PagerDuty, Inc. (PD) FY 2023 MD&A
This page reproduces the company's own Item 7 MD&A text from the linked SEC filing. It is filer text, not grepcent analysis, scoring, or investment advice.
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed below. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, adverse effects on our business and general economic conditions due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, those identified below, and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. The last day of our fiscal year is January 31. Our fiscal quarters end on April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31.
In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the year ended January 31, 2022. For a discussion of the year ended January 31, 2022 compared to the year ended January 31, 2021, please refer to Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2022.
Overview
PagerDuty is a digital operations management platform that manages urgent and mission critical work for a modern, digital enterprise. We empower teams to respond rapidly to incidents to resolve or avoid customer issues,
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reduce noise, predict and avoid performance degradation, improve productivity, and accelerate digital transformation.
Today, nearly every business is a digital business. As such, organizations are under pressure to enhance their digital operations in order to meet escalating customer expectations, resolve incidents proactively and free-up time for innovation projects. This means critical, time sensitive, and unpredictable work needs to be detected and orchestrated.
We collect data and digital signals from virtually any software-enabled system or device and leverage powerful machine learning to correlate, process, and predict opportunities and issues. Using incident response, event management, and automation, we bring together the right people with the right information so they can resolve issues and act on opportunities in minutes or seconds from wherever they are.
Since our founding in 2009, we have expanded our capabilities from a single product focused on on-call management for developers to a multi-product platform that crosses silos into IT operations, security, customer service, and executive stakeholder roles across the organization. We have evolved from an on-call tool into the platform for digital operations, which resides at the center of a company’s technology ecosystem.
We have spent more than a decade building deep product integrations to our platform, and our ecosystem now includes over 700 direct integrations to enable our customers to gather and correlate digital signals from virtually any software-enabled system or device. This allows technical teams to collect digital signals from any system or platform in their environment, and without the effects of context switching. Those same integrations connect with popular collaboration tools and business applications, as well as all types of technology stacks to drive automation of work.
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted subscription fees. We also generate revenue from term-license software subscription fees. We have a land-and-expand business model that leads to viral adoption of our products and subsequent expansion. Our online self-service model is the primary mechanism for landing new customers and enabling teams to get started without assistance. We complement our self-service model with high-velocity inside sales focused on small and medium businesses, a commercial team focused on mid-market customers, and a field sales team focused on enterprise customers. Our mid-market and enterprise customers account for the majority of our revenue today. These teams drive expansion to additional users, new use cases, and add-on products, as well as upsell to higher value plans.
As of January 31, 2023, we had more than 15,200 paying customers globally, ranging from the most disruptive startups to established Fortune 100 companies across every industry including software and technology, telecommunications, retail, travel and hospitality, media and entertainment, and financial services. Our customers use our products across a broad range of use cases such as Engineering, IT Operations, Security, and Customer Service. Of these customers, 752 customers contribute annual recurring revenue (“ARR”) in excess of $100,000, and 50 customers contribute ARR in excess of $1,000,000. We define ARR as the annualized recurring value of all active contracts at the end of a reporting period. We define a customer as a separate legal entity, such as a company or an educational or government institution, that has an active subscription with us or one of our partners to access our platform. In situations where an organization has multiple subsidiaries or divisions, we treat the parent entity as the customer instead of treating each subsidiary or division as a separate customer. Our 10 largest customers represented approximately 9% of our revenue for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023, and no single customer represented more than 10% of our revenue in the same period, highlighting the breadth of our customer base. We serve a vital role in our customers’ digital operations and grow with them as their needs expand. As such, we have developed a loyal customer base, with total ARR churn representing less than 5% of beginning ARR for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023. Our ARR churn rate represents lost revenue from customers that were no longer contributing revenue at the end of the current period but did contribute revenue in the equivalent prior year period. We generally bill monthly subscriptions monthly and subscriptions with terms of greater than one year annually in advance.
We expand within our existing customer base by adding more users, creating additional use cases, and upselling higher priced packages and additional products. Once our platform is deployed, we typically see
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significant expansion within our customer base. Our dollar-based net retention rate was 120% for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023.
We have an efficient operating model, which comes from a combination of our cloud-native architecture, optimal utilization of our third-party hosting providers, and prudent approach to headcount expansion. This has allowed us to achieve gross margin of over 80% for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023. Our strong gross margins allow us the flexibility to invest more in our platform and go-to market function while maintaining strong operating leverage on our path to profitability.
Macroeconomic Environment
Our business and financial performance may be subject to the effects of the worldwide macroeconomic conditions, including, but not limited to global inflation and the rise in interest rates, existing and new laws and regulations, recession or economic downturn globally or in the jurisdictions in which we do business, the COVID-19 pandemic, volatility in foreign currency exchange rates, and bank failures. For example, on March 10, 2023, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), took control and was appointed receiver of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). If other banks and financial institutions enter receivership or become insolvent in the future in response to financial conditions affecting the banking system and financial markets, our ability to access our existing cash, cash equivalents and investments may be threatened and could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
We continuously monitor geopolitical conflicts around the world and their effects on our business. While we do not believe the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict will have a material impact on our business and results of operations, our business and results of operations could be materially impacted if the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues or worsens, leading to greater global economic disruptions and uncertainty. Our customers in Russia represented an immaterial portion of our net assets and total consolidated revenue both as of and for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023.
Since its inception, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a variety of challenges to our day-to-day operations. Despite these challenges, we do not believe the pandemic has had a material, adverse impact on our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity or cash flows. While we are unable to accurately predict the full impact that COVID-19 and its continuing repercussions will have on our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity and cash flows, we have implemented policies and practices that have enabled us to support critical operations and execute our strategy. As our offices have now reopened, we have incurred incremental expenses related to onsite services and related in-office costs.
We will continue to monitor the direct and indirect impacts of these or similar circumstances on our business and financial results. For additional information on the potential impact of macroeconomic conditions on our business, see Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors.”
Recent Development
On January 24, 2023, we announced that as part of our ongoing actions to drive efficient growth and expand operating margins, we were advancing global scaling initiatives designed to increase our capacity while improving our cost structure. The changes include reallocating certain roles and realigning teams to continue to improve operational resiliency and agility, and rationalizing our real estate footprint. The immediate impact is a 7% reduction in headcount, as some roles are eliminated and new roles created in high-talent, lower-cost geographies.
During the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023, the Company incurred costs associated with the restructuring plan of approximately $5.0 million in connection with the headcount reductions, primarily consisting of severance payments, notice pay (where applicable), employee benefits contributions and related costs. The majority of the restructuring charges have been incurred in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 and that the implementation of the headcount reductions, including cash payments, will be substantially complete by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2024.
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Potential position eliminations are subject to legal requirements that vary by jurisdiction, which may extend this process beyond the first quarter of fiscal 2024 in certain cases. The charges that we expect to incur are subject to a number of assumptions, including legal requirements in various jurisdictions, and actual expenses may differ materially from the estimates disclosed above.
Concurrent with our efficient growth strategy, we are considering real estate rationalization in line with the distributed nature of the workforce and a changed use of office facilities. We expect the majority of the real estate charges will be incurred in fiscal 2024.
We may incur additional expenses not currently contemplated due to events associated with the restructuring. Refer to Item 1A, “Risk Factors—Our recent restructuring, announced on January 24, 2023, may not result in anticipated savings or operational efficiencies, could result in total costs and expenses that are greater than expected, and could disrupt our business.”
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Key Factors Affecting Our Performance
Attracting New Customers
Sustaining our growth requires continued adoption of our platform by new customers. We will continue to invest in building brand awareness as we further penetrate our addressable markets. Our financial performance will depend in large part on the overall demand for our platform, particularly demand from mid-market and enterprise customers, and our ability to meet the evolving needs of our customers. As of January 31, 2023, we had over 15,200 paying customers spanning organizations of a broad range of sizes and industries, compared to over 14,500 as of January 31, 2022.
Expanding Within our Customer Base
The majority of our revenue is generated from our existing customer base. Often our customers expand the deployment of our platform across large teams and more broadly within the enterprise as they realize the benefits of our platform. We believe that our land and expand business model allows us to efficiently increase revenue from our existing customer base. Further, we will continue to invest in enhancing awareness of our brand, creating additional use cases, and developing more products, features, and functionality, which we believe are important factors to achieve widespread adoption of our platform.
Sustaining Product Innovation and Technology Leadership
Our success is dependent on our ability to sustain product innovation and technology leadership in order to maintain our competitive advantage. We believe that we have built highly differentiated platform that will position us to further extend the adoption of our products. While sales of subscriptions to our Incident Response product account for a significant majority of our revenue, we intend to continue to invest in building additional products, features, and functionality that expand our capabilities and facilitate the extension of our platform to new use cases. Our future success is dependent on our ability to successfully develop, market, and sell these additional products to both new and existing customers.
Continued Investment in Growth
We plan to continue investing in our business so we can capitalize on our market opportunity. We intend to grow our sales team to target expansion within our mid-market and enterprise customers and to attract new customers. We expect to continue to make focused investments in marketing to drive brand awareness and enhance the effectiveness of our self-service, low friction customer acquisition model. We also intend to continue to add headcount to our research and development team to develop new and improved products, features, and functionality. Although these investments may adversely affect our operating results in the near term, we believe that they will contribute to our long-term growth.
Key Business Metrics
We review the following key business metrics to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans, and make strategic decisions.
While these numbers are based on what we believe to be a reasonable representation of our customer base for the applicable period of measurement, we rely on a third party to validate legal entities, which uses the best available data at period end, and therefore is subject to change as new information becomes available. In addition, we are continually seeking to improve our methodology, which may result in future changes to our key metrics.
Our key metrics include the results of Rundeck and Catalytic, to the extent applicable, beginning on the acquisition dates of October 1, 2020 and March 8, 2022, respectively.
Number of Customers
We believe that the number of customers using our platform, particularly those that have subscription agreements for more than $100,000 in ARR, are indicators of our market penetration, particularly within enterprise
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accounts, the growth of our business, and our potential future business opportunities. Increasing awareness of our platform and its broad range of capabilities, coupled with the fact that the world is always on and powered by increasingly complex technology, has expanded the diversity of our customer base to include organizations of all sizes across virtually all industries. Over time, enterprise and mid-market customers have constituted a greater share of our revenue.
| As of January 31, | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |||||
| Customers | 15,244 | 14,865 | 13,837 | ||||
| Customers greater than $100,000 in ARR | 752 | 594 | 426 |
Dollar-based Net Retention Rate
We use dollar-based net retention rate to evaluate the long-term value of our customer relationships, since this metric reflects our ability to retain and expand the ARR from our existing customers. Our dollar-based net retention rate compares our ARR from the same set of customers across comparable periods.
We calculate dollar-based net retention rate as of a period end by starting with the ARR from the cohort of all customers as of 12 months prior to such period end, or Prior Period ARR. We then calculate the ARR from these same customers as of the current period end, or Current Period ARR. Current Period ARR includes any expansion and is net of downgrades or churn over the last 12 months but excludes ARR from new customers in the current period. We then divide the total Current Period ARR by the total Prior Period ARR to arrive at the dollar-based net retention rate. The calculation of dollar-based net retention rate for the year ended January 31, 2023 includes the Current Period ARR of Catalytic customers to the extent that they were PagerDuty customers as of 12 months prior to period end. The calculation of dollar-based net retention rate for the year ended January 31, 2021 includes the Current Period ARR of Rundeck customers to the extent that they were PagerDuty customers as of 12 months prior to period end.
| Last 12 Months Ended January 31, | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||
| Dollar-based net retention rate for all customers | 120 | % | 124 | % | 121 | % |
Components of Results of Operations
Revenue
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted software subscription fees with the majority of our revenue from such arrangements. We also generate revenue from term-license software subscription fees. Our subscriptions are typically one year in duration but can range from monthly to multi-year. Subscription fees are driven primarily by the number of customers, the number of users per customer, and the level of subscription purchased. We generally invoice customers in advance in annual installments for subscriptions to our software. Revenue related to our cloud-hosted software subscriptions is recognized ratably over the related contractual term beginning on the date that our platform is made available to a customer. For our term-license software subscriptions, we recognize license revenue upon delivery and software maintenance revenue ratably, typically beginning on the start of the contractual term of the arrangement.
Due to the low complexity of implementation and integration of our platform with our customers’ existing infrastructure, revenue from professional services has been immaterial to date.
Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue primarily consists of expenses related to providing our platform to customers, including personnel expenses for operations and global support, payments to our third-party cloud infrastructure providers for hosting our software, payment processing fees, amortization of capitalized internal-use software costs, amortization
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of acquired developed technology, and allocated overhead costs for facilities, information technology, and other allocated overhead costs. We will continue to invest additional resources in our platform infrastructure and our customer support and success organizations to expand the capability of our platform and ensure that our customers are realizing the full benefit of our offerings. The level and timing of investment in these areas could affect our cost of revenue in the future.
Gross Profit and Gross Margin
Gross profit represents revenue less cost of revenue. Gross margin is gross profit expressed as a percentage of revenue. Our gross margin may fluctuate from period to period as our revenue fluctuates, and as a result of the timing and amount of investments to expand the capacity of our third-party cloud infrastructure providers and our continued efforts to enhance our platform support and customer success teams.
Operating Expenses
Our operating expenses consist of research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses. Personnel expenses are the most significant component of operating expenses and consist of salaries, benefits, bonuses, stock-based compensation expense, and sales commissions. Operating expenses also include amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, allocated overhead costs for facilities, shared IT related expenses, including depreciation expense, and certain company-wide events and functions.
Research and development
Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel costs for our engineering, product, and design teams. Additionally, research and development expenses include contractor fees, depreciation of equipment used in research and development activities, acquisition-related expenses, and allocated overhead costs. We expect that our research and development expenses will increase in dollar value as our business grows.
Sales and marketing
Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel costs, costs of general marketing activities and promotional activities, travel related expenses, amortization of acquired intangible assets, allocated overhead costs, and bad debt expense. Sales commissions earned by our sales force that are considered incremental and recoverable costs of obtaining a subscription with a customer are deferred and amortized on a straight-line basis over the expected period of benefit, which we have determined to be four years. We expect that our sales and marketing expenses will increase in dollar value and continue to be our largest operating expense for the foreseeable future as we expand our sales and marketing efforts.
General and administrative
General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel costs and contractor fees for finance, legal, human resources, information technology, and other administrative functions. In addition, general and administrative expenses include non-personnel costs, such as legal, accounting, and other professional fees, hardware and software costs, certain tax, license and insurance-related expenses, acquisition-related expenses, and allocated overhead costs. We expect that our general and administrative expenses will increase in dollar value as our business grows. However, we expect that our general and administrative expenses will decrease as a percentage of our revenue over the longer term as we expect our investments to allow for improved efficiency for future growth in the business.
Interest Income
Interest income consists of income earned on our cash and cash equivalents and interest earned on our short-term investments which consist of U.S. Treasury securities, commercial paper, corporate debt securities, and U.S. Government agency securities.
Interest Expense
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Interest expense consists primarily of contractual interest expense and amortization of debt issuance costs on our 1.25% Convertible Senior Notes (the “Notes”) due 2025. Refer to Note 9, “Debt and Financing Arrangements” for additional details.
Other (Expense) Income, Net
Other (expense) income, net primarily consists of accretion income and amortization expense on our available-for-sale investments and foreign currency transaction gains and losses.
Benefit from (Provision for) Income Taxes
Benefit from (provision for) income taxes consists primarily of income taxes in certain foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct business. We maintain a full valuation allowance on our net federal and state deferred tax assets as we have concluded that it is more likely than not that the deferred tax assets will not be realized for all years presented. (Provision for) benefit from income taxes also includes the benefit associated with the reduction in our valuation allowance from the increase in the deferred tax liability associated with acquired intangible assets from our acquisitions.
Results of Operations
The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data for the periods indicated:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 370,793 | $ | 281,396 | $ | 213,556 | ||||
| Cost of revenue(1) | 70,434 | 48,361 | 30,686 | |||||||
| Gross profit | 300,359 | 233,035 | 182,870 | |||||||
| Operating expenses: | ||||||||||
| Research and development(1) | 134,876 | 95,690 | 64,566 | |||||||
| Sales and marketing(1) | 195,622 | 161,624 | 122,155 | |||||||
| General and administrative(1) | 99,238 | 77,432 | 62,431 | |||||||
| Total operating expenses | 429,736 | 334,746 | 249,152 | |||||||
| Loss from operations | (129,377) | (101,711) | (66,282) | |||||||
| Interest income | 4,765 | 2,946 | 4,232 | |||||||
| Interest expense | (5,433) | (5,398) | (9,965) | |||||||
| Other expense, net | (19) | (2,757) | (794) | |||||||
| Loss before benefit from (provision for) income taxes | (130,064) | (106,920) | (72,809) | |||||||
| Benefit from (provision for) income taxes | 839 | (535) | 3,906 | |||||||
| Net loss | $ | (129,225) | $ | (107,455) | $ | (68,903) | ||||
| Net loss attributable to redeemable non-controlling interests | (802) | — | — | |||||||
| Net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. | $ | (128,423) | $ | (107,455) | $ | (68,903) |
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(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 6,827 | $ | 3,751 | $ | 1,702 | ||||
| Research and development | 39,012 | 23,764 | 11,095 | |||||||
| Sales and marketing(1) | 29,804 | 19,012 | 14,733 | |||||||
| General and administrative | 34,264 | 23,506 | 15,701 | |||||||
| Total | $ | 109,907 | $ | 70,033 | $ | 43,231 |
______________
(1) Stock-based compensation expense above includes a one-time stock-based compensation expense of $3.1 million related to the modification of certain stock option awards in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021.
The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data expressed as a percentage of revenue:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||
| Revenue | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | ||
| Cost of revenue | 19 | 17 | 14 | |||||
| Gross margin | 81 | 83 | 86 | |||||
| Operating expenses: | ||||||||
| Research and development | 36 | 34 | 30 | |||||
| Sales and marketing | 53 | 57 | 57 | |||||
| General and administrative | 27 | 28 | 29 | |||||
| Total operating expenses | 116 | 119 | 117 | |||||
| Loss from operations | (35) | (36) | (31) | |||||
| Interest income | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| Interest expense | (1) | (2) | (5) | |||||
| Other expense, net | — | (1) | — | |||||
| Loss before benefit from (provision for) income taxes | (35) | (38) | (34) | |||||
| Benefit from (provision for) income taxes | — | — | 2 | |||||
| Net loss | (35) | % | (38) | % | (32) | % | ||
| Net loss attributable to redeemable non-controlling interests | — | % | — | % | — | % | ||
| Net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. | (34.6) | % | (38.2) | % | (32.3) | % |
______________
Note: Certain figures may not sum due to rounding.
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Comparison of the Years Ended January 31, 2023 and 2022
Revenue
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 370,793 | $ | 281,396 | $ | 89,397 | 32 | % |
Revenue increased by $89.4 million, or 32%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022. The increase in revenue was attributable to a combination of growth from both new and existing customers. Growth from existing customers was attributable to both increases in the number of users and upsell of additional products and services.
Cost of Revenue and Gross Margin
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 70,434 | $ | 48,361 | $ | 22,073 | 46 | % | ||||||
| Gross margin | 81 | % | 83 | % |
Cost of revenue increased by $22.1 million, or 46%, primarily due to an increase of $7.4 million in personnel expenses as a result of increased headcount and salaries, an increase of $6.3 million in amortization of intangible assets related to acquisitions, increases of $4.2 million in hosting, software, and telecom costs and $1.4 million in allocated overhead costs, both of which were to support the continued growth of the business and related infrastructure, and an increase of $1.1 million in other expenses, primarily related to merchant fees.
Research and Development
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Research and development | $ | 134,876 | $ | 95,690 | $ | 39,186 | 41 | % | ||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 36 | % | 34 | % |
Research and development expenses increased by $39.2 million, or 41%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 and increased as a percentage of revenue. The increase was primarily driven by an increase in personnel expenses of $33.1 million as a result of increased headcount and salaries to support our continued investment in our platform and restructuring costs, an increase of $5.1 million in costs to support the continued growth of the business and related infrastructure, which included allocated overhead costs, and an increase of $1.0 million in travel related costs as a result of increased travel due to reduced travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sales and Marketing
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Sales and marketing | $ | 195,622 | $ | 161,624 | $ | 33,998 | 21 | % | ||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 53 | % | 57 | % |
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Sales and marketing expenses increased by $34.0 million, or 21%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 and decreased as a percentage of revenue. The increase was primarily due to an increase of $26.8 million in personnel expenses driven by headcount growth, increased salaries, restructuring costs, and amortization of deferred contract costs, an increase of $4.8 million in costs to support the continued growth of the business and related infrastructure, which includes allocated overhead costs, an increase of $4.2 million in travel expenses as a result of increased travel due to reduced travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, partially offset by a decrease of $1.5 million in outside services and a decrease of $0.8 million in marketing costs due to decreases in brand campaigns and digital marketing.
General and Administrative
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| General and administrative | $ | 99,238 | $ | 77,432 | $ | 21,806 | 28 | % | ||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 27 | % | 28 | % |
General and administrative expenses increased by $21.8 million, or 28%, for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 and decreased as a percentage of revenue. The increase was driven by an increase of $18.1 million in personnel expenses as a result of increased headcount, increased salaries, and restructuring costs, an increase of $1.3 million in travel expenses as a result of increased travel due to reduced travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and an increase of $0.9 million in costs to support the business and related infrastructure which includes allocated overhead costs.
Interest Expense
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Interest expense | $ | (5,433) | $ | (5,398) | $ | (35) | 1 | % |
Interest expense was consistent for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 and was related to contractual interest and amortization of debt issuance costs for the Notes.
Interest Income and Other Expense, Net
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Change | % Change | |||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||
| Interest income | $ | 4,765 | $ | 2,946 | $ | 1,819 | 62 | % | ||||||
| Other expense, net | $ | (19) | $ | (2,757) | $ | 2,738 | (99) | % |
Interest income increased by $1.8 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022, primarily due to favorable interest rates on our cash, cash equivalent and investment balances in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023. Other expense, net decreased by $2.7 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022, primarily due to higher accretion income on our cash, cash equivalent and investment balances.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In addition to our results determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP, we believe the following non-GAAP financial measures are useful in evaluating our operating performance. We use the below referenced non-GAAP financial information, collectively, to evaluate our ongoing operations and for internal planning and forecasting
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purposes. We believe that non-GAAP financial information, when taken collectively, may be helpful to investors because it provides consistency and comparability with past financial performance and assists in comparisons with other companies, some of which use similar non-GAAP financial information to supplement their U.S. GAAP results. The non-GAAP financial information is presented for supplemental informational purposes only, should not be considered a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and may be different from similarly-titled non-GAAP measures used by other companies. The principal limitation of these non-GAAP financial measures is that they exclude significant expenses that are required by U.S. GAAP to be recorded in our financial statements. In addition, they are subject to inherent limitations as they reflect the exercise of judgment by our management about which expenses are excluded or included in determining these non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation is provided below for each non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
Non-GAAP Gross Profit and Non-GAAP Gross Margin
We define non-GAAP gross profit as gross profit adjusted for stock-based compensation expense and related employer taxes, amortization of acquired intangible assets, and restructuring costs. We define non-GAAP gross margin as non-GAAP gross profit as a percentage of revenue.
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Gross profit | $ | 300,359 | $ | 233,035 | $ | 182,870 | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation | 6,827 | 3,751 | 1,702 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 163 | 131 | 54 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangible assets | 7,401 | 1,120 | 373 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs | 357 | — | — | |||||||
| Non-GAAP gross profit | $ | 315,107 | $ | 238,037 | $ | 184,999 | ||||
| Gross margin | 81 | % | 83 | % | 86 | % | ||||
| Non-GAAP gross margin | 85 | % | 85 | % | 87 | % |
Non-GAAP Operating Income (Loss) and Non-GAAP Operating Margin
We define non-GAAP operating income (loss) as loss from operations excluding stock-based compensation expense, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions, amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, which include transaction costs, acquisition-related retention payments, which are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a given period, and restructuring costs. We define non-GAAP operating margin as non-GAAP operating income (loss) as a percentage of revenue.
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| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Loss from operations | $ | (129,377) | $ | (101,711) | $ | (66,282) | ||||
| Add: | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation(1) | 109,907 | 70,033 | 43,231 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 3,096 | 3,017 | 1,609 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangible assets | 10,237 | 3,500 | 1,167 | |||||||
| Acquisition-related expenses | 4,559 | 2,108 | 2,437 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs | 5,035 | — | — | |||||||
| Non-GAAP operating income (loss) | $ | 3,457 | $ | (23,053) | $ | (17,838) | ||||
| Operating margin | (35) | % | (36) | % | (31) | % | ||||
| Non-GAAP operating margin | 1 | % | (8) | % | (8) | % |
______________
(1) Stock-based compensation expense above includes a one-time stock-based compensation expense of $3.1 million related to the modification of certain stock option awards in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021.
Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss) Attributable to PagerDuty, Inc.
We define non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. as net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. excluding stock-based compensation expense, employer taxes related to employee stock transactions, amortization of debt issuance costs, amortization of acquired intangible assets, acquisition-related expenses, which include transaction costs and acquisition-related retention payments, which are not necessarily reflective of operational performance during a given period, restructuring costs, and the associated tax impact of these items, where applicable.
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Net loss attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. | $ | (128,423) | $ | (107,455) | $ | (68,903) | ||||
| Add (Less): | ||||||||||
| Stock-based compensation(1) | 109,907 | 70,033 | 43,231 | |||||||
| Amortization of debt issuance costs(2) | 1,839 | 1,805 | 7,808 | |||||||
| Employer taxes related to employee stock transactions | 3,096 | 3,017 | 1,609 | |||||||
| Amortization of acquired intangibles assets | 10,237 | 3,500 | 1,167 | |||||||
| Acquisition-related expenses | 4,559 | 2,108 | 2,437 | |||||||
| Restructuring costs | 5,035 | — | — | |||||||
| Income tax effect of non-GAAP adjustments | (2,556) | — | (5,017) | |||||||
| Non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to PagerDuty, Inc. | $ | 3,694 | $ | (26,992) | $ | (17,668) |
______________
(1) Stock-based compensation expense above includes a one-time stock-based compensation expense of $3.1 million related to the modification of certain stock option awards in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021.
(2) During the first quarter of fiscal 2022, we early adopted ASU 2020-06 which resulted in the elimination of amortization of debt discount on the convertible senior notes from February 1, 2021.
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Free Cash Flow
We define free cash flow as net cash (used in) provided by operating activities, less cash used for purchases of property and equipment and capitalization of internal-use software costs. In addition to the reasons stated above, we believe that free cash flow is useful to investors as a liquidity measure because it measures our ability to generate or use cash in excess of our capital investments in property and equipment in order to enhance the strength of our balance sheet and further invest in our business and potential strategic initiatives. A limitation of the utility of free cash flow as a measure of our liquidity is that it does not represent the total increase or decrease in our cash balance for the period. We use free cash flow in conjunction with traditional U.S. GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our liquidity, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts and to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, and to assess its liquidity.
There are a number of limitations related to the use of free cash flow as compared to net cash provided by (used in) operating activities, including that free cash flow includes capital expenditures, the benefits of which are realized in periods subsequent to those when expenditures are made.
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities | $ | 16,980 | $ | (6,021) | $ | 10,095 | ||||
| Less: | ||||||||||
| Purchases of property and equipment | (4,637) | (3,457) | (4,038) | |||||||
| Capitalization of internal-use software costs | (3,836) | (3,353) | (810) | |||||||
| Free cash flow | $ | 8,507 | $ | (12,831) | $ | 5,247 | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities | $ | (86,165) | $ | 17,376 | $ | (49,320) | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities | $ | (6,413) | $ | (736) | $ | 254,367 |
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Since inception, we have financed operations primarily through sales of our cloud-hosted software subscriptions, net proceeds we have received from sales of equity securities, and the issuance of our Notes.
On April 15, 2019, upon the closing of our IPO, we received net proceeds of $213.7 million, after deducting underwriters' discounts and commissions of $16.6 million and other issuance costs of $6.4 million.
On June 25, 2020, we issued $287.5 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act. The total net proceeds from the sale of the Notes, after deducting the initial purchasers’ discounts and debt issuance costs of $9.3 million, and purchases of the Capped Calls of $35.7 million, were $242.5 million.
As of January 31, 2023, our principal sources of liquidity were cash and cash equivalents and investments totaling $477.0 million. We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, investments and cash provided by sales of our subscriptions will be sufficient to support working capital and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months. We believe we will meet longer-term expected future cash requirements and obligations, through a combination of cash flows from operating activities and available cash and short-term investment balances. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including the effects of the worldwide macroeconomic conditions, including but not limited to, global inflation and the rise in interest rates, existing and new laws and regulations, recession or economic downturn globally or in the jurisdictions in which we do business, ongoing geopolitical conflict in Ukraine and other areas of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic, volatility in foreign currency exchange rates, our subscription growth rate, subscription renewal activity, including the timing and the amount of cash received from customers, the timing and extent of spending to support development efforts, the expansion of sales and marketing activities, the introduction of new and enhanced product offerings, and the continuing market adoption of our platform. We may in the future enter into arrangements to acquire or invest in
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complementary businesses, services, and technologies. We may be required to seek additional equity or debt financing. In the event that we require additional financing, we may not be able to raise such financing on terms acceptable to us or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital or generate cash flows necessary to expand our operations and invest in continued innovation, we may not be able to compete successfully, which would harm our business, operations, and financial condition.
A significant majority of our customers pay in advance for our cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions. Therefore, a substantial source of our cash is from our deferred revenue, which is included in the liabilities section of our consolidated balance sheet. Deferred revenue consists of the unearned portion of customer billings, which is recognized as revenue in accordance with our revenue recognition policy. As of January 31, 2023, we had deferred revenue of $209.1 million, of which $204.1 million was recorded as a current liability and expected to be recorded as revenue in the next 12 months, provided all other revenue recognition criteria have been met.
Cash Flows
The following table shows a summary of our cash flows for the periods presented:
| Year Ended January 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities | $ | 16,980 | $ | (6,021) | $ | 10,095 | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities | $ | (86,165) | $ | 17,376 | $ | (49,320) | ||||
| Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities | $ | (6,413) | $ | (736) | $ | 254,367 |
Operating Activities
Our largest source of operating cash is cash collection from sales of our cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions to our customers. Our primary uses of cash from operating activities are for personnel expenses, marketing expenses and hosting and software expenses. In the last several years, we have had periods in which we generated negative cash flows from operating activities and have supplemented working capital requirements through net proceeds from both private and public sales of equity securities and issuance of the Notes.
Cash provided by operating activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 of $17.0 million primarily related to our net loss of $129.2 million, adjusted for non-cash charges of $153.0 million and net cash outflows of $6.8 million due to changes in our operating assets and liabilities. Non-cash charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation of $109.9 million, amortization of our deferred contract costs of $19.2 million, depreciation and amortization of property and equipment, capitalized implementation costs, and acquired intangible assets of $17.4 million, noncash lease expense of $4.1 million, amortization of debt issuance costs of $1.8 million, other charges of $1.8 million, which consist primarily of acquisition-related asset impairment and bad debt expense, and a tax benefit related to release of valuation allowance of $1.3 million. Changes in operating assets and liabilities reflected cash outflows from a $22.8 million increase in deferred contract costs due to commissions paid on new bookings, a $16.6 million increase in accounts receivable due to a combination of timing of cash collections and growth in billings, payments for operating lease liabilities of $5.8 million, a $2.9 million decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other liabilities and a $2.8 million increase in prepaid expenses and other assets related to timing of payments made in advance for future services. These amounts were partially offset by cash outflows from a $38.0 million increase in deferred revenue resulting from increased billings for subscriptions, and a $6.1 million increase in accrued compensation primarily due to increased headcount and restructuring charges.
Cash used in operating activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 of $6.0 million primarily related to our net loss of $107.5 million, adjusted for non-cash charges of $103.4 million and net cash outflows of $1.9 million due to changes in our operating assets and liabilities. Non-cash charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation of $70.0 million, amortization of our deferred contract costs of $14.9 million, depreciation and amortization of property and equipment and capitalized implementation costs of $8.4 million, noncash lease expense of $4.5 million, other charges relating to accretion of our investments and bad debt expense of $3.8 million, and amortization of debt issuance costs of $1.8 million. Changes in operating assets and liabilities reflected cash
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outflows from a $26.2 million increase in deferred contract costs due to commissions paid on new bookings, a $21.6 million increase in accounts receivable due a combination of timing of cash collections and a growth in billings, and payments for operating lease liabilities of $5.3 million. These amounts were partially offset by cash outflows from a $40.3 million increase in deferred revenue resulting from increased billings for subscriptions, a $6.8 million increase in accrued compensation primarily due to increased headcount, a $2.8 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other liabilities and a $1.3 million decrease in prepaid expenses and other assets related to timing of payments made in advance for future services.
Cash provided by operating activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 of $10.1 million primarily related to our net loss of $68.9 million, adjusted for non-cash charges of $74.2 million and net cash inflows of $4.8 million due to changes in our operating assets and liabilities. Non-cash charges primarily consisted of stock-based compensation of $43.2 million, amortization of our deferred contract costs of $11.0 million, amortization of debt discount and issuance costs of $7.8 million, depreciation and amortization of property and equipment and capitalized implementation costs of $5.3 million, and noncash lease expense of $4.4 million. Changes in operating assets and liabilities reflected cash inflows from a $34.7 million increase in deferred revenue, resulting from increased billings for subscriptions, an $11.2 million increase in accrued compensation primarily due to increased headcount, and a $0.5 million decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other liabilities. These amounts were partially offset by a $17.6 million increase in accounts receivable due to a combination of timing of cash collections and a growth in billings, a $16.9 million increase in deferred contract costs due to commissions paid on new bookings, payments for operating lease liabilities of $4.1 million, and an increase of $2.0 million in prepaid expenses and other assets related to timing of payments made in advance for future services.
Investing Activities
Cash used in investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 of $86.2 million consisted of purchases of investments of $212.2 million, cash paid for the Catalytic acquisition, net of cash acquired, of $66.3 million, purchases of property and equipment of $4.6 million primarily for purchases of computers for new employees and to support new international office space, capitalization of internal use software costs of $3.8 million, and cash paid for an asset acquisition of $1.8 million, partially offset by proceeds from maturities of investments of $202.6 million.
Cash provided by investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 of $17.4 million consisted of proceeds from maturities of investments of $221.4 million, offset by purchases of investments of $197.1 million, capitalization of internal use software costs of $3.4 million, and purchases of property and equipment of $3.5 million primarily for purchases of computers for new employees and to support office space for our San Francisco office.
Cash used in investing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 of $49.3 million consisted of purchases of investments of $222.0 million, cash paid for the Rundeck acquisition, net of cash acquired of $49.7 million, purchases of property and equipment of $4.0 million primarily to support additional office space for our San Francisco and Atlanta offices and purchases of computers for new employees, and capitalization of internal use software costs of $0.8 million. These costs were partially offset by proceeds from maturities and sales of investments of $227.2 million.
Financing Activities
Cash used in financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 of $6.4 million consisted primarily of $28.7 million in employee payroll taxes related to vesting of restricted stock units, partially offset by proceeds from the exercise of stock options of $10.5 million, proceeds from our ESPP of $9.9 million, and $1.9 million of cash received from the non-controlling shareholder of PagerDuty K.K.
Cash used in financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 of $0.7 million consisted primarily of $23.6 million in employee payroll taxes related to vesting of restricted stock units, partially offset by proceeds from the exercise of stock options of $15.1 million and proceeds from our ESPP of $7.7 million.
Cash provided by financing activities for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021 of $254.4 million consisted primarily of net proceeds of $278.2 million related to the issuance of the Notes, proceeds from the exercise of stock
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options of $14.1 million, and proceeds from our ESPP of $6.0 million. This was partially offset by purchases of the Capped Calls of $35.7 million and $8.2 million in employee payroll taxes related to vesting of restricted stock units.
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
Our estimated future obligations consist of purchase commitments, principal and interest payments related to the Notes, and payments for our leases. As of January 31, 2023, we had non-cancellable purchase commitments with certain service providers totaling approximately $61.3 million, principal and interest payments in conjunction with the Notes of $296.5 million, and lease payments of $20.0 million. Refer to Note 10, “Commitments and Contingencies” for additional information.
Indemnification Agreements
In the ordinary course of business, we may agree to indemnify customers, vendors, lessors, business partners, and other parties with respect to certain matters, including, but not limited to, losses arising out of the breach of such agreements, services to be provided by us, or from intellectual property infringement claims made by third parties. As permitted under Delaware law, we have entered into indemnification agreements with our directors and certain officers and employees that will require us, among other things, to indemnify them against certain liabilities that may arise by reason of their status or service as directors, officers, or employees. No demands have been made upon us to provide indemnification under such agreements, and there are no claims that we are aware of that could have a material effect on our consolidated balance sheets, consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, or consolidated statements of cash flows.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto included elsewhere in this Form 10-K are prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or U.S. GAAP. The preparation of consolidated financial statements also requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and related disclosures. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results could differ significantly from the estimates made by management. To the extent that there are differences between our estimates and actual results, our future financial statement presentation, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows will be affected. We believe that the accounting policies described below involve a greater degree of judgment and complexity. Accordingly, these are the policies we believe are the most critical to aid in fully understanding and evaluating our consolidated financial condition and results of operations.
Revenue Recognition
We generate revenue primarily from cloud-hosted subscription fees with the majority of our revenue from such arrangements. We also generate revenue from term license software subscription fees. Our cloud-hosted software subscription arrangements do not provide customers with the right to take possession of the software supporting the cloud-based products and, as a result, are accounted for as service arrangements. Revenue is recognized when control of these services is transferred to customers, in an amount that reflects the consideration we expect to be entitled to in exchange for those services. Subscription revenue excludes sales and other indirect taxes.
We determine revenue recognition through the following steps:
•Identification of the contract, or contracts, with a customer.
•Identification of the performance obligations in the contract.
•Determination of the transaction price.
•Allocation of the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract.
•Recognition of revenue when, or as, we satisfy a performance obligation.
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Cloud-hosted software subscriptions
The majority of our cloud-hosted software subscriptions allow customers to use our cloud-hosted software over the contract period without taking possession of the software. Our cloud-hosted software subscription agreements generally have monthly or annual contractual terms. Revenue related to our cloud-hosted software subscriptions is recognized ratably over the related contractual term beginning on the date that our platform is made available to a customer. Access to the platform represents a series of distinct services as we continually provide access to, and fulfill our obligation to, the end customer over the subscription term. The series of distinct services represents a single performance obligation that is satisfied over time. We recognize revenue ratably because the customer receives and consumes the benefits of the platform throughout the contract period.
Term-license software subscriptions
Our on-premise software subscriptions are primarily term (or time-based) license subscriptions to our platform, which include both open source and proprietary software as well as support, patches, and the right to receive unspecified software updates and upgrades released when and if available during the subscription. Our term-license software subscription agreements generally have annual contractual terms. We account for the license to the software and support as two separate performance obligations. As the open source software is publicly available at no cost to the customer, we have determined that there is no value to be assigned to the open source software in our term-license software subscription arrangements. The proprietary software license represents a promise to provide a license to use functional intellectual property that is recognized at a point in time on the date access to the software is made available to the customer and the term-license software subscription period has begun. We have concluded the support is a stand-ready performance obligation that consists of a series of distinct services that are satisfied ratably over time as the services are provided. We use a time-based output method to measure progress because our efforts are expended evenly throughout the period given the nature of the promise is a stand-ready service. We recognize support revenue ratably, typically beginning on the start of the contractual term of the arrangement.
Cloud-hosted and term license software subscriptions
In order to determine the stand-alone selling price, we conduct a periodic analysis that requires judgment and considers multiple factors that are reasonably available and maximizes the use of observable inputs that may vary over time depending upon the unique facts and circumstances related to each performance obligation. To have observable inputs, we require that a substantial majority of the stand-alone selling prices for a product offering fall within a pricing range. If a directly observable stand-alone selling price does not exist, we estimate a stand-alone selling price range by reviewing external and internal market factor categories, which may include pricing practices, historical discounting, industry practices, service groups, and geographic considerations. We believe that these analyses result in an estimate that approximates the price we would charge for the performance obligations if they were sold separately.
Our cloud-hosted and term-license software subscription arrangements are generally non-cancellable and do not contain refund provisions. We bill for monthly cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions on a monthly basis and annually in advance for arrangements with terms of one year or more.
The price of the cloud-hosted and term-license software subscriptions is generally fixed at contract inception and therefore, our contracts do not contain a significant amount of variable consideration. As a result, the amount of revenue recognized in the periods presented from performance obligations satisfied (or partially satisfied) in previous periods due to changes in the transaction price was not material. Subscription revenue excludes sales and other indirect taxes.
Deferred Contract Costs
Deferred contract costs include sales commissions earned by our sales force which are considered incremental and recoverable costs of obtaining a contract with a customer. Sales commissions for initial contracts are deferred and then amortized on a straight-line basis over a period of benefit, determined to be four years. Significant judgment is required in arriving at this period of benefit. We determined the period of benefit by taking into consideration our customer contracts, technology, and other factors. Amounts anticipated to be recognized within
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one year of the balance sheet date are recorded as deferred contract costs, current, with the remaining portion recorded as deferred contract costs, noncurrent, on the consolidated balance sheets. Amortization expense of deferred contract costs is recorded as sales and marketing expense in the consolidated statements of operations.
Business Combinations and Valuation of Goodwill and Intangible Assets
We apply the acquisition method of accounting for business combinations. Under this method of accounting, all assets acquired and liabilities assumed are recorded at their respective fair values at the date of the acquisition. We allocate the purchase consideration to the net tangible and identifiable intangible assets. Determining the fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed requires management’s judgment and often involves the use of significant estimates and assumptions. These estimates can include, but are not limited to, the cash flows that an asset is expected to generate in the future, the appropriate weighted-average cost of capital, and the cost savings expected to be derived from acquiring an asset. These estimates are inherently uncertain and unpredictable.
Goodwill is evaluated for impairment annually in the fourth quarter, and whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value of goodwill may not be recoverable. Triggering events that may indicate impairment include, but are not limited to, a significant adverse change in customer demand or business climate or a significant decrease in expected cash flows. Goodwill is evaluated for impairment at the consolidated level, as we operate as a single reporting unit.
Acquired intangible assets consist of identifiable intangible assets, including developed technology, customer relationships, and tradename, resulting from our acquisition. Acquired intangible assets are recorded at fair value on the date of acquisition and amortized over their estimated useful lives. The carrying amounts of our acquired intangible assets are periodically reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of these assets may not be recoverable or that the useful life is shorter than originally estimated.
Stock-Based Compensation
We recognize compensation expense for all stock-based payment awards, including stock options, restricted stock units (“RSUs”) and performance stock units (“PSUs”), based on the estimated fair value of the award on the grant date.
We estimate the fair value of stock options issued to employees on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option pricing model, which is impacted by the estimated fair value of our common stock, as well as certain assumptions including the expected volatility over the term of the option awards, the expected term of the awards, risk-free interest rates and the expected dividend yield. Assumptions and estimates used in the determination of the fair value of stock options include expected volatility, expected term, risk-free rate, and expected dividend yield.
We estimate the fair value of RSUs and PSUs at its stock price on the grant date.
We estimate the fair value of shares to be issued under the employee stock purchase plan (the “ESPP”) on the first day of the offering period using the Black-Scholes valuation model, which is impacted by the estimated fair value of our common stock, as well as certain assumptions including the expected volatility over the term of the offering period, the expected term of the awards, risk-free interest rates and the expected dividend yield. Assumptions used in the determination of the fair value of the ESPP are the same as those used in the determination of the fair value of our stock options.
We generally recognize compensation expense for employee stock-based payment awards on a straight-line basis over the period during which an award recipient is required to provide services in exchange for the award (generally the vesting period of the award), with the exception of PSUs which are recognized using the accelerated attribution method. We account for forfeitures as they occur.
The fair value of each non-employee stock option is estimated at the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option pricing model and is not remeasured over the vesting term. Assumptions used in valuing non-employee stock
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options are generally consistent with those used for employee stock options with the exception that the expected term is over the contractual life.
Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements
For further information on our recently adopted accounting pronouncements, refer to Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” in the consolidated financial statements contained within this Form 10-K.