--- ticker: FFIV company: FFIV filing_type: 10-K year_current: 2025 year_prior: 2024 risks_added: 1 risks_removed: 0 risks_modified: 5 risks_unchanged: 40 source: SEC EDGAR url: https://riskdiff.com/ffiv/2025-vs-2024/ markdown_url: https://riskdiff.com/ffiv/2025-vs-2024/index.md generated: 2026-06-01 --- # FFIV: 10-K Risk Factor Changes 2025 vs 2024 > Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) > Generated: 2026-06-01 > All data extracted directly from official filings. No hallucinated content. ## Summary | Status | Count | |--------|-------| | New risks added | 1 | | Risks removed | 0 | | Risks modified | 5 | | Unchanged | 40 | --- ## New in Current Filing: The Cyber Incident has had and may continue to have an adverse effect on our business, reputation, customer, employee and partner relations, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows The Cyber Incident may harm our reputation, our customers, employee and partner relations and our operations and business. Customers may in the future defer purchasing or choose to cancel or not renew their agreements or subscriptions with us. We may expend significant costs and expenses related to the Cyber Incident including in connection with our investigations, and to address the damage to our reputation, customer, employee and partner relations. If we are unable to maintain the trust of our current and prospective customers and partners, or our personnel continue to have to devote significant time to the Cyber Incident, our business, market share, results of operations and financial condition could be negatively affected. As a result of the Cyber Incident and market forces beyond our control, the cost of our insurance may increase substantially, and we may not be able to obtain additional or comparable insurance coverage on commercially reasonable terms. In addition, governmental authorities investigating the Cyber Incident may seek to impose undertakings, injunctive relief, consent decrees, or other civil or criminal penalties, which could, among other things, materially increase our software development and related expenses or otherwise require us to alter how we operate our business. Further, any legislative or regulatory changes adopted in reaction to the Cyber Incident could require us to make modifications to the operation of our business that could have an adverse effect or increase or accelerate our compliance costs. We have not seen any evidence of modification to our software supply chain, including our source code and our build release pipelines. We have confirmed that the threat actor exfiltrated files from our BIG-IP product development environment and engineering knowledge management platform. The discovery of new or different information regarding the Cyber Incident, including with respect to its scope and impact on our systems, products or customers, could increase our costs and liabilities related to the Cyber Incident and result in further damage to our business, reputation, intellectual property, results of operations and financial condition. The Cyber Incident also may embolden other threat actors to further target our systems, which could result in additional harm to our business. We cannot ensure that our steps to secure our systems, our product development environments and protect the security and integrity of the products that we deliver will be successful to protect against threat actors or cyberattacks or perceived by existing and prospective customers as sufficient to address the harm caused by the Cyber Incident. --- ## Modified: We are dependent on various information technology systems, and failures of or interruptions to those systems could harm our business **Key changes:** - Reworded sentence: "This could harm our ability to ship products or our ability to deliver cloud-based services used in our operations, which could harm our financial results." - Added sentence: "15 15 15 Table of Contents Table of Contents" **Prior (2024):** Many of our business processes depend upon our IT systems, the systems and processes of third parties, including cloud hosting service providers, and on interfaces with the systems of third parties. For example, our order entry system provides information to the systems of our contract manufacturers, which enables them to build and ship our products. If those systems fail or are interrupted, or if our ability to connect to or interact with one or more networks is interrupted, our processes may function at a diminished level or not at all. This could harm our ability to ship products or our ability to deliver cloud-based services, which could harm our financial results. In addition, reconfiguring our IT systems or other business processes in response to changing business needs may be time-consuming and costly. To the extent this impacted our ability to react timely to specific market or business opportunities, our financial results may be harmed. **Current (2025):** Many of our business processes depend upon our IT systems, the systems and processes of third parties, including cloud hosting service providers, and on interfaces with the systems of third parties. For example, our order entry system provides information to the systems of our contract manufacturers, which enables them to build and ship our products. If those systems fail or are interrupted, or if our ability to connect to or interact with one or more networks is interrupted, our processes may function at a diminished level or not at all. This could harm our ability to ship products or our ability to deliver cloud-based services used in our operations, which could harm our financial results. Further, our Distributed Cloud Services infrastructure is dependent on our IT systems and related software interfaces, including third-party cloud hosting providers, in order to maintain a reliable and consistent level of performance for our customers. If those systems experience an outage, fail, or are otherwise interrupted, or if our ability to connect to or interact with one or more networks is interrupted, platform services may function at a diminished level or not at all. This could harm our ability to deliver services to our customers, which could harm our customers and our financial results. In addition, reconfiguring our IT systems or other business processes in response to changing business needs may be time-consuming and costly. To the extent this impacted our ability to react timely to specific market or business opportunities, our financial results may be harmed. 15 15 15 Table of Contents Table of Contents --- ## Modified: Strategic and Industry Risks **Key changes:** - Reworded sentence: "•Our success depends on our timely development of new software and systems products and features, market acceptance of new software and systems product offerings and proper management of the timing of the life cycle of our software and systems products; •Our success depends on sales and continued innovation of our application delivery and security product lines; 12 12 12 Table of Contents Table of Contents •Issues related to the development and use of artificial intelligence ("AI") could give rise to legal and/or regulatory action, damage our reputation or otherwise materially harm our business; •Our business could be adversely impacted by conditions affecting the markets in which we compete; •Industry consolidation may result in increased competition; •We may not be able to compete effectively in the application delivery and security market; and •Misuse of our products could harm our reputation." **Prior (2024):** •Our success depends on our timely development of new software and systems products and features, market acceptance of new software and systems product offerings and proper management of the timing of the life cycle of our software and systems products; •Our success depends on sales and continued innovation of our application security and delivery product lines; •Issues related to the development and use of artificial intelligence ("AI") could give rise to legal and/or regulatory action, damage our reputation or otherwise materially harm of our business; •Our business could be adversely impacted by conditions affecting the markets in which we compete; •Industry consolidation may result in increased competition; •We may not be able to compete effectively in the application security and delivery market; and •Misuse of our products could harm our reputation. **Current (2025):** •Our success depends on our timely development of new software and systems products and features, market acceptance of new software and systems product offerings and proper management of the timing of the life cycle of our software and systems products; •Our success depends on sales and continued innovation of our application delivery and security product lines; 12 12 12 Table of Contents Table of Contents •Issues related to the development and use of artificial intelligence ("AI") could give rise to legal and/or regulatory action, damage our reputation or otherwise materially harm our business; •Our business could be adversely impacted by conditions affecting the markets in which we compete; •Industry consolidation may result in increased competition; •We may not be able to compete effectively in the application delivery and security market; and •Misuse of our products could harm our reputation. --- ## Modified: We may not be able to compete effectively in the application delivery and security market **Key changes:** - Added sentence: "Similarly, as we continue building AI functionality into our offerings, we expect competition to increase in the future, from established competitors and new market entrants, as AI technologies are integrated into the markets in which we compete." **Prior (2024):** The markets we serve are rapidly evolving and highly competitive, and we expect competition to persist and intensify in the future. As we expand our reach and role into a broader set of multicloud solutions, the companies that we consider competitors evolves as well. In addition to server load balancing, traffic management, and other functions normally associated with application delivery, our suite of solutions has expanded our addressable market into security, and policy management, where we compete with a number of companies focused on niche areas of application security. We expect to continue to face additional competition as new participants enter our markets. As we continue to expand globally, we may see new competitors in different geographic regions. In addition, larger companies with significant resources, brand recognition, and sales channels may form alliances with or acquire competing application services solutions from other companies and emerge as significant competitors. Potential competitors may bundle their products or incorporate an Internet traffic management or security component into existing products in a manner that discourages users from purchasing our products. Any of these circumstances may limit our opportunities for growth and negatively impact our financial performance. **Current (2025):** The markets we serve are rapidly evolving and highly competitive, and we expect competition to persist and intensify in the future. As we expand our reach and role into a broader set of multicloud solutions, the companies that we consider competitors evolves as well. In addition to server load balancing, traffic management, and other functions normally associated with application delivery, our suite of solutions has expanded our addressable market into security, and policy management, where we compete with a number of companies focused on niche areas of application security. Similarly, as we continue building AI functionality into our offerings, we expect competition to increase in the future, from established competitors and new market entrants, as AI technologies are integrated into the markets in which we compete. We expect to continue to face additional competition as new participants enter our markets. As we continue to expand globally, we may see new competitors in different geographic regions. In addition, larger companies with significant resources, brand recognition, and sales channels may form alliances with or acquire competing application services solutions from other companies and emerge as significant competitors. Potential competitors may bundle their products or incorporate an Internet traffic management or security component into existing products in a manner that discourages users from purchasing our products. Any of these circumstances may limit our opportunities for growth and negatively impact our financial performance. --- ## Modified: Our success depends on sales and continued innovation of our application delivery and security product lines **Key changes:** - Reworded sentence: "We expect to derive a significant portion of our net revenues from the sale of our cloud, software and hardware application delivery and security product lines in the future." **Prior (2024):** We expect to derive a significant portion of our net revenues from the sale of our cloud, software and hardware application security and delivery product lines in the future. Implementation of our strategy depends upon these products being able to solve critical network availability, performance and security problems for our customers. If our products are unable to solve these problems for our customers or if we are unable to sustain the high levels of innovation in product feature sets needed to maintain leadership in what will continue to be a competitive market environment, our business and results of operations will be harmed. We operate in an industry of evolving standards and rapid technological advancements. If our competitors are able to develop and implement compelling technological innovations or features into their product offerings or services more rapidly or successfully than we do in the future, our ability to compete effectively may be impacted which could negatively impact our business and results of operations. **Current (2025):** We expect to derive a significant portion of our net revenues from the sale of our cloud, software and hardware application delivery and security product lines in the future. Implementation of our strategy depends upon these products being able to solve critical network availability, performance and security problems for our customers. If our products are unable to solve these problems for our customers or if we are unable to sustain the high levels of innovation in product feature sets needed to maintain leadership in what will continue to be a competitive market environment, our business and results of operations will be harmed. We operate in an industry of evolving standards and rapid technological advancements. If our competitors are able to develop and implement compelling technological innovations or features into their product offerings or services more rapidly or successfully than we do in the future, our ability to compete effectively may be impacted which could negatively impact our business and results of operations. --- ## Modified: General Risks **Key changes:** - Reworded sentence: "•Macroeconomic downturns or uncertainties may harm our industry, business, and results of operations; •We face risks associated with having operations and employees located in Israel; •Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, power outages, floods, and other catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems such as terrorism; and •Climate change and associated regulation may have an impact on our business." **Prior (2024):** •Continued macroeconomic downturns or uncertainties may harm our industry, business, and results of operations; •We face risks associated with having operations and employees located in Israel; •Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, power outages, floods, and other catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems such as terrorism; and •Climate change may have an impact on our business. 15 15 15 Table of Contents Table of Contents **Current (2025):** •Macroeconomic downturns or uncertainties may harm our industry, business, and results of operations; •We face risks associated with having operations and employees located in Israel; •Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, power outages, floods, and other catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems such as terrorism; and •Climate change and associated regulation may have an impact on our business. --- *Data sourced from SEC EDGAR. Last updated 2026-06-01.*