DFIN 2017 Annual Report

Competition Technological and regulatory changes, including the electronic distribution of documents and data hosting of media content, continue to impact the market for our products and services. One of the Company’s competitive strengths is that it offers a wide array of communications products, compliance services and technologies, a global platform, exceptional sales and service and regulatory domain expertise, which provide differentiated solutions for its clients. The financial communications services industry, in general, is highly competitive and barriers to entry have decreased as a result of technology innovation. Despite some consolidation in recent years, the industry remains highly fragmented in the United States and even more so internationally with many in-country alternative providers. The Company expects competition to increase from existing competitors, as well as new and emerging market entrants. In addition, as the Company expands its product and service offerings, it may face competition from new and existing competitors. The Company competes primarily on product quality and functionality, service levels, subject matter regulatory expertise, security and compliance characteristics, price and reputation. The impact of digital technologies has been felt in many print products, most acutely in the Company’s mutual fund, variable annuity and public company compliance business offerings. While the Company maintains a high-touch, service oriented business technology changes have provided alternatives to the Company’s clients that allow them to manage more of the financial disclosure process themselves. For years, the Company has invested in its own applications, ActiveDisclosure, FundSuiteArc and Venue to serve clients and increase retention and has invested to expand capabilities and address new market sectors. The future impact of technology on the business is difficult to predict and could result in additional expenditures to restructure impacted operations or develop new technologies. In addition, the Company has made targeted acquisitions and investments in its existing business to offer clients innovative services and solutions, including acquisitions of EDGAR Online and MultiCorpora and investments in AuditBoard (formerly known as Soxhub), Mediant, Peloton and eBrevia that support the Company’s position as a technology service leader in the industry. The Company’s competitors for SEC filing services for public company compliance clients include full service financial communications providers, technology point solution providers focused on financial communications and general technology providers. The Company’s competitors for SEC filing services for investment markets clients include full service traditional providers, small niche technology providers and local and regional print providers that bid against the Company for printing, mailing and fulfillment services. Language solutions competes with global and local language service providers and language/ globalization software vendors. Market Volatility/Cyclicality The Company is subject to market volatility in the United States and world economy, as the success of the transactional offering is largely dependent on the global market for IPOs, secondary offerings, mergers and acquisitions, public and private debt offerings, leveraged buyouts, spinouts and other transactions. The International segment is particularly susceptible to capital market volatility as most of the International business is capital markets transaction focused. The Company mitigates some of that risk by offering services in higher demand during a down market, like document management tools for the bankruptcy/restructuring process, and also moving upstream from the filing process with products like Venue, the Company’s data room solution. The Company also attempts to balance this volatility through supporting the quarterly/annual public company reporting process through its EDGAR filing services and ActiveDisclosure product, its investment markets regulatory and shareholder communications offering and continues to expand into adjacent growth businesses like language solutions and data and analytics, which have recurring revenues and are not as susceptible to market volatility and cycles. This quarterly/ annual public company reporting process work also subjects the Company to filing seasonality shortly after the end of each fiscal quarter, with peak periods during the course of the year that have operational implications. Such operational implications include the need to increase staff during peak periods through a combined strategy of hiring additional full-time and temporary personnel, increasing the premium time of existing staff, and outsourcing production for a number of services. Additionally, clients and their financial advisors have begun to increasingly rely on web-based services which allow clients to autonomously file and distribute compliance documents with regulatory agencies, such as the SEC. While the Company believes that its ActiveDisclosure and FundSuiteArc solutions are competitive in this space, competitors are continuing to develop technologies that aim to improve clients’ ability to autonomously produce and file documents to meet their regulatory obligations. The Company continues to remain focused on driving recurring revenue in order to mitigate market volatility. Raw Materials The primary raw materials used in the Company’s printed products are paper and ink. The paper and ink supply is sourced from a small set of select suppliers in order to ensure consistent quality that meets the Company’s performance expectations and provides for continuity of supply. The Company believes that the risk of incurring material losses as a result of a shortage in raw materials is unlikely and that the losses, if any, would not have a materially negative impact on the Company’s business. 7