Item 1. A. Risk Factors

Our business depends on our strong brands, and failing to maintain and enhance our brands could hurt our ability to retain and expand our base of customers.

Our strong brands, Rollins, Orkin, HomeTeam Pest Defense, Western Pest Services, Northwest Exterminating, The Industrial Fumigant Company, Crane Pest Control, Waltham Services, Trutech, Permatreat, Critter Control, Allpest, Safeguard Pest Control and other strong brands have significantly contributed to the success of our business. Maintaining and enhancing our brands increases our ability to enter new markets and launch new and innovative services that better serve the needs of our customers. Our brands may be negatively impacted by a number of factors, including, among others, reputational issues and product/technical failures. Further, if our brands are significantly damaged, our business, operating results, and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected. Maintaining and enhancing our brands will depend largely on our ability to remain a service leader and continue to provide high-quality, pest control products and services that are truly useful and play a meaningful role in people’s lives.

Economic conditions may adversely affect our business

Pest and termite services represent discretionary expenditures to many of our residential customers. As consumers restrict their discretionary expenditures, we may suffer a decline in revenues from our residential service lines. Economic downturns can also adversely affect our commercial customers, including food service, hospitality and food processing industries whose business levels are particularly sensitive to adverse economies. For example, we may lose commercial customers and related revenues because of consolidation or cessation of commercial businesses or because these businesses switch to a lower cost provider.

Our inability to attract and retain skilled workers may impair growth potential and profitability.

Our ability to remain productive and profitable will depend substantially on our ability to attract and retain skilled workers. Our ability to expand our operations is in part impacted by our ability to increase our labor force. The demand for skilled employees is high, and the supply is very limited. A significant increase in the wages paid by competing employers could result in a reduction in our skilled labor force, increases in wage rates paid by us, or both. If either of these events occurred, our capacity and profitability could be diminished, and our growth potential could be impaired.

We may not be able to maintain our competitive position in the pest control industry in the future.

We operate in a highly competitive industry. Our revenues and earnings may be affected by changes in competitors’ prices, and general economic issues. We compete with other large pest control companies, as well as numerous smaller pest control companies, for a finite number of customers. We believe that the principal competitive factors in the market areas that we serve are service quality, and product availability, terms of guarantees, reputation for safety, technical proficiency and price. Although we believe that our experience and reputation for safety and quality service are excellent, we cannot assure investors that we will be able to maintain our competitive position.

Our operations could be affected by pending and ongoing litigation.

In the normal course of business, some of the Company’s subsidiaries are defendants in a number of lawsuits or arbitrations, which allege that plaintiffs have been damaged. The Company does not believe that any pending claim, proceeding or litigation, either alone or in the aggregate, will have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial position; however, it is possible that an unfavorable outcome of some or all of the matters, however unlikely, could result in a charge that might be material to the results of an individual year.

Our operations could be affected if there is unauthorized access of personal, financial, or other data or information about our customers, employees, third parties, or of Company’s proprietary of confidential information. We could be subject to interruption of our business operations, private litigation, reputational damage and costly penalties.

Our information technology systems, as well as the information technology systems of our third party business partners and service providers, can contain personal, financial, health, or other information that is entrusted to us by our customers and employees. Our information technology systems also contain Company’s and its wholly-owned subsidiaries’ proprietary and other confidential information related to our business, such as business plans and product development initiatives. We rely on, among other things, commercially available vendors, cyber protection systems, software, tools and monitoring to provide security for processing, transmission and storage of this information and data. The systems currently used for transmission and approval of payment card

transactions, and the technology utilized in payment cards themselves, all of which can put payment card data at risk, meet standards set by the payment card industry (“PCI”). We continue to evaluate and modify our systems and protocols for data security compliance purposes, and such standards may change from time to time. Activities by third parties, advances in computer and software capabilities and encryption technology, new tools and discoveries and other events or developments may facilitate or result in a compromise or breach of our systems. Any compromises, breaches or errors in applications related to our systems or failures to comply with applicable standards could cause damage to our reputation and interruptions in our operations, including our customers’ ability to pay for our services and products by credit card or their willingness to purchase our services and products and could result in a violation of applicable laws, regulations, orders, industry standards or agreements and subject us to costs, penalties and liabilities which could have a material adverse impact on our reputation, business, financial position, results of operations and cash flows. Also, a breach of data security could expose us to customer litigation and costs related to the reporting and handling of such a breach.

Our operations may be adversely affected if we are unable to comply with regulatory and environmental laws.

Our business is significantly affected by environmental laws and other regulations relating to the pest control industry and by changes in such laws and the level of enforcement of such laws. We are unable to predict the level of enforcement of existing laws and regulations, how such laws and regulations may be interpreted by enforcement agencies or court rulings, or whether additional laws and regulations will be adopted. We believe our present operations substantially comply with applicable federal and state environmental laws and regulations. We also believe that compliance with such laws has had no material adverse effect on our operations to date. However, such environmental laws are changed frequently. We are unable to predict whether environmental laws will, in the future, materially affect our operations and financial condition. Penalties for noncompliance with these laws may include cancellation of licenses, fines, and other corrective actions, which would negatively affect our future financial results.

We may not be able to identify, complete or successfully integrate acquisitions.

Acquisitions have been and may continue to be an important element of our business strategy. We cannot assure investors that we will be able to identify and acquire acceptable acquisition candidates on terms favorable to us in the future. We cannot assure investors that we will be able to integrate successfully the operations and assets of any acquired business with our own business. Any inability on our part to integrate and manage the growth from acquired businesses could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

Our operations are affected by adverse weather conditions.

Our operations are directly impacted by the weather conditions worldwide. The business of the Company is affected by the seasonal nature of the Company’s pest and termite control services. The increase in pest presence and activity, as well as the metamorphosis of termites in the spring and summer (the occurrence of which is determined by the timing of the change in seasons), has historically resulted in an increase in the revenue and income of the Company’s pest and termite control operations during such periods. The business of the Company is also affected by extreme weather such as drought which can greatly reduce the pest population for extended periods.

Our franchisees, subcontractors, and vendors could take actions that could harm our business.

Our franchisees, subcontractors, and vendors are contractually obligated to operate their businesses in accordance with the standards set forth in our agreements with them. Each franchising brand also provides training and support to franchisees. However, franchisees, subcontractors, and vendors are independent third parties that we do not control, and who own, operate and oversee the daily operations of their businesses. As a result, the ultimate success of any franchise operation rests with the franchisee. If franchisees do not successfully operate their businesses in a manner consistent with required standards, royalty payments to us will be adversely affected and our brands’ image and reputation could be harmed. This could adversely impact our business, financial position, results of operations and cash flows. Similarly, if subcontractors, vendors and franchisees do not successfully operate their businesses in a manner consistent with required laws, standards and regulations, we could be subject to claims from regulators or legal claims for the actions or omissions of such third‑party distributors, subcontractors, vendors and franchisees. In addition, our relationship with our franchisees, subcontractors, and vendors could become strained (including resulting in litigation) as we impose new standards or assert more rigorous enforcement practices of the existing required standards. These strains in our relationships or claims could have a material adverse impact on our reputation, business, financial position, results of operations and cash flows.

From time to time, we receive communications from our franchisees regarding complaints, disputes or questions about our practices and standards in relation to our franchised operations and certain economic terms of our franchise arrangements. If franchisees or groups representing franchisees were to bring legal proceedings against us, we would vigorously defend against the claims in any

such proceeding. Our reputation, business, financial position, results of operations and cash flows could be materially adversely impacted and the price of our common stock could decline.

Our brand recognition could be impacted if we are not able to adequately protect our intellectual property and other proprietary rights that are material to our business.

Our ability to compete effectively depends in part on our rights to service marks, trademarks, trade names and other intellectual property rights we own or license, particularly our registered brand names and service marks, Orkin®, Orkin Canada®, AcuridSM, Western Pest Services®, the Industrial Fumigant Company, HomeTeam Pest Defense®, TAEXX®, Critter Control®, Northwest Exterminating®, Allpest®, Murray®, Safeguard® and others. We have not sought to register or protect every one of our marks either in the United States or in every country in which they are or may be used. Furthermore, because of the differences in foreign trademark, patent and other intellectual property or proprietary rights laws, we may not receive the same protection in other countries as we would in the United States. If we are unable to protect our proprietary information and brand names, we could suffer a material adverse impact on our reputation, business, financial position, results of operations and cash flows. Litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights and protect our proprietary information, or to defend against claims by third parties that our products, services or activities infringe their intellectual property rights.

The Company’s management has a substantial ownership interest; public stockholders may have no effective voice in the Company’s management.

The Company has elected the “Controlled Company” exemption under Section 303A of the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) Listed Company Manual. The Company is a “Controlled Company” because a group that includes the Company’s Chairman of the Board, R. Randall Rollins and his brother, Gary W. Rollins, who is the Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and a director of the Company and certain companies under their control, controls in excess of fifty percent of the Company’s voting power. As a “Controlled Company,” the Company need not comply with certain NYSE rules.

Rollins, Inc.’s executive officers, directors and their affiliates hold directly or through indirect beneficial ownership, in the aggregate, approximately 56 percent of the Company’s outstanding shares of common stock. As a result, these persons will effectively control the operations of the Company, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions such as acquisitions and approval of matters requiring stockholder approval. This concentration of ownership could also have the effect of delaying or preventing a third party from acquiring control of the Company at a premium.

Our management has a substantial ownership interest, and the availability of the Company’s common stock to the investing public may be limited.

The availability of Rollins’ common stock to the investing public would be limited to those shares not held by the executive officers, directors and their affiliates, which could negatively impact Rollins’ stock trading prices and affect the ability of minority stockholders to sell their shares. Future sales by executive officers, directors and their affiliates of all or a portion of their shares could also negatively affect the trading price of our common stock.

Provisions in Rollins, Inc.’s certificate of incorporation and bylaws may inhibit a takeover of the Company.

Rollins, Inc.’s certificate of incorporation, bylaws and other documents contain provisions including advance notice requirements for stockholder proposals and staggered terms for the Board of Directors. These provisions may make a tender offer, change in control or takeover attempt that is opposed by the Company’s Board of Directors more difficult or expensive.

Item 1.B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None