Commitments and Contingencies

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2019

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Commitments and Contingencies

7.    Commitments and Contingencies

Leases

We lease various offices and data centers in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia under non-cancelable operating lease arrangements that expire on various dates through 2028. See Note 6 for our future minimum payment obligations under our leases as of June 30, 2019.

Purchase Commitments

We outsource most of our manufacturing and supply chain management operations to third-party contract manufacturers, who procure components and assemble products on our behalf based on our forecasts in order to reduce manufacturing lead times and ensure adequate component supply. We issue purchase orders to our contract manufacturers for finished products and a significant portion of these orders consist of firm non-cancellable commitments. In addition, we purchase strategic component inventory from certain suppliers under purchase commitments that in some cases are non-cancellable, including integrated circuits, which are consigned to our contract manufacturers. As of June 30, 2019, we had non-cancellable purchase commitments of $230.9 million, of which $208.8 million was to our contract manufacturers and suppliers. In addition, we have provided deposits to secure our obligations to purchase inventory. We had $17.0 million and $17.4 million in deposits as of June 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively. These deposits are classified in “Prepaid expenses and other current assets” and “Other assets” in our accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets.

Guarantees

We have entered into agreements with some of our direct customers and channel partners that contain indemnification provisions relating to potential situations where claims could be alleged that our products infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party. We have, at our option and expense, the ability to repair any infringement, replace product with a non-infringing equivalent-in-function product or refund our customers all or a portion of the value of the product. Other guarantees or indemnification agreements include guarantees of product and service performance and standby letters of credit for leased facilities and corporate credit cards. We have not recorded a liability related to these indemnification and guarantee provisions and our guarantee and indemnification arrangements have not had any significant impact on our consolidated financial statements to date.

Legal Proceedings

OptumSoft, Inc. Matters

On April 4, 2014, OptumSoft filed a lawsuit against us in the Superior Court of California, Santa Clara County titled OptumSoft, Inc. v. Arista Networks, Inc., in which it asserts (i) ownership of certain components of our EOS network operating

system pursuant to the terms of a 2004 agreement between the companies; and (ii) breaches of certain confidentiality and use restrictions in that agreement. Under the terms of the 2004 agreement, OptumSoft provided us with a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to software delivered by OptumSoft comprising a software tool used to develop certain components of EOS and a runtime library that is incorporated into EOS. The 2004 agreement places certain restrictions on our use and disclosure of the OptumSoft software and gives OptumSoft ownership of improvements, modifications and corrections to, and derivative works of, the OptumSoft software that we develop.

In its lawsuit, OptumSoft has asked the Court to order us to (i) give OptumSoft access to our software for evaluation by OptumSoft; (ii) cease all conduct constituting the alleged confidentiality and use restriction breaches; (iii) secure the return or deletion of OptumSoft’s alleged intellectual property provided to third parties, including our customers; (iv) assign ownership to OptumSoft of OptumSoft’s alleged intellectual property currently owned by us; and (v) pay OptumSoft’s alleged damages, attorney’s fees, and costs of the lawsuit. David Cheriton, one of our founders and a former member of our board of directors, who resigned from our board of directors on March 1, 2014 and has no continuing role with us, is a founder and, we believe, the largest stockholder and director of OptumSoft. The 2010 David R. Cheriton Irrevocable Trust dated July 28, 2010, a trust for the benefit of the minor children of Mr. Cheriton, is one of our largest stockholders.

On April 14, 2014, we filed a cross-complaint against OptumSoft, in which we asserted our ownership of the software components at issue and our interpretation of the 2004 agreement. Among other things, we asserted that the language of the 2004 agreement and the parties’ long course of conduct support our ownership of the disputed software components. We asked the Court to declare our ownership of those software components, all similarly-situated software components developed in the future and all related intellectual property. We also asserted that, even if we are found not to own certain components, such components are licensed to us under the terms of the 2004 agreement. However, there can be no assurance that our assertions will ultimately prevail in litigation. On the same day, we also filed an answer to OptumSoft’s claims, as well as affirmative defenses based in part on OptumSoft’s failure to maintain the confidentiality of its claimed trade secrets, its authorization of the disclosures it asserts and its delay in claiming ownership of the software components at issue. We have also taken additional steps to respond to OptumSoft’s allegations that we improperly used and/or disclosed OptumSoft confidential information. While we believe we have meritorious defenses to these allegations, we believe we have (i) revised our software to remove the elements we understand to be the subject of the claims relating to improper use and disclosure of OptumSoft confidential information and made the revised software available to our customers and (ii) removed information from our website that OptumSoft asserted disclosed OptumSoft confidential information.

The parties tried Phase I of the case, relating to contract interpretation and application of the contract to certain claimed source code, in September 2015. On March 23, 2016, the Court issued a Final Statement of Decision Following Phase I Trial, in which it agreed with and adopted our interpretation of the 2004 agreement and held that we, and not OptumSoft, own all the software at issue in Phase I. The remaining issues that were not addressed in the Phase I trial are set to be tried in Phase II, including the application of the Court’s interpretation of the 2004 agreement to any other source code that OptumSoft claims to own and the trade secret misappropriation and confidentiality claims. The Court has agreed to vacate the trial date pending the parties’ efforts to settle the issues in dispute in the Phase II trial.

We intend to vigorously defend against any claims brought against us by OptumSoft.  However, we cannot be certain that, if litigated, any claims by OptumSoft would be resolved in our favor.  For example, if it were determined that OptumSoft owned components of our EOS network operating system, we would be required to transfer ownership of those components and any related intellectual property to OptumSoft.  If OptumSoft were the owner of those components, it could make them available to our competitors, such as through a sale or license.  An adverse litigation ruling could result in a significant damages award against us and injunctive relief. In addition, OptumSoft could assert additional or different claims against us, including claims that our license from OptumSoft is invalid.

With respect to the legal proceedings described above, it is our belief that while a loss is not probable, it may be reasonably possible. Further, at this stage in the litigation, any possible loss or range of loss cannot be estimated.  However, the outcome of litigation is inherently uncertain. Therefore, if one or more of these legal matters were resolved against us in a reporting period for a material amount, our consolidated financial statements for that reporting period could be materially adversely affected.    

Other Matters

In the ordinary course of business, we are a party to other claims and legal proceedings including matters relating to commercial, employee relations, business practices and intellectual property.

We record a provision for contingent losses when it is both probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated. As of June 30, 2019, provisions recorded for contingent losses related to other claims and matters have not been significant. Based on currently available information, management does not believe that any additional liabilities relating to other unresolved matters are probable or that the amount of any resulting loss is estimable, and believes these other matters are not likely, individually and in the aggregate, to have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results

of operations or cash flows. However, litigation is subject to inherent uncertainties and our view of these matters may change in the future. Were an unfavorable outcome to occur, there exists the possibility of a material adverse impact on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows for the period in which the unfavorable outcome occurs, and potentially in future periods.