Exela Technologies, Inc. - Annual Report: 2018 (Form 10-K)

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10‑K

(Mark One)

☒          ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018

or

◻          TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from                   to                   

Commission File Number: 001‑36788

EXELA TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

 

Registrant's Telephone Number, Including Area Code: (844) 935-2832

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

 

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. ☐  Yes ☒   No

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. ☐  Yes ☒  No

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant (1) has filed all reports required by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. ☒ Yes ☐ No

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit such files). ☒ Yes ☐ No

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of Registrant's knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10‑K. ☒

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

 

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). ☐  Yes  ☒  No

The aggregate market value of the Registrant’s voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the Registrant, computed by reference to the price at which such voting common equity was last sold as of June 30, 2018, was approximately  $97,579,074 (based on a closing price of $4.75). As a result, the Registrant is an accelerated filer as of December 31, 2018. For purposes of this computation, shares of the voting common equity beneficially owned by each executive officer and director of the Registrant disclosed in the Registrant's Definitive Proxy Statement on Schedule 14A, filed with the SEC on May 9, 2018 were deemed to be owned by affiliates of the Registrant as of June 30, 2018. Such determination should not be deemed an admission that such executive officers and directors are, in fact, affiliates of the Registrant or affiliates as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. As of March 11, 2019, the Registrant had 150,142,095 shares of common stock outstanding.

 

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

 

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD‑LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10‑K (“Annual Report”) are not historical facts but are forward‑looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward‑looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “may”, “should”, “would”, “plan”, “intend”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “predict”, “potential”, “seem”, “seek”, “continue”, “future”, “will”, “expect”, “outlook” or other similar words, phrases or expressions. These forward‑looking statements include statements regarding our industry, future events, the estimated or anticipated future results and benefits of the Novitex Business Combination, future opportunities for the combined company, and other statements that are not historical facts. These statements are based on the current expectations of Exela management and are not predictions of actual performance. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties regarding Exela’s businesses, and actual results may differ materially. The factors that may affect our results include, among others: the impact of political and economic conditions on the demand for our services; the impact of a data or security breach; the impact of competition or alternatives to our services on our business pricing and other actions by competitors; our ability to address technological development and change in order to keep pace with our industry and the industries of our customers; the impact of terrorism, natural disasters or similar events on our business; the effect of legislative and regulatory actions in the United States and internationally; the impact of operational failure due to the unavailability or failure of third‑party services on which we rely; the effect of intellectual property infringement; and other factors discussed in this report under the headings “Risk Factors”, “Legal Proceedings”, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and otherwise identified or discussed in this Annual Report. You should consider these factors carefully in evaluating forward‑looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements, which speak only as of the date of this report. It is impossible for us to predict new events or circumstances that may arise in the future or how they may affect us. We undertake no obligation to update forward‑looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this report. We are not including the information provided on the websites referenced herein as part of, or incorporating such information by reference into, this Annual Report. In addition, forward‑looking statements provide Exela’s expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this report. Exela anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Exela’s assessments to change. These forward‑looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Exela’s assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this report.

DEFINED TERMS

In this Annual Report, we use the terms “Company”, “we”, “us”, or “our” to refer to Exela Technologies, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries, and where applicable, our predecessors SourceHOV and Novitex prior to the closing of the Novitex Business Combination. “Following is a glossary of other abbreviations and acronyms that are found in this Annual Report.”

 “Apollo” means Apollo Global Management, LLC, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, as applicable

“BPA” means business process automation.

“BPO” means business process outsourcing

 “Code” means the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.

“Common Stock” means the common stock of the Company, par value $0.0001.

“EIM” means enterprise information management,

“Exchange Act” means the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

“GAAP” means generally accepted accounting principles in the United States.

“HGM Group” means, collectively, HOVS LLC and HandsOn Fund 4 I, LLC and certain of their respective affiliates.

“HITECH Act of 2009” means the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, enacted under Title XIII of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

“HIPAA” means the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.

“IT” mean information technology.

“JOBS Act” means the Jumpstart our Business Startups Act.

“MegaCenter” means the Company’s Tier‑III document processing and outsourcing centers in Windsor, Connecticut, and Austin, Texas.

“Nasdaq” means The Nasdaq Stock Market.

“Novitex” means Novitex Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

“Novitex Business Combination” means the transactions contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement, which closed on July 12, 2017 and resulted in SourceHOV and Novitex becoming our wholly‑owned subsidiaries and the financing transactions in connection therewith.

“Novitex Business Combination Agreement” means that certain Business Combination Agreement, dated February 21, 2017, among Quinpario Merger Sub I, Inc. (“SourceHOV Merger Sub”), the Company, Quinpario Merger Sub II, Inc. (“Novitex Merger Sub”), SourceHOV, Novitex, HOVS LLC, HandsOn Fund 4 I, LLC and Novitex Parent, L.P., as amended by that certain Consent, Waiver and Amendment, dated June 15, 2017, by and among the Company, SourceHOV Merger Sub, Novitex Merger Sub, SourceHOV, Novitex, Novitex Parent, Ex‑Sigma LLC, HOVS LLC and HandsOn Fund 4 I, LLC.

 “Novitex Holdings” means Apollo Novitex Holdings, L.P., a Delaware limited partnership, which is owned and controlled by certain funds managed by affiliates of Apollo.

“Novitex Parent” means Novitex Parent, L.P., a Delaware limited partnership, which is owned and controlled by certain funds managed by affiliates of Apollo.

“PCIDSS” means the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

“PIPE Investment” means the sale of shares of Common Stock in the private placement transaction of Common Stock entered into in connection with the Novitex Business Combination.

“Quinpario” means Quinpario Acquisition Corp. 2, a Delaware corporation.

“SEC” means the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Securities Act” means the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

“SourceHOV” means SourceHOV Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

“TCJA” means the Tax Cut and Jobs Act.

“TPS” means transaction processing solutions.

 

PART I

ITEM 1.   BUSINESS

Exela is a business process automation leader leveraging a global footprint and proprietary technology to help turn the complex into the simple through user friendly software platforms and solutions that enable our customers’ digital transformation.  We have decades of expertise earned from serving many of the world’s largest enterprises, including over 60% of the Fortune® 100 and in many mission critical environments across multiple industries, including banking, healthcare, insurance and manufacturing.  For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018, we generated $1.586 billion of revenue from over 4,000 customers throughout the world.

Exela’s portals provide on-demand multi industry and departmental solutions and services alongside industry specific solutions.

Our solutions and services touch multiple elements within a customer’s organization.  We use a global delivery model and primarily host solutions in our data centers, on the cloud or directly from our customers’ premises. Our approximately 22,000 employees as of December 31, 2018 operate from business facilities in 23 countries, with some of our employees co-located at our customers’ facilities.  Our solutions are location agnostic, and we believe the combination of our hybrid hosted solutions and global work force in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa offers a meaningful differentiation in the industries we serve and services we provide.

We will continue to further expand our solutions and services for the industries we serve, with a focus on connecting the front, middle and the back office.  We believe this positions us as one of the few companies that can offer solutions and services that span from multi-industry, departmental solutions to industry specific solutions. 

 

Our Solutions and Services

Our suite of offerings combines platform modules for finance and accounting services, enterprise information management, robotic process automation, digitial mailroom, business process management and workflow automation, visualization and analytics, contract management and legal management solutions, and integrated communication services which contribute to revenues across our organization and accounting segments and also complement our core industry solutions for banking, insurance, healthcare and the public sector.

Finance and Accounting Solution (F&A)

Exela offers a suite of finance and accounting (“F&A”) solutions addressing the payments lifecycle from procure to pay (“P2P”) and record-to-report (“R2R”) to order to cash (“O2C”). We use our own technology and our global operations to deliver these solutions.

Our P2P services can be integrated with our digital mail room technology, which expands our ability to support existing data types and formats. In effect, both digital and analog items can enter this information stream. The process kicks off by opening of a requisition, once approved it moves to procurement to solicit bids from an approved supplier network. We believe that supporting our customers by making available our supplier network can be a key differentiator in enabling a complete P2P solution. Our P2P platform also records receipt of goods and invoices and performs three way matching digitally. Exceptions are processed by our employees, and once approved, we record the purchase in a customer’s enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) system, so it can be paid. We then use our system to generate and deliver a payment file in the format the bank needs so a payment can be processed.  Some of our customers also authorize us to process the payment on their behalf.

Our O2C solutions enable consolidation of inbound payment channels and data continuity to drive digital adoption and enhanced treasury management including, integrated receivables dashboards, multi-channel bill

presentment and payment, reconciliation, exception and dispute management, aging analytics, collections management and targeted engagements.    The full process includes fulfillment of a customer order, raising an invoice according to customer contracts, accounts receivable management and collections.  Our mission is to continue to expand our offerings such that we can act as single vendor for these services among our customer base.

Our F&A services include spend analytics and data mining tools for financial planning and analysis to support reporting and audit functions, interchanges and robotics providing automation of ERP entries and regulatory reporting, fixed asset management and tax benefits management. 

Enterprise Information Management (EIM)

Exela’s enterprise information management solutions ingest and organize large amounts of data across many data types and formats and store the information in cloud enabled proprietary platforms. We also gather transactional data from enterprise systems for similar hosting. The collected, extracted data is used to complete a process, and is then made available to our customers and their end-consumers for an agreed upon period of time.  We derive revenue for such hosting and access.

Our EIM systems host billions of mission critical records for our customers and the total number of records is rising.   An example of a large deployment of our EIM platform is to enable online records access to over 48 million end-customers of a group of European savings banks for deposits, statements, and car and personal loans and mortgages. Another example of EIM deployment is in the hosting of images of healthcare records, checks and payroll taxes for many years for compliance and internal information purposes.

We often host both digital and paper records for our customers, and offer release of information services according to guidelines set by our customers.   For example, in litigation we will release documents upon receipt of a valid subpoena served on our customer or when a patient switches hospitals and requests access to healthcare records from their previous hospital.    We provide these records in the form requested, including chain of custody information. Increasingly, these records are accessed electronically or being delivered in line with green initiatives.

Our platforms can be integrated with customers’ existing EIM systems, and our customers can benefit from being able to conduct federated searches across connected datasets, manage records in accordance with business needs and regulatory requirements, build live customer and employee profiles, and facilitate release of information and routing with control over security and permissions.  We also provide business intelligence add-ons, offering summarization of data sets, dashboards and trend monitoring, relationship visualization, macro and micro drill-down, escalation triggers and notifications.

Exela Robotic Process Automation

Exela has been at the forefront of using robotic process automation since 2009. Our deployment model is to use desktop automation first, and if the usage is very high we usually migrate to server level automation. We have built up a large library of rules by industry and by customer. While we have been using robotic solutions as part of our internal processes for years, only recently have we made them available to our customers.  Our domain experts and analysts can either use an existing bot, modify one or create new one using our design studio.  Our robotic solutions are available as programmable robots with a rules library for a specific industry or feature, or as an enterprise license or on a per user per month basis. 

Digital Mailroom Solutions

Exela is one of the leading global providers of digital mailroom solutions.  Our digital mailroom solutions rely on proprietary technology, use our own facilities and process a significant number of transactions daily. We use proprietary high-speed scanners as well as support most major scanners.  Our end-to-end digital mail room features ingestion from many sources – paper, fax, electronic, emails and other digital data. We recently added recorded voice, image and video ingestion channels. This solution additionally offers shipping and receiving packages with digital receipt, delivery and routing to our intelligent lockers.

We own several classification engines that we deploy for all traffic, including unattended digital repositories, for example unattended email boxes to discover content and route it to the appropriate member of an organization.  Exela offers its digital mail room for enterprise wide deployment to captive mailrooms of our customers, mail rooms outsourced to both Exela and others, and for business locations where there is no dedicated mail room, such as a front desk. Our customers can see their information across the enterprise from a single platform. Our solutions are available as SaaS, BpaaS or enterprise licenses and we offer to take over the entire operation or a transactional digital mail room.

Business process management and workflow automation

Exela has built extensive proprietary work flow automation platforms for business process management across several industries and regions.  Our platforms are designed to have intuitive user interfaces with drag & drop configuration enabling analysts a certain amount of customization. Our platforms use our EIM engines as a default and are designed to integrate with popular database and enterprise systems and are offered across three user categories:

Visualization and analytics

Exela provides visualization and analytics capabilities within its platforms to provide actionable intelligence tied to collaboration and task management.  Configurable dashboards enable users to quickly consolidate and organize disparate data sources through intuitive interfaces, avoiding IT and programming requirements.  Users can build their own dashboards with dynamic drilldown options and alerts, link data to managers, and launch action items in pursuit of optimization and issue resolution.  By providing analytics tied to actionable tasks, we are able to drive optimization to enhance profitability and connectivity.  For example, users can create visualization of volume trends and set triggers upon statistical thresholds, sending SMS alerts to managers to adjust their downstream capacity planning if trends are not in line with set thresholds

While we offer reporting and analytics on the scope of work processed through operations, we also provide our customers the capability to consolidate various data streams into comprehensive dashboards to enhance business intelligence functions of an organization, including providing real-time visibility to revenue, cost, profitability and cash flow as well as process monitoring, KPI tracking, and actionable alerts to name a few.

We believe providing analytics modules complements our services and solutions, creating a superior user experience, and reducing the need for third party tools by centralizing business management within Exela’s platforms.  By enabling users to share dashboards across their organization, we believe additional users will adopt Exela platforms and increase our penetration into the front-end applications across an enterprise.

Contract Management System

Exela provides a contract management system to streamline execution, organization, and data management of large volumes of contracts.  We utilize natural language processing and machine learning to extract key terms within unstructured formats and complex content, providing variance analysis, summary tables, and automated organization.  

Users can easily find important data points in contracts, and quickly analyze large volumes of language variations across format types. The extracted data can then be used to connect to existing systems and ERPs and serve as inputs to business operations, such as accounting and billing processes, financial planning and analysis, and regulatory reporting, enabling real-time audit and automated alerts for deviations from contract parameters.  By automating key term extraction, our contract management system enables large volumes of contracts to be analyzed, and enable processes such as billing or triggered reminders for significant dates. We believe Exela’s ability to cost effectively provide high accuracy transactional operations with automated validations creates a competitive advantage against those relying on manual processes and discrete sampling.

Exela can also provide a digital signature system to streamline collaboration, approvals and execution of contracts.  We deploy a secure, hosted environment to request and execute signatures and exchange contracts and documents across individuals or groups. Our platform enables multiple signature execution with routing through approval hierarchies, while providing transparency to the status and tracking of comments and edits.  Upon execution, documents are stored electronically for secure archival and retrieval. 

Legal Management Solutions

Exela offers a suite of enterprise legal management solutions and services that streamline and automate legal department processes to rationalize costs and drive productivity.  Solutions and services range from preventative remediation, identifying risk such as overcharges, discrimination, and data breaches and proactively providing restitution, eDiscovery, word processing and contract management using automated summarization and metadata extraction along with cognitive search enabled by natural language processing; and records management.

Integrated Communications

Exela’s comprehensive multi-channel integrated communications solutions help customers communicate with other businesses or customers.   This suite of solutions links through many channels, for example, email, print and mail, SMS, web, voice, and chat.  Exela solutions and service can also include design and marketing and selection of optimal engagement and least cost routing for mission critical communications for example, bills, statements, enrollments, customer support, targeted marketing, mass notifications, reprographics, and regulatory notices. 

We work with our customers as a digital migration partner to improve user experience while helping to reduce and even eliminate inefficient, wasteful communications.  We use proprietary discovery techniques and analytics in addition to service specific technology to propose optimal channel and content. Our employees can also generate personalized messages, customized promotions, incentives, escalations, and resolutions. 

Exela Smart Office

During 2018, we have been engineering a group of solutions that complement our existing offerings, labeled Exela Smart Officeە℠ (“Smart Office”). At present, lack of technology integration hinders optimal workplace experience and leads to waste.  The Smart Office seeks to improve employee and visitor experiences while optimizing facility management efficiency. Smart Office is our enterprise IoT, which helps transform the front-office, energy and facilities management, logistics and fulfillment for our customers, and will provide on-demand services with connected devices to facilitate green initiatives, reduce waste, and ultimately enhance the employee and visitor experience  For example, our space management software uses sensors to detect facility utilization enabling optimized space and energy usage and provides mobile workers directions to available work space, while our Visitor Management System and lobby kiosk can be deployed to regulate facility access.  Our Intelligent Lockers are then available for visitor day storage of luggage and to provide a secure chain of custody for parcels and accountable mail for employees using our hosted shipping and receiving tools. There is also a Digital Mailroom offering part of Smart Office, which segregates white mail and aggregates, classifies and routes searchable multi-media mail to the appropriate recipient. Smart Office will be launched for sale in 2019.

Recruit-to-Retire (HR)

In late 2018, we also started moving our employees to our proprietary human capital management platform. This platform integrates with our existing offerings and is designed to help an enterprise and its employees manage the data and processes relevant to the entire employment lifecycle from recruitment to retirement.  By providing digital management and data tracking for human capital, we enable reduction in administrative overhead and enhanced management of human capital productivity while improving the overall experience. We intend to begin commercializing this platform in 2019.

While the above described solutions and services can be leveraged across industries, over the years we have developed services and solutions for specific industries. The most significant are summarized below. 

Banking and Financial Industry Solutions and Services

Our banking and financial solutions are divided into payment, mortgage, enrollment, lending and loan management, governance and information management solutions and accounted for approximately 23% of 2018 revenue.   Exela’s payment operations and treasury management solutions are designed to improve digital engagement and transaction speed and compliance.  We also provide mobile and remote deposit technologies to our banking and financial services customers. 

We have extensive experience and technology that we have built over decades and in use to serve many banks and companies to process the payments related to business to business (“B2B”) or business to consumer (“B2C”) transactions.  We develop, use, and sell proprietary integrated receivables processing technology, providing our customers with a solution that easily consolidates B2B and B2C transactions across many payment channels into a single platform. We plan to offer this as branded and as a private label solution to our banking customers giving them the ability to offer advanced treasury solutions with insights from accounts receivable, customer credit worthiness, payment habits, soft collections and delinquent collections.

We are one of the largest processors of payments. We handle many payment channels in addition to checks and credit cards including, automated clearing house (ACH), Faster Payments in UK and Ireland, Single European Payment Area (SEPA), Bank Giro in the Nordic countries and other payment networks. We perform these services on behalf of banks or their customers. We believe regulation in many geographies is opening up for non-bank payment processors to connect to the payment networks directly such that one can verify funds, confirm payee and settlement of payments and are exploring the possibility of obtaining license where required to further expand our payment offerings.

Our proprietary mortgage and loan management solutions enable lenders to originate loans and service them. Our platforms also enable invoice discounting, factoring, payable financing and leverage automation and integration such that traditional lenders, alternate lenders including peer to peer lenders can provide liquidity to underserved borrowers. We add value by automating manual, repetitive processes to improve speed and provide cost efficiencies within a compliant mortgage and lending completion process.

Our key focus is user experience, enabling faster decisions, and facilitating optimal allocation of capital and risk management for our customers.  By using our F&A solutions and services, we believe our banking and financial services customers can better manage their lending book and at a low cost of ownership.

Our banking solutions help organizations transform compliance, know your customer, anti-money laundering and confirmation of payee checks into a competitive advantage, including accelerated digital on-boarding, complex process automation, screening and monitoring and predictive analytics.  Exela can provide these services as an end-to-end solution or as an augmentation of existing banking processes, license technology as well as use our employees to manage a component or an entire process.

Healthcare Industry Solutions and Services for Insurance Companies and Healthcare Providers

Exela’s healthcare industry customers are both commercial and government sponsored healthcare plans including dental, primarily hospital networks and university hospital systems and large medical distribution systems and pharmacy networks, and accounted for approximately 21% of total revenues in 2018.  We serve our customers using our proprietary technology and for some customers combined with their systems.   .

We bundle our core solutions and services with a suite of healthcare payer specific services such as end-to-end processing of complex transactions, enrollments and credentialing, claims processing, adjudication and payment operations. We specialize in transactions that require multiple layers of validation, supporting documentation processing, reconciliation, and management of exceptions. 

We host a proprietary platform that connects providers and payers for claims submissions, acknowledgements or denials or payments and many other interactions covering the complete lifecycle of a claim, which enables a more satisfactory engagement between payers and providers and contributes to improved access to health care and lower administrative costs. Our payer customers often encourage their contracted providers to adopt our digital platforms for overall reduction of claim processing cost.  We also provide our healthcare provider customers with many services including computer assisted coding, audit and recovery of underpayments, denial and grievances, release of information, and electronic health records. We plan to offer our mobile and web enrollment solutions, appointment scheduling and locating providers with ratings, also include insurance verification, cost of visit estimates and visit pre-approval.   We provide some of these services and features on a stand-alone basis and in the future we plan to offer a more integrated solution.

Insurance Industry Solutions and Services

Exela offers a suite of insurance industry solutions aimed at providing digital engagements and rapid integration of disparate systems and silos.  Our insurance industry solutions accounted for approximately 16% of total revenues in 2018.  We provide applications and services to facilitate automation and digital transformation for underwriting and enrollments, premium payments, claims submission, first notification of loss, fraud, waste & abuse monitoring and integrated communications. Our solutions are aimed at improving the customer experience by providing digital pathways and transparency with web portals and integrated communications, while improving the quality and risk management.

Public Sector

We provide technology and solutions, including deploying our employees, to public sector customers. Our public sector solutions accounted for approximately 7% of total revenues in 2018.  Our mission is to help our public sector customers with their digital journey and meet their objectives of better serving the public.  Exela solutions are primarily deployed across pension benefits and administration, tax return processing, payment operations, inter-agency information management and communications with citizens and employees of government institutions.

Our solutions have evolved over time to include digital capabilities and are designed to reduce taxpayer refund waiting time, decrease the potential for tax fraud, and provide reports and data to all the departments. Exela also has the infrastructure in place to process payments, perform collection services, handle overflow taxpayer calls, provide e-filing for individual income tax, generate outbound taxpayer notification (traditional and/or electronic notifications), and host other developed solutions. 

Commercial, Tech, Manufacturing, and Legal Industries Solutions and Services

For the commercial, technology, manufacturing and legal industries, we primarily provide multi-industry solutions described previously.  For 2018, our commercial industry revenue accounted for approximately 20% of total revenues, our revenues from the technology and manufacturing industry accounted for approximately 8%, while our revenue from the legal industry accounted for approximately 6%. 

Historically, the majority of revenue for the above-mentioned industries was generated in the Americas, though we believe there is significant expansion opportunity throughout Europe and Asian markets.  As we have made investments in our global scale, technology platforms, and business strategy, some of our multi-national customers have expanded our services to other geographies to leverage our international footprint.  We believe our value proposition as a single source provider with global platforms and location agnostic operations, positions us as a differentiated partner to our multi-national customers.

With the launch of Smart Office, we will be targeting technology companies in our initial go-to-market approach.  We believe technology companies have a heavy focus on employee experience to attract top tier talent, and they often serve as early adopters for new offerings setting trends across other industries, and we believe will serve as strong references as we expand our Smart Office growth strategy.

Overview of Revenues

Our business consists of three reportable segments:

Additional financial information for our three business segments is included in Note 17 within our consolidated financial statements.

We provide services to our customers on a global basis. In 2018, our revenues by geography were as follows: $1,347.5 million in the United States (85.0% of total revenues), $211.3 million in Europe (13.2% of total revenues), and $27.4 million from the rest of the world (1.7% of total revenues). We present additional geographical financial information in Note 17 within our consolidated financial statements.

Our revenues can be affected by various factors such as our customers' demand pattern for our services. These factors have historically resulted in higher revenues and profits in the fourth quarter. Backlog is not a metric that we use to measure our business.

History and Development of Our Company

Exela is a Delaware corporation that was formed through the strategic combination of SourceHOV Holdings, Inc. ("SourceHOV") a leading global transaction processing company, and Novitex Holding, Inc. ("Novitex"), a cloud-based document outsourcing company, pursuant to a business combination agreement dated February 21, 2017. Formerly known as Quinpario Acquisition Corp. 2 ("Quinpario"), Exela was originally formed as a blank check company on July 15, 2014 and completed its initial public offering on January 22, 2015. In conjunction with the completion of the Novitex Business Combination in July 2017, Quinpario was renamed "Exela Technologies, Inc." Exela began trading under the ticker "XELA" on the Nasdaq Stock Market on July 13, 2017.

The Novitex Business Combination was accounted for as a reverse merger for which SourceHOV was determined to be the accounting acquirer. The acquisition of Novitex was accounted for using the acquisition method. As

a result, the financial information for 2017 presented in this Annual Report is not pro forma (unless labeled as such); it includes the financial information and activities for SourceHOV for the entire year ending December 31, 2017, but only reflects the financial information and activities of Novitex for the period following the Novitex Business Combination from July 13, 2017 to December 31, 2017. 

On April 10, 2018, Exela completed the acquisition of Asterion International Group, a well-established provider of technology driven business process outsourcing, document management and business process automation across Europe. The acquisition was strategic to expanding Exela’s European business.

Key Business Strategies

Exela business strategy is to use its Digital Now model, which aims to accelerate our customers’ digital transformation through deployment of our software and automation techniques, hosted within a single, cloud hosted platform. Our overarching goal is to provide highest value and lowest cost of ownership. We accomplish this by building scalable systems that are used by our employees to deliver business process automation services globally.  The key elements of our growth strategy are described below:

See diagram of 7 layers of solutions below:

Customers

We serve over 4,000 customers across a variety of industries, including over 60% of the Fortune® 100. Our customers are among the leading companies in their respective industries, and many of them are recurring customers that have maintained long-term relationships with us and our predecessor companies.

We have successfully leveraged our relationships with customers to offer extended value chain services, creating stickier customer relationships and increasing overall margins. Customers are increasingly turning to us due to a demonstrated ability to work on large-scale projects, past performance and record of delivery, and deep domain expertise accumulated from years of experience in key verticals. As a result, our stable base of customers and sticky, long-term relationships lead to highly predictable revenues.

Customer and Industry Highlights

We maintain a strong mix of diversified customers with low customer concentration. No customer accounts for more than 10% of 2018 revenue. The diversity of our customer base has contributed to the stability and predictability of our revenue streams and cash flows. We have been able to effectively balance our customer mix and reduce dependency on any single customer or vertical by penetrating a diverse set of end markets.

Research and Development

Our ability to continue to compete successfully depends heavily upon our ability to ensure a timely flow of competitive products, services and technologies to the marketplace while also leveraging our domain expertise to demonstrate our understanding in implementing solutions across the industries we serve. Through regular and sustained investment, licensing of intellectual property and acquisition of third-party businesses and technology, we continue to develop new knowledge platforms, applications and supporting service bundles that enhance and expand our existing suite of services.

Our seven layer technology model requires us to continue to harness our capabilities in each layer and the ultimate measure of success will be how many customers are in each layer. We believe that a greater customer concentration in the top layers will reflect the success of our R&D strategy. Additional financial information regarding our R&D expense is included in Note 2 within our consolidated financial statements.

Intellectual Property

We deploy a combination of internally-developed proprietary knowledge platforms, applications and generally available third-party licensed software as part of our scalable and flexible solutions and services. Our intellectual property is our competitive strength.

Our platforms aim to enhance information management and workflow processes through automation and process optimization to minimize labor requirements or to improve labor performance. Our decisioning engines have

been built with years of deep domain expertise, incorporating hundreds of thousands of customer and industry specific rules which enable the most efficient and lowest cost preparation and decisioning of transactions. Our business processes and implementation methodologies are confidential and proprietary and include trade secrets that are important to our business. We own a variety of trademarks and patents, which are registered or pending. 

We regularly enter into nondisclosure agreements with customers, business partners, employees, and contractors that require confidential treatment of our information to establish, maintain and enforce our intellectual property rights. Our licensed intellectual properties are generally governed by written agreements of varying durations, including some with fixed terms that are subject to renewal based on mutual agreement. Generally, each agreement may be further extended and we have historically been able to renew existing agreements before they expire. We expect these and other similar agreements to be extended so long as it is mutually advantageous to both parties at the time of renewal.

Competition

We believe that the principal competitive factors in providing our solutions include proprietary platforms, industry specific knowledge, quality, reliability and security of service, and price. We are differentiated competitively given our scale of operations, reputation as a trusted partner with deep domain expertise, innovative solutions, and highly integrated technology platforms that provide customers with end-to-end services addressing many aspects of their mission-critical operational processes. We continue to integrate best practice delivery processes into our service-delivery capabilities to improve its quality and service levels and to increase operational efficiencies. The markets in which we serve are competitive with both large and small businesses, as well as global companies:

Regulation and Compliance

We handle, directly or indirectly through customer contracts and business associate agreements, a significant amount of information, including personal and health-related information, which results in our being subject to federal, state and local privacy laws, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, HIPAA and the HITECH Act of 2009. Further, we are subject to the local rules and regulations in the other countries in which we operate, including those relating to the handling of information. In addition, services in our LLPS segment, though not directly regulated, must be provided in a manner consistent with the relevant legal framework. For example, our bankruptcy claims administration services must be provided in accordance with the requirements and deadlines of the United States Bankruptcy Code and Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In addition, some of our customers are subject to regulatory oversight, which may result in our being reviewed from time to time by such oversight bodies. Further, as a government contractor, we are subject to associated regulations and requirements.

Other laws apply to our processing of individually identifiable information. These laws have been subject to frequent changes, and new legislation in this area may be enacted at any time. Changes to existing laws, introduction of new laws in this area, or failure to comply with existing laws that are applicable to us may subject us to, among other things, additional costs or changes to our business practices, liability for monetary damages, fines and/or criminal prosecution, unfavorable publicity, restrictions on our ability to obtain and process information and allegations by our

customers and customers that we have not performed our contractual obligations, any of which may have a material adverse effect on profitability and cash flow.

Privacy and Information Security Regulations

The processing and transfer of personal information is required to provide certain of our services. Data privacy laws and regulations in the U.S. and foreign countries apply to the access, collection, transfer, use, storage, and destruction of personal information. In the U.S., our financial institution customers are required to comply with privacy regulations imposed under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, in addition to other regulations. As a processor of personal information in our role as a provider of services to financial institutions, we are required to comply with privacy regulations and are bound by similar limitations on disclosure of the information received from our customers as apply to the financial institutions themselves. We also perform services for healthcare companies and are, therefore, subject to compliance with laws and regulations regarding healthcare information, including in the U.S., HIPAA. We also perform credit-related services and agree to comply with payment card standards, including the PCIDSS. In addition, federal and state privacy and information security laws, and consumer protection laws, which apply to businesses that collect or process personal information, also apply to our businesses.

Privacy laws and regulations may require notification to affected individuals, federal and state regulators, and consumer reporting agencies in the event of a security breach that results in unauthorized access to, or disclosure of, certain personal information. Privacy laws outside the U.S. may be more restrictive and may require different compliance requirements than U.S. laws and regulations, and may impose additional duties on us in the performance of our services.

There has been increased public attention regarding the use of personal information and data transfer, accompanied by legislation and regulations intended to strengthen data protection, information security and consumer and personal privacy. The law in these areas continues to develop and the changing nature of privacy laws in the U.S., the European Union (“E.U”) and elsewhere could impact our processing of personal information of our employees and on behalf of our customers. In the E.U. the comprehensive General Data Privacy Regulation (the "GDPR") went into effect in May 2018.  The GDPR has introduced significant  privacy-related changes for companies operating both in and outside the EU.  While we believe that we are compliant with our regulatory responsibilities, information security threats continue to evolve resulting in increased risk and exposure. In addition, legislation, regulation, litigation, court rulings, or other events could expose us to increased costs, liability, and possible damage to our reputation.

Employees

The continued success of our business is driven by our people. Our senior leadership team has extensive experience within the larger BPO as well as the BPA industries. As we were formed through a series of acquisitions, we have retained an experienced and cohesive leadership team. The combination of our employees with our technology is the backbone of our ability to provide holistic solutions designed to meet the rapidly evolving needs of our customers.

As of December 31, 2018, we had approximately 22,000 total employees, which included approximately 21,000 full-time and 1,000 part-time employees. We have a global workforce with a majority of our employees located in the United States, and the remainder located in Europe, Northern Africa, India, the Philippines, Mexico and China. Our employee count fluctuates from time to time based upon the timing and duration of our engagements. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good.

We locate our operation centers in areas where the value proposition it offers is attractive relative to other local opportunities, resulting in an engaged educated multi-lingual workforce that is able to make a meaningful global contribution from their local marketplace. To supplement the skills available in certain markets, we offer our employees a focused set of training programs to increase their skills and leadership capabilities with the goal of creating a long-term funnel of talent to support the Company's continued growth. Additionally, our proprietary platforms enable rapid learning and facilitate knowledge transfer among employees, reducing training time.

Available Information

Our website address is www.exelatech.com. We are not including the information provided on our website as a part of, or incorporating it by reference into, this Annual Report. We make available free of charge (other than an investor's own internet access charges) through our website our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish such material to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). In addition, we make available our code of ethics entitled "Global Code of Ethics and Business Conduct" free of charge through our website. We intend to post on our website all disclosures that are required by law or Nasdaq listing standards concerning any amendments to, or waivers from, any provision of our code of ethics.

The public may read and copy any materials filed by us with the SEC at the SEC's Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Room 1580, Washington, DC 20549. The public may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at www.sec.gov. The information contained on the websites referenced in this Annual Report is not incorporated by reference into this filing.

Executive Officers

The following table sets forth information concerning our executive officers as of March 15, 2019:

 

Ronald Cogburn is our Chief Executive Officer and served as Chief Executive Officer of SourceHOV from 2013 until the closing of the Novitex Business Combination. Mr. Cogburn has been part of companies that were predecessors to SourceHOV since 1993, bringing over 30 years of diversified experience in executive management, construction claims consulting, litigation support, program management project management, cost estimating, damages assessment and general building construction. Mr. Cogburn has also been  a principal of HGM since 2003. Prior to his role as Chief Executive Officer of SourceHOV, Mr. Cogburn was SourceHOV's President, KPO from March 2011 to July 2013. Prior to this role, Mr. Cogburn was the President of HOV Services, LLC from January 2005 to September 2007, providing executive leadership during the company's growth to its IPO on the India Stock Exchange in September 2006. Mr. Cogburn has a BSCE in Structural Design/Construction Management from Texas A&M University and is a registered Professional Engineer.

Jim Reynolds is our Chief Financial Officer and has served in that role since the closing of the Novitex Business Combination. Mr. Reynolds served as Co-Chairman of SourceHOV from 2014 until the closing of the Novitex Business Combination in 2017. Mr. Reynolds is also the Chief Operating Officer and a Partner at HGM, bringing over 25 years of industry experience to the team. Prior to HGM Mr. Reynolds held numerous executive management or senior advisory positions at SourceHOV and its related subsidiaries and predecessor companies, including serving as Chief Financial Officer for HOV Services, LLC from 2007 to 2011 and Vice President and Corporate Controller for Lason from 2001 to 2006. Mr. Reynolds was a Senior Manager in the Business Advisory Services Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers from 1990 to 2001. Mr. Reynolds is a C.P.A. and holds a B.S. in Accounting from Michigan State University.

Suresh Yannamani is our President and served as President, Americas of SourceHOV from 2011 until the closing of the Novitex Business Combination, and has been a part of companies that were predecessors to SourceHOV

from 1997 until the closing of the Novitex Business Combination. Mr. Yannamani oversees the sales and operations and plays a large part in scaling the transaction processing solutions practice and enterprise solution strategy for healthcare, financial services and commercial industries. Mr. Yannamani was also President of HOV Services, LLC from 2007 to 2011, serving customers in the healthcare, financial services, insurance and commercial industries. Mr. Yannamani was the Executive Vice President of BPO services for Lason from 1997 to 2007 prior to its acquisition by HOV Services, LLC. Mr. Yannamani also served in management roles at IBM from 1995 to 1997, managing the design, development, and implementation of financial management information systems for the Public Sector and worked for Coopers & Lybrand as a consultant in public audits from 1992 to 1994. Mr. Yannamani has a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of London and holds an MBA from Eastern Michigan University.

Mark Fairchild is our President, Exela SmartOffice and served as President of Exela Enterprise Solutions from the Novitex Business Combination until January 2019 and prior to that served as President, Europe, of SourceHOV from the merger of BancTec and SourceHOV in 2014, having served in management roles at BancTec since 1985. With more than 30 years of executive experience in the financial services industry, Mr. Fairchild specializes in global account management, transaction processing services, software solutions and hardware technology products. In 2005, Mr. Fairchild was appointed Chief Technology Officer of BancTec and was responsible for the company's software and hardware products, manufacturing and internal IT services until 2014. Prior to this role, Mr. Fairchild acted as Vice President for International Operations of BancTec from 2001 to 2005 and VP of European Operations from 1998 to 2001. In his role as International Systems Director from 1991 to 1998, Mr. Fairchild led the European software teams, implementing payment platforms throughout the region. As Director of Engineering of BancTec from 1989 to 1991, Mr. Fairchild led the research and development team that introduced a new high-speed digital image processing system that formed the base of BancTec's ImageFIRST product portfolio. Mr. Fairchild joined BancTec as a Project Manager, a position he held from 1985 to 1986. He began his career as a software developer at British Aerospace, where he worked from 1981 to 1985. Mr. Fairchild graduated with honors from Manchester University with a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering and an MBA from London Business School.

Shrikant Sortur is our Executive Vice President, Global Finance and served as Senior Vice President, Global Finance of SourceHOV from 2016 until the closing of the Novitex Business Combination. He was responsible for SourceHOV's finance and accounting groups and led financial operations, activities, plans and budgets. Mr. Sortur's career spans more than 19 years of varied experience in financial management, accounting, reporting, and lean operations. Mr. Sortur served in other management roles in predecessor companies to SourceHOV from 2002 until the closing of the Novitex Business Combination. Mr. Sortur also acted as Vice President of Finance of SoureHOV from June 2015 to May 2016. Mr. Sortur acted as Director of Financial Planning and Analysis, TPS from January 2014 to June 2015. Prior to this role, Mr. Sortur was the Director of Financial Planning and Analysis, North America Operations from January 2012 to December 2013. Mr. Sortur acted as Controller for HOV Global from January 2009 to December 2011. Mr. Sortur was a Senior Accounting Manager for HOV Services, LLC / Lason, Inc. from May 2004 to December 2008 and worked for the SourceHOV group as a Manager, Finance & Accounts for Lason India Ltd. from December 2002 to May 2014. From March 1999 to December 2002, Mr. Sortur served as General Manager, Finance at SRM Technologies, a business solutions and technology provider specializing in software design and development, systems integration, web services, enterprise mobilization, and embedded solutions development. From June 1997 to February 1999, Mr. Sortur served as Junior Manager, Finance and Accounting for Steel Authority of India, a large state-owned steel making company based in New Delhi, India. Mr. Sortur graduated from Osmania University with a bachelor's degree in accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Chartered Accountant (CA), and Certified Management Accountant (CMA).

Srini Murali is our President, Americas and APAC and served as Chief Operating Officer Americas and APAC from the Novitex Business Combination until January 2019.  He is responsible for all sales, operations and business strategy functions across the Americas and Asia Pacific. Prior to the Novitex Business Combination, Mr. Murali served as Senior Vice President, Operations for the Americas and APAC regions for SourceHOV, creating global operating strategies, developing client relationships, and overseeing compliance. Mr. Murali has been a part of predecessor companies to SourceHOV since 1993. During his tenure, Mr. Murali has held analysis, product development, IT, and operational roles. In 2010, Mr. Murali took on a broader scope of responsibility as SourceHOV's Senior Vice President of Global Operations and IT. Mr. Murali has served in executive-level leadership roles at companies that preceded SourceHOV since 2007, when he was appointed Vice President of IT and Technology. Prior to these management roles,

Mr. Murali served as Director of Information Technology for Lason from 2002 to 2007, and as an Application Development Manager for Lason from 1998 to 2002. Before joining Lason, Mr. Murali worked as a Systems Engineer for Vetri Systems from 1996 to 1998. Mr. Murali graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and statistics from Loyola College, Chennai, and earned an MBA from Davenport University, Michigan.

Vitalie Robu is our President, EMEA and served as Chief Operating Officer, EMEA from the Novitex Business Combination until January 2019.  Mr. Robu is responsible for all sales, operations and business strategy functions across Europe, Middle East and Africa.   Mr. Robu specializes in transaction processing services, technology products, and software solutions, and has over 20 years of international management experience in the private and public sectors.  Prior to the Novitex Business Combination, he served as Senior Vice President, Operations for the European region of SourceHOV from 2014. From 2010 to 2014, Mr. Robu held the position of President and Executive Director of DataForce UK, a business process outsourcing and software provider that was part of SourceHOV. Prior to joining the SourceHOV group, Mr. Robu served as Manager of Investment and Insurance Products for Citibank EMEA in London from 2007 to 2010.  Mr. Robu has degrees in International Relations from the  National School for Political Studies, Bucharest and Physics from the State University of Moloves, and earned an MBA from IMD - International Institute for Management Development, Lausanne.

ITEM 1A.   RISK FACTORS

In addition to the other information contained in this Annual Report, the following risks impact our business and operations. These risk factors are not exhaustive and all investors are encouraged to perform their own investigation with respect to our business, financial condition and prospects.

Risks Related to our Business

Our results of operations could be adversely affected by economic and political conditions, creating complex risks, many of which are beyond our control.

Our business depends on the continued demand for our services, and, if current global economic conditions worsen, our business could be adversely affected by our customers’ financial condition and level of business activity. Along with our customers we are subject to global political, economic and market conditions, including inflation, interest rates, energy costs, the impact of natural disasters, military action and the threat of terrorism. In particular, we currently derive, and are likely to continue to derive, a significant portion of revenues from customers located in North America and Europe. Any future decreases in the general level of economic activity in this markets, such as decreases in business and consumer spending and increases in unemployment rates, could result in a decrease in demand for our services, thus reducing our revenue. For example, certain customers may decide to reduce or postpone their spending on the services we provide, and we may be forced to lower our prices. Other developments in response to economic events, such as consolidations, restructurings or reorganizations, particularly involving our customers, could also cause the demand for our services to decline, negatively affecting the amount of business that we are able to obtain or retain. We may not be able to predict the impact such conditions will have on the industries we serve and may be unable to plan effectively for or respond to such impact. In response to economic and market conditions, from time to time we have undertaken or may undertake initiatives to reduce our cost structure where appropriate, such as consolidation of resources to provide functional region‑wide support to our international subsidiaries in a centralized fashion. These initiatives, as well as any future workforce and facilities reductions we may implement, may not be sufficient to meet current and future changes in economic and market conditions and allow us to continue to achieve the growth rates expected. In addition, costs actually incurred in connection with certain restructuring actions may be higher than our estimates of such costs and/or may not lead to the anticipated cost savings.

Additionally, major political events, including the planned withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union on March 29, 2019 (“Brexit”), continue to create uncertainty on topics that are relevant to our operations in the United Kingdom, such as immigration laws and employment laws, trade agreements and privacy laws. We are currently examining the various possible impacts Brexit may have on our business and operating model in an effort to develop solutions to address any of the potential outcomes. In addition, it is possible that Brexit may adversely affect global economic conditions and financial markets, to greater extent than we have currently anticipated.

In addition, any future disruptions or turbulence in the global credit markets may adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition, and the liquidity and financial condition of our customers. Such disruptions may limit our ability to access financing, increase the cost of financing needed to meet liquidity needs and affect the ability of our customers to use credit to purchase our services or to make timely payments to us, adversely affecting our financial condition and results of operations.

Cybersecurity issues, vulnerabilities, and criminal activity resulting in a data or security breach could result in risks to our systems, networks, products, solutions and services resulting in liability or reputational damage.

We collect and retain large volumes of internal and customer data, including personally identifiable information and other sensitive data both physically and electronically, for business purposes, and our various information technology systems enter, process, summarize and report such data. We also maintain personally identifiable information about our employees. Safeguarding customer, employee and our own data is a key priority for us, and our customers and employees have come to rely on us for the protection of their personal information. Augmented vulnerabilities, threats and more sophisticated and targeted cyber‑related attacks pose a risk to our security and the security of our customers, partners, suppliers and third‑party service providers, and to the confidentiality, availability and integrity of data owned by us or our customers. Despite our efforts to protect sensitive, confidential or personal data or information, we may be vulnerable to material security breaches, theft, misplaced or lost data, programming errors, employee errors and/or malfeasance that could potentially lead to the compromise of sensitive, confidential or personal data or information, improper use of our systems, software solutions or networks, unauthorized access, use, disclosure, modification or destruction of information, defective products, production downtimes and operational disruptions. Despite protective measures, we may not be successful in preventing security breaches which compromise the confidentiality and integrity of this data. While an attempt is made to mitigate these risks by employing a number of measures, including employee training, monitoring and testing, and maintenance of protective systems and contingency plans, we remain vulnerable to such threats.

The sensitive, confidential or personal data or information that we have access to is also subject to privacy and security laws, regulations or customer‑imposed controls. The regulatory environment, as well as the requirements imposed on us by the industries we serve governing information, security and privacy laws is increasingly demanding. Maintaining compliance with applicable security and privacy regulations may increase our operating costs and/or adversely impact our ability to provide services to our customers. Furthermore, a compromised data system or the intentional, inadvertent or negligent release or disclosure of data could result in theft, loss, fraudulent or unlawful use of customer, employee or our data which could harm our reputation or result in remedial and other costs, fines or lawsuits. In addition, a cyber‑related attack could result in other negative consequences, including damage to our reputation or competitiveness, remediation or increased protection costs, litigation or regulatory action. Fraud, employee negligence, unauthorized access, including, without limitation, malfunctions, viruses and other events beyond our control, may lead to the misappropriation or unauthorized disclosure of sensitive or confidential information we process, store and transmit, including personal information, for our customers, failure to prevent or mitigate data loss or other security breaches, including breaches of our vendors’ technology and systems, could expose us or our customers to a risk of loss or misuse of such information, adversely affect our operating results, result in litigation or potential liability for us and otherwise harm our business. As a result, we may be subject to monetary damages, regulatory enforcement actions or fines under federal legislation, such as, the Gramm‑Leach‑Bliley Act and HIPAA, as well as various states laws or under the GDPR in Europe. Similarly, regulations such as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 expand the obligations of “covered entities” and their business associates, including certain mandatory breach notification requirements. In addition to any legal liability, data or security breaches may lead to negative publicity, reputational damage and otherwise adversely affect the results of our operations.

Our industry may be adversely impacted by a negative public reaction in the U.S. and elsewhere to providing certain of our services from outside the U.S. and recently proposed related legislation.

We have based our strategy of future growth on certain assumptions regarding our industry and future demand in the market for the provision of business process solutions in part using offshore resources. However, providing services from offshore locations is a politically sensitive topic in the U.S. and elsewhere, and many organizations and

public figures have publicly expressed concern about a perceived association between offshore service providers and the loss of jobs in their home countries. In addition, there has been limited publicity about the negative experience of certain companies that provide their services offshore, particularly in India. The trend of providing business process solutions offshore may not continue and could reverse if companies elect to develop and perform their business processes internally or are discouraged from transferring these services to offshore service providers. Any slowdown or reversal of existing industry trends could negatively affect the amount of business that we are able to obtain or retain.

A variety of U.S. federal and state legislation has been proposed that, if enacted, could restrict or discourage U.S. companies from providing their services from outside the U.S., including recently introduced proposals for providing tax and other economic incentives for companies that create jobs in the U.S. by reducing their reliance on offshore locations. Other state bills have proposed requiring offshore service providers to disclose their geographic locations, requiring notice to individuals whose personal information is disclosed to non‑U.S. affiliates or subcontractors, requiring disclosures of companies’ foreign outsourcing practices or restricting U.S. private sector companies that have government contracts, grants or guaranteed loan programs from providing their services. Because most of our customers are located in the U.S., any expansion of existing laws or the enactment of new legislation that constrains our ability to provide our solutions from offshore or otherwise makes using our services unappealing or impractical for our customers could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

The HGM Group has significant influence over us and our corporate governance.

The HGM Group beneficially owns over 50% of our Common Stock. As long as the HGM Group owns or controls a significant percentage of outstanding voting power, it will have the ability to strongly influence all corporate actions requiring stockholder approval, including the election and removal of directors and the size of our board of directors, any amendment of our certificate of incorporation or bylaws, or the approval of any merger or other significant corporate transaction, including a sale of substantially all of our assets. In addition, pursuant to the terms of the Director Nomination Agreement, the HGM Group (as well as Novitex Holdings) have certain nomination rights with respect to our board of directors and consent rights over certain of our corporate actions.

Additionally, the HGM Group’s interests may not align with the interests of our other stockholders. The HGM Group is in the business of making investments in companies and may acquire and hold interests in businesses that compete directly or indirectly with us. The HGM Group may also pursue acquisition opportunities that may be complementary to our business, and, as a result, those acquisition opportunities may not be available to us. In addition, our certificate of incorporation provides that we renounce any interest or expectancy in the business opportunities of the HGM Group and that it shall not have any obligation to offer to us those opportunities unless presented to one of our directors or officers in his or her capacity as a director or officer of Exela.

Certain services we provide to customers in our public sector vertical may be subject to additional restrictions or limitations.

Our engagements with entities in the public sector, including educational institutions, may be subject to compliance with additional legislative or regulatory requirements. Certain state and local governments and agencies have adopted, or may in the future adopt, legislation or rules imposing additional requirements on services provided to the public sector, including restrictions as to where certain services can be performed or where certain data can be stored, even within the U.S. Additionally, our employees who are staffed on certain public sector engagements may be subject to strict background checks or other certifications. These additional requirements may make it more difficult to staff large public sector engagements, require us to turn down new engagements, affect our ability to meet customer expectations, deadlines or other specifications and otherwise increase our costs or decrease our revenues. Further, there can be no assurances that a public sector entity will not face funding shortages or reallocate funding for our services to other priorities, either prior to or after we have begun to perform our services, which could impact whether we are fully compensated for our services and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

Certain of our contracts are subject to termination rights, audits and/or investigations, which, if exercised, could negatively impact our reputation and reduce our ability to compete for new contracts and have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Many of our customer contracts may be terminated by our customers without cause and without any fee or penalty, with only limited notice. Any failure to meet a customer’s expectations, as well as factors beyond our control, including a customer’s financial condition, strategic priorities, or mergers and acquisitions, could result in a cancellation or non‑renewal of such a contract or a decrease in business provided to us and cause our actual results to differ from our forecasts. We may not be able to replace any customer that elects to terminate or not renew its contract with us, which would reduce our revenues.

In addition, a portion of our revenues is derived from contracts with the U.S. federal and state government and their agencies and from contracts with foreign governments and their agencies. Government entities typically finance projects through appropriated funds. While these projects are often planned and executed as multi‑year projects, government entities usually reserve the right to change the scope of or terminate these projects for lack of approved funding and/or at their convenience. Changes in government or political developments, including budget deficits, shortfalls or uncertainties, government spending reductions (e.g., \ during a government shutdown) or other debt or funding constraints, such as those recently experienced in the U.S. and Europe, could result in lower governmental sales and in our projects being reduced in price or scope or terminated altogether, which also could limit our recovery of incurred costs, reimbursable expenses and profits on work completed prior to the termination. The public procurement environment is unpredictable and this could adversely affect our ability to perform work under new and existing contracts. Also, our government business is subject to the risk that one or more of our potential contracts or contract extensions may be diverted by the contracting agency to a small or disadvantaged or minority‑owned business pursuant to set‑aside programs administered by the Small Business Administration, or may be bundled into large multiple award contracts for very large businesses. These risks can potentially have an adverse effect on our revenue growth and profit margins.

If the government finds that it inappropriately charged any costs to a contract, the costs are not reimbursable or, if already reimbursed, the cost must be refunded to the government. Additionally, if the government discovers improper or illegal activities or contractual non‑compliance (including improper billing), we may be subject to various civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, which may include termination of contracts, forfeiture of profits, suspension of payments, fines and suspensions or debarment from doing business with the government. Any resulting penalties or sanctions could materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. Moreover, government contracts are generally subject to audits and investigations by government agencies. Further, the negative publicity that could arise from any such penalties, sanctions or findings in such audits or investigations could have an adverse effect on our reputation in the industry and reduce our ability to compete for new contracts and could materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

Our services and facilities may be impacted by terrorism, natural disasters and other disruptions, resulting in an adverse effect on our profitability and financial condition.

Our ability to provide services may be impacted or disrupted as a result of natural disasters, technical disruptions (including power outage and telecommunications failure), man‑made events (including cyber‑attacks, war and terrorist attacks), and global health risks or pandemics, as well as the threat or perceived threat of any of these events in the U.S. or any of the locations in which we operate. A significant portion of our employees and key operations centers are located in India and the Philippines, with, particularly in India, limited diversification or redundancy. India and the Philippines are particularly susceptible to natural disasters, including typhoons, tsunamis, floods and earthquakes, and the Philippines is additionally susceptible to volcanic eruptions. Our operations in these locations, as well as certain other countries outside of the U.S., are also at greater risk of disruptions in electricity, other public utilities or network services due to substandard infrastructure. Although all of our operations centers have disaster management plans, certain disaster management facilities, particularly in India, may not be adequate to protect against potential disruptions due to natural or other disasters. Damage, destruction or disruptions, including to our MegaCenters, could make it difficult or impossible for employees to reach our business locations or otherwise interrupt our ability to provide our services. Sustained periods of interruption in our services could adversely affect our reputation and

relationships with our customers, cause us to incur substantial expenses and expose us to liability. Our insurance coverage may not be sufficient to cover all of our potential losses and our business, results of operation and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Any disruption related to our U.S. data centers or MegaCenters due to any of the foregoing events may cause significant disruptions in our ability to provide our services to our customers and result in a material adverse effect on our reputation, results of operations and financial condition and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Although we believe that our insurance coverage with respect to disruptive events is reasonable, significant events such as acts of war and terrorism, economic conditions, judicial decisions, legislation, natural disasters and large losses could materially affect our insurance obligations and future expense.

Our executives, senior management team and other key personnel are critical to our continued success and the loss of such personnel, or an inability to attract, engage, retain and integrate our executives and other key employees could harm our business.

Our future success substantially depends on the continued service and performance of our executives, senior management team, as well as other key individuals in senior leadership positions. These personnel possess business and technical capabilities that are difficult to replace. The loss of any of our key personnel, particularly to competitors, may adversely affect our ability to effectively manage our current operations or meet ongoing and future business challenges. Further, identifying, developing internally or hiring externally, training and retraining highly‑skilled managerial, technical, sales and services, finance and marketing personnel are critical to our future. Failure to successfully hire executives and key employees or the loss of any executives and key employees could have a significant impact on our operations.

Our business, financial position, and results of operations could be harmed by adverse rating actions by credit rating agencies.

If the credit ratings of our outstanding indebtedness are downgraded, or if rating agencies indicate that a downgrade may occur, our business, financial position, and results of operations could be adversely affected and perceptions of our financial strength could be damaged. A downgrade would have the effect of increasing our borrowing costs, and could decrease the availability of funds we are able to borrow, adversely affecting our business, financial position, and results of operations. In addition, a downgrade could adversely affect our relationships with our customers.

Our management team has limited experience managing a public company.

Most members of our management team have limited experience managing a publicly traded company, interacting with public company investors and complying with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies. Our management team may not successfully or efficiently manage the next stages of our transition to being a public company subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under the federal securities laws and the scrutiny of securities analysts and investors. These new obligations and constituents will require significant attention from our management team and could divert their attention away from the day‑to‑day management of our business, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, divert management’s attention and affect our ability to attract and retain qualified board members.

As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the listing requirements of the Nasdaq and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time‑consuming or costly, and increase demand on our systems and resources, particularly as we are no longer an emerging growth company. Among other things, the Exchange Act requires that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and operating results and maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over

financial reporting. In order to maintain and, if required, improve our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting to meet this standard, significant resources and management oversight may be required. As a result, management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could harm our business and operating results. Although we have already hired additional employees to comply with these requirements, we may need to hire even more employees in the future, which will increase our costs and expenses.

In addition, changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial compliance costs and making some activities more time consuming. These laws, regulations, and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expense and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue‑generating activities to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business may be harmed.

As a result of being a public company and these new rules and regulations, it is more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and in the future we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors, particularly to serve on our audit committee and compensation committee, and qualified executive officers.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be impaired.

As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as amended (the "Sarbanes-Oxley Act"), and the listing standards of the Nasdaq Stock Market. We expect that the requirements of these rules and regulations will continue to increase our legal, accounting and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time consuming and costly, and place significant strain on our personnel, systems and resources.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We are continuing to develop and refine our disclosure controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we will file with the SEC is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms, and that information required to be disclosed in reports under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our principal executive and financial officers. We are also continuing to improve our internal control over financial reporting. In order to maintain and improve the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, we have expended, and anticipate that we will continue to expend, significant resources, including accounting-related costs and significant management oversight.

Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. Further, weaknesses in our disclosure controls or our internal control over financial reporting may be discovered in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls, or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and may result in a restatement of our financial statements for prior periods. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting also could adversely affect the results of management evaluations of our internal control over financial reporting that we are required to include in our periodic reports that we file with the SEC. Ineffective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information, which would likely have a negative effect on the trading price of our common stock. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to remain listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could have a material and adverse effect on our business and operating results and cause a decline in the price of our common stock.

Elevated levels of leverage may harm our financial condition and results of operations.

As of December 31, 2018, we had approximately $1.3 billion of long‑term debt, excluding current maturities. We and our subsidiaries may incur additional indebtedness in the future. Our indebtedness could: decrease our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, general corporate or other purposes; limit our flexibility to make acquisitions; increase our cash requirements to support the payment of interest; limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and our industry; and increase our vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic and industry conditions. Our ability to make payments of principal and interest on our indebtedness depends upon our future performance, which will be subject to general economic conditions and financial, business and other factors affecting our consolidated operations, many of which are beyond our control. In addition, if our outstanding senior notes are downgraded to below investment grade, we may incur additional interest expense. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow from operations in the future to service our debt and meet our other cash requirements, we may be required, among other things: to seek additional financing in the debt or equity markets; to refinance or restructure all or a portion of our indebtedness; or to reduce or delay planned capital or operating expenditures. Such measures might not be sufficient to enable us to service our debt and meet our other cash requirements. In addition, any such financing, refinancing or sale of assets might not be available at all or on economically favorable terms.

If we are unable to successfully consummate acquisitions or experience delays in integrating acquisitions, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

One of our strategies to grow our business is to opportunistically acquire complementary businesses, technologies and services such as Asterion Group International in 2018. This strategy depends in large part on our ability to find suitable acquisitions and finance them on acceptable terms. We may require additional debt or equity financing for future acquisitions, and doing so will be made more difficult by our indebtedness. Raising additional capital for acquisitions through debt financing could result in increased interest expense and may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take certain actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. .

If we are unable to identify and acquire suitable acquisition candidates, we may experience slower growth. Further, we may face challenges in integrating any acquired business. These challenges include eliminating redundant operations, facilities and systems, coordinating management and personnel, retaining key employees, managing different corporate cultures and achieving cost reductions and cross-selling opportunities. Additionally, the acquisition and integration processes may disrupt our business and divert management attention and our resources. If we fail to successfully integrate acquired businesses, products, technologies and personnel, it could impair relationships with employees, clients and strategic partners, distract management attention from our core businesses, result in control failures and otherwise disrupt our ongoing business, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We also may not be able to retain key management and other critical employees after an acquisition. In addition, we may be required to record future charges for impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets resulting from such acquisitions.

If we are unable to attract, train and retain skilled professionals, including highly skilled technical personnel to satisfy customer demand and senior management to lead our business globally, our business and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.

Our success is dependent, in large part, on our ability to keep our supply of skilled professionals, including project managers, IT engineers and senior technical personnel, in balance with customer demand around the world and on our ability to attract and retain senior management with the knowledge and skills to lead our business globally. Each year, we must hire several hundred new professionals and retrain, retain, and motivate our workforce across the globe. Competition for skilled labor is intense and, in some jurisdictions in which we operate, there are more jobs for certain professionals than qualified persons to fill these jobs. Costs associated with recruiting and training professionals can be significant. If we are unable to hire or deploy employees with the needed skillsets or if we are unable to adequately equip

our employees with the skills needed, this could materially adversely affect our business. Additionally, if we are unable to maintain an employee environment that is competitive and contemporary, it could have an adverse effect on engagement and retention, which may materially adversely affect our business. If more stringent labor laws become applicable to us or if a significant number of our employees unionize, our profitability may be adversely affected.

Increased labor costs due to competition, increased minimum wage or employee benefits costs (including various federal, state and local actions to increase minimum wages), unionization activity or other factors would adversely impact our cost of sales and operating expenses. For example, the State of California has passed regulations which increased minimum wage rates from $10.50 per hour to $11.00 per hour, that became effective January 1, 2018, and will gradually increase to $15.00 per hour by 2022. In addition, the federal government and a number of other states are evaluating various proposals to increase their respective minimum wage. As minimum wage rates increase, we may need to increase not only the wages of our minimum wage employees but also the wages paid to employees at wage rates that are above minimum wage. As a result, we anticipate that our labor costs will continue to increase.

We are also subject to applicable rules and regulations relating to our relationship with our employees, including minimum wage and break requirements, health benefits, unemployment and sales taxes, overtime, and working conditions and immigration status. Legislated increases in the minimum wage and increases in additional labor cost components, such as employee benefit costs, workers’ compensation insurance rates, compliance costs and fines, as well as the cost of litigation in connection with these regulations, would increase our labor costs. Unionizing and collective bargaining efforts have received increased attention nationwide in recent periods. While a small number of our employees belong to unions, should our employees become represented by unions, we would be obligated to bargain with those unions with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment, which is likely to increase our labor costs. Moreover, as part of the process of union organizing and collective bargaining, strikes and other work stoppages may occur, which would cause disruption to our business. Similarly, many employers nationally in similar environments have been subject to actions brought by governmental agencies and private individuals under wage‑hour laws on a variety of claims, such as improper classification of workers as exempt from overtime pay requirements and failure to pay overtime wages properly, with such actions sometimes brought as class actions. These actions can result in material liabilities and expenses. Should we be subject to employment litigation, such as actions involving wage‑hour, overtime, break, and working time, we may distract our management from business matters and result in increased labor costs. If costs of labor increase significantly, our business, results of operations, and financial condition may be adversely affected.

We may not always offset increased costs with increased fees under long‑term contracts.

The pricing and other terms of our customer contracts, particularly our long‑term contact center agreements, are based on estimates and assumptions we make at the time we enter into these contracts. These estimates reflect our best judgments regarding the nature of the engagement and our expected costs to provide the contracted services and could differ from actual results. Not all our larger long‑term contracts allow for escalation of fees as our cost of operations increase and those that allow for such escalations do not always allow increases at rates comparable to increases that we experience. If and where we cannot negotiate long‑term contract terms that provide for fee adjustments to reflect increases in our cost of service delivery, our business, financial conditions, and results of operation would be materially impacted.

Our business process automation solutions often require long selling cycles and long implementation periods that may result in significant upfront expenses that may not be recovered.

We often face long selling cycles to secure new contracts for our business process automation solutions. If we are successful in obtaining an engagement, the selling cycle can be followed by a long implementation period during which we plan our services in detail and demonstrate to the customer our ability to successfully integrate our solutions with the customer’s internal operations. Our customers may experience delays in obtaining internal approvals or delays associated with technology or system implementations which can further lengthen the selling cycle or implementation period, and certain engagements may also require a ramping up period after implementation before we can commence providing our services. Even if we succeed in developing a relationship with a potential customer and begin to discuss the services in detail, the potential customer may choose a competitor or decide to retain the work in‑house prior to the

time a contract is signed. In addition, once a contract is signed, we sometimes do not begin to receive revenue until completion of the implementation period and our solution is fully operational. The extended lengths of our selling cycles and implementation periods can result in the incurrence of significant upfront expenses that may never result in profits or may result in profits only after a significant period of time has elapsed, which may negatively impact our financial performance. For example, we generally hire new employees to provide services in connection with certain large engagements once a new contract is signed. Accordingly, we may incur significant costs associated with these hires before we collect corresponding revenues. Our inability to obtain contractual commitments after a selling cycle, maintain contractual commitments after the implementation period or limit expenses prior to the receipt of corresponding revenue may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We face significant competition from U.S.‑based and non‑U.S.‑based companies and from our customers who may elect to perform their business processes in‑house.

Our industry is highly competitive, fragmented and subject to rapid change. We compete primarily against large multi‑national information technology companies, focused BPO companies based in offshore locations, BPO divisions of information technology companies located in India, other BPO and consulting providers that focus on the legal sector and the in‑house capabilities of our customers and potential customers. These competitors may include entrants from adjacent industries or entrants in geographic locations with lower costs than those in which we operate.

We believe that the principal competitive factors in our markets are breadth and depth of process expertise, knowledge of industries served, service quality, scalability of solutions, the ability to attract, train and retain qualified people, compliance rigor, global delivery capabilities, outcome‑based pricing and sales and customer management capabilities. Some of our competitors have greater financial, marketing, technological or other resources, larger customer bases and more established reputations or brand awareness than we do. In addition, some of our competitors who do not have, or have limited, global delivery capabilities may expand their delivery centers to the countries in which we operate or increase our capacity in lower cost geographies, which could result in increased competition. Some of our competitors may also enter into strategic or commercial relationships among themselves or with larger, more established companies in order to benefit from increased scale and enhanced scope capabilities or enter into similar arrangements with potential customers. Further, we expect competition to intensify in the future as more companies enter our markets and customers consolidate the services they require among fewer vendors. Increased competition, our inability to compete successfully against competitors, pricing pressures or loss of market share could result in reduced operating margins, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our industry is characterized by rapid technological change and failure to compete successfully within the industry and address rapid technological change could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

The process of developing new services and solutions is inherently complex and uncertain. It requires accurate anticipation of customers’ changing needs and emerging technological trends. We must make long‑term investments and commit significant resources before knowing whether these investments will eventually result in services that achieve customer acceptance and generate the revenues required to provide desired returns. If we fail to accurately anticipate and meet our customers’ needs through the development of new technologies and service offerings or if our new services are not widely accepted, we could lose market share and customers to our competitors and that could materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

More specifically, the business process solutions industry is characterized by rapid technological change, evolving industry standards and changing customer preferences. The success of our business depends, in part, upon our ability to develop technology and solutions that keep pace with changes in our industry and the industries of our customers. Although we have made, and will continue to make, significant investments in the research, design and development of new technology and platforms‑driven solutions, we may not be successful in addressing these changes on a timely basis or in marketing the changes we implement. In addition, products or technologies developed by others may render our services uncompetitive or obsolete. Failure to address these developments could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

In addition, existing and potential customers are actively shifting their businesses away from paper‑based environments to electronic environments with reduced needs for physical document management and processing. This shift may result in decreased demand for the physical document management services we provide such that our business and revenues may become more reliant on technology‑based services in electronic environments, which are typically provided at lower prices compared to physical document management services. Though we have solutions for customers seeking to make these types of transitions, a significant shift by our customers away from physical documents to non‑paper based technologies, whether now existing or developed in the future, could adversely affect our business, results of operation and financial condition.

Also, some of the large international companies in the industry have significant financial resources and compete with us to provide document processing services and/or business process services. We compete primarily on the basis of technology, performance, price, quality, reliability, brand, distribution and customer service and support. Our success in future performance is largely dependent upon our ability to compete successfully, to promptly and effectively react to changing technologies and customer expectations and to expand into additional market segments. To remain competitive, we must develop services and applications; periodically enhance our existing offerings; remain cost efficient; and attract and retain key personnel and management. If we are unable to compete successfully, we could lose market share and important customers to our competitors and that could materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We rely, in some cases, on third‑party hardware and software, which could cause errors or failures of our services and could also result in adverse effects for our business and reputation if these third‑party services fail to perform properly or are no longer available.

Although we developed our platform‑driven solutions internally, we rely, in some cases, on third‑party hardware and software in connection with our service offerings which we either purchase or lease from third‑party vendors. We are generally able to select from a number of competing hardware and software applications, but the complexity and unique specifications of the hardware or software makes design defects and software errors difficult to detect. Any errors or defects in third‑party hardware or software incorporated into our service offerings, may result in a delay or loss of revenue, diversion of resources, damage to our reputation, the loss of the affected customer, loss of future business, increased service costs or potential litigation claims against us.

Further, this hardware and software may not continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Any loss of the right to use any of this hardware or software could result in delays in the provisioning of our services, which could negatively affect our business until equivalent technology is either developed by us or, if available, is identified, obtained and integrated. In addition, it is possible that our hardware vendors or the licensors of third‑party software could increase the prices they charge, which could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations. Further, changing hardware vendors or software licensors could detract from management’s ability to focus on the ongoing operations of our business or could cause delays in the operations of our business.

Some of the work we do involves greater risks than other types of claims processing or document management engagements.

We provide certain business process solutions for customers that, for financial, legal or other reasons, may present higher risks compared to other types of claims processing or document management engagements. Examples of higher risk engagements include, but are not limited to:

While we attempt to identify higher risk engagements and customers and mitigate our exposure by taking certain preventive measures and, where necessary, turning down certain engagements, these efforts may be ineffective and an actual or alleged error or omission on our part, the part of our customer or other third parties or possible fraudulent activity in one or more of these higher‑risk engagements could result in the diversion of management resources, damage to our reputation, increased service costs or impaired market acceptance of our services, any of which could negatively impact our business and our financial condition.

We encounter professional conflicts of interest.

We encounter professional conflicts of interest, particularly in our provision of expert witness testimony in certain of our legal engagement services. Although we have systems and procedures to identify potential conflicts of interest prior to accepting a new engagement, there is no guarantee that all potential conflicts of interest will be identified, and undetected conflicts may result in damage to our reputation and result in professional liability, which may adversely impact our business and results of operations. If we are unable to accept new engagements for any reason, including business and legal conflicts, our professionals may become underutilized or discontented, which may adversely affect our future revenues and results of operations, as well as our ability to retain these professionals.

New, more stringent privacy and data security regulations may have a negative impact on our business.

Any inability to adequately address privacy and security concerns could result in expenses and liability, and adverse impact on us. Moreover, international privacy and data security regulations may become more complex and have greater consequences. For instance, as of May 25, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, has replaced the Data Protection Directive with respect to the collection and use of personal data of data subjects in the EU. The GDPR applies extra territorially and imposes several stringent requirements for controllers and processors of personal data, including, for example, higher standards for obtaining consent from individuals to process their personal data, more robust disclosures to individuals and a strengthened individual data rights regime, shortened timelines for data breach notifications, limitations on retention of information, increased requirements pertaining to health data, other special categories of personal data and pseudonymised (i.e., key-coded) data and additional obligations when we contract third-party processors in connection with the processing of the personal data. The GDPR provides that EU member states may make their own further laws and regulations limiting the processing of personal data, including genetic, biometric or health data, which could limit our ability to use and share personal data or could cause our costs could increase, and harm our business and financial condition. Failure to comply with the requirements of GDPR and the applicable national data protection laws of the EU Member States may result in fines of up to €20,000,000 or up to 4% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year, whichever is higher, and other administrative penalties. Further, as the GDPR has recently come into effect, enforcement priorities and interpretation of certain provisions are still unclear. Industry groups also impose self‑regulatory standards that bind us by their incorporation into the contracts we execute. For example, should we fail to be compliant with the PCIDSS we may be subject to fines and other penalties.

Our business could be materially and adversely affected if we do not protect our intellectual property or if our services are found to infringe on the intellectual property of others.

Our success depends in part on certain methodologies and practices we utilize in developing and implementing applications and other proprietary intellectual property rights. In order to protect such rights, we rely upon a combination of nondisclosure and other contractual arrangements, as well as trade secret, copyright, trademark and patent laws. We also generally enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, customers and potential customers and limit access to and distribution of our proprietary information. There can be no assurance that the laws, rules, regulations and treaties in effect in the U.S., India and the other jurisdictions in which we operate and the contractual and other protective measures we take are adequate to protect us from misappropriation or unauthorized use of our intellectual property, or that such laws will not change. There can be no assurance that the resources invested by us to protect our intellectual property will be sufficient or that our intellectual property portfolio will adequately deter misappropriation or improper use of our technology, and our intellectual property rights may not prevent competitors from independently developing or selling products and services similar to or duplicative of ours. We may not be able to detect unauthorized use and take appropriate steps to enforce our rights, and any such steps may be costly and unsuccessful. Infringement by

others of our intellectual property, including the costs of enforcing our intellectual property rights, may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. We could also face competition in some countries where we have not invested in an intellectual property portfolio. If we are not able to protect our intellectual property, the value of our brand and other intangible assets may be diminished, and our business may be adversely affected. Further, although we believe that we are not infringing on the intellectual property rights of others, claims may nonetheless be successfully asserted against us in the future, and we may be the target of enforcement of patents by third parties, including aggressive and opportunistic enforcement claims by non‑practicing entities. Regardless of the merit of such claims, responding to infringement claims can be expensive and time‑consuming. If we are found to infringe any third‑party rights, we could be required to pay substantial damages or we could be enjoined from offering some of our products and services. The costs of defending any such claims could be significant, and any successful claim may require us to modify our services. The value of, or our ability to use, our intellectual property may also be negatively impacted by dependencies on third parties, such as our ability to obtain or renew on reasonable terms licenses that we need in the future, or our ability to secure or retain ownership or rights to use data in certain software analytics or services offerings. Any such circumstances may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We generate a significant portion of our revenues from a small number of customers, and any loss of business from these customers could materially reduce our revenues.

We have derived, and believe that in the foreseeable future we will continue to derive, a significant portion of our revenues from a small number of customers. While we have no one customer that accounts for more than 10% of our revenue, for each of the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, our ten largest customers accounted for approximately 30% of our revenues.

Our ability to maintain close relationships with these and other major customers is essential to the growth and profitability of our business. However, the volume of work performed for a specific customer is likely to vary from year to year. A major customer in one year may not provide the same level of revenues for us in any subsequent year and there can be no assurance that any customer will extend or renew its contract with us. The business process solutions we provide to our customers, and the revenues and net income from those services, may decline or vary as the type and quantity of services we provide change over time. Furthermore, our reliance on any individual customer for a significant portion of our revenues may give that customer a certain degree of pricing leverage against us when negotiating contracts and terms of service.

In addition, a number of factors other than our performance could cause the loss of or reduction in business or revenues from a customer, and these factors are not predictable. For example, a customer may decide to reduce spending on business process solutions from us due to a challenging economic environment or other factors, both internal and external, relating to our business. These factors may include corporate restructuring, pricing pressure, changes to our outsourcing strategy, switching to another BPO provider or returning work in‑house or other changes in a customer’s prospects or profitability. The loss of any of our major customers, or a significant decrease in the volume of work they give to us or the price at which we are able to provide our services to them, could materially adversely affect our revenues and thus our results of operations.

Our revenues are highly dependent on a limited number of industries, and any decrease in demand for business process solutions in these industries could reduce our revenues and adversely affect the results of operations.

A substantial portion of our revenues are derived from three specific industry‑based segments: ITPS, HS, and LLPS. Customers in ITPS accounted for 80.3% and 71.8% of our revenues in 2018 and 2017, respectively. Customers in HS accounted for 14.4% and 20.3% of our revenues in 2018 and 2017, respectively. Customers in LLPS accounted for 0.0% and 5.3% of our revenues in 2018 and 2017, respectively.

Our success largely depends on continued demand for our services from customers in these segments, and a downturn or reversal of the demand for business process solutions in any of these segments, or the introduction of regulations that restrict or discourage companies from engaging our services, could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, consolidation in any of these industries or

combinations or mergers, particularly involving our customers, may decrease the potential number of customers for our services. We have been affected by the worsening of economic conditions and significant consolidation in the financial services industry, and continuation of this trend may negatively affect our revenues and profitability.

Our future profitability and ability to sustain positive cash flow is uncertain.

Our future profitability depends on, among other things, our ability to generate revenue in excess of our expenses. However, we have significant and continuing fixed costs relating to the maintenance of our assets and business, including debt service requirements, which we may not be able to reduce adequately to sustain our profitability if our revenue decreases. Our profitability also may be impacted by non‑cash charges such as stock‑based compensation charges and potential impairment of goodwill, which will negatively affect our reported financial results. Even if we achieve profitability on an annual basis, we may not be able to achieve profitability on a quarterly basis. You should not consider prior revenue growth as indicative of our future performance. In fact, in future quarters, we may not have any revenue growth or our revenue could decline. We may incur significant losses in the future for a number of reasons and risks described elsewhere herein and we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown events.

Our ability to continue to generate positive cash flow depends on our ability to generate collections from sales in excess of our cash expenditures. Our ability to generate and collect on sales can be negatively affected by many factors, including but not limited to our inability to convince new customers to use our services or existing customers to renew their contracts or use additional services; the lengthening of our sales cycles and implementation periods; changes in our customer mix; a decision by any of our existing customers to cease or reduce using our services; failure of customers to pay our invoices on a timely basis or at all; a failure in the performance of our solutions or internal controls that adversely affects our reputation or results in loss of business; the loss of market share to existing or new competitors; the failure to enter or succeed in new markets; regional or global economic conditions or regulations affecting perceived need for or value of our services; or our inability to develop new offerings, expand our offerings or drive adoption of our new offerings on a timely basis and thus potentially not meeting evolving market needs.

We anticipate that we will incur increased sales and marketing and general and administrative expenses as we continue to diversify our business into new industries and geographic markets. Our business will also require significant amounts of working capital to support our growth. We may not achieve collections from sales to offset these anticipated expenditures sufficient to maintain positive future cash flow. In addition, we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other unknown events that cause our costs to exceed our expectations. An inability to generate positive cash flow may decrease our long‑term viability.

We have a significant amount of intangible assets that could be materially impacted.

Goodwill and other intangible assets that have indefinite useful lives are not amortized but rather are evaluated annually for impairment and more frequently if a triggering event occurs. The valuation of goodwill for impairment involves a high degree of judgment. Based on our estimates and assumptions underlying the valuation, impairment is determined by estimating the fair value of a reporting unit and comparing that value to the reporting unit’s book value. If economic events occur that cause us to revise our estimates and assumptions used in determining the fair value of our goodwill, such revisions could result in an impairment charge that could have a material adverse impact on our financial statements during the period incurred.

We derive significant revenue and profit from commercial and government contracts awarded through competitive bidding processes, including renewals, which can impose substantial costs on us, and we will not achieve revenue and profit objectives if we fail to accurately and effectively bid on such projects.

Many of these contracts are extremely complex and require the investment of significant resources in order to prepare accurate bids and proposals. Competitive bidding imposes substantial costs and presents a number of risks, including: (i) the substantial cost and managerial time and effort that we spend to prepare bids and proposals for contracts that may or may not be awarded to us; (ii) the need to estimate accurately the resources and costs that will be required to implement and service any contracts we are awarded, sometimes in advance of the final determination of

their full scope and design; (iii) the expense and delay that may arise if our competitors protest or challenge awards made to us pursuant to competitive bidding and the risk that such protests or challenges could result in the requirement to resubmit bids and in the termination, reduction or modification of the awarded contracts; and (iv) the opportunity cost of not bidding on and winning other contracts we might otherwise pursue. If our competitors protest or challenge an award made to us on a government contract, the costs to defend such an award may be significant and could involve subsequent litigation that could take years to resolve.

Our profitability is dependent upon our ability to obtain adequate pricing for our services and to improve our cost structure.

Our success depends on our ability to obtain adequate pricing for our services. Depending on competitive market factors, future prices we obtain for our services may decline from previous levels. If we are unable to obtain adequate pricing for our services, it could materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. In addition, our contracts are increasingly requiring tighter timelines for implementation as well as more stringent service level metrics. This makes the bidding process for new contracts much more difficult and requires us to adequately consider these requirements in the pricing of our services.

We regularly review our operations with a view towards reducing our cost structure, including, without limitation, reducing our employee base, exiting certain businesses, improving process and system efficiencies and outsourcing some internal functions. We, from time to time, engage in restructuring actions to reduce our cost structure. If we are unable to continue to maintain our cost base at or below the current level and maintain process and systems changes resulting from prior restructuring actions or to realize the expected cost reductions in the ongoing strategic transformation program, it could materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

In addition, in order to meet the service requirements of our customers, which often includes 24/7 service, and to optimize our employee cost base, including our back‑office support, we often locate our delivery service and back‑office support centers in lower‑cost locations, including several developing countries. Concentrating our centers in these locations presents a number of operational risks, many of which are beyond our control, including the risks of political instability, natural disasters, safety and security risks, labor disruptions, excessive employee turnover and rising labor rates. Additionally, a change in the political environment in the U.S. or the adoption and enforcement of legislation and regulations curbing the use of such centers outside of the U.S. could materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. These risks could impair our ability to effectively provide services to our customers and keep our costs aligned to our associated revenues and market requirements.

Our ability to sustain and improve profit margins is dependent on a number of factors, including our ability to continue to improve the cost efficiency of our operations through such programs as robotic process automation, to absorb the level of pricing pressures on our services through cost improvements and to successfully complete information technology initiatives. If any of these factors adversely materialize or if we are unable to achieve and maintain productivity improvements through restructuring actions or information technology initiatives, our ability to offset labor cost inflation and competitive price pressures would be impaired, each of which could materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We are subject to regular customer and third‑party security reviews and failure to pass these may have an adverse impact on our operations.

Many of our customer contracts require that we maintain certain physical and/or information security standards, and, in certain cases, we permit a customer to audit our compliance with these contractual standards. Any failure to meet such standards or pass such audits may have a material adverse impact on our business. Further, customers from time to time may require stricter physical and/or information security than they negotiated in their contracts, and may condition continued volumes and business on the satisfaction of such additional requirements. Some of these requirements may be expensive to implement or maintain, and may not be factored into our contract pricing. Further, on an annual basis we obtain third‑party audits of certain of our locations in accordance with Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16 (SSAE 16) put forth by the Auditing Standards Board (ASB) of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). SSAE 16 is the current standard for reporting on controls at service organizations, and

many of our customers expect that we will perform an annual SSAE 16 audit, and report to them the results. Negative findings in such an audit and/or the failure to adequately remediate in a timely fashion such negative findings may cause customers to terminate their contracts or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our reputation, results of operation and financial condition.

Failure to adhere to the regulations that govern our business could have an adverse impact on our operations.

Our customers are often subject to regulations that may require that we comply with certain rules and regulations in performing services for them that would not otherwise apply to us. U.S. federal laws and regulations that apply to certain portions of our business include the Gramm‑Leach‑Bliley Act, HIPAA, and the HITECH Act of 2009. We must also comply with applicable regulations relating to healthcare and other personal information that we processes as part of our services. Due to our global delivery model, we are also subject to the burden and expense of complying with the laws and regulations of various jurisdictions and changes thereto which are beyond our control. In addition, our contracts with some of our customers require us to remain knowledgeable about and comply with a number of additional relevant consumer protection laws and other regulatory requirements. Failure to perform our services in a manner that complies with any such requirement could result in breaches of contracts with our customers. Our failure to comply with any applicable laws and regulations could subject us to civil fines and criminal penalties.

A significant portion of our assets and operations are located in India, the Philippines, China and Mexico, and we are subject to regulatory, economic and political uncertainties in those locations.

A significant number of our operations centers are located in India, the Philippines and China and a majority of our assets and our professionals are located in those locations. We intend to continue to develop and expand our facilities in these areas. Our financial performance may be adversely affected by general economic conditions and economic and fiscal policy in these countries, including changes in exchange rates and controls, interest rates and taxation policies, as well as social stability and political, economic or diplomatic developments affecting those countries in the future. These countries have experienced significant economic growth over the last several years, but face major challenges in sustaining that growth in the years ahead. These challenges include the need for substantial infrastructure development and improving access to healthcare and education. Our ability to recruit, train and retain qualified employees, develop and operate our operations centers, and attract and retain customers could be adversely affected if these countries do not successfully meet these challenges.

In the early 1990s, India experienced significant inflation, low growth in gross domestic product and shortages of foreign currency reserves. The Indian government, however, has exercised and continues to exercise significant influence over many aspects of the Indian economy. India’s government has provided significant tax incentives and relaxed certain regulatory restrictions in order to encourage foreign investment in specified sectors of the economy, including the BPO industry. Certain of those programs that have benefited us include tax holidays, liberalized import and export duties and preferential rules on foreign investment and repatriation. We cannot assure you that liberalization policies will continue. Various factors, such as changes in the current federal government, could trigger significant changes in India’s economic liberalization and deregulation policies and disrupt business and economic conditions in India generally and our business in particular.

The Philippines has experienced significant inflation, currency declines and shortages of foreign exchange. In addition, the Philippines has experienced and may continue to experience civil unrest, terrorism and political turmoil, resulting in temporary work stoppages and technology outages. These instabilities and any adverse changes in the political environment in the Philippines could increase our operational costs, increase our exposure to legal and business risks and make it more difficult for us to operate our business in the Philippines.

Our business operations in China may be adversely affected by our current and future political environment. The Chinese government can exert substantial influence and control over the manner in which companies in China conduct business. Under the current government leadership, the government of China has been pursuing economic reform policies that encourage private economic activity and greater economic decentralization. There is no assurance, however, that the government of China will continue to pursue these policies, or that it will not significantly alter these policies from time to time without notice.

Our ability to efficiently conduct our business activities in Mexico is subject to changes in government policy or shifts in political attitudes that are beyond our control. Government policy may change to discourage foreign investment, nationalization of industries may occur or other government limitations, restrictions or requirements not currently foreseen may be implemented. In addition, Mexico may experience political instability, which may result in outbreaks of civil unrest, drug‑related violence, terrorist attacks or threats or acts of war in the affected areas, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Introduction of tax legislation and disputes with tax authorities may have an adverse effect on our operations and our overall tax rate.

Governments in countries in which we operate or provide services could enact new tax legislation that could have a material adverse effect on our overall effective tax rate. In addition, our ability to repatriate surplus earnings, if any, from our operations centers in a tax‑efficient manner is dependent upon interpretations of local laws, possible changes in such laws and the renegotiation of existing double tax avoidance treaties. Changes to any of these may adversely affect our overall tax rate, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

In addition, the transfer pricing regulations of the U.S. and certain foreign jurisdictions, including India, require that any cross‑border transaction involving related parties be at an arm’s‑length price. Accordingly, we base our pricing between our foreign subsidiaries and related parties on a functional and economic analysis involving benchmarking against transactions among entities that are not related. However, the tax authorities have jurisdiction to review our transfer‑pricing policy. If they conclude the policy was not applied appropriately, we may incur additional tax liability, including accrued interest and penalties. As an example, we have previously received an adverse order from the Indian Tax Tribunal over the application of some of our transfer pricing policies. This decision may be overturned only by appeal to India’s Supreme Court. However, it is highly uncertain the matter would ultimately be decided in our favor. Based on the adverse Indian tax tribunal’s decision, advice from tax advisors, and the noted trend of Indian tax authorities aggressively pursuing higher transfer prices from multi‑national companies, we believe it is probable that we may experience future assessments of tax, penalty and interest in connection with our Indian transfer‑pricing policy. Accordingly, reserves have been established on our balance sheet. However, these reserves may not be sufficient. As we continue to expand our operations, we may be subject to similar liability/exposure in additional geographies/jurisdictions.

We may suffer increases in tax expenses and face uncertain future tax liabilities due to enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

On December 22, 2017, new U.S. federal income tax legislation was enacted (the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” or “TCJA”).  The TCJA, among other things, contains significant changes to U.S. federal corporate income taxation, including reduction of the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate from a top marginal rate of 35% to a flat rate of 21%, limitation of the tax deduction for interest expense to 30% of adjusted earnings (except for certain small businesses), limitation of the deduction for net operating losses to 80% of current year taxable income and elimination of net operating loss carrybacks for net operating losses arising after December 31, 2017, immediate deductions for certain new investments instead of deductions for depreciation expense over time, and creating, modifying or repealing many business deductions and credits. Federal net operating losses arising in taxable year ending after December 31, 2017 will be carried forward indefinitely pursuant to the TCJA. 

For 2018 and beyond, the main known impact to our operations is the TCJA’s limitations on interest expense deductions. We use significant leverage to finance our business and, therefore, we incur significant interest expense.  We continue to examine the impact this tax reform legislation may have on our business. Notwithstanding the reduction in the corporate income tax rate, the overall impact of the TCJA is uncertain and our business and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Sales tax laws in the U.S. may change resulting in service providers having to collect sales taxes in states where the current laws do not require us to do so. This could result in substantial tax liabilities.

Our U.S. subsidiaries collect and remit sales tax in states in which the subsidiaries have physical presence or in which we believe sufficient nexus exists which obligates us to collect sales tax. Other states may, from time to time, claim that we have state‑related activities constituting physical nexus to require such collection. Additionally, many other states seek to impose sales tax collection or reporting obligations on companies that sell goods to customers in their state, or directly to the state and its political subdivisions, regardless of physical presence. Such efforts by states have increased recently, as states seek to raise revenues without increasing the income tax burden on residents. We rely on U.S. Supreme Court decisions which hold that, without Congressional authority, a state may not enforce a sales tax collection obligation on a company that has no physical presence in the state. We cannot predict whether the nature or level of contacts we have with a particular state will be deemed enough to require us to collect sales tax in that state nor can we be assured that Congress or individual states will not approve legislation authorizing states to impose tax collection or reporting obligations on our activities. A successful assertion by one or more states that we should collect sales tax could result in substantial tax liabilities related to past sales and would result in considerable administrative burdens and costs for us.

Restrictions on entry visas may affect our ability to compete for and provide services to customers in the U.S., which could have a material adverse effect on future revenues.

A significant number of our employees are foreign nationals, including from India, the Philippines and China. Certain members of our development team based in India travel to the U.S. on a regular basis to facilitate new project development, including the implementation of new contracts and to meet our U.S. customers. The ability of these employees to travel to the U.S. and other countries in which we do business depends on the ability to obtain the necessary visas and entry permits.

In response to political forces, terrorist attacks, the global economic downturn, public sentiments of high unemployment rates in certain parts of the U.S. and other events, U.S. immigration authorities have increased the level of scrutiny in granting visas and applicable immigration laws may be subject to legislative change and varying standards of application and enforcement. We cannot predict the political or economic events that could affect immigration laws or any restrictive impact those events could have on obtaining or monitoring entry visas for our professionals.

Investors may have difficulty effecting service of process or enforcing judgments obtained in the U.S. against our non‑U.S. subsidiaries.

We have significant operating subsidiaries that are organized outside the U.S. A portion of our assets are located in India, the Philippines, China, Mexico, and Canada. As a result, you may be unable to effect service of process upon our affiliates who reside in these jurisdictions. In addition, you may be unable to enforce against these persons outside the jurisdiction of their residence judgments obtained in U.S. courts, including judgments predicated solely upon U.S. federal securities laws.

Currency fluctuations among the Euro, British Pound, Indian rupee, the Philippine Peso, the Mexican Peso, the Canadian Dollar, the Chinese Yuan and the U.S. Dollar could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

We operate internationally and as a result, are subject to risks associated with doing business globally, such as risks related to the differing legal, political and regulatory requirements and economic conditions of many jurisdictions. Risks inherent to operating internationally include changes in a country’s economic or political conditions, in foreign currency exchange rates, regulatory requirements and enforcement of intellectual property rights.

The functional currencies of our businesses outside of the U.S. are the local currencies. Changes in exchange rates between these foreign currencies and the U.S. Dollar will affect the recorded levels of our assets, liabilities, net sales, cost of goods sold and operating margins and could result in exchange gains or losses. The primary foreign currencies to which we have exposure are the European Union Euro, Swedish Krona, British Pound Sterling, Canadian

Dollar and Indian rupees. Exchange rates between these currencies and the U.S. Dollar in recent years have fluctuated significantly and may do so in the future. Our operating results and profitability may be affected by any volatility in currency exchange rates and our ability to manage effectively currency transaction and translation risks. To the extent the U.S. Dollar strengthens against foreign currencies, our foreign revenues and profits will be reduced when translated into U.S. Dollars.

Although the vast majority of our revenues are denominated in U.S. dollars, a significant portion of our expenses are incurred and paid in Euros, British Pound Sterling, Swedish Krona, Indian rupees, and to a lesser extent in other currencies, including the Philippine Peso, the Mexican Peso, the Canadian dollar and the Chinese Yuan. We report our financial results in U.S. Dollars. The exchange rate between the Indian rupee and the U.S. Dollar has changed substantially in recent years and may fluctuate substantially in the future. Our results of operations may be adversely affected if such fluctuations continue, or increase, or other currencies fluctuate significantly against the U.S. Dollar.

Although we do not currently take steps to hedge our foreign currency exposures, should we choose in the future to implement a hedging strategy, there can be no assurance that our hedging strategy will be successful or that the hedging markets would have sufficient liquidity or depth to allow us to implement such a hedging strategy in a cost‑effective manner. Further, the success of any potential hedging strategy could be impacted by any failure by the hedging counterparties to meet their contractual obligations.

We are subject to laws of the United States and foreign jurisdictions relating to processing certain financial transactions, including payment card transactions and debit or credit card transactions, and failure to comply with those laws could subject us to legal actions and materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

 

We process, support and execute financial transactions, and disburse funds, on behalf of both government and commercial customers, often in partnership with financial institutions. This activity includes receiving debit and credit card information, processing payments for and due to our customers and disbursing funds on payment or debit cards to payees of our customers. As a result, the transactions we process may be subject to numerous United States (both federal and state) and foreign jurisdiction laws and regulations, including the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, as amended, the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act of 1970 (commonly known as the Bank Secrecy Act), as amended, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (including the so-called Durbin Amendment), as amended, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (also known as the Financial Modernization Act of 1999), as amended, and the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001, as amended. Other United States (both federal and state) and foreign jurisdiction laws apply to our processing of certain financial transactions and related support services. These laws are subject to frequent changes, and new statutes and regulations in this area may be enacted at any time. Changes to existing laws, the introduction of new laws in this area or failure to comply with existing laws that are applicable to us may subject us to, among other things, additional costs or changes to our business practices, liability for monetary damages, fines and/or criminal prosecution, unfavorable publicity, restrictions on our ability to process and support financial transactions and allegations by our customers, partners and clients that we have not performed our contractual obligations. Any of these could materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

Failure to comply with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or the FCPA, economic and trade sanctions, regulations, and similar laws could subject us to penalties and other adverse consequences.

We operate our business in several foreign countries with developing economies, where companies often engage in business practices that are prohibited by U.S. and other regulations applicable to us. We are subject to anti‑corruption laws and regulations, including the FCPA, the U.K. Bribery Act and other laws that prohibit the making or offering of improper payments to foreign government officials and political figures, including ant bribery provisions enforced by the Department of Justice and accounting provisions enforced by the SEC. These laws prohibit improper payments or offers of payments to foreign governments and their officials and political parties by the U.S. and other business entities for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. We have implemented policies to identify and address potentially impermissible transactions under such laws and regulations; however, there can be no assurance that all of our and our subsidiaries’ employees, consultants, and agents, including those that may be based in or from

countries where practices that violate U.S. or other laws may be customary, will not take actions in violation of our policies, for which we may be ultimately responsible.

We are also subject to certain economic and trade sanctions programs that are administered by the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, which prohibit or restrict transactions to or from or dealings with specified countries, their governments, and in certain circumstances, their nationals, and with individuals and entities that are specially‑designated nationals of those countries, narcotics traffickers, and terrorists or terrorist organizations. Our subsidiaries may be subject to additional foreign or local sanctions requirements in other relevant jurisdictions.

Fluctuations in the costs of paper, ink, energy, by‑products and other raw materials may adversely impact the results of our operations.

Purchases of paper, ink, energy and other raw materials represent a large portion of our costs. Increases in the costs of these inputs may increase our costs and we may not be able to pass these costs on to customers through higher prices. In addition, we may not be able to resell waste paper and other print‑related by‑products or may be adversely impacted by decreases in the prices for these by‑products. Increases in the cost of materials may adversely impact customers’ demand for our printing and printing‑related services.

We may be required to take write downs or write‑offs, restructuring and impairment or other charges that could have a significant negative effect on our financial condition, results of operations and stock price, which could cause you to lose some or all of your investment.

Although we conducted due diligence before the consummation of the Novitex Business Combination with respect to SourceHOV and Novitex, we cannot assure you that this diligence revealed all material issues that may be present in our current businesses, that it would be possible to uncover all material issues through a customary amount of due diligence, or that factors outside of our control will not later arise. As a result, we may be forced to write down or write off assets, restructure our operations, or incur impairment or other charges that could result in losses. Unexpected risks may arise and previously known risks may materialize in a manner not consistent with our risk analysis with respect to the Novitex Business Combination. Even though these charges may be non‑cash items and may not have an immediate impact on our liquidity, the fact that we report charges of this nature could contribute to negative market perceptions about us or our securities, including, without limitation, our Common Stock.

The market for our securities remains volatile and may not continue, which would adversely affect the liquidity and price of our securities.

The price of our securities, including, without limitation, our Common Stock, may continue to fluctuate significantly. An active trading market for our securities following the Novitex Business Combination may not further develop or be sustained. In addition, the price of our securities can fluctuate due to general economic conditions and forecasts, our general business condition and the release of our financial reports.

If we are not able to comply with the applicable continued listing requirements or standards of Nasdaq, Nasdaq could delist our common stock.

 

Our Common Stock is currently listed on the Nasdaq. In order to maintain that listing, we must satisfy minimum financial and other continued listing requirements and standards, including those regarding director independence and independent committee requirements, minimum stockholders' equity, minimum share price, and certain corporate governance requirements. There can be no assurances that we will be able to comply with the applicable listing standards.

In the event that our common stock is delisted from Nasdaq and is not eligible for quotation or listing on another market or exchange, trading of our common stock could be conducted only in the over-the-counter market or on an electronic bulletin board established for unlisted securities such as the Pink Sheets or the OTC Bulletin Board. In such event, it could become more difficult to dispose of, or obtain accurate price quotations for, our common stock, and there

would likely also be a reduction in our coverage by securities analysts and the news media, which could cause the price of our common stock to decline. Also, it may be difficult for us to raise additional capital if we are not listed on a major exchange.

Such a de-listing would also likely have a negative effect on the price of our Common Stock. In the event of a de-listing, we may take actions to restore our compliance with Nasdaq's listing requirements, but we can provide no assurance that any such action taken by us would allow our Common Stock to become listed again, stabilize the market price or improve the liquidity of our common or prevent future non-compliance with Nasdaq's listing requirements.

Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, investments and results of operations.

We are subject to laws, regulations and rules enacted by national, regional and local governments and Nasdaq. In particular, we are required to comply with certain SEC, Nasdaq and other legal or regulatory requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws, regulations and rules may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws, regulations and rules and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws, regulations and rules, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

ITEM 1B.   UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ITEM 2.   PROPERTIES

We lease and own numerous facilities worldwide with larger concentrations of space in Texas, Michigan, Connecticut, California, India, Mexico, the Philippines, and China. The size of our active property portfolio as of December 31, 2018  was approximately 4.4 million square feet (square feet) and comprised of 178 leased properties and 7 owned properties.  offices, sales offices, service locations, and production facilities. Many of our operating facilities are equipped with fiber connectivity and have access to other power sources. Substantially all of our operations facilities are leased under long‑term leases with varying expiration dates, except for the following owned locations: (i) three operations facilities in India with a combined building area of approximately 91,500 sq. ft., respectively, (ii) an operating facility in Georgiana, Alabama with an approximate building area of 20,000 sq. ft., (iii) an operating facility in Tallahassee, Florida consisting of four buildings with a combined building area of approximately 21,000 sq. ft., (iv) an operating facility in Troy, Michigan that will serve as the Company’s primary data center with an approximate building area of 66,000 sq. ft. (v) an operating facility in Egham, England with an approximate building area of 11,000 sq. ft., and (vi) an innovation center in New York, NY with an approximate building area of 2,200 sq. ft. We also maintain an operating presence at approximately 1,100 customer sites. 

Our properties are suitable to deliver services to our customers for each of our business segments. Our management believes that all of our properties and facilities are well maintained.

ITEM 3.   LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

Appraisal Demand

On September 21, 2017, former stockholders of SourceHOV, who allege combined ownership of 10,304 shares of SourceHOV common stock, filed a petition for appraisal pursuant to 8 Del. C. § 262 in the Delaware Court of Chancery, captioned Manichaean Capital, LLC, et al. v. SourceHOV Holdings, Inc., C.A. No. 2017‑0673‑JRS (the “Appraisal Action”). The Appraisal Action arises out of the Novitex Business Combination, which gave rise to appraisal rights pursuant to 8 Del. C. § 262. In the Appraisal Action, the petitioners seek, among other things, a determination of the fair value of their shares at the time of the Novitex Business Combination; an order that SourceHOV pay that value to the petitioners, together with interest at the statutory rate; and an award of costs, attorneys’ fees, and other expenses.

On October 12, 2017, SourceHOV filed its answer to the petition and a verified list pursuant to 8 Del. C. § 262(f). Discovery in the Appraisal Action is not yet complete. At this stage of the litigation, the Company is unable to predict the outcome of the Appraisal Action or estimate any loss or range of loss that may arise from the Appraisal Action. Pursuant to the terms of the Novitex Business Combination Agreement, if such appraisal rights are perfected, a corresponding portion of shares of our Common Stock issued to Ex‑Sigma 2 LLC, our principal stockholder, will be forfeited at such time as the PIPE Financing (as defined in the Consent, Waiver and Amendment dated June 15, 2017) is repaid. The Company intends to vigorously defend against the Appraisal Action.

Other

We are, from time to time, involved in other legal proceedings, inquiries, claims and disputes, which arise in the ordinary course of business. Although our management cannot predict the outcomes of these matters, our management believes these actions will not have a material, adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

ITEM 4.   MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable

PART II

ITEM 5.   MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Market Information

Our Common Stock is traded on the Nasdaq composite under the symbol “XELA.” Set forth below is the high and low sales price of our Common Stock during the periods presented.

Stockholders

As of March 11, 2019 we had 47 record holders of our Common Stock.

Dividends

We have not paid any cash dividends on shares of our Common Stock. The payment of cash dividends in the future will be dependent upon our revenues and earnings, capital requirements, general financial condition, and is within the discretion of our board of directors.

Equity Compensation Plan Information

The following table provides information as of December 31, 2018, with respect to the shares of our Common Stock that may be issued under our existing equity compensation plans.

Sale of Unregistered Securities

There were no unregistered sales of equity securities in 2018 that have not been previously reported in a Quarterly Report on Form 10‑Q or Current Report on Form 8‑K.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

The table below sets forth information with respect to purchases made by or on behalf of us or any “affiliated purchaser” (as defined in Rule 10b‑18(a)(3) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) of shares of our Common Stock during the period of November 8, 2017 through the year ended December 31, 2017:

Stock Performance Graph

The stock performance graph and related information is not deemed to be “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the Securities and Exchange Commission or subject to Regulation 14A or 14C under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or to the liabilities of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and will not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, except to the extent we specifically incorporate it by reference into such a filing.

The graph and table set forth below compares the cumulative stockholder return from July 13, 2017 (the date our Common Stock began trading on Nasdaq) through December 28, 2018 for our Common Stock, the Nasdaq composite, and a peer group. Measurement points are the last trading day of each month and we assumed that dividends have been reinvested. The selected peer group for the period is comprised of four companies that we believe are our closest reporting issuer competitors: Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., ExlService Holdings, Inc., Genpact Ltd., and WNS (Holdings). The returns of the component entities of our peer index are weighted according to the market capitalization of each company as of the beginning of each period for which a return is presented. The returns assume

that $100 was invested on July 13, 2017. The performance shown in the graph and table is historical and should not be considered indicative of future price performance.

ITEM 6.  SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

The following selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report. Additionally, increases in revenue from 2014 to 2015 of $154.3 million, cost of revenue of $108.3 million, and a decrease in selling, general and administrative expenses of $11.2 million relate to the acquisition of BancTec which occurred on October 31, 2014. Due to this acquisition the company acquired new debt and paid down existing debt in 2014. This resulted in an increase of interest expense of $60.7 million in 2015 and a loss on extinguishment of debt in 2014 of $18.5 million. Finally, in 2014 the company impaired $154.5 million of goodwill and trade names.

 

 

ITEM 7.   MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Forward Looking Statements

The following Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations should be read in conjunction with a review of the other Items included in this Annual Report and our December 31, 2018 Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this report. Certain statements contained in this “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” may be deemed to be forward‑looking statements. See “Special Note Regarding Forward‑Looking Statements.”

Overview

We are a global provider of transaction processing solutions, enterprise information management, document management and digital business process services. Our technology‑enabled solutions allow global organizations to address critical challenges resulting from the massive amounts of data obtained and created through their daily operations. Our solutions address the life cycle of transaction processing and enterprise information management, from enabling payment gateways and data exchanges across multiple systems, to matching inputs against contracts and handling exceptions, to ultimately depositing payments and distributing communications. We believe our process expertise, information technology capabilities and operational insights enable our customers’ organizations to more efficiently and effectively execute transactions, make decisions, drive revenue and profitability, and communicate critical information to their employees, customers, partners, and vendors.

History

We are a former blank check company that completed our initial public offering on January 22, 2015. In July 2017, Exela Technologies, Inc. (“Exela”), formerly known as Quinpario Acquisition Corp. 2 (“Quinpario”), completed its acquisition of SourceHOV Holdings, Inc. (“SourceHOV”) and Novitex Holdings, Inc. (“Novitex”) pursuant to the business combination agreement dated February 21, 2017 (“Novitex Business Combination”). In conjunction with the completion of the Novitex Business Combination, Quinpario was renamed Exela Technologies, Inc.

The Novitex Business Combination was accounted for as a reverse merger for which SourceHOV was determined to be the accounting acquirer. Outstanding shares of SourceHOV were converted into our Common Stock, presented as a recapitalization, and the net assets of Quinpario were acquired at historical cost, with no goodwill or other intangible assets recorded. The acquisition of Novitex was treated as a business combination under ASC 805 and was accounted for using the acquisition method. The strategic combination of SourceHOV and Novitex formed Exela, which is one of the largest global providers of information processing solutions based on revenues.

Basis of Presentation

This analysis is presented on a consolidated basis. In addition, a description is provided of significant transactions and events that have an impact on the comparability of the results being analyzed. Due to our specific situation, the presented financial information for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017 is only partially comparable to the financial information for the year ended December 31, 2017 and 2016. Since SourceHOV was deemed the accounting acquirer in the Novitex Business Combination consummated on July 12, 2017, the presented financial information for the year ended December 31, 2016 reflects the financial information and activities of SourceHOV only. The presented financial information for the year ended December 31, 2017 includes the financial information and activities for SourceHOV for the period January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017 (365 days) as well as the financial information and activities of Novitex for the period July 13, 2017 to December 31, 2017 (172 days). This lack of comparability needs to be taken into account when reading the discussion and analysis of our results of operations and cash flows. Furthermore, the presented financial information for the year ended December 31, 2017 also contains other costs that are directly associated with the Novitex Business Combination, such as professional fees, to support the our new and complex legal, tax, statutory and reporting requirements following the Novitex Business Combination.

Our Segments

Our three reportable segments are Information & Transaction Processing Solutions (“ITPS”), Healthcare Solutions (“HS”), and Legal & Loss Prevention Services (“LLPS”). These segments are comprised of significant strategic business units that align our TPS and EIM products and services with how we manage our business, approach our key markets and interact with our customers based on their respective industries.

ITPS:  Our largest segment, ITPS, provides a wide range of solutions and services designed to aid businesses in information capture, processing, decisioning and distribution to customers primarily in the financial services, commercial, public sector and legal industries. Our major customers include 9 of the top 10 U.S. banks, 7 of the top 10 U.S. insurance companies, 5 of the top U.S. telecom companies, over 40 utility companies, over 30 state and county departments, and over 80 government entities. Our ITPS offerings enable companies to increase availability of working capital, reduce turnaround times for application processes, increase regulatory compliance and enhance consumer engagement.

HS:  HS operates and maintains a consulting and outsourcing business specializing in both the healthcare provider and payer markets. We serve the top 5 healthcare insurance payers and over 900 healthcare providers.

LLPS:  Our LLPS segment provides a broad and active array of support services in connection with class action, bankruptcy labor, claims adjudication and employment and other legal matters. Our customer base consists of corporate counsel, government attorneys, and law firms.

Acquisitions

In April 2018 Exela completed the acquisition of Asterion International Group (“Asterion,” the “Asterion Business Combination”), a well-established provider of technology driven business process outsourcing, document management and business process automation across Europe. The acquisition comes with minimal customer overlap and is strategic to expanding Exela’s European business. Through the acquisition of Asterion, we expect to leverage brand awareness, strengthen margins, and expand the existing Asterion sales channels.

 

In July 2017, we completed the Novitex Business Combination. SourceHOV was deemed to be the accounting acquirer, and is a leading provider of platform‑based enterprise information management and transaction processing solutions primarily for the healthcare, banking and financial services, commercial, public sector and legal industries. Through the acquisition of SourceHOV and Novitex, we expect to realize revenue synergies, leverage brand awareness, strengthen margins, generate greater free cash flow, expand the existing Novitex sales channels, and increase utilization of the existing workforce. We anticipate opportunities for growth through the ability to leverage additional future services and capabilities.

 

Prior to the Novitex Business Combination, SourceHOV transformed into an industry‑agnostic solution provider and acquired key technology through the acquisition of TransCentra, Inc. (“TransCentra”) in September 2016, a provider of integrated outsourced billing, remittance processing and imaging software and consulting services. The addition of TransCentra increased SourceHOV’s footprint in the remittance transaction processing and presentment area, expanded its mobile banking offering and enabled significant cross‑selling and up‑selling opportunities.

Revenues

ITPS revenues are primarily generated from a transaction‑based pricing model for the various types of volumes processed, licensing and maintenance fees for technology sales, and a mix of fixed management fee and transactional revenue for document logistics and location services. HS revenues are primarily generated from a transaction‑based pricing model for the various types of volumes processed for healthcare payers and providers. LLPS revenues are primarily based on time and materials pricing as well as through transactional services priced on a per item basis.

People

We draw on the business and technical expertise of our talented and diverse global workforce to provide our customers with high‑quality services. Our business leaders bring a strong diversity of experience in our industry and a track record of successful performance and execution.

As of December 31, 2018, we had approximately 22,000 employees globally, with 46% located in the United States and the remainder located primarily in Europe, India, the Philippines, Canada, Mexico, and China.

Costs associated with our employees represent the most significant expense for our business. We incurred personnel costs of $687.3 million, $532.3 million, and $373.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. The majority of our personnel costs are variable and are incurred only while we are providing our services.

Facilities

We lease and own numerous facilities worldwide with larger concentrations of space in Texas, Michigan, Connecticut, California, India, Mexico, the Philippines, and China. Our owned and leased facilities house general offices, sales offices, service locations, and production facilities.

The size of our active property portfolio as of December 31, 2018 was approximately 4.4 million square feet at an annual operating cost of approximately $38.9 million and comprised of 178 leased properties and 7 owned properties.

We believe that our current facilities are suitable and adequate for our current businesses. Because of the interrelation of our business segments, each of the segments uses substantially all of these properties at least in part.

Key Performance Indicators

We use a variety of operational and financial measures to assess our performance. Among the measures considered by our management are the following:

Revenue

We analyze our revenue by comparing actual monthly revenue to internal projections and prior periods across our operating segments in order to assess performance, identify potential areas for improvement, and determine whether segments are meeting management’s expectations.

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA

We view EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as important indicators of performance. We define EBITDA as net income, plus taxes, interest expense, and depreciation and amortization. We define Adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA plus optimization and restructuring charges, including severance and retention expenses; transaction and integration costs; other non‑cash charges, including non‑cash compensation, (gain) or loss from sale or disposal of assets, and impairment charges; and management fees and expenses. See “—Other Financial Information (Non‑GAAP Financial Measures)” for more information and a reconciliation of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA to net loss, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP.

Results of Operations

Year Ended December 31, 2018, Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2017

 

Revenue

Our revenue increased $433.9 million, or 37.7%, to $1,586.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $1,152.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. This increase is primarily related to an increase in our ITPS segment revenues of $446.5 million, which was primarily attributable to the acquisition of Novitex in 2017. The increase was partially offset by a decrease in revenues in the HS segment and LLPS segment of $5.6 million and $7.1 million, respectively. Our ITPS, HS, and LLPS segments constituted 80.3%, 14.4%, and 5.3% of our total revenue, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2018, compared to 71.8%, 20.3%, and 7.9%, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2017. The revenue changes by reporting segment was as follows:

ITPS—Revenues increased $446.5 million, or 54.0%, to $1,273.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $827.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The increase was primarily attributable to acquisitions in 2017 and 2018 which contributed $445.0 million of the increase. The remaining increase in revenue was the result of net increases in services provided to ITPS customers.

HS—Revenues decreased $5.6 million, or 2.4%, to $228.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $233.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The decrease was primarily attributable to a decline in volume from a single customer who lost a contract from one of its customers. The decrease was partially offset by ramp up of new businesses  

LLPS—Revenues decreased $7.1 million, or 7.7%, to $84.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $91.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The decrease was primarily attributable to lower revenue resulting from the sale of Meridian Consulting Group, LLC of approximately $1.3 million and lower revenue from legal claims administration services of $5.1 million during the year ended December 31, 2018, compared to the year ended December 31, 2017.

Cost of Revenue

Cost of revenue increased $380.7 million, or 45.9%, to $1,209.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $829.1 million for year ended December 31, 2017. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in the ITPS segment of $386.6 million, offset by decreases in the HS and LLPS segments of $1.5 million and $4.4 million, respectively. The cost of revenue decrease by operating segment was as follows:

ITPS—Cost of revenue increased $386.6 million, or 62.3%, to $1,007.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $620.7 million for year ended December 31, 2017. The increase was primarily attributable to acquisitions in 2018 and 2017, which contributed $387.6 million.

HS—Cost of revenue decreased $1.5 million, or 1.0%, to $151.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $152.9 million for year ended December 31, 2017. The decrease was primarily attributable to a decline in volume from a single customer who lost a contract from one of its customers. Cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue remained relatively flat at 66.4% for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to 65.4% for the year ended December 31, 2017.

LLPS—Cost of revenue decreased $4.4 million, or 7.8%, to $51.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $55.6 million for year ended December 31, 2017. The decrease was primarily attributable to a decrease in revenues of $1.0 million as a result of the sale of Meridian Consulting Group, LLC and a decrease from the legal claims administration of $2.6 million.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses (“SG&A”)

Selling, general, and administrative expenses decreased $36.3 million, or 16.4%, to $184.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $221.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The decrease was primarily attributable to the 2017 expenses for professional fees related to the Novitex Business Combination, which contributed $60.0 million in expense for the year ended December 31, 2017.  The decrease is offset by increases attributable to acquisitions in 2018 and 2017 which contributed $13.2 million in expense for the year ended December 31, 2018.  The decrease was additionally offset by investments in our strategy to grow revenue and increases in public company and compliance costs.

Depreciation & Amortization

Depreciation and amortization expense increased $46.6 million, or 47.1%, to $145.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $98.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The increase was primarily attributable to accelerated amortization of trademarks and trade names resulting in higher amortization expense for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to the year ended December 31, 2017.

 

Impairment of Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets

Impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets for the year ended December 31, 2018 and 2017 was $48.1 million and $69.4 million. As a result of declining revenue and a change in our branding and marketing strategy, we quantitatively assessed goodwill and other intangible assets as part of our annual impairment test. This assessment resulted in an impairment charge of $44.4 million, including taxes, for goodwill for the LLPS reporting unit, and $3.7 million related to our trade names intangible assets.

Related Party Expense

Related party expense decreased $29.1 million, or 87.0%, to $4.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $33.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2017.  The decrease was primarily attributable to the $23.0 million of contract termination and advisory fees to HGM during 2017 in connection with the Novitex Business Combination. Additionally, the July 2017 termination of the management agreement with HGM resulted in lower management fees expense of $6.0M for the comparative period.

Interest Expense

Interest expense increased $24.6 million, or 19.2%, to $153.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $128.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The increase was primarily attributable to the issuance of new debt in conjunction with the Novitex Business Combination.

Loss on Extinguishment of Debt

Loss on extinguishment of debt for the year ended December 31, 2018 and 2017 was $1.1 million and $35.5 million. The decrease is directly related to the restructuring and Novitex Business Combination in 2017.

Sundry Expense (income)

Sundry expense increased by $5.6 million to $(3.3) million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $2.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The increase was mainly attributable to foreign currency transaction losses associated with exchange rate fluctuations.

Other Income

Other income for the year ended December 31, 2018 and 2017 was $2.9 million and $1.3 million. The interest rate swap was not designated as a hedge. As such, changes in the fair value of the derivative of $2.5 million are recorded directly in earnings.

Income Tax (Expense) Benefit

Income tax benefit decreased $68.7 million to $(8.4) million for the year ended December 31, 2018 compared to $60.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. The December 31, 2018 federal tax expense is primarily due to the impact of the TCJA.

Results of Operations

Year Ended December 31, 2017, Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2016

 

Revenue

Our revenue increased $362.4 million, or 45.9%, to $1,152.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to $789.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. This increase is primarily related to an increase in our ITPS segment revenues of $387.2 million, which was primarily attributable to the acquisition of TransCentra in 2016 and Novitex in 2017. The increase was partially offset by a decrease in revenues in the HS segment and LLPS segment of $14.2 million and $10.6 million, respectively. Our ITPS, HS, and LLPS segments constituted 71.8%, 20.3%, and 7.9% of our total revenue, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2017, compared to 55.7%, 31.4%, and 12.9%, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2016. The revenue changes by reporting segment was as follows:

ITPS—Revenues increased $387.2 million, or 88.0%, to $827.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to $439.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. The increase was primarily attributable to the acquisition of Novitex, which contributed $292.1 million of the increase. Additionally, the acquisition of TransCentra contributed $94.1 million of the increase. The remaining increase in revenue was the result of net increases in services provided to ITPS customers.

HS—Revenues decreased $14.2 million, or 5.7%, to $233.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to $247.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. The decrease was primarily attributable to a surge in demand from healthcare provider customers in early 2016 as a result of a change in regulatory coding requirements beginning in the fourth quarter of 2015, resulting in a decline in revenue of $17.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to the year ended December 31, 2016. We have since experienced a normalization of demand as healthcare provider customers have reduced outsourcing of the service. The decrease was partially offset by an increase in revenues of $3.7 million from the Payer business during the period.

LLPS—Revenues decreased $10.6 million, or 10.4%, to $91.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to $102.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. The decrease was primarily attributable to lower revenue resulting from the sale of Meridian Consulting Group, LLC of approximately $4.4 million, lower revenue from the legal claims administration services of $4.3 million, and lower revenue from labor and employment practice of $1.9 million, during the year ended December 31, 2017, compared to the year ended December 31, 2016.

Cost of Revenue

Cost of revenue increased $310.0 million, or 59.7%, to $829.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to $519.1 million for year ended December 31, 2016. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in the ITPS segment of $323.9 million, offset by decreases in the HS and LLPS segments of $5.9 million and $7.9 million, respectively. The cost of revenue decrease by operating segment was as follows:

ITPS—Cost of revenue increased $323.9 million, or 109.1%, to $620.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to $296.8 million for year ended December 31, 2016. The increase was primarily attributable to the acquisition of Novitex, which contributed $248.6 million. The acquisition of TransCentra contributed approximately $75.4 million. The increase was partially offset by various cost savings initiatives implemented during the year ended December 31, 2017.

HS—Cost of revenue decreased $5.9 million, or 3.7%, to $152.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to $158.8 million for year ended December 31, 2016. This was primarily attributable to normalization of demand for coding during the year ended December 31, 2017 after the surge we experienced in early 2016 as a result of the increased healthcare coding requirements, resulting in a decrease of $4.5 million, along with an associated decrease in revenue. Additionally, there was a decrease of $1.4 million due to various cost savings initiatives from the Payer business during the year ended December 31, 2017.

LLPS—Cost of revenue decreased $7.9 million, or 12.4%, to $55.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to $63.5 million for year ended December 31, 2016. The decrease was primarily attributable to a decrease in revenues of $2.7 million as a result of the sale of Meridian Consulting Group, LLC, a decrease from the legal claims administration of $2.6 million, and a decrease of $2.6 million due to lower revenues from labor and employment practice.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses (“SG&A”)

Selling, general, and administrative expenses increased $90.6 million, or 69.5%, to $221.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to $130.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. The increase was primarily attributable to the expenses for professional fees related to the Novitex Business Combination, which contributed $60.0 million in expense for the year ended December 31, 2017. Additionally, the increase is attributable to acquisitions of Novitex and TransCentra, which contributed $25.2 million and $8.3 million, respectively, in expense for the year ended December 31, 2017. The increases were partially offset by a decrease due to cost saving initiatives we implemented, including reduced medical insurance expenditures and administrative personnel costs.

Depreciation & Amortization

Depreciation and amortization expense increased $19.3 million, or 24.2%, to $98.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to $79.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. The increase was primarily attributable to higher balances of customer relationships, developed technology, and outsourced contract costs, resulting in higher amortization expense for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to the year ended December 31, 2016.

Impairment of Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets

Impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets for the year ended December 31, 2017 was $69.4 million. There was no impairment recorded in 2016. As a result of declining revenue and a change in our branding and marketing strategy, we quantitatively assessed goodwill and other intangible assets as part of our annual impairment test. This

assessment resulted in an impairment charge of $30.1 million for goodwill for the LLPS reporting unit, and $39.3 million related to our trade names intangible assets.

Related Party Expense

Related party expense increased $22.9 million to $33.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to $10.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. The increase was primarily attributable to contract termination and advising fees as a result of the Novitex Business Combination.

Interest Expense

Interest expense increased $19.1 million, or 17.5%, to $128.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to $109.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. The increase was primarily attributable to the issuance of new debt in conjunction with the Novitex Business Combination.

Loss on Extinguishment of Debt

Loss on extinguishment of debt for the year ended December 31, 2017 was $35.5 million relating to the restructuring and Novitex Business Combination. There was no loss on extinguishment in 2016.

Sundry Expense

Sundry expense increased by $1.6 million to $2.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to $0.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. The increase was mainly attributable to higher foreign currency transaction losses associated with exchange rate fluctuations.

Other Income

Other income for the year ended December 31, 2017 was $1.3 million. There was no other income in 2016 as this item relates solely to the interest rate swap entered into in 2017. The interest rate swap was not designated as a hedge. As such, changes in the fair value of the derivative are recorded directly in earnings.

Income Tax Benefit

Income tax benefit increased $48.4 million to $60.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 compared to $11.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. The increase in the income tax benefit was primarily due to net deferred tax liabilities assumed in the acquisition of Novitex which reduced the valuation allowance.

Other Financial Information (Non‑GAAP Financial Measures)

We view EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as important indicators of performance. We define EBITDA as net income, plus taxes, interest expense, and depreciation and amortization. We define Adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA plus optimization and restructuring charges, including severance and retention expenses; transaction and integration costs; other non‑cash charges, including non‑cash compensation, (gain) or loss from sale or disposal of assets, and impairment charges; and management fees and expenses.

We present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA because we believe they provide useful information regarding the factors and trends affecting our business in addition to measures calculated under GAAP. Additionally, our credit agreement requires us to comply with certain EBITDA related metrics. Refer to “—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Indebtedness.”

Note Regarding Non‑GAAP Financial Measures

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not financial measures presented in accordance with GAAP. We believe that the presentation of these non‑GAAP financial measures will provide useful information to investors in assessing our financial performance and results of operations as our board of directors and management use EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA to assess our financial performance, because it allows them to compare our operating performance on a consistent basis across periods by removing the effects of our capital structure (such as varying levels of interest expense), asset base (such as depreciation and amortization) and items outside the control of our management team. Net loss is the GAAP measure most directly comparable to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA. Our non‑GAAP financial measures should not be considered as alternatives to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure. Each of these non‑GAAP financial measures has important limitations as analytical tools because they exclude some but not all items that affect the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. These non‑GAAP financial measures are not required to be uniformly applied, are not audited and should not be considered in isolation or as substitutes for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Because EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA may be defined differently by other companies in our industry, our definitions of these non‑GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies, thereby diminishing their utility.

The following tables present a reconciliation of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA to our net loss, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017, and 2016: