A downturn in any of our targeted industries, a slowdown or reversal of the trend to outsource IT services in any of these industries or the introduction of regulations that restrict or discourage companies from outsourcing could result in a decrease in the demand for our services and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, a worsening of economic conditions in the financial and credit markets in North America, Europe and Asia led to a global economic slowdown, with the economies of those regions showing significant signs of weakness. The IT services industry, is particularly sensitive to the economic environment, and tends to decline during general economic downturns. We derive aor significant portionconsolidation in any of our revenues from clients in North America and Europe. If the North American or European economies further weaken or slow, pricing for our servicesthese industries may be depressed and our clients may reduce or postpone their technology spending significantly, which may in turn lower the demand for our services and negatively affect our revenues and profitability.

Our profitability is significantly impacted by our utilization levels of fixed-cost resources, including human resources as well as other resources such as computers and office space, and our ability to increase our productivity levels. We have expanded our operations significantly in recent years, through organic growth and strategic acquisitions, which has resulted in a significant increase inmaterially increased both our headcount and fixed overhead costs.

To successfully market our service offerings and obtainperform larger and more complex projects, we need to establish and maintain effective, close relationships with our clients, continue high levels of client satisfaction and develop a thorough understanding of theirour clients’ operations. In addition, we may face a number of challenges managing larger and more complex projects, including:

Our ability to successfully manage large and complex projects depends significantly on the skills of our management personnel and IT professionals, some of whom do not have experience managing large-scale or complex projects. In addition, large and complex projects may involve multiple engagements or stages, and there is a risk that a client may choose not to retain us for additional stages or may cancel or delay additional planned engagements. Such cancellations or delays may make it difficult to plan our project resource requirements. If we fail to successfully obtain engagements for large and complex projects, we may not achieve our revenue growth and other financial goals. Even if we are successful in obtaining such engagements, a failure by us to effectively manage these large and complex projects could damage our reputation, cause us to lose business, impactcompress our margins and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We have a long selling cycle for our IT services, which requires significant investment of human resources and time by both our clients and us. Before committing to use our services, potential clients require us to expend substantial time and resources educating them on the value of our services and our ability to meet their requirements. Therefore, our selling cycle is subject to many risks and delays over which we have little or no control, including our clients’ decision to choose alternatives to our services (such as other IT services providers or in-house resources) and the timing of our clients’ budget cycles and approval processes. If our sales cycle unexpectedly lengthens for one or more large projects, it would negatively affect the timing of our revenues and hinder our revenue growth. For certain clients, we may begin work and incur costs prior to concluding theexecuting a contract. A delay in our ability to obtain a signed agreement or other persuasive evidence of an arrangement, or to complete certain contract requirements in a particular quarter, could reduce our revenues in that quarter.

Implementing our services also involves a significant commitment of resources over an extended period of time from both our clients and us. Our clients may experience delays in obtaining internal approvals or delays associated with technology, thereby further delaying the implementation process. Our current and future clients may not be willing or able to invest the time and resources necessary to implement our services, and we may fail to close sales with potential clients to whom we have devoted significant time and resources. Any significant failure to generate revenues or delays in recognizing revenues after incurring costs related to our sales or services process could materially adversely affect our business.

Our business depends on our ability to successfully obtain payment from our clients of the amounts they owe us for work performed. We usually bill and collect on relatively short cycles. We maintain allowances against receivables. Actual losses on client balances could differ from those that we currently anticipate and, as a result, we might need to adjust our allowances. There is no guarantee that we will accurately assess the creditworthiness of our clients. Weak or volatile macroeconomic conditions and related turmoil in the global financial system conditions could also result in financial difficulties including limited access to the credit markets, insolvency, or bankruptcy for our clients, and, as a result, could cause clients to delay payments to us, request modifications to their payment arrangements that could increase our receivables balance, or default on their payment obligations to us. Timely collection of client balances also depends on our ability to complete our contractual commitments and bill and collect our contracted revenues. If we are unable to meet our contractual requirements, we might experience delays in collection of and/or be unable to collect our client balances, and if this occurs, our results of operations and cash flows could be materially adversely affected. Moreover, in the event of delays in payment from our governmental and quasi-governmental clients, we may have difficulty collecting on receivables owed. In addition, if we experience an increase in the time

Our services are marketed to clients and prospective clients based on a number of factors. Since many of our specific client engagements involve unique services and solutions, our corporate reputation is a significant factor in our clients’ evaluation of whether to engage our services.service, and our clients’ perception of our ability to add value through our services is critical to the profitability of our engagements. We believe the EPAM brand name and our reputation are important corporate assets that help distinguish our services from those of our competitors and also contribute to our efforts to recruit and retain talented employees.

However, our corporate reputation is potentially susceptible to damage by actions or statements made by current or former clients, competitors, vendors, adversaries in legal proceedings, government regulators, as well as members of the investment community and the media. There is a risk that negative information about our company, even if based on false rumor or misunderstanding, could adversely affect our business. In particular, damage to our reputation could be difficult and time-consuming to repair, could make potential or existing clients reluctant to select us for new engagements, resulting in a loss of business, and could adversely affect our recruitment and retention efforts. Damage to our reputation could also reduce the value and effectiveness of the EPAM brand name and could reduce investor confidence in us.

We conduct business globally and file income tax returns in multiple jurisdictions. Our effective tax rate could be materially adversely affected by several factors, including changes in the amount of income taxed by or allocated to the various jurisdictions in which we operate that have differing statutory tax rates; changing tax laws, regulations and interpretations of such tax laws in multiple jurisdictions; and the resolution of issues arising from tax audits or examinations and any related interest or penalties.

We report our results of operations based on our determination of the amount of taxes owed in the various jurisdictions in which we operate. We have transfer pricing arrangements among our subsidiaries in relation to various aspects of our business, including operations, marketing, sales and delivery functions. U.S. transfer pricing regulations, as well as regulations applicable in CIS and CEE countries in which we operate, require that any international transaction involving associated enterprises be on arm’s-length terms. We consider the transactions among our subsidiaries to be on arm’s-length terms. The determination of our consolidated provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities requires estimation, judgment and calculations where the ultimate tax determination may not be certain. Our determination of tax liability is always subject to review or examination by authorities in various jurisdictions.

If a tax authority in any jurisdiction reviews any of our tax returns and proposes an adjustment, including as a result of a determination that the transfer prices and terms we have applied are not appropriate, such an adjustment could have a negative impact on our business.

We do not accrue incremental U.S. taxes on all CIS and CEE earnings as these earnings (as well as other foreign earnings for all periods) are considered to be indefinitely reinvested outside of the United States. While we have no plans to do so, events may occur in the future that could effectively force us to change our intent not to repatriate our foreign earnings. If we change our intent and repatriate such earnings, we will have to accrue the applicable amount of taxes associated with such earnings and pay taxes at a substantially higher rate than our effective income tax rate in 2013.2015. These increased taxes could materially adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

Our subsidiary in Belarus is a member of the Belarus Hi-Tech Park, in which member technology companies are exempt or levied at a reduced rate on a variety of taxes, including a 100% exemptionexempt from Belarusian income tax (which as of the date of this annual report was 18%) and an exemption from the value added tax for a period of 15 consecutive years effective July 1, 2006). In addition, our subsidiary in Hungary benefits from2006 and levied at a tax creditreduced rate on a variety of 10% of qualified salaries, taken over a four-year period, for up to 70% of the total tax due for that period. We have been able to take the full 70% credit for 2007 to 2012. The Hungarian tax authorities repealed the tax credit beginning with 2012. Credits earned in years prior to 2012, however, will be allowed through 2014. We anticipate full utilization up to the 70% limit until 2014, with full phase out in 2015.taxes. Our subsidiary in Russia benefits from a substantially reduced rate on social contributions and an exemption on value added tax in certain circumstances, which is a benefit to qualified IT companies in Russia. If thethese tax holiday relating to our Belarusian subsidiary, the tax incentives relating to our Hungarian subsidiary or the lower tax rates and social contributions relating to our Russian subsidiarybenefits are changed, terminated, not extended or comparable new tax incentives are not introduced, we expect that our effective income tax rate and/or our operating expenses would increase significantly, which could materially adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. See “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations —Provision— Provision for Income Taxes.”

Some of our IT professionals are retained as independent contractors. Although we believe that we have properly classified these individuals as independent contractors, there is nevertheless a risk that the IRS or another federal, state, provincial or foreign authority will take a different view. Furthermore, the tests governing the determination of whether an individual is considered to be an independent contractor or an employee are typically fact sensitive and vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Laws and regulations that governjurisdiction, as can the status and misclassificationinterpretation of independent contractors are subject to change or interpretation by various authorities.the applicable laws. If a federal, state, provincial or foreigngovernment authority or court enacts legislation or adopts regulations that change the manner in which employees and independent contractors are classifiedthese classification tests or makes any adverse determination with respect to some or all of our independent contractors, we could incur significant costs, under such laws and regulations, including for prior periods, in respect of tax withholding, social security taxes or payments, workers’ compensation and unemployment contributions, and recordkeeping, or we may be required to modify our business model, any of which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. There is also a risk that we may be subject to significant monetary liabilities arising from fines or judgments as a result of any such actual or alleged non-compliance with federal, state, provincial or foreign tax laws.applicable laws in this area. Further, if it were determined that any of our independent contractors should be treated as employees, we could possibly incur additional liabilities under our applicable employee benefit plans.

In addition, we have classified nearly all of our U.S. employees as “exempt” under the Federal Labor Standards Act, or the FLSA. If it were determined that any of our U.S. employees should be classified as “non-exempt” under the FLSA, we may incur costs and liabilities for back wages, unpaid overtime, fines or penalties and/or be subject to employee litigation.

Although we maintain some insurance coverage, including professional liability insurance, property insurance coverage for certain of our facilities and equipment and business interruption insurance coverage for certain of our operations, we do not insure for all risks in our operations. If any claims for injury are brought against us, or if we experience any business disruption, litigation or natural disaster, we might incur substantial costs and diversion of resources.

Most of the agreements we have entered into with our clients require us to purchase and maintain specified insurance coverage during the terms of the agreements, including commercial general insurance or public liability insurance, umbrella insurance, product liability insurance, and workers’ compensation insurance. Some of these types of insurance are not available on reasonable terms or at all in CIS and CEE countries.some countries in which we operate. Although to date no client has brought any claims against us for such failure, our clients have the right to terminate these agreements as a result of such failure.

If we fail to meet our contractual obligations or otherwise breach obligations to our clients, we could be subject to legal liability. We may enter into non-standard agreements because we perceive an important economic opportunity or because our personnel did not adequately adhere to our guidelines. In addition, the contracting practices of our competitors may cause contract terms and conditions that are unfavorable to us to become standard in the marketplace. If we cannot or do not perform our obligations, we could face legal liability and our contracts might not always protect us adequately through limitations on the scope and/or amount of our potential liability. If we cannot, or do not, meet our contractual obligations to provide solutions and services, and if our exposure is not adequately limited through the terms of our agreements,As a result, we might face significant legal liability and payment obligations, and our financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

We rely on a combination of copyright, trademark, unfair competition and trade secret laws, as well as intellectual property assignment and confidentiality agreements and other methods to protect our intellectual property rights. Implementation of intellectual property-related laws in CIS and CEE countries has historically been lacking, primarily because of ambiguities in the laws and difficulties in enforcement. Accordingly, protectionProtection of intellectual property rights and confidentiality in CIS and CEEsome countries in which we operate may not be as effective as that in the United States or other countries.countries with more mature legal systems.

We rely on our trademarks, trade names, service marks and brand names to distinguish our services and solutions from the services of our competitors, and have registered or applied to register severalmany of these trademarks. We cannot assure you that our trademark applications will be approved. Third parties may oppose our trademark applications, or otherwise challenge our use of our trademarks. For instance, in 2005, we entered into a Consent of Use and Settlement Agreement that allowed a third party to use the mark “ePAM” (as capitalized in the foregoing) and restricted our ability to do so. In the event that our trademarks are successfully challenged, we could be forced to rebrand our services and solutions, which could result in loss of brand recognition, and could require us to devote resources to advertising and marketing new brands. Further, we cannot assure you that competitors will not infringe our trademarks, or that we will have adequate resources to enforce our trademarks.

We may need to enforce our intellectual property rights through litigation. Litigation relating to our intellectual property may not prove successful and might result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention.

In addition, we rely on certain third-party software to conduct our business. If we lose the licenses which permit us to use such software, they may be difficult to replace and it may be costly to do so.

Our success largely depends on our ability to use and develop our technology, tools, code, methodologies and services without infringing the intellectual property rights of third parties, including patents, copyrights, trade secrets and trademarks. We may be subject to litigation involving claims of patent infringement or violation of other intellectual property rights of third parties.

We typically indemnify clients who purchase our services and solutions against potential infringement of intellectual property rights, which subjects us to the risk of indemnification claims. These claims may require us to initiate or defend protracted and costly litigation on behalf of our clients, regardless of the merits of these claims and are often not subject to liability limits or exclusion of consequential, indirect or punitive damages. If any of these claims succeed, we may be forced to pay damages on behalf of our clients, redesign or cease offering our allegedly infringing services or solutions, or obtain licenses for the intellectual property such services or solutions allegedly infringe. If we cannot obtain all necessary licenses on commercially reasonable terms, our clients may be forced to stop using our services or solutions.

The holders of patents and other intellectual property rights potentially relevant to our service offerings may make it difficult for us to acquire a license on commercially acceptable terms. In addition, we may be unaware of intellectual property registrations or applications relating to our services that may give rise to potential infringement claims against us. There may also be technologies licensed to and relied on by us that are subject to infringement or other corresponding allegations or claims by third parties, which may damage our ability to rely on such technologies.

Further, our current and former employees and/or subcontractors could challenge our exclusive rights in the software they have developed in the course of their employment. In Russia and certain other countries in which we operate, an employer is deemed to own the copyright in works created by its employees during the course, and within the scope, of their employment, but the employer may be required to satisfy additional legal requirements in order to make further use and dispose of such works. While we believe that we have complied with all such requirements, and have fulfilled all requirements necessary to acquire all rights in software developed by our independent contractors and/or subcontractors, these requirements are often ambiguously defined and enforced. As a result, we cannot assure that we would be successful in defending against any claim by our current or former employees, independent contractors and/or subcontractors challenging our exclusive rights over the use and transfer of works those employees, independent contractors and/or subcontractors created or requesting additional compensation for such works.

We are subject to additional risks as a result of our recent and possible future acquisitions and the hiring of new employees who may misappropriate intellectual property from their former employers. The developers of the technology that we have acquired or may acquire may not have appropriately created, maintained or enforced intellectual property rights in such technology. Indemnification and other rights under acquisition documents may be limited in term and scope and may therefore provide little or no protection from these risks. Parties making infringement claims may be able to obtain an injunction to prevent us from delivering our services or using technology involving the allegedly infringing intellectual property. Intellectual property litigation is expensive, and time-consuming and could divert management’s attention from our business. A successful infringement claim against us, whether with or without merit, could, among others things, require us to pay substantial damages, develop non-infringing technology, or rebrand our name or enter into royalty or license agreements that may not be available on acceptable terms, if at all, and would require us to cease making, licensing or using products that have infringed a third party’s intellectual property rights. Protracted litigation could also result in existing or potential clients deferring or limiting their purchase or use of our software product development services or solutions until resolution of such litigation, or could require us to indemnify our clients against infringement claims in certain instances. Any intellectual propertyof these actions, regardless of the outcome of litigation or merits of the claim, or litigation in this area, whether we ultimately win or lose, could damage our reputation and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

OurAs a company with international operations, we are subject to many laws and regulations restricting our operations, including activities involving restricted countries, organizations, entities and persons that have been identified as unlawful actors or that are subject to U.S. sanctions imposed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, or other international economic sanctions that prohibit us from engaging in trade or financial transactions with certain countries, businesses, organizations and individuals. We are subject to the FCPA, which prohibits U.S. companies and their intermediaries from bribing foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or keeping business or otherwise obtaining favorable treatment, and other laws concerning our international operations. The FCPA’s foreign counterparts contain similar prohibitions, although varying in both scope and jurisdiction.jurisdiction and not limited to transactions with government officials. We operate in many parts of the world that have experienced governmental corruption to some degree, and, in certain circumstances, strict compliance with anti-bribery laws may conflict with local customs and practices.

We have recently developed and are in the process of implementing formala compliance program with controls and procedures designed to ensure that we are inour compliance with the FCPA, OFAC sanctions, and similar sanctions, laws and regulations. The continuing implementation and ongoing development and monitoring of such proceduresprogram may be time consuming and expensive, and could result in the discovery of issues or violations with respect to the foregoing by us or our employees, independent contractors, subcontractors or agents of which we were previously unaware.

Any violations of these or other laws, regulations and procedures by our employees, independent contractors, subcontractors and agents could expose us to administrative, civil or criminal penalties, fines or business restrictions on export activities (including other U.S. laws and regulations as well as foreign and local laws) and would adversely affect our reputation and the market for shares of our common stock and may require certain of our investors to disclose their investment in our company under certain state laws. If we are not in compliance with export restrictions, U.S. or international economic sanctions or other laws and regulations that apply to our operations, we may be subject to civil or criminal penalties and other remedial measures.

The vast majority of our employees are nationals of CIS and CEE countries.countries, and in 2015, we added significant headcount in India. Some of our projects require a portion of the work to be undertaken at our clients’ facilities, which are sometimes located outside the CIS, CEE and CEE.India. The ability of our employees to work in necessary locations around the United States, Europe, the CIS and CEE, and other countries outside the CIS and CEEworld depends on their ability to obtain the necessaryrequired visas and work permits. Historically, thepermits, and this process for obtaining visas for nationals of CIS and CEE countries to certain countries, including the United States and Europe, has beencan be lengthy and cumbersome.difficult. Immigration laws in the United States and in other countries are subject to legislative change, as well as to variations in standards of application and enforcement due to political forces and economic conditions.

In addition, the issue of companies outsourcing services to organizations operating in other countries is a topic of political discussion in many countries, including the United States, which is our largest source of revenues.

Our reliance on visas for a number of employees makes us vulnerable to such changes and variations as it affects our ability to staff projects with employees who are not citizens of the country where the work is to be performed. We may not be able to obtain a sufficient number of visas for our employees or we may encounter delays or additional

Similarly, legislation enacted in certain European jurisdictions and any future legislation in European jurisdictions or any other country in which we have clients restricting the performance of services from an offshore location could also materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, legislation enacted in the United Kingdom, based on the 1977 EC Acquired Rights Directive, has been adopted in some form by many European Union countries, and provides that if a company outsources all or part of its business to an IT services provider or changes its current IT services provider, the affected employees of the company or of the previous IT services provider are entitled to become employees of the new IT services provider, generally on the same terms and conditions as their original employment. In addition, dismissals of employees who were employed by the company or the previous IT services provider immediately prior to that transfer are automatically considered unfair dismissals that entitle such employees to compensation. As a result, in order to avoid unfair dismissal claims, we may have to offer, and become liable for, voluntary redundancy payments to the employees of our clients who outsource business to us in the United Kingdom and other European Union countries who have adopted similar laws. This legislation could materially affect our ability to obtain new business from companies in the United Kingdom and European Union and to provide outsourced services to companies in the United Kingdom and European Union in a cost-effective manner.

We operate in CIS countries primarily through locally organized subsidiaries. Certain provisions of Russian law and the laws of other CIS countries may allow a court to order liquidation of a locally organized legal entity on the basis of its formal noncompliance with certain requirements during formation, reorganization or during its operations.

We believe that our current cash, cash flow from operations and revolving line of credit are sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs for at least the next 12 months. We may, however, require additional cash resources due to changed business conditions or other foreign judgmentsfuture developments, including any investments or acquisitions we may decide to pursue. If these resources are insufficient to satisfy our cash requirements, we may seek to sell additional equity or debt securities or obtain another credit facility. The sale of additional equity securities could result in dilution to our stockholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased debt service obligations and could require us to agree to operating and financing covenants that may be obtained against us may be difficultwould restrict our operations. Our ability to enforce in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and other CIS countries.

Our common stock has at times experienced substantial price volatility as a result of variations between our actual and anticipated financial results, announcements by our competitors and us, projections or speculation about our business or that of our competitors by the media or investment analysts or uncertainty about current global economic conditions. The stock market, as a whole, also has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected the market price of many technology companies in ways that may have been unrelated to these companies’ operating performance. Furthermore, we believe our stock price should reflect future growth and profitability expectations and, if we fail to meet these expectations, our stock price may significantly decline.

Changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, SEC regulations and New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, rules, are creating uncertainty for companies such as ours. These new or changed laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies, which could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and corporate governance practices. As a result, our efforts to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards have resulted in, and are likely to continue to result in, increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new or changed laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to practice, our reputation may be harmed.

Although we may, fromFrom time to time, bewe are involved in litigation and claims arising out of our operations in the normal course of business, webusiness. We are not currently a party to any material legal proceeding. In addition, we are not aware of any material legal or governmental proceedings against us, or contemplated to be brought against us.

As of March 1, 2014,February 10, 2016, we had approximately 3836 stockholders of record of our common stock. The number of record holders does not include holders of shares in “street names”name” or persons, partnerships, associations, corporations or other entities identified in security position listings maintained by depositories.

We have not declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock and currently do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Instead, we intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings for use in the operation and expansion of our business. Any future determination relating to dividend policy will be made at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on our future earnings, capital requirements, financial condition, future prospects, applicable Delaware law, which provides that dividends are only payable out of surplus or current net profits, and other factors that our board of directors deems relevant. In addition, our credit facility restricts our ability to make or pay dividends.dividends (other than certain intercompany dividends) unless no potential or actual event of default has occurred or would be triggered.

The following graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return on our common stock with the cumulative total return on the S&P 500 Index and a Peer Group Index (capitalization weighted) for the period beginning February 8, 2012, which is the date of our initial public offering, and ending on the last day of our last completed fiscal year. The stock performance shown on the graph below is not indicative of future price performance. The following performance graph and related information shall not be deemed “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the SEC, nor shall information be incorporated by reference into any future filing under the Securities Act of 1933 or Securities Exchange Act of 1934, each as amended, except to the extent that we specifically incorporate it by reference into such filing.

There were no unregistered sales of equity securities by the Company during the quarterly periodyear ended December 31, 2013.2015.

We have derivedThe following table represents the selected consolidated statements of incomefinancial data for each of the years ended December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011 and selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011from our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included in this annual report. We have derived the selected consolidated statements of income data for the years ended December 31, 2009 and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2010 and 2009 from our audited consolidated financial statements not included in this annual report.last five fiscal years. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for any future period. The following selected financial data should be read in conjunction with ��Item“Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this annual report.