Dell Technologies (DELL) Risk Factors

We operate in an industry in which there are rapid technological advances in hardware, software, and services offerings. As a result, we face aggressive offering and price competition from both branded and generic competitors. We compete based on our ability to offer to our customers integrated solutions that provide desired features at a competitive price. Our competitors may provide offerings that are less costly, perform better, or include additional features. Further, our offering portfolios may quickly become outdated or our market share may quickly erode. Efforts to balance the mix of products and services to optimize profitability, liquidity, and growth may put pressure on our industry position. As the technology industry continues to expand, there may be new and increased competition in different geographic regions. The generally low barriers to entry into the technology industry increase the potential for challenges from new competitors. Competition also may intensify from an increase in alternatives for mobile and cloud computing solutions. In addition, companies with which we have strategic alliances may become competitors in other product areas, or current competitors may enter into new strategic relationships with new or existing competitors, all of which may further increase competitive pressures.

Many governments, regulators, investors, employees, customers, and other stakeholders are increasingly focused on environmental, social and governance ("ESG") considerations relating to businesses, including climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, human and civil rights, and diversity and inclusion. We make statements about our ESG goals and initiatives through our SEC filings, our annual ESG report, our other non-financial reports, information provided on our website, press statements and other communications. Responding to these ESG considerations and implementation of these goals and initiatives involves risks and uncertainties, requires investments, and depends in part on third-party performance or data that is outside our control. We cannot guarantee that we will achieve our announced ESG goals and initiatives. In addition, some stakeholders may disagree with our goals and initiatives. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to achieve our goals, further our initiatives, adhere to our public statements, comply with federal, state, or international ESG laws and regulations, or meet evolving and varied stakeholder expectations could harm our reputation, adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations, and expose us to liabilities under regulatory proceedings or litigation instituted in the United States or in other countries. We are or soon will be obligated to comply with new climate-related reporting requirements. Sustainability reporting frameworks may require us to provide detailed public disclosures about the greenhouse gas emissions and other climate-related effects our activities produce, the climate-related operating and financial risks we face, and the strategies we pursue to reduce and adapt to the impacts of climate change. We expect to incur substantial costs to prepare these disclosures. If we fail to compile, assess, and report the required information in a timely manner and in accordance with mandatory reporting standards, we could be exposed to fines and other sanctions.

We are involved in various claims, suits, investigations, and legal proceedings that arise from time to time in the ordinary course of business or otherwise. Additional legal claims or regulatory matters affecting us and our subsidiaries may arise in the future and could involve stockholder, consumer, regulatory, compliance, intellectual property, antitrust, tax, and other issues on a global basis. Litigation is inherently unpredictable. Regardless of the merits of a claim, litigation may be both time-consuming and disruptive to our business. We could incur judgments or enter into settlements of claims that could adversely affect our operating results or cash flows in a particular period. Even if we are not named a party to a particular suit, we may be subject to indemnification obligations to the named parties that could subject us to liability for damages or other amounts payable as a result of such judgments or settlements. In addition, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected if any infringement or other intellectual property claim made against us by any third party is successful, or if we fail to develop non-infringing technology or license the proprietary rights on commercially reasonable terms and conditions.

Changes in tax laws could adversely affect our operations and profitability. In recent years, numerous legislative, judicial, and administrative changes have been made to tax laws applicable to us and similar companies. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (the "OECD") is continuing discussions regarding fundamental changes in allocation of profits among tax jurisdictions in which companies do business, as well as the implementation of a global minimum tax, referred to as the "Pillar One" and "Pillar Two" proposals. Many countries, including countries in which we have tax holidays, have enacted or are in the process of enacting laws based on the Pillar Two proposal. Our effective tax rate and cash tax payments could increase in future years as a result of these changes. Portions of our operations are subject to a reduced tax rate or are free of tax under various tax holidays that expire in whole or in part from time to time. Many of these holidays may be extended when certain conditions are met, or may be terminated if certain conditions are not met or as a result of changes in tax legislation. If the tax holidays are not extended, if tax legislation changes, or if we fail to satisfy the conditions of the reduced tax rate, our effective tax rate would be affected. In addition, our overall tax benefit from tax incentives could be adversely affected if the global minimum tax provisions discussed above are adopted in a country in which we benefit from an existing tax incentive. Our effective tax rate also could be impacted if our geographic distribution of earnings changes. In addition, any actions by us to repatriate non-U.S. earnings for which we have not previously provided for U.S. taxes may affect the effective tax rate. We are continually under audit in various tax jurisdictions. We may not be successful in resolving potential tax claims that arise from these audits. A final determination of tax audits or disputes may differ from what is reflected in our historical income tax provisions or benefits and accruals. An unfavorable outcome in certain of these matters could result in a substantial increase in our tax expense. In addition, our provision for income taxes could be adversely affected by changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets.

We must identify and address quality issues associated with our products, software, and services, many of which include third-party components. Although quality testing is performed regularly to detect quality problems and implement required solutions, failure to identify and correct significant product quality issues before the sale of such products to customers could result in lower sales, increased warranty or replacement expenses, and reduced customer confidence, which could harm our operating results.

We are highly dependent on the services of Michael S. Dell, our founder, Chief Executive Officer, and largest stockholder. Further, we rely on key personnel, including other members of our executive leadership team, to support our business and increasingly complex product and services offerings. Our experienced executives are supported by employees in our U.S. and international operations who are highly skilled in product development, manufacturing, sales, and other functions critical to our future growth and profitability. If we lose the services of Mr. Dell or other key personnel, we may not be able to locate suitable or qualified replacements, and we may incur additional expenses to recruit replacements, which could severely disrupt our business and growth. We face intensive competition, both within and outside of our industry, in retaining and hiring individuals with the requisite expertise. As a result of this competition, we may be unable to continue to attract, retain, and motivate suitably qualified individuals at acceptable compensation levels who have the managerial, operational, and technical knowledge and experience to meet our needs. Any failure by us to do so could adversely affect our competitive position and results of operations.

If we or our suppliers are unable to develop or protect desirable technology or technology licenses, we may be prevented from marketing products, may have to market products without desirable features, or may incur substantial costs to redesign products. We also may have to defend or enforce legal actions or pay damages in jurisdictions throughout the world if we are found to have violated patents or other intellectual property rights of other parties. Although our suppliers might be contractually obligated to obtain or protect such licenses and indemnify us against related expenses, those suppliers could be unable to meet their obligations. We invest in research and development and obtain additional intellectual property through acquisitions, but those activities do not guarantee that we will develop or obtain intellectual property necessary for profitable operations. Costs involved in developing and protecting rights in intellectual property may have a negative impact on our business. In addition, our operating costs could increase because of copyright levies or similar fees by rights holders and collection agencies in European and other countries.

We routinely receive, collect, manage, store, transmit, and otherwise process large amounts of proprietary information and confidential data, including personally identifiable and other sensitive information, relating to our operations, products, partners, and customers. We face numerous sophisticated and evolving cyber threats of significant scale, volume, severity, and complexity, including threats specifically designed for or directly targeted at us, making it increasingly difficult to defend against security incidents successfully or to implement adequate preventative measures. Despite our cybersecurity governance and investment in controls and security measures, criminal or other unauthorized threat actors, including nation states and state-sponsored organizations, pose a significant risk of penetrating or bypassing our security defenses, breaching our information technology systems, and misappropriating, breaching, or compromising confidential and proprietary information of our company, our partners, or our customers, causing system disruptions and shutdowns, or introducing ransomware, malware, or vulnerabilities into our products, systems, and networks or those of our customers and partners. We also face a risk that employees, contractors, or other insiders, particularly those with connectivity to our systems, may introduce vulnerabilities into our environments, facilitate a cybersecurity attack, or take actions to misappropriate our intellectual property and proprietary information. Continued work-from-home and flexible work arrangements further increase our risk, as employees and contractors of our company and third-party providers are working remotely and using home networks that may pose an increased risk to our networks, data, and cybersecurity. In addition, our business may be adversely affected by cyber-attacks and data thefts resulting from ongoing wars and geopolitical conflicts. In the past, we have been targeted by criminal and other threat actors that attempted cyber-attacks of our systems and networks. These attacks are common in our industry for companies of our size and can include such malicious techniques as ransomware, network intrusions, exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities, distributed denial of service, man-in-the-middle, phishing, vishing, domain name system spoofing, password spraying and other credential attacks, structural query language injection, and malware. The costs associated with cybersecurity tools and infrastructure and competition for scarce cybersecurity and IT resources have at times limited, and may in the future limit, our ability to efficiently identify, eliminate, or remediate cybersecurity or other security vulnerabilities or problems or enact changes to minimize the attack surface of our network. While our security systems and controls have successfully protected us against, and mitigated the impacts of, many attacks of this nature, we have experienced security incidents that negatively affected our business and expect that we will experience similar incidents in the future. The costs to address cybersecurity risks, both before and after a security incident, could be significant, regardless of whether incidents result from an attack on us directly, on customers we service, or on partners or third-party vendors upon which we rely. Our customers, partners, and third-party vendors continue to experience security incidents of varying severity, including, among others, ransomware attacks, network intrusions, and exploitations of product and software security vulnerabilities. These parties also possess or transmit our proprietary information and confidential data, including personal data, personally identifiable information, and other sensitive information, which may be exfiltrated if they are impacted by a security incident. Targeted cyber-attacks or those that result from a security incident directed at a partner or third-party vendor create a risk of compromise to our internal systems, products, services, and offerings, as well as the systems of our customers, which could result in interruptions, delays, or cessation of service that could disrupt business operations for us and our customers. Our proactive measures and remediation efforts are not always successful or timely. In addition, breaches of our security measures, including through the use and the unapproved dissemination of proprietary information or sensitive or confidential data about us, our customers, partners or other third parties, could impair our intellectual property rights and expose us, our customers, partners, or such other third parties to a risk of loss or misuse of such information or data. Any such incidents could subject us to government investigations and regulatory enforcement actions, litigation, potential liability, and damage to our brand and reputation, or otherwise harm our business and operations. Hardware, software, and applications that we produce or procure from third parties also may contain defects in design or manufacture or other deficiencies, including security vulnerabilities that could interfere with the operation or security of our products, services, and offerings. In the event of a security vulnerability or other flaws in third-party components or software code, we may have to rely on multiple third parties to mitigate vulnerabilities. The mitigation techniques they deploy may be ineffective or result in adverse performance, system instability, or data loss, and may not always be available, or available on a timely basis. Any actual or perceived security vulnerabilities in our products or services, or those of third-party products we sell, could lead to loss of existing or potential customers, and may impede our sales, manufacturing, distribution, outsourcing services, information technology solutions, and other critical functions and offerings. Failure to comply with internal security policies and standards, including secure development lifecycle practices, or to prevent or promptly mitigate security vulnerabilities in our products and offerings may adversely affect our brand and reputation and subject us to government investigations, regulatory enforcement actions, litigation, and potential liability resulting from our inability to fulfill our contractual obligations to our customers and partners. As a global enterprise, we are subject to compliance risks under a significant and increasing number of laws and regulations in the United States, the European Union, China, and numerous other countries relating to cybersecurity, product and software supply chain security, and the collection, use, residency, transfer, and protection of data, including customer data, and other personal, sensitive, confidential, and proprietary information. Such information security, data protection, and privacy laws and regulations continue to evolve and may be interpreted and applied differently in different jurisdictions, making it difficult to determine how they may develop and apply to us. Our execution of transactions and processing and use of customer data, including personal data and personal identifiable information and other data in the conduct of our business, the operation of our products and offerings, and the provision of services to our customers subject us to increased obligations to comply with applicable laws and regulations and may require us to notify regulators, customers, employees, or other third parties of our data processing and data transfer activities, cybersecurity and data protection practices, as well as to provide notification and disclosure of security incidents and data or privacy breaches. We also face the increasing cost of disparate global regulatory compliance obligations and potential enforcement activities and litigation action in the event we experience a significant disruption of our operations or breach, loss, or other compromise of proprietary or confidential information as a result of a cyber-attack or insider activity. While we continue to incur significant expenditures to comply with mandatory privacy, security, data protection and localization requirements imposed by law, regulation, industry standards and contractual obligation, we may fail to comply fully with these requirements. Any such non-compliance could adversely affect our ability to conduct business or sell our products or offerings in a specific jurisdiction or result in fines or penalties that could impact our financial results.

We view our continued investment in AI and generative AI ("GAI") research and development as an opportunity to enhance our solutions, strengthen our competitive advantage, and contribute to the responsible advancement of AI and GAI technology. While we aim to do so in a responsible, legal, and ethical manner, social, ethical, regulatory, and legal issues relating to the use of AI and GAI in our offerings may result in reputational harm or liability, and may cause us to incur additional research, development, and compliance costs. As with many innovations, AI and GAI present risks that could affect their adoption and contribution to our business. If we enable or offer solutions that draw controversy due to their perceived or actual impact on society, we may experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, or legal liability. Potential government regulation related to AI and GAI use and ethics also may increase the burden and cost of research and development and delay implementation of these technologies.