Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations
(the “MD&A”)
should be read
together
with our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and the related notes
included
in Part I, Item 1 of this report
, as well as the MD&A included in
our Annual Report on Form 10-K for
our
fiscal year ended December 31,
2016, including the audited consolidated financial statements and related notes included in such report (the “2016 Annual Report”), which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on March 31, 2017. In preparing this MD&A
, we presume that readers have access to and have read the
MD&A included in the 2016 Annual Report,
pursuant to Instruction 2 to paragraph (b) of Item 303 of Regulation S-K promulgated by the SEC.
Unless the context indicates otherwise, all references to “Netlist,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our” in this
MD&A
and elsewhere in this report refer to Netlist, Inc., together with its majority and wholly owned subsidiaries.
Forward-Looking Statements
This discussion and analysis includes “forward‑looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements other than historical facts and often address future events and our future performance. Words such as "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "may," “will,” “might,” "plan," "predict," "believe," "should," “could” and similar words or expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements contained in this discussion and analysis include statements about, among other things: our plans relating to our intellectual property, including our strategy for monetizing, licensing, expanding, and defending our patent portfolio; our expectations with respect to strategic partners, including our relationship with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (“Samsung”) and the potential for commercial licensing agreements; our expectations and strategies regarding outstanding legal proceedings and patent reexaminations relating to our intellectual property portfolio, including our pending proceedings against SK hynix Inc., a South Korean memory semiconductor supplier (“SK hynix”); our beliefs regarding the market and demand for our products; and our expectations regarding our strategy, business plans and objectives, our future operations and financial position, including future revenues, costs and prospects, and our liquidity and capital resources, including cash flows, sufficiency of cash resources, efforts to reduce expenses and the potential for future financings. All forward-looking statements reflect management’s present expectations regarding future events and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by any forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include those described under “Risk Factors” in Part II, Item 1A of this report. Given these risks, uncertainties and other important factors, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent our estimates and assumptions only as of the date made, and except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements for any reason.
Overview
We are a leading provider of high-performance modular memory subsystems serving customers in diverse industries that require superior memory performance to empower critical business decisions. We have a long history of introducing disruptive new products, such as one of the first load reduced dual in-line memory modules ("LRDIMM") based on our distributed buffer architecture, which has been adopted by the industry for DDR4 LRDIMM. We were also one of the first to bring NAND flash memory ("NAND flash") to the memory channel with our NVvault non-volatile dual in-line memory modules ("NVDIMM") using software-intensive controllers and merging dynamic random access memory integrated circuits (“DRAM ICs” or "DRAM") and NAND flash to solve data bottleneck and data retention challenges encountered in high-performance computing environments. We recently introduced a new generation of storage class memory products called HybriDIMM to address the growing need for real-time analytics in Big Data applications and in-memory databases.
Due to the ground-breaking product development of our engineering teams, we have built a robust portfolio of over 100 issued and pending U.S. and foreign patents, many seminal, in the areas of hybrid memory, storage class memory, rank multiplication and load reduction. Since our inception in 2000, we have dedicated substantial resources to
the development and protection of technology innovations essential to our business. Our early pioneering work in these areas has been broadly adopted in industry-standard LRDIMM and in NVDIMM. Our objective is to continue to innovate in our field and invest further in our intellectual property portfolio, with the goal of monetizing our intellectual property through a combination of product sales and licensing, royalty or other revenue-producing arrangements, which may result from joint development or similar partnerships or defense of our patents through enforcement actions against parties we believe are infringing them.
In November 2015, we entered into a joint development and license agreement (“JDLA”) pursuant to which we and Samsung have agreed to work together to jointly develop new storage class memory technologies including a standardized product interface for NVDIMM-P memory modules in order to facilitate broad industry adoption of this new technology. The JDLA also includes comprehensive cross-licenses to our and Samsung’s patent portfolios for the purpose of developing this product interface, grants Samsung a right of first refusal to acquire our HybriDIMM technology before we offer the technology to a third party, and grants us access to competitively priced DRAM and NAND flash raw materials. The JDLA also provided for an $8.0 million non-recurring engineering (“NRE”) fee that we received from Samsung for the joint development and calls for potential marketing collaboration and for the exchange of potential monetary consideration as progress is made towards commercialization of our storage class memory product. Moreover, we believe Samsung represents an important strategic partner with a high level of technical capability in memory that can facilitate bringing our HybriDIMM technology to market. In connection with the JDLA, we also received gross proceeds of $15.0 million for our issuance of a Senior Secured Convertible Note (“SVIC Note”) and Stock Purchase Warrant (“SVIC Warrant”) to SVIC No. 28 New Technology Business Investment L.L.P., an affiliate of Samsung Venture Investment Co. (“SVIC”). See Notes 5 and 6 to the condensed consolidated financial statements included in this report for additional information.
Further, in September 2016, we took action to protect and defend our innovations by filing legal proceedings for patent infringement against SK hynix and two of its subsidiaries in the U.S. International Trade Commission ("ITC") and in district court. We are seeking an exclusion order in the ITC that directs U.S. Customs and Border Protection to stop allegedly infringing SK hynix RDIMM and LRDIMM products from entering the United States. The evidentiary hearing in the ITC investigations will occur in May 2017, with a final initial determination expected to be issued by the ITC in October 2017. In the district court proceedings, we are primarily seeking damages. Our patents involved in the proceedings cover key features of RDIMM and LRDIMM, which we believe are strategic product lines for SK hynix that together account for a significant portion of SK hynix's total revenue and profits. We have recently taken steps to solidify our position and strategy in connection with our proceedings against SK hynix, including establishing a funding arrangement for our costs associated with these proceedings and adopting a rights agreement to implement a standard “poison pill,” which are discussed further below.
We recorded total net revenues of $9.4 million, $1.2 million, $19.7 million and $8.0 million and we incurred net losses of $3.3 million. $1.4 million, $11.2 million and $20.5 million for the three months ended April 1, 2017 and April 2, 2016 and for the years ended December 31, 2016 and January 2, 2016, respectively. We have historically financed our operations primarily through issuances of equity and debt securities and revenues generated from operations, including product sales and NRE revenues from the JDLA. We have also funded our operations with a revolving line of credit and term loans under a bank credit facility, a funding arrangement for costs associated with our legal proceedings against SK hynix and, to a lesser extent, equipment leasing arrangements. See “Liquidity and Capital Resources” below for further information.
Recent Developments
Extension of SVB Credit Agreement
On March 27, 2017, we entered into an amendment to our credit agreement (as amended, the “SVB Credit Agreement”) with Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”). The amendment extends the maturity date of advances under the SVB Credit Agreement to April 1, 2018, modifies our financial covenants under the SVB Credit Agreement to remove all prior financial standards and replace them with a liquidity ratio standard, removes or amends certain termination, anniversary and unused facility fees payable by us under the SVB Credit Agreement, and makes certain other administrative changes.
Establishment of Funding Arrangement and Rights Agreement for SK hynix Proceedings
In April 2017, we established a funding arrangement and a rights agreement in connection with our strategy for our proceedings against SK hynix, each of which is described below.
TRGP Agreement
On May 3, 2017, we entered into an investment agreement (the “TRGP Agreement”) with TR Global Funding V, LLC, an affiliate of TRGP Capital Management, LLC (“TRGP”), which generally provides that TRGP will directly fund the costs incurred by us or on our behalf in connection with our proceedings against SK hynix, including costs previously incurred since January 1, 2017 and costs to be incurred in the future. In exchange for such funding, we have agreed that, if we recover any proceeds in connection with the SK hynix proceedings, we will pay to TRGP the amount of its funding plus an escalating premium based on when any such proceeds are recovered, such that the premium will equal a specified low-to-mid double-digit percentage of the amount of TRGP’s funding and such percentage will increase by a specified low double-digit amount each quarter after a specified date until any such proceeds are recovered. In addition, we have granted to TRGP a first priority security interest in the claims underlying the SK hynix proceedings and any proceeds we may receive in connection with these proceedings, and a second priority security interest in our patents that are the subject of these proceedings. We have established this funding arrangement in order to provide us with increased security that we will be able to vigorously pursue our claims against SK hynix through their final resolution.
Rights Agreement
On April 17, 2017, we adopted a short-term rights agreement to implement a standard “poison pill.” In general terms, for so long as the rights issued under the rights agreement are outstanding, which is expected to be no longer than 12 months, the rights agreement prevents any person or group from acquiring a significant percentage of our outstanding capital stock or attempting a hostile takeover of our Company by significantly diluting the ownership percentage of such person or group. As a result, the rights agreement has a significant anti-takeover effect. Our board of directors approved the rights agreement as part of our strategy in connection with our proceedings against SK hynix, with the intent of disconnecting our market capitalization from the damages calculations and any settlement negotiations that may develop in connection with these proceedings.
Key Business Metrics
The following describes certain line items in our condensed consolidated statements of operations that are important to management’s assessment of our financial performance:
Net Product Sales
Net product sales consist primarily of sales of our high-performance memory subsystems, net of a provision for estimated returns under our right of return policies, which generally range up to 30 days. We do not have long-term agreements with any of our customers. Instead, sales are made primarily pursuant to standard purchase orders. Although original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) customers typically provide us with non-binding forecasts of future product demand over specific periods of time, they generally place orders with us no more than two weeks in advance of the desired delivery date. Selling prices are typically negotiated monthly, based on competitive market conditions and the current price of key product components, including DRAM ICs and NAND flash. Purchase orders generally have no cancellation or rescheduling penalty provisions. We often ship our products to our customers’ international manufacturing sites. All of our sales to date, however, are denominated in U.S. dollars.
We also resell certain Samsung products that we purchase under the terms of our JDLA with Samsung to certain end-customers that are not reached in Samsung’s distribution model, including storage customers, appliance customers, system builders and cloud and datacenter customers. In the three months ended April 1, 2017 and April 2, 2016, resales of these products represented approximately 91% and 1% of our net product sales, respectively, and we expect resales of these products may continue to increase over time. Additionally, we sell excess component inventory of DRAM ICs and NAND flash to distributors and other users of memory integrated circuits. Component inventory sales are a relatively
small percentage of net product sales, due in part to our efforts to diversify our customer base and our product line. This diversification effort has also allowed us to use components in a wider range of memory subsystems. We expect that component inventory sales will continue to represent a minimal portion of our net product sales in future periods.
Engineering Services
Pursuant to the terms of our JDLA with Samsung, we provided certain engineering services for Samsung and received a NRE fee as compensation for these services. These fees from Samsung are the only such fees for engineering services that we have received to date, although we may in the future receive additional fees of this type, from Samsung or other customers, depending on the terms of the relationships we may develop.
Cost of Sales
Our cost of sales includes the cost of materials, labor and other manufacturing costs, depreciation and amortization of equipment expenses, inventory valuation provisions, stock-based compensation expense, occupancy costs and other allocated fixed costs. To the extent that we continue to resell certain Samsung products, our cost of sales also includes the cost of the products that we purchase from Samsung under the terms of the JDLA.
The DRAM ICs and NAND flash incorporated into our products constitute a significant portion of our cost of sales, and thus our cost of sales will fluctuate based on the cost of DRAM ICs and NAND flash. We attempt to pass through these DRAM IC and NAND flash cost fluctuations to our customers by frequently renegotiating pricing prior to the placement of their purchase orders. However, the sales prices of our memory subsystems can also fluctuate due to competitive conditions in our key customer markets that are unrelated to the cost of DRAM ICs and NAND flash, which affects our gross margin. In addition, we have in the past experienced supply chain disruptions and shortages of DRAM and NAND flash required to create our HyperCloud, NVvault and Planar X VLP products, which can cause fluctuations in our net product sales and gross profits. In addition, the gross margin on our sales of any excess component DRAM IC and NAND flash inventory, as well as on our resales of Samsung products, is much lower than the gross margin on our sales of our memory subsystems. As a result, fluctuations in DRAM IC and NAND flash inventory sales and Samsung product resales as a percentage of our sales could impact our overall gross margin.
In addition, any significant decrease in demand for our products could result in an increase in the amount of excess inventory quantities on hand. In addition, our estimates of future product demand may prove to be inaccurate, in which case we may have understated or overstated the provision required for excess and obsolete inventory. In the future, if our inventories are determined to be overvalued, we would be required to recognize additional expense in our cost of sales at the time of such determination. Likewise, if our inventories are determined to be undervalued, we may have over-reported our costs of sales in previous periods and would be required to recognize additional gross profit at the time such inventories are sold. In addition, should the market value of DRAM ICs or NAND flash decrease significantly, we may be required to lower our selling prices to reflect the lower cost of our raw materials. If such price decreases reduce the net realizable value of our inventories to less than our cost, we would be required to recognize additional expense in our cost of sales in the same period. Although we make every reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy of our forecasts of future product demand, any significant unanticipated changes in demand, technological developments or the market value of DRAM ICs or NAND flash could have a material effect on the value of our inventories and our reported operating results.
Research and Development
Research and development expenses consist primarily of employee and independent contractor compensation and related costs, stock‑based compensation expense, NRE fees, computer‑aided design software license costs, reference design development costs, depreciation or rental of evaluation equipment expenses, and occupancy and other allocated overhead costs. Also included in research and development expense are the costs of materials and overhead related to the production of engineering samples of new products under development or products used solely in the research and development process. Our customers typically do not separately compensate us for design and engineering work involved in developing application‑specific products for them. All research and development costs are expensed as incurred. We anticipate that research and development expenditures will increase in future periods as we seek to expand
new product opportunities, increase our activities related to new and emerging markets and continue to develop additional proprietary technologies.
Intellectual Property Legal Fees
Intellectual property legal fees consist of legal fees incurred for patent filings, protection and enforcement. We anticipate that intellectual property legal fees will increase in future periods as we seek to continue to protect and expand our patent portfolio. With respect to our legal fees for the SK hynix proceedings that are covered by the TRPG Agreement, any cash proceeds we may receive upon resolution of these proceedings will be reduced by the aggregate amount of the legal fees paid by TRGP plus the premium owed under the TRGP Agreement, all of which will be owed to TRGP at the time of any such cash recovery.
Selling, General and Administrative
Selling, general and administrative expenses primarily consist of employee compensation and related costs, stock-based compensation expense, independent sales representative commissions, professional services fees, promotional and other selling and marketing expenses, and occupancy and other allocated overhead costs. A significant portion of our selling effort is directed at building relationships with OEMs and other customers and working through the product approval and qualification process with them. Therefore, the cost of material and overhead related to products manufactured for qualification is included in selling expenses.
Provision for Income Taxes
The federal statutory tax rate was 34% for the three months ended April 1, 2017 and April 2, 2016. Our effective tax rate differs from the statutory rate because we provide a full valuation allowance against net deferred tax assets, and accordingly we did not recognize an income tax benefit related to losses incurred for the three months ended April 1, 2017 and April 2, 2016.
Factors Affecting Our Performance and Business Risks and Uncertainties
Our performance, financial condition and prospects are affected by a number of factors, and are exposed to a number of risks and uncertainties. See the discussion of certain major factors affecting our performance in the MD&A included in our 2016 Annual Report, and see the discussion of certain risks that we face under “Risk Factors” in Part II, Item 1A of this report.
Critical Accounting Policies and Use of Estimates
The preparation of our condensed consolidated financial statements included in this report in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the condensed consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of net revenues and expenses during the reporting period. By their nature, these estimates and assumptions are subject to an inherent degree of uncertainty. We base our estimates on our historical experience, knowledge of current conditions and belief of what could occur in the future considering available information. We review our estimates on an on-going basis. Actual results may differ from these estimates, which may result in material adverse effects on our consolidated operating results and financial position. We believe the following critical accounting policies involve our more significant assumptions and estimates used in the preparation of our condensed consolidated financial statements included in this report: provisions for uncollectible receivables and sales returns; warranty liabilities; valuation of inventories; fair value of financial instruments; recoverability of long-lived assets; valuation of stock-based transactions; estimates for completion of NRE and other revenue milestones; and realization of deferred tax assets.
Our critical accounting policies and estimates are discussed in the MD&A included in our 2016 Annual Report. For the three months ended April 1, 2017, there were no material changes to our critical accounting policies.
Results of Operations
The following table presents each line item of our condensed consolidated statement of operations as a percentage of total net revenues for the three months ended April 1, 2017 compared to three months ended April 2, 2016:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Three Months Ended
|
|
|
|
April 1,
|
|
April 2,
|
|
|
|
2017
|
|
2016
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net product sales
|
|
100
|
%
|
25
|
%
|
NRE revenues
|
|
-
|
|
75
|
|
Total net revenues
|
|
100
|
|
100
|
|
Cost of sales
|
|
93
|
|
25
|
|
Gross profit
|
|
7
|
|
75
|
|
Operating expenses:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Research and development
|
|
16
|
|
36
|
|
Intellectual property legal fees
|
|
5
|
|
18
|
|
Selling, general and administrative
|
|
20
|
|
49
|
|
Total operating expenses
|
|
41
|
|
103
|
|
Operating loss
|
|
(34)
|
|
(28)
|
|
Other expense, net:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interest expense, net
|
|
(2)
|
|
(3)
|
|
Other income (expense), net
|
|
0
|
|
0
|
|
Total other expense, net
|
|
(2)
|
|
(3)
|
|
Loss before provision for income tax
|
|
(35)
|
|
(31)
|
|
Provision for income taxes
|
|
-
|
|
-
|
|
Net loss
|
|
(35)
|
%
|
(31)
|
%
|
Net Product Sales, NRE Revenues, Cost of Sales and Gross Profit
The following table presents net product sales, NRE revenues, cost of sales and gross profit for the three months ended April 1, 2017 and April 2, 2016:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Three Months Ended
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
April 1,
|
|
April 2,
|
|
|
|
|
%
|
|
|
|
2017
|
|
2016
|
|
|
Change
|
|
Change
|
|
|
|
(in thousands, except percentages)
|
Net product sales
|
|
$
|
9,426
|
|
$
|
1,171
|
|
|
$ 8,255
|
|
705
|
%
|
NRE revenues
|
|
|
-
|
|
|
3,429
|
|
|
(3,429)
|
|
100
|
%
|
Total net revenues
|
|
|
9,426
|
|
|
4,600
|
|
|
4,826
|
|
105
|
%
|
Cost of sales
|
|
|
8,746
|
|
|
1,149
|
|
|
7,597
|
|
661
|
%
|
Gross profit
|
|
$
|
680
|
|
$
|
3,451
|
|
|
$ (2,771)
|
|
(80)
|
%
|
Gross margin
|
|
|
7.2%
|
|
|
75.0%
|
|
|
(67.8)
|
%
|
|
|
Net Product Sales
The increase in our net product sales for
the three months ended April 1, 2017 as compared to
the three months ended April 2, 2016 resulted primarily from increases of $5.9 million in
sales of NAND flash, primarily sourced from Samsung under our JDLA and $2.4 million in sales of other small outline dual in-line memory module (“SODIMM”) and registered dual in-line memory module (“RDIMM”) products. Our two largest customers in the three months ended April 2, 2016, which accounted for 28% and 12% of our net product sales in the period, respectively, made significantly fewer purchases and contributed less than 1% of our net product sales in the three months ended April 1, 2017, while our two largest customers in the three months ended April 1, 2017, which accounted for 15% and 11% of our net product
sales in the period, were new customers in the fourth quarter of 2016 and made no purchases and contributed no net product sales in the three months ended April 2, 2016.
NRE Revenues
The decrease in NRE revenues
for the three months ended April 1, 2017 as compared to the three months ended April 2, 2016 resulted from the recognition of revenues from the NRE fee for engineering services performed under our JDLA with Samsung, in which we completed the engineering services required under the initial phase of the agreement in 2016.
Cost of Sales, Gross Profit and Gross Margin
The increase in our cost of sales for the three months ended April 1, 2017 as compared to the three months ended April 2, 2016 resulted primarily from increased costs associated with our increased product sales between periods. The decrease in our gross margin in the three months ended April 1, 2017 as compared to the three months ended April 2, 2016 resulted primarily from the decrease of NRE revenues from the JDLA, partially offset by increased sales of NAND flash and other SODIMM and RDIMM products. Our gross margin in all periods is impacted by the mix of products that we sell, as our sales of NAND flash and other components, including resales of certain Samsung products, result in lower gross margins than sales of our memory subsystems and other specialty DIMM products.
Research and Development
The following table presents research and development expenses for the three months ended April 1, 2017 and April 2, 2016:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Three Months Ended
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
April 1,
|
|
April 2,
|
|
|
|
|
%
|
|
|
|
2017
|
|
2016
|
|
Change
|
|
Change
|
|
|
|
(in thousands, except percentages)
|
Research and development
|
|
$
|
1,496
|
|
$
|
1,646
|
|
$
|
(150)
|
|
(9)
|
%
|
The decrease in research and development expenses in the three months ended April 1, 2017 as compared to the three months ended April 2, 2016 of $0.15 million resulted primarily from a decrease of (i) $0.1 million in headcount, overhead and travel expenses (ii) $0.03 million in product research expenses and (iii) $0.03 million in professional and outside services fees.
Intellectual Property Legal Fees
The following table presents intellectual property legal fees for the three months ended April 1, 2017 and April 2, 2016:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Three Months Ended
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
April 1,
|
|
April 2,
|
|
|
|
|
%
|
|
|
|
2017
|
|
2016
|
|
Change
|
|
Change
|
|
|
|
(in thousands, except percentages)
|
Intellectual property legal fees
|
|
$
|
466
|
|
$
|
823
|
|
$
|
(357)
|
|
(43)
|
%
|
The decrease in intellectual property legal fees for the three months ended April 1, 2017 as compared to the three months ended April 2, 2016 resulted primarily from a decrease between periods in legal fees incurred for certain trade secret litigation, and our establishment of the TRGP Agreement to finance the legal fees and costs incurred in the 2017 period in connection with our legal proceedings against SK hynix.
Selling, General and Administrative
The following table presents selling, general and administrative expenses for the three months ended April 1, 2017 and April 2, 2016:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Three Months Ended
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
April 1,
|
|
April 2,
|
|
|
|
|
%
|
|
|
|
2017
|
|
2016
|
|
|
Change
|
|
Change
|
|
|
|
(in thousands, except percentages)
|
Selling, general and administrative
|
|
$
|
1,914
|
|
$
|
2,265
|
|
$
|
(351)
|
|
(15)
|
%
|
he decrease in selling, general and administrative expense for the three months ended April 1, 2017 as compared to the three months ended April 2, 2016 resulted primarily from a decrease of $0.4 million in sales and marketing headcount costs and related overhead and travel expenses.
Other Expense, Net
The following tables present other expense, net for the three months ended April 1, 2017 and April 2,2016:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Three Months Ended
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
April 1,
|
|
April 2,
|
|
|
|
|
%
|
|
|
|
2017
|
|
2016
|
|
Change
|
|
Change
|
|
|
|
(in thousands, except percentages)
|
Interest expense, net
|
|
$
|
(148)
|
|
$
|
(137)
|
|
$
|
11
|
|
8
|
%
|
Other income (expense), net
|
|
|
2
|
|
|
8
|
|
|
6
|
|
(75)
|
%
|
Total other expense, net
|
|
$
|
(146)
|
|
$
|
(129)
|
|
$
|
17
|
|
13
|
%
|
The increase in interest expense, net, for the three months ended April 1, 2017 as compared to the three months ended April 2, 2016 resulted primarily from increased interest incurred in the first quarter of 2017 on borrowings under the SVB Credit Agreement. The increase in other income (expense), net, was not significant between periods.
Provision for Income Taxes
The following table presents the provision for income taxes for the three months ended April 1, 2017 and April 2, 2016:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Three Months Ended
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
April 1,
|
|
April 2,
|
|
|
|
|
%
|
|
|
|
2017
|
|
2016
|
|
Change
|
|
Change
|
|
|
|
(in thousands, except percentages)
|
Provision for income taxes
|
|
$
|
-
|
|
$
|
1
|
|
$
|
(1)
|
|
(100)
|
%
|
The federal statutory rate was 34% for the three months ended April 1, 2017 and April 2, 2016. In both the 2017 and 2016 periods, we continued to provide a full valuation allowance against our net deferred tax assets, which consist primarily of net operating loss carryforwards. In the 2017 and 2016 periods, our effective tax rate differed from the statutory rate primarily due to the valuation allowance on newly generated loss carryforwards.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Liquidity generally refers to the ability to generate adequate amounts of cash to meet our cash needs. We require cash to fund our operating expenses and working capital requirements, including research and development and intellectual property litigation fees, to make required payments of principal and interest under our outstanding debt instruments and, to a lesser extent, to fund capital expenditures.
Working Capital and Cash and Cash Equivalents
The following table presents working capital and cash and cash equivalents as of April 1, 2017 and December 31, 2016:
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April 1,
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December 31,
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2017
|
|
2016
|
|
|
(in thousands)
|
Working capital
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|
$
|
10,202
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|
$
|
13,043
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Cash and cash equivalents(1)
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|
$
|
7,770
|
|
$
|
9,476
|
|
(1)
|
|
Included in working capital.
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Our working capital decreased for the three months ended April 1, 2017, primarily as a result of an increase in our accounts payable of approximately $2.2 million and an increase in our borrowings under the SVB Credit Agreement of approximately $0.7 million for the purchase of additional inventory to support the increase in our product sales and to fund our operations.
Cash Provided by (Used in) in the Three Months Ended April 1, 2017 and April 2, 2016
The following table summarizes our cash flows for the three months ended April 1, 2017 and April 2, 2016:
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|
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Three Months Ended
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|
|
April 1,
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|
April 2,
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|
|
2017
|
|
2016
|
|
|
(in thousands)
|
Net cash provided by (used in):
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|
|
|
|
|
|
Operating activities
|
|
$
|
(2,349)
|
|
$
|
(4,639)
|
Investing activities
|
|
|
(30)
|
|
|
(139)
|
Financing activities
|
|
|
673
|
|
|
(16)
|
Net change in cash and cash equivalents
|
|
$
|
(1,706)
|
|
$
|
(4,794)
|
Operating Activities
Net cash used in operating activities for the three months ended April 1, 2017 was primarily the result of a net loss of $3.3 million, partially offset by (i) approximately $0.5 million in net non-cash operating expenses, primarily consisting of stock-based compensation, depreciation and amortization, interest accrued on convertible debt and amortization of debt discounts, and (ii) approximately $0.5 million in net cash provided by operating activities due to changes in operating assets and liabilities, primarily from an increase in accounts payable of approximately $2.2 million and a decrease in accounts receivable of approximately $0.5 million, partially offset by increases in inventory and prepaid expenses and other assets of approximately $1.3 million and $0.6 million, respectively, and a decrease in accrued payroll and related liabilities of approximately $0.3 million. The decrease in accounts receivable between periods was primarily due to faster collection of our accounts receivable. The increase in inventories between periods was primarily due to our purchase of additional inventory to support the increase in our product sales. The increase in accounts payable between periods was primarily due to increased purchases of inventory.
Net cash used in operating activities for the three months ended April 2, 2016 was primarily the result of a net loss of $1.4 million and approximately $3.9 million in net cash used in operating activities due to changes in operating assets and liabilities, primarily from changes in deferred revenue, inventories, accounts receivable, prepaid expenses and other assets and accounts payable, partially offset by approximately $0.6 million in net non-cash operating expenses, which were primarily comprised of depreciation and amortization, amortization of debt discounts and stock-based compensation.
Investing Activities
Net cash used in investing activities for three months ended April 1, 2017 and April 2, 2016 was primarily the result of our purchases of property and equipment during the periods.
Financing Activities
Net cash provided by financing activities for the three months ended April 1, 2017 was primarily the result of net borrowings of approximately $0.7 million under the SVB Credit Agreement and net proceeds from the exercise of equity awards of approximately $0.06 million, partially offset by payments on outstanding debt of approximately $0.1 million. Net cash used in financing activities for three months ended April 2, 2016 was primarily the result of payments on our outstanding debt, partially offset by proceeds from the exercise of employee stock options.
Capital Resources
Our sources of cash have historically consisted of proceeds from issuances of equity and debt securities and revenues generated from operations, including product sales and NRE revenues from our JDLA. We have also funded our operations with a revolving line of credit and term loans under a bank credit facility, a funding arrangement for costs associated with our legal proceedings against SK hynix and, to a lesser extent, equipment leasing arrangements.
SVB Credit Agreement
On October 31, 2009, we entered into the SVB Credit Agreement, which provides that we may borrow up to the lesser of (i) 80% of eligible accounts receivable, or (ii) $5.0 million, subject to certain adjustments as set forth in the SVB Credit Agreement. The SVB Credit Agreement expires April 1, 2018.
As of April 1, 2017, we had outstanding borrowings under the SVB Credit Agreement of $1.4 million. We made no borrowings under the SVB Credit Agreement in the three months ended April 2, 2016. As of April 1, 2017 and December 31, 2016, we had borrowing availability under the SVB Credit Agreement of approximately $0.01 million and $0.8 million, respectively.
SVIC Note and SVIC Warrant
On November 18, 2015, we issued to SVIC the SVIC Note and the SVIC Warrant. The SVIC Note has an original principal amount of $15.0 million, accrues interest at a rate of 2.0% per year, is due and payable in full on December 31, 2021, and is convertible into shares of our common stock at a conversion price of $1.25 per share, subject to certain adjustments, on the maturity date of the SVIC Note. The SVIC Warrant grants SVIC a right to purchase up to 2,000,000 shares of our common stock at an exercise price of $0.30 per share, subject to certain adjustments, is only exercisable in the event we exercise our right to redeem the SVIC Note prior to its maturity date, and expires on December 31, 2025. Proceeds from the SVIC Note were used to repay a former loan from a different lender.
2016 Offering
On September 23, 2016, we completed a registered firm commitment underwritten public offering (the “2016 Offering”), pursuant to which we sold 9,200,000 shares of our common stock at a price to the public of $1.25 per share. The net proceeds to us from the 2016 Offering were $10.3 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses paid by us.
TRGP Agreement
On May 3, 2017, we entered into the TRGP Agreement, which generally provides that TRGP will directly fund the costs incurred by us or on our behalf in connection with our legal proceedings against SK hynix, including costs previously incurred since January 1, 2017 and costs to be incurred in the future.
Equipment Leasing Arrangements
We have in the past utilized equipment leasing arrangements to finance certain capital expenditures. Although equipment leases did not contribute material cash during the periods covered by this report, they continue to be a financing alternative that we may pursue in the future.
Sufficiency of Cash Balances and Potential Sources of Additional Capital
We believe our existing cash balance, together with cash provided by our operations and borrowing availability under the SVB Credit Agreement, and taking into account cash expected to be used in our operations and the funding to be received under the TRGP Agreement, will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs for at least the next 12 months. Our capital requirements will depend on many factors, including, among others: the acceptance of, and demand for, our products; our levels of net product sales and any other revenues we may receive, including NRE, license, royalty or other fees; the extent and timing of any investments in developing, marketing and launching new or enhanced products or technologies; the costs of developing, improving and maintaining our internal design, testing and manufacturing processes; the costs associated with defending and enforcing our intellectual property rights; and the nature and timing of acquisitions and other strategic transactions in which we participate, if any.
Although we expect to rely in the near term on our existing cash balance, cash provided by our operations, payments under the TRGP Agreement and borrowing availability under the SVB Credit Agreement, our estimates of our operating revenues and expenses and working capital requirements could be incorrect, and we may use our cash resources faster than we anticipate. Further, some or all of our ongoing or planned investments may not be successful and could result in further losses. Until we can generate sufficient revenues to finance our cash requirements from our operations, which we may never do, we may need to increase our liquidity and capital resources by one or more measures, which may include, among others, reducing operating expenses, restructuring our balance sheet by negotiating with creditors and vendors, entering into strategic partnerships or alliances, raising additional financing through the issuance of debt, equity or convertible securities or pursuing alternative sources of capital, such as through asset or technology sales or licenses or other alternative financing arrangements. We may not be able to obtain capital when needed, on terms acceptable to us or at all.
Inadequate working capital would have a material adverse effect on our business and operations and could cause us to fail to execute our business plan, fail to take advantage of future opportunities or fail to respond to competitive pressures or customer requirements. A lack of sufficient funding may also require us to significantly modify our business model and/or reduce or cease our operations, which could include implementing cost-cutting measures or delaying, scaling back or eliminating some or all of our ongoing and planned investments in corporate infrastructure, research and development projects, business development initiatives and sales and marketing activities, among other activities. Modification of our business model and operations could result in an impairment of assets, the effects of which cannot be determined. Furthermore, if we continue to issue equity or convertible debt securities to raise additional funds, our existing stockholders may experience significant dilution, and the new equity or debt securities may have rights, preferences and privileges that are superior to those of our existing stockholders. If we incur additional debt, it may increase our leverage relative to our earnings or to our equity capitalization or have other material consequences. If we pursue asset or technology sales or licenses or other alternative financing arrangements to obtain additional capital, our operational capacity may be limited and any revenue streams or business plans that are dependent on the sold or licensed assets may be reduced or eliminated. Moreover, we may incur substantial costs in pursuing any future capital-raising transactions, including investment banking, legal and accounting fees, printing and distribution expenses and other similar costs, which would reduce the benefit of the capital received from the transaction.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We do not have any off-balance sheet arrangements that have or are reasonably likely to have a current or future effect on our financial condition, changes in financial condition, revenues or expenses, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditure or capital resources that is material to investors.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Before making any investment decision with respect to our securities, you should carefully consider each of the following risk factors as well as the other information in this report. Each of these risk factors, either alone or taken together, could adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition, ability to access capital resources and future growth prospects, as well as the value of an investment in our common stock. As a result, you could lose some or all of any investment you have made or may make in our common stock. In assessing these risks, you should also refer to the other information contained or incorporated by reference in this report, including our condensed consolidated financial statements and the related notes.
The risks described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks of which we are not presently aware or that we currently believe are immaterial may also impair our business operations and financial position.
Risks Related to Our Business
We have historically incurred losses and may continue to incur losses.
Since the inception of our business in 2000, we have only experienced one fiscal year (2006) with profitable results. In order to regain profitability, or to achieve and sustain positive cash flows from operations, we must reduce operating expenses and/or increase our revenues and gross margins. Although we have in the past engaged in a series of cost reduction actions, such expense reductions alone may not make us profitable or allow us to sustain profitability if it is achieved and eliminating or reducing strategic initiatives could limit our opportunities and prospects. Our ability to achieve profitability will depend on increased revenue growth from, among other things, monetization of our intellectual property, increased demand for our memory subsystems and other product offerings and our ability to expand into new and emerging markets. We may not be successful in any of these pursuits and we may never achieve profitability or sustain profitability if achieved.
We may not have sufficient working capital to fund our planned operations and, as a result, we may need to raise additional capital in the future, which may not be available when needed, on acceptable terms or at all.
We believe that, taking into account our planned activities and our sources of capital, we have sufficient cash resources to satisfy our capital needs for at least the next 12 months. However, our estimates of our operating revenues and expenses and working capital requirements could be incorrect, and we may use our cash resources faster than we anticipate. Further, some or all of our ongoing or planned investments may not be successful and could result in further losses.
Our capital requirements will depend on many factors, including, among others:
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the acceptance of, and demand for, our products;
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our success, and that of our strategic partners, in developing and selling products derived from our technology;
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the extent and timing of any investments in developing, marketing and launching new or enhanced products or technologies;
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the costs of developing, improving and maintaining our internal design, testing and manufacturing processes;
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·
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the costs associated with defending and enforcing our intellectual property rights;
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·
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our results of operations, including our levels of net product sales and any other revenues we may receive, including non-recurring engineering (“NRE”), license, royalty or other fees;
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·
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the amount and timing of vendor payments and the collection of receivables, among other factors affecting our working capital;
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·
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our receipt of cash proceeds from the exercise of outstanding stock options or warrants to acquire our common stock;
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·
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the nature and timing of acquisitions and other strategic transactions in which we participate, if any; and
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·
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the costs associated with the continued operation, and any future growth, of our business.
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We expect to rely in the near term on cash provided by our operations, funds raised pursuant to recent issuances of debt and equity securities, such as our November 2015 issuance of convertible debt to an affiliate of Samsung Venture Investment Co., Samsung Venture Investment Co. (“SVIC”), and our September 2016 public offering of common stock, our new funding arrangement with TR Global Funding V, LLC, an affiliate of TRGP Capital Management, LLC (“TRGP”), for costs associated with certain of our legal proceedings, and borrowing availability under our credit facility with Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”). However, our estimates of our operating revenues and expenses and working capital requirements could be incorrect, and we may use our cash resources faster than we anticipate. Further, some or all of our ongoing or planned investments may not be successful and could result in further losses. Until we can generate sufficient revenues to finance our cash requirements from our operations, which we may never do, we may need to increase our liquidity and capital resources by one or more measures, which may include, among others, reducing operating expenses, restructuring our balance sheet by negotiating with creditors and vendors, entering into strategic partnerships or alliances, raising additional financing through the issuance of debt, equity or convertible securities or pursuing alternative sources of capital, such as through asset or technology sales or licenses or other alternative financing arrangements. We may not be able to obtain capital when needed, on terms acceptable to us or at all.
Inadequate working capital would have a material adverse effect on our business and operations and could cause us to fail to execute our business plan, fail to take advantage of future opportunities or fail to respond to competitive pressures or customer requirements. A lack of sufficient funding may also require us to significantly modify our business model and/or reduce or cease our operations, which could include implementing cost-cutting measures or delaying, scaling back or eliminating some or all of our ongoing and planned investments in corporate infrastructure, research and development projects, business development initiatives and sales and marketing activities, among other activities. Modification of our business model and operations could result in an impairment of assets, the effects of which cannot be determined. Furthermore, if we continue to issue equity or convertible debt securities to raise additional funds, our existing stockholders may experience significant dilution, and the new equity or debt securities may have rights, preferences and privileges that are superior to those of our existing stockholders. If we incur additional debt, it may increase our leverage relative to our earnings or to our equity capitalization or have other material consequences. If we pursue asset or technology sales or licenses or other alternative financing arrangements to obtain additional capital, our operational capacity may be limited and any revenue streams or business plans that are dependent on the sold or licensed assets may be reduced or eliminated. Moreover, we may incur substantial costs in pursuing any future capital-raising transactions, including investment banking, legal and accounting fees, printing and distribution expenses and other similar costs, which would reduce the benefit of the capital received from the transaction.
We have incurred a material amount of indebtedness to fund our operations, the terms of which have required us to pledge substantially all of our assets as security. Our level of indebtedness and the terms of such indebtedness could adversely affect our operations and liquidity.
We have incurred debt under our convertible note issued to SVIC, our credit facility with SVB, and our new funding arrangement with TRGP. In connection with these debt and other arrangements, we have granted security interests to SVIC, SVB and TRGP in our various assets, such that all of our tangible and intangible assets, including our complete patent portfolio, are subject to one or more outstanding liens held by one or more of these parties. The SVIC and SVB debt instruments and the TRGP investment agreement contain customary representations, warranties and indemnification provisions, as well as affirmative and negative covenants that, among other things, restrict our ability to:
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incur additional indebtedness or guarantees;
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make investments, loans and acquisitions;
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sell or exclusively license assets, including capital stock of subsidiaries;
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change any provision of our organizational documents;
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engage in transactions with affiliates;
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make certain decisions regarding certain of our outstanding legal proceedings without consulting with or obtaining consent from certain of these parties; and
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pay dividends or make distributions.
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The SVIC and SVB debt instruments and the TRGP investment agreement also include events of default, including, among other things, payment defaults, any breach by us of representations, warranties or covenants, certain bankruptcy events and certain material adverse changes. If an event of default were to occur under any of these instruments or agreements and we were unable to obtain a waiver for the default, the counterparties could, among other remedies, accelerate our obligations under the debt instrument or other agreement and exercise their rights to foreclose on their security interests, which would cause substantial harm to our business and prospects.
Additionally, incurrence and maintenance of this or other debt could have material adverse consequences on our business and financial condition, such as:
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requiring us to dedicate a portion of our cash flows from operations and other capital resources to debt service, thereby reducing our ability to fund working capital, capital expenditures and other cash requirements;
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increasing our vulnerability to adverse economic and industry conditions;
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limiting our flexibility in planning for or reacting to changes and opportunities in our business and industry, which may place us at a competitive disadvantage; and
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limiting our ability to incur additional debt when needed, on acceptable terms or at all.
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We are involved in and expect to continue to be involved in costly legal and administrative proceedings to enforce or protect our intellectual property rights and to defend against claims that we infringe the intellectual property rights of others.
As is common in the semiconductor industry, we have experienced substantial litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. We are currently involved in litigation and proceedings at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) and Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) based on alleged third-party infringement of our patents, and lawsuits claiming that we are infringing others’ intellectual property rights also have been and may in the future be brought against us.
The process of obtaining and protecting patents is inherently uncertain. In addition to the patent issuance process established by law and the procedures of the USPTO, we must comply with administrative procedures of the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (“JEDEC”) to protect our intellectual property within its industry standard-setting process. These procedures evolve over time, are subject to variability in their application and may be inconsistent with each other. Failure to comply with the USPTO’s or JEDEC’s administrative procedures could jeopardize our ability to claim that our patents have been infringed.
Our business strategy includes litigating claims against others, such as our competitors, customers and former employees, to enforce our intellectual property, contractual and commercial rights including, in particular, our patent portfolio and our trade secrets, as well as to challenge the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. This or other similar proceedings could also subject us to counterclaims or countersuits against us, or the parties we sue could seek to invalidate our patents or other intellectual property rights through reexamination or similar processes at the USPTO or similar bodies. Moreover, any legal disputes with customers could cause them to cease buying or using our products or delay their purchase of our products and could substantially damage our relationship with them.
Making use of new technologies and entering new markets increases the likelihood that others might allege that our products infringe on their intellectual property rights. The likelihood of this type of lawsuit may also be increased due to the limited pool of experienced technical personnel that we can draw upon to meet our hiring needs. As a result, a number of our existing employees have worked for our existing or potential competitors at some point during their careers, and we anticipate that a number of our future employees will have similar work histories. Moreover, lawsuits of this type may be brought, even if there is no merit to the claim, as a strategy to prevent us from hiring qualified candidates, drain our financial resources and divert management’s attention away from our business.
Litigation is inherently uncertain. An adverse outcome in existing or any future litigation could force us to, among other things:
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relinquish patents or other protections of our technologies if they are invalidated, which would enable our competitors and others to freely use this technology;
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compete with products that rely upon technologies and other intellectual property rights that we have developed and that we believe we have the right to protect from third-party use;
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accept terms of an arrangement to license our technologies to a third party that are not as favorable as we might expect;
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cease manufacturing and/or selling products or using certain processes that are claimed to be infringing a third party’s intellectual property;
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pay damages (which in some instances may be three times actual damages), including royalties on past or future sales, if we are found to infringe a third party’s intellectual property;
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seek a license from a third -party intellectual property owner to use its technology in our products, which may not be available on reasonable terms or at all; or
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redesign any products that are claimed to be infringing a third party’s intellectual property, which may not be possible to do in a timely manner, without incurring significant costs or at all.
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Moreover, any litigation, regardless of its outcome, would involve a significant dedication of resources, including time and costs, would divert management’s time and attention and could negatively impact our results of operations. As a result, any current or future infringement claims by or against third parties could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We are involved in and expect to continue to be involved in legal proceedings at the ITC and related enforcement actions to stop allegedly infringing SK hynix RDIMM and LRDIMM products from entering the United States, as well as legal proceedings in district court to seek damages for the alleged patent infringement. Our involvement in these proceedings, as well as steps we have taken to implement certain of our strategies in connection with these proceedings, subject us to a number of risks.
On September 1, 2016, we took action to protect and defend our innovations by filing legal proceedings for patent infringement against SK hynix Inc., a South Korean memory semiconductor supplier (“SK hynix”), and two of its subsidiaries in the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”) and in district court. We are seeking an exclusion order in the ITC that directs U.S. Customs and Border Protection to stop allegedly infringing SK hynix registered dual in-line memory module (“RDIMM”) and load reduced dual in-line memory modules ("LRDIMM") products from entering the United States. ITC investigations typically proceed on an expedited basis. The evidentiary hearing in the ITC investigation will occur in May 2017, with a final initial determination expected to be issued by the ITC in October 2017, but there can be no guarantee that our proceedings will follow such a timeline.
Intellectual property litigation is expensive and time‑consuming, regardless of the merits of any claim, and could divert management’s attention from operating our business. Even if we are successful at the ITC, we would then need to enforce the order which is expensive, time consuming and could divert management’s attention from operating our business. In addition, lawsuits in the ITC and in district courts are subject to inherent uncertainties due to the complexity of the technical issues involved, and we may not be successful in our actions. Moreover, if we are countersued by SK hynix and lose the suit, we could be required to pay substantial damages or lose some of our intellectual property protections. Furthermore, we may not be able to reach a settlement with SK hynix to license our patent portfolio, and even if we are able to reach a settlement, the terms of the arrangement may not be as favorable as we anticipated. Any of the foregoing could cause us to incur significant costs, decrease the perceived value of our intellectual property and materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We have recently taken steps to solidify our position and strategy in connection with our proceedings against SK hynix. In April 2017, we established a funding arrangement with TRGP, which generally provides that TRGP will directly fund the costs incurred by us or on our behalf in connection with the SK hynix proceedings, and in exchange for such funding, we have agreed to pay to TRGP the amount of its funding plus an escalating premium starting at a low-to-mid double-digit percentage of the amount of its funding if and when we recover any proceeds from the proceedings, and we have granted to TRGP a first priority lien on the claims underlying the proceedings and any proceeds received from the proceedings and a second priority lien on our patents that are the subject of the proceedings. We established this funding arrangement in order to provide us with increased security that we will be able to vigorously pursue our claims against SK hynix through their final resolution, but the arrangement also involves certain risks, including, among others, our obligation to use a portion of any proceeds we may receive from these proceedings to repay the funded amounts at a premium, which premium would increase the longer the proceedings remain unresolved, and our obligation to consult with or obtain consent from TRGP in connection with certain decisions or other matters relating to the SK hynix proceedings.
In addition, in April 2017, we adopted a short-term rights agreement to implement a standard “poison pill.” In general terms, for so long as the rights issued under the rights agreement are outstanding, which is expected to be no longer than 12 months, the rights agreement prevents any person or group from acquiring a significant percentage of our outstanding capital stock or attempting a hostile takeover of our Company by significantly diluting the ownership percentage of such person or group. As a result, the rights agreement has a significant anti-takeover effect. Our board of
directors approved the rights agreement as part of our strategy in connection with our proceedings against SK hynix, with the intent of disconnecting our market capitalization from the damages calculations and any settlement negotiations that may develop in connection with these proceedings. However, the rights agreement may not have the intended, or any, impact on these proceedings or any related settlement negotiations, but would have the anti-takeover effect of any standard “poison pill” and thus would involve the risks associated with these anti-takeover effects, which are described elsewhere in these risk factors.
We may be unsuccessful in monetizing our intellectual property portfolio.
We have dedicated substantial resources to the development and protection of technology innovations essential to our business, and we expect these activities to continue for the foreseeable future. We also intend to aggressively pursue monetization avenues for our intellectual property portfolio, potentially including licensing, royalty or other revenue-producing arrangements. However, our revenues are currently generated by our product sales and we may never be successful in generating a revenue stream from our intellectual property, in which case our investments of time, capital and other resources into our intellectual property portfolio may not provide adequate, or any, returns.
Although we may pursue agreements with third parties to commercially license certain of our products or technologies, we may never successfully enter into any such agreement. Further, the terms of any such agreements that we may reach with third-party licensees are uncertain and may not provide sufficient royalty or other licensing revenues to us to justify our costs of developing and maintaining the licensed intellectual property or may otherwise include terms that are not favorable to us. Additionally, the pursuit of licensing arrangements would require by its nature that we relinquish certain of our rights to our technologies and intellectual property that we license to third parties, which could limit our ability to base our own products on such technologies or could reduce the economic value that we receive from such technologies and intellectual property. Additionally, the establishment of arrangements to monetize our intellectual property may be more difficult or costly than expected, may require additional personnel and investments and may be a significant distraction for management. In connection with any monetization avenues we may develop, our licenses and royalty revenue may be uncertain from period to period and we may be unable to attract sufficient licensing customers, which would materially and adversely affect our results of operations.
Our ability to establish licensing, royalty or similar revenues, and maintain or increase any such revenues we are able to establish, depends on a variety of factors, including the novelty, utility, performance, quality, breadth, depth and overall perceived value of our intellectual property portfolio, all as compared to that of our competitors, as well as our sales and marketing capabilities. If secured, licensing or royalty revenues may also be negatively affected by factors within and outside our control, including reductions in our customers’ sales prices, sales volumes and the terms of the license arrangements. If we are not successful in monetizing our intellectual property portfolio, we may never recoup the costs associated with developing, maintaining, defending and enforcing this portfolio and our financial condition and prospects would be harmed.
Our revenues and results of operations have been substantially dependent on single products or product categories, including NVvault in historical periods and Samsung products in recent periods. Revenue lost from any decline in sales of these products, such as the recent decline in NVvault product sales, may be challenging to replace and could significantly harm our performance.
We are and have historically been substantially dependent on sales of single products or product categories. For instance, for our fiscal year ended January 2, 2016, our NVvault non-volatile dual in-line memory modules ("NVDIMM") used in cache-protection and data-logging applications, including our NVvault battery‑free, the flash‑based cache system, accounted for approximately 20% of our net product sales, and for our fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 and our fiscal quarter ended April 1, 2017, our resales of certain Samsung products that we purchase under the terms of our Joint Development and License Agreement (“JDLA”) with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (“Samsung”) to certain end-customers that are not reached in Samsung’s distribution model accounted for approximately 21% and 91% of our net product sales, respectively. Demand for these products could decline at any time for a number of reasons, including, among others, product obsolescence, introduction of more advanced or otherwise superior competing products by our competitors, the ability to obtain these products or substitute products from alternate sources, or the other risk factors described in this Item 1A. Further, we have no long-term purchase agreements or other
commitments with respect to sales of any of our products. As a result, any decline in demand for these products from us would result in our reduced sales of these products, which could materially adversely impact our revenues and results.
For example, we have experienced a sharp decline in NVvault sales in recent years, due in large part to our loss of our former most significant NVvault customer, Dell, beginning in 2012. We recognized no NVvault sales to Dell in the three months ending April 1, 2017 or April 2, 2016 and we expect no future demand from Dell for these products. In order to leverage our NVvault technology and secure one or more new key customers, we continue to pursue additional qualifications of NVvault with other original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) and to target new customer applications, such as online transaction processing, virtualization, Big Data analytics, high speed transaction processing, high-performance database applications and in‑memory database applications. We also introduced EXPRESSvault in March 2011 and the next-generation of EXPRESSvault (EV3) in July 2015, and we continue to pursue qualification of the next-generation DDR3 NVvault and DDR4 NVvault with customers. Our future operating results will depend on our ability to commercialize these NVvault product extensions, as well as our other products such as HybriDIMM and other high‑density and high-performance solutions. HybriDIMM is still under development and may require additional investment and the services and attention of key employees who have competing demands on their available time. Although we believe that our JDLA with Samsung may advance the development of this product, our partnership with Samsung and any other steps we take to further the development of this or any other products in development could fail. If we are not successful in expanding our qualifications or marketing any new or enhanced products, we will be unable to secure revenues sufficient to replace lost NVvault revenues and our results of operations and prospects could be materially harmed.
In addition, significant sales of certain products could impact our costs and our margins. For instance, our resales of Samsung products, which contributed a significant portion of our net product sales in 2016 and in our first quarter of 2017, carry lower gross margin than sales of our own products. As a result, any increase in sales of these products in future periods could reduce our overall gross profit margin.
We are subject to risks relating to our focus on developing our HybriDIMM and NVvault products and a lack of market diversification.
We have historically derived a substantial portion of our revenues from sales of our high‑performance modular memory subsystems to OEMs in the server, high-performance computing and communications markets, as well as from sales products to storage customers, appliance customers, system builders and cloud and datacenter customers. We expect these memory subsystems to continue to account for a portion of our revenues in the near term. We believe that market acceptance of these products or derivative products that incorporate our core memory subsystem technology is critical to our success.
We have invested significant research and development time and costs into the design of application‑specific integrated circuits (“ASIC”) and hybrid devices, including our NVvault family of products and most recently our next-generation HybriDIMM memory subsystem. These products are subject to increased risks as compared to our legacy products. For example:
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we are dependent on a limited number of suppliers for the dynamic random access memory integrated circuits (“DRAM ICs” or “DRAM”) and ASIC devices that are essential to the functionality of these products, and in the past we have experienced supply chain disruptions and shortages of DRAM and NAND flash memory (“NAND flash”) required to create our NVvault family of products as a result of issues that are specific to our suppliers or the industry as a whole;
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our products are generally subject to a product approval and qualification process with customers before purchases are made and we have experienced a longer qualification cycle than anticipated with some of these products, including our HyperCloud memory subsystems;
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the NVvault products or other new products such as HybriDIMM may contain currently undiscovered flaws, the correction of which could result in increased costs and time to market; and
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we are required to demonstrate the quality and reliability of our products to and qualify them with our customers, which requires a significant investment of time and resources prior to the receipt of any revenues from these customers.
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These and other risks attendant to the production of our memory subsystem products could impair our ability to obtain customer or market acceptance of these products or obtain such acceptance in a timely manner, which would reduce our achievable revenues from these products and limit our ability to recoup our investments in the products.
Additionally, if the demand for servers deteriorates or if the demand for our products to be incorporated in servers declines, our operating results would be adversely affected, and we would be forced to diversify our product portfolio and our target markets. We may not be able to achieve this diversification, and our inability to do so may adversely affect our business, operating performance and prospects.
Sales to a small number of varying customers represent a significant portion of our net product sales, and the loss of, or a significant reduction in sales to, any one of these customers could materially harm our business.
Sales to small number of customers represent a substantial portion of our net product sales. Approximately 15% and 11% of our net product sales in the three months ended April 1, 2017 were to two customers, which were new customers in the fourth quarter of 2016. Approximately 28% and 12% of our net product sales in the three months ended April 2, 2016 were to two customers, both of which purchased few products and contributed only a small portion of our revenues in 2017. The composition of major customers and their respective contributions to our net product sales have varied and will likely continue to vary from period to period as our existing and prospective customers progress through the life cycle of the products they produce and sell.
We do not have long-term agreements with any of our customers and, as result, any or all of them could decide at any time to discontinue, decrease or delay their purchase of our products. In addition, the prices that these customers pay for our products could change at any time. Further, we may not be able to sell some products developed for one customer to a different customer because our products are often customized to address specific customer requirements, and even if we are able to sell these products to another customer, our margin on these products may be reduced. Additionally, although customers are generally allowed only limited rights of return after purchasing our products, we may determine that it is in our best interest to accept returns from certain large or key customers even if we are not contractually obligated to accept them in order to maintain good relations with these customers. Any returns beyond our expectations could negatively impact our operating results. Moreover, because a few customers account for a substantial portion of our net product sales, the failure of any one of these customers to pay on a timely basis would negatively impact our cash flows. As a result, the loss of any of our customers or a reduction in sales to or difficulties collecting payments from any of them could significantly reduce our net product sales and adversely affect our operating results.
Our ability to maintain or increase our net product sales to our key customers depends on a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. These factors include our customers’ continued sales of servers and other computing systems that incorporate our memory subsystems and our customers’ continued incorporation of our products into their systems. Because of these and other factors, sales to these customers may not continue and the amount of such sales may not reach or exceed historical levels in any future period.
Our customers require that our products undergo a lengthy and expensive qualification process without any assurance of sales.
Our prospective customers generally test and evaluate our memory subsystems before purchasing our products and integrating them into their systems. This extensive qualification process involves rigorous reliability testing and evaluation of our products, which may continue for nine months or longer and is often subject to delays. In addition to qualification of specific products, some of our customers may also require us to undergo a technology qualification if our product designs incorporate innovative technologies that the customer has not previously encountered. Such technology qualifications often take substantially longer than product qualifications and can take over a year to complete. Qualification by a prospective customer does not ensure any sales to that prospective customer, in which case we would
receive no or limited revenues in spite of our investment of time and other resources in this qualification process, which could adversely affect our operating results.
Even after successful qualification and sales of our products to a customer, because the qualification process is both product-specific and platform-specific, our existing customers sometimes require us to re-qualify our products or to qualify our new products for use in new platforms or applications. For example, as our OEM customers transition from prior generation architectures to current generation architectures, we must design and qualify new products for use by these customers. In the past, this design and qualification process has taken up to nine months to complete, during which time our net product sales to these customers declined significantly. Additionally, after our products are qualified with existing or new customers, the customer may take several months to begin purchasing the product or may decide not to purchase the product at all.
Likewise, changes in our products, our manufacturing facilities, our production processes or our component suppliers may require a new qualification process. For example, when our memory and NAND flash component vendors discontinue production of components, it may be necessary for us to design and qualify new products for our customers. As a result, some customers may require us, or we may decide, to purchase an estimated quantity of discontinued memory components necessary to ensure a steady supply of existing products until products with new components can be qualified. Purchases of this nature may affect our liquidity. Additionally, our estimation of quantities required during the transition may be incorrect, which could adversely impact our results of operations through lost revenue opportunities or charges related to excess and obsolete inventory.
We must devote substantial resources, including design, engineering, sales, marketing and management efforts, to qualify our products with prospective customers in anticipation of sales. Significant delays or other difficulties in the qualification process could result in an inability to keep up with rapid technology change or new, competitive products. If we delay or do not succeed in qualifying a product with an existing or prospective customer, we would not be able to sell that product to that customer, which may result in our holding excess and obsolete inventory and could reduce our net product sales and customer base, any of which could materially harm our operating results and business.
We are subject to risks of disruption in the supply of the components of our products.
Our ability to fulfill customer orders or produce qualification samples is dependent on a sufficient supply of field-programmable gate arrays (“FPGAs”), ASICs, DRAM ICs and NAND flash, which are essential components of our memory subsystems. In addition, we resell some of the components that we purchase from Samsung under the terms of our JDLA to certain end-customers that are not reached in Samsung’s distribution model, including small to medium storage customers, appliance customers, system builders and cloud and datacenter customers. We have no long‑term supply contracts for any of these components. Further, there are a relatively small number of suppliers of these components and we typically purchase from only a subset of these suppliers. As a result, our inventory purchases have historically been concentrated in a small number of suppliers, including Samsung Semiconductor, Inc., from which we obtained a large portion of our total inventory purchases in 2016 and the first quarter of 2017. We also use consumables and other components, including printed circuit boards (“PCBs”), to manufacture our memory subsystems, which we sometimes procure from single or limited sources to take advantage of volume pricing discounts.
From time to time, shortages in DRAM ICs and NAND flash have required some suppliers to limit the supply of these components. In the past, we have experienced supply chain disruptions and shortages of DRAM and NAND flash required to create our HyperCloud, NVvault and Planar X VLP products, and we are continually working to secure adequate supplies of the components necessary to fill customers’ orders for our products in a timely manner. If we are unable to obtain a sufficient supply of DRAM ICs, NAND flash or other essential components to avoid interruptions in the delivery of our products as required by our customers or the delivery of these components to customers to whom we resell them directly, these customers may reduce future orders for our products or not purchase our products at all, which would cause our net product sales to decline and harm our operating results. In addition, our reputation could be harmed due to failures to meet our customers’ demands and, even assuming we are successful in resolving supply chain disruptions, we may not be able to replace any lost business and we may lose market share to our competitors. Further, if our suppliers are unable to produce qualification samples on a timely basis or at all, we could experience delays in the qualification process with existing or prospective customers, which could have a significant impact on our ability to sell
our products. Moreover, if we are not able to obtain these components in the amounts needed on a timely basis and at commercially reasonable prices, we may not be able to develop or introduce new products or we may be forced to cease our resale activities for the components we sell to customers directly.
Our dependence on a small number of suppliers and the lack of any guaranteed sources for the essential components of our products expose us to several risks, including the inability to obtain an adequate supply of these essential components, increases in their costs, delivery delays and poor quality. Additionally, our customers qualify certain of the components provided by our suppliers for use in their systems. If one of our suppliers experiences quality control or other problems, it may be disqualified by one or more of our customers. This would disrupt our supplies of these components, and would also reduce the number of suppliers available to us and may require that we qualify a new supplier, which we may not be able to do.
Historical declines in customer demand and our revenues have caused us to reduce our purchases of DRAM ICs and NAND flash. Such declines or other fluctuations could continue in the future. If we fail to maintain sufficient purchase levels with some suppliers, our ability to obtain supplies of raw materials may be impaired due to the practice of some suppliers to allocate their products to customers with the highest regular demand.
Frequent technology changes and the introduction of next-generation versions of these components may also result in the obsolescence of our inventory on-hand, which could involve significant time and costs to replace, reduce our net product sales and gross margin and adversely affect our operating performance and financial condition.
If we are unable to timely and cost-effectively develop new or enhanced products that meet our customers’ requirements and achieve market acceptance or technologies that we can monetize, our revenues and prospectus could be materially harmed.
Our industry is characterized by rapid technological change, evolving industry standards and rapid product obsolescence. As a result, continuous development of new technology, processes and product innovations is necessary in order to be successful. We believe that the continued and timely development of new products and improvement of existing products are critical to our business and prospects for growth.
In order to develop and introduce new or enhanced products and technologies, we need to:
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retain and continue to attract new engineers with expertise in high-performance modular memory subsystems and our key technology competencies;
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identify and adjust to the changing requirements of our
existing
and potential future customers;
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identify and adapt to emerging technological trends and
evolving
industry standards in our markets;
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continue to develop and enhance our design tools,
manufacturing
processes and other technologies that allow us to produce attractive and competitive products;
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design and introduce cost-effective, innovative and performance-enhancing features that differentiate our products and technologies from those of our competitors;
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secure licenses to enable us to use any technologies, processes or other rights essential to the manufacture or use of any new products we may design, which licenses may not be available when needed, on acceptable terms or at all;
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maintain or develop new relationships with suppliers of components required for any new or enhanced products and technologies;
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qualify any new or enhanced products for use in our customers’ products; and
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develop and maintain effective marketing strategies.
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We may not be successful at any of these activities. As a result, we may not be able to successfully develop new or enhanced products or we may experience delays in this process. Failures or delays in product development and introduction could result in the loss of, or delays in generating, net products sales or other revenues and the loss of key customer relationships. Even if we develop new or enhanced products or technologies, they may not meet our customers’ requirements or gain market acceptance, as our product development efforts are inherently risky due to the challenges of foreseeing changes or developments in technology or anticipating the adoption of new standards. Moreover, we have invested significant resources in our product development efforts, which would be lost if we fail to develop successful products. If any if these risks were to occur, our net product sales, prospects and reputation could be materially adversely affected.
We face intense competition in our industry, and we may not be able to compete successfully in our target markets.
Our products are primarily targeted to OEMs in the server, high-performance computing and communications markets, as well as to storage customers, appliance customers, system builders and cloud and datacenter customers. These markets are intensely competitive, as numerous companies vie for business opportunities at a limited number of large OEMs and other customers. We face competition from DRAM suppliers, memory module providers and logic suppliers for many of our products, including EXPRESSvault, NVvault and HybriDIMM. Additionally, if and to the extent we enter new markets or pursue licensing arrangements to monetize our technologies and intellectual property portfolio, we may face competition from a large number of competitors that produce solutions utilizing similar or competing technologies.
Some of our customers and suppliers may have proprietary products or technologies that are competitive with our products, or could develop internal solutions or enter into strategic relationships with, or acquire, other high-density memory module providers. Any of these actions could reduce our customers’ demand for our products. Some of our significant suppliers of memory integrated circuits may be able to manufacture competitive products at lower costs by leveraging internal efficiencies, or could choose to reduce our supply of memory integrated circuits, which could adversely affect our ability to manufacture our memory subsystems on a timely basis, if at all.
Certain of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical, marketing, distribution and other resources, broader product lines, lower cost structures, greater brand recognition and longer standing relationships with customers and suppliers. Some of our competitors may also have a greater ability to influence industry standards than we do. Additionally, some of our competitors may have more extensive or more established patent portfolios than we do. We may not be able to compete effectively against any of these organizations.
Our ability to compete in our current target markets and future markets will depend in large part on our ability to successfully develop, introduce and sell new and enhanced products or technologies on a timely and cost-effective basis and to respond to changing market requirements. We expect our competitors to continue to improve the performance of their current products and potentially reduce their prices. In addition, our competitors may develop future generations and enhancements of competitive products or new or enhanced technologies that may offer greater performance and improved pricing or render our technologies obsolete. If we are unable to match or exceed the improvements made by our competitors, our market position and prospects could deteriorate and our net product sales could decline.
A limited number of relatively large potential customers dominate the markets for our products.
Our target markets are characterized by a limited number of large companies. Consolidation in one or more of our target markets may further increase this industry concentration. As a result, we anticipate that sales of our products will continue to be concentrated among a small number of large customers in the foreseeable future. We believe that our financial results will depend in significant part on our success in establishing and maintaining relationships with and effecting substantial sales to these potential customers. Even if we establish and successfully maintain these relationships, our financial results will be largely dependent on these customers’ sales and business results.
If a standardized memory solution that addresses the demands of our customers is developed, our net product sales and market share may decline.
Many of our memory subsystems are specifically designed for our OEM customers’ high-performance systems. In a drive to reduce costs and assure supply of their memory module demand, our OEM customers may endeavor to design JEDEC standard DRAM modules into their new products. Although we also manufacture JEDEC modules, this trend could reduce the demand for our higher-priced customized memory solutions, which would have a negative impact on our operating results. In addition, the adoption of a JEDEC standard module instead of a previously custom module might allow new competitors to participate in a share of our customers’ memory module business that previously belonged to us.
If our OEM customers were to adopt JEDEC standard modules, our future business may be limited to identifying the next generation of high-performance memory demands of OEM customers and developing solutions that address these demands. Until fully implemented, any next generation of products may constitute a significantly smaller market, which could reduce our revenues and harm our competitive position.
If we fail to protect our proprietary rights, our customers or our competitors might gain access to our proprietary designs, processes and technologies, which could adversely affect our operating results.
We rely on a combination of patent protection, trade secret laws and restrictions on disclosure to protect our intellectual property rights. We have submitted a number of patent applications regarding our proprietary processes and technology. It is not certain when or if any of the claims in our patent applications will be allowed. As of April 1, 2017, we had 68 U.S. and foreign patents issued, 1 German utility model and 42 pending patent applications worldwide. Although we intend to continue filing patent applications with respect to the new processes and technologies that we develop, patent protection may not be available for some of these processes or technologies, in which case they may remain unprotected from use by third parties, including our competitors.
Our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights may not:
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prevent challenges to or the invalidation or circumvention of our intellectual property rights;
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keep our competitors or other third parties from independently developing similar products or technologies, duplicating, reverse engineering or otherwise using our products or technologies without our authorization or designing around any patents that may be issued to us;
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prevent disputes with third parties regarding ownership of our intellectual property rights;
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prevent disclosure of our trade secrets and know‑how to third parties or into the public domain;
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result in valid patents, including international patents, from any of our pending or future applications; or
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otherwise adequately protect our intellectual property rights.
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Monitoring for any unauthorized use of our technologies is costly, time-consuming and difficult. This is particularly true in foreign countries, such as the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”), where we have established a manufacturing facility and where the laws may not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as applicable U.S. laws.
If some or all of the claims in our patent applications are not allowed or if any of our intellectual property protections are limited in scope by the USPTO, a court or applicable foreign authorities or are circumvented by third parties, we could face increased competition for our products and be unable to execute on our strategy of monetizing our intellectual property. Any of these outcomes could significantly harm our business, operating results and prospects.
Our operating results may be adversely impacted by worldwide economic and political uncertainties and specific conditions in the markets we address and in which we or our strategic partners or competitors do business, including the cyclical nature of and volatility in the memory market and semiconductor industry.
Adverse changes in domestic and global economic and political conditions have made it extremely difficult for our customers, our vendors and us to accurately forecast and plan future business activities, and these conditions have caused and could continue to cause U.S. and foreign businesses to slow or decrease spending on our products and services. For instance, the current political instability in Korea could impact our operations and financial condition as a result of our dependence on Samsung, a South Korean based company, as a key supplier and strategic partner, and our ongoing legal proceedings against SK hynix. In addition, sales of our products are dependent upon demand by OEMs in the server, high-performance computing and communications markets, as well as by storage customers, appliance customers, system builders and cloud and datacenter customers. These markets are characterized by wide fluctuations in product supply and demand. Additionally, these markets have been cyclical and have experienced significant downturns, often connected with or in anticipation of maturing product cycles, reductions in technology spending and declines in general economic conditions. During these downturns, product demand diminishes, production capacity exceeds demand, inventory levels increase and average selling prices decline, all of which would materially adversely impact our business and operating results. Additionally, such a downturn could decrease the perceived value of our intellectual property portfolio and result in reduced ability to pursue our goal of monetizing this portfolio.
We may experience substantial period-to-period fluctuations in our operating results due to factors affecting the markets in which we operate. A decline or significant shortfall in demand in any of these markets could have a material adverse effect on demand for our products and on our net product sales. In addition, because many of our costs and operating expenses are relatively fixed, if we are unable to control our expenses adequately in response to reduced product sales, our gross margins, operating income and cash flows would be negatively impacted.
During challenging economic times our customers may face issues gaining timely access to sufficient credit, which could impair their ability to make timely payments to us. This may impair our liquidity and cash flows and require us to increase our allowance for doubtful accounts. Furthermore, our vendors may face similar issues gaining access to credit, which may limit their ability to supply components or provide trade credit to us. We cannot predict the timing, strength or duration of any economic slowdown or subsequent economic recovery, either generally or in our markets. If the economy or markets in which we operate experience such a slowdown, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. Additionally, the combination of our lengthy sales cycle coupled with any challenging macroeconomic conditions could compound the negative impact of any such downturn on the results of our operations.
Our lack of a significant backlog of unfilled orders and the difficulty inherent in estimating customer demand makes it difficult to forecast our short-term production requirements, and any failure to optimally calibrate our production capacity and inventory levels to meet customer demand could adversely affect our revenues, gross margins and earnings.
We make significant decisions regarding the levels of business we will seek and accept, production schedules, component procurement, personnel needs and other resource requirements based on our estimates of customer demand. We do not have long-term agreements with any of our customers. Instead, sales are made primarily pursuant to standard purchase orders that we often receive no more than two weeks in advance of the desired delivery date and that may be rescheduled or cancelled on relatively short notice. The short-term nature of the commitments by many of our customers and the fact that our customers may cancel or defer purchase orders for any reason reduces our backlog of firm orders and our ability to accurately estimate future customer requirements for our products. This fact, combined with the quick turn-around times that apply to most orders, makes it difficult to forecast our production needs and allocate production capacity efficiently. As a result, we attempt to forecast the demand for the components needed to manufacture our products, but any such forecasts could turn out to be wrong. Further, lead times for components vary significantly and depend on various factors, such as the specific supplier and the demand and supply for a component at a given time.
Our production expense and component purchase levels are to a large extent fixed in the short term. As a result, we may be unable to adjust spending on a timely basis to compensate for any unexpected shortfall in customer orders. If
we overestimate customer demand, we may have excess inventory of components, which may not be able to be used in other products or may become obsolete before any such use. If there is a subsequent decline in the prices of these components, the value of our inventory would fall. As a result, we may need to write-down the value of our component inventory, which may result in a significant decrease in our gross margin and financial condition. Also, to the extent that we manufacture products in anticipation of future demand that does not materialize or in the event a customer cancels or reduces outstanding orders, we could experience an unanticipated increase in our finished goods inventory. In the past, we have had to write-down inventory due to obsolescence, excess quantities and declines in market value below our costs. Any significant shortfall of customer orders in relation to our expectations could hurt our operating results, cash flows and financial condition.
Conversely, any rapid increases in production required by our customers could strain our resources and reduce our margins. If we underestimate customer demand, we may not have sufficient inventory of necessary components on hand to manufacture enough product to meet that demand. We also may not have sufficient manufacturing capacity at any given time to meet any demands for rapid increases in production. These shortages of inventory and capacity would lead to delays in the delivery of our products, which may force us to forego sales opportunities, reduce our net product sales and damage our customer relationships.
In addition, we resell certain Samsung products that we purchase under the terms of our JDLA with Samsung to certain end-customers that are not reached in Samsung’s distribution model. This includes small to medium storage customers, appliance customers, system builders and cloud and datacenter customers. However, there is no guarantee of sufficient demand for these products and such demand could decline, due to customers obtaining these products from alternate sources, reducing their need for these products generally or for other reasons. The lack of sales of these products may adversely impact our financial conditions and results of operations. Furthermore, sales of these products generally carry lower gross margin than sales of our own products and, as a result, any increase in sales of these products in future periods could reduce our overall gross profit margin.
Declines in our average sales prices, driven by volatile prices for essential components and other factors, may result in declines in our revenues and gross profit.
Our industry is competitive and historically has been characterized by declines in average sales price, based in part on market prices for DRAM ICs, NAND flash and other essential product components, which have historically constituted a substantial portion of the total cost of our memory subsystems. Our average sales prices may decline due to several factors, including overcapacity in the worldwide supply of these components, increased manufacturing efficiencies, implementation of new manufacturing processes and expansion of manufacturing capacity by component suppliers.
Once our prices with a customer are negotiated, we are generally unable to revise pricing with that customer until our next regularly scheduled price adjustment. As a result, if market prices for essential components increase, we generally cannot pass the price increases on to our customers for products purchased under an existing purchase order. Consequently, we are exposed to the risks associated with the volatility of prices for these components and our cost of sales could increase and our gross margins could decrease in the event of price increases. Alternatively, if there are declines in the price of these components, we may need to reduce our selling prices for subsequent purchase orders, which may result in a decline in our net product sales.
In addition, since a large percentage of our product sales are to a small number of customers that are primarily large OEMs, these customers have exerted, and we expect they will continue to exert, pressure on us to make price concessions. If not offset by increases in volume of sales or the sales of newly-developed products with higher margins, decreases in average sales prices could have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results.
Our manufacturing operations involve significant risks.
We maintain a manufacturing facility in the PRC at which we produce most of our products. This internal manufacturing process allows us to utilize our own materials and processes, protect our intellectual property and develop the technology for manufacturing. However, our manufacturing activities require significant resources to maintain. For
instance, we must continuously review and improve our manufacturing processes in order to maintain satisfactory manufacturing yields and product performance, try to lower our costs and otherwise remain competitive. As we manufacture more complex products, the risk of encountering delays, difficulties or higher costs increases. The start-up costs associated with implementing new manufacturing technologies, methods and processes, including the purchase of new equipment and any resulting manufacturing delays and inefficiencies, could negatively impact our results of operations.
Additionally, we could experience a prolonged disruption, material malfunction, interruption or other loss of operations at our manufacturing facility or we may need to add manufacturing capacity to satisfy any increased demand for our products. Under these circumstances, we may be forced to rely on third parties for our manufacturing needs, which could increase our manufacturing costs, decreases our profit margin, decrease our control over manufacturing processes, limit our ability to meet customer demand and delay new product development until we could secure a relationship with a third-party manufacturer, which we may not be able to do in a timely manner, on acceptable terms or at all. If any of these risks were to occur, our operations, performance and customer relationships could be severely harmed. In addition, we may need to expand our existing manufacturing facility or establish a new facility. Any need to expand or replace our manufacturing facility would be expensive and time-consuming and could also subject us to factory audits by our customers that could themselves result in delays, unexpected costs or customer losses if we cannot meet the standards of any such audits. Further, we may not be able to replace or increase our manufacturing capacity at all. The occurrence of any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We depend on third parties to design and manufacture custom components for some of our products, which exposes us to risks.
Significant customized components, such as ASICs, that are used in HyperCloud and some of our other products are designed and manufactured by third parties. The ability and willingness of third parties to enter into these engagements with us and perform in accordance with these engagements is largely outside of our control. If one or more of our design or manufacturing partners experiences a manufacturing disruption, fails to dedicate adequate resources to the production of our products, experiences financial instability or otherwise fails to perform its obligations to us in a timely manner or at satisfactory quality levels, our ability to bring products to market or deliver products to our customers, as well as our reputation, could suffer and our business and prospects could be materially harmed. In the event of any failure by our component manufacturers, we may have no readily available alternative source of supply for these components, since, in our experience, the lead time needed to establish a relationship with a new design or manufacturing partner is substantial, and the time for our OEM customers to re-qualify our product with components from a new vendor is also significant. Additionally, if we need to replace one of our component manufacturers, we may not be able to do so in a timely manner, on acceptable terms or at all. Further, we may not be able to redesign our customized components to be manufactured by the new manufacturer, in which case we could infringe on the intellectual property of our current design or manufacturing partner when we redesign the custom components. Such an occurrence could force us to stop selling certain products or expose us to lawsuits, license payments or other liabilities.
Our dependence on third-party manufacturers exposes us to many other risks, including, among others: reduced control over delivery schedules, quality, manufacturing yields and costs; the potential lack of adequate capacity during periods of excess demand; limited warranties on products supplied to us; and potential misappropriation of our intellectual property or the intellectual property of others. We are dependent on our manufacturing partners to manufacture components with acceptable quality and manufacturing yields, to deliver these components to us on a timely basis and to allocate a portion of their manufacturing capacity sufficient to meet our needs. Although our products are designed using the process design rules of the particular manufacturers, our manufacturing partners may not be able to achieve or maintain acceptable yields or deliver sufficient quantities of components on a timely basis or at an acceptable cost. Additionally, our manufacturing partners may not continue to devote adequate resources to produce our products or continue to advance the process design technologies on which the qualification and manufacturing of our products are based. Further, we could be exposed to liability if our component manufacturers are found to infringe the intellectual property rights of others and we are held responsible for any such infringement. Any of these risks could limit our ability to meet customer demand and materially adversely affect our business and operating results.
If our products do not meet quality standards or are defective or used in defective systems, we may be subject to quality holds, warranty claims, recalls or liability claims.
Our customers require our products to meet strict quality standards. If our products do not meet these standards, our customers may discontinue purchases from us until we are able to resolve the quality issues that are causing us to not meet the standards, which we may not be able to do. These “quality holds” could be costly and time-consuming to resolve and could have a significant adverse impact on our revenues and operating results.
If our products are defectively manufactured, contain defective components or are used in defective or malfunctioning systems, we could be subject to warranty and product liability claims, product recalls, safety alerts or advisory notices.
Although we generally attempt to contractually limit our exposure to incidental and consequential damages, if these contract provisions are not enforced or if liabilities arise that are not effectively limited, we could incur substantial costs in defending or settling product liability claims. While we currently have product liability insurance coverage, it may not provide coverage under certain circumstances and it may not be adequate to satisfy claims made against us. We also may be unable to maintain insurance in the future at satisfactory rates or in adequate amounts.
Warranty and product liability claims, product recalls, safety alerts or advisory notices, regardless of their coverage by insurance or their ultimate outcome, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and ability to attract and retain customers.
We may become involved in non‑patent related litigation and administrative proceedings that may materially adversely affect us.
From time to time, we may become involved in various legal proceedings relating to matters incidental to the ordinary course of our business, including commercial, employment, class action, whistleblower and other litigation and claims, as well as governmental and other regulatory investigations and proceedings. Such matters can be time-consuming, divert management’s attention and resources and cause us to incur significant expenses. Furthermore, because litigation is inherently unpredictable, the results of these actions could subject us to monetary damages or other liabilities and have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our indemnification obligations for the infringement by our products of the intellectual property rights of others could require us to pay substantial damages.
As is common in our industry, we have a number of agreements in which we have agreed to defend, indemnify and hold harmless our customers and suppliers from damages and costs that may arise from the infringement by our products of third-party patents, trademarks or other proprietary rights. The scope of these indemnities varies, but may, in some instances, include indemnification for damages and expenses, including attorneys’ fees. The term of these indemnification obligations is generally perpetual after execution of an agreement and the maximum potential amount of future payments we could be required to make under these indemnification obligations is often unlimited. Any indemnification claims by customers could require us to incur significant legal fees and could potentially result in our payment of substantial damages, and our insurance generally would not cover these fees or damages. As a result, the occurrence of any of these risks could result in a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
We depend on a few key employees, and our business could be harmed if we lose the services of any of these employees or are unable to attract and retain other qualified personnel.
To date, we have been highly dependent on the experience, relationships and technical knowledge of certain key employees. We believe that our future success will be dependent on our ability to retain the services of these key employees, develop their successors and properly manage the transition of their roles should departures occur. The loss of these key employees or their inability to provide their services could delay the development and introduction of new or enhanced products, negatively impact our ability to sell our existing products, limit our ability to pursue our other business goals and strategies and otherwise harm our business. We do not have employment agreements with any of these key employees other than Chun K. Hong, our President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of our board of
directors. We maintain “Key Man” life insurance on Mr. Hong, but we do not carry “Key Man” life insurance on any of our other key employees.
Our future success also depends on our ability to attract, retain and motivate highly skilled engineering, manufacturing and other technical and sales personnel. Competition for experienced personnel is intense. We may not be successful in attracting new engineers or other technical personnel or in retaining or motivating our existing personnel. If we are unable to hire and retain engineers with the skills necessary to keep pace with the evolving technologies in our markets, our ability to continue to provide our existing products and to develop new or enhanced products will be negatively impacted, which would harm our business. In addition, a general shortage of experienced engineers could lead to increased recruiting, relocation and compensation costs to attract such engineers, which may exceed our expectations and resources. These increased costs may make hiring new engineers difficult or may increase our operating expenses.
A significant portion of our workforce consists of contract personnel. We invest considerable time and expense to train these contract personnel; however, they typically may terminate their relationships with us at any time. As a result, we may experience high turnover rates in this contract personnel workforce, which may require us to expend additional resources to attract, train and retain replacements. Additionally, if we convert any of these contract personnel into permanent employees, we may have to pay finder’s fees to the contract agency. These risks associated with our contract personnel workforce may involve increased costs or delays or failures in meeting customer requirements or developing new or enhanced products, any of which could materially adversely affect our business and operating performance.
We rely on our internal and third-party sales representatives to market and sell our products, and any failure by these representatives to perform as expected could reduce our sales.
We primarily market and sell our products through a direct sales force and a network of independent sales representatives. We have expended significant resources to build our internal sales and marketing function, but compared to many of our competitors, we have relatively little experience creating a sales and marketing platform and developing a team to implement it. We may be unsuccessful in these efforts.
These sales representatives generally may terminate their relationships with us at any time. As a result, our performance depends in part on our ability to retain existing and attract additional sales representatives that will be able to market and support our products effectively, especially in markets in which we have not previously distributed our products. Our efforts to attract, train and retain these sales representatives to be knowledgeable about our industry, products and technologies are costly and time-consuming. If these efforts fail, our investments in these sales representatives may not produce the expected benefits and our ability to market and sell our products may be limited, which could materially harm our financial condition and operating results. Further, our reliance upon independent sales representatives subjects us to risks, as we have very little control over their activities and they are generally free to market and sell other, potentially competing products. As a result, these independent sales representatives could devote insufficient time or resources to marketing our products, could market them in an ineffective manner or could otherwise be unsuccessful in selling adequate quantities of our products.
Economic, geographic and political and other risks associated with our international sales and operations expose us to significant risks.
Part of our growth strategy involves making sales to foreign corporations and delivering our products to facilities located in foreign countries. To facilitate this process and to meet the long-term projected demand for our products, we have established a manufacturing facility in the PRC, which performs most of our worldwide manufacturing activities. Selling and manufacturing in foreign countries subjects us to additional risks not present with our domestic operations, as we are operating in business and regulatory environments in which we have limited experience. Further, the geographic distance from our headquarters in Irvine, California, compounds the difficulties of running a manufacturing operation in the PRC. For instance, we may not be able to maintain the desired amount of control over production capacity and timing, inventory levels, product quality, delivery schedules, manufacturing yields and costs. Moreover, we will need to continue to overcome language and cultural barriers to effectively conduct these international operations. Our failure to meet applicable regulatory requirements or overcome cultural barriers could result in legal consequences or production delays and increased turnaround times, which would adversely affect our business. In addition, changes to the labor laws of the PRC could increase the cost of employing the local workforce. The increased industrialization of the PRC, as well as general economic and political conditions in the PRC, could also increase the cost of local labor or the other costs of doing business in the PRC. Any of these factors could negatively impact the cost savings we experience from locating our manufacturing facility in the PRC. Additionally, our management has limited experience creating or overseeing foreign operations, and the ongoing management of our PRC facility may require our management team to divert substantial amounts of their time and attention, particularly if we encounter operational, legal or cultural difficulties or disruptions at our PRC facility.
To date, all of our net product sales have been denominated in U.S. dollars. In the future, however, some of our net product sales may be denominated in Chinese Renminbi (“RMB”). The Chinese government controls the procedures by which RMB is converted into other currencies, which generally requires government consent. As a result, RMB may not be freely convertible into other currencies at all times. If the Chinese government institutes changes in currency conversion procedures or imposes additional restrictions on currency conversion, our operations and our operating results could be negatively impacted. In addition, Chinese law imposes restrictions on the movement of funds outside of the PRC. If we need or decide to repatriate funds from our Chinese operations, we would be required to comply with the procedures and regulations of applicable Chinese law. Any failure to comply with these procedures and regulations could adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition. Further, if we are able to repatriate funds from our Chinese operations, these funds would be subject to U.S. corporate income tax. In addition, fluctuations in the exchange rate between RMB and U.S. dollars may adversely affect our expenses and results of operations, the value of our assets and liabilities and the comparability of our period-to-period results.
In addition, international turmoil and the threat of future terrorist attacks, both domestically and internationally, have contributed to an uncertain political and economic climate, both in the United States and globally, and have negatively impacted the worldwide economy. The economies of the PRC and other countries in which we make sales have been highly volatile in the recent past, resulting in significant fluctuations in local currencies and other instabilities. These conditions could continue or worsen, which could adversely affect our foreign operations and some of our customers or suppliers and our performance.
Our international sales are subject to a number of additional risks, including regulatory risks, timing and availability of export licenses, difficulties in accounts receivable collections, difficulties in managing distributors, lack of a significant local sales presence, difficulties in obtaining governmental approvals, compliance with a wide variety of complex foreign laws and treaties and potentially adverse tax consequences. In addition, the United States or foreign countries may implement quotas, duties, tariffs, taxes or other charges or restrictions upon the importation or exportation of our products, leading to a reduction in sales and profitability in that country. This risk of increased trade barriers or charges has become more pronounced following the results of the recent U.S. presidential election, as the trade policies of the current U.S. presidential administration, including withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and proposed revision to the North American Free Trade Agreement, could threaten or otherwise have a significant negative effect on our ability to continue to conduct our international operations in the manner and at the costs as we have in the past. Any increased costs or regulatory obstacles with respect to our international operations, including our manufacturing facility
in the PRC and our international sales, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and prospects for growth.
Our operations could be disrupted by power outages, natural disasters or other factors.
Due to the geographic concentration of our manufacturing operations in our PRC facility and our small number of component suppliers, a disruption resulting from equipment or power failures, quality control issues, human errors, government intervention or natural disasters, including earthquakes and floods, could require significant costs to repair and could interrupt or interfere with the manufacture of our products and cause significant delays in product shipments, which could harm our customer relationships, financial condition and results of operations. In July 2014, our PRC facility suffered water damage as a result of heavy rain and floods, which forced us to temporarily halt manufacturing at the facility while necessary repairs or replacements were made to the facility and to certain of our manufacturing equipment. This incident caused us to incur additional expenses, as we shifted our manufacturing activities to a third-party facility in the PRC to mitigate the disruption in product shipments to our customers. While we believe we were able to contain this disruption, we may not be able to secure alternative manufacturing capabilities if manufacturing at the PRC facility is disrupted in the future, in which case our relationships with our customers could be materially harmed. Additionally, while we were able to favorably resolve our claim with our insurance carrier with respect to the damage to our facility cause by the July 2014 incident, we may not experience the same outcome if a similar event occurs in the future, in which case we would be forced to bear the significant costs to repair any damage to our manufacturing equipment and facility.
Difficulties with our global information technology systems, including any unauthorized access, could harm our business.
Any failure or malfunctioning of our global information technology systems, errors or misuse by system users, difficulties in migrating stand-alone systems to our centralized systems or inadequacy of the systems in addressing the needs of our operations could disrupt our ability to timely and accurately manufacture and ship products, divert management’s and key employees’ attention away from other business matters and involve significant costs and other resources to repair or otherwise resolve, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Any such event could also disrupt our ability to timely and accurately process, report and evaluate key operating metrics and key components of our results of operations, financial position and cash flows and could adversely affect our ability to complete other important business process, such as maintenance of our disclosure controls and procedures and evaluation of our internal control over financial reporting.
We store data about our business, including certain customer data, information about our and our customer’s intellectual property and other proprietary information, on our global information technology systems. While our systems includes security measures designed to prevent unauthorized access, third parties may circumvent these measures and gain unauthorized access to our systems. This unauthorized access could be the result of employee error, employee malfeasance or other causes, including intentional misconduct by computer hackers. Because the techniques used to gain unauthorized access to information technology systems evolve frequently and generally are not recognized until successful, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. Any security breach could result in disruption to our business, misappropriation or loss of data, significant resources to correct, loss of confidence in us by our customers, damage to our reputation, legal liability and a negative impact on our performance.
Our failure to comply with environmental and other applicable laws and regulations could subject us to significant fines and liabilities or cause us to incur significant costs.
We are subject to various and frequently changing U.S. federal, state and local and foreign laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment, including laws governing the discharge of pollutants into the air and water, the management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes and the clean-up of contaminated sites. In particular, some of our manufacturing processes may require us to handle and dispose of hazardous materials from time to time. For example, in the past our manufacturing operations have used lead-based solder in the assembly of our products. Today, we use lead-free soldering technologies in our manufacturing processes, as this is required for products entering the
European Union. We could incur substantial costs, including clean-up costs, civil or criminal fines or sanctions and third-party claims for property damage or personal injury, as a result of violations of or noncompliance with these and other environmental laws and regulations. Although we have not incurred significant costs to date to comply with these laws and regulations, new laws or changes to current laws and regulations to make them more stringent could require us to incur significant costs to remain in compliance.
We are also subject to a variety of laws and regulations relating to other matters, including workplace health and safety, labor and employment, foreign business practices, public reporting and taxation, among others. It is difficult and costly to manage the requirements of every authority having jurisdiction over our various activities and to comply with their varying standards. Any changes to existing regulations or adoption of new regulations may result in significant additional expense to us and our customers. Further, our failure to comply with any applicable laws and regulations may result in a variety of administrative, civil and criminal enforcement measures, including monetary penalties or imposition of sanctions or other corrective requirements, any of which could materially adversely affect our reputation and our business.
Regulations related to “conflict minerals” may cause us to incur additional expenses and could limit the supply and increase the cost of certain metals used in manufacturing our products.
In August 2012, the SEC adopted rules requiring disclosure of specified minerals, known as conflict minerals, that are necessary to the functionality or production of products manufactured or contracted to be manufactured by public companies. The rules require companies to verify and disclose whether or not such minerals, as used in a company’s products or their manufacture, originate from the Democratic Republic of Congo or an adjoining country. Because our products contain certain conflict minerals and we or our manufacturers use these conflict minerals in the manufacture of our products, we are required to comply with these disclosure rules. To comply with the rules, we are required to conduct a reasonable country of origin inquiry each year and, depending on the results of that inquiry, we may be required to exercise due diligence on the source and chain of custody of conflict minerals contained in or used to manufacture our products. Such due diligence must conform to a nationally or internationally recognized due diligence framework. We are also required to file a disclosure report with the SEC of each year relating to our conflict mineral use.
The due diligence activities required to determine the source and chain of custody of minerals contained in our products or used in their manufacture are time -consuming and may result in significant costs. Due to the size and complexity of our supply chain, we face significant challenges in verifying the origins of the minerals used in our products. Further, these rules could affect the availability in sufficient quantities and at competitive prices of certain minerals used in our products and their manufacture, which could result in increased material and component costs and additional costs associated with potential changes to our products, processes or sources of supply. Additionally, if we are unable to sufficiently verify the origin of the minerals used in our products through the due diligence measures that we implement, we may not be able to satisfy customers who require that our products be certified as “conflict-free,” which could place us at a competitive disadvantage.
Our internal control over financial reporting may not be effective, which could have a significant and adverse effect on our business.
Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the related rules and regulations of the SEC, which we collectively refer to as Section 404, require us to evaluate our internal control over financial reporting and require management to report on the effectiveness of this internal control as of the end of each year. Effective internal control is necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports and is important in our effort to prevent financial fraud. In the course of our Section 404 evaluations, we or our independent registered public accounting firm may identify significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting or if management or our independent registered public accounting firm discover material weaknesses, we may be unable to produce reliable financial reports or prevent fraud, which could harm our financial condition and results of operations, result in a loss of investor confidence and negatively impact our stock price. Further, our Section 404 evaluations may lead us to conclude that enhancements, modifications or changes to our internal control over financial reporting are necessary or desirable. Implementing any such changes would divert the attention of management, could involve significant time and costs and may negatively impact our financial results.
If we do not effectively manage any future growth we may experience, our resources, systems and controls may be strained and our results of operations may suffer.
Any future growth we may experience could strain our resources, management, information and telecommunication systems and operating and financial controls. To manage future growth effectively, including any expansion of volume in our manufacturing facility in the PRC, we must be able to improve and expand our systems and controls. We may not be able to do this in a timely or cost-effective manner. In addition, our officers have relatively limited experience in managing a rapidly growing business. As a result, they may not be able to manage any future growth we may experience. Any failure to manage any growth we may experience or improve or expand our existing systems and controls, or unexpected difficulties in doing so, could harm our business.
If we acquire businesses or technologies or pursue other strategic transactions in the future, these transactions could disrupt our business and harm our operating results and financial condition.
We evaluate opportunities to acquire businesses or technologies or pursue other strategic transactions, including collaboration or joint development arrangements such as our JDLA with Samsung that might complement our current product offerings or enhance our intellectual property portfolio or technical capabilities. We have no experience acquiring other businesses or technologies. Acquisitions and other strategic transactions entail a number of risks that could adversely affect our business and operating results, including, among others:
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difficulties in integrating the operations, technologies or products of acquired companies or working with third parties with which we may partner on joint development or collaboration relationships;
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the diversion of management’s time and attention from the daily operations of the business;
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insufficient increases in revenues to offset increased expenses associated with an acquisition or strategic transaction;
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difficulties retaining business relationships with our existing suppliers and customers or the suppliers and customers of an acquired company;
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overestimation of potential synergies or a delay in realizing these synergies;
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entering markets in which we have no or limited experience and in which competitors have stronger market positions;
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the potential loss of key employees of our Company or an acquired company;
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exposure to contingent liabilities of an acquired company;
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depletion of cash resources to fund an acquisition or other strategic transaction, or dilution of existing stockholders or increased leverage relative to our earnings or to our equity capitalization if we issue debt or equity securities to fund the transaction;
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adverse tax consequences; and
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incurrence of material charges, such as depreciation, deferred compensation charges, in-process research and development charges, the amortization of amounts related to deferred stock-based compensation expense and identifiable purchased intangible assets or impairment of goodwill.
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If any of these risks were to occur, we may not be able to realize the intended benefits of an acquisition or strategic transaction and our operating results, financial condition and business prospects could be materially negatively affected.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
Our results of operations fluctuate significantly and are difficult to predict, and any failure to meet investor or analyst expectations could cause the price of our common stock to decline.
Our operating results have fluctuated significantly in the past, and we expect they will continue to fluctuate from quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year in the future due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. Factors relating to our business that may contribute to these quarterly and annual fluctuations include, among others, the other risk factors described in this Item 1A. Due to the various factors described herein and others, the results of any prior quarterly or annual periods should not be relied upon as an indication of our future operating performance. If our quarterly results of operations fall below the expectations of securities analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. As a result of the significant fluctuations of our operating results in prior periods, period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful and investors in our common stock should not rely on these comparisons.
Our principal stockholders have significant voting power and may take actions that may not be in the best interest of our other stockholders.
As of May 11, 2017, 9.1% of our outstanding common stock was held by our directors and officers, including 8.2% held by Chun K. Hong, our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of our board of directors. As a result, Mr. Hong has the ability to exert substantial influence over all matters requiring approval by our stockholders, including the election and removal of directors, any proposed merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets and other significant corporate transactions. This concentration of control could be disadvantageous to other stockholders with interests different from those of Mr. Hong.
Anti-takeover provisions under our charter documents and Delaware law, as well as our recently adopted rights agreement, could delay or prevent a change of control and could also limit the market price of our common stock.
Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that could delay or prevent a change of control of our Company or changes in our board of directors that our stockholders might consider favorable. In addition, these anti-takeover provisions could limit the price that investors would be willing to pay for shares of our common stock. The following are examples of the anti-takeover provision that are included in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws as currently in effect:
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our board of directors is authorized, without prior stockholder approval, to designate and issue preferred stock, commonly referred to as “blank check” preferred stock, which may have rights senior to those of our common stock;
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stockholder action by written consent is prohibited;
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nominations for election to our board of directors and the submission of matters to be acted upon by stockholders at a meeting are subject to advance notice requirements; and
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our board of directors is expressly authorized to make, alter or repeal our bylaws.
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In addition, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which may prohibit certain business combinations with stockholders owning 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock. Further, in April 2017, we adopted a rights agreement that would, under certain specified circumstances and for so long as the rights issued under the rights agreement are outstanding, give the holders of our common stock the right to acquire additional shares of our capital stock, which would make it more difficult for a third party to acquire a significant percentage of our outstanding capital stock or attempt a hostile takeover of our Company. These and other provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and of Delaware law, as well as the existence of our rights agreement, could make it more difficult for stockholders or potential acquirers to obtain control of our board of directors or initiate actions
that are opposed by our board of directors, including a merger, tender offer, proxy contest or other change of control transaction involving our Company. Any delay or prevention of a change of control transaction or changes in our board of directors could prevent the consummation of a transaction in which our stockholders could receive a substantial premium over the then-current market price for our common stock.
The price and trading volume of our common stock has and may continue to fluctuate significantly.
Our common stock has been publicly traded since November 2006. The price and trading volume of our common stock are volatile and have in the past fluctuated significantly. This volatility could continue, in which case an active trading market in our common stock may never be sustained and stockholder may not be able to sell their shares at the desired time or the desired price. The market price at which our common stock trades may be influenced by many factors, including, among others, the following:
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our operating and financial performance and prospects, including our ability to achieve and sustain profitability in the future;
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investor perception of us and the industry in which we operate;
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the availability and level of research coverage of and market-making in our common stock;
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changes in earnings estimates or buy/sell recommendations by analysts;
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any financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes to these projections or our failure to meet these projections;
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our announcement of significant strategic transactions or relationships or the initiation of legal proceedings, including patent infringement actions;
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the results of legal proceedings in which we are involved;
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sales of newly issued common stock or other securities or the perception that such sales may occur; and
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general political, economic and market conditions, including volatility or uncertainty in these conditions.
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In addition, shares of our common stock and the public stock markets in general have experienced, and may continue to experience, extreme price and trading volume volatility, at times irrespective of the state of the business of any particular company. These fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
In 2007, following a drop in the market price of our common stock, securities litigation was initiated against us. Given the historic volatility of our securities and securities in our industry, we may become engaged in this type of litigation again in the future. Securities litigation, like other types of litigation, is expensive and time-consuming and could subject us to unfavorable results.
We do not currently intend to pay dividends on our common stock, and any return to investors is expected to come, if at all, only from potential increases in the price of our common stock.
We intend to use all available funds to finance our operations. Accordingly, while payment of dividends rests within the discretion of our board of directors, no cash dividends on our common shares have been declared or paid by us in the past and we have no intention of paying any such dividends in the foreseeable future. Any return to investors is expected to come, if at all, only from potential increases in the price of our common stock.
We may not be able to maintain our NASDAQ listing.
During 2015 and into early 2016, as well as during April and early May of 2017, there have been periods in which we were not compliant with various applicable continued listing standards of the NASDAQ Stock Market (“NASDAQ”), including NASDAQ’s rule requiring that the bid price of our common stock close at or above a minimum of $1.00 per share. Although we received compliance letters from NASDAQ notifying us that we had regained compliance with the applicable continued listing requirements and we believe we are currently in compliance with all such requirements for the NASDAQ Capital Market, we may again fail to comply with these requirements in the future. In that case, we would receive additional deficiency letters from NASDAQ and our common stock could be delisted from trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market. Such a delisting could cause our common stock to be classified as a “penny stock,” among other potentially detrimental consequences, any of which could significantly impact our stockholders’ ability to sell their shares of our common stock or to sell these shares at a price that a stockholder may deem acceptable.
Item 6. Exhibits.
The information required by this Item 6 is set forth on the Exhibit Index that immediately follows the signature page to this report and is incorporated herein by reference.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.
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Date: May 16, 2017
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NETLIST, INC.
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a Delaware corporation
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(Registrant)
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By:
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/s/ Chun K. Hong
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Chun K. Hong
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President, Chief Executive Officer and
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Chairman of the Board
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(Principal Executive Officer)
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By:
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/s/ Gail M. Sasaki
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Gail M. Sasaki
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Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
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(Principal Financial Officer)
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EXHIBIT INDEX
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Exhibit No.
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Description
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3.1
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Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Netlist, Inc. (incorporated by reference to exhibit 3.1 of the registration statement on Form S-1 of the registrant (No. 333-136735) filed with the SEC on October 23, 2006).
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3.1.1
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Certificate of Designation of the Series A Preferred Stock of Netlist, Inc. (incorporated by reference to exhibit 3.1 of the registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on April 17, 2017).
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3.2
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Amended and Restated Bylaws of Netlist, Inc. (incorporated by reference to exhibit number 3.1 of the registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on December 20, 2012).
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10.1
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Amendment to Loan and Security Agreement, dated March 27, 2017 and effective as of January 29, 2017, by and between Netlist, Inc. and Silicon Valley Bank (incorporated by reference to exhibit 10.1 of the registrant’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on March 29, 2017).
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31.1+
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Certification of Chief Executive Officer pursuant to Rule 13a-14(a) or Rule 15d-14(a) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as adopted pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
|
|
|
|
31.2+
|
|
Certification of Chief Financial Officer pursuant to Rule 13a-14(a) or Rule 15d-14(a) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as adopted pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
|
|
|
|
32*
|
|
Certification by Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
|
|
|
|
101.INS+
|
|
XBRL Instance Document
|
|
|
|
101.SCH+
|
|
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document
|
|
|
|
101.CAL+
|
|
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document
|
|
|
|
101.LAB+
|
|
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document
|
|
|
|
101.PRE+
|
|
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document
|
|
|
|
101.DEF+
|
|
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document
|
+ Filed herewith.
* Furnished herewith.
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