e424b5
Filed Pursuant to Rule 424(b)(5)
File
No. 333-122068
PROSPECTUS SUPPLEMENT TO THE PROSPECTUS DATED APRIL 25, 2005
4,000,000 Shares
DIGITAL RIVER, INC.
Common Stock
This
is a public offering of common stock of Digital River, Inc. All
of the shares of our common stock offered by this prospectus
supplement are being offered by us.
Our
common stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the
symbol DRIV. On March 22, 2006, the last
reported sale price for our common stock, as reported on the
Nasdaq National Market, was $44.51 per share.
Investing
in our common stock involves risks. See Risk Factors
beginning on
page S-4 of this
prospectus supplement.
The
underwriter has agreed to purchase the shares of common stock
from us at a price of $43.25 per share, which will result in
approximately $172.7 million in net proceeds to us, after
deducting our estimated offering expenses.
The
underwriter may offer the shares of common stock from time to
time in one or more transactions on the Nasdaq National Market,
in the over-the-counter
market or through negotiated transactions at market prices or at
negotiated prices.
It
is expected that delivery of the shares of common stock will be
made on or about March 28, 2006.
Neither
the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities
commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or
passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of this prospectus
supplement. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal
offense.
Credit Suisse
The date of this prospectus supplement is March 22, 2006.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prospectus
Supplement
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Digital
Rivertm
is our registered trademark. All other trademarks or service
marks appearing in this prospectus supplement are the property
of their respective owners.
You should rely only on the information contained or
incorporated by reference in this prospectus supplement and the
accompanying prospectus. We have not authorized any other person
to provide you with different information. If anyone provides
you with different or inconsistent information, you should not
rely on it. You should assume that the information appearing in
this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, as
well as information that we have previously filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission and incorporated by
reference, is accurate only as of the date of the applicable
document. The descriptions set forth in this prospectus
supplement replace and supplement, where inconsistent, the
description of the general terms and provisions set forth in the
accompanying prospectus.
The distribution of this prospectus supplement and the
accompanying prospectus and the offering of the common stock in
certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. If you possess
this prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, you
should find out about and observe these restrictions. This
prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus are not an
offer to sell the common stock and are not soliciting an offer
to buy the common stock in any jurisdiction where the offer or
sale is not permitted or where the person making the offer or
sale is not qualified to do so or to any person to whom it is
not permitted to make such offer or sale.
PROSPECTUS SUPPLEMENT SUMMARY
We provide outsourced
e-commerce solutions
globally to a wide variety of companies primarily in the
software and high-tech products markets. We were incorporated in
1994 and began building and operating online stores for our
clients in 1996. We offer our clients a broad range of services
that enable them to effectively build, manage, and grow online
sales on a global basis. We focus on helping our clients
mitigate risk and grow their revenues. Our services include
online store design, development and hosting, store
merchandising and optimization, order management, fraud
prevention screening, export controls and management, tax
management, digital product delivery via download, physical
product fulfillment, multi-lingual customer service,
e-mail marketing,
website optimization, web analytics, and reporting.
Our products and services allow our clients to focus on
promoting and marketing their brands while leveraging the
investments we have made in technology and infrastructure that
facilitate the purchase of products from their online stores.
When shoppers visit the store on one of our clients
websites, they are seamlessly transferred to our
e-commerce platform.
Once on our platform, shoppers can browse for products and make
purchases online. After a purchase is made, we either deliver
the product digitally via download over the Internet or transmit
the order to a third party for physical fulfillment. We also
process the buyers payment, including collection and
remittance of applicable taxes, and provide customer service in
multiple languages to handle order-related questions.
In addition to the services we provide that facilitate the
completion of an online transaction, we also offer services
designed to increase traffic to our clients online stores
and to improve the sales effectiveness of those stores. Our
services include paid search advertising, search engine
optimization, affiliate marketing, store optimization, and
e-mail optimization.
All of our services are designed to help our clients acquire
customers more effectively, sell to those customers more often
and more efficiently, and increase the lifetime value of each
customer.
Our clients include many of the largest software and high-tech
products companies and major retailers of these products,
including Allume Systems, Inc., Autodesk, Inc., CompUSA, Inc.,
eBay, Inc., Hewlett Packard Company, Lexmark, Inc., McAfee,
Inc., Microsoft Corporation, OfficeMax Incorporated, Nuance
Communications Inc., Symantec Corporation, and Trend Micro, Inc.
Recent Developments
Revenue Guidance
On March 21, 2006, we announced updated guidance for our
quarterly period ending March 31, 2006. We now expect
revenues for the quarter to be approximately $77 million,
compared to our previous guidance of approximately
$70 million of revenues for the same period.
Litigation
DDR Holdings, LLC has brought a claim against us and several
other defendants alleging infringement of United States Patents
No. 6,629,135 and 6,993,572, which are owned by DDR
Holdings. These patents claim
e-commerce outsourcing
systems and methods relating to the provision of outsourced
e-commerce support
pages having a common look and feel with a hosts website.
The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of Texas on January 31, 2006. The
complaint seeks injunctive relief, declaratory
S-1
relief, damages and attorneys fees. No substantive actions
have taken place as yet in this case. We are currently
evaluating our position with respect to these patents and have
not yet answered the complaint. This matter is at a very early
stage, and we are unable to predict its outcome. We intend to
vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.
The statements contained in this Recent Developments
caption include forward-looking statements regarding our
anticipated future financial performance, our inability to
predict the outcome of litigation, and our intent to vigorously
defend ourselves in such litigation. These statements are
subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors, which may cause our actual results, performance or
achievements to differ materially from those expressed or
implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors
include, among others: the variability of operating results;
competition in the
e-commerce market;
challenges associated with international expansion; the risks
and uncertainties of patent litigation, including the risk that
claims of infringement of other parties intellectual
property rights could require us to expend significant
resources, enter into unfavorable licenses or change business
plans; and the risk factors beginning on page S-4 of this
prospectus supplement and the other risk factors referenced in
the our public filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, including our Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2005. In addition, the
forward-looking statement included herein regarding our
anticipated revenues for the first quarter of 2006 reflected our
expectations as of March 20, 2006.
References in the prospectus to Digital River,
we, our or us refer to
Digital River, Inc., a Delaware corporation and its
subsidiaries. Our executive offices are located at
9625 West 76th Street, Suite 150, Eden Prairie,
Minnesota 55344. Our telephone number is
(952) 253-1234.
Information contained on our Web site does not constitute part
of this prospectus.
S-2
THE OFFERING
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Common stock offered by us |
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4,000,000 shares |
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Common stock outstanding after this offering |
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39,473,578 |
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Use of proceeds |
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Our net proceeds from the sale of the shares of common stock to
be offered by this prospectus supplement will be approximately
$172.7 million, after deducting our estimated offering
expenses. We currently intend to use the net proceeds from the
sale of common stock offered by this prospectus supplement for
general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures and
to meet working capital needs. We may also use a portion of the
net proceeds to acquire or invest in businesses, products and
technologies that are complementary to our own. |
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Nasdaq National Market symbol |
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DRIV |
The number of shares of common stock to be outstanding
immediately after this offering is based on
35,473,578 shares of common stock outstanding on
March 21, 2006 and excludes:
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555,748 shares of common stock held by us as treasury
shares; |
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4,401,843 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of
options outstanding as of March 21, 2006, at a weighted
average exercise price of $17.76 per share; |
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2,238,825 shares of common stock reserved for future
issuance under our equity incentive plans as of March 21,
2006; and |
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4,425,486 shares of common stock reserved for issuance upon
conversion of our 1.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2024. |
S-3
RISK FACTORS
You should carefully consider the following risk factors and
other information included or incorporated by reference in this
prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus before you
decide to buy our common stock.
We have a limited profitable operating history.
Our limited profitable operating history, which we first
achieved in the quarter ended September 30, 2002, makes it
difficult to evaluate our ability to sustain profitability in
the future. The success of our business model depends upon our
success in generating sufficient transaction and service fees
from the use of our
e-commerce solutions by
existing and future clients. Accordingly, we must maintain our
existing relationships and develop new relationships with
software publishers, online retailers and physical goods
clients. To achieve this goal, we intend to continue to expend
significant financial and management resources on the
development of additional services, sales and marketing,
improved technology and expanded operations. If we are unable to
maintain existing, and develop new, client relationships, we
will not generate a profitable return on our investments and we
will be unable to gain meaningful market share to justify those
investments. Further, we may be unable to sustain profitability
if our revenues decrease or increase at a slower rate than
expected, or if operating expenses exceed our expectations and
cannot be adjusted to compensate for lower than expected
revenues.
A loss of any client that accounts for a large portion of our
revenue would cause our revenue to decline.
Sales of products for one software publisher client, Symantec
Corporation, accounted for approximately 29.7% of our revenue in
2005. In addition, in 2005, revenues derived from proprietary
Digital River services sold to Symantec end-users and dealer
network sales of Symantec products together amounted to
approximately $31.8 million, or approximately 14.4% of
total Digital River revenue. In addition, a limited number of
other software and physical goods clients contribute a large
portion of our annual revenue. Contracts with our clients are
generally one or two years in length. If any one of these key
contracts is not renewed or otherwise terminates, or if revenues
from these clients decline for any other reason (such as
competitive developments), our revenue would decline and our
ability to sustain profitability would be impaired. If our
contract with Symantec is not renewed or otherwise terminated,
or if revenues from Symantec and Symantec-related services
decline for any other reason, our revenue and our ability to
sustain profitability could be materially adversely impaired. It
is important to our ongoing success that we maintain our key
client relationships and, at the same time, develop new client
relationships.
Failure to properly manage and sustain our expansion efforts
could strain our management and other resources.
Through acquisitions and organic growth, we are rapidly and
significantly expanding our operations, both domestically and
internationally. We will continue to expand further to pursue
growth of our service offerings and customer base. This
expansion increases the complexity of our business and places a
significant strain on our management, operations, technical
performance, financial resources, and internal financial control
and reporting functions, and there can be no assurance that we
will be able to manage it effectively. Our personnel, systems,
procedures and controls may not be adequate to effectively
manage our future operations, especially as we employ personnel
in multiple domestic and international locations. We may not be
able to hire, train, retain and manage the personnel required to
address our growth. Failure to effectively manage our growth
opportunities could damage our reputation, limit our future
growth, negatively affect our operating results and harm our
business.
S-4
We intend to continue to expand our international operations
and these efforts may not be successful in generating additional
revenue.
We sell products and services to end-users outside the United
States and we intend to continue expanding our international
presence. In 2005, our international revenues represented
approximately 39% of our total revenues. Expansion into
international markets, particularly the European and
Asia-Pacific regions, requires significant resources that we may
fail to recover by generating additional revenue. Conducting
business outside of the United States is subject to risks,
including:
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Changes in regulatory requirements and tariffs; |
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Uncertainty of application of local commercial, tax, privacy and
other laws and regulations; |
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Reduced protection of intellectual property rights; |
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Difficulties in physical distribution for international sales; |
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Higher incidences of credit card fraud and difficulties in
accounts receivable collection; |
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The burden and cost of complying with a variety of foreign laws; |
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The possibility of unionization of our workforce outside the
United States, particularly in Europe; and |
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Political or economic constraints on international trade or
instability. |
These risks have grown with the acquisitions of element 5 and
SWReg, which have substantial operations outside the U.S., and
with our expansion into the Asia-Pacific region.
We may be unable to successfully and cost-effectively market,
sell and distribute our services in foreign markets. This may be
more difficult or take longer than anticipated especially due to
international challenges, such as language barriers, currency
exchange issues and the fact that the Internet infrastructure in
foreign countries may be less advanced than the
U.S. Internet infrastructure. If we are unable to
successfully expand our international operations, or manage this
expansion, our operating results and financial condition could
be harmed.
Our operating results are subject to fluctuations in demand
for products and services offered by us or our clients.
Our quarterly and annual operating results are subject to
fluctuations in demand for the products or services offered by
us or our clients, such as anti-virus software and anti-spyware
software. In particular, sales of anti-virus software
represented a significant portion of our revenues in recent
years, and continue to be very important to our business. Demand
for anti-virus software is subject to the unpredictable
introduction of significant computer viruses. In February 2006,
Microsoft Corporation announced plans to introduce products to
protect businesses and consumers from computer viruses and other
security risks. To the extent that Microsoft or others
successfully introduce products or services not sold through our
platform that are competitive with products and services sold by
current Digital River clients (including anti-virus products and
services), our revenues could be materially adversely affected.
New obligations to collect or pay transaction taxes could
substantially increase the cost to us of doing business.
Currently, we collect sales, use, value added tax (VAT) or
other similar transaction taxes with respect to electronic
software download and physical delivery of products in tax
jurisdictions where we believe we have taxable presences. The
application of transaction taxes to interstate and international
sales over the Internet is complex and evolving. We already are
required to collect and remit VAT in the European Union, for
example. Local, state or international jurisdictions may seek to
impose transaction tax collection obligations on companies like
ours that engage in
e-commerce, and they
may seek to impose taxes retroactively on past transactions that
we believed were exempt from transaction tax liability. A
successful assertion by one or
S-5
more tax jurisdictions that we should collect or were obligated
to collect transaction taxes on the products we sell could harm
our results of operations.
We could be liable for fraudulent, improper or illegal uses
of our platforms.
In recent years revenues from our remote control
platforms have grown as a percentage of our overall business,
and we plan to continue to emphasize our self service
e-commerce solutions.
These platforms typically have an automated structure that
allows customers to use our
e-commerce services
without significant participation from Digital River personnel.
Despite our efforts to detect and contractually prohibit the
sale of inappropriate and illegal goods and services, the remote
control nature of these platforms makes it more likely that
transactions involving the sale of unlawful goods or services or
the violation of the proprietary rights of others may occur
before we become aware of them. Furthermore, unscrupulous
individuals may offer illegal products for sale via such
platforms under innocuous names, further frustrating attempts to
prevent inappropriate use of our services. Failure to detect
inappropriate or illegal uses of our platforms by third parties
could expose us to a number of risks, including fines, increased
fees or termination of services by payment processors or credit
card associations, risks of lawsuits, and civil and criminal
penalties.
Loss of our credit card acceptance privileges would seriously
hamper our ability to process the sale of merchandise.
The payment by end-users for the purchase of digital goods that
we process is typically made by credit card or similar payment
method. As a result, we must rely on banks or payment processors
to process transactions, and must pay a fee for this service.
From time to time, credit card associations may increase the
interchange fees that they charge for each transaction using one
of their cards. Any such increased fees will increase our
operating costs and reduce our profit margins. We also are
required by our processors to comply with credit card
association operating rules, and we have agreed to reimburse our
processors for any fines they are assessed by credit card
associations as a result of processing payments for us. The
credit card associations and their member banks set and
interpret the credit card rules. Visa, MasterCard, American
Express, or Discover could adopt new operating rules or
re-interpret existing rules that we or our processors might find
difficult to follow. We have had payment processing agreements
with certain of our payment processors terminated due to
violations of their rules, and although we have been able to
successfully migrate to new processors, such migrations require
significant attention from our personnel, and often result in
higher fees and customer dissatisfaction. Any disputes or
problems associated with our payment processors could impair our
ability to give customers the option of using credit cards to
fund their payments. If we were unable to accept credit cards,
our business would be seriously damaged. We also could be
subject to fines or increased fees from MasterCard and Visa if
we fail to detect that merchants are engaging in activities that
are illegal or activities that are considered high
risk, primarily the sale of certain types of digital
content. We may be required to expend significant capital and
other resources to monitor these activities.
Our failure to attract and retain software and digital
products publishers, manufacturers, online retailers and online
channel partners as clients would cause our revenue and
operating profits to decline.
We generate revenue by providing outsourced services to a wide
variety of companies, primarily in the software and high-tech
products markets. If we cannot develop and maintain satisfactory
relationships with software and digital products publishers,
manufacturers, online retailers and online channel partners on
acceptable commercial terms, we will likely experience a decline
in revenue and operating profit. We also depend on our software
and digital publisher clients creating and supporting software
and digital products that end-users will purchase. If we are
unable to obtain sufficient quantities of software and digital
products for any reason, or if the quality of service provided
by these software and digital products publishers falls below a
satisfactory level, we could also experience a decline in
revenue, operating profit and end-user satisfaction, and our
reputation could be harmed. Our contracts with our software and
digital products publisher clients are generally one to two
years in duration, with an automatic renewal provision for
additional one-year periods,
S-6
unless we are provided with a written notice at least
90 days before the end of the contract. As is common in our
industry, we have no material long-term or exclusive contracts
or arrangements with any software or digital products publishers
that guarantee the availability of software or digital products.
Software and digital products publishers that currently supply
software or digital products to us may not continue to do so and
we may be unable to establish new relationships with software or
digital product publishers to supplement or replace existing
relationships.
Implementing our acquisition strategy could result in
dilution and operating difficulties leading to a decline in
revenue and operating profit.
We have acquired, and intend to continue engaging in strategic
acquisitions of businesses, technologies, services and products.
For example, in April 2004, we acquired element 5, and in
December 2005, we acquired Commerce5, each a provider of
outsourced e-commerce
solutions. The process of integrating an acquired business,
technology, service or product into our business and operations
may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and
expenditures. Integration of an acquired business also may
disrupt our ongoing business, distract management and make it
difficult to maintain standards, controls and procedures.
Moreover, the anticipated benefits of any acquisition may not be
realized. If a significant number of clients of the acquired
businesses cease doing business with us, we would experience
lost revenue and operating profit, and any synergies from the
acquisition may be lost. Future acquisitions could result in
potentially dilutive issuances of equity securities, the
incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities, amortization of
intangible assets or impairment of goodwill.
We may need to raise additional capital to achieve our
business objectives, which could result in dilution to existing
investors or increase our debt obligations.
We require substantial working capital to fund our business. In
addition to the equity or debt securities that will remain
available for issuance and sale by us after this offering under
the registration statement to which this prospectus supplement
relates, we have filed an acquisition shelf registration
statement for up to approximately 1.5 million shares. In
February 2006, we also filed a shelf registration that would
allow us to sell an undetermined amount of equity or debt
securities in accordance with the recently approved rules
applying to well-known seasoned issuers. If
additional funds are raised through the issuance of equity
securities, the percentage ownership of our stockholders will be
reduced and these equity securities may have rights, preferences
or privileges senior to those of our common stock. In June 2004,
we issued 1.25% convertible notes which require us to make
interest payments and will require us to pay principal when the
notes become due in 2024 or in the event of acceleration under
certain circumstances, unless the notes are converted into our
common stock prior to that. We may not have sufficient capital
to service this or any future debt securities that we may issue,
and the conversion of the notes into our common stock may result
in further dilution to our stockholders. Our capital
requirements depend on several factors, including the rate of
market acceptance of our products, the ability to expand our
client base, the growth of sales and marketing, and
opportunities for acquisitions of other businesses. We have had
significant operating losses and negative cash flow from
operations since inception. Additional financing may not be
available when needed, on terms favorable to us or at all. If
adequate funds are not available or are not available on
acceptable terms, we may be unable to develop or enhance our
services, take advantage of future opportunities or respond to
competitive pressures, which would harm our operating results
and adversely affect our ability to sustain profitability.
Our operating results have fluctuated in the past and are
likely to continue to do so, which could cause the price of our
common stock to be volatile.
Our quarterly and annual operating results have fluctuated
significantly in the past and are likely to continue to do so in
the future due to a variety of factors, some of which are
outside our control. As a result, we believe that
quarter-to-quarter and
year-to-year
comparisons of our revenue and operating results are not
necessarily meaningful, and that these comparisons may not be
accurate indicators of future performance. If our annual or
quarterly operating results fail to meet the guidance we provide
to securities analysts and
S-7
investors or otherwise fail to meet their expectations, the
trading price of our common stock will likely decline. Some of
the factors that have or may contribute to fluctuations in our
quarterly and annual operating results include:
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The addition of new clients or loss of current clients; |
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The introduction by us of new websites, web stores or services
that may require a substantial investment of our resources; |
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The introduction by others of competitive websites, web stores
or services or products; |
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Our ability to continue to upgrade and develop our systems and
infrastructure to meet emerging market needs and remain
competitive in our service offerings; |
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Economic conditions, particularly those affecting
e-commerce; |
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Client decisions to delay new product launches or to invest in
e-commerce initiatives; |
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The performance of our newly acquired assets or companies; |
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Slower than anticipated growth of the online market as a vehicle
for the purchase of software products; |
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The cost of compliance with U.S. and foreign regulations
relating to our business; and |
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Our ability to retain and attract personnel commensurate with
our business needs. |
In addition, revenue generated by our software and digital
commerce services is likely to fluctuate on a seasonal basis
that is typical for the software publishing market in general.
We believe that our first and fourth quarters are generally
seasonally stronger than our second and third quarters due to
the timing of new product introductions, which generally do not
occur in the summer months, the holiday selling period, and the
post-holiday retail season.
Our operating expenses are based on our expectations of future
revenue. These expenses are relatively fixed in the short-term.
If our revenue for a quarter falls below our expectations and we
are unable to quickly reduce spending in response, our operating
results for that quarter would be harmed. In addition, the
operating results of companies in the electronic commerce
industry have, in the past, experienced significant
quarter-to-quarter
fluctuations that may adversely affect our stock price.
Security breaches could hinder our ability to securely
transmit confidential information.
A significant barrier to
e-commerce and
communications is the secure transmission of confidential
information over public networks. Any compromise or elimination
of our security could be costly to remedy, damage our reputation
and expose us to liability, and dissuade existing and new
clients from using our services. We rely on encryption and
authentication technology licensed from third parties to provide
the security and authentication necessary for secure
transmission of confidential information, such as end-user
credit card numbers. A party who circumvents our security
measures could misappropriate proprietary information or
interrupt our operations.
We may be required to expend significant capital and other
resources to protect against security breaches or address
problems caused by breaches. Concerns over the security of the
Internet and other online transactions and the privacy of users
could deter people from using the Internet to conduct
transactions that involve transmitting confidential information,
thereby inhibiting the growth of our business. To the extent
that our activities or those of third-party contractors involve
the storage and transmission of proprietary information, such as
credit card numbers, security breaches could damage our
reputation and expose us to a risk of loss, fines or litigation
and possible liability. Our security measures may not prevent
security breaches, and failure to prevent security breaches
could lead to a loss of existing clients and also deter
potential clients away from our services.
S-8
Claims of infringement of other parties intellectual
property rights could require us to expend significant
resources, enter into unfavorable licenses or require us to
change our business plans.
From time-to-time we
are named as a defendant in lawsuits claiming that we have, in
some way, violated the intellectual property rights of others.
Any assertions or prosecutions of claims like these, could
require us to expend significant financial and managerial
resources. The defense of any claims, with or without merit,
could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation and
diversion of technical and management personnel, cause product
enhancement delays or require that we develop non-infringing
technology or enter into royalty or licensing agreements.
Royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may be unavailable
on terms acceptable to us or at all. In the event of a
successful claim of infringement against us and our failure or
inability to develop non-infringing technology or license the
infringed or similar technology on a timely basis, we may be
unable to pursue our current business plan. We expect that we
will increasingly be subject to patent infringement claims as
our services expand in scope and complexity, and our results of
operation and financial condition could be materially adversely
affected.
Claims against us related to the software products that we
deliver electronically and the tangible goods that we deliver
physically could require us to expend significant resources.
We may become more vulnerable to third party claims as laws such
as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Lanham Act and the
Communications Decency Act are interpreted by the courts. Claims
may be made against us for negligence, copyright or trademark
infringement, products liability or other theories based on the
nature and content of software products or tangible goods that
we deliver electronically and physically. Because we did not
create these products, we are generally not in a position to
know the quality or nature of the content of these products.
Although we carry general liability insurance and require that
our customers indemnify us against end-user claims, our
insurance and indemnification measures may not cover potential
claims of this type, may not adequately cover all costs incurred
in defense of potential claims, or may not reimburse us for all
liability that may be imposed. Any costs or imposition of
liability that are not covered by insurance or indemnification
measures could be expensive and time-consuming to address,
distract management and delay product deliveries, even if we are
ultimately successful in the defense of these claims.
The growth of the market for our services depends on the
development and maintenance of the Internet infrastructure.
Our business is based on highly reliable Internet delivery of
services. The success of our business therefore depends on the
development and maintenance of a sound Internet infrastructure.
This includes maintenance of a reliable network backbone with
the necessary speed, data capacity and security, as well as
timely development of complementary products, such as routers,
for providing reliable Internet access and services. Our ability
to increase the speed and scope of our services is limited by,
and depends upon, the speed and reliability of both the Internet
and our clients internal networks. Consequently, as
Internet usage increases, the growth of the market for our
services depends upon improvements made to the Internet as well
as to individual clients networking infrastructures to
alleviate overloading and congestion. In addition, any delays in
the adoption of new standards and protocols required to govern
increased levels of Internet activity or increased governmental
regulation may have a detrimental effect on the Internet
infrastructure.
Because the
e-commerce industry is
highly competitive and has low barriers to entry, we may be
unable to compete effectively.
The market for
e-commerce solutions is
extremely competitive and we may find ourselves unable to
compete effectively. Because there are relatively low barriers
to entry in the
e-commerce market, we
expect continued intense competition as current competitors
expand their product offerings and new competitors enter the
market. In addition, our clients may become competitors in the
future. Increased competition is likely to result in price
reductions, reduced margins, longer sales cycles and a decrease
or loss of our market
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share, any of which could negatively impact our revenue and
earnings. We face competition from the following sources:
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In-house development of
e-commerce capabilities
using tools or applications from companies, such as Art
Technology Group, Inc. and IBM Corporation; |
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E-Commerce capabilities custom-developed by companies, such as
IBM Global Services and Accenture, Inc.; |
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Other providers of outsourced
e-commerce solutions,
such as GSI Commerce, Inc., Macrovision Corporation, asknet Inc.
and eSellerate, Inc.; |
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Companies that provide technologies, services or products that
support a portion of the
e-commerce process,
such as payment processing, including CyberSource Corporation
and PayPal Corp.; |
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Companies that offer various online marketing services,
technologies and products, including ValueClick, Inc. and
aQuantive, Inc.; |
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High-traffic, branded websites that generate a substantial
portion of their revenue from
e-commerce and may
offer or provide to others the means to offer their products for
sale, such as Amazon.com, Inc.; and |
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Web hosting, web services and infrastructure companies that
offer portions of our solution and are seeking to expand the
range of their offering, such as Network Solutions, LLC, Akamai
Technologies, Inc., Yahoo! Inc., eBay Inc. and Hostopia.com Inc. |
We believe that the principal competitive factors in our market
are the breadth of products and services offered, the number of
clients and online channel partnerships, brand recognition,
system reliability and scalability, price, customer service,
ease of use, speed to market, convenience and quality of
delivery. The online channel partners and the other companies
described above may compete directly with us by adopting a
similar business model. Moreover, while some of these companies
also are clients or potential clients of ours, they may compete
with our e-commerce
outsourcing solution to the extent that they develop
e-commerce systems or
acquire such systems from other software vendors or service
providers.
Many of our competitors have, and new potential competitors may
have, more experience developing Internet-based software and
e-commerce solutions,
larger technical staffs, larger customer bases, more established
distribution channels and customer relationships, greater brand
recognition and greater financial, marketing and other resources
than we have. In addition, competitors may be able to develop
services that are superior to our services, achieve greater
customer acceptance or have significantly improved functionality
as compared to our existing and future products and services.
Our competitors may be able to respond more quickly to
technological developments and changes in customers needs.
Our inability to compete successfully against current and future
competitors could cause our revenue and earnings to decline.
Changes in government regulation could limit our Internet
activities or result in additional costs of doing business over
the Internet.
We are subject to the same international, federal, state and
local laws as other companies conducting business over the
Internet. Today, there are relatively few laws specifically
directed towards conducting business over the Internet. The
adoption or modification of laws related to the Internet could
harm our business, operating results and financial condition by
increasing our costs and administrative burdens. Due to the
increasing popularity and use of the Internet, many laws and
regulations relating to the Internet are being debated at the
international, federal and state levels. These laws and
regulations could cover issues such as:
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User privacy with respect to adults and minors; |
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Our ability to collect and/or share necessary information that
allows us to conduct business on the Internet; |
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Export compliance; |
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Pricing and taxation; |
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Fraud; |
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Advertising; |
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Intellectual property rights; |
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Information security; and |
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Quality of products and services. |
Applicability to the Internet of existing laws governing issues,
such as property ownership, copyrights and other intellectual
property issues, taxation, libel, obscenity and personal privacy
also could harm our operating results and substantially increase
the cost to us of doing business. For example, numerous state
legislatures have proposed that tax rules for Internet retailing
and catalog sales correspond to enacted tax rules for sales from
physical stores. Any requirement that we collect sales tax for
each online purchase and remit the tax to the appropriate state
authority would be a significant administrative burden to us,
and would likely depress online sales. This and any other change
in laws applicable to the Internet also might require
significant management resources to respond appropriately. The
vast majority of these laws were adopted prior to the advent of
the Internet, and do not contemplate or address the unique
issues raised thereby. Those laws that do reference the
Internet, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, are only
beginning to be interpreted by the courts, and their
applicability and reach are therefore uncertain.
Failure to develop our technology to accommodate increased
traffic could reduce demand for our services and impair the
growth of our business.
We periodically enhance and expand our technology and
transaction-processing systems, network infrastructure and other
technologies to accommodate increases in the volume of traffic
on our technology platforms. Any inability to add software and
hardware or to develop and upgrade existing technology,
transaction-processing systems or network infrastructure to
manage increased traffic on this platform may cause
unanticipated systems disruptions, slower response times and
degradation in client services, including impaired quality and
speed of order fulfillment. Failure to manage increased traffic
could harm our reputation and significantly reduce demand for
our services, which would impair the growth of our business. We
may be unable to improve and increase the capacity of our
network infrastructure sufficiently or anticipate and react to
expected increases in the use of the platform to handle
increased volume. Further, additional network capacity may not
be available from third-party suppliers when we need it. Our
network and our suppliers networks may be unable to
maintain an acceptable data transmission capability, especially
if demands on the platform increase.
To remain competitive, we must continue to enhance and improve
the responsiveness, functionality and features of our
e-commerce platforms
and the underlying network infrastructure. If we incur
significant costs without adequate results, or are unable to
adapt rapidly to technological changes, we may fail to achieve
our business plan. The Internet and the
e-commerce industry are
characterized by rapid technological changes, changes in user
and client requirements and preferences, frequent new product
and service introductions embodying new technologies and the
emergence of new industry standards and practices that could
render our technology and systems obsolete. To be successful, we
must adapt to rapid technological changes by licensing and
internally developing leading technologies to enhance our
existing services, developing new products, services and
technologies that address the increasingly sophisticated and
varied needs of our clients, and responding to technological
advances and emerging industry standards and practices on a
cost-effective and timely basis. The development of our
proprietary technologies involves significant technical and
business risks. We may fail to use new technologies effectively
or fail to adapt our proprietary technology and systems to
client requirements or emerging industry standards.
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System failures could reduce the attractiveness of our
service offerings.
We provide commerce, marketing and delivery services to our
clients and end-users through our proprietary technology
transaction processing and client management systems. These
systems also maintain an electronic inventory of products and
gather consumer marketing information. The satisfactory
performance, reliability and availability of the technology and
the underlying network infrastructure are critical to our
operations, level of client service, reputation and ability to
attract and retain clients. We have experienced periodic
interruptions, affecting all or a portion of our systems, which
we believe will continue to occur from
time-to-time. Any
systems damage or interruption that impairs our ability to
accept and fill client orders could result in an immediate loss
of revenue to us, and could cause some clients to purchase
services offered by our competitors. In addition, frequent
systems failures could harm our reputation.
Although we maintain system redundancies in multiple physical
locations, our systems and operations are vulnerable to damage
or interruption from:
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Fire, flood and other natural disasters; |
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Operator negligence, improper operation by, or supervision of,
employees, physical and electronic break-ins, misappropriation,
computer viruses and similar events; and |
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Power loss, computer systems failures, and Internet and
telecommunications failure. |
We do not carry sufficient business interruption insurance to
fully compensate us for losses that may occur.
We may become liable to clients who are dissatisfied with our
services.
We design, develop, implement and manage
e-commerce solutions
that are crucial to the operation of our clients
businesses. Defects in the solutions we develop could result in
delayed or lost revenue, adverse end-user reaction, and/or
negative publicity, which could require expensive corrections.
As a result, clients who experience these adverse consequences
either directly or indirectly by using our services could bring
claims against us for substantial damages. Any claims asserted
could exceed the level of any insurance coverage that may be
available to us. The successful assertion of one or more large
claims that are uninsured, that exceed insurance coverage or
that result in changes to insurance policies, including future
premium increases that could adversely affect our operating
results or financial condition.
We depend on key personnel.
Our future success significantly depends on the continued
services and performance of our senior management. Our
performance also depends on our ability to retain and motivate
our key technical employees who are skilled in maintaining our
proprietary technology platforms. The loss of the services of
any of our executive officers or key employees could harm our
business if we are unable to effectively replace that officer or
employee, or if that person should decide to join a competitor
or otherwise directly or indirectly compete with us. Further, we
may need to incur additional operating expenses and divert other
management time in order to search for a replacement.
Our future success depends on our ability to continue to
identify, attract, hire, train, retain and motivate highly
skilled personnel. Competition for these personnel is intense,
particularly in the Internet industry. We may be unable to
successfully attract, assimilate or retain sufficiently
qualified personnel. In making employment decisions,
particularly in the Internet and high-technology industries, job
candidates often consider the value of stock option grants they
are to receive in connection with their employment. Fluctuations
in our stock price may make it more difficult to retain and
motivate employees. Consequently, potential employees may
perceive our equity incentives as less attractive and current
employees whose equity incentives are no longer attractively
priced may choose not to remain with our organization. In that
case, our ability to attract employees will be adversely
affected. As a result, our ability to use stock options as
equity incentives will be adversely affected, which will make it
more difficult to compete for and attract qualified
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personnel. Finally, should our stock price substantially
decline, the retention value of stock options may weaken and
employees who hold such options may choose not to remain with
our organization.
Protecting our intellectual property is critical to our
success.
We regard the protection of our trademarks, copyrights, trade
secrets and other intellectual property as critical to our
success. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright,
trademark, service mark and trade secret laws and contractual
restrictions to protect our proprietary rights. We have entered
into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with
our employees and contractors, and nondisclosure agreements with
parties with whom we conduct business, in order to limit access
to and disclosure of our proprietary information. These
contractual arrangements and the other steps taken by us to
protect our intellectual property may not prevent
misappropriation of our technology or deter independent
third-party development of similar technologies. We also seek to
protect our proprietary position by filing U.S. patent
applications related to our proprietary technology, inventions
and improvements that are important to the development of our
business. Proprietary rights relating to our technologies will
be protected from unauthorized use by third parties only to the
extent they are covered by valid and enforceable patents or are
effectively maintained as trade secrets. We pursue the
registration of our trademarks and service marks in the U.S. and
internationally. Effective trademark, service mark, copyright
and trade secret protection may not be available in every
country in which our services are made available online.
The steps we have taken to protect our proprietary rights may be
inadequate and third parties may infringe or misappropriate our
trade secrets, trademarks and similar proprietary rights. Any
significant failure on our part to protect our intellectual
property could make it easier for our competitors to offer
similar services and thereby adversely affect our market
opportunities. In addition, litigation may be necessary in the
future to enforce our intellectual property rights, to protect
our trade secrets or to determine the validity and scope of the
proprietary rights of others. Litigation could result in
substantial costs and diversion of management and technical
resources.
Our clients sales cycles are lengthy, which may cause
us to incur substantial expenses and expend management time
without generating corresponding consumer revenue, which would
impair our cash flow.
We market our services directly to software publishers, online
retailers and other prospective customers outside of the
software industry. These relationships are typically complex and
take time to finalize. Due to operating procedures in many
organizations, a significant amount of time may pass between
selection of our products and services by key decision-makers
and the signing of a contract. The period between the initial
client sales call and the signing of a contract with significant
sales potential is difficult to predict and typically ranges
from six to twelve months. If at the end of a sales effort a
prospective client does not purchase our products or services,
we may have incurred substantial expenses and expended
management time that cannot be recovered and that will not
generate corresponding revenue. As a result, our cash flow and
our ability to fund expenditures incurred during the sales cycle
may be impaired.
The listing of our network addresses on anti-SPAM lists could
harm our ability to service our clients and deliver goods over
the Internet.
Certain privacy and anti-email proponents have engaged in a
practice of gathering, and publicly listing, network addresses
that they believe have been involved in sending unwanted,
unsolicited emails commonly known as SPAM. In response to user
complaints about SPAM, Internet service providers have from
time-to-time blocked
such network addresses from sending emails to their users. If
our network addresses mistakenly end up on these SPAM lists, our
ability to provide services for our clients and consummate the
sales of digital and physical goods over the Internet could be
harmed.
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We are subject to regulations relating to consumer
privacy.
We collect and maintain end-user data for our clients, which
subjects us to increasing international, federal and state
regulations related to online privacy and the use of personal
user information. Congress has enacted anti-SPAM legislation
with which we must comply when providing email campaigns for our
clients. Legislation and regulations are pending in various
domestic and international governmental bodies that address
online privacy protections. Several governments have proposed,
and some have enacted, legislation that would limit the use of
personal user information or require online services to
establish privacy policies. In addition, the U.S. Federal
Trade Commission, or FTC, has urged Congress to adopt
legislation regarding the collection and use of personal
identifying information obtained from individuals when accessing
websites. In the past, the emphasis has been on information
obtained from minors. Focus has now shifted to include online
privacy protection for minors and adults.
Even in the absence of laws requiring companies to establish
these procedures, the FTC has settled several proceedings
resulting in consent decrees in which Internet companies have
been required to establish programs regarding the manner in
which personal information is collected from users and provided
to third parties. We could become a party to a similar
enforcement proceeding. These regulatory and enforcement efforts
could limit our collection of and/or ability to share with our
clients demographic and personal information from end-users,
which could adversely affect our ability to comprehensively
serve our clients.
The European Union has adopted a privacy directive that
regulates the collection and use of information that identifies
an individual person. These regulations may inhibit or prohibit
the collection and sharing of personal information in ways that
could harm our clients or us. The globalization of Internet
commerce may be harmed by these and similar regulations because
the European Union privacy directive prohibits transmission of
personal information outside the European Union. The United
States and the European Union have negotiated an agreement
providing a safe harbor for those companies who
agree to comply with the principles set forth by the
U.S. Department of Commerce and agreed to by the European
Union. Failure to comply with these principles may result in
fines, private lawsuits and enforcement actions. These
enforcement actions can include interruption or shutdown of
operations relating to the collection and sharing of information
pertaining to citizens of the European Union.
Compliance with future laws imposed on
e-commerce may
substantially increase our costs of doing business or otherwise
adversely affect our ability to offer our services.
Because our services are accessible worldwide, and we facilitate
sales of products to end-users worldwide, international
jurisdictions may claim that we are required to comply with
their laws. Laws regulating Internet companies outside of the
United States may be less favorable than those in the United
States, giving greater rights to consumers, content owners and
users. Compliance may be more costly or may require us to change
our business practices or restrict our service offerings
relative to those provided in the United States. Any failure to
comply with foreign laws could subject us to penalties ranging
from fines to bans on our ability to offer our services.
As our services are available over the Internet in multiple
states and foreign countries, these jurisdictions may claim that
we are required to qualify to do business as a foreign
corporation in each state or foreign country. We and/or our
subsidiaries are qualified to do business only in certain
states. Failure to qualify as a foreign corporation in a
required jurisdiction could subject us to taxes and penalties
and could result in our inability to enforce contracts in these
jurisdictions.
In addition, we are subject to United States laws governing the
conduct of business with other countries, such as export control
laws, which prohibit or restrict the export of goods, services
and technology to designated countries, denied persons or denied
entities from the United States. Violation of these laws could
result in fines or other actions by regulatory agencies and
result in increased costs of doing business and reduced profits.
In addition, any significant changes in these laws, particularly
an expansion in export control laws, will increase our costs of
compliance and may further restrict our overseas client base.
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We are exposed to foreign currency exchange risk.
Net revenues outside the United States accounted for
approximately 39% of our net revenues in 2005. The results of
operations of, and certain of our intercompany balances
associated with, our internationally-focused websites are
exposed to foreign exchange rate fluctuations. Upon translation,
net sales and other operating results from our international
operations may differ materially from expectations, and we may
record significant gains or losses on the remeasurement of
intercompany balances. If the U.S. dollar weakens against
foreign currencies, the translation of these
foreign-currency-denominated transactions will result in
increased net revenues and operating expenses. Similarly, our
net revenues and operating expenses will decrease if the
U.S. dollar strengthens against foreign currencies. As we
have expanded our international operations, our exposure to
exchange rate fluctuations has become more pronounced. We do not
currently have a currency hedging program to mitigate the effect
of fluctuations of currency prices on our financial results. See
Item 7A of Part II of our Annual Report on
Form 10-K (and
incorporated by reference into this prospectus supplement), for
information demonstrating the effect on our consolidated
statements of operations from changes in exchange rates versus
the U.S. dollar.
Developments in accounting standards may cause us to increase
our recorded expenses, which in turn would jeopardize our
ability to demonstrate sustained profitability.
In January 2002, we adopted Statement of Financial Accounting
Standard No. 142, Goodwill and Other Intangible
Assets (SFAS No. 142). The statement generally
establishes that goodwill and intangible assets with indefinite
lives are not amortized, but are to be tested on an annual basis
for impairment and, if impaired, are recorded as an impairment
charge in income from operations. As of December 31, 2005,
we had goodwill with an indefinite life of $195.3 million
from our acquisitions. If our goodwill is determined for any
reason to be impaired, the subsequent accounting of the impaired
portion as an expense would lower our earnings and jeopardize
our ability to demonstrate sustained profitability.
In 2004, the Financial Accounting Standards Board adopted a
proposal to require that the fair value of stock options and
other share-based payments be reflected as an expense item in
the financial statements of public companies for annual periods
beginning after June 15, 2005. As a result of the adoption
of this proposal, our recorded non-cash expenses will
significantly increase in 2006, which could impair our ability
to maintain profitability.
Compliance with changing regulation of corporate governance
and public disclosure may result in additional expenses.
Keeping abreast of, and in compliance with, changing laws,
regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and
public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, new
SEC regulations and the NASDAQ Stock Market rules, have required
an increased amount of management attention and external
resources. We intend to invest all reasonably necessary
resources to comply with evolving corporate governance and
public disclosure standards, and this investment may result in
increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of
management time and attention from revenue-generating activities
to compliance activities.
Internet-related stock prices are especially volatile and
this volatility may depress our stock price or cause it to
fluctuate significantly.
The stock market, and the trading prices of Internet-related
companies in particular, have been notably volatile. This
volatility is likely to continue in the short-term and is not
necessarily related to the operating performance of affected
companies. This broad market and industry volatility could
significantly reduce the price of our common stock at any time,
without regard to our operating performance. Factors that could
cause our stock price in particular to fluctuate include, but
are not limited to:
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Actual or anticipated variations in quarterly operating results; |
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Announcements of technological innovations; |
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The ability to sign new clients and the retention of existing
clients; |
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New products or services that we offer; |
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Competitive developments, including new products or services, or
new relationships by our competitors; |
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Changes that affect our clients or the viability of their
product lines; |
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Changes in financial estimates by securities analysts; |
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Conditions or trends in the Internet and online commerce
industries; |
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Global unrest and terrorist activities; |
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Changes in the economic performance and/or market valuations of
other Internet or online
e-commerce companies; |
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Required changes in generally accepted accounting principles and
disclosures; |
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Our announcement of significant acquisitions, strategic
partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments or results
of operations or other developments related to those
acquisitions; |
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Additions or departures of key personnel; and |
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Sales or other transactions involving our common stock or our
convertible notes. |
In addition, our stock price may be impacted by the short sales
and actions of other parties who may disseminate misleading
information about us in an effort to profit from fluctuations in
our stock price.
Provisions of our charter documents, other agreements and
Delaware law may inhibit potential acquisition bids for us.
Certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of
incorporation, bylaws, other agreements and Delaware law could
make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if
a change in control would be beneficial to our stockholders.
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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
In addition to the historical information contained in this
prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, this
prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus contain
forward-looking statements within the meaning of
Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These
statements may be identified by the use of words such as
expects, anticipates,
intends, plans and similar expressions.
These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties
and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance
or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different
from any future results, performance or achievements, or
industry results, expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. The sections entitled Risk Factors
beginning on
page S-4 of this
prospectus supplement, and Managements Discussion
and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations and Business in our Annual Report
on Form 10-K for
the year ended December 31, 2005 contain a discussion of
some of the factors that could contribute to those differences.
USE OF PROCEEDS
Our net proceeds from the sale of the shares of common stock to
be offered by this prospectus supplement will be approximately
$172.7 million, after deducting our estimated offering
expenses.
We currently intend to use the net proceeds from the sale of
common stock offered by this prospectus supplement for general
corporate purposes, including capital expenditures and to meet
working capital needs. We may also use a portion of the net
proceeds to acquire or invest in businesses, products and
technologies that are complementary to our own. Pending such
uses, we may invest the net proceeds in interest-bearing
securities.
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DESCRIPTION OF CAPITAL STOCK
Our authorized capital stock consists of 60,000,000 shares
of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, and
5,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value
$0.01 per share. As of March 21, 2006, there were
35,473,578 shares of our common stock issued and
outstanding, and no shares of preferred stock issued or
outstanding. The number of shares of common stock outstanding as
of March 21, 2006 excludes:
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555,748 shares of common stock held by us as treasury
shares; |
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4,401,843 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of
options outstanding as of March 21, 2006, at a weighted
average exercise price of $17.76 per share; |
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2,238,825 shares of common stock reserved for future
issuance under our equity incentive plans as of March 21,
2006; and |
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4,425,486 shares of common stock reserved for issuance upon
conversion of our 1.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2024. |
Common Stock
The holders of common stock are entitled to one vote for each
share held of record on all matters submitted to a vote of the
stockholders. Subject to preferences that may be applicable to
any outstanding shares of preferred stock, the holders of common
stock are entitled to receive ratably any dividends declared by
the board of directors out of legally available funds. In the
event of a liquidation, dissolution or winding up of our
company, holders of the common stock are entitled to share
ratably in all assets remaining after payment of liabilities and
the liquidation preferences of any outstanding shares of
preferred stock. Holders of common stock have no preemptive
rights and no right to convert their common stock into any other
securities. There are no redemption or sinking fund provisions
applicable to the common stock. All of our outstanding shares of
common stock are, and all of the shares of common stock offered
by this prospectus as well as all of the shares of our common
stock issuable upon the conversion of our outstanding
convertible notes and upon the conversion of any preferred stock
or debt securities offered pursuant to this prospectus, when
issued and paid for, will be, fully paid and non-assessable.
Preferred Stock
Pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of
incorporation, our board of directors has the authority, without
further action by the stockholders, to issue up to
5,000,000 shares of preferred stock in one or more series
and to fix the designations, powers, preferences, privileges and
relative participating, optional or special rights and the
qualifications, limitations or restrictions thereof, including
dividend rights, conversion rights, voting rights, terms of
redemption and liquidation preferences, any or all of which may
be greater than the rights of the common stock.
The issuance of preferred stock could adversely affect the
voting power of holders of our common stock, and the likelihood
that holders of preferred stock will receive dividend payments
and payments upon liquidation may have the effect of delaying,
deferring or preventing a change in control of us, which could
depress the market price of our common stock and securities
convertible into our common stock.
Antitakeover Effects of Provisions of Charter Documents and
Delaware Law
Charter Documents. Our amended and restated certificate
of incorporation and bylaws include a number of provisions that
may have the effect of deterring hostile takeovers or delaying
or preventing changes in control or management of our company.
First, our certificate of incorporation provides for a
classified board of directors in which only
approximately one third of the directors are elected at each
annual meeting of stockholders. Our certificate of incorporation
also provides that all stockholder action must be effected at a
duly called meeting of stockholders and not by a consent in
writing. Further, our bylaws limit who may call special meetings
of the stockholders. Our certificate of incorporation does not
include a provision for cumulative voting for directors. Under
cumulative voting, a minority stockholder holding a
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sufficient percentage of a class of shares may be able to ensure
the election of one or more directors. Finally, our bylaws
establish procedures, including advance notice procedures, with
regard to the nomination of candidates for election as directors
and stockholder proposals. These and other provisions of our
certificate of incorporation and bylaws and Delaware law could
discourage potential acquisition proposals and could delay or
prevent a change in control or management of our company.
Delaware Takeover Statute. We are subject to the
provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General
Corporation Law. In general, the statute prohibits a publicly
held Delaware corporation from engaging in a business
combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three
years after the date of the transaction in which the person
became an interested stockholder, unless the business
combination is approved in a prescribed manner. For purposes of
Section 203, a business combination includes a merger,
asset sale or other transaction resulting in a financial benefit
to the interested stockholder, and an interested stockholder is
a person who, together with affiliates and associates, owns, or
within three years prior, did own, 15% or more of the
corporations voting stock.
These and other provisions of our certificate and bylaws and
Delaware law could discourage potential acquisition proposals
and could delay or prevent a change in control or management of
our company.
Transfer Agent and Registrar
Wells Fargo Shareowner Services is the transfer agent and
registrar for our common stock.
S-19
UNDERWRITING
We have entered into an underwriting agreement with Credit
Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, pursuant to which we will sell
to Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC all of the shares of
common stock offered by this prospectus supplement.
The underwriting agreement provides that the obligation of
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC to purchase the shares
offered hereby is subject to certain conditions and that Credit
Suisse Securities (USA) LLC is obligated to purchase all of
the shares of common stock offered hereby if any of the shares
are purchased.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC proposes to offer the
shares of common stock from time to time for sale in one or more
transactions on the Nasdaq National Market, in the
over-the-counter
market, through negotiated transactions or otherwise at market
prices prevailing at the time of sale, at prices related to
prevailing market prices or at negotiated prices, subject to
receipt and acceptance by it and subject to its right to reject
any order in whole or in part. In connection with the sale of
the shares of common stock offered hereby, Credit Suisse
Securities (USA) LLC may be deemed to have received
compensation in the form of underwriting discounts. Credit
Suisse Securities (USA) LLC may effect such transactions by
selling shares of common stock to or through dealers, and such
dealers may receive compensation in the form of discounts,
concessions or commissions from Credit Suisse Securities
(USA) LLC and/or purchasers of shares of common stock for
whom they may act as agents or to whom they may sell as
principal.
We will bear the expenses of this offering, which are estimated
to be approximately $350,000.
We have agreed to indemnify the underwriters against liabilities
under the Securities Act or to contribute to payments the
underwriters may be required to make in that respect.
We have agreed and our directors and executive officers agreed,
subject to certain of our executive officers and directors being
able to sell an aggregate of 360,000 shares of our common
stock and certain other limited exceptions, not to, without the
prior written consent of Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC
directly or indirectly, offer, pledge, sell, contract to sell,
sell any option or contract to purchase, purchase any option or
contract to sell, grant any option, right or warrant to purchase
or otherwise transfer or dispose of any shares of our common
stock or other capital stock or any securities convertible into
or exercisable or exchangeable for our common stock or other
capital stock or enter into any swap or other agreement or
transaction that transfers, in whole or in part, directly or
indirectly, the economic consequences of ownership of any of our
common stock or other capital stock, whether any such swap or
transaction described above is to be settled by delivery of our
common stock or other capital stock or other securities, in cash
or otherwise, for a period of 90 days after the date of
this prospectus supplement, or Lockup Period; provided, however,
that if (1) during the last 17 days of the initial
Lockup Period, we release earnings results or material news or a
material event relating to us occurs or (2) prior to the
expiration of the initial Lockup Period, we announce that we
will release earnings results during the
16-day period beginning
on the last day of the initial Lockup Period, then in each case
the Lockup Period will be extended until the expiration of the
18-day period beginning
on the date of release of the earnings results or the occurrence
of the material news or material event, as applicable, unless
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC waives, in writing, such
extension, or unless any research published or distributed by
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC on Digital River would
be compliant under Rule 139 of the Securities Act of 1933,
and our securities are actively-traded as defined in
Rule 101(c)(1) of Regulation M of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934. The foregoing will not prohibit us from
issuing shares of common stock upon the exercise of any option
or warrant or the conversion of a security outstanding on the
date of this prospectus supplement or from issuing shares of
common stock or options to purchase common stock granted
pursuant to employee benefit plans existing on the date of this
prospectus supplement.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC has advised us that it
may make short sales of our common stock in connection with this
offering. Short sales involve the sale by Credit Suisse
Securities (USA) LLC of a greater number of shares than it
is required to purchase in the offer. Credit Suisse Securities
(USA) LLC must close out any such short position by
purchasing shares in the open market. A short position is more
likely to be
S-20
created if Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC is concerned
that there may be downward pressure on the price of the shares
in the open market prior to the completion of the offering.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC has advised us that,
pursuant to Regulation M under the Securities Act, they may
engage in transactions, including stabilizing bids, that may
have the effect of stabilizing or maintaining the market price
of the shares of our common stock at a level above that which
might otherwise prevail in the open market. A stabilizing
bid is a bid for or the purchase of shares of common stock
by Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC for the purpose of
fixing or maintaining the price of common stock. Purchases to
cover short positions and stabilizing transactions may have the
effect of preventing or slowing a decline in the market price of
our common stock. As a result, the price of our common stock may
be higher than the price that might otherwise exist in the open
market. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC has advised us
that stabilizing bids and open market purchases may be effected
on the Nasdaq National Market or otherwise and, if commenced,
may be discontinued at any time.
From time to time, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and
its affiliates have provided, and may in the future provide,
investment banking and other services to us for which they
receive customary fees and commissions.
A prospectus in electronic format may be made available on the
web sites maintained by Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC
and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC may distribute
prospectuses electronically. Credit Suisse Securities
(USA) LLC may allocate a number of shares to for sale to
its online brokerage account holders. Internet distributions
will be allocated by Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC on
the same basis as other allocations.
S-21
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE
We are a reporting company and file annual, quarterly and
current reports, proxy statements and other information with the
SEC. You may read and copy these reports, proxy statements and
other information at the SECs public reference room at
Room 1024, 450 Fifth Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. You can request copies of these documents
by writing to the SEC and paying a fee for the copying cost.
Please call the SEC at
1-800-SEC-0330 for more
information about the operation of the public reference rooms.
Our SEC filings are also available at the SECs web site at
http://www.sec.gov. In addition, you can read and
copy our SEC filings at the office of the National Association
of Securities Dealers, Inc. at 1735 K Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20006.
The SEC allows us to incorporate by reference
information that we file with them, which means that we can
disclose important information to you by referring you to those
documents. The information incorporated by reference is an
important part of this prospectus supplement and the
accompanying prospectus, and information that we file later with
the SEC will automatically update and supersede this
information. We incorporate by reference the documents listed
below and any future filings we will make with the SEC under
Section 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 between the date of this prospectus
supplement and the termination of the offering (other than those
portions of such documents that have been furnished rather than
filed in accordance with the applicable rules and regulations
promulgated by the SEC):
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Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2005; |
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Current Report on
Form 8-K, filed
March 22, 2006; |
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Current Report on
Form 8-K, filed
March 21, 2006, as amended by the Current Report on
Form 8-K/A, filed
March 22, 2006; |
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Current Report on
Form 8-K, filed
February 16, 2006; |
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The following information contained in our Definitive Proxy
Statement on Schedule 14A, filed April 7, 2005: |
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Information relating to our directors set forth under the
caption Election of Directors; |
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Information relating to our board committees as set forth under
the caption Board Committees and Meetings; |
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Information relating to our relationship with, and our fees paid
to, our auditors, set forth under the captions Audit
Fees, Audit-Related Fees, Tax
Fees, All Other Fees and Pre-Approval
Policies and Procedures; |
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Information relating to our securities set forth under the
captions Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners
and Management and Equity Compensation Plan
Information; |
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Information relating to compliance with Section 16(a) of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 set forth under the caption
Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting
Compliance; and |
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Information relating to compensation of, and arrangements with,
our directors and executive officers set forth under the
captions Compensation of Directors,
Compensation of Executive Officers, Employment
Agreements, and Compensation Committee Interlocks
and Insider Participation, (except to the extent that the
foregoing has been superseded and/or supplemented by
Exhibits 10.20, 10.21, 10.23 and 10.24 to our Annual Report
on 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2005, and Exhibit 99.1 to our
Current Report on
Form 8-K filed
February 16, 2006); and |
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The description of the common stock contained in our
Registration Statement on
Form 8-A, as filed
on July 20, 1998 with the SEC. |
S-22
You may access these documents at no cost through our web site
at www.digitalriver.com or request a copy of these filings at no
cost, by writing or telephoning us at the following address:
Digital River, Inc.
9625 W. 76th Street, Suite 150
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
(952) 253-1234
This prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus is
part of a registration statement we filed with the SEC. You
should rely only on the information incorporated by reference or
provided in this prospectus supplement, the accompanying
prospectus and the registration statement filed by us in
connection with this offering. We have authorized no one to
provide you with different information. You should not assume
that the information in this prospectus supplement is accurate
as of any date other than the date on the front of the document.
S-23
LEGAL MATTERS
The validity of the shares of common stock being offered by this
prospectus supplement will be passed upon for us by Howard Rice
Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin, A Professional
Corporation, San Francisco, California. Certain legal
matters in connection with the offering will be passed upon for
the underwriters by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati,
Professional Corporation, Palo Alto, California.
EXPERTS
Ernst & Young LLP, independent registered public
accounting firm, has audited our consolidated financial
statements and schedule included in our Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2005, and managements
assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over
financial reporting as of December 31, 2005 as set forth in
their reports, which are incorporated by reference in this
prospectus and elsewhere in the registration statement. Our
financial statements and schedule and managements
assessment are incorporated by reference in reliance on
Ernst & Young LLPs reports, given on their
authority as experts in accounting and auditing.
S-24
PROSPECTUS
$255,165,000
Digital River, Inc.
Common Stock
Preferred Stock
Debt Securities
Warrants
From time to time, we may sell common stock, preferred stock,
debt securities and/or warrants.
We will describe in one or more prospectus supplements the
securities we are offering and selling, as well as the specific
terms of the securities. You should read this prospectus and any
prospectus supplements carefully before you invest. This
prospectus may not be used to offer or sell any securities
unless accompanied by a prospectus supplement.
The securities may be sold directly by us to investors, through
agents designated from time to time or to or through
underwriters or dealers. For additional information on the
methods of sale, you should refer to the section entitled
Plan of Distribution. If any underwriters are
involved in the sale of any securities with respect to which
this prospectus is being delivered, the names of such
underwriters and any applicable commissions or discounts will be
set forth in a prospectus supplement. The net proceeds we expect
to receive from such sale will also be set forth in a prospectus
supplement.
On April 25, 2005, the Securities and Exchange Commission
declared effective our acquisition shelf registration statement
on Form S-4 (File
No. 333-122069)
for the offering by us from time to time of up to
1,480,000 shares of our common stock in connection with
future acquisitions of other businesses, assets or securities.
In addition, on January 19, 2005, the Securities and
Exchange Commission declared effective our resale shelf
registration statement on
Form S-3 (File
No. 333-120602)
for the sale from time to time by the selling securityholders
named therein of up to 311,185 shares of our common stock
in connection with our acquisition of BlueHornet Networks, Inc.
See Risk Factors beginning on page 2 of this
prospectus to read about factors you should consider before
buying our common stock.
Our common stock is quoted on the Nasdaq National Market under
the symbol DRIV. On April 15, 2005, the last
reported sale price for our common stock, as reported on the
Nasdaq National Market, was $28.21 per share.
Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state
securities commission has approved or disapproved of these
securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or
complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal
offense.
The date of this prospectus is April 25, 2005
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS
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SUMMARY
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RISK FACTORS
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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
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RATIO OF EARNINGS TO FIXED
CHARGES
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USE OF PROCEEDS
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DIVIDEND POLICY
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DESCRIPTION OF CAPITAL
STOCK
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DESCRIPTION OF DEBT
SECURITIES
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DESCRIPTION OF WARRANTS
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PLAN OF DISTRIBUTION
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LEGAL MATTERS
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EXPERTS
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WHERE YOU CAN FIND MORE
INFORMATION
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ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS
This prospectus is part of a registration statement that we
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) using a
shelf registration process. Under the shelf
registration process, we may sell common stock, preferred stock,
debt securities and/or warrants in one or more offerings up to a
total dollar amount of $255,165,000. This prospectus provides
you with a general description of the securities we may offer.
Each time we sell securities, we will provide a prospectus
supplement that will contain more specific information. We may
also add, update or change in the prospectus supplement any of
the information contained in this prospectus. This prospectus,
together with applicable prospectus supplements, includes all
material information relating to this offering. You should
carefully read both this prospectus and any prospectus
supplement together with the additional information described
below under Where You Can Find More Information.
You should rely only on the information contained or
incorporated by reference in this prospectus or any prospectus
supplement. We have not authorized anyone to provide you with
information that is different. We are not making an offer of
common stock in any state or jurisdiction where such an offer is
not permitted. You should not assume that the information
contained or incorporated by reference in this prospectus or any
prospectus supplement is accurate as of any date other than the
date on the front of such document.
Digital
Rivertm
is our registered trademark. All other trademarks or service
marks appearing in this prospectus are property of their
respective owners.
SUMMARY
This summary highlights basic information about us but may not
contain all of the information important to you. You should read
the section entitled Risk Factors in this prospectus
and in any prospectus supplements, as well as the more detailed
information contained in, or incorporated by reference into,
this prospectus. In this prospectus, unless expressly stated
otherwise or unless the context otherwise requires,
Digital River, we, our,
us and the Company refer to Digital
River, Inc., a Delaware corporation and its consolidated
subsidiaries.
Digital River, Inc.
Overview
We are a provider of comprehensive
e-commerce outsourcing
solutions. We were incorporated in Delaware in 1994 and
commenced offering products for sale through our clients
e-commerce stores in
August 1996. As a leading global
e-commerce outsource
provider, we have developed a proprietary technology platform
that allows us to provide our clients with a suite of
e-commerce services,
including e-commerce
site development and hosting, site merchandising, order
management, fraud prevention, denied parties screening, export
controls, tax management, digital and physical product
fulfillment, multi-lingual customer service, email marketing and
advanced reporting and web analytics.
Our solution allows our clients to promote and maintain their
brands while leveraging our investment in infrastructure and
technology. Our clients access our
e-commerce platform
over the Internet. From a shopper perspective, end-users enter
the client site and are then seamlessly transferred to our
e-commerce platform.
End-users can then browse for products and make purchases
online, and once purchases are made, we either deliver the
products digitally to the end-user through the Internet or
communicate the order through a third-party fulfillment agency
for physical delivery.
We also offer a wide range of analytics-based, strategic
marketing services to help our clients increase their customer
acquisition, retention and lifetime value. These services
include paid search advertising, search engine optimization,
affiliate marketing, site/store optimization and email
optimization to help our clients increase their customer
acquisition, retention and lifetime value.
Our address is 9625 West 76th Street, Suite 150,
Eden Prairie, Minnesota 55344,
(952) 253-1234. We
maintain a website at www.digitalriver.com. Information
contained on, or accessed through, our website does not
constitute a part of this prospectus.
1
RISK FACTORS
You should carefully consider the risks described below
before making an investment decision. The risks described below
are not the only ones facing our company. Additional risks not
presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may
also impair our business operations. Our business, financial
condition or results of operations could be materially adversely
affected by any of these risks. The value of our common stock
could decline due to any of these risks, and you may lose all or
part of your investment. This prospectus and the incorporated
documents also contain forward-looking statements that involve
risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ
materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking
statements as a result of certain factors, including the risks
faced by us described below and elsewhere in this prospectus.
Risks Related To Our Business
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We have a history of losses |
We were incorporated in February 1994 and conducted our first
online sale through a clients Web store in August 1996. We
have been in business for approximately 44 quarters, but have
only sustained profitability for the last ten quarters through
December 31, 2004, and have incurred significant losses
since we were formed. As of December 31, 2004, we had an
accumulated deficit of approximately $51.2 million. Our
limited profitable operating history makes it difficult to
evaluate our ability to sustain profitability in the future.
The success of our business model depends upon our success in
generating sufficient transaction and service fees from the use
of our e-commerce
solutions by existing and future clients. Accordingly, we must
maintain our existing relationships and develop new
relationships with software publishers, online retailers and
physical goods clients. To achieve this goal, we intend to
continue to expend significant financial and management
resources on the development of additional services, sales and
marketing, improved technology and expanded operations. If we
are unable to maintain existing, and develop new, client
relationships, we will not generate a profitable return on our
investments and we will be unable to gain meaningful market
share to justify those investments. Further, we may be unable to
sustain profitability if our revenues decrease or increase at a
slower rate than expected, or if operating expenses exceed our
expectations and cannot be adjusted to compensate for lower than
expected revenues.
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Our operating results are subject to fluctuations in
demand for products and services offered by us or our
clients. |
Our quarterly and annual operating results are subject to
fluctuations in demand for the products or services offered by
us or our clients, such as anti-virus software, anti-spyware
software, and tax preparation software. In particular, sales of
anti-virus software represented a significant portion of our
revenues in recent years, and continue to be very important to
our business. In February 2005, Microsoft Corporation announced
plans to acquire Sybari Software Inc., a producer of commercial
anti-virus products. Microsoft simultaneously announced plans to
introduce products to protect businesses and consumers from
computer viruses and other security risks. To the extent that
Microsoft or others successfully introduce products or services
not sold through our platform that are competitive with products
and services sold by current Digital River clients (including
anti-virus products and services), our revenues could be
materially adversely affected. If, as a result, our annual or
quarterly revenues or operating profits fail to meet the
guidance we provide to securities analysts and investors, or we
otherwise fail to meet their expectations, the trading price of
our common stock will likely decline.
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Our operating results have fluctuated in the past and are
likely to continue to do so, which could cause the price of our
common stock to be volatile. |
Our quarterly and annual operating results have fluctuated
significantly in the past and are likely to continue to do so in
the future due to a variety of factors, some of which are
outside our control. As a result,
2
we believe that
quarter-to-quarter and
year-to-year
comparisons of our revenue and operating results are not
necessarily meaningful, and that these comparisons may not be
accurate indicators of future performance. If our annual or
quarterly operating results fail to meet the guidance we provide
to securities analysts and investors or otherwise fail to meet
their expectations, the trading price of our common stock will
likely decline. Some of the factors that have or may contribute
to fluctuations in our quarterly and annual operating results
include:
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our ability to attract and retain software and digital products
publishers, manufacturers, online retailers and online channel
partners as clients; |
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the introduction by us of new Web sites, Web stores or services
that may require a substantial investment of our resources; |
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the introduction by others of competitive Web sites, Web stores
or services or products; |
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our ability to continue to upgrade and develop our systems and
infrastructure to meet emerging market needs and remain
competitive in our service offerings; |
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economic conditions, particularly those affecting Internet-based
e-commerce; |
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client decisions to delay new product launches or to invest in
e-commerce initiatives; |
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national and international political unrest in connection with
the continued military responses to the terrorist attacks on the
United States, possible future terrorist attacks and the
possibility of future armed conflicts; |
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the performance of our newly acquired assets or companies,
particularly element 5; |
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technical difficulties or system downtime leading to termination
of client contracts and harm to our reputation; |
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slower than anticipated growth of the online market as a vehicle
for the purchase of software products; |
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the cost of compliance with U.S. and foreign regulations
relating to our business; and |
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our ability to retain and attract personnel commensurate with
our business needs. |
In addition, revenue generated by our software and digital
commerce services is likely to fluctuate on a seasonal basis
that is typical for the software publishing market in general.
We believe that our first and fourth quarters are generally
seasonally stronger than our second and third quarters due to
the timing of demand of tax preparation software, the holiday
selling period and the post-holiday retail season. We also
believe that software publishers avoid new product releases in
the summer months.
Our operating expenses, which include: sales &
marketing, product research & development and
general & administrative expenses, are based on our
expectations of future revenue. These expenses are relatively
fixed in the short-term. If our revenue for a quarter falls
below our expectations and we are unable to quickly reduce
spending in response, our operating results for that quarter
would be harmed. In addition, the operating results of companies
in the e-commerce
industry have, in the past, experienced significant
quarter-to-quarter
fluctuations that may adversely affect our stock price.
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A loss of any client that accounts for a large portion of
our revenue would cause our revenue to decline. |
Sales of products for one software publisher client, Symantec
Corporation, accounted for approximately 27% of our revenue in
2004. In addition, Digital River independently sells proprietary
Digital River services directly to customers as they purchase
Symantec products. These services include product recovery
services provided by Digital River for which separate fees are
charged to end-users. In addition, Digital River derives
revenues from
e-commerce retailers
and dealers who sell Symantec products or related Digital River
services. In 2004, revenues derived from proprietary Digital
River services sold to Symantec end-users and dealer network
sales of Symantec products together amounted to approximately
$16.6 million, or approximately
3
10.8% of total Digital River revenue. In addition, a limited
number of other software and physical goods clients contribute a
large portion of our annual revenue. Contracts with our clients
are generally one or two years in length. If any one of these
key contracts is not renewed or otherwise terminates, or if
revenues from these clients decline for any other reason (such
as competitive developments), our revenue would decline and our
ability to sustain profitability would be impaired. It is
important to our ongoing success that we maintain these key
client relationships and, at the same time, develop new client
relationships.
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Our sales cycle is lengthy, which may cause us to incur
substantial expenses and expend management time without
generating corresponding revenue, which would impair our cash
flow. |
We market our services directly to software publishers, online
retailers and other prospective customers outside of the
software industry. These relationships are typically complex and
take time to finalize. Due to operating procedures in many
organizations, a significant amount of time may pass between
selection of our products and services by key decision-makers
and the signing of a contract. The period between the initial
sales call and the signing of a contract with significant sales
potential is difficult to predict and typically ranges from six
to twelve months. If at the end of a sales effort a prospective
client does not purchase our products or services, we may have
incurred substantial expenses and expended management time that
cannot be recovered and that will not generate corresponding
revenue. As a result, our cash flow and our ability to fund
expenditures incurred during the sales cycle may be impaired.
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General economic uncertainty may reduce our revenue and
operating profits. |
The revenue growth and profitability of our business depends
significantly on the overall demand for
e-commerce solutions.
We believe that the market for these solutions may be adversely
affected by a number of factors, including reductions in capital
expenditures by clients and potential weakening of the U.S. and
foreign economies. The continued military responses to the 2001
terrorist attacks on the United States, the ongoing possibility
of future terrorist attacks and the possibility of future armed
conflicts may create adverse economic conditions and lead to
weakening in the economy.
These factors may, in turn, give rise to a number of market
trends that may slow our revenue growth, including:
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longer sales cycles; |
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deferral or delay of
e-commerce projects and
generally reduced expenditures for
e-commerce solutions
and related services; and |
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increased price competition. |
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Our failure to attract and retain software and digital
products publishers, manufacturers, online retailers and online
channel partners as clients would cause our revenue and
operating profits to decline. |
We generate revenue by providing outsourced services to software
and digital products publishers, manufacturers, online retailers
and online channel partners. If we cannot develop and maintain
satisfactory relationships with software and digital products
publishers, manufacturers, online retailers and online channel
partners on acceptable commercial terms, we will likely
experience a decline in revenue and operating profits. We also
depend on our software and digital publisher clients creating
and supporting software and digital products that end-users will
purchase. If we are unable to obtain sufficient quantities of
software and digital products for any reason, or if the quality
of service provided by these software and digital products
publishers falls below a satisfactory level, we could also
experience a decline in revenue, operating profit and end-user
satisfaction, and our reputation could be harmed. Our contracts
with our software and digital products publisher clients are
generally one to two years in duration, with an automatic
renewal provision for additional one-year periods, unless we are
provided with a written notice at least 90 days before the
end of the contract. As is common in our industry, we have no
long-term or exclusive contracts or arrangements with any
software or digital products publishers that guarantee the
availability of software or digital products. Software and
digital products publishers that currently supply software or
digital products to us may not
4
continue to do so and we may be unable to establish new
relationships with software or digital products publishers to
supplement or replace existing relationships.
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Implementing our acquisition strategy could result in
dilution and operating difficulties leading to a decline in
revenue and operating profit. |
We have acquired, and intend to continue engaging in strategic
acquisitions of, businesses, technologies, services and
products, such as businesses that provide outsourcing services
to software publishers. For example, in April 2004, we acquired
element 5, a provider of outsourced
e-commerce solutions.
The process of integrating an acquired business, technology,
service or product into our business and operations may result
in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures.
Integration of an acquired business also may disrupt our ongoing
business, distract management and make it difficult to maintain
standards, controls and procedures. Moreover, the anticipated
benefits of any acquisition may not be realized. If a
significant number of clients of the acquired businesses cease
doing business with us, we would experience lost revenue and
operating profit, and any synergies from the acquisition may be
lost. Future acquisitions could result in potentially dilutive
issuances of equity securities, the incurrence of debt,
contingent liabilities, amortization of intangible assets or
impairment of goodwill.
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Electronic software delivery, or ESD, is still an evolving
and unproven technology and the industry may ultimately fail to
accept ESD. |
Our success will depend in large part on the continued growth in
end-user acceptance of ESD as a method of distributing software
products. ESD is a relatively new method of distributing
software products to end-users, and unless ESD gains widespread
market acceptance, we will be unable to achieve our business
plan. Factors that are likely to influence the market acceptance
of ESD include:
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the availability of sufficient bandwidth, both now and in the
future, to enable purchasers to rapidly download software
products; |
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the cost of time-based Internet access; |
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the number, adequacy and commercial desirability of software
products that are available for purchase through ESD as compared
to those available through physical delivery; and |
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the level of end-user comfort with the process of downloading
software via the Internet, including the ease of use of, and
lack of concern about, transaction security and technical
support. |
Even if ESD achieves widespread acceptance, we may be unable to
overcome the substantial existing and future technical
challenges associated with electronically delivering software
reliably and consistently on a long-term basis. Our failure to
do so would also impair our ability to execute our business plan.
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Developments in accounting standards may cause us to
increase our recorded expenses, which in turn would jeopardize
our ability to demonstrate sustained profitability. |
In January 2002, we adopted Statement of Financial Accounting
Standard No. 142, Goodwill and Other Intangible
Assets (SFAS No. 142). The statement generally
establishes that goodwill and intangible assets with indefinite
lives are not amortized but are to be tested on an annual basis
for impairment and, if impaired, are recorded as an impairment
charge in income from operations. As of December 31, 2004,
we had unamortized goodwill with an indefinite life of
$148.1 million from our acquisitions made in 2004 and
previous years. Our acquisition of element 5 for example has
resulted in a significant increase in unamortized goodwill. If a
portion of our unamortized goodwill is determined for any reason
to be impaired, the subsequent accounting of the impaired
portion as an expense would lower our earnings and jeopardize
our ability to demonstrate sustained profitability, which could
cause our stock price to decline.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board also recently adopted a
standard to require that the fair value of stock options and
other share based payments be reflected as an expense item in
the financial statements
5
of public companies for years beginning after June 15,
2005. As a result of the adoption of this standard, our recorded
non-cash expenses will significantly increase, which may impair
our ability to maintain profitability.
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Increasing consumer acceptance of the Internet as a medium
of commerce is important to the success of our business strategy
and our future revenue growth. |
The failure of the Internet to continue developing into a
significant commercial medium would harm our ability to increase
our revenue and execute our business strategy. Rapid growth in
the acceptance and use of the Internet as an effective medium of
commerce is a recent development. The acceptance and use of the
Internet may not continue to develop and a sufficiently broad
base of consumers may not adopt and continue to use the Internet
as a medium of commerce. We rely on purchasers who have
historically used traditional means of commerce to purchase
goods or transact business. If we are to be successful, these
purchasers must accept and use the Internet as a means of
purchasing goods and services and exchanging information. We
cannot predict the rate at which these purchasers will do so.
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The growth of the market for our services depends on the
development and maintenance of the Internet
infrastructure. |
Our business is based on delivering services over the Internet,
and the success of our business therefore depends on the
development and maintenance of a sound Internet infrastructure.
This includes maintenance of a reliable network backbone with
the necessary speed, data capacity and security, as well as
timely development of complementary products such as high-speed
modems, for providing reliable Internet access and services. Our
ability to increase the speed and scope of our services is
limited by, and depends upon, the speed and reliability of both
the Internet and our clients internal networks.
Consequently, as Internet usage increases, the growth of the
market for our services depends upon improvements made to the
Internet as well as to individual clients networking
infrastructures to alleviate overloading and congestion. In
addition, any delays in the adoption of new standards and
protocols required to govern increased levels of Internet
activity or increased governmental regulation may have a
detrimental effect on the Internet infrastructure.
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Because the
e-commerce industry is
highly competitive and has low barriers to entry, we may be
unable to compete effectively. |
The market for
e-commerce solutions is
extremely competitive and we may find ourselves unable to
compete effectively. Because there are relatively low barriers
to entry in the
e-commerce market, we
expect competition to intensify as current competitors expand
their product offerings and new competitors enter the market. In
addition, our clients may become competitors in the future
Increased competition is likely to result in price reductions,
lower average sales prices, reduced margins, longer sales cycles
and a decrease or loss of our market share, any of which could
negatively impact our revenue and earnings. We face competition
from the following sources:
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in-house development of
e-commerce capabilities
using tools or applications from companies such as BroadVision,
Inc. and ATG, Inc.; |
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other providers of outsourced
e-commerce solutions
such as GSI Commerce, Inc. and eSellerate; |
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system integrators and application service providers that offer
tools and services for
e-commerce, including
companies that provide a broad range of Internet and server
solutions, such as Electronic Data Systems Corporation and IBM
Global Services; |
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companies that provide technologies, services or products that
support a portion of the
e-commerce value chain,
such as payment processing, including CyberSource Corporation; |
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companies that offer a range of online marketing services,
technology programs such as DoubleClick, Inc. and ValueClick,
Inc.; and |
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high-traffic, branded Web sites that derive a substantial
portion of their revenue from
e-commerce and may
themselves offer, or provide means for others to offer their
products for sale, such as Amazon.com, Inc. |
We believe that the principal competitive factors in our market
are breadth of products and services, number of clients and
online channel partnerships, brand recognition, system
reliability and scalability, price, customer service, speed and
accessibility and ease of use, speed to market, convenience and
quality of delivery. The online channel partners and the other
companies described above may compete directly with us by
adopting a similar business model. Moreover, while some of these
companies are also clients or potential clients of ours, they
may compete with our
e-commerce outsourcing
solution to the extent that they develop
e-commerce systems or
acquire such systems from other software vendors or service
providers.
Many of our competitors have, and new potential competitors may
have, more experience developing Internet-based software and
e-commerce solutions,
larger technical staffs, larger customer bases, more established
distribution channels and customer relationships, greater brand
recognition and greater financial, marketing and other resources
than us. In addition, competitors may be able to develop
services that are superior to our services, achieve greater
customer acceptance or have significantly improved functionality
as compared to our existing and future products and services.
Our competitors may be able to respond more quickly to
technological developments and changes in customers needs.
Our inability to compete successfully against current and future
competitors could cause our revenue and earnings to decline.
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Failure to properly manage and sustain our expansion
efforts could strain our management and other resources. |
Our ability to successfully offer services and implement our
business plan in a rapidly evolving market requires an effective
planning and management process. We have rapidly and
significantly expanded the depth and breadth of our service
offerings. Failure to properly manage this expansion could place
a significant strain on our managerial, operational and
financial resources. To manage this expansion, we are required
to continually:
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improve existing and implement new operational, financial and
management controls, reporting systems and procedures; |
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install new management information systems; and |
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train, motivate, retain and manage our employees. |
We may be unable to install management information and control
systems in an efficient and timely manner, and our current or
planned personnel, systems, procedures and controls may be
inadequate to support our operations.
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Failure to develop our technology to accommodate increased
traffic could reduce demand for our services and impair the
growth of our business. |
We periodically enhance and expand our technology and
transaction-processing systems, network infrastructure and other
technologies to accommodate increases in the volume of traffic
on our technology platform. Any inability to add software and
hardware or to develop and upgrade existing technology,
transaction-processing systems or network infrastructure to
manage increased traffic on this platform may cause
unanticipated systems disruptions, slower response times and
degradation in client services, including impaired quality and
speed of order fulfillment. Failure to manage increased traffic
could harm our reputation and significantly reduce demand for
our services, which would impair the growth of our business. We
may be unable to improve and increase the capacity of our
network infrastructure sufficiently or anticipate and react to
expected increases in the use of the platform to handle
increased volume. Further, additional network capacity may not
be available from third-party suppliers when we need it. Our
network and our suppliers networks may be unable to
maintain an acceptable data transmission capability, especially
if demands on the platform increase.
7
We continue to enhance our
e-commerce platforms to
better support new features and functionality demanded by our
client base. Failure of these to perform as expected could lead
to client dissatisfaction and loss of business.
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Our industry is characterized by rapid technological
change that may make our technology and systems obsolete or
cause us to incur substantial costs to adapt to these
changes. |
To remain competitive, we must continue to enhance and improve
the responsiveness, functionality and features of our CST
technology platform and the underlying network infrastructure.
If we incur significant costs without adequate results, or are
unable to adapt rapidly to technological changes, we may fail to
achieve our business plan. The Internet and the
e-commerce industry are
characterized by rapid technological change, changes in user and
client requirements and preferences, frequent new product and
service introductions embodying new technologies and the
emergence of new industry standards and practices that could
render our technology and systems obsolete. To be successful, we
must adapt to rapid technological change by licensing and
internally developing leading technologies to enhance our
existing services, developing new products, services and
technologies that address the increasingly sophisticated and
varied needs of our clients, and responding to technological
advances and emerging industry standards and practices on a
cost-effective and timely basis. The development of our CST
platform and other proprietary technologies involves significant
technical and business risks. We may fail to use new
technologies effectively or fail to adapt our proprietary
technology and systems to client requirements or emerging
industry standards.
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System failures could reduce the attractiveness of our
service offerings. |
We provide commerce, marketing and delivery services to our
clients and end-users through our proprietary technology
transaction processing and client management systems. These
systems also maintain an electronic inventory of products and
gather consumer marketing information. The satisfactory
performance, reliability and availability of the technology and
the underlying network infrastructure are critical to our
operations, level of client service, reputation and ability to
attract and retain clients. We have experienced periodic
interruptions, affecting all or a portion of our systems, which
we believe will continue to occur from time to time. Any systems
damage or interruption that impairs our ability to accept and
fill client orders could result in an immediate loss of revenue
to us, and could cause some clients to purchase services offered
by our competitors. In addition, frequent systems failures could
harm our reputation.
Our systems and operations are vulnerable to damage or
interruption from:
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fire, flood and other natural disasters; |
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operator negligence, improper operation by, or supervision of,
employees, physical and electronic break-ins, misappropriation,
computer viruses and similar events; and |
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power loss, computer systems failures, and Internet and
telecommunications failure. |
We do not carry sufficient business interruption insurance to
fully compensate us for losses that may occur.
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We may become liable to clients who are dissatisfied with
our services. |
We design, develop, implement and manage
e-commerce solutions
that are crucial to the operation of our clients
businesses. Defects in the solutions we develop could result in
delayed or lost revenue, adverse end-user reaction, and/or
negative publicity which could require expensive corrections. As
a result, clients who experience these adverse consequences
either directly or indirectly as a result of our services could
bring claims against us for substantial damages. Any claims
asserted could exceed the level of any insurance coverage that
may be available to us. Moreover, the insurance we carry may not
continue to be available on economically reasonable terms, or at
all. The successful assertion of one or more large claims that
are uninsured, that exceed insurance coverage or that result in
changes to insurance policies (including premium increases)
could adversely affect our operating results or financial
condition.
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Our chief executive officer and key technical employees
are critical to our business, and if they do not remain with us
in the future, we may be unable to effectively replace
them. |
Our future success significantly depends on the continued
services and performance of our senior management, particularly
Joel A. Ronning, our chief executive officer. Our performance
also depends on our ability to retain and motivate our key
technical employees who are skilled in maintaining our
proprietary technology platform. The loss of the services of any
of our executive officers or key technical employees could harm
our business if we are unable to effectively replace that
officer or employee, or if that person should decide to join a
competitor or otherwise directly or indirectly compete with us.
Further, we may need to incur additional operating expenses and
divert other management time in order to search for a
replacement.
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We must continually attract and retain technical and other
key personnel in order to successfully execute our business
strategy. |
Our future success depends on our ability to continue to
identify, attract, hire, train, retain and motivate highly
skilled technical, managerial, operations, merchandising, sales
and marketing and client service personnel.
Competition for these personnel is intense, particularly in the
Internet industry. We may be unable to successfully attract,
assimilate or retain sufficiently qualified personnel. Failure
to do so could harm our business growth and profitability. In
addition, the market price of our common stock has fluctuated
substantially since our initial public offering in August 1998.
Consequently, potential employees may perceive our equity
incentives as less attractive and current employees whose equity
incentives are no longer attractively priced may choose not to
remain with our organization. In that case, our ability to
attract employees will be adversely affected. Additionally, the
Financial Accounting Standards Board recently adopted a proposal
requiring that the fair value of stock options and other share
based payments be reflected as an expense item in the financial
statements of public companies for quarters beginning after
June 15, 2005. As a result, our ability to use stock
options as equity incentives will be adversely affected, which
will make it more difficult to compete for and attract qualified
personnel. Finally, should our stock price substantially
decline, the retention value of stock options granted since our
initial public offering will decline and employees who hold such
options may choose not to remain with our organization.
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Protecting our intellectual property is critical to our
success. |
We regard the protection of our trademarks, copyrights, trade
secrets and other intellectual property as critical to our
success. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright,
trademark, service mark and trade secret laws and contractual
restrictions to protect our proprietary rights. We have entered
into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with
our employees and contractors, and nondisclosure agreements with
parties with whom we conduct business, in order to limit access
to and disclosure of our proprietary information. These
contractual arrangements and the other steps taken by us to
protect our intellectual property may not prevent
misappropriation of our technology or deter independent
third-party development of similar technologies. We also seek to
protect our proprietary position by filing U.S. and foreign
patent applications related to our proprietary technology,
inventions and improvements that are important to the
development of our business. Proprietary rights relating to our
technologies will be protected from unauthorized use by third
parties only to the extent they are covered by valid and
enforceable patents or are effectively maintained as trade
secrets. We pursue the registration of our trademarks and
service marks in the U.S. and internationally. Effective
trademark, service mark, copyright and trade secret protection
may not be available in every country in which our services are
made available online.
The steps we have taken to protect our proprietary rights may be
inadequate and third parties may infringe or misappropriate our
trade secrets, trademarks and similar proprietary rights. Any
significant failure on our part to protect our intellectual
property could make it easier for our competitors to offer
similar services and thereby adversely affect our market
opportunities. In addition, litigation may be necessary in the
future to enforce our intellectual property rights, to protect
our trade secrets or to determine the validity and
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scope of the proprietary rights of others. Litigation could
result in substantial costs and diversion of management and
technical resources.
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Claims of infringement of other parties intellectual
property rights could require us to expend significant
resources, enter into unfavorable licenses or require us to
change our business plans. |
From time to time we are named as a defendant in lawsuits
claiming that we have, in some way, violated the intellectual
property rights of others. Existing lawsuits in this area, as
well as any future assertions or prosecutions of claims like
these, could require us to expend significant financial and
managerial resources. The defense of any claims, with or without
merit, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation and
diversion of technical and management personnel, cause product
enhancement delays or require that we develop non-infringing
technology or enter into royalty or licensing agreements.
Royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may be unavailable
on terms acceptable to us or at all. In the event of a
successful claim of infringement against us and our failure or
inability to develop non-infringing technology or license the
infringed or similar technology on a timely basis, we may be
unable to pursue our current business plan.
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Claims against us related to the software products that we
deliver electronically and the tangible goods that we deliver
physically could also require us to expend significant
resources. |
Claims may be made against us for negligence, copyright or
trademark infringement, products liability or other theories
based on the nature and content of software products or tangible
goods that we deliver electronically and physically. Because we
did not create these products, we are generally not in a
position to know the quality or nature of the content of these
products. Although we carry general liability insurance and
require that our customers indemnify us against end-user claims,
our insurance and indemnification measures may not cover
potential claims of this type, may not adequately cover all
costs incurred in defense of potential claims, or may not
reimburse us for all liability that may be imposed. Any costs or
imposition of liability that are not covered by insurance or
indemnification measures could be expensive and time-consuming
to address, distract management and delay product deliveries,
even if we are ultimately successful in the defense of these
claims.
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Security breaches could hinder our ability to securely
transmit confidential information. |
A significant barrier to
e-commerce and
communications is the secure transmission of confidential
information over public networks. Any compromise or elimination
of our security could be costly to remedy, damage our reputation
and expose us to liability, and dissuade existing and new
clients from using our services. We rely on encryption and
authentication technology licensed from third parties to provide
the security and authentication necessary for secure
transmission of confidential information, such as end-user
credit card numbers. A party who circumvents our security
measures could misappropriate proprietary information or
interrupt our operations.
We may be required to expend significant capital and other
resources to protect against security breaches or address
problems caused by breaches. Concerns over the security of the
Internet and other online transactions and the privacy of users
could deter people from using the Internet to conduct
transactions that involve transmitting confidential information,
thereby inhibiting the growth of our business. To the extent
that our activities or those of third-party contractors involve
the storage and transmission of proprietary information, such as
credit card numbers, security breaches could damage our
reputation and expose us to a risk of loss or litigation and
possible liability. Our security measures may not prevent
security breaches and failure to prevent security breaches could
lead to a loss of existing clients and deter potential clients
away from our services.
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Loss of our credit card acceptance privileges would
seriously hamper our ability to process the sale of digital
goods. |
The payment by end-users for the purchase of digital goods that
we process is typically made by credit card. If we incur
significant instances of credit card fraud over an extended
period of time, it may result in
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penalties and termination of our credit card acceptance
privileges. Loss of our credit card acceptance privileges would
severely impact our ability to process the sale of digital goods
where the payment method is by credit card. We may be required
to expend significant capital and other resources to protect
against these fraudulent transactions.
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The listing of our network addresses on anti-SPAM lists
could harm our ability to service our clients and deliver goods
over the Internet. |
Certain privacy and anti-email proponents have engaged in a
practice of gathering, and publicly listing, network addresses
that they believe have been involved in sending unwanted,
unsolicited emails commonly known as SPAM. In response to user
complaints about SPAM, Internet service providers have from time
to time blocked such network addresses from sending emails to
their users. If our network addresses mistakenly end up on these
SPAM lists, our ability to provide services for our clients and
consummate the sales of digital and physical goods over the
Internet could be harmed.
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Changes in government regulation could limit our Internet
activities or result in additional costs of doing business over
the Internet. |
We are subject to the same federal, state and local laws as
other companies conducting business over the Internet. Today,
there are relatively few laws specifically directed towards
conducting business over the Internet. The adoption or
modification of laws related to the Internet could harm our
business, operating results and financial condition by
increasing our costs and administrative burdens. Due to the
increasing popularity and use of the Internet, many laws and
regulations relating to the Internet are being debated at the
international, federal and state levels. These laws and
regulations could cover issues such as:
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user privacy with respect to adults and minors; |
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our ability to collect necessary information that allows us to
conduct business on the Internet; |
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export compliance; |
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pricing and taxation; |
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fraud; |
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advertising; |
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intellectual property rights; |
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information security; and |
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quality of products and services. |
Applicability to the Internet of existing laws governing issues
such as property ownership, copyrights and other intellectual
property issues, taxation, libel, obscenity and personal privacy
could also harm our operating results and substantially increase
the cost to us of doing business. For example, numerous state
legislatures have proposed that tax rules for Internet retailing
and catalog sales correspond to enacted tax rules for sales from
physical stores. Any requirement that we collect sales tax for
each online purchase and remit the tax to the appropriate state
authority would be a significant administrative burden to us and
possibly depress online sales. This and any other change in laws
applicable to the Internet might also require significant
management resources to respond appropriately. The vast majority
of these laws were adopted prior to the advent of the Internet,
and do not contemplate or address the unique issues raised
thereby. Those laws that do reference the Internet, such as the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, are only beginning to be
interpreted by the courts and their applicability and reach are
therefore uncertain.
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Laws relating to user information and online privacy may
limit the collection and use of end-user data for our
clients. |
We collect and maintain end-user data for our clients, which
subjects us to increasing international, federal and state
regulation related to online privacy and the use of personal
user information. Congress recently enacted anti-SPAM
legislation with which we must comply when providing email
campaigns for our clients. Bills are pending in Congress and in
various states that address online privacy protections. Several
states have proposed, and some have enacted, legislation that
would limit the use of personal user information or require
online services to establish privacy policies. In addition, the
U.S. Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, has urged Congress
to adopt legislation regarding the collection and use of
personal identifying information obtained from individuals when
accessing Web sites. In the past, the emphasis has been on
information obtained from minors. Focus has now shifted to
include online privacy protection for adults. If such
legislation is adopted, it may include requirements that
companies establish procedures to, among other things:
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give adequate notice to users regarding information collection
and disclosure practices; |
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provide users with the ability to have personal information
deleted from a companys database; |
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provide users with access to their collected personal
information and the ability to correct inaccuracies; |
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clearly identify affiliations with third parties that may
collect information or sponsor activities on another
companys Web site; and |
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obtain express parental consent prior to collecting and using
personal information from children under 13 years of age. |
Even in the absence of laws requiring companies to establish
these procedures, the FTC has settled several proceedings
resulting in consent decrees in which Internet companies have
been required to establish programs regarding the manner in
which personal information is collected from users and provided
to third parties. We could become a party to a similar
enforcement proceeding. These regulatory and enforcement efforts
could limit our collection of demographic and personal
information from end-users, which could adversely affect our
ability to comprehensively serve our clients.
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The adoption and implementation of international laws and
regulations applicable to
e-commerce may impair
our efforts to expand revenue from international
transactions. |
The European Union has adopted a privacy directive that
regulates the collection and use of information that identifies
an individual person. These regulations may inhibit or prohibit
the collection and sharing of personal information in ways that
could harm our clients or us. The globalization of Internet
commerce may be harmed by these and similar regulations because
the European Union privacy directive prohibits transmission of
personal information outside the European Union. The United
States and the European Union have negotiated an agreement
providing a safe harbor for those companies who
agree to comply with the principles set forth by the
U.S. Department of Commerce and agreed to by the European
Union. Failure to comply with these principles may result in
fines, private lawsuits and enforcement actions. These
enforcement actions can include interruption or shutdown of
operations relating to the collection and sharing of information
pertaining to citizens of the European Union. Certain countries
in the Asia-Pacific region have also adopted, or are considering
adopting, privacy laws similar to those of the European Union,
which may impair our ability to expand our revenue from those
countries.
In addition, in July 2003, the European Union implemented rules
regarding the collection and payment of Value Added Tax, or VAT.
These rules require VAT to be charged on supply delivered over
electronic networks, including software and computer services,
as well as information and cultural, artistic, sporting,
scientific, educational, entertainment and similar services.
These services are now being taxed in the country where the
purchaser resides rather than where the supplier is located.
Historically, suppliers of digital products that existed outside
the European Union were not required to collect or remit VAT on
digital orders
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made to purchasers in the European Union. With the
implementation of these rules, we are required to collect and
remit VAT on digital orders received from purchasers in the
European Union which effectively raises the price for these
goods by the VAT amount. This price increase could serve to
discourage purchasing of our products and services which in turn
could adversely affect our operating results and financial
condition.
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Compliance with future laws imposed on
e-commerce may
substantially increase our costs of doing business or otherwise
adversely affect our ability to offer our services. |
Because our services are accessible worldwide, and we facilitate
sales of products to end-users worldwide, foreign jurisdictions
may claim that we are required to comply with their laws. Laws
regulating Internet companies outside of the United States may
be less favorable than those in the United States, giving
greater rights to consumers, content owners and users.
Compliance may be more costly or may require us to change our
business practices or restrict our service offerings relative to
those provided in the United States. Any failure to comply with
foreign laws could subject us to penalties ranging from fines to
bans on our ability to offer our services.
As our services are available over the Internet in multiple
states and foreign countries, these jurisdictions may claim that
we are required to qualify to do business as a foreign
corporation in each state or foreign country. We and/or our
subsidiaries are qualified to do business only in California,
Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan,
Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah and
Washington. Failure to qualify as a foreign corporation in a
required jurisdiction could subject us to taxes and penalties
and could result in our inability to enforce contracts in these
jurisdictions.
In addition, we are subject to United States laws governing the
conduct of business with other countries, such as export control
laws, which prohibit or restrict the export of goods, services
and technology to designated countries, denied persons or denied
entities from the United States. Violation of these laws could
result in fines or other actions by regulatory agencies and
result in increased cost of doing business and reduced profits.
In addition, any significant changes in these laws, particularly
an expansion in the export control laws, will increase our costs
of compliance and may further restrict our overseas client base.
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We intend to continue to expand our international
operations and these efforts may not be successful in generating
additional revenue. |
We sell products and services to end-users outside the United
States and we intend to continue to expand our international
presence. Expansion into international markets, particularly the
European and Asia-Pacific regions, requires significant
resources that we may fail to recover by generating additional
revenue. Conducting business outside of the United States is
subject to risks, including:
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changes in regulatory requirements and tariffs; |
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uncertainty of application or governing of local laws; |
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reduced protection of intellectual property rights; |
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difficulties in physical distribution for international sales; |
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higher incidences of credit card fraud and difficulties in
accounts receivable collection; |
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the burden and cost of complying with a variety of foreign laws; |
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the possibility of unionization of our workforce outside the
United States, particularly in Europe; and |
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political or economic constraints on international trade or
instability. |
These risks have grown with the recent acquisition of
element 5, which has substantial operations outside the
U.S. and our expansion into the Asia-Pacific region.
We may be unable to successfully and cost-effectively market,
sell and distribute our services in foreign markets. This may be
more difficult or take longer than anticipated especially due to
international challenges, such as language barriers, currency
exchange issues and the fact that the Internet infrastructure in
foreign
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countries may be less advanced than the U.S. Internet
infrastructure. If we are unable to successfully expand our
international operations, or manage this expansion, our
operating results and financial condition could be harmed.
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New obligations to collect or pay sales tax could
substantially increase the cost to us of doing business. |
Currently, we collect sales, use or other similar taxes with
respect to electronic software download in states where we
believe that we have nexus. The application of sales related
taxes to interstate and international sales over the Internet is
unclear and evolving. We are already required to collect and
remit VAT in the European Union, for example. Local, state or
foreign jurisdictions may seek to impose sales or use tax
collection obligations on
out-of-state companies
like ours that engage in
e-commerce. A
successful assertion by one or more states or any foreign
country that we should collect sales, use or other taxes on the
sale of merchandise through our physical goods clients or on
physical shipments of software could harm our results of
operations. In addition, any failure by a physical goods client
to collect obligatory sales or use taxes could cause the
relevant jurisdiction to attempt imposing that obligation on us.
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Compliance with changing regulation of corporate
governance and public disclosure may result in additional
expenses. |
Keeping abreast of, and in compliance with, changing laws,
regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and
public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, new
SEC regulations and Nasdaq Stock Market rules, have required an
increased amount of management attention and external resources.
We intend to invest all reasonably necessary resources to comply
with evolving corporate governance and public disclosure
standards, and this investment may result in increased general
and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time
and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance
activities.
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We may need to raise additional capital to achieve our
business objectives, which could result in dilution to existing
investors or increase our debt obligations. |
We require substantial working capital to fund our business. If
capital requirements vary materially from those currently
planned, we may require additional financing sooner than
anticipated. We filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission a universal shelf registration statement on
Form S-3, of which
this prospectus is a part, pursuant to which we may sell up to
$255 million in equity or debt securities. In addition, we
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission an acquisition
shelf registration statement on
Form S-4 pursuant
to which we may issue up to 1,480,000 shares of common
stock in connection with future acquisitions of other
businesses, assets or securities. If additional funds are raised
through the issuance of equity securities, the percentage
ownership of our stockholders will be reduced, stockholders may
experience additional dilution or these equity securities may
have rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of our
common stock. In June 2004, we issued 1.25% convertible
notes which require us to make interest payments and will
require us to pay principal when the notes become due in 2024 or
in the event of acceleration under certain circumstances, unless
the notes are converted into our common stock prior to that. We
may not have sufficient capital to service this or any future
debt securities that we may issue, and the conversion of the
notes into our common stock may result in further dilution to
our stockholders. Our capital requirements depend on several
factors, including the rate of market acceptance of our
products, the ability to expand our client base and the growth
of sales and marketing. We have had significant operating losses
and negative cash flow from operations since inception.
Additional financing may not be available when needed, on terms
favorable to us or at all. If adequate funds are not available
or are not available on acceptable terms, we may be unable to
develop or enhance our services, take advantage of future
opportunities or respond to competitive pressures, which would
harm our operating results and adversely affect our ability to
sustain profitability.
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Internet-related stock prices are especially volatile and
this volatility may depress our stock price or cause it to
fluctuate significantly. |
The stock market, and the trading prices of Internet-related
companies in particular, have been notably volatile. This
volatility is likely to continue in the short-term and is not
necessarily related to the operating performance of affected
companies. This broad market and industry volatility could
significantly reduce the price of our common stock at any time,
without regard to our operating performance. Factors that could
cause our stock price in particular to fluctuate include, but
are not limited to:
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actual or anticipated variations in quarterly operating results; |
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announcements of technological innovations; |
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the ability to sign new clients and the retention of existing
clients; |
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new products or services that we offer; |
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competitive developments, including new products or services, or
new relationships by our competitors; |
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changes that affect our clients or the viability of their
product lines; |
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changes in financial estimates by securities analysts; |
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conditions or trends in the Internet and online commerce
industries; |
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global unrest and terrorist activities; |
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changes in the economic performance and/or market valuations of
other Internet or online
e-commerce companies; |
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required changes in generally accepted accounting principles and
disclosures; |
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our announcement of significant acquisitions, strategic
partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments or results
of operations or other developments related to those
acquisitions; |
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additions or departures of key personnel; and |
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sales or other transactions involving our common stock or our
convertible notes. |
In addition, our stock price may be impacted by the short sales
and actions of other parties who may disseminate misleading
information about us in an effort to profit from fluctuations in
our stock price.
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Our involvement in class-action litigation relating to our
IPO may adversely affect our results of operations and distract
management. |
We are party to a lawsuit which alleges that we, certain of our
officers and directors and the underwriters of our initial
public offering, or IPO, violated Section 11 of the
Securities Act of 1933 based on allegations that our IPO
registration statement and prospectus failed to disclose
material facts regarding the compensation to be received by, and
the stock allocation practices of, the IPO underwriters. Similar
complaints, pursuing similar theories, were filed in the same
court against hundreds of other public companies.
The IPO lawsuit, as well as any future allegations that we may
have, in some way, violated securities laws could require us to
expend significant financial and managerial resources and could
result in further volatility of our stock price. The defense of
any claims, with or without merit, could be time-consuming,
result in costly litigation and divert technical and management
personnel.
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We may need to recognize and record income tax expense in
the future while having no cash outlay for these taxes. |
Because we have a substantial net operating loss carryforward,
the related deferred tax asset is fully reserved on our balance
sheet. At some future date when we meet the requirements, we may
reflect the benefit of the deferred tax asset and taxation of
our financial results in our financial statements. The
recognition of taxes may adversely affect the trading price of
our stock in the stock market. It is also possible under
existing accounting rules that we may be required to record
income tax expense although we may have no cash outlay for these
taxes or the ability to recognize the deferred tax asset under
current accounting rules. In addition, we may also be expected
to pay alternative minimum tax or foreign taxes even though we
have a net operation loss carryforward.
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Provisions of our charter documents, other agreements and
Delaware law may inhibit potential acquisition bids for
us. |
Certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of
incorporation, bylaws, other agreements and Delaware law could
make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if
a change in control would be beneficial to our stockholders.
Risks Related to the Acquisition of Element 5 AG
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element 5 has a history of losses and has yet to achieve
sustained profitability. |
element 5 has experienced significant losses since inception
($10.2 million through March 31, 2004) and has
experienced significant negative cash flows from operations. To
address these risks, we and element 5 must, among others things,
maintain existing and develop new relationships with independent
software publishers, online retailers and other companies
outside of the software market, maintain and increase element
5s client base, implement and successfully execute its
business and marketing strategy, continue to develop and upgrade
its technology and transaction-processing systems, provide
superior customer service and order fulfillment, respond to
competitive developments, and attract, retain and motivate
qualified personnel. There can be no assurances that we will be
successful in addressing such risks, and the failure to do so
could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial
condition and results of operations.
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If we do not successfully integrate element 5, our
business will be adversely affected. |
Our acquisition of element 5 in April 2004 is recent. We
therefore have a very limited operating history with element 5
and limited experience in managing its business. Integrating
element 5 is a complex and time-consuming process. Prior to the
acquisition, Digital River and element 5 operated independently,
each with its own business, corporate culture, locations,
employees and systems. Eventually, we intend to operate as a
combined organization utilizing common technology, information
and communication systems, operating procedures, financial
controls, and human resource practices. There may be substantial
difficulties, costs and delays involved in any integration of
element 5 into Digital River. These may include:
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distracting management from
day-to-day operations; |
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potential incompatibility of corporate cultures; |
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potential difficulties in transitioning customers to new
platforms; |
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an inability to achieve synergies as planned; |
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costs and delays in implementing common systems and
procedures; and |
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increased difficulties in managing our business due to the
addition of an international location and two locations in the
U.S. |
Many of these risks are accentuated because element 5s
operations, employees and customers are largely located outside
of the U.S. Any one or all of these factors may increase
operating costs or lower anticipated financial performance. Many
of these factors are also outside of our control. Achieving
anticipated
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synergies and the potential benefits underlying our reasons for
the acquisition will depend on successful integration of the two
businesses. The failure to integrate element 5 successfully
would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial
condition and results of operations.
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We may be unable to retain element 5s
customers. |
There can be no assurance that we will be able to retain element
5s customers following the acquisition. A failure to
retain element 5s customers could have a material adverse
effect on our financial condition and profitability.
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As a result of the acquisition of element 5, we will
be exposed to greater risk from currency fluctuations. |
Approximately one half of element 5s revenue and most of
its costs are denominated in Euros and currencies other than
U.S. dollars. As a result, a greater proportion of our
revenues, earnings and costs will now be subject to currency
fluctuations. We do not have, and we do not have plans to
implement, a currency hedging program to mitigate the effect of
fluctuations of currency prices on our financial results. As a
result, our future operating results may be subject to
fluctuations due to volatility in foreign currency exchange
markets.
17
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Some of the statements in this prospectus and the documents
incorporated by reference are forward-looking statements. These
statements are based on our current expectations, assumptions,
estimates and projections about our business and our industry,
and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors that may cause our or our industrys results,
levels of activity, performance or achievement to be materially
different from any future results, levels of activity,
performance or achievements expressed or implied in or
contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Words such as
believe, anticipate, expect,
intend, plan, will,
may, should, estimate,
predict, potential,
continue, or the negative of such terms or other
similar expressions, identify forward-looking statements. In
addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections
or other characterizations of future events or circumstances are
forward-looking statements. Our actual results could differ
materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking
statements as a result of several factors more fully described
under the caption Risk Factors and in the documents
incorporated by reference. The forward-looking statements made
in this prospectus relate only to events as of the date on which
the statements are made.
RATIO OF EARNINGS TO FIXED CHARGES
The following table sets forth the ratio of earnings to fixed
charges for each of the last five years (in millions):
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Years Ended December 31 | |
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2000 | |
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Ratio of earnings to fixed charges
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70.5 |
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17.6 |
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The ratio of earnings to fixed charges is computed by dividing
income (loss) from operations plus fixed charges by fixed
charges. Fixed charges consist of interest expense, amortization
of debt issuance costs and that portion of rental payments under
operating leases that we believe to be representative of
interest. Earnings were insufficient to cover fixed charges in
2000 through 2002 by amounts equal to the net loss for the
period.
USE OF PROCEEDS
Unless otherwise indicated in the prospectus supplement, we
currently intend to use the net proceeds from the sale of
securities offered by this prospectus for general corporate
purposes, including capital expenditures and to meet working
capital needs. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds to
acquire or invest in businesses, products and technologies that
are complementary to our own. Pending such uses, we may invest
the net proceeds in interest-bearing securities.
DIVIDEND POLICY
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our capital
stock. We intend to retain any future earnings to support
operations and to finance the growth and development of our
business and we do not anticipate paying cash dividends for the
foreseeable future.
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DESCRIPTION OF CAPITAL STOCK
Our authorized capital stock consists of 60,000,000 shares
of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, and
5,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value
$0.01 per share. As of March 1, 2005, there were
34,179,543 shares of our common stock issued and
outstanding, 4,425,486 shares of common stock reserved for
issuance upon the conversion of our 1.25% Convertible
Senior Notes due 2024 and no shares of preferred stock issued or
outstanding.
Common Stock
The holders of common stock are entitled to one vote for each
share held of record on all matters submitted to a vote of the
stockholders. Subject to preferences that may be applicable to
any outstanding shares of preferred stock, the holders of common
stock are entitled to receive ratably any dividends declared by
the board of directors out of legally available funds. In the
event of a liquidation, dissolution or winding up of our
company, holders of the common stock are entitled to share
ratably in all assets remaining after payment of liabilities and
the liquidation preferences of any outstanding shares of
preferred stock. Holders of common stock have no preemptive
rights and no right to convert their common stock into any other
securities. There are no redemption or sinking fund provisions
applicable to the common stock. All of our outstanding shares of
common stock are, and all of the shares of common stock offered
by this prospectus as well as all of the shares of our common
stock issuable upon the conversion of our outstanding
convertible notes and upon the conversion of any preferred stock
or debt securities offered pursuant to this prospectus, when
issued and paid for, will be, fully paid and non-assessable.
Preferred Stock
Pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of
incorporation, our board of directors has the authority, without
further action by the stockholders, to issue up to
5,000,000 shares of preferred stock in one or more series
and to fix the designations, powers, preferences, privileges and
relative participating, optional or special rights and the
qualifications, limitations or restrictions thereof, including
dividend rights, conversion rights, voting rights, terms of
redemption and liquidation preferences, any or all of which may
be greater than the rights of the common stock.
We will fix the rights, preferences, privileges, limitations and
restrictions of the preferred stock of each series that we sell
under this prospectus and applicable prospectus supplements in
the certificate of designation relating to that series. We will
incorporate by reference as an exhibit to the registration
statement that includes this prospectus the form of any
certificate of designation that describes the terms of the
series of preferred stock we are offering before the issuance of
the related series of preferred stock. This description will
include:
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the title and stated value; |
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the number of shares we are offering; |
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the liquidation preference per share; |
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the purchase price per share; |
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the dividend rate per share, dividend period and payment dates
and method of calculation for dividends; |
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whether dividends will be cumulative or non-cumulative and, if
cumulative, the date from which dividends will accumulate; |
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our right, if any, to defer payment of dividends and the maximum
length of any such deferral period; |
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the procedures for any auction and remarketing, if any; |
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the provisions for a sinking fund, if any; |
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the provisions for redemption or repurchase, if applicable, and
any restrictions on our ability to exercise those redemption and
repurchase rights; |
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any listing of the preferred stock on any securities exchange or
market; |
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whether the preferred stock will be convertible into our common
stock, and, if applicable, the conversion period, the conversion
price, or how it will be calculated, and under what
circumstances it may be adjusted; |
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whether the preferred stock will be exchangeable into debt
securities, and, if applicable, the exchange period, the
exchange price, or how it will be calculated, and under what
circumstances it may be adjusted; |
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voting rights, if any, of the preferred stock; |
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preemption rights, if any; |
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restrictions on transfer, sale or other assignment, if any; |
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whether interests in the preferred stock will be represented by
depositary shares; |
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a discussion of any material or special United States federal
income tax considerations applicable to the preferred stock; |
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the relative ranking and preferences of the preferred stock as
to dividend rights and rights if we liquidate, dissolve or wind
up our affairs; |
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any limitations on issuances of any class or series of preferred
stock ranking senior to or on a parity with the series of
preferred stock being issued as to dividend rights and rights if
we liquidate, dissolve or wind up our affairs; and |
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any other specific terms, rights, preferences, privileges,
limitations or restrictions of the preferred stock. |
When we issue shares of preferred stock under this prospectus,
the shares will be fully paid and nonassessable and will not
have, or be subject to, any preemptive or similar rights.
Delaware law provides that the holders of preferred stock will
have the right to vote separately as a class on any proposal
involving fundamental changes in the rights of holders of that
preferred stock. This right is in addition to any voting rights
that may be provided for in the applicable certificate of
designation.
The issuance of preferred stock could adversely affect the
voting power of holders of our common stock, and the likelihood
that holders of preferred stock will receive dividend payments
and payments upon liquidation may have the effect of delaying,
deferring or preventing a change in control of us, which could
depress the market price of our common stock and securities
convertible into our common stock.
Antitakeover Effects of Provisions of Charter Documents and
Delaware Law
Charter Documents. Our amended and restated certificate
of incorporation and bylaws include a number of provisions that
may have the effect of deterring hostile takeovers or delaying
or preventing changes in control or management of our company.
First, our certificate of incorporation provides for a
classified board of directors in which only
approximately one third of the directors are elected at each
annual meeting of stockholders. Our certificate of incorporation
also provides that all stockholder action must be effected at a
duly called meeting of stockholders and not by a consent in
writing. Further, our bylaws limit who may call special meetings
of the stockholders. Our certificate of incorporation does not
include a provision for cumulative voting for directors. Under
cumulative voting, a minority stockholder holding a sufficient
percentage of a class of shares may be able to ensure the
election of one or more directors. Finally, our bylaws establish
procedures, including advance notice procedures, with regard to
the nomination of candidates for election as directors and
stockholder proposals. These and other provisions of our
certificate of
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incorporation and bylaws and Delaware law could discourage
potential acquisition proposals and could delay or prevent a
change in control or management of our company.
Delaware Takeover Statute. We are subject to the
provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General
Corporation Law. In general, the statute prohibits a publicly
held Delaware corporation from engaging in a business
combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three
years after the date of the transaction in which the person
became an interested stockholder, unless the business
combination is approved in a prescribed manner. For purposes of
Section 203, a business combination includes a merger,
asset sale or other transaction resulting in a financial benefit
to the interested stockholder, and an interested stockholder is
a person who, together with affiliates and associates, owns, or
within three years prior, did own, 15% or more of the
corporations voting stock.
These and other provisions of our certificate and bylaws and
Delaware law could discourage potential acquisition proposals
and could delay or prevent a change in control or management
Digital River.
Transfer Agent and Registrar
Wells Fargo Shareowner Services is the transfer agent and
registrar for our common stock.
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DESCRIPTION OF DEBT SECURITIES
We may issue debt securities from time to time in one or more
series. The following description summarizes the general terms
and provisions of the debt securities that we may offer pursuant
to this prospectus that are common to all series. The specific
terms relating to any series of our debt securities that we
offer will be described in a prospectus supplement. You should
read the applicable prospectus supplement for the terms of the
series of debt securities offered. Because the terms of specific
series of debt securities offered may differ from the general
information that we have provided below, you should rely on
information in the applicable prospectus supplement that
contradicts any information below.
As required by federal law for all bonds and notes of companies
that are publicly offered, the debt securities will be governed
by a document called an indenture. An indenture is a
contract between a financial institution, acting on your behalf
as trustee of the debt securities offered, and us. The debt
securities will be issued pursuant to an indenture that we will
enter into with a trustee, which, unless otherwise indicated in
the applicable prospectus supplement, will be Wells Fargo Bank,
a national association. When we refer to the
indenture in this prospectus, we are referring to
the indenture under which your debt securities are issued, as
may be supplemented by any supplemental indenture applicable to
your debt securities. The trustee has two main roles. First,
subject to some limitations on the extent to which the trustee
can act on your behalf, the trustee can enforce your rights
against us if we default on our obligations under the indenture.
Second, the trustee performs certain administrative duties for
us with respect to the debt securities.
Unless otherwise provided in any applicable prospectus
supplement, the following section is a summary of the principal
terms and provisions that will be included in the indenture.
This summary is not complete. Because this section is a summary,
it does not describe every aspect of the debt securities or the
indenture. If we refer to particular provisions in the
indenture, such provisions, including the definition of terms,
are incorporated by reference in this prospectus as part of this
summary. We urge you to read the indenture and any supplement
thereto that are applicable to you because the indenture, and
not this section, defines your rights as a holder of debt
securities. The form of indenture is filed as an exhibit to the
registration statement of which this prospectus is a part.
General Terms of Debt Securities
Unless otherwise provided in any applicable prospectus
supplement, the debt securities offered hereby will be unsecured
obligations of Digital River and will be either our senior
unsecured obligations issued in one or more series and referred
to herein as the senior debt securities, or our
subordinated unsecured obligations issued in one or more series
and referred to herein as the subordinated debt
securities. The senior debt securities will rank equal in
right of payment to all of our other unsecured and
unsubordinated indebtedness. The subordinated debt securities
will be subordinated in right of payment to the prior payment in
full of the senior debt securities and all of our other senior
indebtedness, as described below under
Subordination Provisions.
The indenture contains covenants with respect to the following
matters:
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payment of principal, premium, if any, and interest; |
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maintenance of an office or agency in each place of payment; |
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arrangements regarding the handling of money held in trust; |
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maintenance of corporate existence; |
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maintenance of insurance; and |
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statement by officers as to default. |
We may agree to additional covenants for the benefit of one or
more series of debt securities, and, if so, these will be
described in the applicable prospectus supplement.
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The indenture does not limit the total amount of debt securities
that we can issue under it, nor does it limit us from incurring
or issuing other unsecured or secured debt. Unless otherwise
indicated in the applicable prospectus supplement, the indenture
pursuant to which the debt securities are issued will not
contain any financial covenants or other provisions that protect
you in the event we issue a large amount of debt, or in the
event that we are acquired by another entity (including in a
highly leveraged transaction).
Specific Terms of Debt Securities
You should read the applicable prospectus supplement for the
terms of the series of debt securities offered. The terms of the
debt securities described in such prospectus supplement may
include the following, as applicable to the series of debt
securities offered thereby:
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the title of the debt securities; |
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whether the debt securities will be senior debt securities or
subordinated debt securities of Digital River; |
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the aggregate principal amount of the debt securities and
whether there is any limit on such aggregate principal amount; |
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whether we may reopen the series of debt securities for
issuances of additional debt securities of such series; |
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the date or dates, or how the date or dates will be determined,
when the principal amount of the debt securities will be payable; |
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the amount payable upon acceleration of the maturity of the debt
securities or how this amount will be determined; |
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the interest rate or rates, which may be fixed or variable, that
the debt securities will bear, if any, or how such interest rate
or rates will be determined; |
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the basis upon which interest will be calculated if other than
that of a 360-day year
of twelve 30-day months; |
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the date or dates from which any interest will accrue or how
such date or dates will be determined; |
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the interest payment dates and the record dates for these
interest payments; |
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whether the debt securities are redeemable at our option; |
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whether there are any sinking fund or other provisions that
would obligate us to purchase or otherwise redeem the debt
securities; |
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the form in which we will issue the debt securities, if other
than in registered book-entry only form represented by global
securities; whether we will have the option of issuing debt
securities in certificated form; whether we will
have the option of issuing certificated debt securities in
bearer form if we issue the securities outside the United States
to
non-U.S. persons;
any restrictions on the offer, sale or delivery of bearer
securities and the terms, if any, upon which bearer securities
of the series may be exchanged for registered securities of the
series and vice versa (if permitted by applicable laws and
regulations); |
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the currency or currencies of the debt securities; |
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whether the amount of payments of principal, premium, if any, or
interest on the debt securities will be determined with
reference to an index, formula or other method (which could be
based on one or more currencies, commodities, equity indices or
other indices) and how these amounts will be determined; |
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the place or places for payment, transfer, conversion and/or
exchange of the debt securities; |
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the denominations in which the offered debt securities will be
issued; |
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the applicability of the provisions of the indenture described
under defeasance and any provisions in modification
of, in addition to or in lieu of any of these provisions; |
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material federal income tax considerations that are specific to
the series of debt securities offered; |
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any provisions granting special rights to the holders of the
debt securities upon the occurrence of specified events; |
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whether the indenture contains any changes or additions to the
events of default or covenants described in this prospectus; |
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whether the debt securities will be convertible into or
exchangeable for any other securities and the applicable terms
and conditions for such conversion or exchange; |
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if the debt securities are to be secured, the provisions
applicable to such security; and |
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any other terms specific to the series of debt securities
offered. |
Redemption
If the debt securities are redeemable, the applicable prospectus
supplement will set forth the terms and conditions for such
redemption, including:
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the redemption prices (or method of calculating the same); |
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the redemption period (or method of determining the same); |
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whether such debt securities are redeemable in whole or in part
at our option; and |
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any other provisions affecting the redemption of such debt
securities. |
Conversion and Exchange
If any series of the debt securities offered are convertible
into or exchangeable for shares of our common stock or other
securities (which could include securities issued by third
parties, including our affiliates), the applicable prospectus
supplement will set forth the terms and conditions for such
conversion or exchange, including:
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the conversion price or exchange ratio (or method of calculating
the same); |
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the conversion or exchange period (or method of determining the
same); |
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whether conversion or exchange will be mandatory, or at our
option or at the option of the holder; |
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the events requiring an adjustment of the conversion price or
the exchange ratio; and |
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any other provisions affecting conversion or exchange of such
debt securities. |
Form and Denomination of Debt Securities
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Denomination of Debt Securities |
Unless otherwise indicated in the applicable prospectus
supplement, the debt securities will be denominated in
U.S. dollars, in minimum denominations of $1,000 and
multiples thereof.
We may issue the debt securities in registered form, in which
case we may issue them either in book-entry form only or in
certificated form. We will issue registered debt
securities in book-entry form only, unless we specify otherwise
in the applicable prospectus supplement. Debt securities issued
in book-entry form will be represented by global securities.
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We also will have the option of issuing debt securities in
non-registered form, as bearer securities, if we issue the
securities outside the United States to
non-U.S. persons.
In that case, the applicable prospectus supplement will set
forth the mechanics for holding the bearer securities, including
the procedures for receiving payments, for exchanging the bearer
securities for registered securities of the same series and for
receiving notices. The applicable prospectus supplement will
also describe the requirements with respect to our maintenance
of offices or agencies outside the United States and the
applicable U.S. federal tax law requirements.
Holders of Registered Debt Securities
We will issue registered debt securities in book-entry form
only, unless we specify otherwise in the applicable prospectus
supplement. Debt securities held in book-entry form will be
represented by one or more global securities registered in the
name of a depositary or its nominee. The depositary or its
nominee will hold such global securities on behalf of financial
institutions that participate in such depositarys
book-entry system. These participating financial institutions,
in turn, hold beneficial interests in the global securities
either on their own behalf or on behalf of their customers.
Under the indenture, only the person in whose name a debt
security is registered is recognized as the holder of that debt
security. Consequently, for debt securities issued in global
form, we will recognize only the depositary or its nominee as
the holder of the debt securities, and we will make all payments
on the debt securities to the depositary or its nominee. The
depositary will then pass along the payments that it receives to
its participants, which in turn will pass the payments along to
their customers who are the beneficial owners of the debt
securities. The depositary and its participants do so under
agreements they have made with one another or with their
customers or by law; they are not obligated to do so under the
terms of the debt securities or the terms of the indenture.
As a result, investors will not own debt securities directly.
Instead, they will own beneficial interests in a global
security, through a bank, broker or other financial institution
that participates in the depositarys book-entry system, or
that holds an interest through a participant in the
depositarys book-entry system. As long as the debt
securities are issued in global form, investors will be indirect
holders, and not holders, of the debt securities.
In the event that we issue debt securities in certificated form,
or in the event that a global security is terminated, investors
may choose to hold their debt securities either in their own
names or in street name. Debt securities held in
street name are registered in the name of a bank, broker or
other financial institution chosen by the investor, and the
investor would hold a beneficial interest in those debt
securities through the account that he or she maintains at such
bank, broker or other financial institution.
For debt securities held in street name, we will recognize only
the intermediary banks, brokers and other financial institutions
in whose names the debt securities are registered as the holders
of those debt securities, and we will make all payments on those
debt securities to them. These institutions will pass along the
payments that they receive from us to their customers who are
the beneficial owners pursuant to agreements that they have
entered into with such customers or by law; they are not
obligated to do so under the terms of the debt securities or the
terms of the indenture. Investors who hold debt securities in
street name will be indirect holders, and not holders, of the
debt securities.
Our obligations, as well as the obligations of the trustee and
those of any third parties employed by the trustee or us, run
only to the registered holders of the debt securities. We do not
have obligations to investors who hold beneficial interests in
global securities, in street name or by any other indirect means
and who are,
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therefore, not the registered holders of the debt securities.
This will be the case whether an investor chooses to be an
indirect holder of a debt security, or has no choice in the
matter because we are issuing the debt securities only in global
form.
For example, once we make a payment or give a notice to the
registered holder of the debt securities, we have no further
responsibility with respect to such payment or notice even if
that registered holder is required, under agreements with
depositary participants or customers or by law, to pass it along
to the indirect holders but does not do so. Similarly, if we
want to obtain the approval of the holders for any purpose (for
example, to amend an indenture or to relieve us of the
consequences of a default or of our obligation to comply with a
particular provision of an indenture), we would seek the
approval only from the registered holders, and not the indirect
holders, of the debt securities. Whether and how the registered
holders contact the indirect holders is up to the registered
holders.
Notwithstanding the above, when we refer to you or
your in this prospectus, we are referring to
investors who invest in the debt securities being offered by
this prospectus, whether they are the registered holders or only
indirect holders of the debt securities offered. When we refer
to your debt securities in this prospectus, we mean
the series of debt securities in which you hold a direct or
indirect interest.
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Special Considerations for Indirect Holders |
If you hold debt securities through a bank, broker or other
financial institution, either in book-entry form or in street
name, we urge you to check with that institution to find out:
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how it handles securities payments and notices; |
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whether it imposes fees or charges; |
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how it would handle a request for its consent, as a registered
holder of the debt securities, if ever required; |
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if permitted for a particular series of debt securities, whether
and how you can instruct it to send you debt securities
registered in your own name so you can be a registered holder of
such debt securities; |
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how it would exercise rights under the debt securities if there
were a default or other event triggering the need for holders to
act to protect their interests; and |
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if the debt securities are in book-entry form, how the
depositarys rules and procedures will affect these matters. |
Global Securities
A global security represents one or any other number of
individual debt securities. Generally, all debt securities
represented by the same global securities will have the same
terms. Each debt security issued in book-entry form will be
represented by a global security that we deposit with and
register in the name of a financial institution or its nominee
that we select. The financial institution that we select for
this purpose is called the depositary. Unless we specify
otherwise in the applicable prospectus supplement, The
Depository Trust Company, New York, New York, known as DTC, will
be the depositary for all debt securities that we issue in
book-entry form. A global security may not be transferred to or
registered in the name of anyone other than the depositary or
its nominee, unless special termination situations arise. We
describe those situations below under Special
Situations When a Global Security Will Be Terminated. As a
result of these arrangements, the depositary, or its nominee,
will be the sole registered holder of all debt securities
represented by a global security, and investors will be
permitted to own only beneficial interests in a global security.
Beneficial interests must be held by means of an account with a
broker, bank or other financial institution that in turn has an
account either with the depositary or with another institution
that has an account with the depositary. Thus, an investor whose
security is represented by a global security will not be a
registered holder of the debt security, but an indirect holder
of a beneficial interest in the global security.
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Special Considerations for Global Securities |
As an indirect holder, an investors rights relating to a
global security will be governed by the account rules of the
investors financial institution and of the depositary, as
well as general laws relating to securities transfers. The
depositary that holds the global security will be considered the
registered holder of the debt securities represented by such
global security.
If debt securities are issued only in the form of a global
security, an investor should be aware of the following:
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An investor cannot cause the debt securities to be registered in
his or her name, and cannot obtain non-global certificates for
his or her interest in the debt securities, except in the
special situations we describe below under
Special Situations When a Global Security Will
Be Terminated. |
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An investor will be an indirect holder and must look to his or
her own bank or broker for payments on the debt securities and
protection of his or her legal rights relating to the debt
securities, as we describe under Holders of
Registered Debt Securities above. |
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An investor may not be able to sell his or her interest in the
debt securities to some insurance companies and other
institutions that are required by law to own their securities in
non-book-entry form. |
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An investor may not be able to pledge his or her interest in the
debt securities in circumstances where certificates representing
the debt securities must be delivered to the lender or other
beneficiary of the pledge in order for the pledge to be
effective. |
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The depositarys policies, which may change from time to
time, will govern payments, transfers, exchanges and other
matters relating to an investors interest in the debt
securities. Neither the trustee nor we have any responsibility
for any aspect of the depositarys actions or for the
depositarys records of ownership interests in a global
security. Additionally, neither the trustee nor we supervise the
depositary in any way. |
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DTC requires that those who purchase and sell interests in a
global security that is deposited in its book-entry system use
immediately available funds. Your broker or bank may also
require you to use immediately available funds when purchasing
or selling interests in a global security. |
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Financial institutions that participate in the depositarys
book-entry system, and through which an investor holds its
interest in a global security, may also have their own policies
affecting payments, notices and other matters relating to the
debt security. There may be more than one financial intermediary
in the chain of ownership for an investor. We do not monitor and
are not responsible for the actions of any of such
intermediaries. |
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Special Situations When a Global Security Will Be
Terminated |
In a few special situations described below, a global security
will be terminated and interests in the global security will be
exchanged for certificates in non-global form, referred to as
certificated debt securities. After such an
exchange, it will be up to the investor as to whether to hold
the certificated debt securities directly or in street name. We
have described the rights of direct holders and street name
holders under Holders of Registered Debt
Securities above. Investors must consult their own banks
or brokers to find out how to have their interests in a global
security exchanged on termination of a global security for
certificated debt securities to be held directly in their own
names.
The special situations for termination of a global security are
as follows:
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if the depositary notifies us that it is unwilling, unable or no
longer qualified to continue as depositary for that global
security, and we do not appoint another institution to act as
depositary within 60 days of such notification; |
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if we notify the trustee that we wish to terminate that global
security; or |
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if an event of default has occurred with regard to the debt
securities represented by that global security and such event of
default has not been cured or waived. |
The applicable prospectus supplement may list situations for
terminating a global security that would apply only to the
particular series of debt securities covered by such prospectus
supplement. If a global security were terminated, only the
depositary, and not we or the trustee, would be responsible for
deciding the names of the institutions in whose names the debt
securities represented by the global security would be
registered and, therefore, who would be the registered holders
of those debt securities.
Form, Exchange and Transfer of Registered Securities
If we cease to issue registered debt securities in global form,
we will issue them:
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only in fully registered certificated form; and |
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unless otherwise indicated in the applicable prospectus
supplement, in denominations of $1,000 and amounts that are
multiples of $1,000. |
Holders may exchange their certificated securities for debt
securities of smaller denominations or combined into fewer debt
securities of larger denominations, as long as the total
principal amount is not changed.
Holders may exchange or transfer their certificated securities
at the trustees office. We have appointed the trustee to
act as our agent for registering debt securities in the names of
holders transferring debt securities. We may appoint another
entity to perform these functions or perform them ourselves.
Holders will not be required to pay a service charge to transfer
or exchange their certificated securities, but they may be
required to pay any tax or other governmental charge associated
with the transfer or exchange. The transfer or exchange will be
made only if our transfer agent is satisfied with the
holders proof of legal ownership.
If we have designated additional transfer agents for your debt
security, they will be named in the applicable prospectus
supplement. We may appoint additional transfer agents or cancel
the appointment of any particular transfer agent. We may also
approve a change in the location of the office through which any
transfer agent acts. If any certificated securities of a
particular series are redeemable and we redeem less than all the
debt securities of that series, we may block the transfer or
exchange of those debt securities during the period beginning
15 days before the day we mail the notice of redemption and
ending on the day of that mailing, in order to freeze the list
of holders to prepare the mailing. We may also refuse to
register transfers or exchanges of any certificated securities
selected for redemption, except that we will continue to permit
transfers and exchanges of the unredeemed portion of any debt
security that will be partially redeemed.
If a registered debt security is issued in global form, only the
depositary will be entitled to transfer and exchange the debt
security as described in this subsection because it will be the
sole holder of the debt security.
Payment and Paying Agents
On each due date for interest payments on the debt securities,
we will pay interest to each person shown on the trustees
records as owner of the debt securities at the close of business
on a designated day that is in advance of the due date for
interest. We will pay interest to each such person even if such
person no longer owns the debt security on the interest due
date. The designated day on which we will determine the owner of
the debt security, as shown on the trustees records, is
also known as the record date. The record date will
usually be about two weeks in advance of the interest due date.
Because we will pay interest on the debt securities to the
holders of the debt securities based on ownership as of the
applicable record date with respect to any given interest
period, and not to the holders of the debt securities on the
interest due date (that is, the day that the interest is to be
paid), it is up to the holders who are buying and selling the
debt securities to work out between themselves the appropriate
purchase price for the debt securities. It is common for
purchase prices of debt securities to be adjusted so as
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to prorate the interest on the debt securities fairly between
the buyer and the seller based on their respective ownership
periods within the applicable interest period.
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Payments on Global Securities |
We will make payments on a global security by wire transfer of
immediately available funds directly to the depositary, or its
nominee, and not to any indirect holders who own beneficial
interests in the global security. An indirect holders
right to those payments will be governed by the rules and
practices of the depositary and its participants, as described
under Global Securities above.
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Payments on Certificated Securities |
We will make interest payments on debt securities held in
certificated form by mailing a check on each due date for
interest payments to the holder of the certificated securities,
as shown on the trustees records, as of the close of
business on the record date. We will make all payments of
principal and premium, if any, on the certificated securities by
check at the office of the trustee, and/or at other offices that
may be specified in the applicable prospectus supplement or in a
notice to holders, against surrender of the certificated
security. All payments by check will be made in next-day funds
(that is, funds that become available on the day after the check
is cashed).
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Payment When Offices Are Closed |
If payment on a debt security is due on a day that is not a
business day, we will make such payment on the next succeeding
business day. The indenture will provide that such payments will
be treated as if they were made on the original due date for
payment. A postponement of this kind will not result in a
default under any debt security or indenture, and no interest
will accrue on the amount of any payment that is postponed in
this manner.
Book-entry and other indirect holders should consult their
banks or brokers for information on how they will receive
payments on their debt securities.
Events of Default
You will have special rights if an Event of Default occurs with
respect to your debt securities and such Event of Default is not
cured, as described later in this subsection.
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What Is an Event of Default? |
Unless otherwise specified in the applicable prospectus
supplement, the term Event of Default with respect
to the debt securities offered means any of the following:
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We do not pay the principal of, or any premium on, the debt
security on its due date; |
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We do not pay interest on the debt security within 30 days
of its due date; |
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We do not deposit any sinking fund payment, if applicable, with
respect to the debt securities on its due date; |
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We remain in breach of a covenant with respect to the debt
securities for 60 days after we receive a written notice of
default stating that we are in breach. The notice must be sent
by either the trustee or holders of at least 25% of the
principal amount of the debt securities of the affected series; |
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We file for bankruptcy or certain other events of bankruptcy,
insolvency or reorganization occur; or |
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Any other Event of Default that may be described in the
applicable prospectus supplement, and set forth in the
indenture, occurs. |
An Event of Default for a particular series of debt securities
does not necessarily constitute an Event of Default for any
other series of debt securities issued under the same indenture
or any other indenture.
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Remedies if an Event of Default Occurs |
If an Event of Default has occurred and has not been cured
within the applicable time period, the trustee or the holders of
25% in principal amount of the debt securities of the affected
series may declare the entire principal amount of all the debt
securities of that series to be immediately due and payable.
This is called a declaration of acceleration of maturity. A
declaration of acceleration of maturity may be rescinded by the
holders of at least a majority in principal amount of the debt
securities of the affected series.
The trustee may withhold notice to the holders of debt
securities of any default, except in the payment of principal or
interest, if it considers the withholding of notice to be in the
best interests of the holders. Additionally, subject to the
provisions of the indenture relating to the duties of the
trustee, the trustee is not required to take any action under
the indenture at the request of any of the holders of the debt
securities unless such holders offer the trustee reasonable
protection from expenses and liability (called an
indemnity). If reasonable indemnity is provided, the
holders of a majority in principal amount of the outstanding
debt securities of the relevant series may direct the time,
method and place of conduct of any lawsuit or other formal legal
action seeking any remedy available to the trustee. The trustee
may refuse to follow those directions in certain circumstances.
No delay or omission in exercising any right or remedy will be
treated as a waiver of that right, remedy or Event of Default.
Before you are allowed to bypass the trustee and bring your own
lawsuit or other formal legal action or take other steps to
enforce your rights or protect your interests relating to your
debt securities, the following must occur:
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You must give the trustee written notice that an Event of
Default has occurred and remains uncured. |
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The holders of 25% in principal amount of all outstanding debt
securities of the relevant series must make a written request
that the trustee take action because of the default that has
occurred and must offer reasonable indemnity to the trustee
against the cost and other liabilities of taking that action. |
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The trustee must not have taken any action for 60 days
after receipt of the above notice, request and offer of
indemnity. |
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The holders of a majority in principal amount of the debt
securities of the relevant series must not have given the
trustee a direction inconsistent with the above notice or
request. |
Notwithstanding the above, you are entitled at any time to bring
a lawsuit for the payment of money due on your debt securities
on or after the due date for payment.
Holders of a majority in principal amount of the debt securities
of the affected series may waive any past defaults other than:
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the payment of principal, or any premium or interest, on the
affected series of debt securities; or |
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a default in respect of a covenant that cannot be modified or
amended without the consent of each holder of the affected
series of debt securities. |
Book-entry and other indirect holders should consult their
banks or brokers for information on how to give notice or
direction to or make a request of the trustee, and how to
declare or rescind an acceleration of maturity on their debt
securities.
With respect to each series of debt securities, we will furnish
to each trustee, each year, a written statement of certain of
our officers certifying that, to their knowledge, we are in
compliance with the provisions of the indenture applicable to
such series of debt securities, or specifying an Event of
Default.
Merger or Consolidation
Unless otherwise specified in the applicable prospectus
supplement, the terms of the indenture will generally permit us
to consolidate or merge with another entity. We will also be
permitted to sell all or
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substantially all of our assets to another entity. However, we
may not take any of these actions unless, among other things,
the following conditions are met:
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in the event that we merge out of existence or sell all or
substantially all of our assets, the resulting entity must agree
to be legally responsible for the debt securities; |
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the merger or sale of all or substantially all of our assets
must not cause a default on the debt securities, and we must not
already be in default (unless the merger or sale would cure the
default) with respect to the debt securities; and |
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we must satisfy any other requirements specified in the
applicable prospectus supplement relating to a particular series
of debt securities. |
Modification or Waiver
There are three types of changes we can make to any indenture
and the debt securities issued thereunder.
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Changes Requiring Your Approval |
First, there are changes that we cannot make to the terms or
provisions of your debt securities without your specific
approval. Subject to the provisions of the indenture, without
your specific approval, we may not:
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change the stated maturity of the principal of, or interest or
any additional amounts on, your debt securities; |
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reduce the principal amount of, or premium, if any, or interest
on, or any other amounts due on your debt securities; |
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reduce the amount of principal payable upon acceleration of
maturity of your debt securities; |
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make any change that adversely affects your right to receive
payment on, to convert, to exchange or to require us to
purchase, as applicable, your debt securities in accordance with
the terms of the indenture; |
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change the place or currency of payment on your debt securities; |
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impair your right to sue for payment on your debt securities; |
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if your debt securities are subordinated debt securities, modify
the subordination provisions in the indenture in a manner that
is adverse to you; |
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reduce the percentage of holders of outstanding debt securities
of your series whose consent is needed to modify or amend the
indenture; |
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reduce the percentage of holders of outstanding debt securities
of your series whose consent is needed to waive compliance with
certain provisions of the indenture or to waive certain defaults
of the indenture; |
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modify any other aspect of the provisions of the indenture
dealing with modification and waiver of past defaults, changes
to the quorum or voting requirements or the waiver of certain
covenants relating to your debt securities; or |
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modify any other provisions of the indenture as specified in the
applicable prospectus supplement. |
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Changes Not Requiring Your Approval |
There are certain changes that we may make to your debt
securities without your specific approval and without any vote
of the holders of the debt securities of the same series. Such
changes are limited to clarifications and certain other changes
that would not adversely affect the holders of the outstanding
debt securities of such series in any material respect.
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Changes Requiring Majority Approval |
Subject to the provisions of the indenture, any other change to,
or waiver of, any provision of the indenture and the debt
securities issued pursuant thereto would require the following
approval:
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If the change affects only one series of debt securities, it
must be approved by the holders of a majority in principal
amount of the outstanding debt securities of that series. |
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If the change affects more than one series of debt securities
issued under the same indenture, it must be approved by the
holders of a majority in principal amount of the outstanding
debt securities of all series affected by the change, with all
affected series voting together as one class for this purpose. |
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Waiver of our compliance with certain provisions of an indenture
must be approved by the holders of a majority in principal
amount of the outstanding debt securities of all series issued
under such indenture, voting together as one class for this
purpose, in accordance with the terms of such indenture. |
In each case, the required approval must be given in writing.
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Further Details Concerning Voting |
When taking a vote, we will decide the principal amount
attributable to the debt securities in the following manner:
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For debt securities issued with an original issue discount, we
will use the principal amount that would be due and payable on
the voting date if the maturity of such debt securities were
accelerated to that date because of a default. |
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For debt securities for which principal amount is not known (for
example, because it is based on an index), we will use the
formula described in the prospectus supplement relating to such
debt securities. |
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For debt securities denominated in one or more foreign
currencies, we will use the U.S. dollar equivalent. |
Debt securities will not be considered outstanding, and
therefore will not be eligible to vote, if we have deposited or
set aside in trust money for their payment in full or their
redemption. Debt securities will also not be eligible to vote if
we can legally release ourselves from all payment and other
obligations with respect to such debt securities, as described
below under Defeasance Full
Defeasance.
We will generally be entitled to set any day as a record date
for the purpose of determining the holders of outstanding debt
securities that are entitled to vote or take other action under
the indenture. If we set a record date for a vote or other
action to be taken by holders of one or more series of debt
securities, such vote or action may be taken only by persons
shown on the trustees records as holders of the debt
securities of the relevant series on such record date.
Book-entry and other indirect holders should consult their
banks or brokers for information on how their approval or waiver
may be granted or denied if we seek their approval to change or
waive the provisions of an indenture or of their debt
securities.
Defeasance
If specified in the applicable prospectus supplement and subject
to the provisions of the indenture, we may elect either:
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to be released from some of the covenants in the indenture under
which your debt securities were issued (referred to as
covenant defeasance); or |
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to be discharged from all of our obligations with respect to
your debt securities, except for obligations to register the
transfer or exchange of your debt securities, to replace
mutilated, destroyed, lost or |
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stolen debt securities, to maintain paying offices or agencies
and to hold moneys for payment in trust (referred to as
full defeasance). |
In the event of covenant defeasance, you would lose the
protection of some of our covenants in the indenture, but would
gain the protection of having money and government securities
set aside in trust to repay your debt securities.
Subject to the provisions of the indenture, to accomplish
covenant defeasance with respect to the debt securities offered:
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We must deposit in trust for the benefit of all holders of the
debt securities of the same series as your debt securities a
combination of money and U.S. government or
U.S. government agency notes or bonds that would generate
enough cash to make interest, principal and any other payments
on such series of debt securities on the various dates when such
payments would be due. |
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No Event of Default or event which with notice or lapse of time
would become an Event of Default, including by reason of the
above deposit of money, notes or bonds, with respect to your
debt securities shall have occurred and be continuing on the
date of such deposit. |
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We must deliver to the trustee of your debt securities a legal
opinion of our counsel to the effect that, for U.S. federal
income tax purposes, you will not recognize income, gain or loss
as a result of such covenant defeasance and that such covenant
defeasance will not cause you to be taxed on your debt
securities any differently than if such covenant defeasance had
not occurred and we had just repaid your debt securities
ourselves at maturity. |
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We must deliver to the trustee of your debt securities a legal
opinion of our counsel to the effect that the deposit of funds
or bonds would not require registration under the Investment
Company Act of 1940, as amended, or that all necessary
registration under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as
amended, had been effected. |
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We must comply with any additional terms of, conditions to or
limitations to covenant defeasance, as set forth in the
indenture. |
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We must deliver to the trustee of your debt securities an
officers certificate and a legal opinion of our counsel
stating that all conditions precedent to covenant defeasance, as
set forth in the indenture, had been complied with. |
If we were to accomplish covenant defeasance, you could still
look to us for repayment of the debt securities if there were a
shortfall in the trust deposit or the trustee were prevented
from making payment. In fact, if an Event of Default that
remained after we accomplish covenant defeasance occurred (such
as our bankruptcy) and your debt securities became immediately
due and payable, there might be a shortfall in our trust
deposit. Depending on the event causing the default, you might
not be able to obtain payment of the shortfall.
If we were to accomplish full defeasance, you would have to rely
solely on the funds or notes or bonds that we deposit in trust
for repayment of your debt securities. You could not look to us
for repayment in the unlikely event of any shortfall in our
trust deposit. Conversely, the trust deposit would most likely
be protected from claims of our lenders and other creditors if
we were to become bankrupt or insolvent.
Subject to the provisions of the indenture, in order to
accomplish full defeasance with respect to the debt securities
offered:
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We must deposit in trust for the benefit of all holders of the
debt securities of the same series as your debt securities a
combination of money and U.S. government or
U.S. government agency notes or |
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bonds that would generate enough cash to make interest,
principal and any other payments on such series of debt
securities on the various dates when such payments would be due. |
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No Event of Default or event which with notice or lapse of time
would become an Event of Default, including by reason of the
above deposit of money, notes or bonds, with respect to your
debt securities shall have occurred and be continuing on the
date of such deposit. |
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We must deliver to the trustee of your debt securities a legal
opinion of our counsel stating either that we have received, or
there has been published, a ruling by the Internal Revenue
Service or that there had been a change in the applicable
U.S. federal income tax law, in either case to the effect
that, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, you will not
recognize income, gain or loss as a result of such full
defeasance and that such full defeasance will not cause you to
be taxed on your debt securities any differently than if such
full defeasance had not occurred and we had just repaid your
debt securities ourselves at maturity. |
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We must deliver to the trustee a legal opinion of our counsel to
the effect that the deposit of funds or bonds would not require
registration under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as
amended, or that all necessary registration under the Investment
Company Act of 1940, as amended, had been effected. |
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We must comply with any additional terms of, conditions to or
limitations to full defeasance, as set forth in the indenture. |
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We must deliver to the trustee of your debt securities an
officers certificate and a legal opinion of our counsel
stating that all conditions precedent to full defeasance, as set
forth in the indenture, had been complied with. |
Subordination Provisions
Upon any distribution of our assets upon our dissolution,
winding up, liquidation or reorganization, the payment of the
principal of, premium, if any, and interest, if any, on the
subordinated debt securities will be subordinated, to the extent
provided in the subordinated indenture, as supplemented, in
right of payment to the prior payment in full of all of our
senior indebtedness. Our obligation to make payment of the
principal of, premium, if any, and interest, if any, on the
subordinated debt securities will not otherwise be affected. In
addition, no payment on account of principal and premium, if
any, sinking fund or interest, if any, may be made on the
subordinated debt securities at any time unless full payment of
all amounts due in respect of the principal and premium, if any,
sinking fund and interest, if any, on our senior indebtedness
has been made or duly provided for in money or moneys
worth.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, unless all of our senior
indebtedness has been paid in full, in the event that any
payment or distribution made by us is received by the trustee or
the holders of any of the subordinated debt securities, such
payment or distribution must be paid over to the holders of our
senior indebtedness or a person acting on their behalf, to be
applied toward the payment of all our senior indebtedness
remaining unpaid until all the senior indebtedness has been paid
in full. Subject to the payment in full of all our senior
indebtedness, the rights of the holders of the subordinated debt
securities will be subrogated to the rights of the holders of
our senior indebtedness.
By reason of this subordination, in the event of a distribution
of our assets upon our insolvency, certain of our general
creditors may recover more, ratably, than holders of the
subordinated debt securities. The subordinated indenture
provides that these subordination provisions will not apply to
money and securities held in trust under the defeasance
provisions of the subordinated indenture.
When we refer to senior indebtedness in this
prospectus, we are referring to the principal of (and premium,
if any) and unpaid interest on:
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our indebtedness (including indebtedness of others guaranteed by
us), other than subordinated debt securities, whenever created,
incurred, assumed or guaranteed, or money borrowed, unless the
instrument creating or evidencing such indebtedness or under
which such indebtedness is outstanding |
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provides that such indebtedness is not senior or prior in right
of payment to the subordinated debt securities; and |
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renewals, extensions, modifications and refundings of any of
such indebtedness. |
If this prospectus is being delivered in connection with the
offering of a series of subordinated debt securities, the
accompanying prospectus supplement or the information
incorporated by reference will set forth the approximate amount
of our senior indebtedness outstanding as of a recent date.
Information Concerning the Trustee
Unless otherwise indicated in the applicable prospectus
supplement, Wells Fargo Bank, a national association will be the
trustee under the indenture. We may conduct banking and other
transactions with the trustee in the ordinary course of business.
Governing Law
Unless by their terms they provide otherwise, the indenture and
the debt securities will be governed by, and construed in
accordance with, the law of the State of New York.
35
DESCRIPTION OF WARRANTS
General
We may issue warrants for the purchase of common stock,
preferred stock or debt securities. Each series of warrants will
be issued under a separate warrant agreement to be entered into
between us and a bank or trust company, as warrant agent. The
warrant agent will act solely as our agent in connection with
the warrants. The warrant agent will not have any obligation or
relationship of agency or trust for or with any holders or
beneficial owners of warrants. This summary of certain
provisions of the warrants is not complete. For the complete
terms of a particular series of warrants, you should refer to
the prospectus supplement for that series of warrants and the
warrant agreement for that particular series.
Debt Warrants
The prospectus supplement relating to a particular issue of
warrants to purchase debt securities will describe the terms of
the debt warrants, including the following:
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the title of the debt warrants; |
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the offering price for the debt warrants, if any; |
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the aggregate number of the debt warrants; |
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the designation and terms of the debt securities, including any
conversion rights, purchasable upon exercise of the debt
warrants; |
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the principal amount of debt securities that may be purchased
upon exercise of a debt warrant and the exercise price for the
warrants, which may be payable in cash, securities or other
property; |
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the dates on which the right to exercise the debt warrants will
commence and expire; |
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if applicable, the minimum or maximum amount of the debt
warrants that may be exercised at any one time; |
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whether the debt warrants represented by the debt warrant
certificates or debt securities that may be issued upon exercise
of the debt warrants will be issued in registered or bearer form; |
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information with respect to book-entry procedures, if any; |
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the currency or currency units in which the offering price, if
any, and the exercise price are payable; |
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if applicable, a discussion of material United States Federal
income tax considerations; |
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the antidilution provisions of the debt warrants, if any; |
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the redemption or call provisions, if any, applicable to the
debt warrants; |
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any provisions with respect to the holders right to
require us to repurchase the warrants upon a change in
control; and |
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any additional terms of the debt warrants, including terms,
procedures, and limitations relating to the exchange, exercise
and settlement of the debt warrants. |
Debt warrant certificates will be exchangeable for new debt
warrant certificates of different denominations. Debt warrants
may be exercised at the corporate trust office of the warrant
agent or any other office indicated in the prospectus
supplement. Prior to the exercise of their debt warrants,
holders of debt warrants will not have any of the rights of
holders of the debt securities purchasable upon exercise and
will not be entitled to payment of principal or any premium, if
any, or interest on the debt securities purchasable upon
exercise.
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Stock Warrants
The prospectus supplement relating to a particular series of
warrants to purchase our common stock or preferred stock will
describe the terms of the warrants, including the following:
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the title of the warrants; |
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the offering price for the warrants, if any; |
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the aggregate number of the warrants; |
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the designation and terms of the common stock or preferred stock
that may be purchased upon exercise of the warrants; |
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the number of shares of common stock or preferred stock that may
be purchased upon exercise of a warrant and the exercise price
for the warrants; |
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the dates on which the right to exercise the warrants shall
commence and expire; |
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if applicable, the minimum or maximum amount of the warrants
that may be exercised at any one time; |
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the currency or currency units in which the offering price, if
any, and the exercise price are payable; |
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if applicable, a discussion of material United States federal
income tax considerations; |
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the antidilution provisions of the warrants, if any; |
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the redemption or call provisions, if any, applicable to the
warrants; |
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any provisions with respect to holders right to require us
to repurchase the warrants upon a change in control; and |
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any additional terms of the warrants, including terms,
procedures, and limitations relating to the exchange, exercise
and settlement of the warrants. |
Holders of equity warrants will not be entitled:
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to vote, consent or receive dividends; |
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receive notice as stockholders with respect to any meeting of
stockholders for the election of our directors or any other
matter; or |
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exercise any rights as stockholders of the Company. |
As set forth in the applicable prospectus supplement, the
exercise price and the number of shares of common stock or
preferred stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant will be
subject to adjustment in certain events, including the issuance
of a stock dividend to any holders of common stock, a stock
split, reverse stock split, combination, subdivision or
reclassification of common stock, and such other events, if any,
specified in the applicable prospectus supplement.
37
PLAN OF DISTRIBUTION
We may sell the securities separately or together:
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through one or more underwriters or dealers in a public offering
and sale by them; |
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directly to investors; |
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through agents; or |
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through a combination of any of these methods of sale. |
We may sell the securities from time to time in one or more
transactions:
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at a fixed price or prices, which may be changed from time to
time: |
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at market prices prevailing at the times of sale; |
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at prices related to such prevailing market prices; or |
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at negotiated prices. |
We will set forth in a prospectus supplement the terms of the
offering of securities, including:
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the name or names of any agents or underwriters, if any; |
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the purchase price of the securities being offered and the
proceeds we will receive from the sale; |
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any over-allotment options under which underwriters may purchase
additional securities from us; |
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any agency fees or underwriting discounts and other items
constituting agents or underwriters compensation; |
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any discounts or concessions allowed or reallowed or paid to
dealers; and |
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any securities exchanges on which such securities may be listed. |
If we use underwriters for a sale of securities, the
underwriters will acquire the securities for their own account.
The underwriters may resell the securities in one or more
transactions, including negotiated transactions, at a fixed
public offering price or at varying prices determined at the
time of sale. The obligations of the underwriters to purchase
the securities will be subject to the conditions set forth in
the applicable underwriting agreement. The underwriters will be
obligated to purchase all the securities of the series offered
if they purchase any of the securities of that series. We may
use underwriters with whom we have a material relationship. We
will describe in the prospectus supplement naming the
underwriter the nature of any such relationship.
One or more firms, referred to as remarketing firms,
may also offer or sell the securities, if the prospectus
supplement so indicates, in connection with a remarketing
arrangement upon their purchase. Remarketing firms will act as
principals for their own accounts or as agents for Digital
River. These remarketing firms will offer or sell the securities
pursuant to the terms of the securities. The prospectus
supplement will identify any remarketing firm and the terms of
its agreement, if any, with Digital River and will describe the
remarketing firms compensation. Remarketing firms may be
deemed to be underwriters in connection with the securities they
remarket. Remarketing firms may be entitled under agreements
that may be entered into with Digital River to indemnification
by us against certain civil liabilities, including liabilities
under the Securities Act, and may be customers of, engage in
transactions with or perform services for us in the ordinary
course of business.
We may determine the price or other terms of the securities
offered under this prospectus by use of an electronic auction.
We will describe how any auction will determine the price or any
other terms, how potential investors may participate in the
auction and the nature of the obligations of the underwriter,
dealer or agent in the applicable prospectus supplement.
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Underwriters, dealers or agents may receive compensation in the
form of discounts, concessions or commissions from us or our
purchasers (as their agents in connection with the sale of
securities). These underwriters, dealers or agents may be
considered to be underwriters under the Securities Act. As a
result, discounts, commissions or profits on resale received by
the underwriters, dealers or agents may be treated as
underwriting discounts and commissions. The prospectus
supplement will identify any such underwriter, dealer or agent,
and describe any compensation received by them from us. Any
initial public offering price and any discounts or concessions
allowed or reallowed or paid to dealers may be changed from time
to time.
We may authorize agents or underwriters to solicit offers by
certain types of institutional investors to purchase securities
from us at the public offering price set forth in the prospectus
supplement pursuant to delayed delivery contracts providing for
payment and delivery on a specified date in the future. We will
describe the conditions to these contracts and the commissions
we must pay for solicitation of these contracts in the
prospectus supplement.
Underwriters, dealers and agents may be entitled to
indemnification by us against certain civil liabilities,
including liabilities under the Securities Act, or to
contribution with respect to payments made by the underwriters,
dealers or agents, under agreements between us and the
underwriters, dealers and agents.
We may grant underwriters who participate in the distribution of
securities an option to purchase additional securities to cover
over-allotments, if any, in connection with the distribution.
All debt securities will be new issues of securities with no
established trading market. Underwriters involved in the public
offering and sale of debt securities may make a market in the
debt securities. However, they are not obligated to make a
market and may discontinue market-making activity at any time.
No assurance can be given as to the liquidity of the trading
market for any debt securities.
Underwriters or agents and their associates may be customers of,
engage in transactions with or perform services for us in the
ordinary course of business.
Any underwriter may engage in overallotment, stabilizing
transactions, short covering transactions and penalty bids in
accordance with Regulation M under the Exchange Act.
Overallotment involves sales in excess of the offering size,
which create a short position. Stabilizing transactions permit
bids to purchase the underlying security so long as the
stabilizing bids do not exceed a specified maximum. Short
covering transactions involve purchases of the securities in the
open market after the distribution is completed to cover short
positions. Penalty bids permit the underwriters to reclaim a
selling concession from a dealer when the securities originally
sold by the dealer are purchased in a covering transaction to
cover short positions. Those activities may cause the price of
the securities to be higher than it would otherwise be. If
commenced, the underwriters may discontinue any of the
activities at any time.
Any underwriters who are qualified market makers on the Nasdaq
National Market may engage in passive market making transactions
in the securities on the Nasdaq National Market in accordance
with Rule 103 of Regulation M, during the business day
prior to the pricing of the offering, before the commencement of
offers or sales of the securities. Passive market makers must
comply with applicable volume and price limitations and must be
identified as passive market makers. In general, a passive
market maker must display its bid at a price not in excess of
the highest independent bid for such security; if all
independent bids are lowered below the passive market
makers bid, however, the passive market makers bid
must then be lowered when certain purchase limits are exceeded.
LEGAL MATTERS
The validity of the securities being offered hereby will be
passed upon by Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk &
Rabkin, A Professional Corporation, San Francisco,
California.
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EXPERTS
The consolidated financial statements and schedule of Digital
River, Inc. and subsidiaries, included in Digital River,
Inc.s Annual Report
(Form 10-K) for
the year ended December 31, 2004 and Digital River, Inc.
managements assessment of the effectiveness of internal
control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2004
included therein, have been audited by Ernst & Young
LLP, independent registered public accounting firm, as set forth
in their reports thereon included therein, and incorporated
herein by reference. Such consolidated financial statements and
schedule and managements assessment have been incorporated
herein by reference and included herein, respectively, in
reliance upon such reports given on the authority of such firm
as experts in accounting and auditing.
WHERE YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION
We are a reporting company and file annual, quarterly and
current reports, proxy statements and other information with the
SEC. You may read and copy these reports, proxy statements and
other information at the SECs public reference room at
Room 1024, 450 Fifth Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. You can request copies of these documents
by writing to the SEC and paying a fee for the copying cost.
Please call the SEC at
1-800-SEC-0330 for more
information about the operation of the public reference rooms.
Our SEC filings are also available at the SECs web site at
http://www.sec.gov. In addition, you can read and copy
our SEC filings at the office of the National Association of
Securities Dealers, Inc. at 1735 K Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20006.
We are incorporating by reference in this prospectus some of the
information that we file with the SEC, which means that we can
disclose important information to you by referring you to those
documents. The information incorporated by reference is an
important part of this prospectus, and information that we file
later with the SEC will automatically update and supersede this
information. We incorporate by reference the documents listed
below and any future filings, other than reports furnished and
not filed pursuant to
Form 8-K, we will
make with the SEC under Section 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d)
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including filings made
after the date of the filing of the initial registration
statement and prior to effectiveness of the registration
statement:
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Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2004; |
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Current Reports on
Form 8-K filed on
January 20, 2005 and February 15, 2005; and |
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The description of our common stock contained in our
Registration Statement on
Form 8-A, as filed
on July 20, 1998. |
You may access these documents at no cost through our web site
at www.digitalriver.com or request a copy of these
filings at no cost, by writing or telephoning us at the
following address:
Digital River, Inc.
9625 W. 76th Street, Suite 150
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
(952) 253-1234
40
4,000,000 Shares
DIGITAL RIVER, INC.
Common Stock
PROSPECTUS SUPPLEMENT
March 22, 2006