BLO C K q4 2022 26
key operating metrics and
non-gaap financial measures
To supplement our financial information presented in accordance
with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States
(GAAP), from period to period, we consider and present certain
operating and financial measures that we consider key metrics or
are not prepared in accordance with GAAP, including Gross
Payment Volume (GPV), Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA
margin, Adjusted Net Income (Loss), Diluted Adjusted Net Income
(Loss) Per Share (Adjusted EPS), Adjusted Operating Income
(Loss), constant currency, and non-GAAP operating expenses as
well as other measures defined in this letter such as measures
excluding bitcoin revenue or gross profit, bitcoin impairment losses,
measures excluding gains or losses on equity investments,
measures excluding amortization of intangibles, measures
excluding our BNPL platform, measures excluding both our BNPL
platform and bitcoin revenue or gross profit, and measures
excluding both of our BNPL platform and PPP loan forgiveness
gross profit. We believe these metrics and measures are useful to
facilitate period-to-period comparisons of our business and to
facilitate comparisons of our performance to that of other
payments solution providers.
We define GPV as the total dollar amount of all card payments
processed by sellers using Square, net of refunds, and ACH
transfers. Additionally, GPV includes Cash App Business GPV,
which comprises Cash App activity related to peer-to-peer
transactions received by business accounts, Cash App Pay
transactions, and peer-to-peer payments sent from a credit card.
GPV does not include BNPL transactions.
Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted Net Income
(Loss), Diluted Adjusted Net Income (Loss) Per Share (Adjusted
EPS), and Adjusted Operating Income (Loss) are non-GAAP
financial measures that represent our net income (loss) and net
income (loss) per share (or, in the case of Adjusted Operating
Income (Loss), represents our operating income (loss)), adjusted
to eliminate the effect of share-based compensation expenses;
amortization of intangible assets; gain or loss on revaluation of
equity investments; bitcoin impairment losses; amortization of
debt discount and issuance costs; and the gain or loss on the
disposal of property and equipment, as applicable. We also
exclude certain acquisition-related and integration costs
associated with business combinations, and various other costs
that are not reflective of our core operating performance.
Acquisition-related costs include amounts paid to redeem
acquirees’ unvested stock-based compensation awards, and legal,
accounting, and due diligence costs. Integration costs include
advisory and other professional services or consulting fees
necessary to integrate acquired businesses. Other costs that are
non-recurring operating expenses may include contingent losses,
certain litigation, and regulatory charges. We also add back the
impact of the acquired deferred revenue and deferred cost
adjustment, which was written down to fair value in purchase
accounting. Additionally, for purposes of calculating diluted
Adjusted EPS, we add back cash interest expense on convertible
senior notes, as if converted at the beginning of the period, if the
impact is dilutive. In addition to the items above, Adjusted EBITDA
is a non-GAAP financial measure that also excludes depreciation
and amortization, interest income and expense, other income and
expense, and provision or benefit from income taxes, as
applicable. Adjusted EBITDA margin is calculated as Adjusted
EBITDA divided by gross profit. To calculate the diluted Adjusted
EPS, we adjust the weighted-average number of shares of
common stock outstanding for the dilutive effect of all potential
shares of common stock. In periods when we recorded an
Adjusted Net Loss, the diluted Adjusted EPS is the same as basic
Adjusted EPS because the effects of potentially dilutive items
were anti-dilutive given the Adjusted Net Loss position.
Constant currency growth is calculated by assuming international
results in a given period and the comparative prior period are
translated from local currencies to the U.S. dollar at rates consistent
with the monthly average rates in the comparative prior period. We
discuss growth on a constant currency basis because a portion of our
business operates in markets outside the U.S. and is subject to
changes in foreign exchange rates.
Non-GAAP operating expenses is a non-GAAP financial measure
that represents operating expenses adjusted to remove the impact
of share-based compensation, depreciation and amortization,
bitcoin impairment losses, loss on disposal of property and
equipment, and acquisition-related integration and other costs.
We have included Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income,
Adjusted EPS, and non-GAAP operating expenses because they
are key measures used by our management to evaluate our
operating performance, generate future operating plans, and make
strategic decisions, including those relating to operating expenses
and the allocation of internal resources. Accordingly, we believe that
Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted EPS, and
non-GAAP operating expenses provide useful information to
investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating
results in the same manner as our management and board of
directors. In addition, they provide useful measures for period-to-
period comparisons of our business, as they remove the effect of
certain non-cash items and certain variable charges that do not vary
with our operations. We have included measures excluding our
BNPL platform because we believe these measures are useful in
understanding the ongoing results of our operations. We have
included measures excluding bitcoin revenue because our role is to
facilitate customers’ access to bitcoin. When customers buy bitcoin
through Cash App, we only apply a small margin to the market cost
of bitcoin, which tends to be volatile and outside our control.
Therefore, we believe deducting bitcoin revenue or gross profit
better reflects the economic benefits as well as our performance
from these transactions. We also include measures that exclude
both our BNPL platform and bitcoin revenue or gross profit in order
to further facilitate comparison of our business without bitcoin
revenue or gross profit to periods prior to the acquisition of BNPL.
We have included measures excluding both our BNPL platform and
PPP loan forgiveness gross profit because we believe these
measures are useful in order to facilitate comparisons of our
business without PPP loan forgiveness to periods prior to the
acquisition of BNPL. We exclude amortization of intangible assets
arising from business combinations because the amount of such
expenses in any specific period may not directly correlate to the
underlying performance of our ongoing business operations.
Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted Operating
Income (Loss), Adjusted EPS, and non-GAAP operating expenses,
as well as other measures defined in the shareholder letter, such
as measures excluding our BNPL platform, bitcoin revenue or
gross profit, PPP loan forgiveness gross profit, bitcoin impairment
losses, and measures excluding gains or losses on equity
investments, have limitations as financial measures, should be
considered as supplemental in nature, and are not meant as
substitutes for the related financial information prepared in
accordance with GAAP.