Background and Nature of Operations

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Background and Nature of Operations

Background and Nature of Operations

Clarivate Plc (“Clarivate,” “us,” “we,” “our,” or the “Company”), a public limited company organized under the laws of Jersey, Channel Islands. We were initially registered on January 7, 2019, and at our 2020 annual general meeting, our shareholders approved a change of our corporate name from “Clarivate Analytics Plc” to “Clarivate Plc”. Pursuant to the definitive agreement entered into to effect a merger between Camelot Holdings (Jersey) Limited ("Jersey") and Churchill Capital Corp, a Delaware corporation, ("Churchill") (the “2019 Transaction”), the Company was formed for the purposes of completing the 2019 Transaction and related transitions and carrying on the business of Jersey, and its subsidiaries.

The Company is a provider of proprietary and comprehensive content, analytics, professional services and workflow solutions that enables users across government and academic institutions, life science companies and research and development (“R&D”) intensive corporations to discover, protect and commercialize their innovations. Our Science Product Group consists of our Web of Science and Life Science Product Lines. Both Product Lines provide curated, high-value, structured information that is delivered and embedded into the workflows of our customers, which include research intensive corporations, life science organizations and universities world-wide. Our Intellectual Property ("IP") Product Group consists of our Derwent, CompuMark and MarkMonitor Product Lines. These Product Lines help manage customer’s end-to-end portfolios of intellectual property from patents to trademarks to corporate website domains.

In January 2019, we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (as amended by Amendment No. 1 to the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated February 26, 2019, and Amendment No. 2 to the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated March 29, 2019, collectively, the “Merger Agreement”) by and among Churchill, Jersey, CCC Merger Sub, Inc., a Delaware corporation and wholly owned subsidiary of Clarivate (“Delaware Merger Sub”), Camelot Merger Sub (Jersey) Limited, a private limited company organized under the laws of Jersey, Channel Islands and wholly owned subsidiary of Clarivate (“Jersey Merger Sub”), and the Company, which, among other things, provided for (i) Jersey Merger Sub to be merged with and into Jersey with Jersey being the surviving company in the merger (the “Jersey Merger”) and (ii) Delaware Merger Sub to be merged with and into Churchill with Churchill being the surviving corporation in the merger (the “Delaware Merger”), and together with the Jersey Merger, the “Mergers”.

On May 13, 2019, the 2019 Transaction was consummated, and Clarivate became the sole managing member of Jersey, operating and controlling all of the business and affairs of Jersey, through Jersey and its subsidiaries. Following the consummation of the 2019 Transaction on May 13, 2019, the Company’s ordinary shares and warrants began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The 2019 Transaction was accounted for as a reverse recapitalization in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("U.S. GAAP"). Under this method of accounting Churchill was treated as the "acquired" company for financial reporting purposes. This determination was primarily based on post 2019 Transaction relative voting rights, composition of the governing board, size of the two entities pre-merger, and intent of the 2019 Transaction. Accordingly, for accounting purposes, the 2019 Transaction was treated as the equivalent of the Company issuing stock for the net assets of Churchill. The net assets of Churchill, were stated at historical cost, with no goodwill or other intangible assets resulting from the 2019 Transaction. Reported amounts from operations included herein prior to the 2019 Transaction are those of Jersey.

In February 2020, the Company consummated a public offering of 27,600,000 ordinary shares at $20.25 per share. After this offering, Onex Corporation and Baring Private Equity Asia Limited ("BPEA") continued to beneficially own approximately 38.3% of the Company’s ordinary shares, down from approximately 70.8% of the ordinary shares beneficially owned by Onex and BPEA immediately after the closing of our merger with Churchill Capital Corp in 2019.

In June 2020, the Company consummated a public offering of 50,400,000 of our ordinary shares at a share price of $22.50 per share. Of the 50,400,000 ordinary shares, 14,000,000 were ordinary shares offered by Clarivate and 36,400,000 were ordinary shares offered by selling shareholders. The Company received approximately $304,030 in net proceeds from the sale of its ordinary shares, after deducting underwriting discounts and estimated offering expenses payable. We intend to use the net proceeds of the offering received by us for general corporate purposes.

The Company did not receive any proceeds from the sale of ordinary shares by the selling shareholders. After the offering, Onex and Baring continued to own approximately 18.4% and 7.2%, respectively, of the Company's ordinary shares, down from 38.3% owned subsequent to the February 2020 offering.

Risks and Uncertainties

In March 2020, the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic. The rapid spread of COVID-19 and the continuously evolving responses to combat it have had an increasingly negative impact on the global economy. In view of the rapidly changing business environment, market volatility and heightened degree of uncertainty resulting from COVID-19, we are currently unable to fully determine its future impact on our business. However, we continue to assess the potential effect on our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows. If the global pandemic continues to evolve into a prolonged crisis, the effects could have an adverse impact on the Company's results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.