EDGAR 10-K Filing

Company CIK: 1289945
Filing Year: 2025
Filename: 1289945_10-K_2025_0001289945-25-000008.json

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ITEM 1. BUSINESS
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Overview
Spok, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPOK), is proud to be a global leader in healthcare communications. We deliver clinical information to care teams when and where it matters most to improve patient outcomes. Top hospitals rely on Spok products and services to enhance workflows for clinicians, support administrative compliance, and provide a better experience for patients.
Our headquarters is located at 3000 Technology Drive, Suite 400, Plano, Texas 75074, and our telephone number is 800-611-8488. We maintain a website at http://www.spok.com. This website address is for information only and is not intended to be an active link or to incorporate any website information into this Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 (the "2024 Form 10-K").
We deliver smart, reliable clinical communication and collaboration solutions to help protect the health, well-being, and safety of people in the United States and abroad, on a limited basis, in Europe, Canada, Australia, Asia and the Middle East. Our customers rely on Spok for workflow improvement, secure texting, paging services, contact center optimization, and public safety response. We develop, sell, and support enterprise-wide systems primarily for healthcare and other organizations needing to automate, centralize, and standardize their approach to clinical and critical communications. Our solutions can be found in prominent hospitals, large government agencies, leading public safety institutions, colleges and universities, large hotels, resorts and casinos and well-known manufacturers. We offer our services and products to three major market segments: healthcare, government, and large enterprise, with a greater emphasis on the healthcare market segment.
In February 2022, our Board of Directors announced a new strategic business plan. In accordance with this plan, in 2022, we discontinued Spok Go and successfully eliminated all associated costs. Since 2022, our focus has been and will continue to be on prioritizing generation of cash flow and maximizing revenue in our Spok Care Connect® and Wireless products and service lines.
Industry Overview
The United States healthcare market continues to experience significant change. Healthcare costs continue to rise, reimbursements from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are being reduced in certain areas, digitization of healthcare information continues and the industry continues to shift towards a value-based purchasing model and away from the traditional fee-for-service model. The value-based purchasing model places an emphasis on incentivizing value and quality at an individual patient level in order to provide better patient outcomes and reduce 30-day readmissions.
In response, healthcare providers now require greater communication and better collaboration between clinicians in order to generate improvements in the quality, safety, satisfaction and efficiency of patient care delivery. Improvements in these areas are necessary for healthcare providers to successfully navigate many of these issues. Many providers are seeking improvement through the adoption of technology, looking to take advantage of workflow automation, process improvement and, in limited circumstances, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Providers also look to increase efficiencies through consolidation as larger health systems continue to acquire smaller hospitals for the primary purpose of gaining regional market share amongst tough competition.
We believe these changes and continued pressure for organizations to provide improved services with fewer resources place an even greater emphasis on the need for improved clinical communication and collaboration tools to meet the increasing requirements demanded by the healthcare industry in today’s marketplace. Our solutions help hospitals significantly increase the quality and safety of patient care delivery, while increasing patient and provider satisfaction and simultaneously increasing employee productivity, reducing costs and clinician burnout. This is accomplished through workflow enhancement; secure, reliable and integrated communication tools; and mobile accessibility.
Sales and Marketing
We offer a focused suite of unified clinical communication and collaboration solutions primarily to organizations in the healthcare sector. We generate wireless revenue from the sales of wireless messaging services, equipment, maintenance plans and/or equipment loss protection to both one-way and two-way messaging subscribers. We generate software revenue from the sale of our software solutions, including software licenses, professional services, equipment we procure from third parties, and post-contract support.
Sales
We market and distribute our clinical communication and collaboration solutions through a direct sales force and an indirect sales channel.
The direct sales force contracts or sells products, solutions, messaging services and other services directly to customers ranging from small and medium-sized businesses to companies in the Fortune 1000, as well as federal, state, and local government agencies. We will continue to market primarily to commercial enterprises, with a focus on healthcare organizations, interested in our communication solutions. We maintain a sales presence in key markets throughout the United States, and in limited markets internationally through strategic partnerships, in an effort to gain new customers and to retain and increase sales to existing customers. The direct sales force targets leadership responsible for the procurement of clinical communication and collaboration solutions such as chief information officers, chief technology officers, chief medical officers, chief nursing officers, information technology directors, telecommunications directors, laboratory directors, radiology directors and contact center managers. The timing for a direct sale varies but may take from six to 18 months depending on the type and scope of software solution.
The indirect sales channel complements our direct sales force. Through relationships with alliance partners, we are able to sell our solutions to a wider customer base. For wireless services that we do not provide directly, we contract with and invoice an intermediary for airtime services. For our software sales, relationships with alliance partners assist us in broadening the distribution of our products and further diversifying into markets outside of the healthcare provider vertical as well as in the Asia Pacific region. We continue to build our alliance partner relationships to expand and broaden our distribution efforts.
Within our target market, our efforts continue to remain focused on addressing the following dynamics:
•A heightened awareness of the ubiquitous, critical role of communications in healthcare;
•An increased focus within hospitals on quality of care and patient safety initiatives;
•The importance of confidentiality when sharing information;
•Increased regulations that may result in process changes, increased documentation and reporting and increased costs;
•A continuing focus within hospitals to reduce labor and administrative costs while increasing productivity; and
•A broader proliferation of information technology in healthcare as hospitals strive to apply technology to address their operational issues.
Marketing
We have a centralized marketing function, which is focused on supporting our solutions and sales efforts by strengthening our corporate brand, generating sales leads, and facilitating the sales process. Our principal marketing programs include:
•Website development and maintenance, which provides product and Company information, customer support options, paging capabilities, as well as thought leadership and engagement;
•Content marketing (e.g., eBriefs, case studies, brochures, videos and infographics) as an underlying foundation of all marketing campaigns or initiatives;
•Webinars about customer successes, current industry trends, and our solutions;
•Social media involvement to provide information regarding upcoming educational events or new product offerings;
•Blog posts to provide information about industry trends and our solutions to customers, prospects, and alliances;
•Participation at trade shows and industry events, such as Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), and other healthcare information technology related shows and conferences; and
•Annual customer conferences (virtual) that solicit feedback on our solutions and services.
Licenses and Messaging Networks
In order to provide our wireless services, we hold licenses to operate on various frequencies in the 900 MHz narrowband. We are licensed by the United States Federal Communications Commission (the “FCC”) to operate Commercial Mobile Radio Services (“CMRS”). These licenses are required to provide one-way and two-way messaging services over our networks.
Our messaging networks and related infrastructure are located exclusively in the United States. We operate local, regional and nationwide one-way networks, which enable subscribers to receive messages over a desired geographic area. One-way networks operating in 900 MHz frequency bands utilize the FLEX™ protocol developed by Motorola Mobility, Inc. (“Motorola"). The FLEX™ protocol has advantages of functioning at higher network speeds (which increases the volume of messages that can be transmitted over the network) and of having more robust error correction (which facilitates message delivery to a device with fewer transmission errors).
Our two-way networks utilize the ReFLEX 25™ protocol, also developed by Motorola. ReFLEX 25™ promotes spectrum efficiency and high network capacity by dividing coverage areas into zones and sub-zones. Messages are directed to the zone or sub-zone where the subscriber is located, allowing the same frequency to be reused to carry different traffic in other zones or sub-zones. As a result, the ReFLEX 25™ protocol allows the two-way network to transmit substantially more messages than a one-way network using the FLEX™ protocols. The two-way network also provides for assured message delivery. The network stores, for a limited amount of time, messages that could not be delivered to a device that is out of coverage for any reason, and when the unit returns to service, those messages are delivered. The two-way paging network operates under a set of licenses called narrowband Personal Communications Service, which uses 900 MHz frequencies. These licenses require certain minimum five and ten-year build-out commitments established by the FCC, which have been satisfied.
Although the capacities of our networks vary by geographic area, we have excess capacity at a consolidated level. We have implemented a plan to manage network capacity and to improve overall network efficiency by consolidating subscribers onto fewer, higher capacity networks with increased transmission speeds. This plan is referred to as network rationalization. Network rationalization will result in fewer networks, and therefore, fewer transmitter locations, which we believe will result in lower operating expenses due primarily to lower site rent expenses.
As we continue to implement our network rationalization plan, we expect to have fewer transmitters that can be removed efficiently from our networks and still maintain the level of service required for our customers, and thus the benefits of network rationalization will decline. Cost savings have slowed as compared to historical cost savings. As we reach certain minimum frequency commitments, as outlined by the FCC, we may be limited in our ability to continue our efforts to rationalize and consolidate our networks.
Generally, our software solutions do not require licenses or permits from federal, state and/or local government agencies in order to be sold to customers. However, certain of our software products are subject to regulation by the United States Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") and are subject to certification by the Joint Interoperability Test Command to be sold to the branches of the armed services of the United States and the United States government. (see "Regulation" below).
Our Strategy
In alignment with our strategic business plan announced in February 2022, our over-arching strategy has been, and will continue to be, the prioritization of free cash flow generation and the return of capital to stockholders, by maximizing revenue and cash generation from our established lines of business while effectively managing expenses. Through targeted investments in these important and valuable business lines, we aim to reinvigorate growth in our legacy software solutions and minimize wireless revenue attrition.
Particular areas of strategic emphasis include:
Acquire new customers and expand relationships within our existing customer base - We will continue to focus our sales and marketing efforts in the healthcare market in order to identify opportunities for new sales as well as grow revenues from our existing customer base. We have ongoing initiatives to further penetrate the hospital segment in the United States, and while we believe there is a significant opportunity to sell clinical communication and collaboration solutions to hospitals located outside the United States, our near-term focus is on the domestic market.
We have a significant presence in the healthcare marketplace, and we intend to leverage the strength of our market presence and the breadth of our product offerings to further expand our customer base in healthcare.
Minimize wireless revenue attrition - We continue to have a valuable wireless presence in the healthcare market, particularly in larger hospitals. We offer a comprehensive suite of wireless messaging products and services focused on healthcare and "campus" type environments and critical mission notification. We will continue to focus on network reliability and customer service to help minimize the rate of revenue attrition.
We recognize that the number of wireless subscribers, units in service, and the related revenue will likely continue to decline. We intend to continue reducing our underlying cost structure impacting this declining wireless revenue stream by reducing payroll and related expenses as well as network related expenses where possible, alongside periodic price increases. We will integrate and consolidate operations as necessary to ensure the lowest cost operational platform for our consolidated business.
Enhance existing software applications - We will continue to invest in the development and enhancement of our Spok Care Connect suite of products and services, at a similar rate consistent to the prior year. Targeted enhancements and continued development efforts are critical to our ability to maintain our core software maintenance revenue and are necessary to drive future software operations revenue. Additionally, targeted enhancements of the Spok Mobile® application will be critical in our ability to help further mitigate wireless customer attrition.
Manage expenses - With our focus on generating cash flow, it is critical that we manage costs in alignment with our revenue. We will continue to look for ways to reduce our underlying cost structure, particularly if revenue declines. While we will continue to invest in the business, we will do so in a targeted manner to drive tangible earnings that can be returned to our stockholders.
Return capital to our stockholders - We understand that our primary objective is to create long-term stockholder value. We will continue to evaluate how best to deploy our capital resources to support sustainable business growth and maximize stockholder value. We expect to continue to pay a quarterly dividend of $0.3125 per share of common stock, or $1.250 annually, in 2025.
Products and Services
Wireless Products and Related Services
We offer subscriptions to one-way or two-way messaging services for a periodic (monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual) service fee. The level of service fees is generally based upon the type of service provided, the geographic area covered, the number of devices provided to the customer and the period of commitment. We also sell devices to resellers who lease or resell them to their subscribers and then sell messaging services utilizing our networks.
Wireless products and services revenue represented 53%, 55% and 56% of total consolidated revenue for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Demand for one-way and two-way messaging services declined during these years, and we believe demand will continue to decline for the foreseeable future. As demand for one-way and two-way messaging has declined, we have developed or added service offerings, including our GenA® pagers discussed below, in order to optimize our revenue potential and mitigate the decline in our wireless revenues. We will continue to evaluate opportunities within our wireless business while providing customers the highest value possible.
Legacy Wireless Services
A subscriber to one-way messaging services may select coverage on a local, regional, or nationwide basis to best meet their messaging needs, while two-way messaging is generally offered on a nationwide basis. In addition, subscribers either contract to use a messaging device that we own for an additional fixed monthly fee, or they own the device used, after either purchasing it from us or from another vendor.
We offer exclusive one-way (T5) and two-way (T52) alphanumeric pagers that are configurable to support unencrypted or encrypted operation. When configured for encryption, these devices utilize AES-128 bit encryption, screen locking and remote wipe capabilities. With encryption, these secure paging devices enhance our service offerings to the healthcare community by adding Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA") security capabilities to the low cost and high reliability and availability benefits of paging. We also offer ancillary services, such as voicemail and equipment loss or maintenance protection, which help increase the monthly recurring revenue we receive, along with these traditional messaging services.
GenA® Pagers
On November 16, 2021, we announced the launch of our newest pager, GenA. This one-way alphanumeric pager, available on our wide-area paging network, features a high resolution ePaper display, intuitive modern user interface, advanced HIPAA-compliant encryption and security features, over-the-air remote programming, and an antimicrobial housing. The ePaper display advances the user experience with its larger screen featuring a high-resolution, high-contrast display for easy reading in all conditions, while an automatic front-light eases reading messages in the dark. Users can select from various font sizes, and the large GenA display also leverages proportional fonts to maximize key information on a single screen.
GenA pagers also allow for superior message reception in buildings with difficult coverage conditions using the high-powered Spok 900MHz simulcast network. Enhanced over-the-air (OTA) programming through the Spok My Account customer web portal enables remote pager configuration changes such as updating the user’s name on the pager, assigning a pager to a group, deleting message data and encryption keys, modifying global security settings, and remotely unlocking the device. The GenA pager also provides advanced message management features allowing critical messages to be locked to prevent deletion or saved to a separate folder. In addition, separate inbox folders can be set up for group messages.
The GenA pager is the only product available on the market with these capabilities, and we maintain an exclusive arrangement with the product's manufacturer whereby it may not market or sell the product to any third party without our consent. Given the uniqueness of the GenA pager, we believe its development is a key initiative that may help slow our wireless revenue attrition.
Software
Dependable clinical communications are paramount for individuals in healthcare and a host of other industries. We offer a number of solutions, providing our customers with the ability to communicate anywhere, anytime across a number of situations. Our solutions are used for contact centers, clinical alerting and notification, mobile communications and messaging, and for public safety notifications.
Spok Care Connect® Suite
Contact Center
•Spok® Console: Provides operators with the information needed to process calls using their computers with just a few keystrokes. This solution integrates with the customers’ existing phone systems and is used by the operator group to answer incoming calls to the contact center. Operators can quickly and accurately perform directory searches and code calls, as well as messaging and paging by individuals, groups, and roles using the Spok Console’s computer telephony integration and directory capabilities.
•Spok® Web Directory: Makes employee contact information more accessible and enables staff to send messages quickly right from the directory. Authenticated users can log on anywhere, anytime to perform a variety of important updates to contact information and on-call schedules, search the directory, and send important messages.
•Spok® Web On-Call Scheduling: Keeps personnel, calendars and on-call scheduling information updated, even with thousands of staff, using a secure web portal to maintain and allow password-protected access to the latest on-call schedules and personnel information.
•Spok Voice Connect®: Enables the organization to process routine phone requests, including transfers, directory assistance, messaging and paging without live operators and with more ease-of-use than touch-tone menus.
•Spok® Call Recording and Quality Management: Records, monitors, and scores operators’ conversations to allow for better management of calls, helping improve customer service.
Clinical Alerting
•Spok® Messenger: Provides an intelligent, FDA-compliant, 510(k)-cleared solution that connects virtually all crucial alert systems, including nurse call, fire, security, patient monitoring, and building management to mobile staff via their wireless communication devices. This solution provides the ability to reach mobile team members within seconds of an alert, improving overall workflow, staff productivity, and the convenience and safety of everyone in the facility.
•Spok® e.Notify: Enables organizations to quickly and reliably notify and confirm team member availability during emergency situations without relying on calling trees, thereby reducing confusion that may arise in an emergency situation. This solution automatically delivers messages, collects responses, escalates issues to others, and logs all activities for reporting and analysis purposes.
•Spok® Critical Test Results Notification: Automates and streamlines the process of delivering critical test results to the appropriate clinicians to help ensure patient safety. This solution can send messages from the radiology departments by means of encrypted smartphone communications, two-way paging, secure email, secure text, images, annotations, and voice to a variety of endpoints such as workstations, laptops, tablets, smartphones, pagers, and other wireless devices.
Mobile Communications
•Spok Mobile®: Simplifies communications and strengthens care by using smartphones and tablets for secure code alerts, patient updates, results, consult requests, and much more. Allows users to access the full directory of accurate contact information to send messages/photos/videos to smartphones and other devices and helps to ensure all clinical communications are logged with security, traceability, and reliability.
Public Safety
•Spok® PC/PSAP: Speeds emergency dispatch by giving Public Safety Answering Point call-takers an easy-to-use, standards-based, graphical interface that integrates the underlying phone system, mapping systems, and other resources for critical information availability. 9-1-1 call-takers are able to instantly involve police, fire, EMT, and hazardous material personnel with a single click of the mouse or touch of the screen.
•Spok® Enterprise Alert: Directs emergency personnel to a 9-1-1 caller’s exact location (building, floor, room), helping to ensure speed, accuracy, and reliability of response. The E9-1-1 software provides real-time, onsite notification when 9-1-1 is dialed, and works to decrease emergency response time.
Hosted Solution
•Spok Care Connect® Hosted Solution: Provides hospitals and healthcare systems with remote access to Spok Care Connect® solutions (currently Spok® Console, Spok® Web Directory, Spok® On-Call Scheduling and Spok Mobile®) and reduces the burden on information technology resources while providing immediate access to Spok solutions.
Services
We offer a variety of professional services to assist our customers in the successful implementation of, and to maximize the benefits obtained from the use of, our software solutions. We also offer support services to enhance and refine the customer's experience throughout their relationship with Spok.
•Professional Services: We offer a full suite of professional services that are provided by a dedicated group of professional service employees. Our professional services projects include consultation, implementation, and training services. We also offer managed services, which includes the implementation services for all the available upgrades to the software purchased by the customer over the term of the contract. Our professional services staff uses a branded, consistent methodology that provides a comprehensive phased work plan for both new software installations and/or upgrades. In support of our implementation methodology, we manage the various aspects of the process through a professional services automation tool. We may also use third-party professional services firms as supplemental resources to implement our solutions for customers as needed. Professional services revenue represented 13%, 11% and 9% of total consolidated revenue for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Professional services revenue increased in 2024, primarily as a result of an increase in the sales of managed services offering, as well as an increase in staffing levels to align with our backlog, which has grown as a result of our operations bookings results.
•Software License Updates and Product Support (Maintenance): Software license updates and product support, which is generally referred to as maintenance when sold to customers, is an important offering to customers who utilize our on-premise software solutions. In order to support our products that provide clinical communication and collaboration solutions to our customer’s organizations, we have a dedicated customer support organization. The customer support organization provides support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and the service can be accessed via telephone, email or the Internet via the Spok webpage. The Spok support service is augmented by third-party services where needed. Software license updates and product support are generally priced together as a percentage of the software licenses for which these services will be provided. Largely all of our customers purchase maintenance when they purchase new software licenses, after which renewals generally occur on an annual basis and are paid in advance. Software license updates provide customers with rights to unspecified product upgrades, as well as maintenance and patch releases that are released during the term of the support period. Software license updates and product support revenue (i.e., Maintenance revenue) represented 27% of total consolidated revenue for each of the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022.
Sources of Equipment
We do not manufacture the messaging devices our customers need to make use of our wireless services or the network equipment we use to provide wireless messaging services. We have relationships with several vendors to purchase new messaging devices. Used messaging devices are available in the secondary market from various sources. We believe existing inventory, returns of devices from customers that canceled wireless services, and purchases from other available sources of new and reconditioned devices will be sufficient to meet expected messaging device requirements for the foreseeable future. With the exception of our GenA pagers, the network equipment and messaging devices on which we may place our logo or label are generic.
We sell third-party equipment for use with our software solutions. The third-party equipment that we sell is generally available and does not require any specialty manufacturing to accommodate our software solutions.
We currently have inventory and network equipment on hand that we believe will be sufficient to meet our wireless and software equipment requirements for the foreseeable future.
Intellectual Property
As of December 31, 2024, we held 82 trademarks and two patents, which we believe are important to protect our intellectual property. We have no pending trademarks or patents. We believe our intellectual property distinguishes our business from our competition and is integral to our continued success in the area of clinical communication and collaboration solutions. The expiration dates of these trademarks range from 2025 to 2035 and can be extended for 10-year periods upon renewals.
Research and Development
We maintain a product development group, a substantial portion of which is focused on the enhancement of existing software products. Our product development group uses a methodology that balances enhancement requests from a number of sources, including customers, regulatory requirements, professional services staff, customer support incidents, known defects, market and technology trends, and competitive requirements. These requests are reviewed and prioritized based on criteria that include the potential for increased revenue, customer/employee satisfaction, possible cost savings, and development time and expense.
Customers
Our customers include businesses and their employees who need to be accessible to their offices or customers, first responders who need to be accessible in emergencies, and third parties, such as other telecommunication carriers and resellers that pay us to use our networks. Customers include businesses, professionals, management personnel, medical personnel, field sales personnel and service forces, members of the construction industry and construction trades, real estate brokers and developers, sales and services organizations, specialty trade organizations, manufacturing organizations and government agencies.
Our wide-ranging customer base allows for low customer revenue concentration and as a result, no single customer accounted for more than 10% of our total revenues in 2024, 2023 or 2022.
We pursue close, long-term relationships with our customers because we believe strong customer relationships enable us to retain our current customer base and expand our services and revenue to that customer base.
Competition
The competitors and degree of competition vary among our various product categories. Competition is particularly strong for our wireless messaging services. Within the wireless industry, companies compete on the basis of price, coverage area, services offered, transmission quality, network reliability and customer service. We compete by maintaining competitive pricing for our products and services, by providing broad coverage options through high-quality, reliable messaging networks and by providing quality customer service. Direct competitors for wireless messaging services include American Messaging Service, LLC and a variety of other regional and local providers. We also compete with a broad array of wireless messaging services provided by mobile telephone companies, including AT&T Mobility LLC,T-Mobile USA, Inc., and Verizon Wireless, Inc. This competition has intensified as prices for the services of mobile telephone companies have declined and messaging capabilities are generally available in today's mobile phone devices. Many of these companies possess far greater financial, technical and other resources than we do.
Most personal communication and other mobile phone devices currently sold in the United States are capable of sending and receiving one-way and two-way messages. Most subscribers that purchase these services no longer need to subscribe to a separate messaging service. As a result, many one-way and two-way messaging subscribers can readily switch to cellular, personal communications service and other mobile telephone services. The decrease in prices and increase in capacity and functionality for cellular, personal communications service, Wi-Fi, and other mobile telephone services have led many subscribers to select combined voice and messaging services from mobile telephone companies as an alternative to our stand-alone messaging services.
We also have a number of competitors whose software products compete with one or more modules of our clinical communication and collaboration solutions. These competitors are a mix of privately held and public companies that offer a number of call center, alerting and mobile communication products. Our primary competitive advantages include having:
•An integrated product suite;
•A communication-driven workflow;
•Certifications, such as those through the Joint Interoperability Test Command (see "Joint Interoperability Test Command" below) and the FDA; and
•A complete directory of contacts throughout the customer enterprise.
Although we have no competitors that offer a comprehensive set of software modules that match our product offerings, several competitors offer software similar to many of our solutions. Selected competitors for portions of our product portfolio include:
•Logility Inc. - Enterprise software solutions;
•CareCloud, Inc. - Healthcare solutions;
•Consensus Cloud Solutions - Cloud-based solutions;
•DarioHealth - Healthcare solutions;
•Domo, Inc. - Cloud-based solutions;
•eGain Corporation - Cloud-based solutions;
•Health Catalyst, Inc. - Healthcare data and analytics;
•HealthStream, Inc. - Healthcare workforce solutions;
•Kaltura, Inc. - Cloud-based solutions;
•KORE Group Holdings Inc. - Mobile communications solutions;
•LifeMD - Healthcare solutions;
•OptimizeRx Corporation. - Healthcare solutions;
•Sharecare - Healthcare solutions;
•Synchronoss Technologies - Cloud-based solutions;
•TruBridge - Healthcare solutions; and
•Weave Communications, Inc. - Software solutions.
In addition to these select competitors, substantially larger companies in the electronic medical records space such as Epic Systems Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Athenahealth, Inc. and Veradigm, Inc. may choose to offer software-related solutions similar to our clinical communication and collaboration solutions or may acquire one of our competitors.
Furthermore, the healthcare sector continues to experience significant consolidation, in large part due to COVID-19, which has highlighted the need to improve patient outcomes, reduce the burden on providers and streamline operations. As certain industries have been challenged during the pandemic, many organizations are motivated to reduce costs and
improve efficiencies while others attempt to enter new markets with complementary or divergent product offerings and drive growth. With larger organizations like Microsoft Corporation and Oracle Corporation entering the market in which we operate, they may have a competitive advantage through aggressive pricing power, established brand recognition, extensive capital resources, and broader delivery and distribution channels.
Human Capital
At December 31, 2024 and 2023, we had 410 and 384 full time equivalent employees ("FTEs"), respectively. Our employees are not represented by labor unions or covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
Employee Health, Safety and Well-Being
Spok is committed to conducting its business operations in a manner that protects the health and safety of its employees, visitors, contractors and the public, and reduces risks within our work centers. Spok believes that no job is so important that our employees cannot take the time to ensure the work is performed safely and in an environmentally conscious manner. Spok’s policies and procedures are intended to provide employees with the information needed to meet all federal, state and local guidelines for occupational health and safety.
As a global company, Spok strives to create an environment where everyone feels welcome and has equal access to opportunities, regardless of background. We recognize the value and contributions of individuals with a wide range of capabilities, experience, and perspectives. This creates value for our customers and helps to maintain an effective and engaged workforce. Spok is committed to providing a work environment free from discrimination and harassment, and one where employees are treated with dignity and respect, while only using legally compliant methods for advancing these efforts. We refuse to accept or tolerate harassment or discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment.
Spok has a council composed of employees and executive sponsors to provide feedback and make recommendations regarding our policies and practices regarding employee health, safety and well-being. We believe that by promoting, supporting and leveraging the capabilities and experience of our employees, we have a competitive advantage that allows us to innovate and draw from our workforce’s differing perspectives. By bringing together employees from different backgrounds and providing each with an opportunity to develop their skills and actively contribute to our mission, we cultivate an engaged workforce which in turn helps us deliver value to our customers.
Ethical Standards
Integrity is a core tenet of Spok’s culture, and we have measures and controls in place to regularly ensure that our work and organization are held to the highest ethical standards. We provide numerous resources to our employees, including regular, annual training on maintaining these standards. We also maintain employee guidelines and policies that align with Spok’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics.
Regulation
Federal Regulation
The FCC issues licenses to use radio frequencies necessary to conduct our business and regulate many aspects of the operations that support our wireless revenue. Licenses granted to us by the FCC have varying terms, generally of up to 10 years, at which time the FCC must approve renewal applications. In the past, FCC renewal applications generally have been granted upon showing compliance with the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the "Communications Act"), and FCC regulations and adequate service to the public. Other than those still pending, the FCC has thus far granted each license renewal that we have requested.
The Communications Act requires radio licensees, including us, to obtain prior approval from the FCC for the assignment or transfer of control of any construction permit or station license or authorization of any rights thereunder. The FCC has thus far granted each assignment or transfer request we have made in connection with a change of control.
The Communications Act also places limitations on foreign ownership of CMRS licenses, which constitute the majority of our licenses. These foreign ownership restrictions limit the percentage of stockholders’ equity that may be owned or voted, directly or indirectly, by non-United States citizens or their representatives, foreign governments or their representatives, or foreign corporations. Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation permits the redemption of our equity from stockholders where necessary to ensure compliance with these requirements.
The FCC’s rules require us to pay a variety of fees that increase our costs of doing business. For example, the FCC requires licensees, including Spok, to pay levies and fees, such as universal service fees, to cover the costs of certain regulatory programs and to promote various other societal goals. These requirements increase the cost of the services we provide. By law, we are permitted to bill our customers for these regulatory costs and we typically do so.
Additionally, the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act of 1994, ("CALEA"), and certain rules implementing CALEA, require some telecommunication companies, including Spok, to design and/or modify their equipment in order to allow law enforcement personnel to "wiretap" or otherwise intercept messages. Other regulatory requirements restrict how we may use customer information and prohibit certain commercial electronic messages, even to our own customers.
In addition, the FCC’s rules require us to pay other carriers for the transport and termination of some telecommunications traffic. As a result of various FCC decisions, we no longer pay fees for the termination of traffic originating on the networks of local exchange carriers providing wireline services interconnected with our services. In some instances, we received refunds for prior payments to certain local exchange carriers. We have entered into a number of interconnection agreements with local exchange carriers in order to resolve various issues regarding charges imposed by local exchange carriers for interconnection.
Failure to follow the FCC’s rules and regulations can result in a variety of penalties, ranging from monetary fines to the loss of licenses. Additionally, the FCC has the authority to modify licenses, or impose additional requirements through changes to its rules.
The FDA has determined software systems that connect to medical devices are subject to regulation as medical devices as defined by the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (the "FDC Act"). Since our middleware software products connect to medical devices, we are required to comply with the FDC Act’s requirements, including, but not limited to: registration and listing, labeling, medical device reporting (reporting of medical device-related adverse events), removal and correction, and good manufacturing practice requirements. We have complied with the regulatory requirements of the FDC Act, and registered and received the necessary clearances for our products. As we modify and/or enhance our software products (including our middleware product), we may be required to request FDA clearance before we are permitted to market these products.
In addition, our software solutions may handle or have access to personal health information subject in the United States to the HIPAA, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act ("HITECH"), and related regulations. These statutes and related regulations impose numerous requirements regarding the use and disclosure of personal health information with which we help our customers comply. Our failure to accurately anticipate or interpret these complex and technical laws could subject us to civil and/or criminal liability. We believe that we are in compliance with these laws and their related regulations.
Although these and other regulatory requirements have not, to date, had a material adverse effect on our operating results, such requirements could have a material impact on our operating results in the future. We monitor discussions at the FCC and FDA on pending changes in regulatory policy or regulations; however, we are unable to predict what changes, if any, may occur in 2025 to regulatory policy or regulations.
State Regulation
As a result of the enactment by the United States Congress of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 ("OBRA") in August 1993, states are now generally preempted from exercising rate or entry regulation over any of our operations. States are not preempted, however, from regulating "other terms and conditions" of our operations, including consumer protection and similar rules of general applicability. Zoning requirements are also generally permissible, however, provisions of the OBRA prohibit local zoning authorities from unreasonably restricting wireless services. Several states require us to hold a license or otherwise register to provide our wireless services in the jurisdiction, and those states that regulate our services also may require us to obtain prior approval of (1) the acquisition of controlling interests in other paging companies and (2) a change of control of the Company.
At this time, we are not aware of any proposed state legislation or regulations that would have a material adverse impact on our business.
Joint Interoperability Test Command ("JITC") Certification
JITC is a military organization that tests technology for use by the branches of the armed services of the United States and the United States government. JITC certification is required of all systems with joint interfaces or joint information exchanges with other systems used by these organizations and is done to ensure all systems operate effectively together. All information technology and national security systems that exchange and use information to enable units or forces to operate effectively in joint, combined, coalition and interagency operations and simulations must be certified. Once a system has been certified under this program, the certification must be renewed every three to six years or after any changes that may affect interoperability. The interoperability certification process consists of the following steps:
•Identify requirements, such as general availability of the software;
•Develop certification approach and submit for government sponsorship;
•Perform interoperability testing, including setup, cybersecurity and mitigation strategies; and
•Publish approved certifications and report statuses.
We submit and receive JITC certification for certain of our products through the Defense Information Systems Agency, which allows us to sell and implement our solutions at federal government agencies. We currently certify a console, web, public safety answering point and call recording products with JITC. We have a roadmap to renew the existing certifications with new releases of existing products and to bring additional products to JITC to increase the products that can be sold to federal agencies.
Available Information
We make available on our website, http://www.spok.com, free of charge, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such reports are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. The SEC also maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. We also make available on our website, and in print, if any stockholder or other person so requests, our code of business conduct and ethics entitled "Code of Business Conduct and Ethics" which is applicable to all employees and directors, our "Corporate Governance Guidelines" and the charters for all committees of our Board of Directors, including Audit, Compensation and Nominating and Governance. Any changes to our Code of Ethics or waiver, if any, of our Code of Ethics for executive officers or directors will be posted on that website.

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
The following important factors, among others, could cause our actual operating results to differ materially from those indicated or suggested by forward-looking statements made in this 2024 Form 10-K or presented elsewhere by management from time to time.
Risks Related to our Business and Operations
Wireless service to our customers could be adversely impacted by network rationalization.
We have an active program to consolidate the number of wireless networks and related transmitter locations, which is referred to as network rationalization. Network rationalization is necessary to match our technical infrastructure to our smaller subscriber base and to reduce both site rent and telecommunication costs. The implementation of the network rationalization program could adversely impact wireless service to our new and existing subscribers, and there can be no assurance that any efforts to minimize that impact would be successful. Any adverse impact to our wireless service could lead to increases in the rate of gross subscriber cancellations and/or the level of wireless revenue erosion. Adverse changes in gross subscriber cancellations and/or wireless revenue erosion could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and ability to pay cash dividends to stockholders.
We depend on highly skilled personnel, and, if we are unable to retain or hire qualified personnel, we may not be able to achieve our strategic objectives.
To execute our growth plan and achieve our strategic objectives, we must continue to attract, hire and retain highly qualified and motivated personnel across our organization. In particular, to continue to enhance our software solutions, add new and innovative core functionality and services and develop new products, it is critical for us to maintain a strong research and development organization, including hiring and retaining highly skilled software engineers. Competition for talent is intense within our industry, and there continues to be upward pressure on compensation, especially as a result of higher inflation. In addition, for us to achieve broader market acceptance of our software solutions, grow our customer base, and pursue adjacent markets, we will need to continue to develop and maintain our sales and marketing and customer support organizations. Identifying and recruiting qualified personnel, training them in the use of our software solutions and ensuring they are well-equipped to serve our customers requires a significant investment of time and resources, and it can be particularly difficult to retain these individuals.
We face significant competition for experienced personnel, and many of our competitors for talent have greater name recognition and financial resources than we have. If we hire employees from competitors or other companies, former employers may assert claims against us for breach of legal obligations to the former employer, resulting in a diversion of our time and resources. In addition, the job market for technology roles has historically been very competitive. While we are able to expand our candidate pool by opening our opportunities nationwide, allowing us to be more competitive, the job market continues to be a challenge everywhere, making it vitally important to retain our current team members. When considering employment opportunities, candidates and existing employees often consider the value of equity awards. If the actual or perceived value of our equity awards declines, or if the price of our common stock experiences significant volatility, this may adversely affect our ability to recruit and retain highly skilled employees. As a result, we may have greater difficulty hiring and retaining skilled personnel than some of our competitors. If we are unable to attract and retain the personnel necessary to execute our growth plan, we may be unable to achieve our strategic objectives, and our business, financial condition, operating results and ability to pay cash dividends to stockholders may be adversely affected.
Growth in our software revenue and bookings, and maintenance of our wireless revenue and subscriber base is dependent on the productivity of our sales organization.
Our ability to achieve revenue growth will depend, in large part, on our success in recruiting, training and retaining sufficient numbers of sales personnel to support our growth. New hires require significant training and may take significant time before they achieve full productivity. Based on past experience, we expect new sales team members to reach full productivity after nine to 12 months of employment. However, our recent and planned hires may not become productive as quickly as expected, or at all, and we may be unable to hire or retain a sufficient number of qualified individuals in the markets in which we do business or plan to do business.
From time to time, it may be necessary to reorient our sales representatives to focus on specific market segments, product lines or new software solutions or to remove underperforming individuals, which may require additional resources to maintain productivity. The impact of these changes could adversely impact our ability to achieve our sales productivity goals. We have also identified the following risks that could impact our sales productivity:
•Customer Dissatisfaction and Reputational Harm. We may experience customer dissatisfaction with our solutions that could result in lost opportunities for sales. Potential low ratings of our solutions by customers may result in us being excluded from consideration by current and prospective customers with respect to future opportunities. In addition, fewer customer references for our solutions could impact our ability to prospect new sales.
•Training. Training of our marketing and sales personnel regarding the clinical requirements of our healthcare customers and the complexity of our service offerings, takes time and requires a substantial, continuing investment for both new hires and long-term employees.
•Competitive Speed. Sales productivity can be impacted by the capabilities of our competitors. There is a risk that competitors may innovate or partner faster than we do.
•Employee Retention. The items noted above may challenge the ability of employees to generate sales, which may affect morale and employee retention.
If we are unable to deliver effective customer support, our relationships with our existing customers and our ability to attract new customers could be harmed.
Our revenue growth depends, in part, on our ability to satisfy our customers, including by providing continued customer support, which may contribute to increased customer retention and adoption and utilization of our wireless services and software solutions. Once our wireless services and software solutions are deployed, our customers depend on our customer support group to resolve technical issues relating to their use of our solutions. We may be unable to respond quickly to accommodate short-term increases in customer demand for support services or may otherwise encounter difficult customer issues. If a customer is unsatisfied with the quality of our customer support, we may incur additional costs or experience customer terminations or non-renewals.
Our sales process is highly dependent on the ease of use of our wireless services and software solutions, our reputation and positive recommendations from our existing customers. Any failure to maintain high-quality or responsive customer support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality or responsive customer support, could harm our reputation, cause us to lose customers and adversely impact our ability to sell our wireless services and software solutions to prospective customers.
We have investigated potential acquisitions and may be unable to identify an opportunity at favorable terms or have the ability to close on the financing necessary to consummate the transaction.
We cannot provide any assurances that we will be successful in finding such acquisitions or consummating future acquisitions on favorable terms. We anticipate that future acquisitions will be financed through a combination of methods, including, but not limited to, the use of available cash on hand, and, if necessary, borrowings from third-party financial institutions. Disruptions or volatility in credit markets may impede our access to capital markets, including higher borrowing costs, less available capital, more stringent terms and tighter covenants may limit our ability to finance acquisitions.
We have investigated potential acquisitions and may be unable to successfully complete or integrate such acquisitions into our business, and may not achieve all or any of the operating synergies or anticipated benefits of those acquisitions.
We continue to evaluate acquisitions of other businesses that we believe will yield increased cash flows, improved market penetration and/or operating efficiencies and synergies. We may face various challenges with integration efforts related to any future acquisitions, including the combination and simplification of product and service offerings, sales and marketing approaches and establishment of combined operations.
We may have limited or no history of owning and operating any business that we acquire. If we were to acquire these businesses, there can be no assurance that:
•Such businesses will perform as expected;
•Such businesses will not incur unforeseen obligations or liabilities;
•Such businesses will generate sufficient cash flow to support the indebtedness, if incurred, to acquire such business or the expenditures needed to develop such business; and
•The rate of return from such businesses will justify the decision to invest the capital to acquire them.
There can be no assurance that we will manage these challenges and risks successfully. Moreover, if we are not successful in completing transactions that we have pursued or may pursue, our business may be adversely affected, and we may incur substantial expenses and divert significant management time and resources. In addition, while pursuing and completing such transactions, we could use substantial portions of our available cash to pay for all or a portion of the purchase price or retention incentives to employees of the acquired business, or we may incur substantial debt. We could also issue additional securities to finance all or a portion of the purchase price for these transactions or as retention incentives to employees of the acquired business, which could cause our stockholders to suffer significant dilution. Such transactions may not generate additional revenue or profit for us, or may take longer than expected to do so, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
Economic conditions that are largely out of our control may adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
Our business is sensitive to recessionary economic cycles, higher interest rates, inflation, higher levels of unemployment, higher tax rates and other changes in tax laws, or other economic factors that may affect business spending or buying habits that could adversely affect the demand for our services. Adverse economic conditions could increase the rate of gross subscriber cancellations and/or the level of revenue erosion for our wireless business and could cause delays in or
the loss of software revenue or bookings, which impacts license, professional services, hardware and subscription revenues.
A significant portion of our revenue is derived from healthcare customers, and we are impacted by changes in the healthcare economic environment. The healthcare industry is highly regulated and is subject to changing political, legislative, regulatory, and other economic developments. These developments can have a dramatic effect on the decision-making and spending by our customers for information technology and software, including our ability to increase prices. This economic uncertainty can add to the unpredictability of decision-making and lengthen our sales cycle. We are unable to predict the full consequences of this uncertainty on our operations. Adverse changes in the economic environment could adversely impact our ability to increase the prices we charge for our offerings, while effectively managing customer churn, or to successfully market and sell our wireless and software solutions to healthcare customers.
Risks Related to our Products and Services
The rate of wireless subscriber and revenue erosion could exceed our ability to reduce wireless operating expenses in order to maintain overall positive operating cash flow from our wireless business.
Our wireless revenue is dependent on the number of subscribers that use our paging devices. Our customers may not renew their subscriptions after the expiration of their subscription agreements. In addition, our customers may opt for one of our lower-priced offerings or for fewer subscriptions. Customer renewal rates may decline or fluctuate due to a number of factors, including their level of satisfaction with our offerings and their ability to continue their operations and spending levels. Increasing awareness and concern over HIPAA/HITECH compliance is causing healthcare organizations, our largest customer segment, to re-evaluate paging subscriptions for clinical use cases when users are not equipped with our encrypted pager offerings.
We face intense competition for subscribers from other paging service providers and alternate wireless communications providers, such as mobile phone and mobile data service providers. There is a risk that our competitors’ products may provide better performance or include additional features when compared to our offerings. Competitive pressures could also affect the prices we may charge or the demand for our offerings, resulting in reduced profit margins and loss of market share. In addition, new competitors may emerge as a result of changing dynamics and trends in the market and industry, and we may not be adequately prepared to respond to these changes in the healthcare landscape. If we are unable to compete effectively, our business, financial condition, operating results and ability to pay cash dividends to stockholders may be adversely affected.
In addition to competition, our customer base may be impacted by the introduction of new technologies. As mobile communications technology evolves, competitors that provide wireless broadband data services may lower their prices to customers that approach, meet or undercut our prices for paging services. We are unable to predict how customer perceptions of the value of our wireless services will be impacted by the development of new wireless technologies. Our continued success will depend on our ability to adapt to rapidly changing technologies and user preferences, to adapt our offerings to evolving industry standards, to predict user preferences and industry changes in order to continue to provide value to our customers and to improve the performance and reliability of our offerings. Our failure to adapt to such changes could harm our business, and our efforts to adapt to such changes could require substantial expenditures on our part to modify our offerings or infrastructure. Delays in developing, completing or delivering new or enhanced offerings and technologies could result in delayed or reduced revenue for those offerings and could also adversely affect customer acceptance of those offerings and technologies. Even if we are able to enhance our existing offerings or introduce new offerings that are well perceived by the market, if our marketing or sales efforts do not generate interest in or sales for these offerings, they may be unsuccessful.
We expect our wireless subscriber results, units in service and revenue will continue to decline for the foreseeable future. As this revenue erosion continues, maintaining positive operating cash flow from our wireless business is dependent on substantial and timely reductions in selected wireless operating expenses. Reductions in wireless operating expenses require both the reduction of internal costs and negotiation of lower costs from outside vendors. As we require fewer services and products from our vendors, our negotiating leverage to lower our costs is diminished. There can be no assurance that we will be able to reduce our wireless operating expenses commensurate with the level of revenue erosion. The inability to reduce wireless operating expenses would have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, operating results and ability to pay cash dividends to stockholders.
Technical problems and higher costs may affect our product development initiatives.
Our future software revenue growth depends on our ability to develop, introduce and effectively deploy new solutions and features to our existing software solutions. These new features and functionalities are designed to address both existing and new customer requirements. We may experience technical problems and additional costs as these new features are tested and deployed. Failure to effectively develop new or improved software solutions could adversely impact software revenue growth and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and ability to pay cash dividends to stockholders.
Undetected defects, bugs, or security vulnerabilities in our products could adversely affect the market acceptance of new products, damage our reputation with current or prospective customers, and materially and adversely affect our operating costs.
Software products, such as those we offer, may contain defects, vulnerabilities and bugs when they are first introduced or as new versions are released, or their release may be delayed due to unforeseen difficulties during product development. If any of our products, including products of companies we have acquired, or third-party components used in our products, contain defects, vulnerabilities or bugs, or have reliability, quality or compatibility problems, we may not be able to successfully design workarounds or resolve these issues. Any defects or vulnerabilities we do not detect and fix in pre-release testing could result in reduced sales and revenue, damage to our reputation, repair or remediation costs, delays in the release of new products or versions or legal liability. In addition, we do not control the quality, security or testing of various third-party software, hardware or infrastructure products that are utilized in our business. There can be no assurance that provisions in our license agreements that limit our exposure to liability will be sufficient or withstand legal challenge. Computer programmers and hackers also may be able to develop and deploy, including through technologies such as artificial intelligence, viruses, worms, and other malicious software programs that attack our or a critical third party's products or otherwise exploit any security vulnerabilities of such products.
We are dependent on the United States healthcare provider industry for most of our revenue.
We generate more than 75% of our revenue from sales to hospitals and other healthcare provider organizations in the United States. These customers, both non-profit and for-profit, are greatly affected by macroeconomic conditions, pandemics or other public health emergencies, healthcare reform legislation and the reimbursement policies of federal and state governments and health insurance companies, and any decline in revenue received by our customers due to adverse economic conditions, pandemics or other public health emergencies, or legislative or regulatory changes could significantly affect the type and amount of services and products they order from us.
We may experience a long sales cycle for our software products.
Our software revenue growth results from a long sales cycle that from initial contact to final sales order may take six to 18 months, depending on the type of software solution. Our software sales and marketing efforts involve educating our customers on the technical capabilities of our software solutions and the potential benefits from the deployment of our software, as well as educating ourselves as to the clinical needs of our customers. The inherent unpredictability of decision-making in our target market segment of healthcare, resulting from customer budget constraints, multiple approvals and administrative issues, may result in fluctuating bookings and revenue from month to month, quarter to quarter and year to year. Our bookings and corresponding revenue are dependent on actions that have occurred in the past. Each month, we need to spend substantial time, effort, and expense on our marketing and sales efforts that may not result in future revenue.
We may be unable to find vendors that are able to supply us with wireless paging equipment based on future demands.
We purchase paging equipment from third-party vendors. This equipment is sold or leased to customers in order to provide wireless messaging services. The reduction in industry demand for paging equipment has caused various suppliers to cease manufacturing this equipment or increase prices for devices. There can be no assurance that we will continue to find vendors to supply paging equipment, or that the vendors will supply equipment at costs that allow us to remain a competitive alternative in the wireless messaging industry. A lack of paging equipment could impact our ability to provide certain wireless messaging services and could have a material adverse effect on our business, leading to additional wireless revenue erosion.
We may be unable to maintain successful relationships with our channel partners.
We use channel partners, such as resellers, consulting firms, original equipment manufacturers, and technology partners, to license and support our products. We rely, to a significant degree, on each of our channel partners to select, screen and maintain relationships with its respective distribution network and to distribute our offerings in a manner that is consistent with applicable law and regulatory requirements and our quality standards. Contract defaults by any of these channel partners or the loss of our relationships with them may materially adversely affect our ability to develop, market, sell, or support our communication solution offerings. If our indirect distribution channel is disrupted, we may be required to devote more resources to distribute our offerings directly and support our customers, which may not be as effective and could lead to higher costs, reduced revenue and growth that is slower than expected.
Recruiting and retaining qualified channel partners and training them in the use of our enterprise technologies requires significant time and resources. If we fail to devote sufficient resources to support and expand our network of channel partners, our business may be adversely affected. In addition, because we rely on channel partners for the indirect distribution of our enterprise technologies, we may have little or no contact with the ultimate end-users of our technologies, thereby making it more difficult for us to establish brand awareness, ensure proper delivery and installation of our software, support ongoing customer requirements, estimate end-user demand, respond to evolving customer needs and obtain subscription renewals from end users.
We may experience litigation claiming intellectual property infringement by us, and we may not be able to protect our rights in intellectual property that we own and develop.
Intellectual property infringement litigation has become commonplace, particularly in the wireless and software industries in which we operate. Litigation can be protracted, expensive, and time consuming. There is no assurance that we will remain immune to this litigation. Any such claims, whether meritorious or not, could be time-consuming and costly in terms of both resources and management time.
We may receive claims that we have infringed the intellectual property rights of others, including claims regarding patents, copyrights, and trademarks. The number and types of these claims may grow as a result of constant technological change, including the increased use of artificial intelligence, in the segments in which our wireless services and software products compete, the extensive patent coverage of existing technologies, and the rapid rate of issuance of new patents.
Our patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets relating to our wireless services and networks, and our software solutions, are important assets. The efforts we undertake to protect our proprietary rights may not be sufficient or effective. Any significant impairment of our intellectual property rights could harm our business and our ability to compete effectively. Protecting our intellectual property rights can be costly and time consuming.
We seek to maintain certain of our intellectual property rights as trade secrets, including the source code for many of our software solutions and innovations. Our source code and system architecture may be reverse engineered by our competitors, or the secrecy of our solutions and designs could be compromised through a security breach, cyberattack or otherwise, or by our employees or former employees, intentionally or accidentally. Any compromise of our trade secrets could cause us to lose any competitive advantage our software solutions have and the investment we have made in developing our products and services.
Our portfolio of issued patents and copyrights may be insufficient to defend ourselves against intellectual property infringement claims, and the validity and scope of our patents could be challenged by third parties were we to seek to enforce them.
Risks Related to Technology
Our use of open source software, third-party software and other intellectual property may expose us to risks.
We license and integrate certain software components from third parties into our software, and we expect to continue to use third-party software in the future. Some open source software licenses require users who distribute or make available as a service open source software as part of their own software product to publicly disclose all or part of the source code of the users’ developed software or to make available any derivative works of the open source code on unfavorable terms or at no cost. Our efforts to use the open source software in a manner consistent with the relevant license terms that would not require us to disclose our proprietary code or license our proprietary software at no cost may not be successful. We may face claims by third parties seeking to enforce the license terms applicable to such open source software, including by demanding the release of the open source software, derivative works or our proprietary source code that was developed using such software. In addition, if the license terms for the open source code change, we may be forced to re-engineer our software or incur additional costs.
Some of our products and services include other software or intellectual property licensed from third parties, and we also use software and other intellectual property licensed from third parties in our business. This exposes us to risks over which we may have little or no control. For example, a licensor may have difficulties keeping up with technological changes or may stop supporting the software or other intellectual property that it licenses to us. There can be no assurance that the licenses we use will be available on acceptable terms, if at all. In addition, a third party may assert that we or our customers are in breach of the terms of a license, which could, among other things, give such third party the right to terminate a license or seek damages from us, or both. Our inability to obtain or maintain certain licenses or other rights or to obtain or maintain such licenses or rights on favorable terms, or the need to engage in litigation regarding these matters, could result in delays in releases of new products, and could otherwise disrupt our business, until equivalent technology can be identified, licensed or developed. In addition, sophisticated hardware and operating system software and applications that we procure from third parties may contain defects in design or manufacture, including "bugs," security vulnerabilities, and other problems that could unexpectedly interfere with the expected operation of our products and services or expose us to cyberattacks and security breaches.
System disruptions, data compromises and other cybersecurity threats to our computer networks, satellite control, telecommunications systems and other IT Systems, or to those of our service providers, could have a material adverse effect on our business.
The performance and reliability of computer systems, hardware, software and satellite networks and telecommunications systems infrastructure (collectively, “IT Systems”) is critical to our operations. We own and manage certain IT Systems but rely heavily on critical IT Systems that are owned and/or managed by third parties. These IT Systems are vulnerable to material damage or interruption from natural disasters, power loss, telecommunication failures, terrorist attacks, software errors and other events. Any IT System (such as a satellite network) error or failure, regardless of cause, could result in a substantial outage that materially disrupts our operations. In addition, we face the threat of material compromise to our computer systems, or those of our service providers, of unauthorized access, computer hackers, computer viruses, malicious code, organized cyberattacks and other security problems and system disruptions (e.g., distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks or ransomware attacks). Our wireless services depend on connectivity provided by third-party satellite network services where failure would result in a loss of service to our customers. With respect to our Enterprise Reporting and Management systems and data storage, and other operational needs, we rely on third-party data centers and services for maintaining accessibility, reliability and uninterrupted connectivity, among other things.
Our disaster recovery planning may not be sufficient for every eventuality, such as a ransomware attack that encrypts some or all of our or our service providers' IT Systems, data or infrastructure. We may not carry business interruption insurance sufficient to protect us from all losses that may result from interruptions in our services as a result of IT Systems and infrastructure failures or cyberattacks, or to cover all contingencies. We expend significant resources to protect against the threat of these IT System disruptions. Any interruption in the availability of our websites and online interactions with customers or partners may cause a reduction in customer or partner satisfaction levels, which in turn could result in legal claims, reduced revenue or loss of customers or partners. There can be no assurance that any precautions we take will prove successful, and such problems could result in, among other consequences, a loss of data, a loss of confidence in the stability and reliability of our offerings, damage to our reputation, and legal liability, all of which may adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
We rely on data centers and other IT Systems and technologies provided by third parties, and technology systems and electronic networks supplied and managed by third parties, to operate our business. Any major interruption or performance problems with these systems, technologies and networks may adversely affect our business and operating results.
We rely on data centers and other IT Systems and technologies provided by third parties. If key third parties are unable to perform services for us because of service interruptions or extended outages, or because those services are no longer available on commercially reasonable terms, our expenses could materially increase. Switching our technology to another service provider, if available, could result in significant disruption, data loss or corruption, or unsuccessful data transfers could cause data to be incomplete or contain inaccuracies.
We do not control, or in some cases have limited control over, the data center facilities we use. These facilities are vulnerable to damage from natural disasters and adverse weather, including hurricanes, storms, earthquakes, floods, fires, power loss, telecommunications failures and similar events. These facilities are also at risk of serious theft, vandalism or other security related events. Despite precautions taken at these facilities, adverse events could result in lengthy interruptions in our services and the loss or corruption of, or unauthorized access to or acquisition of, customer data. In addition, the owners of our data center facilities have no obligation to renew their agreements with us on commercially reasonable terms. If we are required to relocate to another data center facility, we may not be able to rapidly identify and obtain new facilities, and we may incur significant costs or interruptions to our services, as a result.
Our ability to provide services to our customers depends on our ability to communicate with customers through the public internet and electronic networks owned and operated by third parties. A major failure or disruption of the internet or third-party networks could impede our ability to provide services to our customers, result in a loss of customers, subject us to potential liabilities, result in contract terminations or adversely affect our renewal rates.
Cyberattacks, data breaches or other compromises to our or our critical third parties' IT Systems, data, products or services could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We rely heavily on a range of IT Systems for critical business operations. In addition, we and various third parties collect, process and store our customers’, suppliers’ and employees’ confidential information, as well as our own proprietary business information (collectively, "Confidential Information"). We are also dependent on a number of third-party providers of various technology, tools and services relating to, among other things, human resources, electronic communications, data storage, finance, and other business functions, and we are, of necessity, dependent on the security systems of these providers.
We face numerous and evolving cybersecurity risks that threaten the confidentiality, integrity and availability of IT Systems and Confidential Information. Accidental or willful cyberattacks, breaches or other unauthorized access events committed or enabled by third parties or by our employees or contractors (for example, due to social engineering or phishing attacks) impact the security and integrity of our facilities, our systems or the systems of our third-party providers, and the information maintained in such systems. In addition, computer viruses, malware (for example, ransomware) or security vulnerabilities in our or our service providers' data, software, products or services, as well as external cyberattacks and data breaches, expose us to the risks of material corruption, loss, and misappropriation of proprietary and confidential information. We also routinely transmit and receive proprietary and Confidential Information, including through third parties, which makes that information vulnerable to interception, misuse or mishandling that may materially impact our business.
The frequency and scope of cyberattacks has been steadily increasing, and attackers are increasingly sophisticated, using tools and techniques, including artificial intelligence, to evade detection or cause significant delays in detection and identification. Even once identified, investigation and remediation of an incident is increasingly challenging due to attackers taking steps to obfuscate or remove forensic evidence and to circumvent logging tools and counter-measures, which renders us unable to fully anticipate or implement adequate preventative or restorative measures.
We and our service providers are routinely subjected to cyberattacks, such as denial of service, attempted unauthorized network intrusions, malware, viruses, social engineering (phishing), ransomware attacks or other persistent cyber threats. In addition, remote working arrangements at our Company and many third-party providers, increase cybersecurity risks due to the IT challenges associated with managing remote computing assets and vulnerabilities inherent in many non-corporate and home networks. There can also be no assurance that our or our third-party providers’ cybersecurity risk management programs, including relevant policies, processes and controls, will be fully implemented, complied with or effective in protecting IT Systems or Confidential Information that are critical to our business from materially adverse events.
Any cyberattack or incident that compromises the confidentiality, integrity or availability of IT Systems or Confidential Information, for example, the theft, misuse of, or unauthorized access to Confidential Information, could result in, among other things, unfavorable publicity, damage to our reputation, loss of our trade secrets and other competitive information, difficulty in marketing our products, increased costs of investigation, remediation and compliance, allegations by our customers that we have not performed our contractual obligations, litigation by affected parties (including class actions) and possible financial obligations for liabilities and damages related to the theft or misuse of such information, regulatory investigations and enforcement actions, as well as fines and other sanctions pursuant to data privacy and security rules and regulations, any or all of which could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, operations, business, profitability and financial condition. Any losses, costs and liabilities may not be covered by, or may exceed the coverage limits of, any or all of our applicable insurance policies.
Risks Related to our Financial Results
We may be unable to realize the benefits associated with our deferred income tax assets.
We have significant deferred income tax assets that are available to offset future taxable income and increase cash flows from operations. The use of these deferred income tax assets is dependent on the availability of taxable income in future periods. The availability of future taxable income is dependent on our ability to profitably manage our operations to support a growing base of software revenue offset by declining wireless subscribers and revenue. To the extent that anticipated reductions in wireless operating expenses do not occur or sufficient revenue is not generated, we may not achieve sufficient taxable income to allow for use of our deferred income tax assets. The accounting for deferred income tax assets is based upon an estimate of future results, and any valuation allowance we may apply to our deferred tax assets may be increased or decreased as conditions change or if we are unable to implement certain tax planning strategies. If we are unable to use these deferred income tax assets, our financial condition and results of operations may be materially affected. In addition, a significant portion of our deferred income tax assets relate to net operating losses. If our ability to utilize these losses is limited, due to Internal Revenue Code ("IRC") Section 382, our financial condition and results of operations may be materially affected. For example, we maintained a valuation allowance of $2.3 million at December 31, 2024 and 2023 to reduce net deferred income tax assets as their realization did not meet the applicable more-likely-than-not criterion.
If our long-lived assets or goodwill become impaired, we may be required to record significant impairment charges.
We are required to evaluate the carrying value of our long-lived assets and goodwill. For long-lived assets, we assess quarterly whether circumstances exist which suggest that the carrying value of long-lived assets may not be recoverable. We evaluate goodwill for impairment at least annually, or when events or circumstances suggest a potential impairment has occurred. We generally perform this annual goodwill impairment test in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year.
If our long-lived assets or goodwill are deemed to be impaired, an impairment loss equal to the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the fair value of the assets would be recognized. We may be required to record a significant charge in our financial statements during the period in which any impairment of our long-lived assets or goodwill is determined, which would negatively affect our results of operations.
Our estimates of market opportunity for our software solutions are subject to significant uncertainty, and, even if the markets in which we compete meet or exceed our size estimates, we could fail to increase our revenue or market share.
Market opportunity estimates are based on assumptions and estimates, and our internal analysis and industry experience. However, assessing the market for clinical communication and collaboration solutions is difficult due to several factors, such as limited available information and rapid evolution of the market. Our estimates of market opportunity depend on the assumptions we made, and the estimated market opportunity could be materially different with different assumptions. Even if the markets in which we compete meet or exceed our size estimates, our software solutions may fail to gain market acceptance and our business may not grow in line with our forecasts. In addition, an increase in the prevalence of cloud-based offerings by our competitors could also unfavorably impact the pricing of our on-premise offerings and dampen overall demand for our on-premise offerings, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and operating results.
Risks Related to Regulatory Matters
We are subject to data privacy and protection-related laws and regulation, and we may encounter issues with privacy and security of Personal Information.
In connection with running our business, we receive, store, use and otherwise process information that relates to individuals and/or constitutes “personal data,” “personal information,” “personally identifiable information,” “protected health information” or similar terms under applicable data privacy laws (collectively, “Personal Information”), including from and about actual and prospective customers, as well as our employees and business contacts. As such, our business is subject to a variety of federal, state and international laws and regulations that apply to the collection, use, retention, protection, disclosure, transfer and processing of Personal Information.
A substantial portion of our revenue comes from healthcare customers. Our software solutions may therefore handle or have access to personal health information subject in the United States to HIPAA, HITECH and related regulations as well as legislation and regulations in foreign countries. These statutes and related regulations impose numerous requirements
regarding the use and disclosure of personal health information with which we and our software solutions must comply. Our failure to accurately anticipate or interpret these complex and technical laws and regulations could subject us to civil and/or criminal liability. Such failure could adversely impact our ability to market and sell our software solutions to healthcare customers and have a material adverse impact on our software sales.
In addition, customers may use our wireless services to transmit protected health information subject to HIPAA and other regulatory requirements. While we offer encrypted pagers to our customers, many customers use wireless devices provided by us that do not encrypt text messages. While we disclaim liability for customer non-compliance with HIPAA and other privacy requirements, there remains some risk we could be held responsible for privacy violations by our customers. In addition to protected health information, the Company may handle or have access to Personal Information in the European Union or United Kingdom subject to the General Data Protection Regulation or its United Kingdom equivalent (together, the "GDPR"). The GDPR imposes several stringent requirements for controllers and processors of Personal Information and increases our obligations, including, for example, by requiring more robust disclosures to individuals, strengthening the individual data rights regime, shortening timelines for data breach notifications, limiting retention periods and secondary use of information, and imposing additional obligations when we contract third-party processors in connection with the processing of personal data. In addition, the GDPR restricts transfers of personal data outside of the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, including to the United States, under certain scenarios. While lawful data transfer mechanisms exist, there remains uncertainty, and we are exposed to potential investigations and enforcement in this area.
We are subject to existing privacy-related laws and regulations in the United States and other countries, which are evolving and are subject to potentially differing interpretations, and various federal and state or other international legislative and regulatory bodies may expand or enact laws regarding privacy and data security-related matters that impact our business. For example, in the United States, we are subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA"), which requires covered businesses to, among other things, provide certain disclosures to California consumers and afford such consumers certain privacy rights. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for certain security breaches that may increase security breach litigation. The CCPA has spurred similar legislation in many other states, and we expect this trend to continue.
There can be no assurance that the security and testing measures we take relating to our offerings and operations will prevent all security breaches and data loss that could harm our business or the businesses of our customers and partners or otherwise expose us to privacy-related liability. These risks may increase as we continue to grow our services and offerings and as we receive, store and process more of our customers’ data. Actual or perceived vulnerabilities may lead to regulatory investigations, claims against us by customers, partners or other third parties, or costs, such as those related to providing customer notifications and fraud monitoring. There can be no assurance that any provisions in our customer agreements limiting our liability will be enforceable or effective under applicable law. In addition, the cost and operational consequences of implementing further data protection measures could be significant.
The data privacy and protection-related laws and regulations to which we are subject are evolving, with new or modified laws and regulations proposed and implemented frequently, and existing laws and regulations subject to new or different interpretations. Any failure by us to comply with data privacy- and protection-related laws and regulations could result in enforcement actions, significant penalties or fines or other legal actions (including class action lawsuits) against us or our customers or suppliers. An actual or alleged failure to comply, which could result in negative publicity, reduce demand for our offerings, increase the cost of compliance, require changes in business practices that result in reduced revenue, restrict our ability to provide our offerings in certain locations, result in our customers’ inability to use our offerings and prohibit data transfers or result in other claims, liabilities or sanctions, including fines, and could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows.
Our wireless products are regulated by the FCC and, to a lesser extent, state and local regulatory authorities. Changes in regulation could result in increased costs to us and our customers and other operational impacts.
We are subject to regulation by the FCC and, to a lesser extent, by state and local authorities. Changes in regulatory policy could increase the fees we must pay to the government or to third parties and could subject us to more stringent requirements or otherwise impact our operations potentially causing us to incur additional capital and/or operating costs. To the extent additional regulatory costs are passed along to customers, those increased costs could adversely impact subscriber cancellations.
For example, the FCC issued an order in October 2007 that mandated paging carriers (including the Company) along with all other CMRS providers serving a defined minimum number of subscribers to maintain an emergency back-up power supply at all cell sites to enable operation for a minimum of eight hours in the event of a loss of commercial power (the "Back-up Power Order"). Ultimately, after a hearing by the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and
disapproval by the Office of Management and Budget (the "OMB") of the information collection requirements of the Back-up Power Order, the FCC indicated that it would not seek to override the OMB’s disapproval. Rather the FCC indicated that it would issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with the goal of adopting revised back-up power rules. To date, the FCC has not adopted revised back-up power rules applicable to the Company, and we are unable to predict what impact, if any, revised back-up power rules to which the Company is subject could have on our business, financial condition, operating results and ability to pay cash dividends to stockholders.
As a further example, the FCC has considered changes to the rules governing the collection of universal service fees, including a flat monthly charge per assigned telephone number as opposed to assessing universal service contributions based on telecommunication carriers’ interstate and international revenue. However, there is no timetable for any rulemaking to implement this numbers-based methodology. If the FCC adopts a numbers-based methodology, our attempt to recover the increased contribution costs from our customers could significantly diminish demand for our services, and our failure to recover such increased contribution costs could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and operating results. In addition, the FCC’s universal service contribution mechanism has been the subject of several recent court challenges, and the United States Supreme Court has agreed to consider the validity of the methodology on constitutional and other grounds. The outcome of this case is uncertain, but a decision by the Supreme Court invalidating the FCC’s universal service contribution mechanism could impact our business.
As another example, in 2020, the FCC made available for broadband use spectrum in the 900 MHz band that is adjacent to certain frequencies used by us to provide paging services. In early 2025, the FCC proposed to further expand these adjacent bands’ use for broadband services, in part by eliminating 500 KHz guard bands between these frequencies and those in which we operate. Although the FCC has tentatively concluded that this proposed band allocation would not result in harmful interference to users in adjacent spectrum bands, we cannot be certain that this expectation will be validated in practice, and any harmful interference resulting from the adoption of this proposal could negatively impact the Company by making its paging services less effective and its affected spectrum licenses less valuable.
Certain of our software products are regulated by the FDA. The application of or changes in regulations could impact our ability to market new or revised software products to our customers.
Certain of our software products are regulated by the FDA as medical devices. The classification of our software products as medical devices means that we are required to comply with certain registration and listing, labeling, medical device reporting, removal and correction, and good manufacturing practice requirements. Updates to these products or the development of new products could require us to seek clearance from the FDA before we are permitted to market or sell these software products.
In addition, changes to FDA regulations could impact existing software products or require updates to existing products. The impact of delays in FDA clearance or changes to FDA regulations could impact our ability to market or sell our software products and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and ability to pay cash dividends to stockholders.

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ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
We had no unresolved SEC staff comments as of February 27, 2025.

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ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
In October 2024, we relocated our corporate headquarters to our existing office and facility in Plano, Texas upon the termination of the Alexandria, Virginia lease in September 2024.
At December 31, 2024, we leased facility space, including our corporate headquarters, sales offices, technical facilities, warehouse and storage facilities in 39 locations in 23 states in the United States. The total leased space is approximately 51,000 square feet. At December 31, 2024, we owned three small parcels of land in three states in the United States.
At December 31, 2024, we leased transmitter sites on commercial broadcast towers, buildings and other fixed structures, some of which are free of charge, in approximately 2,521 locations throughout the United States. These leases are for our active transmitters and are for various terms and provide for periodic lease payments at various rates.
At December 31, 2024, we had 3,048 active transmitters on leased sites which provide service to our customers.

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ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
Refer to Note 10, "Commitments and Contingencies," in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for information regarding legal proceedings in which we are involved.

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ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURE
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not applicable.
PART II

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ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Market Information
Our sole class of common equity is our $0.0001 par value common stock, which is listed on the NASDAQ National Market® and is traded under the symbol "SPOK."
Holders of Common Stock
As of February 21, 2025, there were 2,607 holders of record of our common stock.
Dividends
The Company declared dividends totaling $26.8 million, $26.2 million and $25.8 million during the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Cash dividends declared include dividends related to unvested restricted stock units ("RSUs") and shares of unvested restricted common stock ("restricted stock") granted under the Company's Equity Plan (as defined below) to executives and non-executive members of our Board of Directors. Cash distributions on RSUs and restricted stock are accrued and paid when the applicable vesting conditions are met. Accrued cash distributions on forfeited RSUs and restricted stock are also forfeited.
The following table details information on our dividends declared and cash distributions since the formation of the Company in 2005 through the year ended December 31, 2024:
(Dollars in Thousands) Dividends Declared Per Share
Amount Total
Payment(1)
Year
Prior to 2020 $ 19.775 $ 487,150
2020 0.500 9,771
2021 0.500 10,025
2022 1.250 25,011
2023 1.250 25,642
2024 1.250 26,381
$ 24.525 $ 583,980
(1)The total payment reflects the cash distributions paid in relation to common stock, vested RSUs and vested shares of restricted stock.
On February 26, 2025, the Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.3125 per share of common stock, with a record date of March 14, 2025, and a payment date of March 31, 2025. This cash dividend of approximately $6.4 million is expected to be paid from available cash on hand.
Performance Graph
We began trading on the NASDAQ National Market® on November 17, 2004. The chart below compares the relative changes in the cumulative total return of our common stock for the period of December 31, 2019 to December 31, 2024, against the cumulative total return of the NASDAQ Composite Index® and the S&P Composite 1500 Health Care Technology Index for the same period.
The chart assumes that $100 was invested in our common stock and in each of the indices on December 31, 2019. The comparisons assume that all cash distributions were reinvested. The chart indicates the dollar value of each hypothetical $100 investment based on the closing price as of the last trading day of each fiscal year from December 31, 2019 to December 31, 2024. The stock performance depicted on the chart represents historical stock performance and is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.
*$100 invested on 12/31/2019 in stock or index, including reinvestment of dividends. Fiscal year ending December 31.
December 31,
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Spok Holdings, Inc. $ 100.00 $ 95.65 $ 84.40 $ 87.03 $ 181.58 $ 203.66
NASDAQ Composite 100.00 144.92 177.06 119.45 172.77 223.87
S&P Composite 1500 Health Care Technology Index 100.00 118.47 140.91 109.81 118.85 130.27
Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
No common stock was repurchased by the Company (excluding the purchase of common stock for tax withholdings) during the three months ended December 31, 2024.
Repurchased shares of our common stock are accounted for as a reduction to common stock and additional paid-in-capital in the period in which the repurchase occurs. In February 2022, the Company’s Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase program of up to $10 million of the Company’s common stock.
Transfer Restrictions on Common Stock
In order to reduce the possibility that certain changes in ownership could impose limitations on the use of our deferred income tax assets, our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation contains provisions that generally restrict transfers by or to any 5% stockholder of our common stock or any transfer that would cause a person or group of persons to become a 5% stockholder of our common stock. After a cumulative indirect shift in ownership of more than 45% since our emergence from bankruptcy proceedings in May 2002 through a transfer of our common stock, any transfer of our common stock by or to a 5% stockholder of our common stock or any transfer that would cause a person or group of persons to become a 5% stockholder of such common stock, will be prohibited unless the transferee or transferor provides notice of the transfer to us and our Board of Directors determines in good faith that the transfer would not result in a cumulative indirect shift in ownership of more than 47%.
Prior to a cumulative indirect ownership change of more than 45%, transfers of our common stock will not be prohibited, except to the extent that they result in a cumulative indirect shift in ownership of more than 47%, but any transfer by or to a 5% stockholder of our common stock or any transfer that would cause a person or group of persons to become a 5% stockholder of our common stock requires notice to us. Similar restrictions apply to the issuance or transfer of an option to purchase our common stock, if the exercise of the option would result in a transfer that would be prohibited pursuant to the restrictions described above. These restrictions will remain in effect until the earliest of (1) the repeal of IRC Section 382 (or any comparable successor provision) and (2) the date on which the limitation amount imposed by IRC Section 382 in the event of an ownership change would not be less than the tax attributes subject to these limitations. Transfers by or to us and any transfer pursuant to a merger approved by our Board of Directors or any tender offer to acquire all of our outstanding stock where a majority of the shares have been tendered will be exempt from these restrictions.
Based on publicly available information and after considering any direct knowledge we may have, our combined cumulative change in ownership was an insignificant amount as of December 31, 2024 and 2023.

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ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
ITEM 6. [RESERVED]

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with our Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes and the discussion under "Organization and Significant Accounting Policies” (refer to Note 1 in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements), which describes key estimates and assumptions we make in the preparation of our Consolidated Financial Statements; the cautionary language that appears under the title "Forward Looking Statements" immediately following the Table of Contents; "Item 1. Business," which describes our operations; and "Item 1A. Risk Factors," which describes key risks associated with our operations and markets in which we operate. A reference to a "Note" in this section refers to the accompanying Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
Overview and Highlights
We offer a focused suite of unified clinical communication and collaboration solutions that include call center applications, clinical alerting and notifications, one-way and advanced two-way wireless messaging services, mobile communications and public safety solutions. Our customers rely on Spok for workflow improvement, secure texting, paging services, contact center optimization and public safety response. Our product offerings are capable of addressing a customer’s clinical communications needs. We develop, sell and support enterprise-wide systems for healthcare and other organizations needing to automate, centralize and standardize their approach to clinical communications. While our primary market has been the healthcare industry with a focus on prominent hospitals, our solutions can be found in prominent hospitals, large government agencies, leading public safety institutions, colleges and universities, large hotels, resorts and casinos and well-known manufacturers.
Revenue generated by wireless messaging services (including voice mail, personalized greetings, message storage and retrieval, equipment, maintenance plans and/or equipment loss protection to both one-way and two-way messaging subscribers is presented as wireless revenue in our Consolidated Statements of Operations. Revenue generated by the sale of our software solutions, which includes software license, professional services (installation, consulting and training), equipment procured by us from third parties (to be used in conjunction with our software) and post-contract support (ongoing maintenance), is presented as software revenue in our Consolidated Statements of Operations. Our software is licensed to end users under an industry standard software license agreement.
Strategic Business Plan
In February 2022, our Board of Directors announced a new strategic business plan that included a restructuring of our business to discontinue Spok Go and eliminate all associated costs and optimize the Company’s existing structure to drive continued cost improvement. Since then, the strategic business plan includes a focus on our existing and established business, including the Spok Care Connect Suite and our wireless service offerings. The restructuring efforts were completed during the fourth quarter of 2022. These actions allowed us to better align costs and, as a result, continue to return capital to stockholders in the form of quarterly dividends of $0.3125 per share in 2024. We will continue to focus on optimizing costs to allow us to prioritize cash flow generation and the return of capital to stockholders.
Results of Operations
The following table is a summary of our Consolidated Statements of Operations for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, and the discussion that follows compares the year ended December 31, 2024 to the year ended December 31, 2023. For a discussion and analysis of the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to the year ended December 31, 2022, please refer to Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations included in Part II, Item 7 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, filed with the SEC on February 22, 2024:
(Dollars in thousands) 2024 Change 2023 Change 2022
Revenue:
Wireless revenue $ 73,523 $ (2,445) (3.2) % $ 75,968 $ 346 0.5 % $ 75,622
Software revenue 64,130 1,073 1.7 % 63,057 4,145 7.0 % 58,912
Total revenue 137,653 (1,372) (1.0) % 139,025 4,491 3.3 % 134,534
Operating expenses:
Cost of revenue (exclusive of items shown separately below) 28,430 1,612 6.0 % 26,818 (1,449) (5.1) % 28,267
Research and development 11,548 999 9.5 % 10,549 (3,076) (22.6) % 13,625
Technology operations 24,306 (1,537) (5.9) % 25,843 (1,569) (5.7) % 27,412
Selling and marketing 15,851 (499) (3.1) % 16,350 54 0.3 % 16,296
General and administrative 33,301 133 0.4 % 33,168 (4,628) (12.2) % 37,796
Severance and restructuring 1,104 531 92.7 % 573 (6,756) (92.2) % 7,329
Depreciation and accretion 4,148 (348) (7.7) % 4,496 925 25.9 % 3,571
Total operating expenses 118,688 891 0.8 % 117,797 (16,499) (12.3) % 134,296
Operating income 18,965 (2,263) (10.7) % 21,228 20,990 8,819.3 % 238
Interest income 1,153 54 4.9 % 1,099 507 85.6 % 592
Other (expense) income (86) (84) 4,200.0 % (2) (169) (101.2) % 167
Income before income taxes 20,032 (2,293) (10.3) % 22,325 21,328 2,139.2 % 997
(Provision for) benefit from income taxes (5,067) 1,592 (23.9) % (6,659) (27,518) (131.9) % 20,859
Net income $ 14,965 $ (701) (4.5) % $ 15,666 $ (6,190) (28.3) % $ 21,856
Supplemental Information
FTEs 410 26 6.8 % 384 8 2.1 % 376
Active transmitters 3,048 (167) (5.2) % 3,215 (110) (3.3) % 3,325
Revenue
We offer a focused suite of unified clinical communications and collaboration solutions that include call center applications, clinical alerting and notifications, one-way and advanced two-way wireless messaging services, mobile communications and public safety solutions.
We develop, sell and support enterprise-wide systems for healthcare, government, and large enterprise and other organizations needing to automate, centralize and standardize their approach to clinical communications and collaboration. Our solutions can be found in prominent hospitals, large government agencies, leading public safety institutions, colleges and universities, large hotels, resorts and casinos and well-known manufacturers. Our primary market is the healthcare industry, particularly hospitals. While we have historically identified hospitals with 200 or more beds as the primary targets for our software solutions, as well as our paging services, we have recently expanded our focus to include smaller hospitals with shorter sales cycles, including academic medical centers.
Revenue generated by wireless messaging services (including voice mail, personalized greetings, message storage and retrieval, equipment, maintenance plans and/or equipment loss protection to both one-way and two-way messaging subscribers is presented as wireless revenue in our Consolidated Statements of Operations. Revenue generated by the sale of our software solutions, which includes software license, professional services (installation, consulting and training), equipment procured by us from third parties (to be used in conjunction with our software) and post-contract support (ongoing maintenance), is presented as software revenue in our Consolidated Statements of Operations. Our software is licensed to end users under an industry standard software license agreement.
Refer to Note 3, "Revenue, Deferred Revenue and Prepaid Commissions," in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on our wireless and software revenue streams.
The table below details total revenue for the periods stated:
(Dollars in thousands) 2024 Change 2023 Change 2022
Wireless revenue:
Paging revenue $ 70,958 $ (2,177) (3.0) % $ 73,135 $ (188) (0.3) % $ 73,323
Product and other revenue 2,565 (268) (9.5) % 2,833 534 23.2 % 2,299
Wireless revenue 73,523 (2,445) (3.2) % 75,968 346 0.5 % 75,622
Software revenue:
License 7,648 (1,073) (12.3) % 8,721 1,519 21.1 % 7,202
Professional services - projects
14,616 1,311 9.9 % 13,305 1,721 14.9 % 11,584
Professional services - managed services 3,259 1,870 134.6 % 1,389 408 41.6 % 981
Hardware 1,382 (1,293) (48.3) % 2,675 464 21.0 % 2,211
Operations revenue 26,905 815 3.1 % 26,090 464 2.1 % 21,978
Maintenance 37,225 258 0.7 % 36,967 33 0.1 % 36,934
Software revenue 64,130 1,073 1.7 % 63,057 497 0.8 % 58,912
Total revenue $ 137,653 $ (1,372) (1.0) % $ 139,025 $ 843 0.6 % $ 134,534
Wireless Revenue
Wireless revenue consists of two primary components: paging revenue and product and other revenue. Paging revenue consists primarily of recurring fees associated with the provision of messaging services and fees for paging devices and is net of a provision for service credits. Product and other revenue reflects system sales, sales of paging devices and charges for devices that are not returned and are net of anticipated credits. See "Item 1. Business" for more details.
We offer subscriptions to one-way or two-way messaging services for a periodic (monthly, quarterly, semiannual, or annual) service fee. The level of service fees is generally based upon the type of service provided, the geographic area covered, the number of devices provided to the customer and the period of commitment. We also sell devices to resellers who lease or resell such devices to their subscribers and then sell messaging services utilizing our networks.
A subscriber to one-way messaging services may select coverage on a local, regional or nationwide basis to best meet their messaging needs, while two-way messaging is generally offered on a nationwide basis. In addition, subscribers either contract to use a messaging device that we own and provide for an additional fixed monthly fee or they own the device used, after either purchasing it either from us or from another vendor.
We offer exclusive one-way (T5) and two-way (T52) alphanumeric pagers, which are configurable to support unencrypted or encrypted operation. When configured for encryption, they utilize AES-128 bit encryption, screen locking and remote wipe capabilities. With encryption enabled, these new secure paging devices enhance our service offerings to the healthcare community by adding HIPAA security capabilities to the low cost, highly reliable and availability benefits of paging. We also offer ancillary services, such as voicemail and equipment loss or maintenance protection, which help increase the monthly recurring revenue we receive along with these traditional messaging services.
Wireless revenue is generally reflective of the number of units in service and measured monthly as Average Revenue Per User ("ARPU"). On a consolidated basis, ARPU is affected by several factors, including the mix of units in service and the pricing of the various components of our services. The number of units in service changes based on subscribers added, referred to as gross placements, less subscriber cancellations, or disconnects.
Wireless revenue decreased for the year ended December 31, 2024, as compared to 2023, reflective of the secular decrease in our wireless units in service, from approximately 765 thousand units as of December 31, 2023 to approximately 720 thousand units as of December 31, 2024. These decreases were partially offset by an increase in ARPU as a result of price increases initiated in September 2024. ARPU was $7.97, as compared to $7.71 for the same period in 2023.
We believe that demand for wireless services will continue to decline for the foreseeable future in line with recent trends, as our wireless products and services are replaced with other competing technologies, such as the shift from narrowband wireless service offerings to broadband technology services.
The following reflects the impact of subscribers and ARPU on the change in wireless revenue:
Units in Service as of December 31, Revenue for the Year Ended December 31, Change Due To:
(Units and Dollars in Thousands) 2024 2023 Change 2024 2023 Change ARPU Units
Paging revenue 720 765 (45) $ 70,958 $ 73,135 $ (2,177) $ 2,306 $ (4,483)
As demand for one-way and two-way messaging has declined, we have developed or added service offerings such as encrypted paging and Spok Mobile with a pager number in order to increase our revenue potential and mitigate the decline in our wireless revenue. We will continue to explore ways to innovate and provide customers the highest value possible.
In late 2021, we began offering our newest pager, GenA. This one-way alphanumeric pager features a high resolution ePaper display, intuitive modern user interface, advanced encryption and security features, over-the-air remote programming, and an antimicrobial housing. Users can select from various font sizes, and the large GenA display also leverages proportional fonts to maximize key information on a single screen. The GenA pager is the only product available on the market with these capabilities, and we maintain an exclusive arrangement with the product's manufacturer. Given the product differentiation of the GenA pager, its development is a key initiative in providing a competitive advantage, and we expect this new technology will be popular with our customers in clinical environments and may help slow our wireless revenue attrition.
Software Revenue
Software revenue consists of two components: operations revenue and maintenance revenue. Operations revenue consists primarily of license and subscription revenues for our healthcare communications solutions, revenue from the sale of hardware that facilitates the use of our software solutions, and professional services revenue related to the implementation of our solutions. Maintenance revenue is generated from the ongoing support of our software solutions or related hardware, typically contracted for a period of between one and three years.
To a large degree, software revenue corresponds to our backlog of performance obligations ready to deliver at some point in the future, and any delays in implementation may affect the timing of revenue recognition. Our software projects generally originate from fixed-bid contracts, although many involve a protracted sales cycle and may result in unforeseen complexity and deviation from the original scope. The time needed to complete projects, therefore, may not align with our original expectations, which affects our backlog. As a result, software revenue may fluctuate on a short-term basis, and we generally evaluate longer-term trends when managing this business.
Revenue items impacted by timing generally relate to specific renewal contracts that do not have auto-renewal terms and for which we must negotiate at the end of each term. We are generally precluded from recognizing revenue on these contracts until new terms have been agreed to even though we continue to provide maintenance service for these customers while negotiations are ongoing. While certain commercial customers require this type of contract renewal, these contracts are generally limited to government organizations, including federal, state and local entities. When a renewal of this nature has been contracted, it is often accompanied by several months of "catch-up" revenue from services performed in past periods resulting in a one-time value that is greater than the normal monthly revenue expected over the life of the remaining term.
Operations Revenue
Software operations revenue increased during 2024 when compared to 2023, primarily as a result of higher professional services revenue, resulting from increased sales of our managed services offering as well as targeted hiring efforts over the last 12 months, as we aligned staffing levels with our backlog, which had grown as a result of our operations bookings results. This increase was partially offset by decreases in license and hardware revenue, driven by lower sales.
Maintenance Revenue
We have seen modest improvement in our gross maintenance revenue churn alongside increasing operational bookings, which drive new maintenance revenue. Given these dynamics, we believe annual maintenance revenue is likely to remain flat or increase marginally, as we continue to enhance our existing software solutions. Further enhancements are expected to provide additional avenues for license sales, which generate new maintenance revenue and help to reduce levels of gross churn.
Operating Expenses
Our operating expenses are presented in functional categories. Certain of our functional categories are especially important to overall expense control and management. These operating expenses are categorized as follows:
•Cost of Revenue. These are expenses we incur for the delivery of products and services to our customers and consist primarily of hardware, third-party software, outside services expenses and payroll and related expenses for our professional services, logistics, customer support and maintenance staff.
•Research and Development. These expenses relate primarily to the development of new software products and the ongoing maintenance and enhancement of existing products. This classification consists primarily of employee payroll and related expenses, outside services related to the design, development, testing and enhancement of our solutions and, to a lesser extent, hardware equipment. Research and development expenses exclude any development costs that qualify for capitalization.
•Technology Operations. These are expenses associated with the operation of our paging networks. Expenses consist largely of site rent expenses for transmitter locations, telecommunication expenses to deliver messages over our paging networks, and payroll and related expenses for our engineering and pager repair functions. We actively pursue opportunities to consolidate transmitters and other service, rental and maintenance expenses in order to maintain an efficient network while simultaneously ensuring adequate service for our customers. We believe continued reductions in these expenses will occur for the foreseeable future as we continue to consolidate our networks, although the benefits of such network rationalization efforts and resulting costs savings will continue to decline.
•Selling and Marketing. The sales and marketing staff are involved in selling our communication solutions primarily in the United States. These expenses support our efforts to maintain gross placements of units in service, which mitigated the impact of disconnects on our wireless revenue base, and to identify business opportunities for additional or future software sales. We maintain a centralized marketing function, that is focused on supporting our products and vertical sales efforts by strengthening our brand, generating sales leads and facilitating the sales process. These marketing functions are accomplished through targeted email campaigns, webinars, regional and national user conferences, monthly newsletters and participation at industry trade shows. Expenses consist largely of payroll and related expenses, commissions and other costs such as travel and advertising costs.
•General and Administrative. These are expenses associated with information technology and administrative functions, including finance and accounting, human resources and executive management. This classification consists primarily of payroll and related expenses, outside service expenses, taxes, licenses and permit expenses, and facility rent expenses.
•Depreciation and Accretion. These are expenses that may be associated with one or more of the aforementioned functional categories. This classification generally consists of depreciation from capital expenditures or other assets that are core to our ongoing operations and accretion of asset retirement obligations.
The following is a review of our operating expense categories for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023.
Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue increased by $1.6 million, or 6.0%, for the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to 2023. This increase was primarily driven by the need for additional professional services personnel to better align staffing levels with our backlog. This increase was partially offset by lower hardware costs resulting from lower hardware sales as compared to 2023.
Research and Development
Research and development expenses increased by $1.0 million, or 9.5%, for the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to 2023. This increase was driven by our continued effort to invest in the enhancement of our software solutions.
Technology Operations
Technology operations expenses decreased by $1.5 million, or 5.9%, for the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to 2023. The decrease was driven by reduction in the number of active transmitters, resulting from our network rationalization efforts. The number of active transmitters, which directly affects our telecommunications and site rent expenses, declined 5.2% from December 31, 2023 to December 31, 2024. As we reach certain minimum frequency commitments, as outlined by the FCC, we may be unable to continue our efforts to rationalize and consolidate our networks.
Selling and Marketing
Selling and marketing expenses decreased by $0.5 million, or 3.1%, for the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to 2023,. The decrease in commissions is primarily due to the amortization of certain commissions expenses, which were previously expensed as incurred under an ASC 606 practical expedient. With the growth in multi-year contracts over the last two years, more related revenue continues to extend beyond the 12-month period allowed for under this practical expedient. As a result, the associated commission expenses are now amortized in alignment with the related revenue, resulting in lower expenses compared to 2023. This resulted in a one-time benefit of approximately $0.9 million, as commissions expense was adjusted to account for the deferral of certain items that had been previously expensed.
General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses increased by $0.1 million, or 0.4%, for the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to 2023. Expenses were largely in line with 2023.
Depreciation and Accretion
For the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to 2023, depreciation and accretion expenses decreased by $0.3 million, primarily due to decreases in asset retirement cost and pager depreciation.
Severance and Restructuring
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, severance and restructuring expenses were $1.1 million and $0.6 million, respectively, primarily due to expenses related to the early termination of the lease of our corporate headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.
Interest Income and Provision for (Benefit from) Income Taxes
Interest Income
Interest income increased by $0.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to 2023, primarily due to an increase in interest earned on the Company's cash balances, driven by higher interest rates from macroeconomic events.
Provision for (Benefit from) Income Taxes
The effects of foreign taxes are immaterial for all periods presented. The following provides the effective tax rate reconciliation for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively (See Note 9, "Income Taxes" in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further discussion on our income taxes):
(Dollars in thousands) 2024 2023 2022
Income before income taxes $ 20,032 $ 22,325 $ 997
Income taxes computed at the federal statutory rate $ 4,207 21.0 % $ 4,688 21.0 % $ 209 21.0 %
State income taxes, net of federal benefit 886 4.4 % 1,343 6.0 % 121 12.1 %
Change in valuation allowance - - % - - % (21,850) (2,191.6) %
Research and development and other tax credits - - % - - % (88) (8.8) %
Excess executive compensation 609 3.0 % 405 1.8 % 231 23.1 %
Other (635) (3.2) % 223 0.9 % 518 52.0 %
Provision for (benefit from) income taxes $ 5,067 25.3 % $ 6,659 29.8 % $ (20,859) (2,092.2) %
The provision for income taxes decreased by $1.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to 2023, primarily due to a decrease in both federal and state income taxes stemming from lower income in 2024. Our investment in research and development in prior years qualified for the research and development income tax credit under Section 41 of the Internal Revenue Code. Unused research and development tax credits have a 20-year carryover and will provide future tax benefits once Spok’s net operating losses are fully utilized. We did not qualify for the research and development tax credits in 2024.
We assess the recoverability of our deferred income tax assets, which represent the tax benefits of future tax deductions, based on available positive and negative evidence, and by considering the adequacy of future taxable income from all sources, including prudent and feasible tax planning strategies. This assessment is required to determine whether, based on all available evidence, it is "more likely than not" (meaning a probability of greater than 50%) that all or some portion of our deferred income tax assets will be realized in future periods.
We maintained a valuation allowance of $2.3 million related to federal foreign tax credits and certain state net operating losses and state tax credits, as we do not believe current projections of future taxable income will be sufficient to utilize those tax assets and credits prior to expiration.
Refer to Note 1, "Organization and Significant Accounting Policies" and Note 9, "Income Taxes" in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further discussion.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Cash and Cash Equivalents
At December 31, 2024, we held cash and cash equivalents of $29.1 million. The available cash and cash equivalents consist of cash in our operating accounts and cash invested in interest-bearing funds managed by third-party financial institutions. We maintain the majority of our cash and cash equivalents in accounts with major United States and multi-national financial institutions, and the majority of our deposits at these institutions exceed insured limits. Market conditions can impact the viability of these institutions. In the event of failure of any of the financial institutions where we maintain our cash and cash equivalents, there can be no assurance that we would be able to access uninsured funds in a timely manner or at all. Any inability to access or delay in accessing these funds could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We maintain a level of liquidity sufficient to allow us to meet our cash needs in both the short term (next 12 months) and long term (beyond 12 months). At any point in time, we maintain approximately $5.0 to $10.0 million in our operating accounts at third-party financial institutions. While we monitor daily the cash balances in our operating accounts and adjust the cash balances as appropriate, these cash balances could be impacted if the underlying financial institutions fail or are subject to other adverse conditions in the financial markets. To date, we have experienced no loss or lack of access to cash in our operating accounts.
We intend to use our cash on hand to provide working capital, to support operations, to invest in our business, and to return value to stockholders through cash dividends and repurchases of our common stock. We may also consider using cash to fund or complete opportunistic investments and acquisitions that we believe will provide a measure of growth or revenue stability while supporting our existing operations.
With the successful completion of the restructuring plan and our ongoing efforts to maximize revenue and optimize costs, we anticipate positive cash flow generation will continue in future operating periods.
In February 2022, the Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase program of up to $10 million of the Company's common stock. This repurchase authority allows us, at management’s discretion, to selectively repurchase shares of our common stock from time to time in the open market depending upon market price and other factors.
On February 26, 2025, the Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.3125 per share of common stock, with a record date of March 14, 2025 and a payment date of March 31, 2025. This cash dividend of approximately $6.4 million is expected to be paid from available cash on hand.
Cash Flows Overview
In the event that net cash provided by operating activities and cash on hand are not sufficient to meet future cash requirements, we may be required to reduce planned capital expenses, reduce or eliminate our cash dividends to stockholders, not repurchase shares of our common stock under the share repurchase program, sell assets or seek additional financing. We can provide no assurance that reductions in planned capital expenses or proceeds from asset sales would be sufficient to cover shortfalls in available cash or that additional financing would be available on acceptable terms.
Based on current and anticipated levels of operations, we anticipate that net cash provided by operating activities, together with the available cash on hand at December 31, 2024, should be adequate to meet anticipated cash requirements for the short term (next 12 months) and long term (beyond 12 months).
The following table sets forth information on our net cash flows from operating, investing, and financing activities for the periods stated:
For the Year Ended December 31,
(Dollars in thousands) 2024 2023 2022
Net cash provided by operating activities $ 28,922 $ 26,184 $ 6,456
Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities (3,209) (3,417) 11,257
Net cash used in financing activities (28,537) (26,677) (26,221)
Operating Activities
As discussed above, we are dependent on cash flows from operating activities to meet our cash requirements. Cash from operations varies depending on changes in various working capital items, including deferred revenues, accounts payable, accounts receivable, prepaid expenses and various accrued expenses.
Our operating cash results primarily from cash received from our customers, offset by cash payments we make for products and services, operating expenses and income taxes. Significant non-cash expenses include depreciation and accretion, deferred income tax expense and stock-based compensation. The cash impact from actual transaction gains and losses is reflected in the change in working capital.
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, net cash provided by operating activities was $28.9 million, and $26.2 million, respectively, primarily due to an increase in cash received from customers, partially offset by cash payments for cost of revenues and operating expenses.
Investing Activities
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, net cash used in investing activities was $3.2 million and $3.4 million, respectively, primarily due to capital expenditures.
Financing Activities
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, net cash used in financing activities was $28.5 million and $26.7 million, respectively, primarily due to cash distributions to stockholders of $26.4 million and $25.6 million, respectively.
Commitments and Contingencies
In the ordinary course of our operations, we enter into certain contractual obligations. Such obligations include data processing services, operating leases for premises and equipment, agreements with respect to borrowed funds and deposit liabilities.
Purchase obligations are defined as agreements to purchase goods or services that are enforceable, legally binding, non-cancelable, have a remaining term in excess of one year and that specify all significant terms, including: fixed or minimum quantities to be purchased; fixed, minimum or variable pricing provisions; and the approximate timing of transactions. The amounts of such obligations are based on our contractual commitments, however, it is possible that we may be able to negotiate lower payments if we choose to exit these contracts before their expiration date.
Our contractual payment obligations for operating leases apply to leases for office space and transmitter locations.
The following table provides the Company's significant commitments and contractual obligations as of December 31, 2024:
Payments Due by Period
(Dollars in thousands) Total Less than 1 year 1 to 3 years
3 to 5 years
More than 5 years
Operating lease obligations $ 10,548 $ 3,479 $ 4,285 $ 1,794 $ 990
Unconditional purchase obligations 4,896 2,189 2,632 75 -
Total contractual obligations $ 15,444 $ 5,668 $ 6,917 $ 1,869 $ 990
We do not have any relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as structured finance or special purpose entities, which would have been established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements or other contractually narrow or limited purposes. As such, we are not exposed to any financing, liquidity, market or credit risk that could arise if we had engaged in such relationships.
The Company evaluates contingencies on an ongoing basis and establishes loss provisions for matters in which losses are probable and the amount of loss can be reasonably estimated. As part of this evaluation, for the year ended December 31, 2024, the Company did not identify any probable losses.
Related Parties
Refer to Note 12, "Related Parties" in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for further discussion on our related party transactions.
Inflation
Inflation has not had a material effect on our operations to date. System equipment and operating costs have not significantly increased in price, and the price of wireless messaging devices has tended to decline in recent years. Our general operating expenses, such as salaries, site rent for transmitter locations, employee benefits and occupancy costs, are subject to normal inflationary pressures.
Critical Accounting Estimates
The Company’s accounting policies are described more fully in Note 1 of the Consolidated Financial Statements. As disclosed in Note 1, the preparation of financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles requires management to make estimates and assumptions about future events that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and accompanying notes. Actual results could differ significantly from those estimates. We believe that the following discussion addresses the Company’s most critical accounting estimates, which are those that involve a significant level of estimation uncertainty and have had or are reasonably likely to have a material impact on the Company’s financial condition and results of operations.
Revenue Recognition
We review each contract to determine whether to account for the various promises as one or more performance obligations. The assessment and determination of performance obligations for a given contract requires significant judgment. Wireless service contracts are generally considered to be a single promise and therefore accounted for as a single performance obligation. Contracts which include goods or services related to our software solutions and subscriptions are generally sold with multiple promises, and therefore, will often include multiple performance obligations. Material performance obligations related to the sale of our software solutions include software licenses, professional services - projects, professional services - managed services, hardware and maintenance.
If a contract is separated into more than one performance obligation, we allocate the total transaction price to each performance obligation proportionately based on the estimated relative standalone selling price ("SSP") of the promised goods or services underlying each performance obligation. We rarely sell goods or services as readily observable standalone sales, however, if we do, the observable standalone sales are used to determine the SSP. In most cases, we must estimate the relative SSP which requires significant judgment and estimates. In instances where SSP is not directly observable, we determine the SSP using information that may include contractually stated prices, market conditions, costs, renewal contracts, list prices and other observable inputs. A discount is present if the total transaction price is less than the sum of the estimated SSPs of the goods or services promised in the contract. Discounts are generally allocated proportionately based on the relative SSP of the identified performance obligations for a given contract.
Our wireless, professional, maintenance, and subscription services are generally recognized over time due to a customer's simultaneous receipt and consumption of the benefit as we perform the work. As we transfer control over time, we recognize revenue based on the extent of progress towards completion of the performance obligation. The selection of the method to measure progress towards completion requires significant judgment and is based on the nature of the products or services to be provided. Generally, we use the time-elapsed measure of progress for performance obligations that include wireless, maintenance, professional services - managed services, or subscription services. We believe this method best depicts the simultaneous transfer and consumption of the benefit based on our performance as these services are generally considered standby services. For professional services - projects, we leverage an input methodology based on the number of hours worked on a project versus the total expected hours necessary to complete the project. Revenues are recognized proportionally as hours are incurred. This is a significant area of judgment as it requires an estimate at completion ("EAC") for each contract. Our initial EAC is primarily based on prior experience also taking into consideration any specific facts and circumstances for a given contract. As projects progress, the EAC is periodically updated and reviewed to ensure the timing of revenue recognition is appropriate. The creation, maintenance and review of a project's EAC requires significant judgment to determine an appropriate number of hours over which the remaining project is expected to be completed.
Our software licenses and hardware are generally recognized at a point in time when we have transferred control to the customer. For software licenses, revenue is not recognized until the related license(s) has been made available to the customer and the customer can begin to benefit from its right to use the license(s). Our software licenses represent a right to use Spok’s Intellectual Property ("IP") as it exists at a point in time at which the license is granted. Many of our software licenses have significant standalone functionality due to their ability to process a transaction or perform a function or task, and we do not need to maintain those products, once provided to the customer, for value to exist. While the functionality of IP that we license may substantively change during the license period, customers are not contractually or practically required to update their license as a result of those changes. In most contracts, transfer of control for software licenses occurs in a short period of time after a contract has been executed and licenses are made electronically available.
Income Taxes
Deferred income tax assets and liabilities are calculated based on temporary differences between the financial statement values and the tax bases of assets and liabilities including net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards at the enacted tax rates expected to apply to taxable income when taxes are actually paid or recovered. Changes in deferred income tax assets and liabilities are included as a component of deferred income tax expense. Deferred income tax assets represent amounts available to reduce future income taxes payable. We assess the recoverability of our deferred income tax assets, which represent the tax benefits of future tax deductions, based on available positive and negative evidence and by considering the adequacy of future taxable income from all sources, including prudent and feasible tax planning strategies. This assessment is required to determine whether, based on all available evidence, it is "more likely than not" (meaning a probability of greater than 50%) that all or some portion of our deferred income tax assets will be realized in future periods. We provide a valuation allowance when we consider it "more likely than not" that a deferred income tax asset will not be fully recovered. The assessment of our deferred income tax assets requires significant judgment, however, our methods, assumptions, and estimates used in assessing the need for a valuation allowance remained
materially unchanged in 2024. We maintained a valuation allowance of $2.3 million related to federal foreign tax credits and certain state net operating losses as we do not believe current projections of future taxable income will be sufficient to utilize those tax assets and credits prior to expiration.
Impairment of Goodwill and Long-Lived Assets
We are required to evaluate the carrying value of our goodwill, long-lived assets and intangible assets subject to amortization.
Goodwill is not amortized but is evaluated for impairment at least annually, or when events or circumstances suggest a potential impairment has occurred. We generally perform this annual impairment test in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year. We evaluate goodwill for impairment between annual tests if indicators of impairment exist. Significant judgment is required in the determination of a triggering event given the qualitative nature of the assessment. The fair value of the reporting unit is estimated under a market-based approach using the fair value of the Company's common stock. The estimated fair value requires significant judgments, including timing and appropriateness of the price of common stock used (e.g., point-in-time application, simple moving average, exponential moving average), as well as application of an estimated control premium, if necessary. The estimated control premium is based on a review of current and past market information published by a third-party resource, assessment of the Company's future projected discounted cash flows and other relevant information if available. Our methods, assumptions, and estimates used in assessing goodwill in a quantitative form remained materially unchanged in 2024. We recorded no impairment of goodwill for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022.
Quarterly, we assess whether circumstances exist which suggest that the carrying value of long-lived assets (asset groups) may not be recoverable. Similar to our quarterly assessment of goodwill, significant judgment is required in the determination of a triggering event given the qualitative nature of the assessment. We did not identify any triggering events for long-lived assets in 2024. We did not record any impairment of long-lived assets for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023.
There were no remaining amortizable intangible assets at December 31, 2024 and 2023.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
Refer to Note 2, "Recent Accounting Standards," in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for a summary of recent and pending accounting standards.

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ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Interest Rate Risk
At December 31, 2024, we had no outstanding borrowings or associated debt service requirements.
Foreign Currency Exchange Rate Risk
We conduct a limited amount of business outside the United States. The financial impact of transactions billed in foreign currencies is immaterial to our financial results and, consequently, we do not have any material exposure to the risk of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.

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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
The consolidated financial statements are included in this Report beginning on Page.
Index to Consolidated Financial Statements Page
Reports of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID Number 248)
F- 2
Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2024 and 2023
F- 4
Consolidated Statements of Operations for the Years Ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022
F- 4
Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income for the Years Ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022
F- 5
Consolidated Statements of Stockholders' Equity for the Years Ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022
F- 6
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the Years Ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022
F- 7
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
F- 8
Schedule II - Valuation and Qualifying Accounts
F- 28

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ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS
ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE
There are no reportable events.

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ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Our management carried out an evaluation, as required by Rule 13a-15(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), with the participation of our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer, of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of our last fiscal year. Disclosure controls and procedures are defined under Rule 13a-15(e) under the Exchange Act as controls and other procedures of an issuer that are designed to ensure that the information required to be disclosed by the issuer in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act (i) is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms, and (ii) is accumulated and communicated to the issuer’s management, including its principal executive officer and principal financial officer, or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Based upon this evaluation, our principal executive officer and our principal financial officer have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of December 31, 2024.
Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as defined in the Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f). Management conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the 2013 Internal Control - Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission ("COSO").
Such internal controls include those policies and procedures that:
•Pertain to the maintenance of records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the Company;
•Provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with GAAP, and that receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and members of the Board of Directors of the Company; and
•Provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Based on our evaluation under the 2013 Internal Control - Integrated Framework, our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2024.
The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024 has been audited by Grant Thornton LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in its report which appears in this 2024 Form 10-K.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
There were no changes made in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting during the quarter ended December 31, 2024, that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.

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ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
Securities Trading Plans of Directors and Executive Officers
During the three months ended December 31, 2024, no director or officer of the Company adopted or terminated a “Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement” or “non-Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement,” as each term is defined in Item 408 of Regulation S-K.

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ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
The following information required by this item is incorporated by reference from Spok’s definitive Proxy Statement for our 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders:
•Information regarding directors is set forth under the caption "Election of Directors";
•Information regarding executive officers is set forth under the caption "Executive Officers";
•Information regarding our audit committee and designated "audit committee financial expert" is set forth under the caption "Committees of the Board of Directors"; and
•If applicable, information regarding compliance with Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act is set forth under the caption "Delinquent Section 16(a) Reports."
We also make available on our website, and in print, if any stockholder or other person so requests, our code of business conduct and ethics entitled "Code of Business Conduct and Ethics" which is applicable to all employees and directors, our "Corporate Governance Guidelines," and the charters for all committees of our Board of Directors, including Audit, Compensation and Nominating and Governance. Any changes to our Code of Ethics or waiver, if any, of our Code of Ethics for executive officers or directors will be posted on our website.
We have adopted policies, Employee Policy Statement on Inside Information and Securities Trading and Policy Statement on Inside Information and Securities Trading, that govern the purchase, sale, and/or other dispositions of our securities by directors, officers and employees that is reasonably designed to promote compliance with insider trading laws, rules and regulations and NASDAQ listing standards. Copies of our policies are filed as Exhibit 19.1 and Exhibit 19.2 to this report.

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ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference from the section of Spok’s definitive Proxy Statement for our 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders entitled "Compensation Discussion and Analysis."

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ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS
ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference from the section of Spok’s definitive Proxy Statement for our 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders entitled "Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management."

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ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS
ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE
The information required by this item with respect to certain relationships and related transactions is incorporated by reference from the section of Spok’s definitive Proxy Statement for our 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders entitled "Related Party Transactions and Code of Business Conduct and Ethics." The information required by this item with respect to director independence is incorporated by reference from the section of Spok’s definitive Proxy Statement for our 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders entitled "Board of Directors and Governance Matters."

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ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES
ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference from the section of Spok’s definitive Proxy Statement for our 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders entitled "Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm Fees."
PART IV

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ITEM 15. EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
ITEM 15. EXHIBIT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
The following documents are filed as part of this 2024 Form 10-K:
1. Financial Statements. As listed in the index to financial information on page
2. Exhibits. As listed in the index to exhibits on page