As confidentially submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 31, 2019. This Amendment No. 2 to the draft registration statement has not been filed publicly with the Securities and Exchange Commission and all information herein remains strictly confidential.

Registration No. 333-                

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

 

Form S-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

 

 

Dynatrace Holdings LLC

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

 

Delaware		7372		47-2386428
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)		(Primary Standard Industrial Classification Code Number)		(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

 

 

1601 Trapelo Road, Suite 116

Waltham, MA 02451

(781) 530-1000

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)

 

 

Craig Newfield

General Counsel

Dynatrace LLC

1601 Trapelo Road, Suite 116

Waltham, MA 02451

(781) 530-1000

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

 

 

Copies to:

 

Kenneth J. Gordon Joseph C. Theis, Jr. Seo Salimi Goodwin Procter LLP 100 Northern Avenue Boston, MA 02210 (617) 570-1000		Bradley C. Reed, P.C. Michael P. Keeley Kirkland & Ellis LLP 300 North LaSalle Chicago, IL 60654 (312) 862-2000		Mark G. Borden David A. Westenberg Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP 60 State Street Boston, MA 02019 (617) 526-6000

 

 

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale of the securities to the public:

As soon as practicable after the effective date of this Registration Statement.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box:  ☐

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

 

Large accelerated filer  ☐		Accelerated filer  ☐		Non-accelerated filer  ☒		Smaller reporting company  ☐		Emerging growth company  ☒

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.  ☐

 

 

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

 

 

Title of Each Class of Securities to be Registered		Proposed Maximum Aggregate Offering Price(1)(2)		Amount of Registration Fee(3)
Common stock, $             par value per share		$		$

(1)	Estimated solely for the purpose of calculating the registration fee pursuant to Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

(2)	Includes the aggregate offering price of additional shares that the underwriters have the option to purchase to cover over-allotments.

(3)	Calculated pursuant to Rule 457(o) based on the estimate of the proposed maximum aggregate offering price.

 

 

The registrant hereby amends this registration statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the registrant shall file a further amendment that specifically states that this registration statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until this registration statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

 

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Dynatrace Holdings LLC, the registrant whose name appears on the cover of this registration statement, is a Delaware limited liability company and indirect equityholder of Dynatrace Holding Corp. Dynatrace LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dynatrace Holding Corp. Immediately prior to the effectiveness of this registration statement, Dynatrace Holdings LLC will (i) through a series of corporate reorganization steps, become the parent company of Dynatrace Holding Corp. and (ii) immediately thereafter, convert into a Delaware corporation with the name Dynatrace, Inc. As a result of those transactions, each of Dynatrace Holding Corp. and Dynatrace LLC will be a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Dynatrace, Inc., and the unit holders of Dynatrace Holdings LLC will become holders of shares of common stock of Dynatrace, Inc.

Except as disclosed in the prospectus, the consolidated financial statements and selected historical consolidated financial data and other financial information included in this registration statement are those of Dynatrace, Inc. and its subsidiaries after giving effect to the transactions described above. Shares of common stock of Dynatrace, Inc. are being offered by the prospectus included in this registration statement.

The information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and it is not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

 

Subject To Completion. Dated                 , 2019.

             Shares

 

 

Common Stock

 

 

This is an initial public offering of common stock of Dynatrace, Inc.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for the common stock. It is currently estimated that the initial public offering price per share will be between $                and $                . We intend to apply to list our common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “DT.”

Upon completion of this offering, affiliates of Thoma Bravo, LLC will own approximately    % of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock (or    % of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares is exercised in full). As a result, we will be a “controlled company” as defined under the New York Stock Exchange listing rules. See “Management—Status as a Controlled Company.”

We are an “emerging growth company” as defined under the federal securities laws, and as such, we have elected to comply with certain reduced public company reporting requirements for this prospectus and may elect to comply with reduced public company reporting requirements in future filings.

 

 

See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 19 to read about factors you should consider before buying shares of our common stock.

 

 

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission or other regulatory body has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

 

 

 

		Per share				Total
Initial Public Offering Price
Underwriting discount(1)
Proceeds, before expenses, to Dynatrace, Inc.

 

(1)	See the section titled “Underwriting” beginning on page 154 for a description of the compensation payable to the underwriters.

To the extent the underwriters sell more than                shares of common stock, the underwriters will have the option to purchase up to an additional                shares from us at the initial price to the public less the underwriting discount.

The underwriters expect to deliver the shares against payment in New York, New York on                 , 2019.

 

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC		J.P. Morgan		Citigroup

 

Barclays		Jefferies		RBC Capital Markets		UBS Investment Bank

 

KeyBanc Capital Markets		William Blair		Canaccord Genuity		JMP Securities		Macquarie Capital		Piper Jaffray

 

Prospectus dated                , 2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

		Page
Prospectus Summary			1
Risk Factors			19
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements			52
Use of Proceeds			55
Dividend Policy			56
Capitalization			57
Dilution			59
Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data			61
Non-GAAP Financial Measures			64
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Operating Results			67
Business			95
Management			112
Executive Compensation			119
Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions			126
Spin-Off Transactions			131
Principal Stockholders			134
Description of Indebtedness			136
Description of Capital Stock			141
Shares Eligible for Future Sale			147
Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations for Non-U.S. Holders of Our Common Stock			149
Underwriting			154
Legal Matters			159
Experts			159
Additional Information			159
Index to Financial Statements			F-1

 

 

Through and including                , 2019 (the 25^th day after the date of this prospectus), all dealers effecting transactions in these securities, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This is in addition to a dealer’s obligation to deliver a prospectus when acting as an underwriter and with respect to an unsold allotment or subscription.

 

 

Neither we nor the underwriters have authorized anyone to provide any information or make any representations other than the information contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectus prepared by or on behalf of us or to which we have referred you. We and the underwriters take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. If anyone provides you with different or inconsistent information, you should not rely on it.

We are offering to sell, and seeking offers to buy, shares of our common stock only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. The information contained in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date of this prospectus, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or of any sale of our common stock. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since that date.

For investors outside of the United States: neither we nor the underwriters have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where

 

i

action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. You are required to inform yourselves about and to observe any restrictions relating to this offering and the distribution of this prospectus outside of the United States.

Unless the context otherwise requires, the terms “Dynatrace,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” in this prospectus refer to Dynatrace, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries after giving effect to the Spin-Off Transactions described herein. The term “Thoma Bravo Funds” refers to Thoma Bravo Fund X, L.P., Thoma Bravo Fund X-A, L.P., Thoma Bravo Fund XI, L.P., Thoma Bravo Fund XI-A, L.P., Thoma Bravo Executive Fund XI, L.P., Thoma Bravo Special Opportunities Fund I, L.P. and Thoma Bravo Special Opportunities Fund I AIV, L.P., and the term “Thoma Bravo” refers to Thoma Bravo, LLC, the management company and ultimate general partner of the Thoma Bravo Funds, and, unless the context otherwise requires, its affiliated entities. The term “Dynatrace^®” refers to our Software Intelligence Platform.

 

ii

 

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

11

 

12

 

13

 

14

 

15

 

16

 

17

 

18

RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this prospectus, including the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes, before making a decision to invest in our common stock. The risks and uncertainties described below may not be the only ones we face. If any of the risks actually occur, our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business

We have experienced rapid subscription revenue growth in recent periods, and our recent growth rates may not be indicative of our future growth.

We have experienced rapid subscription revenue growth in recent periods. From the year ended March 31, 2018 to the year ended March 31, 2019, our subscription revenue grew 35.8% from $257.6 million to $349.8 million, respectively. From the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018 to the year ended March 31, 2019, subscription revenue as a percentage of total revenue grew from 65% to 81%, respectively. From the year ended March 31, 2017 to the year ended March 31, 2018, our subscription revenue grew 10.7% from $232.8 million to $257.6 million, respectively. From the year ended March 31, 2017 to the year ended March 31, 2018, subscription revenue as a percentage of total revenue grew from 57% to 65%, respectively. This subscription revenue growth may not be indicative of our future subscription revenue growth and we may not be able to sustain revenue growth consistent with recent history, or at all. We believe our ability to continue to increase our revenue depends on a number of factors, including, but not limited to:

 

•

our ability to attract new customers and retain and increase sales to existing customers;

 

•

our ability to continue to expand customer adoption of our Dynatrace® platform, including the conversion of customers from our Classic products;

 

•

our ability to develop our existing platform and introduce new solutions on our platform;

 

•

continued growth of cloud-based services and solutions;

 

•

our ability to continue to develop and offer products and solutions that are superior to those of our competitors;

 

•

our ability to retain customers; and

 

•

our ability to hire and retain sufficient numbers of sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative personnel, and expand our global operations.

If we are unable to achieve any of these requirements, our subscription revenue growth will be adversely affected.

Our quarterly and annual operating results may be adversely affected due to a variety of factors, which could make our future results difficult to predict.

Our annual and quarterly revenue and operating results have fluctuated significantly in the past and may vary significantly in the future due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. Our financial results in any one quarter may not be meaningful and should not be relied upon as indicative of future performance. If our revenues, earnings or operating results fall below the

 

19

expectations of investors or securities analysts in a particular quarter, or below any guidance that we may provide, the price of our common stock could decline. We may not be able to accurately predict our future billings, revenues, earnings or operating results. Some of the important factors that may cause our operating results to fluctuate from quarter to quarter or year to year include:

 

•

fluctuations in the demand for our solutions, and the timing of purchases by our customers, particularly larger purchases;

 

•

fluctuations in the rate of utilization by enterprise customers of the cloud to manage their business needs, or a slow-down in the migration of enterprise systems to the cloud;

 

•

our ability to attract new customers and retain existing customers;

 

•

the budgeting cycles and internal purchasing priorities of our customers;

 

•

changes in customer renewal rates, churn and our ability to cross-sell additional solutions to our existing customers and our ability to up-sell additional quantities of previously purchased products to existing customers;

 

•

the seasonal buying patterns of our customers;

 

•

the payment terms and contract term length associated with our product sales and their effect on our billings and free cash flow;

 

•

changes in customer requirements or market needs;

 

•

the emergence of significant privacy, data protection, security or other threats, regulations or requirements applicable to the use of enterprise systems or cloud-based systems that we are not prepared to meet or that require additional investment by us;

 

•

changes in the demand and growth rate of the market for software and systems monitoring and analytics solutions;

 

•

our ability to anticipate or respond to changes in the competitive landscape, or improvements in the functionality of competing solutions that reduce or eliminate one or more of our competitive advantages;

 

•

our ability to timely develop, introduce and gain market acceptance for new solutions and product enhancements;

 

•

our ability to adapt and update our products and solutions on an ongoing and timely basis in order to maintain compatibility and efficacy with the frequently changing and expanding variety of software and systems that our products are designed to monitor;

 

•

our ability to successfully expand our business internationally;

 

•

our ability to maintain and expand our relationships with strategic technology partners, who own, operate and offer the major platforms on which cloud applications operate, with which we must interoperate and remain compatible, and from which we must obtain certifications and endorsements in order to maintain credibility and momentum in the market;

 

•

our ability to control costs, including our operating expenses;

 

•

our ability to efficiently complete and integrate any acquisitions or business combinations that we may undertake in the future;

 

•

general economic, industry and market conditions, both domestically and in our foreign markets;

 

•

the emergence of new technologies or trends in the marketplace;

 

•

foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations;

 

20

•

the timing of revenue recognition for our customer transactions, and the effect of the mix of time-based licenses, SaaS subscriptions and perpetual licenses on the timing of revenue recognition;

 

•

extraordinary expenses, such as litigation or other dispute-related settlement payments; and

 

•

future accounting pronouncements or changes in our accounting policies.

Any one of the factors referred to above or the cumulative effect of some of the factors referred to above may result in our operating results being below our expectations and the expectations of securities analysts and investors, or may result in significant fluctuations in our quarterly and annual operating results, including fluctuations in our key performance indicators. This variability and unpredictability could result in our failure to meet our business plan or the expectations of securities analysts or investors for any period. In addition, a significant percentage of our operating expenses are fixed in nature in the short term and based on forecasted revenue trends. Accordingly, in the event of revenue shortfalls, we are generally unable to mitigate the negative impact on margins in the short term.

Our debt obligations contain restrictions that impact our business and expose us to risks that could adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition.

At March 31, 2019, we had approximately $1.0 billion of aggregate indebtedness, consisting of $947.6 million outstanding under our first lien term loan facility, $88.7 million outstanding under our second lien term loan facility, $0.5 million outstanding under a $15.0 million letter of credit sub-facility and $14.3 million in unamortized debt issuance fees. We also have a $60.0 million revolving credit facility under which we had no outstanding borrowings as of March 31, 2019. Under our first lien term loan facility, we are required to repay approximately $2.4 million of principal at the end of each quarter (commencing March 31, 2019) and are required to pay accrued interest on the last day of each interest accrual period. Under our second lien term loan facility, we are not required to make any periodic repayments of principal, but are required to pay accrued interest upon the last day of each interest accrual period. Interest accrual periods under each loan facility are typically one month in duration. The actual amounts of our debt servicing payments vary based on the amounts of indebtedness outstanding, the applicable interest accrual periods and the applicable interest rates, which vary based on prescribed formulas. Our cash paid for interest was approximately $41.0 million during the year ended March 31, 2019.

The credit and guaranty agreement, which we refer to as our Credit Agreement, governing our term loan facility and our revolving credit facility, which we refer to as our Credit Facility, contains various covenants that are operative so long as our Credit Facility remains outstanding. The covenants, among other things, limit our and certain of our subsidiaries’ abilities to:

 

•

incur additional indebtedness or guarantee indebtedness of others;

 

•

create additional liens on our assets;

 

•

pay dividends and make other distributions on our capital stock, and redeem and repurchase our capital stock;

 

•

make investments, including acquisitions;

 

•

make capital expenditures;

 

•

enter into mergers or consolidations or sell assets;

 

•

engage in sale and leaseback transactions; or

 

•

enter into transactions with affiliates.

 

21

Our Credit Facility also contains numerous affirmative covenants, including financial covenants. Even if our Credit Facility is terminated, any additional debt that we incur in the future could subject us to similar or additional covenants. For a more detailed description of our indebtedness, see “Description of Indebtedness.”

If we experience a decline in cash flow due to any of the factors described in this “Risk Factors” section or otherwise, we could have difficulty paying interest and the principal amount of our outstanding indebtedness and meeting the financial covenants set forth in our Credit Facility. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise to obtain the funds necessary to make required payments under our Credit Facility, or if we fail to comply with the various requirements of our indebtedness, we could default under our Credit Facility. Our Credit Facility also contains provisions that trigger repayment obligations or an event of default upon a change of control, as well as various representations and warranties which, if breached, could lead to an event of default. Any such default that is not cured or waived could result in an acceleration of indebtedness then outstanding under our Credit Facility, an increase in the applicable interest rates under our Credit Facility, and a requirement that our subsidiaries that have guaranteed our Credit Facility pay the obligations in full, and would permit the lenders to exercise remedies with respect to all of the collateral that is securing our Credit Facility, including substantially all of our and our subsidiary guarantors’ assets. We cannot be certain that our future operating results will be sufficient to ensure compliance with the covenants in our Credit Agreement or to remedy any defaults under our Credit Agreement. In addition, in the event of any default and related acceleration, we may not have or be able to obtain sufficient funds to make any accelerated payments. Any such default could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity, financial condition and results of operations.

Our substantial level of indebtedness could materially and adversely affect our financial condition.

We now have, and expect to continue to have, significant indebtedness that could result in a material and adverse effect on our business by:

 

•

increasing our vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions;

 

•

requiring us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to payments on our indebtedness, thereby reducing the availability of our cash flow to fund working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, research and development efforts and other general corporate purposes;

 

•

limiting our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the industry in which we operate; and

 

•

exposing us to the risk of increased interest rates as certain of our borrowings are, and may in the future be, at variable interest rates.

The occurrence of any one of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and ability to satisfy our obligations under our Credit Facility.

We may need to refinance all or a portion of our indebtedness, including our Credit Facility, at or before maturity. We may not be able to accomplish any of these alternatives on terms acceptable to us, or at all. In addition, our existing Credit Agreement restricts us, and future credit agreements may restrict us, from adopting any of these alternatives. The failure to generate sufficient cash flow or to achieve any of these alternatives could materially adversely affect our ability to pay the amounts due under our Credit Agreement.

 

22

The Compuware Spin-Off and the SIGOS Spin-Off are taxable transactions for us, and we will be subject to tax liabilities in connection with such transactions.

Neither the Compuware Spin-Off nor the SIGOS Spin-Off will qualify as a tax-free spin-off under Section 355 of the Internal Revenue Code, or the Code. Corporate-level U.S. federal (and possibly state and local) taxes of approximately $        , or the Estimated Compuware Spin Tax Liability, will be payable by us in connection with the Compuware Spin-Off. These taxes will generally be based upon the gain computed as the difference between the fair market value of the Compuware assets distributed and the adjusted tax basis in such assets. We will not have sufficient losses available to fully offset the gain we expect to realize as a result of the Compuware Spin-Off. We do not expect to incur any material tax liabilities in connection with the SIGOS Spin-Off because we estimate that the fair market value of the SIGOS assets is materially similar to the adjusted tax basis in such assets.

Pursuant to a structuring agreement, Compuware has agreed to distribute to us an amount equal to the Estimated Compuware Spin Tax Liability substantially concurrently with the Compuware Spin-Off and prior to the closing of this offering, and we have agreed to promptly remit such amount to the applicable taxing authorities. However, the amount of our tax liability relating to the Compuware Spin-Off will not be determined until we complete our applicable tax returns with respect to the taxable period that includes the Compuware Spin-Off. We will be solely responsible for any amount of taxes owed in excess of the Estimated Compuware Spin Tax Liability, which amount could be material, and Compuware will not pay or reimburse us for such amount. Although the Estimated Compuware Spin Tax Liability has been calculated based on a third party valuation of Compuware and we believe is a reasonable estimate of the taxes owed by us with respect to the Compuware Spin-Off, we cannot offer any assurances that the final tax liability will not be different. Any tax liabilities in excess of the Estimated Compuware Spin Tax Liability may adversely affect our results of operations.

In addition, if the Internal Revenue Service or other taxing authorities were to successfully challenge in an audit or other tax dispute the amount of taxes owed in connection with the Compuware Spin-Off or the SIGOS Spin-Off, we could be liable for additional taxes, including interest and penalties. We would be responsible for any such additional amounts, which would not be reimbursed to us by Compuware. While we currently expect to obtain an insurance policy that provides coverage if the Internal Revenue Service or other taxing authorities assert that additional taxes are owed in connection with the Compuware Spin-Off, such policy will be subject to certain limitations and exclusions, and we cannot offer any assurances that such policy will be available or that it will fully cover any additional taxes owed by us. We will not obtain a tax insurance policy relating to the SIGOS Spin-Off. Any tax liabilities determined to be owed by us relating to the Compuware Spin-Off or the SIGOS Spin-Off following an audit or other tax dispute may adversely affect our results of operations.

Failure to maintain our credit ratings could adversely affect our liquidity, capital position, ability to hedge certain financial risks, borrowing costs and access to capital markets.

Our credit risk is evaluated by the major independent rating agencies, and such agencies have in the past and could in the future downgrade our ratings. We cannot assure you that we will be able to maintain our current credit ratings, and any additional actual or anticipated changes or downgrades in our credit ratings, including any announcement that our ratings are under further review for a downgrade, may have a negative impact on our liquidity, capital position, ability to hedge certain financial risks and access to capital markets. In addition, changes by any rating agency to our outlook or credit rating could increase the interest we pay on outstanding or future debt.

 

23

Market adoption of software intelligence solutions for application performance monitoring, digital experience monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, and AIOps is relatively new and may not grow as we expect, which may harm our business and prospects.

The utilization of software intelligence solutions, such as Dynatrace^®, for digital experience monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, and AIOps is relatively new. We believe our future success will depend in large part on the growth, if any, in the demand for software intelligence solutions, particularly the demand for enterprise-wide solutions. We currently target the markets for application performance monitoring, or APM, infrastructure monitoring, AIOps and digital experience monitoring. It is difficult to predict customer demand, adoption, churn and renewal rates for our solutions, the rate at which existing customers expand their usage of our solutions, the size and growth rate of the market for our solutions. Expansion in our addressable market depends on a number of factors, including the continued and growing reliance of enterprises on software applications to manage and drive critical business functions and customer interactions, increased use of microservices and containers, as well as the continued proliferation of mobile applications, large data sets, cloud computing and the Internet of Things. If our solutions do not achieve widespread adoption or there is a reduction in demand for software intelligence solutions generally, it could result in reduced customer purchases, reduced renewal rates and decreased revenue, any of which will adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our business is dependent on overall demand for software intelligence solutions and therefore reduced spending on software intelligence solutions or overall adverse economic conditions may negatively affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our business depends on the overall demand for software intelligence solutions, particularly demand from mid- to large-sized enterprises worldwide, and the purchase of our solutions by such organizations is often discretionary. In an economic downturn, our customers may reduce their operating or IT budgets, which could cause them to defer or forego purchases of software intelligence solutions, including ours. Customers may delay or cancel IT projects or seek to lower their costs by renegotiating vendor contracts or renewals. To the extent purchases of software intelligence solutions are perceived by existing customers and potential customers to be discretionary, our revenue may be disproportionately affected by delays or reductions in general IT spending. Weak global economic conditions or a reduction in software intelligence spending, even if general economic conditions remain unaffected, could adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition in a number of ways, including longer sales cycles, lower prices for our solutions, reduced subscription renewals and lower revenue. In addition, any negative economic effects or instability resulting from changes in the political environment and international relations in the United States or other key markets as well as resulting regulatory or tax policy changes may adversely affect our business and financial results.

As the market for software intelligence solutions is new and continues to develop, trends in spending remain unpredictable and subject to reductions due to the changing technology environment and customer needs as well as uncertainties about the future.

If we cannot successfully execute on our strategy and continue to develop and effectively market solutions that anticipate and respond to the needs of our customers, our business, operating results and financial condition may suffer.

The market for software intelligence solutions is at an early stage of development and is characterized by constant change and innovation, and we expect it to continue to rapidly evolve. Moreover, many of our customers operate in industries characterized by changing technologies and business models, which require them to develop and manage increasingly complex software application and IT infrastructure environments. Our future success, if any, will be based on our ability to consistently provide our customers

 

24

with a unified, real-time view into the performance of their software applications and IT infrastructure, provide notification and prioritization of degradations and failures, perform root cause analysis of performance issues, and analyze the quality of their end users’ experiences and the resulting impact on their businesses and brands. If we do not respond to the rapidly changing needs of our customers by developing and making available new solutions and solution enhancements that can address evolving customer needs on a timely basis, our competitive position and business prospects will be harmed.

In addition, the process of developing new technology is complex and uncertain, and if we fail to accurately predict customers’ changing needs and emerging technological trends, our business could be harmed. We believe that we must continue to dedicate significant resources to our research and development efforts, including significant resources to developing new solutions and solution enhancements before knowing whether the market will accept them. Our new solutions and solution enhancements could fail to attain sufficient market acceptance for many reasons, including:

 

•

delays in releasing new solutions or enhancements to the market;

 

•

delays or failures to provide updates to customers to maintain compatibility between Dynatrace® and the various applications and platforms being used in the customers’ application and enterprise cloud environment;

 

•

the failure to accurately predict market or customer demands;

 

•

defects, errors or failures in the design or performance of our new solutions or solution enhancements;

 

•

negative publicity about the performance or effectiveness of our solutions;

 

•

the introduction or anticipated introduction of competing products by our competitors; and

 

•

the perceived value of our solutions or enhancements relative to their cost.

To the extent we are not able to continue to execute on our business model to timely and effectively develop and market applications to address these challenges and attain market acceptance, our business, operating results and financial condition will be adversely affected.

Further, we may make changes to our solutions that our customers do not value or find useful. We may also discontinue certain features, begin to charge for certain features that are currently free or increase fees for any of our features or usage of our solutions. If our new solutions or enhancements do not achieve adequate acceptance in the market, our competitive position will be impaired, our revenue may decline or grow more slowly than expected and the negative impact on our operating results may be particularly acute, and we may not receive a return on our investment in the upfront research and development, sales and marketing and other expenses we incur in connection with new solutions or solution enhancements.

If our platform and solutions do not effectively interoperate with our customers’ existing or future IT infrastructures, installations of our solutions could be delayed or cancelled, which would harm our business.

Our success depends on the interoperability of our platform and solutions with third-party operating systems, applications, data and devices that we have not developed and do not control. Any changes in such operating systems, applications, data or devices that degrade the functionality of our platform or solutions or give preferential treatment to competitive software could adversely affect the adoption and usage of our platform. We may not be successful in adapting our platform or solutions to operate effectively with these applications, data or devices. If it is difficult for our customers to access and use our platform or solutions, or if our platform or solutions cannot connect a broadening range of applications, data and devices, then our customer growth and retention may be harmed, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

 

25

Enterprise cloud deployments utilize multiple third-party platforms and technologies, and these technologies are updated to new versions at a rapid pace. As a result, we deliver frequent updates to our solutions designed to maintain compatibility and support for our customers’ changing technology environments and ensure our solutions’ ability to continue to monitor the customer’s applications. If our solutions fail to work with any one or more of these technologies or applications, or if our customers fails to install the most recent updates and versions of our solutions that we offer, our solutions will be unable to continuously monitor our customer’s critical business applications.

Ensuring that our solutions are up-to-date and compatible with the technology and enterprise cloud platforms utilized by our customers is critical to our success. We have formed alliances with many technology and cloud platform providers to provide updates to our solutions to maintain compatibility. We work with technology and cloud platform providers to understand and align updates to their product roadmaps and engage in early access and other programs to ensure compatibility of our solutions with the technology vendor’s generally available release. If our relations with our technology partners ceases we may be unable to deliver these updates, or if our customers fail to install the most recent updates and versions of our solutions that we offer, then our customers’ ability to benefit from our solution may decrease significantly and, in some instances, may require the customer to de-install our solution due to the incompatibility of our solution with the customer’s applications.

Our future revenues and operating results will be harmed if we are unable to acquire new customers, if our customers do not renew their contracts with us, or if we are unable to expand sales to our existing customers or develop new solutions that achieve market acceptance.

To continue to grow our business, it is important that we continue to attract new customers to purchase and use our solutions. Our success in attracting new customers depends on numerous factors, including our ability to:

 

•

offer a compelling software intelligence platform and solutions;

 

•

execute our sales and marketing strategy;

 

•

attract, effectively train and retain new sales, marketing, professional services and support personnel in the markets we pursue;

 

•

develop or expand relationships with technology partners, systems integrators, resellers, online enterprise marketplaces and other partners;

 

•

expand into new geographies and markets;

 

•

deploy our platform and solutions for new customers and;

 

•

provide quality customer support.

Our customers have no obligation to renew their maintenance, SaaS and/or term-license agreements, and our customers may decide not to renew these agreements with a similar contract period, at the same prices and terms or with the same or a greater number of licenses. Although our customer retention rate has historically been strong, some of our customers have elected not to renew their agreements with us, and it is difficult to accurately predict long-term customer retention, churn and expansion rates. Our customer retention and expansion rates may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including our customers’ satisfaction with our solutions as they convert from our Classic products to our Dynatrace^® platform, our customer support and professional services, our prices and pricing plans, the competitiveness of other software products and services, reductions in our customers’ spending levels, user adoption of our solutions, deployment success, utilization rates by our customers, new product releases and changes to our product offerings. If our customers do not renew their maintenance, SaaS and/or term-license agreements, or renew on less favorable terms, our business, financial condition and operating results may be adversely affected.

 

26

Our ability to increase revenue also depends in part on our ability to increase deployment of our solutions by existing customers. Our ability to increase sales to existing customers depends on several factors, including their experience with implementing and using our platform and the existing solutions they have implemented, their ability to integrate our solutions with existing technologies, and our pricing model. A failure to increase sales to existing customers could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

Failure to effectively expand our sales and marketing capabilities could harm our ability to increase our customer base and achieve broader market acceptance of our applications.

Our ability to increase our customer base and achieve broader market acceptance of our solutions will depend to a significant extent on the ability of our sales and marketing organizations to work together to drive our sales pipeline and cultivate customer and partner relationships to drive revenue growth. We have invested in and plan to continue expanding our sales and marketing organizations, both domestically and internationally. We also plan to dedicate significant resources to sales and marketing programs, including lead generation activities and brand awareness campaigns, such as our industry events, webinars and user events. If we are unable to hire, develop and retain talented sales personnel or marketing personnel or if our new sales personnel or marketing personnel are unable to achieve desired productivity levels in a reasonable period of time, our ability to increase our customer base and achieve broader market acceptance of our applications could be harmed.

We may experience a loss of customers and annualized recurring revenue if customers do not convert from our Classic products to our Dynatrace^® platform.

A significant portion of our annualized recurring revenue, or ARR, has been generated from our Classic products. As of March 31, 2018 and March 31, 2019, ARR from our Classic products comprised 70% and 30% of our Total ARR, respectively. We have stopped offering the Classic products to new customers and any increase in ARR for our Dynatrace^® platform may not offset a reduction in ARR from our Classic products. Furthermore, our competitors could introduce new products that are more competitive than our Classic products which could result in a loss of customers who do not convert to Dynatrace^®. An inability to retain customers on the Classic products or convert them to Dynatrace^® may harm our business, operating results and financial condition in the future.

We face significant competition, which may adversely affect our ability to add new customers, retain existing customers and grow our business.

The markets in which we compete are highly competitive, fragmented, evolving, complex and defined by rapidly changing technology and customer demands, and we expect competition to continue to increase in the future. A number of companies have developed or are developing products and services that currently, or in the future may, compete with some or all of our solutions. This competition could result in increased pricing pressure, reduced profit margins, increased sales and marketing expenses and our failure to increase, or loss of, market share, any of which could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

We compete either directly or indirectly with application performance monitoring vendors such as Cisco AppDynamics, Broadcom, and New Relic, infrastructure monitoring vendors such as Datadog and Nagios, Digital Experience Management vendors such as Akamai and Catchpoint, point solutions from cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, or AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform, and other business intelligence and monitoring and analytics providers that provide some portion of the services that we provide. Our competitors may have longer-term and more extensive relationships with our existing and potential customers that provide them with an advantage in competing for business with those customers. Further, to the extent that one of our competitors establishes or strengthens a

 

27

cooperative relationship with, or acquires one or more software application performance monitoring, data analytics, compliance or network visibility vendors, it could adversely affect our ability to compete.

We may also face competition from companies entering our market, which has a relatively low barrier to entry in some segments, including large technology companies that could expand their platforms or acquire one of our competitors. Many existing and potential competitors enjoy substantial competitive advantages, such as:

 

•

larger sales and marketing budgets and resources;

 

•

access to larger customer bases which often provide incumbency advantages;

 

•

broader global distribution and presence;

 

•

the ability to bundle competitive offerings with other products and services;

 

•

greater brand recognition and longer operating histories;

 

•

lower labor and development costs;

 

•

greater resources to make acquisitions;

 

•

larger and more mature intellectual property portfolios; and

 

•

substantially greater financial, technical, management and other resources.

Additionally, in certain circumstances, and particularly among large enterprise technology companies that have complex and large software application and IT infrastructure environments, customers may elect to build in-house solutions to address their software intelligence needs. Any such in-house solutions could leverage open source software, and therefore be made generally available at little or no cost.

These competitive pressures in our markets or our failure to compete effectively may result in fewer customers, price reductions, fewer orders, reduced revenue and gross profit, and loss of market share. Any failure to meet and address these factors could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

If the prices we charge for our solutions and services are unacceptable to our customers, our operating results will be harmed.

As the market for our solutions matures, or as new or existing competitors introduce new products or services that compete with ours, we may experience pricing pressure and be unable to renew our agreements with existing customers or attract new customers at prices that are consistent with our current pricing model and operating budget. If this were to occur, it is possible that we would have to change our pricing model or reduce our prices, which could harm our revenue, gross margin and operating results. Pricing decisions may also impact the mix of adoption among our licensing and subscription models, and negatively impact our overall revenue. Moreover, large enterprises, which we expect will account for a large portion of our business in the future, may demand substantial price concessions. If we are, for any reason, required to reduce our prices, our revenue, gross margin, profitability, financial position and cash flow may be adversely affected.

We expect our billings and revenue mix to vary over time, which could harm our gross margin and operating results.

We expect our billings and revenue mix to vary over time due to a number of factors, including the mix of perpetual licenses, SaaS subscriptions, term licenses, the mix of solutions sold and the

 

28

contract length of our customer agreements. Due to the differing revenue recognition policies applicable to our term licenses, SaaS subscription, perpetual licenses and professional services, shifts in the mix between subscription, term and perpetual licenses from quarter to quarter could produce substantial variation in revenues recognized even if our billings remain consistent. Further, our gross margins and operating results could be harmed by changes in billings and revenue mix and costs, together with numerous other factors, including: entry into new lower margin markets or growth in lower margin markets; entry into markets with different pricing and cost structures; pricing discounts; and increased price competition. Any one of these factors or the cumulative effects of certain of these factors may result in significant fluctuations in our revenues, billings, gross margin and operating results. This variability and unpredictability could result in our failure to meet internal expectations or those of securities analysts or investors for a particular period. If we fail to meet or exceed such expectations for these or any other reasons, the market price of our common stock could decline.

Because we recognize revenue from our SaaS subscriptions and term licenses over the subscription or license term, downturns or upturns in new sales and renewals may not be immediately reflected in our operating results and may be difficult to discern.

For customers who purchase a SaaS subscription or term license, we generally recognize revenue from customers ratably over the terms of their subscriptions. A portion of the revenue we report in each quarter is derived from the recognition of revenue relating to subscriptions and term licenses entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed subscriptions or term licenses in any single quarter may have a small impact on our revenue for that quarter. However, such a decline will negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our solutions, and potential changes in our rate of renewals, may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. In addition, a significant majority of our costs are expensed as incurred, while revenue is recognized over the life of the agreement with our customer. As a result, increased growth in the number of our customers could continue to result in our recognition of more costs than revenue in the earlier periods of the terms of our agreements.

Our revenue recognition policy and other factors may distort our financial results in any given period and make them difficult to predict.

Under accounting standards update No. 2014-09 (Topic 606), Revenue from Contracts with Customers, or ASC 606, we recognize revenue when our customer obtains control of goods or services in an amount that reflects the consideration that we expect to receive in exchange for those goods or services. Our subscription revenue consists of (i) SaaS agreements, (ii) term-based licenses for the Dynatrace^® platform which are recognized ratably over the contract term, (iii) Dynatrace^® perpetual license revenue that is recognized ratably or over the term of the expected optional maintenance renewals, which is generally three years, and (iv) maintenance and support agreements. A significant increase or decline in our subscription contracts in any one quarter may not be fully reflected in the results for that quarter, but will affect our revenue in future quarters. Our license revenue consists of Classic perpetual license fees and Classic term license fees, which are generally recognized on delivery. Because license revenue is recognized upfront, a single, large license in a given period may distort our operating results for that period. These factors make it challenging to forecast our revenue for future periods, as both the mix of solutions and services we will sell in a given period, as well as the size of contracts, is difficult to predict.

Furthermore, the presentation of our financial results requires us to make estimates and assumptions that may affect revenue recognition. In some instances, we could reasonably use different estimates and assumptions, and changes in estimates are likely to occur from period to period. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies—Revenue Recognition.”

 

29

Given the foregoing factors, our actual results could differ significantly from our estimates, comparing our revenue and operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful, and our past results may not be indicative of our future performance.

Changes in existing financial accounting standards or practices, or taxation rules or practices, may harm our operating results.

Changes in existing accounting or taxation rules or practices, new accounting pronouncements or taxation rules, or varying interpretations of current accounting pronouncements or taxation practice could harm our operating results or result in changes to the manner in which we conduct our business. Further, such changes could potentially affect our reporting of transactions completed and reported before such changes are effective.

United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the Securities and Exchange Commission and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or a change in these interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results and could affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of a change.

If we are unable to maintain successful relationships with our partners, or if our partners fail to perform, our ability to market, sell and distribute our applications and services will be limited, and our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.

In addition to our sales force, we rely on partners, including our strategic partners to increase our sales and distribution of our software and services. We also have independent software vendor partners whose integrations may increase the breadth of the ecosystem in which our solutions can operate, and the size of the market that our solutions can address. We are dependent on these partner relationships to contribute to our sales growth. We expect that our future growth will be increasingly dependent on the success of our partner relationships, and if those partnerships do not provide such benefits, our ability to grow our business will be harmed. If we are unable to scale our partner relationships effectively, or if our partners are unable to serve our customers effectively, we may need to expand our services organization, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

Our agreements with our partners are generally non-exclusive, meaning our partners may offer products from several different companies to their customers or have their products or technologies also interoperate with products and technologies of other companies, including products that compete with our offerings. Moreover, some of our partners also compete with us. If our partners do not effectively market and sell our offerings, choose to use greater efforts to market and sell their own products or those of our competitors or fail to meet the needs of our customers, our ability to grow our business and sell our offerings will be harmed. Furthermore, our partners may cease marketing our offerings with limited or no notice and with little or no penalty, and new partners could require extensive training and may take several months or more to achieve productivity. The loss of a substantial number of our partners, our possible inability to replace them or the failure to recruit additional partners could harm our results of operations. Our partner structure could also subject us to lawsuits or reputational harm if, for example, a partner misrepresents the functionality of our offerings to customers or violates applicable laws or our corporate policies.

Interruptions with the delivery of our SaaS solutions, or third-party cloud-based systems that we use in our operations, may adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our continued growth depends on the ability of our customers to access our platform and solutions, particularly our cloud-based solutions, at any time and within an acceptable amount of time.

 

30

In addition, our ability to access certain third-party SaaS solutions is important to our operations and the delivery of our customer support and professional services, as well as our sales operations.

We have experienced, and may in the future experience, service disruptions, outages and other performance problems both in the delivery of our SaaS solutions, and in third-party SaaS solutions we use due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, malicious actors, human or software errors or capacity constraints. We utilize a multi-tenant structure, meaning that, generally, our customers are hosted on a shared platform. As such, any interruption in service would affect a significant number of our customers. In some instances, we or our third-party service providers may not be able to identify the cause or causes of these performance problems within an acceptable period of time. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve the performance of our SaaS solutions as they become more complex. If our SaaS solutions are unavailable or if our customers are unable to access features of our SaaS solutions within a reasonable amount of time or at all, our business would be negatively affected. In addition, if any of the third-party SaaS solutions that we use were to experience a significant or prolonged outage or security breach, our business could be adversely affected.

We currently host our Dynatrace^® solutions primarily using AWS, as well as other providers of cloud infrastructure services including Microsoft Azure, Interoute and Alibaba. Our Dynatrace^® solutions reside on hardware operated by these providers. Our operations depend on protecting the virtual cloud infrastructure hosted in AWS by maintaining its configuration, architecture, features and interconnection specifications, as well as the information stored in these virtual data centers and which third-party internet service providers transmit. Although we have disaster recovery plans, including the use of multiple AWS locations, any incident affecting AWS’ infrastructure that may be caused by fire, flood, severe storm, earthquake or other natural disasters, cyber-attacks, terrorist or other attacks, and other similar events beyond our control could negatively affect our platform and our ability to deliver our solutions to our customers. A prolonged AWS service disruption affecting our SaaS platform for any of the foregoing reasons would negatively impact our ability to serve our customers and could damage our reputation with current and potential customers, expose us to liability, cause us to lose customers or otherwise harm our business. We may also incur significant costs for using alternative equipment or taking other actions in preparation for, or in reaction to, events that damage the AWS services we use.

AWS has the right to terminate our agreement upon material uncured breach on 30 days’ prior written notice. In the event that our AWS service agreements are terminated, or there is a lapse of service, we would experience interruptions in access to our platform as well as significant delays and additional expense in arranging new facilities and services and/or re-architecting our solutions for deployment on a different cloud infrastructure, which would adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

Real or perceived errors, failures, defects or vulnerabilities in our solutions could adversely affect our financial results and growth prospects.

Our solutions and underlying platform are complex, and in the past, we or our customers have discovered software errors, failures, defects and vulnerabilities in our solutions after they have been released, including after new versions or updates are released. Our solutions and our platform are often deployed and used in large-scale computing environments with different operating systems, system management software and equipment and networking configurations, which have in the past, and may in the future, cause errors in, or failures of, our solutions or other aspects of the computing environment into which they are deployed. In addition, deployment of our solutions into complicated, large-scale computing environments have in the past exposed, and may, in the future, expose undetected errors, failures, defects or vulnerabilities in our solutions. Despite testing by us, errors, failures, defects or vulnerabilities may not be found in our solutions until they are released to our

 

31

customers or thereafter. Real or perceived errors, failures, defects or vulnerabilities in our solutions could result in, among other things, negative publicity and damage to our reputation, lower renewal rates, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our solutions, loss of competitive position or claims by customers for losses sustained by them or expose us to breach of contract claims, regulatory fines and related liabilities. In such an event, we may be required, or may choose, for customer relations or other reasons, to expend additional resources in order to help correct the problem.

Security breaches, computer malware, computer hacking attacks and other security incidents could harm our business, reputation, brand and operating results.

Security incidents have become more prevalent across industries and may occur on our systems, or on the systems of third parties we use to host our solutions or SaaS solutions that we use in the operation of our business. These security incidents may be caused by or result in but are not limited to security breaches, computer malware or malicious software, ransomware, computer hacking, denial of service attacks, security system control failures in our own systems or from vendors we use, email phishing, software vulnerabilities, social engineering, sabotage and drive-by downloads. In particular, because we utilize a multi-tenant platform, any security breach would affect a significant amount of our customers. Such security incidents, whether intentional or otherwise, may result from actions of hackers, criminals, nation states, vendors, employees, contractors, customers or other threat actors. We have experienced two email phishing attacks that resulted in the compromise of a limited number of email accounts. Although we have taken a number of measures to prevent future phishing attacks, we cannot be certain that our efforts will be effective.

We may in the future experience disruptions, outages and other performance problems on our internal systems due to service attacks, unauthorized access or other security related incidents. Any security breach or loss of system control caused by hacking, which involves efforts to gain unauthorized access to information or systems, or to cause intentional malfunctions or loss, modification or corruption of data, software, hardware or other computer equipment and the inadvertent transmission of computer malware could harm our business, operating results and financial condition, and expose us to claims arising from loss or unauthorized disclosure of confidential or personal information and the related breach of privacy or data security laws. If an actual or perceived security incident occurs, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security controls could be harmed, our brand and reputation could be damaged, we could lose customers, and we could suffer financial exposure due to such events or in connection with remediation efforts, investigation costs, regulatory fines, private lawsuits and changed security control, system architecture and system protection measures.

We may in the future experience disruptions, outages and other performance problems on the systems that we host for our customers due to service attacks, unauthorized access or other security related incidents. Any security breach or loss of system control caused by hacking, which involves efforts to gain unauthorized access to information or systems, or to cause intentional malfunctions or loss, modification or corruption of data, software, hardware or other computer equipment and the inadvertent transmission of computer malware could disrupt the services that we provide to our customers, harm our customers’ business, operating results and financial condition, and expose us to claims from our customers for the damages that result, which could include, without limitation, claims arising from loss or unauthorized access, acquisition or disclosure of personal information and the related breach of privacy or data security laws. If an actual or perceived security incident occurs, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security controls could be harmed, our brand and reputation could be damaged, we could lose customers, and we could suffer financial exposure due to such events or in connection with remediation efforts, investigation costs, regulatory fines, private lawsuits and changed security control, system architecture and system protection measures.

 

32

We believe that our brand is integral to our future success and if we fail to cost-effectively promote or protect our brand, our business and competitive position may be harmed.

We believe that maintaining and enhancing our brand and increasing market awareness of our company and our solutions are critical to achieving broad market acceptance of our existing and future solutions and are important elements in attracting and retaining customers, partners and employees, particularly as we continue to expand internationally. In addition, independent industry analysts, such as Gartner and Forrester, often provide reviews of our solutions, as well as those of our competitors, and perception of our solutions in the marketplace may be significantly influenced by these reviews. We have no control over what these or other industry analysts report, and because industry analysts may influence current and potential customers, our brand could be harmed if they do not provide a positive review of our solutions or view us as a market leader.

The successful promotion of our brand and the market’s awareness of our solutions and platform will depend largely upon our ability to continue to offer enterprise-grade software intelligence solutions, our ability to be thought leaders in application intelligence, our marketing efforts and our ability to successfully differentiate our solutions from those of our competitors. We have invested, and expect to continue to invest, substantial resources to promote and maintain our brand and generate sales leads, both domestically and internationally, but there is no guarantee that our brand development strategies will enhance the recognition of our brand or lead to increased sales. If our efforts to promote and maintain our brand are not cost-effective or successful, our operating results and our ability to attract and retain customers, partners and employees may be adversely affected. In addition, even if our brand recognition and customer loyalty increases, this may not result in increased sales of our solutions or higher revenue.

Our sales cycles can be long, unpredictable and vary seasonally, which can cause significant variation in the number and size of transactions that close in a particular quarter.

Our results of operations may fluctuate, in part, because of the resource-intensive nature of our sales efforts, the length and variability of the sales cycle for our platform and the difficulty in making short-term adjustments to our operating expenses. Many of our customers are large enterprises, whose purchasing decisions, budget cycles and constraints and evaluation processes are unpredictable and out of our control. Further, the timing of our sales is difficult to predict. The length of our sales cycle, from initial evaluation to payment for our subscriptions can range from several months to over a year and can vary substantially from customer to customer. Our sales efforts involve significant investment in resources in field sales, partner development, marketing and educating our customers about the use, technical capabilities and benefits of our platform and services. Customers often undertake a prolonged evaluation process, which frequently involves not only our platform but also those of other companies or the consideration of internally developed alternatives including those using open-source software. Some of our customers initially deploy our platform on a limited basis, with no guarantee that these customers will deploy our platform widely enough across their organization to justify our substantial pre-sales investment. As a result, it is difficult to predict exactly when, or even if, we will make a sale to a potential customer or if we can increase sales to our existing customers. Large individual sales have, in some cases, occurred in quarters subsequent to those we anticipated, or have not occurred at all. If our sales cycle lengthens or our substantial upfront investments do not result in sufficient revenue to justify our investments, our operating results could be adversely affected.

We have experienced seasonal and end-of-quarter concentration of our transactions and variations in the number and size of transactions that close in a particular quarter, which impacts our ability to grow revenue over the long term and plan and manage cash flows and other aspects of our business and cost structure. Our transactions vary by quarter, with the third fiscal quarter typically

 

33

being our largest. In addition, within each quarter, a significant portion of our transactions occur in the last two weeks of that quarter. If expectations for our business turn out to be inaccurate, our revenue growth may be adversely affected over time and we may not be able to adjust our cost structure on a timely basis and our cash flows may suffer.

Any failure to offer high-quality customer support and professional services may adversely affect our relationships with our customers and our financial results.

We typically bundle customer support with arrangements for our solutions, and offer professional services for implementation and training. In deploying and using our platform and solutions, our customers require the assistance of our services teams to resolve complex technical and operational issues. Increased customer demand for support, without corresponding revenue, could increase costs and adversely affect our operating results. We may also be unable to respond quickly enough to accommodate short-term increases in customer demand for support. If we fail to meet our service level commitments, which relate to uptime, response times and escalation procedures, and time to problem resolution, or if we suffer extended periods of unavailability for our solutions, we may be contractually obligated to provide these customers with service credits or penalties, refunds for prepaid amounts related to unused subscription services, or we could face contract terminations. Our sales are highly dependent on our reputation and on positive recommendations from our existing customers. Any failure to maintain high-quality customer support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality product support, could adversely affect our reputation, and our ability to sell our solutions to existing and new customers.

Our ability to succeed depends on the experience and expertise of our senior management team. If we are unable to retain and motivate our personnel, our business, operating results and prospects may be harmed.

Our ability to succeed depends in significant part on the experience and expertise of our senior management team. The members of our senior management team are employed on an at-will basis, which means that they are not contractually obligated to remain employed with us and could terminate their employment with us at any time. Accordingly, and in spite of our efforts to retain our senior management team, any member of our senior management team could terminate his or her employment with us at any time and go to work for one of our competitors, after the expiration of any applicable non-compete period. The loss of one or more members of our senior management team, particularly if closely grouped, could adversely affect our ability to execute our business plan and thus, our business, operating results and prospects. We do not maintain key man insurance on any of our officers, and we may not be able to find adequate replacements. If we fail to identify, recruit and integrate strategic hires, our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.

We rely on highly skilled personnel and, if we are unable to attract, retain or motivate substantial numbers of qualified personnel or expand and train our sales force, we may not be able to grow effectively.

Our success largely depends on the talents and efforts of key technical, sales and marketing employees and our future success depends on our continuing ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate and retain highly skilled personnel for all areas of our organization. Competition in our industry is intense and often leads to increased compensation and other personnel costs. In addition, competition for employees with experience in our industry can be intense, particularly in Europe, where our research and development operations are concentrated and where other technology companies compete for management and engineering talent. Our continued ability to compete and grow effectively depends on our ability to attract substantial numbers of qualified new employees and to retain and motivate our existing employees.

 

34

We believe that our corporate culture has contributed to our success, and if we cannot successfully maintain our culture as we grow, we could lose the innovation, creativity and teamwork fostered by our culture.

We believe that a critical component to our success has been our corporate culture. We believe our culture has contributed significantly to our ability to innovate and develop new technologies. We have spent substantial time and resources in building our team while maintaining this corporate culture. We have experienced rapid growth in our employee headcount and international presence. The rapid influx of large numbers of people from different business backgrounds in different geographic locations may make it difficult for us to maintain our corporate culture of innovation. If our culture is negatively affected, our ability to support our growth and innovation may diminish.

We are subject to a number of risks associated with global sales and operations.

Revenue from customers located outside of the United States represented 42%, 46%, and 46% of our total revenue for the years ended March 31, 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively. As a result, our sales and operations are subject to a number of risks and additional costs, including the following:

 

•

increased expenses associated with international sales and operations, including establishing and maintaining office space and equipment for our international operations;

 

•

fluctuations in exchange rates between currencies in the markets where we do business;

 

•

risks associated with trade restrictions and additional legal requirements, including the exportation of our technology or source code that is required in some of the countries in which we operate;

 

•

greater risk of unexpected changes in regulatory rules, regulations and practices, tariffs and tax laws and treaties;

 

•

compliance with United States and foreign import and export control and economic sanctions laws and regulations, including the Export Administration Regulations administered by the United States Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security and the executive orders and laws implemented by the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Controls;

 

•

compliance with anti-bribery laws, including the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the U.K. Anti-Bribery Act;

 

•

compliance with privacy, data protection and data security laws of many countries, including the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, adopted by the European Union, or EU, and which became effective in May 2018;

 

•

heightened risk of unfair or corrupt business practices in certain geographies, and of improper or fraudulent sales arrangements that may impact financial results and result in restatements of, or irregularities in, financial statements;

 

•

limited or uncertain protection of intellectual property rights in some countries and the risks and costs associated with monitoring and enforcing intellectual property rights abroad;

 

•

greater difficulty in enforcing contracts and managing collections in certain jurisdictions, as well as longer collection periods;

 

•

management communication and integration problems resulting from cultural and geographic dispersion;

 

•

social, economic and political instability, terrorist attacks and security concerns in general; and

 

•

potentially adverse tax consequences.

 

35

These and other factors could harm our ability to generate future global revenue and, consequently, materially impact our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Economic conditions and regulatory changes leading up to and following the United Kingdom’s scheduled exit from the European Union could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

The United Kingdom, or U.K., government has commenced the legal process of leaving the European Union, typically referred to as “Brexit.” There remains significant uncertainty about when and how the U.K. will officially exit the European Union, if at all, and the possible effects of Brexit including but not limited to, the imposition of trade barriers and increased costs throughout Europe, changes in European manufacturing and employment markets, and currency fluctuations. While the full effects of Brexit will not be known for some time, Brexit could cause disruptions to, and create uncertainty surrounding, our business and results of operations. The most immediate effect of the expected Brexit has been significant volatility in global equity and debt markets and currency exchange rate fluctuations. Ongoing global market volatility and a deterioration in economic conditions due to uncertainty surrounding Brexit, could significantly disrupt the markets in which we operate and lead our customers to closely monitor their costs and delay capital spending decisions.

Additionally, the expected Brexit has resulted in the immediate strengthening of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies in which we conduct business. Although this strengthening has been somewhat ameliorated by the British Government’s stated desire to accomplish a transitional exit, because we translate revenue denominated in foreign currency into U.S. dollars for our financial statements, during periods of a strengthening U.S. dollar, our reported revenue from foreign operations is reduced. As a result of Brexit and the continued negotiations within the U.K., there may be further periods of volatility in the currencies in which we conduct business.

The effects of Brexit will depend on any agreements the U.K. makes to retain access to EU markets, either during a transitional period or more permanently. The measures could potentially disrupt the markets we serve and may cause us to lose customers and employees. In addition, Brexit could lead to legal uncertainty and potentially divergent national laws and regulations as the U.K. determines which EU laws to replace or replicate.

Any of these effects of Brexit could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We may face exposure to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.

We have transacted in foreign currencies and expect to transact in foreign currencies in the future. In addition, our international subsidiaries maintain assets and liabilities that are denominated in currencies other than the functional operating currencies of these entities. Accordingly, changes in the value of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar will affect our revenue and operating results due to transactional and translational remeasurement that is reflected in our earnings. As a result of such foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, it could be more difficult to detect underlying trends in our business and results of operations. In addition, to the extent that fluctuations in currency exchange rates cause our results of operations to differ from our expectations or the expectations of our investors, the trading price of our common stock could be adversely affected. We do not currently maintain a program to hedge transactional exposures in foreign currencies. However, in the future, we may use derivative instruments, such as foreign currency forward and option contracts, to hedge certain exposures to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. The use of such hedging activities may not offset any or more than a portion of the adverse financial effects of unfavorable movements in foreign exchange rates over the limited time the hedges are in place. Moreover, the use of hedging

 

36

instruments may introduce additional risks if we are unable to structure effective hedges with such instruments.

Assertions by third parties of infringement or other violations by us of their intellectual property rights, or other lawsuits brought against us, could result in significant costs and substantially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Patent and other intellectual property disputes are common in the markets in which we compete. Some companies in the markets in which we compete, including some of our competitors, own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, which they may use to assert claims of infringement, misappropriation or other violations of intellectual property rights against us, our partners, our technology partners or our customers. As the number of patents and competitors in our market increase, allegations of infringement, misappropriation and other violations of intellectual property rights may also increase. Our broad solution portfolio and the competition in our markets further exacerbate the risk of additional third-party intellectual property claims against us in the future. Any allegation of infringement, misappropriation or other violation of intellectual property rights by a third party, even those without merit, could cause us to incur substantial costs and resources defending against the claim, could distract our management from our business, and could cause uncertainty among our customers or prospective customers, all of which could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. We cannot assure you that we are not infringing or otherwise violating any third-party intellectual property rights.

Furthermore, companies that bring allegations against us may have the capability to dedicate substantially greater resources to enforce their intellectual property rights and to defend against similar allegations that may be brought against them than we do. We have received, and may in the future receive, notices alleging that we have misappropriated, misused or infringed other parties’ intellectual property rights, including allegations made by our competitors, and, to the extent we gain greater market visibility, we face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement assertions. There also is a market for acquiring third-party intellectual property rights and a competitor, or other entity, could acquire third-party intellectual property rights and pursue similar assertions based on the acquired intellectual property. They may also make such assertions against our customers or partners.

An adverse outcome of a dispute may require us to take several adverse steps such as: pay substantial damages, including potentially treble damages, if we are found to have willfully infringed a third party’s patents or copyrights; cease making, using, selling, licensing, importing or otherwise commercializing solutions that are alleged to infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property of others; expend additional development resources to attempt to redesign our solutions or otherwise to develop non-infringing technology, which may not be successful; enter into potentially unfavorable royalty or license agreements in order to obtain the right to use necessary technologies or intellectual property rights or have royalty obligations imposed by a court; or indemnify our customers, partners and other third parties. Any damages or royalty obligations we may become subject to, any prohibition against our commercializing our solutions as a result of an adverse outcome could harm our business and operating results.

Additionally, our agreements with customers and partners include indemnification provisions, under which we agree to indemnify them for losses suffered or incurred as a result of allegations of intellectual property infringement and, in some cases, for damages caused by us to property or persons or other third-party allegations. Furthermore, we have agreed in certain instances to defend our partners against third-party claims asserting infringement of certain intellectual property rights, which may include patents, copyrights, trademarks or trade secrets, and to pay judgments entered on such assertions. Large indemnity payments could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

 

37

Failure to protect and enforce our proprietary technology and intellectual property rights could substantially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

The success of our business depends on our ability to protect and enforce our proprietary rights, including our patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights, throughout the world. We attempt to protect our intellectual property under patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret laws, and through a combination of confidentiality procedures, contractual provisions and other methods, all of which offer only limited protection. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property may be inadequate. We will not be able to protect our intellectual property if we are unable to enforce our rights or if we do not detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property. Despite our precautions, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to copy our technology and use information that we regard as proprietary to create products and services that compete with ours. In the past, we have been made aware of public postings of portions of our source code. It is possible that released source code could reveal some of our trade secrets, and impact our competitive advantage. Some license provisions protecting against unauthorized use, copying, transfer, reverse engineering, and disclosure of our technology may be unenforceable under the laws of certain jurisdictions and foreign countries. Further, the laws of some countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. In expanding our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying and use of our technology and proprietary information may increase.

As of March 31, 2019, we had 58 issued patents, all of which are in the United States, and 25 pending applications, of which 17 are in the United States. Our issued patents expire at various dates through July 2037. The process of obtaining patent protection is expensive and time-consuming, and we may not be able to prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. We may choose not to seek patent protection for certain innovations and may choose not to pursue patent protection in certain jurisdictions. Furthermore, it is possible that our patent applications may not result in issued patents, that the scope of the claims in our issued patents will be insufficient or not have the coverage originally sought, that our issued patents will not provide us with any competitive advantages, and that our issued patents and other intellectual property rights may be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation. In addition, issuance of a patent does not guarantee that we have an absolute right to practice our patented technology, or that we have the right to exclude others from practicing our patented technology. As a result, we may not be able to obtain adequate patent protection or to enforce our issued patents effectively.

In addition to patented technology, we rely on our unpatented proprietary technology and trade secrets. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary technology and trade secrets, unauthorized parties may attempt to misappropriate, reverse engineer or otherwise obtain and use them. The contractual provisions that we enter into with employees, consultants, partners, vendors and customers may not prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of our proprietary technology or trade secrets and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our proprietary technology or trade secrets.

Moreover, policing unauthorized use of our technologies, solutions and intellectual property is difficult, expensive and time-consuming, particularly in foreign countries where the laws may not be as protective of intellectual property rights as those in the United States and where mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights may be weak. We may be unable to determine the extent of any unauthorized use or infringement of our solutions, technologies or intellectual property rights.

From time to time, legal action by us may be necessary to enforce our patents and other intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets, to determine the validity and scope of the intellectual property rights of others or to defend against allegations of infringement or invalidity. Such litigation could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and could negatively affect our

 

38

business, operating results, financial condition and cash flows. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights, our business, operating results and financial condition will be harmed.

Our use of open source technology could impose limitations on our ability to commercialize our solutions and platform and application intelligence software platform.

We use open source software in our solutions and platform and expect to continue to use open source software in the future. Although we monitor our use of open source software to avoid subjecting our solutions and platform to conditions we do not intend, we may face allegations from others alleging ownership of, or seeking to enforce the terms of, an open source license, including by demanding release of the open source software, derivative works, or our proprietary source code that was developed using such software. These allegations could also result in litigation. The terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. courts. As a result, there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a way that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our solutions. In such an event, we could be required to seek licenses from third parties to continue offering our solutions, to make our proprietary code generally available in source code form, to re-engineer our solutions or to discontinue the sale of our solutions if re-engineering could not be accomplished on a timely basis, any of which could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our participation in open source initiatives may limit our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights in certain circumstances.

As part of our strategy to broaden our target markets and accelerate adoption of our products, we contribute software program code to certain open source projects, managed by organizations such as Microsoft, Google and Cloud Native Computing Foundation. We also undertake our own open source initiatives to promote “open innovation” and “enterprise openness,” meaning that we make technologies available under open source licenses with the goal of exchanging insights and experience with other experts in the community, broadening the adoption of our platform by our customers, and providing our partners with the ability to leverage their own technologies through the Dynatrace^® platform. In some cases, we accept contributions of code from the community, our customers and partners.

When we contribute to a third-party managed open source project, the copyrights, patent rights and other proprietary rights in and to the technologies, including software program code, owned by us that we contribute to these projects are licensed to the project managers and to all other contributing parties without restriction on further use or distribution. If and to the extent that any of the technologies that we contribute, either alone or in combination with the technologies that may be contributed by others, practice any inventions that are claimed under our patents or patent applications, then we may be unable to enforce those claims or prevent others from practicing those inventions, regardless of whether such other persons also contributed to the open source project (even if we were to conclude that their use infringes our patents with competing offerings), unless any such third party asserts its patent rights against us. This limitation on our ability to assert our patent rights against others could harm our business and ability to compete. In addition, if we were to attempt to enforce our patent rights, we could suffer reputational injury among our customers and the open source community.

Our sales to government entities are subject to a number of challenges and risks.

We sell our solutions to U.S. federal and state and foreign governmental agency customers, often through our resellers, and we may increase sales to government entities in the future. Sales to government entities are subject to a number of challenges and risks. Selling to government entities can be highly competitive, expensive and time consuming, often requiring significant upfront time and

 

39

expense without any assurance that these efforts will generate a sale. Contracts and subcontracts with government agency customers are subject to procurement laws and regulations relating to the award, administration, and performance of those contracts. Government demand and payment for our solutions are affected by public sector budgetary cycles and funding authorizations, with funding reductions or delays adversely affecting public sector demand for our solutions. We may be subject to audit or investigations relating to our sales to government entities, and any violations could result in various civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including termination of contracts, refunds of fees received, forfeiture of profits, suspension of payments, fines, and suspension or debarment from future government business. Government entities may have statutory, contractual or other legal rights to terminate contracts with our distributors and resellers for convenience or due to a default. Any of these risks relating to our sales to governmental entities could adversely impact our future sales and operating results.

We may acquire other businesses, products or technologies in the future which could require significant management attention, disrupt our business, dilute shareholder value and adversely affect our results of operations.

As part of our business growth strategy and in order to remain competitive, we may acquire, or make investments in, complementary companies, products or technologies. For example, in 2017 we acquired Qumram AG, a provider of session replay technology that captures end users digital experiences across browsers, interfaces and devices. We may not be able to find suitable acquisition targets in the future, and we may not be able to complete such acquisitions on favorable terms, if at all. If we do complete acquisitions, we may not ultimately strengthen our competitive position or achieve our goals, and any acquisitions we complete could be viewed negatively by our customers, securities analysts and investors. In addition, if we are unsuccessful at integrating such acquisitions or the technologies associated with such acquisitions, our revenue and results of operations could be adversely affected. In addition, while we will make significant efforts to address any information technology security and privacy compliance issues with respect to any acquisitions, we may still inherit such risks when we integrate the acquired products and systems. Any integration process may require significant time and resources, and we may not be able to manage the process successfully. We may not successfully evaluate or utilize the acquired technology or personnel, or accurately forecast the financial impact of an acquired business, including accounting charges. We may have to pay cash, incur debt or issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisitions, each of which could adversely affect our financial condition or the value of our ordinary shares. The sale of equity or issuance of debt to finance any such acquisitions could result in dilution to our shareholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed obligations and could also include covenants or other restrictions that would impede our ability to manage our operations.

Our business is subject to a wide range of laws and regulations and our failure to comply with those laws and regulations could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our business is subject to regulation by various federal, state, local and foreign governmental agencies, including agencies responsible for monitoring and enforcing employment and labor laws, workplace safety, product safety, environmental laws, consumer protection laws, privacy and data protection laws, anti-bribery laws, import and export controls, federal securities laws and tax laws and regulations. In certain foreign jurisdictions, these regulatory requirements may be more stringent than those in the United States. These laws and regulations are subject to change over time and we must continue to monitor and dedicate resources to ensure continued compliance. Non-compliance with applicable regulations or requirements could subject us to litigation, investigations, sanctions, mandatory product recalls, enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, fines, damages, civil and criminal penalties or injunctions. If any governmental sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal litigation, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be

 

40

materially adversely affected. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and an increase in professional fees. Enforcement actions and sanctions could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

Any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with our privacy policy or legal or regulatory requirements in one or multiple jurisdictions could result in proceedings, actions or penalties against us.

We are subject to federal, state, and international laws, regulations and standards relating to the collection, use, disclosure, retention, security, transfer and other processing of personal data. The legal and regulatory framework for privacy, data protection and security issues worldwide is rapidly evolving and as a result implementation standards, potential fines, enforcement practices and litigation risks are likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future.

Internationally, virtually every jurisdiction in which we operate has established its own privacy, data protection and/or data security legal framework with which we or our customers must comply, including but not limited to the EU. The EU’s data protection landscape is currently unstable, resulting in possible significant operational costs for internal compliance and risk to our business. In addition, the EU has adopted the GDPR, which went into effect on May 25, 2018 and contains numerous requirements and changes from prior EU law, including more robust obligations on data processors and heavier documentation requirements for data protection compliance programs by companies. Specifically, the GDPR introduced numerous privacy-related changes for companies operating in the EU, including heightened notice and consent requirements, greater control for data subjects (e.g., the “right to be forgotten”), increased data portability for EU consumers, additional data breach notification and data security requirements, requirements for engaging third-party processors, and increased fines. In particular, under the GDPR, fines of up to 20 million euros or up to 4% of the annual global revenue of the noncompliant company, whichever is greater, could be imposed for violations of certain of the GDPR’s requirements. The GDPR also confers a private right of action on data subjects and consumer associations to lodge complaints with supervisory authorities, seek judicial remedies and obtain compensation for damages. The GDPR applies to any company established in the European Union as well as any company outside the European Union that processes personal data in connection with the offering of goods or services to individuals in the European Union or the monitoring of their behavior. Moreover, the GDPR requirements apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between us and our subsidiaries, including employee information.

In addition to the GDPR, the European Union also is considering another draft data protection regulation. The proposed regulation, known as the Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications, or ePrivacy Regulation, would replace the current ePrivacy Directive. Originally planned to be adopted and implemented at the same time as the GDPR, the ePrivacy Regulation will likely be enacted sometime in the latter part of 2019. While the new regulation contains protections for those using communications services (for example, protections against online tracking technologies), the potential timing of its enactment significantly later than the GDPR means that additional time and effort may need to be spent addressing differences between the ePrivacy Regulation and the GDPR. New rules related to the ePrivacy Regulation are likely to include enhanced consent requirements in order to use communications content and communications metadata, as well as obligations and restrictions on the processing of data from an end-user’s terminal equipment, which may negatively impact our product offerings and our relationships with our customers.

Preparing for and complying with the GDPR and the ePrivacy Regulation (if and when it becomes effective) has required and will continue to require us to incur substantial operational costs and may require us to change our business practices. Despite our efforts to bring practices into compliance with the GDPR and before the effective date of the ePrivacy Regulation, we may not be successful either

 

41

due to internal or external factors such as resource allocation limitations. Non-compliance could result in proceedings against us by governmental entities, customers, data subjects, consumer associations or others. We are not a participant in the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce. We are in the process of submitting our binding corporate rules for approval by CNIL, the France data protection agency, as our lead regulator in Europe, but there is no assurance as to when this process will be complete, that it will be successfully completed or that the laws may not require additional compliance steps to be taken in the future.

In the United States, California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act, or the CCPA, on June 28, 2018, which takes effect on January 1, 2020. The CCPA gives California residents expanded rights to access and delete their personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing and receive detailed information about how their personal information is used. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation. The CCPA may increase our compliance costs and potential liability. Some observers have noted that the CCPA could mark the beginning of a trend toward more stringent privacy legislation in the U.S., which could increase our potential liability and adversely affect our business.

Privacy and data security concerns, whether valid or not valid, may inhibit market adoption of our products, particularly in certain industries and foreign countries. If we are not able to adjust to changing laws, regulations, and standards related to the Internet, our business may be harmed.

We are subject to governmental export, import and sanctions controls that could impair our ability to compete in international markets due to licensing requirements and subject us to liability if we are not in compliance with applicable laws.

Our solutions are subject to export control and economic sanctions laws and regulations, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations administered by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security and the economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls. Exports, re-exports and transfers of our software and services must be made in compliance with these laws and regulations. Obtaining the necessary authorizations, including any required license, for a particular sale may be time-consuming, is not guaranteed and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities. Changes in the encryption or other technology incorporated into our solutions or in applicable export or import laws and regulations may delay the introduction and sale of our solutions in international markets, prevent customers from deploying our solutions or, in some cases, prevent the export or import of our solutions to certain countries, regions, governments or persons altogether. Changes in sanctions, export or import laws and regulations, in the enforcement or scope of existing laws and regulations, or in the countries, regions, governments, persons or technologies targeted by such laws and regulations, could also result in decreased use of our solutions or in our ability to sell our solutions in certain countries. Even though we take precautions to prevent our solutions from being provided to restricted countries or persons, our solutions could be provided to those targets by our resellers or customers despite such precautions. The decreased use of our solutions or limitation on our ability to export or sell our solutions could adversely affect our business, while violations of these export and import control and economic sanctions laws and regulations could have negative consequences for us and our personnel, including government investigations, administrative fines, civil and criminal penalties, denial of export privileges, incarceration, and reputational harm.

 

42

Due to the global nature of our business, we could be adversely affected by violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.K. Bribery Act or similar anti-bribery laws in other jurisdictions in which we operate.

The global nature of our business creates various domestic and local regulatory challenges. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, the U.K. Bribery Act and similar anti-bribery laws in other jurisdictions generally prohibit U.S.-based companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business to non-U.S. officials, or in the case of the U.K. Bribery Act, to any person. In addition, U.S.-based companies are required to maintain records that accurately and fairly represent their transactions and have an adequate system of internal accounting controls. We operate in areas that experience corruption by government officials and, in certain circumstances, compliance with anti-bribery laws may conflict with local customs and practices. Changes in applicable laws could result in increased regulatory requirements and compliance costs that could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results. Although we take steps to ensure compliance, we cannot guarantee that our employees, resellers, agents, or other intermediaries will not engage in prohibited conduct that could render us responsible under the FCPA, the U.K. Bribery Act, or other similar laws or regulations in the jurisdictions in which we operate. If we are found to be in violation of these anti-bribery laws (either due to acts or inadvertence of our employees, or due to the acts or inadvertence of others), we could suffer criminal or civil penalties or other sanctions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Our international operations subject us to potentially adverse tax consequences.

As a multinational corporation, we are subject to income taxes as well as non-income based taxes, such as payroll, sales, use, value-added, net worth, property and goods and services taxes, in both the United States and various foreign jurisdictions. Our domestic and international tax liabilities are subject to the allocation of revenues and expenses in different jurisdictions and the timing of recognizing revenues and expenses. Additionally, the amount of income taxes paid is subject to our interpretation of applicable tax laws in the jurisdictions in which we file and changes to tax laws. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities. From time to time, we are subject to income and non-income tax audits. While we believe we have complied with all applicable income tax laws, there can be no assurance that a governing tax authority will not have a different interpretation of the law and assess us with additional taxes. Should we be assessed with additional taxes, there could be a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our future effective tax rate may be affected by such factors as changes in tax laws, regulations or rates, changing interpretation of existing laws or regulations, the impact of accounting for stock-based compensation, the impact of accounting for business combinations, changes in our international organization, and changes in overall levels of income before tax. In addition, in the ordinary course of our global business, there are many intercompany transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Although we believe that our tax estimates are reasonable, we cannot ensure that the final determination of tax audits or tax disputes will not be different from what is reflected in our historical income tax provisions and accruals.

Taxing authorities may successfully assert that we should have collected or in the future should collect sales and use, value added or similar taxes, and we could be subject to liability with respect to past or future sales, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

We do not collect sales and use, value added and similar taxes in all jurisdictions in which we have sales, based on our belief that such taxes are not applicable. Sales and use, value added and similar tax laws and rates vary greatly by jurisdiction. Certain jurisdictions in which we do not collect

 

43

such taxes may assert that such taxes are applicable, which could result in tax assessments, penalties and interest, and we may be required to collect such taxes in the future. Such tax assessments, penalties and interest or future requirements may adversely affect our results of operations.

Risks Related to Our Common Stock and This Offering

There has been no prior public trading market for our common stock, and an active trading market may not develop or be sustained following this offering.

We intend to apply for the listing of our common stock on the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, under the symbol “DT.” However, there has been no prior public trading market for our common stock. We cannot assure you that an active trading market for our common stock will develop on such exchange or elsewhere or, if developed, that any market will be sustained. Accordingly, we cannot assure you of the liquidity of any trading market, your ability to sell your shares of our common stock when desired or the prices that you may obtain for your shares of our common stock.

The trading price of our common stock could be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for shares of our common stock. The initial public offering price of our common stock was determined through negotiation among us and the underwriters. This price does not necessarily reflect the price at which investors in the market will be willing to buy and sell shares of our stock following this offering. In addition, the trading prices of technology stocks have historically experienced high levels of volatility. The trading price of our common stock following this offering may fluctuate substantially. Following the completion of this offering, the market price of our common stock may be higher or lower than the price you pay in the offering, depending on many factors, some of which are beyond our control and may not be related to our operating performance. These fluctuations could cause you to lose all or part of your investment in our common stock. Factors that could cause fluctuations in the trading price of our common stock include the following:

 

•

announcements of new products or technologies, commercial relationships, acquisitions or other events by us or our competitors;

 

•

changes in how customers perceive the benefits of our platform;

 

•

shifts in the mix of billings and revenue attributable to perpetual licenses, term licenses and SaaS subscriptions from quarter to quarter;

 

•

departures of key personnel;

 

•

price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market from time to time;

 

•

fluctuations in the trading volume of our shares or the size of our public float;

 

•

sales of large blocks of our common stock, including by the Thoma Bravo Funds;

 

•

actual or anticipated changes or fluctuations in our operating results;

 

•

whether our operating results meet the expectations of securities analysts or investors;

 

•

changes in actual or future expectations of investors or securities analysts;

 

•

litigation involving us, our industry or both;

 

•

regulatory developments in the United States, foreign countries or both;

 

•

general economic conditions and trends; and

 

•

major catastrophic events in our domestic and foreign markets.

 

44

In addition, if the market for technology stocks or the stock market in general experiences a loss of investor confidence, the trading price of our common stock could decline for reasons unrelated to our business, operating results or financial condition. The trading price of our common stock might also decline in reaction to events that affect other companies in our industry even if these events do not directly affect us. In the past, following periods of volatility in the trading price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been brought against that company.

If securities analysts were to downgrade our stock, publish negative research or reports or fail to publish reports about our business, our competitive position could suffer, and our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will, to some extent, depend on the research and reports that securities analysts may publish about us, our business, our market or our competitors. We do not have any control over these analysts. We do not currently have and may never obtain research coverage by securities analysts. If no or few securities analysts commence coverage of us, the trading price of our stock would likely decrease. Even if we do obtain analyst coverage, if one or more of the analysts who cover us should downgrade our stock or publish negative research or reports, cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports about our business, our competitive position could suffer, and our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The requirements of being a public company, including compliance with the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, and the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, may strain our resources, increase our costs and distract management, and we may be unable to comply with these requirements in a timely or cost-effective manner.

As a public company, we will need to comply with new laws, regulations and requirements, certain corporate governance provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, related regulations of the SEC and the requirements of the NYSE, with which we are not required to comply as a private company. Complying with these statutes, regulations and requirements will occupy a significant amount of time of our board of directors and management and will significantly increase our costs and expenses. We will need to:

 

•

institute a more comprehensive compliance function;

 

•

comply with rules promulgated by the                ;

 

•

continue to prepare and distribute periodic public reports in compliance with our obligations under the federal securities laws;

 

•

establish new internal policies, such as those relating to insider trading; and

 

•

involve and retain to a greater degree outside counsel and accountants in the above activities.

Furthermore, while we generally must comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for our fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, we are not required to have our independent registered public accounting firm attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until our first annual report subsequent to our ceasing to be an emerging growth company. Accordingly, we may not be required to have our independent registered public accounting firm attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until as late as our annual report for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. Once it is required to do so, our independent registered public accounting firm may issue a report that is adverse in the event it is not satisfied with the level at which our internal control over financial reporting are documented, designed, operated or reviewed. Compliance with these requirements may strain our resources, increase our costs and distract management, and we may be unable to comply with these requirements in a timely or cost-effective manner.

 

45

In addition, we expect that being a public company subject to these rules and regulations may make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified individuals to serve on our board of directors or as executive officers. We are currently evaluating these rules, and we cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur or the timing of such costs.

Investors in this offering will experience immediate and substantial dilution.

Based on an assumed initial public offering price of $            per share (the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover of this prospectus), purchasers of our common stock in this offering will experience an immediate and substantial dilution of $                per share in the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of common stock from the initial public offering price, and our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of                    , after giving effect to this offering would be $                per share. This dilution is due in large part to earlier investors having paid substantially less than the initial public offering price when they purchased their shares. See the section titled “Dilution” below.

Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public markets, or the perception that such sales could occur, could reduce the market price of our common stock.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market after this offering, or the perception that such sales could occur, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock and may make it more difficult for you to sell your common stock at a time and price that you deem appropriate. Based on the total number of outstanding shares of our common stock as of        , upon completion of this offering, we will have approximately                 shares of common stock outstanding, assuming an initial public offering price of $        per share (the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus). All of the shares of common stock sold in this offering will be freely tradable without restrictions or further registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, except for any shares held by our “affiliates” as defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act.

Subject to certain exceptions described in the section titled “Underwriting,” we, our directors and executive officers, the Thoma Bravo Funds and substantially all of the other holders of our common stock or stock options outstanding immediately prior to this offering have agreed or will agree to enter into lock-up agreements with the underwriters of this offering pursuant to which we and they have agreed or will agree that, subject to certain exceptions, we and they will not dispose of or hedge any shares or any securities convertible into or exchangeable for shares of our common stock for a period of 180 days after the date of this prospectus. See the sections titled “Underwriting” and “Shares Eligible for Future Sale” for more information. Sales of a substantial number of such shares upon expiration of, or the perception that such sales may occur, or early release of the securities subject to, the lock-up agreements, could cause our stock price to fall or make it more difficult for you to sell your common stock at a time and price that you deem appropriate.

Our issuance of additional capital stock in connection with financings, acquisitions, investments, our stock incentive plans or otherwise will dilute all other stockholders.

We may issue additional capital stock in the future that will result in dilution to all other stockholders. We may also raise capital through equity financings in the future. As part of our business strategy, we may acquire or make investments in complementary companies, products or technologies

 

46

and issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisition or investment. Any such issuances of additional capital stock may cause stockholders to experience significant dilution of their ownership interests and the per share value of our common stock to decline.

Management will have broad discretion over the use of our proceeds from this offering.

The principal purposes of this offering include increasing our capitalization and financial flexibility, creating a public market for our stock, thereby enabling access to the public equity markets by our employees and stockholders, obtaining additional capital and increasing our visibility in the marketplace. We intend to use our net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses and capital expenditures, and to repay a portion of the borrowings outstanding under our credit facility. See “Use of Proceeds.” We cannot specify with certainty the particular uses of the net proceeds to us from this offering. Accordingly, we will have broad discretion in using these proceeds and might not be able to obtain a significant return, if any, on investment of these net proceeds. Investors in this offering will need to rely upon the judgment of our management with respect to the use of our proceeds. If we do not use the net proceeds that we receive in this offering effectively, our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.

We expect to be a controlled company within the meaning of the NYSE rules and, as a result, will qualify for and intend to rely on exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements.

Upon completion of this offering, Thoma Bravo, as the ultimate general partner of the Thoma Bravo Funds, will beneficially own a majority of the voting power of all classes of our outstanding voting stock. As a result, we will be a controlled company within the meaning of the NYSE corporate governance standards. Under the NYSE rules, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by another person or group of persons acting together is a controlled company and may elect not to comply with certain NYSE corporate governance requirements, including the requirements that:

 

•

a majority of the board of directors consist of independent directors as defined under the rules of the NYSE;

 

•

the nominating and governance committee be composed entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities;

 

•

the compensation committee be composed entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities; and

 

•

annual performance evaluations of the nominating and governance committee and the compensation committee be performed.

These requirements will not apply to us as long as we remain a controlled company. Following this offering, we intend to utilize some or all of these exemptions. Additionally, upon the completion of this offering, our executive officers, directors, and the Thoma Bravo Funds will beneficially own approximately         % of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock, assuming the sale by us of                  shares of common stock in this offering. These stockholders may be able to determine all matters requiring stockholder approval. For example, these stockholders may be able to control elections of directors, amendments of our organizational documents, or approval of any merger, sale of assets, or other major corporate transaction. This may prevent or discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for our common stock that you may feel are in your best interest as one of our stockholders. Accordingly, you may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements of the NYSE. See the section titled “Management—Status as a Controlled Company” below.

 

47

Thoma Bravo has a controlling influence over matters requiring stockholder approval, which may have the effect of delaying or preventing changes of control, or limiting the ability of other stockholders to approve transactions they deem to be in their best interest.

Thoma Bravo, as the ultimate general partner of the Thoma Bravo Funds, beneficially owns in the aggregate        % of our stock and, after this offering, will beneficially own in the aggregate                % of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock (or, if the underwriters’ over-allotment option is exercised in full,        % of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock). As a result, Thoma Bravo could exert significant influence over our operations and business strategy and would have sufficient voting power to determine the outcome of all matters requiring stockholder approval. These matters may include:

 

•

the composition of our board of directors, which has the authority to direct our business and to appoint and remove our officers;

 

•

approving or rejecting a merger, consolidation or other business combination;

 

•

raising future capital; and

 

•

amending our charter and bylaws, which govern the rights attached to our common stock.

For so long as Thoma Bravo beneficially owns 30% or more of our outstanding shares of common stock, Thoma Bravo will have the right to designate a majority of our board of directors. For so long as Thoma Bravo has the right to designate a majority of our board of directors, the directors designated by Thoma Bravo are expected to constitute a majority of each committee of our board of directors, other than the audit committee, and the chairman of each of the committees, other than the audit committee, is expected to be a director designated by Thoma Bravo. At such time as we are not a “controlled company” under the NYSE corporate governance standards, our committee membership will comply with all applicable requirements of those standards and a majority of our board of directors will be “independent directors,” as defined under the rules of the NYSE.

This concentration of ownership of our common stock could delay or prevent proxy contests, mergers, tender offers, open-market purchase programs or other purchases of our common stock that might otherwise give you the opportunity to realize a premium over the then-prevailing market price of our common stock. This concentration of ownership may also adversely affect our share price.

Thoma Bravo may pursue corporate opportunities independent of us that could present conflicts with our and our stockholders’ interests.

Thoma Bravo is in the business of making or advising on investments in companies and holds (and may from time to time in the future acquire) interests in or provides advice to businesses that may directly or indirectly compete with our business or be suppliers or customers of ours. Thoma Bravo may also pursue acquisitions that may be complementary to our business and, as a result, those acquisition opportunities may not be available to us.

Our charter provides that none of our officers or directors who are also an officer, director, employee, partner, managing director, principal, independent contractor or other affiliate of Thoma Bravo will be liable to us or our stockholders for breach of any fiduciary duty by reason of the fact that any such individual pursues or acquires a corporate opportunity for its own account or the account of an affiliate, as applicable, instead of us, directs a corporate opportunity to any other person, instead of us or does not communicate information regarding a corporate opportunity to us.

 

48

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

We have never declared or paid any dividends on our common stock. We intend to retain any earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. As a result, you may only receive a return on your investment in our common stock if the market price of our common stock increases.

Our charter and bylaws contain anti-takeover provisions that could delay or discourage takeover attempts that stockholders may consider favorable.

Our charter and bylaws contain provisions that could delay or prevent a change in control of our company. These provisions could also make it difficult for stockholders to elect directors who are not nominated by the current members of our board of directors or take other corporate actions, including effecting changes in our management. These provisions include:

 

•

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

 

•

after Thoma Bravo ceases to beneficially own at least 30% of the outstanding shares of our common stock, removal of directors only for cause, and subject to the affirmative vote of the holders of 66 2/3% or more of our outstanding shares of capital stock then entitled to vote at a meeting of our stockholders called for that purpose;

 

•

the ability of our board of directors to issue shares of preferred stock and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval, which could be used to significantly dilute the ownership of a hostile acquirer;

 

•

allowing Thoma Bravo to fill any vacancy on our board of directors for so long as affiliates of Thoma Bravo own 30% or more of our outstanding shares of common stock and thereafter, allowing only our board of directors to fill vacancies on our board of directors, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our board of directors;

 

•

after Thoma Bravo ceases to beneficially own at least a majority of the outstanding shares of our common stock, a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent, which forces stockholder action to be taken at an annual or special meeting of our stockholders;

 

•

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

 

•

after we cease to be a controlled company, the requirement for the affirmative vote of holders of at least 66 2/3% of the voting power of all of the then outstanding shares of the voting stock, voting together as a single class, to amend the provisions of our charter relating to the management of our business (including our classified board structure) or certain provisions of our bylaws, which may inhibit the ability of an acquirer to effect such amendments to facilitate an unsolicited takeover attempt;

 

•

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

 

•

advance notice procedures with which stockholders must comply to nominate candidates to our board of directors or to propose matters to be acted upon at a stockholders’ meeting, which

 

49

may discourage or deter a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us; and

 

•

a prohibition of cumulative voting in the election of our board of directors, which would otherwise allow less than a majority of stockholders to elect director candidates.

Our charter also contains a provision that provides us with protections similar to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, and prevents us from engaging in a business combination, such as a merger, with an interested stockholder (i.e., a person or group who acquires at least 15% of our voting stock) for a period of three years from the date such person became an interested stockholder, unless (with certain exceptions) the business combination or the transaction in which the person became an interested stockholder is approved in a prescribed manner. However, our charter also provides that transactions with Thoma Bravo, including the Thoma Bravo Funds, and any persons to whom any Thoma Bravo Fund sells its common stock will be deemed to have been approved by our board of directors.

We may issue preferred stock the terms of which could adversely affect the voting power or value of our common stock.

Following the completion of this offering, our charter will authorize us to issue, without the approval of our stockholders, one or more classes or series of preferred stock having such designations, preferences, limitations and relative rights, including preferences over our common stock respecting dividends and distributions, as our board of directors may determine. The terms of one or more classes or series of preferred stock could adversely impact the voting power or value of our common stock. For example, we might grant holders of preferred stock the right to elect some number of our directors in all events or on the happening of specified events or the right to veto specified transactions. Similarly, the repurchase or redemption rights or liquidation preferences we might assign to holders of preferred stock could affect the residual value of our common stock.

Our bylaws designate the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware as the exclusive forum for certain litigation that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us.

Pursuant to our bylaws, which will become effective upon the completion of this offering, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the sole and exclusive forum for state law claims for (1) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (2) any action asserting a claim of or based on a breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our current or former directors, officers, or other employees to us or our stockholders, (3) any action asserting a claim against us or any of our current or former directors, officers, employees, or stockholders arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law or our bylaws, or (4) any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine. In addition, our bylaws provide that any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our common stock is deemed to have notice of and consented to the foregoing provisions; provided, however, that stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. This provision will not apply to actions arising under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act. We recognize that the forum selection clause may impose additional litigation costs on stockholders who assert the provision is not enforceable and may impose more general additional litigation costs in pursuing any such claims, particularly if the stockholders do not reside in or near the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Additionally, the forum selection clause in our bylaws may limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us. The Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware may also reach different judgments or results than would other courts, including courts where a stockholder

 

50

considering an action may be located or would otherwise choose to bring the action, and such judgments may be more or less favorable to us than our stockholders.

For as long as we are an emerging growth company, we will not be required to comply with certain requirements that apply to other public companies.

We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we are an emerging growth company, unlike other public companies, we will not be required to, among other things: (i) provide an auditor’s attestation report on management’s assessment of the effectiveness of our system of internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; (ii) comply with any new requirements adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board requiring mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report in which the auditor would be required to provide additional information about the audit and the financial statements of the issuer; (iii) provide certain disclosures regarding executive compensation required of larger public companies; or (iv) hold nonbinding advisory votes on executive compensation and any golden parachute payments not previously approved. In addition, the JOBS Act provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for adopting new or revised financial accounting standards. We intend to take advantage of the longer phase-in periods for the adoption of new or revised financial accounting standards permitted under the JOBS Act until we are no longer an emerging growth company. If we were to subsequently elect instead to comply with these public company effective dates, such election would be irrevocable pursuant to the JOBS Act.

We will remain an emerging growth company for up to five full fiscal years, although we will lose that status sooner if we have more than $1.07 billion of revenues in a fiscal year, have more than $700 million in market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates (and have been a public company for at least 12 months and have filed one annual report on Form 10-K), or issue more than $1.0 billion of non-convertible debt over a three-year period.

To the extent that we rely on any of the exemptions available to emerging growth companies, you will receive less information about our executive compensation and internal control over financial reporting than issuers that are not emerging growth companies. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock to be less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.

 

51

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or our future financial or operating performance. All statements of historical fact included in this prospectus regarding our strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “intends,” “target,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans or intentions. When considering forward-looking statements, you should keep in mind the risk factors and other cautionary statements described under the heading “Risk Factors” included in this prospectus. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current beliefs, based on currently available information, as to the outcome and timing of future events. Forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus include, but are not limited to, statements about:

 

•

our future financial performance, including our expectations regarding our revenue, annual recurring revenue, gross profit or gross margin, operating expenses, ability to generate cash flow, revenue mix and ability to maintain future profitability;

 

•

anticipated trends and growth rates in our business and in the markets in which we operate;

 

•

our ability to convert our customers from our Classic products to our Dynatrace® platform;

 

•

our ability to maintain and expand our customer base and our partner network;

 

•

our ability to sell our applications and expand internationally;

 

•

our ability to anticipate market needs and successfully develop new and enhanced solutions to meet those needs;

 

•

our ability to hire and retain necessary qualified employees to grow our business and expand our operations;

 

•

the evolution of technology affecting our applications, platform and markets;

 

•

our ability to adequately protect our intellectual property;

 

•

our ability to service our debt obligations; and

 

•

our anticipated uses of the net proceeds from this offering.

We caution you that the foregoing list may not contain all of the forward-looking statements made in this prospectus.

You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus. We cannot assure you that the results, events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur, and actual results, events or circumstances could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

 

52

The forward-looking statements made in this prospectus relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this prospectus to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this prospectus or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.

 

53

MARKET AND INDUSTRY DATA

Unless otherwise indicated, information contained in this prospectus concerning our industry and the market in which we operate, including our general expectations and market position, market opportunity and market size, is based on information from various sources, on assumptions that we have made that are based on those data and other similar sources, and on our knowledge of the markets for our solutions. This information involves a number of assumptions and limitations and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to these estimates. In addition, the industry in which we operate, as well as the projections, assumptions and estimates of our future performance and the future performance of the industry in which we operate, are subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus, that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in these publications and reports.

Some of the industry and market data contained in this prospectus are based on independent industry publications, including those generated by Gartner or other publicly available information. The Gartner reports described herein, or the Gartner Reports, represent research opinions or viewpoints published, as part of a syndicated subscription service, by Gartner, and are not representations of fact. Each Gartner Report speaks as of its original publication date (and not as of the date of this prospectus) and the opinions expressed in the Gartner Reports are subject to change without notice. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of each of the respective party’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

The reports from Gartner cited herein are (i) Gartner, Forecast: Enterprise Infrastructure Software Markets, Worldwide, 2017-2023, 1Q19 Update, dated March 2019, (ii) Magic Quadrant for Application Performance Monitoring, dated March 2019, and (iii) Gartner, Best Practices for Running Containers and Kubernetes in Production, dated February 2019.

The report from Forrester Research cited herein is Improving CX Through Business Discipline Drives Growth, dated June 2017.

The report from 451 Research cited herein is 451 Research, Cloud Infrastructure Voice of the Enterprise Data Service, dated November 2018.

The reports from International Data Corporation cited herein are (i) IDC, Worldwide Semiannual Digital Transformation Spending Guide, dated November 2018, and (ii) IDC, FutureScape: Worldwide Cloud 2019 Predictions, Doc #US43001713, dated October 2018.

The study from NewVoiceMedia cited herein is NewVoiceMedia, Serial Switchers Swayed by Sentiment: How bad emotive customer experiences are costing brands billions.

 

54

USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that the net proceeds from the sale of shares of our common stock that we are selling in this offering will be approximately $        million (or approximately $        million if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares is exercised in full), assuming an initial public offering price of $        per share (the midpoint of the estimated offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus), after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

Each $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of $        per share (the midpoint of the estimated offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus) would increase or decrease, as applicable, the net proceeds that we receive from this offering by approximately $        million, assuming that the number of shares of common stock offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducted estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. Similarly, each increase or decrease of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares of our common stock offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase or decrease the net proceeds that we receive from this offering by approximately $        million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price remains the same.

The principal purposes of this offering are to increase our capitalization and financial flexibility, create a public market for our common stock and enable access to the public equity markets for us and our stockholders.

We intend to use a portion of our net proceeds from this offering to repay $        million of the borrowings outstanding under our Credit Facility, under which affiliates of certain of the underwriters in this offering are lenders. See “Underwriting.” We may also use the balance of our net proceeds for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses, capital expenditures, and to acquire complementary businesses, products, services or technologies. However, we do not have agreements or commitments for any acquisitions at this time.

At March 31, 2019, we had approximately $1.0 billion of aggregate indebtedness, consisting of: (i) $947.6 million outstanding under our first lien term loan facility, (ii) $88.7 million outstanding under our second lien term loan facility, (iii) $0.5 million outstanding under a $15.0 million letter of credit sub-facility, and (iv) $14.3 million of unamortized debt issuance fees. We also have a $60.0 million revolving credit facility under which we had no outstanding borrowings as of March 31, 2019. The first lien term loan requires equal quarterly repayments equal to 0.25% of the original principal amount under the first lien term loan facility and revolving credit facility. The second lien term loan facility bears interest at a floating rate which can be, at our option, either (i) a Eurodollar rate for a specified period plus 7.00% or (ii) a base rate plus 6.00%. The base rate for any day is a fluctuating rate per annum equal to the highest of (a) the “prime rate” as last quoted by The Wall Street Journal, (b) the federal funds effective rate in effect on such day, plus 0.50% per annum and (c) the Eurodollar rate for a one-month interest period plus 1.00%. The base rate applicable to the second lien term loan facility is subject to a “floor” of 0.0%. Borrowings under the revolving credit facility mature on August 23, 2023. The first lien term loan facility matures on August 23, 2025. The second lien term loan facility matures on August 23, 2026. The indebtedness was incurred for the purpose of paying down related party debt associated with our acquisition by Thoma Bravo. See “Description of Indebtedness.”

Our management will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds of this offering, and investors will be relying on the judgment of our management regarding the application of the net proceeds. Pending the use of proceeds to us from this offering as described above, we intend to invest the net proceeds to us from this offering in short-term and long-term interest-bearing obligations, including government and investment-grade debt securities and money market funds.

 

55

DIVIDEND POLICY

We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings for use in the operation of our business and do not expect to pay any dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to declare dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors, subject to applicable laws, and will depend on a number of factors, including our financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, contractual restrictions, general business conditions and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant. In addition, our credit facility places restrictions on the ability of our subsidiaries to pay cash dividends or make distributions to us.

 

56

CAPITALIZATION

The following table sets forth our cash and cash equivalents and capitalization as of March 31, 2019:

 

•

on an actual basis;

 

•

on a pro forma basis to give effect to the completion of the Spin-Off Transactions, including the elimination of the related party payable, prior to the completion of this offering; and

 

•

on a pro forma as adjusted basis, giving effect to the pro forma adjustments set forth above and the sale and issuance by us of                 shares of our common stock in this offering, assuming an initial public offering price of $        per share (the midpoint of the estimated offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus), after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, and the application of the net proceeds from this offering as set forth under the section titled “Use of Proceeds.”

The information below is illustrative only and our capitalization following the closing of this offering will be adjusted based on the actual public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing. You should read this table together with our consolidated financial statements and related notes, and the sections titled “Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Use of Proceeds” that are included elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

		As of March 31, 2019
		Actual				Pro Forma				Pro Forma as Adjusted
		(in thousands, except share and per share data)
Cash and cash equivalents		$	51,314			$				$
Related party payable			597,150
Long-term debt, net of current portion			1,011,793
Member’s deficit
Preferred stock, $             par value per share; no shares authorized, issued or outstanding, actual;              shares authorized, no shares issued or outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted
Common stock, $             par value per share; no shares authorized, issued or outstanding, actual;              shares authorized and              shares issued and outstanding, pro forma;              shares authorized and              shares issued and outstanding pro forma as adjusted			—
Additional paid-in capital			(184,546	)
Accumulated deficit			(176,002	)
Accumulated other comprehensive (loss)			(29,710	)
Total member’s deficit			(390,258	)
Total capitalization		$	1,218,685			$				$

Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $        per share (the midpoint of the estimated offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus) would increase (decrease) the pro forma as adjusted amount of each of cash and cash equivalents,

 

57

additional paid-in capital, total stockholders’ equity and total capitalization by $                million, assuming that the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. Each increase (decrease) of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) the pro forma as adjusted amount of each of cash and cash equivalents, additional paid-in capital, total stockholders’ equity and total capitalization by $                million, assuming no change in the assumed initial public offering price per share and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

The information presented in the table above does not include:

 

•

shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options outstanding as of            at a weighted average exercise price of $        per share;

 

•

shares of common stock available for future issuance under our equity compensation plans;

 

•

shares of our common stock that will become available for future issuance under our 2019 Equity Incentive Plan, which will become effective in connection with the completion of this offering; and

 

•

shares of our common stock that will become available for future issuance under our 2019 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, which will become effective in connection with the completion of this offering.

 

58

DILUTION

If you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, your ownership interest will be diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per share of our common stock and the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share immediately after this offering. Dilution in pro forma net tangible book value per share to investors purchasing shares of our common stock in this offering represents the difference between the amount per share paid by investors purchasing shares of our common stock in this offering and the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock immediately after completion of this offering.

Net tangible book value per share is determined by dividing our total tangible assets, excluding deferred commissions, less our total liabilities by the number of shares of our common stock outstanding. Our historical net tangible book value as of March 31, 2019 was $(2.0) billion, or $        per share. Our pro forma net tangible book value as of March 31, 2019 was $        , or $        per share, based on the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of                    March 31, 2019, to give effect to the completion of the Spin-Off Transactions prior to the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part.

After giving effect to the sale by us of                 shares of our common stock in this offering at the assumed initial public offering price of $        per share (the midpoint of the estimated offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus), and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of March 31, 2019 would have been $        , or $        per share. This represents an immediate increase in pro forma net tangible book value of $        per share to our existing stockholders and an immediate dilution in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value of $        per share to investors purchasing shares of our common stock in this offering. The following table illustrates this dilution:

 

Assumed initial public offering price per share						$
Pro forma net tangible book value per share as of March 31, 2019		$
Increase in pro forma net tangible book value per share attributable to investors purchasing shares in this offering
Pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share immediately after the completion of this offering
Dilution to investors purchasing shares in this offering						$

Each $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of $        per share (the midpoint of the estimated offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus) would increase or decrease, as applicable, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share to new investors by $        , and would increase or decrease, as applicable, dilution per share to investors purchasing shares of our common stock in this offering by $        , assuming the number of shares of our common stock offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. Similarly, each increase or decrease of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares of our common stock offered by us would increase or decrease, as applicable, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value by approximately $        per share and increase or decrease, as applicable, the dilution to investors purchasing shares of our common stock in this offering by $        per share, assuming the assumed initial public offering price of $        per share (the midpoint of the estimated offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus) remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

 

59

If the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares is exercised in full, the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock immediately after the completion of this offering would be $        per share, and the dilution to investors purchasing shares of our common stock in this offering would be $        per share.

The following table presents, on a pro forma as adjusted basis, as of March 31, 2019, after giving effect to (i) the completion of the Spin-Off Transactions prior to the effectiveness of the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part and (ii) the sale by us of                 shares of our common stock in this offering at the assumed initial public offering price of $        per share (the midpoint of the estimated offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus) the difference between the existing stockholders and the investors purchasing shares of our common stock in this offering with respect to the number of shares of our common stock purchased from us, the total consideration paid or to be paid to us, and the average price per share paid or to be paid to us, before deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us:

 

		Shares Purchased								Total Consideration								Average Price Per Share
		Number				Percent				Amount				Percent
Existing stockholders								%		$						%		$
Investors purchasing shares of our common stock in this offering
Total							100	%		$					100	%

Except as otherwise indicated, the above discussion and tables assume no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares. If the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares is exercised in full, our existing stockholders would own     % and the investors purchasing shares of our common stock in this offering would own    % of the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding immediately after completion of this offering.

The information presented in the table above does not include:

 

•

shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options outstanding as of                at a weighted average exercise price of $        per share;

 

•

shares of common stock available for future issuance under our equity compensation plans;

 

•

shares of our common stock that will become available for future issuance under our 2019 Equity Incentive Plan, which will become effective in connection with the completion of this offering; and

 

•

shares of our common stock that will become available for future issuance under our 2019 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, which will become effective in connection with the completion of this offering.

To the extent that any outstanding options to purchase shares of our common stock are exercised there will be further dilution to investors participating in this offering.

 

60

SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL AND OTHER DATA

We have derived the selected consolidated statement of operations and cash flow data for the years ended March 31, 2017, 2018, and 2019 and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of March 31, 2018 and 2019 set forth below from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected in the future.

The following summary consolidated financial and other data should be read in conjunction with the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

		Year Ended March 31,
		2017				2018				2019
Consolidated Statements of Operations Data:
Revenue:
Subscriptions		$	232,783			$	257,576			$	349,830
License			130,738				98,756				40,354
Services			42,856				41,715				40,782
Total revenue			406,377				398,047				430,966
Cost of revenues:
Cost of subscriptions			52,176				48,270				56,934
Cost of services			30,735				30,316				31,529
Amortization of acquired technology			19,261				17,948				18,338
Total cost of revenues(1)			102,172				96,534				106,801
Gross Profit			304,205				301,513				324,165
Operating expenses:
Research and development(1)			52,885				58,320				76,759
Sales and marketing(1)			129,971				145,350				178,886
General and administrative(1)			49,232				64,114				91,778
Amortization of other intangibles			51,947				50,498				47,686
Restructuring and other			7,637				4,990				1,763
Total operating expenses			291,672				323,272				396,872
Income (loss) from operations			12,533				(21,759	)			(72,707	)
Other expense, net			(28,926	)			(30,016	)			(67,204	)
(Loss) before taxes			(16,393	)			(51,775	)			(139,911	)
Income tax benefit			17,189				60,997				23,717
Net income (loss)		$	796			$	9,222			$	(116,194	)

 

61

 

(1)	Includes share-based compensation expense as follows:

 

		Year Ended March 31,
		2017				2018				2019
Cost of revenues		$	28			$	1,720			$	5,777
Research and development			71				3,858				12,566
Sales and marketing			122				7,536				24,673
General and administrative			128				9,180				28,135
Total compensation expense		$	349			$	22,294			$	71,151

 

		As of March 31,
		2018				2019
		(in thousands)
Consolidated Balance Sheet Data:
Cash and cash equivalents		$	77,581			$	51,314
Working capital, excluding deferred revenue(1)			182,826				132,239
Total assets			1,899,002				1,811,366
Deferred revenue, current and non-current portion			246,627				365,745
Long-term debt, net of current portion			—				1,011,793
Total liabilities			2,167,692				2,201,624
Total member’s deficit			(268,690	)			(390,258	)

 

(1)	We define working capital as current assets less current liabilities, excluding related-party payables.

 

		Year Ended March 31,
		2017				2018				2019
		(in thousands)
Cash provided by operating activities(1)		$	94,560			$	118,838			$	147,141
Cash used in investing activities			(13,876	)			(26,531	)			(9,250	)
Cash used in financing activities			(63,019	)			(75,501	)			(161,482	)
Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents			(1,338	)			2,827				(2,676	)
Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents		$	16,327			$	19,633			$	(26,267	)

 

(1)	Net cash provided by operating activities includes cash payments for interest as follows:

 

		Year Ended March 31,
		2017				2018				2019
		(in thousands)
Cash paid for interest		$	163			$	38			$	40,969

Key Metrics

In addition to our financial information presented in accordance with GAAP, we use a number of operating and financial metrics, including the following key metrics, to clarify and enhance our understanding of past performance and future prospects.

 

62

Customers, ARR, Dollar-Based Net Expansion Rate and Total ARR

 

						As of
		6/30/2017				9/30/2017				12/31/2017				3/31/2018				6/30/2018				9/30/2018				12/31/2018				3/31/2019
Number of Dynatrace® Customers			201				276				399				574				733				899				1,149				1,364
Dynatrace® ARR (in thousands)		$	30,739			$	45,007			$	61,165			$	85,306			$	118,371			$	159,949			$	226,976			$	282,815
Classic ARR (in thousands)		$	201,522			$	202,650			$	201,927			$	195,008			$	187,732			$	166,490			$	145,341			$	120,459
Total ARR (in thousands)		$	232,261			$	247,657			$	263,092			$	280,314			$	306,103			$	326,439			$	372,317			$	403,274
Dynatrace® Dollar-Based Net Expansion Rate			*				*				*				*				122	%			120	%			129	%			140	%

 

*	Not meaningful

For an explanation of our key metrics, see section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Metrics.”

 

63

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

In addition to our financial information presented in accordance with GAAP, we use certain “non-GAAP financial measures” to clarify and enhance our understanding of past performance and future prospects. Generally, a non-GAAP financial measure is a numerical measure of a company’s operating performance, financial position or cash flow that includes or excludes amounts that are included or excluded from the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. As discussed below, we monitor the non-GAAP financial measures described below, and we believe they are helpful to investors.

Our non-GAAP financial measures may not provide information that is directly comparable to that provided by other companies in our industry because they may calculate non-GAAP financial results differently. In addition, there are limitations in using non-GAAP financial measures because they are not prepared in accordance with GAAP and exclude expenses that may have a material impact on our reported financial results. In particular, interest expense, which is excluded from Adjusted EBITDA has been and will continue to be a significant recurring expense in our business for the foreseeable future. The presentation of non-GAAP financial information is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the directly comparable financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. We urge you to review the reconciliations of our non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures included below, and not to rely on any single financial measure to evaluate our business.

Non-GAAP operating income (loss)

To supplement our consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP, we provide investors with certain non-GAAP financial measures, including non-GAAP operating income (loss). We define non-GAAP operating income (loss) as the respective GAAP balance, adjusted to exclude depreciation and amortization, restructuring, transaction and sponsor related costs, and stock-based compensation expense.

The following tables present our non-GAAP operating income (loss) and reconcile our GAAP net income (loss) to non-GAAP operating income (loss) for the years ended March 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019:

 

		Year Ended March 31, 2017
		GAAP				Share-based compensation				Amortization of other intangibles				Depreciation				Restructuring & Other				Non-GAAP
Cost of revenues		$	102,172			$	(28	)		$	(21,905	)		$	(3,031	)		$	—			$	77,208
Gross profit			304,205				28				21,905				3,031				—				329,169
Gross margin			74.9	%																			81.0	%
Research and development			52,885				(71	)			—				(1,445	)			—				51,369
Sales and marketing			129,971				(122	)			—				(146	)			—				129,703
General and administrative			49,232				(128	)			—				(6,445	)			(2,835	)			39,824
Amortization of other intangibles			51,947				—				(51,947	)			—				—				—
Restructuring and other			7,637				—				—				—				(7,637	)			—
Operating income (loss)			12,533				349				73,852				11,067				10,472				108,273
Operating margin			3.1	%																			26.6	%

 

64

		Year Ended March 31, 2018
		GAAP				Share-based compensation				Amortization of other intangibles				Depreciation				Restructuring & Other				Non-GAAP
Cost of revenues		$	96,534			$	(1,720	)		$	(22,957	)		$	(2,451	)		$	—			$	69,406
Gross profit			301,513				1,720				22,957				2,451				—				328,641
Gross margin			75.7	%																			82.6	%
Research and development			58,320				(3,858	)			—				(186	)			—				54,276
Sales and marketing			145,350				(7,536	)			—				(125	)			—				137,689
General and administrative			64,114				(9,180	)			—				(6,021	)			(5,060	)			43,853
Amortization of other intangibles			50,498				—				(50,498	)			—				—				—
Restructuring and other			4,990				—				—				—				(4,990	)			—
Operating (loss) income			(21,759	)			22,294				73,455				8,783				10,050				92,823
Operating margin			(5.5	)%																			23.3	%

 

		Year Ended March 31, 2019
		GAAP				Share-based compensation				Amortization of other intangibles				Depreciation				Restructuring & Other				Non-GAAP
Cost of revenues		$	106,801			$	(5,777	)		$	(25,106	)		$	(2,257	)		$	—			$	73,661
Gross profit			324,165				5,777				25,106				2,257				—				357,305
Gross margin			75.2	%																			82.9	%
Research and development			76,759				(12,566	)			—				(153	)			—				64,040
Sales and marketing			178,886				(24,673	)			—				(129	)			—				154,084
General and administrative			91,778				(28,135	)			—				(4,780	)			(12,543	)			46,320
Amortization of other intangibles			47,686				—				(47,686	)			—				—				—
Restructuring and other			1,763				—				—				—				(1,763	)			—
Operating income (loss)			(72,707	)			71,151				72,792				7,319				14,306				92,861
Operating margin			(16.9	)%																			21.5	%

Adjusted EBITDA

We believe that adjusted EBITDA is a measure widely used by securities analysts and investors to evaluate the financial performance of our company and other companies. We also believe that adjusted EBITDA is an important measure for evaluating our performance because it facilitates comparisons of our core operating results from period to period by removing the impact of our capital structure (net interest income or expense from our outstanding debt), asset base (depreciation and amortization), tax consequences, restructuring and other gains and losses, transaction and sponsor related costs, gains and losses on foreign currency and stock-based compensation. In addition, we base certain of our forward-looking estimates and budgets on adjusted EBITDA.

 

65

The following table reflects the reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss) calculated in accordance with GAAP:

 

		Year Ended March 31,
		2017				2018				2019
		(in thousands)
Net income (loss)		$	796			$	9,222			$	(116,194	)
Income tax benefit			(17,189	)			(60,997	)			(23,717	)
Interest expense, net			25,481				35,220				69,845
Amortization			73,852				73,455				72,792
Depreciation			11,067				8,783				7,319
Restructuring and other			7,637				4,990				1,763
Transaction and sponsor related costs			2,835				5,060				12,543
(Gain) loss on currency translation			3,445				(5,204	)			(2,641	)
Share-based compensation			349				22,294				71,151
Adjusted EBITDA		$	108,273			$	92,823			$	92,861

 

66