Adt (ADT) Risk Analysis

Our business operates in markets that are characterized by rapidly changing technologies, evolving industry standards, potential new entrants, and changes in customer needs and expectations. Accordingly, our future success depends in part on our ability to accomplish the following: identify emerging technological trends in our target end-markets; develop, acquire, and maintain competitive products and services that capitalize on existing and emerging trends; enhance our existing products and services by adding innovative features on a timely and cost-effective basis that differentiates us from our competitors; incorporate popular third-party interactive products and services into our product and service offerings; sufficiently capture and protect intellectual property rights in new inventions and other innovations; and develop or acquire and bring products and services, including enhancements, to market quickly and cost-effectively. Our ability to develop, alone or with third parties, or to acquire new products and services that are technologically innovative requires the investment of significant resources and can affect our competitive position or financial condition. In addition, the dynamic nature of these changes requires that we simultaneously engage in significant technological development efforts across our operations, including platform development, sales, marketing, customer care, customer self-service, remote assistance, billing, and other substantive and administrative functions. Upgrading and implementing changes to any one of our systems presents challenges, including potential interruptions to system operations as changes are made, which could disrupt or reduce their efficiency in the short term and temporarily affect the quality or availability of the products and services offered to customers. Moreover, the age of our systems and architecture may present unique challenges that we have not previously encountered as we undertake these developmental efforts simultaneously across our operations. These system updates and development efforts divert resources from other potential investments in our businesses, and they may not lead to the development of new commercially successful technologies, products, or services on a timely basis. From time to time, we enter into strategic partnerships with third parties to broaden and develop our offerings and marketing efforts. These strategic partnerships may require us to undertake significant commitments and make substantial expenditures and there can be no assurance that the expected benefits from these partnerships will be realized. For example, in July 2020, we entered into the Google Commercial Agreement, pursuant to which Google agreed to supply us with certain Google Devices and Services for sale to our customers. We have agreed until November 2030, with certain exceptions and subject to customary termination rights related to breach and change of control, to exclusively provide or sell those Google Devices and Services to our DIFM customers, although Google can sell the same or similar devices to our competitors who may more successfully commercialize products or services that compete with ours, thereby materially harming our business. Given this exclusivity arrangement with Google, if Google fails to perform or to provide Google Devices and Services that continually meet the demands of our DIFM customers, or fails to provide continued innovation, management, and investment in their relevant product businesses, or if we fail to provide or sell the Google Devices and Services that Google provides, or if we fail to develop products and services with Google that our customers find desirable, all in a timely manner, or if Google were to begin offering security products or services that compete with ours, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows could be materially, adversely impacted. Product introductions and the timing of such integration are focused on customer experience and are mutually agreed upon. We launched our proprietary ADT-owned next-generation professional security and automation technology platform in 2023 as ADT+. Our ADT+ platform is intended to provide customers with a seamless experience across security, life safety, automation, and analytics through a common application that integrates the user experience, the customer service experience, and back-end support. Our systems, including the ADT+ platform, may contain defects, bugs, security vulnerabilities, performance degradation, or integration issues (including with third-party devices, operating systems, and cloud services) that could cause service interruptions, impaired functionality, or a negative customer experience, and we may not achieve a successful continued rollout of the ADT+ platform, and new platform features, in a timely manner, within budget, or in a manner that enables the commercialization of products and services that meet the continually evolving demands of our customers, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Additionally, our DIY offerings rely heavily on digital customer journeys and our ability to deliver a consistent and reliable end-to-end experience through our platforms, mobile applications, and distribution and fulfillment capabilities. Any delays, defects, outages, or implementation challenges across these systems could negatively affect customer adoption and retention. As we continue to commercialize products based upon our interactive platform, we have adjusted processes for reviewing and securing intellectual property rights. Nevertheless, we have been, and in the future may become, the target of additional lawsuits alleging that we have infringed the patents or technology of third parties. Regardless of the merits of these lawsuits and any steps we take to mitigate infringement risk, any allegations could cause us to incur significant costs to defend and resolve, and could harm our business and reputation, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Any new or enhanced products and services that we develop alone or pursuant to existing or new agreements with third parties may not satisfy customer preferences or our expectations, and potential product failures may cause customers to reject our products and services. As a result, these products and services may not achieve market acceptance, and our brand image could suffer. In addition, our competitors may introduce superior products or business strategies, impairing our brand and the desirability of our products and services, which may cause customers to defer or forego purchases of our products and services, or to decline to enter into new monthly installment contracts or to cancel or fail to renew existing contracts. If our competitors implement new technologies before we can implement them, those competitors may be able to provide more effective products than ours, possibly at lower prices, and experience higher adoption rates and popularity. Any delay or failure in the introduction of new or enhanced solutions could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. In addition, the markets for our products and services may not develop or grow as we anticipate, and any changes in our go-to-market approach may not be seen as favorable by customers. The failure of our technology, products, or services to gain market acceptance, the potential for product defects, or the obsolescence of our products and services could significantly reduce our revenue, increase our operating costs, or otherwise materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Further, our ability to realize the anticipated benefits of certain technology initiatives may depend on the successful completion and integration of potential acquisitions, which are subject to uncertainty and risk. On February 20, 2026, we acquired Origin AI, a provider of AI-enabled presence detection and ambient sensing technology. Origin AI's technology uses artificial intelligence and radio frequency signals to detect and classify human presence and activity within the home without the use of cameras, audio, or wearable devices. This technology is expected to enhance our ability to deliver improved alarm verification, reduce false alarms, and support new intelligent security and smart home use cases over time. In connection with our acquisition of Origin AI, we face risks related to the integration, development, and commercialization of Origin AI's technology. Origin AI's AI-enabled presence detection and ambient sensing technology is relatively new and may require additional development, testing, and integration with our existing platforms and offerings. We may experience challenges integrating Origin AI's technology, personnel, and operations into our business, or may be unable to achieve the anticipated benefits of the acquisition within the expected timeframes or at all. In addition, the successful commercialization of Origin AI's technology depends on customer adoption, evolving regulatory and industry standards applicable to artificial intelligence and wireless technologies, and our ability to effectively incorporate these capabilities into our products and services. Failure to successfully integrate or commercialize Origin AI's technology could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. As we continue to develop our ADT+ platform and integrate our ambient sensing technologies, we face inherent risks associated with a "software-as-a-product" model. Unforeseen software bugs, technical glitches, or latency in our cloud infrastructure could disrupt primary security and life-safety functions. Such failures could lead to significant reputational harm, customer dissatisfaction, and potential liability if a system fails to perform as intended.

Our success depends in part on our continued ability to use trademarks to capitalize on our brands' name recognition and to further develop our brands in the U.S., as well as in other international markets should we choose to expand and grow our business outside of the U.S. in the future. Not all the trademarks that are used by our brands have been registered in all of the countries in which we may do business in the future, and some trademarks may never be registered in any or all of these countries. Rights in trademarks are generally territorial in nature and are obtained on a country-by-country basis by the first person to obtain protection through use or registration in that country in connection with specified products and services. Some countries' laws do not protect unregistered trademarks at all or make them more difficult to enforce; and third parties may have filed for "ADT" or marks similar to our blue octagon logo in countries where we have not registered these brands as trademarks. Accordingly, we may not be able to adequately protect our brands everywhere in the world and use of such brands may result in liability for trademark infringement, trademark dilution, or unfair competition. For example, certain trademarks associated with the ADT brand, including "ADT" and the blue octagon, are owned in all territories outside of the U.S. and Canada by Johnson Controls, which acquired and merged with and into Tyco. In certain instances, such trademarks are licensed in certain territories outside the U.S. and Canada by Johnson Controls to third parties. Pursuant to a trademark agreement entered into between The ADT Corporation and Tyco (the "Tyco Trademark Agreement") in connection with the separation of The ADT Corporation from Tyco in 2012, which endures in perpetuity, we are prohibited from ever registering, attempting to register or using such trademarks outside the U.S. (including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and Canada, and we may not challenge Tyco's rights in such trademarks outside the U.S. and Canada. Additionally, under the Tyco Trademark Agreement, we and Tyco each have the right to propose new secondary source indicators (e.g., "Pulse") to become designated source indicators of such party. To qualify as a designated source indicator, certain specified criteria must be met, including that the indicator has not been used as a material indicator by the non-proposing party or its affiliates over the previous seven years. If we are unable to object to Tyco's proposal for a new designated source indicator by successfully asserting that the new indicator did not meet the requisite criteria, we would subsequently be precluded from using, registering, or attempting to register such indicator in any jurisdiction, including the U.S. and Canada, whether alone or in connection with an ADT brand. Any dilution, infringement, or customer confusion with respect to our brand or use of trade names, or the inability to use such names as we expand our existing and create new strategic relationships, could materially adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. In addition, in November 2019, we sold all our shares of ADT Canada to TELUS and, among other things, entered into a non-competition and non-solicitation agreement with TELUS pursuant to which we agreed not to directly or indirectly engage in a business competitive with ADT Canada, subject to limited exceptions, for a period of seven years. In connection with our sale of ADT Canada, we also entered into a patent and trademark license agreement with TELUS granting them (i) the use of our patents in Canada for a period of seven years and (ii) the exclusive rights to use our trademarks in Canada for a period of five years followed by non-exclusive use of our trademarks for an additional two years. In addition, in October 2023, we completed the sale of our Commercial Business, and among other things, entered into a covenant agreement not to assert a claim against GTCR for infringement of the Company's patents as of the Commercial Divestiture for products and services that were used in the Commercial Business prior to the Commercial Divestiture, and provided GTCR with a paid-up, irrevocable, non-assignable (with limited exceptions) license to continue to use certain software and other Company intellectual property in the same manner. Any violation by TELUS or GTCR of our agreements with them, or their misuse of our intellectual property or behavior by TELUS or GTCR in a manner that reflects poorly on us because of their use of our intellectual property could damage our brand and reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

We are dependent on the capacity, reliability, and security of information technology networks and systems, including Internet and Internet-based or "cloud" computing services and the relevant personnel who operate those systems, to collect, process, transmit, and store electronic information. We have completed a significant number of acquisitions of companies that operate different technology platforms and systems. We routinely implement modifications and upgrades to our existing information technology systems to keep up with changing technology and business demands. Aiming to provide a seamless customer experience, we are also integrating systems from our various bulk account acquisitions, making changes to legacy systems, replacing legacy systems with successor systems with new functionality, and implementing new systems. The dynamic nature of these and other changes we are undertaking require that we simultaneously engage in significant technology development efforts across our operations, including platform development, sales, marketing, customer care, customer self-service, remote assistance, billing, and other substantive and administrative functions. Upgrading and implementing changes to our systems have presented, and could continue to present, challenges. Any delay in making such changes or replacements or in purchasing new systems could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. There are inherent costs and risks associated with integrating, replacing, and changing these systems and implementing new systems, including potential disruptions in our sales, operations, and customer service functions which may reduce their efficiency in the short term; loss of customers' confidential or other information; potential negative reception from customers; potential disruption of our internal control structure; substantial capital expenditures; additional administration and operating expenses; retention of sufficiently skilled personnel to integrate, implement, and operate the new systems and an increase in human capital costs; the use of third-party personnel resources, including offshore vendors, to supplement our internal personnel demands; demands on management time; challenges securing our systems along with dependent processes from cybersecurity threats; and other risks and costs of delays or difficulties in transitioning to new systems or of integrating new systems into our current systems.

We rely on telemarketing, email marketing, door-to-door sales, and other marketing channels, including social media conducted internally and through third parties to generate a substantial number of leads for our business, all of which are subject to federal, state and local regulation. Telemarketing and email marketing activities are subject to an increasing amount of regulation in the U.S. Regulations have been issued by the FTC and the FCC that place restrictions on unsolicited telephone calls to residential and wireless telephone customers, whether direct dial or by means of automatic telephone dialing systems, prerecorded, or artificial voice messages and telephone fax machines, and require us to maintain a "do not call" list and to train our personnel to comply with these restrictions. The FTC regulates sales practices generally and email marketing and telemarketing specifically, including through their consent decree on ADT that regulates our use of social media influencers and celebrities, and has broad authority to prohibit a variety of advertising or marketing practices that may constitute "unfair or deceptive acts or practices." Most of the statutes and regulations in the U.S. applicable to telemarketing and email marketing allow a private right of action for the recovery of damages or provide for enforcement by the FTC and FCC, state attorneys general, or state agencies permitting the recovery of significant civil or criminal penalties, costs and attorneys' fees if regulations are violated. Although we have developed policies and procedures designed to assist in compliance with these statues, regulations, and consent decree, we can provide no assurance that we, our authorized dealers or other third parties that we rely on for telemarketing, email marketing, and other lead generation activities will be in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations at all times. Although our contractual arrangements with our authorized dealers, affinity marketing partners, and other third parties generally require them to comply with all such laws and regulations and to indemnify us for damages arising from their failure to do so, we can provide no assurance that the FTC and FCC, private litigants, or others will not attempt to hold us responsible for any unlawful acts conducted by our authorized dealers, affinity marketing partners and other third parties or that we could successfully enforce or collect upon any indemnities. Additionally, certain FCC rulings and FTC enforcement actions may support the legal position that we may be held vicariously liable for the actions of third parties, including any telemarketing violations by our independent, third-party authorized dealers that are performed without our authorization or that are otherwise prohibited by our policies. The FCC, FTC, and state agencies have relied on certain actions to support the notion of vicarious liability, including, but not limited to, the use of our brand or trademark, the authorization or approval of telemarketing scripts, or the sharing of consumer prospect lists. Changes in such regulations or the interpretation thereof that further restrict such activities could result in a material reduction in the number of leads for our business and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

On May 14, 2010, The ADT Corporation acquired Broadview Security, a business formerly owned by The Brink's Company. Under the Coal Industry Retiree Health Benefit Act of 1992, as amended ("Coal Act"), The Brink's Company and its majority-owned subsidiaries as of July 20, 1992 (including certain legal entities acquired in the Broadview Security acquisition) are jointly and severally liable with certain of The Brink's Company's other current and former subsidiaries for health care coverage obligations provided for by the Coal Act. A Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association ("VEBA") trust has been established by The Brink's Company to pay for these liabilities, although the trust may have insufficient funds to satisfy all future obligations. We cannot rule out the possibility that certain legal entities acquired in the Broadview Security acquisition may also be liable for other liabilities in connection with The Brink's Company's former coal operations. At the time of the separation of Broadview Security from The Brink's Company in 2008, Broadview Security entered into an agreement pursuant to which The Brink's Company agreed to indemnify it for any and all liabilities and expenses related to The Brink's Company's former coal operations, including any health care coverage obligations. The Brink's Company has agreed that this indemnification survives The ADT Corporation's acquisition of Broadview Security. We in turn agreed to indemnify Tyco for such liabilities in our separation from it. If The Brink's Company and the VEBA are unable to satisfy all such obligations, we could be held liable, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Our interactive and home automation services are primarily accessed through the Internet and our security monitoring services, including those utilizing video streaming, are increasingly delivered using Internet technologies. Users who access our services through mobile devices, such as smart phones, laptops, and tablet computers must have a high-speed Internet connection, such as broadband, 4G/LTE, or 5G, to use our services. Currently, this access is provided by telecommunications companies and Internet access service providers that have significant and increasing market power in the broadband and Internet access marketplace. In the absence of government regulation, these providers could take measures that affect their customers' ability to use our products and services, such as degrading the quality of the data packets we transmit over their lines, giving our packets low priority, giving other packets higher priority than ours, blocking our packets entirely, or attempting to charge their customers more for using our products and services. To the extent that Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") implement usage-based pricing, including meaningful bandwidth caps, or otherwise try to monetize access to their networks, we could incur greater operating expenses and customer acquisition and retention could be negatively impacted, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Furthermore, to the extent network operators were to create tiers of Internet access service and either charge us for or prohibit our services from being available to our customers through these tiers, our business could be negatively impacted. Some of these providers also offer products and services that directly compete with our own offerings, which could potentially give them a competitive advantage. Absent net neutrality or open Internet rules, Internet providers, some with competing security businesses, could block or throttle ADT signals in a way that impacts our business and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

If a customer or third party believes that it has suffered harm to person or property due to an actual or alleged act or omission of one of our authorized dealers, independent contractors, employees or others, or due to a security or automation system failure, they (or their insurers) may pursue legal action against us, and the cost of defending the legal action and of any judgment against us could be substantial. In particular, because our products and services are intended to help protect lives and real and personal property, we may have greater exposure to litigation risks than businesses that provide other consumer and small business products and services. In the event of litigation with respect to such matters, it is possible that the risk-mitigation provisions in our standard customer contracts may be deemed not applicable or unenforceable and, regardless of the ultimate outcome, we may incur significant costs of defense that could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows, and there can be no assurance that any such defense efforts will be successful.

The components for the security and automation systems that we install or consume are manufactured by original equipment manufacturers ("OEM"), original design manufacturers ("ODM"), contract manufacturers ("CM") and/or third-party suppliers. While we have implemented robust supply chain management practices designed to mitigate the risk of supply chain interruptions, there is no assurance that these practices will be effective, and interruptions may occur from time to time. Certain key suppliers may experience difficulties in obtaining necessary components, which may impact our ability to meet customer demands and complete critical initiatives. For instance, we are currently monitoring and responding to the global memory chip shortage, which may increase our equipment costs and could lead to future fulfillment delays or the requirement to re-engineer hardware components on short notice to accommodate available alternative parts. In addition, our suppliers are susceptible to disruptions from fire, natural disasters, weather-related incidents, and the effects of climate change (such as sea level rise, drought, flooding, wildfires, and increased storm severity), as well as health epidemics and pandemics, transmission interruptions, extended power outages, human or other error, information systems and network-related events, such as technology failures, malicious acts, including cyber attacks, terrorism, war, sabotage, and government actions, or other concerns impacting their local workforce or operations, all of which are beyond our and their control. While we actively monitor supplier operations, require compliance with business continuity and disaster recovery plans, maintain alternative sourcing options where feasible, carry a surplus of finished goods in inventory, exercise limited control over our raw material suppliers through demand forecasting and supply planning processes, and have contract terms that require transparency in sourcing, quality assurance commitments, and escalation protocols, there is no assurance that these practices will be effective and supplier disruptions, including any financial or other difficulties our providers may face, may have a material adverse effect on our business. We are also subject to supply chain disruptions if we learn that any of our suppliers are in violation of legislation which bans the import of goods based on their method of production, such as using forced labor or otherwise. This may also result in negative publicity regarding our production methods, and the alleged unethical or illegal practices of any of our suppliers could adversely affect our reputation. Our efforts to minimize the risk of a disruption from a single supplier may not always be effective, and we have experienced some disruptions in our supply chain during recent years, and could experience such disruptions in the future. Any continued or significant interruption in supply could cause significant delays in installations and repairs and the loss of current and potential customers. Although some specific shortages may be resolved, they may recur. From time to time, we may also experience product recalls and other unplanned product repairs or replacements with customers. We have occasionally experienced such product service events. There can be no assurance that any such future product service events will not be more extensive or more costly, material to us, and/or require the outlay of cash while we pursue cost recovery from manufacturers and suppliers, and there can be no assurance that we will be successful in pursuing recoveries from those third parties. Although our supplier agreements often include indemnification provisions, such indemnification may be limited in scope or amount, subject to exclusions or conditions, disputed by the supplier, or otherwise unavailable, including due to supplier financial distress or insolvency. If a previously installed component were found to be defective, we might not be able to recover the costs associated with its repair or replacement across our installed customer base, and these costs, or the diversion of technical personnel to address the defect could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Such incidents may also harm our reputation and may result in litigation or other claims from customers. In the event of a product recall or litigation against our suppliers or us, we could experience a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. We also rely on third-party software for key automation features in certain of our offerings and on the interoperation of that software with our own, such as our mobile applications and related platforms. In the event a third-party provider experiences any disruption in their IT systems, we could experience service disruptions. We could also experience service disruptions if customer usage patterns for such integrated or combined offerings exceed, or are otherwise outside of, system design parameters and we or our third-party provider is unable to make corrections. Such disruptions in the provision of services could result in our inability to meet customer demand, damage our reputation and customer relationships, and materially and adversely affect our business. We also rely on certain software technology that we license from third parties and use in our products and services to perform key functions and provide critical functionality. For example, we license the software platform for our monitoring operations from third parties. Because a number of our products and services incorporate technology developed and maintained by third parties, we are, to a certain extent, dependent upon such third parties' ability to update, maintain, or enhance their current products and services; to ensure that their products are free of defects, security vulnerabilities, and compromise; to develop new products and services on a timely and cost-effective basis; and to respond to emerging industry standards, customer preferences, and other technological changes. In addition, certain of our current and future offerings incorporate advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and sensing-based technologies, which may increase our dependence on third-party software, data, and infrastructure and heighten the risk that defects, performance limitations, security vulnerabilities, or regulatory constraints affecting such technologies could disrupt services or impair customer experience. Further, these third-party technology licenses may not always be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If third-party vendors decide not to renew our existing agreements or to limit our access to their offerings, or the third-party technology becomes obsolete, is incompatible with future versions of our products or services, is unusable due to defects, security vulnerabilities, or compromise or otherwise fails to address our needs, we cannot provide assurance that we would be able to replace the functionality provided by the third-party software with technology from alternative providers. Furthermore, even if we obtain licenses to alternative software products or services that provide the functionality we need, we may be required to replace hardware installed at our monitoring centers, work from home environments, and at our customers' sites, including security system control panels and peripherals, in order to execute our integration of or migration to alternative software products. Any of these factors could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Furthermore, certain components of our security and smart home offerings, including certain sensors and connected devices, rely on wireless communication protocols and radio-frequency spectrum set aside by the FCC for unlicenced use (including protocols such as Z-Wave and other sub-1 GHz technologies that operate in unlicensed bands). This lower 900MHz band of spectrum is shared with many other devices and is subject to interference, congestion, and changes in technical rules or usage rights. Regulatory proceedings could alter spectrum allocations, power limits, or other operating conditions in ways that increase the risk of harmful interference to low-power devices. If wireless interference, spectrum reconfiguration, or related regulatory changes reduce signal reliability or device performance, customers may experience degraded functionality, missed or delayed signals, or service interruptions. Any such issues could require us to redesign or re-certify products, modify device firmware or network configurations, accelerate replacement of installed equipment, increase service and support costs, and/or incur material capital expenditures. These events could also increase customer dissatisfaction and attrition, expose us to contractual disputes, or litigation, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. We also rely on various third-party telecommunications providers and signal processing centers to transmit and communicate signals to our monitoring facilities and work from home environments in a timely and consistent manner. These telecommunications providers and signal processing centers could deprioritize or fail to transmit or communicate these signals to the monitoring facilities and work from home environment for many reasons, including disruptions from fire, natural disasters, weather-related incidents, and the effects of climate change (such as sea level rise, drought, flooding, wildfires, and increased storm severity), health epidemics or pandemics, transmission interruption, extended power outages, human or other error, malicious acts, including cyber attacks, provider preferences regarding the signals that get transmitted, government actions, war, terrorism, sabotage, or other conflicts, or as a result of disruptions to internal and external networks or third party transmission lines. The failure of one or more of these telecommunications providers or signal processing centers to transmit and communicate signals to our monitoring facilities and work from home environments in a timely manner could affect our ability to provide alarm monitoring, home automation, and interactive services to our customers. We also rely on third-party technology companies to provide automation and interactive services to our customers. These technology companies could fail to provide these services consistently, or at all, which could result in our inability to meet customer demand and damage our reputation. There can be no assurance that third-party telecommunications providers, signal processing centers, and other technology companies will continue to transmit and communicate signals to our monitoring facilities and work from home environments or provide home automation and interactive services to customers without disruption. Any such failure or disruption, particularly one of a prolonged duration, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. As mentioned above, telecommunications providers have in the past, and may in the future, retire older telecommunications technology, limiting our customers' options of telecommunications services and equipment, which could materially adversely affect our business, increase customer attrition and require significant capital expenditures.

New customers require an upfront investment, and we generally achieve revenue break-even in less than two and a half years. Accordingly, our long-term profitability is dependent on long customer tenure. This requires that we minimize our rate of customer disconnects, or attrition, which can increase as a result of factors such as customer relocations, problems with our product or service quality, customer service challenges, increased interoperability of smart home devices now or in the future, customer non-payment, unfavorable general economic conditions, and the preference for lower pricing of competitors' products and services over ours. If attrition rates were to rise significantly, we may be required to accelerate the depreciation and amortization expense for, or to impair, certain of our assets, including with respect to subscriber and customer relationships, which would cause a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, if we fail to keep our customers for a sufficient period of time, or our attrition rates increase, our profitability, business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows could be materially adversely affected.

Our business depends on our reputation and ability to maintain good relationships with our customers, dealers, suppliers, and local regulators, among others. Our reputation may be harmed either through product defects, such as the failure of one or more of our customers' alarm systems, or shortfalls in customer service. Customers generally judge our performance through their interactions with staff at our monitoring and customer care centers, dealers, and field installation and service technicians, as well as their day-to-day interactions with our products and mobile applications. These interactions may also generate reviews and social media posts, including negative ones, that draw additional attention to our customer service. Any failure to meet customers' expectations in such customer service areas could harm our reputation or customer relationships and cause an increase in attrition rates or make it difficult to obtain new customers or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. In addition, we have attempted to control the operating costs of certain of our customer care operations using lower cost labor in certain foreign countries that may be subject to relatively higher degrees of political and social instability and may lack the infrastructure to withstand political unrest or natural disasters. The occurrence of natural disasters, pandemics, political or economic instability, or other activities in such countries has resulted in and, in the future could result in, the sudden and continued closure of operations that in turn have caused and, in the future could cause, disruptions in our operations and a failure to maintain our existing level and quality of customer care. The practice of utilizing labor based in foreign countries has come under increased scrutiny in the United States. Governmental authorities could seek to limit or penalize our operations, and our customers may not value the services provided by such operations. In addition, we are subject to applicable anti-corruption laws and regulations, such as The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, that prohibit certain types of payments and which could expose us to significant penalties, fines, settlements, costs and consent orders that may curtail or restrict our business. Any such outcome could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

A disruption in our ability to provide security monitoring services or otherwise provide ongoing customer care to our customers could have a material adverse effect on our business. A disruption could occur for many reasons, including fire, natural disasters, including hurricanes, weather-related incidents, and the effects of climate change (such as sea level rise, drought, flooding, wildfires, and increased storm severity), health epidemics or pandemics, transmission interruption, extended power outages, human or other error, information systems and network-related events, such as technology failures, malicious acts, including cyber attacks, provider preferences regarding the signals that get transmitted, government actions, war, terrorism, sabotage, or other conflicts, or as a result of disruptions to internal and external networks or third party transmission lines. Monitoring and customer care also have in the past been and could in the future be disrupted by information systems and network-related events, such as technology failures, or cyber attacks, such as computer hacking, computer viruses, phishing, malware, ransomware, worms, or other malicious software, distributed denial of service attacks, malicious social engineering, or other destructive or disruptive activities that could also cause damage to our properties, equipment, and data, as well as our efforts to respond to, contain, and remediate such events, attacks, and activities. A failure of our redundant back-up procedures or a disruption affecting multiple monitoring facilities or work from home environments could disrupt our ability to provide security monitoring or customer care services to our customers. As a result of such disruptions, we may experience customer dissatisfaction and potential loss of confidence, and liabilities to customers or other third parties, each of which could harm our reputation and impact future revenues. We could also be subject to claims or litigation with respect to losses caused by such disruptions. Our insurance may not be sufficient to fully cover our losses or may not cover a particular event at all. Any such disruptions or outcomes could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.