perform a detailed analysis and review of data used in establishing our demand forecasts. If the actual component usage and product demand are significantly lower than forecast, which may be caused by factors within and outside of our control, or if there were a higher incidence of inventory obsolescence because of rapidly changing technology and our customer requirements, we may be required to increase our inventory write-downs and contract manufacturer liabilities, which could have an adverse impact on our gross margins and profitability. We regularly evaluate our exposure for inventory write-downs and adequacy of our contract manufacturer liabilities. Inventory and supply chain management remains an area of focus as we balance the risk of material obsolescence and supply chain flexibility in order to reduce lead times.
| |
• | •Revenue Recognition: We enter into contracts to sell our products and services, and while some of our sales agreements contain standard terms and conditions, there are agreements that contain non-standard terms and conditions and include promises to transfer multiple goods or services. As a result, significant interpretation and judgment are sometimes required to determine the appropriate accounting for these transactions, including: (1) whether performance obligations are considered distinct that should be accounted for separately versus together, how the price should be allocated among the performance obligations, and when to recognize revenue for each performance obligation; (2) developing an estimate of the stand-alone selling price, or SSP, of each distinct performance obligation; (3) combining contracts that may impact the allocation of the transaction price between product and services; and (4) estimating and accounting for variable consideration, including rights of return, rebates, price protection, expected penalties or other price concessions as a reduction of the transaction price.
We enter into contracts to sell our products and services, and while some of our sales agreements contain standard terms and conditions, there are agreements that contain non-standard terms and conditions and include promises to transfer multiple goods or services. As a result, significant interpretation and judgment are sometimes required to determine the appropriate accounting for these transactions, including: (1) whether performance obligations are considered distinct that should be accounted for separately versus together, how the price should be allocated among the performance obligations, and when to recognize revenue for each performance obligation; (2) developing an estimate of the stand-alone selling price, or SSP, of each distinct performance obligation; (3) combining contracts that may impact the allocation of the transaction price between product and services; and (4) estimating and accounting for variable consideration, including rights of return, rebates, price protection, expected penalties or other price concessions as a reduction of the transaction price.
|
Our estimates of SSP for each performance obligation require judgment that considers multiple factors, including, but not limited to, historical discounting trends for products and services, pricing practices in different geographies and through different sales channels, gross margin objectives, internal costs, competitor pricing strategies, and industry technology lifecycles. Our estimates for rights of return, rebates, and price protection are based on historical sales returns and price protection credits, specific criteria outlined in customer contracts or rebate agreements, and other factors known at the time. Our estimates for expected penalties and other price concessions are based on historical trends and expectations regarding future incurrence.
Changes in judgments with respect to these assumptions and estimates could impact the timing or amount of revenue recognition.
| |
• | Income Taxes: We are subject to income taxes in the United States and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in evaluating our uncertain tax positions and determining our taxes. Although we believe our reserves are reasonable, no assurance can be given that the final tax outcome of these matters will not be different from
|
•Income Taxes: We are subject to income taxes in the United States and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in evaluating our uncertain tax positions and determining our taxes. Although we believe our reserves are reasonable, no assurance can be given that the final tax outcome of these matters will not be different from that which is reflected in our historical income tax provisions and accruals. We adjust these reserves in light of changing facts and circumstances, such as the closing of a tax audit or the refinement of an estimate. To the extent that the final tax outcome of these matters is different than the amounts recorded, such differences will affect the provision for income taxes in the period in which such determination is made.
Significant judgment is also required in determining any valuation allowance recorded against deferred tax assets. In assessing the need for a valuation allowance, we consider all available evidence, including past operating results, estimates of future taxable income, and the feasibility of tax planning strategies. In the event that we change our determination as to the amount of deferred tax assets that can be realized, we will adjust our valuation allowance with a corresponding impact to the provision for income taxes in the period in which such determination is made.
Our provision for income taxes is subject to volatility and could be adversely affected by earnings being lower than anticipated in countries that have lower tax rates and higher than anticipated in countries that have higher tax rates; by changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities; by expiration of, or lapses in the research and
development, or R&D, tax credit laws; by transfer pricing adjustments, including the effect of acquisitions on our intercompany R&D cost-sharing arrangement and legal structure; by tax effects of nondeductible compensation; by tax costs related to intercompany realignments; by changes in accounting principles; or by changes in tax laws and regulations, including possible U.S. changes to the taxation of earnings of our foreign subsidiaries, the deductibility of expenses attributable to foreign income, or the foreign tax credit rules. In addition, the OECD’s recommended changes to numerous long-standing tax principles, as adopted by countries, will increase tax uncertainty and may adversely affect our provision for income taxes. Significant judgment is required to determine the recognition and measurement attributes prescribed in the accounting guidance for uncertainty in income taxes. The accounting guidance for uncertainty in income taxes applies to all income tax positions, including the potential recovery of previously paid taxes, which if settled unfavorably could adversely affect our provision for income taxes or additional paid-in capital. In addition, we are subject to the continuous examination of our income tax returns by the IRS and other tax authorities. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes. There can be no assurance that the outcomes from these continuous examinations will not have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.
| |
• | •Loss Contingencies: We are involved in various lawsuits, claims, investigations, and proceedings, including those involving our IP, commercial, securities and employment matters, which arise in the ordinary course of business. We use significant judgment and assumptions to estimate the likelihood of loss or impairment of an asset, or the incurrence of a liability, in determining loss contingencies. An estimated loss contingency is accrued when it is probable that an asset has been impaired or a liability has been incurred and the amount of loss can be reasonably estimated. We record a charge equal to the minimum estimated liability for litigation costs or a loss contingency only when both of the following conditions are met: (i) information available prior to issuance of our consolidated financial statements indicates that it is probable that an asset had been impaired or a liability had been incurred at the date of the financial statements and (ii) the range of loss can be reasonably estimated. We regularly evaluate current information available to us to determine whether such accruals should be adjusted and whether new accruals are required.
We are involved in various lawsuits, claims, investigations, and proceedings, including those involving our IP, commercial, securities and employment matters, which arise in the ordinary course of business. We use significant judgment and assumptions to estimate the likelihood of loss or impairment of an asset, or the incurrence of a liability, in determining loss contingencies. An estimated loss contingency is accrued when it is probable that an asset has been impaired or a liability has been incurred and the amount of loss can be reasonably estimated. We record a charge equal to the minimum estimated liability for litigation costs or a loss contingency only when both of the following conditions are met: (i) information available prior to issuance of our consolidated financial statements indicates that it is probable that an asset had been impaired or a liability had been incurred at the date of the financial statements and (ii) the range of loss can be reasonably estimated. We regularly evaluate current information available to us to determine whether such accruals should be adjusted and whether new accruals are required.
|
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
See Note 2,1, Description of Business, Basis of Presentation and Significant Accounting Policies, in Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report for a full description of recent accounting pronouncements, including the expected dates of adoption and estimated effects on financial condition and results of operations, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Results of Operations
A discussion regarding our financial condition and results of operations for the fiscal year ended December 31, 20192020 compared to 20182019 is presented below. A discussion regarding our financial condition and results of operations for fiscal year ended December 31, 20182019 compared to 20172018 can be found under Item 7 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018,2019, filed with the SEC on February 22, 2019,20, 2020, which is available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov and our Investor Relations website at http://investor.juniper.net.
Revenues
The following table presents net revenues by product and service, customer vertical, and geographic region (in millions, except percentages):
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, |
| 2020 | | 2019 | | $ Change | | % Change |
| | | | | | | |
Routing | $ | 1,612.1 | | | $ | 1,623.2 | | | $ | (11.1) | | | (1) | % |
Switching | 918.9 | | | 901.0 | | | 17.9 | | | 2 | % |
Security | 314.0 | | | 343.5 | | | (29.5) | | | (9) | % |
Total Product | 2,845.0 | | | 2,867.7 | | | (22.7) | | | (1) | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 64.0 | % | | 64.5 | % | | | | |
Total Service | 1,600.1 | | | 1,577.7 | | | 22.4 | | | 1 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 36.0 | % | | 35.5 | % | | | | |
Total net revenues | $ | 4,445.1 | | | $ | 4,445.4 | | | $ | (0.3) | | | — | % |
| | | | | | | |
Cloud | $ | 1,081.2 | | | $ | 1,059.8 | | | $ | 21.4 | | | 2 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 24.3 | % | | 23.8 | % | | | | |
Service Provider | 1,761.7 | | | 1,827.8 | | | (66.1) | | | (4) | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 39.6 | % | | 41.1 | % | | | | |
Enterprise | 1,602.2 | | | 1,557.8 | | | 44.4 | | | 3 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 36.1 | % | | 35.1 | % | | | | |
Total net revenues | $ | 4,445.1 | | | $ | 4,445.4 | | | $ | (0.3) | | | — | % |
| | | | | | | |
Americas: | | | | | | | |
United States | $ | 2,233.9 | | | $ | 2,299.8 | | | $ | (65.9) | | | (3) | % |
Other | 211.2 | | | 218.2 | | | (7.0) | | | (3) | % |
Total Americas | 2,445.1 | | | 2,518.0 | | | (72.9) | | | (3) | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 55.0 | % | | 56.7 | % | | | | |
EMEA | 1,233.8 | | | 1,215.3 | | | 18.5 | | | 2 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 27.8 | % | | 27.3 | % | | | | |
APAC | 766.2 | | | 712.1 | | | 54.1 | | | 8 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 17.2 | % | | 16.0 | % | | | | |
Total net revenues | $ | 4,445.1 | | | $ | 4,445.4 | | | $ | (0.3) | | | — | % |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, |
| 2019 | | 2018 | | $ Change | | % Change |
| | | | | | | |
Routing | $ | 1,623.2 |
| | $ | 1,839.7 |
| | $ | (216.5 | ) | | (12 | )% |
Switching | 901.0 |
| | 934.4 |
| | (33.4 | ) | | (4 | )% |
Security | 343.5 |
| | 333.0 |
| | 10.5 |
| | 3 | % |
Total Product | 2,867.7 |
| | 3,107.1 |
| | (239.4 | ) | | (8 | )% |
Percentage of net revenues | 64.5 | % | | 66.9 | % | | | | |
Total Service | 1,577.7 |
| | 1,540.4 |
| | 37.3 |
| | 2 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 35.5 | % | | 33.1 | % | | | | |
Total net revenues | $ | 4,445.4 |
| | $ | 4,647.5 |
| | $ | (202.1 | ) | | (4 | )% |
| | | | | | | |
Cloud | $ | 1,059.8 |
| | $ | 1,049.9 |
| | $ | 9.9 |
| | 1 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 23.8 | % | | 22.6 | % | | | | |
Service Provider | 1,827.8 |
| | 2,066.7 |
| | (238.9 | ) | | (12 | )% |
Percentage of net revenues | 41.1 | % | | 44.5 | % | | | | |
Enterprise | 1,557.8 |
| | 1,530.9 |
| | 26.9 |
| | 2 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 35.1 | % | | 32.9 | % | | | | |
Total net revenues | $ | 4,445.4 |
| | $ | 4,647.5 |
| | $ | (202.1 | ) | | (4 | )% |
| | | | | | | |
Americas: | | | | | | | |
United States | $ | 2,299.8 |
| | $ | 2,339.1 |
| | $ | (39.3 | ) | | (2 | )% |
Other | 218.2 |
| | 202.1 |
| | 16.1 |
| | 8 | % |
Total Americas | 2,518.0 |
| | 2,541.2 |
| | (23.2 | ) | | (1 | )% |
Percentage of net revenues | 56.7 | % | | 54.7 | % | | | | |
EMEA | 1,215.3 |
| | 1,290.8 |
| | (75.5 | ) | | (6 | )% |
Percentage of net revenues | 27.3 | % | | 27.8 | % | | | | |
APAC | 712.1 |
| | 815.5 |
| | (103.4 | ) | | (13 | )% |
Percentage of net revenues | 16.0 | % | | 17.5 | % | | | | |
Total net revenues | $ | 4,445.4 |
| | $ | 4,647.5 |
| | $ | (202.1 | ) | | (4 | )% |
Product net revenues decreased primarily due to lowerdecreases in Security and Routing, revenues from our Service Provider vertical and to a lesser extent, Cloud, partially offset by growth in Enterprise.Switching.
RoutingSecurity revenue decreased primarily driven by Service Provider and Cloud verticalsEnterprise from lower net revenues in our MXSRX product family, partially offset by growth in our PTX product family as a result of the MX to PTX transition primarily from our Cloud vertical.family.
SwitchingRouting revenue decreased primarily driven by Service Provider and to a lesser extent, Enterprise, from lower net revenues in our MX product family. The decrease was partially offset by strength in Cloud. The decrease was a result of lower net revenues from our QFX and EX product families.
SecuritySwitching revenue increased primarily driven by Enterprise and Service Provider, and to a lesser extent, Enterprise, partially offset by Cloud. The year-over-year growth was primarily driven by the growthfrom higher net revenues in Mid-Range SRX.our Mist product family.
Service net revenues increased primarily due to strong renewal and attach ratesrenewals of support contracts.
Customer
No customer accounted for greater than 10% of our net revenues during the years ended December 31, 2019, and 2018.
Gross Margins
The following table presents gross margins (in millions, except percentages):
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, |
| 2020 | | 2019 | | $ Change | | % Change |
| | | | | | | |
Product gross margin | $ | 1,566.4 | | | $ | 1,640.7 | | | $ | (74.3) | | | (5) | % |
Percentage of product revenues | 55.1 | % | | 57.2 | % | | | | |
Service gross margin | 1,007.3 | | | 976.1 | | | 31.2 | | | 3 | % |
Percentage of service revenues | 63.0 | % | | 61.9 | % | | | | |
Total gross margin | $ | 2,573.7 | | | $ | 2,616.8 | | | $ | (43.1) | | | (2) | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 57.9 | % | | 58.9 | % | | | | |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, |
| 2019 | | 2018 | | $ Change | | % Change |
| | | | | | | |
Product gross margin | $ | 1,640.7 |
| | $ | 1,829.9 |
| | $ | (189.2 | ) | | (10 | )% |
Percentage of product revenues | 57.2 | % | | 58.9 | % | | | | |
Service gross margin | 976.1 |
| | 911.3 |
| | 64.8 |
| | 7 | % |
Percentage of service revenues | 61.9 | % | | 59.2 | % | | | | |
Total gross margin | $ | 2,616.8 |
| | $ | 2,741.2 |
| | $ | (124.4 | ) | | (5 | )% |
Percentage of net revenues | 58.9 | % | | 59.0 | % | | | | |
Our gross margins as a percentage of net revenues have been and will continue to be affected by a variety of factors, including the mix and average selling prices of our products and services, new product introductions and enhancements, manufacturing, component and logistics costs, expenses for inventory obsolescence and warranty obligations, cost of support and service personnel, customer mix as we continue to expand our footprint with certain strategic customers, the mix of distribution channels through which our products and services are sold, and import tariffs. For example, the United States imposed a tariffwe are subject to tariffs on networking productscomponents imported from China, which includes certainare included in products that we import into and sell within the United States. In addition, our logistics and other supply chain-related costs have increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information on the potential impact of tariffs and COVID-19 on our business, see the “Risk Factors” section of Item 1A of Part I of this Report.
Product gross margin
Product gross margin as a percentage of product revenues decreased primarily due to increased logistics and other supply chain-related costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, customer and product mix, and higher amortization of intangible assets associated with the acquisition of Mist, customer and product mix, and to a lesser extent, China tariffs, partially offset by improvementsacquired in our cost structure.the second quarter of 2019. We continue to undertake specific efforts to address certain factors impacting our product gross margin. These efforts include performance and quality improvements through engineering to increase value across our products; optimizing our supply chain and service business; pricing management; and increasing software and solution sales.
Service gross margin
Service gross margin as a percentage of service net revenues increased primarily due to higher revenue and lower service delivery costs.
Operating Expenses
The following table presents operating expenses (in millions, except percentages):
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, |
| 2020 | | 2019 | | $ Change | | % Change |
| | | | | | | |
Research and development | $ | 958.4 | | | $ | 955.7 | | | $ | 2.7 | | | — | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 21.6 | % | | 21.5 | % | | | | |
Sales and marketing | 938.8 | | | 939.3 | | | (0.5) | | | — | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 21.1 | % | | 21.1 | % | | | | |
General and administrative | 255.4 | | | 244.3 | | | 11.1 | | | 5 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 5.7 | % | | 5.5 | % | | | | |
Restructuring charges | 68.0 | | | 35.3 | | | 32.7 | | | 93 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 1.5 | % | | 0.8 | % | | | | |
Total operating expenses | $ | 2,220.6 | | | $ | 2,174.6 | | | $ | 46.0 | | | 2 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 50.0 | % | | 48.9 | % | | | | |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, |
| 2019 | | 2018 | | $ Change | | % Change |
| | | | | | | |
Research and development | $ | 955.7 |
| | $ | 1,003.2 |
| | $ | (47.5 | ) | | (5 | )% |
Percentage of net revenues | 21.5 | % | | 21.6 | % | | | | |
Sales and marketing | 939.3 |
| | 927.4 |
| | 11.9 |
| | 1 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 21.1 | % | | 19.9 | % | | | | |
General and administrative | 244.3 |
| | 231.1 |
| | 13.2 |
| | 6 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 5.5 | % | | 5.0 | % | | | |
|
|
Restructuring charges | 35.3 |
| | 7.3 |
| | 28.0 |
| | 384 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 0.8 | % | | 0.2 | % | | | | |
Total operating expenses | $ | 2,174.6 |
| | $ | 2,169.0 |
| | $ | 5.6 |
| | — | % |
Percentage of net revenues | 48.9 | % | | 46.7 | % | | | | |
Our operating expenses have historically been driven in large part by personnel-related costs, including salaries and wages; commissions and bonuses, which we refer to collectively as variable compensation; benefits; share-based compensation; and travel. Facility and information technology, or IT, departmental costs are allocated to each department based on usage and headcount. We had a total of 9,419,9,950 and 9,2839,419 employees as of December 31, 2019,2020, and 2018,2019, respectively. Our headcount increased by 136531 employees, or 1%6%, primarily due to the acquisition of Mist, and from hiring for ourthe research and development, and sales transformation efforts earlier this year. Our headcount increase was partially offset by our restructuring plan initiatedorganizations, and to a lesser extent, from the acquisitions in the first quarter of 2019 designed to realign our workforce with our sales strategy, improve productivity, and enhance cost efficiencies, which we refer to as the 2019 Restructuring Plan. During the second quarter of 2019, we amended the 2019 Restructuring Plan and undertook certain further actions that resulted in additional severance, additional facility consolidation, and contract termination costs.2020.
Research and development
Research and development expense, or R&D, decreased $47.5increased $2.7 million primarily due to lowerhigher personnel-related costs includingof $26.3 million driven by an increase in headcount and higher professional services spending of $12.4 million. The increase was partially offset by a decrease in share-based compensation expense of $26.9$15.2 million, mainly driven by lower expense from certain performance share awards, or PSAs, where vesting is contingent upon the achievementengineering costs of certain performance milestones. The decrease was also driven by lower facilities expense of $11.5$14.3 million due to a facility closure during the third quarter of 2018. The decrease was partially offset by higher engineering costs of $7.3 million due to increaseddecreased investments in certain R&D projects.
Salesprojects, and marketing
Sales and marketing expense increased $11.9lower travel costs of $4.0 million primarily due to higher outside service costs of $7.6 million related to consulting projects, higher share-based compensation of $4.8 million, primarily from the acquisition of Mist during 2019, and from higher facilities expense of $4.8 million. The increase was partially offset by lower personnel-related costs of $16.2 million from restructuring actions in the first half of the year.COVID-19 pandemic.
General and administrative
General and administrative expense increased $13.2$11.1 million primarily fromdue to higher acquisition-related costs related toof $10.5 million, mainly for our acquisitions during the acquisitionfourth quarter of Mist Systems of $16.6 million and from higher share-based compensation of $8.3 million. In 2018, we established an accrual of $12.0 million for the FCPA matter with the SEC, which was subsequently settled in 2019 for $11.8 million.2020.
Restructuring charges
Restructuring charges increased $28.0$32.7 million, primarily due to additionalhigher severance costs related to voluntary and involuntary workforce reductions and contract termination costs recorded under the 20192020 Restructuring Plan.
Loss on Extinguishment of Debt
The following table presents the loss on extinguishment of debt (in millions, except percentages):
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, |
| 2020 | | 2019 | | $ Change | | % Change |
| | | | | | | |
Loss on extinguishment of debt | $ | (55.0) | | | $ | (15.3) | | | $ | (39.7) | | | 259 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | (1.2) | % | | (0.3) | % | | | | |
During 2020, we incurred a loss on extinguishment of debt of $55.0 million related to the early repayment of a portion of our 2024 and 2025 Senior Notes. The loss primarily consists of a premium on the tender offer and acceleration of unamortized debt discount and fees on the redeemed debt. During 2019, we incurred a loss on extinguishment of debt of $15.3 million related to the early repayment of our 2020 and 2021 Senior Notes.
Other Expense, Net
The following table presents other expense, net (in millions, except percentages):
| | | Years Ended December 31, | | Years Ended December 31, |
| 2019 | | 2018 | | $ Change | | % Change | | 2020 | | 2019 | | $ Change | | % Change |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Interest income | $ | 79.1 |
| | $ | 72.7 |
| | $ | 6.4 |
| | 9 | % | Interest income | $ | 36.3 | | | $ | 79.1 | | | $ | (42.8) | | | (54) | % |
Interest expense | (88.7 | ) | | (103.2 | ) | | 14.5 |
| | (14 | )% | Interest expense | (77.0) | | | (88.7) | | | 11.7 | | | (13) | % |
Loss on extinguishment of debt | (15.3 | ) | | — |
| | (15.3 | ) | | N/M |
| |
Loss on investments, net | (3.8 | ) | | (7.4 | ) | | 3.6 |
| | (49 | )% | |
Gain (loss) on investments, net | | Gain (loss) on investments, net | 13.3 | | | (3.8) | | | 17.1 | | | N/M |
Other | 0.9 |
| | (1.6 | ) | | 2.5 |
| | (156 | )% | Other | (5.5) | | | 0.9 | | | (6.4) | | | N/M |
Total other expense, net | $ | (27.8 | ) | | $ | (39.5 | ) | | $ | 11.7 |
| | (30 | )% | Total other expense, net | $ | (32.9) | | | $ | (12.5) | | | $ | (20.4) | | | 163 | % |
Percentage of net revenues | (0.6 | )% | | (0.8 | )% | | | | | Percentage of net revenues | (0.7) | % | | (0.3) | % | | | |
_______________________________N/M - percentage is not meaningful.
Interest income primarily includes interest earned on our cash, cash equivalents, investments, and a promissory note issued to us in connection with the sale of Junos Pulse. Interest expense primarily includes interest, net of capitalized interest expense, from long-term debt and customer financing arrangements. Loss on extinguishment of debt resulted from the early repayment of senior notes due 2020 and 2021. LossGain (loss) on investments, net, primarily includes losses from the sale of investments in public and privately-held companies, and any observable changes in fair value and impairment charges recorded on these investments. Other typically consists of foreign exchange gains and losses and other non-operational income and expense items.
Interest Income
Interest income increased $6.4decreased $42.8 million, primarily due to higher interest income related tolower yields from our fixed income investment portfolio as a result of higher yields.a lower interest rates and lower average portfolio balance, and to a lesser extent, lower interest income as a result of the collection of a promissory note receivable in connection with the previously completed sale of Junos Pulse.
Interest Expense
Interest expense decreased $14.5$11.6 million primarily due to a reduction in total debt primarilylower interest rates and savings from the repayment in February 2019, of our 3.125% senior notes for an aggregate principal amount of $350.0 million, and from the repayment in August 2019, of our 3.300% and 4.600% senior notes due in 2020 and 2021, respectively, for an aggregate principal amount of $600.0 million. The decrease in interest expense was partially offset by the issuance of our 3.75% senior notes due 2029 for an aggregate principal amount of $500.0 million in August 2019.rate swap contracts.
Loss on Extinguishment of Debt
During the year ended December 31, 2019, we incurred a call premium related to the early repayment of our 2020 and 2021 Senior Notes, conversely there were no such charges recorded in 2018.
LossGain (loss) on Investments, Net
During the year ended December 31, 2019, our loss on investments decreased primarily2020, we had gains related to certain equity investments and other isolated transactions, compared to losses from certain equity investments in privately-held companies.2019.
Income Tax Provision (Benefit)
The following table presents the income tax provision (benefit) (in millions, except percentages):
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, |
| 2020 | | 2019 | | $ Change | | % Change |
| | | | | | | |
Income tax provision | $ | 7.4 | | | $ | 69.4 | | | $ | (62.0) | | | (89) | % |
Effective tax rate | 2.8 | % | | 16.7 | % | | | | |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, |
| 2019 | | 2018 | | $ Change | | % Change |
| | | | | | | |
Income tax provision (benefit) | $ | 69.4 |
| | $ | (34.2 | ) | | $ | 103.6 |
| | (303 | )% |
Effective tax rate (benefit) | 16.7 | % | | (6.4 | )% | | | | |
The effective tax rate for fiscal year 20192020 was higherlower than 2018,2019, primarily due to the net difference in discrete items unique to fiscal year 20192020 compared to fiscal year 2018.2019. In 2020, our effective rate included a $63.7 million benefit, including interest and penalties, related to a multi-year recognition of previously unrecognized tax benefits and a $20.1 million charge, including interest, for the cumulative impact of cost sharing for share-based compensation. In 2019, our effective rate included a $25.4 million benefit, including interest, related to the recognition of previously unrecognized tax benefits pursuant to the resolution of a tax audit and a $7.5 million benefit, including interest, for a lapse in statute of limitations. The 2018 rate reflected a $67.6 million benefit, including interest, related to a lapse in statute of limitations, a $33.2 million benefit as a result of filing a change in tax accounting method for the recognition of deferred product revenue, and a $32.2 million benefit resulting from a tax accounting method change related to foreign deferred service revenue.
For a complete reconciliation of our effective tax rate to the U.S. federal statutory rate of 21% and further explanation of our income tax provision, see Note 14,13, Income Taxes, in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report.
On June 7, 2019, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, or the Court, issued an opinion in Altera Corp. v. Commissioner requiring related parties in an intercompany cost-sharing arrangement to share expenses related to share-based compensation. Altera appealed this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court on February 10, 2020. Pending final resolution of the Altera case, the Company’s position on cost-sharing of share-based compensation remains unchanged. We will continue to monitor ongoing developments and potential financial statement impacts. If a judicial decision against Altera had been finalized in the reporting period, our effective tax rate for 2019 would have been higher.
Our effective tax rate may fluctuate significantly on a quarterly basis and may be adversely affected to the extent earnings are lower than anticipated in countries that have lower statutory rates and higher than anticipated in countries that have higher statutory rates. Our effective tax rate may also fluctuate due to changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets or liabilities, or by changes in tax laws, regulations, or accounting principles, as well as certain discrete items. See Item 1A of Part I, "Risk Factors" of this Report for a description of relevant risks which may adversely affect our results.
As a result of recommendations by the OECD on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, certain countries in EMEA and APAC have either enacted new corporate tax legislation or are considering enacting such legislation in the near future. We expect the effect of these reform measures to potentially impact long-standing tax principles, particularly in regards to transfer pricing. Consequently, we expect global tax authorities to increasingly challenge our cost sharing and other intercompany arrangements, and the related sourcing of taxable profits in global jurisdictions.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
The following sections discuss the effects of changes in our balance sheet, our capital return strategy, including our stock repurchase program and dividends, our contractual obligations, and certain other commitments and activities on our liquidity and capital resources.
We have funded our business primarily through our operating activities and the issuance of our long-term debt. The following table presents our capital resources (in millions, except percentages):
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| As of December 31, | | | | |
| 2020 | | 2019 | | $ Change | | % Change |
Working capital | $ | 1,110.1 | | | $ | 1,665.9 | | | $ | (555.8) | | | (33) | % |
| | | | | | | |
Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 1,361.9 | | | $ | 1,215.8 | | | $ | 146.1 | | | 12 | % |
Short-term investments | 412.1 | | | 738.0 | | | (325.9) | | | (44) | % |
Long-term investments | 656.6 | | | 589.8 | | | 66.8 | | | 11 | % |
Total cash, cash equivalents, and investments | 2,430.6 | | | 2,543.6 | | | (113.0) | | | (4) | % |
Short-term portion of long-term debt | 421.5 | | | — | | | 421.5 | | | (100) | % |
Long-term debt | 1,705.8 | | | 1,683.9 | | | 21.9 | | | 1 | % |
Cash, cash equivalents, and investments, net of debt | $ | 303.3 | | | $ | 859.7 | | | $ | (556.4) | | | (65) | % |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| As of December 31, | | | | |
| 2019 | | 2018 | | $ Change | | % Change |
Working capital | $ | 1,665.9 |
| | $ | 2,739.3 |
| | $ | (1,073.4 | ) | | (39 | )% |
| | | | | | | |
Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 1,215.8 |
| | $ | 2,489.0 |
| | $ | (1,273.2 | ) | | (51 | )% |
Short-term investments | 738.0 |
| | 1,070.1 |
| | (332.1 | ) | | (31 | )% |
Long-term investments | 589.8 |
| | 199.0 |
| | 390.8 |
| | 196 | % |
Total cash, cash equivalents, and investments | 2,543.6 |
| | 3,758.1 |
| | (1,214.5 | ) | | (32 | )% |
Short-term portion of long-term debt | — |
| | 349.9 |
| | (349.9 | ) | | (100 | )% |
Long-term debt | 1,683.9 |
| | 1,789.1 |
| | (105.2 | ) | | (6 | )% |
Cash, cash equivalents, and investments, net of debt | $ | 859.7 |
| | $ | 1,619.1 |
| | $ | (759.4 | ) | | (47 | )% |
Summary of Cash Flows
The following table summarizes cash flow activity from our Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (in millions, except percentages):
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, |
| 2020 | | 2019 | | $ Change | | % Change |
| | | | | | | |
Net cash provided by operating activities | $ | 612.0 | | | $ | 528.9 | | | $ | 83.1 | | | 16 | % |
Net cash used in investing activities | $ | (288.9) | | | $ | (528.2) | | | $ | 239.3 | | | (45) | % |
Net cash used in financing activities | $ | (222.4) | | | $ | (1,228.8) | | | $ | 1,006.4 | | | (82) | % |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, |
| 2019 | | 2018 | | $ Change | | % Change |
| | | | |
| |
|
Net cash provided by operating activities | $ | 528.9 |
| | $ | 861.1 |
| | $ | (332.2 | ) | | (39 | )% |
Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities | $ | (528.2 | ) | | $ | 564.8 |
| | $ | (1,093.0 | ) | | (194 | )% |
Net cash used in financing activities | $ | (1,228.8 | ) | | $ | (968.6 | ) | | $ | (260.2 | ) | | 27 | % |
Operating Activities
Our primary source of operating cash flows is cash collections from our customers. Our primary uses of cash from operating activities are for personnel-related expenditures, payments for suppliers and other general operating expenses, as well as payments related to taxes, interest, and facilities.
Net cash provided by operations decreasedincreased primarily due to lower revenueshigher invoicing activity and lowerworking capital differences related to customer collections, partially offset by lower cashhigher payments to indirect suppliers and for income taxes and to suppliers.employee compensation.
Investing Activities
Investing cash flows consist primarily of capital expenditures; purchases, sales, maturities, and redemptions of investments; and cash used for business combinations.
Net cash used in investing activities was $528.2 milliondecreased in 2019,2020, compared to 2019. In 2020, the net cash provided by investing activitiespayment for acquisitions was $438.1 million and the net proceeds from sales, maturities, and redemptions of $564.8 million in 2018.investments was $250.7 million. In 2019, the net payment for the acquisition of Mist was $270.9 million and the net purchasespurchase of investments was $140.4 million. In 2018, net proceeds from sales, maturities and redemptions
Financing Activities
Financing cash flows consist primarily of repurchases and retirement of common stock, payment of cash dividends to stockholders, issuance and repayment of long-term debt, and proceeds from the issuance of shares of common stock through employee equity incentive plans.
Net cash used in financing activities increaseddecreased in 2019,2020, compared to 2018. The 2019, payments were primarily compriseddue to $416.2 million net issuance of debt in 2020 compared to $454.8 million net repaymentsrepayment of debt payments of $550.0in 2019, and $175 million under the 2018 Stock Repurchase Program and $260.1 million payments of dividends. The 2018 payments were primarily comprised of $750.0 million under the 2018 Stock Repurchase Program and $249.3 million payments of dividends.decrease in stock repurchases as discussed below.
Capital Return
The following table summarizes our dividends paid and stock repurchase activities (in millions, except per share amounts):
| | | Dividends | | Stock Repurchase Program | | Total | | Dividends | | Stock Repurchase Program | | Total |
Year | Per Share | | Amount | | Shares | | Average price per share (1) | | Amount | | Amount | Year | Per Share | | Amount | | Shares | | Average price per share (*) | | Amount | | Amount |
2020 | | 2020 | $ | 0.80 | | | $ | 264.1 | | | 17.9 | | | $ | 23.47 | | | $ | 375.0 | | | $ | 639.1 | |
| 2019 | $ | 0.76 |
| | $ | 260.1 |
| | 20.1 |
| | $ | 25.36 |
| | $ | 550.0 |
| | $ | 810.1 |
| 2019 | $ | 0.76 | | | $ | 260.1 | | | 20.1 | | | $ | 25.36 | | | $ | 550.0 | | | $ | 810.1 | |
| 2018 | $ | 0.72 |
| | $ | 249.3 |
| | 29.3 |
| | $ | 25.62 |
| | $ | 750.0 |
| | $ | 999.3 |
| 2018 | $ | 0.72 | | | $ | 249.3 | | | 29.3 | | | $ | 25.62 | | | $ | 750.0 | | | $ | 999.3 | |
2017 | $ | 0.40 |
| | $ | 150.4 |
| | 26.1 |
| | $ | 27.61 |
| | $ | 719.7 |
| | $ | 870.1 |
| |
|
| |
(1)(*) During 2020, the $23.47 average price per share includes $375.0 million in open market purchases, and settlement of a forward contract of $40.0 million under accelerated share repurchase program (the "ASR"), which was initiated during the fourth quarter of 2019. During 2019, the $25.36 average price per share excludes the forward contract of $40.0 million under the ASR.
| $25.36 average price per share for 2019 excludes the $40.0 million covered by the forward contract discussed below. |
In January 2018, our Board of Directors, which we refer to as the Board, approved a $2.0 billion share repurchase program, which we refer to as the 2018 Stock Repurchase Program. In October 2019, the Board authorized a $1.0 billion increase to the 2018 Stock Repurchase Program for a total of $3.0 billion.
As part of the 2018 Stock Repurchase Program, in February 2018 and April 2019, we entered into two accelerated share repurchase programs (the "ASR")ASRs and repurchased $750.0 million and $300.0 million of our common stock, respectively. The aggregate number of shares ultimately repurchased of 29.3 million and 11.6 million shares of our common stock, respectively.respectively, was determined based on a volume weighted average repurchase price, less an agreed upon discount, of $25.62 and $25.79 per share, respectively. The shares we received were retired and accounted for as a reduction to stockholder’s equity in the Consolidated Balance Sheets, and treated as a repurchase of common stock for purposes of calculating earnings per share.
As part of the 2018 Stock Repurchase Program, on October 28, 2019, we entered into an additional ASR with a financial institution to repurchase an aggregate of $200.0 million of our outstanding common stock. We made an up-front payment of $200.0 million pursuant to the ASR and received and retired an initial 6.4 million shares of our common stock for an aggregate price of $160.0 million based on the market price of $25.15 per share of our common stock on the date of the transaction. In January, 2020, the ASR was completed, and an additional 1.8 million shares were received for a total repurchase of 8.2 million shares of our common stock at a volume weighted average repurchase price, less an agreed upon discount, of $24.44 per share. The initial shares received by us were retired, accounted for as a reduction to stockholder’s equity in the Consolidated Balance Sheets, and treated as a repurchase of common stock for purposes of calculating earnings per share. The forward contract for the remaining $40.0 million is considered indexed to our common stock and met all of the applicable criteria for equity classification.
During the first quarter of 2020, the ASR was completed and we received an additional 1.8 million shares from the financial institution. These 1.8 million shares will be retired in the first quarter of 2020. The completion of the ASR resulted in a total settlement of 8.2 million shares of our common stock at a volume weighted average repurchase price, less an agreed upon discount, of $24.44 per share.
During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019,2020, we also repurchased 2.116.1 million shares of our common stock in the open market for an aggregate purchase price of $50.0$375.0 million at an average price of $23.63$23.36 per share, under the 2018 Stock Repurchase Program.
As of December 31, 2019,2020, there was $1.7$1.3 billion of authorized funds remaining under the 2018 Stock Repurchase Program.
Future share repurchases under the 2018 Stock Repurchase Program will be subject to a review of the circumstances at that time and will be made from time to time in private transactions or open market purchases as permitted by securities laws and other legal requirements. Our 2018 Stock Repurchase Program may be discontinued at any time. See Note 11,10, Equity, in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report for further discussion of our share purchase program.
In addition, any future dividends, and the establishment of record and payment dates, are subject to approval by the Board or an authorized committee thereof. See Note 18,17, Subsequent EventEvents, in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report for discussion of our dividend declaration subsequent to December 31, 2019.2020.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
As of December 31, 20192020 and 2018,2019, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements, as defined in Item 303 (a)(4)(ii) of SEC Regulation S-K. It is not our business practice to enter into off-balance sheet arrangements. However, in the normal course of business, we enter into contracts consisting of guarantees of product and service performance, standby letters of credit for certain lease facilities and insurance programs. See Guarantees below for additional information regarding our guarantees.
Contractual Obligations
Our principal commitments consist of obligations outstanding under operating leases, purchase commitments, debt, and other contractual obligations. The following table summarizes our principal contractual obligations as of December 31, 20192020 and the effect such obligations are expected to have on our liquidity and cash flow in future periods (in millions):
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Payments Due by Period |
| Total | | Less than 1 year | | 1-3 years | | 3-5 years | | More than 5 years |
Operating leases(1) | $ | 232.7 | | | $ | 52.9 | | | $ | 91.6 | | | $ | 67.9 | | | $ | 20.3 | |
Purchase commitments with contract manufacturers and suppliers(1) | 1,283.0 | | | 825.8 | | | 457.2 | | | — | | | — | |
Long-term debt(2) | 2,123.8 | | | 423.8 | | | — | | | 400.0 | | | 1,300.0 | |
Interest payment on long-term debt(2) | 764.9 | | | 59.6 | | | 110.7 | | | 110.7 | | | 483.9 | |
Tax liability related to the Tax Act(3) | 250.6 | | | — | | | 59.2 | | | 191.4 | | | — | |
Other contractual obligations(1) | 156.8 | | | 62.3 | | | 83.8 | | | 10.7 | | | — | |
Total | $ | 4,811.8 | | | $ | 1,424.4 | | | $ | 802.5 | | | $ | 780.7 | | | $ | 1,804.2 | |
(1) See Note 15, Commitments and Contingencies, in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report for additional information regarding our leases and other contractual commitments.
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Payments Due by Period |
| Total | | Less than 1 year | | 1-3 years | | 3-5 years | | More than 5 years |
Operating leases(1) | $ | 226.0 |
| | $ | 49.3 |
| | $ | 81.6 |
| | $ | 57.4 |
| | $ | 37.7 |
|
Purchase commitments with contract manufacturers and suppliers(1) | 1,471.5 |
| | 794.3 |
| | 450.8 |
| | 226.4 |
| | — |
|
Long-term debt(2) | 1,700.0 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 500.0 |
| | 1,200.0 |
|
Interest payment on long-term debt(2) | 872.8 |
| | 78.7 |
| | 156.2 |
| | 144.9 |
| | 493.0 |
|
Tax liability related to the Tax Act(3) | 245.2 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 138.8 |
| | 106.4 |
|
Other contractual obligations(1) | 113.8 |
| | 42.0 |
| | 49.8 |
| | 20.6 |
| | 1.4 |
|
Total | $ | 4,629.3 |
| | $ | 964.3 |
| | $ | 738.4 |
| | $ | 1,088.1 |
| | $ | 1,838.5 |
|
| |
(1)
| See Note 16, Commitments and Contingencies, in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report for additional information regarding our leases and other contractual commitments.
|
| |
(2)
| See Note 10,(2) See Note 9, Debt and Financing, in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report for additional information regarding our debt.
|
| |
(3)
| See Note 16, Commitments and Contingencies, in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report for additional information regarding our tax liability related to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“Tax Act”).
|
(3) See Note 15, Commitments and Contingencies, in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report for additional information regarding our tax liability related to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“Tax Act”).
As of December 31, 2019,2020, we had $127.4$61.9 million included in long-term income taxes payable in the Consolidated Balance Sheets for unrecognized tax positions. At this time, we are unable to make a reasonably reliable estimate of the timing of payments related to this amount due to uncertainties in the timing of tax audit outcomes. As a result, this amount is not included in the table above.
Revolving Credit Facility
We hadhave an unsecured revolving credit facility, that was due to expire in June 2019 (the “Prior Revolving Credit Facility”), which enabledenables borrowings of up to $500.0 million, with thean option to increase the amount of the credit facility by up to an additional $200.0 million, subject to the lenders' approval. In April 2019, we entered into a newThe credit agreement with certain institutional lenders that provides for a five-year $500.0 million unsecured revolving credit facility (the “Revolving Credit Facility”), with an option to increase the Revolving Credit Facility by up to an additional $200.0 million, subject to the lenders' approval. The Prior Revolving Credit Facility was terminated concurrently with our entering into the Revolving Credit Facility. The Revolving Credit Facility will terminate in April 2024, subject to twoa one-year maturity extension options, on the terms and conditions as set forth in the credit agreement (the “Credit Agreement”).option. As of December 31, 2019,2020, we were in compliance with all covenants in the Credit Agreement, and no amounts were outstanding.outstanding under our credit facility.
Guarantees
We have financial guarantees consisting of guarantees of product and service performance and standby letters of credit for certain lease facilities, and insurance programs, and customs of $30.6$29.0 million and $23.1$30.6 million, as of December 31, 20192020 and December 31, 2018,2019, respectively.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Liquidity and capital resources may be impacted by our operating activities as well as acquisitions, investments in strategic relationships, repurchases of additional shares of our common stock, and payment of cash dividends on our common stock.
Since the enactment of the Tax Act, we have repatriated a significant amount of cash, cash equivalents, and investments from outside of the U.S., and plan to continue to repatriate on an ongoing basis. We intend to use the repatriated cash to invest in the business, support value-enhancing merger and acquisitions, or M&A, and fund our return of capital to stockholders.
In August 2019, we filed an automatic shelf registration statement with the SEC enabling us to offer for sale, from time to time, an unspecified amount of securities in one or more offerings and is intended to give us flexibility to take advantage of financing opportunities as needed or deemed desirable in light of market conditions. Any offerings of securities under our automatic shelf registration statement will be made pursuant to a prospectus. In addition, our Revolving Credit Facility will also provide additional flexibility for future liquidity needs.
Based on past performance and current expectations, we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, short-term, and long-term investments, together with cash generated from operations and access to capital markets and the revolving credit facility will be sufficient to fund our operations; planned stock repurchases and dividends; capital expenditures; commitments and other liquidity requirements; and anticipated growth for at least the next twelve months. However, our future liquidity and capital requirements may vary materially from those now planned depending on many factors, including, but not limited to, our growth rate; the timing and amount we spend to support development efforts; the expansion of sales and marketing activities; the introduction of new and enhanced products and services; the costs to acquire or invest in businesses and technologies; an increase in manufacturing or component costs; and the risks and uncertainties detailed in the “Risk Factors” section of Item 1A of Part I of this Report.
ITEM 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk
Interest Rate Risk
Interest Expense Risk - Available-for-Sale Fixed Income Securities
The primary objectives of our investment activities are, in order of priority, to preserve principal, maintain liquidity, and maximize yield. The value of our investments is subject to market price volatility. To minimize this risk, we maintain an investment portfolio of various holdings, types, and maturities, which includes asset-backed securities, certificates of deposit, commercial paper, corporate debt securities, foreign government debt securities, money market funds, mutual funds, time deposits, U.S. government agency securities, and U.S. government securities. At any time, a rise in interest rates could have a material adverse impact on the fair value of our investment portfolio. Conversely, a decline in interest rates could have a material impact on interest income from our investment portfolio. We do not currently hedge these interest rate exposures.
The following tables present hypothetical changes in fair value of our available-for-sale fixed income securities held as of December 31, 20192020 and 20182019 that are sensitive to changes in interest rates assuming immediate parallel shifts in the yield curve of 50 basis points, or BPS, 100 BPS and 150 BPS, which are representative of the historical movements in the Federal Funds Rate (in millions):
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| - 150 BPS | | - 100 BPS | | - 50 BPS | | Fair Value as of December 31, 2020 | | + 50 BPS | | + 100 BPS | | + 150 BPS |
Available-for-sale fixed income securities | $ | 1,411.5 | | | $ | 1,406.3 | | | $ | 1,401.1 | | | $ | 1,395.8 | | | $ | 1,390.7 | | | $ | 1,385.5 | | | $ | 1,380.3 | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| - 150 BPS | | - 100 BPS | | - 50 BPS | | Fair Value as of December 31, 2019 | | + 50 BPS | | + 100 BPS | | + 150 BPS |
Available-for-sale fixed income securities | $ | 1,630.4 | | | $ | 1,625.2 | | | $ | 1,620.1 | | | $ | 1,614.9 | | | $ | 1,609.7 | | | $ | 1,604.5 | | | $ | 1,599.3 | |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| - 150 BPS | | - 100 BPS | | - 50 BPS | | Fair Value as of December 31, 2018 | | + 50 BPS | | + 100 BPS | | + 150 BPS |
Available-for-sale fixed income securities | $ | 2,210.6 |
| | $ | 2,208.0 |
| | $ | 2,205.4 |
| | $ | 2,202.8 |
| | $ | 2,200.3 |
| | $ | 2,197.7 |
| | $ | 2,195.1 |
|
The Company uses interest rate swaps to convert certain of our fixed interest rate notes to floating interest rates based on the London InterBank Offered Rate (LIBOR), resulting in a net increase or decrease in interest expense. These swaps hedge against the interest rate risk exposures of the designated debt issuances. As of December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, the aggregate notional amount of the interest rate swaps was $300.0 million. As of December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, the aggregate fair value of the interest rate swaps resulted in an asset of $20.3 million and a liability of $3.1 million, respectively. A hypothetical 10% change in the interest rates as of December 31, 2020 would not have had a material impact to our operating results or the fair value of the interest rate swaps.
Interest Rate Locks
In 2020, the Company entered into interest rate locks for an aggregate notional amount of $650.0 million. These derivative instruments hedge the impact of changes in the benchmark interest rate to future interest payments and will be terminated upon closing of our future debt issuance. We record changes in the fair value of these cash flow hedges of interest rate risk in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) until the anticipated refinancing. Upon refinancing of our debt and termination of the derivative instruments, the fair value of these interest rate locks will be amortized over the term of our new debt to interest expense. As of December 31, 2020, the fair value of these contracts resulted in an asset of $30.7 million. A hypothetical 10% change in the interest rates as of December 31, 2020 would not have had a material impact to the fair value of the interest rate locks.
Foreign Currency Risk and Foreign Exchange Forward Contracts
Periodically, we use derivatives to hedge against fluctuations in foreign exchange rates. We do not enter into derivatives for speculative or trading purposes.
We use foreign currency forward contracts to mitigate variability in gains and losses generated from the re-measurement of certain monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies. These foreign exchange forward contracts typically have maturities of approximately one to four months.
Our sales and costs of product revenues are primarily denominated in U.S. Dollars. Our cost of service revenue and operating expenses are denominated in U.S. Dollars as well as other foreign currencies, including the British Pound, Chinese Yuan, Euro, and the Indian Rupee. Approximately 79% of such costs and operating expenses are denominated in U.S. Dollars. Periodically, we use foreign currency forward and/or option contracts to hedge certain forecasted foreign currency transactions to reduce variability in cost of service revenue and operating expenses caused by non-U.S. Dollar denominated operating expense and costs. In designing a specific hedging approach, we consider several factors, including offsetting exposures, significance of exposures, costs associated with entering into a particular hedge instrument, and potential effectiveness of the hedge. These derivatives are designated as cash flow hedges and have maturities of twenty-fourthirty-six months or less. The change in operating expenses including cost of service revenue, research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses, due to foreign currency fluctuations was a reduction to operating expenses of 0.9%$11.6 million, or 0.3% and 0.1%of $31.6 million, or 0.9% for years ended December 31, 20192020 and December 31, 2018,2019, respectively. See Note 6,5, Derivative Instruments, in Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Report for further discussion of our derivative and hedging activity.
We have performed a sensitivity analysis as of December 31, 20192020 and as of December 31, 2018,2019, using a modeling technique that measures the change in the amount of non-U.S. dollar cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities arising from a hypothetical 10% movement in the levels of foreign currency exchange rates relative to the U.S. dollar, with all other variables held constant. The foreign currency exchange rates we used were based on market rates in effect on December 31, 20192020 and December 31, 2018,2019, respectively. The sensitivity analysis indicated that a hypothetical 10% movement in foreign currency exchange rates would change
the amount of cash, cash equivalents, and investments we would report in U.S. Dollars as of December 31, 20192020 and December 31, 20182019 by less than 1.5%$33.4 million, or 1.4% and by less than 1.1%$38.2 million, or 1.5%, respectively.
Equity Price Risk
We have also invested in privately-held companies. Depending on the nature of these investments, some can be carried at cost, adjusted for changes from observable transactions for identical or similar investments of the same issuer, less impairment, and others can be carried at fair value. The carrying values of our investments in privately-held companies were $189.8$201.9 million and $90.4$189.8 million as of December 31, 20192020 and December 31, 2018,2019, respectively. The privately-held companies in which we invest can still be considered to be in the startup or development stages. These investments are inherently risky because the markets for the technologies or products these companies are developing, are typically in the early stages, and may never materialize. We could lose our entire investment in these companies. Our evaluation of investments in privately-held companies is based on the fundamentals of the businesses invested in, including, among other factors, the nature of their technologies and potential for financial return.
ITEM 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
Juniper Network, Inc.
Index to Consolidated Financial Statements
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of Juniper Networks, Inc.
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Juniper Networks, Inc. (the Company) as of December 31, 20192020 and 2018,2019, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income, changes in stockholders' equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2019,2020, and the related notes and the financial statement schedule listed in the Index at Item 15(a)2 (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 20192020 and 2018,2019, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2019,2020, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2019,2020, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) and our report dated February 20, 202012, 2021 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Critical Audit Matters
The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matters or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.
| | | | | |
| |
| Identification of distinct performance obligations in revenue contracts |
Description of the matter | As described in Note 21 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company’s contracts with customers sometimes contain multiple performance obligations, which are accounted for separately if they are distinct. In such cases, the transaction price is then allocated to the distinct performance obligations on a relative standalone selling price basis and revenue is recognized when control of the distinct performance obligation is transferred. For example, product revenue is recognized at the time of hardware shipment or delivery of software license, and support revenue is recognized over time as the services are performed.
Auditing the Company’s revenue recognition was challenging, specifically related to the effort required to identify and determine the distinct performance obligations and the associated timing of revenue recognition. For example, there were nonstandard terms and conditions that required judgment to determine the distinct performance obligations and the impact on the timing of revenue recognition. |
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 1996.
To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of Juniper Networks, Inc.
We have audited Juniper Networks, Inc.'s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2019,2020, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) (the COSO criteria). In our opinion, Juniper Networks, Inc. (the Company) maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2019,2020, based on the COSO criteria.
As indicated in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting, management’s assessment of and conclusion on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting did not include the internal controls of Mist Systems,128 Technology, Inc., and Netrounds AB, which isare included in the 20192020 consolidated financial statements of the Company and constituted less than 4.1%5.0% of total assets and net assets, respectively as of December 31, 2019,2020 and less than 1%1.0% of net revenues and less than 2.0% of net income respectively, for the year then ended. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting of the Company also did not include an evaluation of the internal control over financial reporting of Mist Systems,128 Technology, Inc. and Netrounds AB.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the consolidated balance sheets of the Company as of December 31, 20192020 and 2018,2019, and the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income, changes in stockholders' equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2019,2020, and the related notes and the financial statement schedule listed in the Index at Item 15(a)2 and our report dated February 20, 2020,12, 2021, expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.
Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
A company's internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company's internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company's assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Juniper Networks, Inc.
Juniper Networks, Inc.