Eplus (PLUS) Risk Analysis

As a provider of a comprehensive set of technology solutions, which involves the offering of bundled solutions consisting of direct IT sales, advanced professional and managed services, our proprietary software, and financing, we expect to encounter some of the challenges, risks, and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies providing bundled solutions in rapidly evolving markets. Some of these challenges include our ability to increase the total number of users of our services, adapt to meet changes in our markets and competitive developments, or continue to update our technology to enhance the features and functionality of our suite of products. Our personnel must continually stay current with vendor and marketplace technology advancements, develop solutions which may integrate evolving and multiple vendor products and services, as well as services and solutions we provide, to meet changing marketplace and customer demand. Further, we may provide customized solutions and services that are solely reliant on our own marketing, design, and fulfillment services, and we may lack the skills or personnel to execute. Our failure to innovate and provide bespoke value to our customers may erode our competitive position, market share and lead to reduced revenue and financial performance. We provide consulting services, project related services, service desk and managed services, and staffing to our customers. We may fail to design or execute a service in accordance with our contract which results in an error or omission, or in accordance with professional standards which may bring harm to our customers. Such harm could include technological or human failure that results in a cyber-related data breach, privacy incident, or other event that adversely impacts our customers' IT systems and/or business processes. In all our markets, some of our competitors have longer operating histories and greater financial, technical, marketing, and other resources than we do. In addition, some of these competitors may be able to respond more quickly to new or changing opportunities, technologies, and customer requirements such as generative AI. Many current competitors may have, and potential competitors may have, greater name recognition, greater financial, technical, research and development or other resources that we do. As compared to us, our current and potential competitors may engage in more extensive promotional marketing and advertising activities, offer more attractive terms to customers, adopt more aggressive pricing and credit policies, have broader distribution and established relationships with vendors and end customers, and have greater ability to leverage their sales efforts across a broader portfolio of products. We may be required to make substantial additional investments in research, development, marketing, and sales in order to respond to competition, and we cannot assure you that these investments will achieve any returns for us or that we will be able to compete successfully in the future. In our technology business segments, we compete in all areas of our business against local, regional, national, and international firms, including other direct marketers; national and regional resellers; online marketplace competitors; and regional, national, and international service providers. 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 our company which could adversely affect our future sales. Many competitors compete principally based on price and may have lower costs or accept lower selling prices than we do and, therefore, our gross margins may not be maintainable. Online marketplace competitors are continually improving their pricing and offerings to customers as well as ease of use of their online marketplaces. In our financing business segment, we face competition from many sources including much larger companies with greater financial resources. Our competition may originate from vendors of the products we finance or financial partners who choose to market directly to customers through the vendors' captive leasing organization or large or regional financial institutions such as banks with substantially lower cost of funds. Our competition may lower lease rates to increase market share.

Our business involves the storage and/or transmission of proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data, including personal information of our employees, customers, and others. In addition, we rely on our vendors that provide goods and services to us to maintain appropriate security measures to protect our operations. Also, we operate data centers for our customers that host their technology infrastructure and may store and transmit both business-critical data and confidential information. In connection with our services business, some of our employees also may have access to our customers' confidential data and other information. We have privacy and data security policies in place that are designed to prevent security breaches; however, as newer technologies emerge such as AI, and the portfolio of the service providers with whom we share sensitive information grows, we could be exposed to increased risk of breaches in data security and other illegal or fraudulent acts, including ransomware attacks and other types of cyberattacks. The evolving nature of such threats, considering new and sophisticated methods used by criminals and cyberterrorists, including computer viruses, malware, phishing, social engineering, AI, and forgery, are making it increasingly challenging to anticipate and adequately mitigate these risks. As a high percentage of our employees work from home more often than in our offices, 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 cybersecurity attacks, data center failures, failures by telecom providers to provide services to our business and to our employees' homes, as well as the home offices of our vendors' and customers' employees, power failures, or failures of cloud application 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' or suppliers' 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 could decrease our profitability. We could incur additional expenses when new laws or regulations regarding the use, safeguarding, or privacy of information are enacted or interpreted 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. 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, as well as that of our customers. Attacks may range from random attempts to coordinated and targeted attacks, including sophisticated computer crime and advanced persistent threats. Advances in technology, new discoveries in the field of cryptography, quantum computing, or AI, other events or developments may result in a compromise or breach of the security practices we use to protect sensitive customer transaction information and employee information. A party that can circumvent our security measures could misappropriate proprietary information or cause interruptions in our operations. Further, third parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees or customers into disclosing sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, or other information or otherwise compromise the security of our internal networks and/or our customers' information. Since techniques used to obtain unauthorized access change frequently and the impact and severity of security breaches are increasing, we may be unable to implement adequate preventative measures or timely identify or stop security breaches while they are occurring. We may be required to expend significant capital and other resources to protect against security breaches or to remediate the subsequent risks and issues caused by such breaches. Our security measures are designed to protect against security breaches, but our failure to prevent such security breaches could cause us to incur significant expense to investigate and respond to a security breach and remediate any problems caused by any breach, subject us to liability, damage our reputation, and diminish the value of our brand. There can be no assurance that the limitations of liability in our contracts would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any such liabilities or damages with respect to any claim. We also cannot be sure that our existing insurance coverage for errors and omissions or security breaches will continue to be available on acceptable terms or in sufficient amounts to cover one or more large claims, or that our insurers will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceeds our available insurance coverage, or changes in our insurance policies, including additional exclusions, premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Our results of operations are largely dependent upon the state of the economy. Global and domestic economic weakness, economic recession, trade wars or trade disruption, inflation, rising cost and interest rates, and other economic uncertainties may result in decreased sales, gross margin, earnings, and/or growth rates from our US-based customers and from customers outside the US. Actions taken by central banks to counter inflation or weakness in the global banking industry, sustained uncertainty about global political conditions, the downgrade of the US debt rating, periods of intense diplomatic or armed conflict, government spending cuts including efforts from The Department of Government Efficiency ("DOGE") and the impact of new laws, regulations, or government policies (including the introduction of new or increased taxes, the imposition of minimum taxes or new or increased limitations on deductions, credits or other tax benefits), or a tightening of credit markets, or rising interest rates, could cause our customers and potential customers to postpone, reduce or stop spending on technology products or services which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or cash flows.

We have several foreign subsidiaries and conduct business in various countries and currencies. As result of these foreign operations, we have exposure to financial losses on translation due to fluctuations in foreign currency rates resulting primarily from the translation exposure associated with the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. While our consolidated financial statements are reported in US dollars, the financial statements of our subsidiaries outside the US are prepared using the local currency as the functional currency and translated into US dollars. As a result, fluctuations in the exchange rate of the US dollar relative to the functional currencies of our subsidiaries could cause financial losses in our results of operations. However, our operations in foreign countries are not material. We also have foreign currency exposure to the extent net sales and purchases are not denominated in a subsidiary's functional currency, which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or cash flows.

We receive payments and credits from vendors, including consideration pursuant to volume incentive programs, shared marketing expense programs, and early pay discounts. These programs are usually of finite terms and may not be renewed or may be discontinued or changed in ways that adversely affect us. Vendor funding is used to offset inventory costs, costs of goods sold, marketing costs and other operating expenses. Certain of these funds are based on our volume of purchases, growth rate of purchases, and marketing programs. Supply chain constraints may affect our ability to meet purchase requirements and may affect our and our vendors' ability to engage in marketing programs. We may not be able to collect outstanding amounts relating to these incentives in a timely manner, or at all. Any sizeable reduction in, the discontinuance of, a significant delay in receiving, or the inability to collect such incentives, particularly related to incentive programs with our largest vendors, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

To increase market awareness and sales of our offerings, we may need to expand our marketing efforts and sales operations in the future. Our products and services require a sophisticated sales effort and significant technical engineering talent. For example, our sales and engineering candidates must possess consultative experience and a high degree of technical acumen, including hardware and software knowledge, to create customized solutions for our customers' business processes. Competition for qualified sales, marketing and engineering personnel fluctuates depending on market conditions. We are currently experiencing a competitive labor market for certain sales and technical roles. New laws requiring public posting of compensation information may also contribute to wage increases. If we are unable to pass these increases to our customers, our financial results may be adversely affected. We provide certain professional and managed services under fixed price contracts. If we fail to accurately estimate our costs, including due to wage or other inflation, then the profitability of our contracts may be adversely affected. Wage inflation may adversely impact our ability to hire and retain personnel, which may impact our ability to acquire, retain and serve our customers. Additionally, operating platforms are becoming increasingly technologically advanced, providing more automation, which will require personnel with digital, data analytics, machine learning, robotic process automation and AI experience. This type of talent may be highly sought after by other employers, and may be unavailable, or only available at a higher cost to us. The loss of senior leaders or the failure to successfully implement a succession plan, particularly for the Chief Executive Officer, could adversely affect our ability to execute strategies and manage operations. In addition, changes in our Board of Directors ("Board") could impact our business including formulation, alignment or execution of strategy or appropriate oversight as tasked by our Board. In addition, changes to immigration laws and interpretations thereof may impact our ability to hire or retain talent. In some cases, our competitors have required their employees to agree to non-compete and/or non-solicitation agreements as part of their employment, and in some cases, we may not be able to enforce similar restrictions. Both scenarios present challenges and potential costs. Additionally, in some cases our relationship with a customer may be impacted by turnover in our sales or engineering teams.

A substantial portion of our revenue within our technology business segments depends on a small number of key vendors. Products manufactured by Cisco Systems represented approximately 32%, 44%, and 40% of net sales of our combined technology business segments for the years ended March 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023, respectively. Products manufactured by NetApp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Juniper Networks, Dell EMC, and Arista Networks, collectively represented approximately 23% to 25% of net sales of our combined technology business segments for the last three years. We may also be adversely affected by consolidation among our vendors, such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise's proposed acquisition of Juniper Networks. Manufacturing interruptions or delays, including as a result of the financial instability or bankruptcy of manufacturers, changes to or the addition of trade laws, duties or tariffs, currency translation losses, significant labor disputes such as strikes, natural disasters, political or social unrest, international conflicts, pandemics, other public health crises, or other adverse events affecting any aspect of our vendors' business, could disrupt our supply chain. We may experience product constraints due to the unavailability of raw materials or components, delays in shipping, failure of vendors to accurately forecast customer demand or to manufacture or otherwise obtain sufficient quantities of product or component parts to meet customer demand, among other reasons. If we experience significant supply chain disruptions, we may not be able to develop alternate sourcing quickly on favorable terms, if at all, which could result in increased inventory costs, delay the completion of related services, a loss of sales and a loss of customers adversely impacting our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, we may be at risk for customers' cancelling orders due to delays and we may not be able to cancel our corresponding order with the supplier. If we are unable to mitigate these disruptions, our financial results may be adversely impacted. As we do not stock inventory that is not related to an order we have received from our customers, we depend upon the supply of products available from our vendors to fulfill orders from our customers on a timely basis. Supply chain issues, including a shortage of IT products and available services, may increase our costs or cause a delay in purchasing IT products needed to support our internal infrastructure or operations, resulting in an impact on our technology operations and availability of our IT systems, which could result in an adverse effect on our operations and financial results. We rely on arrangements with vendors to perform certain professional services, staffing services, managed services, maintenance, warranties, configuration services, and other services for our customers. If these vendors do not perform these services in accordance with the terms of our agreement and to a professional standard customary for the services, including if their services include an error or omission, or if they cause disruption of, or security weaknesses within, our customers' businesses, results to our organization could include legal claims and associated costs, monetary damages paid to our customers, and an adverse effect on our customer and other business partner relationships, our brand, our reputation, and our results of operations or cash flows could be affected. In addition, the acquisition by our competitors of third-party companies that we are relying upon to perform certain of our customer obligations may impact our revenue. We rely on independent shipping vendors to deliver products from us and our vendors to our customers. The failure or inability of these shipping vendors to deliver products, or the lack of availability of their shipping services, even temporarily, could have an adverse effect on our business. We may also be adversely affected by an increase in freight charges and shipping delays that may result from economic, supply-chain, geopolitical, or other disruptions. The loss of a key vendor or changes in its policies could adversely impact our financial results. Alleged or actual violations of a contract that results in either the termination of our ability to sell the product or a decrease in our certification level with the vendor could adversely impact our financial results. In addition, a reduction in the trade credit lines or the favorable terms granted to us by our vendors and financial partners could increase our need for, and the cost of, working capital and have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our contracts may not protect us against the risks inherent in our business including, but not limited to, warranties, limitations of liability, indemnification obligations, human resources and subcontractor-related claims, patent and product liability, regulatory and compliance obligations, data security and privacy, and financing activities. Also, we face pressure from our customers for competitive pricing and contract terms. In addition, order cancellations by our customers may result from product constraints, or other economic concerns. While we may mitigate risk through our contracts, if orders are cancelled by our customers, we may have an increased risk of dispute resulting in non-payment. Such disputes may be complicated by novel legal arguments relating to contract enforceability, such as the application of force majeure, impossibility or impracticability of performance, and frustration of purpose. Despite the non-recourse nature of the loans financing certain of our activities, non-recourse lenders may file suit if the underlying transaction turns out poorly for the lenders. We are currently experiencing an increase in federal contract terminations, some arising from the mission of the DOGE. While most of these contracts were sold to a lender, we may be subject to claims and the cost of defending such claims due to the nature of our business. We also are subject to audits by various vendor partners and customers, including government agencies, relating to purchases, sales, data privacy and compliance under various contracts. In addition, we are subject to indemnification claims under various contracts.

The technology industry is characterized by rapid innovation and the frequent introduction of new and enhanced hardware, software, and service offerings, such as generative and agentic AI, and cloud-based solutions, including IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS. We depend on innovations in hardware, software, and service offerings by our vendors, as well as the acceptance of those innovations by our customers for the offerings we sell. A decrease in the rate of innovation by our vendors, or the lack of acceptance of innovations by our customers, or a shift by customers to technology platforms that we do not sell could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations or cash flows. In addition, if we are unable to keep up with changes in technology and new hardware, software, and service offerings––for example by not providing the appropriate training to our account managers, sales technology specialists and engineers to enable them to effectively sell and deliver such new offerings to customers––our business, results of operations or cash flows could be adversely affected. We also depend upon our vendors for the development and marketing of hardware, software, and services to compete effectively with hardware, software, and services of vendors whose products and services we do not currently offer or are not authorized to offer in one or more customer channels. In addition, our success depends on our ability to develop relationships with and sell hardware, software, and services from emerging vendors, as well as vendors that we have not historically represented in the marketplace. To the extent that a vendor's offering that is highly in demand is not available to us for resale in one or more customer channels, and there is not a competitive offering from another vendor that we are authorized to sell in such customer channels, or we are unable to develop relationships with new technology providers or companies that we have not historically represented, or we partner with a vendor that is not in demand or the demand for whose products significantly decreases, our business, results of operations, or cash flows could be adversely impacted. Cloud offerings may influence our customers to move workloads to cloud providers, which may reduce the procurement of products and services from us. Changes in the IT industry may also affect the demand for our advanced professional and managed services. These ‘as a service' offerings in many cases are recorded on a net basis which results in a reduction of net sales and an increase in gross margin, or on a ratable basis. Over the past several years, we have seen a significant increase in gross billings recorded on a net basis and a ratable basis due to the industry shift to ‘as a service' offerings. In addition, these ‘as a service' offerings that are billed over time decrease the demand for financing these types of transactions and do not provide post contract revenue opportunities due to the intangible nature of the offering as well as similar other software offerings. We have invested a significant amount of capital in our strategy to provide certain products and services, and this strategy may adversely impact our financial position due to competition or changes in the industry or improper focus or selection of the products and services we decide to offer. If we fail to react in a timely manner to such changes, such as generative AI, our results of operations may be adversely affected. Our 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 results of operations.

The contracts for the provision of products and services from us to our customers are generally non-exclusive agreements without volume purchase commitments and are terminable by either party upon 30 days' notice. A material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations and cash flows could result from one or more such customers' failing to pay amounts due to us, reducing or ceasing to purchase from us, or if we experience a material adverse change in the profitability of sales to our customers. On both March 31, 2025, and March 31, 2024, our accounts receivable-trade balance included a concentration of approximately 17% of invoices due from Verizon Communications Inc.

Our financing business segment and our technology business segments require capital to fund our equipment purchases. If the credit quality of our customer base materially decreases, if macroeconomic conditions drive a material tightening of the availability of credit, or if we experience a material increase in our credit losses, including by the federal government's actual or attempted termination for convenience or other contract termination, we may find it difficult to continue to obtain the required capital for our business, and our results from operations may be affected. In addition to the impact on our ability to acquire capital, a material increase in our delinquency and default experience would itself have a material adverse effect on our business, and results from operations. Many of our customers may experience financial losses and may be unable to pay for their purchases or repay the leases or notes receivable or multi-year agreements such as maintenance or software subscription agreements to us or repayment may be extended by our customers or us. Therefore, our non-performing assets may increase, and the value of our portfolio may decrease during these periods as we are required to record our investments at their current fair value. Adverse economic conditions also may decrease the value of collateral securing some of our loans and the value of our equity investments. Economic slowdowns or recessions could lead to financial losses in our portfolio and a decrease in revenues, net earnings, and assets in our financing segment. Unfavorable economic conditions including inflation and/or an increase in interest rates also could increase our financing segment's funding costs, limit our access to capital markets or result in a decision by lenders not to extend credit to us. These events could prevent us from increasing our financing portfolio and harm our operating results.