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WANdisco

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FY2016 Annual Report · WANdisco
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The World Leader in 
Active Data Replication

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WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

 
 
 
 
 
 
In this report

OVERVIEW

02  Financial and operational highlights
03  Our year in review
04  At a glance

STRATEGIC REPORT

06   Interim Chairman and Chief Executive’s report
08  Our markets
10  Our strategy
11  Key performance indicators
12  Our business model
13  Our products in action
15  Our partners
16  Risks
19  Financial review
21  Our people

GOVERNANCE

22  Board of Directors
24  Chairman’s introduction to governance
25  Corporate governance report
28  Audit Committee report
29  Nomination Committee report
30   Remuneration Committee 
and remuneration report

32  Directors’ report
34  Statement of Directors’ responsibilities

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

35  Independent auditor’s report
36   Consolidated statement of profit and loss 

and other comprehensive income

37  Consolidated balance sheet
38   Consolidated statement of changes in equity
39  Consolidated statement of cash flows
40   Notes to the consolidated financial statements
61  Five year record
62  Notice of Annual General Meeting
65   Secretary, advisers and share capital information

TO STAY UP TO DATE WITH ALL THE LATEST NEWS VISIT 
WWW.WANDISCO.COM

Patented technology
created by the best 
and the brightest

WANdisco is the world leader in Active Data Replication™. Our patented 
technology enables the replication of continuously changing data to the cloud 
and on-premises data centres with guaranteed consistency, no downtime and no 
business disruption. It also allows distributed development teams to collaborate 
as if they were all working at one location as software development projects 
are tracked in real time.

We have an OEM with IBM as well as partnerships with Amazon Web Services, 
Cisco, Google Cloud, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Microsoft Azure and Oracle. 
We also work directly with Fortune 1000 companies around the world to 
ensure their data gives them the real insight they need.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

01

FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

Financial progress

Financial highlights

Revenue ($m)

16

15

14

13

12

8.0

6.0

11.4

11.0

11.2

$11.4m

+4%

$23.4m

-32%

Cash overheads1 ($m)

16

15

14

13

12

11.4

23.4

21.7

34.6

36.0

Adjusted EBITDA ($m)2

$(7.5)m

-53%

(7.5)

16

(16.0)

(17.9)

(7.8)

15

14

13

12

(3.0)

Cash ($m)

7.6

2.6

2.5

16

15

14

13

12

25.7

14.5

$7.6m

+192%

Operational and strategic highlights

•   Added 15 new Big Data and Cloud Fusion 

customers for our patented WANdisco Fusion 
(“Fusion”) technology

•   Significant progress achieved in developing our 

channel partner network

 »  Strategic partnership agreements now in place 
with IBM, Amazon and Oracle, and seeing good 
contract momentum as a result of these 
channel partners

 »  Secured landmark IBM OEM agreement 

for WANdisco Fusion

•   WANdisco Fusion is now ideally positioned 
to leverage the rapid growth in the Big Data 
and Cloud markets

•  Major contract wins include: 

 »  $1m order for Fusion to be deployed as part of 
Dubai’s Smart City Project through partnership 
with Hewlett Packard Enterprise

 »  $1.5m order for Fusion from a major US bank 

in association with Oracle

 »  $1m order for Fusion from a major multinational 
automobile manufacturer in association with IBM

•   Renewed sales focus generating positive margin 
contribution from ALM product set (ALM now 
referred to as Source Code Management)

•   Filed eight new patents (both US and foreign) 

and had six US patents issued in 2016

•   Strong order book and sales pipeline going into 2017

1   Operating expenses, excluding amortisation and depreciation, 
exceptional items, equity-settled share-based payment and 
capitalised product development costs – see Note 6.

2   EBITDA loss excluding exceptional items, equity-settled 
share-based payment, capitalised product development 
costs and acquisition-related items – see Note 6.

02

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

OVERVIEWOur year
in review

Q2
IBM OEM agreement 
for WANdisco Fusion to be 
sold as IBM Big Replicate

Major contract for WANdisco 
Fusion to be part of Dubai’s 
Smart City Project

O
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Q3
$1.5m order for WANdisco 
Fusion from a major US bank via 
an Oracle reseller

$0.8m order for Subversion, 
our Source Code Management 
product, from a major 
European bank

Q4
Contract with IBM for a major 
automotive multinational worth 
approximately $1.0m in royalties 
to WANdisco

Contract for Amazon S3 Cloud 
solution with global online gaming 
company Playtika

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

03

AT A GLANCE

We think differently
with future-proof technology

WANdisco is the world leader 
in Active Data Replication™. 
Our new product WANdisco 
Fusion, created in 2015, is 
a general-purpose replication 
platform able to work across 
the cloud, on-premises file 
systems and Hadoop as well 
as with Subversion, Access, 
Git and Gerrit. It transfers data 
as it changes across different 
environments with guaranteed 
consistency, no downtime 
and no data loss.

READ MORE IN OUR MARKETS PAGES 8 AND 9

FUSION

DATA STORAGE

SOURCE CODE MANAGEMENT

ON PREMISES

SUBVERSION

HYBRID CLOUD

GIT & GERRIT

CLOUD

ORIGINAL 
EQUIPMENT 
MANUFACTURER

BIG REPLICATE

Why companies are choosing WANdisco

Organisations around the world can work more effectively and efficiently with the benefits our patented 
technology provides.

Insight

Productivity

Profitability

Cost saving

Data ingest and analysis across disparate 
environments and locations leads to 
a greater understanding of your client 
base giving you a competitive advantage.

Real-time data availability enhances 
collaboration leading to more 
effective decision making.

No downtime and no data loss 
increases revenue and employee 
productivity as you operate 
around the clock.

All servers are used for backup 
and disaster recovery with 
no redundancy.

Selectivity

Security

Flexibility

Consistency

Analyse your data without moving 
sensitive information across borders 
to remain compliant with data security 
and privacy protection regulations.

Only our servers are exposed through 
the firewall reducing vulnerability 
to hackers.

Analyse your data in the way you 
want as we replicate changes across 
different environments with guaranteed 
consistency and no vendor lock-in.

Ensure the availability of the same 
real-time data across multiple storage 
environments and locations whether 
on-premises or in the cloud.

04

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

OVERVIEWOur achievements in 2016

1

2

new OEM with IBM

new channel partnerships

3

major contract wins 
in excess of $1m

15

new Big Data and  
Cloud Fusion customers

Our customers

Our patented technology is creating remarkable results for our customers across all sectors.

Automotive
Improves self-driving car technology 
and enables predictive maintenance.

Developer collaboration
Enables collaboration across multiple 
locations to improve productivity.

Entertainment
Allows players to continue to enjoy 
entertainment experiences with 
no downtime.

Government
Gains actionable insights from real-time 
data analysis of unstructured data.

Telecommunications
Improves mobile and location services 
for hundreds of millions of customers.

Financial services
Meets government regulations 
and reduces losses due to fraud 
with no downtime.

Healthcare
Monitors patients outside of hospital and 
contributes to groundbreaking research 
with continuous access to data.

Utilities
Provides valuable insights into 
energy usage and improves 
engineering operations.

READ MORE ABOUT OUR PRODUCTS IN ACTION PAGES 13 AND 14

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

05

OVERVIEWINTERIM CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT

A key technology
for Cloud and Big Data

2016 has been a year of financial transformation 
and operational progress.

In 2016 we realigned our cost base, which 
we now believe is at an appropriate level 
to deliver cash flow break-even and EBITDA 
positivity. We continue to focus on the 
following strategic priorities: 

• To capitalise on the significant growth 
in the Cloud and Big Data markets to 
ensure the transfer of data is consistent, 
continuously available and delivered 
with zero business disruptions.

• Continue to develop key channel 

partners in order to capitalise on the 
significant market opportunity.

• Invest in and support the Company’s 

profitable Source Code Management product.

One of the Group’s key focuses for 2016 was 
to establish our partner network and during 
the year we successfully secured our IBM 
OEM agreement, as well as two significant 
channel partnerships with Oracle and 
Amazon. These partnerships are strategically 
important to WANdisco as they accelerate 
Fusion’s access to blue-chip customers 
whilst leveraging global sales channel 
networks. Through the partnership with IBM, 
and the white labelling of Fusion as IBM Big 
Replicate, we are confident we will be able 
to achieve accelerated market penetration 
with the support of the IBM sales team. 

These strategic partnerships are already 
significantly contributing to our strong 
bookings performance, with customers 
secured through all three key partnerships 
with IBM, Amazon and Oracle in the year. 

David Richards
Interim Chairman and CEO

In summary

•   Secured IBM OEM agreement

•   Significant channel partnerships 

with Oracle and Amazon

•   Major contract wins for 

WANdisco Fusion®

•   Accelerated market penetration 

and traction

06

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

Big Data – WANdisco Fusion

2016 was the year that WANdisco Fusion 
gained significant traction in the market 
adding 15 new customers.

WANdisco Fusion, our Big Data replication 
product developed in 2015, uniquely addresses 
the need for replication of large amounts of 
constantly changing data both between the 
cloud and on-premises, and is increasingly 
seen by our customers as a “must have” as they 
adopt cloud computing solutions. No other 
solution in the world can achieve consistent 
replication, whilst the data is constantly 
changing, with no downtime. We believe the 
increasing adoption of Fusion by customers, 
both direct and through our strategic 
partnerships, will be a significant driver 
of our revenue growth for years to come.

We secured a number of major contracts 
for Fusion in the year: Hewlett Packard 
Enterprise selected us to be part of the 
platform underpinning Dubai’s Smart City 
Project; Oracle chose us for work with a large 
commercial bank; we secured a contract with 
a multinational automotive manufacturer via 
our OEM Partnership with IBM, and with 
a global online gambling company, Playtika, 
to use our Amazon S3 Cloud solution, 
available on Amazon’s AWS Marketplace. 

In addition, many of our existing Big Data 
customers have expressed their intent to 
significantly scale up their use of WANdisco 
solutions. During the year we also secured 
five contract expansions with existing 
customers, some of them even before 
our product went live. 

STRATEGIC REPORTSource Code Management 

The Board

Second line of stock

In 2016 we renewed our sales emphasis for 
our Source Code Management products and 
we continue to see an opportunity in the 
segment of the ALM market that we focus 
on. This is evident as customers continue 
to move from legacy proprietary platforms 
to modern, agile, open source platforms. 
Software development continues to become 
more geographically and organisationally 
distributed, bringing greater challenges in 
control and efficiency, both amongst software 
publishers and in industry more generally 
driving the greater need for Source Code 
Management products.

The Board has been significantly strengthened 
over the period, with the appointment of 
both Grant Dollens and Karl Monaghan 
as Non-executive Directors, and Erik Miller 
as Chief Financial Officer. In addition, 
post year-end, Dr Yeturu Aahlad, who is 
part of the team that founded WANdisco, 
was appointed to the Board. Co-founder, 
David Richards, Interim Chairman and Chief 
Executive Officer, also remains on the Board. 
James Campigli, Chief Operating Officer, 
Co-Founder and member of the Board, 
has stepped down from the Board to 
pursue other business interests. 

WANdisco continues to explore the 
opportunity to further strengthen the Board, 
in particular to appoint a Chairman with 
experience in working with both UK and 
US-listed technology businesses. 

Big Data and Cloud marketplace

The amount of data being produced daily 
is growing exponentially. As the amount 
of data produced grows more quickly than 
the budgets of enterprises looking to store it, 
businesses are increasingly shifting a proportion 
of their data processing workloads to the cloud. 
In 2015 the market for Big Data in the cloud was 
$1.1bn (5% of all Big Data revenues), with this 
number expected to grow to $21.8bn by 2026 
(24% of all Big Data revenues)1. 

Migrating data to the cloud is challenging, 
particularly when the data set is active and 
constantly being changed. WANdisco’s 
Fusion technology is the only solution able 
to address this challenge and is enabling 
enterprises to move to a cloud-based model 
with guaranteed consistency, no downtime 
and no business disruption. 

Royalties received from IBM

In February 2017, the Group received $1.1m 
from IBM, representing their Q4 2016 sales 
of WANdisco Fusion branded as “IBM Big 
Replicate”. These amounts will flow through 
to revenue in H1 2017. 

Our ongoing success in the Source Code 
Management market confirms that we have 
the right products for the market at this stage 
in its evolution. Our Subversion MultiSite and 
GIT MultiSite products fit with customers’ 
needs in replicated open source version 
control and we believe there are further 
growth opportunities in traditional industries 
developing internal software as well as with 
newer software vendors developing gaming, 
media and mobile applications for consumers.

We have chosen to direct our sales efforts 
towards traditional industry segments where 
open source adoption is strong, and have 
renewed our focus on upselling and renewals 
for our installed base of over 200 customers. 
During the year we received a $0.8m order 
for Subversion from a major European bank, 
along with significant renewal and expansion 
orders from our existing customers.

People

Our people are key to our success. We 
endeavour to recruit, develop and maintain 
the best people across our organisation. We 
believe in creating an environment of trust, 
and giving people access to learning 
opportunities and challenging work 
assignments, so they can realise their true 
potential as individuals as well as contribute 
to the Company’s progress. 

We are only able to deliver our innovative 
products because of the efforts of all the 
people at WANdisco, from the development 
staff, to customer support, marketing and 
sales, and those in finance and administration. 

1  “ Wikibon Big Data in the Public Cloud Forecast, 

2016–2026”, Ralph Finos, 31 May 2016.

At the time of the Company’s placing in 
July 2016 a second line of stock was created 
due to United States Securities regulations. 
This line of stock, WAN2, is required to 
remain in place until July 2017, however, 
it is the intention of the Board to revert to 
a single line of stock as soon as is practical 
within the regulatory restrictions.

Outlook

As the Big Data market evolves we continue 
to see a significant market opportunity 
unfold as the full impact of Cloud migration 
materialises. Our Fusion product is fast 
establishing itself as a crucial technology 
enabling customers to migrate onto our 
partners’ emerging Cloud data platforms. 
With partners such as IBM, Amazon and 
Microsoft, we are working increasingly 
closely on data migration offerings and 
go-to-market activities.

In our Source Code Management business, 
we are pleased with our improved sales 
bookings towards the end of the year, 
responding to our increased focus on this 
market. Our offering remains well suited 
to today’s increasingly distributed software 
development operations, and our live 
customer base of over 200 corporations 
offers ample sales opportunities. 

The establishment of our partner network 
enabled us to significantly realign our cost 
base, which we now believe is at an 
appropriate level to deliver on our strategic 
ambitions. Whilst the timing of contract wins 
remains variable, we are confident that 
WANdisco enters 2017 on a strengthened 
operational footing and is moving closer to 
cash flow break-even. With a compelling 
product for Big Data in the Cloud, increasing 
engagement of our channel partners and a 
well established Source Code Management 
product, we expect continued improvement 
in our results for 2017.

David Richards
Interim Chairman and CEO
24 March 2017

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

07

STRATEGIC REPORTOUR MARKETS

Data consistency
across the world

The global public cloud market will top $146bn in 2017, up from $87bn 
in 2015, and is growing at a 22% compound annual growth rate. The lion’s 
share of this growth will come from Amazon.com, Microsoft, Google 
and IBM, which have emerged as mega-cloud providers.

Dave Bartoletti, Analyst, Forrester

Big Data and Cloud

The world is producing more data than ever before. Such data 
is very valuable if you can make use of it – the UK government 
has called it “the raw material of the new industrial revolution”.

However, such large volumes of data are a problem for 
enterprises looking to use it – how can they store it efficiently and 
safely in a cost-effective manner? They can either keep the data 
on site (on-premises), which requires a large upfront investment in 
infrastructure, or they can use the cloud, which delivers on-demand 
computing resources over the internet on a pay-for-use basis. 

Over the last year as data grew faster than the budgets of enterprises 
looking to store and analyse it, enterprises increasingly shifted some 
of their data processing workloads to the cloud. In 2015 the market for 

Big Data in the public cloud was $1.1bn (5% of all Big Data revenue). This 
is expected to grow to $21.8bn by 2026 (24% of all Big Data revenue)1.

Migrating data to the cloud is difficult – particularly when the data 
involved is active (constantly being used or changed) – as is the case 
with cardiograms and stock portfolios for instance. WANdisco’s Fusion 
technology is enabling enterprises to move such active data to the cloud 
with guaranteed consistency, no downtime and no business disruption. 
It also supports “Internet of Things” applications such as industrial sensors, 
smart meters and self-driving cars. As a result, WANdisco is now partnered 
with the biggest names in the technology industry and this continues 
to underpin our medium-term growth expectations.

1   “Wikibon Big Data in the Public Cloud Forecast, 2016–2026”, Ralph Finos, 

31 May 2016.

WE SOLVE ACTIVE DATA REPLICATION TO THE CLOUD

Without WANdisco Fusion

• Downtime

With WANdisco Fusion replication

• No downtime

• Time-based one-way copy for low-volume “cold” data

• Moves data as it changes

• Data movement always behind

• Supports migration and hybrid use cases

• Data consistency not guaranteed

• Petabyte scale with guaranteed data consistency

Small data

Big Data

Data moved in “blocks” 
at specific times

Time-based transfer 
does not work at scale

T1

T2

T3

T4

T5

T1

T2

T3

T4

T5

T1

T2

T3

T4

T5

T1

T5

T7

?

T11

08

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

FUSION

T1

T4

T2

T5

T3

T6

T4

T1

T5

T2

T6

T3

The only way to replicate active data at scale in and out of the cloud.

STRATEGIC REPORT2.5

90%

quintillion bytes volume 
of data created every 
day (IBM 2015)

of data in the world
created in the last 
two years (IBM 2015)

19m

software developers

57%

of software developers 
are in businesses that 
do not sell software

60% 

of developers use open 
source version control

I

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Source Code Management

Share of developers, 2015

Source Code Management, the tracking of modifications to code, 
is assisted by WANdisco’s Fusion technology. WANdisco Fusion 
enables distributed development teams to collaborate as if they 
were all working at one location by providing continuous and 
consistent connectivity to Subversion, Git, Gerrit and Access 
source code repositories. 

As more and more software developers work remotely on modern, 
agile, open source platforms such as Subversion, they are increasingly 
in need of software like WANdisco Fusion to manage changes in a 
controlled manner. In the version control market, customers are 
steadily moving off old proprietary platforms and on to modern, 
agile, open source platforms such as Subversion.

Our assessment of the Source Code Management market confirms 
that we have the right products for the market at this stage in its 
evolution. Our product for Subversion fits with customers’ needs in 
replicated open source version control. There is untapped potential 
in traditional industries developing internal software, in addition to 
newer software vendors developing gaming, media and mobile 
applications for consumers.

Legacy 
proprietary

Distributed 
open source

40%

30%

1–2% 

a year

30%

Centralised 
open source

Sources:  Gartner, Evans Data Corporation, 

US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

09

 
STRATEGIC REPORT

OUR STRATEGY

Identical data: Anywhere, 
anytime, always

We aim to be the leading provider of enterprise-scale data replication.

BUILD – BUILD OUR PRODUCTS

Our progress in 2016

Our priorities for 2017

• Further enhanced Fusion to address the mixed-storage 

• Complete single Fusion platform

• Build out further storage and file system choices

data platform market 

• Built new features into Fusion, responding to customers’ 

and partners’ requirements

• Continued to bring together all our Source Code 
Management and Big Data products on the single 
Fusion platform

• Further simplicity and openness of Fusion facilitated 

cost efficiencies

GO TO MARKET – ATTRACT NEW CUSTOMERS, EVOLVE OUR PARTNERSHIPS

Our progress in 2016

Our priorities for 2017

• Attracted a further 15 global corporations to our 

• Further deepen our partnerships

Fusion platform 

• Refocused on Subversion open source version control 

within the Source Code Management market 

• Established OEM agreement with IBM for them to resell 

Fusion and further deepened our partnerships with Oracle, 
Amazon and Microsoft

• Attract further global corporations

• Become a referenceable part of standard data 

platform architecture

REVENUE – REALISE CUSTOMER POTENTIAL TO SCALE UP SOLUTIONS

Our progress in 2016

Our priorities for 2017

• Expanded Big Data customer base

• Further grow the Big Data customer base

• A number of contract scale-ups by Big Data customers

• Further and significant Big Data contract scale-ups

• Source Code Management new sales bookings in growth

• Continued focus on Source Code Management sales 

to new and renewing customers

10

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Measuring success 
through progress

Our KPIs reflect the business’ financial performance in 2016.

Commentary on the actual performance of the Group against each of these KPIs is set out in the 
Interim Chairman and Chief Executive’s report and the Financial review.

Indicator and description

Performance in 2016

New sales bookings ($m)

16

15

14

9.0

15.5

17.4

$15.5m

+72%

New sales bookings increased compared to prior year. This was 
primarily due to Big Data and Cloud where bookings increased 
to $7.1m (2015: $2.5m). In addition, the actions taken in 2015 to 
sharpen our focus on the Source Code Management market 
resulted in bookings increasing to $8.4m (2015: $6.5m).

Links to strategy:

Revenue ($m)

16

15

14

Links to strategy:

11.4

11.0

11.2

$11.4m

+4%

Revenue for the year ended 31 December 2016 was $11.4m 
(2015: $11.0m). Despite new sales bookings growing 72% in 
2016 revenue growth was only 4%. This was due to the release 
of deferred revenue from prior period bookings, which experienced 
a decline in 2015.

Big Data and Cloud Fusion 
customer wins

16

15

14

15

16

15

-6%

9

Links to strategy:

Cash overheads ($m)

16

15

14

23.4

34.6

36.0

$23.4m

-32%

Links to strategy:

During the year we continued to evolve our Fusion product in 
response to customer and channel partner requirements. Our 
customer base expanded by 15, a number of these have come 
through the new channel relationships established during the 
year, such as the IBM OEM.

We continued to reduce operating costs progressively throughout 
the year, with cash overheads, as expected, lower in the second 
half than in the first half. These reductions have resulted both 
from the simplicity and openness of the Fusion product’s 
architecture and from generalised cost disciplines across 
all operating functions.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

11

STRATEGIC REPORTSTRATEGIC REPORT

OUR BUSINESS MODEL

Increasing customer 
and partner adoption

DEVELOP OUR ALL-PURPOSE DATA REPLICATION ENGINE

Maintain and develop our Fusion platform of 
replication products, drawing on the underlying 
patented DConE replication technology.

CLOUD

FUSION

LEVERAGE THE RAPID GROWTH IN THE BIG DATA AND CLOUD MARKETS

Direct

Address global enterprises 
which need to move large 
volumes of data at speed 
across both on-premises 
and cloud environments.

Indirect

Online

Continue to work with key 
channel partners to capitalise 
on the significant 
market opportunity.

Showcase Fusion on online 
marketplaces where it is sold 
as self-service.

INCREASE OUR REVENUE

Capture

Scale up

Renew

With new customers we capture 
initial levels of replication activity.

With Fusion in live production customers 
bring more data under replication.

Licences are renewed at end 
of subscription term enhancing 
predictability of revenue.

12

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

 
 
 
OUR PRODUCTS IN ACTION

KEEPING PLAYERS ON TOP OF THEIR GAME

Global gaming company Playtika wanted to ensure its 
6 million daily players across 190 countries could continue 
to enjoy its games anytime and anywhere with no downtime 
and no disruption. With 300 terabytes of data stored in 
an on-premises Cloudera Hadoop cluster, it wanted to 
continuously replicate that data to Amazon S3 to ensure 
it would be protected in the event of an outage. It found 
WANdisco Fusion’s patented active data replication technology 
was the only solution available which enabled it to continuously 
move large volumes of constantly changing data to the cloud 
whilst remaining in sync with its growing on-premises 
Cloudera Hadoop cluster.

Now in case of an unplanned outage, Playtika can rest 
assured that recovery will be seamless. It can also use 
Amazon Web Services to scale up with no additional 
investment in on-premises infrastructure and, if required, 
move its data to another cloud provider.

DRIVING CAR TECHNOLOGY FORWARD

A major automotive multinational needed to ensure vehicle 
data moved seamlessly between data centres and the cloud to 
fulfil the growing demand in the sector for driverless technology 
and predictive maintenance. IBM Big Replicate, powered by 
WANdisco Fusion, was found to be the only solution on the 
market capable of moving such continuously changing data 
sets with no downtime and no disruption. 

With our patented technology, the automotive manufacturer is 
now confident it is set up to handle the increasing volumes of data 
produced as cars become smarter and the sector moves towards 
self-driving technology. It can now also analyse data about how 
its cars are used, e.g. how fast someone drives or hits the brakes, 
which enables them to quickly pinpoint areas for upgrading and 
adjust the car appropriately.

MEETING REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS

A leading US business and consumer banking firm, with more 
than $200bn in assets, needed to roll out new Big Data applications 
supporting credit card fraud detection and loan risk analysis whilst 
meeting its business and regulatory requirements for availability 
and performance. After evaluating a number of alternatives, it 
deployed WANdisco Fusion’s patented Active Data Replication™ 
with Oracle’s Big Data Appliance across multiple data centres. 
The bank is one of Oracle’s largest Big Data Appliance customers. 

Using WANdisco Fusion, the bank plans to include Oracle’s cloud 
offering to extend its storage and computing capacity on demand. 
This gives it the option of a hybrid cloud deployment or migrating 
entirely to Oracle’s cloud environment with no disruption and 
no downtime.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

13

STRATEGIC REPORTHEADINGOUR PRODUCTS IN ACTION CONTINUED

INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY IN A GLOBAL WORKFORCE

WANdisco secured its largest deal in two years for its Subversion 
MultiSite Plus Source Code Management software with a major 
global bank headquartered in Europe. The bank wanted its 8,000 staff 
in 13 locations across nearly every continent to be able to operate 
around the clock with no downtime and no disruption. It implemented 
Subversion MultiSite Plus so that users at every site could have access to 
the latest changes regardless of where they originated. When a server is 
taken offline, users automatically and transparently failover to another 
server and keep on working. As soon as the server comes back online 
it resynchronises automatically without administrators having to do 
anything. The returns are similar to those shown in a recent Forrester 
Total Economic Impact Report, which revealed that Subversion MultiSite 
delivered a return on investment of 357% with a payback period of 
less than two months.

USING BIG DATA TO FIGHT DEMENTIA

An EU-funded initiative with the University of Sheffield’s 
Centre for Computational Imaging & Simulation Technologies in 
Biomedicine wanted to use Big Data to learn more about the 
underlying pathology of dementia. They needed to analyse 
a rich library of unstructured biomedical data from over 6,000 
patients by moving it between eight different cloud providers 
so it could be analysed by over 950 different applications. They 
found WANdisco Fusion was the only solution that could 
transfer continually changing data to the cloud at the speed 
and volume they required. 

With WANdisco’s Fusion technology the researchers can 
now analyse the unstructured patient data. They hope 
to be able to combine the insight this brings with novel 
biomarkers to provide new and feasible ways to screen for 
dementia before symptoms appear. This would enable the 
provision of the right care at the right time, while maximising 
the quality of life for the patients and reducing the burden 
on health systems.

14

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

MAKING CITIES SMARTER

Dubai wanted to use mobile devices and sensors integrated 
with real-time monitoring systems to collect and analyse 
data to improve municipal services and respond to residents’ 
needs as efficiently as possible. Given the critical nature of 
many government services, continuous availability was a 
hard requirement. 

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the municipal government 
evaluated all the options available on the market and 
determined WANdisco Fusion was the only solution to 
guarantee continuous availability – essential when the 
problems smart city systems tackle can be a matter of life 
and death. Dubai aspires to be the smartest in the world 
and this initiative, underpinned by our patented technology, 
is one of its kind.

STRATEGIC REPORTHEADINGOUR PARTNERS

Working with 
our partners

WANdisco Fusion is integrated into solutions from the leading software providers highlighted 
below. In 2016 we successfully secured an OEM agreement with IBM and we also signed 
partnership agreements with Oracle and Amazon.

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Amazon Web Services 
WANdisco Fusion became purchasable 
directly through the Amazon Web Services 
marketplace in March 2016. Without 
WANdisco’s technology, Amazon customers 
would have to transfer data to the cloud 
using Amazon’s hard drive, Snowball – a 
batch-based approach. This is fine for archive 
data but is of no use if the data is active. 

Cisco 
WANdisco Fusion enables Cisco customers 
to have continuous availability and 
performance with guaranteed data 
consistency across clusters any distance 
apart (deployed on any combination of 
Hadoop distributions, Hadoop-compatible 
storage systems or cloud environments). 

Google 
WANdisco is a partner of Google Dataproc 
which resells our technology through 
its website. 

Hewlett Packard Enterprise
WANdisco has a resale agreement in place 
with Hewlett Packard and was involved in 
a recent project to make Dubai into the 
world’s smartest city. 

IBM 
In April 2016, we announced an OEM deal 
with IBM where it will resell the WANdisco 
Fusion software as a white-labelled product 
called IBM Big Replicate. Big Replicate 
is embedded in IBM Big Insights 4.0. In 
December 2016, we announced a contract 
with a major automotive worth $1m 
through this partnership.

Microsoft Azure
WANdisco Fusion enables Microsoft’s 
clients to move their transactional data 
at petabyte scale to Microsoft Azure.

Oracle 
WANdisco Fusion works with Oracle’s 
Big Data Appliance. In October 2016, 
we announced a $1.5m sale to a regional 
US bank with circa $200bn in assets. 

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

15

 
RISKS

Key risks and
risk management

The Group’s operations expose it to a variety of risks.

Effective risk management aids decision 
making, underpins the delivery of the Group’s 
strategy and objectives and helps to ensure 
that the risks the Group takes are adequately 
assessed and actively managed. 

The Group regularly monitors its key risks and 
reviews its management processes and systems 
to ensure that they are effective and consistent 
with good practice. The Board is ultimately 
responsible for the Group’s risk management.

The risk management process involves the 
identification and prioritisation of key risks, 
together with appropriate controls and plans for 
mitigation, which are then reported to the Board. 
As with all businesses, the Group is affected 
by a number of risks and uncertainties, some 
of which are beyond our control.

The table below shows the principal risks and 
uncertainties which could have a material 
adverse impact on the Group. 

This is not an exhaustive list and there may 
be risks and uncertainties of which the Board 
is not aware, or which are believed to be 
immaterial, which could have an adverse 
effect on the Group.

PEOPLE

Risk description

Our future success depends on retention of senior 
management and key technical personnel. Whilst 
much of our proprietary knowledge is documented, 
our technical experts contribute valuable skills and 
knowledge and, despite contractual confidentiality 
agreements, there can be no guarantee that those 
individuals will not in future join competitors or 
establish themselves in competition.

During the year the headcount reduced from 
143 to 118 heads. These reductions resulted mainly 
from the continued simplification of our product 
portfolio and channel strategy. It is essential that 
we retain and motivate our remaining workforce 
and attract the right talent in the case of any 
replacement hires in the future.

Links to strategy:

Risk change

Decrease

Risk mitigation

Our People Services function oversees employee 
communications to ensure, given our rapidly developing 
markets, employees’ understanding of our strategic 
direction enables them to make meaningful contributions 
to the achievement of our goals.

Stock-based compensation has proved to be an 
important component of retaining, motivating and 
attracting key talent. During the year we have addressed 
concerns by reissuing underwater options and reviewed 
our policy to provide a wider distribution of stock 
ownership to employees.

16

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

STRATEGIC REPORTFINANCING RISK

Risk description

Risk mitigation

Our product, Fusion, addresses a still emerging market 
in which we have limited forward visibility. We are a 
loss-making business; however, in 2016 we halved our 
losses and in Q4 our cash burn reduced significantly 
to $0.2m.

Our own and partner sales pipelines continue to grow. 
Operating costs continued to be reduced throughout 
the year, resulting in cash overheads of $23.4m. We have 
prepared a detailed budget and forecasts of the Group’s 
expected performance over a period covering at least 
the next twelve months from the date of these financial 
statements. As well as modelling the realisation of the 
sales pipeline, these forecasts also cover a number 
of scenarios. We maintain close relationships with our 
principal and potential providers of finance and continue 
to review the need for additional or alternative funding. 
See also Note 2.

Links to strategy:

COMPETITION

Risk description

Risk mitigation

There can be no guarantee that competitors will 
not develop superior products. Competitors may 
have or develop greater financial, marketing or 
technical resources, enabling them to successfully 
develop and market competing products.

As the open source software on which we depend 
is licensed for free, our ability to sell value-added 
products may be limited by potential customers opting 
to rely purely on the underlying open source software, 
together with any free extensions that might be 
developed to address the same challenges as 
our software.

We protect our intellectual property by securing 
patents whenever possible. Seven key patents for our 
underlying replication technology have already been 
allowed or issued, and a further 25 patent applications 
are in process. We continue to dedicate significant 
resource to the constant enhancement of our core 
intellectual property.

Senior management devotes significant time and 
resource to monitoring product releases by potential 
competitors in the data replication software market 
both for replication of Source Code Management 
and Big Data and Cloud.

Links to strategy:

Risk change

Decrease

Risk change

No change

CHANNEL PARTNER ENGAGEMENT

Risk description

Risk mitigation

Our replication products serve both the Source 
Code Management and Big Data and Cloud markets. 
In the Big Data and Cloud market we are in partnership 
with an array of vendors that offer on-premises and 
cloud solutions.

We have devoted experienced leadership resource, 
recruited from within the business, focused on 
proactively developing our new partner relationships 
and creating new commercial propositions that 
derive long-term value from these relationships.

Risk change

No change

Some of these partnerships are relatively new business 
relationships. There is a risk that we mismanage these 
relationships or that partners decide not to devote significant 
sales or product integration resource to our products.

Links to strategy:

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

17

STRATEGIC REPORTRISKS CONTINUED

RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND OPERATIONAL EXECUTION

Risk description

Risk mitigation

We address a significant and rapidly growing market, 
but as a small company, we have limited people and 
capital resources. Over time it will be essential to keep 
adding to and refreshing this resource, but at all times 
it will remain essential that we ensure that resource 
is effectively directed to addressing and delivering 
on our strategic goals.

We have a business planning process which aims to 
ensure the investments we make and the allocation 
of existing resource are aligned with our strategic 
goals, which in turn are responsive to the evolution 
of our marketplace.

We have significantly improved internal financial 
reporting and cost control processes. These financial 
reports are regularly monitored by senior management 
and the Board.

Risk change

No change

Links to strategy:

PRODUCTS

Risk description

Risk mitigation

The software on which our products is based is 
complex and the products may contain undetected 
defects which may be discovered after first introduction. 
Such defects could damage the Group’s reputation 
and reduce revenue from subscription renewals and 
extensions. Many of our products are designed for 
use with open source software, whose development, 
by the open source community, we do not solely 
control. Changes to its structure and development 
path may impair the effectiveness of our products.

Regulation of data transfer is rapidly evolving and 
additional compliance on user privacy, content liability, 
data encryption and copyright protection may reduce 
the value added by our products.

We have invested in quality control processes and 
training within our engineering team. We have a 
dedicated team committing code to relevant open 
source tools to ensure our products interact well with 
open source components and to monitor evolving 
open source projects to which we could potentially 
add commercial value.

Our product roadmap is based on requirements 
expressed by customers with whom we are pursuing 
sales opportunities. Features such as “selective replication” 
deal with regulatory constraints on data transfer. Our 
product managers are mandated to propose roadmap 
alterations if regulations render our intended features 
either more or less relevant.

Links to strategy:

Risk change

No change

SALES CYCLES, CAPABILITY AND CUSTOMERS’ BUDGET CONSTRAINTS

Risk description

Risk mitigation

Any economic downturn may have an adverse effect 
on the funds available for customers to invest in our 
products. Increasing budget scrutiny may periodically 
extend sales cycles, from customers’ evaluations 
through to commencement of subscription contracts.

Variability of sales cycles across different sizes and types  
of customer may bring volatility to our quarterly results.

Any new sales executives joining the business, in a 
rapidly changing marketplace, may take longer than 
expected to reach full productivity in concluding  
sales transactions.

Links to strategy:

Our products enable significant savings on data 
storage and processing and therefore, demand should 
be relatively insensitive to economic conditions.

Our strategy is oriented to generating a broad-based 
set of sales opportunities, across regions, industries, 
sizes of customer and technology use cases. We have 
invested in senior management and systems to manage 
the completion of sales engagement in an efficient 
and commercially beneficial manner.

Risk change

No change

18

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

STRATEGIC REPORTFINANCIAL REVIEW

Resilient revenue, effective 
cost control, reduced losses

Revenue for the year ended 31 December 2016 was $11.4m 
(2015: $11.0m), driven by an increase in new sales bookings 
to $15.5m in 2016 compared with $9.0m in 2015. 

Deferred revenue from sales booked during 
2016 and in previous years, and not yet 
recognised as revenue, was $12.5m at 
31 December 2016 (31 December 2015: $9.8m). 
Our deferred revenues represent future revenue 
from new and renewed contracts, many of 
them spanning multiple years.

We delivered significant improvements 
in cost control over the year, with cash 
overheads materially below the prior year, 
resulting in the Adjusted EBITDA2 loss 
narrowing to $7.5m (2015: $16.0m loss).

Big Data – WANdisco Fusion

Big Data revenue was $3.2m (2015: $1.8m), 
showing strong growth on the prior year and 
a consistent revenue stream from our new 
and existing contracts.

In Q2 2016, we signed an OEM agreement 
with IBM for WANdisco Fusion to be sold as 
IBM Big Replicate, a significant milestone in 
establishing the credibility of our products in 
the large enterprise market. IBM, along with 
our other channel partners Amazon and 
Oracle, have increased the leverage in our 
distribution channel and increased our sales 
reach in a very cost effective manner.

Average deal size continues to increase, and 
we received two bookings via our channel 
partners in 2016 in excess of $1.0m.

Erik Miller
Chief Financial Officer

In summary

•   Revenue growth from new 

sales bookings

•   Significantly reduced 
operating expenses

•   Adjusted EBITDA2 loss more 

than halved

•   Cash burn reduced to $0.2m 

in Q4 2016

Contract wins continue to exhibit variability 
in the timing of their completion, but as 
demand for WANdisco Fusion continues to 
grow, we are seeing an increasing number of 
contract wins, with new sales bookings from 
initial and expanded contracts of $7.1m 
(2015: $2.5m). 

Application Lifecycle Management 
– Source Code Management 

Source Code Management (previously 
known under the umbrella term Application 
Lifecycle Management) revenue for the year 
was $8.2m (2015: $9.2m). The revenue 
contraction arose due to lower deferred 
revenue on prior year new sales bookings 
being recognised in the year, following a 
contraction in new sales bookings in 2015. 
This trend should reverse in future years 
following strong new sales bookings in 2016.

Steps were taken early in the year to sharpen 
our focus on the Source Code Management 
market and increase the productivity of our 
sales operations. New sales bookings 
improved between the first and second half 
of the year, and totalled $8.4m for the year 
(2015: $6.5m). 

New customers during the year include 
corporations developing applications for 
automotive manufacturing, banking, and air 
transport communications. Renewals have 
continued to contribute a substantial proportion 
of sales, including a significant renewal from 
a communication technology business. 

During 2015 the Source Code Management 
product line began generating positive margin 
contribution, a trend which continued through 
2016 due to its product maturity, growing 
revenue base and the inherent operating 
leverage in the business.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

19

STRATEGIC REPORTFINANCIAL REVIEW CONTINUED

Operating costs 

Profit and loss

We reduced operating costs significantly 
throughout the year, resulting in lower cash 
overheads in the second half of the year than 
in the first half. We have gained operating 
leverage via our channel partner strategy, 
driving more bookings with less cost. Our 
strong cost disciplines across all areas of the 
business have resulted in an efficient cost 
structure that can scale into future periods 
with minimal incremental increases in 
operating costs.

Product development expenditure was 
$5.9m (2015: $8.4m). All of this expenditure 
was associated with new product features 
and was capitalised. 

Total cash overheads1 (excluding cost of sales 
and including capitalised product development) 
of $23.4m were significantly below the prior 
year (2015: $34.6m). These lower total cash 
overheads1 are expected to continue into 2017, 
with the current annualised run rate of cash 
overheads at approximately $23m. 

Our headcount was 118 as at 31 December 2016 
(31 December 2015: 143). Headcount reductions 
in the year resulted from efficiencies in finance 
and administration, and the leverage gained 
by our channel partners strategy in sales 
and marketing.

The adjusted EBITDA2 loss for the year was 
$7.5m (2015: $16.0m loss), representing an 
improvement of 53%.

The loss after tax for the year narrowed 
to $9.3m (2015: $29.9m), as a result of 
the reduced loss from operations and 
exceptional finance income of $8.1m. This 
arose from the retranslation of intercompany 
balances at 31 December 2016, reflecting the 
post-Brexit depreciation of Sterling against 
the US dollar. There is uncertainty around the 
effect of Brexit on future FX rates, but the 
impact of this on the financial statements 
should be restricted to the retranslation of 
non-USD denominated loans, as opposed 
to the operating activities of the business.

Balance sheet and cash flow

Trade and other receivables at 
31 December 2016 were $6.1m (2015: $6.7m). 
This includes $3.9m of trade receivables 
(2015: $3.5m) and $2.2m related to non-trade 
receivables (2015: $3.2m). In addition to this, 
not included on the balance sheet are 
receivables not billed by the year-end 
of $6.6m (2015: $6.5m), largely from 
multi-year contracts. 

Principally as a result of improved bookings 
performance and the reductions in cash 
overheads, our net consumption of cash 
was significantly reduced during the course 
of the year, resulting in a net cash balance of 
$7.6m at the close of the year (2015: $2.6m). 
This includes the benefit of $13.6m of new 
equity funds (net of fees) closed on 6 July 2016. 
In addition, we retain a revolving credit 
facility with HSBC Bank plc which was 
undrawn as at 31 December 2016.

With strong cash collection, a significant 
increase in bookings and billings in advance 
of revenue recognition and cost reductions 
throughout the year, we have moved 
significantly closer to our goal of becoming 
cash flow break-even.

1   Operating expenses, excluding amortisation and 
depreciation, exceptional items, equity-settled 
share-based payment and capitalised product 
development costs – see Note 6.

2   EBITDA loss excluding exceptional items, 
equity-settled share-based payment, 
capitalised product development costs and 
acquisition-related items – see Note 6.

Erik Miller
Chief Financial Officer
24 March 2017

Measuring progress

Deferred revenue release

$12.5m

50+

Net cash consumption (before financing)

2017 

2018 

2019 

$6.2m (50%)

$3.1m (25%)

$2.3m (18%)

2020+ 

$0.9m (7%)

$26.1m

$8.3m

2015

2016

20

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

STRATEGIC REPORT25
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OUR PEOPLE

Our most  
valuable assets

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We pride ourselves on our people and their intellectual 
expertise. Across our global offices, we have a team of 
118 people comprised of the best and brightest architects, 
engineers and technologists in the industry, including 
several PhDs and a management team of thought leaders. 

Employee recognition

Employee benefits 

We seek to identify those employees 
who are making contributions to the 
Group. Our Bravo award programme 
is designed to recognise and celebrate 
those exceptional achievements.

There are four nomination categories:

Customer first

Recognises outstanding individual 
contribution to improving overall internal 
and external customer satisfaction.

Making a difference

Recognises someone who has performed 
an extraordinary act in order to contribute 
to our success or culture.

Scientific or technical

Where someone has pushed the boundaries 
of what it is possible to do with our products 
and solutions or has significantly contributed 
to the innovation and quality of our products. 

Excellence

This award is reserved for an individual who 
is deemed to have contributed significantly 
outside the scope of his or her position.

Our programme is run twice a year and the 
winners are announced at the Company 
all-hands meetings. The winners receive 
vouchers to redeem online.

We offer discounted gym membership, 
employee discounts on retail, entertainment 
and recreation activities as well as IT equipment 
and a range of other benefits. We also offer 
flexible working hours. 

In the UK this year we offer private medical 
coverage in addition to life assurance at 4x 
an employee’s salary. Further benefits include 
a cycle to work programme and childcare 
vouchers for employees with childcare costs. 
We also offer unlimited paid vacation.

Pension

All eligible WANdisco employees within 
the UK are automatically enrolled into our 
pension scheme. The contribution rates 
offered are higher than the minimum 
requirements, and employees have the 
opportunity to increase their contributions 
from entry into the scheme.

The Company automatically increases 
minimum contribution rates each year to 
ensure all legislative requirements are met.

Ethical business practices 

Our policies detail the standards expected 
throughout the organisation, including 
free and fair competition, the prohibition 
of bribery, honest and fair dealing with 
suppliers, and ensuring that the welfare 
of workers and employment conditions 
within the organisation meet or exceed 
internationally recognised standards. We 
have a statement of ethics to ensure ethical 
business practice across the organisation.

Volunteer activities

We encourage our employees to get 
involved with local and national charities. 
These are some of the volunteer activities 
that we undertook during the year:

St. Anthony’s

St. Anthony’s is an organisation providing 
essential support to San Franciscans living 
in poverty. Our employees volunteered their 
time in the dining room service to deliver 
meals, bus tables and help with other 
tasks as needed. 

Volunteers provide the guests with a nutritious 
meal and a much needed sense of belonging. 
Employees also donated their time working 
in the free clothing programme which serves 
approximately 150 guests a day. Volunteers 
assisted with the selection of high quality 
clothing donations for distribution to their 
guests and help prepare the “store”.

Covenant House California

The Covenant House is a non-profit agency 
whose mission is to reach out to at-risk 
homeless youths living on the streets.

Volunteers helped to organise the clothing 
wardrobe, clean the facility, worked with 
the youths to decorate for their Halloween 
festivities and one of our founders sat 
down with some of the youths to help with 
job-readiness questions and mock interviews.

Neurocare

In Europe, employees helped to raise money 
for Neurocare. Neurocare is a charity that raises 
money for the neurosciences and neurology 
departments at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, 
the Northern General Hospital, the Sheffield 
Children’s Hospital and the Institute for 
Translational Neuroscience in Sheffield. 
Employees have organised various charity 
events this year including a sponsored run 
and bake sale. 

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

21

 
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Our Board

N

David Richards
Interim Chairman, President, CEO and 
Co-founder 

Erik Miller
Chief Financial Officer

Age 56

Dr Yeturu Aahlad
Co-founder

Age 59

Age 46

Appointed 11 May 2012 (Interim 
Chairman from 6 October 2016)

Appointed 5 December 2016 

Appointed 23 February 2017 

Skills and experience

Skills and experience

Skills and experience

Erik was the Chief Financial Officer of 
Envivio, Inc., a NASDAQ listed provider of video 
transcoding software from February 2010 
to January 2016, following its acquisition by 
Ericsson AB. From January 2008 to July 2009, 
Erik served as Chief Financial Officer at 
SigNav Pty. Ltd., a component supplier to the 
wireless industry, where he was responsible 
for finance and administration functions. 
From March 2006 to January 2008, he 
served as Chief Financial Officer at Tangler 
Pty. Ltd., a social networking company, 
where he was responsible for finance and 
administrative functions. Erik received 
a B.S. degree in Business Administration 
from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr Aahlad is a recognised worldwide 
authority on distributed computing where he 
currently holds 28 patents. It was Dr Aahlad’s 
vision and years of persistence that led to the 
invention of technology that many thought 
was impossible – that of Active-Active 
replication (WANdisco’s patented DConE 
technology). Prior to WANdisco, Dr Aahlad 
served as the distributed systems architect 
for iPlanet (Sun/Netscape Alliance) 
Application Server. At Netscape, Dr Aahlad 
joined the elite team in charge of creating a 
new server platform based on the CORBA 
distributed object framework.

Prior to Sun/Netscape Dr Aahlad worked 
on incorporating the CORBA security 
service into Fujitsu’s Object Request Broker. 
Dr Aahlad designed and implemented the 
CORBA event services while working on 
Sun’s first CORBA initiative. Earlier in his 
career, Dr Aahlad worked on a distributed 
programming language at IBM’s Palo Alto 
Scientific Center.

Dr Aahlad has a PhD in distributed 
computing from the University of Texas, 
Austin and a BS in EE from IIT Madras.

Since co-founding the Company in Silicon 
Valley in 2005, David has led WANdisco on 
a course for rapid international expansion, 
opening offices in the UK, Japan and China. 
David spearheaded WANdisco to a hugely 
successful listing on the London Stock 
Exchange (WAND:LSE) and, shortly after, 
the acquisition of AltoStor, which accelerated 
the development of WANdisco’s first products 
for the Big Data and Cloud market.

With over 20 years of executive experience 
in the software industry, David sits on a 
number of advisory and executive boards of 
Silicon Valley start-up ventures. A passionate 
advocate of entrepreneurship, he has 
established and successfully exited several 
highly successful Silicon Valley technology 
companies. David was the founder and CEO 
of Librados, an application integration software 
provider, and led the company’s acquisition 
by NASDAQ listed NetManage, Inc. in 2005.

David is a frequent commentator on a range 
of business and technology issues, appearing 
regularly on Bloomberg and CNBC. David 
holds a BSc in Computer Science from the 
University of Huddersfield.

After Paul Walker, the former Chairman, stepped 
down from the Board on 6 October 2016, 
David took the role of Interim Chairman 
until such time as a suitable candidate 
can be appointed.

22

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

GOVERNANCE 
 
A

N R

A

N

R

Grant Dollens
Non-executive Director

Age 37

Karl Monaghan
Non-executive Director

Age 54

Appointed 9 October 2016 

Appointed 5 December 2016 

Skills and experience

Skills and experience

Committee membership key

A

N

Audit Committee

Nomination Committee

R Remuneration Committee

Committee Chairman

Karl Monaghan is currently Managing 
Partner at Ashling Capital LLP, which he 
founded in December 2002, to provide 
consultancy services to both quoted 
and private companies.

Prior to founding Ashling Capital, Karl has 
worked in corporate finance for Robert W. 
Baird, Credit Lyonnais Securities, Bank of 
Ireland, Johnson Fry and BDO Stoy Hayward. 
Additionally, he trained as a Chartered 
Accountant with KPMG in Dublin and holds 
a Bachelor of Commerce from University 
College Dublin.

Karl brings a wealth of capital markets 
and board experience and is currently a 
Non-executive Director of AIM companies 
CareTech Holdings plc and Sabien 
Technology Group plc. 

Grant founded Global Frontier Investments, 
LLC a long-term oriented global equities 
fund, in 2010, and serves as its Portfolio 
Manager. Previously Grant was an investment 
analyst and member of the investment 
committee for Ayer Capital, a long/short 
equity healthcare fund, where he was 
focused on medical devices, diagnostics, 
healthcare services, biotechnology and 
pharmaceutical investments. Prior to Ayer, 
Grant was an associate in the healthcare 
group at BA Venture Partners (now Scale 
Ventures) where he sourced, evaluated 
and invested in private medical device, 
biotechnology, specialty pharmaceutical and 
healthcare service companies. Before BA 
Venture Partners, Grant was an investment 
banking analyst in corporate finance at 
Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown focused on the 
technology sector. 

Grant received his MBA from the Kellogg 
School of Management at Northwestern 
University, with majors in Analytical Finance, 
Management and Strategy, and Accounting. 
He received his B.S. in Biomedical 
Engineering from Duke University. Grant is a 
member of the Board of Visitors at the Pratt 
School of Engineering at Duke University.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

23

GOVERNANCE 
 
CHAIRMAN’S INTRODUCTION TO GOVERNANCE

High standards of 
corporate governance

I am delighted to address you on the topic of governance. Whilst, as an 
AIM company, WANdisco plc is not required to comply with the UK Corporate 
Governance Code 2014 (“the Code”), the Board recognises the importance 
of the principles set out in the Code and remains committed to the 
maintenance of high standards of corporate governance.

2. 

 There is only one independent 
Non-executive Director whereas the 
Code states a smaller company should have 
at least two. The Nomination Committee 
will continue to look for an additional 
independent Non-executive Director 
who has relevant domain experience. 

Furthermore, the Board confirms that 
it has complied with the QCA Corporate 
Governance Guidelines (as devised by 
the QCA in consultation with a number 
of significant institutional small company 
investors), to the extent appropriate and 
practicable for a company of its nature 
and size with the following exception:

1. 

 There is only one independent 
Non-executive Director (Karl Monaghan).

During the year under review, we have 
continued to evaluate the composition of 
our Board and, as a result, I am delighted to 
welcome Grant Dollens and Karl Monaghan, 
who joined the Board in October 2016 
and December 2016 respectively, as 
Non-executive Directors. I am also delighted 
to welcome Erik Miller, who joined the business 
in September 2016 as CFO and joined the 
Board in December 2016. Paul Walker 
(Chairman) and Ian Duncan (Non-executive 
Director) stepped down from the Board in 
October 2016. Paul Harrison (CFO) stepped 
down from the Board in September 2016. 
On 23 February 2017 Jim Campigli stepped 
down from the Board and Dr Yeturu Aahlad 
was appointed to the Board.

In considering refreshment of the Board 
and succession planning, the Board will 
have regard for ongoing developments and 
trends including in relation to matters such 
as diversity in its broadest sense. Whilst the 
Company pursues diversity, including gender 
diversity, throughout the business, the Board 
is not committed to any specific targets. 
Instead, the Board will continue to pursue 
a policy of appointing talented people at 
every level to deliver high performance.

The Board holds all its strategic decision 
making meetings at the Group’s US offices 
and, as a result, takes the opportunity to 
meet with members of the Executive Team 
and to build on knowledge of the business. 
There are regular interactive presentations 
from, and discussions with, the Executive 
Team and in 2016, these have included the 
topics of product strategy, global business 
development progress and progress against 
the business plan.

Finally, the AGM will be held on 24 May 2017, 
my fellow Directors and I look forward to 
seeing you. It is an excellent opportunity to 
meet the Board and to raise questions on 
the matters in hand at the meeting.

David Richards
Interim Chairman and CEO
24 March 2017

David Richards
Interim Chairman and CEO

The Company was admitted to trading on 
AIM in 2012. Accordingly, compliance with 
the UK Corporate Governance Code 2014 
published by the Financial Reporting Council 
(“the Code”) is not currently mandatory. 
Nevertheless, the Board remains committed 
to high standards of corporate governance 
and has complied with the Code to the extent 
practicable for a public company of its size 
with the following exceptions:

1. 

 The role of Chairman and Chief Executive 
Officer are currently exercised by the same 
individual, David Richards, who rejoined 
the Board in October 2016 as both CEO 
and Interim Chairman until such time as 
a suitable candidate can be appointed.

24

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

GOVERNANCECORPORATE GOVERNANCE REPORT

Board composition

40+

Non-executive Director 

Executive Director 

2

3

Sector experience

Tenure

T 80+
20%100+

Technology 

0–3 years 

3–5 years 

100%

80%

Board of Directors and 
Board responsibilities

The Board comprises three Executive 
(including the Interim Chairman) and two 
Non-executive Directors. 

The Board is responsible for the long-term 
success of the Group. It sets strategic aims and 
oversees implementation within a framework 
of prudent and effective controls, ensuring 
only acceptable risks are taken. It provides 
leadership and direction and is also responsible 
for corporate governance and the overall 
financial performance of the Group. 

The Board has agreed the schedule of 
matters reserved for its decision, which 
includes ensuring that the necessary financial 
and human resources are in place to meet 
its obligations to its shareholders and others. 
It also approves acquisitions and disposals 

of businesses, major capital expenditure 
and annual financial budgets, and sets 
dividend policy. 

An Executive Committee supports the Board 
in implementing strategy and reports relevant 
matters to the Board for its consideration 
and approval. This Executive Committee 
comprises three Executive Directors and 
four members of senior management. 

All the Directors have access to the advice 
and services of the Company Secretary 
who is responsible for ensuring compliance 
with applicable rules, regulations and 
Board procedures.

Directors have the right to request that 
any concerns they have are recorded in the 
appropriate Committee or Board minutes. 

Board meetings and attendance

There were originally five scheduled Board 
meetings in 2016 (one of which was cancelled 
pending establishment of the new Board) 
with an additional four informal update 
meetings planned and eight short notice 
Board meetings held as necessary, resulting 
in a total of 16 Board meetings held during 
the course of the year. The table below 
shows the number of Board meetings 
and Audit, Remuneration and Nomination 
Committee meetings held during the year, 
and the attendance of each Director.

Executive Directors

David Richards

Erik Miller (appointed 5 December 2016)

Dr Yeturu Aahlad (appointed 23 February 2017)

James Campigli (resigned 23 February 2017)

Paul Harrison (resigned 23 September 2016)

Non-executive Directors

Grant Dollens (appointed 9 October 2016)

Karl Monaghan (appointed 5 December 2016)

Paul Walker (resigned 6 October 2016)

Ian Duncan (resigned 6 October 2016)

Board meetings1

Audit

Remuneration

Nomination

Possible

Attended

Possible

Attended

Possible

Attended

Possible

Attended

Committee meetings

4

—

—

4

4

—

—

4

4

4

—

—

4

4

—

—

4

4

4

—

—

4

4

—

—

4

4

4

—

—

4

4

—

—

4

4

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

5

5

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

5

5

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

2

2

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

2

2

1   There were an additional four informal update meetings attended by all, and another eight meetings called at short notice with full attendance by all Directors 

of the Board at that time.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

25

GOVERNANCE20
+
T
60
+
T
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE REPORT CONTINUED

BOARD ACTIVITIES THROUGHOUT THE YEAR:

AT EACH SCHEDULED MEETING:

January (one short notice meeting)

April

Discuss:

• Review and approval of 2016 budget 

• Informal update meeting

• Strategic and operational matters

(deferred from December 2015)

February (two short notice meetings)

• Informal update meeting

March

• Review and approval of preliminary 

announcement of 2015 results

• Review and approval of Annual Report and 

Accounts 2015

• Consideration and approval of appointment 

of external auditor

• Review of Non-executive Director fees

• Review of product strategy

• Review of global business 

development progress

• Review of the level of voluntary compliance 
with the UK Corporate Governance Code

May

• Review of product strategy

• Review of performance against 

the 2016 Business Plan

June (one short notice meeting)

July (one short notice meeting)

• Informal update meeting

• Trading results

• Management accounts 

and financial commentary

• Treasury matters

• Legal, company secretarial 

and regulatory matters

• Investor relations

• Corporate affairs

Review:

September (one short notice meeting)

• Minutes of previous meetings

• Review and approval of the 2017 

• The implementation of actions agreed 

at previous meetings

• The rolling annual agenda items

Business Plan

• Review and approval of the 2016 
interim results announcement

• Informal update meeting

October (two short notice meetings)

December (one short notice meeting)

Board Committees

To assist the Board in carrying out its functions and to ensure that there is independent oversight of internal controls and risk management, 
the Board delegates certain responsibilities to its three principal Committees as shown in the governance framework diagram below.

More detail on each of the Committees can be found on pages 28 to 31.

GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK

BOARD

EXECUTIVE TEAM

Chaired by the Chief Executive Officer, it 
comprises the three Executive Directors and 
senior management representation from product, 
marketing, engineering, business development, 
finance, sales and support. It assists the Executive 
Directors in implementing the business plan 
and policies and managing the operational 
and financial performance of the Company.

26

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

Audit  
Committee

READ MORE INFORMATION  
PAGE 28

Nomination 
Committee

READ MORE INFORMATION  
PAGE 29

Remuneration 
Committee

READ MORE INFORMATION  
PAGES 30 AND 31

GOVERNANCEDirectors are subject to re-election at the 
Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) following 
their appointment. In addition, at each AGM 
one-third (or the whole number nearest to 
one-third) of the Directors retire by rotation.

Internal controls and risk management

The Board is responsible for the Group’s 
system of internal controls and for reviewing 
its effectiveness. Such a system is designed 
to mitigate against and manage, rather than 
eliminate, the risk of failure to achieve business 
objectives and can only provide reasonable 
and not absolute assurance against material 
misstatement or loss.

Executive management considered the 
potential financial and non-financial risks which 
may impact on the business as part of the 
quarterly management reporting procedures. 
The Board received the principal risk outputs 
of these quarterly management reports and 
monitored the position at Board meetings. 
The principal risks are set out on pages 16 to 18.

The Board confirms that there are ongoing 
processes for identifying, evaluating and 
mitigating the significant risks faced by the 
Group. The processes, which have been in 
place throughout the year and up to the date 
of approval of the Annual Report and Accounts, 
are consistent, so far as is appropriate for 
the nature and size of the Group’s business, 
with the guidance issued by the Financial 
Reporting Council.

The Group’s internal financial control and 
monitoring procedures include:

• clear responsibility on the part of line and 

financial management for the maintenance 
of good financial controls and the 
production of accurate and timely financial 
management information;

• the control of key financial risks through 

appropriate authorisation levels and 
segregation of accounting duties;

• detailed monthly budgeting and reporting 
of trading results, balance sheets and cash 
flows, with regular review by management 
of variances from budget;

• reporting on any non-compliance with internal 

financial controls and procedures; and 

• review of reports issued by the external auditor.

The Audit Committee on behalf of the Board 
reviewed reports from the external auditor 
together with management’s response 
regarding proposed actions. In this manner, it 
has reviewed the effectiveness of the system 
of internal controls for the year under review.

Shareholder communications

The Chief Executive Officer and the 
Chief Financial Officer regularly meet with 
institutional shareholders to foster a mutual 
understanding of objectives. In particular, 
an extensive programme of meetings with 
analysts and institutional shareholders is held 
following the interim and preliminary results 
announcements. Feedback from these 
meetings and market updates prepared by 
the Company’s Nomad are presented to the 
Board to ensure they have an understanding of 
shareholders’ views. The other Non-executive 
Directors are available to shareholders to 
discuss strategy and governance issues. 

The Directors encourage the participation 
of all shareholders, including private investors, 
at the Annual General Meeting and, as a matter 
of policy, the level of proxy votes (for, against 
and vote withheld) lodged on each resolution 
is declared shortly after the meeting by means 
of an announcement on the London Stock 
Exchange and via the Company’s website.

The Annual Report and Accounts is 
published on the Company’s website, 
www.wandisco.com, and can be accessed 
by shareholders.

Board effectiveness

The performance of the Board was evaluated 
informally on an ongoing basis with reference 
to all aspects of its operation including, but 
not limited to: the appropriateness of its skill 
level; the way its meetings were conducted 
and administered (including the content of 
those meetings); the effectiveness of the various 
Committees; whether corporate governance 
issues were handled in a satisfactory manner; 
and whether there was a clear strategy and 
objectives. The conclusion was that the 
Board was performing as expected.

Each Director’s performance is appraised 
through the normal appraisal process. Save 
for the Chief Executive Officer, who was 
appraised by the Chairman, the Executive 
Board members were appraised by the 
Chief Executive Officer. The Chairman was 
appraised by the other Non-executive Director 
and that Non-executive Director was 
appraised by the Chairman. This evaluation 
was performed before Paul Walker resigned 
from the Board and David Richards took the 
role as Interim Chairman.

Directors’ independence

The Non-executive Directors are considered 
by the Board to be independent of the 
management and are free to exercise 
independence of judgement. They have never 
been employees of the Group nor do they 
participate in the Group’s bonus arrangements. 
They receive no other remuneration from the 
Group other than Directors’ fees.

Board appointments

There were three new appointments in the 
year, being a replacement of the Chief Financial 
Officer and replacements of two Non-executive 
Directors. Each new Director, on appointment, 
is briefed on the activities of the Group. 
Professional induction training is also given as 
appropriate. The Chairman briefs Non-executive 
Directors on issues arising at Board meetings 
if required and Non-executive Directors have 
access to the Chairman at any time. Ongoing 
training is provided as needed. Directors were 
updated on a frequent and regular basis on 
the Group’s business.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

27

GOVERNANCEAUDIT COMMITTEE REPORT

Karl Monaghan
Committee Chairman

Committee composition

Karl Monaghan is the Chairman of the 
Committee and the other member of the 
Committee is Grant Dollens. The Board 
considers Karl Monaghan to have relevant 
and recent financial experience given his 
biography set out on page 23.

Committee responsibilities

The Audit Committee (“the Committee”) is 
established by and is responsible to the Board. 
It has written terms of reference, which are 
available for review at www.wandisco.com. 
Its main responsibilities are:

• to monitor and be satisfied with the truth and 
fairness of the Group’s financial statements 
before submission to the Board for approval, 
ensuring their compliance with the appropriate 
accounting standards, the law and the 
AIM Rules;

• to monitor and review the effectiveness 
of the Group’s system of internal control;

• to make recommendations to the Board in 
relation to the appointment of the external 
auditor and its remuneration, following 
appointment by the shareholders in general 
meeting, and to review and be satisfied with 
the auditor’s independence, objectivity and 
effectiveness on an ongoing basis; and

• to implement the policy relating to any 
non-audit services performed by the 
external auditor.

The Committee is authorised by the Board 
to seek and obtain any information it requires 
from any officer or employee of the Group and 
to obtain external legal or other independent 
professional advice as is deemed necessary 
by it.

Committee meetings

There were four meetings of the Committee 
during the year scheduled to coincide with 
the review of the scope of the external audit 
and observations arising from its work in 
relation to internal control, and to review the 
financial statements. The external auditor 
attended all four of these meetings. Since 
the end of the financial year, the Committee 
has met once (in February 2017) to consider, 
amongst other matters, this Annual Report, 
with the external auditor being present at this 
meeting. The Committee also met with the 
external auditor, without the Executive Directors 
being present, once during the year.

The Audit Committee carried out a full 
review of the year-end financial statements 
and of the audit, using as a basis the reports 
to the Committee prepared by the CFO and 
external auditor and taking into account any 
significant accounting policies, any changes 
to them and any significant estimates or 
judgements. Questions were asked of 
management of any significant or unusual 
transactions where the accounting treatment 
could be open to different interpretations. 

The Committee received reports from 
management on the effectiveness of the 
system of internal controls. It also received 
from the external auditor a report of matters 
arising during the course of the audit, which 
the auditor deemed to be of significance for 
the Committee’s attention. The statement on 
internal controls and the management of 
risk, which is included in the Annual Report, 
is approved by the Committee.

Significant matters considered by the Committee 
in relation to the financial statements and 
areas of judgement routinely considered 
and challenged were as follows: 

• revenue recognition;

• capitalised development costs and other 

intangible assets;

• share-based payments; and

• going concern.

The Committee is satisfied that the judgements 
made by management are reasonable and 
that appropriate disclosures in relation to 
key judgements and estimates have been 
included in the financial statements. 

In reaching this conclusion the Committee 
has considered reports and analysis prepared 
by management and has also constructively 
challenged assumptions. The Committee 
has also considered detailed reporting from 
and discussions with the external auditor.

Committee performance

The Committee carried out an annual 
assessment of its own performance during 
the year and the conclusion was that the 
Committee was performing as expected.

External auditor

KPMG has been the external auditor since 2012, 
when the Company’s shares were admitted 
to trading on AIM. As such, an audit partner 
rotation process commenced in 2016 in time 
for the 2017 rotation.

As required, the external auditor provided 
the Committee with information for review 
about policies and processes for maintaining 
its independence and compliance regarding 
the rotation of audit partners and staff. The 
Committee considered all relationships between 
the external auditor and the Group and was 
satisfied that they did not compromise the 
auditor’s judgement or independence 
particularly with the provision of 
non-audit services. 

An internal review of the effectiveness of 
the external audit process was carried out 
during the year and no deficiencies were found. 
Management was satisfied with the external 
audit team’s knowledge of the business and 
that the scope of the audit was appropriate, 
all significant accounting judgements had 
been challenged robustly and the audit 
had been effective.

All of the above was taken into account before a 
recommendation was made by the Committee 
to the Board to propose KPMG for re-election 
at the AGM.

Internal audit function

Given the Group’s size and development, 
the Board did not consider it necessary to 
have an internal audit function during the 
year. The Board will continue to monitor 
this requirement annually.

28

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

GOVERNANCENOMINATION COMMITTEE REPORT

Karl Monaghan
Committee Chairman

Committee composition

Committee meetings

The Nomination Committee is chaired 
by Karl Monaghan and the other members 
of the Committee are David Richards and 
Grant Dollens. 

Committee responsibilities

The Nomination Committee has 
responsibility for reviewing the structure, 
size and composition of the Board and 
recommending to the Board any changes 
required, for succession planning and for 
identifying and nominating for approval 
of the Board candidates to fill vacancies as 
and when they arise. The Committee is also 
responsible for reviewing the results of any 
Board performance evaluation process and 
making recommendations to the Board 
concerning the Board’s Committees and 
the re-election of Directors at the AGM. 

The membership of the Nomination 
Committee comprises the two Non-executive 
Directors and David Richards.

The Nomination Committee is required to 
meet not less than twice a year and at such 
other times as required.

It has written terms of reference, which are 
available for review at www.wandisco.com.

The Nomination Committee met twice 
in the year, with the Chief Executive Officer 
in attendance. The Nomination Committee 
considered the composition of the Board and 
determined that it was not yet appropriate 
at that time to recommend the addition of a 
further Non-executive Director to the Board 
prior to the resignations of Paul Walker and 
Ian Duncan in October 2016, which led to 
the appointment of two new Non-executive 
Directors, Grant Dollens and Karl Monaghan.

The Board has considered diversity in 
broader terms than just gender and believes 
it is also important to reach the correct 
balance of skills, experience, independence 
and knowledge on the Board. All Board 
appointments will be made on merit and 
with the aim of achieving a correct balance. 
The Group has formal policies in place to 
promote equality of opportunity across the 
whole organisation and training is provided 
to assist this. 

Currently, there are no women on the 
Board. As opportunities arise the Board will 
seek to increase the presence of women on 
the Board consistent with the above policy 
and the terms of reference of the 
Nomination Committee.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

29

GOVERNANCEREMUNERATION COMMITTEE AND REMUNERATION REPORT

Committee meetings

2016 annual bonus

The 2016 Bonus Plan comprised a target 
bonus of 75% of salary and a maximum bonus 
opportunity of 100% of salary. The Company 
operates a scorecard which reflects its financial 
and strategic KPIs. Executive Directors will 
be rewarded for their contribution to these 
goals as well as the achievement of 
personal objectives.

Based on the 2016 KPIs, the Company 
met the following targets: a) EBITDA and 
b) strategic objectives, but did not meet 
the bookings target. Having regard to 
the performance of the business, the 
Remuneration Committee resolved to 
pay bonuses as set out on page 31.

The bonus to David Richards and Erik Miller has 
been deferred into share options in lieu of cash 
bonuses to be issued in 2017.

Similar bonus principles will be adopted for 
2017. Performance targets and weightings 
were set by the Remuneration Committee 
at the start of the year.

Directors’ interests

Details of the Directors’ shareholdings are 
included in the Directors’ report on page 33.

Directors’ share options

Aggregate emoluments disclosed on page 31 
do not include any amounts for the value 
of options to acquire ordinary shares in the 
Company granted to or held by the Directors. 
Details of options for Directors who served 
during the year are as follows:

The Remuneration Committee met 
five times in the year, with the other Board 
members in attendance as appropriate.

Remuneration Committee report

As an AIM listed company, WANdisco plc is 
not required to comply with the Regulations. 
The content of this report is unaudited 
unless stated.

Remuneration policy

The objectives of the remuneration policy 
are to ensure that the overall remuneration 
of Executive Directors is aligned with the 
performance of the Group and preserves 
an appropriate balance of income 
and shareholder value.

Non-executive Directors

Remuneration of the Non-executive 
Directors is determined by the Executive 
Directors. Non-executive Directors are not 
entitled to pensions, annual bonuses or 
employee benefits. They are entitled to 
participate in share option arrangements 
relating to the Company’s shares but neither 
of them does so at this time. Each of the 
Non-executive Directors has a letter of 
appointment stating his annual fee and that 
his appointment is initially for a term of three 
years, subject to re-appointment at the AGM, 
renewable for further periods of three years. 
Their appointment may be terminated with 
three months’ written notice at any time.

Directors’ remuneration

The normal remuneration arrangements for 
Executive Directors consist of basic salary 
and annual performance-related bonuses. 
In addition, they receive private healthcare. 

The Committee intends to make further 
awards under the Long-Term Incentive Plan 
(“LTIP”) during 2017. Details of any awards will 
be disclosed in next year’s Remuneration 
Committee report.

Karl Monaghan
Committee Chairman

This report sets out information about the 
remuneration of the Directors of the Company 
for the year ended 31 December 2016. As 
a company admitted to AIM, WANdisco plc 
is not required to prepare a Directors’ 
remuneration report. However, the Board 
supports the principle of transparency and 
has prepared this report in order to provide 
information to shareholders on executive 
remuneration arrangements. This report has 
been substantially prepared in accordance 
with Schedule 8 of the Large and Medium-sized 
Companies and Groups (Accounts and 
Reports) Regulations 2008 (“the Regulations”).

The Remuneration Committee

Committee composition

The Remuneration Committee is chaired 
by Karl Monaghan and the other member 
of the Committee is Grant Dollens.

Committee responsibilities

The Remuneration Committee’s primary 
purposes are to assist the Board in determining 
the Company’s remuneration policies, to 
review the performance of the Executive 
Directors and make recommendations 
to the Board on matters relating to their 
remuneration and terms of service, the 
granting of share options, and other 
equity incentives.

30

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

GOVERNANCEExecutive Directors

David Richards

Dr Yeturu Aahlad

Erik Miller

Former Executive Directors

James Campigli

Paul Harrison

Non-executive Directors

Grant Dollens

Karl Monaghan

Former Non-executive Directors

Paul Walker

Ian Duncan

This table is audited.

Executive Directors

David Richards
Erik Miller2
Former Executive Directors
James Campigli3
Paul Harrison4

Non-executive Directors
Grant Dollens5
Karl Monaghan6
Former Non-executive Directors
Paul Walker (Chairman)7
Ian Duncan7

Number of
options at
1 January
2016

Number of
options 
granted

Number of
options 
exercised

97,441

—

—

92,771

15,000

—

—

410,789

62,931

—

—

27,623

—

—

—

—

—

—

Number of

Number of
options at
options  31 December
2016

lapsed

—

—

—

—

—

—

97,441

92,771

15,000

410,789

62,931

27,623

558,183

—

(298,183)

(86,667)

173,333

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

Exercise
price

$0.12

$2.34

$0.12

$2.34

$0.12

$2.34

$0.12

—

—

—

—

Payment 
currency

Salary/fees
’000

Bonus8
’000

Benefits 1
’000

31 December 31 December
2015
Total
’000

2016
Total
’000

$

$

$

$

£

£

£

£

490

70

316

358

9

3

100

54

—

—

195

227

—

—

—

—

22

2

22

40

—

—

—

—

512

72

533

625

9

3

100

54

697

—

451

831

—

—

130

70

1   Benefits include the provision of private health insurance for Executive Directors and their immediate families. In addition, on 31 August 2016, Paul Harrison 

was awarded a tax equalisation claim of $19,000 (gross) as part of his employment agreement.

2  Joined 21 September 2016 and appointed to the Board 5 December 2016.
3  Left 23 February 2017.
4  Left 23 September 2016.
5  Joined 9 October 2016.
6  Joined 5 December 2016.
7  Left 6 October 2016.
8  Bonus deferred into share options to be issued in 2017.

The total Directors’ remuneration for the period ended 31 December 2016, in US dollars, was $1,965,000 (2015: $2,284,000).

Approval

This report was approved by the Directors and signed by order of the Board.

Karl Monaghan
Chairman of the Remuneration Committee
24 March 2017

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

31

GOVERNANCEDIRECTORS’ REPORT

The Directors present their report and the 
audited financial statements for the year 
ended 31 December 2016 in accordance 
with section 415 of the Companies Act 2006. 
Particulars of important events affecting the 
Group, together with the factors likely to 
affect its future development, performance 
and position are set out in the Strategic report 
on pages 6 to 21, which is incorporated into 
this report by reference together with the 
Corporate governance report on pages 25 
to 27. In addition, this report should be read 
in conjunction with information concerning 
employee share schemes, which can be found 
in the Remuneration Committee report on 
pages 30 and 31 and in Note 21 to the financial 
statements, and which is incorporated by way 
of cross-reference into the Directors’ report. 

Principal activity

The principal activity of the Group is the 
development and provision of global 
collaboration software.

Business review and future developments

A review of the Group’s operations and future 
developments is covered in the Strategic report 
section of the Annual Report and Accounts 
on pages 6 to 21. This report includes sections 
on strategy and markets and considers key 
risks and key performance indicators.

Significant shareholders

Financial results

Annual General Meeting (“AGM”)

Details of the Group’s financial results are set 
out in the Consolidated statement of profit 
and loss and other comprehensive income 
and other components on pages 36 to 60.

On pages 62 to 64 is the notice of 
the Company’s fifth AGM to be held 
at 10am on 24 May 2017 at the offices 
of WANdisco plc in Sheffield.

Dividends

Directors

The Directors do not recommend the payment 
of a dividend.

Going concern

The Company’s business activities, together 
with risk factors which potentially affect its 
future development, performance or position 
can be found in the Strategic report on pages 
6 to 21. Details of the Company’s financial 
position and its cash flows are outlined in 
the Financial review on pages 19 and 20. 

After making reasonable enquiries, the Board 
has an expectation that the Group and the 
Company have adequate financial resources 
together with a strong business model to 
ensure they continue to operate for the 
foreseeable future. Accordingly, the Directors 
have adopted the going concern basis in 
preparing the financial statements. This is 
described in more detail in Note 2.

The Directors who served on the Board 
and on Board Committees during the year 
are set out on pages 22 and 23. One-third 
of the Directors are required to retire at the 
AGM and can offer themselves for re-election. 

Information on Directors’ remuneration and 
share option rights is given in the Remuneration 
Committee report on pages 30 and 31.

Directors’ indemnity arrangements

The Directors benefited from qualifying 
third party indemnity provisions in place 
during the financial year and at the date 
of this report. Other than this and with 
the exception of employment contracts 
between each Executive Director and the 
Group, at no time during the year did any 
Director hold a material interest in any 
contract of significance with the Group or 
any of its subsidiary undertakings. The Group 
has purchased and maintained throughout 
the year directors’ and officers’ liability 
insurance in respect of all Group companies. 

The Company is informed that, at 24 March 2017, individual registered shareholdings of more than 3% of the Company’s issued share capital 
were as follows:

Number
of shares

5,276,000 

3,813,055 

2,825,091 

2,589,233 

1,938,275

1,646,864

1,545,123

1,462,500 

% of issued
ordinary
share
capital

14.20%

10.26%

7.61%

6.97%

5.22%

4.43%

4.16%

3.94%

OppenheimerFunds, Inc.

Schroder Investment Management

Dr Yeturu Aahlad

David Richards

T Rowe Price

Jon D & Linda W Gruber Revocable Trust 

James Campigli

Ross Creek Capital Management, LLC

32

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

GOVERNANCEDirectors’ shareholdings

The beneficial interests of the Directors in the share capital of the Company at 31 December 2016 and at 24 March 2017 were as follows:

Executive

David Richards

Dr Yeturu Aahlad

Erik Miller

Non-executive

Grant Dollens

Karl Monaghan

% of issued
ordinary
share
capital

Number
of shares

2,589,233 

2,825,091 

10,000 

6.97%

7.61%

0.03%

—

—

44,642 

0.12%

None of the Directors had any interest in the share capital of any subsidiary company. Further details of options held by the Directors are set 
out in the Remuneration Committee report on pages 30 and 31.

The middle market price of the Company’s ordinary shares on 31 December 2016 was 200 pence and the range during the year was 73 pence 
to 224 pence, with an average price of 163 pence.

Articles of Association

Any amendments to the Articles of 
Association of the Company may be made 
by special resolution of the shareholders. 

Research and development

The Group expended $5,860,000 during 
the year (2015: $8,369,000) on research 
and development, of which $5,860,000 
(2015: $8,369,000) was capitalised within 
intangible assets and $nil (2015: $nil) was 
charged to the income statement. In addition, 
an amortisation charge of $8,116,000 
(2015: $8,548,000) has been recognised 
against previously capitalised costs.

Derivatives and financial instruments

The Group’s policy and exposure to derivatives 
and financial instruments is set out in Note 19.

Employee involvement

It is the Group’s policy to involve employees 
in its progress, development and performance. 
Applications for employment by disabled 
persons are fully considered, bearing in mind 
the respective aptitudes and abilities of the 
applicants concerned. The Group is a 
committed equal opportunities employer 
and has engaged employees with broad 
backgrounds and skills.

It is the policy of the Group that the training, 
career development and promotion of a 
disabled person should, as far as possible, 
be identical to that of a person who does 
not have a disability. In the event of members 
of staff becoming disabled, every effort is 
made to ensure that their employment with 
the Group continues.

The number of creditor days outstanding at 
31 December 2016 was 47 days (2015: 28 days).

Auditor

As recommended by the Audit Committee, 
a resolution for the re-appointment of KPMG LLP 
as auditor of the Company is to be proposed 
at the forthcoming AGM.

Health and safety

The Group is committed to providing a safe 
and healthy working environment for all staff 
and contractors. The Group’s health and 
safety standard sets out the range of policies, 
procedures and systems required to manage 
risks and promote wellbeing. 

Political and charitable donations

During the year ended 31 December 2016 
the Group made political donations of $nil 
(2015: $nil) and charitable donations of 
$352 (2015: $9,960).

Supplier payment policy and practice

The Group does not operate a standard code 
in respect of payments to suppliers. The Group 
agrees terms of payment with suppliers at 
the start of business and then makes payments 
in accordance with contractual and other 
legal obligations.

Audit information 

Each of the Directors at the date of the 
Directors’ report confirms that so far as he 
is aware, there is no relevant audit information 
of which the Company’s auditor is unaware 
and he has taken all the reasonable steps that 
he ought to have taken as a Director to make 
himself aware of any relevant audit information 
and to establish that the Company’s auditor 
is aware of the information. 

The Directors’ report has been approved by 
the Board of Directors on 24 March 2017. 

Signed on behalf of the Board.

Erik Miller
Chief Financial Officer
24 March 2017

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

33

GOVERNANCESTATEMENT OF DIRECTORS’ RESPONSIBILITIES
in respect of the Annual Report and the financial statements 

The Directors are responsible for preparing the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and International Financial Reporting 
Standards (“IFRS”). 

Company law requires the Directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law they have elected to prepare the 
financial statements in accordance with IFRS. 

Under company law the Directors must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the 
state of affairs of the Company and of the profit or loss of the Company for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Directors 
are required to: 

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently; 

• make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent; 

• state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the 

financial statements; and 

• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Company will continue in business. 

The Directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Company’s transactions 
and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements 
comply with Companies (Jersey) Law 1991. They have general responsibility for taking such steps as are reasonably open to them to safeguard 
the assets of the Company and to prevent and detect fraud and other irregularities. 

The Directors are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the Company’s website. 
Legislation in Jersey governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions. 

34

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

GOVERNANCEINDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT
To the members of WANdisco plc

We have audited the Group financial statements of WANdisco plc (the “Company”) for the year ended 31 December 2016 which comprise 
the Consolidated statement of profit and loss and other comprehensive income, the Consolidated balance sheet, the Consolidated statement 
of changes in equity, the Consolidated statement of cash flows and the related notes. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in 
the preparation of the Group financial statements is applicable law and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as adopted by the EU.

This report is made solely to the Company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Article 113A of the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991. 
Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in 
an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone 
other than the Company and the Company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed. 

Respective responsibilities of Directors and auditors

As explained more fully in the Statement of Directors’ responsibilities set out on page 34, the Directors are responsible for the preparation 
of financial statements which give a true and fair view. Our responsibility is to audit, and express an opinion on, the financial statements in 
accordance with applicable law and International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland). Those standards require us to comply with the 
Auditing Practices Board’s Ethical Standards for Auditors.

Scope of the audit of the financial statements

An audit involves obtaining evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements sufficient to give reasonable assurance 
that the financial statements are free from material misstatement, whether caused by fraud or error. This includes an assessment of: whether 
the accounting policies are appropriate to the Group’s circumstances and have been consistently applied and adequately disclosed; the 
reasonableness of significant accounting estimates made by the Directors; and the overall presentation of the financial statements. In addition, 
we read all the financial and non-financial information in the Annual Report to identify material inconsistencies with the audited financial 
statements and to identify any information that is apparently materially incorrect based on, or materially inconsistent with, the knowledge 
acquired by us in the course of performing the audit. If we become aware of any apparent material misstatements or inconsistencies, we 
consider the implications for our report.

Opinion on the financial statements

In our opinion:

• the Group financial statements give a true and fair view, in accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the EU, of the state of the Group’s affairs 

as at 31 December 2016 and of its loss for the year then ended; and

• the financial statements have been properly prepared in accordance with the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991 requires us to report to you if, 
in our opinion:

• proper accounting records have not been kept by the Group; or

• proper returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

• the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Johnathan Pass
for and on behalf of KPMG LLP
Chartered Accountants 
24 March 2017

Notes:

•  The maintenance and integrity of the WANdisco plc website is the responsibility of the Directors; the work carried out by auditors does not involve consideration 
of these matters and accordingly, KPMG LLP accepts no responsibility for any changes that may have occurred to the financial statements or our audit report 
since 24 March 2017. KPMG LLP has carried out no procedures of any nature subsequent to 24 March 2017 which in any way extends this date.

•   Legislation in Jersey governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions. The Directors shall 
remain responsible for establishing and controlling the process for doing so, and for ensuring that the financial statements are complete and unaltered in any way.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

35

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSFINANCIAL STATEMENTS

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF PROFIT AND LOSS AND OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
For the year ended 31 December 2016

Year ended 31 December 2016

Year ended 31 December 2015

Continuing operations

Revenue

Cost of sales

Gross profit

Operating expenses

Loss from operations

Finance income

Finance costs

Net finance (costs)/income

(Loss)/profit before tax

Income tax

(Loss)/profit for the year

Pre-
exceptional
$’000

Exceptional
items8
$’000

Notes

Total
$’000

Pre-
exceptional
$’000

Exceptional
items
$’000

5

11,379

(1,349)

10,030

(27,921)

—

—

—

11,379

10,994

(1,349)

(749)

10,030

10,245

—

—

—

(32)

(27,953)

(40,160)

(614)

(40,774)

Total
$’000

10,994

(749)

10,245

(17,891)

(32)

(17,923)

(29,915)

(614)

(30,529)

1

8,169

(269)

(25)

8,170

(294)

59

(565)

(268)

8,144

7,876

(506)

—

—

—

59

(565)

(506)

(18,159)

8,112

(10,047)

(30,421)

(614)

(31,035)

11

772

—

772

1,129

—

1,129

(17,387)

8,112

(9,275)

(29,292)

(614)

(29,906)

6

6

9

9

9

Other comprehensive income

Items that are or may be reclassified to profit or loss:

Foreign operations – foreign currency translation differences

Other comprehensive income for the year, net of tax

107

107

(8,144)

(8,037)

(8,144)

(8,037)

55

55

—

—

55

55

Total comprehensive income for the year

(17,280)

(32)

(17,312)

(29,237)

(614)

(29,851)

Loss per share

Basic and diluted

12

$0.28

$1.04

36

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET
As at 31 December 2016

Assets

Intangible assets

Property, plant and equipment

Non-current assets

Trade and other receivables

Cash and cash equivalents

Current assets

Total assets

Liabilities

Borrowings – finance lease liabilities

Trade and other payables

Deferred income

Deferred government grant

Current tax liabilities

Current liabilities

Deferred income

Borrowings – finance lease liabilities

Deferred tax liabilities

Non-current liabilities

Total liabilities

Net assets

Equity

Share capital

Share premium

Translation reserve

Merger reserve

Retained earnings

Total equity

Notes

2016
$’000

2015
$’000

13

14

16

17

18

18

18

18

18

11

5,977

492

8,583

230

6,469

8,813

6,145

7,558

6,728

2,555

13,703

9,283

20,172

18,096

(89)

(3,488)

(5,809)

(12)

(11)

—

(2,714)

(6,060)

(28)

—

(9,409)

(8,802)

(6,683)

(3,697)

(294)

(3)

—

(5)

(6,980)

(3,702)

(16,389)

(12,504)

3,783

5,592

20

20

20

20

20

5,638

94,526

(8,284)

1,247

4,667

81,974

(247)

1,247

(89,344)

(82,049)

3,783

5,592

The financial statements on pages 36 to 60 were approved by the Board of Directors on 24 March 2017 and signed on its behalf by:

David Richards    
Interim Chairman and CEO 

Erik Miller
Chief Financial Officer

Company registered number: 110497

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

37

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY
For the year ended 31 December 2016

Balance at 1 January 2016

Total comprehensive income for the year 

Loss for the year 

Other comprehensive income 

Total comprehensive income for the year

Transactions with owners of the Company

Contributions and distributions

Equity-settled share-based payment

Proceeds from share placing

Share options exercised

Balance at 1 January 2015

Total comprehensive income for the year 

Loss for the year 

Other comprehensive income 

Total comprehensive income for the year

Transactions with owners of the Company

Contributions and distributions

Equity-settled share-based payment

Proceeds from share placing

Share options exercised

Share
capital
$’000

Share
premium
$’000

Translation
reserve
$’000

Merger
reserve
$’000

Retained
earnings
$’000

Total
equity
$’000

4,667

81,974

(247)

1,247

(82,049)

5,592

—

—

—

—

894

77

—

—

—

—

12,696

(144)

—

(8,037)

(8,037)

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

(9,275)

—

(9,275)

(8,037)

(9,275)

(17,312)

1,819

—

161

1,819

13,590

94

1,980

15,503

Share
capital
$’000

Share
premium
$’000

Translation
reserve
$’000

Merger
reserve
$’000

Retained
earnings
$’000

Total
equity
$’000

3,879

56,587

(302)

1,247

(56,814)

4,597

—

—

—

—

737

51

—

—

—

—

25,341

46

—

55

55

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

(29,906)

(29,906)

—

55

(29,906)

(29,851)

4,671

—

—

4,671

26,078

97

4,671

30,846

Total transactions with owners of the Company

971

12,552

Balance at 31 December 2016

5,638

94,526

(8,284)

1,247

(89,344)

3,783

Total transactions with owners of the Company

788

25,387

Balance at 31 December 2015

4,667

81,974

(247)

1,247

(82,049)

5,592

38

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSCONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS
For the year ended 31 December 2016

Cash flows from operating activities

Loss for the year

Adjustments for:

– Depreciation of property, plant and equipment

– Amortisation of intangible assets

– Loss on disposal of property, plant and equipment

– Net finance costs

– Income tax

– Foreign exchange

– Equity-settled share-based payment 

Changes in:

– Trade and other receivables 

– Trade and other payables

– Deferred income

– Deferred government grant

Net working capital change

Cash used in operating activities

Interest paid

Income tax received

Net cash used in operating activities

Cash flows from investing activities

Purchase of property, plant and equipment and computer software

Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment

Development expenditure 

Interest received

Net cash used in investing activities

Cash flows from financing activities

Net proceeds from share issues

Payment of finance lease liabilities

Net cash from financing activities

Net increase in cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents at the start of the year

Effect of movements in exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents

Notes

2016
$’000

2015
$’000

14

13

11

21

(9,275)

(29,906)

174

8,466

4

268

(772)

(7,507)

1,819

270

9,600

—

133

(1,129)

42

4,671

(6,823)

(16,319)

328

827

275

(432)

2,735

(1,507)

(11)

(49)

3,879

(1,713)

(2,944)

(18,032)

(162)

690

(192)

552

(2,416)

(17,672)

(64)

2

(95)

—

13

9

(5,860)

(8,369)

1

59

(5,921)

(8,405)

13,523

26,175

(8)

(8)

13,515

26,167

5,178

2,555

(175)

90

2,481

(16)

Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year

17

7,558

2,555

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

39

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSNOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
For the year ended 31 December 2016

1. Reporting entity

WANdisco plc is a public limited company incorporated and domiciled in Jersey. The Company’s ordinary shares are traded on AIM. The 
consolidated financial statements of the Company for the year ended 31 December 2016 comprise the Company and its subsidiaries 
(together referred to as “the Group”).

2. Basis of preparation

(a) Statement of compliance

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”) as endorsed by the EU, 
IFRIC Interpretations, and under the historical cost accounting convention, and those parts of Companies (Jersey) Law 1991 applicable to 
companies under IFRS.

Under Article 105(11) of the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991, a parent company preparing consolidated financial statements need not present 
solus (parent company only) financial information, unless required to do so by an ordinary resolution of the company’s members.

(b) Going concern

As at 31 December 2016 the Group had net assets of $3.8m (31 December 2015: $5.6m), including cash of $7.6m (2015: $2.6m) as set out in 
the Consolidated balance sheet and an unused revolving credit facility of $10.0m (2015: $10.0m). In the year ended 31 December 2016, the 
Group incurred a loss before tax of $10.0m (2015: $31.0m) and net cash outflows before financing of $8.3m (2015: $26.1m).

During 2016, the performance of the Group improved, with bookings growing by 72% to $15.5m (2015: $9.0m). Most of this growth 
was achieved in H2 of 2016, which saw increased momentum in bookings as a result of success from new partnerships and focus on 
the Source Code Management business. In addition, during 2016, the Group’s cost base was significantly reduced by $11.2m. In addition, 
during 2016 the Group raised $13.6m, net of costs, through an equity raise; as a result of this, the Group had $7.6m (2015: $2.6m) of cash 
at 31 December 2016. In H2 2016 the net cash outflow in cash (before financing) reduced to $3.1m (H2 2015: $12.7m).

The Directors have prepared a detailed budget and forecasts of the Group’s expected performance over a period covering at least the next 
twelve months from the date of these financial statements. As well as modelling the realisation of the sales pipeline, these forecasts also 
cover a number of scenarios and sensitivities in order for the Board to satisfy itself that the Group remains within its current cash facilities. 
At 31 December 2016, the Group has a revolving credit facility of $10.0m, which is due to expire on 30 June 2017; in performing the 
sensitivity analysis, the Group has assumed that this facility will not be renewed.

Whilst the Directors are confident in the Group’s ability to grow bookings, the Board’s sensitivity modelling shows that the Group can remain 
within its facilities in the event that bookings growth is delayed (i.e. bookings do not increase from the level reported in 2016) for a period 
in excess of twelve months. The Directors’ financial forecasts and operational planning and modelling also include the actions that the 
Group could take to further significantly reduce the cost base during the coming year in the event that longer-term bookings were set to remain 
consistent with the level reported in 2016. On the basis of this financial and operational modelling, the Directors believe that the Group has 
the capability and the operational agility to react quickly, cut further costs from the business, and ensure that the cost base of the business 
is aligned with its sales bookings, cash revenue and funding scale.

As a consequence, the Directors have a reasonable expectation that the Group can continue to operate and to be able to meet its 
commitments and discharge its liabilities in the normal course of business for a period not less than twelve months from the date of these 
financial statements. Accordingly, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the Group financial statements.

(c) Functional and presentational currency

The consolidated financial statements are presented in US dollars, which is also the presentational currency of the Group. Billings to the 
Group’s customers during the year by WANdisco, Inc. were all in US dollars with certain costs being incurred by WANdisco International 
Limited in sterling and WANdisco, Pty Ltd in Australian dollars. All financial information has been rounded to the nearest thousand US dollars 
unless otherwise stated.

(d) Use of estimates and judgements

The preparation of financial information in conformity with adopted IFRS requires management to make judgements, estimates and 
assumptions that affect the application of accounting policies and the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, income and expenses. 
Actual results may differ from these estimates.

Estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period 
in which the estimates are revised and in any future periods affected.

40

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS2. Basis of preparation continued

(d) Use of estimates and judgements continued

Estimates 

Information about significant areas of estimation uncertainty in applying accounting policies that have the most significant effect on the 
amounts recognised in the consolidated financial statements is included in the following notes:

• Note 13 – valuation of intangible assets; and

• Note 21 – valuation of share-based payment.

Judgements

The accounting policy descriptions set out the areas where judgement needs to be exercised, the most significant of which are:

• Research and development – Development costs are capitalised in accordance with the accounting policy given below. Initial capitalisation 

of costs is based on management’s judgement that technological and economical feasibility is confirmed, usually when a product 
development project has reached a defined milestone.

• Intangible assets – The judgements in relation to intangible impairment testing relate to the assumptions applied in calculating the 

value-in-use of the cash-generating unit being tested for impairment. The key assumptions applied in the calculation relate to the future 
performance expectations of the business. The carrying value of intangible assets and the key assumptions used in performing the annual 
impairment assessment are disclosed in Note 13.

3. Significant accounting policies

The accounting policies set out below have been applied consistently to all periods presented in these consolidated financial statements.

(a) Basis of consolidation

As a result of IFRS 10 (2011) “Consolidated Financial Statements”, the Group has changed its accounting policy for determining whether it has 
control over and consequently whether it consolidates its investees. IFRS 10 introduces a new control model that focuses on whether the 
Group has power over an investee, exposure or rights to variable returns from its involvement with the investee and ability to use its power to 
affect those returns. In accordance with the transitional provisions of IFRS 10, the Group reassessed the control conclusion for its investees at 
1 January 2014. No modifications of previous conclusions about control regarding the Group’s investees were required. The financial 
information of subsidiaries is included from the date that control commences until the date that control ceases.

Intra-group balances and transactions, and any unrealised income and expenses arising from intra-group transactions, are eliminated in 
preparing the consolidated financial statements.

Business combinations

All business combinations are accounted for by applying the acquisition method as at the acquisition date, which is the date on which control 
is transferred to the Group. 

Acquisitions on or after 1 January 2009

For acquisitions on or after 1 January 2009, the Group measures goodwill at the acquisition date as:

• the fair value of the consideration transferred; plus 

• the recognised amount of any non-controlling interests in the acquiree; plus

• the fair value of the existing equity interest in the acquiree; less

• the net recognised amount (generally fair value) of the identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed. 

When the excess is negative, the negative goodwill is recognised immediately in profit or loss.

Costs related to the acquisition, other than those associated with the issue of debt or equity securities, are expensed as incurred.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

41

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSNOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED
For the year ended 31 December 2016

3. Significant accounting policies continued

(b) Foreign currency

(i) Foreign currency transactions

Transactions in foreign currencies are translated to the respective functional currencies of Group entities at the foreign exchange rate ruling 
at the date of the transaction. Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies at the balance sheet date are retranslated to 
the functional currency at the foreign exchange rate ruling at that date. Foreign exchange differences arising on translation are recognised 
in the income statement. Non-monetary assets and liabilities that are measured in terms of historical cost in a foreign currency are translated 
using the exchange rate at the date of the transaction. Non-monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies that are stated 
at fair value are retranslated to the functional currency at foreign exchange rates ruling at the dates the fair value was determined.

(ii) Foreign operations

The assets and liabilities of foreign operations, including goodwill and fair value adjustments arising on consolidation, are translated to the Group’s 
presentational currency, US dollars, at foreign exchange rates ruling at the balance sheet date. The revenues and expenses of foreign operations 
are translated at an average rate for the year, where this rate approximates to the foreign exchange rates ruling at the dates of the transactions.

Exchange differences arising from this translation of foreign operations are reported as an item of other comprehensive income and 
accumulated in the translation reserve or non-controlling interest, as the case may be. 

(c) Financial instruments

(i) Non-derivative financial instruments

Non-derivative financial instruments comprise trade and other receivables, trade and other payables, cash and cash equivalents, 
and interest-bearing borrowings.

Trade and other receivables

Trade and other receivables are recognised initially at fair value. Subsequent to initial recognition they are measured at amortised cost using 
the effective interest method, less any impairment losses.

Trade and other payables

Trade and other payables are recognised initially at fair value. Subsequent to initial recognition they are measured at amortised cost using 
the effective interest method.

Cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents comprise cash balances and call deposits. Bank overdrafts that are repayable on demand and form an integral 
part of the Group’s cash management are included as a component of cash and cash equivalents.

Interest-bearing borrowings

Interest-bearing borrowings are recognised initially at fair value less attributable transaction costs. Subsequent to initial recognition, 
interest-bearing borrowings are stated at amortised cost using the effective interest method, less any impairment losses.

(ii) Classification of financial instruments issued by the Group

Following the adoption of IAS 32 “Financial Instruments: Presentation”, financial instruments issued by the Group are treated as equity only 
to the extent that they meet the following two conditions: 

(a)  they include no contractual obligations upon the Group to deliver cash or other financial assets or to exchange financial assets or financial 

liabilities with another party under conditions that are potentially unfavourable to the Group; and 

(b)  where the instrument will or may be settled in the Group’s own equity instruments, it is either a non-derivative that includes no obligation 
to deliver a variable number of the Company’s own equity instruments or is a derivative that will be settled by the Company’s exchanging 
a fixed amount of cash or other financial assets for a fixed number of its own equity instruments.

To the extent that this definition is not met, the proceeds of issue are classified as a financial liability. Where the instrument so classified takes 
the legal form of the Company’s own shares, the amounts presented in these financial statements for called up share capital and share premium 
exclude amounts in relation to those shares. 

(d) Property, plant and equipment

(i) Recognition and measurement

Items of property, plant and equipment are measured at cost less accumulated depreciation and accumulated impairment losses. The cost 
of property, plant and equipment at 1 January 2009, the Group’s date of transition to IFRS, was determined by reference to its carrying value 
under UK and US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

42

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS3. Significant accounting policies continued

(d) Property, plant and equipment continued

(ii) Depreciation

Depreciation is recognised in profit or loss on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful lives of each part of an item of property, 
plant and equipment.

The estimated useful lives for the current and comparative periods are as follows:

• Computer equipment 

–  3 years

• Fixtures and fittings 

–  3 years

• Leasehold improvements  –  3 years

Depreciation methods, useful lives and residual values are reviewed at each reporting date.

(e) Intangible assets

(i) Goodwill

Goodwill is stated at cost less any accumulated impairment losses. Goodwill is allocated to cash-generating units and is not amortised 
but is tested annually for impairment.

(ii) Research and development

Expenditure on research activities, undertaken with the prospect of gaining new technical knowledge and understanding, is recognised 
in profit or loss when incurred.

Development activities relate to software development and involve a plan or design for the production of new or substantially improved 
products and processes. Development expenditure is capitalised only if:

• development costs can be measured reliably;

• the product or process is technically and commercially feasible;

• future economic benefits are probable; and

• the Group intends to, and has sufficient resources to, complete development and to use or sell the asset.

The expenditure capitalised includes direct labour and overhead costs that are directly attributable to preparing the asset for its intended use.

Capitalised development expenditure is measured at cost less accumulated amortisation and accumulated impairment losses.

(iii) Amortisation

Amortisation of capitalised research and development costs is recognised in profit or loss on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful 
life of two years.

Intangibles in relation to computer software are amortised over an estimated useful life of two years.

Amortisation of the intangible assets recognised on the acquisitions of AltoStor, Inc. and OhmData, Inc. is recognised in profit or loss on 
a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives of three years.

(f) Impairment (excluding deferred tax assets)

(i) Financial assets (including receivables)

A financial asset not carried at fair value through profit or loss is assessed at each reporting date to determine whether there is objective 
evidence that it is impaired. A financial asset is impaired if objective evidence indicates that a loss event has occurred after the initial recognition 
of the asset and that the loss event had a negative effect on the estimated future cash flows of that asset that can be estimated reliably.

An impairment loss in respect of a financial asset measured at amortised cost is calculated as the difference between its carrying amount and the 
present value of the estimated future cash flows discounted at the asset’s original effective interest rate. Interest on the impaired asset continues 
to be recognised through the unwinding of the discount. When a subsequent event causes the amount of impairment loss to decrease, 
the decrease in impairment loss is reversed through profit or loss.

(ii) Non-financial assets

The carrying amounts of the Group’s non-financial assets are reviewed at each reporting date to determine whether there is any indication 
of impairment. If any such indication exists, then the asset’s recoverable amount is estimated. For goodwill, and intangible assets that have 
indefinite useful lives or that are not yet available for use, the recoverable amount is estimated each year at the same time.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

43

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSNOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED
For the year ended 31 December 2016

3. Significant accounting policies continued

(f) Impairment (excluding deferred tax assets) continued

(ii) Non-financial assets continued

The recoverable amount of an asset or cash-generating unit is the greater of its value-in-use and its fair value less costs to sell. In assessing 
value-in-use, the estimated future cash flows are discounted to their present value using a pre-tax discount rate that reflects current market 
assessments of the time value of money and the risks specific to the asset. For the purpose of impairment testing, assets that cannot be 
tested individually are grouped together into the smallest group of assets that generate cash inflows from continuing use that are largely 
independent of the cash inflows of other assets or groups of assets (“the cash-generating unit”). The goodwill acquired in a business 
combination, for the purpose of impairment testing, is allocated to cash-generating units (“CGUs”). Subject to an operating segment ceiling 
test, for the purposes of goodwill impairment testing, CGUs to which goodwill has been allocated are aggregated so that the level at which 
impairment is tested reflects the lowest level at which goodwill is monitored for internal reporting purposes. Goodwill acquired in a business 
combination is allocated to groups of CGUs that are expected to benefit from the synergies of the combination.

An impairment loss is recognised if the carrying amount of an asset or its CGU exceeds its estimated recoverable amount. Impairment losses 
are recognised in profit or loss. Impairment losses recognised in respect of CGUs are allocated first to reduce the carrying amount of any 
goodwill allocated to the units and then to reduce the carrying amounts of the other assets in the unit (group of units) on a pro rata basis.

An impairment loss in respect of goodwill is not reversed. In respect of other assets, impairment losses recognised in prior periods are 
assessed at each reporting date for any indications that the loss has decreased or no longer exists. An impairment loss is reversed if there has 
been a change in the estimates used to determine the recoverable amount. An impairment loss is reversed only to the extent that the asset’s 
carrying amount does not exceed the carrying amount that would have been determined, net of depreciation or amortisation, if no 
impairment loss had been recognised.

(g) Employee benefits

(i) Pension plans

In the UK there is a Company personal pension scheme, which is a defined contribution scheme, for employees. Contributions are 
recognised in the income statement as they become payable in accordance with the rules of the scheme.

(ii) Termination benefits

Termination benefits are recognised as an expense when the Group is demonstrably committed, without realistic possibility of withdrawal, to 
a formal detailed plan to either terminate employment before the normal retirement date or to provide termination benefits as a result of an 
offer made to encourage voluntary redundancy.

(iii) Short-term benefits

Short-term employee benefit obligations are measured on an undiscounted basis and are expensed as the related service is provided.

A liability is recognised for the amount expected to be paid under short-term cash bonus or commission plans where the Group has a 
present legal or constructive obligation to pay this amount as a result of past service provided by the employee and the obligation can be 
estimated reliably.

(iv) Share-based payment

The grant date fair value of share-based payment awards granted to employees is recognised as an employee expense, with a corresponding 
increase in equity, over the period that the employees unconditionally become entitled to the awards. The amount recognised as an expense 
is adjusted to reflect the number of awards for which the related service and non-market vesting conditions are expected to be met, such 
that the amount ultimately recognised as an expense is based on the number of awards that do meet the related service and non-market 
performance conditions at the vesting date. For share-based payment awards with non-vesting conditions, the grant date fair value of the 
share-based payment is measured to reflect such conditions and there is no true-up for differences between expected and actual outcomes.

Share-based payment arrangements in which the Group receives goods or services as consideration for its own equity instruments are 
accounted for as equity-settled share-based payment transactions, regardless of how the equity instruments are obtained by the Group.

No cash-settled share-based payment awards have been granted to employees.

44

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS3. Significant accounting policies continued

(h) Revenue recognition

(i) Software licences

Sales of software licences are recognised once the licence has been granted and the customer has been provided with access to the 
software. Revenue derived from sales of licences is spread over the period of the licence. Where licences are perpetual, revenue is 
recognised in full once the agreement is in place.

(ii) Support subscriptions

Sales of support subscriptions are recognised on a straight-line basis over the period of the contract.

(iii) Maintenance, training and other services

Sales of maintenance, training and other services are recognised on a straight-line basis over the period of the contract.

(iv) Royalties

Royalties are accounted for on an accruals basis in accordance with the substance of the relevant agreement when it is probable that 
economic benefits associated with the transaction will flow to the entity and the amount of revenue can be measured reliably. 

(v) Multi-element 

Where there are multiple components in a single transaction, the revenue recognition criteria is applied to the separately identifiable 
components in order to reflect the substance of the transaction.

(i) Operating lease payments

Payments made under operating leases are recognised in profit or loss on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease.

(j) Finance income and costs

Finance costs comprise interest expense on borrowings and exchange differences on intra-group balances.

(k) Taxation

Income tax comprises current and deferred tax. Income tax is recognised in profit or loss except to the extent that it relates to items 
recognised directly in equity, in which case it is recognised in equity.

Current tax is the expected tax payable on the taxable income for the year, using tax rates enacted or substantively enacted at the reporting 
date, and any adjustment to tax payable in respect of previous years.

Deferred tax is recognised using the statement of financial position method, providing for temporary differences between the carrying 
amounts of assets and liabilities for financial reporting purposes and the amounts used for taxation purposes. Deferred tax is not recognised 
in respect of temporary differences relating to investments in subsidiaries to the extent that it is probable that they will not reverse in the 
foreseeable future. Deferred tax is measured at the tax rates that are expected to be applied to temporary differences when they reverse, 
based on the laws that have been enacted or substantively enacted by the reporting date.

A deferred tax asset is recognised to the extent that it is probable that future taxable profits will be available against which temporary 
differences can be utilised. Deferred tax assets are reviewed at each reporting date and are reduced to the extent that it is no longer probable 
that the related tax benefit will be realised.

(l) Government grants

Government grants are recognised where there is reasonable assurance that the grant will be received and all attaching conditions will be 
complied with.

When the grant relates to an expense item, it is recognised as income over the period necessary to match the grant on a systematic basis to 
the costs that it is intended to compensate. Where the grant relates to an asset, the fair value is credited to a deferred income account and is 
released to the Consolidated statement of profit and loss and other comprehensive income over the expected useful life of the asset.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

45

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSNOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED
For the year ended 31 December 2016

3. Significant accounting policies continued

(m) Segmental reporting

The Directors consider there to be one operating segment, being that of development and sale of licences for software and related maintenance.

The Group has adopted IFRS 8 “Operating Segments” from the date of transition to IFRS. IFRS 8 requires the Group to determine and present 
its operating segments based on information which is provided internally to the chief operating decision maker (“CODM”). The CODM, who is 
responsible for allocating resources and assessing the performance of the operating segment, has been identified as the Chief Executive Officer.

(n) Provisions

Provisions are created where the Group has a present legal or constructive obligation as a result of a past event, where it is probable it will 
result in an outflow from the Group.

(o) Cost of sales

Cost of sales includes commissions earned on sales and direct costs relating to software supply.

(p) Exceptional items

Exceptional items comprise items of income and expense that are material in amount and unlikely to recur and that merit separate disclosure 
in order to provide an understanding of the Group’s underlying financial performance.

(q) New accounting standards and amendments

(i) New and amended standards adopted by the Group

The following new standards and amendments to standards are mandatory for the first time for the financial year beginning on 1 January 2016:

• IFRS 14 “Regulatory Deferral Accounts”.

• Accounting for Acquisitions of Interests in Joint Operations (Amendments to IFRS 11).

• Clarification of Acceptable Methods of Depreciation and Amortisation (Amendments to IAS 16 and IAS 38).

• Agriculture: Bearer Plants (Amendments to IAS 16 and IAS 41).

• Equity Method in Separate Financial Statements (Amendments to IAS 27).

• Annual Improvements to IFRSs 2012–2014 Cycle.

• Disclosure Initiative (Amendments to IAS 1).

• Investment Entities: Applying the Consolidation Exception (Amendments to IFRS 10, IFRS 12 and IAS 28).

These standards and amendments to standards have not had a material impact on the consolidated financial statements.

(ii) New and amended standards and interpretations issued but not effective for the financial year beginning 1 January 2016 
and not early adopted

The following adopted IFRSs have been issued but have not been applied by the Group in these financial statements. Their adoption is not 
expected to have a material effect on the financial statements unless otherwise indicated:

• IFRS 9 “Financial Instruments” (effective date 1 January 2018).

• IFRS 15 “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” (effective date 1 January 2018).

• IFRS 16 “Leases” (effective date 1 January 2019).

• Recognition of Deferred Tax Assets for Unrealised Losses (Amendments to IAS 12) (effective date 1 January 2017).

• Disclosure Initiative (Amendments to IAS 7) (effective date 1 January 2017).

• Clarifications to IFRS 15 “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” (effective date 1 January 2018).

• Classification and Measurement of Share-based Payment Transactions (Amendments to IFRS 2) (effective date 1 January 2018).

• Applying IFRS 9 “Financial Instruments” with IFRS 4 “Insurance Contracts” (Amendments to IFRS 4) (effective date 1 January 2018).

46

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS4. Determination of fair values

A number of the Group’s accounting policies and disclosures require the determination of fair value, for both financial and non-financial 
assets and liabilities. Fair values have been determined for measurement and/or disclosure purposes based on the following methods. When 
applicable, further information about the assumptions made in determining fair values is disclosed in the notes specific to that asset or liability.

(a) Intangible assets

Whilst development costs are valued at cost less amortisation, their carrying values are assessed to ensure that they do not exceed the 
recoverable amount at the end of each reporting period. The recoverable amount of other intangible assets is based on the discounted cash 
flows expected to be derived from the use and eventual sale of products developed.

(b) Trade and other receivables

The fair value of short-term trade and other receivables is deemed to be its book value less any impairment provision. The effect of 
discounting is considered to be immaterial.

(c) Non-derivative financial liabilities

Fair value, which is determined for disclosure purposes, is calculated based on the present value of future principal and interest cash flows, 
discounted at the market rate of interest at the reporting date.

5. Segmental analysis

Operating segments

The Directors consider there to be one operating segment, being that of development and sale of licences for software and related maintenance.

Geographical segments

The Group recognises revenue in three geographical regions based on the location of customers, as set out in the following table:

Revenue

North America

Europe

Rest of the world

2016
$’000 

8,192

2,476

711

2015
$’000 

7,255

2,983

756

11,379

10,994

Management makes no allocation of costs, assets or liabilities between these segments since all trading activities are operated as a single 
business unit.

The Group has no customers representing individually over 10% of revenue (2015: nil).

The Group’s core patented technology, the Distributed Coordination Engine (“DConE”), enables the replication of data. The Group has 
developed software based on this technology which is applied into two key markets, the Big Data and Source Code Management markets:

Revenue

Source Code Management

Big Data

2016
$’000 

8,182

3,197

2015
$’000 

9,158

1,836

11,379

10,994

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

47

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSNOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED
For the year ended 31 December 2016

6. Operating expenses

Loss from operations has been arrived at after charging:

Staff costs

Research and development – amortisation charge

Amortisation of intangible assets

Depreciation of property, plant and equipment

Auditor’s remuneration

Notes

2016
$’000 

2015
$’000 

10

13

13

14

7

12,081

19,061

8,116

350

174

72

8,548

1,052

270

80

Reconciliation of loss from operations to adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation 
(“Adjusted EBITDA”)

Loss from operations

Adjusted for:

Amortisation and depreciation

Exceptional items within operating expenses

EBITDA before exceptional items

Equity-settled share-based payment (excluding exceptional item)

Adjusted EBITDA before exceptional items

Development expenditure capitalised

Notes

2016
$’000 

2015
$’000 

(17,923)

(30,529)

8,640

32

9,870

614

8

(9,251)

(20,045)

21

1,787

4,057

(7,464)

(15,988)

13

(5,860)

(8,369)

Adjusted EBITDA before exceptional items including development expenditure

(13,324)

(24,357)

Reconciliation of operating expenses to “cash overheads”

Operating expenses

Remove:

Amortisation and depreciation

Exceptional items within operating expenses 

Equity-settled share-based payment (excluding exceptional item)

Development expenditure capitalised

Cash overheads

7. Auditor’s remuneration

Audit of these financial statements

Amounts receivable by auditor in respect of:

Audit of financial statements of subsidiaries pursuant to legislation

48

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

Notes

2016
$’000 

2015
$’000 

(27,953)

(40,774)

8,640

32

1,787

9,870

614

4,057

(5,860)

(8,369)

8

21

13

(23,354)

(34,602)

2016
$’000 

2015
$’000 

60

12

72

67

13

80

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS8. Exceptional items

Exceptional items comprise the following:

Exchange gain on intercompany balances 

Equity-settled share-based payment charge in relation to acquisitions:

– AltoStor, Inc.

– TortoiseSVN.net

– OhmData, Inc.

Notes

21

21

21

21

2016
$’000 

8,144

—

(32)

—

(32)

8,112

2015
$’000 

—

(249)

(124)

(241)

(614)

(614)

The exceptional gain arose on Sterling-denominated intercompany balances. These balances were retranslated at the closing exchange rate at 
31 December 2016, which was 1.23, a 17% reduction compared to the rate of 1.48 at 31 December 2015. Sterling to US$ exchange rates declined 
following the Brexit vote on 23 June 2016. Due to the size and nature of the exchange gain, it has been included as an exceptional item.

The exceptional gain on intercompany balances in the Consolidated statement of profit and loss, is offset by an equivalent exceptional 
exchange loss on the retranslation of the intercompany balances, which is included in the retranslation of net assets of foreign operations, 
included in the other comprehensive income.

The equity-settled share-based payment charge recognised in the year in relation to the acquisitions of OhmData, Inc. and AltoStor, Inc. 
and the purchase of the intellectual property of TortoiseSVN.net has been classified as exceptional. See Note 21 for further details.

9. Net finance (costs)/income

Interest receivable – bank

Exchange gain

Finance income

Unwind of discount on pledged shares

Exchange loss

Interest payable on bank borrowings

Finance charges

Loan amortisation costs

Finance costs

Net finance income/(costs)

10. Staff numbers and costs

Wages and salaries

Redundancy costs

Social security costs

Other pension costs

Equity-settled share-based payment

Development expenditure capitalised

Total staff costs

2016
$’000 

1

8,169

8,170

—

(25)

(79)

(83)

(107)

2015
$’000 

59

—

59

(16)

(373)

(48)

—

(128)

(294)

(565)

7,876

(506)

Notes

2016
$’000 

2015
$’000 

12,842

19,734

679

1,296

142

1,787

568

1,818

88

4,057

(4,665)

(7,204)

12,081

19,061

21

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

49

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSNOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED
For the year ended 31 December 2016

10. Staff numbers and costs continued

Average number of persons employed

The average number of persons employed by the Group (including Directors), analysed by category, was as follows:

Software development

Selling and distribution

Administration

Total number of employees

Remuneration of key management personnel

Short-term employee benefits of key management personnel

2016
Number

2015
Number

76

32

17

92

49

18

125

159

2016
$’000

2015
$’000

3,059

4,531

There were no other long-term benefits or post-employment benefits in the year ended 31 December 2016 (2015: $nil).

In addition to the above, an equity-settled share-based payment charge of $1,697,000 in relation to share options granted to key 
management personnel was incurred in the year ended 31 December 2016 (2015: $3,609,000).

Further details on the remuneration, share options and pension entitlements of the Directors are included in the Remuneration Committee 
report on pages 30 and 31.

11. Income tax

Current tax expense

Current year

Adjustment for prior years

Income tax

Reconciliation of effective tax rate

Loss before tax

Expected tax credit based on the Group’s domestic tax rate of 40% 

Effects of:

Non-deductible expenses

Non-taxable income

Tax rates in foreign jurisdictions

R&D tax credits

2016
$’000 

2015
$’000 

542

230

772

2015
%

40%

(9%)

—

(7%)

4%

2016
%

40%

(14%)

31%

(15%)

8%

2016
$’000

10,047

4,019

(1,429)

3,111

(1,457)

834

739

390

1,129

2015
$’000

31,035

12,414

(2,683)

—

(2,215)

1,129

(7,516)

Losses not recognised for current or deferred tax

(42%)

(4,306)

(24%)

Non-taxable income reflects the tax impact of the exceptional foreign exchange translation gain included in loss before taxation. 

Factors affecting the current and future tax charges

Reductions in the UK corporation tax rate from 23% to 21% (effective from 1 April 2014) and 20% (effective from 1 April 2015) were substantively 
enacted on 2 July 2013. Further reductions to 19% (effective from 1 April 2017) and to 17% (effective from 1 April 2020) were substantively 
enacted on 26 October 2015 and 6 September 2016 respectively. This will reduce the Group’s future current tax charge accordingly. The 
deferred taxation liability for UK tax resident members of the Group at 31 December 2016 has been calculated based on the rate of 17%.

8%

772

4%

1,129

50

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS11. Income tax continued

Deferred tax assets and liabilities

Deferred tax liabilities are attributable to the following temporary differences in respect of property, plant and equipment:

Deferred tax liability

2016
$’000 

(3)

2015
$’000 

(5)

The Group has unrecognised deferred tax assets of $23,511,000 (2015: $19,205,000) in respect of tax losses arising in the Group.

The Directors consider that there is not sufficient certainty over the availability of future taxable profits against which these losses may be 
offset and no asset has therefore been recognised.

12. Loss per share

Basic loss per share

Basic loss per share is calculated based on the loss attributable to ordinary shareholders and the weighted average number of ordinary 
shares outstanding:

Loss for the year attributable to ordinary shareholders

Weighted average number of ordinary shares

At the start of the year

Effect of shares issued in the year

Weighted average number of ordinary shares during the year

Basic loss per share

Adjusted loss per share

2016
$’000 

2015
$’000 

9,275

29,906

2016
Shares
‘000s

29,564

3,727

2015
Shares
‘000s

24,018

4,765

33,291

28,783

2016
$

0.28

2015
$

1.04

Adjusted loss per share is calculated based on the loss attributable to ordinary shareholders before exceptional items, acquisition-related 
items and the cost of equity-settled share-based payment, and the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding:

Loss for the year attributable to ordinary shareholders

Add back:

Exceptional items

Acquisition-related items

Equity-settled share-based payment (excluding exceptional items)

Adjusted basic loss for the year

Adjusted loss per share

Diluted loss per share

2016
$’000 

2015
$’000 

9,275

29,906

8,112

—

(614)

(16)

(1,787)

(4,057)

15,600

25,219

2016
$

0.47

2015
$

0.88

Due to the Group having losses in all years presented, the fully diluted loss per share for disclosure purposes, as shown in the Consolidated 
statement of profit and loss and other comprehensive income, is the same as for the basic loss per share.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

51

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSNOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED
For the year ended 31 December 2016

13. Intangible assets

At 31 December 2016

Cost

At 1 January 2016

Additions – own work capitalised

At 31 December 2016

Amortisation

At 1 January 2016

Amortisation charge for the year

At 31 December 2016

Net book value 

At 31 December 2016

At 31 December 2015

Cost

At 1 January 2015

Additions – own work capitalised

Disposals

At 31 December 2015

Amortisation

At 1 January 2015

Amortisation charge for the year

Disposals

At 31 December 2015

Net book value 

At 31 December 2015

Other

intangible Development
costs
$’000

assets
$’000

Computer
software
$’000

Total
$’000

3,154

—

31,156

5,860

189

—

34,499

5,860

3,154

37,016

189

40,359

(2,804)

(22,923)

(189)

(25,916)

(350)

(8,116)

—

(8,466)

(3,154)

(31,039)

(189)

(34,382)

—

5,977

—

5,977

Other

intangible Development
costs
$’000

assets
$’000

Computer
software
$’000

Total
$’000

3,154

—

—

22,787

8,369

1,189

—

27,130

8,369

—

(1,000)

(1,000)

3,154

31,156

189

34,499

(1,795)

(14,375)

(1,146)

(1,009)

(8,548)

(43)

—

—

1,000

(17,316)

(9,600)

1,000

(2,804)

(22,923)

(189)

(25,916)

350

8,233

—

8,583

The carrying amount of the intangible assets is allocated across cash-generating units (“CGUs”). A CGU is defined as the smallest group 
of assets that generate cash inflows from continuing use that are largely independent of the cash inflows of other assets or groups thereof. 
The recoverable amount of the CGUs are determined using value-in-use (“VIU”) calculations. As at 31 December 2016 and 2015, the Group 
had one CGU, the DConE CGU, which represents the Group’s patented DConE replication technology, forming the basis of products for 
both the Source Code Management and Big Data markets, including the new Fusion platform that was launched in 2015.

Other intangible assets arose as part of the acquisitions of OhmData, Inc. in June 2014 and AltoStor, Inc. in November 2012. The intangibles 
arising as part of these acquisitions are allocated to the DConE CGU. The recoverable amount of the DConE CGU has been calculated on a VIU 
basis at both 31 December 2016 and 31 December 2015. These calculations use cash flow projections based on financial forecasts, which 
anticipate growth in the Group’s installed base along with new customer growth, along with a stable cost base, and appropriate long-term 
growth rates. To prepare VIU calculations, the cash flow forecasts are discounted back to present value using a pre-tax discount rate of 10% 
(2015: 10%) and a terminal value growth rate of 2% from 2021. The Directors have reviewed the recoverable amount of the CGU and do 
not consider there to be any indication of impairment.

Development costs are predominantly capitalised staff costs associated with new products and services. Development costs are allocated 
to the DConE CGU, the recoverable amount of which has been determined on a VIU basis as described above.

In February 2015 WANdisco International Limited sold software to Syntevo GmbH for consideration of €1. This software became fully amortised 
during the year ended 31 December 2014 so there was no material profit/(loss) on disposal in the prior year.

The amortisation charge on intangible assets is included in operating expenses in the Consolidated statement of profit and loss and other 
comprehensive income.

52

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS14. Property, plant and equipment

At 31 December 2016

Cost

At 1 January 2016

Reclassification 

Additions

Effect of movements in exchange rates

Disposals

At 31 December 2016

Depreciation

At 1 January 2016

Reclassification

Depreciation charge for the year

Effect of movements in exchange rates

Disposals

At 31 December 2016

Net book value

At 31 December 2016

At 31 December 2015

Cost

At 1 January 2015

Reclassification 

Additions

Effect of movements in exchange rates

Disposals

At 31 December 2015

Depreciation

At 1 January 2015

Depreciation charge for the year

Effect of movements in exchange rates

Disposals

At 31 December 2015

Net book value

At 31 December 2015

Leasehold
improvements
$’000

Fixtures and 
fittings
$’000

Computers
$’000

Total
$’000

128

3

—

(6)

—

341

(40)

—

(25)

—

556

(43)

455

(48)

(11)

1,025

(80)

455

(79)

(11)

125

276

909

1,310

(116)

—

(13)

4

—

(300)

40

(33)

23

—

(379)

40

(128)

39

5

(795)

80

(174)

66

5

(125)

(270)

(423)

(818)

—

6

486

492

Leasehold
improvements
$’000

Fixtures and 
fittings
$’000

Computers
$’000

Total
$’000

130

—

—

(2)

—

370

(22)

—

(7)

—

451

22

95

(10)

(2)

951

—

95

(19)

(2)

128

341

556

1,025

(74)

(43)

1

—

(222)

(84)

6

—

(245)

(143)

8

1

(541)

(270)

15

1

(116)

(300)

(379)

(795)

12

41

177

230

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

53

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSNOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED
For the year ended 31 December 2016

15. Investments in subsidiaries

The Group has the following investments in subsidiaries:

Company name

WANdisco International Limited

WANdisco, Inc.

OhmData, Inc.

AltoStor, Inc.

Country of
incorporation

Holding

Proportion
of shares held

Nature of business

UK

US

US

US

Ordinary shares

100%

Development and provision of global collaboration software

Ordinary shares

100%

Development and provision of global collaboration software

Ordinary shares

100%

Development and provision of global collaboration software

Ordinary shares

100%

Development and provision of global collaboration software

WANdisco, Pty Ltd

Australia

Ordinary shares 

100%

Development and provision of global collaboration software

WANdisco Software (Chengdu) Ltd China

Ordinary shares

100%

Development and provision of global collaboration software

All of the above entities are included in the consolidated financial statements.

16. Trade and other receivables

Due within a year

Trade receivables 

Other receivables

Corporation tax

Prepayments

Total trade and other receivables

The Directors consider that the carrying amount of trade and other receivables approximates to their fair value.

Ageing of trade receivables

Due from current month

Due from previous month

Due from earlier months

Total trade receivables

All trade receivables are denominated in US dollars.

17. Cash and cash equivalents

Cash at bank and in hand

2016
$’000 

3,926

485

1,446

288

2015
$’000 

3,538

1,061

1,631

498

6,145

6,728

2016
$’000 

2015
$’000 

3,069

2,788

764

93

329

421

3,926

3,538

2016
$’000 

2015
$’000 

7,558

2,555

54

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS18. Current liabilities

Trade and other payables

Trade payables

Accruals

Deferred income

Deferred income represents contracted sales for which services to customers will be provided in future years.

Deferred income which falls due:

Within a year

In more than a year

Total deferred income

Borrowings – finance lease liabilities

Finance lease liabilities include amounts payable after more than one year of $294,000 (2015: $nil).

2016
$’000 

808

2,680

2015
$’000 

597

2,117

3,488

2,714

2016
$’000

5,809

6,683

2015
$’000

6,060

3,697

12,492

9,757

Less than one year

Between one and five years

More than five years

Minimum
lease
payments
2016
$’000

89

294

—

383

Interest
2016
$’000

Principal
2016
$’000

21

26

—

47

110

320

—

430

Minimum
lease
payments
2015
$’000

—

—

—

—

Interest
2015
$’000

Principal
2015
$’000

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

19. Financial instruments and risk management

The Group’s principal financial instruments are cash and trade receivables.

The Group has exposure to the following risks from its use of financial instruments:

Market risk

The Group may be affected by general market trends, which are unrelated to the performance of the Group itself. The Group’s success 
will depend on market acceptance of the Group’s products and there can be no guarantee that this acceptance will be forthcoming. 
Market opportunities targeted by the Group may change and this could lead to an adverse effect upon its revenue and earnings.

The Group is currently not exposed to interest rate risk as it has not drawn down on its $10.0m (31 December 2015: $10.0m) revolving 
credit facility.

Credit risk

Credit risk arises from cash and cash equivalents and credit exposure to the Group’s customers.

Credit ratings of institutions which hold the Group’s financial assets are regularly monitored to ensure they meet the minimum credit criteria 
set by the Board through the Group treasury policy.

The credit quality of customers is assessed by taking into account their financial position, past experience and other factors.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

55

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSNOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED
For the year ended 31 December 2016

19. Financial instruments and risk management continued

Liquidity risk

Liquidity risk is the risk that the Group will not be able to meet its financial obligations as they fall due. The Board is responsible for ensuring 
that the Group has sufficient liquidity to meet its financial liabilities as they fall due and does so by monitoring cash flow forecasts and budgets. 
The Board has considered the cash flow forecasts for the next twelve months which show that the Group expects to operate within its 
working capital facilities throughout the year. Details of the going concern review are included in Note 2.

Any excess cash balances are held in short-term, interest-bearing deposit accounts.

All financial liabilities (trade and other payables) mature within one year of the balance sheet date.

Capital management 

The Group defines the capital that it manages as its total equity. The Group’s objectives when managing capital are to safeguard the Group’s 
ability to continue as a going concern and support the growth of the business.

Foreign currency risk

The Group’s operations are split between the US, the UK, mainland Europe, Australia and China, and as a result the Group incurs costs 
in currencies other than its presentational currency of US dollars. The Group also holds cash and cash equivalents in non-US dollar 
denominated bank accounts. 

The following table shows the denomination of the year-end cash and cash equivalents balance:

2016 cash and cash equivalents

2015 cash and cash equivalents

Sterling
$’000

538

374

Australian
dollar
$’000

US dollar
$’000

Total
$’000

118

6,902

7,558

35

2,146

2,555

Had the foreign exchange rate between the US dollar and sterling changed by 5%, this would have affected the loss for the year and the net 
assets of the Group by $530,000 (2015: $659,000). 

Fair values of financial assets and financial liabilities

There are no material differences between the fair value and the book value of the Group’s financial assets and liabilities.

20. Share capital and reserves

Share capital

Allotted and fully paid

The ordinary share capital of WANdisco plc is designated in sterling.

At 1 January 2016

Loss for the year

Foreign currency translation differences

Proceeds from share placing

Share options exercised

Equity-settled share-based payment

2016
Number

2016
$’000

2015
Number

2015
$’000

37,067,641

5,638 29,564,059

4,667

Share
capital
$’000

Share
premium
$’000

Translation
reserve
$’000

Merger
reserve
$’000

Retained
earnings
$’000

4,667

81,974

—

—

—

—

894

12,696

77

—

(144)

—

(247)

—

(8,037)

—

—

—

1,247

(82,049)

—

—

—

—

—

(9,275)

—

—

161

1,819

At 31 December 2016

5,638

94,526

(8,284)

1,247

(89,344)

56

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS20. Share capital and reserves continued

At 1 January 2015

Loss for the year

Foreign currency translation differences

Proceeds from share placing

Equity-settled share-based payment

Share options exercised

Share
capital
$’000

Share
premium
$’000

Translation
reserve
$’000

Merger
reserve
$’000

Retained
earnings
$’000

3,879

56,587

(302)

1,247

(56,814)

—

—

—

—

737

25,341

—

51

—

46

—

55

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

(29,906)

—

—

4,671

—

At 31 December 2015

4,667

81,974

(247)

1,247

(82,049)

Share capital and share premium

During the year, 624,890 ordinary shares were issued as a result of employees exercising share options.

On 6 July 2016, the Company issued an additional 6,878,692 ordinary shares at a price of £1.60 each, raising funds of $13.6m net 
of transaction costs.

Costs relating directly to the new issue of shares have been deducted from the share premium account.

Translation reserve

The translation reserve comprises all foreign exchange differences arising from the translation of the financial statements of foreign operations.

Merger reserve

The acquisition by WANdisco plc of the entire share capital of WANdisco, Inc. in 2012 was accounted for as a reverse acquisition. 
Consequently, the previously recognised book values and assets and liabilities were retained and the consolidated financial information 
for the period to 16 May 2012 has been presented as a continuation of the WANdisco business, which was previously wholly owned 
by the WANdisco, Inc. Group. 

The share capital for the period covered by these consolidated financial statements and the comparative periods is stated at the nominal 
value of the shares issued pursuant to the above share arrangement. The difference between the nominal value of these shares and the 
nominal value of WANdisco, Inc. shares at the time of the acquisition has been transferred to the merger reserve.

21. Share-based payment

WANdisco plc operates share option plans for qualifying employees of the Group. Options in the plans are settled in equity in the Company 
and are normally subject to a vesting schedule but not conditional on any performance criteria being achieved.

Analysis of equity-settled share-based payment charge

Exceptional equity-settled share-based payment charge in relation to acquisitions:

– AltoStor, Inc.

– TortoiseSVN.net

– OhmData, Inc.

Total equity-settled share-based payment charge in relation to acquisitions

Non-exceptional equity-settled share-based payment charge

Total equity-settled share-based payment charge

Notes

2016
$’000 

2015
$’000 

—

32

—

32

1,787

249

124

241

614

4,057

1,819

4,671

8

10

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

57

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSNOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED
For the year ended 31 December 2016

21. Share-based payment continued

Terms and conditions of share option grants

The terms and conditions of the share option grants between 16 May 2012 (the date WANdisco plc acquired WANdisco, Inc.) 
and 31 December 2016 are as follows:

Date of grant

16 May 2012

16 May 2012

16 May 2012

16 May 2012

16 May 2012

16 May 2012

16 May 2012

21 June 2012

7 December 2012
4 February 2013

1 April 2013

13 May 2013

15 July 2013

16 September 2013

11 November 2013

27 November 2013

27 December 2013

9 April 2014

16 June 2014

26 June 2014

18 August 2014

15 September 2014

3 November 2014

22 December 2014

10 April 2015

11 May 2015

2 June 2015

23 June 2015

6 July 2015

28 August 2015

23 October 2015

2 November 2015

22 January 2016

28 January 2016

24 March 2016

9 March 2016

1 April 2016

22 June 2016

17 August 2016

15 September 2016

23 September 2016

16 September 2016

6 December 2016

Expected
term
(years)

Exercisable between

Commencement

Lapse

Exercise
price

Vesting
schedule
(see page 59)

Outstanding at
31 December
2016

8

8

9

9

9

9

9

10

10
10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

3

10

3

3

10

10

3

10

1

10

3

3

3

3

3

10

3

3

10

3

3

3

3

10

10

10

16 May 2012

15 September 2020

16 May 2012

7 October 2020

16 May 2012

20 September 2021

22 July 2012

14 September 2021

1 August 2012

20 September 2021

13 January 2013

12 January 2022

13 January 2013

30 January 2022

21 June 2012

20 June 2022

7 December 2012
4 February 2013

6 December 2022
3 February 2023

1 April 2013

13 May 2013

15 July 2013

31 March 2023

12 May 2023

14 July 2023

16 September 2013

15 September 2023

11 November 2013

10 November 2023

27 November 2013

26 November 2023

27 December 2013

26 December 2023

9 April 2014

16 June 2014

26 June 2014

8 April 2024

15 June 2024

25 June 2024

18 August 2014

17 August 2024

15 September 2014

14 September 2024

3 November 2014

2 November 2024

22 December 2014

21 December 2024

10 April 2015

11 May 2015

2 June 2015

23 June 2015

6 July 2015

9 April 2025

10 May 2025

1 June 2025

22 June 2025

5 July 2025

28 August 2015

27 August 2025

23 October 2015

22 October 2025

2 November 2015

1 November 2025

22 January 2016

21 January 2026

28 January 2016

27 January 2026

24 March 2016

9 March 2016

1 April 2016

22 June 2016

23 March 2026

8 March 2026

1 April 2026

21 June 2026

17 August 2016

16 August 2026

15 September 2016

14 September 2026

23 September 2016

22 September 2026

16 September 2016

15 September 2026

6 December 2016

5 December 2026

£0.36

£0.45

£0.46

£0.36

£0.46

£0.36

£0.23

£2.00

£4.55
£6.43

£8.03

£9.80

£9.55

£11.68

£12.71

£14.30

£11.93

£0.10

£4.30

£0.10

£0.10

£4.00

£4.00

£0.10

£2.25

£0.10

£2.55

£0.10

£0.10

£0.10

£0.10

£0.10

£0.75

£0.10

£0.10

£1.41

£0.10

£0.10

£0.10

£0.10

£1.27

£2.00

£1.90

2

2

2

3

3

3

3

4

5
5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

9

5

9

9

5

5

9

10

11

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

9

35,000

7,886

3,213

85,000

81,000

455,000

641,185

28,700

163,375
50,000

25,000

20,000

65,000

5,000

10,000

14,583

140,000

52,782

25,000

91,656

57,505

51,000

25,000

29,583

20,000

75,000

5,000

101,470

482,038

3,333

46,666

15,000

10,000

15,000

55,000

50,000

225,000

25,000

35,000

75,000

5,000

30,000

882,924

4,318,899

58

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS21. Share-based payment continued

Terms and conditions of share option grants continued

The following vesting schedule applies:

2.  Partially vested at grant date; 1/48 of granted option shares vest monthly thereafter.

3.  Option vests 25% on exercisable commencement date; 1/48 of granted option shares vest monthly thereafter.

4.  Option vests on third anniversary of the date of grant.

5.   Option vests 25% on first anniversary of vesting commencement date, with the balance vesting monthly thereafter until final vesting date.

9.  Option vests 33% on first anniversary of vesting commencement date, with the balance vesting monthly thereafter until final vesting date.

10.  Option vests in three instalments. One-third on the first anniversary of vesting commencement date, one-third on the second anniversary 

and one-third on the third anniversary.

11.  Option vests 100% on first anniversary of vesting commencement date.

Share-based payment charges related to acquisitions

As part of the acquisitions of OhmData, Inc. in June 2014, AltoStor, Inc. in November 2012 and the TortoiseSVN.net community website in 
June 2013, restricted shares were issued to the former owners of the business for OhmData, Inc. and AltoStor, Inc. and the lead developer 
of the website for the TortoiseSVN.net community website. These shares were treated as contingent payments and have been accounted for 
under IFRS 2 “Share-based Payment” rather than as part of the acquisition consideration under IFRS 3 “Business Combinations”.

Acquisition

TortoiseSVN.net

Equity-settled
share-based
payment
charge
$’000

Restricted
shares
Number

—

—

32

32

Number and weighted average exercise price of shares

The number and weighted average exercise price of share options (including previous options in WANdisco, Inc.) were as follows:

Balance at the start of the year

Granted

Forfeited

Exercised

Balance at the end of the year 

Exercisable at the end of the year 

Vested at the end of the year 

Weighted average exercise price for:

Shares granted

Shares forfeited

Options exercised

Exercise price in the range:

From

To

2016
Number

2015
Number

4,437,995 4,301,667

1,592,924 1,550,927

(1,052,031) (1,086,309)

(659,989)

(328,290)

4,318,899 4,437,995

2,733,488 1,435,100

2,733,488 1,856,870

2016
$

2.15

3.40

0.18

2015
$

0.69

6.75

0.19

0.15

21.20

0.15

18.19

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

59

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSNOTES TO THE CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONTINUED
For the year ended 31 December 2016

21. Share-based payment continued

Number and weighted average exercise price of shares continued

Weighted average contractual life remaining

2016
Years

7.8

2015
Years

6.2

The fair value of each option grant is estimated on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option pricing model with the following 
weighted average assumptions:

Dividend yield

Risk-free interest rate

Stock price volatility

Expected life (years)

Weighted average fair value of options granted during the year

2016

2015

0.00%

1.05%

30%

7.0

$3.09

0.00%

1.53%

30%

3.8

$2.76

• The dividend yield is based on the Company’s forecast dividend rate and the current market price of the underlying common stock 

at the date of grant.

• Expected life in years is determined from the average of the time between the date of grant and the date on which the options lapse.

• Expected volatility is based on the historical volatility of shares of listed companies with a similar profile to the Company.

• The risk-free interest rate is based on the treasury bond rates for the expected life of the option.

22. Disposal

In February 2015 WANdisco International Limited disposed of software to Syntevo GmbH for a consideration of €1. This software was fully 
written down at the point of disposal so there was no material profit/(loss) on disposal in the prior year.

2016
$’000

374

230

2015
$’000

507

576

604

1,083

23. Commitments and contingent liabilities

Operating lease commitments

The total amounts payable under non-cancellable operating leases are as follows:

Land and buildings

Within one year

Between two and five years

Capital commitments and contingent liabilities

At 31 December 2016 the Group had no capital commitments (31 December 2015: $nil).

The Group had no contingent liabilities at 31 December 2016 (31 December 2015: none).

24. Related parties and related party transactions

Identity of related parties 

The Group has a related party relationship with its subsidiaries and with its Directors.

25. Post-balance sheet events

There are no significant or disclosable post-balance sheet events.

60

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSFIVE YEAR RECORD

31 December

New sales bookings

New sales bookings growth

Revenue

Revenue growth

Deferred revenue

Deferred revenue growth

Cash

Operating loss

Development costs and software amortised

Depreciation

Acquisition-related items

Exceptional items

2012
$’000

7,916

71%

6,031

56%

6,368

43%

2013
$’000

2014
$’000

14,768

17,360

87%

18%

2015
$’000

9,012

(48%)

2016
$’000

15,493

72%

8,012

33%

8,456

33%

11,218

10,994

11,379

40%

(2%)

4%

11,264

33%

9,757

(13%)

12,492

28%

14,545

25,673

2,481

2,555

7,558

(8,541)

(19,268)

(39,917)

(30,529)

(17,923)

2,018

4,918

8,283

9,600

8,466

52

—

138

—

267

145

2,656

2,276

1,441

270

—

614

174

—

32

EBITDA before exceptional items

(3,815)

(11,936)

(29,781)

(20,045)

(9,251)

Add back equity-settled share-based payment charge

813

4,104

11,907

4,057

1,787

Adjusted EBITDA before exceptional items

Development expenditure capitalised

(3,002)

(2,912)

(7,832)

(7,443)

(17,874)

(15,988)

(7,464)

(9,040)

(8,369)

(5,860)

Adjusted EBITDA before exceptional items including development expenditure

(5,914)

(15,275)

(26,914)

(24,357)

(13,324)

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

61

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSNOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Notice is given that the fifth Annual General Meeting of WANdisco plc (“the Company”) will be held at the Company’s offices, Electric Works, 
3 Concourse Way, Sheffield Digital Campus, Sheffield S1 2BJ on 24 May 2017 at 10am for the following purposes:

To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolutions as ordinary resolutions:

1. 

 That the Company’s financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2016, the Strategic report and the reports of the Directors and 
auditor thereon be received and considered.

2.   That David Richards be re-appointed as a Director of the Company.

3.   That Erik Miller be re-appointed as a Director of the Company.

4.   That Grant Dollens be re-appointed as a Director of the Company.

5.  That Karl Monaghan be re-appointed as a Director of the Company.

6.   That Dr Yeturu Aahlad be re-appointed as a Director of the Company.

7.  That KPMG LLP be re-appointed as auditor of the Company.

8.  That the Directors be authorised to determine the remuneration of the auditor.

9.   That in substitution for all existing authorities but without prejudice to any allotment, offer or agreement already made pursuant thereto, 

the Directors be and are hereby generally and unconditionally authorised pursuant to Article 2.3 of the Company’s Articles of Association 
(“Articles”) to exercise all powers of the Company to allot, grant options over or otherwise dispose of relevant securities (as that term is defined 
in the Articles) in respect of up to an aggregate nominal amount of £1,238,241, provided that (unless previously revoked, varied or renewed) 
this authority shall expire on the earlier of the date which is 15 months after the date the resolution was passed and the conclusion of the next 
Annual General Meeting of the Company, save that the Company may before such expiry make an offer or agreement which would or might 
require relevant securities to be allotted after such expiry and the Directors may allot equity securities in pursuance of such an offer or 
agreement as if the power had not expired.

10.  That the Company’s Amended and Restated 2013 Equity Incentive Plan (“the Plan”), which provides for grants of stock options and restricted 
share awards, each in respect of the Company’s ordinary shares adopted and approved by the resolution of the Board of Directors of the 
Company (“the Board”) on 6 December 2016 be and is hereby ratified, approved and confirmed and the Board be and is hereby authorised 
to adopt any amendments with effect from 24 May 2017 to the Plan and setting a share limit that complies with the applicable requirements 
of the securities laws of the United States and/or the states of the United States in which the award recipients reside and/or perform services.

11.   That, pursuant to Article 58A(1)(b) of the Law and Article 13 of the Articles, an ordinary share purchased pursuant to resolution 13 below 

may be held by the Company as treasury shares in accordance with Articles 58A and 58B of the Law.

To consider and, if thought fit, to pass the following resolutions as special resolutions:

12.  That, subject to the passing of resolution 9 and pursuant to Article 2.10 of the Articles, the Directors be and are hereby generally 

empowered to allot, grant options over or otherwise dispose of equity securities (within the meaning of the Articles) wholly for cash, 
pursuant to the general authority described in resolution 9 above, as if pre-emption rights did not apply to any such allotment, such 
power being limited to:

12.1   the allotment of equity securities in connection with a rights issue, open offer or pre-emptive offer to holders on the register of the 

ordinary shares in the capital of the Company (“ordinary shares”) on a date fixed by the Directors where the equity securities respectively 
attributable to the interests of all those shareholders are proportionate (as nearly as practicable) to their respective holdings on that 
date subject to any exclusions or other arrangements as the Directors may consider necessary or expedient in relation to fractional 
entitlements, legal or practical problems under the law of any territory or the regulations or requirements of any relevant regulatory 
authority or stock exchange in any territory; and

12.2  the allotment (other than pursuant to resolution 12.1 above) wholly for cash of ordinary shares up to an aggregate nominal amount 

of £371,472, 

 provided that (unless previously revoked, varied or renewed), such authorities shall expire on the earlier of the date which is 15 months 
after the date the resolution was passed and the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting of the Company, save that the Company 
may before such expiry make an offer or agreement which would or might require equity securities to be allotted after such expiry and 
the Directors may allot equity securities in pursuance of such an offer or agreement as if the power had not expired.

13.  That the Directors be and are hereby authorised pursuant to Article 13 of the Articles and Article 57 of the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991 

as amended (“the Law”) to make market purchases of ordinary shares, subject to the following conditions:

13.1    the maximum number of ordinary shares authorised to be purchased may not be more than 15% of the issued share capital of the 

Company as at the date of this notice;

13.2  the minimum price (exclusive of expenses) which may be paid for an ordinary share is £0.001; and

13.3  the maximum price (exclusive of expenses) which may be paid for an ordinary share shall not exceed:

 13.3.1   an amount equal to 105% of the average middle market quotation for ordinary shares taken from the London Stock Exchange plc 

Daily Official List for the five business days immediately preceding the date on which such shares are to be contracted to be 
purchased; and

62

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
13.3.2  the higher of the price of the last independent trade and the highest current independent bid on the London Stock Exchange plc 

Daily Official List at the time,

 such authority to expire on the earlier of the date which is 15 months after the date the resolution was passed and the conclusion of the 
next Annual General Meeting of the Company, unless such authority is varied, revoked or renewed prior to such date.

14. That the Articles be amended as follows:

14.1  Articles 15 to 20 (inclusive) be deleted in their entirety;

14.2 the following Articles and definitions be deleted in their entirety:

14.2.1  Article 1.2.1 “Acting in Concert”;

14.2.2 Article 1.2.3 “Admission”;

14.2.3 Article 1.2.21 “Excess Securities”; 

14.2.4 Article 1.2.25 “Interests in Securities”;

14.2.5 Article 1.2.35 “Permitted Acquisition”; and

14.2.6 Article 1.2.41 “Rules 6, 9, 10, 11, 14 and 15”; and

14.3 Article 1.10 shall be deleted in its entirety.

15.  That, subject to the passing of resolution 14, in order to consolidate various amendments to the Articles, the Articles of Association 

attached hereto be approved and adopted as the new Articles of Association of the Company in substitution for and to the exclusion 
of the existing Articles.

By order of the Board

Larry Webster 
Company Secretary 
24 March 2017 
Registered in Jersey under the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991 with company number 110497.  

Registered office

47 Esplanade

St. Helier 
Jersey 
JE1 0BD

Notes

Entitlement to attend and vote

1. 

 In accordance with Article 40(1) of the Companies (Uncertificated Securities) (Jersey) Order 1999, the right to vote at the meeting is 
determined by reference to the register of members. Only those shareholders registered in the register of members of the Company 
at close of business on 22 May 2017 (or, if the meeting is adjourned, 48 hours before the time of the adjourned meeting) shall be entitled 
to attend and vote at the meeting in respect of the number of shares registered in their name at that time. Changes in entries in the register 
of members after that time shall be disregarded in determining the rights of any person to attend or vote (and the number of votes they 
may cast) at the meeting.

Proxies

2.   A shareholder is entitled to appoint another person as his or her proxy to exercise all or any of his or her rights to attend and to speak 

and vote at the meeting and, on a poll, vote instead of him or her. A proxy need not be a shareholder of the Company.

 A shareholder may appoint more than one proxy in relation to the meeting, provided that each proxy is appointed to exercise the rights 
attached to a different share or shares held by that shareholder. Failure to specify the number of shares each proxy appointment relates to 
or specifying a number which when taken together with the numbers of shares set out in the other proxy appointments is in excess of the 
number of shares held by the shareholder may result in the proxy appointment being invalid.

 A special resolution means a resolution passed by a majority of three-quarters of the holders who (being entitled to do so) vote in person, 
or by proxy, at a general meeting of the Company or at a separate meeting of a class of members of the Company.

3.   A proxy may only be appointed in accordance with the procedures set out in Note 4 and the notes to the proxy form.

 The appointment of a proxy will not preclude a shareholder from attending and voting in person at the meeting.

 CREST members who wish to appoint a proxy or proxies or to give an instruction to a proxy (whether previously appointed or otherwise) 
by utilising the capital and CREST electronic proxy appointment service may do so in relation to the meeting, and any adjournment(s) thereof, 
by utilising the procedures described in the CREST Manual. In order for a proxy appointment made by means of CREST to be valid, the 
appropriate CREST message must be transmitted via the CREST system so as to be received by Capita Asset Services (whose CREST ID is 
RAIO) by the latest time for receipt of proxy appointments specified above. For this purpose, the time of receipt will be taken to be the time 
(as determined by the timestamp applied to the message by the CREST Applications Host) from which the Company’s agent is able to retrieve 
the message by enquiry to CREST in the manner prescribed. The Company may treat as invalid a CREST Proxy Instruction in the circumstances 
set out in the Companies (Uncertificated Securities) (Jersey) Order 1999.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

63

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING CONTINUED

Notes continued

Proxies continued

 A proxy does not need to be a member of the Company but must attend the Annual General Meeting to represent you. Details of how to 
appoint the Chairman of the Annual General Meeting or another person as your proxy using the proxy form are set out in the notes to the 
proxy form. You may appoint more than one proxy to attend on the same occasion.

4.   A form of proxy is enclosed. When appointing more than one proxy, complete a separate proxy form in relation to each appointment. 

Additional proxy forms may be obtained by the proxy form being photocopied. State clearly on each proxy form the number of shares in 
relation to which the proxy is appointed.

 A vote withheld is not a vote in law, which means that the vote will not be counted in the calculation of votes for or against the resolution. 
If no voting indication is given in the proxy form, your proxy will vote or abstain from voting at his or her discretion. Your proxy will vote (or 
abstain from voting) as he or she thinks fit in relation to any other matter which is put before the AGM.

 In the case of joint holders, where more than one of the joint holders purports to appoint a proxy, only the appointment submitted by the 
most senior holder will be accepted. Seniority is determined by the order in which the names of the joint holders appear in the Company’s 
register of members in respect of the joint holding (the first-named being the most senior).

 To be valid, a proxy form must be received by post or (during normal business hours only) by hand at the offices of the Company’s transfer 
agent, Capita Asset Services, PXS1, 34 Beckenham Road, Beckenham BR3 4ZF, no later than 10am on 22 May 2017 (or, if the meeting is 
adjourned, no later than 48 hours (excluding any part of a day that is not a working day) before the time of any adjourned meeting).

 To change your proxy instructions simply submit a new proxy appointment using the methods set out above. Any amended proxy 
appointment received after the time specified above will be disregarded.

 Where you have appointed a proxy using the hard-copy proxy form and would like to change the instructions using another hard-copy 
proxy form, please contact Capita Asset Services.

 If you submit more than one valid proxy appointment, the appointment received last before the latest time for the receipt of proxies will 
take precedence.

 In order to revoke a proxy instruction you will need to inform the Company by sending a signed hard-copy notice clearly stating 
your intention to revoke your proxy appointment to Capita Asset Services. In the case of a member which is a company, the revocation 
notice must be executed under its common seal or signed on its behalf by a duly authorised officer of the company or an attorney for the 
company. Any power of attorney or any other authority under which the revocation notice is signed (or a notarially certified copy of such 
power or authority) must be included with the revocation notice. The revocation notice must be received by Capita Asset Services prior 
to the commencement of the Annual General Meeting or adjourned meeting at which the vote is given or, in the case of a poll taken 
otherwise than on the same day as the meeting or adjourned meeting, before the time appointed for taking the poll.

 If you attempt to revoke your proxy appointment but the revocation is received after the time specified then your proxy appointment will 
remain valid.

Corporate representatives

5.   A shareholder which is a corporation may authorise one or more persons to act as its representative(s) at the meeting. Each such 

representative may exercise (on behalf of the corporation) the same powers as the corporation could exercise if it were an individual 
shareholder, provided that (where there is more than one representative and the vote is otherwise than on a show of hands) they do not 
do so in relation to the same shares. A Director, the Secretary or other person authorised for the purpose by the Secretary may require all 
or any such persons to produce a copy of the resolution of authorisation certified by an officer of the corporation before permitting him 
to exercise his powers.

Method of voting

6.   Voting on all resolutions will be decided on a show of hands unless, before or on declaration of the result of, a vote on the show of hands, 

or on the withdrawal of any other demand for a poll, a poll is duly demanded.

Documents available for inspection

7. 

 The following documents will be available for inspection during normal business hours at the registered office of the Company and at the 
Company’s business address, Electric Works, Sheffield Digital Campus, Sheffield S1 2BJ, from the date of this notice until the time of the 
meeting. They will also be available for inspection at the place of the meeting from at least 15 minutes before the meeting until it ends:

7.1 

 copies of the service contracts of the Executive Directors; and

7.2 

 copies of the letters of appointment of the Non-executive Directors.

Biographical details of Directors

8.   Biographical details of all those Directors who are offering themselves for appointment or re-appointment at the meeting are set out on 

pages 22 and 23 of the enclosed Annual Report and Accounts.

64

WANDISCO PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
SECRETARY, ADVISERS AND SHARE CAPITAL INFORMATION

Secretary

Larry Webster

Offices

UK office

Electric Works 
Sheffield Digital Campus 
Sheffield S1 2BJ

US office

5000 Executive Parkway 
Suite 270 
San Ramon, CA 94583 
USA

Registered office

47 Esplanade 
St. Helier 
Jersey JE1 0BD

Company registered number

110497

Nominated adviser and joint broker

Stifel Nicolaus Europe Ltd

150 Cheapside 
London EC2V 6ET

Joint broker

UBS Investment Bank

5 Broadgate 
London EC2M 2QS

Auditor

KPMG LLP

1 Sovereign Square 
Sovereign Street 
Leeds LS1 4DA

Design Portfolio is committed to planting 
trees for every corporate communications 
project, in association with Trees for Cities.

Legal advisers

Brown Rudnick

8 Clifford Street 
London W1S 2LQ

Carey Olsen

47 Esplanade 
St. Helier 
Jersey JE1 0BD

Bankers

HSBC Bank plc

Yorkshire and North East Corporate Banking Centre 
4th Floor 
City Point 
29 King Street 
Leeds LS1 2HL

Registrars

Capita Asset Services

The Registry
34 Beckenham Road
Beckenham BR3 4TU

Share capital

The ordinary share capital of WANdisco plc is listed on AIM, a market 
operated by London Stock Exchange Group plc. The shares are listed 
under the trading ticker WAND. The ISIN number is JE00B6Y3DV84.

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WANdisco plc is committed to the environmental issues reflected in 
this Annual Report. The report is printed on Arcoprint, which is FSC® 
certified and ECF (Elemental Chlorine Free), and printed in the UK by 
Park Communications using their environmental printing technology. 
Both manufacturing mill and the printer are registered to the 
Environmental Management System ISO14001 and are Forest 
Stewardship Council® (FSC) chain-of-custody certified.

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2016 WANDISCO PLC

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WANdisco plc
47 Esplanade
St. Helier
Jersey JE1 0BD