We have acquired and invested in a number of companies, and we may in the future acquire or invest in or enter into joint ventures with additional
companies. These transactions involve risks such as:
• disruption of our ongoing business, including loss of management focus on existing businesses;
• problems retaining key personnel;
• additional operating losses and expenses of the businesses we acquired or in which we invested;
• the potential impairment of tangible and intangible assets and goodwill, including as a result of acquisitions;
• the potential impairment of customer and other relationships of the company we acquired or in which we invested or our own customers as a result of any integration of operations;
• the difficulty of completing such transactions, including obtaining regulatory approvals or satisfying other closing conditions, and achieving
anticipated benefits within expected timeframes, or at all;
• the difficulty of incorporating acquired operations, technology, and rights into our offerings, and unanticipated expenses related to such integration;
• the difficulty of integrating a new company’s accounting, financial and sustainability reporting, management, information and data security, human
resource, and other administrative systems to permit effective management, and the lack of control if such integration is delayed or not successfully
implemented;
• losses we may incur as a result of declines in the value of an investment or as a result of incorporating an investee’s financial performance into our financial results;
• for investments in which an investee’s financial performance is incorporated into our financial results, either in full or in part, or investments for
which we are required to file financial statements or provide financial information, the dependence on the investee’s accounting, financial and
sustainability reporting, and similar systems, controls, and processes;
• the difficulty of implementing at companies we acquire the controls, procedures, and policies appropriate for a larger public company;
• the risks associated with businesses we acquire or invest in, which may differ from or be more significant than the risks our other businesses face;
• potential unknown liabilities associated with a company we acquire or in which we invest; and
• for foreign transactions, additional risks related to the integration of operations across different cultures and languages, and the economic, political,
and regulatory risks associated with specific countries.
As a result of future acquisitions or mergers, we might need to issue additional equity securities, spend our cash, or incur debt, contingent liabilities, or
amortization expenses related to intangible assets, any of which could reduce our profitability and harm our business or only be available on unfavorable terms, if at all. In addition, valuations supporting our acquisitions and strategic investments could change rapidly. We could determine that such valuations have experienced impairments or other-than-temporary declines in fair value which could adversely impact our financial results.
