Digi International Inc: Form 10-Q for the period ended Mar 31, 2023

Our management's discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2022, as well as our subsequent reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K and any amendments to these reports.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995

This Form 10-Q contains certain statements that are "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

Forward-Looking Statements

This discussion contains forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions. These statements often can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "assume," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "target," "may," "will," "expect," "plan," "potential," "project," "should," or "continue," or the negative thereof or other variations thereon or similar terminology. Among other items, these statements relate to expectations of the business environment in which Digi operates, projections of future performance, perceived marketplace opportunities and statements regarding our mission and vision. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Among others, these include risks related to the ongoing supply chain and transportation challenges impacting businesses globally, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to mitigate the same, risks related to ongoing inflationary pressures and the monetary policies of governments globally as well as present concerns about a potential recession and the ability of companies like us to operate a global business in such conditions, risks arising from the present war in Ukraine, the highly competitive market in which our company operates, rapid changes in technologies that may displace products sold by us, declining prices of networking products, our reliance on distributors and other third parties to sell our products, the potential for significant purchase orders to be canceled or changed, delays in product development efforts, uncertainty in user acceptance of our products, the ability to integrate our products and services with those of other parties in a commercially accepted manner, potential liabilities that can arise if any of our products have design or manufacturing defects, our ability to integrate and realize the expected benefits of acquisitions, our ability to defend or settle satisfactorily any litigation such as, but not limited to, claims regarding intellectual property infringement that we face from time to time, uncertainty in global economic conditions and economic conditions within particular regions of the world which could negatively affect product demand and the financial solvency of customers and suppliers, the impact of natural disasters and other events beyond our control that could negatively impact our supply chain and customers, potential unintended consequences associated with restructuring, reorganizations or other similar business initiatives that may impact our ability to retain important employees or otherwise impact our operations in unintended and adverse ways, risks related to cybersecurity events, the potential for issues repaying outstanding debt if we experience a downturn in our business or encounter unexpected liabilities, and changes in our level of revenue or profitability which can fluctuate for many reasons beyond our control.

These and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions identified from time to time in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including without limitation, those set forth in Item 1A, Risk Factors, of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2022, this filing on Form 10-Q and other filings, could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by us or on our behalf. Many of such factors are beyond our ability to control or predict. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date for which they are made. We disclaim any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

CRITICAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND ESTIMATES

Our discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based upon our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities and the values of purchased assets and assumed liabilities in acquisitions. We base our estimates on historical experience and various other assumptions that we believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

A description of our critical accounting policies and estimates was provided in the Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2022.

OVERVIEW

We are a leading global provider of business and mission-critical IoT connectivity products, services and solutions. Our business is comprised of two reporting segments: IoT Products & Services and IoT Solutions.

Our IoT Products & Services segment offers products and services that help OEMs, enterprise and government customers create and deploy secure IoT connectivity solutions. From embedded and wireless modules to console servers as well as enterprise and industrial routers, we provide a wide variety of communication sub-assemblies and finished products to meet our customers' IoT communication requirements. In addition, this segment provides our customers with a device management platform and other professional services to enable customers to capture and manage data from devices connected to networks.

Our IoT Solutions segment primarily consists of our Managed Network-as-a-Service (“MNaaS”) business acquired last year via our acquisition of Ventus Wireless, LLC and affiliated entities (“Ventus”) and our SmartSense by Digi® business. Ventus is a leader in the provision of MNaaS solutions that simplify the complexity of enterprise wide area network (“WAN”) connectivity for customers. The Ventus portfolio includes cellular wireless and fixed line WAN solutions for an array of connectivity applications in banking, healthcare, retail, gaming, hospitality and other sectors. SmartSense offers wireless temperature and other condition-based monitoring services as well as employee task management services. These solutions are focused on the following vertical markets: food service, healthcare (primarily pharmacies and hospitals) and supply chain.

We compete for customers on the basis of existing and planned product features, service and software application capabilities, company reputation, brand recognition, technical support, alliance relationships, quality and reliability, product development capabilities, price and availability.

In fiscal 2023, our key operating objectives include:

• continuing to transition to complete solutions with software and service offerings included with our products, as this drives Annualized Recurring Revenue ("ARR"), which provides more predictable and higher margin revenues; and
• delivering a higher level of customer service across our businesses.

We utilize many financial, operational, and other metrics to evaluate our financial condition and financial performance. Below we highlight the metrics for the second quarter of fiscal 2023 that we feel are most important in these evaluations, with comparisons to the second quarter of fiscal 2022:

• Consolidated revenue was $111 million, an increase of 17%.
• Gross profit margin was 56.6% versus 54.9%. Gross profit margin excluding amortization was 57.4% compared to 56.3%.
• Diluted earnings per share was $0.16, compared to $0.08, an increase of 100%.
• Adjusted net income and adjusted net income per share was $18.2 million, or $0.50 per diluted share, compared to $14.5 million, or $0.41 per diluted share, an increase of 22%.
• Adjusted EBITDA was $24 million, an increase of 22%.
• ARR was $99 million at quarter end, an increase of 10%.

We are exposed to ongoing market risk related to changes in interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates.

INTEREST RATE RISK

We are exposed to market risks related to fluctuations in interest rates on amounts borrowed under the Credit Facility. As of March 31, 2023, we had $240.6 million outstanding under our Term Loan. Borrowings under the Term Loan Facility bear interest at a rate per annum equal to LIBOR with a floor of 0.50% for an interest period of one, three or six months as selected by Digi, reset at the end of the selected interest period (or a replacement benchmark rate if LIBOR is no longer available) plus 5.00% or a base rate plus 4.00%. The base rate is determined by reference to the highest of BMO’s prime rate, the Federal Funds Effective Rate plus 0.5%, or the one-month LIBOR for U.S. dollars plus 1.00%. The applicable margin for loans under the Revolving Credit Facility is in a range of 4.00 to 3.75% for LIBOR loans and 3.00 to 2.75% for base rate loans, depending on Digi’s consolidated leverage ratio. Digi bases the interest period election on an assessment of the interest rate environment conducted on a monthly basis. Digi presently expects to continue to elect a one month interest period, unless conditions change. Based on the balance sheet position for the Revolving Loan at March 31, 2023, the annualized effect of a 25 basis point change in interest rates would increase or decrease our interest expense by $0.6 million. For additional information, see Note 7 to our condensed consolidated financial statements. For our Credit Facility, interest rate changes generally do not affect the fair value of the debt instruments, but do impact future earnings and cash flows, assuming other factors are held constant. If interest rates remain elevated, we will continue to see interest expenses that are higher than historical amounts.

FOREIGN CURRENCY RISK

We are not exposed to foreign currency transaction risk associated with sales transactions as the majority of our sales are denominated in U.S. Dollars. We are exposed to foreign currency translation risk as the financial position and operating results of our foreign subsidiaries are translated into U.S. Dollars for consolidation. We manage our net asset or net liability position for non-functional currency accounts, primarily the U.S. Dollar accounts in our foreign locations to reduce our foreign currency risk. We have not implemented a formal hedging strategy.

A 10% change in the average exchange rate for the Euro, British Pound, Australian Dollar and Canadian Dollar to the U.S. Dollar during the first six months of fiscal 2023 would have resulted in a 1.0% increase or decrease in stockholders' equity due to foreign currency translation.

CREDIT RISK

We have exposure to credit risk related to our accounts receivable portfolio. Exposure to credit risk is controlled through regular monitoring of customer financial status, credit limits and collaboration with sales management and customer contacts to facilitate payment.

EVALUATION OF DISCLOSURE CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

As of the end of the period covered by this report, we conducted an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act")). Based on this evaluation, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act was recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms and is accumulated and communicated to our management, including the principal executive and principal financial officers, or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

CHANGES IN INTERNAL CONTROL OVER FINANCIAL REPORTING

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the six months ended March 31, 2023 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Except as set forth below, there have been no material changes in our risk factors from those previously disclosed in Item 1A of Part I of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2022.

Certain parts of our business are subject to customer concentrations.

Several of our acquired businesses historically have depended on relationships with one or a small number of customers or have a significant number of customers that are from particular industries. Any disruption in their business with those customers, whether as a result of changes in demand for the customer’s services, adverse changes in the customer’s industry generally or other challenges in securing or renewing contracts, could have an adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

For example, we acquired Accelerated in fiscal 2018. Although Accelerated has many customers, its business historically has been highly dependent on its relationship with a single telecommunications carrier customer.

We acquired Opengear in fiscal 2019. Although Opengear has many customers, its business historically has been significantly concentrated on its relationships with a few large customers.

We acquired Ventus in fiscal 2022. Although Ventus has many customers, its business historically has been significantly concentrated on its relationships with fewer than twenty customers and it also serves a significant number of customers in the financial and gaming terminal industries. Likewise, our SmartSense business services a significant number of customers in the pharmaceutical, medical facility and retail food industries. Both Ventus and SmartSense produce significant ARR. Any disruption or difficulties in any of the industries these businesses serve could have an adverse impact on our business, results of operations (including, but not limited to, ARR), financial condition and prospects.

In addition, some larger customers may demand discounts and rebates. As a result, our future revenue opportunities with these customers may be limited, and we may face pricing pressures, which in turn could adversely impact our gross margin and our profitability. The loss of, reduction in, or pricing discounts associated with orders from key customers may significantly reduce our revenue and harm our business. Furthermore, delays in payment and/or extended payment terms from larger customers could have a disproportionate and material negative impact on our cash flows and working capital to support our business operations.