MIND CTI (MNDO) Risk Analysis

All the markets we operate in are significantly fragmented and highly competitive. The principal competitive factors in our market include completeness of offering, global reach, ease of integration, product features, platform scalability, reliability, security and performance, brand awareness and reputation, the strength of sales and marketing efforts, customer support, as well as the cost of deploying and using our products. Some of our competitors are larger and have greater name recognition, longer operating histories, more established customer relationships, larger budgets and significantly greater resources than we do. In addition, they have the operating flexibility to bundle competing products and services at little or no perceived incremental cost, including offering them at a lower price as part of a larger sales transaction. As a result, our competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards or customer requirements. In addition, some competitors may offer products or services that address one or a limited number of functions at lower prices, with greater depth than our products or in different geographies. Our current and potential competitors may develop and market new products and services with comparable functionality to our products, and this could lead to us having to decrease prices in order to remain competitive. With the introduction of new products and technologies and new market entrants, we expect competition to intensify in the future. Some of our competitors have lower list prices than ours, which may be attractive to certain customers even if those products have different or lesser functionality. Pricing pressures and increased competition could result in reduced revenue, reduced margins, increased losses, any of which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our results of operations, including the levels of our revenues, cost of revenues, gross margins and operating expenses, have fluctuated from quarter to quarter in the past and may continue to vary significantly in the future. These fluctuations are a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control, may be difficult to predict and may or may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business. Our operating results may vary significantly from quarter to quarter due to a number of factors, including the following: - our ability to retain and increase revenue from existing customers and attract new customers;- our ability to introduce new products and enhance existing products;- competition and the actions of our competitors, including pricing changes and the introduction of new products, services and geographies;- changes in network service provider fees that we pay in connection with the delivery of communication services on our messaging platforms;- changes in foreign currency exchange rates;- expenses in connection with mergers, acquisitions or other strategic transactions;- potential termination of contracts by our customers; and - changes in our pricing policies. Due to all of the foregoing, we cannot predict revenues for any future quarter with any significant degree of accuracy. Accordingly, we believe that period-to-period comparisons of our operating results are not necessarily meaningful, and you should not rely upon them as indications of future performance. Accordingly, in the event of a revenue shortfall, we may not be able to mitigate the negative impact on our operating results and margins in the short term. If we fail to meet or exceed the expectations of investors, we could face costly lawsuits, including securities class action suits. In future quarters, our operating results may be below the expectations of public market analysts and investors, and as a result, the price of our ordinary shares may fall.

We and our customers that use our products may be subject to privacy and data protection-related laws and regulations that impose obligations in connection with the collection, processing and use of personal data, financial data, health or other similar data. The U.S. federal and various state and foreign governments have adopted or proposed limitations on, or requirements regarding, the collection, distribution, use, security and storage of personally identifiable information of individuals. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and numerous state attorneys general are applying federal and state consumer protection laws to impose standards on the online collection, use and dissemination of data, and to the security measures applied to such data. Similarly, many foreign countries and governmental bodies, including the European Union, or the EU, member states, have laws and regulations concerning the collection and use of personally identifiable information obtained from individuals located in the EU or by businesses operating within their jurisdiction, which are often more restrictive than those in the United States. Laws and regulations in these jurisdictions apply broadly to the collection, use, storage, disclosure and security of personally identifiable information that identifies or may be used to identify an individual, such as names, telephone numbers, email addresses and, in some jurisdictions, IP addresses and other online identifiers. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, took effect in the EU on May 25, 2018. The GDPR enhances data protection obligations for businesses and requires service providers (data processors) processing personal data on behalf of customers to cooperate with European data protection authorities, implement security measures and keep records of personal data processing activities. Noncompliance with the GDPR can trigger fines equal to or greater of €20 million or 4% of global annual revenues. There are also additional EU laws and regulations (and member states implementations thereof) which govern the protection of consumers and of electronic communications. If our efforts to comply with GDPR or other applicable EU laws and regulations are not successful, we may be subject to penalties and fines that would adversely impact our business and results of operations, and our ability to conduct business in the EU could be significantly impaired. As well, we continue to see jurisdictions imposing data localization laws, which require personal information, or certain subcategories of personal information to be stored in the jurisdiction of origin. These regulations may inhibit our ability to expand into those markets or prohibit us from continuing to offer services in those markets without significant additional costs. The uncertainty and changes in the requirements of multiple jurisdictions may increase the cost of compliance, delay or reduce demand for our services, restrict our ability to offer services in certain locations, impact our customers' ability to deploy our solutions in certain jurisdictions, or subject us to sanctions, by national data protection regulators, all of which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, although we endeavor to have our products and platform comply with applicable laws and regulations, these and other obligations may be modified, they may be interpreted and applied in an inconsistent manner from one jurisdiction to another, and they may conflict with one another, other regulatory requirements, contractual commitments or our internal practices. We also may be bound by contractual obligations relating to our collection, use and disclosure of personal, financial and other data or may find it necessary or desirable to join industry or other self-regulatory bodies or other privacy or data protection-related organizations that require compliance with their rules pertaining to privacy and data protection. We expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws, rules of self-regulatory bodies, regulations and industry standards concerning privacy, data protection and information security in the U.S., the EU and other jurisdictions, and we cannot yet determine the impact such future laws, rules, regulations and standards may have on our business. Moreover, existing U.S. federal and various state and foreign privacy and data protection-related laws and regulations are evolving and subject to potentially differing interpretations, and various legislative and regulatory bodies may expand current or enact new laws and regulations regarding privacy and data protection-related matters. Because global laws, regulations and industry standards concerning privacy and data security have continued to develop and evolve rapidly, it is possible that we or our products or platform may not be, or may not have been, compliant with each such applicable law, regulation and industry standard and compliance with such new laws or to changes to existing laws may impact our business and practices, require us to expend significant resources to adapt to these changes, or to stop offering our products in certain countries. These developments could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Any failure or perceived failure by us, our products or our platform to comply with new or existing U.S., EU or other foreign privacy or data security laws, regulations, policies, industry standards or legal obligations, or any security incident that results in the unauthorized access to, or acquisition, release or transfer of, personally identifiable information or other customer data may result in governmental investigations, inquiries, enforcement actions and prosecutions, private litigation, fines and penalties, adverse publicity or potential loss of business.

We currently interconnect with network service providers around the world to enable the use by our customers of our messaging products over their networks. We expect that we will continue to rely heavily on network service providers for these services going forward. Our reliance on network service providers has reduced our operating flexibility, ability to make timely service changes and control quality of service. In addition, the fees that we are charged by network service providers may change daily or weekly, while we do not typically change our customers' pricing as rapidly. Furthermore, many of these network service providers do not have long-term committed contracts with us and may terminate their agreements with us without notice or restriction. If a significant portion of our network service providers stop providing us with access to their infrastructure, fail to provide these services to us on a cost-effective basis, cease operations or otherwise terminate these services, the delay caused by qualifying and switching to other network service providers could be time consuming and costly and could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Further, if problems occur with our network service providers, it may cause errors or poor-quality communications with our products, and we could encounter difficulty identifying the source of the problem. The occurrence of errors or poor quality communications on our messaging products, whether caused by our platform or a network service provider, may result in the loss of our existing customers or the delay of adoption of our products by potential customers and may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

As an Israeli company subject to U.S. federal securities laws, we spend a significant amount of management time and resources to comply with laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, regulations, Nasdaq listing rules and the Israeli Companies Law, 1999, or the Companies Law, or the Israeli Companies Law. In connection with our compliance with Section 404 and the other applicable provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, our management and other personnel devote a substantial amount of time to assure that we continue to comply with these requirements. There is no guarantee that these efforts will result in management assurance that our internal control over financial reporting is adequate in future periods. If our internal controls are found to be ineffective in future periods, it could harm our operations, financial reporting or financial results. Since we are a public company in the United States, the cost of our directors' and officers' liability insurance has significantly increased over recent years, as a result of which we have decided to purchase minimal coverage insurance. Our directors and officers rely on indemnification agreements provided by us. Accordingly, any lawsuits against our directors and officers could result in expensive legal expenses, settlements and judgments that we would be required to bear, which would harm our financial condition.

While the vast majority of our employees are located outside of Israel, most of our senior management is located in Israel. Accordingly, our operating results may be directly influenced by economic, political and military conditions in and relating to Israel. Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, a number of armed conflicts have taken place between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Hamas (an Islamist militia and political group in the Gaza Strip) and Hezbollah (an Islamist militia and political group in Lebanon). In addition, Iran has threatened to attack Israel and is believed to be developing nuclear weapons. Iran is also believed to have a strong influence among parties hostile to Israel in areas that neighbor Israel, such as the Syrian government, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Any armed conflicts or political instability in the region, including an increase in the degree of violence between Israel and the Palestinians, could negatively affect business conditions and harm our results of operations. Furthermore, several countries, companies and trade groups restrict business with Israel and Israeli companies, and additional countries, companies and trade groups may restrict doing business with Israel and Israeli companies for political reasons. These restrictive laws and policies may seriously harm our operating results, financial condition, or the expansion of our business. The situation in Israel or the region could adversely affect our operations if our customers and/or strategic partners believe that instability could affect our ability to fulfill our commitments. In October 2023, thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded Israel's southern border towns near the Gaza Strip and carried out attacks on civilian and military targets that were extraordinary in scale and brutality. Hamas and other terrorist groups also launched extensive rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip against civilian targets in various parts of Israel. As a result, Israel declared war against Hamas, called up hundreds of thousands of reserve soldiers and launched an extensive military campaign against them. In parallel, border clashes between Israel and the Hezbollah terrorist group on Israel's northern border with Lebanon have intensified and may escalate into a greater regional conflict. To date, our business and operations have not been adversely affected by the war. We have back-up IT systems and remote work ability that we expect will enable our operations to function well in the event of an emergency.

Our sales are made in many countries, with different legislation and complex taxation rules and in many states in the United States. Managing our existing international operations and additional international markets requires significant management attention and financial resources. Our ability to penetrate some international markets may be limited due to different technical standards, protocols and requirements for our products in different markets. In addition, conducting our business internationally subjects us to a number of risks, including: - the burden of compliance with a wide variety of foreign laws and regulations;- staffing and managing foreign operations; and - adverse effects of political and economic instability.

Approximately 53% of our revenues are denominated in Euro, and approximately 43% in U.S. dollars, or dollar. Approximately 12% of our expenses are incurred in New Israeli Shekel, or NIS, and approximately 74% in Euro or linked to the Euro. At the same time, the majority of our cash reserves and investments are denominated in dollars, and our financial statements are denominated in dollars. As a result, we may be negatively affected by fluctuations in the exchange rates between the Euro or the NIS and the dollar. We cannot predict any future trends in the rate of devaluation or appreciation of the NIS or of the Euro against the dollar. If the dollar cost of our operations in Israel increases, our dollar-measured results of operations will be adversely affected. We may choose to limit these exposures by entering into hedging transactions. However, hedging transactions may not enable us to avoid exchange-related losses, and our business may be harmed by exchange rate fluctuations.