SEC Filing | Rimini Street, Inc.

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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)



þ	Annual report pursuant to section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
	For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2018

¨	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 001-37397



	Rimini Street, Inc.
	(Exact Name of Company as Specified in its Charter)



Delaware		36-4880301
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)		(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

3993 Howard Hughes Parkway, Suite 500, Las Vegas, NV		89169
(Address of principal executive offices)		(Zip Code)

Registrant's telephone number, including area code:		(702) 839-9671

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:



Title of each class:		Name of each exchange on which registered:

Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share		The Nasdaq Global Market

Public Units, each consisting of one share of Common
Stock, $0.0001 par value, and one-half of one Warrant		OTC Pink Current Information Marketplace

Warrants, exercisable for one share of Common Stock, $0.0001 par value		OTC Pink Current Information Marketplace

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 þ

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 þ

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 Company was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. YES þ 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 and post such files). YESþ NO ¨

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers, pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein and will not be contained, to the best of the Registrant's knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K þ

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, and 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 þ	Non-accelerated filer ¨



Smaller reporting company ¨		Emerging growth company þ

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 Exchange Act. ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). YES ¨ NO þ

As of June 30, 2018, the last business day of the second fiscal quarter, the aggregate market value of the Registrant’s voting stock held by non-affiliates, was approximately $66,690,000 based on the last reported sales price of $6.55 as quoted on the Nasdaq Capital Market on such date.

The registrant had approximately 65,200,000 shares of its $0.0001 par value Common Stock outstanding as of March 11, 2019.

Documents incorporated by reference

The Registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement for the Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the “2019 Proxy Statement”) is incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K to the extent stated herein. The 2019 Proxy Statement, or an amendment to this Form 10-K, will be filed with the SEC within 120 days after December 31, 2018. Except with respect to information specifically incorporated by reference in this Form 10-K, the Proxy Statement is not deemed to be filed as a part hereof.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS



		Page
	Part I
Item 1.	Business	1

Item 1 A.	Risk Factors	13

Item 1 B.	Unresolved Staff Comments	38

Item 2.	Properties	38

Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	38

Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures	38

	Part II

Item 5.	Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	39

Item 6.	Selected Financial Data	40

Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Result of Operations	40

Item 7a.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk	64

Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	66

Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	115

Item 9a.	Controls and Procedures	115

Item 9b.	Other Information	116

	Part III

Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance	116

Item 11.	Executive Compensation	116

Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	116

Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence	117

Item 14.	Principal Accounting Fees and Services	117

	Part IV

Item 15.	Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules	117

Item 16.	Form 10-K Summary	122

Signatures		123

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Report”) includes forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Report, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, business strategy and plans, and our objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “will,” “would” and similar expressions that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes are intended to identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, information concerning:


•	the evolution of the enterprise software support landscape facing our customers and prospects;


•	our ability to educate the market regarding the advantages of our enterprise software support services and products;


•	estimates of our total addressable market;


•	projections of customer savings;


•	our ability to maintain an adequate rate of revenue growth;


•	our expectations about future financial, operating and cash flow results;


•	the sufficiency of future cash and cash equivalents to meet our liquidity requirements;


•	our business plan and our ability to effectively manage our growth and associated investments;


•	beliefs and objectives for future operations;


•	our ability to expand our leadership position in independent enterprise software support;


•	our ability to attract and retain customers;


•	our ability to further penetrate our existing customer base;


•	our ability to maintain our competitive technological advantages against new entrants in our industry;


•	our ability to timely and effectively scale and adapt our existing technology;


•	our ability to innovate new products and bring them to market in a timely manner, including our recently announced salesforce.com offerings;


•	our ability to maintain, protect, and enhance our brand and intellectual property;


•	our ability to capitalize on changing market conditions including a market shift to hybrid and cloud/SaaS offerings for information technology environments;


•	our ability to develop strategic partnerships;


•	benefits associated with the use of our services;


•	our ability to expand internationally;


•	our ability to raise equity or debt financing in the future;


•	the effects of increased competition in our market and our ability to compete effectively;


•	our intentions with respect to our pricing model;


•	cost of revenues, including changes in costs associated with production, manufacturing and customer support;


•	operating expenses, including changes in sales and marketing and general administrative expenses;


•	anticipated income tax rates;


•	sufficiency of cash to meet cash needs for at least the next 12 months, including quarterly cash dividends payable on the Series A Preferred Stock;


•	our ability to maintain our good standing with the United States and international governments and capture new contracts;


•	costs associated with defending intellectual property infringement and other claims, such as those claims discussed in the section titled “Business—Legal Proceedings”;


•	the final amount and timing of any refunds from Oracle related to our litigation;


•	our expectations concerning relationships with third parties, including channel partners and logistics providers;


•	economic and industry trends or trend analysis;


•	the attraction and retention of qualified employees and key personnel;


•	future acquisitions of or investments in complementary companies, products, subscriptions or technologies;


•	the effects of seasonal trends on our results of operations, and


•	other risks and uncertainties, including those discussed under "Risk Factors" in Part 1, Item 1A of this Report.

We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short-term and long-term business operations and objectives, and financial needs. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors.” Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing market. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we

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may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this Report may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements.

You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this Report are made as of the date of the filing, and except as required by law, we disclaim and do not undertake any obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements in this Report. You should read this Report and the documents that we reference in this Report and have filed with the SEC as exhibits to the registration statement of which this Report is a part with the understanding that our actual future results, levels of activity and performance, as well as other events and circumstances, may be materially different from what we expect.

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PART I

Item 1. Business

Business Combination

Rimini Street, Inc. (“RSI”) was incorporated in the state of Nevada in September 2005. RSI provides enterprise software support services.

In May 2017, RSI entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) with GP Investments Acquisition Corp. (“GPIA”), a publicly-held special purpose acquisition company (“SPAC”) incorporated in the Cayman Islands and formed for the purpose of effecting a business combination with one or more businesses. Substantially all of GPIA’s assets consisted of cash and cash equivalents. The Merger Agreement was approved by the respective shareholders of RSI and GPIA in October 2017, and closing occurred on October 10, 2017, resulting in (i) the merger of a wholly-owned subsidiary of GPIA with and into RSI, with RSI as the surviving corporation, after which (ii) RSI merged with and into GPIA, with GPIA as the surviving corporation. Prior to consummation of the mergers, GPIA domesticated as a Delaware corporation (the “Delaware Domestication”). Immediately after the Delaware Domestication and the consummation of the second merger, GPIA was renamed “Rimini Street, Inc.” (referred to herein as the Company, as distinguished from RSI with the same legal name). Since RSI is the predecessor of the Company for accounting and financial reporting purposes, the Company’s consolidated financial statements include the accounts and activities of RSI before the mergers, and those of the Company after the mergers, except where the context indicates otherwise.

After completion of the Delaware Domestication and upon consummation of the mergers, RSI appointed seven of the nine members of the Board of Directors of the Company, and the former shareholders of RSI obtained an 83% controlling interest in the outstanding shares of the Company’s Common Stock. Due to the change of control and the composition of GPIA’s assets, the mergers were accounted for as a reverse recapitalization whereby RSI is considered to be the predecessor and the acquirer for accounting and financial reporting purposes, and GPIA is the legal acquirer. The exchange ratio for the mergers resulted in the issuance of approximately 0.2394 shares of the Company’s Common Stock for each previously outstanding share of RSI capital stock (the “Exchange Ratio”) on October 10, 2017. In accounting for the reverse recapitalization, the net monetary assets received by the Company as a result of the merger with GPIA were treated as an equity infusion on the closing date.

Business Overview

Rimini Street, Inc. is a global provider of enterprise software support products and services, and the leading independent software support provider for Oracle and SAP products, based on both the number of active clients supported and recognition by industry analyst firms. We founded our company to disrupt and redefine the enterprise software support market by developing and delivering innovative new products and services that fill a then unmet need in the market. We believe we have achieved our leadership position in independent enterprise software support by recruiting and hiring experienced, skilled and proven staff; delivering outcomes-based, value-driven and award-winning enterprise software support products and services; seeking to provide an exceptional client-service, satisfaction and success experience; enabling clients to follow a business-driven roadmap aligned with their business objectives that better supports competitive advantage and growth; and continuously innovating our unique products and services by leveraging our proprietary knowledge, tools, technology and processes.

Enterprise software support products and services is one of the largest categories of overall global information technology (“IT”) spending. We believe core enterprise resource planning (“ERP”), customer relationship management (“CRM”), product lifecycle management (“PLM”) and technology software platforms have become increasingly important in the operation of mission-critical business processes over the last 30 years, and also that the costs associated with failure, downtime, security exposure and maintaining the tax, legal and regulatory compliance of these core software systems have also increased. As a result, we believe that licensees often view software support as a mandatory cost of doing business, resulting in recurring and highly profitable revenue streams for enterprise software vendors. For example, for fiscal year 2018, SAP reported that support revenue represented approximately 44% of its total revenue and, for fiscal 2018, Oracle reported a margin of 86% for cloud services and license support.

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software vendor policies and support models that are designed to benefit the vendor and force organizations to follow a vendor-dictated roadmap. As a result, we believe organizations are increasingly seeking ways to create competitive advantage and growth by redirecting budgets from expensive maintenance programs and costs to new technology investments that provide greater strategic value. Our software products and services help clients achieve these objectives by reducing the total cost of support.

As of December 31, 2018, we employed approximately 1,080 professionals and supported over 1,800 active clients globally, including 81 Fortune 500 companies and 20 Fortune Global 100 companies, across a broad range of industries. We define an active client as a distinct entity, such as a company, an educational or government institution, or a business unit of a company that purchases our services to support a specific product. For example, we count as two separate active client instances in circumstances where we provide support for two different products to the same entity. We market and sell our services globally, primarily through our direct sales force, and currently have wholly-owned subsidiaries in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. We believe our primary competitors are the enterprise software vendors whose products we service and support, including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP.

Our subscription-based revenue provides a strong foundation for, and visibility into, future period results. We generated revenue of $252.8 million, $212.6 million and $160.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively, representing a year-over-year increase of 19% and 33% for 2018 and 2017, respectively. We have a history of losses, and as of December 31, 2018, we had an accumulated deficit of $372.4 million. We had net losses of $68.0 million, $53.3 million and $12.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. We generated approximately 65% of our revenue in the United States and approximately 35% of our revenue from our international business for the year ended December 31, 2018.

Our Industry

We believe most enterprise software vendors license the rights for customers to use their software. In a traditional licensing model, the customer typically procures a perpetual software license and pays for the license in a single upfront fee (“perpetual license”), and base software support services can be optionally procured from the software vendor for an annual fee that averages 22% of the total cost of the software license. In a subscription-based licensing model, such as software as a service, or SaaS, the customer generally pays as it goes for usage of the software on a monthly or annual basis (“subscription license”). Under a subscription license, the product license and a base level of software support are generally bundled together as a single purchase, and the base level of software support is not procured separately nor is it an optional purchase.

In our experience, the base level of software support provided by enterprise software vendors for both perpetual licenses and subscription licenses has traditionally been delivered through call centers and generally includes the right to receive and use product support services, software bug fixes, and functional, technical, tax, legal and regulatory updates. In both licensing models, software support also generally includes the right to receive and use new releases of the licensed products, if and when made available. Base software support provided by enterprise software vendors for both models generally excludes other important, commonly needed enterprise services, such as support for interoperability, security, software performance, how-to questions, add-ons and customizations. Some enterprise software vendors do not include major new releases in the base support services, and instead, they charge additional license fees for such releases.

We believe enterprise software vendors have historically been the primary providers of software support services for their products, enabling such vendors to dictate which products and releases are supported and for how long, the scope of support services offered, service levels, terms and pricing. We believe the lack of credible competitors of any scale left software licensees with little choice but to agree to the software vendors’ terms of service, or risk potential tax, legal and regulatory non-compliance or failures of critical systems that require knowledge and skill sets beyond a licensee’s own abilities to resolve. Some software vendor support customers may be required to perform expensive and disruptive upgrades to newer product releases - even if they find no business value in doing so - just to remain eligible to receive full support.

Today, we believe many organizations are defining business-driven roadmaps that better enable competitive advantage and growth by combining different software under perpetual licenses and subscription licenses into an integrated business platform that is deployed across their own systems and cloud providers, commonly referred to as hybrid IT environments. For these organizations, the cost of operating and supporting their hybrid IT environments consumes too many financial and labor resources and prevents the strategic investment that is needed to compete effectively, grow revenue and improve margins.

For all these reasons and others, we believe the software products and services historically offered by software vendors, such as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP, do not meet the full and evolving needs of their customers and are too

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expensive. The product, service and cost gaps have created a significant market opportunity for our competitive software support products and services to meet the underserved needs of enterprise software licensees at a value-driven price point.

Our Solution

Our subscription-based software support products and services offer enterprise software licensees a choice of solutions that replace or supplement the support products and services offered by enterprise software vendors for their products. Features, service levels, service breadth, technology and pricing differentiate our software products and services from our competitors. We believe clients utilize our software products and services to achieve substantial cost savings; receive more responsive and comprehensive support; obtain support for their customized software that is not generally covered under the enterprise software vendor’s service offerings; enhance their software functionality, capabilities, and data usage; and protect their systems and extend the life of their existing software releases and products. Our products and services seek to enable our clients to keep their mission-critical systems operating smoothly and to remain in tax, legal and regulatory compliance; improve productivity; and better allocate limited budgets, labor and other resources to investments that provide competitive advantage and support growth.

The following table summarizes and compares our base software support features to what management believes in its experience are the typical features of enterprise software vendors:



Base Software Support Feature	Rimini Street	Typical Enterprise Software Vendor
Significant Annual Cost Savings Compared to the Software Vendor	•
Guaranteed 15 Minutes Response 24x7 For High Priority Issues	•
Named Primary Support Engineer for Each Client	•
Issue Resolution and Software Bug Fixes	•	•
Support for Application Customizations	•
Operational, Installation, Configuration and Upgrade Support	•	•
Migration Support	•
Performance, Interoperability and Integration Support	•
Security Support	•
Localization Support	•
New Features, Functions and Technical Releases	•
Tax, Legal and Regulatory Updates	•	•

Our current software support products and service offerings cover a broad range of enterprise software vendors, product families and product lines. In the future, we intend to expand our support to new vendors and products in order to meet the growing and diverse needs of our clients. The table below sets out the vendors and products we currently support:

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Supported Vendor and Product Family		Supported Product Lines
IBM DB2 Database		All
Microsoft SQL Server Database		All
Oracle Siebel		All
Oracle PeopleSoft		HCM, FIN, CRM, EPM, SRM, SCM, Public Sector, and Campus Solutions
Oracle J.D. Edwards		HCM, Financials, Distribution and Manufacturing (World and EnterpriseOne)
Oracle E-Business Suite		All
Oracle Retail		Retek Merchandising Operations Management (MOM), Merchandise Planning & Optimization, Supply Chain Planning and Execution
Oracle Database		All
Oracle Fusion Middleware		All
Oracle Hyperion		Hyperion Planning, Essbase, Financial Management, Financial Close Management, Strategic Finance and Financial Management Analytics
Salesforce		Salesforce Sales Cloud and Salesforce Service Cloud
SAP Business Suite		R/3, ECC
SAP S/4HANA		All
SAP HANA Database		All
SAP Sybase Database		SAP ASE, SAP Advantage Server, SAP IQ, SAP SQL Anywhere
SAP Business Objects		Business Objects Enterprise, Advanced Analysis, Interactive Analysis (Web Intelligence), Explorer, Dashboard Design (Xcelsius) and Crystal Reports
Oracle Agile		All
Oracle ATG Web Commerce		Campaign Optimizer, Outreach, MDEX Engine 6.5, Oracle Commerce Guided Search (Endeca Search) and Experience Manager

When we provide base software support for a perpetual license, we generally offer our clients service for a fee that is equal to approximately 50% of the annual fees charged by the software vendor for their base support. When providing supplemental software support for a perpetual license, where the client procures our support service in addition to retaining the software vendor’s base support, we generally offer our clients service for a fee that is equal to approximately 25% of the annual fees charged by the software vendor for their base support. For support services relating to a subscription license, we generally offer our clients support and managed services for a fee based on the scope of the deployment and desired outcomes. We also offer a special support service, Rimini Street Extra Secure Support, available to clients that require a more rigorous level of security background checks for engineers accessing the client’s system than our standard employment security background check process. Rimini Street Extra Secure Support is an additional fee added to our base or supplemental support fee, and priced at approximately 1% of the software vendor’s annual fees for base maintenance for perpetual licenses and priced at approximately 2% of the subscription fees for subscription licenses. Subscriptions for additional software products and services are available, designed to meet specific client needs and provide exceptional value for the fees charged.

Since our inception over 13 years ago, we have invested significant resources developing our proprietary knowledge, software tools and processes to meet the growing needs of our clients. During the year ended December 31, 2018, we have delivered approximately 50,000 tax, legal and regulatory updates to our global client base. We believe that we offer the most comprehensive scope of tax, legal and regulatory research from a single vendor, including collecting and analyzing information from more than 4,200 government sites, close to 3,500 information sources and over 26,000 localities for over 100 countries. We utilize a certified triple-scope verification process that involves multiple third-parties such as premier subject matter experts including industry associations as well as accounting, consulting and law firms. Our capabilities are enabled by our proprietary data capture, management and analysis tool and ISO 9001:2015 certified processes that we believe provide us with a significant competitive advantage.

Sales and Marketing

We sell our solutions through our global direct sales organization. We organize our sales force by geographic region with sales teams currently covering North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Asia-Pacific. We

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organize our sales and marketing professionals into territory-specific teams in order to align sales and marketing towards common sales goals. A typical sales cycle with a prospective client begins with the generation of a sales lead through trade shows, industry events, online marketing, outbound calling or other means of referral. The sales cycle continues with an assessment of the prospective client’s support contract renewal date, sales presentations and, in many cases, client reference calls. Our sales cycle can vary substantially from client to client, but typically requires six to twelve months. Enterprise software customers typically need to renew their contracts on an annual basis so there is already budget for our services, and that budget is usually larger than our fees since most of our prospective clients are enterprise software vendor customers paying higher annual fees for their current support services.

We attempt to commence discussions with prospective clients far enough in advance of that prospective client’s current support service end date to provide enough time to complete the sale and to perform certain transition tasks. In certain situations, we will engage with a prospective client over multiple renewal cycles. In addition to new client sales, we have a dedicated sales team focused on renewals of existing clients.

We generate customer leads, accelerate sales opportunities and build brand awareness through our marketing programs. Our marketing programs target chief information officers, other IT executives, senior business leaders and procurement specialists, focusing on the unique benefits of our offerings. Additionally, our marketing programs serve to create further market awareness of the benefits of independent enterprise software support. As a result of our efforts in educating organizations on the alternatives to vendor support, we believe we are recognized as a thought leader in this market.

Our marketing programs include the following:


•	use of our website to provide application and company information, as well as learning opportunities for potential customers;


•	business development representatives who respond to incoming leads to convert them into new sales opportunities;


•	participation in, and sponsorship of, field marketing events including user conferences, trade shows and industry events;


•	online marketing activities including email campaigns, online advertising and webinars;


•	public relations; and


•	thought leadership through marketing to industry analysts, webinars, speaking engagements and sponsored research.

Competitive Strengths

We believe that we have a number of competitive advantages that will enable us to strengthen our position as the leading independent provider of enterprise software support. Our key competitive strengths include:

Unique enterprise software support model, products and services

Our enterprise software support model, products and services differentiate us from traditional enterprise software vendors. We built our company from the ground up to disrupt the 30-year old traditional enterprise software vendor support model. We are focused on delivering unique, highly responsive and award-winning enterprise software support solutions. We believe our innovative support products and services, offered at a value-driven price point, provide a significant return on investment for our clients that cannot be achieved by use of traditional enterprise software vendor offerings. Our highly qualified engineers have an average of over 15 years of relevant industry experience, which provides us with a competitive advantage and is a key element of our proven track record of providing exceptional client service.

Scalable business model

We have developed proprietary knowledge, software tools and processes in the design, development and delivery of our enterprise software support services. We have also designed an innovative support model that organizes our support engineers into modular, scalable teams. We believe our client support model enables us to quickly and cost-effectively scale to meet growing global demand in our existing product lines. We have become proficient at applying our support methodologies and approach to new product lines, enabling us to rapidly and efficiently support additional enterprise software products in the future. Additionally, we have received ISO certifications for our support services, which we believe helps ensure our clients consistently receive high quality, responsive service as our client base continues to grow.

Large global client base

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As of December 31, 2018, we supported over 1,800 active clients globally, including 81 Fortune 500 companies and 20 Fortune Global 100 companies. We also believe that our proven ability to deliver value to an extensive list of clients across a broad range of industries validates our business model and provides us with important references to prospective clients.

Comprehensive support services

We offer clients a comprehensive suite of independent support offerings in terms of features and capabilities; global breadth; vendor products and releases supported; and tax, legal and regulatory updates. We believe our continued investment in our software support products and services will expand our scope of services to the benefit of our clients.

Clear leadership position

We are the global leader of independent enterprise software support services for Oracle and SAP products, based on both number of active clients and recognition by industry analyst firms. We believe we have substantial thought leadership in our market through our extensive marketing efforts and promotion of the independent enterprise software support model, including participation in key industry conferences, publishing white papers and hosting webinars. We believe that our position as the market leader enables us to bring new services to market more quickly, attract and retain high quality personnel, and acquire new clients.

Highly experienced management team

Our senior management team has over 150 years of combined experience in the enterprise software and services industry with companies such as Accenture, Agile, EDS, JD Edwards, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Saba, and SAP and with a significant amount of time and experience focused on building, managing and delivering support products and services. We believe our senior management team’s significant relevant industry experience positions us to continue to extend our market leadership.

Client-centric culture

We believe that our culture is a key element of our success and one of our core values. We recruit employees who share a passion for delivering exceptional service to our clients and continuously measure, recognize and reward employees for achieving exemplary client satisfaction. We further believe that our culture has enabled us to attract and retain high quality, experienced and skilled professionals. Over the years, we have earned exceptional customer satisfaction ratings and have won numerous Stevie Awards for customer service.

Our Growth Strategy

We possess deep expertise in enterprise software products, services and support and intend to leverage our leadership position to further penetrate our current markets and expand our support product and service capabilities into new markets. The key elements of our growth strategy include:

Add new clients

We believe that the market for independent enterprise software support products and services is large, growing and underserved. We expect significant growth opportunities in our market as organizations increasingly look to achieve more value from their technology budgets. We are continuing to make significant investments in sales and marketing and will continue our strong focus on acquiring new clients.

Continue global expansion

For the year ended December 31, 2018, we generated approximately 35% of our revenue outside of the United States. We believe that there is a large opportunity to grow our global business by increasing our direct sales force and by selective utilization of strategic marketing and sales partnerships around the world. We attribute revenue to individual countries based on the location of the contracting entity. No foreign country comprised more than 10% of revenue for the three-year period ended December 31, 2018.

Expand the portfolio of supported vendors and products

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Since our inception over 13 years ago, we have developed enterprise support services for five software vendors and 23 software product families. We believe there is a significant market opportunity to offer support for additional product lines, and we intend to extend our support service offerings to additional enterprise software products.

Capitalize on the shift to hybrid IT

We believe organizations are increasingly creating IT environments that are a mixture of perpetual license and subscription license software solutions deployed across the client’s system and cloud computing providers (hybrid IT environments), and traditional enterprise software vendors cannot effectively support these environments because of complex integrations, customizations and other unique challenges. Further, we believe a hybrid IT strategy enables organizations to reliably and cost-effectively run their business on an existing, stable core ERP application, while at the same time enabling them to more quickly adopt new innovative applications and services, including cloud, mobile and analytics. Multi-application, multi-environment solutions create a unique growth opportunity for independent support providers like Rimini Street.

Further penetrate our existing client base

We intend to increase adoption of our services among our existing clients by selling additional support contracts for other software products within their organizations. As of December 31, 2018, approximately 50% of our 1,052 unique clients have selected us to provide support for more than one product line, and we believe there is additional opportunity for growth with our existing client base. Our client-centric focus in combination with the critical nature of our services, enables us to maintain close working relationships with primary decision makers, which we believe helps us identify and capitalize on additional growth opportunities, including products, business divisions and geographies, within our existing client base.

Launch new enterprise software support solutions

We intend to develop and bring to market new software products and services that help our clients with various business and support functions. For example, we recently announced Rimini Street Advanced Database Security, a new subscription product that, enhanced with technology from McAfee, a global leader in cybersecurity, protects databases from known vulnerabilities by monitoring and analyzing database communications traffic and allowing faster blocking of attempted attacks using advanced virtual patching technology. We are also bringing innovative mobile and analytic applications, in concert with key technology partners, to extend the value of a client’s IT investment and leverage a client’s existing, stable core ERP software.

Client Service Delivery

Client Support Delivery

Our Client Support Delivery operation is staffed globally and provides product support services to our clients 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A key element of our support delivery model is the assignment of one or more named Primary Support Engineers (“PSEs”), who serve as the primary product support contact for our clients. PSEs provide technical advice, functional expertise and general support to ensure the resolution of all support issues. Our PSEs are focused exclusively on supporting our clients and have on average over 15 years of experience and significant real-world understanding of client implementations and deployments. For the year ended December 31, 2018, we delivered an average support call response time of less than five minutes for a PSE to engage with a client to address high priority issues, which is significantly shorter than the 15-minute guaranteed response time that is standard in our client support agreements.

Each PSE works as part of our global network of engineers, and provides deep expertise for a vendor, product family and product line. Support engineers across the company are able to leverage their collective knowledge and experience to meet the complex support needs of our clients.

Product Delivery

The Product Delivery team manages the scoping, development, testing and delivery of all client deliverables and internally developed applications, tools and technologies. The primary client deliverables are grouped into the following categories:

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Global tax, legal and regulatory updates

We provide our clients with the proactive updates they need to maintain compliance with changing tax, payroll, accounting, fixed-asset and related rates, regulations and standards. In addition, we also create and update documentation that supports our tax, legal and regulatory updates.

New client synchronization

When a client switches to our support, they may not be up to date with the latest tax, legal and regulatory updates made available by the enterprise software vendor. As part of the client onboarding process, our Product Delivery team assesses the compliance level of each client deployment and creates initial updates as needed for clients to ensure full adherence to current tax, legal and regulatory standards in their jurisdictions of operation and to streamline the process for future updates.

We believe the quality and scope of our Product Delivery processes and deliverables surpass those of traditional enterprise software vendors. For example, we maintain updates for tax, legal, and regulatory changes for over 100 countries on a continuous basis by employing a rigorous software development lifecycle that is ISO 9001:2015 certified to ensure that required and identified tax, legal, and regulatory changes are delivered in an accurate and timely manner that based on management’s experience and analysis, we believe is typically earlier than traditional enterprise software vendors. Our Product Delivery organization is scalable and has the capability to deploy its solutions for additional countries based on the needs of our clients. For the year ended December 31, 2018, we have delivered over 50,000 tax, legal and regulatory updates to clients with quality and accuracy.

Product Delivery professionals serve in a variety of roles which include business, functional and technical analysts as well as software development, testing, quality assurance and delivery professionals. Scoping professionals and business analysts utilize proprietary methodologies to search for updates across all supported jurisdictions and provide support for all product groups. Technical and software development professionals are product-focused and have relevant domain expertise. Testing and delivery professionals are responsible for implementation of any changes and support all product groups. Engineers support all aspects of analysis, development and testing for the Product Delivery team. This flexible model has enabled us to identify best practices and solutions for the multiple product lines we service. Additionally, we utilize internally developed proprietary tools, technologies and processes to efficiently research and deliver quality and timely tax, legal and regulatory updates.

Client Engagement

Account managers in our Client Engagement organization serve as a single point of contact for all non-product support related client issues. The Client Engagement organization works closely with our Support, Product Delivery and Sales organizations to provide an exceptional client experience with superior client satisfaction and success, with the ultimate goal of retention, renewal and expansion of our client contracts. The Client Engagement team oversees the following client management processes:

Onboarding

When a client switches to our support products and services, an account manager oversees the onboarding process, which is a set of interwoven processes that new clients undertake to facilitate a successful migration to our support model. During this time, we help clients smoothly transition their support while we gain an in-depth understanding of a client’s business needs, IT infrastructure, IT strategies and objectives.

Account Management

Following the onboarding period, account managers coordinate our resources and capabilities to provide personalized support to each client. When issues arise, account managers escalate them within our organization as appropriate to help ensure client satisfaction. Account managers are also tasked with establishing and maintaining executive relationships and promoting usage of our extensive services within each client’s organization.

Account Retention

Account managers play an integral role in client retention by helping to ensure our clients are realizing the full value of our service offering and working with our Renewal Sales team on the renewal and extension of client contracts.

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Clients

As of December 31, 2018, we supported over 1,800 active clients globally, including 81 Fortune 500 companies and 20 Fortune Global 100 companies across a broad range of industries. We define an active client as a distinct entity, such as a company, an educational or government institution, or a business unit of a company that purchases our services to support a specific product. For example, we count as two separate active client instances in circumstances where we provide support for two different products to the same entity. We define a unique client as a distinct entity, such as a company, an educational or government institution or subsidiary, division or business unit of a company that purchases one or more of our products or services. We count as two separate unique clients when two separate subsidiaries, divisions or business units of an entity purchase our products or services.

Employees

We have built our culture centered on our dedication to provide our clients with an exceptional service experience. Our employees focus on providing exceptional service to our clients, and we strive to foster an environment that enables and encourages them in this pursuit. Our culture is a key aspect of our success and enables us to recruit and retain high quality talent. Furthermore, our remote delivery model provides an attractive employment option for our highly experienced PSEs compared to consulting roles that can require significant travel.

As of December 31, 2018, we employed approximately 1,080 professionals globally. We also engage temporary employees and consultants as needed. We have not experienced any work stoppages, and we consider our relations with our employees to be very good.

Technology Infrastructure and Operations

We have IT infrastructure and staff globally. Our operations support our client offerings, compliance requirements and future global expansion. To connect to systems owned, leased or otherwise controlled by our clients, we utilize site-to-site tunnels and virtual private networks with secure firewall administration underpinned with a high level of global network reliability, security and performance.

We maintain a formal and comprehensive security program designed to ensure the security and integrity of client data, protect against security threats or data breaches, and prevent unauthorized access to the data of our customers. We have achieved worldwide ISO 27001:2013 information security certification for our security processes. We strictly regulate and limit all access to our offices, have deployed advanced security software and hardware, and utilize advanced security measures.

Compliance and Certifications

ISO certifications are part of our commitment to developing and executing best-in-class processes to ensure our clients consistently receive exceptional service. We have achieved and maintain ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certifications.

In 2010, we achieved ISO 9001 Quality Management System certification for “Third-party provider of enterprise software support services specifically on-boarding of client and client environments”. In 2011, we expanded our certification for “Provision of third-party enterprise software support services specifically on-boarding of client, building of client environments, worldwide tax and regulatory research and delivery of tax and regulatory updates”. In 2012, we expanded our certification for “Global provision of enterprise software support services, including client onboarding; client account management; product support for vendor delivered and client customized code; fix development and delivery; and research, development and delivery of worldwide tax, legal and regulatory updates”. The certification process verifies that detailed processes for relevant business areas are reviewed, continuously monitored and improved to ensure services and deliverables are consistently delivered with excellence. During 2018, the ISO standard was upgraded. Our current ISO 9001:2015 certification was issued in September 2018 and is valid until December 2019. During this certification cycle, annual surveillance audits are conducted to validate ongoing compliance to the requirements.

In 2013, we achieved worldwide ISO 27001 information security certification for our support services. ISO 27001 is a security standard covering “The information security management system that supports the global provisioning of third-party software maintenance services”. Independent assessments of our conformity to the ISO 27001 standard includes evaluating security risks, designing and implementing comprehensive security controls and adopting an information security management process to meet security needs on an ongoing basis. Our current ISO 27001:2013 certification was issued in April 2016 and is

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valid until April 2019. During this certification cycle, annual surveillance audits are conducted to validate ongoing compliance to the requirements.

Competition

We compete in the market for enterprise software support products and services. This market has been dominated by the enterprise software vendors themselves as the primary support providers for their own products. We believe the competitive service market with new independent competitors is still relatively undeveloped and maturing. As a result, we believe our primary competition today comes from the enterprise software vendors who license the products we service, such as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP. We expect that continued growth in our market could lead to significantly increased competition resulting from new entrants. In the meantime, our success will depend to a substantial extent on the willingness of companies to engage an independent service vendor such as us to provide software maintenance and support services for their enterprise software.

We believe the principal competitive factors in our market include the following:


•	track record of technical capability to provide the required software support;


•	ability to identify, develop and deliver required tax, legal and regulatory updates;


•	infrastructure model to deliver support globally within guaranteed service levels;


•	track record of providing a high level of client satisfaction;


•	ease of support model onboarding, deployment and usage;


•	breadth and depth of support functionality, including the ability to support customized software;


•	cost of products and services;


•	brand awareness and reputation;


•	capability for delivering services in a secure, scalable and reliable manner;


•	ability to innovate and respond to client needs rapidly; and


•	size of referenceable client base.

We believe we compete favorably with our competitors on the basis of these factors. Our support model allows us to gain an in-depth understanding of a given client’s unique software environment, enabling rapid and accurate responses to the client’s support requests. We provide our clients with comprehensive software support capabilities, including full support for add-ons and custom code as part of our services, something that, based on management’s experience and belief, enterprise software vendors typically do not provide with their standard support offering. We also offer our clients a substantial discount to the fees they would otherwise pay their enterprise software vendor for their support services and enable them to avoid or defer undesired, costly upgrades. By eliminating unnecessary upgrades, additional resources to support customizations and providing savings on support fees, based on management’s experience, belief and estimates, our clients can save up to approximately 1.5 times their traditional vendor base support fees per year when using our base support services over a 10-year period. We have also invested significant resources developing our unique service methodologies and a data capture and management process to deliver comprehensive tax, legal and regulatory updates tailored for each client.

However, we believe some of our actual and potential competitors have advantages over us, such as longer operating histories, significantly greater financial, technical, marketing or other resources, greater name recognition and deeper customer relationships. Additionally, many software licensees are reluctant to engage a smaller independent company such as us to provide software maintenance and support services for their enterprise application software, choosing instead to continue relying on support services provided by their enterprise software vendor.

We expect competition and competitive pressure, both from new and existing competitors, to increase in the future.

Intellectual Property

We rely on federal, state, common law and international rights, as well as contractual restrictions, to protect our intellectual property. We control access to our proprietary technology by entering into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and confidentiality agreements with third parties, such as service providers, vendors, individuals and entities that may be exploring a business relationship with us.

In addition to these contractual arrangements, we also rely on a combination of trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks, service marks and domain names to protect our intellectual property.

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We currently have three patent applications pending in the United States, one pending in Canada, one pending in China and one pending in the European Patent Office.

We own federal trademark registrations for the Rimini Street trademark in the United States, which registration will expire in March 2020 unless renewed through customary processes. In addition, we have the Engineered for Support trademark in the United States, which registration will expire in September 2026 unless renewed through customary processes. We also own trademark registrations for Rimini Street in Canada, the European Union, China, Japan, India, Australia and certain other countries. Such registered trademarks will expire unless renewed at various times in the future. We have also applied for registration of Rimini Street as a trademark in certain other countries.

Policing unauthorized use of our processes and software tools and intellectual property rights is difficult. As of December 31, 2018, we are not aware of any breaches of our intellectual property rights.

Executive Officers.

The following table sets forth the names, ages and positions of our executive officers as of March 11, 2019:



Name	Age	Position
Executive Officers
Seth A. Ravin	52	Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors
Anthony DeShazor	46	Senior Vice President and Chief Client Officer
Sebastian Grady	55	President
Nancy Lyskawa	56	Senior Vice President, Global Client Onboarding
Kevin Maddock	53	Senior Vice President, Global Sales - Recurring Revenue
Julie Murphy	59	Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer
Jim Petraglia	62	Senior Vice President, Global Operations
David Rowe	53	Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
Thomas Sabol	60	Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Steven Salaets	41	Senior Vice President Global Security & Compliance and Chief Information Officer
Brian Slepko	55	Senior Vice President, Global Service Delivery
Daniel B. Winslow	60	Senior Vice President and General Counsel

Seth A. Ravin founded our company and has served as our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board since September 2005 and also served as our President from September 2005 to January 2011. Mr. Ravin has served as a member of our board of directors since September 2005. Prior to joining us, Mr. Ravin served in various executive roles at TomorrowNow, Inc. from May 2002 to April 2005, most recently as President and a board director. TomorrowNow, Inc. was a supplier of software maintenance and support services for Oracle’s PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards applications, and was acquired in January 2005 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of SAP America, Inc. From April 2000 to March 2001, Mr. Ravin served as Vice President of Inside Sales for Saba Software, Inc., a provider of e-Learning and human resource management software. From April 1996 to April 2000, Mr. Ravin served in various management roles at PeopleSoft, Inc. (acquired by Oracle), most recently as a Vice President of the Customer Sales Division. Mr. Ravin holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

Anthony DeShazor has served as our Senior Vice President and Chief Client Officer since October 2018. Prior to joining the company, Mr. DeShazor served in multiple senior executive and director-level positions for over 12 years at Pentaho, an open source business intelligence, analytics and data integration software provider, which was acquired by Hitachi Data Systems (now Hitachi Vantara) in 2015. From June 2015 to August 2018, he spent three years in the Hitachi Vantara business unit focused on data integration, analytics and emerging technologies. His most recent title at Hitachi Vantara was Global Vice President of Customer Success. Prior thereto, he served from February 2015 to March 2018 as Pentaho’s/Hitachi Data Systems’ Chief Solution Architect and Senior Vice President of Customer Success. He served from February 2015 to February 2016 as Vice President of Customer Success and Principal Architect, and from November 2012 to February 2015 as Pentaho’s Vice President, Enterprise Architecture, as well as in multiple other senior and director-level positions since first joining Pentaho in 2005. Earlier in his career, Mr. DeShazor served in software development and project management roles at

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Lawson Software and Hyperion Solutions. Mr. DeShazor holds a M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Florida and a B.S. in Customer Science from the University of Central Florida.

Sebastian Grady has served as our President since January 2011. Prior to joining us, Mr. Grady served as President and Chief Operating Officer at Altus Corporation, a provider of video search and management software for sales enablement, from March 2005 to January 2011. From October 2000 to October 2001, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Saba Software, Inc. From March 1993 to October 2000, Mr. Grady served in various executive roles with PeopleSoft, Inc. (acquired by Oracle Corporation), most recently as Vice President and General Manager of the Customer Sales Division from March 1997 to October 2000. From February 1987 to March 1993, Mr. Grady served in various roles with Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting). Mr. Grady holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Nancy Lyskawa has served as our Senior Vice President, Global Client Onboarding since September 2009. Prior to joining us, Ms. Lyskawa was with Oracle Corporation, a computer technology company, from December 2004 to September 2009, where she served in various executive roles, most recently as Vice President, Support Services and Marketing, from August 2005 to September 2009. From March 1994 to December 2004, she served as head of Global Services Marketing for PeopleSoft, Inc. (acquired by Oracle Corporation). From May 1986 to March 1994, Ms. Lyskawa served in various roles with Electronic Data Systems Corporation (acquired by Hewlett-Packard Company). Ms. Lyskawa is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA). Ms. Lyskawa holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and Finance from the University of North Dakota and a Masters Certificate in Marketing from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University.

Kevin Maddock has served as our Senior Vice President, Global Sales - Recurring Revenue since January 2018 and was our Senior Vice President, Global Sales since December 2008. Prior to joining us, Mr. Maddock served as Executive Vice President of Worldwide Inside Sales and Operations for ServiceSource, a recurring revenue management company, from October 2004 to March 2008. From May 1998 to September 2004, Mr. Maddock served as Vice President of Worldwide Support Service Sales at PeopleSoft, Inc. (acquired by Oracle). From September 1995 to May 1998, Mr. Maddock served in multiple roles at KPMG Consulting. From August 1987 to April 1993, Mr. Maddock served in various roles at Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting). Mr. Maddock holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance with Honors from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.

Julie Murphy has served as our Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer since February 2019. Prior to joining the company, she provided chief human resources officer consulting services, which included serving as an Executive Coach and Chief Executive Officer of a nonprofit community outreach services provider based in San Carlos, California. From August 2011 to May 2015, she served as Global Vice President of the LED Division of Philips-Lumileds, a diversified technology company. Prior thereto, she served from 2001 to 2010 as the Chief Human Resources Officer, Worldwide Human Resources - US Facilities Team of Plantronics, a multinational communication and entertainment technology company. Earlier in her career, she served in senior human resources leadership roles at Oak Technology and Seagate Technology. Since June 2015, she has served as a member of the Board of Directors of WAFWC, a nonprofit public benefit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for women, children and families in Santa Cruz County, California. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Behavioral Science from San Jose University and is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s HR Executive Program.

Jim Petraglia joined our company in 2009 and is currently our Senior Vice President, Global Operations. Previously, he served as our Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer (July 2018 until February 2019), our Group Vice President, Global HR and Shared Services (December 2016 to July 2018) and our Group Vice President, Global IT and Shared Services Operations (January 2014 to December 2016). Prior to January 2014, he held a variety of operational leadership roles throughout our company, including in sales, marketing, service delivery and finance. Prior to joining us, Mr. Petraglia held several senior operational leadership positions with Oracle, PeopleSoft and SunGard. He holds a B.A. in Math and Economics from St. Norbert College. Mr. Petraglia has announced his intention to retire from our company in late March 2019.

David Rowe has served as our Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer since April 2012 and was our Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Alliances from December 2008 to April 2012 and our Vice President Marketing and Alliances from September 2006 to December 2008. Prior to joining us, Mr. Rowe served as Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at Perfect Commerce, Inc., an eProcurement company, from November 2004 to June 2006. From May 1995 to June 1999, Mr. Rowe held various positions with PeopleSoft, Inc. (acquired by Oracle Corporation), most recently serving as Director, Product Strategy. From July 1988 to April 1995, Mr. Rowe served in various roles at Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting). Mr. Rowe holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College.

Thomas Sabol has served as our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since November 2016. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Sabol provided management consulting services from May 2015 to November 2016. He served as

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Chief Financial Officer of Comverse, Inc. (now Mavenir Systems, Inc.), a global software service provider, from July 2012 to April 2015. From April 2009 to August 2011, Mr. Sabol served as Chief Financial Officer of Hypercom Corporation, a publicly-traded global leader in high security, end-to-end electronic payment products and services. From February 2006 to April 2009, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Suntron Corporation, a publicly-traded provider of electronic manufacturing services that was taken private by its majority shareholder in December 2007. Prior thereto, Mr. Sabol served as Chief Financial Officer of Wolverine Tube, Inc. and in senior executive positions at Plexus Corp., including as its Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Sabol was also the General Auditor at Kemper Corporation and practiced public accounting with Coopers & Lybrand. Mr. Sabol formerly served as a director of Suntron Corporation from July 2004 to April 2009. Mr. Sabol is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a B.S. in Accounting from Marquette University.

Steven Salaets joined our company in 2009 and has served as our Senior Vice President, Global Security & Compliance and Chief Information Officer since August 2018. Previously, he served as our Group Vice President, Information Technology & Global Security, Compliance and Internal Audit (December 2016 to July 2018) and our Group Vice President, Global Human Resources and Global Security, Risk and Compliance (September 2013 to November 2016). Prior to September 2013, he held multiple other senior and director-level roles within our company focused on global security, risk and compliance. Prior to joining our company Mr. Salaets held management-level positions with Moody’s KMV and Wind River. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Groep-T in Leuven, Belgium.

Brian Slepko has served as our Senior Vice President, Global Service Delivery, since 2008 and served as a member of our board of directors from October 2006 to July 2007. Prior to joining us, Mr. Slepko was with Oracle Corporation, which he joined as part of Oracle’s acquisition of Agile Software, Inc., an enterprise software solutions company. From July 2005 to June 2007, Mr. Slepko served as Vice President of Global Maintenance Revenue and Sales Operations at Agile Software. From March 2003 to February 2005, Mr. Slepko served as a Director of Sales Operations for Ocular Sciences, Inc. From August 1995 to May 2001, Mr. Slepko served in a variety of roles with PeopleSoft, Inc. (acquired by Oracle Corporation), most recently serving as Director, Sales Operations. From January 1990 to August 1995, Mr. Slepko held various roles with Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting). Mr. Slepko holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management and Management Information Systems from the University of Oklahoma and an M.B.A. from Loyola University of Chicago.

Daniel B. Winslow has served as our Senior Vice President and General Counsel since September 2013. Prior to joining us, Mr. Winslow was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from January 2011 to September 2013. Mr. Winslow served as Of Counsel at the law firm of Duane Morris LLP from June 2013 to September 2013. He served as Senior Counsel at the law firm of Proskauer Rose LLP from May 2010 to March 2013 and as a partner at Duane Morris LLP from January 2005 to May 2010. From January 2002 to December 2004, he was Chief Legal Counsel to then-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and was previously a presiding justice and appellate division justice in the Massachusetts Trial Court. Mr. Winslow holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Tufts University and a J.D. from Boston College Law School.

Available Information

We make our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to these reports, as well as our other SEC filings, available on our website, free of charge, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC. Our website address is www.riministreet.com. The information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference in this document.

Item 1A - Risk Factors

Our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows are subject to a number of risk factors, including those described below, and may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. If any significant adverse developments resulting from these risk factors should occur, the trading price of our securities could decline, and moreover, investors in our securities could lose all or part of their investment in our securities.

You should refer to the explanation of the qualifications and limitations on forward-looking statements under “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” All forward-looking statements made by us are qualified by the risk factors described below.

Risks Related to Our Business, Operations and Industry

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Risks Related to Litigation

We and our Chief Executive Officer are involved in litigation with Oracle. An adverse outcome in the ongoing litigation could result in the payment of substantial damages and/or an injunction against certain of our business practices, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results.

In January 2010, certain subsidiaries of Oracle Corporation (together with its subsidiaries individually and collectively, “Oracle”) filed a lawsuit, Oracle USA, Inc. et al v. Rimini Street, Inc. et al (United States District Court for the District of Nevada) (“District Court”), against us and our Chief Executive Officer, Seth Ravin, alleging that certain of our processes violated Oracle’s license agreements with its customers and that we committed acts of copyright infringement and violated other federal and state laws (“Rimini I”). The litigation involved our business processes and the manner in which we provided our services to our clients. To provide software support and maintenance services to our clients, we request access to a separate environment for developing and testing the updates to the software programs. Prior to July 2014, PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards and Siebel clients switching from Oracle to our enterprise software support were given a choice of two models for hosting the development and testing environment for their software: the environment could be hosted on the client’s servers or on our servers. In addition to other allegations, Oracle challenged the Rimini Street-hosted model for certain Oracle license agreements with its customers that contained use and site-based restrictions. Oracle alleged that its license agreements with these customers restrict licensees’ rights to provide third parties, such as Rimini Street, with copies of Oracle software, and restrict where a licensee may physically install the software. Oracle alleged that, in the course of providing services, we violated such license agreements and illegally downloaded software and support materials without authorization. Oracle further alleged that we impaired its computer systems in the course of downloading materials for our clients. Oracle filed amended complaints in April 2010 and June 2011. Specifically, Oracle’s amended complaint asserted the following causes of action: copyright infringement; violations of the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act; violations of the Computer Data Access and Fraud Act; violations of Nevada Revised Statute 205.4765; breach of contract; inducing breach of contract; intentional interference with prospective economic advantage; unfair competition; trespass to chattels; unjust enrichment/restitution; unfair practices; and a demand for an accounting. Oracle’s amended complaint sought the entry of a preliminary and permanent injunction prohibiting us from copying, distributing, using, or creating derivative works based on Oracle Software and Support Materials except as allowed by express license from Oracle; from using any software tool to access Oracle Software and Support Materials; and from engaging in other actions alleged to infringe Oracle’s copyrights or were related to its other causes of action. The parties conducted extensive fact and expert discovery from 2010 through mid-2012.

In March and September 2012, Oracle filed two motions seeking partial summary judgment as to, among other things, its claim of infringement of certain copyrighted works owned by Oracle. In February 2014, the District Court issued a ruling on Oracle’s March 2012 motion for partial summary judgment (i) granting summary judgment on Oracle’s claim of copyright infringement as it related to two of our PeopleSoft clients and (ii) denying summary judgment on Oracle’s claim with respect to one of our J.D. Edwards clients and one of our Siebel clients. The parties stipulated that the licenses among clients were substantially similar for purposes of the Rimini I action. In August 2014, the District Court issued a ruling on Oracle’s September 2012 motion for partial summary judgment (i) granting summary judgment on Oracle’s claim of copyright infringement as it relates to Oracle Database and (ii) dismissing our first counterclaim for defamation, business disparagement and trade libel and our third counterclaim for unfair competition. In response to the February 2014 ruling, we revised our business practices to eliminate the processes determined to be infringing, which was completed no later than July 2014.

A jury trial in Rimini I commenced in September 2015. On October 13, 2015, the jury returned a verdict against us finding that (i) we were liable for innocent copyright infringement, (ii) we and Mr. Ravin were each liable for violating certain state computer access statutes, (iii) Mr. Ravin was not liable for copyright infringement, and (iv) neither we nor Mr. Ravin were liable for inducing breach of contract or intentional interference with prospective economic advantage. The jury determined that the copyright infringement did not cause Oracle to suffer lost profits, that the copyright infringement was not willful, and did not award punitive damages. Following post-trial motions, Oracle was awarded a final judgment of approximately $124.4 million, consisting of copyright infringement damages based on the fair market value license damages theory, damages for violation of certain state computer access statutes, prejudgment interest and attorneys’ fees and costs. In addition, the District Court entered a permanent injunction prohibiting us from using certain processes - including processes adjudicated as infringing at trial - that we ceased using no later than July 2014. We paid the full judgment amount of approximately $124.4 million to Oracle on October 31, 2016 and appealed the case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (“Court of Appeals”) to appeal findings (i) and (ii) above, as well as the injunction and awards of attorneys' fees, non-taxable expenses, and interest. We argued on appeal that the injunction is vague and contains overly broad language that could be read to cover some of our current business practices that were not adjudicated to be infringing at trial, and the injunction should not have been issued under applicable law. On December 6, 2016, the Court of Appeals granted our emergency motion for a stay of the

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injunction pending resolution of the underlying appeal, and it agreed to consider the appeal on an expedited basis. The Court of Appeals heard argument on July 13, 2017.

In January 2018, the Court of Appeals reversed certain awards totaling $50.3 million made in Oracle’s favor during and after our 2015 jury trial in Rimini I and vacated and remanded others, including the injunction that had previously been stayed by the Court of Appeals in December 2016. The Court of Appeals reversed awards that we previously paid as part of the $124.4 million judgment, consisting of an award under state computer access statutes and taxable expenses and interest totaling $21.3 million, Oracle’s attorneys’ fees of $28.5 million (that was subsequently remanded to the District Court), and post-judgment interest of $0.5 million. Although the Court of Appeals affirmed the finding of infringement against us (which the jury had found to be “innocent” infringement) for the processes that we ceased using no later than July 2014, it stated in the opinion that we “provided third-party support for Oracle’s enterprise software, in lawful competition with Oracle’s direct maintenance services”. The Court of Appeals also vacated and remanded the injunction originally ordered by the District Court. As mandated by the Court of Appeals, on March 30, 2018 Oracle paid the Company $21.5 million for the reversal of the award under state computer access statutes and taxable expenses and interest totaling $21.3 million, and post-judgment interest of $0.2 million. Additionally, by stipulation of the parties, in May 2018, Oracle deposited $28.5 million into an escrow account with the District Court pending a decision by the District Court on the remanded attorneys’ fee award.

On August 14, 2018, the District Court (i) imposed an injunction that was substantially identical to the injunction that the Court of Appeals had vacated in January 2018, and (ii) ordered the return to Oracle of the $28.5 million attorneys' fee award deposited in the escrow account deposited by Oracle with the District Court in May 2018.

On August 16, 2018, we filed a notice of appeal of the District Court’s renewed injunction and its decision to return the $28.5 million attorneys' fee award Oracle. We also filed in the District Court a motion to stay the injunction pending appeal. On September 11, 2018, the District Court denied the motion, but granted a temporary 60-day stay for the Company to obtain a stay with the Court of Appeals. On November 5, 2018, the Court of Appeals denied our motion for a stay pending appeal of the injunction issued by the District Court without addressing the merits of our appeal, and it confirmed the briefing schedule for the appeal. We intend to continue pursuing our appeal of the injunction and the attorneys’ fee award.

As a result, we expect to incur additional expenses in the range of 1% to 2% of revenue for additional labor costs because, as drafted, the injunction contains language that could be read to cover some current support practices that are being litigated in the “Rimini II” lawsuit (described below) and that have not been found to be infringing. Briefing on our appeal to the Court of Appeals is expected to be completed in early 2019, and a hearing on our appeal will likely be scheduled for early July 2019. The Company believes that it is in compliance with the terms of the injunction insofar as they are comprehensible and within the scope of the judgment in Rimini I. On February 27, 2019, Oracle filed a motion to reopen discovery and a motion to modify the protective order in Rimini II, in a purported effort to investigate whether the Company is complying with the injunction. We cannot predict whether our appeal will be successful.

Oracle may file contempt proceedings against us at any time to attempt to enforce its interpretation of the injunction or if it has reason to believe we are not in compliance with express terms of the injunction. Such contempt proceeding or any judicial finding of contempt could result in a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition, the pendency of the injunction alone could dissuade clients from purchasing or continuing to purchase our services. Further, these outcomes may also trigger the mandatory redemption of all of our Series A Preferred Stock, with the redemption amounts automatically becoming payment obligation under our Convertible Notes with a concurrent cancellation of the outstanding shares of the Series A Preferred Stock, as provided in the Certificate of Designations for the Series A Preferred Stock and the Form of Convertible Note previously filed with the SEC. If we are obligated to pay substantial civil assessments arising from any finding of contempt, this could reduce the amount of cash flows available to pay dividends due in respect of our Series A Preferred Stock or the indebtedness under the Convertible Notes. If we default in our payment obligations under the Convertible Notes and the indebtedness under the Convertible Notes were to be accelerated, there can be no assurance that our assets would be sufficient to repay such indebtedness in full at such time or we may not be able to obtain debt or equity financing on favorable terms or if at all to repay the Convertible Notes. As a result, we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation.

In January 2018, we filed a petition for rehearing en banc with the Court of Appeals regarding two other components of the final judgment awarded to Oracle. First, we asked the Court of Appeals to rehear the calculation of prejudgment interest, arguing that the District Court set the interest rate using a date that precedes the filing of Oracle's complaint, which resulted in an additional approximate amount of $20.2 million cost paid by us in October 2016. Second, we asked the Court of Appeals to rehear the award of non-taxable expenses, arguing that this decision is in direct conflict with decisions in other federal circuit courts and decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States (“the Supreme Court”) and resulted in us paying approximately

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$12.8 million that we would not have had to pay in other court jurisdictions. The Court of Appeals denied the petition for rehearing en banc on March 2, 2018, and the mandate was issued on March 13, 2018. On May 31, 2018, we filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court appealing the decision of the Court of Appeals on the non-taxable expenses issue. On September 27, 2018, the Supreme Court granted our petition for a writ of certiorari. On March 4, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision reversing earlier decisions by the lower courts and ruling that Oracle must return approximately $12.8 million in non-taxable expenses (plus interest) that the Company had previously paid to Oracle. See Notes 10 and 15 of the 2018 consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report for further information.

In October 2014, we filed a separate lawsuit, Rimini Street Inc. v. Oracle Int’l Corp. (United States District Court for the District of Nevada) (“Rimini II”), against Oracle seeking a declaratory judgment that our revised development processes, in use since at least July 2014, do not infringe certain Oracle copyrights. In February 2015, Oracle filed a counterclaim alleging copyright infringement, which included (i) substantially the same allegations asserted in Rimini I but limited to clients not addressed in Rimini I, and (ii) new allegations that our revised support processes also infringe Oracle copyrights. Oracle’s counterclaim also included allegations of violation of the Lanham Act, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, breach of contract and inducing breach of contract, unfair competition, and unjust enrichment/restitution. It also sought an accounting. On February 28, 2016, Oracle filed amended counterclaims adding allegations of violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. On December 19, 2016, we filed an amended complaint against Oracle asking for a declaratory judgment of non-infringement of copyright and alleging intentional interference with contract, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, violation of the Nevada Deceptive Trade Practices Act, violation of the Lanham Act, and violation of California Business & Professions Code § 17200 et seq. On January 17, 2017, Oracle filed a motion to dismiss our amended claims and filed its third amended counterclaims, adding three new claims for a declaratory judgment of no intentional interference with contractual relations, no intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, and no violation of California Business & Professions Code § 17200 et seq. On February 14, 2017, we filed our answer and motion to dismiss Oracle’s third amended counterclaims. On March 7, 2017, Oracle filed a motion to strike our copyright misuse affirmative defense. By stipulation of the parties, the District Court granted our motion to file our third amended complaint to add claims arising from Oracle’s purported revocation of our access to its support websites on behalf of our clients, which was filed and served on May 2, 2017. By agreement of the parties, Oracle filed its motion to dismiss our third amended complaint on May 30, 2017, our opposition was filed on June 27, 2017, and Oracle’s reply was filed on July 11, 2017. On September 22, 2017, the Court issued an order granting in part and denying in part our motion to dismiss Oracle’s third amended counterclaims. The Court granted our motion to dismiss Oracle's intentional interference with prospective economic advantage and unjust enrichment counterclaims. On October 5, 2017, Oracle filed a motion for reconsideration of the Court’s September 22, 2017 Order. We filed our opposition to Oracle’s motion for reconsideration on October 19, 2017. Oracle filed its reply to its motion for reconsideration on October 26, 2017. On November 7, 2017, the Court issued an order granting in part and denying in part Oracle’s motion to dismiss our third amended complaint.

The Court granted Oracle’s motion to dismiss as to our third cause of action for a declaratory judgment that Oracle has engaged in copyright misuse, fifth cause of action for intentional interference with prospective economic advantage; sixth cause of action for a violation of Nevada’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act under the “bait and switch” provision of NRS § 598.0917; and seventh cause of action for violation of the Lanham Act. The Court denied Oracle’s motion as to our causes of action for intentional interference with contractual relations, violation of Nevada Deceptive Trade Practices Act, under the “false and misleading” provision of NRS § 598.0915(8) and unfair competition. On November 17, 2017, the Court denied Oracle’s motion for reconsideration of the Court’s September 22, 2017 Order. On June 5, 2018, the Court denied the Company’s motion for reconsideration of the Court’s November 7, 2017 Order.

Fact discovery with respect to the above action substantially ended in March 2018, and expert discovery ended in September 2018. Briefing on the parties' motions for summary judgment was completed in December 2018, and we wait the District Court's ruling on those motions. There is currently no trial date scheduled, and we do not expect a trial to occur in this matter earlier than 2021, but the trial could occur earlier or later than that. At this time, we do not have sufficient information regarding possible damages exposure for the counterclaims asserted by Oracle or possible recovery by us in connection with our claims against Oracle. Both parties are seeking injunctive relief in addition to monetary damages in this matter.

For counterclaims in Rimini II on which Oracle may prevail, while we believe an award for damages is not probable, we could be required to pay substantial damages for our current or past business activities and/or be enjoined from certain business practices. Any of these outcomes could result in a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition, and the pendency of the litigation alone could dissuade clients from purchasing or continuing to purchase our services. Further, these outcomes may also trigger the mandatory redemption of all of our Series A Preferred Stock, with the redemption amounts automatically becoming payment obligations under our Convertible Notes with a concurrent cancellation of the outstanding shares of the Series A Preferred Stock, as provided in the Certificate of Designations for the Series A Preferred Stock and the Form of Convertible Note previously filed with the SEC. If we are obligated to pay substantial damages to Oracle or are

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enjoined from certain business practices, this could reduce the amount of cash flows available to pay dividends due in respect of our Series A Preferred Stock or the indebtedness under the Convertible Notes. If we default in our payment obligations under the Convertible Notes and the indebtedness under the Convertible Notes were to be accelerated, there can be no assurance that our assets would be sufficient to repay such indebtedness in full, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation.

Our business has been and may continue to be materially harmed by this litigation and Oracle’s conduct. During the course of these cases, we anticipate there will be rulings by the District Court in Rimini II and the Court of Appeals in Rimini I in connection with hearings, motions, decisions, and other matters, as well as other interim developments related to the litigations. If securities analysts or investors regard these rulings as negative, the market price of our Common Stock may decline. If current or prospective clients regard these rulings as negative, it could negatively impact our new client sales or renewal sales.

While we plan to continue to vigorously litigate the pending appeals in Rimini I and the claims and counterclaims in Rimini II, we are unable to predict the timing or outcome of these lawsuits. No assurance is or can be given that we will prevail on any appeal, claim, or counterclaim.

See Item 3, Legal Proceedings and Notes 10 and 15 of the 2018 consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report for more information related to this litigation.

The Oracle software products that are part of our ongoing litigation with Oracle represent a significant portion of our current revenue.

Subject to the final outcome of the appeals, during 2016 we paid the Rimini I final judgment of $124.4 million in full and in March 2018 recovered $21.3 million plus $0.2 million of post-judgment interest. Any additional recovery of any part of the judgment will depend on the outcome of the appeals. As long as the permanent injunction is still in place in Rimini I, we estimate it will cost us between 1% and 2% of revenue to further modify our support processes to comply with the terms of the injunction as ordered by the District Court. In Rimini II, Oracle has filed counterclaims relating to our support services for Oracle’s PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards, Siebel, E-Business Suite and Database software products. For the year ended December 31, 2018, approximately 72% of our total revenue was derived from the support services that we provide for our clients using Oracle’s PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards, Siebel, E-Business Suite and Database software products. The percentage of revenue derived from services we provide for just PeopleSoft software was approximately 18% of our total revenue during this same period. Although we provide support services for additional Oracle product lines that are not subject to litigation and support services for software products provided by companies other than Oracle, our current revenue depends significantly on the product lines that are the subject of the Rimini II litigation and Rimini I appeal. Should Oracle prevail on its claims in Rimini II or should an injunction be entered in the future in either litigation, we could be required to change the way we provide support services to some of our clients, which could result in the loss of clients and revenue, and may also give rise to claims for compensation from our clients, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our ongoing litigation with Oracle presents challenges for growing our business.

We have experienced challenges growing our business as a result of our ongoing litigation with Oracle. Many of our existing and prospective clients have expressed concerns regarding our ongoing litigation and, in some cases, have been subjected to subpoenas, depositions and various negative communications by Oracle in connection with the litigation. We have experienced in the past, and may continue to experience in the future, volatility and slowness in acquiring new clients, as well as clients not renewing their agreements with us, due to these challenges relating to our ongoing litigation with Oracle. Further, certain of our prospective and existing clients may be subject to additional subpoenas, depositions and negative communications from software vendors. We have taken steps to minimize disruptions to our existing and prospective clients regarding the litigation, but we continue to face challenges growing our business while the litigation remains ongoing. In certain cases, we have agreed to pay certain liquidated damages to our clients if the Company is no longer able to provide services to these clients, and/or reimburse our clients and our former lenders for their reasonable legal fees incurred in connection with any litigation-related subpoenas and depositions or to provide certain client indemnification or termination rights if any outcome of litigation results in our inability to continue providing any of the paid-for services. In addition, we believe the length of our sales cycle is longer than it otherwise would be due to prospective client diligence on possible effects of the Oracle litigation on our business. We cannot assure you that we will continue to overcome the challenges we face as a result of the litigation and continue to renew existing clients or secure new clients.

Additionally, the existence of this ongoing litigation, as well as the federal grand jury inquiry as discussed below initiated in March 2018, could negatively impact the value of our equity securities, could negatively impact our ability to raise

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additional equity or debt financing by creating challenges to providing satisfactory due diligence to potential investors or lenders to enable the evaluation of risk as well as could necessitate economic terms of any equity or debt financing that are more favorable to investors or lenders than otherwise in the absence of such conditions, in connection with any financing completed by us, if at all.

While we had insurance coverage for the Rimini I litigation, we currently have no insurance coverage with respect to the Rimini II litigation or with respective to any future litigation with Oracle.

Oracle has a history of litigation against companies offering alternative support programs for Oracle products, and Oracle could pursue additional litigation with us.

Oracle has been active in litigating against companies that have offered competing maintenance and support services for their products. For example, in March 2007, Oracle filed a lawsuit against SAP and its wholly-owned subsidiary, TomorrowNow, Inc., a company our Chief Executive Officer, Seth Ravin, joined in 2002, and which was acquired by SAP in 2005. After a jury verdict awarding Oracle $1.3 billion, the parties stipulated to a final judgment of $306 million subject to appeal. After the appeal, the parties settled the case in November 2014 for $356.7 million. In February 2012, Oracle filed suit against Service Key, Inc. and settled the case in October 2013. Oracle also filed suit against CedarCrestone Corporation in September 2012 and settled the case in July 2013. TomorrowNow and CedarCrestone offered maintenance and support for Oracle software products, and Service Key offered maintenance and support for Oracle technology products. Given Oracle’s history of litigation against companies offering alternative support programs for Oracle products, we can provide no assurance, regardless of the outcome of our current litigations with Oracle, that Oracle will not pursue additional litigation against us. Such additional litigation could be costly, distract our management team from running our business and reduce client interest and our sales revenue.

We have received a federal grand jury inquiry directing delivery of certain documents relating to the Company’s operations. If such inquiry leads to legal proceedings against the Company or any of its employees or members of its Board of Directors, the Company would incur legal costs and may potentially suffer an adverse outcome negatively affecting our business and financial results.

On March 2, 2018, we received a subpoena directing us to produce to a federal grand jury certain communications and documents relating to the Company’s support for certain software systems and certain related operational practices. We are cooperating with the governmental inquiry but cannot predict its ultimate resolution. Responding to the subpoena has caused us to incur substantial legal costs to date, and we will continue to incur legal costs until this inquiry is complete. A governmental inquiry and any legal proceedings instituted involving us, if any, from such inquiry, would require us to incur further legal costs, and if adversely determined, may ultimately result in the imposition of fines or other penalties. The mere fact of a grand jury inquiry regardless of merit or outcome could have a negative impact on our future revenue, revenue growth, client acquisition and retention, and our prospects to obtain new or alternative financing. Any such resulting material costs and expenses or other penalties could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Other Risks Related to Our Business, Operations and Industry

The market for independent software support services is relatively undeveloped and may not grow.

The market for independent enterprise software support services is still relatively undeveloped, has not yet achieved widespread acceptance and may not grow quickly or at all. Our success will depend to a substantial extent on the willingness of companies to engage a third party such as us to provide software support services for their enterprise software. Many enterprise software licensees are still hesitant to use a third party to provide such support services, choosing instead to rely on support services provided by the enterprise software vendor. Other enterprise software licensees have invested substantial personnel, infrastructure and financial resources in their own organizations with respect to support of their licensed enterprise software products and may choose to self-support with their own internal resources instead of purchasing services from the enterprise software vendor or an independent provider such as ourselves. Companies may not engage us for other reasons, including concerns regarding our ongoing litigation with Oracle and governmental inquiry, the potential for future litigation, the potential negative effect our engagement could have on their relationships with their enterprise software vendor, or concerns that they could infringe third party intellectual property rights or breach one or more software license agreements if they engage us to provide support services. New concerns or considerations may also emerge in the future. Particularly because our market is relatively undeveloped, we must address our potential clients’ concerns and explain the benefits of our approach in order to convince them of the value of our services. If companies are not sufficiently convinced that we can address their concerns and that the benefits of our services are compelling, then the market for our services may not develop as we anticipate, and our business will not grow.

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We have a history of losses and may not achieve profitability in the future.

We incurred net losses of $68.0 million, $53.3 million and $12.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. As of December 31, 2018, we had an accumulated deficit of $372.4 million. We will need to generate and sustain increased revenue levels in future periods while managing our costs to become profitable, and, even if we do, we may not be able to maintain or increase our level of profitability. We intend to continue to expend significant funds to expand our sales and marketing operations, enhance our service offerings, expand into new markets, launch new product offerings and meet the increased compliance requirements associated with our operations as a public company. Our efforts to grow our business may be costlier than we expect, and we may not be able to increase our revenue enough to offset our higher operating expenses. We may incur significant losses in the future for a number of reasons, including, as a result of our ongoing litigation with Oracle, the potential for future litigation, other risks described herein, unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications and delays and other unknown events. If we are unable to achieve and sustain profitability, the market price of our securities may significantly decrease.

If we are unable to attract new clients or retain and/or sell additional products or services to our existing clients, our revenue growth will be adversely affected.

To increase our revenue, we must add new clients, encourage existing clients to renew or extend their agreements with us on terms favorable to us and sell additional products and services to existing clients. As competitors introduce lower-cost and/or differentiated services that are perceived to compete with ours, or as enterprise software vendors introduce competitive pricing or additional products and services or implement other strategies to compete with us, our ability to sell to new clients and renew agreements with existing clients based on pricing, service levels, technology and functionality could be impaired. As a result, we may be unable to renew or extend our agreements with existing clients or attract new clients or new business from existing clients on terms that would be favorable or comparable to prior periods, which could have an adverse effect on our revenue and growth. In addition, certain of our existing clients may choose to license a new or different version of enterprise software from an enterprise software vendor, and such clients’ license agreements with the enterprise software vendor will typically include a minimum one-year mandatory maintenance and support services agreement. In such cases, it is unlikely that these clients would renew their maintenance and support services agreements with us, at least during the early term of the license agreement. In addition, such existing clients could move to another enterprise software vendor, product or release for which we do not offer any products or services.

If our retention rates decrease, or we do not accurately predict retention rates, our future revenue and results of operations may be harmed.

Our clients have no obligation to renew their product or service subscription agreements with us after the expiration of a non-cancellable agreement term. In addition, the majority of our multi-year, non-cancellable client agreements are not pre-paid other than the first year of the non-cancellable service period. We may not accurately predict retention rates for our clients. Our retention rates may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including our clients’ decision to license a new product or release from an enterprise software vendor, our clients’ decision to move to another enterprise software vendor, product or release for which we do not offer products or services, client satisfaction with our products and services, the acquisition of our clients by other companies, and clients going out of business. If our clients do not renew their agreements for our products and services or if our clients decrease the amount they spend with us, our revenue will decline and our business will suffer.

We face significant competition from both enterprise software vendors and other companies offering independent enterprise software support services, as well as from software licensees that attempt to self-support, which may harm our ability to add new clients, retain existing clients and grow our business.

We face intense competition from enterprise software vendors, such as Oracle and SAP, who provide software support services for their own products. Enterprise software vendors have offered discounts to companies to whom we have marketed our services. In addition, our current and potential competitors and enterprise software vendors may develop and market new technologies that render our existing or future services less competitive or obsolete. Competition could significantly impede our ability to sell our services on terms favorable to us and we may need to decrease the prices for our services in order to remain competitive. If we are unable to maintain our current pricing due to competitive pressures, our margins will be reduced and our results of operations will be negatively affected.

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There are also several smaller vendors in the independent enterprise software support services market with whom we compete with respect to certain of our services. We expect competition to continue to increase in the future, particularly if we prevail in Rimini II, which could harm our ability to increase sales, maintain or increase renewals and maintain our prices.

Our current and potential competitors may have significantly more financial, technical and other resources than we have, may be able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion, sale and support of their products and services, have more extensive customer bases and broader customer relationships than we have and may have longer operating histories and greater name recognition than we have. As a result, these competitors may be better able to respond quickly to new technologies and provide more robust support offerings. In addition, certain independent enterprise software support organizations may have or may develop more cooperative relationships with enterprise software vendors, which may allow them to compete more effectively over the long term. Enterprise software vendors may also offer support services at reduced or no additional cost to their customers. In addition, enterprise software vendors may take other actions in an attempt to maintain their support service business, including changing the terms of their customer agreements, the functionality of their products or services, or their pricing terms. For example, starting in the second quarter of 2017 Oracle has prohibited us from accessing its support websites to download software updates on behalf of our clients who are authorized to do so and permitted to authorize a third party to do so on their behalf. In addition, various support policies of Oracle and SAP may include clauses that could penalize customers that choose to use independent enterprise software support vendors or that, following a departure from the software vendor’s support program, seek to return to the software vendor to purchase new licenses or services. To the extent any of our competitors have existing relationships with potential clients for enterprise software products and support services, those potential clients may be unwilling to purchase our services because of those existing relationships. If we are unable to compete with such companies, the demand for our services could be substantially impacted.

Our past growth is not indicative of our future growth but if we grow rapidly, we may not be able to manage our growth effectively.

Our revenue grew from $212.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 to $252.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, representing a year-over-year increase of 19%. Our revenue grew from $160.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 to $212.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017, representing a period-over-period increase of 33%. The year-over-year decline in our revenue growth rates was due in part to covenants of our former Credit facility that restricted our spending on sales and marketing activity that resulted in sequential reductions in new business activity during 2017 and the first half of 2018. In addition, beginning in the second quarter of 2017 and continuing through 2018, some potential sales transactions were adversely affected by certain competitive actions that also impacted our revenue growth. You should not consider our past growth as indicative of our future performance. We believe growth of our revenue depends on a number of factors, including our ability to:


•	price our products and services effectively so that we are able to attract new clients and retain existing clients without compromising our profitability;


•	introduce our products and services to new geographic markets;


•	introduce new enterprise software products and services supporting additional enterprise software vendors, products and releases;


•	satisfactorily conclude the Oracle litigation and any other litigation that may occur and our governmental inquiry; and


•	increase awareness of our company, products and services on a global basis.

We may not successfully accomplish all or any of these objectives. We plan to continue our investment in future growth. We expect to continue to expend substantial financial and other resources on, among others:


•	sales and marketing efforts;


•	training to optimize our opportunities to overcome litigation risk concerns of our clients;


•	expanding in new geographical areas;


•	growing our product and service offerings and related capabilities;


•	adding additional product and service offerings; and


•	general administration, including legal and accounting expenses related to being a public company.

In addition, our historical rapid growth has placed and may continue to place significant demands on our management and our operational and financial resources. Our organizational structure is becoming more complex as we add additional staff, and we will need to improve our operational, financial and management controls, as well as our reporting systems and procedures. We will require significant capital expenditures and the allocation of valuable management resources to grow and change in these areas without undermining our corporate culture of rapid innovation, teamwork and attention to client service that has been central to our growth.

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Our former Credit Facility, which was repaid and terminated in July 2018, included covenants that restricted our spending on sales and marketing activity that resulted in sequential reductions in new business activity during 2017 and 2018. An October 2017 amendment allowed us to increase our sales and marketing spending in the fourth quarter of 2017 and the first half of 2018. Due to the termination of the Credit Facility on July 19, 2018, we are no longer subject to restrictions related to our sales and marketing spending. However, even though we have increased our sales and marketing spending over the past year, it can take several quarters before these efforts translate to improved revenue growth rates. In addition, beginning in the second quarter of 2017 some potential sales transactions were adversely affected by certain actions by our competitors. As a result, our quarter over quarter growth in revenue has decreased over time from approximately 37% for the second quarter of 2017 to 17% for the fourth quarter of 2018. Due to our subscription revenue model, the impact of these matters that resulted in revenue growth of 17% for the fourth quarter of 2018 versus the comparable period in 2017 is expected to result in relatively lower revenue growth rates at least through 2019 or longer if our investment in sales and marketing does not result in increased sales activity.

Our failure to generate significant capital or raise additional capital necessary to fund and expand our operations and invest in new services and products could reduce our ability to compete and could harm our business.

We may need to raise additional capital beyond funds raised from our issuance and sale of Series A Preferred Stock in July 2018 and March 2019 if we cannot fund our growth sufficiently through our operating cash flows. Should this occur, we may not be able to obtain debt or additional equity financing on favorable terms, if at all. We are also subject to certain restrictions for future financings as discussed in the risk factor “Our Series A Preferred Stock and Convertible Notes restrict our ability to incur certain indebtedness, and the Convertible Notes contain additional restrictions and obligations that are currently effective or become effective upon certain events, which limit our flexibility in operating our business”. If we raise additional equity financing, which may include the issuance and sale of additional shares of our Series A Preferred Stock, our stockholders may experience significant dilution of their ownership interests and the per share value of our Common Stock could decline. If we engage in debt financings, the holders of the debt securities would have priority over the holders of our Common Stock. We may also be required to accept terms that further restrict our ability to incur additional indebtedness, take other actions that would otherwise not be in the best interests of our stockholders, or force us to maintain specified liquidity or other ratios, any of which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. If we cannot raise additional capital on acceptable terms, we may not be able to, among other things:


•	maintain our operations;


•	develop or enhance our products and services;


•	continue to expand our sales and marketing functions;


•	devote resources to research and development activities;


•	acquire complementary technologies, products or businesses;


•	expand operations, in the United States or globally;


•	hire, train and retain employees; or


•	respond to competitive pressures or unanticipated working capital requirements.

Our failure to do any of these things could impact our ability to grow our revenue and seriously harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business may suffer if it is alleged or determined that our technology infringes the intellectual property rights of others.

The software industry is characterized by the existence of a large number of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and other intellectual and proprietary rights. Companies in the software industry are often required to defend against claims and litigation alleging infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. Many of our competitors and other industry participants have been issued patents and/or have filed patent applications and may assert patent or other intellectual property rights within the industry. From time to time, we may receive threatening letters or notices alleging infringement or may be the subject of claims that our services and underlying technology infringe or violate the intellectual property rights of others. Any allegation of infringement, whether innocent or intentional, can adversely impact marketing, sales and our reputation.

For example, as described further in the section titled “Risk Factors-Risks Related to Litigation” above, we are engaged in litigation with Oracle relating in part to copyright infringement claims. See the risk factor “We and our Chief Executive Officer are involved in litigation with Oracle. An adverse outcome in the ongoing litigation could result in the payment of substantial damages and/or an injunction against certain of our business practices, either of which could have a

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material adverse effect on our business and financial results” above for additional information regarding the Rimini I and Rimini II cases.

We rely on our management team and other key employees, including our Chief Executive Officer, and the loss of one or more key employees could harm our business.

Our success and future growth depend upon the continued services of our management team, including Seth Ravin, our Chief Executive Officer, and other key employees. Since 2008, Mr. Ravin has been under the regular care of a physician for kidney disease, which includes ongoing treatment. During this time, Mr. Ravin has continuously performed all of his duties as Chief Executive Officer of our company on a full-time basis. Although Mr. Ravin’s condition has not had any impact on his performance in his role as Chief Executive Officer or on the overall management of the company, we can provide no assurance that his condition will not affect his ability to perform the role of Chief Executive Officer in the future. In addition, from time to time, there may be changes in our management team resulting from the hiring or departure of executives, which could disrupt our business. We may terminate any employee at any time, with or without cause, and any employee may resign at any time, with or without cause. We do not maintain key man life insurance on any of our employees. The loss of one or more of our key employees could harm our business.

The failure to attract and retain additional qualified personnel could prevent us from executing our business strategy.

To execute our business strategy, we must attract and retain highly qualified personnel. We have from time to time experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. In particular, we have experienced an extremely competitive hiring environment in the San Francisco Bay Area, where we have a significant amount of operations, but also face extremely competitive hiring environments across the United States and the other countries in which we operate. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we do. In addition, in making employment decisions, job candidates often consider the value of the stock options or other equity incentives they are to receive in connection with their employment. If the price of our stock declines or experiences significant volatility, our ability to attract or retain qualified employees will be adversely affected. In addition, as we continue to expand into new geographic markets, there can be no assurance that we will be able to attract and retain the required management, sales, marketing and support services personnel to profitably grow our business. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our growth prospects could be severely harmed.

Because we recognize revenue from subscriptions over the term of the relevant contract, downturns or upturns in sales are not immediately reflected in full in our results of operations.

As a subscription-based business, we recognize revenue over the service period of our contracts. As a result, much of our reported revenue each quarter results from contracts entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, while a shortfall in demand for our products and services or a decline in new or renewed contracts in any one quarter may not significantly reduce our revenue for that quarter, it could negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in new sales, renewals or extensions of our service agreements will not be reflected in full in our results of operations until future periods. Our revenue recognition model also makes it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue through additional sales in any period, as revenue from new clients must be recognized over the applicable service contract term.

Failure to effectively develop and expand our marketing and sales capabilities could harm our ability to increase our client base and achieve broader market acceptance of our products and services.

Our ability to increase our client base and achieve broader market acceptance of our products and services will depend to a significant extent on our ability to expand our marketing and sales operations. We plan to continue expanding our sales force globally. These efforts will require us to invest significant financial and other resources. Moreover, our sales personnel typically take an average of nine months before any new sales personnel can operate at the capacity typically expected of experienced sales personnel. This ramp cycle, combined with our typical six- to twelve-month sales cycle for engaged prospects, means that we will not immediately recognize a return on this investment in our sales department. In addition, the cost to acquire clients is high due to the cost of these marketing and sales efforts. Our business may be materially harmed if our efforts do not generate a correspondingly significant increase in revenue. We may not achieve anticipated revenue growth from expanding our sales force if we are unable to hire, develop and retain talented sales personnel, if our new sales personnel are unable to achieve desired productivity levels in a reasonable period of time or if our sales and marketing programs are not effective.

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Interruptions to or degraded performance of our service could result in client dissatisfaction, damage to our reputation, loss of clients, limited growth and reduction in revenue.

Our software support agreements with our clients generally guarantee a 15-minute response time with respect to certain high-priority issues. To the extent that we do not meet the 15-minute guarantee, our clients may in some instances be entitled to liquidated damages, service credits or refunds. To date, no such payments have been made.

We also deliver tax, legal and regulatory updates to our clients and generally have done so faster than our competitors. If there are inaccuracies in these updates, or if we are not able to deliver them on a timely basis to our clients, our reputation may be damaged, and we could face claims for compensation from our clients, lose clients, or both.

Any interruptions or delays in our service, whether as a result of third-party error, our own error, natural disasters, security breaches or a result of any other issues, whether accidental or willful, could harm our relationships with clients and cause our revenue to decrease and our expenses to increase. Also, in the event of damage or interruption, our insurance policies may not adequately compensate us for any losses that we may incur. These factors, in turn, could further reduce our revenue, subject us to liability, cause us to pay liquidated damages, issue credits or cause clients not to renew their agreements with us, any of which could materially adversely affect our business.

We may experience quarterly fluctuations in our results of operations due to a number of factors, including the sales cycles for our products and services, which makes our future results difficult to predict and could cause our results of operations to fall below expectations or our guidance.

Our quarterly results of operations have fluctuated in the past and are expected to fluctuate in the future due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. Accordingly, the results of any one quarter should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. Historically, our sales cycle has been tied to the renewal dates for our clients’ existing and prior vendor support agreements for the products that we support. Because our clients make support vendor selection decisions in conjunction with the renewal of their existing support agreements with Oracle and SAP, among other enterprise software vendors, we have experienced an increase in business activity during the periods in which those agreements are up for renewal. Because we have introduced and intend to continue to introduce products and services for additional software products that do not follow the same renewal timeline or pattern, our past results may not be indicative of our future performance, and comparing our results of operations on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. Also, if we are unable to engage a potential client before its renewal date for software support services in a particular year, it will likely be at least another year before we would have the opportunity to engage that potential client again, given that such potential client likely had to renew or extend its existing support agreement for at least an additional year’s worth of service with its existing support provider. Furthermore, our existing clients generally renew their agreements with us at or near the end of each calendar year, so we have also experienced and expect to continue to experience heavier renewal rates in the fourth quarter. In addition to the other risks described herein, factors that may affect our quarterly results of operations include the following:


•	changes in spending on enterprise software products and services by our current or prospective clients;


•	pricing of our products and services so that we are able to attract and retain clients;


•	acquisition of new clients and increases of our existing clients’ use of our products and services;


•	client renewal rates and the amounts for which agreements are renewed;


•	budgeting cycles of our clients;


•	changes in the competitive dynamics of our market, including consolidation among competitors or clients;


•	the amount and timing of payment for operating expenses, particularly sales and marketing expenses and employee benefit expenses, as well as the quarterly Cash Dividends required to be made on our Series A Preferred Stock;


•	the amount and timing of non-cash expenses, including stock-based compensation, in-kind dividends on our Series A Preferred Stock and other non-cash charges;


•	the amount and timing of costs associated with recruiting, training and integrating new employees;


•	the amount and timing of cash collections from our clients;


•	unforeseen costs and expenses related to the expansion of our business, operations and infrastructure;


•	the amount and timing of our legal costs, particularly related to our litigation with Oracle;


•	changes in the levels of our capital expenditures; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; and


•	general economic and political conditions in our global markets.

We may not be able to accurately forecast the amount and mix of future product and service subscriptions, revenue and expenses, and as a result, our results of operations may fall below our estimates or the expectations of securities analysts and investors. If our revenue or results of operations fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, or below any guidance we may provide, the price of our Common Stock could decline.

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Our future liquidity and results of operations may be adversely affected by the timing of new orders, the level of customer renewals and cash receipts from customers.

Due to the collection of cash from our customers before services are provided, our revenue is recognized over future periods when there are no corresponding cash receipts from such customers. Accordingly, our future liquidity is highly dependent upon the ability to continue to attract new customers and to enter into renewal arrangements with existing customers. If we experience a decline in orders from new customers or renewals from existing customers, our revenue may continue to increase while our liquidity and cash levels decline. Any such decline, however, will negatively affect our revenues in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of declines in orders from new customers or renewals from existing customers may not be fully reflected in our results of operations and cash flows until future periods. Comparing our revenues and operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful, as it may not be an indicator of the future sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to meet our liquidity requirements. You should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance or liquidity.

We may be subject to additional obligations to collect and remit sales tax and other taxes, and we may be subject to tax liability, interest and/or penalties for past sales, which could adversely harm our business.

State, local and foreign jurisdictions have differing rules and regulations governing sales, use, value-added and other taxes, and these rules and regulations can be complex and are subject to varying interpretations that may change over time. In particular, the applicability of such taxes to our products and services in various jurisdictions is unclear. Further, these jurisdictions’ rules regarding tax nexus are complex and can vary significantly. As a result, we could face the possibility of tax assessments and audits, and our liability for these taxes and associated interest and penalties could exceed our original estimates. A successful assertion that we should be collecting additional sales, use, value-added or other taxes in those jurisdictions where we have not historically done so and in which we do not accrue for such taxes could result in substantial tax liabilities and related penalties for past sales, discourage clients from purchasing our products and services or otherwise harm our business and results of operations.

We may need to change our pricing models to compete successfully.

We currently offer our customers support services for a fee that is equal to a percentage of the annual fees charged by the enterprise software vendor, so changes in such vendors’ fee structures would impact the fees we would receive from our customers. If the enterprise software vendors offer deep discounts on certain services or lower prices generally, we may need to change our pricing models or suffer adverse effect on our results of operations. In addition, we have recently begun to offer new products and services and do not have substantial experience with pricing such products and services, so we may need to change our pricing models for these new products and services over time to ensure that we remain competitive and realize a return on our investment in developing these new products and services. If we do not adapt our pricing models as necessary or appropriate, our revenue could decrease and adversely affect our results of operations.

We may not be able to scale our business systems quickly enough to meet our clients’ growing needs, and if we are not able to grow efficiently, our results of operations could be harmed.

As enterprise software products become more advanced and complex, we will need to devote additional resources to innovating, improving and expanding our offerings to provide relevant products and services to our clients using these more advanced and complex products. In addition, we will need to appropriately scale our internal business systems and our global operations and client engagement teams to serve our growing client base, particularly as our client demographics expand over time. Any failure of or delay in these efforts could adversely affect the quality or success of our services and negatively impact client satisfaction, resulting in potential decreased sales to new clients and possibly lower renewal rates by existing clients.

Even if we are able to upgrade our systems and expand our services organizations, any such expansion may be expensive and complex, requiring financial investments, management time and attention.

We could also face inefficiencies or operational failures as a result of our efforts to scale our infrastructure. There can be no assurance that the expansion and improvements to our infrastructure and systems will be fully or effectively implemented within budgets or on a timely basis, if at all. Any failure to efficiently scale our business could result in reduced revenue and adversely impact our operating margins and results of operations.

We have experienced significant growth resulting in changes to our organization and structure, which if not effectively managed, could have a negative impact on our business.

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Our headcount and operations have grown substantially in recent years. We increased the number of full-time employees from 928 as of December 31, 2017 to 1,085 as of December 31, 2018. We believe that our corporate culture has been a critical component of our success. We have invested substantial time and resources in building our team and nurturing our culture. As we expand our business and operate as a public company, we may find it difficult to maintain our corporate culture while managing our employee growth. Any failure to manage our anticipated growth and related organizational changes in a manner that preserves our culture could negatively impact future growth and achievement of our business objectives.

In addition, our organizational structure has become more complex as a result of our significant growth. We have added employees and may need to continue to scale and adapt our operational, financial and management controls, as well as our reporting systems and procedures. The expansion of our systems and infrastructure may require us to commit additional financial, operational and management resources before our revenue increases and without any assurances that our revenue will increase. If we fail to successfully manage our growth, we likely will be unable to successfully execute our business strategy, which could have a negative impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Because our long-term growth strategy involves further expansion of our sales to clients outside the United States, our business will be susceptible to risks associated with global operations.

A significant component of our growth strategy involves the further expansion of our operations and client base outside the United States. Accordingly, our international revenue grew from $68.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 to $89.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, an increase of $21.0 million or 31%. We currently have subsidiaries outside of the United States in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan and the United Kingdom, which focus primarily on selling our services in those regions.

In the future, we may expand to other locations outside of the United States. Our current global operations and future initiatives will involve a variety of risks, including:


•	changes in a specific country’s or region’s political or economic conditions;


•	changes in regulatory requirements, taxes or trade laws such as Brexit;


•	more stringent regulations relating to data security, such as where and how data can be housed, accessed and used, and the unauthorized use of, or access to, commercial and personal information;


•	differing labor regulations, especially in countries and geographies where labor laws are generally more advantageous to employees as compared to the United States, including deemed hourly wage and overtime regulations in these locations;


•	challenges inherent in efficiently managing an increased number of employees over large geographic distances, including the need to implement appropriate systems, policies, benefits and compliance programs as well as hire and retain local management, sales, marketing and support personnel;


•	difficulties in managing a business in new markets with diverse cultures, languages, customs, legal systems, alternative dispute systems and regulatory systems;


•	increased travel, real estate, infrastructure and legal compliance costs associated with global operations;


•	currency exchange rate fluctuations and the resulting effect on our revenue and expenses, and the cost and risk of entering into hedging transactions if we choose to do so in the future;


•	limitations on our ability to reinvest earnings from operations in one country to fund the capital needs of our operations in other countries;


•	laws and business practices favoring local competitors or general preferences for local vendors;


•	limited or insufficient intellectual property protection;


•	political instability or terrorist activities;


•	exposure to liabilities under anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar laws and regulations in other jurisdictions; and


•	adverse tax burdens and foreign exchange controls that could make it difficult to repatriate earnings and cash.

Our limited experience in operating our business globally and the unique challenges of each new geography increase the risk that any potential future expansion efforts that we may undertake will not be successful. If we invest substantial time and resources to expand our global operations and are unable to do so successfully and in a timely manner, our business and results of operations will be adversely affected.

If we fail to forecast our revenue accurately, or if we fail to match our expenditures with corresponding revenue, our results of operations and liquidity could be adversely affected.

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Because our recent growth has resulted in the rapid expansion of our business, we do not have a long history upon which to base forecasts of future operating revenue. In addition, the variability of the sales cycle for the evaluation and implementation of our products and services, which typically has been six to twelve months once a client is engaged, may also cause us to experience a delay between increasing operating expenses for such sales efforts, and the generation of corresponding revenue. Accordingly, we may be unable to prepare accurate internal financial forecasts or replace anticipated revenue that we do not receive as a result of delays arising from these factors. As a result, our results of operations and liquidity in future reporting periods may be significantly below the expectations of the public market, securities analysts or investors, which could negatively impact the price of our Common Stock.

Consolidation in our target sales markets is continuing at a rapid pace, which could harm our business in the event that our clients are acquired and their agreements are terminated, or not renewed or extended.

Consolidation among companies in our target sales markets has been robust in recent years, and this trend poses a risk for us. If such consolidation continues, we expect that some of the acquiring companies will terminate, renegotiate and elect not to renew our agreements with the clients they acquire, which may have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

If there is a widespread shift by clients or potential clients to enterprise software vendors, products and releases for which we do not provide software products or services, our business would be adversely impacted.

Our current revenue is primarily derived from the provision of support services for Oracle and SAP enterprise software products. If other enterprise software vendors, products and releases emerge to take substantial market share from current Oracle and SAP products and releases we support, and we do not provide products or services for such vendors, products or releases, demand for our products and services may decline or our products and services may become obsolete. Developing new products and services to address different enterprise software vendors, products and releases could take a substantial investment of time and financial resources, and we cannot guarantee that we will be successful. If fewer clients use enterprise software products for which we provide products and services, and we are not able to provide services for new vendors, products or releases, our business may be adversely impacted.

Delayed or unsuccessful investment in new technology, products, services and markets may harm our financial condition and results of operations.

We plan to continue investing resources in research and development in order to enhance our current product and service offerings, and other new offerings that will appeal to clients and potential clients. The development of new product and service offerings could divert the attention of our management and our employees from the day-to-day operations of our business, the new product and service offerings may not generate sufficient revenue to offset the increased research and development expenses, and if we are not successful in implementing the new product and service offerings, we may need to write off the value of our investment. Furthermore, if our new or modified products, services or technology do not work as intended, are not responsive to client needs or industry or regulatory changes, are not appropriately timed with market opportunity, or are not effectively brought to market, we may lose existing and prospective clients or related opportunities, in which case our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely impacted.

If our security measures are compromised or unauthorized access to customer data is otherwise obtained, our services may be perceived as not being secure, customers may curtail or cease their use of our services, our reputation may be harmed, and we may incur significant liabilities. Further, we are subject to governmental and other legal obligations related to privacy, and our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could harm our business.

Our services sometimes involve accessing, processing, sharing, using, storing and transmitting proprietary information and protected data of our customers. We rely on proprietary and commercially available systems, software, tools and monitoring, as well as other processes, to provide security for accessing, processing, sharing, using, storing and transmitting such information. If our security measures are compromised as a result of third party action, employee or customer error, malfeasance, stolen or fraudulently obtained log-in credentials or otherwise, our reputation could be damaged, our business and our customers may be harmed, and we could incur significant liabilities. In particular, cyberattacks, such as phishing, continue to increase in frequency and in magnitude generally, and these threats are being driven by a variety of sources, including nation-state sponsored espionage and hacking activities, industrial espionage, organized crime, sophisticated organizations and hacking groups and individuals. In addition, if the security measures of our customers are compromised, even without any actual compromise of our own systems, we may face negative publicity or reputational harm if our customers or anyone else incorrectly attributes the blame for such security breaches to us, our products and services, or our systems. We may also be

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responsible for repairing any damage caused to our customers’ systems that we support, and we may not be able to make such repairs in a timely manner or at all. We may be unable to anticipate or prevent techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems because they change frequently and generally are not detected until after an incident has occurred. As we increase our customer base and our brand becomes more widely known and recognized, we may become more of a target for third parties seeking to compromise our security systems or gain unauthorized access to our customers’ proprietary and protected data.

Many governments have enacted laws requiring companies to notify individuals of data security incidents involving certain types of personal data. In addition, some of our customers contractually require notification of any data security compromise. Security compromises experienced by our customers, by our competitors or by us may lead to public disclosures, which may lead to widespread negative publicity. Any security compromise in our industry, 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 elect not to renew their agreements with us, or subject us to third party lawsuits, government investigations, regulatory fines or other action or liability, all or any of which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We cannot assure you that any limitations of liability provisions in our contracts for a security breach would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any such liabilities or damages with respect to any particular claim. We also cannot be sure that our existing general liability insurance coverage and coverage for errors or omissions will continue to be available on acceptable terms or will be available in sufficient amounts to cover one or more claims, or that the insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of substantial deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

As a global company, we are subject to the laws and regulations of numerous jurisdictions worldwide regarding the accessing, processing, sharing, using, storing, transmitting, disclosure and protection of personal data, the scope of which are constantly changing, subject to differing interpretation, and may be inconsistent between countries or in conflict with other laws, legal obligations or industry standards. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect in the European Union (EU) on May 25, 2018, creates a broad range of new compliance requirements and imposes substantial penalties for non-compliance, including possible fines of up to 4% of global annual revenue for the preceding financial year or €20 million (whichever is higher) for the most serious infringements. We will also be subject to the requirements of the California Consumer Privacy Act in 2020, which adds to the range of new compliance requirements. We generally comply with industry standards and strive to comply with all applicable laws and other legal obligations relating to privacy and data protection, but it is possible that these laws and legal obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with industry standards or our practices. Compliance with such laws and other legal obligations may be costly and may require us to modify our business practices, which could adversely affect our business and profitability. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with these laws, policies or other obligations may result in governmental enforcement actions or litigation against us, potential fines and other expenses related to such governmental actions, result in an order requiring that we change our data practices or business practices, and could cause our customers to lose trust in us, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business.

If our products and services fail due to defects or similar problems, and if we fail to correct any defect or other software problems, we could lose clients, become subject to service performance or warranty claims or incur significant costs.

Our products and services and the systems infrastructure necessary for the successful delivery of our products and services to clients are inherently complex and may contain material defects or errors. We have from time to time found defects in our products and services and may discover additional defects in the future. In particular, we have developed our own tools and processes to deliver comprehensive tax, legal and regulatory updates tailored for each client, which we endeavor to deliver to our clients in a shorter timeframe than our competitors, which may result in an increased risk of material defects or errors. We may not be able to detect and correct defects or errors before clients begin to use our products and services. Consequently, defects or errors may be discovered after our products and services are provided and used. These defects or errors could also cause inaccuracies in the data we collect and process for our clients, or even the loss, damage or inadvertent release of such confidential data. Even if we are able to implement fixes or corrections to our tax, legal and regulatory updates in a timely manner, any history of defects or inaccuracies in the data we collect for our clients, or the loss, damage or inadvertent release of such confidential data could cause our reputation to be harmed, and clients may elect not to renew, extend or expand their agreements with us and subject us to service performance credits, warranty or other claims or increased insurance costs. The costs associated with any material defects or errors in our products and services or other performance problems may be substantial and could materially adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

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We are an emerging growth company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from reporting and disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies, this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.

We are an “emerging growth company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting and disclosure requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our shareholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We expect to continue to have such reporting status until 2020, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status before that time. These circumstances include if the market value of our Common Stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of June 30 of future years, in which case we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following December 31. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the market prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the market prices of our securities may be more volatile.

Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition period, which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with certain other public companies difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.

If we are not able to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, current and potential investors could lose confidence in our financial reporting, which could harm our business and have an adverse effect on our stock price.

As reported in prior years, we have had material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. In connection with the audit of our consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015, management determined that we had several material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. The material weaknesses related to the following:


•	inadequate controls in relation to recognition of liabilities for embedded derivatives in connection with our former Credit Facility (2016);


•	inadequate controls in relation to revenue recognition from support service sales contracts whereby RSI incorrectly accounted for multi-year, non-cancellable support service sales contracts as a single delivery arrangement and incorrectly accounting for revenue for certain non-standard contract provisions (2015 and 2016);


•	various sales tax control matters related to manual processes and determination of tax liabilities in certain states (2015); and


•	inadequate controls for accrual of loss contingencies related to RSI’s litigation with Oracle (2015).

Although we remediated these material weaknesses during the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, we cannot provide assurance that material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting will not be identified in the future.

For the year ended December 31, 2018, our management was required to conduct an annual evaluation of our internal control over financial reporting and include a report of management on our internal control in our annual report on Form 10-K. As of December 31, 2018, we have concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective.

With respect to controls over revenue accounting procedures, we intend to continue to work on automating our processes, especially around the new FASB revenue accounting standard, as well as to continue to enhance our review

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processes around new and renewal contracts. In addition, we will be required to have our independent public accounting firm attest to and report on management’s assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting when we cease qualifying as an “emerging growth company” pursuant to the JOBS Act. If we are unable to conclude that we have effective internal control over financial reporting or, if our independent auditors are unable to provide us with an attestation and an unqualified report as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, investors could lose confidence in the reliability of our financial statements, which could result in a decrease in the value of our securities. For further information regarding our controls and procedures, see Part II, Item 9A of this Annual Report.

Economic uncertainties or downturns in the general economy or the industries in which our clients operate could disproportionately affect the demand for our products and services and negatively impact our results of operations.

General worldwide economic conditions have experienced significant fluctuations in recent years, and market volatility and uncertainty remain widespread. As a result, we and our clients find it extremely difficult to accurately forecast and plan future business activities. In addition, these conditions could cause our clients or prospective clients to reduce their IT budgets, which could decrease corporate spending on our products and services, resulting in delayed and lengthened sales cycles, a decrease in new client acquisition and loss of clients. Furthermore, during challenging economic times, our clients may face issues with their cash flows and in gaining timely access to sufficient credit or obtaining credit on reasonable terms, which could impair their ability to make timely payments to us, impact client renewal rates and adversely affect our revenue. If such conditions occur, we may be required to increase our reserves, allowances for doubtful accounts and write-offs of accounts receivable, and our results of operations would be harmed. We cannot predict the timing, strength or duration of any economic slowdown or recovery, whether global, regional or within specific markets. If the conditions of the general economy or markets in which we operate worsen, our business could be harmed. In addition, even if the overall economy improves, the market for our products and services may not experience growth. Moreover, recent events, including the United Kingdom’s 2016 vote in favor of exiting the European Union (“Brexit”), change in U.S. trade policies and responsive changes in policy by foreign jurisdictions, and similar geopolitical developments and uncertainty in the European Union and elsewhere have increased levels of political and economic unpredictability globally, and may increase the volatility of global financial markets and the global and regional economies.

If we fail to enhance our brand, our ability to expand our client base will be impaired and our financial condition may suffer.

We believe that our development of the Rimini Street brand is critical to achieving widespread awareness of our products and services, and as a result, is important to attracting new clients and maintaining existing clients. We also believe that the importance of brand recognition will increase as competition in our market increases. Successful promotion of our brand will depend largely on the effectiveness of our marketing efforts and on our ability to provide reliable products and services at competitive prices, as well as the outcome of our ongoing litigation with Oracle. Brand promotion activities may not yield increased revenue, and even if they do, any increased revenue may not offset the expenses we incurred in building our brand. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brand, our business could be adversely impacted.

If we fail to adequately protect our proprietary rights, our competitive position could be impaired and we may lose valuable assets, experience reduced revenue and incur costly litigation to protect our rights.

Our success is dependent, in part, upon protecting our proprietary products, services, knowledge, software tools and processes. We rely on a combination of copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade secret laws and contractual restrictions to establish and protect our proprietary rights. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property may be inadequate. We will not be able to protect our intellectual property if we are unable to enforce our rights or if we do not detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property. Any of our copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade secret rights or other intellectual property rights may be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation. Furthermore, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are uncertain. Despite our precautions, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to copy or use information that we regard as proprietary to create products and services that compete with ours. In addition, the laws of some countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. To the extent we expand our global activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying and use of our processes and software tools may increase.

We enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and enter into confidentiality agreements with the parties with whom we have strategic relationships and business alliances. No assurance can be given that these agreements will be effective in controlling access to and distribution of our proprietary intellectual property. Further, these agreements may not prevent our competitors from independently developing products and services that are substantially equivalent or superior to our products and services.

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There can be no assurance that we will receive any patent protection for our proprietary software tools and processes. Even if we were to receive patent protection, those patent rights could be invalidated at a later date. Furthermore, any such patent rights may not adequately protect our processes, our software tools or prevent others from designing around our patent claims.

In order to protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect these rights. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights and to protect our trade secrets. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our products, processes and software tools against unauthorized copying or use, as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management’s attention and resources, could delay further sales or the implementation of our products and services, impair the functionality of our products and services, delay introductions of new products and services, result in our substituting inferior or more costly technologies into our products and services, or injure our reputation.

We may not be able to use a significant portion of our net operating loss carryforwards, which could adversely affect our profitability.

We have U.S. federal and state net operating loss carryforwards due to prior period losses, which could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities, which could adversely affect our profitability.

In addition, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), our ability to utilize net operating loss carryforwards or other tax attributes in any taxable year may be limited if we experience an “ownership change.” A Section 382 “ownership change” generally occurs if one or more stockholders or groups of stockholders who own at least 5% of our stock increase their ownership by more than 50 percentage points over their lowest ownership percentage within a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws in the United States. While our ownership changes to date have not triggered any limitations under Section 382, it is possible that any future ownership changes or issuances of our capital stock, could have a material effect on the use of our net operating loss carryforwards or other tax attributes, which could adversely affect our profitability.

We are a multinational organization faced with increasingly complex tax issues in many jurisdictions, and we could be obligated to pay additional taxes in various jurisdictions.

As a multinational organization, we may be subject to taxation in several jurisdictions worldwide with increasingly complex tax laws, the application of which can be uncertain. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes. In the ordinary course of our business, there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. As such, our results may differ from previous estimates and may materially affect our financial position.

The amount of taxes we pay in jurisdictions in which we operate could increase substantially as a result of changes in the applicable tax principles, including increased tax rates, new tax laws or revised interpretations of existing tax laws and precedents, which could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and results of operations. In addition, the authorities in these jurisdictions could review our tax returns and impose additional tax, interest and penalties, and the authorities could claim that various withholding requirements apply to us or our subsidiaries or assert that benefits of tax treaties are not available to us or our subsidiaries, any of which could have a material impact on us and the results of our operations.

Future acquisitions, strategic investments, partnerships or alliances could be difficult to identify and integrate, divert the attention of management, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

We may in the future seek to acquire or invest in businesses, products or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our services, enhance our technical capabilities or otherwise offer growth opportunities. The pursuit of potential acquisitions may divert the attention of management and cause us to incur various expenses in identifying, investigating and pursuing suitable acquisitions, whether or not the acquisition purchases are completed. If we acquire businesses, we may not be able to integrate successfully the acquired personnel, operations and technologies, or effectively manage the combined business following the acquisition. We may not be able to find and identify desirable acquisition targets or be successful in entering into an agreement with any particular target or obtain adequate financing to complete such

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acquisitions. Acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt, which could adversely affect our results of operations. In addition, if an acquired business fails to meet our expectations, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.

Failure to comply with laws and regulations could harm our business.

Our business is subject to regulation by various global governmental agencies, including agencies responsible for monitoring and enforcing employment and labor laws, workplace safety, environmental laws, consumer protection laws, anti-bribery laws, import/export controls, securities laws and tax laws and regulations. For example, transfer of certain software outside of the United States or to certain persons is regulated by export controls.

In certain jurisdictions, these regulatory requirements may be more stringent than those in the United States. Noncompliance with applicable regulations or requirements could subject us to investigations, sanctions, mandatory recalls, enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, fines, damages, civil and criminal penalties or injunctions and may result in our inability to provide certain products and services to prospective clients or clients. If any governmental sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal litigation, or if clients made claims against us for compensation, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and an increase in professional fees and costs. Enforcement actions and sanctions could further harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Catastrophic events may disrupt our business.

We rely heavily on our network infrastructure and information technology systems for our business operations. A disruption or failure of these systems in the event of online attack, earthquake, fire, terrorist attack, power loss, telecommunications failure or other catastrophic event could cause system interruptions, delays in accessing our service, reputational harm, loss of critical data or could prevent us from providing our products and services to our clients. In addition, several of our employee groups reside in areas particularly susceptible to earthquakes, such as the San Francisco Bay Area and Japan, and a major earthquake or other catastrophic event could affect our employees, who may not be able to access our systems or otherwise continue to provide our services to our clients. A catastrophic event that results in the destruction or disruption of our data centers, or our network infrastructure or information technology systems, or access to our systems, could affect our ability to conduct normal business operations and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Changes in financial accounting standards or practices may cause adverse, unexpected financial reporting fluctuations and affect our reported results of operations.

Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States are subject to interpretation by the FASB, the SEC and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in accounting standards or practices can have a significant effect on our reported results and may even affect our reporting of transactions completed before the change is effective. New accounting pronouncements and varying interpretations of accounting pronouncements have occurred and may occur in the future. Changes to existing rules or the questioning of current practices may adversely affect our reported financial results or the way we conduct our business.

From time to time, new accounting pronouncements are issued by the FASB or other standard setting bodies that are adopted by us as of the specified effective date. For example in May 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, which supersedes nearly all existing revenue recognition standards under U.S. GAAP. In addition, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases, in February 2016, which requires organizations that lease assets to recognize on the balance sheet the assets and liabilities for the rights and obligations created by those leases with lease terms of more than twelve months. For the impact on our financial position or results of operations upon adoption of recently issued accounting standards that are not yet effective and our plans for adoption of those standards, please refer to the section titled Recent Accounting Pronouncements under Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report.

Reports published by analysts, including projections in those reports that differ from our actual results, could adversely affect the price and trading volume of our common shares.

Securities research analysts may establish and publish their own periodic projections for us. These projections may vary widely and may not accurately predict the results we actually achieve. Our share price may decline if our actual results do not match the projections of these securities research analysts. Similarly, if one or more of the analysts who write reports on us downgrades our stock or publishes inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our share price could decline. If one

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or more of these analysts ceases coverage of us or fails to publish reports on us regularly, our share price or trading volume could decline. If no analysts commence coverage of us, the market price and volume for our common shares could be adversely affected.

Our Series A Preferred Stock and their related Convertible Notes restrict our ability to incur certain indebtedness, and the Convertible Notes contain additional restrictions and obligations that are currently effective or become effective upon certain events, which limit our flexibility in operating our business.

While a specified minimum number of shares of Series A Preferred Stock or, if applicable, principal amount of Convertible Notes remain outstanding, holders owning a majority of the then outstanding shares of Series A Preferred Stock or principal outstanding under the Convertible Notes must consent to the issuance of debt other than “permitted indebtedness” which means (i) unsecured indebtedness, (ii) indebtedness classified and accounted for as capital leases in an aggregate amount not to exceed $3.5 million at any time outstanding, (iii) indebtedness with respect to credit cards and similar services or in respect of guarantees to customers or suppliers in the ordinary course of business, (iv) secured indebtedness assumed when a person becomes a subsidiary of the Company, provided that such secured indebtedness was not incurred in contemplation of such acquisition, merger or consolidation, such liens do not attach to assets of the Company other than the assets subject to such lien at the time of the transaction, and in any event does not exceed $3.0 million at any time outstanding, and (v) indebtedness secured by a lien not to exceed $1.0 million at any time outstanding, which (i) through (v) in the aggregate may not exceed the greater of (x) $20.0 million or (y) 5% of U.S. GAAP revenue (calculated on a quarterly basis as set forth in the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K or the Company’s quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, as applicable), for the 12 month period ending at the quarter-end immediately prior to the incurrence of such indebtedness.

The Convertible Notes contain customary covenants, including among others, a prohibition on the disposal (by merger, consolidation, liquidation or otherwise) of all or any part of the Company’s business, assets or property, subject to certain exceptions (i.e., sales of inventory in the ordinary course of business, non-exclusive licenses, etc.), and from the date upon which there is a redemption event causing redemption obligations to become principal under the Convertible Notes, restrictions on the Company’s ability to make certain payments with respect to its capital stock, subordinated and unsecured indebtedness and, at the option of a holder of a Convertible Note, requirements to deliver certain financial information to the holders at specified intervals, among others.

Upon the occurrence of an event of default under the Convertible Notes, the Noteholders would have the right to accelerate all obligations of the Company under the Convertible Notes, which obligations will immediately become due and payable. If such acceleration occurs prior to July 19, 2021, the Noteholders will also be entitled to a make-whole premium that provides full yield maintenance as if the Convertible Notes were held for a full three years.

The terms of the Convertible Notes may impact the Company's alternatives to finance its business, which could limit its ability to fund its growth. Further, full acceleration of the Convertible Notes may occur at a time when the Company is unable to pay all obligations, and thus subjecting the Company to the risk of liquidation or bankruptcy if such acceleration occurs.

Risks Related to Capitalization Matters and Corporate Governance

Risks Related to our Preferred Stock and Common Stock, Warrants and Units

The price of our Common Stock, warrants and units may be volatile.

The price of our Common Stock, warrants and units may fluctuate due to a variety of factors, including:


•	developments in our continuing litigation with Oracle;


•	actions that may be taken by our holders of Series A Preferred Stock and the Convertible Notes;


•	any future equity or debt financing by us;


•	our ability to pay cash dividends payable on our Series A Preferred Stock or to effectively service any outstanding debt obligations;


•	the announcement of new products or product enhancements by us or our competitors;


•	developments concerning intellectual property rights;


•	changes in legal, regulatory and enforcement frameworks impacting our products;


•	developments in the governmental inquiry instituted in March 2018 and any legal proceedings instituted involving us, if any, from such inquiry;


•	variations in our and our competitors’ results of operations;

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•	the addition or departure of key personnel;


•	announcements by us or our competitors of acquisitions, investments or strategic alliances;


•	actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly and annual results and those of other public companies in our industry


•	the level and changes in our year-over-year revenue growth rate;


•	the failure of securities analysts to publish research about us, or shortfalls in our results of operations compared to levels forecast by securities analysts;


•	any delisting of our Common Stock from Nasdaq Global Market (“Nasdaq”) due to any failure to meet listing requirements;


•	our Public Warrants and units are quoted on the OTC Pink Current Information Marketplace which is a significantly more limited market than Nasdaq; and


•	the general state of the securities market.

These market and industry factors may materially reduce the market price of our Common Stock, regardless of our operating performance.

Our preferred stockholders and certain of our common stockholders can exercise significant control, which could limit your ability to influence the outcome of key transactions, including a change of control.

Based on the number of shares of Common Stock and convertible Series A Preferred Stock outstanding as of December 31, 2018, nine of our stockholders have aggregate voting power of 85.2% of our outstanding capital stock. As of December 31, 2018, on an as-converted basis, (i) approximately 32.7% of our outstanding voting capital stock is held by Adams Street Partners LLC and certain Adams Street fund limited partnerships (“ASP”), (ii) approximately 17.0% of our outstanding voting capital stock is beneficially owned by Seth Ravin, our Chief Executive Officer, (iii) approximately 10.0% of our outstanding voting capital stock is beneficially owned by GPIC Ltd., (iv) approximately 6.1% of our outstanding voting capital stock is owned by Thomas Shay, our former Senior Vice President, Global Operations, who retired from the Company in early February 2019, and (v) five other holders of our Series A Preferred Stock have aggregate voting power representing approximately 19.3% of our outstanding voting capital stock. Holders of our Series A Preferred Stock are entitled to vote their shares on an as-converted basis on all matters submitted to a vote of stockholders and to convert their shares into Common Stock at any time, which amounts will increase as in-kind dividends are paid through the issuance of additional shares of Series A Preferred Stock. Additionally, holders of our Series A Preferred Stock are required to approve certain matters as a class, voting separately from the Common Stock, such as dividends or distributions on our Common Stock, purchase or redemption of our Common Stock, certain amendments to our Certificate of Incorporation or Certificate of Designations that adversely affect the rights of the preferred stockholders, and authorization of the creation or issuance of any pari passu or senior securities. Our directors and officers or persons affiliated with our directors and officers have aggregate voting power of approximately 67.0% as of December 31, 2018.

As a result, these stockholders, acting together, have significant influence over all matters that require approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. Corporate action might be taken even if other stockholders oppose them. This concentration of ownership might also have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of our company that other stockholders may view as beneficial.

Future resales of our Common Stock held by our significant stockholders or of the shares of Common Stock issuable upon conversation of the Series A Preferred Stock may cause the market price of our Common Stock to drop significantly.

We are obligated to register the resale of the Common Stock issuable upon conversion of, or issued as dividends upon, the Series A Preferred Stock or Convertible Notes, and are obligated to take certain actions to facilitate the transfer and sale of such shares. Upon such registration in November 2018, shares of Common Stock into which the Series A Preferred Stock or Convertible Notes are converted and covered by such registration became freely salable. Additional shares of Series A Preferred Stock are authorized for issuance and may be issued in the future, subject to substantively similar rights. The Common Stock issuable upon conversion of our Series A Preferred Stock may represent overhang that may also adversely affect the market price of our Common Stock. Overhang occurs when there is a greater supply of a company’s stock in the market than there is demand for that stock. When this happens, the price of the company’s stock will decrease, and any additional shares which stockholders attempt to sell in the market, or the perception that such sales might occur, will only further decrease the share price. If the share volume of our Common Stock cannot absorb converted shares sold by the holders of the Series A Preferred Stock, then the value of our Common Stock will likely decrease.

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Any sale of large amounts of our Common Stock on the open market or in privately negotiated transactions could have the effect of increasing the volatility in the price of our Common Stock or putting significant downward pressure on the price of our Common Stock.

Any issuance of Common Stock upon conversion of the Series A Preferred Stock and/or exercise of warrants will cause dilution to existing stockholders and may depress the market price of our Common Stock.

Each share of our Series A Preferred Stock is initially convertible, at the option of the holders, into 100 shares of our Common Stock (subject to appropriate adjustment in the event of a stock split, stock dividend, combination or other similar recapitalization) for an aggregate of 14.1 million shares of Common Stock as of December 31, 2018 for the Series A Preferred Stock and is generally convertible at a conversion price equal to the quotient of its liquidation preference and $10.00. The Series A Preferred Stock also has a payment-in-kind dividend that will increase the number of shares of Common Stock into which the Series A Preferred Stock will be convertible while it remains outstanding. We have the right to convert outstanding Series A Preferred Stock into Common Stock after July 19, 2021 if our volume weighted average stock price for at least 30 trading days of the 45 consecutive trading days immediately preceding such conversion is greater than $11.50 per share. We can exercise this right to convert twice per calendar year for a maximum number of shares of Common Stock that has publicly traded over the 60 consecutive trading days prior to the conversion date (less any shares of Common Stock that have been issued pursuant to any such conversion during such 60-day period).

The issuance of Common Stock upon conversion of the Series A Preferred Stock may result in immediate and substantial dilution to the interests of our Common Stock holders since the holders of the Series A Preferred Stock may ultimately receive and sell all of shares issuable in connection with the conversion of such Series A Preferred Stock.

Further, the issuance of Common Stock upon exercise of warrants may result in immediate and substantial dilution to the equity interests of our existing common stockholders and might result in dilution in the tangible net book value of a share of a Common Stock, depending upon the price on which the additional shares are issued.

We do not currently intend to pay dividends on our Common Stock and, consequently, the ability to achieve a return on investment in our Common Stock will depend on appreciation in the price of our Common Stock.

We have not paid any cash dividends on our Common Stock to date. The payment of any cash dividends on our Common Stock will be dependent upon our revenue, earnings and financial condition from time to time. The payment of any dividends will be within the discretion of our Board of Directors and, in certain circumstances, would require us to obtain the consent of and to pay a corresponding dividend to holders of our shares of Series A Preferred Stock. It is presently expected that except for the cash dividends we are obligated to pay to the holders of our Series A Preferred Stock, we will retain all earnings for use in our business operations and, accordingly, it is not expected that our Board of Directors will declare any dividends on our Common Stock in the foreseeable future. Our ability to declare dividends on our Common Stock may also be limited by the terms of financing and other agreements entered into by us or our subsidiaries from time to time. Therefore, you are not likely to receive any dividends on your Common Stock for the foreseeable future and the success of an investment in shares of our Common Stock will depend upon any future appreciation in its value. Consequently, investors may need to sell all or part of their holdings of our Common Stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment. There is no guarantee that shares of our Common Stock will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which our stockholders have purchased their shares.

Delaware law and our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and certificate of designations of our Series A Preferred Stock contain certain provisions, including anti-takeover provisions that limit the ability of stockholders to take certain actions and could delay or discourage takeover attempts that stockholders may consider favorable.

Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, and the DGCL, contain provisions that could have the effect of rendering more difficult, delaying, or preventing an acquisition deemed undesirable by our Board of Directors and therefore depress the trading price of our Common Stock. These provisions could also make it difficult for stockholders to take certain actions, including electing directors who are not nominated by the current members of our Board of Directors or taking other corporate actions, including effecting changes in our management. Among other things, our certificate of incorporation and bylaws include provisions regarding:


•	a classified Board of Directors with three-year staggered terms, which could delay the ability of stockholders to change the membership of a majority of our Board of Directors;


•	the ability of our Board of Directors to issue shares of preferred stock, including “blank check” preferred stock, and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder

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approval, which could be used to significantly dilute the ownership of a hostile acquirer, pursuant to which we have issued Series A Preferred Stock entitled to receive a liquidation preference and certain amounts in connection with a change of control of the company and other similar extraordinary transactions;


•	the limitation of the liability of, and the indemnification of our directors and officers;


•	the exclusive right of our Board of Directors to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of the Board of Directors or the resignation, death or removal of a director, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our Board of Directors;


•	the requirement that directors may only be removed from our Board of Directors for cause;


•	a prohibition on common stockholder action by written consent, which forces common stockholder action to be taken at an annual or special meeting of stockholders and could delay the ability of stockholders to force consideration of a stockholder proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors;


•	the requirement that a special meeting of stockholders may be called only by our Board of Directors, the chairperson of our Board of Directors, our chief executive officer or our president (in the absence of a chief executive officer), which could delay the ability of stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors;


•	controlling the procedures for the conduct and scheduling of Board of Directors and stockholder meetings;

•

the requirement for the affirmative vote of holders of at least 66 2/3% of the voting power of all of the then outstanding shares of the voting stock, voting together as a single class, to amend, alter, change or repeal any provision of our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws, which could preclude stockholders from bringing matters before annual or special meetings of stockholders and delay changes in our Board of Directors and also may inhibit the ability of an acquirer to effect such amendments to facilitate an unsolicited takeover attempt;


•	the ability of our Board of Directors to amend the bylaws, which may allow our Board of Directors to take additional actions to prevent an unsolicited takeover and inhibit the ability of an acquirer to amend the bylaws to facilitate an unsolicited takeover attempt; and

•

advance notice procedures with which stockholders must comply to nominate candidates to our Board of Directors or to propose matters to be acted upon at a stockholders’ meeting, which could preclude stockholders from bringing matters before annual or special meetings of stockholders and delay changes in our Board of Directors and also may discourage or deter a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of our company.

These provisions, alone or together, could delay or prevent hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our Board of Directors or management.

In addition, as a Delaware corporation, we are subject to provisions of Delaware law, including Section 203 of the DGCL, which may prohibit certain stockholders holding 15% or more of our outstanding capital stock from engaging in certain business combinations with us for a specified period of time.

Any provision of our certificate of incorporation, bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our capital stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Common Stock.

Our bylaws designate a state or federal court located within the State of Delaware as the sole and exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, stockholders, employees or agents

Our bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for:


•	any derivative action or proceeding brought on behalf of us;


•	any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed to us or our stockholders by any of our directors, officers or other employees;


•	any action asserting a claim against us or any of our directors, officers or employees arising out of or relating to any provision of the DGCL, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws; or


•	any action asserting a claim against us or any of our directors, officers, stockholders or employees that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine of the Court of Chancery.

This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our amended and restated

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certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Other Risks Related to our Series A Preferred Stock and Convertible Notes

Our Series A Preferred Stock and related Convertible Notes have rights, preferences and privileges that are not held by, and are preferential to, the rights of our common stockholders, which could adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition, and may result in the interests of the holders of our Series A Preferred Stock and Convertible Notes differing from those of our common stockholders.

In the event of our liquidation, dissolution or the winding up of our affairs, the holders of our Series A Preferred Stock have the right to receive a liquidation preference (the “Liquidation Preference”) entitling them to be paid out of our assets generally available for distribution to our equity holders, before any payment may be made to holders of any other class or series of capital stock, in an amount equal to the greater of (i) $1,000 plus accrued but unpaid dividends and (ii) the per share amount of all cash, securities and other property to be distributed in respect of the Common Stock such holder would have been entitled to receive for its Series A Preferred Stock on an as-converted basis. In the event of a liquidation, dissolution or winding up of our affairs prior to July 19, 2021, the holders of Series A Preferred Stock are entitled to a make-whole premium that provides them with full yield maintenance as if the shares of Series A Preferred Stock were held for a full three years. To the extent principal amounts become outstanding under our Convertible Notes, such notes are entitled to similar preferential amounts upon such events.

In addition, the holders of our Series A Preferred Stock are entitled to (i) Cash Dividends of 10.0% per annum payable quarterly in arrears, and (ii) PIK Dividends of 3.0% per annum. The PIK dividend is accrued quarterly in arrears for the first five years following the issuance of the Series A Preferred Stock and thereafter all Dividends accruing on such Series A Preferred Stock will be payable in cash at a rate of 13.0% per annum. To the extent principal amounts become outstanding under our Convertible Notes, such Convertible Notes are entitled to substantially the same payments in the form of interest (in lieu of dividends) payments.

Further, the holders of our Series A Preferred Stock also have redemption rights upon the occurrence of certain events upon which obligations in respect of the Series A Preferred Stock become principal amounts under the Convertible Notes. Specifically, the Series A Preferred Stock is mandatorily redeemable, upon the election by the holders of a majority of the then-outstanding shares of Series A Preferred Stock, on or after July 19, 2023 at a redemption price per share equal to the sum of (i) the Liquidation Preference per share plus (ii) an amount per share equal to accrued but unpaid dividends not previously added to the Liquidation Preference on such share of Series A Preferred Stock (the “Redemption Amount”). Any and all then-outstanding liquidation value of the Series A Preferred Stock plus any capitalized or unpaid accrued Dividends not previously included in the Liquidation Preference (the “Redemption Amount”) will be repaid in full in cash on such redemption date or satisfied in the form of obligations under the Convertible Notes issued concurrently with the issuance of the Series A Preferred Stock to collateralize amounts, if any, that may become payable by the Company pursuant to certain redemption provisions of the shares of Series A Preferred Stock. The Series A Preferred Stock will also become mandatorily redeemable by the holders at any time upon the reasonable determination of the holders of a majority of the Series A Preferred Stock then outstanding of the occurrence of a Material Adverse Effect or upon a Material Litigation Effect (as such terms are defined in the Certificate of Designations for the Series A Preferred Stock), with the Redemption Amounts automatically becoming payment obligations pursuant to the Convertible Notes with a concurrent cancellation of the shares of the Series A Preferred Stock.

Finally, prior to or on July 19, 2021, we will have the right to redeem up to $80.0 million of shares of the Series A Preferred Stock for cash amounts equal to the Redemption Amount which would include a make-whole premium that provides the holders thereof with full yield maintenance as if the Series A Preferred Stock was held for three years after issuance, subject to certain conditions and limitations. After such time, we will have the right to redeem shares of Series A Preferred Stock for a cash per share amount equal to the Redemption Amount subject to certain conditions.

These Dividend and Redemption Amount payment obligations could impact our liquidity and reduce the amount of cash flows available for working capital, capital expenditures, growth opportunities, acquisitions, and other general corporate purposes. Our obligations to the holders of Series A Preferred Stock could also limit our ability to obtain additional financing or increase our borrowing costs, which could have an adverse effect on our financial condition. The preferential rights described above could also result in divergent interests between the holders of shares of Series A Preferred Stock or Convertible Notes and the holders of our Common Stock.

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Our ability to pay Cash Dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock may be limited under Delaware law or we may not have sufficient cash to pay Dividends to the holders of our Series A Preferred Stock or pay our redemption obligations (and potential Convertible Note payments) due upon the occurrence of a redemption event.

Under Delaware law, our Board of Directors may only declare and pay cash dividends on shares of our capital stock out of our statutory “surplus” (which is the amount equal to total assets minus total liabilities, in each case at fair market value, minus statutory capital), or if there is no such surplus, out of our net profits for the then current and/or immediately preceding fiscal year. However, even if we are permitted under Delaware law to declare and pay Cash Dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock, we may not have sufficient cash to declare and pay Dividends in cash on the shares of Series A Preferred Stock or pay the Redemption Amounts due upon the occurrence of certain redemption events, causing there to be outstanding obligations under the Convertible Notes. The Convertible Notes contain customary restrictions on our ability to, among other things, make certain restricted payments with respect to our capital stock, subordinated indebtedness and unsecured indebtedness, consummate certain mergers, consolidations or dissolutions and make certain dispositions, subject to specific exclusions. The Convertible Notes also include customary obligations in respect of inspection, reporting, preservation of the security interest and indemnification.

Upon the occurrence of an Event of Default (as defined in the Convertible Notes), the holders of such Convertible Notes will have the right to accelerate all of our obligations thereunder, and such obligations will become immediately due and payable. In addition, if such acceleration occurs prior to July 19, 2021, the holders will also have the right to receive a make-whole premium thereunder.

If the indebtedness under the Convertible Notes were to be accelerated, there can be no assurance that our assets would be sufficient to repay such indebtedness in full and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation.

There is no market for the Series A Preferred Stock or Convertible Notes and their value will be directly affected by the market price of our Common Stock, which may be volatile.

The Series A Preferred Stock has no established trading market and is not listed on any securities exchange, and we have no intention to list the Series A Preferred Stock on any securities exchange. Additionally, the Convertible Notes issued in respect of the redemption obligations for the Series A Preferred Stock are only transferable with the related shares of Series A Preferred Stock until certain events occur. To the extent that a secondary market for the Series A Preferred Stock develops, we believe that the market price of the Series A Preferred Stock will be significantly affected by the market price of our Common Stock. We cannot predict how shares of our Common Stock will trade in the future. The trading price of our Common Stock has been and is likely to continue to be volatile. The risk factors described elsewhere or incorporated by reference herein may cause the price of our Common Stock to fluctuate. In addition, the stock market has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that often have been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of affected companies. Securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies following periods of volatility in the overall market and in the market price of a company’s securities. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the market prices of our Common Stock, and, in turn, the value of the Series A Preferred Stock and Convertible Notes.

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Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 2. Properties

Our principal executive offices are located in Las Vegas, Nevada. We also have offices located in Pleasanton, California; San Diego, California; Chicago, Illinois, New York, New York; Wilmington, Delaware; Greensboro, North Carolina; Hong Kong, London, United Kingdom; Sydney, Australia; Melbourne, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; Mexico City, Mexico; São Paulo, Brazil; Frankfurt, Germany; Paris, France; Stockholm, Sweden; Taipei, Taiwan; Tel Aviv, Israel; Tokyo, Japan; Osaka, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Hyderabad, India; Bengaluru, India; and Singapore.

We lease all of our facilities, and we do not own any real property. We are expanding in multiple locations globally. To the extent, we may require additional office space in the future, we believe that it would be readily available on commercially reasonable terms.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

The legal proceedings and government inquiry described in Notes 10 and 15 of the 2018 consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report are incorporated in this Item 3. Legal Proceedings by reference.

In addition, from time to time, we may be a party to litigation and subject to claims incident to the ordinary course of business. Although the results of litigation and claims cannot be predicted with certainty, we currently believe that the final outcome of these ordinary course matters will not have a material adverse effect on our business. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on us because of judgment, defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

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PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Market Information

In connection with the business combination, the holders of GPIA’s public shares were permitted to elect to redeem their public shares for cash. Accordingly, holders of 14,286,064 GPIA ordinary shares elected redemption at a price of approximately $10.07 per share, resulting in aggregate redemption payments of approximately $143,904,000. See the section titled “Business Combination” under Item 1, Business, for additional information.

Following the business combination, our Common Stock began trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “RMNI.”

Holders

On March 11, 2019, there were approximately 67 stockholders of record of our Common Stock. We believe the number of beneficial owners of our Common Stock are substantially greater than the number of record holders because a large portion of our outstanding Common Stock are held of record in broker “street names” for the benefit of individual investors.

Dividends

The holders of Series A Preferred Stock are entitled to (i) a cash dividend of 10.0% per annum (the “Cash Dividend”), payable quarterly in arrears, and (ii) a quarterly payment-in-kind dividend of 3.0% per annum (the “PIK Dividend” and together with the Cash Dividend, the “Dividends”). The PIK dividend is accrued quarterly in arrears for the first five years following the July 19, 2018 issuance and thereafter all Dividends accruing on such Series A Preferred Stock will be payable in cash at a rate of 13.0% per annum. For the year ended December 31, 2018, we incurred Cash Dividends of $6.4 million and PIK Dividends of $1.9 million totaling $8.3 million. Based on 140,846 shares of Series A Preferred Stock outstanding as of December 31, 2018, we incurred total dividends of $58.86 per share for the year ended December 31, 2018. The holders of Series A Preferred Stock are entitled to participate in Common Stock dividends, if and when declared, on a one-to-one per-share basis. For further information about dividends on our Series A Preferred Stock, please refer to Note 6 of our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report.

The payment of any dividends on our Common Stock is currently within the discretion of our Board of Directors. We have not paid any cash dividends on our Common Stock to date and the payment of any future cash dividends will be dependent upon our revenue, earnings and financial condition from time to time. It is presently expected that we will retain all earnings for use in our business operations and, accordingly, it is not expected that our Board of Directors will declare any dividends on our outstanding shares of Common Stock in the foreseeable future.

Stock Performance

The accompanying performance graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return on our Common Stock, $0.001 par value per share, for the period beginning October 11, 2017 and ended December 31, 2018, with the cumulative total return on the Nasdaq Composite Index and the Dow Jones U.S. Computer Services Index over the same period (assuming the investment of $100 in our Common Stock, the Nasdaq Composite Index and the Dow Jones U.S. Computer Services Index on October 11, 2017, the initial company listing date on the Nasdaq Global Market), and the reinvestment of dividends. The cumulative total stockholder return on the following graph is historical and is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance. No cash dividends have been paid on our Common Stock.



	10/11/2017	12/31/2017	3/31/2018	6/30/2018	9/30/2018	12/31/2018
Rimini Street, Inc.	$100.00	$81.31	$88.07	$67.16	$64.66	$52.59
Nasdaq Composite Index	$100.00	$103.80	$105.96	$112.73	$120.85	$99.48
Dow Jones U.S. Computer Services Index	$100.00	$101.53	$107.04	$103.44	$112.45	$87.21

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https://cdn.kscope.io/e25938315efe1d323e9af7187b799dcc-chart-93e399c9a0e9922fa80.jpg

This stock performance information is “furnished” and shall not be deemed to be “soliciting material” or subject to Regulation 14A under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”), shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section, and shall not be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act, whether made before or after the date of this report and irrespective of any general incorporation by reference language in any such filing, except to the extent we specifically incorporate the information by reference.

Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans

Reference is made to “Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters” for the information required by this item.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

None.

Item 6. Selected Financial Data

As discussed in Note 1 to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report, on October 10, 2017 the mergers between RSI and GPIA were consummated and accounted for as a reverse recapitalization whereby RSI is the acquirer for accounting and financial reporting purposes, and GPIA is the legal acquirer. RSI’s capital structure consisted of Series A, B and C Convertible Preferred Stock (“RSI Preferred Stock”) and Class A and Class B Common Stock (“RSI Common Stock”). In accounting and reporting for the reverse recapitalization on October 10, 2017, the historical capitalization of RSI was adjusted to give effect for the reverse recapitalization and the Delaware Domestication.

The following selected historical financial data should be read together with the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes appearing in Item 8 of this Report, and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Item 7 of this Report. The selected consolidated financial data in this section is not intended to replace our consolidated financial statements and the related notes. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of our future results.

We derived the selected consolidated statements of operations and cash flows data for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2018 and 2017, from our audited consolidated financial statements appearing in Item 8 of this Report. The selected consolidated statements of operations and cash flows data for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements that are not included in this Report. Presented below is our selected financial data for each of the years in the five-year period ended December 31, 2018 (in thousands, except percentages and per share amounts):



	As of December 31,
	2018			2017			2016			2015			2014
Consolidated balance sheets data:
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash	$	25,206		$	40,027		$	28,237		$	12,559		$	13,860
Total assets	118,885			122,171			99,378			62,741			52,336
Long-term debt:
Current maturities of long-term debt	2,372			15,500			24,750			14,814			15,132
Long-term debt, net of current maturities	—			66,613			63,314			—			114
Total liabilities	270,473			332,472			312,888			275,060			221,541
Redeemable Series A Preferred Stock, net of discount	113,998			—			—			—			—
Stockholders' deficit	(265,586		)	(210,301		)	(213,510		)	(212,319		)	(169,205		)



	Year Ended December 31,
	2018			2017			2016			2015			2014
Consolidated statements of operations data:
Revenue	$	252,790		$	212,633		$	160,175		$	118,163		$	85,348
Cost of revenue	95,981			82,898			67,045			52,766			45,258
Gross profit	156,809			129,735			93,130			65,397			40,090
Gross margin ⁽¹⁾	62.0		%	61.0		%	58.1		%	55.3		%	47.0		%
Operating expenses:
Sales and marketing	93,215			66,759			72,936			50,330			37,509
General and administrative	36,982			36,144			36,212			24,220			19,270
Litigation costs and related recoveries, net	1,258			4,860			(29,949		)	32,732			103,266
Write-off of deferred offering costs	—			—			—			—			5,307
Total operating expenses	131,455			107,763			79,199			107,282			165,352
Operating income (loss)	25,354			21,972			13,931			(41,885		)	(125,262		)
Interest expense	(32,530		)	(43,357		)	(13,356		)	(829		)	(742		)
Other debt financing expenses	(58,331		)	(18,361		)	(6,372		)	—			—
Gain (loss) from change in fair value of redeemable warrants	—			(16,352		)	1,578			—			—
Gain (loss) from change in fair value of embedded derivatives	1,600			3,800			(5,400		)	—			—
Other income (expense), net	(2,066		)	320			(1,786		)	(1,104		)	(843		)
Loss before income taxes	(65,973		)	(51,978		)	(11,405		)	(43,818		)	(126,847		)
Income tax expense	(1,992		)	(1,319		)	(1,532		)	(1,451		)	(981		)
Net loss	$	(67,965	)	$	(53,297	)	$	(12,937	)	$	(45,269	)	$	(127,828	)
Net loss attributable to common stockholders	$	(78,606	)	$	(53,297	)	$	(22,937	)	$	(45,269	)	$	(127,828	)
Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted ⁽²⁾:	$	(1.28	)	$	(1.65	)	$	(0.95	)	$	(1.87	)	$	(5.29	)
Weighted average number of shares of Common Stock outstanding, basic and diluted ⁽²⁾	61,384			32,229			24,262			24,222			24,164

Consolidated statements of cash flows data:
Net cash provided by (used in):
Operating activities	$	22,382		$	29,163		$	(59,609	)	$	1,573		$	3,215
Investing activities	(1,053		)	(1,392		)	(1,188		)	(1,747		)	(1,242		)
Financing activities	(34,774		)	(16,490		)	77,088			(842		)	(2,954		)

__________________


⁽¹⁾	Gross margin is computed by dividing gross profit by revenue.

⁽²⁾

The change in capital structure resulting from the consummation of the mergers and reverse recapitalization has been given retroactive effect in the calculation of net loss per share attributable to common stockholders based on the restated weighted average number of shares of our Common Stock outstanding, as discussed in the introductory paragraph to this Item 6. In accounting for the reverse recapitalization, the historical capitalization related to shares of RSI Common Stock have been retroactively restated based on the Exchange Ratio as if shares of Common Stock had been issued as of the later of (i) the issuance date of the shares, or (ii) the earliest period presented herein. With respect to RSI Preferred Stock, conversion to shares of Common Stock required the affirmative vote by the respective holders of RSI Preferred Stock. Therefore, conversion is not reflected until October 10, 2017, and the capital structure of RMNI is deemed to include the RSI Preferred Stock until consummation of the mergers. For purposes of the calculation of diluted net loss per share for all periods, all shares of RSI’s Series A, B and C Preferred Stock and all common stock equivalents have been excluded from the weighted average number of common shares outstanding since the impact was anti-dilutive.

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

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Rimini Street, Inc. (referred to as the “Company”, “we” and “us”) was incorporated in Delaware on October 10, 2017. As discussed below, the Company’s predecessor was also named Rimini Street, Inc., a company incorporated in the state of Nevada in September 2005 and referred to herein as RSI. References to “management” or “management team” refer to the officers and directors of the Company and/or RSI as the predecessor.

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes to those statements included in Item 8 of this Report. In addition to historical financial information, the following discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Our actual results and timing of selected events may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of many factors, including those discussed under “Risk Factors” in Item 1A and elsewhere in this Report.

Certain figures, such as interest rates and other percentages included in this section have been rounded for ease of presentation. Percentage figures included in this section have not in all cases been calculated on the basis of such rounded figures but on the basis of such amounts prior to rounding. For this reason, percentage amounts in this section may vary slightly from those obtained by performing the same calculations using the figures in our consolidated financial statements or in the associated text. Certain other amounts that appear in this section may similarly not sum due to rounding.

Overview

Rimini Street, Inc. is a global provider of enterprise software support products and services, and the leading independent software support provider for Oracle and SAP products, based on both the number of active clients supported and recognition by industry analyst firms. We founded our company to disrupt and redefine the enterprise software support market by developing and delivering innovative new products and services that fill a then unmet need in the market. We believe we have achieved our leadership position in independent enterprise software support by recruiting and hiring experienced, skilled and proven staff; delivering outcomes-based, value-driven and award-winning enterprise software support products and services; seeking to provide an exceptional client-service, satisfaction and success experience; and continuously innovating our unique products and services by leveraging our proprietary knowledge, tools, technology and processes.

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reported that support revenue represented approximately 44% of its total revenue and, for fiscal 2018, Oracle reported a margin of 86% for cloud services and license support.

We believe that software vendor support is an increasingly costly model that has not evolved to offer licensees the responsiveness, quality, breadth of capabilities or value needed to meet the needs of licensees. Organizations are under increasing pressure to reduce their IT costs while also delivering improved business performance through the adoption and integration of emerging technologies, such as mobile, virtualization, internet of things (“IoT”) and cloud computing. Today, however, the majority of IT budget is spent operating and maintaining existing infrastructure and systems. As a result, we believe organizations are increasingly seeking ways to redirect budgets from maintenance to new technology investments that provide greater strategic value, and our software products and services help clients achieve these objectives by reducing the total cost of support.

As of December 31, 2018, we employed approximately 1,080 professionals and supported over 1,800 active clients globally, including 81 Fortune 500 companies and 20 Fortune Global 100 companies across a broad range of industries. We define an active client as a distinct entity, such as a company, an educational or government institution, or a business unit of a company that purchases our services to support a specific product. For example, we count as two separate active client instances in circumstances where we provide support for two different products to the same entity. We market and sell our services globally, primarily through our direct sales force, and have wholly-owned subsidiaries in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. We believe our primary competitors are the enterprise software vendors whose products we service and support, including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP.

Since our inception, we have financed our operations through cash collected from clients and net proceeds from equity financings and borrowings. As of December 31, 2018, we had outstanding contractual obligations under a note payable to a related party with a carrying value of $2.4 million.

We intend to continue investing for long-term growth. We have invested and expect to continue investing in expanding our ability to market, sell and provide our current and future products and services to clients globally. We also expect to continue investing in the development and improvement of new and existing products and services to address client needs. We currently do not expect to be profitable in the near future.

Recent Developments

Reference is made to Note 5 to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report for a discussion of the amendment of our related party note with an original face amount of approximately $3.0 million that is now due on June 28, 2019. As a result of this amendment, the parties also agreed that the loan would retroactively bear interest at 13.0% per annum from July 19, 2018 through the maturity date. The amendment provides for monthly principal payments starting in December 2018 of approximately $0.4 million plus accrued interest. In December 2018, the Company made a payment of $0.6 million, primarily consisting of payment of retroactive interest of $0.2 million and the first monthly principal payment of $0.4 million.

Additionally, reference is made to Notes 10 and 15 to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report for a discussion of recent developments in the Rimini I litigation, including (i) the return to Oracle in August 2018 of $28.5 million of escrow funds related to attorney's fees awarded to Oracle that were deposited by Oracle with the District Court in May 2018, (ii) the imposition by the District Court of an injunction on us that was substantially identical to the injunction that the Court of Appeals had vacated in January 2018, which was stayed until November 5, 2018 when the Court of Appeals denied our motion for a further stay, and (iii) the grant in September 2018 by the Supreme Court of the United States ("Supreme Court") of our petition for a writ of certiorari appealing the decision of the Court of Appeals on the award of $12.8 million of certain non-taxable expenses to Oracle as part of the judgment previously paid by us. We have again appealed to the Court of Appeals the District Court's award of attorneys' fees and issued injunction. On March 4, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision reversing earlier decisions by the lower courts and ruling that Oracle must return approximately

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$12.8 million in non-taxable expenses (plus interest) that the Company had previously paid to Oracle. We currently estimate that we will recognize a gain when the award is collected.

Our Business Model

We believe most enterprise software vendors license the rights for customers to use their software. In a traditional licensing model, the customer typically procures a perpetual software license and pays for the license in a single upfront fee (“Perpetual License”), and base software support services can be optionally procured from the software vendor for an annual fee that averages 22% of the total cost of the software license. In a subscription-based licensing model, such as software as a service, or SaaS, the customer generally pays as it goes for usage of the software on a monthly or annual basis (“Subscription License”). Under a Subscription License, the product license and a base level of software support are generally bundled together as a single purchase, and the base level of software support is not procured separately nor is it an optional purchase.

When we provide base software support for a Perpetual License, we generally offer our clients service for a fee that is equal to approximately 50% of the annual fees charged by the software vendor for their base support. When providing supplemental software support for a Perpetual License, where the client procures our support service in addition to retaining the software vendor’s base support, we generally offer our clients service for a fee that is equal to 25% of the annual fees charged by the software vendor for their base support. For supplemental software support on a Subscription License, we generally offer our clients services for a fee that is equal to 50% of the annual fees charged by the software vendor for their supplemental or premium support. We also offer a special support service, Rimini Street Extra Secure Support, for clients that require a higher level of security clearance for our engineers accessing their system. Rimini Street Extra Secure Support is an additional fee added to our base or supplemental support fee, and priced at approximately 1% of the software vendor’s annual fees for base maintenance for Perpetual Licenses and at approximately 2% of the subscription fees for Subscription Licenses. Subscriptions for additional software products and services are available, designed to meet specific client needs and we believe provide exceptional value for the fees charged.

Our subscription-based software support products and services offer enterprise software licensees a choice of solutions that replace or supplement the support products and services offered by enterprise software vendors for their products. Features, service levels, service breadth, technology and pricing differentiate our software products and services. We believe clients utilize our software products and services to achieve substantial cost savings; receive more responsive and comprehensive support; obtain support for their customized software that is not generally covered under the enterprise software vendor’s service offerings; enhance their software functionality, capabilities, and data usage; and protect their systems and extend the life of their existing software releases and products. Our products and services enable our clients to keep their mission-critical systems operating smoothly and to remain in tax, legal and regulatory compliance; improve productivity; and better allocate limited budgets, labor and other resources to investments that provide competitive advantage and support growth.

We currently offer most of our support products and services on a subscription basis for a term that is generally 15 years in length with an average initial, non-cancellable period of two years. The negotiated fees extend for the full term of the contract and usually include modest increases (averaging approximately three percent) after the initial non-cancellable period of each contract. For both of the years ended December 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017, approximately 75% of our invoicing was generated inside a non-cancellable period, and approximately 25% of our invoicing was generated outside of a non-cancellable period.

After a non-cancellable period, our clients generally have the ability to terminate their support contracts on an annual basis upon a notice period generally ranging from 60 to 90 days prior to the end of the support period or renegotiate a mutually-agreeable, additional support period – including potentially an additional multi-year, non-cancellable support period. We generally invoice our clients annually in advance of the support period. We record amounts invoiced for support periods that have not yet occurred as deferred revenue on our balance sheet. We net any unpaid accounts receivable amounts relating to cancellable support periods against deferred revenue on our balance sheet.

Our pricing model is a key component of our marketing and sales strategy and we believe delivers significant savings and value to our clients.

Key Business Metrics

Number of clients

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Since we founded our company, we have made the expansion of our client base a priority. We believe that our ability to expand our client base is an indicator of the growth of our business, the success of our sales and marketing activities, and the value that our services bring to our clients. We define an active client as a distinct entity, such as a company, an educational or government institution, or a business unit of a company that purchases our services to support a specific product. For example, we count as two separate active clients when support for two different products is being provided to the same entity. As of December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, we had over 1,800, 1,560 and 1,220 active clients, respectively.

We define a unique client as a distinct entity, such as a company, an educational or government institution or a subsidiary, division or business unit of a company that purchases one or more of our products or services. We count as two separate unique clients when two separate subsidiaries, divisions or business units of an entity purchase our products or services. As of December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, we had over 1,050, 940 and 770 unique clients, respectively.

The increase in both our active and unique client counts have been almost exclusively from new unique clients and not from sales of new products and services to existing unique clients. However, as noted previously, we intend to focus future growth on both new and existing clients. We believe that the growth in our number of clients is an indication of the increased adoption of our enterprise software products and services.

Annualized subscription revenue

We recognize subscription revenue on a daily basis. We define annualized subscription revenue as the amount of subscription revenue recognized during a quarter and multiplied by four. This gives us an indication of the revenue that can be earned in the following 12-month period from our existing client base assuming no cancellations or price changes occur during that period. Subscription revenue excludes any non-recurring revenue, which has been insignificant to date.

Our annualized subscription revenue was approximately $269 million, $232 million and $187 million as of December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. We believe the sequential increase in annualized subscription revenue demonstrates a growing client base, which is an indicator of stability in future subscription revenue.

Revenue retention rate

A key part of our business model is the recurring nature of our revenue. As a result, it is important that we retain clients after the completion of the non-cancellable portion of the support period. We believe that our revenue retention rate provides insight into the quality of our products and services and the value that our products and services provide our clients.

We define revenue retention rate as the actual subscription revenue (dollar-based) recognized in a 12-month period from clients that existed on the day prior to the start of the 12-month period divided by our annualized subscription revenue as of the day prior to the start of the 12-month period. Our revenue retention rate was 91%, 93% and 94% for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Gross margin

We derive revenue through the provision of our enterprise software products and services. All the costs incurred in providing these products and services are recognized as part of the cost of revenue. The cost of revenue includes all direct product line expenses, as well as the expenses incurred by our shared services organization which supports all product lines.

We define gross profit as the difference between revenue and the costs incurred in providing the software products and services. Gross margin is the ratio of gross profit divided by revenue. Our gross margin was approximately 62%, 61% and 58% for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. We believe the gross margin provides an indication of how efficiently and effectively we are operating our business and serving our clients.

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Factors Affecting Our Operating Performance

Litigation

The information from Item 3, Legal Proceedings and Item 1A, “Risk Factors-—Risks Related to Litigation—“We and our Chief Executive Officer are involved in litigation with Oracle. An adverse outcome in the ongoing litigation could result in the payment of substantial damages and/or an injunction against certain of our business practices, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results.” is incorporated by reference herein. For claims on which Oracle has prevailed or may prevail, we have been and could be required to pay substantial damages for our current or past business activities, be enjoined from certain business practices, and/or be in breach of covenants and restrictions related to our Series A Preferred Stock, which could result in the ability of the holders to immediately accelerate the mandatory redemption date with the Redemption Amounts automatically becoming payment obligations pursuant to the Convertible Notes with a concurrent cancellation of the shares of the Series A Preferred Stock. Any of these outcomes could result in a material adverse effect on our business.

Adoption of enterprise software products and services

We believe the existing market for independent enterprise software support services is underserved. We currently provide support services for IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle and other enterprise software vendors’ products. We also believe the existing market for our other enterprise software products and services is underserved, and that we have unique products and services that can meet client needs in the marketplace. For example, we provide the Rimini Street Advanced Database Security product in partnership with McAfee, a global leader in cybersecurity.

We also believe that our total addressable market for our enterprise software products and services is substantially larger than our current client base and the products and services we currently offer. As a result, we believe we have the opportunity to expand our global client base and to further increase adoption of our software products and services within and across existing clients. However, as the market for independent enterprise software support services as well as our other software products and services is still emerging, it is difficult for us to predict the timing of when and if widespread acceptance will occur.

Sales cycle

We sell our services to our clients primarily through our direct sales organization. Our sales cycle, depending on the product or service, typically ranges from six months to a year from when a prospective client is engaged. While we believe that there is a significant market opportunity for our enterprise software products and services, we often must educate prospective clients about the value of our products and services, which can result in lengthy and multiple sales cycles, particularly for larger prospective clients, as well as the incurrence of significant marketing expenses. Our typical sales cycle with a prospective client begins with the generation of a sales lead through trade shows, industry events, online marketing, media interviews and articles, inbound calls, outbound calls or client, analyst or other referral. The sales lead is followed by an assessment of the prospect’s current software license contract terms, systems environment, products and releases being used, needs and objectives.

The variability in our sales cycle for replacement or supplemental software support services is impacted by whether software vendors are able to convince potential clients that they should renew their software maintenance with the existing vendor or procure or renew supplemental support services from the existing vendor, respectively. Another driver of our sales cycle variability is any announcement by a software vendor of their discontinuation, reduction or limitation of support services for a particular software product or release for which we continue to offer a competing support service. In addition, our sales cycle variability is impacted by vendor discounts provided by software companies to retain existing clients or attract potential clients. Finally, our litigation with Oracle can also drive sales cycle variability as clients oftentimes perform their own legal due diligence, which can lengthen the sales cycle.

Key Components of Consolidated Statements of Operations

Revenue. We currently derive nearly all of our revenue from subscription-based contracts for software services. Revenue from these contracts is recognized ratably on a straight-line basis over the applicable service period.

Cost of revenue. Cost of revenue includes salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation expenses associated with our technical support and services organization, as well as allocated overhead and non-personnel expenses such as outside services, professional fees and travel-related expenses. Allocated overhead includes overhead costs for depreciation of

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equipment, facilities (consisting of leasehold improvements and rent) and technical operations (including costs for compensation of our personnel and costs associated with our infrastructure). We recognize expenses related to our technical support and services organization as they are incurred.

Sales and marketing expenses. Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel costs for our sales, marketing and business development employees and executives, including commissions earned by our sales and marketing personnel, which are expensed when a client contract is executed. We also incur other non-personnel expenses, such as outside services, professional fees, marketing programs, travel-related expenses, allocation of our general overhead expenses and the expenses associated with numerous key industry trade shows.

General and administrative expenses. General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel costs for our administrative, legal, human resources, finance and accounting employees and executives. These expenses also include non-employee expenses, such as travel-related expenses, outside services, legal, auditing and other professional fees, and general corporate expenses, along with an allocation of our general overhead expenses.

Litigation costs and related recoveries, net. Litigation costs consist of legal settlements, pre-judgment interest, and third-party professional fees to defend against litigation claims. In the past, we have had liability insurance policies where a portion of our defense costs and litigation judgments or settlements have been reimbursed under the terms of the policies. Such insurance recoveries were reflected as a reduction of litigation costs upon notification of approval for reimbursement by the insurance company. For legal expenses related to Rimini II litigation, the deferred settlement liability was reduced with a corresponding reduction of legal expenses when the costs were incurred.

Interest expense. Interest expense is incurred under our credit facilities and other debt obligations. The components of interest expense include the amount of interest payable in cash at the stated interest rate, interest that is payable in kind through additional borrowings, make-whole applicable premium, and accretion of debt discounts and issuance costs (“DDIC”) using the effective interest method.

Other debt financing expenses. Other debt financing expenses are incurred pursuant to our former Credit Facility. The components of other debt financing expenses include collateral monitoring fees, unused line fees required to ensure our availability to funding, amortization of DDIC related to the unfunded portion of the Credit Facility, write-off of DDIC related to the funded portion of the Credit Facility in connection with principal prepayments, penalties incurred for not achieving target dates for completing the mergers with GPIA, and fees charged for administrative agent and loan servicing fees.

Gain (loss) on change in fair value of redeemable warrants. We had warrants outstanding that were redeemable in cash at the option of the holders at the earliest to occur of (i) termination of the Credit Facility, (ii) a change of control, or (iii) 30 days prior to the stated expiration date of the warrants. Due to the existence of the cash redemption feature, the warrants were recorded at fair value and classified as a liability through October 10, 2017 when the cash redemption feature was eliminated upon the effectiveness of the Sixth Amendment to the Credit Facility. On October 10, 2017 the warrants were reclassified to equity. We engaged an independent valuation specialist to perform valuations of the redeemable warrants on a quarterly basis. Changes in the fair value of redeemable warrants are reflected as a non-operating gain or loss in our consolidated statements of operations through October 10, 2017.

Gain (loss) on change in fair value of embedded derivatives. Our former Credit Facility contained features referred to as embedded derivatives that were required to be bifurcated and recorded at fair value. Embedded derivatives included requirements to pay default interest upon the existence of an event of default, requirements to pay certain target date fees, and to pay “make-whole” interest for certain mandatory and voluntary prepayments of the outstanding principal balance under the Credit Facility. We engaged an independent valuation specialist to perform valuations of the embedded derivatives on a quarterly basis. Changes in the fair value of embedded derivatives were reflected as a non-operating gain or loss in our consolidated statements of operations until July 19, 2018 when the Credit Facility was terminated.

Other income (expense), net. Other income (expense), net consists primarily of gains or losses on foreign currency transactions, write-off of deferred debt financing costs related to unsuccessful financings, and interest income.

Income tax expense. The provision for income taxes is based on the amount of our taxable income and enacted federal, state and foreign tax rates, as adjusted for allowable credits and deductions. Our provision for income taxes consists only of foreign taxes for the periods presented as we had no taxable income for U.S. federal or state purposes. In addition, because of our lack of domestic earnings history, the domestic net deferred tax assets have been fully offset by a valuation allowance and no tax benefit has been recognized.

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Results of Operations

Comparison of Years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017

Our consolidated statements of operations for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017 are presented below (in thousands):



							Variance
	2018			2017			Amount			Percent
Revenue	$	252,790		$	212,633		$	40,157		18.9%
Cost of revenue	95,981			82,898			13,083			15.8%
Gross profit	156,809			129,735			27,074			20.9%
Operating expenses:
Sales and marketing	93,215			66,759			26,456			39.6%
General and administrative	36,982			36,144			838			2.3%
Litigation costs and related recoveries, net	1,258			4,860			(3,602		)	(74.1)%
Total operating expenses	131,455			107,763			23,692			22.0%
Operating income	25,354			21,972			3,382			15.4%
Non-operating expenses:
Interest expense	(32,530		)	(43,357		)	10,827			(25.0)%
Other debt financing expenses	(58,331		)	(18,361		)	(39,970		)	217.7%
Gain (loss) from change in fair value of redeemable warrants	—			(16,352		)	16,352			(100.0)%
Gain (loss) from change in fair value of embedded derivatives	1,600			3,800			(2,200		)	(57.9)%
Other income (expense), net	(2,066		)	320			(2,386		)	(745.6)%
Loss before income taxes	(65,973		)	(51,978		)	(13,995		)	26.9%
Income tax expense	(1,992		)	(1,319		)	(673		)	51.0%
Net loss	$	(67,965	)	$	(53,297	)	$	(14,668	)	27.5%

Revenue. Revenue increased from $212.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 to $252.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, an increase of $40.2 million or 19%. The vast majority of this increase was driven by a 15% increase in the average number of unique clients, as opposed to existing unique clients subscribing to additional services. On a regional basis, United States revenue grew from $144.0 million for fiscal 2017 to $163.2 million for fiscal 2018, an increase of $19.2 million or 13.3%, while international revenue grew from $68.6 million for fiscal 2017 to $89.6 million for fiscal 2018, an increase of $21.0 million or 30.5%. Accelerated growth in our international business was driven by an increase in sales headcount primarily in Asia and Europe and an increase in marketing and advertising spend targeted for prospective clients outside the United States.

Our former Credit Facility included covenants that restricted our spending on sales and marketing activity that resulted in sequential quarterly reductions in new business activity during fiscal 2017. These covenants became less restrictive beginning on October 10, 2017 when the Credit Facility was amended, and all covenants were eliminated on July 19, 2018 as a result of the termination of the Credit Facility. The October 2017 amendment allowed us to increase our sales and marketing spending beginning in the fourth quarter of 2017. In addition, we currently expect sales and marketing spending to increase in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the fourth quarter of 2018. However, even though we are currently increasing our sales and marketing spending, it can take several quarters before these efforts are expected to translate into revenue, if at all. In addition, beginning in the second quarter of 2017 some potential sales transactions were adversely affected by certain competitive actions, and we are encountering increased competitive discounting by enterprise software vendors. As a result, our fiscal 2018 versus fiscal 2017 growth in revenue decreased from approximately 33% for 2017 to 19% for 2018. Due to our subscription revenue model, the impact of these matters that resulted in revenue growth of 17% for the fourth quarter of 2018 versus 24% for the comparable period in 2017 is expected to result in relatively lower revenue growth rates at least through 2019, or longer if our investment in sales and marketing does not result in increased sales activity.

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Cost of revenue. Total cost of revenue increased from $82.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 to $96.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, an increase of $13.1 million or 16%. This increase was primarily due to additional support for the increasing number of clients that resulted in an increase in employee compensation and benefits of $9.6 million, and an increase in IT, facilities and security costs of $1.7 million, offset by a decrease in contract labor costs of $0.7 million. The costs of both direct product support and shared services grew at a lower rate than the increase in clients and revenue as the support provided by these functions was spread over a wider client base.

The $9.6 million increase in cost of revenue attributable to employee compensation and benefits for the year ended December 31, 2018, was primarily due to (a) an increase in salaries, wages and benefit costs of $8.4 million due to a 12% increase in the average number of employees devoted to cost of revenue functions, annual pay increases, and increased bonus payouts, (b) an increase of $0.7 million due to adoption of our sabbatical benefit plan in May 2018, and (c) an increase in stock-based compensation expense of $0.5 million. Our sabbatical benefit plan provides full time employees that achieve 10 years of service with a one-month paid sabbatical leave, and the grant of restricted stock units (“RSU’s”) with a fair value on the date of grant of $10,000 (the RSU’s then vest over the subsequent 12-month period). The increase in all other costs was primarily attributable to costs of $2.1 million in the second quarter of 2018 for our Global Service Delivery ("GSD") conference for our support delivery staff to provide training on new products and processes. This conference was not held in 2017.

As discussed in Note 10 to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report, in August 2018 Oracle obtained a permanent injunction from the District Court which has been temporarily stayed pending appeal that prohibit us from using certain processes that could require us to incur additional labor costs to provide support for our clients as contracted. Since the permanent injunction is currently in place, we have incurred and will continue to incur additional expenses in the range of 1% to 2% of revenue for additional labor costs because, as drafted, the injunction contains language that could be read to cover some current support practices that are being litigated in the “Rimini II” lawsuit and that have not been found to be infringing. Briefing on our appeal of the permanent injunction to the Court of Appeals is expected to be completed in early 2019, and a hearing on the Company’s appeal has not yet been scheduled.

Gross Profit. The following table presents our revenue, the key components of cost of revenue, and gross profit for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017 (dollars in thousands):



					Variance
	2018		2017		Amount			Percent
Revenue	$	252,790	$	212,633	$	40,157		18.9%
Cost of revenue:
Employee compensation and benefits	64,158		54,591		9,567			17.5%
Engineering consulting costs	13,946		14,683		(737		)	(5.0)%
Administrative allocations ⁽¹⁾	10,715		9,041		1,674			18.5%
All other costs	7,162		4,583		2,579			56.3%
Total cost of revenue	95,981		82,898		13,083			15.8%
Gross profit	$	156,809	$	129,735	$	27,074		20.9%
Gross margin	62.0%		61.0%

______________________


⁽¹⁾	Includes the portion of costs for information technology, security services and facilities costs that are allocated to cost of revenue. In our consolidated financial statements, such costs are allocated between cost of revenue, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses based primarily on relative headcount, except for facilities which is based on occupancy.

As shown in the table above, our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2018 increased by $40.2 million compared to the year ended December 31, 2017. Total cost of revenue increased by $13.1 million, or 16%, compared to the increase in revenue of 19%. The key driver of the increase in cost of revenue was an increase of 60 in the average number of employees which resulted in an increase in employee compensation and benefits costs of $9.6 million, or 18%. As we continued to hire additional employees, we were less dependent on engineering consultants, resulting in a decrease in contract labor costs of $0.7 million. Administrative cost allocations increased by $1.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 as a result of increases

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in headcount and locations compared to the year ended December 31, 2017. The increased revenue combined with slower growth in the cost of revenue resulted in an improvement in our gross profit by $27.1 million, or 21%, as well as a slight improvement in our gross margin from 61.0% for the year ended December 31, 2017 to 62.0% for the year ended December 31, 2018. The increased utilization of our engineering workforce continued to be a primary driver in our efforts to contain growth in cost of revenue and improve gross margin for the year ended December 31, 2018. Due to the reinstatement of the injunction and increase in the investment of new products and services, our gross margin is currently expected to decrease in 2019 to around 60%.

Sales and marketing expenses. As a percentage of our revenue, sales and marketing expenses have increased from 31% for the year ended December 31, 2017 to 37% for the year ended December 31, 2018. In dollar terms, sales and marketing expenses increased from $66.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 to $93.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, an increase of $26.5 million or 40%. This increase was primarily due to (i) a $16.1 million increase in employee compensation and benefits as a result of a 23% increase in average headcount, (ii) a $4.5 million increase in travel and business meeting costs as we increase our efforts to obtain new customers, (iii) a $2.2 million increase in marketing and advertising costs, (iv) an increase in shared service allocations for facilities, security and technology of $1.6 million to support more employees, and (v) an increase in employee recruitment costs of $0.6 million.

The $16.1 million increase in sales and marketing expense attributable to employee compensation and benefits for the year ended December 31, 2018, was primarily due to an increase in (i) salaries, wages and benefit costs of $10.3 million due to a 23% increase in the average number of employees devoted to sales and marketing functions, annual pay increases, and higher bonus payouts, (ii) commissions of $5.0 million due to new customer wins in excess of the prior year, (iii) an increase in stock-based compensation expense of $0.5 million, and (iv) costs of $0.3 million associated with our sabbatical benefit plan adopted in May 2018.

Our overall increased spending was driven by a less stringent sales and marketing spending ratio covenant due to the sixth amendment to the Credit Facility that was effective in October 2017 and the elimination of spending restrictions upon termination of the Credit Facility in July 2018. We currently expect sales and marketing expense to be in the range of 40% to 43% of revenue for the year ending December 31, 2019.

General and administrative. General and administrative increased from $36.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 to $37.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, an increase of $0.8 million or 2%. This increase was primarily due to increases in (i) compensation and benefit costs of $6.6 million, (ii) outside professional service costs of $1.5 million, (iii) rent and facilities costs of $0.9 million, (iv) computer supplies and software costs of $0.8 million, (v) travel and other administrative costs $0.7 million, and (vi) franchise and related taxes of $0.7 million. These increase were primarily due to our status as a public company for 12 months in 2018 versus less than 3 months in 2017.

These increases which total $11.2 million were partially offset by a reduction in sales taxes of $7.2 million that consisted of (i) a decrease in sales tax expense and related accrued interest of $2.2 million since we began billing and recovering sales taxes from our clients beginning in the fourth quarter of 2017, and (ii) we had favorable settlements with taxing authorities in the second half of 2018 that eliminated state sales tax liabilities of $4.9 million that we had accrued in prior years. In addition, during 2018 we had higher general and administrative allocations out to other departments of $3.3 million driven primarily by increased headcount in 2018.

The $6.6 million increase in general and administrative expenses attributable to employee compensation and benefits for the year ended December 31, 2018, was primarily due to (i) an increase in salaries, wages and benefit costs of $5.9 million due to a 21% increase in the average number of employees devoted to general and administrative functions, annual pay increases, and increased bonus payouts, (ii) an increase of $0.5 million in stock-based compensation expense, and (iii) an increase of $0.2 million due to adoption of our new sabbatical benefit plan in May 2018.

Looking forward, we expect to continue to incur higher expenses associated with supporting the growth of our business, both in terms of size and geographical diversity, and to meet the increased compliance requirements associated with being a public company. Public company costs that are expected to increase in the future include additional information systems costs, costs for additional personnel in our accounting, human resources, IT and legal functions, SEC and Nasdaq fees, and incremental professional, legal, audit and insurance costs. In addition, we do not expect to have significant sales tax reversals that were recognized in 2018. As a result, we currently expect our general and administrative expenses to increase in dollar terms in future periods. We currently expect general and administrative expense to be in the range of 15% to 17% of revenue for the year ending December 31, 2019.

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Litigation costs and related recoveries, net. For the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, litigation costs and related recoveries, net consist of the following (in thousands):



	2018			2017			Change
Professional fees and other defense costs of litigation	$	30,126		$	17,171		$	12,955
Litigation appeal refund	(21,285		)	—			(21,285		)
Insurance recoveries, net	(7,583		)	(12,311		)	4,728
Litigation costs, net of related insurance recoveries	$	1,258		$	4,860		$	(3,602	)

Professional fees and other defense costs associated with litigation increased from $17.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 to $30.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, an increase of $13.0 million. This increase was primarily attributable to discovery work for the Rimini II litigation of $8.5 million, the government inquiry of $2.6 million, and the Rimini I appeals of $1.8 million. Over a six-year period through October 2016, we were actively engaged in the Rimini I litigation, for which we paid a judgment of $124.4 million in October 2016. Of this amount, we received a court mandated refund of $21.3 million in March 2018. In May 2018, we also appealed to the United States Supreme Court ("Supreme Court") approximately $12.8 million of the District Court’s award of non-taxable expenses related to the judgment. On March 4, 2019, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision reversing earlier decisions by the lower courts and ruling that Oracle must return approximately $12.8 million in non-taxable expenses (plus interest) that the Company had previously paid to Oracle. We currently estimate that we will recognize a gain when the award is collected. We currently expect to continue to incur legal expenses related to our ongoing appeal of the Rimini I outcome at least through 2019 and possibly later, while the Rimini II litigation costs are expected to continue through 2021, and depending on appeals, if any, may be longer. Such litigation costs are not linear and can fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter, but generally expected to range between $2.0 million and $5.0 million per quarter at least through the Rimini II trial date. However, due to the completion of fact and expert discovery work in Rimini II in 2018, the pre-trial costs for Rimini II, and the ongoing remand and appeal costs for Rimini I, which should decrease going forward, we currently believe litigation costs are expected to range between $13 million and $15 million for all of fiscal 2019.

As discussed above and in Note 10 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report, in January 2018 the Court of Appeals reversed certain awards under Rimini I. This reversal by the Court of Appeals included $21.3 million previously paid by us as part of the October 2016 judgment for state computer access statutes and taxable expenses and interest. On March 31, 2018, Oracle paid us approximately $21.5 million including post-judgment interest of $0.2 million. Due to the collection of this award in cash, we recognized a recovery of the 2016 judgment for $21.3 million and interest income of $0.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2018.

We had certain insurance policies in effect related to our litigation activities whereby we were entitled to recover a portion of the legal fees that were incurred to defend against the litigation. During the first quarter of 2017, the insurance company that had been providing defense cost coverage related to Rimini II provided cost reimbursements of $1.0 million. In March 2017, we entered into a settlement agreement with this insurance company whereby we received a one-time payment of $19.3 million that was accounted for as a deferred settlement liability at the end of the first quarter of 2017. This deferred settlement liability was reduced as we incurred costs related to Rimini II after the settlement date, with a corresponding increase in insurance recoveries in our consolidated statements of operations. For the year ended December 31, 2017, we recognized total legal expense recoveries of $12.3 million, consisting of the $1.0 million cost reimbursement for the first quarter of 2017, and post-settlement legal expenses related to Rimini II of $11.3 million, which reduced the deferred settlement liability to $8.0 million as of December 31, 2017. During the first quarter of 2018, Rimini II legal fees exceeded the $8.0 million balance of the deferred settlement liability which was eliminated through the recognition of insurance recoveries. We currently have no insurance coverage for such litigation going forward. However, if additional recoveries occur from the Rimini I appeals, we will need to reimburse a portion of such recoveries, net of such costs incurred to achieve such recoveries, if any.

Interest expense. Interest expense decreased from $43.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 to $32.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, a decrease of $10.8 million. Reductions in interest expense were primarily due to the payoff of the former Credit Facility on July 19, 2018, including reductions in (i) interest payable at 12.0% of $4.4 million, (ii) PIK interest payable at 3.0% of $1.1 million, (iii) accretion expense of $12.0 million, and (iv) make-whole applicable premium of $1.5 million due to lower mandatory Credit Facility prepayments in 2018. These reductions were primarily attributable to the Credit Facility being outstanding for the entire year ended December 31, 2017 as compared to only 200 days for the year ended December 31, 2018. These reductions total $19.0 million and were partially offset by $7.3 million

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of make-whole premium incurred upon payoff of the Credit Facility on July 19, 2018, and an increase in accretion of $0.8 million related to the GP Sponsor loan that was assumed on October 10, 2017.

Our weighted average principal balance under our former Credit Facility decreased from $99.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 to $61.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2018. The decrease in our weighted average borrowings was primarily due to the payoff of the Credit Facility on July 19, 2018.

Other debt financing expenses. Other debt financing expenses increased from $18.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 to $58.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, an increase of $40.0 million. The increase in other debt financing expenses was primarily attributable to the payoff of the Credit Facility on July 19, 2018, which resulted in charges for the write-off of DDIC for the funded debt of $44.6 million and the unfunded debt of $2.8 million, and the write-off of agent fees and other charges of $0.6 million, for a total of $47.9 million. These increases were partially offset by decreases in (i) target date fees of $1.3 million, (ii) lower collateral monitoring, amortization and unused line fees of $1.8 million due to the shorter period that the former Credit Facility was outstanding in fiscal 2018, and (iii) a reduction of $4.9 million in write-offs of DDIC due to a reduction in mandatory prepayments for the year ended December 31, 2018.

Loss on change in fair value of redeemable warrants. When we entered into the Credit Facility in June 2016, we issued a warrant to the Origination Agent for 2.7 million shares of Common Stock, and a second warrant for 0.7 million shares of Common Stock (both as adjusted for the Exchange Ratio in the mergers with GPIA) was issued in October 2016 due to an anti-dilution provision in the original warrant agreement. These warrants were redeemable in cash by the holder under certain circumstances, which required classification as a liability in our consolidated balance sheets.

Upon consummation of the reverse merger with GPIA, we issued an additional warrant for approximately 62,000 shares as consideration for the Origination Agent to eliminate the cash redemption and anti-dilution features. For the period from January 1, 2017 through October 10, 2017, the fair value of these warrants for an aggregate of 3.4 million shares of Common Stock increased by $16.4 million, resulting in a loss on the change in fair value of redeemable warrants of $16.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. Due to the elimination of the cash redemption feature on October 10, 2017, the redeemable warrant liability on that date of $23.6 million was reclassified to additional paid-in capital. Accordingly, changes in fair value after October 10, 2017 are no longer reported in our consolidated statements of operations.

Gain (loss) from change in fair value of embedded derivatives. The requirements to pay default interest at 2.0% during the existence of an event of default, equity raise delay fees, and “make-whole” interest payments for certain principal prepayments as defined in the Credit Facility, were examples of embedded derivatives required to be bifurcated and reported at fair value. In addition, make-whole applicable premium payments for certain principal prepayments were computed as set forth in the Credit Facility primarily based on the 15.0% per annum stated rate from the prepayment date until June 2019.

Increases in the fair value of embedded derivatives resulted in losses that were recognized when the likelihood increased that a future cash payment would be required to settle an embedded derivative, whereas gains were recognized when the fair value decreased. Decreases in fair value occurred when we became contractually obligated to pay an embedded derivative (whereby the embedded derivative liability was transferred to a contractual liability), or as the likelihood of a future cash settlement decreased.

For the year ended December 31, 2017, we recognized a gain of $3.8 million on the change in fair value of embedded derivatives compared to a gain of $1.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2018. The gain of $3.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 was primarily attributable to the elimination of several embedded derivatives pursuant to the Sixth Amendment to the Credit Facility as discussed in Note 5 to our 2018 consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of the Report. As of December 31, 2017, the fair value of our embedded derivatives resulted in a liability of $1.6 million, and upon termination of the Credit Facility on July 19, 2018, this liability was eliminated with a corresponding gain on change in fair value of embedded derivatives of $1.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2018.

Other expense, net. For the year ended December 31, 2017, we had other income, net of $0.3 million as compared to other expense, net of $2.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, a decrease of $2.4 million. For the year ended December 31, 2018, other expense, net of $2.1 million was primarily comprised of foreign exchange losses of $1.3 million, and write-off of deferred financing costs of $0.7 million related to an unsuccessful debt financing, and other non-operating expenses of $0.3 million. These amounts, which total $2.3 million, were partially offset by post-judgment interest on the litigation appeal award of $0.2 million. For the year ended December 31, 2017, net other income of $0.3 million was comprised of interest income of $0.2 million and foreign exchange gains of $0.2 million, partially offset by other non-operating expenses of $0.1 million.

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Income tax expense. As a result of the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“Tax Act”), the U.S. federal corporate tax rate decreased from a top marginal rate of 35% that was effective through December 31, 2017 to a flat rate of 21% effective for the year ended December 31, 2018. Accordingly, a provisional decrease of $31.8 million in our domestic deferred tax assets was recognized as of December 31, 2017, and this amount was fully offset by a decrease in our valuation allowance. As a result, we did not record any net domestic deferred income tax expense for the year ended December 31, 2017. Upon completion of our assessment of the impact of the Tax Act in the fourth quarter of 2018, we concluded that no changes were needed to our provisional estimates established as of December 31, 2017. For further discussion of the Tax Act, please refer to Note 9 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report.

Income tax expense increased from $1.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 to $2.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, an increase of $0.7 million or 51%. Substantially all of our income tax expense is attributable to our foreign operations. Our foreign earnings before income taxes increased from $4.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 to $6.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, an increase of $2.0 million.

Comparison of Years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016

Our consolidated statements of operations for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 are presented below (in thousands):



							Variance
	2017			2016			Amount			Percent
Revenue	$	212,633		$	160,175		$	52,458		32.8%
Cost of revenue	82,898			67,045			15,853			23.6%
Gross profit	129,735			93,130			36,605			39.3%
Operating expenses:
Sales and marketing	66,759			72,936			(6,177		)	(8.5)%
General and administrative	36,144			36,212			(68		)	(0.2)%
Litigation costs and related recoveries, net	4,860			(29,949		)	34,809			(116.2)%
Total operating expenses	107,763			79,199			28,564			36.1%
Operating income (loss)	21,972			13,931			8,041			57.7%
Non-operating expenses:
Interest expense	(43,357		)	(13,356		)	(30,001		)	224.6%
Other debt financing expenses	(18,361		)	(6,372		)	(11,989		)	188.2%
Gain (loss) on change in fair value of redeemable warrants	(16,352		)	1,578			(17,930		)	(1,136.2)%
Gain (loss) on change in fair value of embedded derivatives	3,800			(5,400		)	9,200			(170.4)%
Other, net	320			(1,786		)	2,106			(117.9)%
Loss before income taxes	(51,978		)	(11,405		)	(40,573		)	355.7%
Income tax expense	(1,319		)	(1,532		)	213			(13.9)%
Net loss	$	(53,297	)	$	(12,937	)	$	(40,360	)	312.0%

Revenue. Revenue increased from $160.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 to $212.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017, an increase of $52.5 million or 33%. The vast majority of this increase was driven by a 26% increase in the average number of unique clients, as opposed to existing unique clients subscribing to additional services. On a regional basis, United States revenue grew from $110.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 to $144.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2017, an increase of $33.3 million or 30%. International revenue grew from $49.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 to $68.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017, an increase of $19.2 million or 39%. In comparison, international revenue increased by 36% year over year for the fourth quarter of 2017.

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Cost of revenue. Cost of revenue increased from $67.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 to $82.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2017, an increase of $15.9 million or 24%. This increase was primarily due to an increase in employee compensation and benefits of $9.9 million, and an increase in contract labor costs of $4.5 million to support the increasing number of clients. Shared support service costs grew at a lower rate than the increase in clients and revenue since the support provided by these functions was spread out over a wider client base.

Gross Profit. The following table presents our revenue, the key components of cost of revenue, and gross profit for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 (dollars in thousands):



					Variance
	2017		2016		Amount		Percent
Revenue	$	212,633	$	160,175	$	52,458	32.8%
Cost of revenue:
Employee compensation and benefits	54,591		44,659		9,932		22.2%
Engineering consulting costs	14,683		10,180		4,503		44.2%
Administrative allocations(1)	9,041		8,101		940		11.6%
All other costs	4,583		4,105		478		11.6%
Total cost of revenue	82,898		67,045		15,853		23.6%
Gross profit	$	129,735	$	93,130	$	36,605	39.3%
Gross margin	61.0%		58.1%

_____________________


⁽¹⁾	Includes the portion of costs for information technology, security services and facilities costs that are allocated to cost of revenue. In our consolidated financial statements, the total of such costs is allocated between cost of revenue, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses, based primarily on relative headcount, except for facilities which is based on occupancy.

As shown in the table above, our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2017 increased by $52.5 million compared to the year ended December 31, 2016. Total cost of revenue increased by $15.9 million, or 24%, compared to the increase in revenue of 33%. The key driver of the increase in cost of revenue was an increase of 98 in the average number of employees, which resulted in an increase in employee compensation and benefits costs of $9.9 million to support the growth in revenue. In addition to hiring employees, we relied on the increased use of engineering consultants, resulting in an increase in contract labor costs of $4.5 million. For the year ended December 31, 2017, we were subject to budgetary compliance covenants in our former Credit Facility which limited the amounts that may be incurred for costs subject to our administrative allocations shown in the table above. Accordingly, administrative cost allocations only increased by 12% for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to the prior year. The increased revenue combined with slower growth in the cost of revenue resulted in an improvement in our gross profit by $36.6 million, or 39%, as well as an improvement in our gross margin from 58.1% for the year ended December 31, 2016 to 61.0% for the year ended