Forward-Looking Statements
This communication contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws. Statements that are not historical facts, as well as other statements about our expectations, beliefs, intentions, or strategies regarding the future, or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements about anticipated financial outcomes, including any earnings guidance or projections, projected revenue or expense synergies or dis-synergies, business and market conditions, outlook, foreign currency exchange rates, deleveraging plans, expected dividends and share repurchases of the Company, the Company’s sales pipeline and anticipated profitability and growth, plans, strategies and objectives for future operations, strategic value creation, risk profile and investment strategies, any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance and any statements with respect to the sale of a majority stake in the Merchant Solutions business or any agreements or arrangements entered into in connection with such transaction, the expected financial and operational results of the Company, and expectations regarding the Company’s business or organization after the separation of Worldpay. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “project,” “continue,” “likely,” and similar expressions, and include statements reflecting future results or guidance, statements of outlook and various accruals and estimates. These statements relate to future events and our future results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are based on management’s beliefs as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management.
Actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from these forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties to which forward-looking statements are subject include the following, without limitation: changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including those resulting from COVID-19 or other pandemics, a recession, intensified or expanded international hostilities, acts of terrorism, increased rates of inflation or interest, changes in either or both the United States and international lending, capital and financial markets or currency fluctuations; the risk that acquired businesses will not be integrated successfully or that the integration will be more costly or more time-consuming and complex than anticipated; the risk that cost savings and synergies anticipated to be realized from acquisitions may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected or that costs and dis-synergies may be greater than anticipated; the risks of doing business internationally; the effect of legislative initiatives or proposals, statutory changes, governmental or applicable regulations and/or changes in industry requirements, including privacy and cybersecurity laws and regulations; the risks of reduction in revenue from the elimination of existing and potential customers due to consolidation in, or new laws or regulations affecting, the banking, retail and financial services industries or due to financial failures or other setbacks suffered by firms in those industries; changes in the growth rates of the markets for our solutions; the amount, declaration and payment of future dividends is at the discretion of our Board of Directors and depends on, among other things, our investment opportunities, results of operations, financial condition, cash requirements, future prospects, and other factors that may be considered relevant by our Board of Directors, including legal and contractual restrictions; the amount and timing of any future share repurchases is subject to, among other things, our share price, our other investment opportunities and cash requirements, our results of operations and financial condition, our future prospects and other factors that may be considered relevant by our Board of Directors and management; failures to adapt our solutions to changes in technology or in the marketplace; internal or external security breaches of our systems, including those relating to unauthorized access, theft, corruption or loss of personal information and computer viruses and other malware affecting our software or platforms, and the reactions of customers, card associations, government regulators and others to any such events; the risk that implementation of software, including software updates, for customers or at customer locations or employee error in monitoring our software and platforms may result in the corruption or loss of data or customer information, interruption of business operations, outages, exposure to liability claims or loss of customers; the risk that partners and third parties may fail to satisfy their legal obligations and risks associated with managing pension cost, cybersecurity issues, IT outages and data privacy; risks associated with the expected benefits and costs of the separation of the Worldpay business, including the risk that the expected benefits of the transaction or any contingent purchase price will not be realized within the expected timeframe, in full or at all; the risk that the costs of restructuring transactions and other costs incurred in connection with the separation of Worldpay will exceed our estimates or otherwise adversely affect our business or operations; the impact of the separation of Worldpay on our businesses, including the impact on relationships with customers, governmental authorities, suppliers, employees and other business counterparties; the risk that the earnings from our minority stake in the Worldpay business will be less than we anticipate; the reaction of current and potential customers to communications from us or regulators regarding information security, risk management, internal audit or other matters; the risk that policies and resulting actions of the current administration in the U.S. may result in additional regulations and executive orders, as well as additional regulatory and tax costs; competitive pressures on pricing related to the decreasing number of community banks in the U.S., the development of new disruptive technologies competing with one or more of our solutions, increasing presence of international competitors in the U.S. market and the entry into the market by
