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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Form 10-K
(Mark One) |
| |
☒ | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2020
|
| |
☐ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from to
Commission File Number 1-11689
Fair Isaac Corporation
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
|
| | |
Delaware | | 94-1499887 |
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
|
| | | |
181 Metro Drive, Suite 700 | | |
San Jose, | California | | 95110-1346 |
(Address of principal executive offices) | | (Zip Code) |
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:
408-535-1500
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
|
| | |
Title of each Class | Trading Symbol(s) | Name of each exchange on which registered |
Common Stock, $0.01 par value per share | FICO | New York Stock Exchange |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act:
|
| | | | | |
Large Accelerated Filer | | ☒ | Accelerated Filer | | ☐ |
Non-Accelerated Filer | | ☐ | Smaller Reporting Company | | ☐ |
| | | Emerging Growth Company | | ☐ |
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). As of March 31, 2020, the aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was $7,095,692,430 based on the last transaction price as reported on the New York Stock Exchange on such date. This calculation does not reflect a determination that certain persons are affiliates of the registrant for any other purposes.
The number of shares of common stock outstanding on October 30, 2020 was 29,098,177 (excluding 59,758,606 shares held by the Company as treasury stock).
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the Registrant’s definitive proxy statement relating to its 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (“2021 Proxy Statement”) are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K where indicated. The 2021 Proxy Statement will be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year to which this report relates.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Item 1. | | |
Item 1A. | | |
Item 1B. | | |
Item 2. | | |
Item 3. | | |
Item 4. | | |
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Item 5. | | |
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FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
Statements contained in this report that are not statements of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “PSLRA”). In addition, certain statements in our future filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), in press releases, and in oral and written statements made by us or with our approval that are not statements of historical fact constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the PSLRA. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: (i) projections of revenue, income or loss, expenses, earnings or loss per share, the payment or nonpayment of dividends, capital structure and other statements concerning future financial performance; (ii) statements of our plans and objectives by our management or Board of Directors, including those relating to products or services, research and development, and the sufficiency of capital resources; (iii) statements of assumptions underlying such statements, including those related to economic conditions; (iv) statements regarding results of business combinations; (v) statements regarding business relationships with vendors, customers or collaborators, including the proportion of revenues generated from international as opposed to domestic customers; and (vi) statements regarding products, their characteristics, performance, sales potential or effect in the hands of customers. Words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “targeted,” “should,” “potential,” “goals,” “strategy,” “outlook,” “plan,” “estimated,” ”will,” variations of these terms and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those described in Item 1A of Part I, “Risk Factors,” below (including the impact of COVID-19 on macroeconomic conditions and our business, operations and personnel). The performance of our business and our securities may be adversely affected by these factors and by other factors common to other businesses and investments, or to the general economy. Forward-looking statements are qualified by some or all of these risk factors. Therefore, you should consider these risk factors with caution and form your own critical and independent conclusions about the likely effect of these risk factors on our future performance. Such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which statements are made, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events or circumstances. Readers should carefully review the disclosures and the risk factors described in this and other documents we file from time to time with the SEC, including our Quarterly Reports on Forms 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K to be filed by us in fiscal 2021.
PART I
Item 1. Business
GENERAL
Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE: FICO) (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, the “Company,” which may also be referred to in this report as “we,” “us,” “our,” and “FICO”) provides products, solutions and services that enable businesses to automate, improve and connect decisions to enhance business performance. Our predictive analytics, which includes the industry-standard FICO® Score, and our decision management systems leverage the use of big data and mathematical algorithms to predict consumer behavior and power hundreds of billions of customer decisions each year.
We were founded in 1956 on the premise that data, used intelligently, can improve business decisions. Today, we help thousands of companies in over 120 countries use our decision management technology to target and acquire customers more efficiently, increase customer value, reduce fraud and credit losses, lower operating expenses, and enter new markets more profitably. Most leading banks and credit card issuers rely on our solutions, as do insurers, retailers, telecommunications providers, automotive companies, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare organizations, public agencies and organizations in other industries. We also serve consumers through online services that enable people to access and understand their FICO® Scores, the standard measure in the U.S. of consumer credit risk, empowering them to manage their financial health.
More information about us can be found on our website, www.fico.com. We make our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K, as well as amendments to those reports, available free of charge through our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with the SEC. References to our website address in this report do not constitute an incorporation by reference. Information on our website is not part of this report.
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
We use analytics to help businesses automate, improve and connect decisions across their enterprise, an approach we commonly refer to as decision management. Most of our solutions address customer engagement, including customer acquisition, customer onboarding, customer servicing and management, and customer protection. We also help businesses improve non-customer decisions such as transaction and claims processing. Our solutions enable users to make decisions that are more precise, consistent and agile, and that systematically advance business goals. This helps our clients reduce the cost of doing business and losses from risks and fraud, while helping increase revenues, profitability, and customer loyalty.
Our Segments
We categorize our products and services into the following three operating segments:
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• | Applications. This segment includes pre-configured decision management applications designed for a specific type of business problem or process — such as marketing, account origination, customer management, fraud, financial crimes compliance, collections and insurance claims management — as well as associated professional services. These applications are available to our customers as on-premises software, and many are available as hosted, software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) applications through the FICO® Analytic Cloud or Amazon Web Services (“AWS”). |
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• | Scores. This segment includes our business-to-business scoring solutions and services, our business-to-consumer scoring solutions and services including myFICO® solutions for consumers, and associated professional services. Our scoring solutions give our clients access to analytics that can be easily integrated into their transaction streams and decision-making processes. Our scoring solutions are distributed through major credit reporting agencies worldwide, as well as services through which we provide our scores to clients directly. |
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• | Decision Management Software. This segment is composed of analytic and decision management software tools that clients can use to create their own custom decision management applications, our FICO® Decision Management Suite, as well as associated professional services. Decision management software is currently delivered as part of the FICO® Platform and is increasingly being adopted to connect decisioning solutions or previously disconnected use cases. These tools are available to our customers as on-premises software, through the FICO® Analytic Cloud or AWS. |
Our Solutions
Our solutions involve four fundamental disciplines:
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• | Analytics, which include predictive analytics that identify risks and opportunities associated with individual customers, prospects and transactions, in order to detect patterns such as risk, fraud or profitability, as well as optimization analytics that are used to mathematically improve the design of decision logic or “strategies.” |
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• | Data management and transaction profiling that bring extensive consumer information to every decision. |
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• | Software such as decision management systems that author and implement business rules, models and decision strategies, often in a real-time environment, as well as software for managing customer engagement. This software is increasingly deployed as a platform solution that enables previously disparate use cases to be connected in a manner that provides a centralized or 360-degree view of a customer’s journey through traditionally siloed client offerings. |
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• | Consulting services that help clients make the most of investments in FICO applications, tools and scores in the shortest possible time. |
All of our solutions are designed to help businesses make decisions that are faster, more precise, more consistent and more agile, while reducing costs and risks incurred in making decisions. In addition, we offer our clients a portfolio of applications, tools and services in the cloud, which allow them to create, customize, deploy and manage powerful analytic services.
Applications
We develop industry-tailored decision management applications, which apply analytics, data management and decision management software to specific business challenges and processes. Our applications primarily serve clients in the banking, insurance, telecommunications, healthcare, retail and public sectors. During fiscal 2020, we continued to expand our product offerings for the FICO® Analytic Cloud and AWS, resulting in increased sales opportunities by accommodating customers that can benefit from the power, flexibility and modularity of these solutions. Within our Applications segment our fraud solutions accounted for 15%, 18% and 17% of total revenues in each of fiscal 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively, and our customer communication services accounted for 8%, 9% and 10% of total revenues in each of these periods, respectively.
Origination Applications
We provide solutions that enable banks, credit unions, finance companies, alternative peer-to-peer and online lenders, auto lenders, and other companies to automate and improve the processing of requests for credit or service. These solutions increase the speed and efficiency with which requests are handled, reduce losses, and increase approval rates through analytics that assess applicant risk and reduce the need for manual review by loan officers.
FICO® Origination Manager, an application-to-decision processing solution, is available both on-premises and in the FICO® Analytic Cloud, and we plan to make it available in the AWS cloud in fiscal 2021 with the launch of FICO® Origination Manager 5.0.
Other solutions include the web-based FICO® LiquidCredit® service, which is primarily focused on credit decisions and offered largely to mid-tier banking institutions. FICO® Small Business Scoring Service℠ (SBSS) is recognized as the industry leader in assessing the risk of U.S. small business credit applicants. SBSS is delivered via our LiquidCredit service infrastructure and it brings the speed of consumer lending to small business lending decisions. With SBSS, clients can typically make decisions in hours rather than days to improve customer satisfaction and help attract more small businesses.
Delivered as a cloud service, FICO® Origination Manager Essentials offers mid-market organizations the ability to inexpensively set up and process small business applications quickly, without a long or difficult implementation process. Origination Manager Essentials will be phased out in August 2021.
To support origination, we also offer custom and consortium-based credit risk and application fraud models.
Customer Management Applications
Our customer portfolio management products and services enable businesses to automate and improve risk-based decisions for their existing customers. These solutions help businesses apply advanced analytics in account and customer decisions to increase portfolio revenue, decrease risk exposure and losses, and reduce customer attrition, while improving operational efficiencies.
We provide customer portfolio management solutions for banking, telecommunications and retail. FICO® TRIAD® Customer Manager, a leading credit management system, is available both on-premises and in the FICO® Analytic Cloud. FICO® Strategy Director is the newest, more flexible customer management application available on the FICO Analytic Cloud and AWS. These solutions enable businesses to rapidly adapt to changing business and internal conditions by designing and testing new strategies in a “champion/challenger” environment. The current versions enable users to manage risk and communications at both the account and customer level from a single platform.
We market and sell FICO® TRIAD® Customer Manager and FICO® Strategy Director software licenses, maintenance, consulting services, and strategy design and evaluation. Additionally, we provide TRIAD and Strategy Director services and similar credit account management services through third-party credit card processors worldwide, including two of the largest processors in the U.S.
Fraud Protection and Compliance Applications
Our fraud protection and compliance products improve our clients’ profitability by providing protections across the customer lifecycle from account origination to digital customer interactions—such as online or mobile logins—to non-monetary transactions—such as address changes or pin changes—to payment transactions. Our fraud and financial crimes solutions analyze activity in real time and generate recommendations for immediate action. These defenses are critical to stopping synthetic identity fraud, first-party fraud, and third-party fraud, as well as identifying money laundering activity to help our clients stay compliant and secure while safeguarding the customer experience.
Our fraud solutions are designed to detect and prevent a wide variety of risk types. By looking across products and channels—including real-time payments, peer-to-peer transactions, digital payments, card payments (credit, debit, prepaid), and deposits—FICO helps financial institutions reduce losses and damaged customer relationships caused by fraud and related criminal behavior. FICO fraud solutions also help protect retailers, insurance companies and government agencies.
Our leading fraud detection solution is the FICO® Falcon® Platform, which is recognized as a global leader in fraud detection. The Falcon Platform examines transactional, account, customer, device and merchant data to detect a wide range of fraud indicators quickly and accurately by utilizing artificial intelligence technology. It analyzes transactions in real time, assesses the risk of fraud in a fraud score, and provides the ability for user-defined variables and rules strategies to be used in conjunction with the fraud score to prevent fraud while expediting legitimate transactions. Adaptive analytics, a form of self-learning models, can also be employed to accelerate our customers’ response to evolving fraud tactics.
FICO® Fraud Predictor with Merchant Profiles is used in conjunction with the FICO® Falcon® Platform to improve fraud detection rates through the inclusion of merchant profiles, which is especially important for online transactions. Merchant profiles are built using fraud and transactional data that include characteristics revealing which merchants have a history of higher fraud volumes, and which purchase types and ticket sizes have most often been fraudulent at a particular merchant, among others.
FICO® Falcon® Compromise Manager is used in conjunction with the FICO® Falcon® Platform to identify point-of-sale and e-commerce card compromises with analytically derived recommended actions—such as card block and reissue, or watch-listing—to optimize loss prevention. Separately, the FICO® Card Alert Service prevents ATM debit fraud by identifying counterfeit or compromised payment cards and reporting them to issuers. The service analyzes daily transactions from participating networks and uses this data to identify common points of compromise and suspect cards most likely to incur fraud.
We offer a wide range of solutions focused on preventing and detecting identity fraud. In August 2019, we introduced our identity proofing and user authentication solutions, FICO® Falcon® Identity Proofing and FICO® Falcon® Authentication Suite. Identity proofing is the digital process of onboarding new customers without requiring face-to-face verification. The technology provides an extra layer of security that is easy to use with minimal customer inconvenience, thereby preventing fraud as well as ensuring regulatory compliance standards such as e-KYC are met. User authentication is the real-time corroboration of an identity previously established to enable access to an electronic or digital asset. As an authentication hub, our technology includes multifactor, biometric, and behavioral (user and device-based) capabilities. By bringing digital identity verification into our broader portfolio, we give our clients the ability to strengthen fraud and financial crimes defenses with more contextual data and decisioning.
FICO® Application Fraud Manager helps businesses prevent both first- and third-party fraud during the application process. By preventing fraud prior to account origination, we help our customers avoid future losses as well as unnecessary collections costs. FICO® Identity Resolution Engine helps organizations detect and investigate organized criminal behavior using graph analytics to identify entities and their connections across federated data sources.
We also offer a comprehensive modular set of compliance solutions to fight money-laundering, terrorist financing, and to fulfill custom requirements for governance, risk and compliance. Solutions include, but are not limited to, Know Your Customer (“KYC”), Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”), and Sanctions Screening.
In September 2019, FICO introduced FICO® Falcon® X, a unified platform for the detection and investigation of both fraud and financial crimes. We also announced FICO® Analytics Workbench™—Falcon Edition, which allows banks’ data science teams to develop machine learning models using open source libraries, as well as FICO machine learning libraries, and then deploy the models on Falcon X for operational use.
Prior to October 2020, when we divested this business, the FICO® Cyber Risk Score was part of the FICO® Enterprise Security Suite and it provided an empirically derived score that conveyed the security posture of an organization and the likelihood of a material data breach in the following twelve months. The score was used by customers to manage the cyber risk of an enterprise, assess third-party risk that may be introduced by third- and fourth-party partners and suppliers, and provide an effective tool for cyber insurance underwriting.
Collections & Recovery Applications
FICO® Debt Manager™, FICO® Debt Manager™ Pro, FICO® Debt Manager™ Pro Plus, FICO® PlacementsPlus® service, FICO® Network and FICO® Placement OptimizerSM solution (collectively, the “FICO Debt Management Solutions”) automate the full cycle of collections and recovery, including early collections, late collections, asset disposal, agency placement and optimization, recovery, litigation, bankruptcy, asset management and residual balance recovery. PlacementsPlus service facilitates control over the distribution and management of accounts to agencies, attorneys, debt buyers and internal recovery departments. FICO Network provides creditors with a single, secure and compliant channel to exchange data with collection agencies, credit bureaus, debt buyers, attorneys, and other vendors. Placement Optimizer maximizes the effectiveness of the placement strategy once accounts are outsourced. FICO Debt Management Solutions also include assessments, models and scores, predictive analytics, advanced customer engagement and optimization. FICO® Debt Manager™ is available both on premises and in the FICO® Analytic Cloud.
Customer Communication Services
FICO® Customer Communication Services is an intelligent omnichannel digital communication manager for executing customer lifecycle decisions. It enables businesses to automate individualized dialogues with the consistency and regulatory compliance of their human agents. With Customer Communication Services, businesses can be available 24/7 for one-way or two-way communication through any channel consumers choose. Customers can rapidly launch mobile alerts, messaging, virtual agents, self-service options and other auto-resolution capabilities. It helps make the full customer journey—account origination and onboarding, customer management account notifications and engagement campaigns, fraud management and debt collection—more digital and raises the level of data-driven intelligence behind lifecycle communications. In addition to its own rules-based communication logic and embedded rules engine, Customer Communication Services can execute complex multi-step strategies shaped by risk-based segmentation, predictive scores, machine learning insights and mathematical optimization.
Marketing Applications
FICO® Marketing Solutions Suite is made up of products, capabilities and services designed to integrate the technology and analytic services needed to perform context-sensitive customer acquisition, cross-selling and retention programs and deliver mathematically optimized offers. The Marketing Solutions Suite enables companies that offer multiple products and use multiple channels (companies such as large financial institutions, consumer branded goods companies, pharmaceutical companies, retail merchants and hospitality companies) to execute more efficient and profitable customer interactions. Services offered in our marketing solutions include customer data integration services; services that enable real-time marketing through direct consumer interaction channels; campaign management, messaging and optimization services; interactive tools that automate the design, execution and collection of customer response data across multiple channels; and customer data collection, management and profiling services.
Analytic Services
We perform custom analytics (descriptive, predictive and prescriptive) as well as decision modeling and related analytic and machine learning projects for clients in multiple industries. This enables them to improve critical business processes and operationalize analytics across the customer lifecycle. We do so with our advanced analytic methodologies and domain expertise to solve risk management, fraud, marketing and other challenges for a single business, using that business’s unique data and industry position to develop a highly customized solution. Most of this work falls under predictive analytics, decision modeling and optimization, which provide greater insight into customer preferences, predict future customer behavior and operationalize these analytics. Within decision analysis and optimization, we apply data and proprietary algorithms to design customer treatment strategies and improve business outcomes.
Scores
Our FICO® Scores are used in the majority of U.S. credit decisions, by nearly all of the major banks, credit card organizations, mortgage lenders and auto loan originators. These credit scores, developed based on third-party data, provide a consistent and objective measure of an individual’s credit risk. Credit grantors use our FICO® Scores in a variety of ways: to prescreen candidates for marketing programs; to evaluate applicants for new credit; and to manage existing customer accounts. FICO® Score is a three-digit score ranging from 300-850. They are calculated by running data from the three U.S. national credit reporting agencies, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, through one of several proprietary scoring models developed by FICO. Lenders generally pay the credit reporting agencies scoring fees based on usage, and the credit reporting agencies pay an associated fee to us. FICO® Score 10 and FICO® Score 10 T, the most recent versions of the FICO® Score, are anticipated to be released at the three U.S. national credit reporting agencies by the end of calendar year 2020.
While the core FICO® Score is the foundation of our scoring portfolio, we offer a number of other broad-based scores, including several specific FICO® Industry Scores. We also develop various custom scores for our financial services clients. Additionally, we continue to innovate by investing in the development of scores that can help expand the scorable population using alternative credit data. FICO® Score XD looks at public records and property data, and a consumer’s history with mobile, landline phone and cable payments, to generate scores on the same 300-850 scale as standard FICO® Scores. FICO® Score XD is available to lenders from LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Equifax. The UltraFICO™ Score considers consumer permissioned data from accounts such as checking, savings, or money market accounts. Incorporating consumer contributed data is a unique approach to helping empower consumers to establish or improve their creditworthiness by using data that reflects sound financial activity but that is not part of a traditional credit report. This can help consumers qualify for the credit they seek under more competitive terms. This approach is particularly helpful for consumers who may have very sparse or inactive credit files and are seeking a path toward greater financial inclusion in mainstream banking.
Outside the U.S., we offer FICO® Scores, including scores using alternative data, for consumers, and in some cases for small and medium enterprises, through credit reporting agencies. We also have installed client-specific versions of the FICO® Score in over ten countries. Like FICO® Scores in the U.S., these scores help lenders in multiple countries leverage the FICO® Score’s predictive analysis to assess the risk of marketing prospects and credit applicants. FICO® Scores are in use or being implemented in 30 different countries across five continents outside the U.S.
We also have scoring systems for insurance underwriters and marketers. Our FICO® Insurance Scores use the same underlying statistical technology as our FICO® Scores, but are designed to predict future personal auto and homeowner insurance losses for new applicants and existing policyholders. Our insurance scores are available to the insurance industry throughout the U.S.
During fiscal 2020, we announced the launch of the FICO® Resilience Index, a new analytic tool designed to complement FICO® Score models by identifying those consumers who are most resilient to economic stress relative to other consumers within the same FICO® Score bands. FICO® Resilience Index would enable industry participants to more precisely assess credit risk and extend credit to more consumers throughout the economic cycle by managing the risk that emerges during periods of economic stress.
We also provide FICO® Score based products, education and information on FICO® Scores to consumers. They are distributed directly by us through our myFICO® service and through licensed distribution partners, including Experian and certain lenders, for use in customer and non-customer programs.
The myFICO® products and subscription offerings are available online at www.myfico.com. Consumers can use the myFICO.com website to purchase their FICO® Scores, including credit reports associated with the scores, explanations of the factors affecting their scores, and customized information on how to manage their scores. We make available the 28 most widely used versions of the FICO® Score from the three major U.S. credit bureaus through our myFICO® service, representing approximately 95% of all FICO® Scores sold and used by lenders. Customers can use products to simulate how taking specific actions could affect their FICO® Score 8. Consumers can also subscribe to monitoring services, which deliver alerts via email and text when changes to a user’s FICO® Scores or other credit report content are detected. In addition, consumers can purchase identity theft monitoring products that alert consumers of potential risks of identity fraud with comprehensive detection and identity restoration services.
Decision Management Software
We provide an analytics and decision management platform that businesses use to build their own tailored, analytically-powered decision management applications. The FICO® Decision Management Platform adds scalable and flexible decision management capabilities to virtually any application or operational system. Together, these tools are sold as licensed software or as a SaaS offering in the cloud, and can be used standalone, or in conjunction with third-party solutions, to advance a client’s decision management initiatives. We use these tools as foundational components for our own decision management solutions, described above in the “Applications” section, enhancing the cross-compatibility and extensibility of all of the software solutions we build and deliver. We also partner with third-party providers within given industry markets and with major software companies to embed our tools and other FICO Decision Management Platform components within their existing applications.
During fiscal 2020, FICO continued to enhance the FICO® Decision Management Platform and related services for building, extending, deploying and scaling decision management applications and solutions. These services are collectively referred to as the FICO® Decision Management Suite, and include capabilities for authoring, customizing, executing, and managing predictive analytic, decisioning, and optimization components and services; developing, orchestrating and publishing analytics-powered applications; and visualizing, analyzing and reporting data trends. Component capabilities include:
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• | FICO® Decision Management Platform, which connects, executes and powers proprietary platform services that dramatically improve performance, data interchange, model tracking and user collaboration; |
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• | FICO® Decision Modeler, the core decision rules modeling tool, which enables users to flexibly author and manage decision rules and strategies; |
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• | FICO® Analytics Workbench™, the consolidated predictive analytics modeling authoring tool, with data wrangling, machine learning and explainable AI; |
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• | FICO® Applications Workbench, an agile application UI builder, which leverages platform services to speed time to application deployment; |
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• | FICO® Strategy Director, which helps organizations proactively manage consumer accounts to increase revenue, decrease risk and improve customer retention; |
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• | FICO® Decision Central™ (formerly known as Model Central), a solution which enables users to monitor, manage, measure and control the deployment and performance of all decision assets including analytic models and rules-based decision strategies; |
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• | FICO® Xpress Optimization, an optimization modeling suite which includes both the solver technology, Mosel, as well as a general-purpose optimization solver, Xpress Insight; and |
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• | FICO® Decision Management Platform Streaming, a real-time and batch data ingestion solution that uniquely delivers in-stream analytics for real-time data insights and complex event processing. |
The FICO® Decision Management Suite enables FICO’s clients to combine big data, predictive analytics and decision execution together in an easy-to-use, integrated development and deployment environment. It enables organizations to rapidly create innovative analytic applications; dramatically increase developer and business user productivity with support for a broad range of analytic and decision tools; and execute decisions in real time. It also empowers business analysts and other domain experts to modify systems without IT involvement, providing organizations with the agility they need to rapidly respond to customer, regulatory and business changes.
In addition, FICO offers certain decision management software tools for use outside of the context of the FICO Decision Management Platform, including:
Rules Management. The FICO® Blaze Advisor® decision rules management system is used to design, develop, execute and maintain rules-based business applications. The Blaze Advisor system enables business users to propose and preview the impact of changes to decisioning logic, to review and approve proposed changes, and to commit those changes to production decisioning, all without demanding IT cycles. The Blaze Advisor system is sold as an end-user tool and is also the rules engine within several of our decision management applications. The Blaze Advisor system, available in six languages, is a multi-platform solution that: embeds rules management within existing applications; supports Web Services and service-oriented architecture, Java 2 Enterprise Edition platforms, and COBOL for z/OS mainframes; and is the first rules engine to support Java and COBOL deployment of the same rules. It also incorporates the exclusive Rete III rules execution technology, which improves the efficiency and speed with which the Blaze Advisor system is able to process and execute complex, high-volume decision rules.
Predictive Modeling. FICO® Decision Central™ is a comprehensive offering to help banks and other organizations-including insurance, retail and health care companies-streamline their predictive and decision model governance and meet stricter regulations for model management. It complements FICO® Analytics Workbench™, which enables the user to develop and deploy sophisticated predictive models for use in automated decisions. This software is based on the methodology and tools FICO uses to build both client-level and industry-level predictive models, which it developed from countless client engagements. The predictive models and strategies produced can be embedded in custom production applications, the FICO® Platform, or one of our decision management applications. FICO® Analytics Workbench is available for on-premises or cloud implementation.
Optimization. FICO® Xpress Optimization provides operations research professionals with world-class solvers and high-productivity tools to quickly design and deliver custom, mathematically optimal solutions for a wide range of industry problems. Xpress includes a powerful modeling and programming language, with robust scalability, to quickly model and solve even the largest optimization problems. Xpress tools are licensed to end users, consultants and independent software vendors in several industries, and are a core component within FICO® Decision Optimizer. Decision Optimizer is a software tool that enables complex, large-scale optimizations involving dozens of networked action-effect models, and enables exploration and simulation of many optimized scenarios along an efficient frontier of options. The data-driven strategies produced by these tools can be executed by the FICO® Blaze Advisor® system or one of our Decision Management applications. FICO’s solution for creating or executing optimization solutions is available on-premises or in the cloud.
COMPETITION
The market for our advanced solutions is intensely competitive and is constantly changing. Our competitors vary in size and in the scope of the products and services they offer. We encounter competition from a number of sources, including:
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• | in-house analytic and systems developers; |
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• | enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management packaged solutions providers; |
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• | business intelligence solutions providers; |
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• | business process management and decision rules management providers; |
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• | providers of credit reports and credit scores; |
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• | providers of automated application processing services; |
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• | neural network developers and artificial intelligence system builders; |
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• | third-party professional services and consulting organizations; |
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• | providers of account/workflow management software; |
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• | software companies supplying predictive analytic modeling, rules, or analytic development tools; collections and recovery solutions providers; entity resolution and social network analysis solutions providers; and |
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• | providers of cloud-based customer engagement and risk management solutions. |
We believe our competitors are presently unable to provide the mix of products, expertise in predictive analytics and integration with decision management software, and enhanced customer management capabilities that we are able to deliver. However, certain competitors may have larger shares of particular geographic or product markets than we do.
Applications
The competition for our Applications varies by both application and industry.
In the marketing services market, we compete with Pegasystems, Equifax, Experian, SAS, Adobe and Salesforce, among others. We also compete with traditional advertising agencies and companies’ internal information technology and analytics departments.
In the customer origination market, we compete with Experian, Equifax, Moody’s, Meridian Link, and CGI, among others.
In the customer strategy management market, we compete with Experian and SAS, among others.
In the fraud and financial crimes market for banking, we compete primarily with Nice Actimize, Experian, BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, SAS, ACI Worldwide, IBM, Feedzai and Featurespace.
In the collections and recovery market, we compete with both outside suppliers and in-house scoring and computer systems departments for software and ASP servicing. Major competitors include CGI, the three major U.S. credit reporting agencies and various boutique firms.
Scores
In this segment, we compete with both outside suppliers and in-house analytics departments for scoring business. Primary competitors among outside suppliers of scoring models are the three major credit reporting agencies in the U.S. and Canada, which are also our partners in offering our scoring solutions, and VantageScore (a joint venture entity established by the major U.S. credit reporting agencies). Additional competitors include CRIF and other credit reporting agencies outside the U.S., and other data providers like LexisNexis and ChoicePoint, some of which also are among our partners.
For our “direct-to-consumer” services that deliver credit scores, credit reports and consumer credit education services, we compete with other direct to consumer credit and identity services.
Decision Management Software
Our primary competitors in this segment include IBM, Experian, SAS, Pegasystems and Gurobi, along with a number of smaller, specialized vendors providing industry-specific solutions.
Competitive Factors
We believe the principal competitive factors affecting our markets include: technical performance; access to unique proprietary databases; availability in SaaS format; product attributes like adaptability, scalability, interoperability, functionality and ease-of-use; product price; customer service and support; the effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts; existing market penetration; and reputation. Although we believe our products and services compete favorably with respect to these factors, we may not be able to maintain our competitive position against current and future competitors.
MARKETS AND CUSTOMERS
Our products and services serve clients in multiple industries, including primarily banking, insurance, retail, healthcare and public agencies. End users of our products include 96 of the 100 largest financial institutions in the U.S., and two-thirds of the largest 100 banks in the world. Our clients also include more than 600 insurers, including nine of the top ten U.S. property and casualty insurers; more than 300 retailers and general merchandisers; more than 200 government or public agencies; and more than 200 healthcare and pharmaceuticals companies, including nine of the world’s top ten pharmaceuticals companies. Eight of the top ten companies on the 2020 Fortune 500 list use one or more of our solutions. In addition, our consumer services are marketed to an estimated 200 million U.S. consumers whose credit relationships are reported to the three major U.S. credit reporting agencies.
In the U.S., we market our products and services primarily through our own direct sales organization that is organized around vertical markets. Sales groups are based in our headquarters and in field offices strategically located both in and outside the U.S. We also market our products through indirect channels, including alliance partners and other resellers.
Our scores are marketed and sold through credit reporting agencies. During fiscal 2020, 2019 and 2018, revenues generated from our agreements with Experian, TransUnion and Equifax collectively accounted for 32%, 29% and 25% of our total revenues, respectively.
Outside the U.S., we market our products and services primarily through our subsidiary sales organizations. Our subsidiaries license and support our products in their local countries as well as within other foreign countries where we do not operate through a direct sales subsidiary. We also market our products through resellers and independent distributors in international territories not covered by our subsidiaries’ direct sales organizations.
Our largest market segments outside the U.S. are the United Kingdom and Canada. In addition, we have delivered products to users in more than 120 countries.
TECHNOLOGY
We specialize in analytics software and decision management technologies that analyze data and drive decision strategies and customer engagement. We maintain active research in a number of fields for the purposes of deriving greater insight and predictive value from data, making various forms of data more usable and valuable to the model-building process, and automating and applying analytics to the various business processes involved in making high-volume decisions in real time.
We are widely recognized as a leader in predictive analytics due to our pioneering work in credit scoring and fraud detection. We believe that our tools and processes are among the very best commercially available, and that we are uniquely able to integrate advanced analytic, software and data technologies into mission-critical business solutions that offer superior returns on investment.
In fiscal 2020, we continued to make progress with our FICO® Decision Management Suite and FICO® Decision Management Platform initiatives. Most significantly for the fiscal year, we added new Platform Service functionality to provide cross-application enablement of centralized services (for example, enabling authentication, provisioning, data ingestion, and similar functions). We have seen initial success in delivering platform-centric solutions that provide unique value to enterprise clients in tracking and visualizing a buyer’s journey across otherwise siloed offerings.
In addition, we continue to expand the integration of capabilities that make many of our software solutions, which were previously available only as on-premises software installations, into SaaS solutions hosted on the FICO® Analytic Cloud and/or in AWS. The FICO® Decision Management Suite enables clients to use FICO tools, along with rapid application development tools and visualization tools, to quickly develop their own decision management applications and services. We continue to add functionality to the platform as well as host additional FICO applications in the cloud. These ongoing initiatives are driven by enhancing our core technical capabilities listed below, and extending them through partnerships with other technology providers as well as through employing open source software.
Principal Areas of Expertise
Predictive Modeling. Predictive modeling identifies and mathematically represents underlying relationships in historical data in order to explain the data and make predictions or classifications about future events. Our models summarize large quantities of data to amplify its value. Predictive models typically analyze current and historical data on individuals to produce easily understood metrics such as scores. These scores rank-order individuals by likely future performance, e.g., their likelihood of making credit payments on time, or of responding to a particular offer for services. We also include in this category models that detect the likelihood of a transaction being fraudulent. Our predictive models are frequently operationalized in mission-critical transactional systems and drive decisions and actions in near real time. A number of analytic methodologies underlie our products in this area. These include proprietary applications of both linear and nonlinear mathematical programming algorithms, in which one objective is optimized within a set of constraints, and advanced neural systems, which learn complex patterns from large data sets to predict the probability that a new individual will exhibit certain behaviors of business interest. We also apply various related statistical techniques for analysis and pattern detection within large datasets, and have enhanced our abilities to derive insights and predictive variables from various forms of so-called big data, including unstructured data, such as text. We have enhanced our predictive analytic capabilities to include the development of machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence. FICO has focused on making artificial intelligence explainable to auditors, developers and decision makers so that it can be deployed responsibly.
Decision Analysis and Optimization. Decision analysis refers to the broad quantitative field that deals with modeling, analyzing and optimizing decisions made by individuals, groups and organizations. Whereas predictive models analyze multiple aspects of individual behavior to forecast future behavior, decision analysis analyzes multiple aspects of a given decision to identify the most effective action to take to reach a desired result. We have developed an integrated approach to decision analysis that incorporates the development of a decision model that mathematically maps the entire decision structure; proprietary optimization technology that identifies the most effective strategies, given both the performance objective and constraints; the development of designed testing required for active, continuous learning; and the robust extrapolation of an optimized strategy to a wider set of scenarios than historically encountered. Our optimization capabilities also include a proprietary mathematical modeling and programming language, an easy-to-use development environment, and a state-of-the-art set of optimization algorithms.
Transaction Profiling. Transaction profiling is a patent-protected technique used to extract meaningful information and reduce the complexity of transaction data used in modeling. Many of our products operate using transactional data, such as credit card purchase transactions, or other types of data that change over time. In its raw form, this data is very difficult to use in predictive models for several reasons. First, an isolated transaction contains very little information about the behavior of the individual who generated the transaction. In addition, transaction patterns change rapidly over time. Finally, this type of data can often be highly complex. To overcome these issues, we have developed a set of techniques that transform raw transactional data into a mathematical representation that reveals latent information, and which make the data more usable by predictive models. This profiling technology accumulates data across multiple transactions of many types to create and update profiles of transaction patterns. These profiles enable our neural network models to efficiently and effectively make accurate assessments of, for example, fraud risk and credit risk within real-time transaction streams.
Customer Data Integration. Decisions made on customers or prospects can benefit from data stored in multiple sources, both inside and outside the enterprise. We have focused on developing data integration processes that are able to assemble and integrate those disparate data sources into a unified view of the customer or household, through the application of persistent keying technology. This data can include structured or unstructured data. Recent innovations include a solution that can integrate multiple data sources in real time and make them available for analysis and decisions.
Decision Management Software. In order to make a decision strategy operational, various steps and rules need to be programmed or exported into the business's software infrastructure, where they can communicate with front-end, customer-facing systems and back-end systems such as billing systems. We have developed software systems, sometimes known as decision engines and decision rules management systems, which perform the necessary functions to execute a decision strategy. Our software includes very efficient programs for these functions, facilitating, for example, business user definition of extremely complex decision strategies using graphical user interfaces; simultaneous testing of hundreds of decision strategies in “champion/challenger” (test/control) mode; high-volume processing and analysis of transactions in real time; integration of multiple data sources; and execution of predictive models for improved behavior forecasts and finer segmentation. Decision management software is an integral part of our decision management applications, described earlier.
Customer Engagement. We have advanced technology for customer engagement, which enables the execution of decisions and customer contact through SMS, email, automated voice, mobile applications and other channels. This technology enables FICO to extend decision management beyond the rendering of the decision to the final resolution with a customer, using the most effective method of communication for a given event and customer. Integrating this technology with our decision management systems has proven to decrease costs, improve staff efficiency, increase customer satisfaction and improve the return from marketing, fraud and collections activities.
Network Analytics. We have advanced technology for identity resolution and network analysis, which enables users to understand the relationships between their organization, customers, events, and third-party actors. Businesses can perform real-time searches across their enterprise data to find, match, and link similar entities and uncover hidden relationships between people, places and things. This technology complements FICO’s capabilities in the area of fraud and financial crime analytics.
Identity and Authentication. We have advanced technology for digital identity verification and authentication. As part of a unified digital identity suite, this technology provides a mobile and seamless method for validating identities during the customer onboarding process, and enrolling them as trusted entities for multifactor, biometric and behavioral authentication across digital interactions. It also helps organizations take a balanced approach to security and the user experience, providing easy-to-use, integrated security across the customer lifecycle.
PRODUCT PROTECTION AND TRADEMARKS
We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws and confidentiality agreements and procedures to protect our proprietary rights.
We retain the title to and protect the suite of models and software used to develop scoring models as a trade secret. We also restrict access to our source code and limit access to and distribution of our software, documentation and other proprietary information. We have generally relied upon the laws protecting trade secrets and upon contractual nondisclosure safeguards and restrictions on transferability to protect our software and proprietary interests in our product and service methodology and know-how. Our confidentiality procedures include invention assignment and proprietary information agreements with our employees and independent contractors, and nondisclosure agreements with our distributors, strategic partners and customers. We also claim copyright protection for certain proprietary software and documentation.
We have patents on many of our technologies and have patent applications pending on other technologies. The patents we hold may not be upheld as valid and may not prevent the development of competitive products. In addition, patents may never be issued on our pending patent applications or on any future applications that we may submit. We currently hold 184 U.S. and 16 foreign patents with 102 applications pending.
Despite our precautions, it may be possible for competitors or users to copy or reproduce aspects of our software or to obtain information that we regard as trade secrets. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as do the laws of the U.S. Patents and other protections for our intellectual property are important, but we believe our success and growth will depend principally on such factors as the knowledge, ability, experience and creative skills of our personnel, new products, frequent product enhancements and name recognition.
We have developed technologies for research projects conducted under agreements with various U.S. government agencies or their subcontractors. Although we have acquired commercial rights to these technologies, the U.S. government typically retains ownership of intellectual property rights and licenses in the technologies that we develop under these contracts. In some cases, the U.S. government can terminate our rights to these technologies if we fail to commercialize them on a timely basis. In addition, under U.S. government contracts, the government may make the results of our research public, which could limit our competitive advantage with respect to future products based on funded research.
We have used, registered and/or applied to register certain trademarks and service marks for our technologies, products and services. We currently have 34 trademarks registered in the U.S. and select foreign countries.
PERSONNEL
As of September 30, 2020, we employed 4,003 persons worldwide. Of these, 175 full-time employees were located in our San Jose, California office, 404 full-time employees were located in our San Diego, California office, 170 full-time employees were located in our Roseville, Minnesota office, 166 full-time employees were located in our San Rafael, California office, 129 full-time employees were located in our Fairfax, Virginia office, 1,178 full-time employees were located in our India-based offices and 379 full-time employees were located in our United Kingdom-based offices. None of our employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement other than to the extent mandated by applicable law in certain foreign jurisdictions, and no work stoppages were experienced during fiscal 2020.
Information regarding our executive officers is included in Item 10, Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Business, Market and Strategy Risks
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have negatively affected how we and our customers are operating our businesses. The duration of these effects, and the extent to which they will impact our future revenues, results of operations and overall financial performance, remain uncertain.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a widespread health crisis that has adversely affected the global economy, leading to reduced consumer spending and lending activities and disruptions and volatility in the global capital markets. COVID-19 has caused shutdowns to businesses and cities worldwide and has disrupted supply chains, business operations, travel, and consumer confidence.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have temporarily closed the majority of our offices (including our corporate headquarters in the United States) and implemented travel restrictions, both of which have disrupted how we operate our business. Due in part to anticipated post-pandemic workforce patterns, we have permanently closed certain non-core offices, reduced certain other office space and reduced our global workforce. Our operations may be further negatively affected by a range of external factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic that are not within our control. For example, many cities, counties, states, and countries may continue to impose a wide range of restrictions on our employees’, partners’ and customers’ physical movement to limit the spread of COVID-19. We have postponed, canceled or shifted certain of our customer, employee or industry events to virtual-only experiences and may continue to do so in the future. If the COVID-19 pandemic has a substantial impact on our employees’, partners’ or customers’ productivity or ability to collaborate, our results of operations and overall financial performance may be harmed.
The situation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic is constantly evolving and both the short-term and long-term effects remain unknown. Our customers, and therefore our business and revenues, are sensitive to negative changes in general economic conditions and lending activities. The COVID-19 pandemic may affect the rate of spending on our solutions and could adversely affect our customers’ ability or willingness to purchase our products and services, cause prospective customers to change product selections or term commitments, delay or cancel their purchasing decisions, extend sales cycles, and potentially increase payment defaults, all of which could adversely affect our future revenues, results of operations and overall financial performance. We have seen evidence that COVID-19 has adversely affected certain segments and originations volume, which may impact future revenue. We are unable to accurately predict the complete impact that COVID-19 will have on our future results of operations, financial condition, liquidity and cash flows due to numerous uncertainties, including the severity and transmission rate of the virus, the duration of the outbreak, the extent and effectiveness of containment actions, the effectiveness of any medical treatment and prevention options, and the impact of these and other factors on us, our employees, customers, partners and vendors, and on worldwide and U.S. economic conditions. If we are not able to respond to and manage these impacts effectively, our business may be harmed to a material extent.
We continue to expand the pursuit of our Decision Management strategy, and we may not be successful, which could cause our growth prospects and results of operations to suffer.
We continue to expand the pursuit of our business objective to become a leader in helping businesses automate and improve decisions across their enterprises, an approach that we commonly refer to as Decision Management, or “DM.” We have increasingly focused our DM strategy on bringing our Decision Management assets together in a flexible, extensible, and cloud-native platform approach (the FICO Decision Management Platform). Our DM strategy is designed to enable us to increase our business by selling multiple connectable and extensible DM products to clients, as well as to enable the development of custom client solutions and to allow our clients to more easily expand their usage and the use cases they enable over time. The market may be unreceptive to our general DM business approach, including being unreceptive to our cloud-based offerings, unreceptive to purchasing multiple products from us, or unreceptive to our customized solutions. As we continue to pursue our DM strategy, we may experience volatility in our revenues and operating results caused by various factors, including differences in revenue recognition treatment between our cloud-based offerings and on-premise software licenses, the timing of investments and other expenditures necessary to develop and operate our cloud-based offerings, and the adoption of new sales and delivery methods. If our DM strategy is not successful, we may not be able to grow our business, growth may occur more slowly than we anticipate, or our revenues and profits may decline.
We derive a substantial portion of our revenues from a small number of products and services, and if the market does not continue to accept these products and services, our revenues will decline.
We expect that revenues derived from our scoring solutions, fraud solutions, customer communication services, customer management solutions and decision management software will continue to account for a substantial portion of our total revenues for the foreseeable future. Our revenues will decline if the market does not continue to accept these products and services. Factors that might affect the market acceptance of these products and services include the following:
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• | changes in the business analytics industry; |
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• | our inability to obtain or use key data for our products; |
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• | saturation or contraction of market demand; |
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• | failure to successfully adopt cloud-based technologies; |
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• | our inability to obtain regulatory approvals for our products and services, including credit score models; |
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• | the increasing availability of free or relatively inexpensive consumer credit, credit score and other information from public or commercial sources; |
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• | failure to execute our selling approach; and |
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• | inability to successfully sell our products in new vertical markets. |
Our revenues depend, to a great extent, upon conditions in the banking (including consumer credit) industry. If our clients’ industry experiences uncertainty, it will likely harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.
During fiscal 2020, 86% of our revenues were derived from sales of products and services to the banking industry. Periods of global economic uncertainty experienced in the past have produced substantial stress, volatility, illiquidity and disruption of global credit and other financial markets, resulting in the bankruptcy or acquisition of, or government assistance to, several major domestic and international financial institutions. The potential for future stress and disruptions, including in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, presents considerable risks to our businesses and operations. These risks include potential bankruptcies or credit deterioration of financial institutions, many of which are our customers. Such disruption would result in a decline in the revenue we receive from financial and other institutions. In addition, if consumer demand for financial services and products and the number of credit applications decrease, the demand for our products and services could also be materially reduced. These types of disruptions could lead to a decline in the volumes of services we provide our customers and could negatively impact our revenue and results of operations.
While the rate of account growth in the U.S. bankcard industry has been slow and many of our large institutional customers have consolidated in recent years, we have generated most of our revenue growth from our bankcard-related scoring and account management businesses by selling and cross-selling our products and services to large banks and other credit issuers. As the banking industry continues to experience contraction in the number of participating institutions, we may have fewer opportunities for revenue growth due to reduced or changing demand for our products and services that support customer acquisition programs of our customers. In addition, industry contraction could affect the base of recurring revenues derived from contracts in which we are paid on a per-transaction basis as formerly separate customers combine their operations under one contract. There can be no assurance that we will be able to prevent future revenue contraction or effectively promote future revenue growth in our businesses.
While we are attempting to expand our sales of consumer credit and banking products and services into international markets, the risks are greater as these markets are also experiencing substantial disruption and we are less well-known in them.
We rely on relatively few customers, as well as our contracts with the three major credit reporting agencies, for a significant portion of our revenues and profits. Many of our customers are significantly larger than we are and may have greater bargaining power. The businesses of our largest customers depend, in large part, on favorable macroeconomic conditions. If these customers are negatively impacted by weak global economic conditions, global economic volatility or the terms of these relationships otherwise change, our revenues and operating results could decline.
Most of our customers are relatively large enterprises, such as banks, payment card processors, insurance companies, healthcare firms, telecommunications providers, retailers and public agencies. As a result, many of our customers and potential customers are significantly larger than we are and may have sufficient bargaining power to demand reduced prices and favorable nonstandard terms.
In addition, the U.S. and other key international economies are experiencing and have experienced in the past a downturn in which economic activity was impacted by falling demand for a variety of goods and services, restricted credit, poor liquidity, reduced corporate profitability, volatility in credit, equity and foreign exchange markets, bankruptcies and overall uncertainty with respect to the economy. The potential for economic disruption presents considerable risks to our business, including potential bankruptcies or credit deterioration of financial institutions with which we have substantial relationships. Such disruption, whether arising in connection with the current COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise, could result in a decline in the volume of transactions that we execute for our customers.
We also derive a substantial portion of our revenues and operating income from our contracts with the three major credit reporting agencies, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, and other parties that distribute our products to certain markets. The loss of or a significant change in a relationship with one of these credit reporting agencies with respect to their distribution of our products or with respect to our myFICO® offerings, the loss of or a significant change in a relationship with a major customer, the loss of or a significant change in a relationship with a significant third-party distributor (including payment card processors), or the delay of significant revenues from these sources, could have a material adverse effect on our revenues and results of operations.
If we are unable to access new markets or develop new distribution channels, our business and growth prospects could suffer.
We expect that part of the growth that we seek to achieve through our DM strategy will be derived from the sale of DM products and service solutions in industries and markets we do not currently serve. We also expect to grow our business by delivering our DM solutions through additional distribution channels. If we fail to penetrate these industries and markets to the degree we anticipate utilizing our DM strategy, or if we fail to develop additional distribution channels, we may not be able to grow our business, growth may occur more slowly than we anticipate, or our revenues and profits may decline.
If we are unable to develop successful new products or if we experience defects, failures and delays associated with the introduction of new products, our business could suffer serious harm.
Our growth and the success of our DM strategy depend upon our ability to develop and sell new products or suites of products, including the development and sale of our cloud-based product offerings. If we are unable to develop new products, or if we are not successful in introducing new products, we may not be able to grow our business or growth may occur more slowly than we anticipate. In addition, significant undetected errors or delays in new products or new versions of products may affect market acceptance of our products and could harm our business, financial condition or results of operations. In the past, we have experienced delays while developing and introducing new products and product enhancements, primarily due to difficulties developing models, acquiring data, and adapting to particular operating environments or certain client or other systems. We have also experienced errors or “bugs” in our software products, despite testing prior to release of the products. Software errors in our products could affect the ability of our products to work with other hardware or software products, could delay the development or release of new products or new versions of products, and could adversely affect market acceptance of our products. Errors or defects in our products that are significant, or are perceived to be significant, could result in rejection of our products, damage to our reputation, loss of revenues, diversion of development resources, an increase in product liability claims, and increases in service and support costs and warranty claims.
Our ability to increase our revenues will depend to some extent upon introducing new products and services. If the marketplace does not accept these new products and services, our revenues may decline.
To increase our revenues, we must enhance and improve existing products and continue to introduce new products and new versions of existing products that keep pace with technological developments, satisfy increasingly sophisticated customer requirements and achieve market acceptance. We believe much of the future growth of our business and the success of our DM strategy will rest on our ability to continue to expand into newer markets for our products and services. Such areas are relatively new to our product development and sales and marketing personnel. Products that we plan to market in the future are in various stages of development. We cannot assure you that the marketplace will accept these products. If our current or potential customers are not willing to switch to or adopt our new products and services, either as a result of the quality of these products and services or due to other factors, such as economic conditions, our revenues will decrease.
If we fail to keep up with rapidly changing technologies, our products could become less competitive or obsolete.
In our markets, technology changes rapidly, and there are continuous improvements in computer hardware, network operating systems, programming tools, programming languages, operating systems, database technologies, cloud-based technologies and the use of the Internet. If we fail to enhance our current products and develop new products in response to changes in technology or industry standards, or if we fail to bring product enhancements or new product developments to market quickly enough, our products could rapidly become less competitive or obsolete. Our future success will depend, in part, upon our ability to:
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• | innovate by internally developing new and competitive technologies; |
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• | use leading third-party technologies effectively; |
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• | continue to develop our technical expertise; |
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• | anticipate and effectively respond to changing customer needs; |
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• | initiate new product introductions in a way that minimizes the impact of customers delaying purchases of existing products in anticipation of new product releases; and |
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• | influence and respond to emerging industry standards and other technological changes. |
Our product and pricing strategies may not be successful. If our competitors introduce new products and pricing strategies, it could decrease our product sales and market share, or could pressure us to reduce our product prices in a manner that reduces our margins.
Demand for our products and services may be sensitive to product and pricing changes we implement, and our product and pricing strategies may not be accepted by the market. If our customers fail to accept our product and pricing strategies, our revenues, results of operations and business may suffer. In addition, we may not be able to compete successfully against our competitors, and this inability could impair our capacity to sell our products. The market for business analytics is rapidly evolving and highly competitive, and we expect competition in this market to persist and intensify. Our regional and global competitors vary in size and in the scope of the products and services they offer, and include:
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• | in-house analytic and systems developers; |
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• | fraud and security management providers; |
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• | enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, and customer communication and mobility solution providers; |
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• | business intelligence solutions providers; |
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• | credit report and credit score providers; |
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• | business process management and decision rules management providers; |
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• | process modeling tools providers; |
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• | automated application processing services providers; |
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• | neural network developers and artificial intelligence system builders; |
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• | third-party professional services and consulting organizations; |
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• | account/workflow management software providers; |
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• | software tools companies supplying modeling, rules, or analytic development tools; collections and recovery solutions providers; entity resolution and social network analysis solutions providers; and |
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• | cloud-based customer engagement and risk management solutions providers. |
We expect to experience additional competition from other established and emerging companies, as well as from other technologies. For example, certain of our fraud solutions products compete against other methods of preventing payment card fraud, such as payment cards that contain the cardholder’s photograph; smart cards; cardholder verification and authentication solutions; biometric measures on devices including fingerprint and face matching; and other card authorization techniques and user verification techniques. Many of our anticipated competitors have greater financial, technical, marketing, professional services and other resources than we do, and industry consolidation is creating even larger competitors in many of our markets. As a result, our competitors may be able to respond more quickly to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements. They may also be able to devote greater resources than we can to develop, promote and sell their products. Many of these companies have extensive customer relationships, including relationships with many of our current and potential customers. Furthermore, new competitors or alliances among competitors may emerge and rapidly gain significant market share. For example, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax have formed an alliance that has developed a credit scoring product competitive with our products. If we are unable to respond as quickly or effectively to changes in customer requirements as our competition, our ability to expand our business and sell our products will be negatively affected.
Our competitors may be able to sell products competitive to ours at lower prices individually or as part of integrated suites of several related products. This ability may cause our customers to purchase products that directly compete with our products from our competitors. Price reductions by our competitors could negatively impact our margins, and could also harm our ability to obtain new long-term contracts and renewals of existing long-term contracts on favorable terms.
We rely on relationships with third parties for marketing, distribution and certain services. If we experience difficulties in these relationships, including competition from these third parties, our future revenues may be adversely affected.
Most of our products rely on distributors, and we intend to continue to market and distribute our products through existing and future distributor relationships. Our Scores segment relies on, among others, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. Failure of our existing and future distributors to generate significant revenues or otherwise perform their expected services or functions, demands by such distributors to change the terms on which they offer our products, or our failure to establish additional distribution or sales and marketing alliances, could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, certain of our distributors presently compete with us and may compete with us in the future, either by developing competitive products themselves or by distributing competitive offerings. For example, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax have developed a credit scoring product to compete directly with our products and are collectively attempting to sell the product. Competition from distributors or other sales and marketing partners could significantly harm sales of our products and services.
Our acquisition activities may disrupt our ongoing business and may involve increased expenses, and we may not realize the financial and strategic goals contemplated at the time of a transaction.
We have acquired and expect to continue to acquire companies, businesses, products, services and technologies. Acquisitions involve significant risks and uncertainties, including:
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• | our ongoing business may be disrupted and our management’s attention may be diverted by acquisition, transition or integration activities; |
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• | an acquisition may not further our business strategy as we expected, we may not integrate acquired operations or technology as successfully as we expected or we may overpay for our investments, or otherwise not realize the expected return, which could adversely affect our business or operating results; |
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• | we may be unable to retain the key employees, customers and other business partners of the acquired operation; |
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• | we may have difficulties entering new markets where we have no or limited direct prior experience or where competitors may have stronger market positions; |
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• | our operating results or financial condition may be adversely impacted by known or unknown claims or liabilities we assume in an acquisition or that are imposed on us as a result of an acquisition, including claims by government agencies or authorities, terminated employees, current or former customers, former stockholders or other third parties; |
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• | we may not realize the anticipated increase in our revenues from an acquisition for a number of reasons, including if a larger than predicted number of customers decline to renew their contracts, if we are unable to incorporate the acquired technologies or products with our existing product lines in a uniform manner, if we are unable to sell the acquired products to our customer base or if contract models of an acquired company or changes in accounting treatment do not allow us to recognize revenues on a timely basis; |
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• | our use of cash to pay for acquisitions may limit other potential uses of our cash, including stock repurchases, dividend payments and retirement of outstanding indebtedness; and |
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• | to the extent we issue a significant amount of equity securities in connection with future acquisitions, existing stockholders may be diluted and earnings per share may decrease. |
Because acquisitions are inherently risky, our transactions may not be successful and may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or cash flows. Acquisitions of businesses having a significant presence outside the U.S. will increase our exposure to the risks of conducting operations in international markets.
There can be no assurance that strategic divestitures will provide business benefits.
As part of our strategy, we continuously evaluate our portfolio of businesses. We have previously and may in the future make other changes to our portfolio as well, which may be material. Divestitures involve risks, including:
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• | disruption of our operations or businesses; |
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• | reductions of our revenues or earnings per share; |
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• | difficulties in the separation of operations, services, products and personnel; |
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• | finding a suitable purchaser; |
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• | disposing of businesses or assets at a price or on terms that are less favorable than we had anticipated, or with purchase price adjustments or the exclusion of assets or liabilities that must be divested, managed or run off separately; |
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• | diversion of management's attention from our other businesses; |
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• | the potential loss of key personnel; |
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• | adverse effects on relationships with our suppliers or their businesses, |
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• | the erosion of employee morale or customer confidence; and |
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• | the retention of contingent liabilities related to the divested business. |
If we do not successfully manage the risks associated with divestitures, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected as the potential strategic benefits may not be realized or may take longer to realize than expected.
Our reengineering efforts may cause our growth prospects and profitability to suffer.
As part of our management approach, we pursue ongoing reengineering efforts designed to grow revenues through strategic resource allocation and improve profitability through cost reductions. For example, in September 2020, we implemented a course of action designed to reduce our operating costs in lower value, less strategic areas of our business in order to facilitate incremental investment in higher value, more strategic areas while also reducing our facilities footprint in light of anticipated post-pandemic workforce patterns. These and other reengineering efforts may not be successful over the long term should we fail to reduce expenses at the anticipated level, or should we fail to increase revenues to anticipated levels or at all. If our reengineering efforts are not successful over the long term, our revenues, results of operations and business may suffer.
We will continue to rely upon proprietary technology rights, and if we are unable to protect them, our business could be harmed.
Our success depends, in part, upon our proprietary technology and other intellectual property rights. To date, we have relied primarily on a combination of copyright, patent, trade secret, and trademark laws, and nondisclosure and other contractual restrictions on copying and distribution, to protect our proprietary technology. This protection of our proprietary technology is limited, and our proprietary technology could be used by others without our consent. In addition, patents may not be issued with respect to our pending or future patent applications, and our patents may not be upheld as valid or may not prevent the development of competitive products. Any disclosure, loss, invalidity of, or failure to protect our intellectual property could negatively impact our competitive position, and ultimately, our business. There can be no assurance that our protection of our intellectual property rights in the U.S. or abroad will be adequate or that others, including our competitors, will not use our proprietary technology without our consent. Furthermore, litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets, or to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. Such litigation could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and could harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Some of our technologies were developed under research projects conducted under agreements with various U.S. government agencies or subcontractors. Although we have commercial rights to these technologies, the U.S. government typically retains ownership of intellectual property rights and licenses in the technologies developed by us under these contracts, and in some cases can terminate our rights in these technologies if we fail to commercialize them on a timely basis. Under these contracts with the U.S. government, the results of research may be made public by the government, limiting our competitive advantage with respect to future products based on our research.
Operational Risks
If our cybersecurity measures are compromised or unauthorized access to customer or consumer data is otherwise obtained, our products and services may be perceived as not being secure, customers may curtail or cease their use of our products and services, our reputation may be damaged and we could incur significant liabilities.
Because our business requires the storage, transmission and utilization of sensitive consumer and customer information, we will continue to routinely be the target of attempted cybersecurity and other security threats by outside third parties, including technically sophisticated and well-resourced bad actors attempting to access or steal the data we store. Many of our products are provided by us through the Internet. We may be exposed to additional cybersecurity threats as we migrate our data from our legacy systems to cloud-based solutions. We operate in an environment of significant risk of cybersecurity incidents resulting from unintentional events or deliberate attacks by third parties or insiders, which may involve exploiting highly obscure security vulnerabilities or sophisticated attack methods. These threats include phishing attacks on our email systems and other cyber-attacks, including state-sponsored cyber-attacks, industrial espionage, insider threats, denial-of-service attacks, computer viruses, ransomware and other malware, payment fraud or other cyber incidents.
Cybersecurity breaches could expose us to a risk of loss, the unauthorized disclosure of consumer or customer information, significant litigation, regulatory fines, penalties, loss of customers or reputational damage, indemnity obligations and other liability. If our cybersecurity measures are breached as a result of third-party action, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise, and as a result, someone obtains unauthorized access to our systems or to consumer or customer information, sensitive data may be accessed, stolen, disclosed or lost, our reputation may be damaged, our business may suffer and we could incur significant liability. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, or even for some time after, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques, implement adequate preventative measures or remediate any intrusion on a timely or effective basis. Because a successful breach of our computer systems, software, networks or other technology asset could occur and persist for an extended period of time before being detected, we may not be able to immediately address the consequences of a cybersecurity incident.
Malicious third parties may also conduct attacks designed to temporarily deny customers, distributors and vendors access to our systems and services. Cybersecurity breaches experienced by our vendors, by our distributors, by our customers or by us may trigger governmental notice requirements and public disclosures, which may lead to widespread negative publicity. Any such cybersecurity breach, whether actual or perceived, could harm our reputation, erode customer confidence in the effectiveness of our security measures, negatively impact our ability to attract new customers, cause existing customers to curtail or cease their use of our products and services, cause regulatory or industry changes that impact our products and services, or subject us to third-party lawsuits, regulatory fines or other action or liability, all of which could materially and adversely affect our business and operating results. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic may cause increased cybersecurity risk, as cybercriminals attempt to capitalize from the disruption, including remote working arrangements.
If we experience business interruptions or failure of our information technology and communication systems, the availability of our products and services could be interrupted which could adversely affect our reputation, business and financial condition.
Our ability to provide reliable service in our businesses depends on the efficient and uninterrupted operation of our data centers, information technology and communication systems, and increasingly those of our external service providers. As we continue to grow our SaaS business, our dependency on the continuing operation and availability of these systems increases. Our systems and data centers, and those of our external service providers, could be exposed to damage or interruption. These interruptions can include software or hardware malfunctions, communication failures, outages or other failures of third party environments or service providers, fires, floods, earthquakes, pandemics (including the COVID-19 pandemic), war, terrorist acts or civil unrest, power losses, equipment failures, computer viruses, denial-of-service or other cybersecurity attacks, employee or insider malfeasance, human error and other events beyond our control. Although we have taken steps to prevent system failures and we have installed back-up systems and procedures to prevent or reduce disruption, such steps may not be sufficient to prevent an interruption of services and our disaster recovery planning may not account for all eventualities.
An operational failure or outage in any of these systems, or damage to or destruction of these systems, which causes disruptions in our services, could result in loss of customers, damage to customer relationships, reduced revenues and profits, refunds of customer charges and damage to our brand and reputation and may require us to incur substantial additional expense to repair or replace damaged equipment and recover data loss caused by the interruption. Any one or more of the foregoing occurrences could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.
The failure to recruit and retain additional qualified personnel could hinder our ability to successfully manage our business.
Our DM strategy and our future success will depend in large part on our ability to attract and retain experienced sales, consulting, research and development, marketing, technical support and management personnel. The complexity of our products requires highly trained personnel for research and development and to assist customers with product installation, deployment, maintenance and support. The labor market for these individuals is very competitive due to the limited number of people available with the necessary technical skills and understanding and may become more competitive with general market and economic improvement. We cannot be certain that our compensation strategies will be perceived as competitive by current or prospective employees. This could impair our ability to recruit and retain personnel. We have experienced difficulty in recruiting qualified personnel, especially technical, sales and consulting personnel, and we may need additional staff to support new customers and/or increased customer needs. We may also recruit skilled technical professionals from other countries to work in the U.S., and from the U.S. and other countries to work abroad. Limitations imposed by immigration laws in the U.S. and abroad and the availability of visas in the countries where we do business could hinder our ability to attract necessary qualified personnel and harm our business and future operating results. There is a risk that even if we invest significant resources in attempting to attract, train and retain qualified personnel, we will not succeed in our efforts, and our business could be harmed. The failure of the value of our stock to appreciate may adversely affect our ability to use equity and equity-based incentive plans to attract and retain personnel, and may require us to use alternative and more expensive forms of compensation for this purpose.
The failure to obtain certain forms of model construction data from our customers or others could harm our business.
Our business requires that we develop or obtain a reliable source of sufficient amounts of current and statistically relevant data to analyze transactions and update our products. In most cases, these data must be periodically updated and refreshed to enable our products to continue to work effectively in a changing environment. We do not own or control much of the data that we require, most of which is collected privately and maintained in proprietary databases. Customers and key business partners provide us with the data we require to analyze transactions, report results and build new models. Our DM strategy depends in part upon our ability to access new forms of data to develop custom and proprietary analytic tools. If we fail to maintain sufficient data sourcing relationships with our customers and business partners, or if they decline to provide such data due to privacy, security, competition or regulatory concerns, prohibitions or a lack of permission from their customers or partners, we could lose access to required data and our products, and the development of new products, might become less effective. We could also become subject to increased legislative, regulatory or judicial restrictions or mandates on the collection, disclosure or use of such data, in particular if such data is not collected by our providers in a way that allows us to legally use the data. Third parties have asserted copyright and other intellectual property interests in these data, and these assertions, if successful, could prevent us from using these data. We may not be successful in maintaining our relationships with these external data source providers or in continuing to obtain data from them on acceptable terms or at all. Any interruption of our supply of data could seriously harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Global Operational Risks
Material adverse developments in global economic conditions, or the occurrence of certain other world events, could affect demand for our products and services and harm our business.
Purchases of technology products and services and decisioning solutions are subject to adverse economic conditions. When an economy is struggling, companies in many industries delay or reduce technology purchases, and we experience softened demand for our decisioning solutions and other products and services. Global economic uncertainty in the past, and currently as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, has produced substantial stress, volatility, illiquidity and disruption of global credit and other financial markets. The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the global economy, leading to reduced consumer spending and lending activities and disruptions and volatility in the global capital markets. The pandemic has also caused shutdowns to businesses and cities worldwide and has disrupted supply chains, business operations, travel, and consumer confidence.
Economic uncertainty has and could continue to negatively affect the businesses and purchasing decisions of companies in the industries we serve. Such disruptions present considerable risks to our businesses and operations. As global economic conditions experience stress and negative volatility, or if there is an escalation in regional or global conflicts or terrorism, we will likely experience reductions in the number of available customers and in capital expenditures by our remaining customers, longer sales cycles, deferral or delay of purchase commitments for our products and increased price competition, which may adversely affect our business, results of operations and liquidity.
We are subject to risks and uncertainties associated with the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the E.U., commonly referred to as “Brexit,” including implications for the free flow of labor and goods in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) and the E.U. and other economic, financial, legal, tax and trade implications. Brexit could cause disruptions to and create uncertainty surrounding our business in the U.K., including affecting our relationships with our existing and future customers, suppliers and employees, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial results and operations. Brexit has caused, and may continue to create, volatility in global stock markets and regional and global economic uncertainty, which may cause our customers to closely monitor their costs and reduce their spending budget on our products and services.
As a result of these conditions, risks and uncertainties, we may need to modify our strategies, businesses or operations, and we may incur additional costs in order to compete in a changed business environment. Given the volatile nature of the global economic environment and the uncertainties underlying efforts to stabilize it, we may not timely anticipate or manage existing, new or additional risks, as well as contingencies or developments, which may include regulatory developments and trends in new products and services. Our failure to do so could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
In operations outside the U.S., we are subject to additional risks that may harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.
A growing portion of our revenues is derived from international sales. During fiscal 2020, 32% of our revenues were derived from business outside the U.S. As part of our growth strategy, we plan to continue to pursue opportunities outside the U.S., including opportunities in countries with economic systems that are in early stages of development and that may not mature sufficiently to result in growth for our business. Accordingly, our future operating results could be negatively affected by a variety of factors arising out of international commerce, some of which are beyond our control. These factors include:
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• | general economic and political conditions in countries where we sell our products and services; |
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• | difficulty in staffing and efficiently managing our operations in multiple geographic locations and in various countries; |
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• | effects of a variety of foreign laws and regulations, including restrictions on access to personal information; |
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• | data privacy and consumer protection laws and regulations; |
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• | import and export licensing requirements; |
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• | difficulties in enforcing contracts and collecting accounts receivable; |
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• | reduced protection for intellectual property rights; |
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• | unfavorable tax rules or changes in tariffs and other trade barriers; |
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• | the presence and acceptance of varying level of business corruption in international markets; |
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• | terrorism, war, natural disasters and pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic; and |
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• | difficulties and delays in translating products and related documentation into foreign languages. |
There can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully address each of these challenges in the near term. Additionally, some of our business will be conducted in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Foreign currency transaction gains and losses are not currently material to our cash flows, financial position or results of operations. However, an increase in our foreign revenues could subject us to increased foreign currency transaction risks in the future.
In addition to the risk of depending on international sales, we have risks incurred in having research and development personnel located in various international locations. We currently have a substantial portion of our product development staff in international locations, some of which have political and developmental risks. If such risks materialize, our business could be damaged.
Legal, Regulatory and Compliance Risks
Laws and regulations in the U.S. and abroad that apply to us or to our customers may expose us to liability, cause us to incur significant expense, affect our ability to compete in certain markets, limit the profitability of or demand for our products, or render our products obsolete. If these laws and regulations require us to change our products and services, it could adversely affect our business and results of operations. New legislation or regulations, or changes to existing laws and regulations, may also negatively impact our business and increase our costs of doing business.
Laws and governmental regulation affect how our business is conducted and, in some cases, subject us to the possibility of government supervision and future lawsuits arising from our products and services. Laws and governmental regulation also influence our current and prospective customers’ activities, as well as their expectations and needs in relation to our products and services. Laws and regulations that may affect our business and our current and prospective customers’ activities include, but are not limited to, those in the following significant regulatory areas:
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• | Use of data by creditors and consumer reporting agencies (e.g., the U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act); |
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• | Laws and regulations that limit the use of credit scoring models (e.g., state “mortgage trigger” or “inquiries” laws, state insurance restrictions on the use of credit-based insurance scores, and the E.U. Consumer Credit Directive); |
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• | Fair lending laws (e.g., the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B, and the Fair Housing Act); |
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• | Privacy and security laws and regulations that limit the use and disclosure of personally identifiable information, require security procedures, or otherwise apply to the collection, processing, storage, use and transfer of protected data (e.g., the U.S. Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, also known as the Gramm Leach Bliley Act; the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) and country-specific data protection laws enacted to supplement the GDPR; the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act; the Cybersecurity Act of 2015; the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework; the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act; and identity theft, file freezing, security breach notification and similar state privacy laws); |
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• | Extension of credit to consumers through the Electronic Fund Transfers Act and Regulation E, as well as non‑governmental VISA and MasterCard electronic payment standards; |
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• | Laws and regulations applicable to secondary market participants (e.g., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) that could have an impact on our scoring products and revenues, including 12 CFR Part 1254 (Validation and Approval of Credit Score Models) issued by the Federal Housing Finance Agency in accordance with Section 310 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (Public Law 115-174), and any regulations, standards or criteria established pursuant to such laws or regulations; |
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• | Laws and regulations applicable to our customer communication clients and their use of our products and services (e.g., the Telemarketing Sales Rule, Telephone Consumer Protection Act and regulations promulgated thereunder); |
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• | Laws and regulations applicable to our insurance clients and their use of our insurance products and services; |
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• | The application or extension of consumer protection laws, including implementing regulations (e.g., the Consumer Financial Protection Act, the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Truth In Lending Act and Regulation Z, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, the Military Lending Act, and the Credit Repair Organizations Act); |
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• | Laws and regulations governing the use of the Internet and social media, telemarketing, advertising, endorsements and testimonials; |
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• | Anti-bribery and corruption laws and regulations (e.g., the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act 2010); |
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• | Financial regulatory standards (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley Act requirements to maintain and verify internal process controls, including controls for material event awareness and notification); |
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• | Regulatory requirements for managing third parties (e.g., vendors, contractors, suppliers and distributors); |
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• | Anti-money laundering laws and regulations (e.g., the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act); |
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• | Financial regulatory reform stemming from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the many regulations mandated by that Act, including regulations issued by, and the supervisory and investigative authority of, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; and |
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• | Laws and regulations regarding export controls as they apply to FICO products delivered in non-U.S. countries (e.g., Office of Foreign Asset Control sanctions, and Export Administration Regulations). |
In addition, many U.S. and foreign jurisdictions have passed, or are currently contemplating, a variety of consumer protection, privacy, and data security laws and regulations that may relate to our business or affect the demand for our products and services. For example, the GDPR became effective on May 25, 2018 and imposes, among other things, strict obligations and restrictions on the ability to collect, analyze and transfer European Union (“E.U.”) personal data, a requirement for prompt notice of data breaches in certain circumstances, and possible substantial fines for any violations (including possible fines for certain violations of up to the greater of 20 million Euros or 4% of total worldwide annual revenue). A decision in July 2020 by the Court of Justice of the European Union (i.e., Schrems II), calls into question certain data transfer mechanisms between the E.U. and the U.S. The decision may have an adverse impact on cross-border transfers of personal data, may subject us to additional scrutiny from E.U. regulators or may increase our costs of compliance.
Brazil, India, South Africa, Japan, China, Israel, Canada, and several other countries have introduced and, in some cases, enacted, similar privacy and data security laws. The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, which was enacted on June 28, 2018 and became effective on January 1, 2020, gives California residents certain privacy rights in the collection and disclosure of their personal information and requires businesses to make certain disclosures and take certain other acts in furtherance of those rights. The costs and other burdens of compliance with privacy and data security laws and regulations could negatively impact the use and adoption of our solutions and reduce overall demand for them. Additionally, concerns regarding data privacy may cause our customers, or their customers and potential customers, to resist providing the data necessary to allow us to deliver our solutions effectively. Even the perception that the privacy of personal information is not satisfactorily protected or does not meet regulatory requirements could inhibit sales of our solutions and any failure to comply with such laws and regulations could lead to significant fines, penalties or other liabilities. Any such decrease in demand or incurred fines, penalties or other liabilities could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
In addition to existing laws and regulations, changes in the U.S. or foreign legislative, judicial, regulatory or consumer environments could harm our business, financial condition or results of operations. The laws and regulations above, and changes to them or their interpretation by the courts, could affect the demand for or profitability of our products, including scoring and consumer products. New laws and regulations pertaining to our customers could cause them to pursue new strategies, reducing the demand for our products.
If we are subject to infringement claims, it could harm our business.
We expect that products in the industry segments in which we compete, including software products, will increasingly be subject to claims of patent and other intellectual property infringement as the number of products and competitors in our industry segments grow. We may need to defend claims that our products infringe intellectual property rights, and as a result we may:
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• | incur significant defense costs or substantial damages; |
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• | be required to cease the use or sale of infringing products; |
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• | expend significant resources to develop or license a substitute non-infringing technology; |
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• | discontinue the use of some technology; or |
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• | be required to obtain a license under the intellectual property rights of the third party claiming infringement, which license may not be available or might require substantial royalties or license fees that would reduce our margins. |
Moreover, in recent years, individuals and groups that are non-practicing entities, commonly referred to as “patent trolls,” have purchased patents and other intellectual property assets for the purpose of making claims of infringement in order to extract settlements. From time to time, we may receive threatening letters or notices or may be the subject of claims that our solutions and underlying technology infringe or violate the intellectual property rights of others. Responding to such claims, regardless of their merit, can be time consuming, costly to defend in litigation, divert management's attention and resources, damage our reputation and brand, and cause us to incur significant expenses.
Financial Risks
Our products have long and variable sales cycles. If we do not accurately predict these cycles, we may not forecast our financial results accurately, and our stock price could be adversely affected.
We experience difficulty in forecasting our revenues accurately because the length of our sales cycles makes it difficult for us to predict the quarter in which sales will occur. In addition, our selling approach is complex as we look to sell multiple products and services across our customers’ organizations. This makes forecasting of revenues in any given period more difficult. As a result of our sales approach and lengthening sales cycles, revenues and operating results may vary significantly from period to period. For example, the sales cycle for our products typically ranges from 60 days to 18 months, which may be further extended as a result of COVID-19. Customers are often cautious in making decisions to acquire our products because purchasing our products typically involves a significant commitment of capital and may involve shifts by the customer to a new software and/or hardware platform or changes in the customer’s operational procedures. This may cause customers, particularly those experiencing financial stress, to make purchasing decisions more cautiously. Delays in completing sales can arise while customers complete their internal procedures to approve large capital expenditures and test and accept our applications. Consequently, we face difficulty predicting the quarter in which sales to expected customers will occur and experience fluctuations in our revenues and operating results. If we are unable to accurately forecast our revenues, our stock price could be adversely affected.
We typically have revenue-generating transactions concentrated in the final weeks of a quarter, which may prevent accurate forecasting of our financial results and cause our stock price to decline.
Large portions of our customer agreements are consummated in the weeks immediately preceding quarter end. Before these agreements are consummated, we create and rely on forecasted revenues for planning, modeling and earnings guidance. Forecasts, however, are only estimates and actual results may vary for a particular quarter or longer periods of time. Consequently, significant discrepancies between actual and forecasted results could limit our ability to plan, budget or provide accurate guidance, which could adversely affect our stock price. Any publicly-stated revenue or earnings projections are subject to this risk.
Charges to earnings resulting from acquisitions may adversely affect our operating results.
Under business combination accounting standards, we recognize the identifiable assets acquired and the liabilities assumed in acquired companies generally at their acquisition-date fair values and separately from goodwill. Goodwill is measured as the excess amount of consideration transferred, which is also generally measured at fair value, and the net of the amounts of the identifiable assets acquired and the liabilities assumed as of the acquisition date. Our estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions believed to be reasonable but which are inherently uncertain.
After we complete an acquisition, the following factors could result in material charges and adversely affect our operating results and may adversely affect our cash flows:
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• | impairment of goodwill or intangible assets, or a reduction in the useful lives of intangible assets acquired; |
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• | amortization of intangible assets acquired; |
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• | identification of, or changes to, assumed contingent liabilities, both income tax and non-income tax related, after our final determination of the amounts for these contingencies or the conclusion of the measurement period (generally up to one year from the acquisition date), whichever comes first; |
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• | costs incurred to combine the operations of companies we acquire, such as transitional employee expenses and employee retention, redeployment or relocation expenses; |
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• | charges to our operating results to maintain certain duplicative pre-merger activities for an extended period of time or to maintain these activities for a period of time that is longer than we had anticipated, charges to eliminate certain duplicative pre-merger activities, and charges to restructure our operations or to reduce our cost structure; and |
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• | charges to our operating results resulting from expenses incurred to effect the acquisition. |
Substantially all of these costs will be accounted for as expenses that will decrease our net income and earnings per share for the periods in which those costs are incurred. Charges to our operating results in any given period could differ substantially from other periods based on the timing and size of our future acquisitions and the extent of integration activities. A more detailed discussion of our accounting for business combinations and other items is presented in the “Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates” section of Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (Item 7).
General Risk Factors
The occurrence of certain negative events may cause fluctuations in our stock price.
The market price of our common stock has been volatile and may continue to be subject to wide fluctuations due to a number of factors, including variations in our revenues and operating results. We believe that you should not rely on period-to-period comparisons of financial results as an indication of future performance. Because many of our operating expenses are fixed and will not be affected by short-term fluctuations in revenues, short-term fluctuations in revenues may significantly impact operating results. Additional factors that may cause our stock price to fluctuate include the following:
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• | variability in demand from our existing customers; |
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• | failure to meet the expectations of market analysts; |
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• | changes in recommendations by market analysts; |
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• | the lengthy and variable sales cycle of many products, combined with the relatively large size of orders for our products, increases the likelihood of short-term fluctuation in revenues; |
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• | consumer or customer dissatisfaction with, or problems caused by, the performance of our products; |
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• | the timing of new product announcements and introductions in comparison with our competitors; |
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• | the level of our operating expenses; |
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• | changes in demand and competitive and other conditions in the consumer credit, banking and insurance industries; |
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• | fluctuations in domestic and international economic conditions, such as those which have occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; |
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• | our ability to complete large installations, and to adopt and configure cloud-based deployments, on schedule and within budget; |
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• | announcements relating to litigation or regulatory matters; |
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• | changes in senior management or key personnel; |
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• | acquisition-related expenses and charges; and |
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• | timing of orders for and deliveries of software systems. |
In addition, the financial markets have at various times experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that have particularly affected the stock prices of many technology companies and financial services companies, and these fluctuations sometimes have been unrelated to the operating performance of these companies. Broad market fluctuations, as well as industry-specific and general economic conditions, may negatively affect our business and require us to record an impairment charge related to goodwill, which could adversely affect our results of operations, stock price and business.
Our anti-takeover defenses could make it difficult for another company to acquire control of FICO, thereby limiting the demand for our securities by certain types of purchasers or the price investors are willing to pay for our stock.
Certain provisions of our Restated Certificate of Incorporation, as amended, could make a merger, tender offer or proxy contest involving us difficult, even if such events would be beneficial to the interests of our stockholders. These provisions include giving our board the ability to issue preferred stock and determine the rights and designations of the preferred stock at any time without stockholder approval. The rights of the holders of our common stock will be subject to, and may be adversely affected by, the rights of the holders of any preferred stock that may be issued in the future. The issuance of preferred stock, while providing flexibility in connection with possible acquisitions and other corporate purposes, could have the effect of making it more difficult for a third party to acquire, or discouraging a third party from acquiring, a majority of our outstanding voting stock. These factors and certain provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law may have the effect of deterring hostile takeovers or otherwise delaying or preventing changes in control or changes in our management, including transactions in which our stockholders might otherwise receive a premium over the fair market value of our common stock.
If we experience changes in tax laws or adverse outcomes resulting from examination of our income tax returns, it could adversely affect our results of operations.
We are subject to federal and state income taxes in the U.S. and in certain foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes. Our future effective tax rates could be adversely affected by changes in tax laws, by our ability to generate taxable income in foreign jurisdictions in order to utilize foreign tax losses, and by the valuation of our deferred tax assets. In addition, we are subject to the examination of our income tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from such examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes. There can be no assurance that the outcomes from such examinations will not have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
Not applicable.
Item 2. Properties
Our properties consist primarily of leased office facilities for sales, data processing, research and development, consulting and administrative personnel. Our principal locations include:
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• | approximately 55,000 square feet of office space in San Jose, California in one building under a lease expiring in fiscal 2024; this is used for our corporate headquarters and all of our segments; |
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• | approximately 173,000 square feet of office space in Bangalore, India in one building under a lease expiring in fiscal 2022; this is used for our Applications and Decision Management Software segments; |
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• | approximately 124,000 square feet of office space in San Rafael, California in one building under a lease expiring in fiscal 2025; this is used for all of our segments; |
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• | approximately 80,000 square feet of office space in San Diego, California in one building under a lease expiring in fiscal 2027; this is used for our Applications and Decision Management Software segments; and |
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• | approximately 45,000 square feet of office space in Roseville, Minnesota in one building under a lease expiring in fiscal 2028; this is used for all of our segments. |
In addition, we lease an aggregate of approximately 235,000 square feet of office and data center space in a number of smaller domestic locations and internationally in the United Kingdom, China, Singapore, and several other locations. We believe that suitable additional space will be available to accommodate future needs. See Note 17 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements for information regarding our obligations under leases.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
On March 13, 2020, we received a letter from the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) informing us that the DOJ had opened a civil investigation into potential exclusionary conduct by the Company. We are cooperating with the DOJ in its investigation.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not Applicable.
PART II
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information
Our common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol: FICO. According to records of our transfer agent, at October 30, 2020, we had 278 stockholders of record of our common stock.
Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds
Not applicable.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
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Period | Total Number of Shares Purchased (1) | | Average Price Paid per Share | | Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs (2) | | Maximum Dollar Value of Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs (2) |
July 1, 2020 through July 31, 2020 | 2,298 |
| | $ | 436.71 |
| | — |
| | $ | 250,000,000 |
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August 1, 2020 through August 31, 2020 | 27,880 |
| | $ | 426.55 |
| | 24,000 |
| | $ | 239,776,878 |
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September 1, 2020 through September 30, 2020 | 35,990 |
| | $ | 421.32 |
| | 35,600 |
| | $ | 224,777,076 |
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Total | 66,168 |
| | $ | 424.05 |
| | 59,600 |
| | $ | 224,777,076 |
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(1) | Includes 6,568 shares delivered in satisfaction of the tax withholding obligations resulting from the vesting of restricted stock units held by employees during the quarter ended September 30, 2020. |
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(2) | In July 2019, our Board of Directors approved a stock repurchase program following the completion of our previous program. This program was open-ended and authorized repurchases of shares of our common stock up to an aggregate cost of $250.0 million in the open market or in negotiated transactions. In July 2020, our Board of Directors approved a new stock repurchase program following the completion of the July 2019 program. The new program is open-ended and authorizes repurchases of shares of our common stock up to an aggregate cost of $250.0 million in the open market or in negotiated transactions. |
Performance Graph
The following graph shows the total stockholder return of an investment of $100 in cash on September 30, 2015, in (a) the Company’s common stock, (b) the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index and (c) the Standard & Poor’s 500 Application Software Index, in each case with reinvestment of dividends. Our past performance may not be indicative of future performance.
Item 6. Selected Financial Data
We acquired TONBELLER Aktiengesellschaft in January 2015, QuadMetrics, Inc. in May 2016, and eZmCom, Inc. in August 2019. Results of operations from the acquisitions are included prospectively from their respective acquisition dates and did not materially impact comparability of the data presented below.
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| Year Ended September 30, |
| 2020 (1) | | 2019 | | 2018 | | 2017 (1) | | 2016 |
| (In thousands, except per share data) |
Revenues | $ | 1,294,562 |
| | $ | 1,160,083 |
| | $ | 1,000,146 |
| | $ | 934,983 |
| | $ | 881,356 |
|
Operating income | 295,969 |
| | 253,548 |
| | 175,359 |
| | 182,159 |
| | 169,592 |
|
Net income | 236,411 |
| | 192,124 |
| | 126,482 |
| | 133,414 |
| | 109,448 |
|
Basic earnings per share | 8.13 |
| | 6.63 |
| | 4.26 |
| | 4.32 |
| | 3.52 |
|
Diluted earnings per share | 7.90 |
| | 6.34 |
| | 4.06 |
| | 4.14 |
| | 3.39 |
|
Dividends declared per share | — |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 0.04 |
| | 0.08 |
|
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| September 30, |
| 2020 | | 2019 | | 2018 | | 2017 | | 2016 |
| (In thousands) |
Working capital | $ | 119,567 |
| | $ | (35,122 | ) | | $ | (77,514 | ) | | $ | 22,842 |
| | $ | 21,561 |
|
Total assets | 1,606,240 |
| | 1,433,448 |
| | 1,330,467 |
| | 1,348,728 |
| | 1,220,676 |
|
Senior notes | 750,000 |
| | 485,000 |
| | 513,000 |
| | 244,000 |
| | 316,000 |
|
Revolving line of credit | 95,000 |
| | 345,000 |
| | 257,000 |
| | 361,000 |
| | 255,000 |
|
Stockholders’ equity | 331,082 |
| | 289,767 |
| | 287,437 |
| | 466,183 |
| | 446,828 |
|
(1) Results of operations for fiscal years 2020 and 2017 included pre-tax charges of $45.0 million and $4.5 million, respectively, in restructuring and impairment charges.
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Our Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (“MD&A”) includes the following: a business overview that provides a high-level summary of our strategies and initiatives, financial results and bookings trends that affect our business; a more detailed analysis of our results of operations; our liquidity and capital resources, which discusses key aspects of our statements of cash flows, changes in our balance sheets and our financial commitments; and a summary of our critical accounting policies and estimates we believe are important to understanding the assumptions and judgments incorporated in our reported financial results. Our MD&A should be read in conjunction with Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those referred to herein due to a number of factors, including but not limited to risks described in Item 1A, Risk Factors, in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
BUSINESS OVERVIEW
Strategies and Initiatives
During fiscal 2020, we continued to advance our cloud-enabled, platform-based strategy in our Applications and Decision Management Software segments. The application of this strategy has led to an increase in our cloud bookings over the past several years. Our cloud bookings accounted for 41% of our total bookings in fiscal 2020, compared to 39% during fiscal 2019. We have invested, and intend to continue to invest, in product development to build out and deliver features, functionalities and performance enhancements using a SaaS-based approach on our platform. Our continued product innovation provides growth opportunities with customers that can benefit from the power, flexibility and modularity of these solutions.
For our Scores segment, our industry leading business-to-business FICO® Scores have achieved a multi-year expansion in the growing U.S. business-to-consumer market. We have launched numerous new FICO® Score-based products, and continue to grow our business-to-consumer partnership with Experian, a leading global information services provider. This partnership provides consumers the FICO® Score that lenders most commonly use in evaluating credit when determining applicant eligibility for new credit cards, car loans, mortgages or other lines of credit and can be accessed through Experian.com. The FICO® Score Open Access program, which allows our participating clients to provide their customers with a free FICO® Score along with content to help them understand the FICO® Score their lender uses, has more than 240 million consumer accounts with access to their free FICO® Scores. We continue to pursue additional partners to distribute FICO® Scores with their product offerings sold directly to consumers. During fiscal 2020, we announced the launch of the FICO® Resilience Index, a new analytic tool designed to complement FICO® Score models by identifying those consumers who are most resilient to economic stress relative to other consumers within the same FICO® Score bands. FICO® Resilience Index would enable industry participants to more precisely assess credit risk and extend credit to more consumers throughout the economic cycle by managing the risk that emerges during periods of economic stress.
We also continue to enhance stockholder value by returning cash to stockholders through our stock repurchase program. During fiscal 2020, we repurchased approximately 0.7 million shares at a total repurchase price of $235.2 million. As of September 30, 2020, we had $224.8 million remaining under our current stock repurchase program.
As a strategic cost initiative in fiscal 2020, we committed to a course of action designed to reduce operating costs in lower value, less strategic areas of our business in order to facilitate incremental investment in higher value, more strategic areas while also reducing our facilities footprint in light of post-pandemic workforce patterns. As a result of this initiative, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, we recorded a net charge of $41.9 million consisting of impairment losses of $33.2 million on our operating lease assets, property and equipment related to closing or consolidating office spaces, as well as a restructuring charge of $8.7 million related to our workforce reduction. We expect this course of action to result in an aggregate annual expense savings of approximately $36 million beginning in fiscal 2021.
In addition, during fiscal 2020, we changed our practice of selling term software licenses with separate license and maintenance components to a single software subscription contract with license and maintenance bundled. This transition will be substantially completed by the end of the first quarter of our fiscal 2021. This will shift the timing of our revenue recognition on these subscription sales, resulting in less revenue recognized upfront and more revenue recognized over the term of these subscriptions. We expect a decline in revenue recognized from term software licenses in fiscal 2021 as we transition to the new term license subscription model. This change will not negatively impact our cash flows.
Overview of Financial Results
Total revenues for fiscal 2020 were $1.29 billion, an increase of 12% from $1.16 billion in fiscal 2019. We continue to drive growth in our Scores segment. Scores revenue increased 25% to $528.5 million in fiscal 2020 from $421.2 million in fiscal 2019, and Scores operating income increased 26% to $454.3 million in fiscal 2020 from $361.4 million in fiscal 2019. For our Applications and Decision Management Software segments, our SaaS business continues to grow as we pursue our cloud-enabled, platform-based strategy. Revenue derived from our cloud-enabled SaaS business, which includes both subscription revenue and associated professional services revenue, increased 11% to $300.0 million during fiscal 2020, from $270.4 million during fiscal 2019. SaaS subscription revenue increased 11% to $236.0 million during fiscal 2020, from $213.1 million during fiscal 2019.
We derive a significant portion of revenues internationally, and 32% and 34% of total consolidated revenues were derived from clients outside the U.S. during fiscal 2020 and 2019, respectively. A significant portion of our revenues are derived from the sale of products and services within the banking (including consumer credit) industry, and 86% and 87% of our revenues were derived from within this industry during fiscal 2020 and 2019, respectively. In addition, a significant share of our revenues come from transactional or unit-based software license fees, transactional fees under credit scoring, data processing, data management and SaaS subscription services arrangements, and annual software maintenance fees. Arrangements with transactional or unit-based pricing accounted for 75% and 74% of our revenues during fiscal 2020 and 2019, respectively.
Operating income for fiscal 2020 was $296.0 million, an increase of 17% from $253.5 million in fiscal 2019. Operating margin was 23% and 22% for fiscal 2020 and 2019, respectively. Net income increased 23% to $236.4 million in fiscal 2020 from $192.1 million in fiscal 2019 primarily due to an increase in operating income. Diluted earnings per share for fiscal 2020 was $7.90, an increase of 25% from $6.34 in fiscal 2019.
COVID-19 Update
In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a global pandemic, which has spread throughout the U.S. and the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in authorities implementing numerous measures to contain the virus, including quarantines, shelter-in-place orders, travel bans and restrictions, and business limitations and shutdowns.
Our focus remains on promoting employee health and safety, serving our customers and ensuring business continuity. Since March 2020, our employees have been instructed to work from home in each country where we operate to support their health and well-being as well as for our customers, partners and communities. We have also substantially reduced employee travel to only essential business needs. We cannot predict when or how we will begin to lift the actions put in place, but as of the date of this filing, we do not believe our work-from-home protocol has had a material adverse impact on our internal controls, financial reporting systems or our operations.
Our operational flexibility and strong balance sheet allowed us to successfully manage through the initial impact of COVID-19 while protecting our cash flow and liquidity. However, certain areas of our business have been adversely impacted as a result of the pandemic’s global economic impact. For example, COVID-19 has been adversely affecting certain purchasing decisions by our customers in our Applications and Decision Management Software segments. For our Scores segment, we have seen a decline in auto and unsecured originations volumes, but an increase in mortgage volume through the 2nd half of fiscal 2020 due to strong refinancing activities boosted by low interest rates. Additionally, we have granted and may continue to grant extended payment terms to a small number of customers as a result of COVID-19. We have not and do not plan to modify our customer agreements in a manner that would materially impact our financial condition or results of operations. Finally, contrary to our original expectations, a decrease in sales-related travel activity has not materially affected our ability to consummate sales.
As a cost management initiative due to COVID-19, we accelerated reviews of our leased office spaces across our real estate portfolio to reshape and optimize our occupancy cost structures over the next several years. As a result, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020 we recorded impairment charges of $33.2 million on operating lease assets, property and equipment related to closing or consolidating office spaces to better align with anticipated needs. While we intend to continue to manage our costs by limiting the addition of new employees and third-party contracted services, and substantially reducing employee travel and other discretionary spending, to the extent the business disruption continues for an extended period, additional cost management actions will be considered and may become necessary. Further asset impairment charges, increases in allowance for doubtful accounts, or restructuring charges may be required, depending on the severity and duration of the pandemic.
We have not incurred significant financial disruptions thus far from the COVID-19 outbreak, but due to numerous uncertainties, including the severity and duration of the pandemic, actions that may be taken by governmental authorities, the impact on the business of our clients, and other factors, we are unable to accurately predict the impact COVID-19 will have on our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity and cash flows. For more information, see Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Bookings
Management regards the volume of bookings achieved as an important indicator of future revenues, but they are not comparable to nor a substitute for an analysis of our revenues. Bookings represent contracts signed in the current reporting period that generate current and future revenue streams. While we disclose estimated revenue expected to be recognized in the future related to unsatisfied performance obligations in Note 16 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements, we believe bookings amount is still a meaningful measure of our business as it includes estimated revenues omitted from Note 16, such as usage-based royalties derived from our software licenses, among others.
We estimate bookings as of the end of the period in which a contract is signed and initial booking estimates are not updated in future periods for changes between estimated and actual results. Our calculations have varying degrees of certainty depending on the revenue type and individual contract terms. They are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties concerning timing and contingencies affecting product delivery and performance, and estimates consider contract terms, knowledge of the marketplace and experience with our customers, among other factors. Actual revenue and the timing thereof could differ materially from our initial estimates.
Although many of our contracts contain non-cancelable terms, most of our bookings are transactional or service-related that depend upon estimates such as volume of transactions, number of active accounts, or number of hours incurred. Since these estimates cannot be considered fixed or firm, we do not believe it is appropriate to characterize bookings as backlog. The following paragraphs discuss the key assumptions used to calculate bookings and the susceptibility of these assumptions to variability for each revenue type, as defined in Revenue Recognition in the Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates.
Transactional and Maintenance Bookings
We calculate transactional bookings as the total estimated volume of transactions or number of accounts under contract, multiplied by the contractual rate. Transactional contracts generally span multiple years and require estimates of future transaction volumes or number of active accounts. We develop estimates from discussions with our customers and examinations of historical data from similar products and customer arrangements. Differences between estimated bookings and actual results occur due to variability in the volume of transactions or number of active accounts estimated. This variability is primarily caused by the economic trends in our customers’ industries; individual performance of our customers relative to their competitors; and regulatory and other factors that affect the business environment in which our customers operate.
We calculate maintenance bookings directly from the terms stated in the contract.
Professional Services Bookings
We calculate professional services bookings as the estimated number of hours to complete a project multiplied by the rate per hour. We estimate the number of hours based on our understanding of the project scope, conversations with customer personnel and our experience in estimating professional services projects. Estimated bookings may differ from actual results primarily due to differences in the actual number of hours incurred.
License Bookings
Licenses that are sold on a perpetual or term basis when bookings generally equal the fixed amount (including guaranteed minimums) stated in the contract.
Bookings Trend Analysis
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Bookings | | Bookings Yield (1) | | Number of Bookings over $1 Million | | Weighted- Average Term (2) |
| (In millions) | | | | | | (months) |
Quarter ended September 30, 2020 | $ | 234.6 |
| | 15 | % | | 31 |
| | 55 |
|
Quarter ended September 30, 2019 | $ | 160.4 |
| | 15 | % | | 34 |
| | 34 |
|
Year ended September 30, 2020 | $ | 537.0 |
| | 29 | % | | 87 |
| | NM(a) |
|
Year ended September 30, 2019 | $ | 481.7 |
| | 31 | % | | 95 |
| | NM(a) |
|
| |
(1) | Bookings yield represents the percentage of revenue recognized from bookings for the periods indicated. |
| |
(2) | Weighted-average term of bookings measures the average term over which bookings are expected to be recognized as revenue. |
| |
(a) | NM - Measure is not meaningful as our estimate of bookings is as of the end of the period in which a contract is signed, and we do not update our initial booking estimates in future periods for changes between estimated and actual results. |
Transactional and maintenance bookings were 48% of total bookings for each of the years ended September 30, 2020 and 2019. Professional services bookings were 33% and 39% of total bookings for the years ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively. License bookings were 19% and 13% of total bookings for the years ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively.
RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
We are organized into the following three reportable segments: Applications, Scores and Decision Management Software. Although we sell solutions and services into a large number of end user product and industry markets, our reportable business segments reflect the primary method in which management organizes and evaluates internal financial information to make operating decisions and assess performance. Segment revenues, operating income, and related financial information, including disaggregation of revenue, for the years ended September 30, 2020, 2019 and 2018 are set forth in Note 15 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements.
Revenues
The following tables set forth certain summary information on a segment basis related to our revenues for fiscal 2020, 2019 and 2018:
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Revenues Year Ended September 30, | | Period-to-Period Change | | Period-to-Period Percentage Change |
Segment | 2020 | | 2019 | | 2018 | | 2020 to 2019 | | 2019 to 2018 | | 2020 to 2019 | | 2019 to 2018 |
| (In thousands) | | (In thousands) | | | | |
Applications | $ | 602,046 |
| | $ | 605,034 |
| | $ | 564,375 |
| | $ | (2,988 | ) | | $ | 40,659 |
| | — | % | | 7 | % |
Scores | 528,547 |
| | 421,177 |
| | 335,870 |
| | 107,370 |
| | 85,307 |
| | 25 | % | | 25 | % |
Decision Management Software | 163,969 |
| | 133,872 |
| | 99,901 |
| | 30,097 |
| | 33,971 |
| | 22 | % | | 34 | % |
Total | $ | 1,294,562 |
| | $ | 1,160,083 |
| | $ | 1,000,146 |
| | 134,479 |
| | 159,937 |
| | 12 | % | | 16 | % |
|
| | | | | | | | |
| Percentage of Revenues Year Ended September 30, |
Segment | 2020 | | 2019 | | 2018 |
Applications | 46 | % | | 52 | % | | 56 | % |
Scores | 41 | % | | 36 | % | | 34 | % |
Decision Management Software | 13 | % | | 12 | % | | 10 | % |
Total | 100 | % | | 100 | % | | 100 | % |
Applications
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Year Ended September 30, | | Period-to-Period Change | | Period-to-Period Percentage Change |
| 2020 | | 2019 | | 2018 | | 2020 to 2019 | | 2019 to 2018 | | 2020 to 2019 | | 2019 to 2018 |
| (In thousands) | | (In thousands) | | | | |
Transactional and maintenance | $ | 393,994 |
| | $ | 395,398 |
| | $ | 372,283 |
| | $ | (1,404 | ) | | $ | 23,115 |
| | — | % | | 6 | % |
Professional services | 136,677 |
| | 137,258 |
| | 142,736 |
| | (581 | ) | | (5,478 | ) | | — | % | | (4 | )% |
License | 71,375 |
| | 72,378 |
| | 49,356 |
| | (1,003 | ) | | 23,022 |
| | (1 | )% | | 47 | % |
Total | $ | 602,046 |
| | $ | 605,034 |
| | $ | 564,375 |
| | (2,988 | ) | | 40,659 |
| | — | % | | 7 | % |
Applications segment revenues decreased $3.0 million in fiscal 2020 from 2019 primarily attributable to a $17.9 million decrease in our fraud solutions and a $3.1 million decrease in our customer communications services, partially offset by a $10.8 million increase in our compliance solutions and a $7.7 million increase in our originations solutions. The decrease in fraud solutions was primarily attributable to a decrease in license revenue, driven by a large multi-year license renewal recognized during fiscal 2019. The decrease in customer communication services was primarily attributable to a decrease in transactional revenue. The increase in compliance solutions was primarily attributable to an increase in professional services and license revenues. The increase in originations solutions was primarily due to an increase in SaaS subscription revenue classified as transactional and maintenance revenue and an increase in license revenue.
Applications segment revenues increased $40.7 million in fiscal 2019 from 2018 primarily due to a $50.6 million increase in our fraud solutions and a $7.3 million increase in our customer communication services, partially offset by an $8.7 million decrease in our customer management solutions and a $7.6 million decrease in our originations solutions. The increase in fraud solutions was primarily attributable to an increase in license and transactional revenues. The increase in customer communication services was primarily attributable to an increase in transactional revenue. The decrease in customer management solutions was primarily attributable to a decrease in license and professional services revenues. The decrease in originations solutions was primarily attributable to a decrease in professional services revenues.
Scores
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Year Ended September 30, | | Period-to-Period Change | | Period-to-Period Percentage Change |
| 2020 | | 2019 | | 2018 | | 2020 to 2019 | | 2019 to 2018 | | 2020 to 2019 | | 2019 to 2018 |
| (In thousands) | | (In thousands) | | | | |
Transactional and maintenance | $ | 517,024 |
| | $ | 415,288 |
| | $ | 331,662 |
| | $ | 101,736 |
| | $ | 83,626 |
| | 24 | % | | 25 | % |
Professional services | 1,600 |
| | 2,157 |
| | 1,900 |
| | (557 | ) | | 257 |
| | (26 | )% | | 14 | % |
License | 9,923 |
| | 3,732 |
| | 2,308 |
| | 6,191 |
| | 1,424 |
| | 166 | % | | 62 | % |
Total | $ | 528,547 |
| | $ | 421,177 |
| | $ | 335,870 |
| | 107,370 |
| | 85,307 |
| | 25 | % | | 25 | % |
Scores segment revenues increased $107.4 million in fiscal 2020 from 2019 due to an increase of $79.8 million in our business-to-business scores revenue and $27.6 million in our business-to-consumer services revenue. The increase in business-to-business scores was primarily attributable to an increase in mortgage volumes, a higher unit price in auto and unsecured originations, a large royalty true-up as well as a large annual license deal recognized during fiscal 2020. The increase was partially offset by a decrease in unsecured originations volume. The increase in business-to-consumer services was attributable to an increase in both royalties derived from direct sales generated from the myFICO.com website and scores sold indirectly to consumers through credit reporting agencies.
Scores segment revenues increased $85.3 million in fiscal 2019 from 2018 due to an increase of $77.4 million in our business-to-business scores revenue and $7.9 million in our business-to-consumer services revenue. The increase in business-to-business scores was primarily attributable to a higher unit price in mortgage and auto activities. The increase in business-to-consumer services was primarily attributable to an increase in royalties derived from scores sold indirectly to consumers through credit reporting agencies.
During fiscal 2020, 2019 and 2018, revenues generated from our agreements with Experian accounted for 14%, 13% and 11%, respectively, of our total revenues, and revenues generated from our agreements with Equifax and TransUnion together accounted for 18%, 16% and 14%, respectively, of our total revenues. Revenues from these customers included amounts recorded in our other segments.
Decision Management Software
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Year Ended September 30, | | Period-to-Period Change | | Period-to-Period Percentage Change |
| 2020 | | 2019 | | 2018 | | 2020 to 2019 | | 2019 to 2018 | | 2020 to 2019 | | 2019 to 2018 |
| (In thousands) | | (In thousands) | | | | |
Transactional and maintenance | $ | 62,915 |
| | $ | 50,262 |
| | $ | 46,658 |
| | $ | 12,653 |
| | $ | 3,604 |
| | 25 | % | | 8 | % |
Professional services | 44,763 |
| | 44,680 |
| | 32,274 |
| | 83 |
| | 12,406 |
| | — | % | | 38 | % |
License | 56,291 |
| | 38,930 |
| | 20,969 |
| | 17,361 |
| | 17,961 |
| | 45 | % | | 86 | % |
Total | $ | 163,969 |
| | $ | 133,872 |
| | $ | 99,901 |
| | 30,097 |
| | 33,971 |
| | 22 | % | | 34 | % |
Decision Management Software segment revenues increased $30.1 million in fiscal 2020 from 2019 primarily attributable to an increase in license revenue, as well as an increase in our SaaS subscription revenue classified as transactional and maintenance revenue.
Decision Management Software segment revenues increased $34.0 million in fiscal 2019 from 2018 primarily attributable to an increase in license revenue, an increase in professional services revenue, as well as an increase in our SaaS subscription revenue classified as transactional and maintenance revenue.
Operating Expenses and Other Income, Net
The following tables set forth certain summary information related to our consolidated statements of income and comprehensive income for fiscal 2020, 2019 and 2018:
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Year Ended September 30, | | Period-to-Period Change | | Period-to-Period Percentage Change |
| 2020 | | 2019 | | 2018 | | 2020 to 2019 | | 2019 to 2018 | | 2020 to 2019 | | 2019 to 2018 |
| (In thousands, except employees) | | (In thousands, except employees) | | |
Revenues | $ | 1,294,562 |
| | $ | 1,160,083 |
| | $ | 1,000,146 |
| | $ | 134,479 |
| | $ | 159,937 |
| | 12 | % | | 16 | % |
Operating expenses: | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Cost of revenues | 361,142 |
| | 336,845 |
| | 312,898 |
| | 24,297 |
| | 23,947 |
| | 7 | % | | 8 | % |
Research and development | 166,499 |
| | 149,478 |
| | 128,383 |
| | 17,021 |
| | 21,095 |
| | 11 | % | | 16 | % |
Selling, general and administrative | 420,930 |
| | 414,086 |
| | 376,912 |
| | 6,844 |
| | 37,174 |
| | 2 | % | | 10 | % |
Amortization of intangible assets | 4,993 |
| | 6,126 |
| | 6,594 |
| | (1,133 | ) | | (468 | ) | | (18 | )% | | (7 | )% |
Restructuring and impairment charges | 45,029 |
| | — |
| | — |
| | 45,029 |
| | — |
| | — | % | | — | % |
Total operating expenses | 998,593 |
| | 906,535 |
| | 824,787 |
| | 92,058 |
| | 81,748 |
| | 10 | % | | 10 | % |
Operating income | 295,969 |
| | 253,548 |
| | 175,359 |
| | 42,421 |
| | 78,189 |
| | 17 | % | | 45 | % |
Interest expense, net | (42,177 | ) | | (39,752 | ) | | (31,311 | ) | | (2,425 | ) | | (8,441 | ) | | 6 | % | | 27 | % |
Other income, net | 3,208 |
| | 2,276 |
| | 12,884 |
| | 932 |
| | (10,608 | ) | | 41 | % | | (82 | )% |
Income before income taxes | 257,000 |
| | 216,072 |
| | 156,932 |
| | 40,928 |
| | 59,140 |
| | 19 | % | | 38 | % |
Provision for income taxes | 20,589 |
| | 23,948 |
| | 30,450 |
| | (3,359 | ) | | (6,502 | ) | | (14 | )% | | (21 | )% |
Net income | $ | 236,411 |
| | $ | 192,124 |
| | $ | 126,482 |
| | 44,287 |
| | 65,642 |
| | 23 | % | | 52 | % |
Number of employees at fiscal year-end | 4,003 |
| | 4,009 |
| | 3,668 |
| | (6 | ) | | 341 |
| | — | % | | 9 | % |
|
| | | | | | | | |
| Percentage of Revenues Year Ended September 30, |
| 2020 | | 2019 | | 2018 |
Revenues | 100 | % | | 100 | % | | 100 | % |
Operating expenses: | | | | | |
Cost of revenues | 28 | % | | 29 | % | | 31 | % |
Research and development | 13 | % | | 13 | % | | 13 | % |
Selling, general and administrative | 33 | % | | 35 | % | | 37 | % |
Amortization of intangible assets | — | % | | 1 | % | | 1 | % |
Restructuring and impairment charges | 3 | % | | — | % | | — | % |
Total operating expenses | 77 | % | | 78 | % | | 82 | % |
Operating income | 23 | % | | 22 | % | | 18 | % |
Interest expense, net | (3 | )% | | (3 | )% | | (3 | )% |
Other income, net | — | % | | — | % | | 1 | % |
Income before income taxes | 20 | % | | 19 | % | | 16 | % |
Provision for income taxes | 2 | % | | 2 | % | | 3 | % |
Net income | 18 | % | | 17 | % | | 13 | % |
Cost of Revenues
Cost of revenues consists primarily of employee salaries and benefits for personnel directly involved in delivering software products, operating SaaS infrastructure, and providing support, implementation and consulting services; allocated overhead, facilities and data center costs; software royalty fees; credit bureau data and processing services; third-party hosting fees related to our SaaS services; travel costs; and outside services.
The fiscal 2020 over 2019 increase of $24.3 million in cost of revenues was primarily attributable to an $11.1 million increase in allocated facilities and infrastructure costs, a $10.3 million increase in personnel and labor costs and a $7.6 million increase in direct materials cost, partially offset by a $4.9 million decrease in travel costs. The increase in facilities and infrastructure costs was primarily attributable to increased resource requirements due to expansion in our cloud infrastructure operations. The increase in personnel and labor costs was primarily attributable to an increase in our average headcount. The increase in direct materials cost was primarily attributable to an increase in license and Scores revenues that incur third-party royalties and data costs, as well as an increase in telecommunication cost. The decrease in travel costs was primarily attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cost of revenues as a percentage of revenues was 28% during fiscal 2020, materially consistent with that incurred during fiscal 2019.
The fiscal 2019 over 2018 increase of $23.9 million in cost of revenues expenses was primarily attributable to a $13.9 million increase in personnel and labor costs and a $6.7 million increase in facilities and infrastructure costs. The increase in personnel and labor costs was primarily attributable to an increase in headcount. The increase in facilities and infrastructure costs was primarily attributable to increased resource requirements due to expansion in our cloud infrastructure operations. Cost of revenues as a percentage of revenues decreased to 29% during fiscal 2019 from 31% during fiscal 2018 primarily due to increased sales of our high-margin Scores and software products.
Research and Development
Research and development expenses include personnel and related overhead costs incurred in the development of new products and services, including research of mathematical and statistical models and development of new versions of Applications and Decision Management Software products.
The fiscal 2020 over 2019 increase of $17.0 million in research and development expenses was primarily attributable to an increase in personnel and labor costs and an increase in allocated facilities and infrastructure costs, both driven by increased average headcount and our continued investments in new product development. Research and development expenses as a percentage of revenues was 13% during fiscal 2020, consistent with that incurred during fiscal 2019.
The fiscal 2019 over 2018 increase of $21.1 million in research and development expenses was primarily attributable to a $15.6 million increase in personnel and labor costs as a result of increased headcount, and a $3.5 million increase in facilities and infrastructure cost. Research and development expenses as a percentage of revenues was 13% during fiscal 2019, consistent with that incurred during fiscal 2018.
Selling, General and Administrative
Selling, general and administrative expenses consist principally of employee salaries, commissions and benefits; travel costs; overhead costs; advertising and other promotional expenses; corporate facilities expenses; legal expenses; business development expenses; and the cost of operating computer systems.
The fiscal 2020 over 2019 increase of $6.8 million was primarily attributable to an increase in personnel and labor costs as a result of increased average headcount, higher share-based compensation and higher non-capitalizable commission cost. The increase was partially offset by a decrease in marketing and travel costs as a result of a decrease in travel activity due to COVID-19. Selling, general and administrative expenses as a percentage of revenues decreased to 33% during fiscal 2020 from 35% during fiscal 2019 primarily due to increased sales of our high-margin Scores and software products.
The fiscal 2019 over 2018 increase of $37.2 million was primarily attributable to an increase in personnel and labor costs as a result of increased headcount, higher share-based compensation and higher non-capitalizable commission cost. Selling, general and administrative expenses as a percentage of revenues decreased to 35% during fiscal 2019 from 37% during fiscal 2018 primarily due to increased sales of our high-margin Scores and software products.
Amortization of Intangible Assets
Amortization of intangible assets consists of expense related to intangible assets recorded in connection with our acquisitions. Our finite-lived intangible assets consist primarily of completed technology and customer contracts and relationships, which are being amortized using the straight-line method over periods ranging from four to fifteen years.
Amortization expense was $5.0 million, $6.1 million and $6.6 million for fiscal 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively.
Restructuring and Impairment Charges
During fiscal 2020, we incurred net charges totaling $45.0 million consisting of $28.0 million in impairment loss on operating lease assets, $5.2 million in impairment loss on abandonment of property and equipment and $11.8 million in restructuring charges. The impairment losses were associated with closing certain non-core offices and reducing office space in other locations to better align with anticipated needs in light of post-pandemic workforce patterns. The restructuring charges related to employee separation costs as a result of eliminating 209 positions throughout the Company. Cash payments for all the employee separation costs will be paid by the end of our fiscal 2021.
There were no restructuring and impairment charges incurred during fiscal 2019 and 2018.
Interest Expense, Net
Interest expense includes primarily interest on the senior notes issued in December 2019, May 2018, and July 2010, as well as interest and credit facility fees on the revolving line of credit. On our consolidated statements of income and comprehensive income, interest expense is netted with interest income, which is derived primarily from the investment of funds in excess of our immediate operating requirements.
The fiscal 2020 over 2019 increase in net interest expense of $2.4 million was primarily attributable to a higher average outstanding debt balance during fiscal 2020.
The fiscal 2019 over 2018 increase in net interest expense of $8.4 million was primarily attributable to a higher average outstanding debt balance during fiscal 2019, as well as a higher average interest rate on our 2018 Senior Notes compared to that on our revolving line of credit.
Other Income, Net
Other income, net consists primarily of realized investment gains/losses and unrealized gains/losses on certain investments classified as trading securities, exchange rate gains/losses resulting from re-measurement of foreign-currency-denominated receivable and cash balances held by our various reporting entities into their respective functional currencies at period-end market rates, net of the impact of offsetting foreign currency forward contracts, and other non-operating items.
The fiscal 2020 over 2019 increase in other income, net of $0.9 million was primarily attributable to an increase in net unrealized gains on our supplemental retirement and savings plan, partially offset by an increase in foreign currency exchange losses.
The fiscal 2019 over 2018 decrease in other income, net of $10.6 million was primarily attributable to a non-operating gain related to the divestiture of an investment during fiscal 2018.
Provision for Income Taxes
Our effective tax rates were 8.0%, 11.1% and 19.4% in fiscal 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively.
The decrease in our income tax provision in fiscal 2020 compared to fiscal 2019 was due to the excess tax benefits related to stock-based compensation.
The decrease in our income tax provision in fiscal 2019 compared to fiscal 2018 was due to the decrease in the overall federal tax rate from the blended 24.5% in fiscal 2018 to 21% in fiscal 2019 and the recording of several one-time items in fiscal 2018 related to the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Tax Act”).
As of September 30, 2020, we had approximately $111.7 million of unremitted earnings of non-U.S. subsidiaries. The Company generates substantial cash flow in the U.S. and does not have a current need for the cash to be returned to the U.S. from the foreign entities. In the event these earnings are later remitted to the U.S., any estimated withholding tax on remittance of those earnings is expected to be immaterial to our income tax provision.
Operating Income
The following tables set forth certain summary information on a segment basis related to our operating income for fiscal 2020, 2019 and 2018:
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| Year Ended September 30, | | Period-to-Period Change | | Period-to-Period Percentage Change |
Segment | 2020 | | 2019 | | 2018 | | 2020 to 2019 | | 2019 to 2018 | | 2020 to 2019 | | 2019 to 2018 |
| (In thousands) | | (In thousands) | | | | |
Applications | $ | 153,541 |
| | $ | 161,162 |
| | $ | 143,964 |
| | $ | |