The Company defines Free Cash Flow as net cash provided by operating activities from continuing operations less distributions and tax receivable agreement payments to limited partners and purchases of property and equipment. Free Cash Flow does not represent discretionary cash available for spending as it excludes certain contractual obligations such as debt repayments.
Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow are supplemental financial measures used by the Company and by external users of its financial statements and are considered to be indicators of the operational strength and performance of the Company’s business. Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow measures allow the Company to assess its performance without regard to financing methods and capital structure and without the impact of other matters that the Company does not consider indicative of the operating performance of its business. More specifically, Segment Adjusted EBITDA is the primary earnings measure the Company uses to evaluate the performance of its business segments.
The Company uses Adjusted EBITDA, Segment Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Fully Distributed Net Income and Adjusted Fully Distributed Earnings per Share to facilitate a comparison of its operating performance on a consistent basis from period to period that, when viewed in combination with the Company’s results prepared in accordance with GAAP, provides a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting its business. The Company believes Adjusted EBITDA and Segment Adjusted EBITDA assist its board of directors, management and investors in comparing the Company’s operating performance on a consistent basis from period to period because they remove the impact of earnings elements attributable to the Company’s asset base (primarily depreciation and amortization), certain items outside the control of its management team, e.g., taxes, othernon-cash items (such as impairment of intangible assets, purchase accounting adjustments and stock-based compensation),non-recurring items (such as strategic and financial restructuring expenses) and income and expense that has been classified as discontinued operations from the Company’s operating results. The Company believes Adjusted Fully Distributed Net Income and Adjusted Fully Distributed Earnings per Share assist its board of directors, management and investors in comparing its net income and earnings per share on a consistent basis from period to period because these measures removenon-cash (such as impairment of intangible assets, purchase accounting adjustments and stock-based compensation) andnon-recurring items (such as strategic and financial restructuring expenses), and eliminate the variability ofnon-controlling interest that results from member owner exchanges of Class B common units for shares of Class A common stock. The Company believes Free Cash Flow is an important measure because it represents the cash that the Company generates after payment of tax distributions to limited partners and capital investment to maintain existing products and services and ongoing business operations, as well as development of new and upgraded products and services to support future growth. Free Cash Flow allows the Company to enhance stockholder value through acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures, investments in related businesses and debt reduction.
Despite the importance of theseNon-GAAP financial measures in analyzing the Company’s business, determining compliance with certain financial covenants in its Credit Facility, measuring and determining incentive compensation and evaluating its operating performance relative to competitors, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Segment Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Fully Distributed Net Income, Adjusted Fully Distributed Earnings per Share and Free Cash Flow are not measurements of financial performance under GAAP, may have limitations as analytical tools and should not be considered in isolation from, or as an alternative to, net income, net cash provided by operating activities, or any other measure of the Company’s performance derived in accordance with GAAP.
Some of the limitations of the EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Segment Adjusted EBITDA measures include that they do not reflect: the Company’s capital expenditures or its future requirements for capital expenditures or contractual commitments; changes in, or cash requirements for, its working capital needs; the interest expense or the cash requirements to service interest or principal payments under its Credit Facility; income tax payments the Company is required to make; and any cash requirements for replacements of assets being depreciated or amortized.
In addition, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Segment Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow are not measures of liquidity under GAAP, or otherwise, and are not alternatives to cash flows from operating activities. Some of the limitations of Adjusted Fully Distributed Net Income and Adjusted Fully Distributed Earnings per Share measures are that they do not reflect income tax expense or income tax payments the Company is required to make. In addition, Adjusted Fully Distributed Net Income and Adjusted Fully Distributed Earnings per Share are not measures of profitability under GAAP.
Non-recurring andnon-cash items excluded in the Company’s calculation of Adjusted EBITDA, Segment Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Fully Distributed Net Income consist of stock-based compensation, strategic and financial restructuring expenses, acquisition and disposition related expenses, remeasurement of tax receivable agreement liabilities, enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation expenses, acquisition related adjustment – revenue, remeasurement gain attributable to acquisition of Innovatix, LLC, loss on disposal of long-lived assets, loss (gain) on FFF put and call rights, impairment on investments, income and expense that has been classified as discontinued operations and other expense.
