(8) Leases, Commitments and Contingencies

Leases

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The Company measured Skillsoft and Global Knowledge’s legacy lease agreements as if the leases were new at the acquisition date and applied the provisions of Topic 842. This resulted in the recognition of right-of-use (ROU) assets and lease liabilities of $14.0 million and $16.2 million, respectively, as of October 31, 2022. All leases are classified as operating leases.

The Company’s lease portfolio includes office space, training centers, and vehicles to support its research and development activities, sales operations and other corporate and administrative functions in North America, Europe and Asia. The Company’s leases have remaining terms of one year to eleven years. Some of the Company’s leases include options to extend or terminate the lease prior to the end of the agreed upon lease term. For purposes of calculating lease liabilities, lease terms include options to extend or terminate the lease when it is reasonably certain that the Company will exercise such options.

Operating lease ROU assets and liabilities are recognized based on the present value of the future minimum lease payments over the expected lease term. As the Company’s operating leases generally do not provide an implicit rate, the Company uses an estimated incremental borrowing rate in determining the present value of future payments. The Company elected the package of practical expedients permitted under the transition guidance which were applied consistently to all of the Company’s leases that commenced before the acquisition date. The Company also elected the short-term lease recognition exemption for all qualifying leases, where ROU assets and lease liabilities are not recognized for leases with the remaining terms of less than one year.

The operating leases are included in the caption “Right of use assets”, “Lease Liabilities”, and “Long-term lease liabilities” on the Company’s condensed consolidated balance sheets as of October 31, 2022. The weighted-average remaining lease term of the Company’s operating leases is 6.0 years as of October 31, 2022. Lease costs for minimum lease payments are recognized on a straight-line basis over the lease term. The lease costs were $1.1 million and related cash payments were $2.3 million for the period from February 1, 2021 to June 11, 2021 (Predecessor (SLH)). The lease costs were $3.7 million and related cash payments were $4.4 million for the period from June 12, 2021 to October 31, 2021 (Successor). The lease costs were $5.0 million and related cash payments were $5.9 million for the nine months ended October 31, 2022 (Successor). Lease costs are included within content and software development, selling and marketing, and general and administrative lines on the condensed consolidated statements of operations, and the operating leases related cash payments were included in the operating cash flows on the condensed consolidated statements of cash flows. Short-term lease costs and variable lease costs are not material.

The table below reconciles the undiscounted future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable leases to the total lease liabilities recognized on the condensed consolidated balance sheets as of October 31, 2022 (Successor):

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Litigation

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From time to time, the Company is a party to or may be threatened with litigation in the ordinary course of its business. The Company regularly analyzes current information, including, as applicable, the Company’s defense and insurance coverage and, as necessary, provides accruals for probable and estimable liabilities for the eventual disposition of these matters.

On March 14, 2022, a putative Company stockholder filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, captioned Newton v. Skillsoft Corp., et al., No. 1:22-cv-01383 (E.D.N.Y.), against the Company and the members of its Board of Directors. On May 29, 2022, this case was dismissed. The complaint generally alleged that the definitive proxy statement filed by the Company with the SEC in connection with the Codecademy acquisition contained misstatements and omissions in violation of Section 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 14a-9 promulgated thereunder by the SEC.  

The items noted above, and any potential liability, do not currently meet the accounting criteria of probable and estimable. Therefore the Company has not accrued any related liability as of October 31, 2022.

Guarantees

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The Company’s software license arrangements and hosting services are typically warranted to perform in a manner consistent with general industry standards that are reasonably applicable and substantially in accordance with the Company’s product documentation under normal use and circumstances. The Company’s arrangements also include certain provisions for indemnifying customers against liabilities if its products or services infringe a third party’s intellectual property right.

The Company has entered into service level agreements with some of its hosted application customers warranting certain levels of uptime reliability and such agreements permit those customers to receive credits against monthly hosting fees or terminate their agreements in the event that the Company fails to meet those levels for an agreed upon period of time.

To date, the Company has not incurred any material costs as a result of such indemnifications or commitments and has not accrued any liabilities related to such obligations in the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements.