V2X (VVX) Risk Factors

We are subject to various taxes, including but not limited to income, gross receipts and payroll withholding taxes in the U.S. and many foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision or benefit for taxes. In the ordinary course of our business, there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Furthermore, changes in domestic or foreign tax laws and regulations, or their interpretation and enforcement, could result in higher or lower taxes assessed or changes in the taxability of certain revenue or the deductibility of certain expenses, thereby affecting our tax expense and profitability. See Note 13, Income Taxes, in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information. In addition, we regularly are under audit by tax authorities. The final determination of tax audits and any related litigation could be materially different from our historical tax provisions and accruals. Additionally, changes in the geographic mix of our revenue, including certain additional foreign taxes resulting from the Merger, could also impact our tax liabilities and affect our overall tax expense and profitability.

Our project sites often put our employees and others in close proximity with mechanized equipment, moving vehicles, and highly regulated materials. Additionally, global pandemics, such as COVID-19, could introduce additional risks to our worksites requiring additional policies and procedures. Although we have safety procedures in place, if we fail to implement them, or if the procedures we implement are ineffective or insufficient, we may suffer the loss of or injury to our employees, as well as expose ourselves to possible litigation. As a result, our failure to maintain adequate safety standards and equipment, as well as the nature of the environment in which we conduct business, could result in employee deaths or injuries, environmental disasters, reduced profitability, or the loss of projects or customers, any of which could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and reputation.

Our business is highly competitive, and we compete with larger companies that have greater name recognition, greater financial resources, and larger technical staff, as well as companies with a competitive advantage due to a small business designation. Within our industry, companies have engaged in mergers and acquisitions to increase their competitive position. Our competitors may provide our customers with different or greater capabilities or better contract terms than we can provide, including past contract experience, geographic presence, price, and the availability of qualified professional personnel. In addition, our competitors may consolidate or establish teaming or other relationships among themselves or with third parties to increase their ability to address customers' needs. Even if we are qualified to work on a government contract, we may not be awarded the contract because of existing government policies designed to assist small businesses and other designated classifications of business, such as under-represented minority contractors. Accordingly, larger or new competitors, alliances among competitors, or competitors designated as small business contractors may emerge that may adversely affect our ability to compete. If we are unable to compete successfully against our current or future competitors, we may experience declines in revenue and market share, which could negatively impact our financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.

We design and develop technologically advanced and innovative products and services applied by our customers in various environments. The needs of our customers change and evolve regularly and in particular by complex and rapidly evolving technologies, such as advanced forms of artificial intelligence. Our success depends upon our ability to identify emerging technological trends, develop technologically advanced, innovative and cost-effective products and services and market these products and services to our customers. Our success also depends on our continued access to suppliers of important technologies and components. If we are unable to develop and implement these initiatives in a cost-effective, timely manner or at all, it could damage our relationships with our customers and negatively impact our financial condition and results of operations. There can be no assurance that others will not acquire similar or superior technologies sooner than we do or that we will acquire technologies on an exclusive basis or at a significant price advantage. If we do not accurately predict, prepare and respond to new technology innovations, market developments and changing customer needs, our revenues, profitability and long-term competitiveness could be materially adversely affected.

Our success is dependent, in part, on our ability to utilize technology to differentiate our services from our competitors. We rely on a combination of patents, confidentiality agreements and other contractual arrangements, as well as copyright, trademark, patent and trade secret laws, to protect our intellectual property rights and interests. However, these methods only provide a limited amount of protection and may not adequately protect our intellectual property rights and interests. Our employees, contractors and joint venture partners are subject to confidentiality obligations, but this protection may be inadequate to deter or prevent misappropriation of our confidential information and/or infringement of our intellectual property rights. Further, we may be unable to detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property or otherwise take appropriate steps to enforce our rights. Failure to adequately protect, maintain or enforce our intellectual property rights may adversely limit our competitive position. We cannot provide assurances that others will not independently develop technology substantially similar to our protected technology or that we can successfully preserve our intellectual property rights in the future. Our intellectual property rights could be invalidated, circumvented, challenged, misappropriated or infringed upon. Any infringement, misappropriation or related claims, whether meritorious or not, are time consuming, divert technical and management personnel, are expensive to resolve, and the outcome is unpredictable. As a result of any such dispute, we may have to develop non-infringing technology, pay damages, enter into royalty or licensing agreements, cease utilizing certain products or services or take other actions to resolve the claims. These actions, if required, may be costly or unavailable on terms acceptable to us. If we are unable to prevail in the litigation or retain or obtain sufficient rights or develop non-infringing intellectual property or otherwise alter our business practices on a timely or cost-efficient basis, our business and operating results may be adversely affected. In addition, our clients or other third parties may also provide us with their technology and intellectual property. There is a risk that we may not sufficiently protect our or their information from improper use or dissemination and, as a result, could be subject to claims and litigation and resulting liabilities, loss of contracts or other consequences that could have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operation. We also hold licenses from third parties which may be utilized in our business operations. If we are no longer able to license such technology on commercially reasonable terms or otherwise, our business and financial performance could be adversely affected.

As a U.S. defense contractor, various privacy and security laws require us to protect sensitive, confidential, and controlled unclassified information from disclosure both for us and others. Cybersecurity risks continue to increase as various threat actors including nation states and hackers, focus efforts to compromise our operational and developmental information technology infrastructure. These threat actors attempt to gain access to sensitive, confidential, proprietary or controlled unclassified information, and may pose threats to physical security. We and our suppliers face a continual risk associated with security events or disruptions, cybersecurity attacks and cyber intrusions by computer hackers, foreign governments, and cyber terrorists as attack vectors and technologies advance in sophistication, including from emerging technologies. In connection with the information technology and network communications services that we provide to our customers, we also may encounter cybersecurity threats at customer sites that we operate. We face an added risk of a security event or other significant disruption of our information technology systems and related systems that we develop, install, operate and maintain for our customers, which may involve managing and protecting controlled unclassified information relating to national security and other sensitive government functions or personally identifiable or protected health information. Cybersecurity risks are significant and continue to evolve. They include, among others, phishing attempts, ransomware, malware and zero-day attacks attempting to gain unauthorized access to systems or data. Other electronic security events could lead to disruptions in mission critical systems, unauthorized release of personal identifiable information, confidential or otherwise protected unclassified information and corruption of data. In addition to security risks listed, we are also subject to other systems failures, including network, software or hardware failures, whether caused by us, third-party service providers, natural disasters, power shortages, terrorist attacks or other events. Our systems reside within cloud service environments which presents various risks, including platform and software as a service providers' inability to identify or quantify, in a timely manner, specific problems that affect the business functions which impact V2X. Integration and sustainment of existing or new information technology systems, carry a high risk of delays or integration failures. Such delays, failures, or impacts from security events or disruptions described above, could result in loss of revenues, product development delays, compromise, corruption or loss of confidential, proprietary or sensitive information (including personal information or controlled unclassified information), remediation costs, indemnity obligations and other potential liabilities, regulatory or government action, breach of contract claims, contract termination, class action or individual lawsuits from affected parties, negative media attention, reputational damage, and loss of confidence from our government clients. Any of the foregoing could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition or operations, and our insurance and other risk mitigation mechanisms may not be sufficient to recover the costs.

We utilize, develop, install and maintain a number of information technology systems both for us and for our customers. Additionally, we utilize and rely on external systems maintained by our service providers, including using a managed service provider (MSP) to administer our systems and servers. We also contract with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers to provide core company services such as for enterprise resource planning, human capital management, and contract lifecycle management. These activities may involve substantial risks to our ongoing business processes including, but not limited to, accurate and timely customer invoicing, employee payroll processing, supplier and vendor payment processing, supply chain management and financial reporting. If these implementation activities are not executed successfully or if we encounter significant delays in our implementation efforts, we could experience interruptions to our business processes. Under certain contracts with the U.S. government, the adequacy of our business processes and protections of controlled unclassified information on related systems could be called into question. The occurrence of such events could result in a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

We have operations located in regions of the U.S. and internationally that may be exposed to natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, flooding, wildfires or earthquakes. Our business could also be disrupted by national or international crises or hostilities and pandemics, such as COVID-19. Although preventative measures may help mitigate the damage from such occurrences, impacts on our supply chain and the damage and disruption to our business resulting from any of these events may be significant. If our insurance and other risk mitigation mechanisms are not sufficient to recover all costs, including loss of revenue from sales to customers, we could experience a material adverse effect on our financial position and results of operations. There is also an increasing concern over the risks of climate change and related environmental sustainability matters. In addition to physical risks, climate change risk includes longer-term shifts in climate patterns, such as extreme heat, sea level rise, and more frequent and prolonged drought. Such events could disrupt our operations or those of our customers or third parties on which we rely, including through direct damage to assets and indirect impacts from supply chain disruption and market volatility.