NOW 10-K diff: FY 2024-12-31 → FY 2025-12-31
Paragraph-level diff of Risk Factors (Item 1A) and Management's Discussion & Analysis (Item 7).
Item 1A · Risk Factors
+106 paragraphs −104 paragraphs ~104 changed
FY 2024-12-31 (earlier)
FY 2025-12-31 (later)
Item 1A. Risk FactorsInvesting in our securities involves risks. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, before making an investment decision. The occurrence of any of the following risks, or additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial, could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, stock price or reputation. The following risks have been grouped by categories and are not in order of significance or probability of occurrence.
Risk Factors Summary
This summary provides an overview of the risks we face and should not be considered a substitute for the more fulsome risk factors discussed immediately following this summary.Risks Related to Our Ability to Grow Our Business• Laws, regulations and customer expectations regarding the use, storage and movement of data may restrict our ability to continue to optimize our platform.• A failure to innovate and adapt how we offer our products in response to rapidly evolving technological changes and in the midst of an intensely competitive market may harm our competitive position and business prospects.• We may not successfully increase our penetration of international markets or manage risks associated with foreign markets.
• Incorporating AI technology into our offerings may result in operational, legal, regulatory, ethical and other challenges.
• We rely on our network of partners for an increasing portion of our revenues, and if these partners fail to perform, our business may be harmed.
• Doing business with the public sector and heavily-regulated entities subjects us to risks related to government procurement processes, regulations and contracting requirements.
• If we fail to comply with applicable anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws, export control laws, economic and trade sanctions laws, or other global trade laws, we could be subject to penalties and civil and/or criminal sanctions and our business could be materially adversely affected.• Our customer deals are becoming more complex, which tend to involve longer, more expensive sales cycles, increased pricing pressure, and implementation and configuration challenges.• As we acquire or invest in companies and technologies, we may not realize the expected business or financial benefits and the acquisitions and investments may divert our management’s attention and result in additional shareholder dilution or costs.Risks Related to the Operation of Our Business• Actual or perceived cybersecurity events experienced by us or our third-party service providers may create the perception that our platform is not secure, and we may lose customers or incur significant liabilities.
• We may lose key members of our management team or qualified employees or may not be able to attract and retain employees we need.22
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• Delays in the release of, or actual or perceived defects in, our products may slow the adoption of our latest technologies, reduce our ability to efficiently provide services, decrease customer satisfaction and adversely impact future product sales.• Disruptions or defects in our services could damage our customers’ businesses, subject us to substantial liability and harm our business.• Delays in improving our information systems and processes could interfere with our ability to support our existing and growing base of customers and employees as we scale.
• We may not be able to protect or enforce our IP rights.• Our use of open-source software could harm our ability to sell our products and services and subject us to possible litigation.• Various factors, including our customers’ business, integration, migration, compliance and security requirements or errors by us, our partners or our customers, may cause implementations of our products to be delayed, inefficient or otherwise unsuccessful.
• Our failure or perceived failure to achieve our corporate sustainability goals or maintain corporate sustainability practices that meet evolving stakeholder expectations could adversely affect us.• We may face natural disasters, including climate change, and other events beyond our control.Risks Related to the Financial Performance or Financial Position of Our Business
• Because we generally recognize revenues from our subscription services over the subscription term, a decrease in new subscriptions or renewals may not be immediately reflected in our operating results.• As our business grows, we expect our revenue growth rate to decline over the long term.
• Changes in our effective tax rate or disallowance of our tax positions may adversely affect our business.
• We may be adversely affected by our debt service obligations.Risks Related to General Economic Conditions• Our industry and business may be harmed by global economic conditions.
• We may be harmed by foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock• Our stock price is likely to continue to be volatile.
• Provisions in our governing documents or Delaware law might discourage, delay or prevent a change of control or changes in our management and, therefore, depress our stock price.
Risks Related to Our Ability to Grow Our Business
Laws, regulations and customer expectations regarding the use, storage and movement of data may restrict our ability to continue to optimize our platform.Governments have adopted, and likely will continue to adopt, laws and regulations affecting the use, storage and movement of data, including laws related to data privacy and security, the use of machine learning and AI, and data sovereignty or residency requirements. Changing laws, regulations and standards applying to the collection, storage, use, sharing, portability, transfer or other control or processing of data, including personal data, could affect our ability to efficiently and cost-effectively offer our services and to develop our products and services for maximum utility, as well as our customers’ ability to use data or share data. Such changes may restrict our ability
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to use, store or otherwise process customer data in connection with providing services and could alter or increase our compliance requirements. In some cases, this could impact our ability to offer our services in certain locations or our customers’ ability to deploy our services globally. For example, the EU Data Act has data portability, interoperability and accessibility requirements, as well as unclear data transfer restrictions that could impact our operations. In addition, the Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework, which facilitates the transfer of data between the United States (“U.S.”) and European Union (“EU”), may be subject to legal challenges and regulatory interpretations that could create uncertainties and impact our operations and compliance obligations.
We offer some region-specific services where customer data is hosted locally and customers may elect to receive support from locally-based ServiceNow teams. Setting up and maintaining these region-specific services require significant investment, including to comply with applicable laws and regulations. Actual or perceived non-compliance with those laws, regulations, or the terms of our region-specific service offerings may result in investigations or proceedings against us by regulatory authorities or others, significant fines or damages, orders, litigation, reputational harm and other adverse impacts on our business.
We will also need to continually adapt to customer privacy and security requirements as they change over time. For example, as customers increasingly adopt a hybrid (on-premises and off-premises/hyperscale cloud) approach for their IT workloads, our cloud services may fail to address evolving customer requirements, including data localization. Further, due to heightened concerns relating to privacy and security regulatory matters, our customers from time to time request certain certifications, and a failure to obtain or consistently maintain those certifications may adversely impact our reputation and business.
A failure to innovate and adapt how we offer our products in response to rapidly evolving technological changes and in the midst of an intensely competitive market may harm our competitive position and business prospects.
We compete in markets that evolve rapidly. The pace of innovation will continue to accelerate as customers recognize the advantages of acquiring leading digital technologies and adopting AI native solutions and modern cloud-based infrastructure. Cutting-edge capabilities such as AI, machine learning, hyper automation, low-code/no-code application development, system observability and predictive insights become increasingly relevant to the customer’s evolving needs. With this rapid evolution, we are increasingly competing with alternative solutions and approaches to solve customer needs, and we expect additional competition as we shift our products and services to compete with providers in new and adjacent markets.
Competitors, regardless of their size, may be able to respond more quickly and effectively to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards, customer requirements and buying practices. They may introduce new technology, solve similar problems in different ways or more effectively utilize existing technology that reduces demand for our services. They may utilize acquisitions, integrations or consolidations to offer integrated or bundled products, enhanced functionality or other advantages. Some of our existing competitors and potential competitors are larger and have greater name recognition, the ability to more efficiently scale their business, more established operations and customer relationships and greater financial and technical resources than we do. “Systems of record” operators may attempt to create technology solutions or other mechanisms that would prevent our systems from integrating with theirs. They may create pricing pressures by reducing the price of competing products, services or subscriptions or bundling their offerings, causing our offerings to appear relatively more expensive. Companies whose products are integrated with our Platform could also seek to compete with us by blocking, limiting or imposing fees on particular integrations or data access. Cloud-based and AI native vendors may build more business applications or AI powered automation solutions that compete with our products and services. We may also encounter customer reluctance or unwillingness to migrate away from their current solutions.
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Part IIf we are not able to compete successfully, we could experience reduced sales and margins, losses or failure of our products to achieve or maintain market acceptance. Accordingly, to compete effectively, we must:
• identify and innovate in the right technologies;
• keep pace with rapidly changing technological developments, such as AI, which may disrupt resource and talent needs and the enterprise software marketplace;
• accurately predict and meet our customers’ changing digital transformation needs, priorities and adoption practices, including their technology infrastructures and buying and budgetary practices;• invest in and continually optimize our own technology platform so that we continue to meet the high-performance expectations of our customers;
• successfully deliver and promote new, scalable technologies and products, such as AI, to meet customer needs and priorities;• efficiently integrate with technologies within our customers’ digital environments;
• expand our offerings into new and adjacent industries and comply with regulations in such industries;
• successfully sell to buyers who are not familiar with our offerings;
• profitably and efficiently market and sell our new and existing products;
• effectively scale our business processes and operations as we grow;
• successfully adapt new pricing models;
• promote ongoing customer relationships and customer value realization;
• effectively secure our platform, data and customers’ data; and
• effectively deliver, directly or through our partner ecosystem, the digital transformation process planning, IT systems architecture planning, and product implementation services that our customers require to be successful.Further, to remain competitive, we may make significant investments in changing how we offer our products or services. These changes could include, among others, bundling certain products and services, modifying service delivery methods, or altering pricing models, such as incorporating more consumption-based pricing components into our offerings. However, customers may not be satisfied with these changes, and, as a result, we may not recover the cost or realize the anticipated benefits of our investments. With respect to service delivery methods, we entered into agreements with public cloud service providers to achieve greater operational and financial efficiencies. Our strategy of migrating an increasing portion of Company hosted instances to these providers depends on our ability to adequately prepare our operations to facilitate the migration, our customers’ willingness to use public cloud services to host their instances, and customer demand not materially falling short of our commitments with the public cloud service providers.We may not successfully increase our penetration of international markets or manage risks associated with foreign markets.Sales outside of North America represented 37% of our total revenues for each of the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024. The growth of our business depends on our ability to increase our sales outside of the U.S. as a percentage of our total revenues. Additionally, operating in international markets requires significant investment and management attention and subjects us to varying regulatory, political and economic risks. We have made, and will continue to make, substantial investments in data centers, geographic-specific service delivery models, advisory councils, cloud computing infrastructure, sales, marketing, partnership arrangements, personnel and facilities in new geographic markets. When we make these investments, it is typically unclear when we will see a return on our investment, and we may significantly underestimate the level of investment and time required to be successful. Our rate of acquisition of new large enterprise customers, a factor affecting our growth, has been generally lower in territories where we are less established and where there may be heightened or evolving regulations and operational and IP risks. We have experienced and may continue to experience difficulties in new geographic markets, including hiring qualified sales management personnel, penetrating the target market and
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managing local operations. Risks associated with making our products and services available in international markets include, for example:
• compliance with multiple, conflicting and changing governmental laws and regulations, including antitrust and competition regulations;• requirements to have local partner(s), local entity ownership limitations or technology transfer or sharing requirements, or to comply with data residency and transfer laws and regulations, privacy and data protection laws and regulations, which may increase operational costs and restrictions;
• the possibility that illegal or unethical activities of our local employees or business partners will be attributed to us or cause us harm;
• longer and potentially more complex sales and payment receipt cycles and other collection difficulties;
• different pricing and distribution environments;• potential changes in international trade policies, tariffs, agreements and practices, including the adoption and expansion of formal or informal trade restrictions or regulatory frameworks that may favor local companies;
• governmental direction, business practices and/or cultural norms that may favor local companies;
• more prevalent cybersecurity, IP and AI risks; and• localization of our services, including translation into foreign languages and associated expenses.
If we are unable to manage these risks, our business will be adversely affected.
Incorporating AI technology into our offerings may result in operational, legal, regulatory, ethical and other challenges.We are increasingly innovating and expanding offerings on our platform by integrating AI technology into our customer-facing products and internal operations. We consider AI to be an important driver of future growth, although, like many innovations, it presents risks and uncertainties that may impact our ability to realize its desired or anticipated benefits for our business.
AI technology is evolving quickly. To remain competitive, we must make significant investments to continue to successfully develop and incorporate this technology into our products. Our ability to incorporate AI technology into our products depends on the availability, performance and pricing of third-party hardware and software equipment and technical infrastructure. Our competitors or other third parties may develop or incorporate AI into their products more quickly or successfully than us. They may also have or in the future obtain IP rights that would prevent, limit or interfere with our ability to make, use or sell our AI products. For these reasons, among others, we may not be able to compete effectively in the evolving AI market.
Our business model may be affected by global trends and laws that govern the use of AI. For example, the EU AI Act places new requirements on providers of AI technologies that will need to be addressed in alignment with various deadlines. These and other laws or regulations or enforcement practices may cause us to modify our data handling and compliance practices, which could be costly or disruptive to our operations, and may also impact our ability to use certain data to support our products or our product development efforts or hinder our customers’ ability to adopt or continue to use our products.
We may face new or heightened legal, ethical and other challenges arising out of the perceived or actual impact of AI on human rights, IP, privacy, security, employment and the environment, among other areas. For example, our use of AI, both internally and in our customer-facing products, could lead to copyright infringement claims or other IP claims, potentially requiring us to pay compensation or licensing fees to third parties. Additionally, social and ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI in our offerings could harm our brand and may cause us to incur additional costs. AI systems may not perform as intended or may produce outcomes, such as unreliable or biased results, that could negatively affect customer trust, result in limited adoption of our AI enabled products, expose us to reputational harm or create potential liability. Failure by us or others in our industry to adequately address these concerns could erode public confidence in AI and slow adoption of AI in our products.
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We rely on our network of partners for an increasing portion of our revenues, and if these partners fail to perform, our business may be harmed.
An increasing portion of our revenues is generated by sales through our network of partners, including resellers, distributors and managed service providers. Increasingly, we and our customers rely on our partners to provide professional services, including custom implementations, and there may be insufficient qualified implementation partners available to meet customer demand. While we provide our partners with training and programs, including accreditations and certifications, these programs may not be effective or utilized consistently by partners. New partners may also require extensive training and/or significant time and resources to become productive. Separately, our relationships with partners may require us, along with our partners, to comply with complex regulations, contractual requirements and government procurement rules. Failure to adhere to these requirements could result in the loss of business opportunities, potential liabilities or penalties. For example, our partners could misrepresent to our customers the functionality of our platform or products, fail to perform services that meet our customers’ expectations, or violate laws or our corporate policies. Further, changes to our direct go-to-market models may cause friction with our partners. Our partners may also use our platform to develop products and services that compete with our products and services, which could raise IP ownership concerns and strain these partnerships. If we fail to effectively manage and grow our network of partners, our ability to sell our products and efficiently provide our services may be impacted and our business may be harmed.Doing business with the public sector and heavily-regulated entities subjects us to risks related to government procurement processes, regulations and contracting requirements.We provide products and services to governmental and heavily-regulated entities directly and through our partners. We have made and may continue to make significant investments to support our efforts to sell to those entities. Processes to obtain authorizations and certifications required for us to provide our products and services to those entities often are lengthy and encounter delays, and we may not be able to satisfy, or maintain compliance with, the associated requirements.
A substantial majority of our sales to government entities in the U.S. have been made indirectly through our distributors, resellers or service provider partners. Doing business with government entities presents a variety of risks. The procurement process for governments and their agencies is highly competitive and time-consuming, may be subject to political influence and may involve different rules and conditions on the offering or pricing of products and services. We incur significant up-front time and expense without any assurance that we (or a third- party distributor, reseller or service provider) will win a contract. Beyond this, demand for our products and services may be adversely impacted by public sector budgetary cycles and funding availability that in any given fiscal cycle may be reduced or delayed, including in connection with an extended federal government shutdown, partisan gridlock or changes to government policy. Further, if we or our partners are successful in receiving a contract award, that award could be challenged during a bid protest process. Bid protests may result in an increase in expenses related to obtaining contract awards or an unfavorable modification or loss of an award. Even if a bid protest were unsuccessful, the delay in the startup and funding of the work under these contracts may cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those anticipated.
Our customers also include non-U.S. governments, to which government procurement risks similar to those present in U.S. government contracting and regulatory compliance also apply, particularly in certain emerging markets where our customer base is less established. Across the globe, we have seen political volatility increase, with rapid changes in governments and increased partisanship affecting many aspects of government, including the ability to approve budgets and make commitments. This can significantly delay or impair a government’s ability to contract for software and services such as ours. We have also seen challenges to successful awards through bid protest procedures in jurisdictions outside the U.S. As our non-U.S. government business grows, we may see an increase in bid protests as part of the standard government procurement legal procedures that exist in many jurisdictions. In addition, compliance with complex regulations and contracting provisions in a variety of jurisdictions can be expensive and consume significant management resources. In certain jurisdictions, our ability to win business may be constrained by political and other factors unrelated to our market offerings.
Our public sector customers may have contractual, statutory or regulatory rights to terminate current contracts with us or our third-party distributors or resellers for convenience or due to a default, though such risk may be
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assumed by such third-party distributor or reseller. If a contract is terminated for convenience, we may only be able to collect fees for products or services delivered prior to termination and settlement expenses. If a contract is terminated due to a default, we may be liable for excess costs incurred by the customer for procuring alternative products or services. In addition, we could be precluded from doing further business with governmental entities. Further, we are required to comply with a variety of complex laws, regulations and contractual provisions relating to the formation, administration or performance of government contracts that give public sector customers substantial rights and remedies, many of which are not typically found in commercial contracts. These laws, regulations and contractual provisions may encompass rights with respect to price protection, refund and setoff, the provision of services in languages other than English, the accuracy of information provided to the government, contractor compliance with supplier diversity policies, constraints on certain business and sales practices, and other obligations that are particular to government contracts. These obligations may apply to us and/or our third-party resellers or distributors whose practices we may not control. Such parties’ non-compliance could create legal, contractual and customer satisfaction issues.
We and governments routinely investigate and audit compliance with contractual and regulatory requirements. For example, as disclosed in Note 18 “Commitments and Contingencies” in the notes to our consolidated financial statements, the Company informed certain U.S. government agencies of an internal investigation and preliminary findings and is cooperating with, among others, the Department of Justice, which commenced its own investigation into the matters. If it is determined that we or our third-party distributors, resellers or service providers have failed to comply with applicable contractual or regulatory requirements, we may be subject to civil and criminal penalties and administrative sanctions, including termination of contracts, forfeiture of profits, cost associated with the triggering of price reduction clauses, fines and suspensions or debarment from future government business, among others, all of which may adversely affect our business. In the United States, our federal business has been concentrated with a small number of third-party distributors, resellers or service providers. If one of those third parties is limited in its ability to do business with the government due to a regulatory or legal issue arising from their own conduct and we are not able to move our business to another third party, our business could be negatively impacted.
Further, we are increasingly doing business in heavily regulated industries, such as financial services, telecommunication, media and television and health care. Current and prospective customers in those industries may be required to comply with more stringent regulations to subscribe to and/or implement our services. In addition, regulatory agencies may impose requirements on third-party vendors that we may not meet. Customers in these heavily-regulated industries often have a right to conduct audits of our systems, products and practices and in some cases the regulators of customers in heavily-regulated industries may directly examine vendors that provide outsourced services to such customers. If one or more customers and/or regulators determine that some aspect of our business does not meet regulatory requirements, our ability to continue or expand our business with those customers may be restricted.If we fail to comply with applicable anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws, export control laws, economic and trade sanctions laws, or other global trade laws, we could be subject to penalties and civil and/or criminal sanctions and our business could be materially adversely affected .As we continue to expand our business internationally, we will inevitably do more business with large private enterprises and the public sector in countries outside of the U.S. Increased business in countries with heightened trade controls and levels of corruption subjects us and our officers and directors to increased scrutiny and potential liability. We have an established compliance program, but there is a risk that our employees, partners, vendors, customers and agents, as well as those companies to which we outsource certain of our business operations, could violate our policies and applicable law, exposing us to additional scrutiny and potential liability. We have experienced this in the past and may experience it again in the future. In addition, we are subject to customs laws that may impose tariffs on us, either directly or indirectly. This includes tariffs imposed by the U.S. government and other countries on imports, which we are responsible to pay in certain circumstances. Higher tariffs on imports related to our operations could increase our operating costs. We are also subject to global trade laws that apply to our worldwide operations, including prohibitions or restrictions on conducting business in certain geographies or involving certain counterparties, end-users or end-use cases. As a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, for example, the U.S. and other jurisdictions have imposed economic and trade sanctions and export control restrictions against Russia and Belarus, as well as certain persons, assets and interests associated with
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those countries. For so long as this conflict continues or if serious conflict arises elsewhere, the U.S. and other jurisdictions could impose wider economic and trade sanctions as well as export restrictions, which could impact our business opportunities and operations. Any violation of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, the UK Bribery Act, other applicable anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws, or applicable export control or economic and trade sanctions laws by our employees or third-party intermediaries could subject us to significant risks such as adverse media coverage and/or severe criminal or civil sanctions, which could materially adversely affect our reputation and business.
Our customer deals are becoming more complex, which tend to involve longer, more expensive sales cycles, increased pricing pressure, and implementation and configuration challenges.The customer deals we pursue are becoming more complex as we engage with increasingly larger enterprise customers with multiple workflow products that span the enterprise. These deals can lead to increased costs, longer sales cycles, greater competition and less predictability in our ability to close sales. These customers tend to require considerable time evaluating our portfolio of products and testing our platform prior to making a purchasing decision, require multiple levels of review and approval from a broader set of buyers and stakeholders, and demand more configuration, integration services and features, particularly when switching from legacy on-premises solutions. As a result, these sales opportunities may require us to devote significant sales support and professional services to a smaller number of transactions, diverting those resources from other sales opportunities. If we fail to effectively manage these risks, our business may be negatively affected.
As we acquire or invest in companies and technologies, we may not realize the expected business or financial benefits and the acquisitions and investments may divert our management’s attention and result in additional shareholder dilution or costs.
We have acquired and invested in companies and technologies as part of our business strategy and will continue to evaluate and enter into potential strategic transactions, including, among other things, acquisitions of or investments in businesses, technologies, services, products and other assets. These transactions are intended to, among other things, expand or improve our service offerings and functionality, go-to-market and sales efforts, our operations or our ability to source necessary expertise and provide services in international locations. Although we conduct due diligence regarding these businesses and assets, our efforts may not reveal every material issue. Strategic transactions involve numerous risks, including:
• difficulties assimilating or integrating the businesses, technologies, products, personnel or operations of the acquired companies;
• failing to achieve the expected benefits of the acquisition or investment;
• potential loss of employees of the acquired company;
• inability to maintain relationships with customers, suppliers and partners of the acquired business;• introducing vulnerabilities or threats by integrating acquired technologies or businesses;
• introducing increased complexity and burden to maintain the technology platform;
• potential adverse tax consequences;
• disruption to our business and diversion of management attention and other resources;• potential financial, credit or regulatory risks associated with acquiring a business or a part thereof, including risks of delayed, conditioned or denied regulatory clearances and risks relating to customers, suppliers and partners of the acquired business;• dependence on acquired technologies or licenses for which alternatives may not be available to us or which may involve significant cost or complexity;• in the case of foreign acquisitions, the challenges associated with integrating operations across different cultures, languages, legal regimes and any currency, tax and regulatory risks associated with specific countries;
• data security or privacy risks, compliance requirements or integration costs from the acquired technology or company;
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Part I• impairment of our investments or the possibility our investees will be unable to obtain future funding on favorable terms or at all; and
• potential unknown liabilities or disputes associated with the acquired businesses.In addition, the amount or form of consideration we pay for acquisitions could adversely affect our financial condition or stock price. For example, if we finance an acquisition by issuing equity or convertible debt securities or loans, our existing shareholders may be diluted or we could face constraints related to the terms of those securities or indebtedness.Risks Related to the Operation of Our Business
Actual or perceived cybersecurity events experienced by us or our third-party service providers may create the perception that our platform is not secure, and we may lose customers or incur significant liabilities.In the ordinary course of our business, we store, transmit, generate, and process our and our customers’ confidential, proprietary and sensitive data. As our business expands across the globe, the number of employees, contractors, vendors and other third parties remotely accessing our systems continues to grow. Our growing business operations increase our exposure to cyberattacks by a range of actors, who have used and will continue to use assorted tactics, techniques, and procedures, including malicious code, ransomware, social engineering, business email compromises, supply chain attacks, denial of service attacks and similar internet-enabled, fraudulent activity, and the frequency of those attacks have become more common. Additionally, as AI technologies continue to advance, threat actors can leverage these technologies to develop more sophisticated attack methods that are increasingly automated, targeted, coordinated and more difficult to defend against. The proliferation of these technologies could enable less skilled threat actors to initiate attacks and increase the frequency, scale and impact of security incidents. Further, during times of war and other major conflicts, we and our third-party providers may be vulnerable to a heightened risk of geopolitically motivated attacks, including cyberattacks, that could materially disrupt our systems and operations, supply chain and ability to provide our services.Cybersecurity threats are not limited to actors operating in the systems we control directly. Our increasing reliance on third-party providers and public cloud infrastructure introduces new cybersecurity risks to our business operations. Third-party security incidents have occurred in the past and are likely to continue, as we rely on third-party service providers and technologies to operate business systems in a variety of contexts. S upply chain attacks have also increased in frequency and severity. We cannot guarantee that our third-party service providers or our supply chain infrastructure have not been compromised or that they do not contain exploitable defects or bugs that could result in a breach of or disruption to our platform, systems and network or the systems and networks of third parties that support us and our business. Our ability to monitor the data security measures of our third-party providers is limited, and we necessarily depend in part on our providers to have in place and maintain adequate security measures to protect against unauthorized access, cyberattacks and the mishandling of data. Further, employee error or malfeasance in configuring, maintaining and using these services could impact our ability to monitor and secure them effectively.We have identified vulnerabilities in our products and services in the past and expect to continue to do so in the future. Consistent with our vulnerability management program, we prioritize security risks and consider their severity and potential impact in determining whether and when to remediate or mitigate them. In addition, we cannot be certain that we will be able to prevent, detect or remediate all vulnerabilities, and there have been delays and may continue to be delays in developing patches that can be effectively deployed to address vulnerabilities. Further, security researchers and other entities and individuals have actively searched for, published and/or exploited actual and potential vulnerabilities in our products or services and will likely continue to do so in the future. Also, certain persons, including researchers, have in the past not abided by, and may in the future not abide by, our responsible disclosure program, which has resulted in, and could in the future result in the compromise of our systems or our or our customers’ data. Moreover, the incorporation of third-party, AI-generated or open-source software code into our or our customers’ systems increases the risk of exploitation of
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vulnerabilities. We also have inherited and may in the future inherit additional security risks from acquiring or partnering with other companies.
In most instances, our customers are responsible for configuring and determining access levels to the data held in their particular instance for their employees and service providers. While our software is delivered with certain preset configurations, we understand that our customers require flexibility to configure the ServiceNow AI Platform to their specific business needs. We work closely with our customers to help them evaluate their security configurations, including providing guidance to align configuration settings with their business needs. Yet, in configuring our platform, both our employees and customers have made errors in the past and may do so again in the future. We are aware that, on occasion, both our customers and ServiceNow have configured certain settings on our platform, or retained preset configurations, in ways that may not align with preferred or recommended security levels, which can result in, and has resulted in, information being made more widely accessible than intended. Such misconfigurations can be, and have been, identified publicly, increasing the risk of data being exposed unintentionally. In certain cases, customers may misconfigure their systems and claim that they were not properly informed of the risks to their configuration.
Our data security system and data governance framework, designed to protect our and our customers’ information and prevent data loss, may not be effective at preventing, detecting, responding to or remediating material breaches caused by intentional or unintentional actions or inactions by employees, contractors or third parties. Techniques used to sabotage or to obtain unauthorized access to systems are constantly evolving and may go undetected until we become aware of a successful attack. Moreover, we have experienced security incidents, which may reoccur in the future, that resulted in unauthorized access to, loss or inadvertent disclosure of confidential, proprietary and sensitive information. We have observed attempts by third parties to induce or deceive our employees, contractors or users to fraudulently obtain access to our or our customers’ data or assets. In addition, our employees have fallen victim to phishing attacks in the past and are likely to again in the future. Further, despite our security measures, employees, contractors and other individuals (some of whom are supported by nation states) have gained, and in the future may gain, access to our systems to search for and exploit actual or potential vulnerabilities in our products or services or inflict other harms, such as deploying malware or stealing data.
An actual or perceived security breach or compromise can have a material effect on ServiceNow’s operations, finances and reputation. The adverse consequences can include accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of or access to data; disruptions to our services; diversion of funds; litigation; indemnification and other contractual obligations; regulatory investigations; government fines and penalties; reputational damage; negative publicity; business and operational interruptions; loss of sales, customers and partners; mitigation and remediation expenses; and other material costs and liabilities. In addition, the assessment and response to security incidents, as well as implementation of appropriate safeguards to protect against future incidents, can lead to material economic and operational consequences. These consequences can result regardless of whether the incident is suffered by us, affects our third-party service providers or stems from customers’ action or inaction. Moreover, even if a breach is unrelated to our security programs or practices, it could still cause us reputational harm and require us to undertake significant efforts to assess and respond to the breach, including further protecting our customers from their own security risks. There can be no assurance that any limitations of liability provisions in our subscription agreements, terms of use or other agreements would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any such liabilities or damages with respect to any particular claim. In addition, while we maintain insurance coverage to cover potential financial losses, we cannot be certain that such coverage will continue to be available on acceptable terms or in sufficient amounts to cover potential financial losses from a security incident or that an insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim.We may lose key members of our management team or qualified employees or may not be able to attract and retain the employees we need.There is increasingly intense competition for talent in the technology industry. Our success depends substantially upon the continued services of our management team, particularly our chief executive officer and the other members of our executive staff. From time to time in the ordinary course of business, there have been and may
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continue to be changes in our management team. While we seek to manage these transitions carefully, such changes may result in a loss of institutional knowledge and negatively affect our business.
In the highly competitive technology industry, we face ongoing challenges in attracting and retaining top talent across various roles, such as product development and engineering (particularly with AI and machine learning backgrounds), sales, operations and cybersecurity. These key individual contributors are critical to our success, can command very significant compensation in the market and are actively recruited by our key competitors. Our ability to achieve significant revenue growth may depend on our success in recruiting, training and retaining sufficient qualified personnel to support our growth. We have faced and may continue to face difficulties attracting, hiring and retaining highly-skilled, qualified personnel and may not be able to fill positions in desired geographic areas or at all. Further, as we continue to grow and expand our workforce globally, we may face operational and workplace culture challenges that could negatively impact our ability to maintain the effectiveness of our business execution and the beneficial aspects of our corporate culture. While our work model, where a substantial portion of our employees work partially or fully remote, increased our access to talent, we may not be able to take advantage of a broader talent pool if our competitors offer the same work model or if we continue to rely on our primary operating locations for talent. We are continually evaluating and, as appropriate, enhancing the attractiveness of our compensation packages and benefit programs. As a result, we have experienced and may continue to experience increased costs that may not be offset by either improved productivity or higher sales, potentially resulting in a reduction in our profitability. In addition, we grant equity awards to our employees and sustained declines in our stock price or lower stock price performance relative to our competitors reduces the retention value of such awards, which can impact the attractiveness of our compensation. Many of our employees, including all of our executive officers, are employed “at-will” and may terminate their employment with us at any time. If we fail to attract qualified, new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our business and future growth prospects could be adversely affected.
Delays in the release of, or actual or perceived defects in, our products may slow the adoption of our latest technologies, reduce our ability to efficiently provide services, decrease customer satisfaction and adversely impact future product sales.
We must successfully continue to release new products and updates and features to existing products. The success of any release depends on a number of factors, including our ability to manage the risks associated with actual or perceived quality or other defects or deficiencies, delays in the timing of releases or the adoption of releases by customers, and other complications that may arise during the early stages of introducing our products. If releases are delayed or if customers perceive that our releases contain bugs or other defects or are difficult to implement, customer adoption of our new products or updates may be adversely impacted, customer satisfaction may decrease, our ability to efficiently provide our services may be reduced, and our growth prospects may be harmed.Disruptions or defects in our services could damage our customers’ businesses, subject us to substantial liability and harm our business.Our business depends on our platform to be available without disruption. From time to time, we have experienced and expect to continue to experience defects, disruptions, data loss, outages and other performance and quality problems with our platform. New defects may be detected in the future and may arise from our increasing use of public cloud service providers. For example, we provide regular updates to our services, which can contain undetected defects. Defects may also be introduced by our use of third-party software, including open-source software. Disruptions, data loss and service degradation may result from errors we make in developing, delivering, configuring or hosting our services, or designing, installing, expanding or maintaining our cloud infrastructure. They may also arise from incidents outside of our control, including third-party incidents, denial of service or ransomware attacks, as well as from our efforts to address vulnerabilities and security incidents. Although we currently serve our customers primarily using equipment managed by us and co-located in third-party data centers operated by several different providers worldwide, we expect to increasingly serve our customers using data center facilities operated by public cloud service providers. As our reliance on public cloud service providers increases, we face heightened risks of outages or performance degradation beyond our direct control. Similarly, supply chain issues or other incidents involving critical service providers could disrupt our operations or
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reduce our productivity. These data centers, whether managed by us or third parties, are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, power failures and similar events. They may also be subject to break-ins, sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism and similar misconduct, equipment failure and adverse events caused by operator error or negligence. In addition, an increased use of public cloud service providers increases our vulnerability to cyberattacks. Despite precautions taken at these centers, problems at these centers have occurred, resulting in interruptions in our services. Such problems could occur again and result in similar or lengthier service interruptions and the loss of customer data. Furthermore, our customers may use our services in ways that cause disruptions in service for other customers.
We also have a large ecosystem of vendors and service providers that we use for our products, and a data compromise, supply chain issue or other incident involving a critical service provider could impact our ability to provide our services and reduce our productivity. Our customers use our services to manage important aspects of their businesses, and our reputation and business will be adversely affected if our customers and potential customers believe our services are unreliable. Disruptions or defects in our services may reduce our revenues, cause us to issue credits or pay penalties, subject us to claims and litigation, cause our customers to delay payment or terminate or decline to renew their subscriptions, and adversely affect our ability to attract new customers. Similarly, customers may have unique requirements for system resiliency and performance depending on their business models and customers in highly regulated markets may have more demanding requirements that we may not be able to, or may not choose to, meet. The occurrence of payment delays, service credit, warranty or termination for material breach or other claims against us could result in an increase in our bad debt expense, longer aggregate collection cycles, service level credit accruals and other expenses and a heightened risk of litigation. We may not have insurance sufficient to compensate us for potentially significant losses that may result from claims arising from disruptions to our services.
Delays in improving our information systems and processes could interfere with our ability to support our existing and growing base of customers and employees as we scale.
We rely on our information systems and those of third parties to operate and scale our business. As the information we rely on for our business evolves, including as a result of implementing AI technologies, our information systems, including their infrastructure needs, network capacity and computing power, may need to expand. We have made and continue to make investments to improve our information systems to support the needs of our growing base of customers and employees, increase productivity, develop and enhance our services, expand into new geographic areas, and scale with our overall growth. Such improvements are often complex, costly, time consuming, and may lead to impairments or write downs of existing technologies and other assets. If implementation of these improvements is delayed, or if we encounter unforeseen problems when migrating away from our existing systems and processes, our operations and our ability to manage our business could be negatively impacted. This might lead to disruptions to our operations, loss of customers, loss of revenue, or damage to our reputation, all of which could harm our business plan to successfully scale our operations and enhance productivity.
We may not be able to protect or enforce our IP rights.Our success depends significantly on our ability to protect our proprietary technology and our brand under patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret and other IP protections in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. The IP protection we have for our technology may be insufficient, and any IP acquired in the future may not provide competitive advantages or other value. In addition, our IP may be contested, circumvented, found unenforceable or invalidated, and we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing upon them. Further, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of IP rights vary.Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, policing unauthorized use of our IP and technology is difficult, and we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our IP rights. Unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or obtain and use, or may have copied or obtained and used, our technology to develop products and services that provide features and functionality similar to ours. Our competitors could also independently develop services equivalent to ours, and our IP rights may not be broad enough for us to prevent them from utilizing their developments to compete with us. Reverse engineering, unauthorized copying or other misappropriation of our proprietary technology could enable third parties to benefit from our technology without paying us for it. We may initiate claims or litigation against third parties for infringement or misappropriation of our
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proprietary rights or to establish the validity of our proprietary rights. However, we may be adversely affected if we are unable to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our IP rights or are required to incur substantial costs defending our IP rights.
Third parties may challenge or invalidate our IP rights through administrative proceedings, litigation or allowing contractual rights to expire. There is considerable patent and other IP development activity and claims and related litigation regarding patent and IP rights in our industry. Our competitors, other third parties, including practicing entities and non-practicing entities, own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, which they may use and have used to assert claims of infringement, misappropriation or other violations of IP rights against us. Moreover, the patent portfolios of many of our competitors and other third parties may be larger than ours. This disparity may increase the risk that our competitors or other third parties may sue us for patent infringement and may limit our ability to counterclaim for patent infringement or settle through patent cross- licenses. We have recorded material charges for legal settlements of such claims in the past. Further, upon expiration of any agreements that allow us to use third-party IP, we may be unable to renew such agreements on favorable terms, if at all, in which case we may face IP litigation or may need to cease offering or to modify our products and services to remove such components. In addition, our subscription agreements generally require us to defend our customers against claims that our technology infringes the IP rights of third parties.
Any claim or litigation, whether or not resolved in our favor, could result in significant expense to us, divert the efforts of our personnel and may result in counterclaims against us. If claims are successfully asserted against us and we are found to be infringing upon, misappropriating or otherwise violating the IP rights of others, we could be required to pay substantial damages and/or make substantial ongoing royalty payments; comply with an injunction and cease offering or modify our products and services; comply with other unfavorable terms, including settlement terms; and indemnify our customers and business partners, obtain costly licenses on their behalf and/or refund fees or other payments previously paid to us. Further, the mere existence of any lawsuit, or any interim or final outcomes, and the public statements related to it (or absence of such statements) by the press, analysts and litigants could be unsettling to our customers and prospective customers. This could adversely impact our customer satisfaction and related renewal rates, cause us to lose potential sales, and could also be unsettling to investors or prospective investors and cause a substantial decline in our stock price.
Effective patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret protection may not be available in every country in which we offer services. The laws of some foreign countries may not offer effective protection for, or be as protective of, IP rights as those in the U.S., and mechanisms for enforcement of IP rights or available remedies may be inadequate, ineffective or scarce. Additionally, the IP ownership and license rights of new technologies and the use of outputs therefrom, such as AI, which we are increasingly building into our product offerings, have not been fully addressed by U.S. and foreign courts interpreting current and new laws or regulations, and the use or adoption of such technologies in our products and services may expose us to potential IP claims; breach of a data license, software license, or website terms of service allegations; claimed violations of privacy rights; and other tort claims. If such laws or regulations require increased transparency, it may impair protection of our trade secrets or other IP.
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Part IOur use of open-source software could harm our ability to sell our products and services and subject us to possible litigation.Our products incorporate software licensed to us by third-party authors under open-source licenses, and we expect to continue to incorporate open-source software into our products and services in the future. Additionally, certain of our products may use or be developed with data sets subject to open-source licenses, which may contain restrictions on data set use. We monitor our use of open-source software and data sets to avoid subjecting our products and services to adverse licensing conditions. However, there can be no assurance that our efforts have been or will be successful. There is little or no legal precedent governing the interpretation of the terms of open-source licenses, and therefore the potential impact of these terms on our business is uncertain and enforcement of these terms may result in unanticipated obligations regarding our products and services. For example, depending on which open-source license governs certain open-source software included within our products and services, we may be subjected to conditions requiring us to offer our products and services to users at no cost; make available the source code for modifications and derivative works based upon, incorporating or using such open-source software; and license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of the particular open-source license. Moreover, if an author or other third party that distributes such open-source software were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of one or more of these licenses, we could be required to incur significant legal costs defending ourselves against such allegations, be subject to significant damages or be enjoined from distributing our products and services.
Various factors, including our customers’ business, integration, migration, compliance and security requirements or errors by us, our partners or our customers, may cause implementations of our products to be delayed, inefficient or otherwise unsuccessful.
Our business depends upon the successful implementation of our products by our customers either through us or our partners. Further, our customers’ business, integration, migration, compliance and security requirements, or errors by us, our partners or our customers or other factors may cause implementations to be delayed, inefficient or otherwise unsuccessful. As a result of these and other risks, we or our customers may incur significant implementation costs in connection with the purchase, implementation and enablement of our products. Some customer implementations may take longer than planned, delay our ability to sell additional products or fail to meet our customers’ expectations, resulting in customers canceling or failing to renew their subscriptions before our products have been fully implemented. Some customers may lack the resources to effectively manage a digital transformation using our products and, as a consequence, may be unable to see the benefits of our products. Unsuccessful, lengthy or costly implementations and integrations could result in claims from customers, reputational harm and opportunities for other market participants to displace our products.
Our failure or perceived failure to achieve our corporate sustainability goals or maintain corporate sustainability practices that meet evolving stakeholder expectations could adversely affect us.
Our ability to achieve published corporate sustainability goals and commitments is subject to numerous factors both within and outside of our control. Our failure or perceived failure to achieve our corporate sustainability goals or maintain corporate sustainability practices that meet stakeholder expectations or regulatory requirements could harm our reputation, adversely impact our ability to attract and retain employees or customers and expose us to increased scrutiny from the investment community, regulatory authorities and others or subject us to liability. Our reputation also may be harmed by the perceptions that our customers, employees and other stakeholders have about our action or inaction on corporate sustainability issues. In addition, the increasing prevalence of corporate sustainability laws and regulations across the jurisdictions in which we operate may increase compliance risks and costs and, together with differing views on the appropriate role of sustainability practices and disclosures, may subject us to greater stakeholder scrutiny. Any potential damage to our reputation or loss of brand equity may reduce demand for our products and services.We may face natural disasters, including climate change, and other events beyond our control.Natural disasters or other catastrophic events may damage or disrupt our operations, international commerce and the global economy, and thus could have a negative effect on our business. Our business operations are subject to interruption by natural disasters, flooding, fire, extreme heat, power shortages, pandemics, terrorism, political
2025 Annual Report 35Table of ContentsPart I
unrest, telecommunications failure, vandalism, cyberattacks, geopolitical instability, war, the effects of climate change and other events beyond our control. While we maintain crisis management, business continuity and disaster response plans, such planning may not account for all possible events and the occurrence of such events could make it difficult or impossible for us to deliver our services to our customers, could decrease demand for our services, and could cause us to incur substantial expense. Our insurance may not be sufficient to cover losses or additional expenses we may sustain. In the event of major natural disasters or catastrophic events, our backup systems could fail, critical teams could be impacted, customer data could be lost and resumption of operations could require significant time.
We may be subject to increased costs, regulations, reporting requirements, standards or expectations regarding climate-related impacts on our business. While we seek to mitigate our business risks associated with climate-related risks by establishing environmental sustainability and enterprise risk programs, certain of those risks are inherent wherever business is conducted. Any of our primary locations may be vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate-related risks. For example, our California headquarters have experienced and may continue to experience climate-related events at an increasing frequency and severity, including drought, water scarcity, heat waves, wildfires and air quality impacts and power shutoffs associated with wildfires. Changing market dynamics, global policy developments and increasing frequency and impact of extreme weather events on critical infrastructure in the U.S. and elsewhere have the potential to disrupt our business, the business of our customers and third-party suppliers and may cause us to experience higher attrition, losses and additional costs to maintain or resume operations.Risks Related to the Financial Performance or Financial Position of Our BusinessBecause we generally recognize revenues from our subscription services over the subscription term, a decrease in new subscriptions or renewals may not be immediately reflected in our operating results.We generally recognize revenues from customers ratably over the terms of their subscriptions. Net new annual contract value from new subscriptions and expansion contracts entered into during a period can generally be expected to generate revenues for the duration of the subscription term. As a result, a significant portion of the revenues we report in each period are derived from the recognition of deferred revenues relating to subscriptions entered into during previous periods. Consequently, a decrease in new or renewed subscriptions, expansion contracts in any single reporting period will have a limited impact on our revenues for that period, but they will negatively affect our operating results in future periods. Our subscription model also makes it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenues through additional sales in any period, as revenues from new customers are generally recognized over the applicable subscription term. Also, our ability to adjust our cost structure in the event of a decrease in new or renewed subscriptions may be limited.
As our business grows, we expect our revenue growth rate to decline over the long term.
You should not rely on our prior revenue growth rate as an indication of our future revenue growth rate. While we have experienced significant revenue growth in prior periods, we expect the growth rate to decline over the long term due to increasing competition, a decrease in the growth rate of our overall market or other reasons. We also expect our costs to increase in future periods as we continue to invest in our strategic priorities, which may not result in a corresponding increase in revenues or growth in our business.
Changes in our effective tax rate or disallowance of our tax positions may adversely affect our business.
We are subject to income taxes in the U.S. and various foreign jurisdictions. We believe that our provision for income taxes is reasonable, but the ultimate tax outcome may differ from the amounts recorded in our consolidated financial statements and may materially affect our financial results in the period or periods in which such outcome is determined. Our effective tax rate could be adversely affected by changes in statutory tax rates, changes in the mix of earnings and losses in countries with differing statutory tax rates, certain non-deductible expenses, the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities and the effects of acquisitions. Increases in our effective tax rate would reduce our profitability or in some cases increase our losses.36Table of ContentsPart I
Additionally, our future effective tax rate could be impacted by changes in accounting principles or changes in federal, state or international tax laws or tax rulings and these changes may have a retroactive effect. For example, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (“OBBBA”) was enacted on July 4, 2025, introducing a broad range of tax reform provisions that will affect our financial results. The U.S. Department of Treasury has broad authority to issue regulations and interpretative guidance that may significantly impact how we will comply with the law, which could affect our results of operations in the period issued. During 2025, multiple jurisdictions where the Company operates enacted legislation to implement the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) Pillar 2 global minimum tax rules (generally imposing a 15% minimum effective tax rate on relevant groups). In January 2026, the OECD issued additional guidance, including a safe harbor framework for certain U.S.-parented groups such as ours. Even with this safe harbor, we could still be subject to local minimum tax regimes in countries that have adopted these rules. Based on legislation enacted to date and currently available guidance, we have not recorded a material tax liability related to Pillar 2. However, these global minimum tax rules are new and technically complex, and governments continue to issue updates on how they should be interpreted and applied. Differences in how jurisdictions implement the rules, as well as future guidance from the OECD or taxing authorities, could change our tax obligations in future periods. These developments, along with changes in U.S. or foreign tax laws or the interaction of Pillar 2 with other tax regimes, may increase our effective tax rate and could have a material impact on our financial results.
In addition, we are subject to ongoing tax audits globally. Many jurisdictions have not established clear guidance on the tax treatment of cloud computing and digital services. Although we believe our income tax liabilities are reasonably estimated and accounted for in accordance with applicable laws and principles, an adverse resolution of one or more uncertain tax positions in any period could have a material impact on our results of operations for that period. Further, many of our most important intangible assets are held outside the U.S. and are subject to inter-company agreements regarding the development and distribution of those assets to other jurisdictions with potential challenge under permanent establishment or transfer pricing principles. While we believe that our position is appropriate and well founded, if our position were successfully challenged by taxing authorities in other jurisdictions, we may become subject to significant tax liabilities.We may be adversely affected by our debt service obligations.Our ability to make payments on, repay or refinance the 2030 Notes in the future will depend on our future performance which is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. If we decide to refinance the 2030 Notes, we may be required to do so on different or less favorable terms or we may be unable to refinance the 2030 Notes at all, both of which may adversely affect our financial condition. Maintenance of our indebtedness, contractual restrictions and additional issuances of indebtedness could:• cause us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flows towards debt service obligations and principal repayments;
• increase our vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions;
• limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and our industry;
• impair our ability to obtain future financing for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, general corporate or other purposes; and
• due to limitations within the debt instruments, restrict our ability to grant liens on property, enter into certain mergers, dispose of all or substantially all of our or our subsidiaries’ assets, taken as a whole, materially change our business or incur subsidiary indebtedness, subject to customary exceptions.We are required to comply with the covenants set forth in the indentures governing the 2030 Notes. Our ability to comply with these covenants may be affected by events beyond our control. If we breach any of the covenants and do not obtain a waiver from the note holders or lenders, then, subject to applicable cure periods, any outstanding indebtedness may be declared immediately due and payable. In addition, a rating agency’s change to our credit rating may negatively impact the value and liquidity of our securities. Downgrades in our credit ratings could restrict our ability to obtain additional financing in the future and could affect the terms of any such financing.
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Part IRisks Related to General Economic and Political Conditions
Our industry and business may be harmed by global economic and political conditions.We operate globally and as a result, our business, revenues and profitability are impacted by global macroeconomic and political conditions. The success of our activities is affected by general economic and market conditions, including, among others, inflation, interest rates, tax rates, foreign exchange rates, economic downturns, recession, economic uncertainty, political instability, warfare, changes in laws, trade barriers, supply chain disruptions and economic and trade sanctions. The U.S. capital markets experienced and continue to experience extreme volatility and disruption. Such volatility could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows and future market disruptions could negatively impact us. These unfavorable economic conditions could increase our operating costs and, because our typical contracts with customers lock in our price for a few years, our profitability could be negatively affected. Geopolitical destabilization and warfare have impacted and may continue to impact global currency exchange rates, commodity prices, energy markets, trade and movement of resources, which may adversely affect the buying power of our customers and our access to and cost of resources from our suppliers and ability to operate or grow our business. In addition, from time to time, the U.S. and other key international economies have been impacted and may continue to be impacted by geopolitical and economic instability. These conditions include, among others, high levels of credit defaults, international trade disputes, changes in demand for various goods and services, high levels of persistent unemployment, wage and income stagnation, restricted credit, poor liquidity, reduced corporate profitability, volatility in credit, equity and foreign exchange markets, inflation, bankruptcies, tariffs, international trade agreements, export controls, economic and trade sanctions, health crises and overall economic uncertainty. These conditions can arise suddenly and affect the rate of digital transformation spending and could adversely affect our customers’ or prospective customers’ ability or willingness to purchase our services, delay purchasing decisions, reduce the value or duration of their subscriptions, or affect renewal rates.We may be harmed by foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.We conduct significant transactions, including revenue transactions and intercompany transactions, in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar or the functional operating currency of the transactional entities. In addition, our international subsidiaries maintain significant net assets that are denominated in the functional operating currencies of these entities. Accordingly, changes in the value of currencies relative to the U.S. Dollar have impacted and may continue to impact our consolidated revenues and operating results due to transactional and translational remeasurement that is reflected in our earnings. It is particularly difficult to forecast any impact from exchange rate movements. Unanticipated currency fluctuations have adversely affected and could continue to adversely affect our financial results or cause our results to differ from investor expectations or our own guidance in any future periods. Volatility in foreign currency exchange rates and global financial markets is expected to continue due to global political and economic uncertainty.
We use derivative instruments, such as foreign currency forward contracts, to hedge certain balance sheet and income statement exposures to foreign currency exchange rates. These hedging contracts have reduced and may continue to reduce, but they have not and cannot entirely eliminate, the impact of adverse foreign currency exchange rate movements. To the extent that the counterparties of our hedging contracts fail to perform or fulfill their obligations, we may not receive the anticipated benefit of those arrangements. Further, unanticipated changes in foreign currency exchange rates may result in poorer overall financial performance than if we had not engaged in any hedging transactions, as the hedging instrument we use may not be aligned with the exposures being hedged.
38Table of ContentsPart IRisks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
Our stock price is likely to continue to be volatile.Our stock price is likely to continue to be volatile and subject to wide fluctuations. In addition, technology companies in general have highly volatile stock prices, and the volatility in stock price and trading volume of securities is often unrelated or disproportionate to the financial performance of the companies issuing the securities. Factors affecting our stock price, some of which are beyond our control, include, among others:
• changes in the estimates of our operating results, revenue growth or changes in recommendations by securities analysts;• changes in the average contract term of our customer agreements, timing of renewals and renewal rates;
• our ability to meet our financial guidance or financial performance expectations of the securities analysts or investors;• announcements of new products, services or technologies, new applications or enhancements to services, strategic alliances, acquisitions or other significant events by us or by our competitors;• fluctuations in company valuations, such as high-growth or cloud companies, perceived to be comparable to us;
• changes to our management team;• trading activity by directors, executive officers and significant shareholders or the market’s perception that large shareholders intend to sell their shares;
• the inclusion, exclusion or removal of our stock from any major trading indices;• the size of our market float;
• the trading volume of our common stock, including sales following the exercise of outstanding options or vesting of equity awards;
• our issuance or repurchase of shares of our common stock;
• changes in laws or regulations impacting the delivery of our services;
• significant litigation or regulatory actions;• the amount and timing of customer payments, payment defaults, operating costs and capital expenditures;• the amount and timing of equity awards and the related financial statement expenses;
• the impact of new accounting pronouncements;
• the inability to conclude that our internal controls over financial reporting are effective;
• our ability to accurately estimate the total addressable market for our products and services; and
• overall performance of the equity markets.
Following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been brought against that company. Securities litigation could result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources from our business.2025 Annual Report 39
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Part IProvisions in our governing documents or Delaware law might discourage, delay or prevent a change of control or changes in our management and, therefore, depress our stock price.Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that could depress our stock price by discouraging, delaying or preventing a change in control or changes in our management that our shareholders may deem advantageous. These provisions, among other things:• permit our board to establish the number of directors;• authorize issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that our board could use to implement a shareholder rights plan;
• prohibit shareholder action by written consent, which requires all shareholder actions to be taken at a meeting;
• permit our board to make, alter or repeal our bylaws; and• require advance notice for shareholders to submit director nominations or other business at annual shareholders meetings (although our bylaws permit shareholders proxy access).Further, Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our Company. Section 203 imposes certain restrictions on merger, business combinations and other transactions between us and certain shareholders.
Item 7 · Management's Discussion & Analysis
+135 paragraphs −141 paragraphs ~135 changed
FY 2024-12-31 (earlier)
FY 2025-12-31 (later)
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
This section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K discusses our financial condition and results of operations for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, and year-to-year comparisons between fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2024 in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”). A discussion of our financial condition and results of operations for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 and year-to-year comparisons between fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2023 that is not included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K can be found in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Part II, Item 7 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, filed on January 30, 2025.
Our free cash flow and non-GAAP consolidated income from operations measures included in the section entitled “Key Business Metrics—Free Cash Flow” and “Key Business Metrics—Non-GAAP Consolidated Income from Operations” are not in accordance with GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for, or superior to, financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. These measures may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies, limiting their usefulness for comparison purposes. We encourage investors to carefully consider our results under GAAP, as well as our supplemental non-GAAP results, to more fully understand our business.OverviewServiceNow delivers solutions that help public and private organizations govern, secure and manage artificial intelligence and digitalize and streamline workflows to drive collaboration, productivity and better experiences across the enterprise. At the core of these solutions is the ServiceNow AI Platform (“Platform”), a robust, cloud-based Platform that facilitates comprehensive delivery of seamless workflows and drives digital transformation across all departments and personas within an organization. Our Platform’s single data fabric and integrated data layer supports organizations’ operationalization of their AI strategy with speed, scale and security. Our workflow applications built on the Platform are grouped into four areas: Technology, CRM and Industry, Core Business, and Creator and Other. We offer an innovative suite of products, including AI-powered applications, and services designed to automate workflows, integrate systems and empower employees, regardless of existing systems, cloud environments or collaboration tools. Our one platform architecture provides the foundation for organizations to seamlessly integrate AI, data, and workflows and create intelligent processes across their enterprise.
We are closely monitoring ongoing global conflicts. While those events are continuing to evolve and the outcomes remain highly uncertain, we do not believe they will have a material impact on our business and results of operations. However, if the conflicts persist or worsen, leading to greater global economic disruptions and uncertainty, our business and results of operations could be materially impacted.
Additionally, other macroeconomic events, including interest rates, global inflation and tariffs, have led to economic uncertainty in the global economy. To mitigate risk, our cash and cash equivalents are distributed across several large financial institutions and are not concentrated in one financial institution. We have not experienced any impact to our liquidity or to our current and projected business operations and financial condition due to recent macroeconomic events. Further, we have policy restrictions on the types of securities that can be purchased as part of our available-for-sale debt securities portfolio. These restrictions take industry and company concentration limits into consideration among other things. We will continue to monitor the direct and indirect impact of macroeconomic events on our business and financial results.
See the “Risk Factors” section in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report for further discussion of the possible impact of conflicts and macroeconomic events on our business and financial results.
48Table of ContentsPart II
On December 5, 2025, our board of directors approved and declared a 5-for-1 split of our common stock (“Stock Split”), with a proportionate increase in the number of shares of authorized common stock. The Stock Split had a record date of December 16, 2025 and an effective date of December 17, 2025. The par value per share of our common stock remains unchanged at $0.001 per share after the Stock Split. Accordingly, an amount equal to the par value of the additional issued shares resulting from the Stock Split was reclassified from additional paid-in capital to common stock. All references made to common share, equity award and per share amounts throughout this Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations have been retroactively adjusted to reflect the effects of the Stock Split.Key Business MetricsRemaining performance obligations . Transaction price allocated to remaining performance obligations (“RPO”) represents contracted revenue that has not yet been recognized, which includes deferred revenue and non-cancellable amounts that will be invoiced and recognized as revenue in future periods. RPO excludes contracts that are billed in arrears, such as certain time and materials contracts, as we apply the “right to invoice” practical expedient under relevant accounting guidance. Current remaining performance obligations (“cRPO”) represents RPO that will be recognized as revenue in the next 12 months.
As of December 31, 2025, our RPO was $28.2 billion, of which 46% represented cRPO. RPO and cRPO increased by 27% and 25%, respectively, compared to December 31, 2024. Factors that may cause our RPO to vary from period to period include the following:• Foreign currency exchange rates . While a majority of our contracts have historically been in U.S. Dollars, an increasing percentage of our contracts in recent periods has been in foreign currencies, particularly the Euro and British Pound Sterling. Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates as of the balance sheet date will cause variability in our RPO.
• Mix of offerings . In a minority of cases, we allow our customers to host our software by themselves or through a third-party service provider. In self-hosted offerings, we recognize a portion of the revenue upfront upon the delivery of the software and as a result, such revenue is excluded from RPO.
• Subscription start date . From time to time, we enter into contracts with a subscription start date in the future and these amounts are included in RPO if such contracts are signed by the balance sheet date.
• Timing of contract renewals . While customers typically renew their contracts at the end of the contract term, from time to time, customers may do so either before or after the scheduled expiration date. For example, in cases where we are successful in selling additional products or services to an existing customer, a customer may decide to renew its existing contract early to ensure that all its contracts expire on the same date. In other cases, prolonged negotiations or other factors may result in a contract not being renewed until after it has expired.
• Contract duration . While we typically enter into multi-year subscription services, the duration of our contracts varies. Further, we continue to see an increase in the number of 12-month agreements entered into with the U.S. federal government throughout the year, with the highest number of agreements entered into in the quarter ended September 30, driven primarily by timing of their annual budget expenditures. We sometimes also enter into contracts with durations that have a 12-month or shorter term to enable the contracts to co-terminate with the existing contract. The contract duration will cause variability in our RPO.Number of customers with ACV greater than $5 million . We count the total number of customers with annual contract value (“ACV”) greater than $5 million as of the end of the period. We had 603, 502, and 420 customers with ACV greater than $5 million as of December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively. For purposes of customer count, a customer is defined as an entity that has a unique Dunn & Bradstreet Global Ultimate (“GULT”) Data Universal Numbering System (“DUNS”) number and an active subscription contract as of the measurement date. The DUNS number is a global standard for business identification and tracking. We make exceptions for holding companies, government entities and other organizations for which the GULT, in our judgment, does not accurately represent the ServiceNow customer. For example, while all U.S. government agencies roll up to “Government of the United States” under the GULT, we count each government agency that we contract with as a
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separate customer. Our customer count is subject to adjustments for acquisitions, spin-offs and other market activity; accordingly, we restate previously disclosed number of customers with ACV greater than $5 million calculations to allow for comparability. ACV is calculated based on the foreign exchange rate in effect at the time the contract was signed. Foreign exchange rate fluctuations could cause some variability in the number of customers with ACV greater than $5 million. We believe information regarding the total number of customers with ACV greater than $5 million provides useful information to investors because it is an indicator of our growing customer base and demonstrates the value customers are receiving from the Platform.
Free cash flow . We define free cash flow, a non-GAAP financial measure, as GAAP net cash provided by operating activities plus cash outflows for legal settlements and business combination and other related costs including compensation expense, reduced by purchases of property and equipment. Purchases of property and equipment are otherwise included in cash used in investing activities under GAAP. We believe information regarding free cash flow provides useful information to investors because it is an indicator of the strength and performance of our business operations. However, our calculation of free cash flow may not be comparable to similar measures used by other companies. A calculation of free cash flow is provided below:Year Ended December 31,2025 2024 2023
(dollars in millions)
GAAP net cash provided by operating activities
$ 5,444 $ 4,267 $ 3,398
Purchases of property and equipment (868) (852) (694)
Business combination and other related costs 60 23 24
Legal settlements — 17 —
Non-GAAP free cash flow
$ 4,636 $ 3,455 $ 2,728We have historically seen higher collections in the quarter ended March 31 due to seasonality in timing of entering into customer contracts, which is significantly higher in the quarter ended December 31. Additionally, we have historically seen higher disbursements in the quarters ended March 31 and September 30 due to payouts under our annual commission plans, purchases under our employee stock purchase plan, payouts under our bonus plans and coupon payments related to our 2030 Notes.Non-GAAP consolidated income from operations . Non-GAAP consolidated income from operations is identified as an additional measure of profit or loss. This non-GAAP measure is used by the chief operating decision maker to allocate resources and assess performance. We define non-GAAP consolidated income from operations as income from operations excluding certain non-cash or non-recurring items, including stock-based compensation expense, amortization of purchased intangibles, legal settlements, impairment of assets, severance costs, contract termination costs and business combination and other related costs including compensation expense. We believe these adjustments provide useful supplemental information to investors and facilitate the analysis of our operating results and comparison of those results across reporting periods. The following table shows the reconciliation of our reported consolidated income from operations to non-GAAP consolidated income from operations.
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Year Ended December 31,
2025 2024 2023
(dollars in millions)
GAAP income from operations $ 1,824 $ 1,364 $ 762
Stock-based compensation 1,955 1,746 1,604
Amortization of purchased intangibles 120 94 85
Business combination and other related costs 109 33 38
Impairment of assets
30 — —
Severance costs
74 — —
Legal settlements — 17 —
Contract termination costs 37 — —
Non-GAAP income from operations $ 4,149 $ 3,254 $ 2,489
Renewal rate . We calculate our renewal rate by subtracting our attrition rate from 100%. Our attrition rate for a period is equal to the ACV from customers lost during the period, divided by the sum of (i) the total ACV from all customers that renewed during the period, excluding changes in price or users, and (ii) the total ACV from all customers lost during the period. Accordingly, our renewal rate is calculated based on ACV and is not based on the number of customers that have renewed. Further, our renewal rate does not reflect increased or decreased purchases from our customers to the extent such customers are not lost customers or lapsed renewals. A lost customer is a customer that did not renew an expiring contract and that, in our judgment, will not be renewed. Typically, a customer that reduces its subscription upon renewal is not considered a lost customer. However, in instances where the subscription decrease represents the majority of the customer’s ACV, we may deem the renewal as a lost customer. For our renewal rate calculation, we define a customer as an entity with a separate production instance of our service and an active subscription contract as of the measurement date, instead of an entity with a unique GULT or DUNS number. We adjust our renewal rate for acquisitions, consolidations and other customer events that cause the merging of two or more accounts occurring at the time of renewal. Our renewal rate was 98% for each of the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023. As our renewal rate is impacted by the timing of renewals, which could occur in advance of, or subsequent to the original contract end date, period-to-period comparison of renewal rates may not be meaningful.Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates
Our management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations is based on our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements, as well as the reported revenues and expenses during the reporting periods. These items are monitored and analyzed by us for changes in facts and circumstances, and material changes in these estimates could occur in the future. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying value of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Changes in estimates are reflected in reported results for the period in which they become known. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions and such differences could be material.While our significant accounting policies are more fully described in Note 2 “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” in the notes to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we believe that the following accounting policies are critical to the process of making significant judgments and estimates in the preparation of our audited consolidated financial statements.
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Part IIRevenue Recognition
We derive our revenues predominately from subscription revenues, which are primarily comprised of subscription fees that give customers access to the ordered subscription service, related support and updates, if any, to the subscribed service during the subscription term. For our cloud services, we recognize subscription revenues ratably over the contract term beginning on the commencement date of each contract, the date we make our services available to our customers. Our contracts with customers typically include a fixed amount of consideration and are generally non-cancellable and without any refund-type provisions.
Subscription revenues also include revenues from self-hosted offerings in which customers deploy, or we grant customers the option to deploy without significant penalty, our subscription service internally or contract with a third party to host the software. For these contracts, we account for the software element separately from the related support and updates as they are distinct performance obligations. The transaction price is allocated to separate performance obligations on a relative standalone selling price (“SSP”) basis. The transaction price allocated to the software element is recognized when transfer of control of the software to the customer is complete. The transaction price allocated to the related support and updates are recognized ratably over the contract term.We enter into contracts that can include various combinations of products and services, which are generally capable of being distinct and accounted for as separate performance obligations. For these contracts, the transaction price is allocated to the separate performance obligations on a relative SSP basis. Evaluating the terms and conditions included within our customer contracts for appropriate revenue recognition and determining whether products and services are considered distinct performance obligations that should be accounted for separately versus together may require significant judgment.
Deferred Commissions
Deferred commissions are the incremental selling costs that are associated with acquiring customer contracts and consist primarily of sales commissions paid to our sales organization and referral fees paid to independent third parties. Commissions and referral fees earned upon the execution of initial and expansion contracts are primarily deferred and amortized over a period of benefit that we have determined to be five years consistent with prior year. Commissions earned upon the renewal of customer contracts are deferred and amortized over the average renewal term. Additionally, for self-hosted offerings, consistent with the recognition of subscription revenues for self-hosted offerings, a portion of the commission cost is expensed upfront when the self-hosted offering is made available. Determining the period of benefit, including average renewal term, requires judgment for which we take into consideration our customer contracts, our technology life cycle and other factors.
Business CombinationsThe allocation of the purchase price in a business combination requires management to make significant estimates in determining the fair value of acquired assets and assumed liabilities, especially with respect to intangible assets. The excess of the purchase price in a business combination over the fair value of these tangible and intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed is recorded as goodwill. Critical estimates in valuing certain intangible assets include, but are not limited to, future expected cash flows, discount rates, revenue growth rates, royalty rates, technology migration rates and profit margin a market participant would receive. These estimates are inherently uncertain and unpredictable and, as a result, actual results may differ from estimates. We typically engage third party valuation appraisal firms to assist us in determining the fair values of intangible assets, including the relief from royalty method and multi-period excess earnings method used to calculate the fair values under the income approach. We evaluate these estimates and assumptions as new information is obtained and may record adjustments to the fair value of the tangible and intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed but not later than one year from the acquisition date.
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Part IIIncome Taxes
Our annual tax rate is based on our income, statutory tax rates and tax planning opportunities available to us in the various jurisdictions in which we operate. Tax laws are complex and subject to different interpretations by the taxpayer and respective government taxing authorities. Significant judgment is required in determining our tax expense (benefit) and in evaluating our tax positions, including evaluating uncertainties and the complexity of taxes on foreign earnings. We review our tax positions quarterly and adjust the balances as new information becomes available.
Deferred tax assets represent amounts available to reduce income taxes payable on taxable income in future years. Such assets arise because of temporary differences between the financial reporting and tax bases of assets and liabilities, as well as from net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards. We evaluate the recoverability of these future tax deductions and credits by assessing the adequacy of future expected taxable income from all sources, including future growth, forecasted earnings, future taxable income, the mix of earnings in the jurisdictions in which we operate, historical earnings, taxable income in prior years, if carryback is permitted under the law, carryforward periods and prudent and feasible tax planning strategies. A valuation allowance is established if it is more likely than not that all or a portion of the deferred tax asset will not be realized. To the extent sufficient positive evidence becomes available, we may release all or a portion of our valuation allowance in one or more future periods. A release of the valuation allowance, if any, would result in the recognition of certain deferred tax assets and a material income tax benefit for the period in which such release is recorded.We regularly assess the need for a valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets. In making that assessment, we consider both positive and negative evidence related to the likelihood of realization of the deferred tax assets to determine, based on the weight of available evidence, whether it is more likely than not that some or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. As of June 30, 2023, we achieved cumulative U.S. income during the prior twelve quarters when considering pre-tax income adjusted for permanent differences and other comprehensive losses. Based on all available positive and negative evidence, having demonstrated sustained profitability which is objective and verifiable, and taking into account anticipated future earnings, we concluded it is more likely than not that our U.S. federal and state deferred tax assets will be realizable, with the exception of California. We released $1.05 billion of our valuation allowance during the year ended December 31, 2023. As of December 31, 2025 and 2024, we maintained a valuation allowance of $241 million and $220 million, respectively, against our California deferred tax assets due to the uncertainty regarding realizability of these deferred tax assets as they have not met the “more likely than not” realization criteria, particularly as we expect research and development tax credit generation to exceed our ability to use the credits in future years. We will continue to monitor the need for a valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets on a quarterly basis. Refer to Note 17 “Provision for (Benefit from) Income Taxes” in the notes to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information on our valuation allowance.Our tax positions are subject to income tax audits by multiple tax jurisdictions throughout the world. We recognize the tax benefit of an uncertain tax position only if it is more likely than not the position is sustainable upon examination by the taxing authority based on the technical merits. We measure the tax benefit recognized as the largest amount of benefit which is more likely than not to be realized upon settlement with the taxing authority. We recognize interest accrued and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits in our tax provision. Significant judgment is required to evaluate uncertain tax positions. Our evaluations are based upon a number of factors, including changes in facts or circumstances, changes in tax law or guidance, correspondence with tax authorities during the course of audits and effective settlement of audit issues. Changes in the recognition or measurement of uncertain tax positions could result in material increases or decreases in our income tax expense in the period in which we make the change, which could have a material impact on our effective tax rate and operating results.
We calculate the current and deferred income tax provision based on estimates and assumptions that could differ from the actual results reflected in income tax returns filed in subsequent years and record adjustments based on filed income tax returns when identified. The amount of income taxes paid is subject to examination by U.S. federal, state and foreign tax authorities. The estimate of the potential outcome of any uncertain tax issue is subject to management’s assessment of relevant risks, facts and circumstances existing at that time. To the extent the assessment of such tax position changes, we record the change in estimate in the period in which we make the determination.2025 Annual Report 53
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Part IIComponents of Results of Operations
RevenuesSubscription revenues . Subscription revenues are primarily comprised of fees that give customers access to the ordered subscription service for both self-hosted offerings and cloud-based subscription offerings, and related standard and enhanced support and updates, if any, to the subscription service during the subscription term. For our cloud-based offerings, we recognize revenue ratably over the subscription term. For self-hosted offerings, a substantial portion of the sales price is recognized upon delivery of the software, which may cause greater variability in our subscription revenues and subscription gross margin. Pricing includes multiple instances, hosting and support services, data backup and disaster recovery services, as well as future updates, when and if available, offered during the subscription term. We typically invoice our customers for subscription fees in annual increments upon execution of the initial contract or subsequent renewal. Our contracts are generally non- cancellable during the subscription term, though a customer can terminate for breach if we materially fail to perform.
Professional services and other revenues . Our arrangements for professional services are primarily on a time- and-materials basis, and we generally invoice our customers monthly in arrears for the professional services based on actual hours and expenses incurred. Some of our professional services arrangements are on a fixed-fee basis. Professional services revenues are recognized as services are delivered. Other revenues primarily consist of fees from customer training delivered on-site or through publicly available classes. Typical payment terms require our customers to pay us within 30 days of invoice.
We sell our subscription services primarily through our direct sales organization. We also sell services through managed service providers and resale partners. We also generate revenues from certain professional services and from training of customers and partner personnel, through both our direct team and indirect sales channel. Revenues from our direct sales organization represented 78% of our total revenues for each of the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024 and 79% of our total revenues for the year ended December 31, 2023. For purposes of calculating revenues from our direct sales organization, revenues from systems integrators and managed services providers are included as part of the direct sales organization.Seasonality . We have historically experienced seasonality in terms of when we enter into customer agreements. We sign a significantly higher percentage of agreements with new customers, as well as expansion with existing customers, in the fourth quarter of each year. The increase in customer agreements for the fourth quarter is primarily a result of both large enterprise account buying patterns typical in the software industry, which are driven primarily by the expiration of annual authorized budgeted expenditures, and the terms of our commission plans, which incentivize our direct sales organization to meet their annual quotas by December 31. Furthermore, we usually sign a significant portion of these agreements during the last month, and often the last two weeks, of each quarter. This seasonality of entering into customer agreements is sometimes not immediately apparent in our revenues, due to the fact that we recognize subscription revenues from our cloud offering contracts over the term of the subscription agreement, which is generally 12 to 36 months. In addition, we continue to see an increase in the number of 12-month agreements entered into with the U.S. federal government throughout the year, with the highest number of agreements entered into in the third quarter, driven primarily by the timing of their annual budget expenditures. This larger mix of contracts with 12-month renewal terms in the third quarter will generally cause variability in our RPO and cRPO in subsequent quarters until they are renewed. Although these seasonal factors may be common in the technology industry, historical patterns should not be considered a reliable indicator of our future sales activity or performance.54
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Part IICost of Revenues
Cost of subscription revenues . Cost of subscription revenues consists primarily of expenses related to hosting our services and providing support to our customers. These expenses are comprised of data center capacity costs, which include colocation costs associated with our data centers as well as interconnectivity between data centers, depreciation related to our infrastructure hardware equipment dedicated for customer use, amortization of intangible assets, expenses associated with software, public cloud service costs, IT services and dedicated customer support, personnel-related costs directly associated with data center operations and customer support, including salaries, benefits, bonuses, stock-based compensation and allocated overhead.Cost of professional services and other revenues. Cost of professional services and other revenues consists primarily of personnel-related costs directly associated with our professional services and training departments, including salaries, benefits, bonuses and stock-based compensation, the costs of contracted third-party partners, travel expenses and allocated overhead.
Professional services are performed directly by our services team, as well as by contracted third-party partners. Fees paid by us to third-party partners are primarily recognized as cost of revenues as the professional services are delivered. Cost of revenues associated with our professional services engagements contracted with third- party partners as a percentage of professional services and other revenues was 35%, 24% and 10% for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively.Sales and MarketingSales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel-related expenses directly associated with our sales and marketing staff, including salaries, benefits, bonuses, stock-based compensation and allocated overhead. Sales and marketing expenses also include the amortization of commissions paid to our sales employees, including related payroll taxes and fringe benefits. In addition, sales and marketing expenses include branding expenses, marketing program expenses, which include events such as Knowledge, and costs associated with purchasing advertising and marketing data, software and subscription services dedicated for sales and marketing use and allocated overhead.Research and Development
Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel-related expenses directly associated with our research and development staff, including salaries, benefits, bonuses, stock-based compensation and allocated overhead. Research and development expenses also include data center capacity costs, costs associated with outside services contracted for research and development purposes and depreciation of infrastructure hardware equipment that is used solely for research and development purposes.2025 Annual Report 55
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Part IIGeneral and Administrative
General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel-related expenses for our executive, finance, legal, human resources, facilities and administrative personnel, including salaries, benefits, bonuses, stock-based compensation, external legal, accounting and other professional services fees, other corporate expenses, amortization of intangible assets and allocated overhead.
Provision for (Benefit from) Income TaxesProvision for (benefit from) income taxes consists of federal, state and foreign income taxes. Our income tax provision for the year ended December 31, 2025 is primarily attributable to the mix of earnings and losses in countries with differing statutory tax rates, offset by excess tax benefits of stock-based compensation. We continue to maintain a valuation allowance against our California deferred tax assets due to the uncertainty regarding realizability of these deferred tax assets as they have not met the “more likely than not” realization criteria, particularly as we expect research and development tax credit generation to exceed our ability to use the credits in future years.
Comparison of the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024Revenues
Year Ended December 31, % Change2025 2024(dollars in millions)
Revenues:Subscription $ 12,883 $ 10,646 21 %
Professional services and other 395 338 17 %
Total revenues $ 13,278 $ 10,984 21 %Percentage of revenues:
Subscription 97 % 97 %
Professional services and other 3 % 3 %
Total 100 % 100 %Subscription revenues increased by $2.2 billion for the year ended December 31, 2025, compared to the prior year, primarily driven by increased purchases by new and existing customers. Included in subscription revenues is $492 million and $409 million of revenues recognized upfront from the delivery of software associated with self-hosted offerings during the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively.
We expect subscription revenues for the year ending December 31, 2026 to increase in absolute dollars and remain relatively flat as a percentage of revenue as we continue to add new customers and existing customers increase their usage of our products compared to the year ended December 31, 2025.
Our expectations for revenues, cost of revenues and operating expenses for the year ending December 31, 2026 are based on the 31-day average of foreign exchange rates for December 31, 2025.
Professional services and other revenues increased by $57 million for the year ended December 31, 2025, compared to the prior year, due to an increase in services and trainings provided to new and existing customers.
We expect professional services and other revenues for the year ending December 31, 2026 to increase in absolute dollars and remain relatively flat as a percentage of revenue compared to the year ended December 31, 2025.
56Table of ContentsPart IICost of Revenues and Gross Profit Percentage
Year Ended December 31, % Change2025 2024(dollars in millions)
Cost of revenues:Subscription $ 2,569 $ 1,942 32 %
Professional services and other 414 345 20 %
Total cost of revenues $ 2,983 $ 2,287 30 %Gross profit (loss) percentage:Subscription 80 % 82 %
Professional services and other (5 %) (2 %)
Total gross profit percentage 78 % 79 %
Gross profit: $ 10,295 $ 8,697 18 %
Cost of subscription revenues increased by $627 million for the year ended December 31, 2025, compared to the prior year, primarily due to increased headcount and increased costs to support the growth of our subscription offerings including costs to support customers in regulated markets. Personnel-related costs, including stock- based compensation and overhead expenses, increased by $307 million as compared to the prior year. Depreciation expense related to infrastructure hardware equipment and expenses associated with software, maintenance, third-party cloud services and other costs, which together support the expansion of data center capacity increased by $277 million for the year ended December 31, 2025, as compared to the prior year.
We expect our cost of subscription revenues for the year ending December 31, 2026 to increase in absolute dollars as we provide subscription services to more customers and increase usage within our customer instances and increase slightly as a percentage of revenue compared to the year ended December 31, 2025. We will continue to incur incremental costs to attract customers in regulated markets by adopting public cloud offerings as well as increased support for customers impacted by new and evolving data residency requirements. To the extent future acquisitions are consummated, our cost of subscription revenues may increase due to additional non-cash charges associated with the amortization of intangible assets acquired.
Our subscription gross profit percentage was 80% and 82% for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. We expect our subscription gross profit percentage to decrease slightly for the year ending December 31, 2026 compared to the year ended December 31, 2025, primarily due to the ongoing growth of our third-party cloud services usage and incremental amortization expense of intangible assets acquired through acquisitions completed during the year ended December 31, 2025.
Cost of professional services and other revenues increased by $69 million for the year ended December 31, 2025 as compared to the prior year, primarily driven by an increase in partner ecosystem spend to further help accelerate customer value realization.
Our professional services and other gross loss percentage was 5% for the year ended December 31, 2025, compared to 2% in the prior year, and was primarily driven by partner ecosystem spend to further help accelerate customer value realization increasing at a faster rate than revenue. We expect our professional services and other gross loss percentage to increase for the year ending December 31, 2026 compared to the year ended December 31, 2025.
2025 Annual Report 57Table of ContentsPart IISales and Marketing
Year Ended December 31, % Change2025 2024(dollars in millions)Sales and marketing $ 4,388 $ 3,854 14 %
Percentage of revenues 33% 35%
Sales and marketing expenses increased by $534 million for the year ended December 31, 2025, compared to the prior year, primarily due to increased headcount resulting in an increase in personnel-related costs including stock-based compensation and overhead expenses of $332 million, compared to the prior year. Amortization expenses associated with deferred commissions increased by $67 million, compared to the prior year, due to an increase in contracts with new customers, expansion and renewal contracts. Other sales and marketing program expenses, which include branding, costs associated with purchasing advertising, marketing events and market data, increased by $68 million compared to the prior year, primarily due to increased program costs and travel costs for our annual Knowledge user conference.
We expect sales and marketing expenses for the year ending December 31, 2026 to increase in absolute dollars and to decrease slightly as a percentage of revenue compared to the year ended December 31, 2025, as we continue to see leverage from increased sales productivity and marketing efficiencies.Research and Development
Year Ended December 31, % Change2025 2024(dollars in millions)Research and development $ 2,960 $ 2,543 16 %
Percentage of revenues 22% 23%
Research and development expenses (“R&D”) increased by $417 million during the year ended December 31, 2025, compared to the prior year, primarily due to increased headcount resulting in an increase in personnel- related costs including stock-based compensation and overhead expenses of $383 million compared to the prior year.
We expect R&D expenses for the year ending December 31, 2026 to increase in absolute dollars but remain relatively flat as a percentage of revenue compared to the year ended December 31, 2025, as we continue to improve the existing functionality of our services, develop new applications to fill market needs and enhance our core platform.
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Part IIGeneral and Administrative
Year Ended December 31, % Change2025 2024(dollars in millions)General and administrative $ 1,123 $ 936 20 %
Percentage of revenues 8% 9%
General and administrative expenses (“G&A”) increased by $187 million during the year ended December 31, 2025, compared to the prior year, primarily due to increased headcount resulting in an increase in personnel- related costs including stock-based compensation of $39 million and an increase in outside services of $78 million. The remaining increase was primarily due to an increase in contract termination costs of $37 million and impairment of assets of $30 million for the year ended December 31, 2025, compared to the prior year.
We expect G&A expenses for the year ending December 31, 2026 to decrease in absolute dollars and to decrease slightly as a percentage of revenue compared to the year ended December 31, 2025, as we continue to see leverage from continued G&A productivity.Stock-based Compensation
Year Ended December 31, % Change2025 2024(dollars in millions)
Cost of revenues:Subscription $ 300 $ 250 20 %
Professional services and other 44 46 (4 %)Operating expenses:Sales and marketing 586 565 4 %
Research and development 791 655 21 %
General and administrative 234 230 2 %
Total stock-based compensation $ 1,955 $ 1,746 12 %
Percentage of revenues 15% 16%
Stock-based compensation increased by $209 million during the year ended December 31, 2025, compared to the prior year, primarily due to additional grants to current and new employees.
Stock-based compensation is inherently difficult to forecast due to fluctuations in our stock price. Based upon our stock price as of December 31, 2025, we expect stock-based compensation to continue to increase in absolute dollars for the year ending December 31, 2026 as we continue to issue stock-based awards to our employees but remain relatively flat as a percentage of revenue compared to the year ended December 31, 2025. We expect stock-based compensation as a percentage of revenue to decline over time as we continue to grow.
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Part IIForeign Currency ExchangeOur international operations have provided and will continue to provide a significant portion of our total revenues. Revenues outside North America represented 37% of total revenues for each of the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024.
Because we primarily transact in foreign currencies for sales outside of the United States, the general weakening of the U.S. Dollar relative to other major foreign currencies had a favorable impact on our revenues for the year ended December 31, 2025. For entities reporting in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar, if we had translated our results for the year ended December 31, 2025 at the exchange rates in effect for the year ended December 31, 2024 rather than the actual exchange rates in effect during the period, our reported subscription revenues would have been $128 million lower, excluding the impact of our cash flow hedging program. The impact from the foreign currency movements for the year ended December 31, 2025 compared to December 31, 2024 was not material for professional services and other revenues.
In addition, we primarily transact in several foreign currencies for cost of revenues and operating expenses outside of the United States. The movement of the U.S. Dollar had an immaterial impact on our expenses for the year ended December 31, 2025.Interest Income
Year Ended December 31, % Change2025 2024(dollars in millions)Interest income $ 451 $ 419 8 %
Percentage of revenues 3% 4%
Interest income increased during the year ended December 31, 2025, compared to the prior year, primarily driven by an increase in investment income from our managed portfolio resulting from higher average portfolio balances.Other Expense, net
Year Ended December 31, % Change2025 2024(dollars in millions)Interest expense $ (23) $ (23) — %
Other 9 (22) (141 %)
Other expense, net $ (14) $ (45) (69 %)
Percentage of revenues —% —%
Other expense, net decreased by $31 million during the year ended December 31, 2025, compared to the prior year, primarily driven by unrealized gains on strategic investments.
To mitigate our risks associated with fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, we enter into foreign currency forward contracts with maturities of 12 months or less to hedge a portion of our net outstanding monetary assets and liabilities. These hedging contracts may reduce, but cannot entirely eliminate, the impact of adverse currency exchange rate movements. The gains recognized for foreign currency forward contracts from derivatives not designated as hedging instruments in other expense, net of $97 million, primarily offset the remeasurement losses of the related foreign currency denominated assets and liabilities of $113 million for the
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year ended December 31, 2025. The gains (losses) recognized for these foreign currency forward contracts in other expense, net, were immaterial for the year ended December 31, 2024.
Provision for Income TaxesYear Ended December 31, % Change2025 2024(dollars in millions)Income before income taxes $ 2,261 $ 1,738 30 %
Provision for income taxes
513 313 64 %
Effective tax rate 23% 18%
The income tax provision was $513 million and $313 million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. The income tax provision was primarily attributable to the mix of earnings and losses in countries with differing statutory tax rates, offset by excess tax benefits of stock-based compensation.
On July 4, 2025, H.R. 1, the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," was enacted into law, bringing significant amendments to the U.S. tax code. This legislation extends and modifies provisions from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and introduces new tax measures affecting both businesses and individuals. The enacted legislation had an immaterial impact on the Company’s effective tax rate for the year ended December 31, 2025. The Company will continue to monitor any future changes in its business or interpretations of the new tax law that could affect its tax position in subsequent periods.Liquidity and Capital ResourcesWe generate cash inflows from operations primarily from selling subscription services which are generally paid in advance of provisioning services, and expend cash outflows to develop new services and core technologies that further enhance the Platform, engage our customers and enhance their experience, and enable and transform our business operations. Subscription services arrangements typically have a three-year duration, and we have experienced a renewal rate of 98% for each of the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023. Cash outflows from operations are principally comprised of the salaries, bonuses, commissions, and benefits for our workforce, licenses and services arrangements, including cloud services, that are integral to our business operations and data centers and operating lease arrangements that underlie our facilities. We have generated positive operating cash flows for more than ten years as we continue to grow our business in pursuit of our business strategy, and we expect to grow our business and generate positive cash flows from operations during 2026. When assessing sources of liquidity, we also include cash and cash equivalents, marketable securities and long-term marketable securities totaling $10.1 billion as of December 31, 2025.
Our capital requirements are principally comprised of capital expenditures to support data center capacity expansion, non-contract workforce salaries, bonuses, commissions, and benefits and, to a lesser extent, cancellable and non-cancellable licenses, operating leases and services arrangements that are integral to our business operations. We also acquire technology and businesses to expand our service offerings and functionality. Our capital expenditures are under cancellable and non-cancellable arrangements. Non-cancellable purchase commitments for business operations total $7.9 billion as of December 31, 2025, which are due primarily over the next five years. Operating lease obligations totaling $1.1 billion are principally associated with leased facilities and have varying maturities with $687 million due over the next five years.
Our supply chain finance (“SCF”) program provides suppliers with the opportunity to sell their receivables due from us to a global financial institution. A supplier’s election to receive early payment at a discounted amount from the financial institution does not change the amount that we must remit to the financial institution on our payment date, which is generally 90 days from the invoice date. As of December 31, 2025, our outstanding payment
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obligations to suppliers participating in the SCF program totaled $87 million. These obligations are included in accounts payable in our consolidated balance sheets, and all activity related to these obligations is presented within operating activities in the consolidated statements of cash flows.
We may repurchase our shares of common stock through open market purchases, accelerated share repurchase transactions, privately negotiated transactions or by other means, with the objective to return value to our stockholders and manage the dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs. In May 2023, our board of directors authorized a program to repurchase up to $1.5 billion of our common stock and authorized an additional $3.0 billion in repurchases under the program in January 2025. During the year ended December 31, 2025, the Company repurchased 10.3 million shares of our common stock for $1.8 billion. All repurchases were made in open market transactions. Repurchases of common stock are recognized as treasury stock and held for future issuance. As of December 31, 2025, approximately $1.4 billion of the authorized amount under the share repurchase program remained available for future repurchases. In January 2026, our board of directors authorized an additional $5.0 billion in repurchases under the Share Repurchase Program.
We have also issued long-term debt to finance our business . In August 2020, we issued 1.40% fixed rate ten-year notes with an aggregate principal amount of $1.5 billion due on September 1, 2030 (the “2030 Notes”).
Our operating cash flows, together with our other sources of liquidity, are available to service our liabilities as well as our cancellable and non-cancellable arrangements. We anticipate cash flows generated from operations, cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities and long-term marketable securities will be sufficient to meet our liquidity needs for at least the next 12 months, although we do expect to seek additional debt financing to fund our acquisition of Armis Security Ltd. discussed in Note 5 “Business Combinations” in the notes to our consolidated financial statements. As we look beyond the next 12 months, we seek to continue to grow cash flows necessary to fund our operations and grow our business. If we require additional capital resources, we may seek to finance our operations from the current funds available or additional equity or debt financing.Year Ended December 31,2025 2024(dollars in millions)Net cash provided by operating activities $ 5,444 $ 4,267
Net cash used in investing activities (1,689) (2,501)
Net cash used in financing activities (2,340) (1,343)
Net increase in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash 1,422 406Operating ActivitiesNet cash provided by operating activities was $5,444 million for the year ended December 31, 2025 compared to $4,267 million for the prior year. The net increase in operating cash flows was primarily due to higher collections driven by revenue growth.Investing ActivitiesNet cash used in investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2025 was $1,689 million compared to $2,501 million for the prior year. The net decrease in cash used in investing activities was primarily due to a $2,603 million decrease in net purchases of marketable securities, partially offset by an $875 million increase in purchases of strategic investments and a $971 million increase in cash used in business combinations.
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Part IIFinancing ActivitiesNet cash used in financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2025 was $2,340 million compared to $1,343 million for the prior year. The net increase in cash used in financing activities is due to a $1,144 million increase in repurchases of common stock and a $70 million increase in taxes paid related to net share settlement of equity awards, offset by a $184 million decrease in business combination related to the second installment payment in the acquisition of G2K Group GmbH and a $33 million increase in proceeds from employee stock plans.Contractual Obligations and CommitmentsOur estimated future obligations consist of leases, various non-cancellable agreements with cloud service providers and an information technology equipment provider, purchase obligations, debt and unrecognized tax benefits as of December 31, 2025. Refer to Note 18 “Commitments and Contingencies” and Note 17 “Provision for (Benefit from) Income Taxes” to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for more information.
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