Climb Global Solutions (CLMB) Risk Analysis

The evaluation of, and compliance with these laws, regulations and similar requirements may be onerous and expensive, and these laws and regulations may have other adverse impacts on our business, results of operations or cash flows. Furthermore, these laws and regulations are evolving and may be inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, further increasing the cost of compliance and doing business, and the risk of noncompliance. We have implemented policies and procedures designed to help ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, but there can be no guarantee against coworkers, contractors or agents violating such laws and regulations or our policies and procedures. As a public company, we also are subject to increasingly complex public disclosure, corporate governance and accounting requirements that increase compliance costs and require significant management focus.

We may be liable for misuse of our customers' or employees' information.  Third-parties, such as hackers, could circumvent or sabotage the security practices and products used in our product and service offerings, and/or the security practices or products used in our internal IT systems, which could result in disclosure of sensitive or personal information, unauthorized procurement, or other business interruptions that could damage our reputation and disrupt our business. Attacks may range from random attempts to coordinated and targeted attacks, including sophisticated computer crime and advanced persistent threats. Our employees work in a hybrid environment, which includes splitting time between working from the office and working from home, we are highly reliant on the availability and functionality of our information systems to enable our operations. Working from home may increase risk of data loss, including privacy-related events. If our information systems are not operational for reasons which may include cyber security attacks, data center failures, failures by telecom providers to provide services to our business and to our employees' homes, power failures, or failures of off-premise software such as SaaS based software, our business and financial results may be adversely impacted. If third-parties or our employees are able to maliciously penetrate our network security or otherwise misappropriate our customers' information or employees' personal information, or other information for which our customers may be responsible and for which we agree to be responsible in connection with service contracts into which we may enter, or if we give third-parties or our employees improper access to certain information, we could be subject to liability. This liability could include claims for unauthorized access to devices on our network; unauthorized access to our customers' networks, hardware, applications, data, devices, or software; unauthorized purchases with credit card information; and identity theft or other similar fraud-related claims. This liability could also include claims for other misuses of or inappropriate access to personal information. Other liability could include claims alleging misrepresentation of our privacy and data security practices. Any such liability for misappropriation of this information could decrease our profitability. In addition, federal and state agencies have been investigating various companies regarding whether they misused or inadequately secured information. We could incur additional expenses when new laws or regulations regarding the use, safeguarding, or privacy of information are enacted, or if governmental agencies require us to substantially modify our privacy or security practices. We could fail to comply with international and domestic data privacy laws, the violation of which may result in audits, fines, penalties, litigation, or administrative enforcement actions with associated costs.

Our effective tax rate may be adversely affected by fluctuations in the geographic distribution of earnings, which may subject earnings to different or multiple statutory tax rates. Shifts in the business environment or changes in tax laws and regulations in each jurisdiction in which we operate may also adversely affect our effective tax rate. In recent years, numerous domestic and international tax proposals have been issued and enacted which have increased the tax burden on large multinational companies. For example, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has advanced new tax proposals affecting international taxation, including the establishment of a global minimum tax of 15%, which many countries are either considering implementing or have already implemented. Any new tax legislation could impact our tax obligations in the countries where we operate, leading to increased taxation of our international earnings. Moreover, changes to U.S. or foreign tax laws could have broader implications, including indirect effects on the economy, currency markets, inflation, or competitive dynamics, which are difficult to predict and may negatively impact us. Such tax developments could further increase uncertainty and have a material adverse impact on our, effective tax rate, and financial results.

We compete in all areas of our business against local, regional, national, and international firms. Some of our current competitors have substantially greater capital resources and sales and distribution capabilities than we do. In response to competitive pressures from any of our current or future competitors, we may be required to lower selling prices in order to maintain or increase market share, and such measures could adversely affect our operating results. In addition, we face competition from vendors, which may choose to market their products directly to end-users, rather than through channel partners such as the Company, and this could adversely affect our future sales. Many competitors compete based principally on price and may have lower costs or accept lower selling prices than we do and, therefore, our gross margins may not be maintainable. Our gross margins have declined historically and may continue to decline in the future. Our competitors may offer better or different products and services than we offer. In addition, we do not have guaranteed purchasing volume commitments from our customers and, therefore, our sales volume may be volatile.

Our results of operations are influenced by a variety of factors, including the condition of the IT industry, general economic conditions, shifts in demand for, or availability of, computer products and software and IT services and industry introductions of new products, upgrades or methods of distribution. The information technology products industry is characterized by abrupt changes in technology, rapid changes in customer preferences, short product life cycles and evolving industry standards. Net sales can be dependent on demand for specific product categories, and any change in demand for or supply of such products could have a material adverse effect on our net sales, and/or cause us to record write-downs of obsolete inventory, if we fail to react in a timely manner to such changes.

We sell our products to a large and diverse customer base. We finance a significant portion of such sales through trade credit, typically by providing 30 to 60-day payment terms. In addition, we offer extended payment terms to certain customers for terms of up to two years. As a result, our business could be adversely affected in the event of a deterioration of the financial condition of our customers, resulting in the customers' inability to repay us. This risk may increase if there is a general economic downturn affecting a large number of our customers and in the event our customers do not adequately manage their business or properly disclose their financial condition. Also, certain of our larger customers require greater than 30-day payment terms which could increase our credit risk and decrease our operating cash flow.

We believe that our success to date has been, and future results of operations likely will be, dependent in large part upon our ability to provide prompt and efficient service to clients. Our ability to provide such services is dependent largely on the accuracy, quality and utilization of the information generated by our IT systems, which affect our ability to manage our sales, client service, distribution, inventories and accounting systems and the reliability of our data networks.

Generally, economic downturns, may cause some of our current and potential customers to delay or reduce technology purchases, resulting in longer sales cycles, slower adoption of new technologies and increased price competition. We may, therefore, experience a greater decline in demand for the products we sell, resulting in increased competition and pressure to reduce the cost of operations. Any benefits from cost reductions may take longer to realize and may not fully mitigate the impact of the reduced demand. In addition, weak financial and credit markets heighten the risk of customer bankruptcies and create a corresponding delay in collecting receivables from those customers and may also affect our vendors' ability to supply products, which could disrupt our operations. The realization of any or all these risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.