Stocks
ETFs
Options
Commodities
Crypto
Currency
Pro Newsletters
Research Tools
Daily Feeds
Calendars
Economic Indicators
Class Actions
Calculators
Education
About Us
Working with TipRanks
Follow Us
GoodRx Holdings (GDRX)
NASDAQ:GDRX
Risk Overview Q4, 2023
Risk Distribution
33% Finance & Corporate
27% Tech & Innovation
17% Ability to Sell
14% Legal & Regulatory
4% Production
4% Macro & Political
Finance & Corporate - Financial and accounting risks. Risks related to the execution of corporate activity and strategy
This chart displays the stock's most recent risk distribution according to category. TipRanks has identified 6 major categories: Finance & corporate, legal & regulatory, macro & political, production, tech & innovation, and ability to sell.
Risk Change Over Time
S&P500 Average
Sector Average
Risks removed
Risks added
Risks changed
GoodRx Holdings Risk Factors
New Risk (0)
Risk Changed (0)
Risk Removed (0)
No changes from previous report
The chart shows the number of risks a company has disclosed. You can compare this to the sector average or S&P 500 average.
The quarters shown in the chart are according to the calendar year (January to December). Businesses set their own financial calendar, known as a fiscal year. For example, Walmart ends their financial year at the end of January to accommodate the holiday season.
The quarters shown in the chart are according to the calendar year (January to December). Businesses set their own financial calendar, known as a fiscal year. For example, Walmart ends their financial year at the end of January to accommodate the holiday season.
Risk Highlights Q4, 2023
Main Risk Category
Finance & Corporate
With 23 Risks
Finance & Corporate
With 23 Risks
Number of Disclosed Risks
70
No changes from last report
S&P 500 Average: 31
70
No changes from last report
S&P 500 Average: 31
Recent Changes
4Risks added
4Risks removed
8Risks changed
Since Dec 2023
4Risks added
4Risks removed
8Risks changed
Since Dec 2023
Number of Risk Changed
8
+2
From last reportS&P 500 Average: 1
8
+2
From last reportS&P 500 Average: 1
See the risk highlights of GoodRx Holdings in the last period.
Risk Word Cloud
The most common phrases about risk factors from the most recent report. Larger texts indicate more widely used phrases.
Risk Factors Full Breakdown - Total Risks 70
Finance & Corporate
Total Risks: 23/70 (33%)Above Sector Average
Share Price & Shareholder Rights8 | 11.4%
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 1
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the sole and exclusive forum for certain stockholder litigation matters and the federal district courts of the United States is the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, which could limit our stockholders' ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, employees or stockholders.Changed
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 2
Our capital structure may adversely affect the trading market for our Class A common stock.Changed
We cannot predict whether our dual class or controlled company structure will result in a lower or more volatile market price of our Class A common stock or in adverse publicity or other adverse consequences. For example, FTSE Russell requires new constituents of its indices to have greater than 5% of the company's voting rights in the hands of public stockholders. In addition, certain index providers previously imposed restrictions on including companies with dual class or multi-class share structures in certain of their indexes and such restrictions could be reimposed in the future. As a result, our dual class capital structure makes us ineligible for inclusion in certain indices, and mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and other investment vehicles that attempt to passively track these indices may not invest in our stock. It is possible that such policies may depress our valuation compared to those of other similar companies that are included. These policies could make our Class A common stock less attractive to investors and, as a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 3
The parties to our stockholders agreement, who hold a significant portion of our Class B common stock, control the direction of our business and such parties' ownership of our common stock prevents you and other stockholders from influencing significant decisions.As of December 31, 2023, the holders of our Class B common stock, including the parties to our stockholders agreement, who also hold a significant portion of our Class B common stock, own approximately 97.0% of the combined voting power of our Class A and Class B common stock, with each share of Class A common stock entitling the holder to one vote and each share of Class B common stock entitling the holder to 10 votes, until the earlier of, (i) the first date on which the aggregate number of outstanding shares of our Class B common stock ceases to represent at least 10% of the aggregate number of our outstanding shares of common stock and (ii) September 25, 2027, on all matters submitted to a vote of our stockholders. Moreover, the parties to our stockholders agreement, who also hold Class A and Class B common stock, own 95.6% of the combined voting power of our Class A and Class B common stock as of December 31, 2023. In addition, we have agreed to nominate to our Board individuals designated by Silver Lake, Francisco Partners, Spectrum and Idea Men, LLC in accordance with our stockholders agreement. Silver Lake, Francisco Partners, Spectrum and Idea Men, LLC each retain the right to designate directors for so long as they beneficially own at least 5% of the aggregate number of shares of common stock outstanding. Even when the parties to our stockholders agreement cease to own shares of our stock representing a majority of the total voting power, for so long as the parties to our stockholders agreement continue to own a significant percentage of our stock, particularly our Class B common stock, they will still be able to significantly influence or effectively control the composition of our Board and the approval of actions requiring stockholder approval through their voting power. Accordingly, for such period of time, the parties to our stockholders agreement will have significant influence with respect to our management, business plans and policies. In particular, for so long as the parties to our stockholders agreement continue to own a significant percentage of our stock, particularly our Class B common stock, the parties to our stockholders agreement may be able to cause or prevent a change of control of our company or a change in the composition of our Board, and could preclude any unsolicited acquisition of our company. The concentration of ownership could deprive investors of an opportunity to receive a premium for their shares of Class A common stock as part of a sale of our company and ultimately might affect the market price of our Class A common stock.
Further, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the doctrine of "corporate opportunity" will not apply with respect to the parties to our stockholders agreement or their affiliates (other than us and our subsidiaries), and any of their respective principals, members, directors, partners, stockholders, officers, employees or other representatives (other than any such person who is also our employee or an employee of our subsidiaries), or any director or stockholder who is not employed by us or our subsidiaries.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 4
Substantial future sales by the parties to our stockholders agreement or other holders of our common stock, or the perception that such sales may occur, could depress the price of our Class A common stock.As of December 31, 2023, the parties to our stockholders agreement collectively own 76.3% of our outstanding shares of common stock. Subject to the restrictions described in the paragraph below, future sales of these shares are subject to the volume and other restrictions of Rule 144 under the Securities Act for so long as such parties are deemed to be our affiliates, unless the shares to be sold are registered with the SEC. These stockholders are entitled to rights with respect to the registration of their shares. We are unable to predict with certainty whether or when such parties will sell a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock. The sale by the parties to our stockholders agreement of a substantial number of shares, or a perception that such sales could occur, could significantly reduce the market price of our Class A common stock.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 5
We are a "controlled company" under the corporate governance rules of The Nasdaq Stock Market and, as a result, qualify for, and intend to rely on, exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements. You will not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to such requirements.As of December 31, 2023, certain affiliates of Silver Lake, Francisco Partners, Spectrum and Idea Men, LLC own approximately 95.6% of the combined voting power of our Class A and Class B common stock and are parties, among others, to a stockholders agreement. As a result, we are a "controlled company" within the meaning of the corporate governance standards of The Nasdaq Stock Market rules. Under these rules, a listed company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a "controlled company" and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements, including:
- the requirement that a majority of its board of directors consist of independent directors;- the requirement that its director nominations be made, or recommended to the full board of directors, by its independent directors or by a nominations committee that is comprised entirely of independent directors and that it adopt a written charter or board resolution addressing the nominations process; and - the requirement that it have a compensation committee that is composed entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee's purpose and responsibilities.
We do not intend to rely on all of these exemptions. However, as long as we remain a "controlled company," we may elect in the future to take advantage of any of these exemptions. As a result of any such election, our Board would not have a majority of independent directors, our compensation committee would not consist entirely of independent directors and our directors would not be nominated or selected by independent directors, as applicable. Accordingly, investors do not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements of The Nasdaq Stock Market rules.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 6
Delaware law and provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws could make a merger, tender offer or proxy contest more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management and limit the market price of our Class A common stock.Certain provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult, including the following:
- amendments to certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation or amendments to our amended and restated bylaws generally require the approval of at least 66 2/3% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock;- our dual class common stock structure, which provides certain affiliates of Silver Lake, Francisco Partners, Spectrum, Idea Men, LLC and our Co-Founders, individually or together, with the ability to significantly influence the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, even if they own significantly less than a majority of the shares of our outstanding Class A common stock and Class B common stock;- our staggered Board;- at any time when the holders of our Class B common stock no longer beneficially own, in the aggregate, at least the majority of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock, our stockholders will only be able to take action at a meeting of stockholders and will not be able to take action by written consent for any matter;- our amended and restated certificate of incorporation does not provide for cumulative voting;- vacancies on our Board are able to be filled only by our Board and not by stockholders, subject to the rights granted pursuant to the stockholders agreement;- a special meeting of our stockholders may only be called by the chairperson of our Board, our Chief Executive Officer or a majority of our Board;- restrict the forum for certain litigation against us to Delaware or the federal courts, as applicable;- our amended and restated certificate of incorporation authorizes undesignated preferred stock, the terms of which may be established and shares of which may be issued without further action by our stockholders; and - advance notice procedures apply for stockholders (other than the parties to our stockholders agreement) to nominate candidates for election as directors or to bring matters before an annual meeting of stockholders.
In addition, we have opted out of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, but our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that engaging in any of a broad range of business combinations with any "interested stockholder" (any entity or person who, together with that entity's or person's affiliates and associates, owns or within the previous three years owned, 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock) for a period of three years following the date on which the stockholder became an "interested stockholder" is prohibited, provided, however, that, under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, the parties to our stockholders agreement and any of their respective affiliates are not deemed to be interested stockholders regardless of the percentage of our outstanding voting stock owned by them, and accordingly are not subject to such restrictions.
These provisions, alone or together, could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of our company. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for stockholders to elect directors of their choosing and to cause us to take other corporate actions they desire, any of which, under certain circumstances, could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our Class A common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Class A common stock.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 7
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the doctrine of "corporate opportunity" does not apply with respect to certain parties to our stockholders agreement and any director or stockholder who is not employed by us or our subsidiaries.The doctrine of corporate opportunity generally provides that a corporate fiduciary may not develop an opportunity using corporate resources, acquire an interest adverse to that of the corporation or acquire property that is reasonably incident to the present or prospective business of the corporation or in which the corporation has a present or expectancy interest, unless that opportunity is first presented to the corporation and the corporation chooses not to pursue that opportunity. The doctrine of corporate opportunity is intended to preclude officers or directors or other fiduciaries from personally benefiting from opportunities that belong to the corporation. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, provides that the doctrine of "corporate opportunity" does not apply with respect to the parties to our stockholders agreement or their affiliates (other than us and our subsidiaries), and any of their respective principals, members, directors, partners, stockholders, officers, employees or other representatives (other than any such person who is also our employee or an employee of our subsidiaries), or any director or stockholder who is not employed by us or our subsidiaries. SLP Geology Aggregator, L.P., Francisco Partners IV, L.P., Francisco Partners IV-A, L.P., Spectrum Equity VII, L.P., Spectrum VII Investment Managers' Fund, L.P., Spectrum VII Co-Investment Fund, L.P. and Idea Men, LLC or their affiliates and any director or stockholder who is not employed by us or our subsidiaries, therefore, have no duty to communicate or present corporate opportunities to us, and have the right to either hold any corporate opportunity for their (and their affiliates') own account and benefit or to recommend, assign or otherwise transfer such corporate opportunity to persons other than us, including to any director or stockholder who is not employed by us or our subsidiaries. As a result, certain of our stockholders, directors and their respective affiliates are not prohibited from operating or investing in competing businesses. We, therefore, may find ourselves in competition with certain of our stockholders, directors or their respective affiliates, and we may not have knowledge of, or be able to pursue, transactions that could potentially be beneficial to us. Accordingly, we may lose a corporate opportunity or suffer competitive harm, which could negatively impact our business, operating results and financial condition.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 8
Our stock price may be volatile or may decline regardless of our operating performance, resulting in substantial losses for investors.The market price of our Class A common stock may fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:
- actual or anticipated fluctuations in our financial conditions and results of operations;- the financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in these projections or our failure to meet these projections;- failure of securities analysts to initiate or maintain coverage of our company, changes in financial estimates or ratings by any securities analysts who follow our company or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;- announcements by us or our competitors of significant technical innovations, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, results of operations or capital commitments;- changes in stock market valuations and operating performance of other healthcare and technology companies generally, or those in our industry in particular;- price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market, including as a result of trends in the economy as a whole;- changes in our Board or management;- sales of large blocks of our Class A common stock, including sales by certain affiliates of Silver Lake, Francisco Partners, Spectrum, Idea Men, LLC, our Co-Founders or our executive officers and directors;- lawsuits threatened or filed against us;- anticipated or actual changes in laws, regulations or government policies applicable to our business;- changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances of debt or equity securities;- short sales, hedging and other derivative transactions involving our capital stock;- general economic conditions in the United States;- other events or factors, including those resulting from war, pandemics (such as COVID-19), incidents of terrorism or responses to these events; and - the other factors described in this Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors."
The stock market has recently experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations. The market prices of securities of companies have experienced fluctuations that often have been unrelated or disproportionate to their results of operations. Market fluctuations could result in extreme volatility in the price of shares of our Class A common stock, which could cause a decline in the value of your investment. Price volatility may be greater if the public float and trading volume of shares of our Class A common stock is low. Furthermore, in the past, stockholders have sometimes instituted securities class action litigation against companies following periods of volatility in the market price of their securities. Any similar litigation against us could result in substantial costs, divert management's attention and resources, and harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Accounting & Financial Operations8 | 11.4%
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 1
We may be unable to accurately forecast revenue and appropriately plan our expenses in the future.Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 2
We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.We currently intend to retain any future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business and we do not expect to declare or pay any dividends in the foreseeable future. Moreover, the terms of our existing debt agreements restrict our ability to pay dividends, and any additional debt we may incur in the future may include similar restrictions. In addition, Delaware law may impose requirements that may restrict our ability to pay dividends to holders of our common stock. As a result, stockholders must rely on sales of their Class A common stock after price appreciation as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 3
Our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.Under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the "Code") if a corporation undergoes an "ownership change" (generally defined as a change (by value) in its equity ownership by more than 50 percentage points over a rolling three-year period), the corporation's ability to use its pre-change net operating loss ("NOL") carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes to offset its post-change income may be limited. As of December 31, 2022, we completed a study to assess whether an ownership change under Section 382 of the Code had occurred, or whether there had been multiple ownership changes since our formation. We determined that a Section 382 ownership change occurred in 2018, but we also determined that this ownership change did not materially impact our ability to utilize our NOL carryforwards and certain other tax attributes generated that year. We may have experienced additional ownership changes since December 31, 2022, and we may also experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership. If finalized, Treasury Regulations currently proposed under Section 382 of the Code may further limit our ability to utilize our pre-change NOLs or credits if we undergo a future ownership change. Further, U.S. tax laws limit the time during which NOL carryforwards generated before January 1, 2018 may be applied against future taxes. While NOL carryforwards generated on or after January 1, 2018 are not subject to expiration, the deductibility of such NOL carryforwards is limited to 80% of our taxable income for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2021. For these reasons, our ability to utilize NOL carryforwards and other tax attributes to reduce future tax liabilities may be limited.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 4
Our estimated addressable market is subject to inherent challenges and uncertainties. If we overestimate the size of our addressable market or the various markets in which we operate, our future growth opportunities may be limited.Our TAM is based on internal estimates and third-party estimates regarding the size of each of the U.S. prescriptions market and pharma manufacturer solutions market, and is subject to significant uncertainty and is based on assumptions that may not prove to be accurate. In particular, we calculated the TAM for our prescription opportunity based on data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regarding the expected size of U.S. prescription expenditures in 2023, plus our estimated value of prescriptions that are written but not filled, which we estimate to range between 20% to 30% of the overall prescription opportunity. These estimates are based on third-party reports and are subject to significant assumptions and estimates. Additionally, we calculated the TAM for our pharma manufacturer solutions opportunity based on recent internal data regarding the amount of advertising and marketing spending by U.S. pharma manufacturers relating to prescription drugs in 2022. We believe this $19 billion estimate is more relevant than the TAM previously calculated using data published in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association of $30 billion due to the latter including sub-segments of spending by U.S. pharma manufacturers, such as the provision of sample medications, that we believe are less relevant given our increasing focus on promoting awareness and access solutions for pharma manufacturers, and on communications with patients and healthcare providers using our platform on pharma manufacturers' behalf. These estimates, as well as the estimates and forecasts elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K relating to the size and expected growth of the markets in which we operate, may change or prove to be inaccurate. While we believe the information on which we base our TAM is generally reliable, such information is inherently imprecise. In addition, our expectations, assumptions and estimates of future opportunities are necessarily subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described herein. If third-party or internally generated data prove to be inaccurate or we make errors in our assumptions based on that data, our future growth opportunities may be affected. Additionally, our TAM for our prescription transactions offering includes medications for which we are currently not able to offer savings on the prices paid by non-insured and insured consumers and for which we may not be able to provide savings on in the future. If our TAM, or the size of any of the various markets in which we operate, proves to be inaccurate, our future growth opportunities may be limited and there could be a material adverse effect on our prospects, business, financial condition and results of operations.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 5
We are obligated to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and any failure to maintain effective internal controls may cause us to not be able to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our Class A common stock.As a public company, we are required, pursuant to Section 404 of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Section 404, to furnish a report by management on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. This assessment includes disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. We are also required to comply with, among other requirements, the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404.
Our compliance with Section 404 requires that we incur substantial costs and expend significant management efforts. We have engaged outside consultants who function in the capacity of an internal audit group, and we plan to continue to hire additional consultants, accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge as needed to maintain the system and process documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404.
We have had material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting in the past, and we cannot assure you that there will not be material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting in the future. Any failure to maintain internal control over financial reporting could severely inhibit our ability to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations. If we are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm determines that we have a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations, which could cause investors to lose confidence in our company, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy future material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 6
Our revenue growth rate has declined in recent periods and may continue to decrease in the future.Added
Our rates of revenue growth have slowed and our revenue declined for the year ended December 31, 2023 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2022. We believe that our ability to improve or maintain revenue and margins and obtain profitability, will depend upon, among other factors, our ability to address the challenges, risks and difficulties described elsewhere in this Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" and the extent to which our various offerings grow, organically and through acquisitions, and contribute to our results of operations. We cannot provide assurance that we will be able to successfully manage any such challenges or risks to our future growth. In addition, our base of consumers may not continue to grow or may decline due to a variety of risks, including increased competition, changes in the dynamics among industry participants and us, changes in the regulatory landscape and the maturation of our business. Any of these factors could cause our revenue growth to decline and may adversely affect our margins and profitability. Failure to grow our revenue or improve margins would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. You should not rely on our historical rate of revenue growth for any prior quarterly or annual period as an indication of our future performance.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 7
Our limited operating history and our evolving business make it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and the risks and challenges we may encounter.Our limited operating history and evolving business make it difficult to evaluate and assess the success of our business to date, our future prospects and the risks and challenges that we may encounter. These risks and challenges include our ability to:
- continue to attract new consumers to our platform and position our platform as an important way to make purchasing decisions for prescription medications and other healthcare products and services;- retain our consumers and encourage them to continue to utilize our platform when purchasing healthcare products and services;- attract new and existing consumers to rapidly adopt new offerings on our platform;- increase the number of consumers that use our subscription offerings or the number of subscription programs that we manage;- increase and retain our consumers that subscribe to our subscription offerings, such as Gold;- attract and retain industry players for inclusion in our platform, including pharmacies, PBMs, pharma manufacturers and telehealth providers;- comply with existing and new or amended laws and regulations applicable to our business and in our industry;- anticipate and respond to macroeconomic changes, changes in medication pricing and industry pricing benchmarks and changes in market dynamics in the markets in which we operate, including any impacts of the current economic slowdown;- react to challenges from existing and new competitors;- maintain and enhance the value of our reputation and brand;- effectively manage our growth;- to realize expected benefits from restructuring and cost reduction efforts;- hire, integrate and retain talented people at all levels of our organization;- maintain and improve the infrastructure underlying our platform, including our apps and websites, including with respect to data protection and cybersecurity; and - successfully update our platform, including expanding our platform and offerings into different healthcare products and services, develop and update our apps, features, offerings and services to benefit our consumers and enhance the consumer experience.
If we fail to address the risks and difficulties that we face, including those associated with the challenges listed above and those described elsewhere in this Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors," our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Further, because we have limited historical financial data and our business continues to evolve and expand within the U.S. healthcare industry, any predictions about our future revenue and expenses may not be as accurate as they would be if we had a longer operating history, operated a more predictable business or operated in a less regulated industry. We have encountered in the past, and will encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies with limited operating histories and evolving businesses that operate in highly regulated and competitive industries. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan and operate our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our results of operations could differ materially from our expectations and our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 8
Our results of operations vary and may fluctuate significantly from period-to-period.Our quarterly and annual results of operations have historically varied from period-to-period and we expect that our results of operations will continue to do so for a variety of reasons, many of which are outside of our control and are difficult to predict. We have presented many of the factors that may cause our results of operations to fluctuate in this Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors," including the extent to which our various offerings grow and contribute to our results of operations. In addition, we typically experience stronger consumer demand during the first and fourth quarters of each year, which coincide with generally higher consumer healthcare spending, doctor office visits, annual benefit enrollment season and seasonal cold and flu trends. We may experience stronger demand for our pharma manufacturer solutions offering during the fourth quarter of each year, which coincides with pharma manufacturers' annual budgetary spending patterns. Additionally, a majority of our pharma manufacturer solutions revenue in any given quarter is derived from contracts entered into with our customers during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed contracts in any one quarter may not be fully reflected in our revenue for that quarter. The grocer issue and the ongoing impact of COVID-19 may have masked some of these trends in recent periods and may continue to impact these trends in the future. The cumulative effects of such factors could result in large fluctuations and unpredictability in our quarterly and annual results of operations. As a result, comparing our results of operations on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful and investors should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance.
This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet the expectations of industry or financial analysts or investors for any period. If our revenue or results of operations fall below the expectations of analysts or investors or below any guidance we may provide, or if the guidance we provide is below the expectations of analysts or investors, the price of our Class A common stock could decline substantially. Such a stock price decline could occur even when we have met any previously publicly stated guidance we may provide.
Debt & Financing3 | 4.3%
Debt & Financing - Risk 1
Restrictions in our debt arrangements could adversely affect our operating flexibility, and failure to comply with any of these restrictions could result in acceleration of our debt.Debt & Financing - Risk 2
We are a holding company and depend on our subsidiaries for cash to fund operations and expenses, including future dividend payments, if any.We are a holding company that does not conduct any business operations of our own. As a result, we are largely dependent upon cash distributions and other transfers from our subsidiaries to meet our obligations and to make future dividend payments, if any. We do not currently expect to declare or pay dividends on our common stock for the foreseeable future; however, the agreements governing the indebtedness of our subsidiaries impose restrictions on our subsidiaries' ability to pay dividends or other distributions to us. The deterioration of the earnings from, or other available assets of, our subsidiaries for any reason could impair their ability to make distributions to us.
Debt & Financing - Risk 3
We may need additional capital in the future, which may not be available to us on favorable terms, or at all, and may dilute your ownership of our Class A common stock.We intend to continue to make investments to support our business growth and may require additional capital to fund and support our business, to respond to competitive challenges or take advantage of strategic opportunities. Accordingly, we may require additional capital from equity or debt financing in the future and may not be able to secure timely additional financing on favorable terms, or at all. The terms of any additional financing may place limits on our financial and operating flexibility, including our ability to issue or repurchase equity, develop new or enhanced existing offerings, complete acquisitions or otherwise take advantage of business opportunities. If we raise additional funds or finance acquisitions through further issuances of equity, convertible debt securities or other securities convertible into equity, you and our other stockholders could suffer significant dilution in your percentage ownership of our company, and any new securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of holders of our Class A common stock. If we raise additional funds through debt financing, such financing could impose restrictive covenants relating to our capital-raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital or to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us, if and when we require it, including as a result of the disruption to the capital and debt markets caused by COVID-19 or a pandemic of a similar infectious disease, our ability to grow or support our business and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited.
Corporate Activity and Growth4 | 5.7%
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 1
We may seek to grow our business through acquisitions of, or investments in, new or complementary businesses, technologies or products, or through strategic alliances, and the failure to manage these acquisitions, investments or alliances, or to integrate them with our existing business, could have a material adverse effect on us.Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 2
We may be unable to manage our future growth effectively, which could make it difficult to execute our business strategy.In the past, we experienced rapid growth in our business operations and the number of consumers that use our offerings, and we may experience such growth in the future. This historical growth placed, and may in the future place, significant demands on our management and our operational and financial infrastructure. Our ability to manage our future growth effectively and to integrate new employees, technologies and acquisitions into our existing business may require us to expand our operational and financial infrastructure and to continue to retain, attract, train, motivate and manage employees. Management of growth is particularly difficult when employees work from home as a result of our hybrid/remote workplace. Growth could strain our ability to develop and improve our operational, financial and management controls, enhance our reporting systems and procedures, recruit, train and retain highly skilled personnel and maintain consumer satisfaction. Additionally, if we do not effectively manage the growth of our business and operations, the quality of our platform and offerings could suffer, which could negatively affect our reputation and brand, business, financial condition and results of operations.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 3
We may be unable to realize expected benefits from our restructuring and cost reduction efforts and our business might be adversely affected.Added
In order to operate more efficiently and control costs, from time to time, we announce restructuring plans and other cost savings initiatives, which include workforce reductions as well as re-balancing of products and services to align with our business strategy. These plans are intended to generate, among other things, operating expense savings and improved margins and profitability. For example, in August 2022, we implemented a reduction in force affecting employees of our wholly-owned subsidiary GoodRx, Inc.'s workforce in order to consolidate functions and eliminate or reduce investment in areas of lower focus. Additionally, in late 2023, we de-prioritized certain solutions under our pharma manufacturer solutions offering, which included (i) a reduction in force involving employees of our wholly-owned subsidiaries GoodRx, Inc. and vitaCare; (ii) the entry into retention agreements with certain other employees for the purpose of maintaining business continuity; and (iii) the restructuring or termination of certain solutions and arrangements with our clients to better align with our strategic goals and future scale.
We may undertake further restructuring actions or workforce reductions in the future. These types of restructuring and cost reduction activities are complex and may result in unintended consequences and costs, such as unforeseen delays in the implementation of our strategic initiatives, business and operational disruptions, decreased employee morale, loss of institutional knowledge and expertise, and potential impacts on financial reporting and the related internal controls. In addition, while positions have been eliminated, certain functions necessary to our operations remain, and we may be unsuccessful in distributing the duties and obligations of departed employees among our remaining employees. Any reduction in workforce could also make it difficult for us to pursue, or prevent us from pursuing, new opportunities and initiatives due to insufficient personnel, or require us to incur additional and unanticipated costs to hire new personnel to pursue such opportunities or initiatives. If we do not successfully manage our current initiatives and restructuring activities or any other similar activities that we may undertake in the future, expected efficiencies and benefits might be delayed or not realized, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 4
We calculate certain operational metrics using internal systems and tools and do not independently verify such metrics. Certain metrics are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.We publicly disclose, including in our SEC filings, certain operational metrics, such as Monthly Active Consumers, Monthly Visitors, subscribers, subscription plans, savings and other metrics. We calculate these metrics using internal systems and tools that are not independently verified by any third party. These metrics may differ from estimates or similar metrics published by third parties or other companies due to differences in sources, methodologies or the assumptions on which we rely. Our internal systems and tools have a number of limitations, and our methodologies for tracking these metrics have evolved and may continue to change over time, which could result in unexpected changes to our metrics, including the metrics we publicly disclose on an ongoing basis. If the internal systems and tools we use to track these metrics undercount or overcount performance or contain algorithmic or other technical errors, the data we present may not be accurate. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our metrics for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring savings, the use of our platform and offerings and other metrics. For example, we believe that there are consumers who access our offerings through multiple accounts or channels, and that there are groups of consumers, such as families, who access our offerings through single accounts or channels, both of which impact our number of Monthly Visitors, as each channel is counted independently. In addition, limitations or errors with respect to how we measure data or with respect to the data that we measure may affect our understanding of certain details of our business, which would affect our long-term strategies. If our operating metrics or our estimates are not accurate representations of our business, or if investors do not perceive our operating metrics to be accurate, or if we discover material inaccuracies with respect to these figures, our reputation may be significantly harmed, and our operating and financial results could be adversely affected.
Tech & Innovation
Total Risks: 19/70 (27%)Above Sector Average
Innovation / R&D2 | 2.9%
Innovation / R&D - Risk 1
The increasing focus on ESG initiatives could increase our costs, harm our reputation and adversely impact our financial results.Changed
Innovation / R&D - Risk 2
We may be unsuccessful in achieving broad market education and changing consumer purchasing habits.Our success and future growth largely depend on our ability to increase consumer awareness of our platform and offerings, and on the willingness of consumers to utilize our platform to access information, discounted prices for prescription medications and other healthcare products and services, including telehealth services. We believe the vast majority of consumers make purchasing decisions for healthcare products and services on the basis of traditional factors, such as insurance coverage, availability at nearby pharmacies and availability of nearby medical testing. This traditional decision-making process does not always account for restrictive and complex insurance plans, high deductibles, expensive co-pays and other factors, such as discounts or savings available at alternative pharmacies or practices. To effectively market our platform, we must educate consumers about the various purchase options and the benefits of using GoodRx codes when purchasing prescription medications and other healthcare products and services. We focus our marketing and education efforts on consumers, but also aim to educate and inform healthcare providers, pharmacists and other participants that interact with consumers, including at the point of purchase. However, we cannot assure you that we will be successful in changing consumer purchasing habits or that we will achieve broad market education or awareness among consumers. Even if we are able to raise awareness among consumers, they may be slow in changing their habits and may be hesitant to use our platform for a variety of reasons, including:
- lack of experience with our company and platform, and concerns that we are relatively new to the industry;- perceived health, safety or quality risks associated with the use of a new platform and applications to shop for discounted prices for prescription medications;- lack of awareness that there is a disparity of pricing for prescription medicines and other medical products and services;- perception that our platform does not provide adequate discounted prices or only offers savings for a limited selection of prescription medications;- perception that discounted prices offered through our platform are less competitive than insurance coverage;- perception regarding acceptance rates of pharmacies for our GoodRx codes available through our platform, such as what occurred in connection with the grocer issue;- traditional or existing relationships with pharmacies, pharmacists or other providers that sell healthcare products and services;- concerns about the privacy and security of the data that consumers share with or through our platform, such as in relation to our FTC Order to resolve all claims and allegations arising out of or relating to the FTC's investigation into our privacy and security practices;- competition and negative selling efforts from competitors, including competing platforms and price matching programs; and - perception regarding the time and complexity of using our platform or using and applying our GoodRx codes available through our platform at the point of purchase.
If we fail to achieve broad market education of our platform and/or the options for purchasing healthcare products and services, or if we are unsuccessful in changing consumer purchasing habits, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.
Trade Secrets11 | 15.7%
Trade Secrets - Risk 1
We may be unable to establish, maintain, protect and enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights or prevent third parties from making unauthorized use of our technology.Trade Secrets - Risk 2
We may be sued by third parties for infringement, misappropriation, dilution or other violation of their intellectual property or proprietary rights.Internet, advertising and e-commerce companies frequently are subject to litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation, dilution or other violations of intellectual property rights. Some internet, advertising and e-commerce companies, including some of our competitors, as well as non-practicing entities, own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, which they may use to assert claims against us.
Third parties have asserted, and may in the future assert, that we have infringed, misappropriated or otherwise violated their intellectual property rights.
For instance, the use of our technology to provide our offerings could be challenged by claims that such use infringes, dilutes, misappropriates or otherwise violates the intellectual property rights of a third party. In addition, we may in the future be exposed to claims that content published or made available through our apps or websites violates third-party intellectual property rights.
As we face increasing competition and as a public company, the possibility of intellectual property rights claims against us grows. Such claims and litigation may involve patent holding companies or other adverse intellectual property rights holders who have no relevant product revenue, and therefore our own pending patents and other intellectual property rights may provide little or no deterrence to these rights holders in bringing intellectual property rights claims against us. There may be intellectual property rights held by others, including issued or pending patents and trademarks, that cover significant aspects of our technologies, content, branding or business methods, and we cannot assure that we are not infringing or violating, and have not violated or infringed, any third-party intellectual property rights or that we will not be held to have done so or be accused of doing so in the future. We expect that we may receive in the future notices that claim we or our partners, or clients using our solutions and services, have misappropriated or misused other parties' intellectual property rights, particularly as the number of competitors in our market grows and the functionality of applications amongst competitors overlaps.
Any claim that we have violated intellectual property or other proprietary rights of third parties, with or without merit, and whether or not it results in litigation, is settled out of court or is determined in our favor, could be time-consuming and costly to address and resolve, and could divert the time and attention of management and technical personnel from our business. Furthermore, an adverse outcome of a dispute may result in an injunction and could require us to pay substantial monetary damages, including treble damages and attorneys' fees, if we are found to have willfully infringed a party's intellectual property rights. Any settlement or adverse judgment resulting from such a claim could require us to enter into a licensing agreement to continue using the technology, content or other intellectual property that is the subject of the claim; restrict or prohibit our use of such technology, content or other intellectual property; require us to expend significant resources to redesign our technology or solutions; and require us to indemnify third parties. Royalty or licensing agreements, if required or desirable, may be unavailable on terms acceptable to us, or at all, and may require significant royalty payments and other expenditures. We may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology, which could require significant time and expense. There also can be no assurance that we would be able to develop or license suitable alternative technology, content or other intellectual property to permit us to continue offering the affected technology, content or services to our partners. If we cannot develop or license technology for any allegedly infringing aspect of our business, we will be forced to limit our service and may be unable to compete effectively. Any of these events could materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Trade Secrets - Risk 3
Failure to maintain, protect or enforce our intellectual property rights could harm our business and results of operations.We pursue the registration of our patentable technology, domain names, trademarks and service marks in the United States. We also strive to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law rights, as well as contractual restrictions. We typically enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and confidentiality agreements with parties with whom we conduct business in order to limit access to, and disclosure and use of, our proprietary information. However, we may not be successful in executing these agreements with every party who has access to our confidential information or contributes to the development of our technology or intellectual property rights. Those agreements that we do execute may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any such breach. These contractual arrangements and the other steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property rights may not prevent the misappropriation or disclosure of our proprietary information nor deter independent development of similar technology or intellectual property by others.
Effective trade secret, patent, copyright, trademark and domain name protection is expensive to obtain, develop and maintain, both in terms of initial and ongoing registration or prosecution requirements and expenses and the costs of defending our rights. We may, over time, increase our investment in protecting our intellectual property through additional patent filings that could be expensive and time-consuming. We do not know whether any of our pending patent applications will result in the issuance of additional patents or whether the examination process will require us to narrow our claims or we may otherwise be unable to obtain patent protection for the technology covered in our pending patent applications. Our patents, trademarks and other intellectual property rights may be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation. Moreover, any issued patents may not provide us with a competitive advantage and, as with any technology, competitors may be able to develop similar or superior technologies to our own, now or in the future. In addition, due to a recent U.S. Supreme Court case, it has become increasingly difficult to obtain and assert patents relating to software or business methods, as many such patents have been invalidated for being too abstract to constitute patent-eligible subject matter. We do not know whether this will affect our ability to obtain new patents on our innovations, or successfully assert our patents in litigation or pre-litigation campaigns.
Monitoring unauthorized use of the content on our apps and websites, and our other intellectual property and technology, is difficult and costly. Our efforts to protect our proprietary rights and intellectual property may not have been and may not be adequate to prevent their misappropriation or misuse. Third parties, including our competitors, could be infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating our intellectual property rights. Third parties from time to time copy content or other intellectual property or technology from our solutions without authorization and seek to use it for their own benefit. We generally seek to address such unauthorized copying or use, but we have not always been successful in stopping all unauthorized use of our content or other intellectual property or technology, and may not be successful in doing so in the future. Further, we may not have been and may not be able to detect unauthorized use of our technology or intellectual property, or to take appropriate steps to enforce our intellectual property rights. Any inability to meaningfully enforce our intellectual property rights could harm our ability to compete and reduce demand for our solutions and services. Our competitors may also independently develop similar technology. Effective patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret protection may not be available to us in every jurisdiction in which our solutions or technology are hosted or available. Further, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are uncertain. The laws in the United States and elsewhere change rapidly, and any future changes could adversely affect us and our intellectual property. Our failure to meaningfully protect our intellectual property rights could result in competitors offering solutions that incorporate our most technologically advanced features, which could reduce demand for our solutions.
We may find it necessary or appropriate to initiate claims or litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights, protect our trade secrets or determine the validity and scope of intellectual property rights claimed by others. In any lawsuit we bring to enforce our intellectual property rights, a court may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on grounds that our intellectual property rights do not cover the use or technology in question. Further, in such proceedings, the defendant could counterclaim that our intellectual property is invalid or unenforceable and the court may agree, in which case we could lose valuable intellectual property rights. Litigation is inherently uncertain and any litigation of this nature, regardless of outcome or merit, could result in substantial costs and diversion of management and technical resources, any of which could adversely affect our business and results of operations. If we fail to maintain, protect and enforce our intellectual property, our business and results of operations may be harmed.
Trade Secrets - Risk 4
We may be unable to continue the use of our trademarks, trade names or domain names, or prevent third parties from acquiring and using trademarks, trade names and domain names that infringe on, are similar to, or otherwise decrease the value of our brands, trademarks or service marks.The registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names that we own may be challenged, infringed, circumvented, declared generic, lapsed or determined to be infringing on or dilutive of other marks. We may not be able to protect our rights in these trademarks and trade names, which we need in order to build name recognition with potential consumers and partners. In addition, third parties have filed, and may in the future file, for registration of trademarks similar or identical to our trademarks, which, if obtained, may impede our ability to build brand identity and possibly lead to market confusion. If they succeed in registering or developing common law rights in such trademarks, and if we are not successful in challenging such third-party rights, we may not be able to use these trademarks to develop brand recognition of our technologies, solutions or services. In addition, there could be potential trade name or trademark infringement claims brought by owners of other registered trademarks or trademarks that incorporate variations of our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names. If we are unable to establish or protect our trademarks and trade names, or if we are unable to build name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names, we may not be able to compete effectively, which could harm our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We have registered domain names for our websites that we use in our business. If we lose the ability to use a domain name, whether due to trademark claims, failure to renew the applicable registration, or any other cause, we may be forced to market our solutions under a new domain name, which could cause us substantial harm, or to incur significant expense in order to purchase rights to the domain name in question. In addition, our competitors and others could attempt to capitalize on our brand recognition by using domain names similar to ours. Domain names similar to ours have been registered in the United States and elsewhere. We may be unable to prevent third parties from acquiring and using domain names that infringe on, are similar to, or otherwise decrease the value of our brands, trademarks or service marks. Protecting and enforcing our rights in our domain names may require litigation, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of management's attention.
ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the international authority over top-level domain names, has been increasing the number of generic top-level domains ("TLDs"). This may allow companies or individuals to create new web addresses that appear to the right of the "dot" in a web address, beyond such long-standing TLDs as ".com," ".org" and ".gov." ICANN may also add additional TLDs in the future. As a result, we may be unable to maintain exclusive rights to all potentially relevant or desirable domain names in the United States, which may harm our business. Furthermore, attempts may be made by third parties to register our trademarks as new TLDs or as domain names within new TLDs, and we may be required to enforce our rights against such registration attempts, which could result in significant expense and the diversion of management's attention.
Trade Secrets - Risk 5
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, our business and competitive position would be harmed.We rely heavily on trade secrets and confidentiality agreements to protect our unpatented know-how, technology, and other proprietary information, including our technology platform, and to maintain our competitive position. With respect to our technology platform, we consider trade secrets and know-how to be one of our primary sources of intellectual property. However, trade secrets and know-how can be difficult to protect. We seek to protect these trade secrets and other proprietary technology, in part, by entering into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to them, such as our employees, corporate collaborators, outside contractors, consultants, advisors, and other third parties. We also enter into confidentiality and invention or patent assignment agreements with our employees and consultants. The confidentiality agreements are designed to protect our proprietary information and, in the case of agreements or clauses containing invention assignment, to grant us ownership of technologies that are developed through a relationship with employees or third parties. We cannot guarantee that we have entered into such agreements with each party that may have or have had access to our trade secrets or proprietary information, including our technology and processes. Despite these efforts, no assurance can be given that the confidentiality agreements we enter into will be effective in controlling access to such proprietary information and trade secrets. The confidentiality agreements on which we rely to protect certain technologies may be breached, may not be adequate to protect our confidential information, trade secrets and proprietary technologies and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information, trade secrets or proprietary technology. Further, these agreements do not prevent our competitors or others from independently developing the same or similar technologies and processes, which may allow them to provide a service similar or superior to ours, which could harm our competitive position.
Enforcing a claim that a party illegally disclosed or misappropriated a trade secret is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming, and the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, some courts inside and outside the United States are less willing or unwilling to protect trade secrets. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor or other third party, we would have no right to prevent them from using that technology or information to compete with us. If any of our trade secrets were to be disclosed to or independently developed by a competitor or other third party, it could harm our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Trade Secrets - Risk 6
Issued patents covering our offerings could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged.The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability. Some of our patents or patent applications (including licensed patents) have been, are being or may be challenged at a future point in time in opposition, derivation, reexamination, inter partes review ("IPR"), post-grant review or interference. Any successful third-party challenge to our patents in this or any other proceeding could result in the unenforceability or invalidity of such patents, which may lead to increased competition to our business, which could harm our business. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications is threatened, regardless of the outcome, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop or commercialize current or future offering candidates.
Trade Secrets - Risk 7
If we fail to comply with our obligations under license or technology agreements with third parties, we may be required to pay damages and we could lose license rights that are critical to our business.We license certain intellectual property, including technologies and software from third parties, that is important to our business, and in the future we may enter into additional agreements that provide us with licenses to valuable intellectual property or technology. If we fail to comply with any of the obligations under our license agreements, we may be required to pay damages and the licensor may have the right to terminate the license. Termination by the licensor would cause us to lose valuable rights, and could prevent us from selling our solutions and services, or adversely impact our ability to commercialize future solutions and services. Our business would suffer if any current or future licenses terminate, if the licensors fail to abide by the terms of the license, if the licensors fail to enforce licensed patents against infringing third parties, if the licensed intellectual property are found to be invalid or unenforceable, or if we are unable to enter into necessary licenses on acceptable terms. In addition, our rights to certain technologies are licensed to us on a non-exclusive basis. The owners of these non-exclusively licensed technologies are therefore free to license them to third parties, including our competitors, on terms that may be superior to those offered to us, which could place us at a competitive disadvantage. Moreover, our licensors may own or control intellectual property that has not been licensed to us and, as a result, we may be subject to claims, regardless of their merit, that we are infringing or otherwise violating the licensor's rights. In addition, the agreements under which we license intellectual property or technology from third parties are generally complex, and certain provisions in such agreements may be susceptible to multiple interpretations. The resolution of any contract interpretation disagreement that may arise could narrow what we believe to be the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology, or increase what we believe to be our financial or other obligations under the relevant agreement. Any of the foregoing could harm our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Trade Secrets - Risk 8
Changes in U.S. patent law could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our platform or features of our platform and offerings.There are a number of changes to the patent laws that may have a significant impact on our ability to protect our technology and enforce our intellectual property rights. For example, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (the "AIA"), enacted in September 2011, resulted in significant changes in patent legislation. An important change introduced by the AIA is that, as of March 16, 2013, the United States transitioned from a "first-to-invent" to a "first-to-file" system for deciding which party should be granted a patent when two or more patent applications are filed by different parties claiming the same invention. Under a "first-to-file" system, assuming the other requirements for patentability are met, the first inventor to file a patent application generally will be entitled to a patent on the invention regardless of whether another inventor had made the invention earlier. A third party that files a patent application in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") after that date but before us could therefore be awarded a patent covering an invention of ours even if we made the invention before it was made by the third party. Circumstances could prevent us from promptly filing patent applications on our inventions. The AIA also includes a number of significant changes that affect the way patent applications will be prosecuted and also may affect patent litigation. These include allowing third party submission of prior art to the USPTO during patent prosecution and additional procedures to attack the validity of a patent by USPTO administered post-grant proceedings, including post-grant review, IPR and derivation proceedings.
There are also a number of changes to the patent laws being considered that, if enacted, may have a significant impact on our ability to protect our technology and enforce our intellectual property rights. For example, the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Intellectual Property in 2019 held hearings on expanding the test for patent definiteness under Section 112(f) of the Patent Act to combat the assertion of overbroad claims. Such changes could result in a diminished value for issued patents which properly captured the scope entitled to them as of the time of examination, but might fail the new test if it is enacted. Alternatively, the USPTO could decide to strengthen its examination under Section 112(f), leading to fewer issuing patents or patents issuing with more limited scope.
There are also legislative discussions regarding the changing of rules relating to post-grant review of patents through IPR or covered business method ("CBM") review. For example, current case law holds that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ("PTAB") has the sole authority to determine whether to institute an IPR or CBM, and such decision is unreviewable on appeal. Efforts to amend the law to allow appellate review of PTAB institution decisions could result in an increase of institution as a result of such appellate review, and a corresponding increase in invalidation through these processes. Because of a lower evidentiary standard in PTAB proceedings compared to the evidentiary standard in U.S. federal courts necessary to invalidate a patent claim, a third party could potentially provide evidence in a PTAB proceeding sufficient for the PTAB to hold a claim invalid even though the same evidence would be insufficient to invalidate the claim if first presented in a district court action. Accordingly, a third party may attempt to use the PTAB procedures to invalidate our patent claims that would not have been invalidated if first challenged by the third party as a defendant in a district court action, and legislative attempts to make it easier to appeal successful patent-holder results could diminish the value of patents.
In addition, the patent position of companies engaged in the development and commercialization of software and internet e-commerce is particularly uncertain. Various courts, including the Supreme Court have rendered decisions that affect the scope of patentability of certain inventions or discoveries relating to certain software and business method patents. These decisions state, among other things, that a patent claim that recites an abstract idea, natural phenomenon or law of nature is not itself patentable. Precisely what constitutes a law of nature or abstract idea is uncertain, and it is possible that certain aspects of our software or business methods would be considered abstract ideas. Accordingly, the evolving case law in the United States may adversely affect our ability to obtain patents and may facilitate third-party challenges to any owned or licensed patents. The laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and we may encounter difficulties in protecting and defending such rights in foreign jurisdictions.
The legal systems of many other countries do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to software, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents in such countries. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial cost and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business.
Trade Secrets - Risk 9
We may not be able to enforce our intellectual property rights throughout the world.We may also be required to protect our proprietary technology and content in an increasing number of jurisdictions, a process that is expensive and may not be successful, or which we may not pursue in every location. Filing, prosecuting, maintaining, defending, and enforcing intellectual property rights on our solutions, services, and technologies in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States. We do not own and have not registered or applied for intellectual property outside the United States. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained protection to develop their own solutions and services and, further, may export otherwise violating solutions and services to territories where we have protection but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These solutions and services may compete with our solutions and services, and our intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and many companies have encountered significant challenges in establishing and enforcing their proprietary rights outside of the United States. These challenges can be caused by the absence or inconsistency of the application of rules and methods for the establishment and enforcement of intellectual property rights outside of the United States. For instance, there is no uniform worldwide policy regarding patentable subject matter or the scope of claims allowable for business methods. As such, we do not know the degree of future protection that we will have on our technologies, products and services.
In addition, the legal systems of some countries, particularly developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of intellectual property protection, especially those relating to healthcare. This could make it difficult for us to stop the misappropriation or other violation of our other intellectual property rights. Accordingly, we may choose not to seek protection in certain countries, and we will not have the benefit of protection in such countries. Proceedings to enforce our intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business. Accordingly, our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights in such countries may be inadequate. In addition, changes in the law and legal decisions by courts in the United States and foreign countries may affect our ability to obtain adequate protection for our solutions, services and other technologies and the enforcement of intellectual property. Any of the foregoing could harm our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Trade Secrets - Risk 10
We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants, or advisors have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their current or former employers or claims asserting ownership of what we regard as our own intellectual property.Many of our employees, consultants, and advisors are currently or were previously employed at other companies in our field, including our competitors or potential competitors. Although we try to ensure that our employees, consultants, and advisors do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or these individuals have used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any such individual's current or former employer. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management.
In addition, while it is our policy to require our employees and contractors who may be involved in the conception or development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with each party who, in fact, conceives or develops intellectual property that we regard as our own. The assignment of intellectual property rights may not be self-executing, or the assignment agreements may be breached, and we may be forced to bring claims against third parties, or defend claims that they may bring against us, to determine the ownership of what we regard as our intellectual property. Any of the foregoing could harm our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Trade Secrets - Risk 11
If we cannot license rights to use technologies on reasonable terms, we may not be able to commercialize new solutions or services in the future.In the future, we may identify additional third-party intellectual property we may need to license in order to engage in our business, including to develop or commercialize new solutions or services. However, such licenses may not be available on acceptable terms or at all. The licensing or acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and several more established companies may pursue strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider attractive or necessary. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, capital resources and greater development or commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. Even if such licenses are available, we may be required to pay the licensor substantial royalties based on sales of our solutions and services. Such royalties are a component of the cost of our solutions or services and may affect the margins on our solutions and services. In addition, such licenses may be non-exclusive, which could give our competitors access to the same intellectual property licensed to us. If we are unable to enter into the necessary licenses on acceptable terms or at all, if any necessary licenses are subsequently terminated, if our licensors fail to abide by the terms of the licenses, if our licensors fail to prevent infringement by third parties, or if the licensed intellectual property rights are found to be invalid or unenforceable, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be affected. If licenses to third-party intellectual property rights are or become required for us to engage in our business, the rights may be non-exclusive, which could give our competitors access to the same technology or intellectual property rights licensed to us. Moreover, we could encounter delays and other obstacles in our attempt to develop alternatives. Defense of any lawsuit or failure to obtain any of these licenses on favorable terms could prevent us from commercializing solutions and services, which could harm our competitive position, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Technology6 | 8.6%
Technology - Risk 1
We utilize open source software, which may pose particular risks to our proprietary software and solutions.Technology - Risk 2
Our business depends on network and mobile infrastructure and our ability to maintain and scale our technology. Any significant interruptions or delays in service on our apps or websites or any undetected errors or design faults could result in limited capacity, reduced demand, processing delays and loss of consumers.A key element of our strategy is to generate a significant number of visitors to, and their use of, our apps and websites. Our reputation and ability to acquire, retain and serve our consumers are dependent upon the reliable performance of our apps and websites and the underlying network infrastructure. As our base of consumers and the amount of information shared on our apps and websites continue to grow, we will need an increasing amount of network capacity and computing power. We have spent and expect to continue to spend substantial amounts on computing, including cloud computing and the related infrastructure, to handle the traffic on our apps and websites. The operation of these systems is complex and could result in operational failures. In the event that the traffic of our consumers exceeds the capacity of our current network infrastructure or in the event that our base of consumers or the amount of traffic on our apps and websites grows more quickly than anticipated, we may be required to incur significant additional costs to enhance the underlying network infrastructure. Interruptions or delays in these systems, whether due to system failures, computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins, undetected errors, design faults or other unexpected events or causes, could affect the security or availability of our apps and websites and prevent our consumers from accessing our apps and websites. If sustained or repeated, these performance issues could reduce the attractiveness of our offerings. In addition, the costs and complexities involved in expanding and upgrading our systems may prevent us from doing so in a timely manner and may prevent us from adequately meeting the demand placed on our systems. Any internet or mobile platform interruption or inadequacy that causes performance issues or interruptions in the availability of our apps or websites could reduce consumer satisfaction and result in a reduction in the number of consumers using our offerings.
We depend on the development and maintenance of the internet and mobile infrastructure. This includes maintenance of reliable internet and mobile infrastructure with the necessary speed, data capacity and security, as well as timely development of complementary offerings, for providing reliable internet and mobile access. Our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected if for any reason the reliability of our internet and mobile infrastructure is compromised.
We currently rely upon third-party data storage providers, including cloud storage solution providers, such as Amazon Web Services and some specific uses of Google Cloud Platform. Nearly all of our data storage and analytics are conducted on, and the data and content we create associated with sales on our apps and websites are processed through servers hosted by these providers, particularly Amazon Web Services. We also rely on email service providers, bandwidth providers, internet service providers and mobile networks to deliver email and "push" communications to consumers and to allow consumers to access our websites. If our third-party vendors are unable or unwilling to provide the services necessary to support our business, or if our agreements with such vendors are terminated, our operations could be significantly disrupted. Some of our vendor agreements may be unilaterally terminated by the licensor for convenience, including with respect to services provided by Google, and if such agreements are terminated, we may not be able to enter into similar relationships in the future on reasonable terms or at all.
Any damage to, or failure of, our systems or the systems of our third-party data centers or our other third-party providers could result in interruptions to the availability or functionality of our apps and websites. As a result, we could lose consumer data and miss opportunities to acquire and retain consumers, which could result in decreased revenue. If for any reason our arrangements with our data centers or third-party providers are terminated or interrupted, such termination or interruption could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We exercise little control over these providers, which increases our vulnerability to problems with the services they provide. We could experience additional expense in arranging new facilities, technology, services and support. In addition, the failure of our third-party data centers or any other third-party providers to meet our capacity requirements could result in interruption in the availability or functionality of our apps and websites.
The satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our apps, websites, transaction processing systems and technology infrastructure are critical to our reputation and our ability to acquire and retain consumers, as well as to maintain adequate consumer service levels. Our revenue depends in part on the number of consumers that visit and use our apps and websites in fulfilling their healthcare needs. Unavailability of our apps or websites could materially and adversely affect consumer perception of our brand. Any slowdown or failure of our apps, websites or the underlying technology infrastructure could harm our business, reputation and our ability to acquire, retain and serve our consumers.
The occurrence of a natural disaster, power loss, telecommunications failure, data loss, computer virus, an act of terrorism, cyberattack, vandalism or sabotage, act of war or any similar event, or a decision to close our third-party data centers on which we normally operate or the facilities of any other third-party provider without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems at these facilities could result in lengthy interruptions in the availability of our apps and websites. Certain natural events may become more frequent or intense as a result of climate change. For more information, see our risk factor titled "We are subject to a series of risks related to climate change." Cloud computing, in particular, is dependent upon having access to an internet connection in order to retrieve data. If a natural disaster, blackout or other unforeseen event were to occur that disrupted the ability to obtain an internet connection, we may experience a slowdown or delay in our operations. While we have some limited disaster recovery arrangements in place, our preparations may not be adequate to account for disasters or similar events that may occur in the future and may not effectively permit us to continue operating in the event of any problems with respect to our systems or those of our third-party data centers or any other third-party facilities. Our disaster recovery and data redundancy plans may be inadequate, and our business interruption insurance may not be sufficient to compensate us for the losses that could occur. If any such event were to occur to our business, our operations could be impaired and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
Technology - Risk 3
We rely on software-as-a-service ("SaaS") technologies from third parties.We rely on SaaS technologies from third parties in order to operate critical functions of our business, including financial management services, relationship management services, marketing services and data storage services. For example, we rely on Amazon Web Services for a substantial portion of our computing and storage capacity. We also rely on Google for storage capacity and advertising services, and Google may update the terms of its services unilaterally by providing advance notice and posting changed terms on its website. In addition, Google may terminate certain agreements with us immediately upon notice. Certain of our other vendor agreements may be unilaterally terminated by the counterparty for convenience. If these services become unavailable due to contract cancellations, extended outages or interruptions or because they are no longer available on commercially reasonable terms or prices, or for any other reason, our expenses could increase, our ability to manage our finances could be interrupted, our processes for managing our offerings and supporting our consumers and partners could be impaired and our ability to access or save data stored to the cloud may be impaired until equivalent services, if available, are identified, obtained and implemented, all of which could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Technology - Risk 4
We rely on information technology to operate our business and maintain competitiveness, and must adapt to technological developments or industry trends.Changed
Our ability to attract new consumers and increase revenue from our existing consumers depends in large part on our ability to enhance and improve our existing offerings, increase adoption and usage of our offerings, and introduce new features and capabilities. The markets in which we compete are relatively new and subject to rapid technological change, evolving industry standards, and changing regulations, as well as changing consumer needs, requirements and preferences. The success of our business will depend, in part, on our ability to adapt and respond effectively to these changes on a timely basis.
We depend on the use of information technologies and systems. As our operations grow, we must continuously improve and upgrade our systems and infrastructure while maintaining or improving the reliability and integrity of our infrastructure. Our future success also depends on our ability to adapt our systems and infrastructure to meet rapidly evolving consumer trends and demands while continuing to improve the performance, features and reliability of our solutions in response to competitive services and offerings. The emergence of alternative platforms such as smartphones and tablets and the emergence of niche competitors who may be able to optimize offerings, services or strategies for such platforms will require new investment in technology. New developments in other areas, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence ("AI") and machine learning, have made it easier for competition to enter our markets due to lower up-front technology costs. In addition, we may not be able to maintain our existing systems or replace or introduce new technologies and systems as quickly as we would like or in a cost-effective manner. There is also no guarantee that we will possess the financial resources or personnel, for the research, design and development of new applications or services, or that we will be able to utilize these resources successfully and avoid technological or market obsolescence. Further, there can be no assurance that technological advances by one or more of our competitors or future competitors will not result in our present or future applications and services becoming uncompetitive or obsolete. If we were unable to enhance our offerings and platform capabilities to keep pace with rapid technological and regulatory change, or if new technologies emerge that are able to deliver competitive offerings at lower prices, more efficiently, more conveniently or more securely than our offerings, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Technology - Risk 5
We use and may expand our use of AI and machine learning in our business and challenges with properly managing their use could result in reputational harm, competitive harm and legal liability, and adversely affect our results of operations.Added
We use AI and machine learning solutions in, and we may in the future integrate additional AI and/or machine learning solutions into, our platform, offerings, products and services, and these applications may become important in our operations over time. Our competitors or other industry participants may incorporate AI and/or machine learning into their products more quickly or more successfully than us, which could change our market dynamics and could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our results of operations. Additionally, if the content, analyses, or recommendations that AI applications assist in producing are or are alleged to be deficient, inaccurate, or biased, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected. Generally, the use of AI and machine learning applications has in the past resulted in, and may in the future result in, cybersecurity incidents that implicate the personal data of end users of such applications. Any such cybersecurity incidents related to our use of AI and machine learning applications could adversely affect our reputation and results of operations. AI and machine learning also present emerging ethical issues and if our use of AI and/or machine learning becomes controversial, we may experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm or legal liability. The rapid evolution of AI and machine learning, including potential government regulation thereof, could require us to devote significant resources to develop, test and maintain our implementation of such technology in order to minimize unintended, harmful impact.
Technology - Risk 6
We depend on our information technology systems, and those of our third-party vendors, contractors and consultants, and any failure or significant disruptions of these systems, security breaches or loss of data could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.We collect and maintain information in digital form that is necessary to conduct our business, and we are increasingly dependent on information technology systems and infrastructure ("IT Systems") to operate our business. In the ordinary course of our business, we collect, store and transmit large amounts of confidential information, including intellectual property, proprietary business information and personal information. It is critical that we do so in a secure manner to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of such confidential information. We have established physical, electronic and organizational measures to safeguard and secure our systems to prevent a data compromise, and rely on commercially available systems, software, tools, and monitoring to provide security for our IT Systems and the processing, transmission and storage of digital information. We have also outsourced elements of our IT Systems and data storage systems, and as a result a number of third-party vendors may or could have access to our confidential information.
Despite the implementation of preventative and detective security controls, such IT Systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption from a variety of sources, including telecommunications or network failures or interruptions, system malfunction, natural disasters, malicious human acts, terrorism and war. Such IT Systems, including our servers, are additionally vulnerable to physical or electronic break-ins, security breaches from inadvertent or intentional actions by our employees, third-party service providers, contractors, consultants, business partners, and/or other third parties, or from cyber-attacks by malicious third parties (including the deployment of harmful malware, ransomware, denial-of-service attacks, social engineering, and other means to affect service reliability and threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information). As we continue to embrace both hybrid and remote working, we may face increased cybersecurity risks due to our reliance on internet technology and the number of our employees who are working remotely, which may create additional opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit vulnerabilities. We may not be able to anticipate all types of security threats, and we may not be able to implement preventive measures effective against all such security threats. The techniques used by cyber criminals change frequently, may not be recognized until launched, and can originate from a wide variety of sources, including outside groups such as external service providers, organized crime affiliates, terrorist organizations, or hostile foreign governments or agencies. Even if identified, we may be unable to adequately investigate or remediate incidents or breaches due to attackers increasingly using tools and techniques that are designed to circumvent controls, to avoid detection, and to remove or obfuscate forensic evidence. In addition, the prevalent use of mobile devices that access confidential information increases the risk of data security breaches, which could lead to the loss of confidential information or other intellectual property.
We can provide no assurance that our current IT Systems, or those of the third parties upon which we rely, are fully protected against cybersecurity threats. We and certain of our service providers from time to time have been and are subject to cyberattacks and/or security incidents. Additionally, such cyberattacks and security incidents have and may remain undetected for an extended period of time. Even when a security incident is detected, the full extent of a breach, if any, may not be determined immediately. The costs to us to mitigate network security problems, bugs, viruses, worms, malicious software programs and security vulnerabilities could be significant, and while we have implemented security measures to protect our data security and IT Systems, our efforts to address these problems may not be successful. These problems, whether related to our IT Systems and/or those of third parties upon which we rely, have resulted in, and may in the future, result in, unexpected interruptions, delays, cessation of service and other harm to our business. While we do not believe that we have experienced a significant system failure, accident or security breach to date that has had a material affect on us, including our operations, business strategy, results of operations or financial condition, if such an event were to occur and cause sustained material interruptions in our operations, it could result in a material disruption of our offerings to consumers. Moreover, we and our third-party vendors collect, store and transmit sensitive data, including health-related information, personally identifiable information, intellectual property and proprietary business information in the ordinary course of our business. If a computer security breach affects our systems or results in the unauthorized release of personally identifiable information, our reputation could be materially damaged. In addition, such breaches have required, and may in the future require, notification to governmental agencies, the media or individuals pursuant to various federal and state privacy and security laws, if applicable, including HIPAA as well as regulations promulgated by the FTC and state breach notification laws. Such breaches and allegations of such breaches expose us to risks of loss and/or litigation and potential liability, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. There can be no assurance that our cybersecurity risk management program and processes, including our policies, controls or procedures, will be fully complied with or effective in protecting our systems and information.
If our or our third-party vendors' security measures fail or are breached, it could result in unauthorized access to confidential and proprietary business information, intellectual property, sensitive consumer data (including health-related information) or other personally identifiable information of our consumers, employees, partners or contractors, a loss of or damage to our data, or an inability to access data sources, process data or provide our services. Such failures or breaches of our or our third-party vendors' security measures, or our or our third-party vendors' inability to effectively resolve such failures or breaches in a timely manner, could severely damage our reputation, adversely impact consumer, partner, or investor confidence in us, and reduce the demand for our solutions and services. In addition, we could face litigation, significant damages for contract breach or other breaches of law, significant monetary penalties, or regulatory actions for violation of applicable laws or regulations, and incur significant costs for remedial measures to prevent future occurrences and mitigate past violations. The costs related to significant security breaches or disruptions could be material and exceed the limits of the cybersecurity insurance we maintain against such risks. If the IT Systems of our third-party vendors become subject to disruptions or security breaches, we may have insufficient recourse against such third parties and we may have to expend significant resources to mitigate the impact of such an event, and to develop and implement protections to prevent future events of this nature from occurring. Any disruption or loss to IT Systems on which critical aspects of our operations depend could have an adverse effect on our business.
Ability to Sell
Total Risks: 12/70 (17%)Above Sector Average
Competition1 | 1.4%
Competition - Risk 1
We operate in a very competitive industry and we may fail to effectively differentiate our offerings and services from those of our competitors, which could impair our ability to attract and acquire new consumers and retain existing consumers.Demand1 | 1.4%
Demand - Risk 1
We rely on a limited number of industry participants.Sales & Marketing7 | 10.0%
Sales & Marketing - Risk 1
Our telehealth offering is dependent on our ability to maintain our relationship with our telehealth provider network, including our affiliated professional entities, and the ability of such entities to recruit qualified telehealth providers.Changed
Sales & Marketing - Risk 2
Our business relies on email, mail and other messaging channels and any technical, legal or other restrictions on the sending of such correspondence or a decrease in consumer willingness to receive such correspondence could adversely affect our business.Our business depends in part upon the emailing and mailing of promotional materials, cards with GoodRx codes and other information to consumers and healthcare providers, and is also significantly dependent on email and other messaging channels, such as text messages. We distribute pricing information and other promotional materials in the mail, and also provide emails, mobile alerts and other messages to consumers informing them of the discounted prices available on our apps and websites. These communications help generate a significant portion of our revenues. Because email, mail and other messaging channels are important to our business, if we are unable to successfully deliver messages to consumers through these channels, if there are legal restrictions on delivering such messages to consumers, if consumers do not or cannot open or otherwise utilize our messages or if consumers reject the receipt of communications referencing particular prescriptions or conditions, our revenues and profitability would be adversely affected.
Actions taken by third parties that block, impose restrictions on or charge for the delivery of these communications could also harm our business. For example, from time to time, internet service providers or other third parties may block bulk communications or otherwise experience difficulties that result in our inability to successfully deliver communications to consumers. In addition, our use of mail, email and other messaging channels to send communications about our platform or other matters, including health related topics referencing particular prescriptions or conditions, may result in legal claims against us, which if successful might limit or prohibit our ability to send such communications.
We rely on a single third-party service provider for the delivery of substantially all of our mailing communications and rely on third-party service providers for delivery of emails, text messages and other forms of electronic communication. If we were unable to use any one of our current service providers, alternate providers are available; however, we believe our revenue could be impacted for some period as we transition to a new provider, and the new provider may be unable to provide equivalent or satisfactory services. Any disruption or restriction on the distribution of our communications, termination or disruption of our relationships with our third-party service providers, particularly our single third-party service provider for the delivery of mail communications, or any increase in the associated costs, may be beyond our control and would adversely affect our business.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 3
We may be unable to successfully respond to changes in the market for prescription pricing, and may fail to maintain and expand the use of GoodRx codes through our apps and websites.In recent years, we believe that consumer preferences and access to prescription medication discounts has increasingly shifted from traditional offline or analog channels, such as newspapers and by direct mail, to digital or electronic channels, such as apps, websites and by email. It is difficult to predict whether the pace of the transition from traditional to digital channels will continue at the same rate and whether the growth of the digital channel will continue. While we actively promote the use of our apps and websites, if the demand for digital channels does not continue to grow as we expect, or if we fail to successfully address this demand through our platform, our business could be harmed. Consumer access and preferences for purchasing medications may evolve in ways which may be difficult to predict. Further, if PBMs or pharmacy operators elect to directly distribute pricing information through their own digital channels, or if new or existing competitors are faster or better at addressing consumer demand and preferences for digital channels, or are able to offer more accessible discounted prices to consumers, our ability and success in presenting discounted prices on our platform may be impeded and our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected. If we cannot maintain a sufficient offering of discounted prices on our platform, new consumers and existing consumers may perceive our platform as less relevant, consumer traffic to our platform could decline and, as a result, new consumers and existing consumers may decrease their use of our platform or subscription offerings, which would affect our contracts with certain partners included or otherwise involved with our platform and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 4
We may be unable to continue to attract, acquire and retain consumers, or may fail to do so in a cost-effective manner.Our success depends in part on our ability to cost-effectively attract and acquire new consumers, retain our existing consumers and encourage our consumers to continue to utilize our platform when making purchasing decisions for prescription medications and other healthcare products and services. To expand our base of consumers, we must appeal to consumers who have historically used traditional outlets for their healthcare products and services, and who may be unaware of the possibility or benefits of using discounted prices to purchase healthcare products and services outside of insurance programs. We have made significant investments related to consumer acquisition and expect to continue to spend significant amounts to acquire additional consumers. We cannot assure you that this spending will be effective or that revenue from new consumers that we acquire will ultimately exceed the cost of acquiring those consumers. Alternatively, we have and may continue to focus on the efficiency of our spending on customer acquisition related strategies, which may impact our ability to acquire or retain consumers. If we fail to deliver reliable and significant discounted prices for prescription medications, we may be unable to acquire or retain consumers. If we are unable to acquire or retain consumers who use our platform in volumes and with recurrence sufficient to grow our business, we may be unable to maintain the scale necessary for operational efficiency and to drive beneficial and self-reinforcing network effects across the broader healthcare ecosystem, including pharmacies, PBMs and pharma manufacturers. Consequently, we may not be able to present the same quality or range of solutions on our platform or otherwise, which may adversely impact consumer interest in our platform, in which case our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.
We believe that our paid and non-paid marketing initiatives have been critical in promoting consumer awareness of our platform and offerings, which in turn has driven new consumer growth and increased the extent to which existing consumers have used our platform. Our paid marketing initiatives include television, search engine marketing, mail to consumers and healthcare provider offices, email, display, radio and magazine advertising and social media marketing as well as consumer discounts and incentives. For example, we actively market our platform and offerings through television and we rely on direct mail to distribute marketing materials to consumers. If we are unable to cost-effectively market to consumers, or if we elect to reduce our spending to drive traffic to our apps and websites, our ability to acquire new consumers and our financial condition would be materially and adversely affected. We also buy search advertising primarily through search engines such as Google and Bing, and use internal analytics and external vendors for bid optimization and channel strategy. Our non-paid advertising efforts include search engine optimization, non-paid social media and e-mail marketing. Search engines frequently modify their search algorithms and these changes can cause our websites to receive less favorable placements, which could reduce the number of consumers who visit our websites. The costs associated with advertising through search engines can also vary significantly from period to period, and have generally increased over time. We may be unable to modify our strategies in response to any future search algorithm changes made by the search engines, which could require a change in the strategy we use to generate consumer traffic to our websites. In addition, our websites must comply with search engine guidelines and policies, which are complex and may change at any time. If we fail to follow such guidelines and policies properly, search engines may rank our content lower in search results or could remove our content altogether from their indices. Although consumer traffic to our apps is not reliant on search results, growth in mobile device usage may not decrease our overall reliance on search results if consumers use our mobile websites rather than our apps or use search to initially find our apps. In fact, growth in mobile device usage may exacerbate the risks associated with how and where our websites are displayed in search results because mobile device screens are smaller than desktop computer screens and therefore display fewer search results.
In addition, we actively encourage new and existing consumers to use our apps to access our platform. We believe that our apps help to facilitate increased consumer retention and that consumers that access our platform through our apps are more likely to utilize GoodRx codes at the final point of purchase. While we have invested and will continue to invest in the development of our apps to improve consumer utilization, there can be no assurance that our efforts to drive adoption and use of our apps will be effective.
To remain competitive and encourage the use of our platform, we have in the past offered and may continue to offer incentives to certain consumers that further reduce discounted prices offered on our platform. We cannot assure that offering such incentives will be successful in attracting new and recurring consumers or that we will be able to maintain competitive discounted prices in the future to retain such consumers. If we are unable to successfully manage these incentives, our financial performance may be adversely impacted.
Our consumer education, acquisition and retention initiatives can be expensive and may be ineffective in driving consumer education or interest in our platform. Further, if new or existing consumers do not perceive that the discounted prices presented through our platform are reliable or meaningful, or if we fail to offer new and relevant offerings and application features, we may not be able to attract or retain consumers or increase the extent to which they use our platform and applications for other or future purchases. If we fail to continue to grow our base of consumers, retain existing consumers or increase consumer engagement, our business, financial condition and results of operations will be adversely affected.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 5
We rely significantly on our prescription transactions offering and may not be successful in expanding our offerings within our markets, particularly the U.S. prescriptions market, or to other segments of the healthcare industry.To date, the majority of our revenue has been derived from our prescription transactions offering. When a consumer uses a GoodRx code to fill a prescription and saves money compared to the list price at that pharmacy, we receive fees from our partners, including PBMs, pharma manufacturers and pharmacies, as applicable. Revenue from our prescription transactions offering represented 73%, 72% and 80% of our revenue for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively. Substantially all of this revenue was generated from consumer transactions at brick-and-mortar pharmacies. The introduction of competing offerings with lower prices for consumers, fluctuations in prescription prices, changes in consumer purchasing habits, including an increase in the use of mail delivery prescriptions, changes in our relationships with industry participants and our various partners, changes in the regulatory landscape, and other factors could result in changes to our contracts or a decline in our total revenue, which may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Because we derive a majority of our revenue from our prescription transactions offering, any material decline in the use of such offering or in the fees we receive from our partners in connection with such offering would have a pronounced impact on our future revenue and results of operations, particularly if we are unable to expand our offerings overall.
We seek to expand our offerings within the prescriptions market and the pharma manufacturer solutions market in the United States, and we are actively investing in these growth areas. We also continue to focus on the optimization of our existing partnerships and have entered into, and may in the future enter into, new or revised agreements with industry participants, and have also terminated, and may in the future terminate, existing arrangements with industry participants. However, expanding our offerings, entering into new markets and entering into new partnerships requires substantial additional resources, and our ability to succeed is not certain. During and following periods of active investment in such offerings, markets, relationships and partnerships, we may experience a decrease in profitability or margins, particularly if the area of investment generates lower margins than our other offerings. As we attempt to expand our offerings and optimize our partnerships, we may need to take additional steps, such as hiring additional personnel, partnering with new third parties and incurring considerable research and development expenses, in order to pursue such expansion and optimization successfully. Any such expansion and/or optimization would be subject to additional uncertainties and would likely be subject to additional laws and regulations. As a result, we may not be successful in future efforts to expand into or achieve profitability from new markets, new business models or strategies, new partnerships or new offering types, and our ability to generate revenue from our current offerings and continue our existing business may be negatively affected. If any such expansion does not enhance our ability to maintain or grow revenue or recover any associated development costs, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 6
Our business is subject to changes in medication pricing and is significantly impacted by pricing structures negotiated by industry participants.Our platform aggregates and analyzes pricing data from a number of different sources. The discounted prices that we present through our platform are based in large part upon pricing structures negotiated by industry participants. Although some of our contracts with certain of our partners contain provisions related to discount pricing, we do not control the overall pricing strategies of pharma manufacturers, wholesalers, PBMs and pharmacies, each of which is motivated by independent considerations and drivers that are outside our control and has the ability to set or significantly impact market prices for different prescription medications. While we have contractual and non-contractual relationships with certain industry participants, such as pharmacies, PBMs and pharma manufacturers, these and other industry participants often negotiate complex and multi-party pricing structures, and we have no control over these participants and the policies and strategies that they implement in negotiating these multi-party pricing structures. For example, a grocery chain took actions late in the first quarter of 2022 that impacted acceptance of discounted pricing for a subset of prescription drugs from PBMs and whose pricing we promote on our platform. This had a material adverse impact on our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 and we expect that it will continue to have a sustained adverse impact in future periods.
Pharma manufacturers generally direct medication pricing by setting medication list prices and offering rebates and discounts for their medications. List prices are impacted by, among other things, market considerations such as the number of competitor medications and availability of alternative treatment options. Wholesalers can impact medication pricing by purchasing medications in bulk from pharma manufacturers and then reselling such medications to pharmacies. PBMs generally impact medication pricing through their bargaining power, negotiated rebates with pharma manufacturers and contracts with different pharmacy providers and health insurance companies. PBMs work with pharmacies to determine the negotiated rate that will be paid at the pharmacy by consumers. We also work with pharmacies with which we have contractual arrangements to offer discount prices to consumers. Medication pricing is also impacted by health insurance companies and the extent to which a health insurance plan provides for, among other things, covered medications, preferred tiers for different medications and high or low deductibles. A majority of the utilization of our platform relates to generic medications.
Our ability to present discounted prices through our platform, the value of any such discounts and our ability to generate revenue are directly affected by the pricing structures in place amongst these industry participants, and changes in medication pricing and in the general pricing structures that are in place could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, changes in the negotiated rates of the PBMs on our platform at pharmacies could negatively impact the prices that we present through our platform, and changes in insurance plan coverage for specific medications could reduce demand for and/or our ability to offer competitive discounts for certain medications, any of which could have an adverse effect on our ability to generate revenue and business. In addition, changes in the fee and pricing structures among industry participants, whether due to regulatory requirements, competitive pressures or otherwise, that reduce or adversely impact fees generated by PBMs or directly by us through partner pharmacies would have an adverse effect on our ability to generate revenue and business. Due in part to existing pricing structures, we generate a smaller portion of our revenue through contracts with pharma manufacturers and other intermediaries. Changes in the roles of industry participants and in general pricing structures, as well as price competition among industry participants, could have an adverse impact on our business. For example, integration of PBMs and pharmacy providers could result in pricing structures whereby such entities would have greater pricing power and flexibility or industry players could implement direct to consumer initiatives that could significantly alter existing pricing structures, either of which would have an adverse impact on our ability to present competitive and low prices to consumers and, as a result, the value of our platform for consumers and our results of operations.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 7
We generally do not control the categories and types of prescriptions for which we can offer savings or discounted prices.The categories and brands of medications for which we can present discounted prices are largely determined by PBMs, pharmacies and pharma manufacturers. PBMs work with insurance companies, employers and other organizations and enter into contracts with pharmacies to determine negotiated rates. They also negotiate rebates with pharma manufacturers. The terms that various PBMs negotiate with each pharmacy are generally different and result in different negotiated rates available via each PBM's network, all of which is outside our control. Different PBMs prioritize and allocate discounts across different medications, and continuously update these allocations in accordance with their internal strategies and expectations. As we have agreements with PBMs to market their negotiated rates through our platform, our ability to present discounted prices is in part dependent upon the arrangements that such PBMs have negotiated with pharmacies and upon the resulting availability and allocation of discounts for medications subject to these arrangements. We also have agreements with partner pharmacies to offer discount prices to consumers and such discount prices are subject to negotiated terms and conditions. In general, industry participants are less likely to allocate or provide discounts or rebates on brand medications that are covered by patents. As a result, the discounted prices that we are able to present for brand medications may not be as competitive as for generic medications. Similar to the total prescription volume in the United States, the majority of the utilization of our platform relates to generic medications.
Changes in the categories and types of medications for which we can present pricing through our platform could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, demand for our offerings and the use and utility of our platform is impacted by the value of the discounts that we are able to present and the extent to which there is inconsistency in the price of a particular prescription across the market. If pharmacies, PBMs or others do not allocate or otherwise facilitate adequate discounts for these medications, or if there is significant price similarity or competition across PBMs and pharmacies, the perceived value of our platform and the demand for our offerings would decrease and there would be a significant impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Brand / Reputation3 | 4.3%
Brand / Reputation - Risk 1
We may be unable to maintain a positive perception regarding our platform or maintain and enhance our brand.Brand / Reputation - Risk 2
Use of social media, emails and text messages may adversely impact our reputation, subject us to fines or other penalties or be an ineffective source to market our offerings.We use social media, emails and text messages as part of our omnichannel approach to marketing and consumer outreach. Changes to these social networking services' terms of use or terms of service that limit promotional communications, restrictions that would limit our ability or our consumers' ability to send communications through their services, disruptions or downtime experienced by these social networking services or reductions in the use of or engagement with social networking services by consumers and potential consumers could also harm our business. As laws and regulations rapidly evolve to govern the use of these channels, the failure by us, our employees or third parties acting at our direction to abide by applicable laws and regulations in the use of these channels could adversely affect our reputation or subject us to fines or other penalties. In addition, our employees or third parties acting at our direction may knowingly or inadvertently make use of social media in ways that could lead to the loss or infringement of intellectual property, as well as the public disclosure of proprietary, confidential or sensitive personal information of our business, employees, consumers or others. Any such inappropriate use of social media, emails and text messages could also cause reputational damage and adversely affect our business.
Our consumers may engage with us online through our social media pages, including, for example, our presence on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter) and TikTok, by providing feedback and public commentary about all aspects of our business. Information concerning us or our offerings and brands, whether accurate or not, may be posted on social media pages at any time and may have a disproportionately adverse impact on our brand, reputation or business. The harm may be immediate without affording us an opportunity for redress or correction and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Additionally, we use emails and text messages to communicate with consumers and we collect consumer data, including email addresses and phone numbers, to further our marketing efforts with such consenting consumers. If we fail to adequately or accurately collect such data or if our data collection systems are breached, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed. Further, any failure, or perceived failure, by us, or any third parties processing such data, to comply with privacy policies or with any federal or state privacy or consumer protection-related laws, regulations, industry self-regulatory principles, industry standards or codes of conduct, regulatory guidance, orders to which we may be subject or other legal obligations relating to privacy or consumer protection would adversely affect our reputation, brand and business, and may result in claims, proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities, consumers, suppliers or others or other liabilities or may require us to change our operations and/or cease using certain data sets.
Brand / Reputation - Risk 3
Negative media coverage could adversely affect our business.We receive a high degree of media coverage in the United States. Unfavorable publicity regarding, for example, the healthcare industry, industry competition, litigation or regulatory activity, the actions of the entities included or otherwise involved with our platform, negative perceptions of prescriptions included on our platform, medication pricing, pricing structures in place amongst the industry participants, our data privacy or data security practices, our platform or our revenue could materially adversely affect our reputation. Such negative publicity also could have an adverse effect on our ability to attract and retain consumers, partners, or employees, and result in decreased revenue, which would materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Legal & Regulatory
Total Risks: 10/70 (14%)Below Sector Average
Regulation6 | 8.6%
Regulation - Risk 1
Government regulation of the internet and e-commerce is evolving, and unfavorable changes or failure by us to comply with these laws and regulations could substantially harm our business and results of operations.Regulation - Risk 2
Our telehealth offering offered to consumers is subject to various state laws and regulations governing the provision of telehealth services.Changed
Our ability to provide our telehealth offering is primarily regulated at the state level. State laws and regulations address, among other things, provider licensure requirements, the minimum modality required to provide telehealth services (i.e., the minimum interaction required between a telehealth provider and patient), the types of healthcare services that may be provided via telehealth, the types of practitioners that may provide such services, patient consent requirements and specific rules applicable to prescribing medications. These state laws and regulations are subject to changing political, regulatory and other influences. Some state licensing boards have established rules or interpreted existing rules in a manner that limits or restricts our ability to conduct or optimize our business.
Our telehealth offering grants patients the ability to access our affiliated physician-owned professional entities' network of clinicians to see a licensed healthcare provider for advice, diagnosis and treatment of routine health conditions on a remote basis. Due to the nature of this service and the provision of medical care and treatment by a licensed healthcare professional, we, our affiliated professional entities and any affiliated healthcare providers are and may in the future be subject to complaints, inquiries and compliance orders by national and state licensing boards. Such complaints, inquiries or compliance orders may result in disciplinary actions taken by these licensing boards against the licensed healthcare provider who provides services through our telehealth offering, which could include suspension, restriction or revocation of the healthcare provider's license, probation, required continuing education courses, monetary fines, administrative actions and other conditions. Regardless of outcome, these complaints, inquiries or compliance orders could have an adverse impact on our telehealth offering and our platform generally due to defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources, negative publicity, reputational harm and other factors.
Due to the uncertain regulatory environment, certain states may determine that we or our affiliated professional entities are in violation of their laws and regulations or such laws and regulations may change requiring that we modify the way we currently conduct business. In the event that we must remedy such violations, we may be required to modify our offerings in such states in a manner that undermines our offerings or business, we may become subject to fines or other penalties or, if we determine that the requirements to operate in compliance in such states are overly burdensome, we may elect to terminate our operations in such states. In each case, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
Regulation - Risk 3
Our telehealth offering and relationships with our affiliated physician-owned professional entities may implicate laws governing the practice of medicine and fee-splitting.Added
Our telehealth offering (where telehealth services are rendered by healthcare providers employed by or contracted with our affiliated professional entities, including through staffing providers, such as Wheel) may implicate certain state laws in the United States that generally prohibit non-physician entities from practicing medicine, exercising control over physicians or engaging in certain practices such as fee-splitting with physicians. Although we believe that we have structured our arrangements to ensure that the healthcare professionals maintain exclusive authority regarding the delivery of medical care and prescription of medications when clinically appropriate, there can be no assurance that these laws will be interpreted in a manner consistent with our practices or that other laws or regulations will not be enacted in the future that could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Regulatory authorities, state licensing boards, state attorneys general and other parties, including our affiliated professional entities, may assert that, despite the management service agreement and other arrangements through which we operate, we are engaged in the prohibited corporate practice of medicine, and/or that our arrangements with our affiliated professional entities constitute unlawful fee-splitting. If a state's prohibition on the corporate practice of medicine or fee-splitting law is interpreted in a manner that is inconsistent with our practices, we would be required to restructure or terminate our relationship with our affiliated professional entities to bring its activities into compliance with such laws. A determination of non-compliance, or the termination of or failure to successfully restructure these relationships could result in disciplinary action, penalties, damages, fines, and/or a loss of revenue, any of which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. State corporate practice of medicine doctrines and fee-splitting prohibitions also often impose penalties on healthcare professionals for aiding the corporate practice of medicine, which could discourage physicians and other healthcare professionals from participating in our network of providers.
Regulation - Risk 4
We may be subject to state and federal fraud and abuse and other healthcare regulatory laws and regulations. If we or our commercial partners act in a manner that violates such laws or otherwise engage in misconduct, we may be subject to civil or criminal penalties as well as exclusion from government healthcare programs.Although the consumers who use our offerings do so outside of any medication or other health benefits covered under their health insurance, including any commercial or government healthcare program, we may nonetheless be subject to healthcare fraud and abuse regulation and enforcement by both the U.S. federal government and the states in which we conduct our business. These laws impact, among other things, our sales, marketing, support and education programs and constrain our business and financial arrangements and relationships with pharmacies, PBMs, pharma manufacturers, marketing partners, healthcare professionals and consumers, and include, but are not limited to, the following:
- the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, persons or entities from knowingly and willfully soliciting, offering, receiving or paying any remuneration, directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, in cash or in kind, to induce or reward either the referral of an individual for, or the purchase, lease, order, or arranging for or recommending the purchase, lease or order of, any item or service, for which payment may be made, in whole or in part, under federal healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. A person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation;- the U.S. federal physician self referral law, or the Stark Law, which, subject to limited exceptions, prohibits physicians from referring Medicare or Medicaid patients to an entity for the provision of certain designated health services, or DHS, which includes outpatient prescription drugs, if the physician or a member of such physician's immediate family has a direct or indirect financial relationship (including an ownership interest or a compensation arrangement) with the entity, and prohibits the entity from billing Medicare or Medicaid for such DHS. Unlike the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, the Stark Law is violated if the financial arrangement does not meet an applicable exception, regardless of any intent by the parties to induce or reward referrals or the reasons for the financial relationship and the referral;- the U.S. federal false claims laws, including the civil False Claims Act (which can be enforced through "qui tam," or whistleblower actions, by private citizens on behalf of the federal government), which prohibits any person from, among other things, knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented false or fraudulent claims for payment of government funds or knowingly making, using or causing to be made or used, a false record or statement material to an obligation to pay money to the government or knowingly and improperly avoiding, decreasing or concealing an obligation to pay money to the U.S. federal government. In addition, the government may assert that a claim including items and services resulting from a violation of the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute or Stark Law constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the civil False Claims Act;- HIPAA, which imposes criminal and civil liability for, among other things, knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program, or knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any materially false statement, in connection with the delivery of, or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services by a healthcare benefit program, which includes both government and privately funded benefits programs. Similar to the U.S. federal Anti-Kickback Statute, a person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it in order to have committed a violation;- the federal Civil Monetary Penalties Law, which, subject to certain exceptions, prohibits, among other things, the offer or transfer of remuneration, including waivers of copayments and deductible amounts (or any part thereof), to a Medicare or state healthcare program beneficiary if the person knows or should know it is likely to influence the beneficiary's selection of a particular provider, practitioner or supplier of services reimbursable by a state or federal healthcare program;- federal consumer protection and unfair competition laws, which broadly regulate platform activities and activities that potentially harm consumers; and - state laws and regulations, including state anti-kickback, self-referral and false claims laws, that may apply to our business practices, including but not limited to, research, distribution, sales and marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by any third-party payor, including private insurers and self-pay patients.
To enforce compliance with healthcare regulatory laws, certain enforcement bodies have recently increased their scrutiny of interactions between healthcare companies and referral sources, which has led to a number of investigations, prosecutions, convictions and settlements in the healthcare industry. Responding to investigations can be time- and resource-consuming and can divert management's attention from the business. Additionally, as a result of these investigations, entities may also have to agree to additional compliance and reporting requirements as part of a consent decree, non-prosecution or corporate integrity agreement. Any such investigation or settlements could increase our costs or otherwise have an adverse effect on our business. Even an unsuccessful challenge or investigation into our practices could cause adverse publicity and be costly to respond.
The shifting commercial compliance environment and the need to build and maintain robust and expandable systems to comply with different compliance or reporting requirements in multiple jurisdictions increase the possibility that a healthcare company may fail to comply fully with one or more of these requirements. Efforts to ensure that our business arrangements with third parties will comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations may involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities may conclude that our business practices, including, without limitation, our revenue sharing arrangements with our partners, arrangements with entities that provide us with rebate administrative services, and other sales and marketing practices, do not comply with applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations or guidance.
If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws or any other governmental regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, imprisonment, exclusion from government-funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and additional oversight and reporting requirements if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. If any of the pharmacies, PBMs, pharma manufacturers, marketing partners or other entities with whom we do business is found not to be in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to the same criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusion from government-funded healthcare programs.
We provide pricing information and discounted prices for all FDA-approved medications, including products that are regulated under federal and state law as controlled substances. Controlled substances are subject to more onerous regulatory requirements than other pharmaceutical products and have received increasing legal scrutiny in recent years, which will likely continue into the future. Regulatory or legal developments that have the effect of lowering the sales of controlled substances may have a negative impact on our business.
Regulation - Risk 5
The impact of recent healthcare reform legislation and other changes in the healthcare industry and in healthcare spending on us is currently unknown, but may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.Our revenue is dependent on the healthcare industry and could be affected by changes in healthcare spending and policy. The healthcare industry is subject to changing political, regulatory and other influences. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (collectively, the "ACA"), enacted in March 2010, made major changes in how healthcare is delivered and reimbursed, and increased access to health insurance benefits to the uninsured and underinsured population of the United States. The ACA, among other things, required manufacturers to participate in a coverage gap discount program, under which they must agree to offer 70% point-of-sale discounts off negotiated prices of applicable brand medications to eligible beneficiaries during their coverage gap period, as a condition for the manufacturer's outpatient medications to be covered under Medicare Part D, increased the number of individuals with Medicaid and private insurance coverage, implemented reimbursement policies that tie payment to quality, facilitated the creation of accountable care organizations that may use capitation and other alternative payment methodologies, strengthened enforcement of fraud and abuse laws and encouraged the use of information technology.
Since its enactment, there have been judicial, U.S. congressional and executive branch challenges to certain aspects of the ACA. On June 17, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the most recent judicial challenge to the ACA brought by several states without specifically ruling on the constitutionality of the ACA. Thus, the ACA will remain in effect in its current form.
In addition, recently there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which pharma manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several U.S. congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to medication pricing, reduce the cost of prescription medications under government payor programs, and review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs. Most significantly, on August 16, 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the "IRA") into law. This statute marks the most significant action by Congress with respect to the pharmaceutical industry since adoption of the ACA in 2010. Among other things, the IRA requires manufacturers of certain drugs to engage in price negotiations with Medicare (beginning in 2026), with prices that can be negotiated subject to a cap; imposes rebates on manufacturers under Medicare Part B and Medicare Part D to penalize price increases that outpace inflation (first due in 2023); and replaces the Part D coverage gap discount program with a new discounting program (beginning in 2025). The IRA permits the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to implement many of these provisions through guidance, as opposed to regulation, for the initial years. On August 29, 2023, HHS announced the list of the first ten drugs that will be subject to price negotiations, although the drug price negotiation program is currently subject to legal challenges. While the impact of the IRA on the pharmaceutical industry and our business cannot yet be fully determined, it may be significant. In addition, the IRA delayed the final rule removing safe harbor protection for price reductions given by pharmaceutical manufacturers to plan sponsors under Part D, either directly or through PBMs, unless the price reduction is required by law, until 2032.
Congress and the Biden administration have and are likely to continue to scrutinize key participants in the healthcare industry, including PBMs. A number of bills have been introduced in Congress that would further regulate PBMs and impose additional requirements. The FTC has issued statements about PBMs and is engaged in a study of PBMs that will likely result in a published report. Any findings in the report may motivate further actions by Congress or the Biden administration with respect to PBM regulation.
Individual states in the United States have also increasingly passed legislation and implemented regulations designed to control medication pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access, disclosure, transparency and reporting requirements to regulatory agencies regarding marketing costs and discounts provided to patients, such as those provided through our prescription transactions offering and subscription offerings, for prescription medications dispensed by pharmacies, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. In addition, the Supreme Court held in December 2020 in Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management that ERISA, a federal statute, did not preempt an Arkansas state law that regulates PBM reimbursements to network pharmacies and other standards for PBMs' reimbursements to network pharmacies. As a result of this holding, some states have passed, and other states may pass similar legislation or may otherwise attempt to regulate PBMs, which could have impacts on the healthcare industry.
We expect that additional state and federal healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could impact the amounts that federal and state governments and other third-party payors will pay for healthcare products and services or require us to restructure our existing arrangements with PBMs and pharma manufacturers, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Regulation - Risk 6
Changes in consumer sentiment or laws, rules or regulations regarding the use of cookies and other tracking technologies and other privacy matters could have a material adverse effect on our ability to generate revenues and could adversely affect our ability to collect proprietary data on consumer behavior.Consumers may become increasingly resistant to the collection, use and sharing of information online, including information used to deliver and optimize advertising, and take steps to prevent such collection, use and sharing of information. For example, consumer complaints and/or lawsuits regarding online advertising or the use of cookies or other tracking technologies in general and our practices specifically could adversely impact our business.
Consumers can currently opt out of the placement or use of most cookies for online advertising purposes by either deleting or disabling cookies on their browsers, visiting websites that allow consumers to place an opt-out cookie on their browsers, which instructs participating entities not to use certain data about consumers' online activity for the delivery of targeted advertising, or by downloading browser plug-ins and other tools that can be set to: identify cookies and other tracking technologies used on websites; prevent websites from placing third-party cookies and other tracking technologies on the consumer's browser; or block the delivery of online advertisements on apps and websites.
Various software tools and applications have been developed that can block advertisements from a consumer's screen or allow consumers to shift the location in which advertising appears on webpages or opt out of display, search and internet-based advertising entirely. In particular, Apple's mobile operating system permits these technologies to work in its mobile Safari browser. In addition, changes in device and software features could make it easier for internet users to prevent the placement of cookies or to block other tracking technologies. In particular, the default settings of consumer devices and software may be set to prevent the placement of cookies unless the user actively elects to allow them. For example, Apple's Safari browser currently has a default setting under which third-party cookies are not accepted and users must activate a browser setting to enable cookies to be set, and Apple has announced that its new mobile operating system will require consumers to opt in to the use of Apple's resettable device identifier for advertising purposes. Additionally, Google's Chrome browser has started implementing similar changes. Various industry participants have worked to develop and finalize standards relating to a mechanism in which consumers choose whether to allow the tracking of their online search and browsing activities, and such standards may be implemented and adopted by industry participants at any time.
We currently use cookies, pixel tags and similar technologies from third-party advertising technology providers to provide and optimize our advertising. If consumer sentiment regarding privacy issues or the development and deployment of new browser solutions or other Do Not Track mechanisms result in a material increase in the number of consumers who choose to opt out or block cookies and other tracking technologies or who are otherwise using browsers where they need to, and fail to, allow the browser to accept cookies, or otherwise result in cookies or other tracking technologies not functioning properly, our ability to advertise effectively and conduct our business, and our results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected.
Litigation & Legal Liabilities2 | 2.9%
Litigation & Legal Liabilities - Risk 1
We are, and may become in the future, subject to various legal proceedings and claims that arise in or outside the ordinary course of business, which may require significant management time and attention, result in significant legal expenses and may result in unfavorable outcomes, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition, and negatively affect the price of our Class A common stock.Changed
Litigation & Legal Liabilities - Risk 2
We face the risk of litigation resulting from unauthorized text messages sent in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.We send short message service ("SMS") text messages to individuals who are eligible to use our service. The actual or perceived improper sending of text messages may subject us to potential risks, including liabilities or claims relating to consumer protection laws. Numerous class action suits under federal and state laws have been filed in recent years against companies who conduct SMS texting programs, with many resulting in multi-million-dollar settlements to the plaintiffs. We have been, and in the future may be subject to such litigation, which could be costly and time-consuming to defend. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991, a federal statute that protects consumers from unwanted telephone calls, faxes and text messages, restricts telemarketing and the use of automated SMS text messages without proper consent. Federal or state regulatory authorities or private litigants may claim that the notices and disclosures we provide, form of consents we obtain or our SMS texting practices are not adequate or violate applicable law. This has resulted and may in the future result in civil claims against us. The scope and interpretation of the laws that are or may be applicable to the delivery of text messages are continuously evolving and developing. If we do not comply with these laws or regulations or if we become liable under these laws or regulations, we could face direct liability, could be required to change some portions of our business model, could face negative publicity and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Even an unsuccessful challenge of our SMS texting practices by our consumers, regulatory authorities or other third parties could result in negative publicity and could require a costly response from and defense by us.
Taxation & Government Incentives1 | 1.4%
Taxation & Government Incentives - Risk 1
We may experience fluctuations in our tax obligations and effective income tax rate, which could materially and adversely affect our results of operations.Environmental / Social1 | 1.4%
Environmental / Social - Risk 1
Actual or perceived failures to comply with applicable data protection, privacy and security, advertising and consumer protection laws, regulations, standards and other requirements could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.Production
Total Risks: 3/70 (4%)Below Sector Average
Employment / Personnel1 | 1.4%
Employment / Personnel - Risk 1
We rely on the performance of members of management and highly skilled personnel, and if we are unable to attract, develop, motivate and retain well-qualified employees, our business could be harmed.Supply Chain2 | 2.9%
Supply Chain - Risk 1
We depend on our relationships with third parties and would be adversely impacted by system failures or other disruptions in the operations of these parties.Supply Chain - Risk 2
We rely on third-party platforms such as the Apple App Store and Google Play App Store, to distribute our platform and offerings.Our apps are accessed and operate through third-party platforms or marketplaces, including the Apple App Store and Google Play App Store, which also serve as significant online distribution platforms for our apps. As a result, the expansion and prospects of our business and our apps depend on our continued relationships with these providers and any other emerging platform providers that are widely adopted by consumers. We are subject to the standard terms and conditions that these providers have for application developers, which govern the content, promotion, distribution and operation of apps on their platforms or marketplaces, and which the providers can change unilaterally on short or no notice. Our business would be harmed if the providers discontinue or limit our access to their platforms or marketplaces; the platforms or marketplaces decline in popularity; the platforms modify their algorithms, communication channels available to developers, respective terms of service or other policies, including fees; the providers adopt changes or updates to their technology that impede integration with other software systems or otherwise require us to modify our technology or update our apps in order to ensure that consumers can continue to access and use our GoodRx codes and pricing information.
If alternative providers increase in popularity, we could be adversely impacted if we fail to create compatible versions of our apps in a timely manner, or if we fail to establish a relationship with such alternative providers. Likewise, if our current providers alter their operating platforms, we could be adversely impacted as our offerings may not be compatible with the altered platforms or may require significant and costly modifications in order to become compatible. If our providers do not perform their obligations in accordance with our platform agreements, we could be adversely impacted.
In the past, some of these platforms or marketplaces have been unavailable for short periods of time. If this or a similar event were to occur on a short- or long-term basis, or if these platforms or marketplaces otherwise experience issues that impact the ability of consumers to download or access our apps and other information, it could have a material adverse effect on our brand and reputation, as well as our business, financial condition and operating results.
Macro & Political
Total Risks: 3/70 (4%)Below Sector Average
Economy & Political Environment1 | 1.4%
Economy & Political Environment - Risk 1
General economic factors, natural disasters or other unexpected events may adversely affect our business, financial performance and results of operations.Natural and Human Disruptions2 | 2.9%
Natural and Human Disruptions - Risk 1
We are subject to a series of risks related to climate change.Natural and Human Disruptions - Risk 2
A pandemic, epidemic or outbreak of an infectious disease in the United States, such as an outbreak of COVID-19, has adversely impacted and could in the future adversely impact our business.Changed
The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically impacted global health and has had a sustained impact on the macroeconomic environment, including by increasing economic uncertainty. GoodRx has continued to monitor and respond to the effects of COVID-19 and its variants on its employees, customers and business operations. During 2020 and 2021, in addition to various other government restrictions, governmental authorities recommended, and in certain cases, required, that elective or other medical appointments be suspended or cancelled to avoid non-essential patient exposure to medical environments and potential infection. These and other measures not only negatively impacted consumer spending and business spending habits, they adversely impacted our workforce and operations and the operations of healthcare professionals, pharmacies, consumers, PBMs and others in the broader healthcare ecosystem. In May 2023, the federal public health emergency declarations related to the COVID-19 pandemic expired. Although measures to contain COVID-19 have largely eased, the lasting effect of the pandemic's business disruption and its continued financial impact depend on factors beyond our knowledge and control.
Various government measures, community self-isolation practices and shelter-in-place requirements, as well as the perceived need by individuals to continue such practices to avoid infection, have, at times, reduced the extent to which consumers visit healthcare professionals in-person, seek treatment for certain conditions or ailments, and receive and fill new prescriptions. Consumers may also increasingly elect to receive prescriptions by mail delivery instead of at the pharmacy, which could have an adverse impact on our prescription transactions offering. In addition, many pharmacies and healthcare providers have, at times, reduced staffing, closed locations or otherwise limited operations, and many prescribing healthcare professionals have reduced or postponed treatment of certain patients. The number of Monthly Active Consumers and our prescription transactions offering were adversely impacted principally in the second quarter of 2020 by consumers' decisions to avoid visiting healthcare professionals and pharmacies in-person, which we believe has had a similar effect across the industry. The effect of COVID-19 on the number of our Monthly Active Consumers has lessened over time, but remains uncertain. Any future decrease in the number of consumers seeking to fill prescriptions could negatively impact demand for and use of certain of our offerings, particularly our prescription and subscription offerings, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The spread of COVID-19 has also caused us to modify our business practices (including employee travel, employee work locations, and the cancellation of physical participation in meetings, events and conferences), and we may take further actions, which may have an adverse impact on our business. For example, we implemented work-from-home measures, which required us to provide technical support to our employees to enable them to connect to our systems from their homes. We may experience an increased risk of security breaches, loss of data, and other disruptions as a result of accessing sensitive information from remote locations.
While the potential economic impact brought by and the duration of any pandemic, epidemic or outbreak of an infectious disease, including COVID-19, may be difficult to assess or predict, the widespread COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in, and may continue to result in, significant disruption of global financial markets, reducing our ability to access capital or to do so on favorable terms, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, we may still experience materially adverse impacts to our business as a result of its continued global economic impact, including any recession that has occurred or may occur in the future as well as similar impacts from other future pandemics or outbreaks of disease.
To the extent a pandemic, epidemic or outbreak of an infectious disease, including COVID-19, adversely affects our business, financial condition and results of operations, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors."
See a full breakdown of risk according to category and subcategory. The list starts with the category with the most risk. Click on subcategories to read relevant extracts from the most recent report.
FAQ
What are “Risk Factors”?
Risk factors are any situations or occurrences that could make investing in a company risky.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires that publicly traded companies disclose their most significant risk factors. This is so that potential investors can consider any risks before they make an investment.
They also offer companies protection, as a company can use risk factors as liability protection. This could happen if a company underperforms and investors take legal action as a result.
It is worth noting that smaller companies, that is those with a public float of under $75 million on the last business day, do not have to include risk factors in their 10-K and 10-Q forms, although some may choose to do so.
How do companies disclose their risk factors?
Publicly traded companies initially disclose their risk factors to the SEC through their S-1 filings as part of the IPO process.
Additionally, companies must provide a complete list of risk factors in their Annual Reports (Form 10-K) or (Form 20-F) for “foreign private issuers”.
Quarterly Reports also include a section on risk factors (Form 10-Q) where companies are only required to update any changes since the previous report.
According to the SEC, risk factors should be reported concisely, logically and in “plain English” so investors can understand them.
How can I use TipRanks risk factors in my stock research?
Use the Risk Factors tab to get data about the risk factors of any company in which you are considering investing.
You can easily see the most significant risks a company is facing. Additionally, you can find out which risk factors a company has added, removed or adjusted since its previous disclosure. You can also see how a company’s risk factors compare to others in its sector.
Without reading company reports or participating in conference calls, you would most likely not have access to this sort of information, which is usually not included in press releases or other public announcements.
A simplified analysis of risk factors is unique to TipRanks.
What are all the risk factor categories?
TipRanks has identified 6 major categories of risk factors and a number of subcategories for each. You can see how these categories are broken down in the list below.
1. Financial & Corporate
- Accounting & Financial Operations - risks related to accounting loss, value of intangible assets, financial statements, value of intangible assets, financial reporting, estimates, guidance, company profitability, dividends, fluctuating results.
- Share Price & Shareholder Rights – risks related to things that impact share prices and the rights of shareholders, including analyst ratings, major shareholder activity, trade volatility, liquidity of shares, anti-takeover provisions, international listing, dual listing.
- Debt & Financing – risks related to debt, funding, financing and interest rates, financial investments.
- Corporate Activity and Growth – risks related to restructuring, M&As, joint ventures, execution of corporate strategy, strategic alliances.
2. Legal & Regulatory
- Litigation and Legal Liabilities – risks related to litigation/ lawsuits against the company.
- Regulation – risks related to compliance, GDPR, and new legislation.
- Environmental / Social – risks related to environmental regulation and to data privacy.
- Taxation & Government Incentives – risks related to taxation and changes in government incentives.
3. Production
- Costs – risks related to costs of production including commodity prices, future contracts, inventory.
- Supply Chain – risks related to the company’s suppliers.
- Manufacturing – risks related to the company’s manufacturing process including product quality and product recalls.
- Human Capital – risks related to recruitment, training and retention of key employees, employee relationships & unions labor disputes, pension, and post retirement benefits, medical, health and welfare benefits, employee misconduct, employee litigation.
4. Technology & Innovation
- Innovation / R&D – risks related to innovation and new product development.
- Technology – risks related to the company’s reliance on technology.
- Cyber Security – risks related to securing the company’s digital assets and from cyber attacks.
- Trade Secrets & Patents – risks related to the company’s ability to protect its intellectual property and to infringement claims against the company as well as piracy and unlicensed copying.
5. Ability to Sell
- Demand – risks related to the demand of the company’s goods and services including seasonality, reliance on key customers.
- Competition – risks related to the company’s competition including substitutes.
- Sales & Marketing – risks related to sales, marketing, and distribution channels, pricing, and market penetration.
- Brand & Reputation – risks related to the company’s brand and reputation.
6. Macro & Political
- Economy & Political Environment – risks related to changes in economic and political conditions.
- Natural and Human Disruptions – risks related to catastrophes, floods, storms, terror, earthquakes, coronavirus pandemic/COVID-19.
- International Operations – risks related to the global nature of the company.
- Capital Markets – risks related to exchange rates and trade, cryptocurrency.