Recent Accounting Pronouncements In December 2004, the FASB issued SFAS No. 123R which addresses the accounting for transactions in which a company receives employee services in exchange for (a) equity instruments of the company or (b) liabilities that are based on the fair value of the company’s equity instruments or that may be settled by the issuance of such equity instruments. It eliminates the ability to account for share-based compensation transactions using APB Opinion No. 25 and generally requires that such transactions be accounted for using a fair-value-based method. As permitted by the current SFAS No. 123,Accounting for Stock-BasedCompensation, we have been accounting for share-based compensation to employees using APB Opinion No. 25’s intrinsic value method and, as such, we generally recognize no compensation cost for employee stock options. We are required to adopt SFAS No. 123R for the interim period beginning after June 15, 2005. Based on the current outstanding unvested number of stock options, we expect to record compensation charges totaling $2.0 million over the vesting period of the options. The adoption of this statement will have no impact on our cash flows. In December 2004, the FASB issued SFAS No. 153,Exchange of Nonmonetary Assets, an Amendment of APB Opinion No. 29, “Accounting for Nonmonetary Transactions.” SFAS No. 153 is based on the principle that exchange of nonmonetary assets should be measured based on the fair market value of the assets exchanged. SFAS No. 153 eliminates the exception of nonmonetary exchanges of similar productive assets and replaces it with a general exception for exchanges of nonmonetary assets that do not have commercial substance. SFAS 153 is effective for nonmonetary asset exchanges in fiscal periods beginning after June 15, 2005. We are currently evaluating the provisions of SFAS No. 153 and do not believe that the adoption of SFAS No. 153 will have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. Inflation We do not believe inflation had a material adverse effect on the financial statements for the periods presented. Risk FactorsOur history of substantial net losses may continue indefinitely and may make it difficult to fund our operations. Glowpoint was formed by the merger of All Communications Corporation and View Tech, Inc. in May 2000. We reported a substantial loss from operations in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. We cannot assure you that we will achieve revenue growth or profitability or generate positive cash flow on a quarterly or annual basis in the future, or at all. If we do not become profitable in the future, the value of our common stock may fall and we could have difficulty obtaining funds to continue our operations. Our success is highly dependent on the evolution of our overall market. The market for videoconferencing services is evolving rapidly. Although certain industry analysts project significant growth for this market, their projections may not be realized. Our Glowpoint network service utilizes IP (H.323) standards. As a result, our future growth, if any, will depend on the continued trend of businesses to migrate to IP (H.323) based standards and away from the older, less reliable Integrated Services Digital Network, or ISDN, technology. There can be no assurance that the market for our services will grow, that our services will be adopted, or that businesses will use IP (H.323) based videoconferencing equipment or our IP subscriber network. If we are unable to react quickly to changes in the market, if the market fails to develop, or develops more slowly than expected, or if our services do not achieve market acceptance, then we are unlikely to become or remain profitable. We depend upon our network and facilities infrastructure. Our success depends upon our ability to implement, expand and adapt our national network infrastructure and support services to accommodate an increasing amount of video traffic and evolving customer requirements at an acceptable cost. This has required and will continue to require that we enter into agreements with providers of infrastructure capacity, equipment, facilities and support services on an ongoing basis. We cannot assure you that any of these agreements can be obtained on satisfactory terms and conditions. We also anticipate that future expansions and adaptations of our network infrastructure facilities may be necessary in order to respond to growth in the number of customers served. We depend upon suppliers and have limited sources of supply for some services. We rely on other companies to supply some components of our network infrastructure and the means to access our network. Some of the products and services that we resell and certain components that we require for our network are available only from limited sources. We could be adversely affected if such sources were to become unavailable to us on commercially reasonable terms. We cannot assure you that, on an ongoing basis, we will be able to obtain third-party services cost-effectively and on the scale and within the timeframes we require, or at all. Failure to obtain or to continue to make use of such third-party services would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our network could fail, which could negatively impact our revenues. Our success depends upon our ability to deliver reliable, high-speed access to our partners’ data centers and upon the ability and willingness of our telecommunications providers to deliver reliable, high-speed telecommunications service through their networks. Our network and facilities, and other networks and facilities providing services to us, are vulnerable to damage, unauthorized access, or cessation of operations from human error and tampering, breaches of security, fires, earthquakes, severe storms, power losses, telecommunications failures, software defects, intentional acts of vandalism including computer viruses, and similar events, particularly if the events occur within a high traffic location of the network or at one of our data centers. The occurrence of a natural disaster or other unanticipated problems at the network operations center, key sites at which we locate routers, switches and other computer equipment that make up the backbone of our network infrastructure, or at one or more of our partners’ data centers, could substantially and adversely impact our business. We cannot assure you that we will not experience failures or shutdowns relating to individual facilities or even catastrophic failure of the entire network. Any damage to or failure of our systems or service providers could result in reductions in, or terminations of, services supplied to our customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Our network depends upon telecommunications carriers who could become direct competitors and limit or deny us access to their network, which would have a material adverse effect on our business. We rely upon the ability and willingness of certain telecommunications carriers and other corporations to provide us with reliable high-speed telecommunications service through their networks. While these organizations are presently focusing on the ISDN market, they may decide to enter the IP-based video communications market by providing video services over their network, in which case they would directly compete with us. If this occurs, we cannot assure you that these telecommunications carriers and other corporations would continue to provide service to us through their networks at reasonable prices, if at all. Failure to continue to be able to use such services would have a material adverse effect on our business. We compete in a highly competitive market and many of our competitors have greater financial resources and established relationships with major corporate customers. The video communications industry is highly competitive. A number of telecommunications carriers and other corporations, including AT&T, MCI, Sprint and some of the regional Bell companies, have entered into the video communications industry. Many of these organizations have substantially greater financial and other resources than us, furnish some of the same services provided by us, and have established relationships with major corporate customers that have policies of purchasing directly from them. We believe that as the demand for video communications systems continues to increase, additional competitors, many of which may have greater resources than us, will continue to enter the video communications market. Our Glowpoint network has limited market awareness. Our Glowpoint network was introduced in December 2000 and was only a small part of our operations until the sale of our video solutions business in September 2003. Our future success will be dependent in significant part on our ability to generate demand for our Glowpoint network and professional services. To this end, our direct marketing and indirect sales operations must increase market awareness of our network to generate increased revenue. Our products and services require a sophisticated sales effort targeted at the senior management of our prospective customers. All new hires will require training and will take time to achieve full productivity. We cannot be certain that our new hires will become as productive as necessary or that we will be able to hire enough qualified individuals or retain existing employees in the future. In January 2004, we began the relaunch of our video communications service. Our relaunch includes the introduction of new products and services, including subscription calling plans, CustomerPoint (a customer portal that provides subscribers with online access to their account information), and PartnerPoint (a sales agent portal that provides automated sales and marketing tools for our resellers). We cannot be certain that we will be successful in our efforts to market and sell our products and services, including our relaunch of our services and products, and if we are not successful in building market awareness and generating increased sales, future results of operations will be adversely affected. As we expand our Glowpoint network and its use, any system failures or interruptions in our network may cause loss of customers. Our success depends on the seamless, uninterrupted operation of our Glowpoint network and on the management of traffic volumes and route preferences over our network. As we continue to expand our network to increase both its capacity and reach, and as traffic volume continues to increase, we will face increasing demands and challenges in managing our capacity and traffic management systems. Any prolonged failure of our network or other systems or hardware that causes significant interruptions to our operations could seriously damage our reputation and result in customer attrition and financial loss. We may be unable to adequately respond to rapid changes in technology. The market for our Glowpoint network and related services is characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards and frequent product introductions. The introduction of products and services embodying new technology and the emergence of new industry standards may render our existing Glowpoint network and related services obsolete and unmarketable if we are unable to adapt to change. A significant factor in our ability to grow and to remain competitive is our ability to successfully introduce new products and services that embody new technology, anticipate and incorporate evolving industry standards and achieve levels of functionality and price acceptable to the market. If our Glowpoint network is unable to meet its specifications or if it is unable to keep pace with technological changes in the videoconferencing industry, our Glowpoint network could eventually become obsolete. We may be unable to allocate the funds necessary to upgrade our network as improvements in videoconferencing networking technologies are introduced. In the event that other companies develop more technologically advanced networks, our competitive position relative to such companies would be harmed. Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk We have exposure to interest rate risk related to our cash equivalents portfolio. The primary objective of our investment policy is to preserve principal while maximizing yields. Our cash equivalents portfolio is short-term in nature; therefore changes in interest rates will not materially impact our consolidated financial condition. However, such interest rate changes can cause fluctuations in our results of operations and cash flows. There are no other material qualitative or quantitative market risks particular to us. |