Good morning, everybody. Pleasure to host Kip Meintzer, Global Head of IR for Check Point. Before we kick it off, Kip. Yes. Full disclaimer. The obligatory Safe Harbor. During the course of this presentation, there may be forward-looking statements. With all forward-looking statements, there's risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially from those stated. If you'd like a comprehensive, but not exhaustive, list and want some reading material before you go to bed, check all these out in our latest 20-F filed with the SEC. With all forward-looking statements, we have a duty to update only where required by law. Back to you, Shaul. With that, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. I want to kick it off maybe with Check Point's view on the macro environment. Lots of moving parts, AI, geopolitical unrest, rising memory costs. How do you guys view it? You don't want to get one that has too few moving pieces to ask me, huh? Well, let's talk with Check Point as specific. In the first quarter, when we lowered down our guidance for the full year and everything, ours was specifically company oriented. It was our go-to-market, little extended period of time to get things going in the right direction. From that standpoint, we didn't see it as any macro impact whatsoever that we could see, right? We owned it because we knew what actually transpired in the quarter was all self-inflicted as we tried to transition to our new go-to-market motion, putting salespeople in different positions, et cetera. As far as macro as a whole, you obviously have the rising cost of memory. We've already addressed that. We added a 5% surcharge in April 1st on the hardware as a result of rising costs on the BOM, et cetera. Other than that, I don't think there's anything that I would say stands out other than we do recognize that AI is a big driver. We have seen some AI factory wins. As we look forward, I'm sure it's going to be a driver of our business. It just remains to be seen as we go through this go to market, how quick we get to realize those things. We do see a nice pipeline across the board for the second half of the year. That's product side, where data centers are a big place where we play. As far as our attached subscription, or unattached subscription, our pillars of Workspace, CTEM, and AI, we are seeing a nice build in the pipeline through the second half of the year. We'll get to all these points. Oh, yes. I'm sure we will. Even before that, you talked about the self-inflicted emotion, and now let's talk about maybe the go-to-market changes. Can you maybe double-click on that? I think the most pronounced one, obviously, is we have a new CRO, Sherif Seddik. He's been with us for three years. Really, you can see when he's guiding the troops, he really commands everybody's attention. He's a solid player. He's the one that's the brain trust around building out this new go-to-market motion that we have. That got implemented, and that's where we hit a little bit of a rocky spot. We didn't get it done as quickly or as smoothly as we'd have liked to. The folks didn't actually get their accounts, get their compensation, everything in a timely manner, and that's on us. Yeah. Nonetheless, we basically have reduced the number of accounts per sales manager or account manager. We've added in hunters to go after the new logos, where traditionally we had that all mixed in together. You had accounts you managed, and you also were trying to add new logos. Now they focus on those smaller amounts of accounts and cross-selling, upselling, et cetera. We have dedicated hunters that are going after those new logos. I think this is a very pronounced change for us. The other aspect of it is the mid-market now is addressed by inside sales and the channel. Enterprise is really account managers driving the force there, and we think that concentration should serve us well as we move forward. Anything that on the channels, on the partners front, that we should be looking into in terms of a change within the next several quarters or so? No. Any new strategy or anything you might be? I think there's a transition here, right? I think it's going to be well embraced. It's more opportunity for the channel to make even more money. We'll have to see how smooth the rest of it goes, but we're optimistic, cautiously optimistic. I think the biggest challenge is probably in Q2, we look forward to the second half of the year. Got it. On the product line, we're seeing many hardware companies, software security companies, benefiting from that data center build-out as clearly driven by rising AI demand. Where do you see Check Point kind of benefiting from those trends? Data center is a place that's a large p art of our revenue. I think this is more of a timing issue on our part. We chose to do this go-to-market revamp at the beginning of the year. Quite frankly, there's no time like the present to do these things. You can put them off. We had thought about putting it off for a year, but then you're behind where you'd like to be. We didn't see success coming from the old model. This new model should drive greater success. You take a little punishment up front to hopefully garner great rewards later on. Data center is one key area, obviously, for us. The part that from a disappointment was mainly around the hardware side, and that's the account managers and driving that, getting renewals, all of that type of go-to-market motion that takes place from an account manager. That's really where we suffered on the product side. We didn't see an impact on the unattached subscription. Subscription. The pillars are doing just fine. There's cross-selling. They have specialty sales there. It was with the account managers, specifically around hardware. The disappointment throughout the year is really driven by the hardware disappointment. Hopefully we can recover that. Hopefully, we can get things going in the right direction. We talked about the pipe earlier in the quarter. We've seen a nice build, and where we were from a year ago compared to where we are now, we're ahead. Now it's about conversion and everything as we move through the year. Got it. Again, pretty much, late May this time around versus late May last year. April, May. April, May versus 2025. Compared to April, May, we're ahead where we were last year. That's pipe. Yeah. Conversion is the key. Got it. When we're thinking about Check Point's platform, I know you mentioned before SASE, CTEM. Yeah. Some of the other new products. Where else could you be going with that platform direction? Again, understanding there's so many to do just on the SASE, on CTEM, and on the email front, as well as AI. I think right now, I think between Workforce CTEM and AI, there's still a lot of value we can add there, both building organically and also inorganically as we find opportunities to acquire technologies. We just acquired Checkmarx, I think it was, for our. Not Checkmarx. No. No. Check Point I can't remember. The little small startup. Yeah. It was mainly an acqui-hire. Yeah. We brought them over, I think it was last week or the week before. Yeah. We're adding value where we see the opportunity. This was part of the AI pillar. Excuse me. There's definitely, it's a very growing field, whether it be CTEM, AI, what have you. Okay. Our BD team is very busy. Size, we've always talked about we're always willing to do something larger. It could even create a new pillar. The problem is, it's finding the right one. It's really driven by technology, et cetera. Price is up for negotiation afterwards. You just have to find the right technology, the right ability to cross-sell, what have you. I would say you're more likely to see on the smaller side, but we don't stop looking or stop hoping to find one of those larger ones that fits our strategy. Got it. On AI, two sides question. How extensively do you guys at Check Point use AI tools? Good question. Everybody has access. We all have access to a chat, for helping you do your work, mostly integrated with teams, et cetera. On the coding side, we do have quite a few tools over there that are being leveraged, and I would say we're seeing the benefits of it. I think over time it'll probably even see more benefits. Without a doubt, AI is making its mark no matter where you go. I think especially on the coding side, it's definitely a significant benefit over there. We have our own small language model that we use with our 32+ years of telemetry data, and that's an incredible tool at the same time. That's something we've had for a while, but we've continued to improve it. Frontier models, they're out there, too. You'll see us, we're embracing everything that we can. Are you beginning also to see that impacting security, the SOCs, or everything that you're doing on the security operations front? I would say that it's a big topic with every customer. AI is not something that goes unnoticed. Sure. I think we have a great opportunity with our AI pillar. We've made some announcements of late, a lot of automation around agentic protections, et cetera. Definitely it's going in the right direction, and hopefully as we move through the year, that pipe will translate into conversion into revenue. Understood. Question from the audience before we proceed. Over two weeks ago, you've announced $2 billion of buyback, pretty much expanding an existing one by another $2 billion. Question that we're getting is, will you be utilizing that given where shares are trading right now, or will we be seeing the typical clockwork like Check Point's pretty much performing on its buyback plan? I would tell you, we had some leftover from the previous authorization. Yeah. What you'll probably see is another $325. A quarter. Because of the utilization of the prior authorization. Going forward, there's purposely no cap. We made no indication of any level that we were committed to, and if you look at the language of the press release, it also talks about something we've had in there before, which is we will basically be opportunistic. It's all based on price, et cetera. There's no defined amount, et cetera. In prior years, we've always talked about the $325. That's no longer the case. Got it. As in could be and should be higher. What do you imagine? That's not for me to say. Yeah. That's for the greater powers, but obviously if we talk about it from an opportunistic manner, then I think that translates to yes. Got it. Given that a sizable portion of your workforce is in Israel, and given the U.S. dollar Israeli shekel devaluation over the course of the past year. You're asking this because you get paid in shekels or dollars? No, the other way around. Yeah. I wish it was in shekels. He wished it was in shekel right now. Yeah. You've never wished it was in shekel before. Now you do. Last year. Go on. How are you hedged against those ongoing fluctuations? Traditionally we have a rolling hedge. I don't know exactly what we have going on right now. Is that on an annual basis? It's usually. Quarter-over-quarter? It really depends. They have a model. They do a certain percentage, et cetera. We hedge other currencies also, but. Okay. I don't know exactly where we are right now on the hedge side. Hopefully, the dollar's going to gain some strength. Maybe our new Fed head is going to raise, and I just saw some commentary where they may cut rates and print some money over in Israel. It might be very beneficial. Yeah. You've got to wait and see. Saying and doing are two different things. Absolutely. As far as the hedge, I'm not sure where we are right now. We may be letting it float for a part of it, but I can't confirm nor deny. That's fair enough. As we think about your performance between the Americas, U.S., Europe, and APAC, reflecting back on 1Q results, can you talk a little bit about any geography kind of doing a little better or not, and what are the expectations as we think about 2026 unfolding in terms of pretty much maybe getting back to prior levels of performance? I would say first and foremost, when you look at the go-to-market changes, the biggest area of impact is designed to be around the U.S. The U.S., yeah. The U.S. is the biggest untapped opportunity for us. It's a market we should be and intend to be much bigger than where we are today, and we think we should be because of the quality of our products, how we address the larger enterprise, and that's what this go to market is really about. It's about addressing the enterprise in the U.S. Europe, we're very strong. We've always been at a level there and continue to do well. I think part and parcel is because they're more results oriented on what kind of security do I have, the efficacy rather than more influenced by marketing, which is something that's part and parcel in the U.S. I think that's more the resources that companies had put in their earlier years in the U.S. trying to capture that market. When you look at Asia, we do very well in Asia. I think really the concentration for us is really on doing much better in the U.S., and we've hired some very seasoned reps from competitors. Something that in the past for us has been really, you didn't see us doing a lot, but we're starting to attract a lot of really high quality talent. We're getting some folks from CyberArk. You've seen our Global Head of Channels. We're seeing more folks from there. Our traditional hiring process, I think is very much changed under Nadav. Good. Anyway, yeah, I think it's exciting times for us, and time will tell. All right. Late last year, you've raised $2 billion of zero coupon convertible bonds. Eli Parnass. Parnass. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Was that predominantly M&A? The previous 31 years. Yeah. It was an opportunity we had, zero coupon. It's phenomenal. It also puts money to the bottom line, just if we don't do anything with it, but that's not our plan. Our plan is to leverage it. I think from that standpoint, it did a lot of different things for us at the same time. Bolstering our ability to go after bigger opportunities, I think is a key part of it. Questions. It's also one of the best performing REITs or convertible notes out there. I think it was top two, top three. Yeah. out there for quite a while. Still is. Interesting. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah, we've actually got some calls about the potential conversion between the bonds and equity, given where the stock is trading right now. Yeah. Question about the channel and partners. We're seeing typically within the network security domain, for example, looking at your two bigger competitors, they have standardized pretty much about four or five sizable channel partners that typically generate, say, 65%, 70% of total quarterly revenues, annual revenues. In your case, it would appear to be slightly more fragmented. Is that still holds true, or there's any changes along these lines? I would say that's probably an accurate portrayal of how it is today. I'm not sure it'll remain that way. I know we are 100% channel dedicated. We'll be a meet in the channel model. That's not something you're going to see us break. As far as concentration and dedication, I think that remains to be seen. Wonderful. I think that's a question for my CRO when he's out on the road. I think today, I think definitely, there is a continued focus on the meet in the channel model, and if it does get refined, we'll see. Got it. On the government, on the federal vertical, we've seen some announcements. FedRAMP. FedRAMP. SLAP. Yeah, for the Infinity Platform. Yeah. What are the plans as we start and think about the second half 2026, and without a doubt, beyond? We have a whole team, a fed team, a gov team that's completely focused, and I think they've been quite busy since we did get the certifications, the authorizations. It's something we've never played very much in the past, and I think that's changing. There's a great deal of opportunity for us. Obviously, we had to have a sponsor to actually get that authorization. Those are folks that wanted to have that product within the government. We'll see where it goes from here. Did you disclose who the sponsors were? Sometimes, it's like DOD. I'll be honest with you. It's like DLA. I can't remember which one it is. Which branch, or yeah. I think if you go in and you look at Check Point, it'll show you the actual indication there. I just don't recall off the top of my head. That's fair enough. As we think about second quarter, given prior comments that in terms of the pipeline, April, May thus far versus last year, kind of is looking a little better. If we think, again, I don't know whether it's maybe a little premature, is it still coming from the subscription side right now of the equation, or is it actually coming slightly more from the product? No, when I'm talking about that, I'm talking primarily about t he product. Got it. It's the pipe in general, but the pipe for the pillars, the unattached subscription. That's more stable. That remains strong. You notice we didn't change our guidance f or the year on that portion. We even gave direct guidance related to that and cash flow. We didn't touch the guidance on either of those. We thought we were sufficiently covered within the range there. It was specifically the product that drove the total revenue down. When I'm talking about the pipe, we're talking about, compared to last year, the specific pipe is related to hardware. Got it. We've been looking over the course of the past year or so, for example, on folks like Flextronics. Big manufacturers. Do you guys partner with these guys? We have ODMs that are located in almost each continent. We don't name them out, but we definitely play with ODMs. Not sure if Flextronics is one of them. Yeah, it is. I think. One of them. One of them. Yeah. We don't name them out. Yeah. We definitely utilize ODMs, and obviously we're vanilla on the hardware side, much different than the other guys, where we don't have an ASIC or a field programmable chip as part of our system. We do utilize some of the NVIDIA stuff. Yeah. At the NIC card level. The overall boxes, I guess the only one that would have any relative customization is our Maestro boxes, which are. The high-ends. It's the load balancer, it's everything all combined in one. It's an orchestrator. Other than that, nothing more to say on the ODM side. Yeah. As AI becomes much more ubiquitous and it's going to be gradual, but how do you guys think about, call it, seat-based models versus consumption-based models? This is the great quandary that started the SaaS apocalypse last year, right? My personal opinion is I look at it from the standpoint as it's more value-based. Yeah. Right? When you start talking seats and then you compare it to an agent, right? People don't work 24/7, 365 days a year. A seat is working 10 hours, whatever, maybe six days a week. Unless you're in banking, then it's seven days a week. I think when you look at an agent working that, it's actually doing the job of a person in some cases. I think if you really start to look at it from a seat base, it starts to get ugly. I think if you look at it from a transaction based or value based, I think you find a different balance for everybody, right? I think everything becomes a negotiation down the road. I always think of Oracle's value based. You just owe me 10% more than you paid me last year. We'll see how time goes, but I think seat makes it easy, but then when people start to negotiate seat, you actually get into how many agents do you have. I'm going to count each agent as a seat. I think this is a work in progress. I think it's going to depend on the value proposition that is offered. Look, there's going to be a lot more traffic in data centers. Sure. The size of network security boxes you're going to have to have there is going to have to escalate in size. As traffic increases, that means price increases on that side. If you're doing protection around agents, what have you, everything's got to be fair, right? In the end, it's got to work for each party, and it can't be just one-sided. Business doesn't work if only one side wins, right? Sure. Yeah. You should either both walk away with bitter taste in your mouth, or you should all walk away with your arms around each other saying, "That was a great deal." Preferably the last one. I think that is the aim. When you see noise with like, oh, man, seat pricing's going to go to zero, right? Well, no one's selling anything for zero. There's still value there. Last time I looked, nobody gives away anything that's got value. Maybe sometimes, but rarely. Got it. From that standpoint, I think pricing will be a work in progress for everybody. Yeah. No, this is a message that we keep hearing. Yeah. Absolutely. Kip, before we wrap it up, any kind of final thoughts, maybe message that you want investors to take as we think about the road ahead for 2026? Yeah. The only thing I would say is, look, we started off this year in a tough spot as we did the go-to-market changes. It didn't go as smoothly as possible, but definitely not the end of the world. It's something that's going to pick up momentum as more and more sales folks get really established in their seat. You already see it happening with the pipeline, as we talked about being ahead of where we were last year. Definitely as we roll forward, it should just start becoming easier and easier and easier. I think our product offering, from the appliance side all the way across the other three pillars, I think we're in a very unique position. SASE is just going to continue to get better from this point on. We have about 12-18 months till we have it at the highest levels where we expect it to be, doing the largest accounts in our largest customers of ours. I think that's where we're headed, and we'll have to see. Got it. It's always a journey. Always. Thank you, Sir. Thank you so much. Thank you everybody for joining us. Appreciate it. Have a great day, guys.