Insiders ranked by realized 90-day signed return on their open-market trades at Cirrus Logic, Inc.. Minimum 3 scored trades. Returns are signed - a sale followed by a rally counts against the insider.
Real-time Form 4 intelligence. Smarter insider tracking.
YoY shift: Lean +
Year-over-year tone shift - average net-tone change across Risk Factors and MD&A vs the prior 10-K. This filing is 0.31pp more bullish than last year's.
Why YoY instead of absolute: the LM lexicon has ~6.6× more negative words than positive (legal/risk-disclosure language is heavy on hedging), so every 10-K reads bearish on raw tone. Year-over-year change strips that bias and surfaces the actual shift in management's framing.
Tone shift by section
The two components the gauge averages: how Risk Factors and MD&A each shifted in net tone versus last year's 10-K. The headline above is their average, so a green needle over a soft section just means the other section carried it.
Risk Factors
-0.07pp
Flat
Net-tone change vs last year's 10-K.
MD&A
+0.70pp
Lean +
Net-tone change vs last year's 10-K.
Per-snippet highlights
Sentence-level sentiment highlighting with category and subcategory filters is coming once the snippet-scoring pipeline lands. For now, dig into the actual section text on the Sections tab.
Language change vs prior 10-K
Risk Factors (Item 1A) - words with the biggest YoY frequency increase
Negative rising
conflicts+5
adversely+4
instability+3
shortages+2
disruption+2
Positive rising
resolve+1
Risk Factors (Item 1A)
14,808 words
ITEM 1A. Risk Factors
Our business faces significant risks. The risk factors set forth below may not be the only risks that we face and there is a risk that we may have failed to identify all possible risk factors. Additional risks that we are not aware of yet or that currently are not material may adversely affect our business operations. You should read the following cautionary statements in conjunction with the factors discussed elsewhere in this and other Cirrus Logic filings with the SEC. These cautionary statements are intended to highlight certain factors that may affect the financial condition and results of operations of Cirrus Logic and are not meant to be an exhaustive discussion of all of the risks that may be associated with an investment in our securities.
Summary of Risk Factors
The following summarizes the principal factors that make an investment in the Company speculative or risky. This summary should be read in conjunction with the remainder of this "Item 1A. Risk Factors" section and should not be relied upon as an exhaustive summary of the material risks facing our business.
Business & Operational Risks
• Risks related to dependence on a limited number of customers and distributors and a of diversification in our revenue base, including risks related to the of, or a significant reduction in orders from, or pricing on products sold to, any key customer or distributor
Language change vs prior 10-K
MD&A (Item 7) - words with the biggest YoY frequency increase
Negative rising
No words rose this year.
Positive rising
effective+2
favorable+1
achieved+1
leadership+1
improvements+1
MD&A (Item 7)
2,913 words
ITEM 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Please read the following discussion in conjunction with our audited historical consolidated financial statements and notes thereto, which are included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations contains statements that are forward-looking. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risk, uncertainties and other factors. Actual results could differ materially because of the factors discussed in Part I, Item 1A. "Risk Factors" of this Form 10-K and elsewhere in this report, as well as in the documents we file with the SEC, including our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K.
Critical Accounting Estimates
Our discussion and analysis of the Company’s financial condition and results of operations are based upon the consolidated financial statements included in this report, which have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts. We evaluate the estimates on an on-going basis. We base these estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions and conditions. Our accounting policies are more fully described in Note 2 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in Item 8.
The Company considers the following accounting policies to involve the highest degree of judgment in the preparation of the consolidated financial statements:
Inventory Valuation
Inventories are stated at the lower of cost or net realizable value on a first-in, first-out basis. Cost is computed using standard costs, which approximate actual cost. The Company writes down inventories to net realizable value based on forecasted customer unit demand while taking into account product release schedules and product life cycles. The Company also reviews and writes down inventory, as appropriate, based on the age and condition of the inventory. Actual demand and market conditions may be different from those projected by management, which could have a material effect on our operating results and financial position.
Uncertain Tax Positions
The calculation of our tax liabilities involves assessing uncertainties with respect to the application of complex tax rules. Uncertain tax positions must meet a more likely than not threshold to be recognized in the financial statements and the tax benefits recognized are measured based on the largest benefit that has a greater than 50 percent likelihood of being realized upon final settlement. The ultimate settlement of uncertain tax positions may differ from our estimates, which could result in the recognition of a tax benefit or an additional charge to the income tax provision in the relevant period. See Note 17 — Income Taxes of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in Item 8 for additional details .
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
For a discussion of recently issued accounting pronouncements, refer to Note 2 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
Overview
Cirrus Logic develops low-power, high-precision mixed-signal processing solutions for a broad range of customers. We track operating results in one reportable segment, but report revenue performance by product line: Audio and HPMS products. In fiscal year 2026, the Company continued to execute on our three-pronged strategy to grow Cirrus Logic by maintaining our leadership in smartphone audio, increasing high-performance mixed-signal (HPMS) content in smartphones, and leveraging our audio and HPMS expertise and intellectual property to expand into additional applications and markets.
In smartphones, we experienced robust demand for our latest custom boosted amplifier and 22-nanometer smart codec, both of which deliver meaningful system-level improvements and exceptional audio performance. The Company advanced our HPMS strategy by beginning the development of next-generation camera controller components and technologies. We also made excellentprogress in advanced battery and power applications, where we validated multiple new technologies and intellectual property in silicon. Our achievements were underscored by a recent announcement from our largest customer that highlights our collaboration on a solution to support their FaceID implementation in future products. We are designing our first product in this area, a smart power IC, which represents an exciting new application space for Cirrus Logic.
Table of Contents
Beyond smartphones, we made considerable progress in fiscal year 2026 implementing our strategy to expand into new applications and markets. We achievedstrong year-over-year revenue growth in PCs as we gained share across all PC segments. The introduction of new amplifiers and codecs that target a wider range of platforms and AI-enabled PCs has positioned the Company well for continued growth in fiscal year 2027. And in our general market business, we developed multiple new product families that broaden our presence in the professional audio, automotive, industrial, and imaging end markets.
We recently joined our largest customer’s American Manufacturing Program and are working with both our customer and GlobalFoundries to develop new process technologies for our products, including our efforts to manufacture for the first time at the Malta, New York facility. Participation in this program was one of several important steps we took over the past year to advance both process and geographic diversification across our supply chain. Additionally, given the considerable range of opportunities across our custom silicon and general market businesses, we expect R&D investments to grow in fiscal year 2027, primarily due to planned headcount growth and product development expenses.
Fiscal year 2026 net sales of $2.00 billion represented an increase over fiscal year 2025 net sales of $1.90 billion. Audio product line sales of $1.16 billion in fiscal year 2026 increased 2 percent from fiscal year 2025 sales of $1.14 billion. The most significant drivers of the increase were demand for components shipping into smartphones, as well as higher PC sales, versus the prior fiscal year. HPMS product line sales of $837.4 million represented a 10 percent increase from fiscal year 2025 sales of $758.9 million, largely attributable to demand for components shipping into smartphones.
Overall, gross margin for fiscal year 2026 was 52.8 percent. The increase in gross margin for fiscal year 2026 reflects a more favorable product mix. The Company’s number of employees increased from 1,660 as of March 29, 2025 to 1,668 as of March 28, 2026. The Company achieved net income of $414.4 million in fiscal year 2026, which included an income tax provision in the amount of $82.3 million.
Results of Operations
A discussion regarding our financial condition and results of operations for fiscal year 2026 compared to fiscal year 2025 is presented below. A discussion regarding our financial condition and results of operations for fiscal year 2025, compared to fiscal year 2024, which was a 53-week fiscal year, can be found under Item 7 in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 29, 2025, filed with the SEC on May 23, 2025.
The following table summarizes the results of our operations for each of the past three fiscal years as a percentage of net sales. All percentage amounts were calculated using the underlying data, in thousands:
Fiscal Years Ended
March 28, 2026
March 29, 2025
March 30, 2024
Net sales
Gross margin
Research and development
Selling, general and administrative
Restructuring
Income from operations
Interest income
Interest expense
Other income (expense)
Income before income taxes
Provision for income taxes
Net income
Table of Contents
Net Sales
We report sales in two product line categories: Audio products and HPMS products. Our sales by product line are shown in the table below (in thousands).
Fiscal Years Ended
March 28,
March 29,
March 30,
Audio Products
HPMS Products
Net sales for fiscal year 2026 increased by 5 percent, to $2.0 billion from $1.9 billion in fiscal year 2025. Audio product sales increased $22.8 million, or 2 percent in fiscal year 2026. The most significant drivers of the increase were demand for components shipping into smartphones, as well as higher PC sales, versus the prior fiscal year. The increase in net sales also reflects a $78.5 million increase in HPMS product sales, or 10 percent, from fiscal year 2025 sales of $758.9 million, primarily due to demand for components shipping into smartphones.
International sales, including sales to U.S.-based end customers that manufacture products through contract manufacturers or plants located overseas, were approximately $2.0 billion, $1.9 billion, and $1.8 billion in fiscal years 2026, 2025, and 2024, respectively, representing 99 percent of net sales in fiscal years 2026, 2025, and 2024. Our sales are denominated primarily in U.S. dollars.
Gross Margin
Overall gross margin of 52.8 percent for fiscal year 2026 increased from fiscal year 2025 gross margin of 52.5 percent. The increase reflects a more favorable product mix. Changes in excess and obsolete inventory charges, including scrapped inventory, and sales of product written down in prior periods did not have a material impact on margin in fiscal year 2026.
Research and Development Expenses
Fiscal year 2026 research and development expenses of $434.0 million reflect a decrease of $0.7 million from fiscal year 2025. The decrease was attributable to decreased stock-based compensation and product development costs, largely due to the timing of new products, partially offset by increased employee-related costs.
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses
Fiscal year 2026 selling, general and administrative expenses of $159.8 million reflect an increase of $8.8 million, or 6 percent, compared to fiscal year 2025. The increase was primarily attributable to increased stock-based compensation and employee-related expenses.
Interest Income
Interest income in fiscal years 2026 and 2025 was $37.7 million and $34.0 million, respectively. The increase in interest income in fiscal year 2026 versus prior year was due to returns generated from higher combined average cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities balances throughout the year.
Interest Expense
The Company reported interest expense of $0.9 million and $0.9 million for fiscal years 2026 and 2025, respectively, primarily as a result of commitment fees under the Revolving Credit Facility, described in Note 8 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8.
Other Income (Expense)
In fiscal years 2026 and 2025, the Company reported $(0.5) million and $1.5 million, respectively, in other income (expense), related to remeasurement on foreign currency denominated monetary assets and liabilities and other non-operating income and expenses.
Provision for Income Taxes
We recorded income tax expense of $82.3 million in fiscal year 2026 on pre-tax income of $496.7 million, yielding an effective tax rate of 16.6 percent. Our effective tax rate in fiscal year 2026 was lower than the U.S. statutory rate of 21.0 percent, primarily due to the effect of income earned in certain foreign jurisdictions that is taxed below the federal statutory rate. The fiscal year 2026 effective tax rate was also favorably impacted by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act ("OBBBA"),
Table of Contents
enacted on July 4, 2025, which i ncluded a broad range of tax reform provisions and extended or modified many provisions first enacted in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ("TCJA") in 2017. Beginning with fiscal year 2026, the OBBBA permanently eliminated the TCJA's requirement to capitalize U.S. research and development ("R&D") expenditures. A number of other provisions, including modifications to existing international tax provisions, will take effect in fiscal year 2027.
We recorded income tax expense of $113.4 million in fiscal year 2025 on pre-tax income of $444.9 million, yielding an effective tax rate of 25.5 percent. Our effective tax rate in fiscal year 2025 was higher than the U.S. statutory rate of 21.0 percent, primarily due to U.S. tax paid on our foreign earnings resulting from an increase in global intangible low-taxed income ("GILTI"), which is treated as a period cost, due to the TCJA provision that required research and development expenditures to be capitalized in fiscal year 2025 and amortized ratably over five or fifteen years depending on the location in which the research activities were conducted.
For additional discussion about our income taxes, see Note 17 - Income Taxes of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Operating Activities
In fiscal year 2026, cash flow from operations was $650.6 million. Operating cash flow during fiscal year 2026 was related to the cash components of our net income and a $103.4 million favorable change in working capital. The favorable change in working capital was driven primarily by decreases in inventory and prepaid wafer balances (related to the Capacity Reservation Agreement) and increases in accounts payable, partially offset by decreases in other accrued liabilities and income taxes payable. In fiscal year 2025, cash flow from operations was $444.4 million. Operating cash flow during fiscal year 2025 was related to the cash components of our net income and a $23.4 million unfavorable change in working capital, primarily driven by increases in inventory and accounts receivable, partially offset by prepaid wafer balances (related to the Capacity Reservation Agreement).
Investing Activities
In fiscal year 2026, the Company used $75.1 million in cash for investing activities primarily related to $60.3 million in net purchases of marketable securities and capital expenditures and technology investments of $14.8 million. In fiscal year 2025, the Company used $124.3 million in cash for investing activities primarily related to $95.5 million in net purchases of marketable securities and capital expenditures and technology investments of $28.8 million.
Financing Activities
In fiscal years 2026 and 2025, the Company used $314.2 million and $283.2 million, respectively, related to financing activities. In fiscal years 2026 and 2025, the Company utilized approximately $280.0 million and $261.0 million, respectively, in cash to repurchase and retire portions of its outstanding common stock. See Note 15 - Stockholders' Equity of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 for a description of our share repurchase authorization.
Revolving Credit Facility
On July 8, 2021, the Company entered into a second amended and restated credit agreement (the "Second Amended Credit Agreement") with Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as administrative agent, and the lenders party thereto. The Second Amended Credit Agreement provides for a $300 million senior secured revolving credit facility (the "Revolving Credit Facility"). The Revolving Credit Facility would have matured on July 8, 2026, prior to the Third Amended Credit Agreement described in Note 8 - Revolving Credit Facility. The Revolving Credit Facility is required to be guaranteed by all of Cirrus Logic’s material domestic subsidiaries (the "Subsidiary Guarantors"). The Revolving Credit Facility is secured by substantially all the assets of Cirrus Logic and any Subsidiary Guarantors, except for certain excluded assets.
On March 20, 2023, the Company, entered into the First Amendment (the "Amendment") to its Second Amended Credit Agreement, with the lending institutions party thereto and Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as administrative agent. The Amendment updates the benchmark interest rate provisions to replace the London interbank offered rate ("LIBOR") with the forward-looking secured overnight financing rate ("Term SOFR"), for the purposes of calculating interest under the terms of the Second Amended Credit Agreement.
As of March 28, 2026, the Company had no amounts outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility and was in compliance with all covenants under the Second Amended Credit Agreement.
See Note 8 — Revolving Credit Facility of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 for additional information including material terms and related covenants.
Table of Contents
Capital Requirements
Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including the rate of sales growth, market acceptance of our products, the timing and extent of research and development projects, and potential future acquisitions of companies or technologies, commitments under the Capacity Reservation Agreement with GlobalFoundries (discussed further in Note 13 - Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements and Item 1A. Risk Factors) and the expansion of our sales and marketing activities. We believe our expected future cash earnings, existing cash, cash equivalents, investment balances, and available borrowings under our Revolving Credit Facility will be sufficient to meet our capital requirements both domestically and internationally, in the short-term (i.e. the next 12 months) and in the long-term, although we could be required, or could elect, to seek additional funding prior to that time. As of March 28, 2026, the Company did not have any off-balance-sheet arrangements, that were reasonably likely to have a material effect on our financial condition, revenues or expenses, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures or capital resources.
Contractual Cash Obligations
In our business activities, we incur certain commitments to make future payments under contracts such as debt agreements, purchase orders, operating leases and other long-term contracts. See Note 8 - Revolving Credit Facility, Note 10 - Leases and Note 13 - Commitments and Contingencies, of the notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8, for additional information related to these contractual obligations.
• Risks related to global economic conditions, including economic downturns or recessions and the effects of tariffs and inflationary pressures
• Risks related to third-party manufacturing and supply chain relationships, including risks associated with our efforts to increase the geographic diversity and regional resilience of our supply chain
• Risks related to fluctuation in sales in the consumer electronics and smartphone markets
• Risks related to our international operations, including government trade policies and delays or disruptions to our international subcontractors, which may be impacted by political/economic factors
• Risks related to system security, cyber-attacks, data breaches, and disruptions to our IT systems
• Risks related to strong competition in the semiconductor market, including competition to attract, hire, and retain highly qualified personnel
• Risks related to our long-term capacity reservation and wafer supply agreement with GlobalFoundries
• Risks related to our fabless business model
• Risks related to the use or application of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence
• Risks related to acquiring other companies or technologies
• Risks related to product concentration, difficulty in forecasting sales due to customers' ability to cancel or reschedule orders, and declining average selling prices
Strategic & Industry Risks
• Risks related to joint development or other custom product collaborations, including the development of products for specific system architectures
• Risks related to the timely development, production, and acceptance of new and advanced technologies while complying with environmental regulations
• Risks related to increasing complexity of our products and the potential for security vulnerabilities or other product defects and difficulties in transitioning to advanced manufacturing process technologies
• Risks related to changes in the system architecture of our customers' end products
• Risks related to our ability to protect our intellectual property rights
Financial Risks
• Risks related to exposure to tax liabilities and changes in tax laws
• Risks related to fluctuations in inventory, including risks related to our customers’ ability to cancel/reschedule orders on short notice
• Risks related to fluctuations in operating results, stock price, and foreign currency exposures
• Risks related to debt obligations, including under our Second Amended Credit Agreement
Table of Contents
Legal & General Risks
• Risks related to intellectual property claims and litigation and export control regulations, including the potential for illicitdiversion of products
• Risks related to certain provisions of Delaware law and our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws
• Risks related to corporate social responsibility initiatives and ESG matters
• Risks related to owning real property
Business and Operational Risks
We depend on a limited number of customers and distributors for a substantial portion of our sales, and the loss of, or a significant reduction in orders from, or pricing on products sold to, any key customer or distributor could significantly reduce our sales and our profitability.
While we generate sales from a broad base of customers worldwide, the loss of any of our key customers, or a significant reduction in sales or selling prices to any key customer, or reductions in selling prices made to retain key customer relationships, would significantly reduce our revenue, margins, and earnings and adversely affect our business. For the twelve-month periods ending March 28, 2026, March 29, 2025, and March 30, 2024, our ten largest end customers represented approximately 96 percent, 96 percent and 95 percent of our net sales, respectively. For the twelve-month periods ending March 28, 2026, March 29, 2025, and March 30, 2024, we had one end customer, Apple Inc., who purchased through multiple contract manufacturers and represented approximately 91 percent, 89 percent and 87 percent of the Company’s total net sales, respectively.
We may not be able to maintain or increase sales to certain of our key customers for a variety of reasons, including:
- most of our customers can stop incorporating our products into their own products with limited notice to us and suffer little or no penalty;
- our agreements with our customers typically do not require them to purchase a minimum quantity of our products;
- many of our customers have pre-existing or concurrent relationships with our current or potential competitors that may affect the customers’ decisions to purchase our products;
- many of our customers have sufficient resources to internally develop technology solutions and semiconductor components that could replace the products that we currently supply in our customers’ end products;
- our customers face intense competition from other manufacturers that do not use our products;
- our customers may be subject to investigations and litigation that could result in injunctive or other relief that negatively impacts sales of their products, which in turn would result in a decrease in demand for our products;
- our customers regularly evaluate alternative sources of supply in order to diversify their supplier base, which increases their negotiating leverage with us and their ability to either obtain or dual-source components from other suppliers; and
- our current customers may be hesitant in some cases to award new business to us based on their desire to manage their supply chain risks around any potential over-dependence on a supplier or supply chain.
In addition, our dependence on a limited number of key customers may make it easier for them to demand favorable commercial terms or to pressure us on price reductions or to not accept price increases resulting from unexpected or additional cost increases or fees associated with our suppliers. We have experienced pricing pressure from certain key customers, and we expect that the average selling prices ("ASPs") for certain of our products will decline from time to time, potentially reducing our revenue, margins, and earnings.
Our key customer relationships often require us to develop new products that may involve significant technological challenges. Our customers frequently place considerable pressure on us to meet tight development schedules. In addition, we have entered, and may again enter in the future, into customer agreements providing for exclusivity periods during which we may only sell specified products or technology to a specific customer. Even without exclusivity periods, the products that we develop are often specific to our customer's system architecture and frequently cannot be sold to other customers. Accordingly, we have in the past and may in the future devote a substantial amount of resources to strategic relationships, which could
Table of Contents
detract from or delay our completion of other important development projects or the development of next-generation products and technologies. Notwithstanding our efforts, our customers are not always obligated to purchase new products that we develop for them, and their failure to do so could have a material effect on our operating results, financial condition, and cash flows.
Our reliance on certain customers may continue to increase, which could heighten the risks associated with having key customers, including making us more vulnerable to significant reductions in revenue, margins, and earnings; pricing pressure; and other adverse effects on our business.
Changes in government trade policies, including the imposition of tariffs and export restrictions, could have an adverse impact on our business operations and sales.
The United States or foreign governments may enact changes in government trade policies that could adversely impact our ability to sell products in certain countries and increase prices associated with our customers' products. For example, the U.S. government has recently imposed and/or threatened to impose tariffs on nearly all imported goods. In addition, the U.S. government has imposed significant tariffs aimed at China due to perceived unfair trade practices. In return, the Chinese government has imposed significant tariffs on certain U.S. products. Additionally, export restrictions imposed by the U.S. government, including the addition of licensing requirements by the United States Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security ("BIS") through the addition of companies to the BIS Entity List, as well as trade restrictions imposed by the U.S. related to goods imported from regions in China with records of forced labor and other human rights issues, may require us to suspend our business with certain international customers and/or manufacturing entities if we conclude or are notified by the U.S. government that such business presents a risk of noncompliance with U.S. regulations.
We cannot predict what actions may be taken with respect to tariffs or trade relations, what products may be subject to such actions, or what actions may be taken by other countries in response. The current global trade situation is highly dynamic, and it is not possible to anticipate the timing or duration of such tariffs, export restrictions, or other regulatory actions. These government trade policies may materially adversely affect our sales and operations with current customers as well as impede our ability to develop relationships with new customers.
While we have in the past received licenses from the U.S. government to export certain items to companies on the BIS Entity List, there can be no assurances that we will be able to continue to obtain or maintain licenses for the manufacture or sale of future products or for other entities if the U.S government adds other companies to the BIS Entity List and/or subjects them to additional trade restrictions. Despite our receipt of licenses, BIS Entity List restrictions may also encourage foreign customers to seek a greater supply of similar or substitute products from competitors or other third parties who are not subject to these restrictions or to develop their own solutions, especially as the Chinese government develops its domestic semiconductor industry. If export restrictions and tariffs are sustained for a long period of time, or increased, or if other export restrictions are imposed in the future, our long-term competitiveness as a supplier, particularly in China, will likely be impacted.
There is a risk of further escalation and retaliatory actions between the U.S. and other foreign governments. If significant tariffs or other restrictions are placed on goods exported and/or imported from/to China or other countries, or any related counter-measures are taken, our revenue and results of operations may be materially harmed. These tariffs may also make our customers' products more expensive for consumers, which may reduce consumer demand.
The U.S. government also may seek to implement more protective trade measures, not just with respect to China but with respect to other countries as well. This could include new or higher tariffs and even more restrictive trade barriers, such as prohibiting certain types of, or all, sales of certain products or products sold by certain parties into the U.S. Any increased trade barriers or restrictions on global trade could have a materially adverse impact on our business and financial results.
We are dependent on third-party manufacturing and supply chain relationships for all of our products. Our reliance on third-party foundries and suppliers involves certain risks that may result in increased costs, delays in meeting our customers’ demand, and loss of revenue.
We do not own or operate a semiconductor fabrication facility and do not have the resources to manufacture our products internally. We use third parties to fabricate, assemble, package, and test the vast majority of our products. As a result, we are subject to risks associated with these third parties, including:
- insufficient capacity available to meet our demand on time;
Table of Contents
- inability of our suppliers to obtain the equipment or replacement parts necessary to fully operate their facilities or expand available manufacturing capacity;
- inadequate manufacturing yields and excessive costs;
- inability of these third parties to obtain an adequate supply of raw materials;
- extended lead times on supplies used in the manufacturing of our products;
- difficulties selecting and integrating new subcontractors;
- limited warranties on products supplied to us;
- potential increases in prices (including the cost of freight and potential tariffs); and
- increased exposure to potential misappropriation of our intellectual property.
Outside of our long-term supply agreement for wafer fabrication supply with GlobalFoundries, our outside foundries and assembly and test suppliers generally manufacture our products on a purchase order basis, and we have few other long-term supply arrangements with these suppliers. Therefore, our third-party manufacturers and suppliers are not obligated to supply us with products for any specific period of time, quantity, or price, except as may be provided in any particular purchase order or in relation to an existing supply agreement. A manufacturing or supply disruption experienced by one or more of our outside suppliers or a disruption of our relationship with an outside foundry could negatively impact the production of certain of our products for a substantial period of time.
We have experienced the effects of industry-wide manufacturing capacity constraints. These supply challenges have impacted, and may continue to impact, our ability to fully satisfy increases in demand for some of our products. Foundries we use have faced increased demand associated with data center build-outs and AI-related applications, which could increase pricing, limit available capacity, result in changes in how available capacity is allocated by our suppliers, and extend lead times. We do not typically manufacture the majority of these products at more than one foundry or more than one assembly and test subcontractor, and the costs and effort associated with the potential transfer of any portion of our supply chain to a backup supplier would likely be substantial. Therefore, if one or more of our third-party manufacturers and suppliers are not able to provide us sufficient capacity to meet our current demand, we may not be able to ship our products to customers on time and in the quantity requested, which could cause an unanticipateddecline in our sales and damage our existing customer relationships and our ability to establish new customer relationships. Capacity constraints could further result in increased prices in our supply chain, which, if we are unable to increase our selling prices or if we have previously committed to pricing, could result in lower revenues and margins that could adversely affect our financial results.
In addition, difficulties associated with adapting our technology and product design to the proprietary process technology and design rules of outside foundries can lead to reduced yields of our products. Since low yields may result from either design or process technology failures, yield problems may not be effectively determined or resolved until an actual product exists that can be analyzed and tested to identify process sensitivities relating to the design rules that are used. As a result, yield problems may not be identified until well into the production process, and resolution of yield problems may require cooperation between our manufacturer and us. This risk could be compounded by the offshore location of certain of our manufacturers, increasing the effort and time required to identify, communicate, and resolve manufacturing yield problems. Manufacturing defects that we do not discover during the manufacturing or testing process may lead to costly product recalls. These risks may lead to increased costs or delayed product delivery, which would harm our profitability and customer relationships.
In some cases, our requirements may represent a small portion of the total production of the third-party suppliers. As a result, we are subject to the risk that a producer will cease production of an older or lower-volume process that it uses to produce our parts. We cannot provide any assurance that our external foundries will continue to devote resources to the production of parts for our products or continue to advance the process design technologies on which the manufacturing of our products are based. Each of these events could increase our costs, lower our gross margin, and cause us to hold more inventories, or materially impact our ability to deliver our products on time.
Our reliance on third-party foundries, assembly and test providers, logistics providers, and other suppliers also exposes us to geopolitical and armed-conflict risks that may disrupt shipping lanes and transportation routes, increase fuel, freight, insurance, security and other logistics costs, and delay the movement of raw materials, wafers, components and finished goods.
Table of Contents
For example, conflicts and instability in the Middle East, including tensions involving Iran and potential disruption in and around key regional shipping routes, have adversely affected, and may continue to adversely affect, portions of the global supply chain on which we rely, including by increasing freight and related logistic costs and potentially affecting the timing and reliability of certain aspects of our supply chain. If these or similar events result in increased supply-chain costs and we are unable to offset them through pricing or other measures, or if we have previously committed to pricing, our gross margins, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
We may not be able to increase the geographic diversity and regional resilience of our supply chain, which could have an adverse impact on our financial results and potential business opportunities.
Many of our customers and potential customers are placing increased emphasis on geographic diversity and regional resilience in their supply chains, particularly seeking to reduce reliance on manufacturing concentrated in Taiwan and to mitigate broader geopolitical and tariff risks. Customers may also increasingly seek or require certain manufacturing, fabrication, assembly, testing or other supply chain activities to occur within the United States. To achieve geographic diversity, we may need to make increased investments in qualifying geographically diversified manufacturing and test facilities, which could result in additional costs and impact our operating margins. In addition, certain customers have already requested that we hold additional inventory to protect against potential supply disruptions, and such demands may increase over time. These requirements increase our working capital needs, expose us to inventory obsolescence risks, and limit our manufacturing flexibility. If we are unable to meet customer expectations for geographic diversity, U.S.-based supply chain activities, inventory management, or supply continuity, we may experience delays in product qualifications, pricing pressure, or loss of business opportunities. Competitors with manufacturing operations in the United States or with a broader geographic manufacturing footprint may be better positioned to meet evolving customer requirements, which could place us at a competitive disadvantage.
Our results may be affected by fluctuation in sales in the consumer electronics and smartphone markets.
Because we sell products primarily in the consumer electronics and smartphone markets, we are likely to be affected by any decrease in demand or unit volumes, seasonality in the sales of our products, and the cyclical nature of these markets. We have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, slowing growth in a maturing smartphone market, due to, among other factors, market saturation in developed countries, lengthening replacement cycles, and a growing market for refurbished devices. Further, a decline in consumer confidence and consumer spending relating to economic conditions, increases in our customers' products' prices (including any potential impact of increased tariffs), inflationary pressures, terrorist attacks, armed conflicts, oil prices, global health conditions, natural disasters, and/or the political stability of countries in which we operate or sell products could have an adverse effect on consumer demand in these markets, which would likely impact our business, operating results, and financial condition.
The lack of diversification in our revenue and customer base increases the risk of an investment in our company, and our consolidated financial condition, results of operations, and stock price may deteriorate if we fail to diversify.
Although we continuously explore opportunities to diversify our revenue and customer base, our sales, marketing, and development efforts have historically been focused on a limited number of customers and opportunities. Many companies have the ability to manage their risk by product, market, and customer diversification. However, we lack diversification, in terms of both the nature and scope of our business, which increases the risk of an investment in our company. If we cannot diversify our customer and revenue opportunities, our financial condition and results of operations could deteriorate.
System security and data breaches, cyber-attacks and other related cyber security incidents could disrupt our internal operations and/or supply chain, result in the loss of our, our customers', and our suppliers' proprietary and confidential information, adversely impact our reputation and business, and result in potentially significant expenses, costs, liabilities and other negative consequences, any or all of which could adversely affect results of operations and our stock price.
Despite implementing security measures, we are subject to risk, both at Cirrus Logic and through our supply chain, of attack from maliciousthreat actors, which could include agents of organized crime or nation-state or nation-state supported actors. We manage and store various proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data relating to our business and our employees. In addition, we manage and store a significant amount of proprietary and sensitive or confidential information from third parties, such as our customers and suppliers. Unauthorized insiders and/or third-party threat actors may be able to penetrate our security measures, evade our controls, or exploitvulnerabilities in our systems or our third-party providers' systems and misappropriate or compromise our, our customers' or our suppliers' proprietary and confidential information,
Table of Contents
including intellectual property and personal information of our current and former employees, create system disruptions, or cause shutdowns. Threat actors also may be able to develop and deploy viruses, worms, phishing attempts, ransomware, and other malicious software that attack our websites, computer systems, access to critical information, products, or otherwise exploit security vulnerabilities. The sophistication, scale and frequency of cyber-attacks has continued to increase and evolve at a rapid pace, and the risk of attack may be heightened when our employees are working remotely. Artificial intelligence and machine learning also may be used for certain cybersecurity attacks, improving or expanding the existing capabilities of threat actors in manners we cannot predict at this time, resulting in greater risks of security incidents and breaches. The risk of state-sponsored or geopolitical-related cybersecurity incidents has also increased due to ongoing geopolitical tensions with China and geopolitical conflicts and instability in other regions, including the war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, and escalating hostilities involving Iran, Israel and the United States. Such conflicts may increase the risk of retaliatory or opportunisticcyberattacks by nation-state actors, their proxies or other threat actors against us, our customers, our suppliers or other third parties on which we rely. Our prioritization of security measures and remediation of known vulnerabilities may prove inadequate and we may be unable to anticipate or protect against attacks. If an incident occurs, we may be unable to detect it for an extended period of time.
Any breach of our security measures or the loss, inadvertent disclosure, or unapproved dissemination of proprietary information or sensitive or confidential data about us, our customers, our suppliers or our employees, including the potential loss or disclosure of such information or data, could result in numerous risks and adverse consequences. Such consequences include remediation costs, litigation and potential liability for us, including as a result of U.S. or foreign governmental investigations or enforcement actions, penalties for violation of applicable laws or regulations, including laws and regulations in the United States and other jurisdictions relating to the collection, use and security of user and other personally identifiable information and data, damage to our brand and reputation, the loss of sales and customer or supplier relationships, negative impacts to our employee recruiting and retention, loss of intellectual property protection, risk of inadequate insurance coverage and increased insurance premiums, and numerous other financial, legal and business risks, any or all of which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations and result in significant stock price volatility. In addition to our own systems, our business also is reliant upon the security of various third parties in our supply chain, and any breach of their systems and securities could result in our being subjected to the numerous risks and adverse consequences noted above.
In the past, we have experienced attempted cybersecurity attacks and we anticipate continuing to be subject to such attempts, particularly given the evolving nature of the cybersecurity threat landscape; however, we believe that the past threats have not had a material impact on our business.
We may be adversely impacted by global economic conditions. As a result, our financial results and the market price of our common shares may decline.
We have been and may continue to be adversely impacted by global economic conditions, including as a result of rapid and fluctuating changes in global trade policies. Global economic conditions could make it difficult for our customers, our suppliers, and us to accurately forecast and plan future business activities and could cause global businesses to defer or reduce spending on our products, or increase the costs of manufacturing our products. During challenging economic times our customers and distributors may face issues gaining timely access to sufficient credit, which could impact their ability to make timely payments to us. If that were to occur, we may be required to increase our allowance for doubtful accounts and our days sales outstanding would increase. Additionally, if our own supply chain or others from whom our customers source are financially impacted and ultimately unable to deliver their required component(s), then our customers may delay or cancel their orders from us.
We cannot predict the timing, strength, or duration of any economic slowdown or subsequent economic recovery. However, inflation continues to be an issue in the U.S. and overseas, resulting in rising transportation, wages, and other costs. Inflation has and may continue to increase our cost of labor, manufacturing, and other costs. If our costs continue to be subject to significant inflationary pressures, we may not be able to fully offset such higher costs with increased prices or revenues. Our inability or failure to do so could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, inflationary pressures could also result in a decline in consumer confidence and spending, potentially impacting demand for our customers' end products in the consumer electronics and smartphone markets. Any such decline would likely impact our business, operating results, and financial condition.
Moreover, we regularly maintain cash balances at third-party financial institutions in excess of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") insurance limit or at financial institutions located outside the U.S. where FDIC insurance does not apply. If a depository institution fails to return our deposits or if a depository institution is subject to other adverse conditions in the financial or credit markets, there is no guarantee that we have access to such uninsured deposits, which could
Table of Contents
restrict access to our cash or cash equivalents and could adversely impact our operating liquidity, financial condition, and results of operations.
Strong competition in the semiconductor market may harm our business.
Our industry is intensely competitive and is frequently characterized by rapid technological change, price erosion, technological obsolescence, and a push towards integrated circuit ("IC") component integration. Because of shortened product life cycles and even shorter design-in cycles in a number of the markets that we serve, our competitors have increasingly frequent opportunities to achieve design wins in next-generation systems. As markets mature and components become commoditized, competitors that can tolerate lower margins/operating income pose a risk to our profitability and growth. In the event that competitors succeed in supplanting our products, our market share may not be sustainable and our net sales, gross margin and operating results would be adversely affected.
We compete in a number of markets. Our principal competitors in these markets include AKM Semiconductor Inc., Analog Devices Inc., Qualcomm Incorporated, Realtek Semiconductor Corporation, Renesas Electronics Corporation, Shanghai Awinic Technology Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Goodix Technology Co, Ltd., Skyworks Solutions Inc., ST Microelectronics N.V., Synaptics Incorporated and Texas Instruments, Inc.
Many of these competitors have greater financial, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, technical, distribution, and other resources; broader product lines; and broader intellectual property portfolios. We also expect intensified competition from emerging companies and from customers who develop their own IC products or other technologies. In addition, some of our current and future competitors maintain their own fabrication facilities, which could benefit them in connection with cost, capacity, and technical issues.
We cannot provide assurances that we will be able to compete successfully in the future or that competitive pressures will not adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. Competitive pressures could reduce market acceptance of our products, reduce selling prices, and increase expenses, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.
We have a long-term capacity reservation and wafer supply agreement with GlobalFoundries, which includes obligations to purchase wafers from GlobalFoundries through calendar year 2026. If our requirements are different from the number of wafers that we have committed to purchase from GlobalFoundries, or if GlobalFoundries is not able to satisfy our manufacturing requirements, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely impacted.
In 2021, in an effort to alleviate some of our future expected supply constraints, the Company entered into a Capacity Reservation and Wafer Supply Commitment Agreement with GlobalFoundries on July 28, 2021 to reserve capacity and set wafer pricing for products purchased pursuant to the agreement through 2026. In February 2025, this agreement was amended to reflect an agreed change in the number of wafers to be shipped on a quarterly basis during calendar years 2025 and 2026.
Although we believe this agreement is a good use of our financial resources and secures capacity for certain products through 2026, the agreement with GlobalFoundries involves certain risks that have resulted and may in the future result in excess inventory, or may place us at a competitive disadvantage, have a negative impact on our liquidity, or adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. Pursuant to the agreement, the Company is required to purchase, and GlobalFoundries is required to supply, a certain number of wafers on a quarterly basis. Customers, on occasion, cancel, reschedule orders, or change future product plans on short notice, which can lead to our actual wafer requirements being less than the number of wafers required to meet the applicable wafer purchase requirements, potentially resulting in excess inventory or higher inventory unit costs, both of which may adversely impact our gross margin and our results of operations.
Additionally, the agreement sets forth pricing for wafer purchases pursuant to the agreement through 2026. If market conditions change and wafer prices in the market decrease significantly below what is contemplated in the agreement, the agreement may put us at a competitive disadvantage relative to our competitors.
Even with a long-term supply agreement, we are still subject to risks that GlobalFoundries will be unable to meet its supply commitments, achieve anticipated manufacturing yields, manufacture our products on a timely basis, or provide additional wafer capacity beyond its current contractual commitments sufficient to meet our customers' product demands. If this were to occur, we may experience delays in product launches or supply shortages for certain products, which could cause an unanticipateddecline in our sales and damage our existing customer relationships and our ability to establish new customer relationships. In addition, if GlobalFoundries experiences financial difficulties or goes into bankruptcy, it could be difficult or
Table of Contents
impossible, or may require substantial time and expense, for us to recover any or all of our prepayments made as part of the agreement.
Any of the foregoing could materially harm our liquidity, financial condition and results of operations and could put us at a disadvantage relative to our competitors.
Our sales could be materially impacted by the failure of other component suppliers to deliver required parts needed in the final assembly of our customers’ end products.
The products we supply our customers are typically a portion of the many components provided from multiple suppliers to complete the final assembly of an end product. If other component suppliers are unable to deliver their required component(s) for the final end product to be assembled, our customers may delay, or ultimately cancel, their orders from us. For example, shipping routes in the Middle East have been and may in the future be disrupted, lengthening the time for shipments to reach their destinations. Additionally, shortages of, or price increases in, certain components, such as memory, may limit our customers’ ability to manufacture their products or increase their costs, which could reduce demand for our components.
If we fail to attract, hire and retain qualified personnel, we may not be able to develop, market, or sell our products or successfully manage our business.
Competition for highly qualified personnel in our industry, particularly for employees with technical backgrounds, is intense. Some companies in our industry have adopted flexible remote work arrangements that provide more flexibility than our working arrangements, which may put us at a competitive disadvantage for talent. Accordingly, we expect competition for qualified personnel to continue to be intense because there are a limited number of individuals in the job market with the skills that we and our competitors require.
There also is a risk that changes in immigration laws and regulations, or their administration or enforcement, can impair our ability to attract and retain qualified engineering personnel. In the U.S., where a significant portion of our research and development teams are located, tightening of immigration controls may adversely affect the employment status of non-U.S. engineers and other key technical employees or further impact our ability to hire new non-U.S. employees. Moreover, certain immigration policies in the U.S. may make it more difficult for us to recruit and retain highly skilled foreign national graduates of universities in the U.S. and abroad, additionally limiting the pool of available talent.
Recent and potential changes to U.S. immigration laws, regulations, and administrative practices, including those affecting prevailing wage requirements and the selection or allocation processes for employment-based visa programs (for example, the implementation of a weighted lottery system based on wage levels or increases in prevailing wage levels), may favor higher-compensated positions and increase the compensation and administrative burdens required to sponsor foreign national employees. These changes could adversely affect our ability to hire early-career or entry-level engineers, limit our access to qualified foreign technical talent, increase uncertainty in our ability to secure employment-based visas in the United States, and increase our costs and reduce our flexibility in recruiting and retaining qualified technical talent.
There are significant costs to the Company associated with attracting and retaining qualified personnel in key technology positions. Recruiting and employee costs, such as cash and stock-based compensation, have increased relative to historic levels and may continue to increase, which could adversely affect our results of operations. Further, the loss of the services of key personnel or our inability to hire new personnel with the requisite skills or to assimilate talent could restrict our ability to develop new products or timely enhance existing products, sell products to our customers, or manage our business effectively.
Because we operate a fabless business model, we may not be eligible for certain U.S. government incentives and tax credits offered to promote domestic semiconductor production.
From time to time, governments may provide subsidies or make other investments that could give competitive advantages to certain semiconductor companies. For example, in 2022, the U.S. government passed the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors & Sciences Act to provide $52.7 billion of funding to U.S.-based semiconductor companies to promote domestic production. Because we operate a fabless business model, we may not be eligible for such
Table of Contents
incentives from the U.S. government at this time. However, many of our current and future competitors maintain their own fabrication facilities and may secure such funding, which could benefit them in connection with cost, capacity, and technical issues. Additionally, to remain competitive with top talent, we may need to incur additional costs to provide certain additional benefits even though we are not receiving subsidies or other government funding. These competitive pressures could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Because we depend on subcontractors internationally to perform key manufacturing functions for us, we are subject to political, economic, climate and natural disaster risks that could disrupt the fabrication, assembly, packaging, or testing of our products.
We depend on third-party subcontractors, primarily in Asia, for the fabrication, assembly, packaging, and testing of most of our products. International operations may be subject to a variety of risks, including political instability, global health conditions, currency controls, exchange rate fluctuations, changes in import/export regulations, tariff and freight rates, as well as the risks of natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods. The potential physical impacts of climate change, including high heat events, power or water shortages, fires, rising sea levels, changes in storm patterns or intensities, or other extreme weather conditions, are uncertain and could impact operations at our subcontractors. Any disruption to our manufacturing cycle could adversely affect our operations and financial results.
Although we seek to reduce our dependence on any one subcontractor, the substantial majority of our semiconductor wafers are manufactured by TSMC at fabs in Taiwan, and GlobalFoundries in Singapore and Germany. This concentration of subcontractors and manufacturing operations, subjects us to the risks of conducting business internationally, including associated political and economic conditions. If we experience manufacturing problems at a particular location, or a supplier is unable to continue operating due to financial difficulties, natural disasters, political or economic turmoil or conflict, or other reasons, we would be required to transfer manufacturing to a backup supplier. Transferring from a primary supplier to another facility would likely result in increased production costs and a delay in production. Further, such a transition may not be possible, particularly in a supply constrained environment. There are only a few foundries that are currently available for certain advanced processing technologies that we utilize or may utilize. As a result, delays in our production or shipping by the parties to whom we outsource these functions could reduce our sales, damage our customer relationships, and damage our reputation in the marketplace, any of which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Specifically, our operations and our suppliers’ operations could be harmed, our shipment times could be extended, and our costs could increase if geopolitical conflicts or related government actions disruptcritical trade routes, logistics networks, or the supply of materials our suppliers require to manufacture our products. For example, any deterioration in the social, political, or economic conditions in Taiwan, particularly as it relates to China-Taiwan relations, may disrupt our business operations and materially and adversely affect our results of operations. Similarly, the war in Ukraine could result in shortages of materials required by our suppliers, and conflicts and instability in the Middle East, including tensions involving Iran and potential disruption in and around key regional shipping routes, have increased, and may continue to increase, freight and related logistics costs and could delay the movement of materials required to manufacture our products.
Risks relating to the adoption, use or application of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence may impact financial results and could result in reputational and financial harm and liability.
Artificial intelligence ("AI") is a rapidly developing field that presents both risks and opportunities. For example, our business operations and research and development tasks may benefit from the use of AI tools. It is possible that we may not leverage this technological change as effectively as our competitors. Additionally, our use of AI may also increase vulnerability to cybersecurity risks, including through unauthorized use or misuse of AI tools and bad inputs or logic or the introduction of malicious code incorporated into AI generated code. While we have implemented security measures and developed internal policies to govern the use of AI, risks exist relating to the protection of data (including the potential exposure of our or our customers’ proprietary and confidential information), the misuse of third-party intellectual property, or our failure to identify and correct deficiencies or inaccuracies generated by AI. Our failure to utilize AI responsibly may impact our reputation and could have a negative impact on our business, operating results, and financial condition.
In general, our customers may cancel or reschedule orders on short notice without incurring significant penalties; therefore, our sales and operating results in any quarter are difficult to forecast.
In general, we rely on customers issuing purchase orders to buy our products rather than long-term supply contracts. Customers on occasion cancel, reschedule, or change future product plans on short notice without incurring significant penalties. Additionally, it is possible that some customers may place orders for our products that exceed their actual demand
Table of Contents
and may cancel all or portions of their order if circumstances change. Cancellations, reductions, or delays of orders from any significant customer could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations and may require us to recognize excess inventory write-off charges.
Because our expense levels to a large extent are fixed in the short term, we likely will be unable to adjust spending on a timely basis to compensate for any unexpectedshortfall in sales and our operating results could be harmed in any particular quarter.
Our international operations subject our business to additional political and economic risks that could have an adverse impact on our business.
In addition to international sales constituting a large portion of our net sales, we maintain international operations, sales, and technical support personnel. International expansion has required, and will continue to require, significant management attention and resources. There are risks inherent in expanding our presence into non-U.S. regions, including, but not limited to:
- difficulties in staffing and managing non-U.S. operations, including compliance with local employment regulations;
- failure in non-U.S. regions to adequately protect our intellectual property, patent, trademarks, copyrights, know-how, and other proprietary rights and the risk of potential theft or compromise of our intellectual property;
- global health conditions and potential natural disasters, including those resulting from climate change;
- power or water shortages or other operational disruptions, including those resulting from extreme weather conditions;
- political, social and economic instability in international regions, including wars;
- international currency controls and exchange rate fluctuations;
- financial accounting and reporting burdens and complexities;
- vulnerability to terrorist groups targeting U.S. interests abroad;
- legal uncertainty regarding liability and compliance with non-U.S. laws and regulatory requirements; and
- changing U.S. regulation of foreign operations, including potential sanctions.
If we are unable to successfully manage the demands of our international operations, it may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations.
Our products may be subject to average selling prices that decline over time. If we are unable to maintain or increase average selling prices for existing products, increase our volumes, introduce new or enhanced products with higher selling prices, or reduce our costs, our business and operating results could be harmed.
Historically in the semiconductor industry, average selling prices of products have decreased over time. Moreover, our dependence on a limited number of key customers may make it easier for key customers to pressure us to reduce prices. Further, we have made commitments not to exceed certain pricing with some key customers on some of our products, and as a result, we may not be able to pass on any unexpected or additional cost increases or fees associated with our suppliers.
If the average selling price of any of our products declines or we are unable to pass on increased supply costs to our customers, and we are unable to increase our unit volumes, introduce new or enhanced products with higher margins, and/or reduce manufacturing costs to offset anticipated decreases in the prices of our existing products, our operating results may be adversely affected.
In addition, because of procurement lead times, we are limited in our ability to reduce total costs quickly in response to any reductions in prices or sales shortfalls. Because of these factors, we may experience adverse fluctuations in our future operating results on a quarterly or annual basis.
Table of Contents
We are subject to risks relating to product concentration.
We derive a substantial portion of our revenues from a limited number of products, and we expect these products to represent a large percentage of our revenues in the near term. Customer acceptance of these products is critical to our future success. Our business, operating results, financial condition and cash flows could therefore be adversely affected by:
- a decline in demand for any of our more significant products;
- a decline in the average selling prices of our more significant products;
- failure of our products to achieve continued market acceptance;
- competitive products;
- new technological standards or changes to existing standards that we are unable to address with our products;
- manufacturing or supply issues that prevent us from meeting our customers’ demand for these products;
- a failure to release new products or enhanced versions of our existing products on a timely basis;
- the failure of our new products to achieve market acceptance or grow as expected; and
- any changes to a customer's future product plans.
We have significant international sales, and risks associated with these sales could harm our operating results.
International sales represented 99 percent of our net sales in fiscal years 2026, 2025, and 2024.
We expect international sales to continue to represent a significant portion of product sales. This reliance on international sales subjects us to certain risks, including risks associated with political and economic instability, global health conditions, currency controls, exchange rate fluctuations, changes in import/export regulations, and tariff and freight rates. For example, the political or economic instability in a given region may have an adverse impact on the financial position of end users in the region, which could affect future orders and harm our results of operations. Our international sales operations involve a number of other risks including, but not limited to:
- unexpected changes in government regulatory requirements;
- sales, VAT, or other indirect tax regulations and treaties and potential changes in regulations and treaties in the United States and in and between countries in which we manufacture or sell our products;
- changes to countries’ banking and credit requirements;
- changes in diplomatic and trade relationships, including as a result of geopolitical conflict;
- delays resulting from difficulties in obtaining export licenses for technology, particularly in China;
- further changes in U.S. trade policy, including potential adoption and expansion of trade restrictions, higher tariffs, or cross border taxation by the U.S. government involving other countries, particularly China, that might impact overall customer demand for our products or affect our ability to manufacture and/or sell our products overseas;
- tariffs and other barriers and restrictions, particularly in China;
- competition with non-U.S. companies or other domestic companies entering non-U.S. markets in which we operate;
- longer sales and payment cycles;
- problems in collecting accounts receivable;
- the burdens of complying with a variety of non-U.S. laws; and
Table of Contents
- changes to economic, social, or political conditions in countries such as Taiwan and China, where we have significant operations.
In addition, our competitive position may be affected by the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against other currencies. While our sales are predominately denominated in U.S. dollars, increases in the value of the dollar would increase the price in local currencies of our products in non-U.S. markets and make our products relatively more expensive. We cannot provide assurances that regulatory, political, and other factors will not adversely affect our operations in the future or require us to modify our current business practices.
We may acquire other companies or technologies, which may create additional risks, including risks associated with our ability to successfully integrate these acquisitions into our business.
We continue to consider future acquisitions of other companies, or their technologies or products, to improve our market position, broaden our technological capabilities, and expand our product offerings. Acquiring companies or technologies involves a number of risks, including, but not limited to:
- the potential disruption of our ongoing business;
- unexpected costs or incurring unknown liabilities;
- the diversion of management resources from other strategic and operational issues;
- the inability to retain the employees of the acquired businesses;
- difficulties relating to integrating the operations and personnel of the acquired businesses;
- adverse effects on our existing customer relationships or the existing customer relationships of acquired businesses;
- the potential incompatibility of the acquired business or their business customers;
- adverse effects associated with entering into markets and acquiring technologies in areas in which we have little experience; and
- acquired intangible assets, including goodwill, becoming impaired as a result of technological advancements or worse-than-expected performance of the acquired business.
If we are unable to successfully address any of these risks, our business could be harmed.
We depend on the use of information technology systems; disruptions to these systems could impact our ability to perform necessary business operations and have an adverse impact on our financial condition.
Our business relies on the security and availability of our information technology systems and solutions, such as hardware, software, cloud services, and networks. This includes, among other things, human capital solutions, financial solutions, customer relationship management solutions, design and software development solutions and tools, and data center processing. While we own and manage some of these information technology systems directly, we also rely on third-party information technology systems in the operation of our business. Our operations could be harmed and our costs could increase if any of these systems are disrupted for any reason, including information technology system failures or cyber-attacks; natural disasters; power or water shortages; political, social or economic instability including military, terrorist, or other catastrophic events; labor disruptions; insolvency of third-parties on which we rely; or other operational issues or system failures. We have experienced outages in the past and could be subjected to periods in which our systems and solutions or the third-party systems on which we rely are negatively impacted, degraded or unavailable, potentially for extended periods of time. If this were to occur, we could be subject to data loss or corruption, inability to accurately process or record transactions, reputational harm, litigation, indemnity obligations and other liabilities, and our business, revenues, profitability and financial condition could be negatively impacted.
Table of Contents
Strategic and Industry Risks
We have entered into, and may enter into in the future, joint development agreements, custom product arrangements, and strategic relationships with some of our largest customers. These arrangements subject us to a number of risks, and any failure to execute on any of these arrangements could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We have entered into, and may enter into in the future, joint development, product collaboration and technology licensing arrangements with some of our largest customers, and we expect to enter into new strategic arrangements of these kinds from time to time in the future. Such arrangements can magnify several risks for us, including loss of control over the development and development timeline of jointly developed products, risks associated with the ownership of the intellectual property developed pursuant to such arrangements, and increased risk that our joint development activities may result in products that are not commercially successful or that are not available in a timely fashion. In addition, any third party with whom we enter into a joint development, product collaboration, or technology licensing arrangement may fail to commit sufficient resources to the project, change its policies or priorities, or abandon or fail to perform its obligations related to such arrangement. We have previously and may in the future enter into customer product arrangements that provide for exclusivity periods during which we may only sell specified products or technologies to that particular customer. Any failure to timely develop commercially successful products through our joint development activities as a result of any of these and other challenges could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our failure to develop and ramp new products into production in a timely manner could harm our operating results.
Our success depends upon our ability to develop new products for new and existing customers, and to introduce these products in a timely and cost-effective manner. The development of new products involves significant investment and is highly complex. From time-to-time, we have experienced delays in developing and introducing these new products. Successful product development and introduction depend on a number of factors including, but not limited to:
- proper new product definition;
- timely completion of design and testing of new products;
- assisting our customers with integration of our components into their new products, including providing support from the concept stage through design, launch and production ramp;
- successfully developing and implementing software necessary to integrate our products into our customers’ products;
- achievement of acceptable manufacturing yields;
- availability of wafer fabrication, assembly, and test capacity; and
- market acceptance of our products and the products of our customers.
Both sales and/or margins may be materially affected if new product introductions are delayed, or if our products are not designed into successive generations of new or existing customers’ products. Our failure to develop and introduce new products successfully could harm our business and operating results.
In addition, difficulties associated with adapting our technology and product design to the proprietary process technology and design rules of new foundries can lead to complications resulting in delays and/or reduced yields of our products. Since low yields may result from either design or process technology failures, yield problems may not be effectively determined or resolved until an actual product exists that can be analyzed and tested to identify process sensitivities relating to the design rules that are used. As a result, yield problems may not be identified until well into the production process, and resolution of yield problems may require cooperation between our manufacturer and us. This risk could be compounded by the offshore location of certain of our manufacturers, increasing the effort and time required to identify, communicate, and resolve manufacturing yield problems. Manufacturing defects that we do not discover during the manufacturing or testing process may lead to costly product recalls. These risks may lead to increased costs or delayed product delivery, which would harm our profitability and customer relationships.
Table of Contents
Our products are increasingly complex and could contain defects, which could result in material costs to us.
Product development in the markets we serve is becoming more focused on the integration of multiple functions on individual devices. There is a general trend towards increasingly complex products, including software or firmware developed by us and/or third parties. The greater integration of functions and complexity of operations of our products increases the risk that we or our customers or end users could discover latent defects or subtle faults after volumes of product have been shipped. Quality and reliability issues could result in material costs and other adverse consequences to us, including, but not limited to:
- reduced margins;
- damage to our reputation;
- replacement costs for product warranty and support;
- payments to our customers related to recallclaims, or the delivery of product replacements as part of a recall claim, as a result of various industry or business practices, contractual requirements, or in order to maintain good customer relationships;
- an adverse impact to our customer relationships by the occurrence of significant defects;
- a delay in recognition or loss of revenues, loss of market share, or failure to achieve market acceptance;
- writing off or reserving the value of inventory of such products; and
- a diversion of the attention of our engineering personnel from our product development efforts.
In addition, any defects or other problems with our products could result in financial losses or other damages to our customers who could seek damages from us for their losses. A product liability or warranty claim brought against us, even if unsuccessful, would likely be time consuming and costly to defend. In particular, the sale of systems and components that are incorporated into certain applications for the automotive industry involves a high degree of risk that such claims may be made.
While we believe that we are reasonably insured against some of these risks and that we have attempted to contractually limit our financial exposure with many of our customers, a warranty or product liability claim against us in excess of our available insurance coverage and established reserves, or a requirement that we participate in a customer product recall, could have material adverse effects on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Security vulnerabilities may exist in our products, which could expose us to significant costs and damage our business.
Our hardware and software products, including software tools deployed by our customers, may be vulnerable to cyber-attacks. An attack could disrupt the proper functioning of our products, disrupt or cause errors in our customers' products, allow unauthorized access to our or our customers' proprietary information, or cause other destructive outcomes. A failure to prevent or mitigate such an attack could harm our business reputation, diminish our competitive position in the market, and expose us to significant expense and liability.
The costs to eliminate or alleviate cyber or other security problems, bugs, viruses, worms, phishing attempts, ransomware, malicious software programs and security vulnerabilities could be significant, and our efforts to address these problems may not succeed and could result in interruptions, delays, an inability to access information, cessation of service and loss of existing or potential customers that may impede our sales, manufacturing, distribution or other critical functions.
We continue to invest in research and development efforts for several new markets. If we are unable to commercialize these technologies, our future results and profits could be negatively affected.
Our investments into new markets subject us to additional risks. We may have limited or no experience in these markets, and our customers may not adopt our new offerings. These new offerings may present new and difficultchallenges, including risks related to technology, customers, competitors, product cycles, customer demand, terms and conditions and other industry specific issues which could negatively affect our operating results. These developing products and market segments may not grow as significantly or as quickly as projected, or at all, and we may not realize an adequate return on our investments or may be required to write-down the value of certain tangible and intangible assets.
Table of Contents
We frequently develop our products for the specific system architecture of our customers’ end products. If our customers were to change system architectures, develop competing technologies and integrated circuits, incorporate some of the functionality of our products into other parts of the system, or eliminate certain functionality that our products provide in their future end products, we risk the potential loss of revenue and reduced average selling prices.
Our customers, particularly in the smartphone market, could potentially transition to different audio and system architectures, develop their own competing technologies and ICs, integrate the functionality that our ICs and software have historically provided into other components in their systems, or eliminate certain functionality that our products provide in their future end products. Some of the audio and voice functionality and/or some of our high-performance mixed-signal functionality that we have historically provided could be performed outside of our components. If our customers were to transition to these different system architectures or to eliminate certain functionality in their future end products, our results of operations could be adversely affected, resulting in reduced average selling prices for our components and loss of revenue.
New and/or more stringent environmental laws, rules, regulations, and/or customer expectations may impact our product design and manufacturing processes, which could increase our costs and adversely impact our future operating results.
There has been an increase in the number of new and/or more stringent environmental laws, rules, and regulations introduced in various jurisdictions related to controlling the transportation, storage, use, and discharge of certain chemicals and materials used in the process of manufacturing semiconductors. Additionally, our customers have certain requirements and expectations related to the potential environmental impacts of their products and the processes used to manufacture them.
For example, a number of domestic and foreign jurisdictions regulate, or may seek to regulate, the use of a class of chemicals known as per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), which are currently used in our products or the manufacture of some of our products. Additionally, the European Union Restriction of Hazardous Substances (“RoHS”) Directive restricts the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment while the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (“REACH”) regulation addresses the production and use of chemical substances.
To comply with these regulations, and to meet customer requirements, we have in the past worked, and may in the future, need to work, with our supply chain to eliminate certain substances from the manufacturing processes used to produce our products. There may be instances where alternative substances will not be available or commercially feasible, or may only be available from a single source, or may be significantly more expensive than their restricted counterparts – resulting in increased manufacturing costs. Additionally, if we are unable to comply with the regulations, we may be subject to fines, penalties, and/or restrictions imposed by government agencies.
We expect that these and other rapidly changing laws, regulations, policies, interpretations, and expectations, as well as increased enforcement actions by various governmental and regulatory agencies, will continue to increase the cost of our compliance and internal risk management programs, which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Further, if our practices and disclosures do not meet the expectations and standards of our stockholders, customers, and other industry stakeholders, our reputation and business activities may be negatively impacted and our appeal to certain investors may be reduced.
We may be unable to protect our intellectual property rights.
Our success depends in part on our ability to obtain patents and to preserve our other intellectual property rights covering our products. We seek patent protection for those inventions and technologies for which we believe such protection is suitable and is likely to provide a competitive advantage to us. We also rely on trade secrets, proprietary technology, non-disclosure and other contractual terms, and technical measures to protect our technology and manufacturing knowledge. We actively work to foster continuing technological innovation to maintain and protect our competitive position. We cannot provide assurances that steps taken by us to protect our intellectual property will be adequate, that our competitors will not independently develop or design around our patents, or that our intellectual property will not be misappropriated. In addition, the laws of some non-U.S. countries may not protect our intellectual property as well as the laws of the United States.
Any of these events could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results, or financial condition. Policing infringement of our technology is difficult, and litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights. Any such litigation could be expensive, take significant time, and divert management’s attention.
Table of Contents
Financial Risks
We could be subject to changes in tax laws, the adoption of new U.S. or international tax legislation or exposure to additional tax liabilities.
We are subject to taxes in the U.S. and numerous foreign jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom (“U.K.”), where a number of our subsidiaries are organized. Due to economic and political conditions, tax laws in various jurisdictions may be subject to significant change. For example, many countries have started to implement legislation and other guidance to align their international tax rules with the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting recommendations and action plan that aim to standardize and modernize global corporate tax policy, including implementation of a global minimum tax (“Pillar Two”). These and other changes in tax laws and regulations may impact both our international and domestic tax liabilities and result in increased complexity and uncertainty and may adversely affect our provision for income taxes. Our future effective tax rates could be affected by changes in the mix of earnings in countries with differing statutory tax rates, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities, or changes in tax laws or their interpretation. If our effective tax rates were to increase, particularly in the U.S. or the U.K., or if the ultimate determination of taxes owed is for an amount in excess of amounts previously accrued, our operating results, cash flows, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Significant judgment is required in the calculation of our tax provision and the resulting tax liabilities. Our estimates of future taxable income and the regional mix of this income can change as new information becomes available. Any such changes in our estimates or assumptions can significantly impact our tax provision in a given period. For discussion of our income taxes, see Note 17 - Income Taxes, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in Part II, Item 8.
We are also subject to the examination of our tax returns and other tax matters by the U.S Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and other tax authorities and governmental bodies. We regularly assess the likelihood of an adverse outcome resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for taxes. There can be no assurance as to the outcome of these examinations.
The Company’s fiscal year 2017, 2018, and 2019 federal income tax returns are under examination by the IRS. The IRS has proposed adjustments that would increase U.S. taxable income related to transfer pricing matters with respect to our U.S. and U.K. affiliated companies. The final Revenue Agent’s Report asserted additional tax of approximately $168.3 million, excluding interest, and imposing penalties of approximately $63.7 million. We do not agree with the IRS’s positions and we continue to vigorously dispute the proposed adjustments, including through ongoing discussions as part of the administrative process with the IRS Independent Office of Appeals. If an acceptable outcome cannot be reached with IRS Appeals, we are prepared to pursue judicial remedies, which could take a number of years to resolve. Although the final resolution of these matters is uncertain, the Company believes adequate amounts have been reserved for any adjustments to the provision for income taxes that may ultimately result. However, the ultimate amount of assessed tax, interest, and penalties, if any, could be material and may have an adverse impact on our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows in future periods.
We have historically experienced fluctuations in our operating results and expect these fluctuations to continue.
Our quarterly and annual operating results are affected by a wide variety of factors that could materially and adversely affect our net sales, gross margin, and operating results. If our operating results fall below expectations of market analysts or investors, the market price of our common stock could decrease significantly. We are subject to business cycles and it is difficult to predict the timing, length, or volatility of these cycles. These business cycles may create pressure on our sales, gross margin, and/or operating results and make it difficult for us to predict operating results as between subsequent fiscal quarters.
Factors that could cause fluctuations and materially and adversely affect our net sales, gross margin and/or operating results include, but are not limited to:
- the volume and timing of orders received;
- changes in the mix of our products sold;
- market acceptance of our products and the products of our customers;
- excess or obsolete inventory;
Table of Contents
- pricing pressures from competitors and key customers;
- our ability to introduce new products on a timely basis;
- the timing and extent of our research and development expenses;
- the failure to anticipate changing customer product requirements;
- disruption in the supply of wafers, assembly, or test services;
- reduction of manufacturing yields;
- certain production and other risks associated with using independent manufacturers, assembly houses, and testers; and
- product obsolescence, price erosion, competitive developments, and other competitive factors.
If certain tax credits or incentives we receive change or cease to be in effect or applicable for any reason, or if our assumptions and interpretations regarding tax laws and incentives prove to be incorrect, our financial results could be adversely impacted.
Our operations are currently structured to benefit from various incentives available to us in various jurisdictions to encourage research and development investment. For example, we receive a research and development expenditure credit in the United Kingdom ("RDEC"), which is recorded for accounting purposes as an offset to research and development expenses in the Company’s consolidated income statement and resulted in a benefit of $42.9 million in fiscal year 2026. The Company makes estimates of the RDEC receivable as of each balance sheet date, based upon facts known at the time. Although the Company does not expect its estimates to be materially different from the amounts ultimately recognized, its estimates could differ from actual results. To date, there have not been any material adjustments to the Company's prior estimates of RDEC receivables. If such credit is modified or rescinded, or we are no longer eligible for such credit, our financial results could be adversely impacted, including increasing our R&D expenses, decreasing our profitability, and adversely affecting our cash flows. See further discussion of the research and development expenditure credit in the U.K. in Note 2 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Government Assistance, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in Item 8.
Shifts in industry-wide capacity and our practice of ordering and purchasing our products based on sales forecasts may result in significant fluctuations in inventory and our quarterly and annual operating results.
Shifts in industry-wide capacity from shortages to oversupply, or from oversupply to shortages, may result in significant fluctuations in our quarterly and annual operating results. In addition, we may order wafers and build inventory in advance of receiving purchase orders from our customers. Because our industry is highly cyclical and is subject to significant downturns resulting from excess capacity, overproduction, reduced demand, order cancellations, or technological obsolescence, there is a risk that we will forecast inaccurately and produce excess inventories of particular products. On occasion, customers have cancelled, and may in the future cancel, reschedule orders, or change future product plans on short notice, leaving us with the potential for excess inventory. In addition, if we experience supply constraints or manufacturing problems at a particular supplier, we may seek to switch suppliers or qualify additional suppliers. Other suppliers may not be available at the time we seek to switch or qualify additional suppliers. Even if additional capacity is available elsewhere, the switching and/or qualifying of additional suppliers could be an expensive process and could take as long as six to twelve months to complete, which could result in material adverse fluctuations to our operating results.
Due to the product manufacturing cycle characteristic of IC manufacturing and the inherent imprecision in the accuracy of our customers’ forecasts, product inventories may not always correspond to product demand, leading to shortages or surpluses of certain products. As a result of such inventory imbalances, future inventory write-downs and charges to gross margin may occur due to lower of cost or market accounting, excess inventory, and inventory obsolescence.
Our stock price has been and is likely to continue to be volatile.
The market price of our common stock fluctuates significantly. This fluctuation has been or may be the result of numerous factors, including, but not limited to:
Table of Contents
- actual or anticipated fluctuations in our operating results;
- announcements concerning our business or those of our competitors, customers, or suppliers;
- loss of a significant customer, or customers;
- changes in financial estimates by securities analysts or our failure to perform as anticipated by the analysts;
- news, commentary, and rumors emanating from the media relating to our customers, the industry, or us. These reports may be unrelated to the actual operating performance of the Company, and in some cases, may be potentially misleading or incorrect;
- announcements regarding technological innovations or new products by us or our competitors;
- announcements by us of significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, or capital commitments;
- announcements by us of significant divestitures or sale of certain assets or intellectual property;
- litigation arising out of a wide variety of matters, including, employment matters and intellectual property matters;
- departure of key personnel;
- a significant stockholder selling for any reason;
- general conditions in the IC industry; and
- general market conditions and interest rates.
Our foreign currency exposures may change over time as the level of activity in foreign markets grows and could have an adverse impact upon financial results.
As a global enterprise, we face exposure to adverse movements in foreign currency exchange rates. Certain of our assets, including certain bank accounts, exist in non-U.S. dollar-denominated currencies, which are sensitive to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. The principal non-U.S. dollar-denominated currency is the British Pound Sterling. We also have a significant number of employees that are paid in foreign currency, the largest group being U.K.-based employees who are paid in British Pounds Sterling.
If the value of the U.S. dollar weakens relative to these specific currencies, the cost of doing business in terms of U.S. dollars rises. Recent weakness in the U.S. dollar relative to certain foreign currencies, particularly the British Pound Sterling, has at times contributed to higher operating expenses when translated into U.S. dollars. With the growth of our international business, our foreign currency exposures may grow and under certain circumstances, could harm our business.
If we do not hedge against these risks, or our attempts to hedge against these risks are not successful, our financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Our debt obligations may be a burden on our future cash flows and cash resources.
On July 8, 2021, the Company entered into a second amended and restated credit agreement (the “Second Amended Credit Agreement”) which provides for a $300 million senior secured revolving credit facility (the “Revolving Credit Facility”). The Revolving Credit Facility matures on July 8, 2026 (the “Maturity Date”). As of March 28, 2026, the Company did not have an outstanding balance under the Revolving Credit Facility. To the extent the Company has an outstanding balance, our ability to repay the principal of, to pay interest on, or to refinance our indebtedness, depends on our future performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive, regulatory, and other factors, some of which are beyond our control. Our business may not generate cash flow from operations in the future sufficient to satisfy our obligations or to make necessary capital expenditures. If we are unable to generate such cash flow, we may be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as reducing or delaying investments or capital expenditures, selling assets, or refinancing or obtaining additional equity capital on terms that may be onerous or highly dilutive. Our ability to refinance any indebtedness will depend on the capital markets
Table of Contents
and our financial condition at such time. We may not be able to engage in any of these activities or engage in these activities on desirable terms, which could result in a default on the Second Amended Credit Agreement.
Our Second Amended Credit Agreement contains restrictions that could limit our flexibility in operating our business.
Our Second Amended Credit Agreement contains various covenants that could limit our ability to engage in specified types of transactions under certain conditions. These covenants could limit our ability to, among other things:
- pay dividends on, repurchase, or make distributions in respect of our capital stock or make other restricted payments;
- incur additional indebtedness or issue certain preferred shares;
- make certain investments;
- sell certain assets;
- create liens;
- consolidate, merge, sell, or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of our assets; and
- enter into certain transactions with our affiliates.
A breach of any of these covenants could result in a default under the Second Amended Credit Agreement. In the event of a default, the lenders could elect to declare all amounts then outstanding to be immediately due and payable. If our lenders accelerate the repayment of borrowings, we may not be able to repay our debt obligations. If we were unable to repay amounts due to the lenders under our credit facility, those lenders could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure that indebtedness.
Legal and Regulatory Risks
We are subject to the export control regulations of the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Commerce. A violation of these export control regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business or our results of operations, cash flows, or financial position.
The nature of our international business subjects us to the export control regulations of the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Commerce. Any changes regarding such regulations or U.S. trade policy more generally, including potential adoption and expansion of trade restrictions or export controls, particularly with respect to China, may impact overall customer demand for our products or affect our ability to manufacture and/or sell our products overseas. Additionally, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. government has imposed numerous export controls and sanctions related to Russia.
Although we have had licenses in the past to export certain products and technologies, particularly to China, and we have historically had limited sales to companies in Russia, any allegedviolation could expose us to significant cost, with any final determination of a violation of these export control regulations potentially resulting in monetary penalties and denial of export privileges. Although we are not aware of any violation of any export control regulations, a failure to comply with any of these regulations could have an adverse effect on our business.
Further, we are subject to the risk of illicitdiversion of our products to unauthorized end-users, such as sanctioned entities in Russia and/or China, who may use the products for purposes for which they are not intended, which could expose the Company to significant regulatory penalties, reputational harm, and termination of key supplier and/or distributor relationships, which may materially and adversely affect our business operations and financial condition.
Potential intellectual property claims and litigation could subject us to significant liability for damages and could invalidate our proprietary rights.
The IC industry is characterized by frequent litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. We may find it necessary to initiate lawsuits to assert our patent or other intellectual property rights. These legal proceedings could be expensive, take significant time, and divert management’s attention. We cannot provide assurances that we will ultimately be
Table of Contents
successful in any lawsuit, nor can we provide assurances that any patent owned by us will not be invalidated, circumvented, or challenged. We cannot provide assurances that rights granted under our patents will provide competitive advantages to us, or that any of our pending or future patent applications will be issued with the scope of the claims sought by us, if at all.
As is typical in the IC industry, our customers and we have, from time to time, received and may in the future receive, communications from third parties asserting patents, mask work rights, or copyrights. In the event third parties were to make a valid intellectual property claim and a license was not available on commercially reasonable terms, our operating results could be harmed. Litigation, which could result in substantial cost to us and diversion of our management, technical and financial resources, may also be necessary to defend us against claimed infringement of the rights of others. An unfavorable outcome in any such litigation could have an adverse effect on our future operations and/or liquidity.
We have provisions in our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws, and are subject to certain provisions of Delaware law, which could prevent, delay, or impede a change of control of our company. These provisions could affect the market price of our stock.
Certain provisions of Delaware law and of our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if our stockholders support the acquisition. These provisions include, but are not limited to:
- the inability of stockholders to call a special meeting of stockholders;
- a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent; and
- a requirement that stockholders provide advance notice of any stockholder nominations of directors or any proposal of new business to be considered at any meeting of stockholders.
We are also subject to the anti-takeover laws of Delaware that may prevent, delay, or impede a third party from acquiring or merging with us, which may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
Our Bylaws include a forum selection provision that could increase costs to bring a claim, discourageclaims, or limit the ability of the Company’s stockholders to bring a claim in a judicial forum viewed by the stockholders as more favorable for disputes with the Company or the Company’s directors, officers, or other employees.
Our Bylaws provide, to the fullest extent permitted by law, that, unless the Company consents in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware or, if the Court of Chancery does not have jurisdiction, a state court located within the State of Delaware or, if no state court located within the State of Delaware has jurisdiction, the federal district court for the District of Delaware, will, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, be the sole and exclusive forum for certain legal actions between the Company and its stockholders. In addition, our Bylaws provide that the federal district courts of the United States of America shall, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the sole and exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The exclusive forum clauses described above do not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act, or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock will be deemed to have notice of, and consented to, the provisions of our Bylaws described in the preceding sentences. The enforceability of similar choice of forum provisions in other companies’ certificates of incorporation or bylaws has been challenged in legal proceedings and there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce such provisions. In addition, investors cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. This forum selection provision may increase costs to bring a claim, discourageclaims, or limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that such stockholder finds favorable for disputes with the Company or the Company’s directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against the Company or the Company’s directors, officers, and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find the forum selection provision contained in the Company’s Bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, the Company could incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions.
Table of Contents
General Risks
Corporate social responsibility initiatives, specifically related to environmental, social and governance ("ESG") matters, may impose additional costs and expose us to emerging areas of risk.
Providing public disclosures regarding ESG matters, for example sustainability reporting, is subject to evolving expectations and requirements from investors, shareholders, existing and potential employees, customers, regulators, and other stakeholders. Certain organizations currently, and other organizations may in the future, use such disclosures to evaluate companies regarding ESG activities and publish scores or ratings based upon ESG or “sustainability” metrics. Potential and current investors may use the Company’s ESG ratings to guide their investment strategies and may decrease or withdraw investment, or alternatively increase investment in our competitors, if our ESG performance is perceived to be lagging. The qualitative and quantitative criteria regarding ESG are evolving, and we may need to modify our practices and/or incur additional or unexpected costs to satisfy these expectations. We may communicate certain goals or initiatives regarding our ESG activities from time to time, including goals relating to our carbon footprint, and if we are unable to meet those goals or they are perceived to be inadequate, we could be exposed to reputational damage and other emerging areas of risk.
In addition, one or more of our customers has required, and other customers may in the future request, that we achieve certain carbon emission reductions and/or commit to the use of renewable energy in the manufacture of our goods. Such requests may require us to modify our supply chain practices, make capital investments to modify certain aspects of our operations, or increase our operating costs. There can be no assurance of the extent to which any of our climate goals or the goals of our customers will be achieved or that any future investments that we make in furtherance of achieving our climate goals or the goals of our customers will produce the expected results or meet increasing stakeholder environmental, social and governance expectations. If we do not meet these goals, we could incur adverse publicity and reaction or the loss of business from certain of our customers, which could adversely impact our reputation, and in turn adversely impact our results of operations.
Further, we are subject to increased government laws, regulations, and other standards that impose operational and reporting requirements related to ESG matters, and we will likely be subject to further evolving ESG reporting standards in the future. Collecting, measuring, and reporting ESG information and metrics in response to these increased requirements can be costly, difficult, and time consuming. With these additional regulations and disclosures, we may see our legal compliance, financial reporting, and auditing costs increase along with the emergence of risks associated with the collection, data assurance, and disclosure related to such ESG information.
As we carry only limited insurance coverage, uninsured or under-insured losses could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
Our insurance policies may not be adequate to fully offset losses from covered incidents, and we do not have coverage for certain losses. For example, there is limited coverage available with respect to the services provided by our third-party foundries and assembly and test subcontractors. Although we believe that our existing insurance coverage is consistent with common practices of companies in our industry, our insurance coverage may be inadequate to protect us against product recalls, natural disasters (including those related to changes in climate), cybersecurity and/or information security breaches, and other unforeseencatastrophes that could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to the risks of owning real property.
We currently own our U.S. headquarters and research facility in Austin, Texas. The ownership of our U.S. properties subjects us to the risks of owning real property, which may include:
- the possibility of environmental contamination and the costs associated with correcting any environmental problems;
- adverse changes in the value of these properties, due to interest rate changes, changes in the neighborhood in which the property is located, or other factors; and
- the risk of financial loss in excess of amounts covered by insurance, or uninsured risks, such as the loss caused by damage to the buildings as a result of fire, floods, or other natural disasters (including those related to changes in climate).
