Rackspace Technology, Inc. (RXT) FY 2023 MD&A
This page reproduces the company's own Item 7 MD&A text from the linked SEC filing. It is filer text, not grepcent analysis, scoring, or investment advice.
ITEM 7 - MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION
AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following MD&A is intended to help readers understand our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows and should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report. References to “Rackspace Technology,” “we,” “our company,” “the company,” “us,” or “our” refer to Rackspace Technology and its consolidated subsidiaries.
The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risk, assumptions and uncertainties, such as statements of our plans, objectives, expectations, intentions and forecasts. Our actual results and the timing of selected events could differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements as a result of several factors, including those set forth under the section of this Annual Report titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report. You should carefully read the “Risk Factors” to gain an understanding of the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. Please also see “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” contained elsewhere in this Annual Report.
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Overview
We are a leading end-to-end, hybrid, multicloud, and AI solutions company. We design, build and operate our customers’ cloud environments across all major technology platforms, irrespective of technology stack or deployment model. We partner with our customers at every stage of their cloud journey, enabling them to modernize applications, build new products and adopt innovative technologies. We serve our customers with a unique combination of proprietary technology resulting from over $1 billion of investment and services expertise from a team of highly skilled consultants and engineers. And we provide our customers with unbiased expertise and technology solutions, delivered over the world’s leading cloud services, all wrapped in Fanatical Experience.
We aim to be our customers’ most trusted advisor and services partner in their path to cloud transformation and to accelerate the value of their cloud investments. We give customers the ability to make fluid decisions when choosing the right technologies, and we recommend solutions based on customers’ unique objectives. In this way, we empower our customers to harness the full benefits of cloud adoption.
Our team of 5,800 highly skilled Rackers, including consultants and engineers, partners with companies at every stage of their cloud transformation journey
We deliver our services to a global customer base through an integrated service delivery model. We have a presence in more than 60 cities around the world. This footprint allows us to better serve customers based in various countries, especially multinational companies requiring cross-border solutions. We have a strong presence with customers of all sizes, including enterprise businesses (revenue in excess of $3 billion), mid-market businesses (revenue of $300 million to $3 billion) and commercial customers (revenue less than $300 million).
Effective on January 1, 2023, we reorganized around a two-business unit operating model, Public Cloud and Private Cloud. This two-business unit operating model ensures increased focus, delivery, and service quality for our customers. Beginning in 2023, we changed our segment reporting to reflect this reorganization under two reportable segments: Public Cloud and Private Cloud. We have reflected this change in all historical comparative periods presented within this MD&A.
Our Public Cloud segment is a services-centric, capital-light model providing value-added cloud solutions through managed services, Elastic Engineering and professional services offerings for customer environments hosted on the AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud public cloud platforms. Our Private Cloud segment is a technology-forward, capital-intensive model providing managed service offerings for customer environments hosted in one of our data centers as well as in those owned by customers or by third parties such as colocation providers. Private Cloud also includes our legacy OpenStack Public Cloud business that we ceased to actively market to customers in 2017. See Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 18, "Segment Reporting" for additional information about our segments.
We generate revenue primarily through the sale of consumption-based contracts for our services offerings, which are recurring in nature. We also generate revenue from the sale of professional services related to designing and building customer solutions, which are non-recurring in nature. Arrangements within our Private Cloud segment generally have a fixed term, typically from 12 to 36 months, with a monthly recurring fee based on the computing resources provided to and utilized by the customer, the complexity of the underlying infrastructure and the level of support we provide. Our other primary sources of revenue are for services within our Public Cloud segment and legacy OpenStack business. Contracts for these arrangements typically operate on a consumption model and can be canceled at any time without penalty.
We sell our services through direct sales teams, third-party channel partners and via online orders. Our sales model is based on both distributed and centralized sales teams with leads generated from technology partners, customer referrals, channel partners and corporate marketing efforts. We offer customers the flexibility to select the best combination of resources in order to meet the requirements of their unique applications and provide the technology to seamlessly operate and manage multiple cloud computing environments.
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On July 21, 2021, we committed to the July 2021 Restructuring Plan to drive a change in the type and location of certain positions that was expected to result in the termination of approximately 10% of our workforce. We recorded total charges of $50.5 million and $5.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2022, respectively, related to this restructuring plan. The 2021 charges included $25.4 million for employee related costs and other costs accounted for as exit and disposal costs under ASC 420 as described in Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 11, "July 2021 Restructuring Plan." Employee related costs consisted of one-time termination benefits and certain contractual termination benefits with executives. Other costs consisted of professional fees and non-cash charges related to a contract termination with a third-party. The remaining $25.1 million of 2021 charges and total 2022 charges consisted primarily of one-time offshore build out costs which are not accounted for as exit and disposal costs under ASC 420.
In December 2022, we experienced a ransomware incident which caused service disruptions for our Hosted Exchange customers. The Hosted Exchange email business, reported in our Private Cloud segment, is a managed email solution provided to small and medium businesses and represented approximately 1% of our total annual revenue. Following discovery of the incident, we engaged an industry-leading global cybersecurity firm to help investigate the incident and remediate as necessary. The firm confirmed that the incident was quickly contained and limited solely to the Hosted Exchange email business. We have sunset the on-premises Hosted Exchange platform and have transitioned many customers from the Hosted Exchange platform to Microsoft 365 through our reseller agreement with Microsoft. During the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2023, we recorded $5.9 million and $5.2 million, respectively, of expenses related to the Hosted Exchange incident, including costs to investigate and remediate, legal and other professional services, and supplemental staff resources that were deployed to provide support to customers. We maintain cybersecurity insurance commensurate with the size of our business, and a significant portion of the incremental costs related to the Hosted Exchange incident have been covered by insurance. However, the timing of insurance reimbursements have differed from the timing of recognition of the related expenses. During the year ended December 31, 2023, we recorded $10.0 million of loss recovery insurance proceeds received or expected to be received related to the Hosted Exchange incident.
Subsequent Events
For a description of subsequent events, see "Subsequent Events" in Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 1, "Company Overview, Basis of Presentation, and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies."
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Key Factors Affecting Our Performance
We believe our combination of proprietary technology, automation capabilities and technical expertise creates a value proposition for our customers that is hard to replicate for both competitors and in-house IT departments. Our continued success depends to a significant extent on our ability to meet the challenges presented by our highly competitive and dynamic market, including the following key factors:
Differentiating Our Service Offerings in a Competitive Market Environment
Our success depends to a significant extent on our ability to continue to differentiate, expand and upgrade our service offerings in line with developing customer needs, while deepening our relationships with leading public cloud service providers and establishing new relationships, including with sales partners. We are a certified premier consulting and managed services partner to some of the largest cloud computing platforms, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle, SAP and VMware by Broadcom. We believe we are unique in our ability to serve customers across major technology stacks and deployment options, all while delivering Fanatical Experience. Our existing and prospective customers are also under increasing pressure to move from on-premise or self-managed IT to the cloud to compete effectively in a digital economy and maximize the value of their cloud investments, which we believe presents an opportunity for professional services projects as well as new recurring business.
Customer Relationships and Retention
Our success greatly depends on our ability to retain and develop opportunities with our existing customers and to attract new customers. We operate in a growing but competitive and evolving market environment, requiring innovation to differentiate us from our competitors. We believe that our integrated cloud service portfolio and our differentiated customer experience and technology are keys to retaining and growing revenue from existing customers as well as acquiring new customers. For example, we believe that Rackspace Fabric provides customers a unified experience across their entire cloud and security footprint, and that our Rackspace Elastic Engineering model helps customers embrace a cloud native approach with on-demand access to a dedicated team of highly skilled cloud architects and engineers. These offerings differentiate us from legacy IT service providers that operate under long-term fixed and project-based fee structures often tethered to their existing technologies with less automation.
Business Mix Shift
The mix of revenue has shifted in recent years, from our Private Cloud offerings to infrastructure resale and services within Public Cloud. Private Cloud offerings are generally hosted on our own infrastructure and deliver higher segment operating margins, but also require a higher level of capital expenditures. Conversely, Public Cloud segment operating margins are lower, driven by high volumes of infrastructure resale revenue which come at significantly lower margins. However, Public Cloud requires significantly less capital expenditures. Going forward, we will continue to take a workload-centric approach and both Public and Private Cloud will be the net recipients of the workloads. The focus in Private Cloud will be to defend and expand our revenue with new solutions. The focus in Public Cloud is on expanding segment operating margins by driving cost efficiencies and growing higher-margin services revenue.
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Key Components of Statement of Operations
Revenue
A substantial amount of our revenue, particularly within our Private Cloud segment, is generated pursuant to contracts that typically have a fixed term (typically from 12 to 36 months). Our customers generally have the right to cancel their contracts by providing us with written notice prior to the end of the fixed term, though most of our contracts provide for termination fees in the event of cancellation prior to the end of their term, typically amounting to the outstanding value of the contract. These contracts include a monthly recurring fee, which is determined based on the computing resources utilized and provided to the customer, the complexity of the underlying infrastructure and the level of support we provide. Most of our services within our Public Cloud segment and legacy OpenStack business generate usage-based revenue invoiced on a monthly basis and can be canceled at any time without penalty. We also generate revenue from usage-based fees and fees from professional services earned from customers using our hosting and other services. We typically recognize revenue on a daily basis, as services are provided, in an amount that reflects the consideration to which we expect to be entitled in exchange for our services. Our usage-based arrangements generally include a variable consideration component, consisting of monthly utility fees, with a defined price and undefined quantity. Our customer contracts also typically contain service level guarantees, including with respect to network uptime requirements, that provide discounts when we fail to meet specific obligations and, with respect to certain products, we may offer volume discounts based on usage. As these variable consideration components consist of a single distinct daily service provided on a single performance obligation, we account for all of them as services are provided and earned.
Cost of revenue
Cost of revenue consists primarily of usage charges for third-party infrastructure and personnel costs (including salaries, bonuses, benefits and share-based compensation) for engineers, developers and other employees involved in the delivery of services to our customers. Cost of revenue also includes depreciation of servers, software and other systems infrastructure, data center rent and other infrastructure maintenance and support costs, including software license costs and utilities. Cost of revenue is driven mainly by demand for our services, our service mix and the cost of labor in a given geography.
Selling, general and administrative expenses
SG&A expenses consist primarily of personnel costs (including salaries, bonuses, commissions, benefits and share-based compensation) for our sales force, executive team and corporate administrative and support employees, including our human resources, finance, accounting and legal functions. SG&A also includes R&D costs, repair and maintenance of corporate infrastructure, facilities rent, third-party advisory fees (including audit, legal and management consulting costs), marketing and advertising costs and insurance, as well as the amortization of related intangible assets and certain depreciation of fixed assets.
SG&A also includes transaction costs related to acquisitions and financings along with costs related to integration and business transformation initiatives which may impact the comparability of SG&A between periods. Employee related costs and other costs incurred, as discussed in Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 11, "July 2021 Restructuring Plan," are also included within SG&A.
Income taxes
Our income tax benefit and deferred tax assets and liabilities reflect management’s best assessment of estimated current and future taxes to be paid. To date, we have recorded consolidated tax benefits, reflecting our net losses, though certain of our non-U.S. subsidiaries have incurred corporate tax expense according to the relevant taxing jurisdictions. We are under certain domestic and foreign tax audits. Due to the complexity involved with certain tax matters, there is the possibility that the various taxing authorities may disagree with certain tax positions filed on our income tax returns. We believe we have made adequate provision for all uncertain tax positions. See Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 14, "Taxes."
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Results of Operations
We discuss our historical results of operations, and the key components of those results, below. Past financial results are not necessarily indicative of future results.
Year Ended December 31, 2022 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2023
The following table sets forth our results of operations for the specified periods, as well as changes between periods and as a percentage of revenue for those same periods (totals in table may not foot due to rounding):
| Year Ended December 31, | Year-Over-Year Comparison | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2023 | |||||||||||||||||||
| (In millions, except %) | Amount | % Revenue | Amount | % Revenue | Amount | % Change | ||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 3,122.3 | 100.0 | % | $ | 2,957.1 | 100.0 | % | $ | (165.2) | (5.3) | % | ||||||||
| Cost of revenue | (2,265.4) | (72.6) | % | (2,328.3) | (78.7) | % | (62.9) | 2.8 | % | |||||||||||
| Gross profit | 856.9 | 27.4 | % | 628.8 | 21.3 | % | (228.1) | (26.6) | % | |||||||||||
| Selling, general and administrative expenses | (855.3) | (27.4) | % | (767.2) | (25.9) | % | 88.1 | (10.3) | % | |||||||||||
| Impairment of goodwill | (534.5) | (17.1) | % | (708.8) | (24.0) | % | (174.3) | 32.6 | % | |||||||||||
| Impairment of assets, net | (146.1) | (4.7) | % | (52.2) | (1.8) | % | 93.9 | (64.3) | % | |||||||||||
| Loss from operations | (679.0) | (21.7) | % | (899.4) | (30.4) | % | (220.4) | 32.5 | % | |||||||||||
| Other income (expense): | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Interest expense | (208.5) | (6.7) | % | (221.6) | (7.5) | % | (13.1) | 6.3 | % | |||||||||||
| Gain (loss) on investments, net | (0.2) | (0.0) | % | 0.3 | 0.0 | % | 0.5 | NM | ||||||||||||
| Gain on debt extinguishment | — | — | % | 271.3 | 9.2 | % | 271.3 | 100.0 | % | |||||||||||
| Other expense, net | (10.0) | (0.3) | % | (5.0) | (0.2) | % | 5.0 | (50.0) | % | |||||||||||
| Total other income (expense) | (218.7) | (7.0) | % | 45.0 | 1.5 | % | 263.7 | NM | ||||||||||||
| Loss before income taxes | (897.7) | (28.8) | % | (854.4) | (28.9) | % | 43.3 | (4.8) | % | |||||||||||
| Benefit for income taxes | 92.9 | 3.0 | % | 16.6 | 0.6 | % | (76.3) | (82.1) | % | |||||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (804.8) | (25.8) | % | $ | (837.8) | (28.3) | % | $ | (33.0) | 4.1 | % |
NM = not meaningful.
Revenue
Revenue decreased $165 million, or 5.3%, to $2,957 million in 2023 from $3,122 million in 2022. Revenue declined primarily due to Private Cloud, partially offset by growth in Public Cloud, as discussed below.
Revenue was not materially impacted by foreign currency fluctuations as revenue on a constant currency basis also declined 5.3%. The following table presents revenue growth by segment:
| Year Ended December 31, | % Change | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In millions, except %) | 2022 | 2023 | Actual | Constant Currency (1) | |||||||||
| Public Cloud | $ | 1,740.8 | $ | 1,747.4 | 0.4 | % | 0.4 | % | |||||
| Private Cloud | 1,381.5 | 1,209.7 | (12.4) | % | (12.5) | % | |||||||
| Total | $ | 3,122.3 | $ | 2,957.1 | (5.3) | % | (5.3) | % |
(1) Refer to "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" in this section for further explanation and reconciliation.
Public Cloud revenue in 2023 increased 0.4% on an actual and constant currency basis, from 2022. Underlying growth was driven by both the acquisition of new customers and increased spend by existing customers, partially offset by cancellations by existing customers. Offerings in this segment with the strongest growth include infrastructure resale on AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Private Cloud revenue in 2023 decreased 12.4% on an actual basis, and 12.5% on a constant currency basis, from 2022, due to customers rolling off old generation private cloud offerings, expected decline in legacy OpenStack offerings, and the impact from the December 2022 Hosted Exchange ransomware incident.
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Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue increased $63 million, or 3%, to $2,328 million in 2023 from $2,265 million in 2022, primarily due to an increase in usage charges for third-party infrastructure associated with growth in these offerings. Consulting professional fees and data center costs increased primarily to support growth for certain large customers. Personnel costs declined between periods due to lower headcount and a decrease in non-equity incentive compensation, partially offset by higher severance expense in 2023.
As a percentage of revenue, cost of revenue increased 610 basis points in 2023 to 78.7% from 72.6% in 2022, primarily driven by a 440 basis point increase in usage charges for third-party infrastructure. Higher data center and professional fees also contributed to the increase in basis points between periods.
Gross Profit
Our gross profit was $629 million in 2023, a decrease of $228 million from $857 million in 2022. Our gross margin was 21.3% in 2023, a decrease of 610 basis points from 27.4% in 2022.
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses
SG&A expenses decreased $88 million, or 10%, to $767 million in 2023 from $855 million in 2022. Contributing to the reduction in expense was a wind down of certain business optimization initiatives between periods. In addition, personnel costs declined between periods due to lower headcount and decreases in non-equity incentive compensation and commissions, partially offset by higher severance expense. Other non-personnel costs fluctuations include lower marketing spend, professional fees, and depreciation and amortization expense, offset by higher office rent. The increase in office rent includes $12 million of expense recognized for a UK office that we exited in the second quarter of 2023, prior to the lease end date.
As a percentage of revenue, SG&A expenses decreased 150 basis points, to 25.9% in 2023 from 27.4% in 2022, for the reasons discussed above.
Loss from Operations, Segment Operating Profit, and Non-GAAP Operating Profit
Our loss from operations was $899 million in 2023 compared to $679 million in 2022. Our Non-GAAP Operating Profit was $183 million in 2023, a decrease of $180 million from $364 million in 2022. Non-GAAP Operating Profit is a non-GAAP financial measure. See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below for more information.
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The table below presents a reconciliation of loss from operations to Non-GAAP Operating Profit.
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In millions) | 2022 | 2023 | ||||
| Loss from operations | $ | (679.0) | $ | (899.4) | ||
| Share-based compensation expense | 69.5 | 65.4 | ||||
| Special bonuses and other compensation expense (a) | 10.0 | 12.1 | ||||
| Transaction-related adjustments, net (b) | 11.0 | 5.2 | ||||
| Restructuring and transformation expenses (c) | 99.0 | 70.8 | ||||
| Hosted Exchange incident expenses, net of proceeds received or expected to be received under our insurance coverage | 5.9 | (4.8) | ||||
| Impairment of goodwill | 534.5 | 708.8 | ||||
| UK office closure (d) | — | 12.1 | ||||
| Impairment of assets, net | 146.1 | 52.2 | ||||
| Amortization of intangible assets (e) | 166.8 | 161.0 | ||||
| Non-GAAP Operating Profit | $ | 363.8 | $ | 183.4 |
| (a) | Includes expense related to retention bonuses, mainly relating to restructuring and integration projects, and the related payroll tax, senior executive signing bonuses and relocation costs, and payroll taxes associated with the exercise of stock options and vesting of restricted stock. Beginning in the second quarter of 2023, includes expense related to the one-time grant of long-term incentive bonuses as a component of our annual compensation award process. |
|---|---|
| (b) | Includes legal, professional, accounting and other advisory fees related to acquisitions, certain one-time compliance costs related to being a public company, integration costs of acquired businesses, purchase accounting adjustments, payroll costs for employees that dedicate significant time to supporting these projects and exploratory acquisition and divestiture costs and expenses related to financing activities. |
| (c) | Includes consulting and advisory fees related to business transformation and optimization activities, payroll costs for employees that dedicate significant time to these projects, as well as associated severance, certain facility closure costs, and lease termination expenses. This amount also includes total charges of $5.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 related to the July 2021 Restructuring Plan which are not accounted for as exit and disposal costs under ASC 420, including one-time offshore build out costs. |
| (d) | Expense recognized related to the closure of a UK office that we exited in the second quarter of 2023 prior to the lease end date. |
| (e) | All of our intangible assets are attributable to acquisitions, including the Rackspace Acquisition in 2016. |
Our segment operating profit and segment operating margin for the periods indicated, and the change between periods is shown in the table below:
| Year Ended December 31, | Year-Over-Year Comparison | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In millions, except %) | 2022 | 2023 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Segment operating profit: | Amount | % of Segment Revenue | Amount | % of Segment Revenue | Amount | % Change | ||||||||||||||
| Public Cloud | $ | 124.9 | 7.2 | % | $ | 90.4 | 5.2 | % | $ | (34.5) | (27.6) | % | ||||||||
| Private Cloud | 493.9 | 35.8 | % | 340.8 | 28.2 | % | (153.1) | (31.0) | % | |||||||||||
| Total consolidated segment operating profit | 618.8 | 431.2 | (187.6) | (30.3) | % | |||||||||||||||
| Corporate functions | (255.0) | (247.8) | 7.2 | (2.8) | % | |||||||||||||||
| Non-GAAP Operating Profit | $ | 363.8 | $ | 183.4 | $ | (180.4) | (49.6) | % |
Public Cloud operating profit decreased 28% in 2023 from 2022. Segment operating profit as a percentage of segment revenue decreased by 200 basis points, reflecting a 3% increase in segment operating expenses as segment revenue growth remained relatively flat. The increase in costs was mainly driven by higher third-party infrastructure costs due to the increase in revenue, partially offset by a decrease in personnel costs.
Private Cloud operating profit decreased 31% in 2023 from 2022. Segment operating profit as a percentage of segment revenue decreased by 760 basis points, due to a 12% decrease in segment revenue, partially offset by a 2% decrease in segment operating expenses. The decrease in costs was mainly driven by a reduction in personnel costs.
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Centralized corporate functions that provide services to the segments in areas such as accounting, information technology, marketing, legal and human resources are not allocated to the segments and are included in "corporate functions" in the table above. This expense decreased 3% in 2023 primarily due to a decline in depreciation expense as certain property, equipment, and software reached the end of its useful life.
For more information about our segment operating profit, see Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 18, "Segment Reporting."
Impairment of Goodwill
We recorded a total of $709 million and $535 million in non-cash goodwill impairment charges in 2023 and 2022, respectively.
Due to the change in our segment reporting as a result of the business reorganization as of January 1, 2023, we completed a quantitative goodwill impairment analysis both prior and subsequent to the aforementioned change. The results of the quantitative goodwill impairment analysis performed as of January 1, 2023, subsequent to the change, indicated an impairment within our Private Cloud reporting unit, and we recorded a non-cash impairment charge of $271 million in the first quarter of 2023.
During the first quarter of 2023, we experienced a sustained decline in our stock price resulting in our market capitalization being less than the carrying value of our combined reporting units. As of March 31, 2023, we assessed several events and circumstances that could affect the significant inputs used to determine the fair value of our reporting units, including the significance of the amount, if any, of excess carrying value over fair value, consistency of operating margins and cash flows, budgeted-to-actual performance for the first three months of the year, overall change in economic climate, changes in the industry and competitive environment, and earnings quality and sustainability. After considering all available evidence in our evaluation of goodwill impairment indicators, we determined it appropriate to perform an interim quantitative assessment of our reporting units as of March 31, 2023. The results of this quantitative goodwill impairment analysis indicated an impairment within our Private Cloud reporting unit, and we recorded an additional non-cash impairment charge of $272 million in the first quarter of 2023.
We performed an interim goodwill impairment analysis as of September 30, 2023 based on our assessment of several events and circumstances that affect the significant inputs used to determine the fair value of our reporting units, including the significance of the amount of excess carrying value over fair value, consistency of operating margins and cash flows, budgeted-to-actual performance, overall change in economic climate, changes in the industry and competitive environment, market capitalization and earnings quality and sustainability. As a result, we determined that the carrying value of our Private Cloud reporting unit exceeded its fair value and recorded a non-cash impairment of goodwill of $166 million in the third quarter of 2023.
As of October 1, 2023, we reassessed our reporting units and combined our Private Cloud and OpenStack Public Cloud reporting units into a new Private Cloud reporting unit. We completed a quantitative goodwill impairment analysis as of October 1, 2023, subsequent to the aforementioned change. The results of the quantitative goodwill impairment analysis indicated no impairment to goodwill.
During the third quarter of 2022, we experienced a sustained decline in our stock price resulting in our market capitalization being less than the carrying value of our combined reporting units. We performed an interim goodwill impairment analysis as of September 1, 2022 based on our assessment of several events and circumstances that affect the significant inputs used to determine the fair value of our reporting units, including the significance of the amount of excess carrying value over fair value, consistency of operating margins and cash flows, budgeted-to-actual performance from prior year, overall change in economic climate, changes in the industry and competitive environment, and earnings quality and sustainability. In addition, as of September 1, 2022, we lowered our projected operating results primarily due to product mix shifts and market concerns related to inflation and other macroeconomic factors. As a result, we determined that the carrying value of our former Multicloud Services reporting unit exceeded its fair value and recorded an impairment of goodwill of $405 million during the third quarter of 2022.
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The results of our annual goodwill impairment test as of October 1, 2022 did not indicate any impairments of goodwill.
During the fourth quarter of 2022, subsequent to our annual goodwill impairment analysis, we experienced a decline in our market capitalization following a ransomware incident in early December which caused service disruptions on our Hosted Exchange email business. We therefore determined it appropriate to perform an interim quantitative assessment of our reporting units as of December 31, 2022. As a result, we determined that the carrying value of our former Apps & Cross Platform reporting unit exceeded its fair value and recorded an impairment of goodwill of $129 million during the fourth quarter of 2022.
See Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 6, "Goodwill and Intangible Assets" for further discussion.
Impairment of Assets, Net
We recorded a total of $52 million and $146 million in net asset impairment charges in 2023 and 2022, respectively.
We evaluated our indefinite-lived intangible asset for impairment as of September 30, 2023. As a result of this evaluation, we recorded a $57 million impairment of our indefinite-lived intangible asset in the third quarter of 2023.
Similarly, we evaluated our indefinite-lived intangible asset and long-lived assets for impairment as of September 1, 2022. As a result of these evaluations, we recorded total impairment charges of $59 million in the third quarter of 2022, consisting of a $21 million impairment of our indefinite-lived trade name intangible asset and a $38 million impairment of OpenStack Public Cloud long-lived assets.
As of December 31, 2022, we recorded an additional $12 million impairment of our indefinite-lived trade name intangible asset.
Additionally, as of December 31, 2022, our corporate headquarters property was classified as held for sale. The property's previous carrying amount of $83 million was written down to its estimated fair value, less estimated cost to sell, of $12 million, resulting in a $71 million impairment charge recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022. We also wrote-off the remaining $5 million net book value of the related property tax abatement asset in connection with the held for sale classification.
During 2023, we recorded a $5 million net increase in the estimated fair value, less estimated cost to sell, of our corporate headquarters.
See Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 5, "Property, Equipment and Software, net" and Note 6, "Goodwill and Intangible Assets" for further discussion.
Interest Expense
Interest expense increased $13 million, or 6%, to $222 million in 2023 from $209 million in 2022, due primarily to rising interest rates and the impact on our variable-rate Term Loan Facility, partially offset by debt repurchases during 2023, as discussed below.
Gain on Debt Extinguishment
We recorded a $228 million gain on debt extinguishment in 2023 related to repurchases of $352 million principal amount of 5.375% Senior Notes. In addition, we repurchased $36 million principal amount of 3.50% Senior Secured Notes and $56 million principal amount of the Term Loan Facility, which resulted in an $18 million and $26 million gain on debt extinguishment, respectively.
See Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 7, "Debt" for further discussion.
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Other Expense, Net
The decrease in other expense, net to $5 million in 2023 from $10 million in 2022 is primarily related to foreign currency transaction gains, partially offset by costs incurred in 2023 related to the Receivables Purchase Facility entered into in September 2023.
See Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 3, "Sale of Receivables" for further discussion regarding the Receivables Purchase Facility.
Benefit for Income Taxes
Our income tax benefit decreased by $76 million to $17 million in 2023 from $93 million in 2022. Our effective tax rate decreased from 10.3% in 2022 to 1.9% in 2023. The decrease in the effective tax rate year-over-year is primarily due to the tax impact associated with the goodwill impairments recorded in 2023 as well as changes in the valuation allowance. The majority of the goodwill impairments recorded in 2023 were nondeductible for income tax purposes. The difference between the effective tax rate and the statutory rate in 2023 is primarily due to the tax impact associated with the goodwill impairments recorded during the year, executive compensation that is nondeductible under IRC Section 162(m), the geographic distribution of profits, tax effects from nondeductible share-based compensation as well as changes in the valuation allowance.
For a full reconciliation of our effective tax rate to the U.S. federal statutory rate and further explanation of our benefit for income taxes, see Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 14, "Taxes."
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Year Ended December 31, 2021 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2022
The following table sets forth our results of operations for the specified periods, as well as changes between periods and as a percentage of revenue for those same periods (totals in table may not foot due to rounding):
| Year Ended December 31, | Year-Over-Year Comparison | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2022 | |||||||||||||||||||
| (In millions, except %) | Amount | % Revenue | Amount | % Revenue | Amount | % Change | ||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 3,009.5 | 100.0 | % | $ | 3,122.3 | 100.0 | % | $ | 112.8 | 3.7 | % | ||||||||
| Cost of revenue | (2,072.7) | (68.9) | % | (2,265.4) | (72.6) | % | (192.7) | 9.3 | % | |||||||||||
| Gross profit | 936.8 | 31.1 | % | 856.9 | 27.4 | % | (79.9) | (8.5) | % | |||||||||||
| Selling, general and administrative expenses | (906.8) | (30.1) | % | (855.3) | (27.4) | % | 51.5 | (5.7) | % | |||||||||||
| Impairment of goodwill | (52.4) | (1.7) | % | (534.5) | (17.1) | % | (482.1) | NM | ||||||||||||
| Impairment of assets, net | — | — | % | (146.1) | (4.7) | % | (146.1) | 100.0 | % | |||||||||||
| Gain on sale of land | 19.9 | 0.7 | % | — | — | % | (19.9) | (100.0) | % | |||||||||||
| Loss from operations | (2.5) | (0.1) | % | (679.0) | (21.7) | % | (676.5) | NM | ||||||||||||
| Other income (expense): | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Interest expense | (205.1) | (6.8) | % | (208.5) | (6.7) | % | (3.4) | 1.7 | % | |||||||||||
| Loss on investments, net | (3.0) | (0.1) | % | (0.2) | (0.0) | % | 2.8 | (93.3) | % | |||||||||||
| Debt modification costs and loss on debt extinguishment | (37.5) | (1.2) | % | — | — | % | 37.5 | (100.0) | % | |||||||||||
| Other expense, net | (1.0) | (0.0) | % | (10.0) | (0.3) | % | (9.0) | NM | ||||||||||||
| Total other income (expense) | (246.6) | (8.2) | % | (218.7) | (7.0) | % | 27.9 | (11.3) | % | |||||||||||
| Loss before income taxes | (249.1) | (8.3) | % | (897.7) | (28.8) | % | (648.6) | NM | ||||||||||||
| Benefit for income taxes | 30.8 | 1.0 | % | 92.9 | 3.0 | % | 62.1 | NM | ||||||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (218.3) | (7.3) | % | $ | (804.8) | (25.8) | % | $ | (586.5) | NM |
NM = not meaningful.
Revenue
Revenue increased $113 million, or 3.7%, to $3,122 million in 2022 from $3,010 million in 2021 primarily due to growth in Public Cloud, partially offset by a decline in Private Cloud, as discussed below.
After removing the impact from foreign currency fluctuations, on a constant currency basis, revenue increased 5.2% year-over-year. The following table presents revenue growth by segment:
| Year Ended December 31, | % Change | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In millions, except %) | 2021 | 2022 | Actual | Constant Currency (1) | |||||||||
| Public Cloud | $ | 1,471.3 | $ | 1,740.8 | 18.3 | % | 19.2 | % | |||||
| Private Cloud | 1,538.2 | 1,381.5 | (10.2) | % | (8.2) | % | |||||||
| Total | $ | 3,009.5 | $ | 3,122.3 | 3.7 | % | 5.2 | % |
(1) Refer to "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" in this section for further explanation and reconciliation.
Public Cloud revenue in 2022 increased 18% on an actual basis and 19% on a constant currency basis, from 2021. Underlying growth was driven by both the acquisition of new customers and increased spend by existing customers, partially offset by cancellations by existing customers. Offerings in this segment with the strongest growth include infrastructure resale on AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Private Cloud revenue in 2022 decreased 10% on an actual basis and 8% on a constant currency basis, from 2021, due to customers rolling off old generation private cloud offerings and expected decline in legacy OpenStack offerings.
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Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue increased $193 million, or 9%, to $2,265 million in 2022 from $2,073 million in 2021, primarily due to an increase in usage charges for third-party infrastructure associated with growth in these offerings. The increase in expense was partially offset by a decline in personnel costs primarily due to cost savings as a result of shifting roles to lower-cost locations as part of our continued focus on business optimization initiatives, including the July 2021 Restructuring Plan. We also had higher severance in the prior period. In addition, there were year-over-year data center expense reductions as a result of initiatives to lower our cost structure, which included the consolidation of data center facilities. Depreciation expense also decreased between periods primarily due to certain property, equipment and software reaching the end of its useful life for depreciation purposes as we shift towards faster-growing, value-added service offerings which have significantly lower capital requirements than our legacy capital-intensive revenue streams.
As a percentage of revenue, cost of revenue increased 370 basis points in 2022 to 72.6% from 68.9% in 2021, primarily driven by a 640 basis point increase in usage charges for third-party infrastructure, partially offset by a decrease related to personnel costs, data center, and depreciation expense.
Gross Profit
Our gross profit was $857 million in 2022, a decrease of $80 million from $937 million in 2021. Our gross margin was 27.4% in 2022, a decrease of 370 basis points from 31.1% in 2021.
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses
SG&A expenses decreased $52 million, or 6%, to $855 million in 2022 from $907 million in 2021, due to a decline in personnel costs from cost savings as a result of shifting roles to lower-cost locations as part of our continued focus on business optimization initiatives. We also had lower severance expense between periods. The prior period included $25 million of restructuring charges related to the July 2021 Restructuring Plan accounted for as exit and disposal costs under ASC 420, of which $14 million were personnel related costs. There were also reductions in costs related to other business optimization and integration initiatives compared to the prior period, as well as lower amortization expense related to certain intangible assets reaching the end of their useful life. These reductions in expense were partially offset by an increase in travel expense as a result of the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and costs incurred in 2022 related to the Hosted Exchange incident.
As a percentage of revenue, SG&A expenses decreased 270 basis points, to 27.4% in 2022 from 30.1% in 2021, for the reasons discussed above.
Loss from Operations, Segment Operating Profit, and Non-GAAP Operating Profit
Our loss from operations was $679 million in 2022 compared to $3 million in 2021. Our Non-GAAP Operating Profit was $364 million in 2022, a decrease of $120 million from $484 million in 2021. Non-GAAP Operating Profit is a non-GAAP financial measure. See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below for more information.
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The table below presents a reconciliation of loss from operations to Non-GAAP Operating Profit.
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In millions) | 2021 | 2022 | ||||
| Loss from operations | $ | (2.5) | $ | (679.0) | ||
| Share-based compensation expense | 75.4 | 69.5 | ||||
| Special bonuses and other compensation expense (a) | 11.8 | 10.0 | ||||
| Transaction-related adjustments, net (b) | 25.7 | 11.0 | ||||
| Restructuring and transformation expenses (c) | 161.5 | 99.0 | ||||
| Hosted Exchange incident expenses, net of proceeds received or expected to be received under our insurance coverage | — | 5.9 | ||||
| Impairment of goodwill | 52.4 | 534.5 | ||||
| Impairment of assets, net | — | 146.1 | ||||
| Gain on sale of land | (19.9) | — | ||||
| Amortization of intangible assets (d) | 179.7 | 166.8 | ||||
| Non-GAAP Operating Profit | $ | 484.1 | $ | 363.8 |
| (a) | Includes expense related to retention bonuses, mainly relating to restructuring and integration projects, and the related payroll tax, senior executive signing bonuses and relocation costs, and payroll taxes associated with the exercise of stock options and vesting of restricted stock. |
|---|---|
| (b) | Includes legal, professional, accounting and other advisory fees related to acquisitions, certain one-time compliance costs related to being a public company, integration costs of acquired businesses, purchase accounting adjustments, payroll costs for employees that dedicate significant time to supporting these projects and exploratory acquisition and divestiture costs and expenses related to financing activities. |
| (c) | Includes consulting and advisory fees related to business transformation and optimization activities, payroll costs for employees that dedicate significant time to these projects, as well as associated severance, certain facility closure costs, and lease termination expenses. This amount also includes employee related costs and other costs related to the July 2021 Restructuring Plan of $25.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, which are accounted for as exit and disposal costs under ASC 420. In addition, it includes total charges of $25.1 million and $5.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2022, respectively, related to the July 2021 Restructuring Plan which are not accounted for as exit and disposal costs under ASC 420, including one-time offshore build out costs. |
| (d) | All of our intangible assets are attributable to acquisitions, including the Rackspace Acquisition in 2016. |
Our segment operating profit and segment operating margin for the periods indicated, and the change between periods is shown in the table below:
| Year Ended December 31, | Year-Over-Year Comparison | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In millions, except %) | 2021 | 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Segment operating profit: | Amount | % of Segment Revenue | Amount | % of Segment Revenue | Amount | % Change | ||||||||||||||
| Public Cloud | $ | 120.1 | 8.2 | % | $ | 124.9 | 7.2 | % | $ | 4.8 | 4.0 | % | ||||||||
| Private Cloud | 604.3 | 39.3 | % | 493.9 | 35.8 | % | (110.4) | (18.3) | % | |||||||||||
| Total consolidated segment operating profit | 724.4 | 618.8 | (105.6) | (14.6) | % | |||||||||||||||
| Corporate functions | (240.3) | (255.0) | (14.7) | 6.1 | % | |||||||||||||||
| Non-GAAP Operating Profit | $ | 484.1 | $ | 363.8 | $ | (120.3) | (24.9) | % |
Public Cloud operating profit increased by 4% in 2022 from 2021. Segment operating profit as a percentage of segment revenue decreased by 100 basis points, reflecting a 20% increase in segment operating expenses, partially offset by an 18% increase in segment revenue. The increase in costs was mainly driven by higher third-party infrastructure costs due to the increase in revenue.
Private Cloud operating profit decreased 18% in 2022 from 2021. Segment operating profit as a percentage of segment revenue decreased by 350 basis points, due to a 10% decrease in segment revenue, partially offset by a 5% reduction in segment operating expenses. The decrease in costs was mainly driven by declines in personnel costs from cost savings as a result of shifting roles to lower-cost locations as part of our continued focus on business optimization initiatives.
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Centralized corporate functions that provide services to the segments in areas such as accounting, information technology, marketing, legal and human resources are not allocated to the segments and are included in "corporate functions" in the table above. This expense increased 6% in 2022 primarily due to costs incurred in 2022 related to the Hosted Exchange incident and an increase in travel expense as a result of the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
For more information about our segment operating profit, see Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 18, "Segment Reporting."
Impairment of Goodwill
During the third quarter of 2022, we experienced a sustained decline in our stock price resulting in our market capitalization being less than the carrying value of our combined reporting units. We performed an interim goodwill impairment analysis as of September 1, 2022 based on our assessment of several events and circumstances that affect the significant inputs used to determine the fair value of our reporting units, including the significance of the amount of excess carrying value over fair value, consistency of operating margins and cash flows, budgeted-to-actual performance from prior year, overall change in economic climate, changes in the industry and competitive environment, and earnings quality and sustainability. In addition, as of September 1, 2022, we lowered our projected operating results primarily due to product mix shifts and market concerns related to inflation and other macroeconomic factors. As a result, we determined that the carrying value of our former Multicloud Services reporting unit exceeded its fair value and recorded an impairment of goodwill of $405 million during the third quarter of 2022.
The results of our annual goodwill impairment test as of October 1, 2022 did not indicate any impairments of goodwill.
During the fourth quarter of 2022, subsequent to our annual goodwill impairment analysis, we experienced a decline in our market capitalization following a ransomware incident in early December which caused service disruptions on our Hosted Exchange email business. We therefore determined it appropriate to perform an interim quantitative assessment of our reporting units as of December 31, 2022. As a result, we determined that the carrying value of our former Apps & Cross Platform reporting unit exceeded its fair value and recorded an impairment of goodwill of $129 million during the fourth quarter of 2022.
As a result of our annual goodwill impairment test performed during the fourth quarter of 2021, we determined that the carrying amount of our OpenStack Public Cloud reporting unit exceeded its fair value and fully impaired its goodwill by recording a goodwill impairment charge of $52 million. The impairment was driven by deteriorating forecasted margins and cash flows within the reporting unit primarily due to operating costs declining at a slower rate than previously anticipated even after factoring in the long term impacts of the July 2021 Restructuring Plan.
See Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 6, "Goodwill and Intangible Assets" for further discussion.
Impairment of Assets, Net
We also evaluated our indefinite-lived intangible asset and long-lived assets for impairment as of September 1, 2022. As a result of these evaluations, we recorded total impairment charges of $59 million during the third quarter of 2022, consisting of a $21 million impairment of our indefinite-lived trade name intangible asset and a $38 million impairment of OpenStack Public Cloud long-lived assets.
As of December 31, 2022, we recorded an additional $12 million impairment of our indefinite-lived trade name intangible asset.
In addition, as of December 31, 2022, our corporate headquarters property was classified as held for sale. The property's previous carrying amount of $83 million was written down to its estimated fair value, less estimated cost to sell, of $12 million, resulting in a $71 million impairment charge. We also wrote-off the remaining $5 million net book value of the related property tax abatement asset in connection with the held for sale classification.
There were no such impairments in 2021.
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See Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 5, "Property, Equipment and Software, net" and Note 6, "Goodwill and Intangible Assets" for further discussion.
Gain on Sale of Land
In January 2021, we recorded a $20 million gain related to the sale of a parcel of undeveloped land in the United Kingdom adjacent to one of our existing data centers, as further discussed in Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 5, "Property, Equipment and Software, net."
Debt Modification Costs and Loss on Debt Extinguishment
In 2021, we recorded $37 million and $0.5 million of debt modification costs and loss on debt extinguishment related to the February 2021 Refinancing Transaction and termination of the Receivables Financing Facility, respectively. See Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 7, "Debt" for further discussion.
Other Expense, Net
The increase in other expense, net to $10 million in 2022 from $1 million in 2021 is primarily related to foreign currency transaction losses.
Benefit for Income Taxes
Our income tax benefit increased by $62 million to $93 million in 2022 from $31 million in 2021. Our effective tax rate decreased from 12.4% in 2021 to 10.3% in 2022. The decrease in the effective tax rate year-over-year is primarily due to the tax impact associated with the goodwill impairments, the geographic distribution of profits and tax effects from nondeductible share-based compensation. The difference between the effective tax rate for 2022 and the statutory tax rate is primarily due to the tax impact associated with the goodwill impairments, the geographic distribution of profits, executive compensation that is nondeductible under IRC Section 162(m) and tax effects from nondeductible share-based compensation.
For a full reconciliation of our effective tax rate to the U.S. federal statutory rate and further explanation of our benefit for income taxes, see Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 14, "Taxes."
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Non-GAAP Financial Measures
We track several non-GAAP financial measures to monitor and manage our underlying financial performance. The following discussion includes the presentation of constant currency revenue, Non-GAAP Gross Profit, Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss), Non-GAAP Operating Profit, Adjusted EBITDA and Non-GAAP Earnings (Loss) Per Share, which are non-GAAP financial measures that exclude the impact of certain costs, losses and gains that are required to be included in our profit and loss measures under GAAP. Although we believe these measures are useful to investors and analysts for the same reasons they are useful to management, as discussed below, these measures are not a substitute for, or superior to, U.S. GAAP financial measures or disclosures. Other companies may calculate similarly-titled non-GAAP measures differently, limiting their usefulness as comparative measures. We have reconciled each of these non-GAAP measures to the applicable most comparable GAAP measure throughout this MD&A.
Constant Currency Revenue
We use constant currency revenue as an additional metric for understanding and assessing our growth excluding the effect of foreign currency rate fluctuations on our international business operations. Constant currency information compares results between periods as if exchange rates had remained constant period over period and is calculated by translating the non-U.S. dollar income statement balances for the most current period to U.S. dollars using the average exchange rate from the comparative period rather than the actual exchange rates in effect during the respective period. We also believe this is an important metric to help investors evaluate our performance in comparison to prior periods.
The following tables present, by segment, actual and constant currency revenue and constant currency revenue growth rates, for and between the periods indicated:
| Year Ended December 31, 2022 | Year Ended December 31, 2023 | % Change | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In millions, except %) | Revenue | Revenue | Foreign Currency Translation (a) | Revenue in Constant Currency | Actual | Constant Currency | |||||||||||||||
| Public Cloud | $ | 1,740.8 | $ | 1,747.4 | $ | 0.4 | $ | 1,747.8 | 0.4 | % | 0.4 | % | |||||||||
| Private Cloud | 1,381.5 | 1,209.7 | (1.2) | 1,208.5 | (12.4) | % | (12.5) | % | |||||||||||||
| Total | $ | 3,122.3 | $ | 2,957.1 | $ | (0.8) | $ | 2,956.3 | (5.3) | % | (5.3) | % |
| Column 1 | Column 2 |
|---|---|
| (a) | The effect of foreign currency is calculated by translating current period results using the average exchange rate from the prior comparative period. |
| Year Ended December 31, 2021 | Year Ended December 31, 2022 | % Change | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In millions, except %) | Revenue | Revenue | Foreign Currency Translation (a) | Revenue in Constant Currency | Actual | Constant Currency | |||||||||||||||
| Public Cloud | $ | 1,471.3 | $ | 1,740.8 | $ | 13.0 | $ | 1,753.8 | 18.3 | % | 19.2 | % | |||||||||
| Private Cloud | 1,538.2 | 1,381.5 | 30.6 | 1,412.1 | (10.2) | % | (8.2) | % | |||||||||||||
| Total | $ | 3,009.5 | $ | 3,122.3 | $ | 43.6 | $ | 3,165.9 | 3.7 | % | 5.2 | % |
| Column 1 | Column 2 |
|---|---|
| (a) | The effect of foreign currency is calculated by translating current period results using the average exchange rate from the prior comparative period. |
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Non-GAAP Gross Profit
We present Non-GAAP Gross Profit in this MD&A because we believe the measure is useful in analyzing trends in our underlying, recurring gross margins. We define Non-GAAP Gross Profit as gross profit, adjusted to exclude the impact of share-based compensation expense and other non-recurring or unusual compensation items, purchase accounting-related effects, certain business transformation-related costs, and costs related to the Hosted Exchange incident.
The table below presents a reconciliation of gross profit to Non-GAAP Gross Profit:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In millions) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |||||||
| Gross profit | $ | 936.8 | $ | 856.9 | $ | 628.8 | ||||
| Share-based compensation expense | 16.7 | 11.6 | 9.1 | |||||||
| Special bonuses and other compensation expense (a) | 2.7 | 1.9 | 4.0 | |||||||
| Purchase accounting impact on expense (b) | 4.7 | 2.7 | 2.6 | |||||||
| Restructuring and transformation expenses (c) | 35.5 | 10.9 | 16.9 | |||||||
| Hosted Exchange incident expenses, net of proceeds received or expected to be received under our insurance coverage | — | 0.2 | 0.3 | |||||||
| Non-GAAP Gross Profit | $ | 996.4 | $ | 884.2 | $ | 661.7 |
| (a) | Adjustments for retention bonuses, mainly in connection with restructuring and transformation projects, and the related payroll tax, and payroll taxes associated with the exercise of stock options and vesting of restricted stock. Beginning in the second quarter of 2023, includes expense related to the one-time grant of long-term incentive bonuses as a component of our annual compensation award process. |
|---|---|
| (b) | Adjustment for the impact of purchase accounting from the Rackspace Acquisition on expenses. |
| (c) | Adjustment for the impact of business transformation and optimization activities, as well as associated severance, certain facility closure costs and lease termination expenses. This amount also includes certain costs associated with the July 2021 Restructuring Plan which are not accounted for as exit and disposal costs under ASC 420, including one-time offshore build out costs. |
Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss), Non-GAAP Operating Profit and Adjusted EBITDA
We present Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss), Non-GAAP Operating Profit and Adjusted EBITDA because they are a basis upon which management assesses our performance and we believe they are useful to evaluating our financial performance. We believe that excluding items from net income that may not be indicative of, or are unrelated to, our core operating results, and that may vary in frequency or magnitude, enhances the comparability of our results and provides a better baseline for analyzing trends in our business.
The Rackspace Acquisition was structured as a leveraged buyout of Rackspace Technology Global, our predecessor, and resulted in several accounting and capital structure impacts. For example, the revaluation of our assets and liabilities resulted in a significant increase in our amortizable intangible assets and goodwill, the incurrence of a significant amount of debt to partially finance the Rackspace Acquisition resulted in interest payments that reflect our high leverage and cost of debt capital, and the conversion of Rackspace Technology Global’s unvested equity compensation into a cash-settled bonus plan and obligation to pay management fees to our equityholders resulted in new cash commitments. In addition, the change in ownership and management resulting from the Rackspace Acquisition led to a strategic realignment in our operations that had a significant impact on our financial results. Following the Rackspace Acquisition, we acquired several businesses, sold businesses and investments that we deemed to be non-core and launched multiple integration and business transformation initiatives intended to improve the efficiency of people and operations and identify recurring cost savings and new revenue growth opportunities. We believe that these transactions and activities resulted in costs, which have historically been substantial, and that may not be indicative of, or are not related to, our core operating results, including interest related to the incurrence of additional debt to finance acquisitions and third party legal, advisory and consulting fees and severance, retention bonus and other internal costs that we believe would not have been incurred in the absence of these transactions and activities and also may not be indicative of, or related to, our core operating results.
We define Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss) as net income (loss) adjusted to exclude the impact of non-cash charges for share-based compensation, special bonuses and other compensation expense, transaction-related costs and adjustments, restructuring and transformation charges, costs related to the Hosted Exchange incident, the amortization of acquired intangible assets, goodwill and asset impairment charges, costs related to the closure of a UK office, and certain other non-operating, non-recurring or non-core gains and losses, as well as the tax effects of these non-GAAP adjustments.
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We define Non-GAAP Operating Profit as income (loss) from operations adjusted to exclude the impact of non-cash charges for share-based compensation, special bonuses and other compensation expense, transaction-related costs and adjustments, restructuring and transformation charges, costs related to the Hosted Exchange incident, the amortization of acquired intangible assets, goodwill and asset impairment charges, costs related to the closure of a UK office, and certain other non-operating, non-recurring or non-core gains and losses.
We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) adjusted to exclude the impact of non-cash charges for share-based compensation, special bonuses and other compensation expense, transaction-related costs and adjustments, restructuring and transformation charges, costs related to the Hosted Exchange incident, costs related to the closure of a UK office, certain other non-operating, non-recurring or non-core gains and losses, interest expense, expenses for our Receivables Purchase Facility, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, and goodwill and asset impairment charges.
Non-GAAP Operating Profit and Adjusted EBITDA are management’s principal metrics for measuring our underlying financial performance. Non-GAAP Operating Profit and Adjusted EBITDA, along with other quantitative and qualitative information, are also the principal financial measures used by management and our board of directors in determining performance-based compensation for our management and key employees.
These non-GAAP measures are not intended to imply that we would have generated higher income or avoided net losses if the Rackspace Acquisition and the subsequent transactions and initiatives had not occurred. In the future we may incur expenses or charges such as those added back to calculate Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss), Non-GAAP Operating Profit or Adjusted EBITDA. Our presentation of Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss), Non-GAAP Operating Profit and Adjusted EBITDA should not be construed as an inference that our future results will be unaffected by these items. Other companies, including our peer companies, may calculate similarly-titled measures in a different manner from us, and therefore, our non-GAAP measures may not be comparable to similarly-tiled measures of other companies. Investors are cautioned against using these measures to the exclusion of our results in accordance with GAAP.
The following tables present a reconciliation of Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss) and Adjusted EBITDA to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. For a reconciliation of income (loss) from operations to Non-GAAP Operating Profit, see “Loss from Operations, Segment Operating Profit, and Non-GAAP Operating Profit” in the year-over-year comparisons under "Results of Operations" above.
Net loss reconciliation to Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss)
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In millions) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |||||||
| Net loss | $ | (218.3) | $ | (804.8) | $ | (837.8) | ||||
| Share-based compensation expense | 75.4 | 69.5 | 65.4 | |||||||
| Special bonuses and other compensation expense (a) | 11.8 | 10.0 | 12.1 | |||||||
| Transaction-related adjustments, net (b) | 25.7 | 11.0 | 5.2 | |||||||
| Restructuring and transformation expenses (c) | 161.5 | 99.0 | 70.8 | |||||||
| Hosted Exchange incident expenses, net of proceeds received or expected to be received under our insurance coverage | — | 5.9 | (4.8) | |||||||
| Impairment of goodwill | 52.4 | 534.5 | 708.8 | |||||||
| UK office closure (d) | — | — | 12.1 | |||||||
| Impairment of assets, net | — | 146.1 | 52.2 | |||||||
| Gain on sale of land | (19.9) | — | — | |||||||
| Net (gain) loss on divestiture and investments (e) | 3.0 | 0.2 | (0.3) | |||||||
| Debt modification costs and (gain) loss on debt extinguishment (f) | 37.5 | — | (271.3) | |||||||
| Other adjustments (g) | 1.0 | 10.0 | (1.0) | |||||||
| Amortization of intangible assets (h) | 179.7 | 166.8 | 161.0 | |||||||
| Tax effect of non-GAAP adjustments (i) | (103.3) | (133.3) | (5.1) | |||||||
| Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss) | $ | 206.5 | $ | 114.9 | $ | (32.7) |
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Net loss reconciliation to Adjusted EBITDA
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In millions) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |||||||
| Net loss | $ | (218.3) | $ | (804.8) | $ | (837.8) | ||||
| Share-based compensation expense | 75.4 | 69.5 | 65.4 | |||||||
| Special bonuses and other compensation expense (a) | 11.8 | 10.0 | 12.1 | |||||||
| Transaction-related adjustments, net (b) | 25.7 | 11.0 | 5.2 | |||||||
| Restructuring and transformation expenses (c) | 161.5 | 99.0 | 70.8 | |||||||
| Hosted Exchange incident expenses, net of proceeds received or expected to be received under our insurance coverage | — | 5.9 | (4.8) | |||||||
| Impairment of goodwill | 52.4 | 534.5 | 708.8 | |||||||
| UK office closure (d) | — | — | 12.1 | |||||||
| Impairment of assets, net | — | 146.1 | 52.2 | |||||||
| Gain on sale of land | (19.9) | — | — | |||||||
| Net (gain) loss on divestiture and investments (e) | 3.0 | 0.2 | (0.3) | |||||||
| Debt modification costs and (gain) loss on debt extinguishment (f) | 37.5 | — | (271.3) | |||||||
| Other expense, net (j) | 1.0 | 10.0 | 5.0 | |||||||
| Interest expense | 205.1 | 208.5 | 221.6 | |||||||
| Benefit for income taxes | (30.8) | (92.9) | (16.6) | |||||||
| Depreciation and amortization (k) | 421.4 | 387.5 | 366.4 | |||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 725.8 | $ | 584.5 | $ | 388.8 |
| (a) | Includes expense related to retention bonuses, mainly relating to restructuring and integration projects, and the related payroll tax, senior executive signing bonuses and relocation costs, and payroll taxes associated with the exercise of stock options and vesting of restricted stock. Beginning in the second quarter of 2023, includes expense related to the one-time grant of long-term incentive bonuses as a component of our annual compensation award process. |
|---|---|
| (b) | Includes legal, professional, accounting and other advisory fees related to acquisitions, certain one-time compliance costs related to being a public company, integration costs of acquired businesses, purchase accounting adjustments, payroll costs for employees that dedicate significant time to supporting these projects and exploratory acquisition and divestiture costs and expenses related to financing activities. |
| (c) | Includes consulting and advisory fees related to business transformation and optimization activities, payroll costs for employees that dedicate significant time to these projects, as well as associated severance, certain facility closure costs, and lease termination expenses. This amount also includes employee related costs and other costs related to the July 2021 Restructuring Plan of $25.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, which are accounted for as exit and disposal costs under ASC 420. In addition, it includes total charges of $25.1 million and $5.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2022, respectively, related to the July 2021 Restructuring Plan which are not accounted for as exit and disposal costs under ASC 420, including one-time offshore build out costs. |
| (d) | Expense recognized related to the closure of a UK office that we exited in the second quarter of 2023 prior to the lease end date. |
| (e) | Includes gains and losses on investment and from dispositions. |
| (f) | Includes gains and losses related to repurchases of 5.375% Senior Notes, 3.50% Senior Secured Notes and the Term Loan Facility, the February 2021 Refinancing Transaction and termination of the Receivables Financing Facility. |
| (g) | Primarily consists of foreign currency gains and losses. |
| (h) | All of our intangible assets are attributable to acquisitions, including the Rackspace Acquisition in 2016. |
| (i) | We utilize an estimated structural long-term non-GAAP tax rate in order to provide consistency across reporting periods, removing the effect of non-recurring tax adjustments, which include but are not limited to tax rate changes, U.S. tax reform, share-based compensation, audit conclusions and changes to valuation allowances. We used a structural non-GAAP tax rate of 26% for all periods which reflects the removal of the tax effect of non-GAAP pre-tax adjustments and non-recurring tax adjustments on a year-over-year basis. The non-GAAP tax rate could be subject to change for a variety of reasons, including the rapidly evolving global tax environment, significant changes in our geographic earnings mix including due to acquisition activity, or other changes to our strategy or business operations. We will re-evaluate our long-term non-GAAP tax rate as appropriate. We believe that making these adjustments facilitates a better evaluation of our current operating performance and comparisons to prior periods. |
| (j) | Primarily consists of foreign currency gains and losses and expense related to our Receivables Purchase Facility. |
| (k) | Excludes accelerated depreciation expense related to facility closures. |
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Non-GAAP Earnings (Loss) Per Share
We define Non-GAAP Earnings (Loss) per Share as Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss) divided by our GAAP weighted average number of shares outstanding for the period on a diluted basis and further adjusted for the weighted average number of shares associated with securities which are anti-dilutive to GAAP loss per share but dilutive to Non-GAAP Earnings (Loss) per Share. Management uses Non-GAAP Earnings (Loss) per Share to evaluate the performance of our business on a comparable basis from period to period, including by adjusting for the impact of the issuance of shares that would be dilutive to Non-GAAP Earnings (Loss) per Share. The following table reconciles Non-GAAP Earnings (Loss) per Share to our GAAP net loss per share on a diluted basis:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In millions, except per share amounts) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |||||||
| Net loss attributable to common stockholders | $ | (218.3) | $ | (804.8) | $ | (837.8) | ||||
| Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss) | $ | 206.5 | $ | 114.9 | $ | (32.7) | ||||
| Weighted average number of shares - Diluted | 208.0 | 211.2 | 215.3 | |||||||
| Effect of dilutive securities (a) | 4.2 | 1.3 | 3.1 | |||||||
| Non-GAAP weighted average number of shares - Diluted | 212.2 | 212.5 | 218.4 | |||||||
| Net loss per share - Diluted | $ | (1.05) | $ | (3.81) | $ | (3.89) | ||||
| Per share impacts of adjustments to net loss (b) | 2.04 | 4.35 | 3.74 | |||||||
| Per share impacts of shares dilutive after adjustments to net loss (a) | (0.02) | 0.00 | 0.00 | |||||||
| Non-GAAP Earnings (Loss) Per Share | $ | 0.97 | $ | 0.54 | $ | (0.15) |
| (a) | Reflects impact of awards that would have been anti-dilutive to net loss per share, and therefore not included in the calculation, but would be dilutive to Non-GAAP Earnings (Loss) Per Share and are therefore included in the share count for purposes of this non-GAAP measure. Potential common share equivalents consist of shares issuable upon the exercise of stock options, vesting of restricted stock units (including performance-based restricted stock units) or purchases under the ESPP, as well as contingent shares associated with our acquisition of Datapipe. Certain of our potential common share equivalents are contingent on Apollo achieving pre-established performance targets based on a MOIC, which are included in the denominator for the entire period if such shares would be issuable as of the end of the reporting period assuming the end of the reporting period was the end of the contingency period. |
|---|---|
| (b) | Reflects the aggregate adjustments made to reconcile Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss) to our net loss, as noted in the above table, divided by the GAAP diluted number of shares outstanding for the relevant period. |
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Liquidity and Capital Resources
Overview
We primarily finance our operations and capital expenditures with internally-generated cash from operations and hardware leases, and if necessary, borrowings under our Revolving Credit Facility. As of December 31, 2023, the Revolving Credit Facility provided for up to $375 million of borrowings, none of which was drawn and outstanding as of December 31, 2023. Our primary uses of cash are working capital requirements, debt service requirements and capital expenditures. Based on our current level of operations and available cash, we believe our sources will provide sufficient liquidity over at least the next twelve months. We cannot provide assurance, however, that our business will generate sufficient cash flows from operations or that future borrowings will be available to us under the Revolving Credit Facility or from other sources in an amount sufficient to enable us to pay our indebtedness or to fund our other liquidity needs. Our ability to do so depends on prevailing economic conditions and other factors, many of which are beyond our control. In addition, upon the occurrence of certain events, such as a change of control, we could be required to repay or refinance our indebtedness. We cannot assure that we will be able to refinance any of our indebtedness, including the Senior Facilities, the 5.375% Senior Notes and the 3.50% Senior Secured Notes, on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Any future acquisitions, joint ventures or other similar transactions will likely require additional capital, and there can be no assurance that any such capital will be available to us on acceptable terms or at all.
From time to time, depending upon market and other conditions, as well as upon our cash balances and liquidity, we, our subsidiaries or our affiliates may acquire (and have acquired) our outstanding debt securities or our other indebtedness through open market purchases, privately negotiated transactions, tender offers, redemption or otherwise, upon such terms and at such prices as we, our subsidiaries or our affiliates may determine (or as may be provided for in the Indentures, if applicable), for cash or other consideration.
On February 2, 2021, we issued 2,665,935 shares of common stock to DPH 123, LLC, an ABRY affiliate, for no additional consideration pursuant to the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of September 6, 2017, (the "Datapipe Merger Agreement") in connection with our November 15, 2017 acquisition of Datapipe. We will be required to issue additional shares of our common stock to DPH 123, LLC based on the MOIC exceeding certain thresholds as defined in the Datapipe Merger Agreement. If the MOIC exceeds 3.0x, which is indicated by a volume weighted average trading price of our common stock over 30 consecutive trading days of more than $25.00, we will be required to issue an additional 2,665,935 shares.
On March 3, 2022, our board of directors authorized a program to repurchase up to $75 million of shares of our common stock from time to time through open-market transactions, privately negotiated transactions, accelerated share repurchases and other transactions in accordance with applicable security laws. During the year ended December 31, 2022, we repurchased $31 million, or 3.1 million shares, of our common stock on the open market under this program. No shares were repurchased during the year ended December 31, 2023 and the program authorization expired on September 30, 2023.
On September 29, 2023, indirect subsidiaries of the company entered into a revolving agreement where a bankruptcy-remote SPV can sell accounts receivable, based upon the face amount of eligible receivables in the collateral pool, up to an aggregate maximum limit of $300 million to a financial institution on a recurring basis in exchange for cash.
At December 31, 2023, we held $197 million in cash and cash equivalents (not including $3 million in restricted cash, which is included in "Other non-current assets"), of which $117 million was held by foreign entities.
We have entered into installment payment arrangements with certain equipment and software vendors, along with sale-leaseback arrangements for equipment and certain property leases that are considered financing obligations. We had $66 million outstanding with respect to these arrangements as of December 31, 2023. We may choose to utilize these various sources of funding in future periods. Refer to Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 9, "Financing Obligations" for more information regarding financing obligations.
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We also lease certain equipment and real estate under operating and finance lease agreements. We had $504 million outstanding with respect to operating and finance lease agreements as of December 31, 2023. We may choose to utilize such leasing arrangements in future periods. Refer to Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 8, "Leases" for more information regarding our operating and finance leases.
As of December 31, 2023, we had $2,893 million aggregate principal amount outstanding under our Term Loan Facility, 5.375% Senior Notes, and 3.50% Senior Secured Notes, with $375 million of borrowing capacity available under the Revolving Credit Facility. Our liquidity requirements are significant, primarily due to debt service requirements.
Debt
Senior Facilities
On February 9, 2021, we amended and restated the First Lien Credit Agreement, which included a new seven-year $2,300 million senior secured first lien term loan facility (the Term Loan Facility) and our existing Revolving Credit Facility, which we refer to together as the Senior Facilities. We used the borrowings under the Term Loan Facility, together with the proceeds from the issuance of the 3.50% Senior Secured Notes described below, to repay all borrowings under the Prior Term Loan Facility, to pay related fees and expenses and for general corporate purposes. The Term Loan Facility will mature on February 15, 2028 and the Revolving Credit Facility will mature on August 7, 2025. We may request one or more incremental term loan facilities, one or more incremental revolving credit facilities and/or increase the commitments under the Revolving Credit Facility in an amount equal to the greater of $860 million and 1.0x Pro Forma Adjusted EBITDA (as defined in the amended First Lien Credit Agreement), plus additional amounts, subject to compliance with applicable leverage ratios and certain terms and conditions.
On April 26, 2023, we executed an amendment to our First Lien Credit Agreement to establish Term SOFR as the benchmark rate for determining the applicable interest rate, replacing LIBOR.
As a result of the amendment, borrowings under the Senior Facilities bear interest at an annual rate equal to an applicable margin plus, at our option, either (a) Term SOFR equal to the forward-looking term rate, based on the secured overnight financing rate as administered by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, for the interest period relevant to such borrowing, plus a credit spread adjustment of 0.11% for an interest period of one-month's duration, 0.26% for an interest period of three-months' duration, and 0.43% for an interest period of six-months' duration, subject to a 0.75% floor, in the case of the Term Loan Facility, and a 1.00% floor, in the case of the Revolving Credit Facility, or (b) a base rate determined by reference to the highest of (i) the federal funds rate plus 0.50%, (ii) the prime rate of Citi and (iii) adjusted Term SOFR for a one-month tenor plus 1.00%.
The applicable margin for the Term Loan Facility is 2.75% for SOFR loans and 1.75% for base rate loans and the applicable margin for the Revolving Credit Facility is 3.00% for SOFR loans and 2.00% for base rate loans. Interest is due at the end of each interest period elected, not exceeding 90 days, for SOFR loans and at the end of every calendar quarter for base rate loans.
The Revolving Credit Facility also includes a commitment fee equal to 0.50% per annum in respect of the unused commitments that is due quarterly. This fee is subject to one step-down based on the net first lien leverage ratio.
During the year ended December 31, 2023, we repurchased and surrendered for cancellation $56 million aggregate principal amount of the Term Loan Facility for $30 million, excluding related fees and expenses.
As of December 31, 2023, the interest rate on the Term Loan Facility was 8.23% and the outstanding principal balance was $2,181 million. We are required to make quarterly principal payments in the amount equal to 0.25% of the original principal amount of the Term Loan Facility, or $5.8 million, which began on June 30, 2021, with the balance due at maturity on February 15, 2028.
We have entered into interest rate swap agreements to manage the interest rate risk associated with interest payments on the Term Loan Facility that result from fluctuations in Term SOFR. See Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 15, "Derivatives" for more information on the interest rate swap agreements.
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In addition to the quarterly amortization payments discussed above, our Senior Facilities require us to make certain mandatory prepayments, including using (i) a portion of annual excess cash flow, as defined in the First Lien Credit Agreement, to prepay the Term Loan Facility, (ii) net cash proceeds of certain non-ordinary assets sales or dispositions of property to prepay the Term Loan Facility and (iii) net cash proceeds of any issuance or incurrence of debt not permitted under the Senior Facilities to prepay the Term Loan Facility. We can make voluntary prepayments at any time without penalty, except in connection with a repricing event, as defined in the First Lien Credit Agreement.
Rackspace Technology Global, our wholly-owned subsidiary, is the borrower under the Senior Facilities, and all obligations under the Senior Facilities are (i) guaranteed by Inception Parent, Rackspace Technology Global’s immediate parent company, on a limited recourse basis and secured by the equity interests of Rackspace Technology Global held by Inception Parent and (ii) guaranteed by Rackspace Technology Global’s wholly-owned domestic restricted subsidiaries and secured by substantially all material owned assets of Rackspace Technology Global and the subsidiary guarantors, including the equity interests held by each, in each case subject to certain exceptions.
During 2023, we borrowed and fully repaid $50 million under the Revolving Credit Facility. As of December 31, 2023, we had total commitments of $375 million, no outstanding borrowings under the Revolving Credit Facility, and $3.5 million of letters of credit issued thereunder. As such, as of December 31, 2023, we had $375 million of available commitments remaining.
3.50% Senior Secured Notes
On February 9, 2021, Rackspace Technology Global issued $550 million aggregate principal amount of 3.50% Senior Secured Notes. The 3.50% Senior Secured Notes will mature on February 15, 2028 and bear interest at an annual fixed rate of 3.50%. Interest is payable semiannually on each February 15 and August 15, commencing on August 15, 2021. The 3.50% Senior Secured Notes are not subject to registration rights. As noted above, we used the net proceeds from the issuance of the 3.50% Senior Secured Notes, together with borrowings under the Term Loan Facility described above, to repay all borrowings outstanding under the Prior Term Loan Facility, to pay related fees and expenses and for general corporate purposes.
Rackspace Technology Global is the issuer of the 3.50% Senior Secured Notes, and obligations under the 3.50% Senior Secured Notes are fully and unconditionally guaranteed, jointly and severally, by all of Rackspace Technology Global’s wholly-owned domestic restricted subsidiaries (as subsidiary guarantors) that guarantee the Senior Facilities. The 3.50% Senior Secured Notes and the related guarantees are secured by first-priority security interests in substantially all material owned assets of Rackspace Technology Global and the subsidiary guarantors, including the equity interest held by each, subject to certain exceptions, which assets also secure the Senior Facilities. The 3.50% Notes Indenture describes certain terms and conditions under which other current and future domestic subsidiaries are required to become guarantors of the 3.50% Senior Secured Notes.
Rackspace Technology Global may redeem the 3.50% Senior Secured Notes at its option, in whole at any time or in part from time to time, at the following redemption prices: from February 15, 2024 to February 14, 2025, at a redemption price equal to 101.750% of the principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to but excluding the redemption date; from February 15, 2025 to February 14, 2026, at a redemption price equal to 100.875% of the principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to but excluding the redemption date; and from February 15, 2026 and thereafter, at a redemption price equal to 100.000% of the principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to but excluding the redemption date. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Rackspace Technology Global may redeem during each twelve-month period, commencing with February 9, 2021, up to 10.0% of the original aggregate principal amount of the 3.50% Senior Secured Notes at a redemption price of 103.000%, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to, but excluding, the applicable redemption date.
During the year ended December 31, 2023, we repurchased and surrendered for cancellation $36 million principal amount of 3.50% Senior Secured Notes for $18 million, including accrued interest of $0.3 million and excluding related fees and expenses.
As of December 31, 2023, $514 million aggregate principal amount of the 3.50% Senior Secured Notes remained outstanding.
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5.375% Senior Notes
Rackspace Technology Global issued $550 million aggregate principal amount of the 5.375% Senior Notes on December 1, 2020. The 5.375% Senior Notes will mature on December 1, 2028 and bear interest at a fixed rate of 5.375% per year, payable semi-annually on each June 1 and December 1, commencing on June 1, 2021 through maturity. The 5.375% Senior Notes are not subject to registration rights.
Rackspace Technology Global is the issuer of the 5.375% Senior Notes, and obligations under the 5.375% Senior Notes are guaranteed on a senior unsecured basis by all of Rackspace Technology Global’s wholly-owned domestic restricted subsidiaries (as subsidiary guarantors) that guarantee the Senior Facilities. The 5.375% Senior Notes are effectively junior to the indebtedness under the Senior Facilities and the 3.50% Senior Secured Notes, to the extent of the collateral securing the Senior Facilities and the 3.50% Senior Secured Notes. The 5.375% Notes Indenture describes certain terms and conditions under which other current and future domestic subsidiaries are required to become guarantors of the 5.375% Senior Notes.
Rackspace Technology Global may redeem the 5.375% Senior Notes at its option, in whole at any time or in part from time to time, at the following redemption prices: from December 1, 2023 to November 30, 2024, at a redemption price equal to 102.688% of the principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to but excluding the redemption date; from December 1, 2024 to November 30, 2025, at a redemption price equal to 101.344% of the principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to but excluding the redemption date; and from December 1, 2025 and thereafter, at a redemption price equal to 100.000% of the principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to but excluding the redemption date.
During the year ended December 31, 2023, we repurchased and surrendered for cancellation $352 million principal amount of 5.375% Senior Notes for $124 million, including accrued interest of $3 million and excluding related fees and expenses.
As of December 31, 2023, $198 million aggregate principal amount of the 5.375% Senior Notes remained outstanding.
Debt covenants
Our Term Loan Facility is not subject to a financial maintenance covenant. The Revolving Credit Facility included a financial maintenance covenant that limits the borrower's net first lien leverage ratio to a maximum of 5.00 to 1.00. The net first lien leverage ratio is calculated as the ratio of (x) the total amount of the borrower’s first lien debt for borrowed money (which is currently identical to the total amount outstanding under the Senior Facilities), less the borrower’s unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, to (y) consolidated EBITDA (as defined under the First Lien Credit Agreement governing the Senior Facilities). However, this financial maintenance covenant will only be applicable and tested if the aggregate amount of outstanding borrowings under the Revolving Credit Facility and letters of credit issued thereunder (excluding $25 million of undrawn letters of credit and cash collateralized letters of credit) as of the last day of a fiscal quarter is equal to or greater than 35% of the Revolving Credit Facility commitments as of the last day of such fiscal quarter. Additional covenants in the Senior Facilities limit our subsidiaries' ability to, among other things, incur certain additional debt and liens, pay certain dividends or make other restricted payments, make certain investments, make certain asset sales and enter into certain transactions with affiliates.
The Indentures contains covenants that, among other things, limit our subsidiaries' ability to incur certain additional debt, incur certain liens securing debt, pay certain dividends or make other restricted payments, make certain investments, make certain asset sales and enter into certain transactions with affiliates. These covenants are subject to a number of exceptions, limitations, and qualifications as set forth in the Indentures. Additionally, upon the occurrence of a change of control (as defined in the Indentures), we will be required to make an offer to repurchase all of the outstanding 5.375% Senior Notes and 3.50% Senior Secured Notes at a price in cash equal to 101.000% of the aggregate principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to, but not including the purchase date.
Our “consolidated EBITDA,” as defined under our debt instruments, is calculated in the same manner as our Adjusted EBITDA, presented elsewhere in this report, except that our debt instruments allow us to adjust for additional items, including certain start-up costs, and to give pro forma effect to acquisitions, including resulting synergies, and internal cost savings initiatives. In addition, under the Indentures, the calculation of consolidated EBITDA does not take into account substantially any changes in GAAP subsequent to the date of issuance, whereas under the Senior Facilities, the calculation of consolidated EBITDA takes into account the impact of certain changes in GAAP subsequent to the original closing date other than with respect to capital leases.
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As of December 31, 2023, we were in compliance with all covenants under the Senior Facilities and the Indentures.
March 2024 Refinancing Transactions
See "Subsequent Events" in Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 1, "Company Overview, Basis of Presentation, and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies" for a discussion of the public and private debt exchange and related transactions that impacted or are expected to impact the Senior Facilities, the 3.50% Senior Secured Notes and the 5.375% Senior Notes.
Capital Expenditures
The following table sets forth a summary of our total capital expenditures for the periods indicated:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In millions) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |||||||
| Customer gear (1) | $ | 116.1 | $ | 83.7 | $ | 115.3 | ||||
| Data center build outs (2) | 12.5 | 4.2 | 2.9 | |||||||
| Office build outs (3) | 2.0 | 0.1 | 1.8 | |||||||
| Capitalized software and other projects (4) | 72.3 | 53.8 | 61.3 | |||||||
| Total capital expenditures | $ | 202.9 | $ | 141.8 | $ | 181.3 |
(1) Includes servers, firewalls, load balancers, cabinets, backup libraries, storage arrays and drives and certain software that is essential to the functionality of customer gear, which we provide.
(2) Includes generators, uninterruptible power supplies, power distribution units, mechanical and electrical plants, chillers, raised floor, network cabling, other infrastructure gear and other data center building improvements.
(3) Includes building improvements, raised floor, furniture and equipment.
(4) Includes salaries and payroll-related costs of employees and consultants who devote time to the development of certain internal-use software projects, purchased software licenses and other projects that meet the criteria for capitalization.
The $40 million increase in capital expenditures from 2022 to 2023 was primarily driven by purchases of customer gear originally intended to support a specific new customer. This new customer did not materialize as expected; however, the gear is fungible and has been redeployed to support other business requirements. This gear was acquired through a finance lease.
The $61 million reduction in capital expenditures from 2021 to 2022 was due to the continued mix shift of our revenues from high capital intensity service offerings to low capital intensity service offerings. Additionally, the shift of internal software development work to lower cost geographies has also contributed to the decrease in capital expenditures between periods.
Cash Flows
The following table sets forth a summary of certain cash flow information for the periods indicated:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (In millions) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |||||||
| Cash provided by operating activities | $ | 370.8 | $ | 246.7 | $ | 374.9 | ||||
| Cash used in investing activities | $ | (69.0) | $ | (97.9) | $ | (96.0) | ||||
| Cash used in financing activities | $ | (132.2) | $ | (187.0) | $ | (312.8) |
Cash Provided by Operating Activities
Net cash provided by operating activities results primarily from cash received from customers, offset by cash payments made for employee and consultant compensation (less amounts capitalized related to internal-use software that are reflected as cash used in investing activities), data center costs, license costs, third-party infrastructure costs, marketing programs, interest, taxes, and other general corporate expenditures.
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Net cash provided by operating activities for 2023 increased $128 million, or 52%, from 2022. The increase in operating cash was primarily driven by $209 million of cash proceeds related to the initial sale of a portion of our receivables upon execution of the Receivables Purchase Facility in September 2023 and a $58 million decrease in payroll and payroll taxes due to lower levels of severance payouts in 2023 compared to 2022. Partially offsetting this increase in cash was a $103 million increase in operating expense payments, largely for third-party infrastructure costs, and a $38 million increase in interest payments on debt.
Net cash provided by operating activities for 2022 decreased $124 million, or 33%, from 2021. This decrease was primarily driven by an increase in operating expense payments of $317 million, largely for third-party infrastructure costs, partially offset by an increase in cash collections of $115 million and a decrease in employee-related payments of $56 million mainly due to a shift in headcount to our offshore service centers.
Cash Used in Investing Activities
Net cash used in investing activities primarily consists of capital expenditures to meet the demands of our customer base and our strategic initiatives. The largest outlays of cash are for purchases of customer gear, data center and office build-outs, and capitalized payroll costs related to internal-use software development.
Net cash used in investing activities for 2023 decreased $2 million, or 2%, from 2022. During 2022, we made an $8 million cash payment in connection with the acquisition of Just Analytics and a $15 million payment for the purchase of a convertible promissory note. These cash outflows were partially offset by a $17 million increase in cash purchases of property, equipment, and software year-over-year. Other investing activities comprised the remainder of the variance in cash used between periods.
Net cash used in investing activities for 2022 increased $29 million, or 42%, from 2021. This was mainly due to the receipt of net proceeds of $31 million in the prior year from the January 2021 sale of a parcel of undeveloped land in the United Kingdom adjacent to one of our existing data centers. During 2022, we made an $8 million cash payment in connection with the acquisition of Just Analytics and a $15 million payment for the purchase of a convertible promissory note that matures in 2027. These outflows in the current year period were offset by a $28 million reduction in cash purchases of property, equipment, and software year-over-year.
Cash Used in Financing Activities
Financing activities generally include cash activity related to debt and other long-term financing arrangements (for example, finance lease obligations and financing obligations), including proceeds from and repayments of borrowings, and cash activity related to the issuance and repurchase of equity.
Net cash used in financing activities for 2023 increased $126 million, or 67% from 2022. The change was driven by a $169 million increase in net payments related to long-term debt between periods as the current period includes $121 million of 5.375% Senior Note repurchases, $18 million of 3.50% Senior Secured Note repurchases, and $30 million of Term Loan Facility repurchases, while the prior period only includes quarterly principal payments on our Term Loan Facility. In addition, there was a $13 million increase in finance lease principal payments between periods. Partially offsetting these drivers was $31 million in common stock share repurchases during 2022 as part of the program authorized in March 2022 and a $26 million reduction in principal payments of financing obligations.
Net cash used in financing activities for 2022 increased $55 million, or 41% from 2021. The change was primarily driven by a $57 million reduction in proceeds from employee stock plans year-over-year. The remaining variance includes $31 million in common stock share repurchases as part of the program authorized in March 2022, a $17 million increase in finance lease principal payments, and a $4 million increase in payments on the financing component of our interest rate swap during 2022. These drivers were partially offset by a $51 million reduction in net payments related to long-term debt activity between periods, including debt issuance costs. The prior year included the February 2021 Refinancing Transaction and a $65 million repayment on the now terminated Receivables Financing Facility, while the current period only includes quarterly principal payments on our Term Loan Facility. In addition, there was a $7 million decrease in principal payments for financing obligations between period
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Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
On September 29, 2023, Rackspace US and Rackspace Receivables II, LLC, a bankruptcy-remote SPV, each an indirect subsidiary of the company, entered into the Receivables Purchase Facility with PNC. The Receivables Purchase Facility allows the SPV to sell and/or contribute accounts receivable up an aggregate maximum limit of $300 million to PNC on a revolving basis.
See Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 3, "Sale of Receivables" for more information regarding this off-balance sheet transaction.
We have entered into various indemnification arrangements with third parties, including vendors, customers, landlords, our officers and directors, stockholders of acquired companies and third parties to whom and from whom we license technology. Generally, these indemnification agreements require us to reimburse losses suffered by third parties due to various events, such as lawsuits arising from patent or copyright infringement or our negligence. Certain of these agreements require us to indemnify the other party against certain claims relating to property damage, personal injury or the acts or omissions by us, our employees, agents or representatives. These indemnification obligations are considered off-balance sheet arrangements. To date, we have not incurred material costs as a result of such obligations and have not accrued any material liabilities related to such indemnification obligations in our consolidated financial statements. See Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 10, "Commitments and Contingencies" for more information related to these indemnification arrangements.
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Critical Accounting Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP, which requires us to make judgments and estimates that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses and related disclosures. We consider accounting estimates that require significant management judgment to be critical accounting estimates. We review our estimates and judgments on an ongoing basis, including those related to revenue recognition, allowance for credit losses, property, equipment and software and definite-lived intangible assets, goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets, contingencies, share-based compensation and income taxes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances to determine the carrying values of assets and liabilities. In many instances, we could have reasonably used different accounting estimates, and in other instances, changes in the accounting estimates are reasonably likely to occur from period-to-period. Accordingly, actual results could differ significantly from the estimates made by our management. To the extent that there are material differences between these estimates and actual results, our future financial statement presentation, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows will be affected.
Revenue Recognition
We provide cloud computing to customers, which is broadly defined as the delivery of computing, storage and applications over the Internet. Cloud computing is a service transaction under which the services we provide vary on a daily basis. The totality of services provided represent a single integrated solution tailored to the customer’s specific needs. As such, our performance obligations to our customers consist of a single integrated solution delivered as a series of distinct daily services delivered over the same period of time. We recognize revenue on a daily basis as services are provided in an amount that reflects the consideration to which we expect to be entitled in exchange for the services.
Our usage-based arrangements generally include variable consideration components consisting of monthly utility fees with a defined price and undefined quantity. Additionally, our contracts contain service level guarantees that provide discounts when we fail to meet specific obligations and certain products may include volume discounts based on usage. As these variable consideration components consist of a single distinct daily service provided on a single performance obligation, we account for this consideration as services are provided and earned.
A substantial amount of revenue, particularly within our Private Cloud segment, relates to fees associated with offerings that generally have a fixed term, typically from 12 to 36 months, with a monthly recurring fee based on the computing resources utilized and provided to the customer, the complexity of the underlying infrastructure and the level of support we provide. Contracts for our service offerings falling within our Public Cloud segment and legacy OpenStack business typically operate on a consumption model and can be canceled at any time without penalty.
We also provide customers with professional services for the design and implementation of application, security and data services. Professional service contracts are either fixed-fee or time-and-materials based. We typically consider our professional services to be a separate performance obligation from other integrated solutions being provided to the same customer. Our performance obligations under these arrangements are typically to provide the services on a daily basis over a period of time and we recognize revenue as the services are performed.
We offer customers the flexibility to select the best combination of resources in order to meet the requirements of their unique applications and provide the technology to seamlessly operate and manage multiple cloud computing environments. Judgment is required in assessing whether a service is distinct, including determination of whether the customer could benefit from the service on its own or in conjunction with other readily available resources and whether certain services are highly integrated into a bundle of services that represent the combined output specified by the customer. Arrangements can contain multiple performance obligations that are distinct, which are accounted for separately. Each performance obligation is recognized as services are provided based on their SSP. Judgment is required to determine the SSP for each of our distinct performance obligations. We utilize a range of prices when developing our estimates of SSP. We determine the range of prices for estimating SSP for all our performance obligations using observable inputs, such as standalone sales and historical contract pricing. Our estimates of SSP are updated quarterly.
In addition, our customer agreements provide that we will achieve certain service levels related primarily to network uptime, critical infrastructure availability and hardware replacement. We may be obligated to provide service credits for a portion of the service fees paid by our customers to the extent that such service levels are not achieved or are otherwise disputed. Credit memos are recognized in the period of service to which they relate.
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Revenue recognition for revenue generated from arrangements in which we resell third-party infrastructure bundled with our managed services, requires judgment to determine whether revenue can be recorded at the gross sales price or net of third-party fees. Typically, revenue is recognized on a gross basis when it is determined that we are the principal in the relationship. We are considered the principal in the relationship when we are primarily responsible for fulfilling the contract and obtain control of the third-party infrastructure before transferring it as an integral part of our performance obligation to provide services to the customer. Revenue is recognized net of third-party fees when we determine that our obligation is only to facilitate the customers’ purchase of third-party infrastructure.
Valuation of Accounts Receivable and Allowance for Credit Losses
We record an allowance for credit losses on trade accounts receivable for estimated losses resulting from uncollectible receivables. When evaluating the adequacy of the allowance, we consider historical bad debt write-offs and all known facts and circumstances such as current economic conditions and trends, customer creditworthiness and specifically identified customer risks. If actual collections of customer receivables differ from our estimates, additional allowances may be required which could have an impact on our results of operations.
Property, Equipment and Software and Definite-Lived Intangible Assets
In providing services to our customers, we utilize significant amounts of property, equipment and software, which we depreciate on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives. Definite-lived intangible assets are primarily comprised of customer relationships and are stated at their acquisition-date fair value less accumulated amortization. These intangible assets are amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives. Property and equipment under operating and finance leases are included within “Operating right-of-use assets” and “Property, equipment and software, net,” respectively, in our Consolidated Balance Sheets. Operating right-of-use assets are amortized on a straight-line basis over the lease term whereas finance lease assets are amortized on a straight-line basis over the shorter of the estimated useful lives of the assets or the lease term. We routinely review the estimated useful lives of our property, equipment and software and definite-lived intangible assets (“long-lived assets”). A change in the useful life of a long-lived asset is treated as a change in accounting estimate in the period of change and future periods.
Long-lived assets, including operating right-of-use assets and finance lease assets, are reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount may not be recoverable. Recoverability of assets is measured at the asset group level and if the carrying amount of the asset group exceeds its estimated undiscounted future cash flows, an impairment charge is recognized in the amount by which the carrying amount of the asset group exceeds its fair value.
As of September 1, 2022, due to the factors discussed below, we performed an interim impairment review of the recoverability of our long-lived assets by asset group. Based on the results of the recoverability test, we determined that, as of September 1, 2022, the carrying amount of the OpenStack Public Cloud asset group’s long-lived assets exceeded the sum of the undiscounted cash flows. Fair values of the OpenStack Public Cloud long-lived assets were determined using a combination of the income approach and the cost approach. The income approach utilized assumptions including management’s best estimates of the expected future cash flows, risk-adjusted discount rate, and the estimated useful life of the asset group. The cost approach utilized assumptions for the current replacement costs of similar assets adjusted for estimated depreciation and deterioration of the existing equipment and economic obsolescence. Estimates of floor values for the property, equipment and software, net, were considered relative to potential economic support for the assets such that the concluded value did not fall below the estimated floor value of these assets. We concluded that the carrying value of the OpenStack Public Cloud long-lived assets, including customer relationship intangibles and property, equipment and software, net, were impaired and recorded non-cash impairment charges of $38 million during the third quarter of 2022, which is included in "Impairment of assets, net" in our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss.
We also performed recoverability tests of our long-lived assets in conjunction with the goodwill impairment analyses performed subsequent to September 1, 2022 which did not result in any impairment charges.
We capitalize the salaries and related compensation costs of employees and consultants who devote time to the development of certain internal-use software projects. Judgment is required in determining whether an enhancement to previously developed software is significant and creates additional functionality to the software, thus resulting in capitalization. All other software development costs are expensed as incurred. Capitalized software development costs are amortized over the expected useful life of the software, which is generally three years; however, we evaluate the nature and utility of each project which can result in a useful life ranging between one and five years on certain projects.
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Goodwill and Indefinite-Lived Intangible Assets
Goodwill
Goodwill represents the excess of the purchase price over the fair value of identifiable net assets of businesses acquired. Our indefinite-lived intangible assets consists of our Rackspace trade name, which was recorded at fair value on our balance sheet at the date of the Rackspace Acquisition.
Application of the goodwill and other indefinite-lived intangible asset impairment test requires judgment, including the identification of reporting units, assignment of assets and liabilities to reporting units, assignment of goodwill to reporting units and determination of the fair value of each reporting unit. We test goodwill and our indefinite-lived intangible asset, the Rackspace trade name, for impairment on an annual basis as of October 1st or more frequently if events or circumstances indicate a potential impairment. These events or circumstances could include a significant change in the business climate, regulatory environment, established business plans, operating performance indicators or competition. Potential impairment indicators may also include, but are not limited to, (i) the results of our most recent annual or interim impairment testing, (ii) downward revisions to internal forecasts, and the magnitude thereof, if any, (iii) declines in our market capitalization below our book value, and the magnitude and duration of those declines, if any, (iv) a reorganization resulting in a change to our operating segments, and (v) other macroeconomic factors, such as increases in interest rates that may affect the weighted average cost of capital, volatility in the equity and debt markets, or fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates that may negatively impact our reported results of operations.
Goodwill is tested for impairment at the reporting unit level. A reporting unit is an operating segment or one level below an operating segment (referred to as a component). We allocate goodwill to reporting units based on the reporting unit expected to benefit from the business combination. Assets and liabilities are assigned to each of our reporting units if they are employed by a reporting unit and are considered in the determination of the reporting unit fair value. Certain assets and liabilities are shared by multiple reporting units, and thus, are allocated to each reporting unit based on the relative size of a reporting unit, primarily based on revenue. Subsequent to the January 1, 2023 business reorganization, we have two reporting units with goodwill: Public Cloud and Private Cloud. Goodwill allocated to our third reporting unit, OpenStack Public Cloud, was fully impaired during the fourth quarter of 2021.
We estimate the fair values of our reporting units and the Rackspace trade name using the discounted cash flow method and relief-from-royalty method, respectively. These calculations require the use of significant estimates and assumptions, such as: (i) the royalty rate; (ii) the estimation of future revenue growth rates, projected gross profit margins, projected operating costs, and projected capital expenditures, which are dependent on internal cash flow forecasts; (iii) estimation of the terminal growth rates; and (iv) determination of the risk-adjusted discount rates. The discount rates used are based on our weighted average cost of capital and are adjusted for risks and uncertainties inherent in our business and in our estimation of future cash flows. As part of the goodwill impairment test, we also consider our market capitalization in assessing the reasonableness of the combined fair values estimated for our reporting units, including OpenStack Public Cloud. The estimates and assumptions used to calculate the fair value of our reporting units and the Rackspace trade name from year to year are based on operating results, market conditions, and other factors. Changes in these estimates and assumptions could produce materially different results.
For the quantitative goodwill impairment analysis, we utilized the income approach to determine the fair value of our reporting units. The income approach utilizes a discounted cash flow method which is based on the present value of projected cash flows. The discounted cash flow models reflect our assumptions and considerations regarding revenue growth rates, projected gross profit margins, projected operating costs, projected capital expenditures, risk-adjusted discount rates, terminal period growth rates, and economic market trends. The terminal period growth rate is selected based on economic conditions and consideration of growth rates used in the forecast period and historical performance of the reporting unit.
Due to the change in our segment reporting as a result of the business reorganization as of January 1, 2023, we completed a quantitative goodwill impairment analysis both prior and subsequent to the aforementioned change. We reassigned goodwill to the updated reporting units using a relative fair value approach. The results of the quantitative goodwill impairment analysis performed as of January 1, 2023, subsequent to the change, indicated an impairment within our Private Cloud reporting unit, and we recorded a non-cash impairment charge of $271 million in the first quarter of 2023.
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For the quantitative goodwill impairment analysis performed as of January 1, 2023, we utilized a range of our weighted-average cost of capital of 10.5% to 12.0% as our discount rate, which was risk-adjusted for each reporting unit. After determining the fair value of our reporting units, we reconciled the combined fair value of the reporting units to the company's market capitalization as of January 1, 2023. As a result, we determined that the carrying amount of our Private Cloud reporting unit exceeded its fair value and recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $271 million during the first quarter of 2023, which is included in "Impairment of goodwill" in our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss. The impairment primarily resulted from the reallocation of certain costs between the three reporting units to reflect the going-forward operating model following the business reorganization. The Public Cloud reporting unit was determined to have a fair value that exceeded its carrying value by approximately 20% and therefore no impairment was recognized.
We performed sensitivity analyses on the key inputs and assumptions used in determining the estimated fair value of our reporting units by utilizing changes in assumptions that reflect reasonably likely future changes in the discount rate used in the weighted-average cost of capital calculation and the terminal growth rate. Assuming all other assumptions and inputs used in the discounted cash flow analysis are held constant, a 50 basis point increase in the discount rate assumption would result in decreases in fair value of our Private Cloud and Public Cloud reporting units of approximately $175 million and $67 million, respectively.
During the first quarter of 2023, we experienced a sustained decline in our stock price resulting in our market capitalization being less than the carrying value of our combined reporting units. As of March 31, 2023, we assessed several events and circumstances that could affect the significant inputs used to determine the fair value of our reporting units, including the significance of the amount, if any, of excess carrying value over fair value, consistency of operating margins and cash flows, budgeted-to-actual performance for the first three months of the year, overall change in economic climate, changes in the industry and competitive environment, and earnings quality and sustainability. After considering all available evidence in our evaluation of goodwill impairment indicators, we determined it appropriate to perform an interim quantitative assessment of our reporting units as of March 31, 2023.
For the quantitative goodwill impairment analysis performed as of March 31, 2023, we utilized a range of our weighted-average cost of capital of 10.0% to 11.5% as our discount rate, which was risk-adjusted for each reporting unit. After determining the fair value of our reporting units, we reconciled the combined fair value of the reporting units to the company's market capitalization as of March 31, 2023. As a result, we determined that the carrying amount of our Private Cloud reporting unit exceeded its fair value and recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $272 million during the first quarter of 2023, which is included in "Impairment of goodwill" in our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss. The impairment was driven by the company's most recent cash flow projections as revised in the first quarter of 2023 which reflected current market conditions and current trends in business performance, including slower than anticipated actualization of bookings. The Public Cloud reporting unit was determined to have a fair value that exceeded its carrying value by approximately 14% and therefore no impairment was recognized.
We performed sensitivity analyses on the key inputs and assumptions used in determining the estimated fair value of our reporting units by utilizing changes in assumptions that reflect reasonably likely future changes in the discount rate used in the weighted-average cost of capital calculation and the terminal growth rate. Assuming all other assumptions and inputs used in the discounted cash flow analysis are held constant, a 50 basis point increase in the discount rate assumption would result in decreases in fair value of our Private Cloud and Public Cloud reporting units of approximately $80 million and $65 million, respectively.
During the third quarter of 2023, we experienced a sustained decline in our stock price resulting in our market capitalization being less than the carrying value of our combined reporting units. As of September 30, 2023, we assessed several events and circumstances that could affect the significant inputs used to determine the fair value of our reporting units, including the significance of the amount, if any, of excess carrying value over fair value, consistency of operating margins and cash flows, budgeted-to-actual performance for the first nine months of the year, overall change in economic climate, changes in the industry and competitive environment, and earnings quality and sustainability. After considering all available evidence in our evaluation of goodwill impairment indicators, we determined it appropriate to perform an interim quantitative assessment of our reporting units as of September 30, 2023.
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For the quantitative goodwill impairment analysis performed as of September 30, 2023, we utilized a range of our weighted-average cost of capital of 11.0% to 12.5% as our discount rate, which was risk-adjusted for each reporting unit. After determining the fair value of our reporting units, we reconciled the combined fair value of the reporting units to the company's market capitalization as of September 30, 2023. As a result, we determined that the carrying amount of our Private Cloud reporting unit exceeded its fair value and recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $166 million during the third quarter of 2023, which is included in "Impairment of goodwill" in our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss. The impairment was driven by the company's cash flow projections as revised in the third quarter of 2023 to reflect current market conditions and business mix shifts. The Public Cloud reporting unit was determined to have a fair value that exceeded its carrying value by approximately 17% and therefore no impairment was recognized.
We performed sensitivity analyses on the key inputs and assumptions used in determining the estimated fair value of our reporting units by utilizing changes in assumptions that reflect reasonably likely future changes in the discount rate used in the weighted-average cost of capital calculation and the terminal growth rate. Assuming all other assumptions and inputs used in the discounted cash flow analysis are held constant, a 50 basis point increase in the discount rate assumption would result in decreases in fair value of our Private Cloud and Public Cloud reporting units of approximately $65 million and $52 million, respectively.
As of October 1, 2023, we reassessed our reporting unit structure and aggregated the OpenStack Public Cloud reporting unit into our Private Cloud reporting unit. We currently have two reporting units: Public Cloud and Private Cloud. Due to the change in our reporting units as of October 1, 2023, we completed a quantitative goodwill impairment analysis. As the Private Cloud and OpenStack Public Cloud reporting units are being combined into the new Private Cloud reporting unit, the goodwill of the reporting units has been combined rather than reassigned based on the relative fair values of the reporting units. The results of the quantitative goodwill impairment analysis performed as of October 1, 2023, subsequent to the change, indicated no impairment charges to our Private Cloud or Public Cloud reporting units.
For the quantitative goodwill impairment analysis performed as of October 1, 2023, we utilized a range of our weighted-average cost of capital of 11.0% to 12.5% as our discount rate, which was risk-adjusted for each reporting unit. After determining the fair value of our reporting units, we reconciled the combined fair value of the reporting units to the company's market capitalization as of October 1, 2023. The Private and Public Cloud reporting units were determined to have a fair value that exceeded its carrying value by approximately 3% and 17%, respectively and, therefore, no impairment was recognized.
We performed sensitivity analyses on the key inputs and assumptions used in determining the estimated fair value of our reporting units by utilizing changes in assumptions that reflect reasonably likely future changes in the discount rate used in the weighted-average cost of capital calculation and the terminal growth rate. Assuming all other assumptions and inputs used in the discounted cash flow analysis are held constant, a 50 basis point increase in the discount rate assumption would result in decreases in fair value of our Private Cloud and Public Cloud reporting units of approximately $67 million and $52 million, respectively.
As of September 1, 2022, after considering all available evidence in our evaluation of goodwill impairment indicators, we determined it appropriate to perform an interim quantitative assessment of our reporting unit as of September 1, 2022.
For the interim quantitative goodwill impairment analysis performed as of September 1, 2022, we utilized a range of our weighted-average cost of capital of 10.0% to 12.0% as our discount rate, which was risk-adjusted for each reporting unit. After determining the fair value of our reporting units, we reconciled the combined fair value of the reporting units to the company's market capitalization as of September 1, 2022. As a result of our interim goodwill impairment test performed as of September 1, 2022, we determined that the carrying amount of our former Multicloud Services reporting unit exceeded its fair value and recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $405 million during the third quarter of 2022, which is included in "Impairment of goodwill" in our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss. The impairment was driven by deteriorating forecasted margins and cash flows within this reporting unit primarily due to slower than anticipated product mix shifts. Our former Apps & Cross Platform reporting unit was determined to have a fair value that exceeded its carrying value by approximately 15% and therefore no impairment was recognized.
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We performed sensitivity analyses on the key inputs and assumptions used in determining the estimated fair value of our reporting unit by utilizing changes in assumptions that reflect reasonably likely future changes in the discount rate used in the weighted-average cost of capital calculation and the terminal growth rate. Assuming all other assumptions and inputs used in the discounted cash flow analysis are held constant, a 50 basis point increase in the discount rate assumption would result in decreases in fair value of our former Multicloud Services and Apps & Cross Platform reporting units of approximately $235 million and $33 million, respectively.
We performed our annual quantitative goodwill impairment test as of October 1, 2022. For the quantitative goodwill impairment analysis performed as of October 1, 2022, we utilized a range of our weighted-average cost of capital of 10.0% to 12.0% as our discount rate, which was risk-adjusted for each reporting unit. After determining the fair value of our reporting units, we reconciled the combined fair value of the reporting units to the company's market capitalization as of October 1, 2022. As a result of our goodwill impairment test performed as of October 1, 2022, we determined that the fair value exceeded the carrying amounts for each of our reporting units. The fair value exceeded the carrying value for the former Multicloud Services reporting unit by 1% and the former Apps & Cross Platform reporting unit by 15%. Therefore no impairment was recognized.
We performed sensitivity analyses on the key inputs and assumptions used in determining the estimated fair value of our reporting unit by utilizing changes in assumptions that reflect reasonably likely future changes in the discount rate used in the weighted-average cost of capital calculation and the terminal growth rate. Assuming all other assumptions and inputs used in the discounted cash flow analysis are held constant, a 50 basis point increase in the discount rate assumption would result in decreases in fair value of our former Multicloud Services and Apps & Cross Platform reporting units of approximately $236 million and $38 million, respectively.
During the fourth quarter of 2022, subsequent to our annual goodwill impairment analysis, we experienced decline in our market capitalization following a ransomware incident in early December which caused service disruptions on our Hosted Exchange email business which was included in our former Apps & Cross Platform reporting unit. After considering all available evidence in our evaluation of goodwill impairment indicators, including our lowered projected operating results within this reporting unit, we determined it appropriate to perform an interim quantitative assessment of our reporting units as of December 31, 2022.
For the quantitative goodwill impairment analysis performed as of December 31, 2022, we utilized a range of our weighted-average cost of capital of 10.5% to 12.0% as our discount rate, which was risk-adjusted for each reporting unit. After determining the fair value of our reporting units, we reconciled the combined fair value of the reporting units to the company's market capitalization as of December 31, 2022. As a result of our goodwill impairment test performed as of December 31, 2022, we determined that the carrying amount of our former Apps & Cross Platform reporting unit exceeded its fair value and recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $129 million during the fourth quarter of 2022, which is included in "Impairment of goodwill" in our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss. The impairment was driven by a decrease in forecasted revenues, margins, and cash flows within the reporting unit primarily due to the Hosted Exchange incident and other macroeconomic factors. The former Multicloud Services reporting unit was determined to have a fair value that exceeded its carrying value by approximately 1% and therefore no impairment was recognized.
We performed sensitivity analyses on the key inputs and assumptions used in determining the estimated fair value of our reporting unit by utilizing changes in assumptions that reflect reasonably likely future changes in the discount rate used in the weighted-average cost of capital calculation and the terminal growth rate. Assuming all other assumptions and inputs used in the discounted cash flow analysis are held constant, a 50 basis point increase in the discount rate assumption would result in decreases in fair value of our former Multicloud Services and Apps & Cross Platform reporting units of approximately $218 million and $22 million, respectively.
As a result of our annual goodwill impairment test performed during the fourth quarter of 2021, we determined that the carrying amount of our OpenStack Public Cloud reporting unit exceeded its fair value and fully impaired its goodwill by recording a goodwill impairment charge of $52 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. The impairment was driven by deteriorating forecasted margins and cash flows within the reporting unit primarily due to operating costs declining at a slower rate than previously anticipated even after factoring in the long term impacts of the July 2021 Restructuring Plan.
As of December 31, 2023, the carrying amount of goodwill was $1,452.4 million.
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Indefinite-Lived Intangible Assets
As of January 1, 2023, March 31, 2023 and September 30, 2023, due to the factors discussed above, we performed a quantitative assessment of our indefinite-lived intangible asset utilizing a relief from royalty method. Significant estimates and assumptions included in the relief from royalty method are expectations of revenue growth rates, and selection of royalty rate and discount rate. We utilized a royalty rate of 0.5% for all periods and a discount rate of 11.0% as of January 1, 2023 and March 31, 2023, and a discount rate of 11.9% as of September 30, 2023. We completed the quantitative assessments of our indefinite-lived intangible asset prior to testing our goodwill for impairment as of January 1, 2023 and March 31, 2023 which did not indicate any impairment of the Rackspace trade name.
The quantitative test as of September 30, 2023 indicated that the estimated fair value of the Rackspace trade name was less than its carrying value. As a result, we recorded a $57 million non-cash impairment charge during the third quarter of 2023 which is included in "Impairment of assets, net" in our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss
We completed the quantitative assessments of our indefinite-lived intangible asset prior to testing our goodwill for impairment as of October 1, 2023 which did not indicate any impairment of the Rackspace trade name.
As of September 1, 2022, October 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022, due to the factors discussed above, we performed a quantitative assessment of our indefinite-lived intangible asset utilizing a relief from royalty method. Significant estimates and assumptions included in the relief from royalty method are expectations of revenue growth rates, and selection of royalty rate and discount rate. We utilized a royalty rate of 0.5% for all periods and a discount rate of 10.7% as of September 1, 2022 and October 1, 2022, and a discount rate of 11.0% as of December 31, 2022. We completed the quantitative assessments of our indefinite-lived intangible asset prior to testing our goodwill for impairment.
As of September 1, 2022, we determined the estimated fair value of the Rackspace trade name was less than its carrying value. As a result, we recorded a $21 million non-cash impairment charge during the third quarter of 2022, which is included in "Impairment of assets, net" in our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss.
As of October 1, 2022, we determined the estimated fair value of the Rackspace trade name was greater than its carrying value, and therefore no impairment was recognized.
As of December 31, 2022, we determined the estimated fair value of the Rackspace trade name was less than its carrying value. As a result, we recorded a $12 million non-cash impairment charge during the fourth quarter of 2022, which is included in "Impairment of assets, net" in our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss.
The fair value determination of our reporting units and our indefinite-lived intangible asset is judgmental in nature and requires the use of estimates and assumptions that are sensitive to changes. Assumptions include estimation of the royalty rate for the trade name, estimation of future revenue growth rates, projected gross profit margins, projected operating costs, projected capital expenditures, which are dependent on internal cash flow forecasts, estimation of the terminal growth rates and determination of risk-adjusted discount rates. As a result, there can be no assurance that the estimates and assumptions made for purposes of the quantitative goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible impairment tests will prove to be an accurate prediction of future results. Examples of events or circumstances that could reasonably be expected to negatively affect the underlying key assumptions and ultimately impact the estimated fair value of our reporting units may include such items as: (i) volatility in the equity and debt markets or other macroeconomic factors, (ii) an increase in the weighted-average cost of capital due to further increases in interest rates, (iii) decrease in future cash flows due to lower than expected sales, or (iv) fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates that may negatively impact our reported results of operations. Accordingly, if our current cash flow assumptions are not realized, we experience further sustained declines in our stock price or market capitalization, or increases in costs of capital, it is possible that an additional impairment charge may be recorded in the future, which could be material.
We are currently evaluating the impact of the subsequent events described in Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 1, "Company Overview, Basis of Presentation, and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies" and the company’s most recently approved internal forecasts on the significant estimates and assumptions used in our most recent annual impairment testing. After considering all available evidence in evaluating potential impairment indicators, we may determine it is appropriate to perform an interim quantitative goodwill impairment analysis during the first quarter of 2024. It is possible that impairment charges may be recorded, which could be material.
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Contingencies
We accrue for contingent obligations when the obligation is probable and the amount is reasonably estimable. As facts concerning contingencies become known, we reassess our position and make appropriate adjustments to the recorded accrual. Estimates that are particularly sensitive to future changes include those related to tax, legal and other regulatory matters, changes in the interpretation and enforcement of international laws, and the impact of local economic conditions and practices, which are all subject to change as events evolve and as additional information becomes available during the administrative and litigation process. Changes in our estimates and assumptions could have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.
Share-Based Compensation
We account for share-based awards under the recognition and measurement provisions of ASC No. 718, Compensation—Stock Compensation. Share-based compensation cost is measured at the grant date based on the fair value of the underlying common stock and is recognized as expense over the requisite service period. The fair value of stock options with vesting conditions dependent upon market performance is determined using a Monte Carlo simulation. Determining the grant date fair value of share-based awards with performance vesting conditions and the probability of such awards vesting requires judgment.
Income Taxes
We are subject to income taxes in the U.S. and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgments and estimates are required in evaluating our tax positions and determining our provision for income taxes. Although we believe we have adequately reserved for our uncertain tax positions, no assurance can be given that the final tax outcome of these matters will not be different. To the extent that the final tax outcome of these matters is different than the amounts recorded, such differences will impact the provision for income taxes in the period in which such determination is made.
Our effective tax rates may differ from the statutory rate for various reasons, including differences due to the tax impact of foreign operations, R&D tax credits, state taxes, contingency reserves for uncertain tax positions, certain benefits realized related to share-based compensation, executive compensation that is nondeductible under IRC Section 162(m), changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets or liabilities, goodwill impairments, or from changes in tax laws, regulations, accounting principles or interpretations thereof. In addition, we are periodically subject to examination of our income tax returns in the U.S., U.K., India, and other countries. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes.
Deferred income taxes arise from temporary differences between the tax basis of assets and liabilities and their reported amounts in the consolidated financial statements, which will result in taxable or deductible amounts in the future. In evaluating our ability to recover our deferred tax assets within the jurisdiction from which they arise, we consider all available positive and negative evidence, including scheduled reversals of deferred tax liabilities, projected future taxable income, tax-planning strategies and results of recent operations. The assumptions about future taxable income require significant judgment and are consistent with the plans and estimates we are using to manage the underlying businesses.
In December 2021, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (the “OECD”) issued model rules for a new global minimum tax framework (Pillar Two). Governments in many of the countries where we operate have issued, or are in the process of issuing, legislation on this rule. We are currently evaluating, but do not expect this rule to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.
For a description of accounting pronouncements recently adopted and issued, see Item 8 of Part II, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 1, "Company Overview, Basis of Presentation, and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies."
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