Nutanix is working through an internal audit on the misuse of evaluation software that executives at the hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) vendor said could impact fiscal results and is preventing them from filing a 10-Q for the vendor’s most recent fiscal quarter.

The vendor posted financial results earlier this month for its second-fiscal quarter. Those numbers surpassed last year’s results and came in ahead of expectations.

As part of its earnings call, CEO Rajiv Ramaswami noted the vendor had “discovered that evaluation software from one of our third-party providers was instead being used for interoperability testing, validation, and customer proof of concept over a multiyear period.”

Ramaswami added that Nutanix’s audit committee had tapped “outside counsel” to help with investigating the situation.

“Upon internal discovery, the audit committee, along with its outside counsel commenced an investigation and are working diligently to resolve this matter as soon as possible,” a Nutanix spokesperson wrote in an email to SDxCentral. “We do not believe this development will have a significant impact on the fundamentals of our business or overall prospects. Due to the ongoing investigation, we cannot comment further at this time.”

CFO Rukmini Sivaraman did explain that the issue could have a financial impact, which prevented Nutanix from filing its 10-Q document with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on time or within a five-day extension period. Nutanix late last week reported it had received a “notification of deficiency” from the Nasdaq in connection with the delayed filing, adding that the notice does not immediately impact trading of Nutanix stock.

The vendor has until mid-May to submit a plan to Nasdaq toward regaining compliance, which if accepted can result in the trading board giving Nutanix until mid-September to regain compliance.

“The company expects to submit a plan to regain compliance or file its Form 10-Q within the timeline prescribed by Nasdaq,” Nutanix noted in a statement.

Ramaswami added during the call that “we do not believe it will have a significant impact on the fundamentals of our business and overall prospects.”

Nutanix also pushed its annual investor conference from early April to sometime this summer and is withholding any further earnings forecasts.

Around the same time that Nutanix received the note from Nasdaq, CIO Wendy Pfeiffer left the company. The news was first reported by CRN.

Pfeiffer had been in that position for more than six years. The Nutanix spokesperson noted Pfeiffer left to “pursue an opportunity outside of Nutanix” and that “an active search is underway for her replacement.”

Nutanix management has been touting progress in stealing at least customer interest from larger rival VMware, which is in the midst of being acquired by Broadcom. That interest is being driven by customer concerns over potential price changes, customer and partner support, and roadmap implications for VMware products and services due to the Broadcom buy.

Ramaswami had previously stated Nutanix was seeing “a higher level of engagement from VMware customers as a result of what’s going on out there, and they’re more open to discussions with us,” but more recently stated those “dynamics” will be more of a long-term impact.

Nutanix late last year was reportedly exploring a sale, with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) rumored to be a suitor, which it denied.

CORRECTION: This story has been corrected to clarify that a $33 million charge was tied to a litigation settlement and not to the possible financial impact from the misuse of the evaluation software.