IBEX (IBEX) Risk Factors

We operate in and provide solutions to our clients' customers in multiple countries and continents around the world and in varied industries, including highly-regulated ones. We also have and may seek to expand operations in emerging market jurisdictions where legal systems may be less developed or familiar to us. As a result, we are subject to numerous, and sometimes conflicting, legal regimes on matters as diverse as outsourcing, anti-corruption, content requirements, trade restrictions and similar controls, tariffs, taxation, sanctions, export control, anti-corruption, anti-bribery, employment, immigration, internal and disclosure control obligations, securities regulation, anti-competition, data security, privacy, taxation, and labor protection and relations. We may be particularly impacted by legal regimes regarding the following: - Data Privacy Laws. We and our customers may be subject to privacy- and data protection-related laws and regulations that impose obligations in connection with the collection, use, storage, transfer, dissemination, security, and/or other processing ("Processing") of personal information (such personal information collectively with all information defined or described by applicable law as "personal data," "personally identifiable information," "PII" or any similar term, is referred to as personal information), data, financial data, health data or other similar data. In the United States, the privacy and data protection rules and regulations to which we may be subject include those promulgated under the authority of the FTC, state regulators, and regulator enforcement positions and expectations. Similarly, many foreign countries and governmental bodies, including the EU member states and the United Kingdom, have laws and regulations concerning the processing of personal information obtained from their residents and individuals located in the EU or UK or by businesses operating within their jurisdiction, which are often more restrictive and apply more broadly than those in the United States. We also are-or would be-subject to data protection and information security laws in other jurisdictions in which we operate, including in the Philippines and Pakistan. Laws in these and other countries are continuing to evolve. Any actual or perceived failure to safeguard personal information or other information in our possession or control, appropriately destroy or redact such data, or otherwise comply with these regulations may subject us to litigation, regulatory investigations, or enforcement actions, thus causing damage to our reputation and adversely affect our ability to attract or retain customers. - Telecommunications Laws. Working with clients in the telecommunications, technology and cable industries means that we may process or come into possession of data that must be treated with special care. For example, in the United States, telecommunications providers are subject to rules on the use and sharing of Customer Proprietary Network Information ("CPNI"). The Telecommunications Act of 1996 limits the uses to which such information may be put, and the parties with whom it may be shared, absent customer permission. It also requires that CPNI be adequately safeguarded. Two U.S. federal agencies, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") and the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC"), and various states have enacted laws including, at the federal level, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, that restrict the placing of certain telephone calls and texts to residential and wireless telephone subscribers by means of automatic telephone dialing systems, prerecorded or artificial voice messages and fax machines. Internationally, we are also subject to similar laws imposing limitations on marketing calls to wireline and wireless numbers and compliance with do not call rules. These laws require companies to institute processes and safeguards to comply with these restrictions. Some of these laws can be enforced by the FTC, FCC, state attorney generals, foreign regulators or private party litigants. - Import and Export Laws. Various countries regulate the import and export of certain encryption and other technology, including import and export permitting and licensing requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our products or could limit our users' ability to access our products in those countries. Changes in our products, or future changes in export and import regulations may prevent our users with international operations from utilizing our products globally or, in some cases, prevent the export or import of our products to certain countries, governments, or persons altogether. Any change in export or import regulations, economic sanctions, or related legislation, or change in the countries, governments, persons, or technologies targeted by such regulations, could result in decreased use of our products by, or in our decreased ability to export or sell products to, existing or potential users with international operations. - Anti-Corruption Laws. In many parts of the world, including countries in which we operate or seek to expand, practices in the local business community may not conform to international business standards and could violate anti-corruption laws or regulations, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.K. Bribery Act 2010 and the Bermuda Bribery Act of 2016. Our employees, subcontractors, agents and other third parties with which we associate could take actions that violate our policies or procedures designed to promote legal and regulatory compliance or applicable anti-corruption laws or regulations. As we continue our international business, we may also engage with distributors and third-party intermediaries to market our solutions and to obtain necessary permits, licenses, and other regulatory approvals. In addition, we or our third-party intermediaries may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities. U.S. laws can often differ in various respects from the laws of the Philippines, Jamaica, Pakistan, and Nicaragua, where we have significant operations, and other jurisdictions where we operate or may seek to expand. The enforcement, requirements, and interpretations of these laws and regulations may change, and new laws, regulations, or other legal obligations or industry standards may arise. Compliance with diverse legal requirements is costly, time-consuming and requires significant resources. Compliance may also impair our competitiveness to the extent other jurisdictions have less or varied requirements for operation. Violations of one or more of these laws or regulations in the conduct of our business or in the performance of our obligations to our clients, including through third parties, could result in significant fines or penalties, civil enforcement actions, criminal prosecution or sanctions against us or our officers, disgorgement of profit, prohibitions on doing business, suspension or disqualification from work, including U.S. federal contracting, restrictions on the sale or supply of certain products and services, liability for significant monetary damages, unfavorable publicity and other reputational damage, restrictions on our ability to process information and allegations by our clients that we have not performed our contractual obligations. We can also be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of third-party intermediaries, our employees, representatives, contractors, partners and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities. Due to the varying degrees of development of the legal systems of the countries in which we operate, local laws might be insufficient to protect our rights. We cannot predict whether any material suits, claims, or investigations may arise in the future. Regardless of the outcome of any future actions, claims, or investigations, we may incur substantial defense costs and such actions may cause a diversion of management time and attention. Also, it is possible that we may be required to pay substantial damages or settlement costs.

The Bermuda Minister of Finance, under the Exempted Undertakings Tax Protection Act 1966 of Bermuda, as amended, has given us assurances that if any legislation is enacted in Bermuda that would impose tax computed on profits or income, or computed on any capital asset, gain or appreciation, or any tax in the nature of estate duty or inheritance tax, then the imposition of any such tax will not be applicable to us or any of our operations, shares, debentures or other obligations until March 31, 2035, except insofar as such tax applies to persons ordinarily residing in Bermuda or to any taxes payable by us in respect of real property owned or leased by us in Bermuda. Given the limited duration of the Bermuda Minister of Finance's assurance, we cannot assure shareholders that we will not be subject to any Bermuda tax after March 31, 2035.

The growth of our customer acquisition business depends in part upon growth in the number of our customers or subscribers we are able to acquire for our clients. The rate at which we convert consumers into customers or subscribers using our customer acquisition websites is a significant factor in the growth of our customer acquisition business. A number of factors could influence this conversion rate for any given period, some of which are outside of our control. These factors include: - the quality of the consumer experience on our customer acquisition websites and with our delivery center;- the variety and affordability of the products and services that we offer on behalf of our clients and carrier partners;- system failures or interruptions in the operation of our customer acquisition websites; and - changes in the mix of consumers who are referred to us through our direct marketing partners, online advertising subscriber acquisition channels and other marketing channels. Even if the rate at which we convert visitors to customers or subscribers declines, the marketing and lead generation costs that have already been incurred are unlikely to decline correspondingly. Therefore, such a decline in conversion rate of consumers visiting our customer acquisition websites is likely to result in reduced revenue and a further reduced margin.

We believe that our success is dependent, in part, upon protecting our intellectual property and proprietary information. We rely on a combination of intellectual property registrations, trade secrets and contractual restrictions to establish and protect our intellectual property. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property may provide only limited protection and may not now or in the future provide us with a competitive advantage. We may not be able to protect our intellectual property if we are unable to enforce our rights or if we do not detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property. Any of our intellectual property rights may be challenged by others or invalidated through administrative process or litigation. Furthermore, legal standards relating to the validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are uncertain. Despite our precautions, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to copy our technology and use information that we regard as proprietary to create products and services that compete with our solutions. In addition, the laws of some countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. No assurance can be given that confidentiality, invention assignment, and related agreements entered into by the Company will be effective in controlling access to and the distribution of our proprietary information. Further, such agreements may not prevent potential competitors from independently developing technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to ours, in which case we would not be able to assert trade secret rights. We may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights and to protect our trade secrets. Such litigation could be costly, time consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the eligibility, validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our proprietary technology against unauthorized copying or use, as well as any costly litigation, could make it more expensive for us to do business and adversely affect our operating results by delaying further sales or the implementation of our technologies, impairing the functionality of our platform and solutions, delaying introductions of new features or applications or injuring our reputation.

We have integrated, and will continue to integrate AI into our solutions. AI is likely to be an essential part of our future service offerings. While AI offers significant benefits, it also presents risks and challenges to our business. Some of the recently brought to market third-party AI solutions have the potential of replacing some of our lower tier service offerings which puts pressure on the ‘speed to market' for our efforts. At the same time, AI solutions are evolving and are not infallible, and issues with data sourcing, technology integration, program bias into decision-making algorithms, security challenges and the protection of personal information and privacy could impair our successful and timely adoption of this technology. If our AI solutions are deployed before they are perfected and the output from our AI solutions is deemed by clients to be questionable or inaccurate, our brand and reputation may be harmed and our results of operations may be impacted. On the other hand, if we are too slow to market and are unable to timely and effectively integrate and deploy AI in our offerings, we would fall behind our competitors and our results of operations and future prospects may also be impacted.

Our international operations, particularly in the Philippines, Jamaica, Pakistan and Nicaragua, and our ability to maintain our offshore facilities in those jurisdictions is an essential component of our business model, as the labor costs in certain of those jurisdictions are substantially lower than the cost of comparable labor in the United States and other developed countries, which allows us to competitively price our solutions. Our competitive advantage will be greatly diminished and may disappear altogether as a result of a number of factors, including the failure of power grids in certain of the countries in which we operate, which are subject to frequent outages, and those listed in the risk factors titled: - "Natural events, health epidemics (including the Pandemic), wars, widespread civil unrest, terrorist attacks and other acts of violence involving any of the countries in which we or our clients have operations could adversely affect our operations and client confidence";- "Fluctuations against the U.S. dollar in the local currencies in the countries in which we operate could have a material effect on our results of operations."- "Our global operations expose us to numerous legal and regulatory requirements."; and - "We rely on the attraction, retention, and motivation of qualified senior management, employees, and agents to support our success and operations."