Closing of Acquisition of Assurance IQ, Inc.
On October 10, 2019, the Company completed its previously announced acquisition of Assurance IQ, Inc. (“Assurance”). Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”), dated September 4, 2019, by and among Prudential, Rain Merger Sub, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company (“Merger Sub”), Assurance, Gulliver Swenson, solely in his capacity as representative of the shareholders of Assurance, and Michael Rowell and Michael Paulus, solely for certain purposes described in the Merger Agreement, Merger Sub was merged with and into Assurance, with Assurance surviving the merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.
A copy of the Merger Agreement was filed as Exhibit 2.1 to the Current Report on Form 8-K filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 5, 2019 and is incorporated herein by reference. The foregoing description of the Merger Agreement is qualified in its entirety by reference to the Merger Agreement.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain of the statements included in this Current Report on Form 8-K constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “expects,” “believes,” “anticipates,” “includes,” “plans,” “assumes,” “estimates,” “projects,” “intends,” “should,” “will,” “shall” or variations of such words are generally part of forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made based on management’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects upon Prudential Financial, Inc. and its subsidiaries. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting Prudential Financial, Inc. and its subsidiaries will be those anticipated by management. These forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and there are certain important factors that could cause actual results to differ, possibly materially, from expectations or estimates reflected in such forward-looking statements, including, purchase price adjustments; the failure to realize the expected synergies and benefits of the transaction or delay in realization thereof; the retention of certain key employees; and other factors, risks and uncertainties including: (1) losses on investments or financial contracts due to deterioration in credit quality or value, or counterparty default; (2) losses on insurance products due to mortality experience, morbidity experience or policyholder behavior experience that differs significantly from our expectations when we price our products; (3) changes in interest rates, equity prices and foreign currency exchange rates that may (a) adversely impact the profitability of our products, the value of separate accounts supporting these products or the value of assets we manage, (b) result in losses on derivatives we use to hedge risk or increase collateral posting requirements and (c) limit opportunities to invest at appropriate returns; (4) guarantees within certain of our products which are market sensitive and may decrease our earnings or increase the volatility of our results of operations or financial position; (5) liquidity needs resulting from (a) derivative collateral market exposure, (b) asset/liability mismatches, (c) the lack of available funding in the financial markets or (d) unexpected cash demands due to severe mortality calamity or lapse events; (6) financial or customer losses, or regulatory and legal actions, due to inadequate or failed processes or systems, sales practices, external events and human error or misconduct such as (a) disruption of our systems and data, (b) an information security breach, (c) a failure to protect the privacy of sensitive data or (d) reliance on third-parties; (7) changes in the regulatory landscape, including related to (a) financial sector regulatory reform, (b) changes in tax laws, (c) fiduciary rules and other standards of care, (d) U.S. state insurance laws and developments regarding group-wide supervision, capital and reserves, (e) insurer capital standards outside the U.S. and (f) privacy and cybersecurity regulation; (8) technological changes which may adversely impact companies in our investment portfolio or cause insurance experience to deviate from our assumptions; (9) an inability to protect our intellectual property rights or claims of infringement of the intellectual property rights of others; (10) ratings downgrades; (11) market conditions that may adversely affect the sales or persistency of our products; (12) competition; (13) reputational damage; and (14) the costs, effects, timing, or success of our plans to accelerate our Financial Wellness strategy. Prudential Financial, Inc. does not undertake to update any particular forward-looking statement included in this document. See “Risk Factors” included in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 for discussion of certain risks relating to our businesses and investment in our securities.