CASH 2018 Annual Report

64 Acquisitions could disrupt our business and may not be successful. As part of our general growth strategy, we have expanded our business in part through acquisitions. Since December 2014, we have completed the acquisition of substantially all of the commercial loan portfolio and related assets of AFS/IBEX Financial Services, Inc.,and completed the acquisition of the assets of Fort Knox Financial Services Corporation and its subsidiary, Tax Products Services LLC, in September 2015. In addition, we completed the acquisition of substantially all the assets and certain liabilities of EPS Financial in November 2016 and completed the acquisition of substantially all of the assets and specified liabilities of SCS in December 2016. More recently, as discussed above, we completed the Crestmark Acquisition on August 1, 2018. In addition to the transactions noted above, we may engage in additional acquisitions in the future that we believe provide a strategic or geographic fit with our business. We cannot predict if or when we may enter into any such acquisition, or the nature or terms of any such acquisition. To the extent that we grow through acquisitions, we cannot assure that we will be able to adequately and profitably manage this growth or that such acquired businesses will be integrated into our existing businesses as efficiently or in a timely manner as we may anticipate. Acquiring other businesses will generally involve risks commonly associated with acquisitions, including: • increased capital needs; • increased and new regulatory and compliance requirements; • implementation or remediation of controls, procedures and policies with respect to the acquired business; • diversion of management time and focus from operation of our then-existing business to acquisition- integration challenges; • coordination of product, sales, marketing and program and systems management functions; • transition of the acquired business’s users and customers onto our systems; • retention of employees from the acquired business; • integration of employees from the acquired business into our organization; • integration of the acquired business’s accounting, information management, human resources and other administrative systems and operations with ours; • potential liability for activities of the acquired business prior to the acquisition, including violations of law, commercial disputes and tax and other known and unknown liabilities; • potential increased litigation or other claims in connection with the acquired business, including claims brought by regulators, terminated employees, customers, former stockholders, vendors, or other third parties; and • potential goodwill impairment.