UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

|X| ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2001

|_| TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Commission File Number: 0-220-20

CASTELLE
(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

855 Jarvis Drive, Suite 100, Morgan Hill, California 95037
(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

(408) 852-8000
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: Common Stock, No Par Value

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes [X] No [_]

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of Registrant’s knowledge, in any amendment to this Form 10-K or in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of the
Form 10-K. [_]

The approximate aggregate market value of the Common Stock held by non-affiliates of the Registrant, based upon the last sale price of the Common Stock reported on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market on March 15, 2002 was $3,428,000. Shares of the Registrant’s Common Stock held by directors, executive officers and holders of more than 10% of the Company’s Common Stock have been excluded. Exclusion of shares held by any person should not be construed to indicate that such person possesses the power, direct or indirect, to direct or cause the direction of the management or policies of the Registrant, or that such person is controlled by or under common control with the Registrant.

The number of shares of Common Stock outstanding as March 15, 2002 was 4,744,795.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

The information required by Part III of this Form 10-K will be incorporated by reference from certain portions of Castelle’s Proxy Statement relating to its 2002 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the “Proxy Statement”) to be filed with the SEC no later than April 30, 2002 or will be provided in an amendment to this Form 10-K to be filed with the SEC no later than April 30, 2002.

SPECIAL NOTE ON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, that are based on our current expectations about our company and our industry. All of our forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. The Company’s actual results could differ significantly from our expectations and from the results expressed in or implied by these forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to, those discussed elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We urge you to consider these cautionary statements carefully in evaluating our forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events and circumstances. Important factors that may cause results to differ from expectations include those discussed in Risk Factors beginning on page 25 in this document.

PART I

ITEM 1.    BUSINESS

     The following summary should be read in conjunction with, and is qualified in its entirety by, the more detailed information and Consolidated Financial Statements and Notes thereto appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

OVERVIEW

      Castelle was incorporated in California in 1987, and its principal offices are located at 855 Jarvis Drive, Suite 100, Morgan Hill, California 95037. Unless the context otherwise requires, references in this Form 10-K to “we,” “us,” or the “Company” refer to Castelle. The Company’s telephone number is (408) 852-8000. Castelle^®, LANpress^® and JetPress^® are registered trademarks and InfoPress™ is a trademark of the Company. This Annual Report on Form 10-K includes trademarks and trade names of other companies.

      Castelle designs, develops, markets and supports server appliances providing office messaging solutions and other shared services. The Company’s current products are focused on two areas: fax and integrated messaging products, including a range of software enhancements, and print servers. The Company’s products consist of FaxPress, an integrated hardware/software network faxing solution; OfficeDirect, an integrated fax/email messaging system; InfoPress, an enterprise-level fax-on-demand software product; and LANpress print servers.

      The Company’s products have historically centered on fax and print servers and related technologies. Starting in 1997, the Company’s revenues have declined as competition increased, primarily with the print server products in the Asia Pacific Region, while at the same time the Internet and other networking technologies advanced. As a result, the Company experienced annual operating losses during fiscal 1997 through 1999. During the past two years, management has redirected the Company’s efforts to focus on server appliances and on development efforts to integrate existing and future products with the Internet and emerging networking technologies. Through the introduction of the enhanced fax messaging products that generate higher gross profits, restructuring and implementing numerous cost reductions, the Company was able to report operating profits in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1999 and in each of the four quarters of fiscal 2000. Although the Company was profitable in fiscal 2000, it incurred $591,000 of losses in fiscal 2001 resulting from a decrease in demand for our products due in part to the slowness of the economy.

Industry Background

      In the mid-1980s, organizations began to interconnect personal computers into local area networks (“LANs”) in order to allow work groups to share files and peripherals such as printers. As LANs have proliferated throughout organizations and client/server architectures have gained acceptance, they have become increasingly complex, the size and multimedia intensity of files being transmitted has increased and the applications operating on the computer networks have become more critical to the success of the business enterprise. The proliferation of the Internet and Intranets and popularity of electronic communications expanded the role of LAN’s as a means to provide common access to the Internet, email and other messaging applications. Installation, maintenance and administration of LAN equipment have always required a staff of highly skilled professionals. The costs associated with LANs and related equipment are significant and typically affordable only by larger organizations. Many small and medium sized businesses were not able to invest in necessary equipment and support staff. This created the need for specialized networking equipment that would allow network administrators to deploy complex networking applications without the cost and time required to install server-based software solutions. These devices are known in the industry as “Server Appliances” or “Thin Servers”. A server appliance is an integrated software/hardware solution designed to reduce the complexity and cost for a specific server based application. Internet routers, email servers, remote access servers, communication servers, and print servers are examples of the server appliances used by businesses today.

      Castelle pioneered server appliances, establishing a benchmark for “plug and play” and ease of use with its fax and print server product families.

      Fax Messaging Products: The increasing popularity of email and the Internet provided a boost to all types of electronic communications as many users and organizations become more comfortable and accustomed to their use. To further simplify and improve inter- and intra-organizational communications, corporate MIS departments are looking for ways to integrate different types of messaging into a unified messaging environment. Fax remains one of the key business communication tools and is one of the essential components of the corporate messaging environment. In corporate communication infrastructures, fax is being integrated into email. To facilitate this capability companies install email-integrated fax server systems.

      Fax servers allow users to send and receive faxes as easily as emails, using the same email application for both types of messages. A fax server can sort incoming faxes directly and deliver them electronically and confidentially to the electronic mailboxes of the intended recipients. Fax server can also be used as an independent network shared messaging system in environments that require high volume incoming and outgoing faxes. Users are able to send and receive faxes directly from their computers or workstations, eliminating the need to print a document, take it to a stand-alone fax machine and wait for its transmission. Fax servers can help reduce fax transmission costs by sending non-urgent faxes at “off-peak” telephone rates and by utilizing fax over the Internet technology.

      These fax servers can be implemented using complex software that require Windows NT or UNIX systems and specialized expensive fax modems. Our lower cost solution is a dedicated fax server appliance, such as the Castelle FaxPress.

      Automated delivery of information is another popular application of the fax technology. Fax-on-demand is the ability to use a touch-tone phone and a fax machine to request and receive copies of documents on demand. Although there are a wide variety of applications installed, the two most common applications are customer support and literature fulfillment applications. The largest industry using fax-on-demand is the high-technology sector, with applications also installed in travel, government, newspapers, manufacturing and non-profit organizations. Essentially, any company with information to disseminate publicly is a potential information-on-demand customer. Castelle’s InfoPress product line provides a comprehensive solution for automated information delivery via fax and email.

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      Integrated Messaging Servers. Proliferation of various types of electronic communications created a need for unified messaging systems. Instead of using single-function software programs for different types of messages, such as emails and faxes, many users prefer to use a single application such as Microsoft Outlook for all messages. Integrating different systems to handle various message types can be complex and expensive. To simplify this process, next-generation messaging servers, such as Castelle’s OfficeDirect Messaging Server, provide both email and fax capabilities in one integrated system.

      Print Servers: The sharing of printers, a basic benefit of a LAN, has traditionally been provided by connecting a printer either to a network file server or to a dedicated personal computer on the network. However, direct connection to the file server has several disadvantages, including the risk of the file server being overburdened by the processing required to print large or graphically complex files, lower print transfer speeds and location inflexibility. Similarly, printer connection to a dedicated personal computer, while providing better location flexibility, is more costly and offers substantially lower print file transfer speed than a dedicated print server can provide. A print server directly connects one or more printers to a LAN, providing a cost-effective, high-speed solution to the demand for shared print resources on a LAN. In addition to providing location flexibility and convenience, print servers improve network performance by relieving the burden on the file server. Furthermore, print servers enable users to access essential information about the status of the printer and their print files and to select their desired printer configuration.

      Server appliances, such as communications/messaging servers and print servers, have emerged to gain significant market acceptance due to their ability to significantly reduce complexity and cost associated with the installation and maintenance of networking systems. These appliances also make the complex functionality of Internet and Intranet communications available and affordable to many smaller businesses. As MIS professionals in larger organizations and business owners of smaller enterprises continue to recognize the benefits of server appliances to provide such critical functionality as Internet and Intranet communications, remote access, scanning, electronic mail and related functions, the Company believes that the demand for such network systems will increase.

Castelle Strategy

      Castelle’s objective is to be a leading worldwide supplier of server appliances providing office messaging solutions and other shared services. Castelle pioneered server appliances, establishing a benchmark for “plug and play” and ease of use with its fax and print server product families. Castelle products are installed in many Fortune 1000 companies, and in small and medium sized businesses worldwide. Castelle is now applying its proven technology to the office, integrating desktop messaging, Internet connectivity, print and other shared services.

      Focus on Server Appliances: The Company focuses exclusively on providing innovative, reliable, easy-to-use network products. Since its inception, the Company has focused on developing networking products that utilize advanced software to tightly integrate proprietary hardware systems with standard computing platforms. As a result, the Company believes it has developed a high level of expertise in networking, software development, hardware design and telephony technology. The Company plans to capitalize on these attributes by continuing to focus on providing network enhancement products that enable users to communicate more effectively.

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      Focus on Messaging and Communications: The Company focuses on developing application solutions for inter and intra-company communications. The Company believes that its focus on application servers rather than on infrastructure systems enables the Company to offer products that bring higher value services to customers and provide a higher margin to the Company.

      Expand Product Line: The Company is leveraging its expertise in server appliances to offer new easy-to-use, cost-effective solutions. The Company continues to expand both its fax and print server products and apply its proven technology to other areas.

      Focus on E-commerce and Other High Volume Distribution Channels: The Company has established a two-tier domestic and international distribution network of leading national and regional network product distributors and resellers including Ingram Micro and TechData. Castelle’s products are well suited for sale by e-commerce vendors and the Company has been successful working with leading suppliers such as CDW and Insight.. The Company also sells through OEM vendors such as Fujitsu Ltd. in Japan (“Fujitsu”). The Company is focused on maintaining and strengthening its current distribution network in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.

      Leverage Strategic Relationships: The Company augments its product offerings by establishing relationships with companies able to provide products in areas outside of the Company’s core technical competencies or in instances where internal development of such products is not cost-effective. The Company also establishes relationships with numerous leaders in hardware and software technology to enable it to keep abreast of, and respond quickly to, technological changes that may affect the network enhancement market.

Products

      The Company develops and markets a range of server appliance products that enhance network productivity, performance and functionality. The Company’s current products are grouped into two areas: fax messaging products, including a range of software enhancements, and print servers.

      Fax Messaging Products: The Company offers the FaxPress family of email-integrated fax server appliances. The Company positions the FaxPress as the easiest way to add faxing to your network and integrate fax with email. FaxPress allows network users to send, receive, route, print, store, edit and retrieve fax transmissions from their own personal computers on a local area network. FaxPress can be integrated into an email system creating a unified fax/email messaging environment. FaxPress enables users to transmit documents directly to a fax device as easily as if they were printing to a laser printer or sending an email message. The product also provides network administration features like control, monitoring, logging or configuration. The Company’s fax server products are designed to comply with current regulatory standards in the United States, Europe and the Pacific Rim. During fiscal 2001, 2000 and 1999, fax products represented 91%, 86% and 78%, respectively, of total net sales.

      Key features of the FaxPress products (configured with its current software versions) include:

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      The Company offers a family of FaxPress fax server systems ranging from entry-level products targeted to small businesses with fewer than 50 users to high-end fax solutions capable of supporting enterprise-wide installations. The suggested U.S. list prices for FaxPress fax server products range from $1,495 to $9,995. The server pricing is based on hardware model, with no per-user costs. The FaxPress 2500, 5000 and 7000 families come with the FaxPress 6.x PRO version that adds integration with popular email packages, and many advanced fax management and integration features. FaxPress 6.x PRO is optional on FaxPress SBE. The following table summarizes the Company’s FaxPress system products:

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      Information-on-demand systems: InfoPress software enables the access of information via any touch-tone phone and a fax machine and allows the dissemination of information via “broadcasting” to a select database of fax numbers. InfoPress allows companies to use one source of documents in a Castelle document library and to automatically publish the documents using either the fax-on-demand and/or email-on-demand methods.

      Castelle’s InfoPress is a software product designed to operate on the Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP platforms. The system utilizes voice and fax processing hardware, as well as telephone system interface (analog or T1) hardware with as few as two and as many as 288 ports that are actually deployed at a customer site.

      Integrated Messaging Products: The OfficeDirect family of products is designed to provide integrated email and fax communications to small offices. The OfficeDirect family consists of the OfficeDirect Messaging Server.100 and OfficeDirect Storage Server.100. The OfficeDirect Messaging Server is an integrated e-mail/fax messaging server appliance tailored to meet the needs of small offices or workgroups that need to provide robust communication services to network users. It combines an SMTP and POP3 e-mail server with a full-featured fax server in a plug-n-forget, easy-to-use, economical system, which includes all necessary hardware and software. The OfficeDirect Messaging Server integrates e-mail and fax services into the Microsoft Outlook client software. The OfficeDirect Storage Server is a complimentary product to the messaging server and provides convenient and reliable storage for the network system files and messages. It also provides generic network storage and printer sharing to network users.

      Print Servers: Printer sharing continues to be one of the important benefits of computer networking. Print servers are the most efficient and economical way of sharing printers on networks. While demand for print servers in various sizes of businesses continues to grow, the market is very competitive. Castelle has been involved in the print server business for more than ten years. After continuous improvements on the cost and feature set, Castelle’s LANpress has become a well-received print server product line. Our latest print server models incorporate a RISC microprocessor, Fast Ethernet, Windows 2000, Internet Printing and many other attractive new features. Castelle LANpress JR is the world’s smallest print server commercially available today. It’s similar in size to that of a standard printer cable connector. The suggested U.S. list price for LANpress print servers ranges from $149 to $395. During fiscal 2001, 2000 and 1999, print server products represented 9%, 14% and 22%, respectively, of total net sales.

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      The following table summarizes the Company’s line of LANpress external print servers:

Research and Product Development

      The Company has invested substantially in research and product development since inception. The Company believes its future performance will depend in large part on its ability to enhance its current products, to expand its product offerings, to maintain technological competitiveness and meet an expanding range of customer requirements.

      Castelle continues to invest in enhancing its server appliance product lines by developing new versions of client and server software and server hardware. The product feature set is driven by the increasing complexity of user needs. The changing corporate communications/messaging environment and increasing demand for easy-to-use networking systems define these needs. The development efforts are focused on enhancing functionality of existing products and developing other systems to expand our product offerings. The Company’s development efforts are focusing on high value applications, while relying on its partners to provide basic functionality for some of its product lines.

      In fiscal 2000, the Company developed new versions of its FaxPress servers offering simpler integration with Private Branch Exchanges (“PBX”) and email systems. The FaxPress 7500 offers eight lines of fax and a 4-channel integrated Direct Inward Dialing (“DID”) or Ear and Mouth (“E&M”) converter that significantly simplifies implementation of a fax system that provides automated delivery of incoming faxes into individual mailboxes.

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      The current FaxPress fax server product line is continuously enhanced to offer greater integration into corporate networking environments with such features as:

      There can be no assurance that the Company will be successful in developing and marketing the new software and hardware product versions or in identifying and responding to other emerging technological developments or that any development will achieve commercial acceptance. The Company is seeking and will continue to seek to hire additional skilled development engineers. Such engineers are likely to be in short supply, and the Company’s business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected if it encounters delays in hiring or fails to retain the required skilled engineers. See “Business – Risk Factors – Key Personnel.”

Sales, Marketing and Distribution

      Castelle sells its products through multiple channels, determined by the product, market and customer need. The Company has an established two-tier domestic and international distribution network of leading national and regional network product distributors and resellers. The Company also sells through OEM vendors such as Fujitsu in Japan. Software enhancements and options that complement the FaxPress products are primarily marketed directly by the Company to registered end users. The direct sales group works closely with distributors and VARs in qualifying sales opportunities for the fax and print server products. The Company also sells some products through the on-line store on its Web site. Demand for Castelle’s products is created through a variety of marketing programs. These programs are targeted toward end-users to stimulate demand for the products and toward distributors, resellers, VARs and e-commerce vendors to promote the product in the sales channel. These programs include targeted and active participation in industry networking and communication trade shows, as well as advertising in associated publications. The Company increases awareness of Company products by Internet marketing via targeted e-advertising, publishing and sponsoring email newsletters, enhancing its Web presence, print advertising, conducting direct mail campaigns, offering seminars, trade shows and conferences and other forms of public relations efforts. The Company’s Web site has been updated and designed to assist customers in obtaining information about Castelle products and contacting Castelle sales personnel, and offers selected products and services through the Company’s on-line store.

      The Company’s products are well suited for sale by e-commerce vendors, and the Company has experienced success working with leading suppliers such as CDW and Insight.

      The Company’s five largest distributors accounted for approximately 56% of the Company’s net sales in fiscal 2001, 43% of its net sales in fiscal 2000 and 42% of its net sales in fiscal 1999. Ingram and Tech Data, the Company’s largest domestic distributors and Macnica, the Company’s principal Japanese distributor, accounted for approximately 27%, 17% and 10%, respectively, of the Company’s net sales in fiscal 2001, 17%, 10% and 15%, respectively, of its net sales in fiscal 2000 and 12%, 7% and 18%, respectively, of its net sales in fiscal 1999. Sales to customers located in the Pacific Rim and Europe comprised approximately 20%, 25% and 31% of the Company’s net sales in fiscal 2001, 2000 and 1999, respectively. In fiscal 2000, the Company terminated its agreement with Merisel, a domestic distributor, due to the change in the distributor’s business strategy, which was not in line with the Company’s business strategy. The Company’s distributors typically represent other products that are complementary to or compete with those of the Company. While the Company attempts to encourage its distributors to focus on Castelle’s products through a variety of marketing and support programs, our distributors may give higher priority to products of other suppliers, thereby reducing the efforts they devote to selling our products. In particular, certain of our competitors, including Hewlett-Packard and Intel, sell a substantially higher total dollar volume of products through several of the Company’s large U.S. distributors and, as a result, the Company believes such distributors give higher priority to products offered by such competitors. The Company’s distributors are not contractually committed to future purchases of the Company’s products and could discontinue carrying the Company’s products at any time for any reason. The Company has a stock rotation policy with certain of its distributors that allows them to return marketable inventory against offsetting orders. In the event that the Company reduces its prices, the Company credits certain of its distributors for the difference between the purchase price of products remaining in their inventory and the Company’s reduced price for such products. See “Risk Factors – Dependence on Suppliers and Subcontractors.”

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Customer Service and Support

      The Company provides customers with support services, which are available to assist customers with installation, use and operation issues that will ensure smooth and reliable operation of Castelle products. The Company’s network engineers, located at corporate headquarters, provide technical support via telephone, fax and email during normal Company business days from 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Pacific Time). As part of the Company’s global partner program, VARs have access to “priority technical support” via a special toll-free number that provides immediate access to Castelle network engineers. Support is provided under warranty terms as well as through extended warranty agreements sold directly to the customer by the Company. The Company also provides other customer support through its web site. The Company has an automated call management distribution system that provides improved levels of support to help resolve customer issues.

Manufacturing

      The Company’s current in-house manufacturing operations consist primarily of material planning, assembly, final testing, quality control and service repair. Certain of the Company’s manufacturing operations are performed by third party manufacturers that provide customized, integrated manufacturing services, including procurement, manufacturing and associated printed circuit board assembly. The Company also relies on SerComm to manufacture certain of its print server products. These arrangements enable the Company to shift certain costs to such providers, thereby allowing the Company to focus resources on its product development efforts. The failure of such manufacturers, particularly SerComm, to meet their contractual commitments to the Company could cause delays in product shipments, thereby potentially adversely affecting the Company’s business, operating results and financial condition.

      The Company does not currently have any material long-term supply contracts with any of its manufacturing subcontractors or component suppliers other than an agreement with SerComm relating to the manufacture of print servers. The Company purchases components on a purchase order basis. The Company owns all engineering, sourcing documentation, functional test equipment and tooling used in manufacturing its products, except for the products which are produced by SerComm, and believes that it could shift product assembly to alternate suppliers if necessary. Certain key components of the Company’s products, including a modem chip set from Conexant, and microprocessors from Motorola, are currently available from single sources. Other components of the Company’s products are currently available from only a limited number of sources. In addition, the Company subcontracts a substantial portion of its manufacturing to third parties, and there can be no assurance that these subcontractors will be able to support the manufacturing requirements of the Company. The Company’s ability to obtain these components or sub-assemblies is dependent upon its ability to accurately forecast customer demand for its products and to anticipate shortages of critical components or sub-assemblies created by competing demands upon suppliers. If the Company were unable to obtain a sufficient supply of high-quality components or sub-assemblies from its current sources, the Company could experience delays in obtaining such components or sub-assemblies from other sources. Resulting delays or reductions in product shipments could adversely affect the Company’s business, operating results and financial condition and damage customer relationships. Furthermore, a significant increase in the price of one or more of these components or sub-assemblies or the Company’s inability to lower component or sub-assembly prices in response to competitive price reductions could adversely affect the Company’s business operating results and financial condition. See “Risk Factors – Dependence on Suppliers and Subcontractors.”

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Competition

      The network enhancement products and computer software markets are highly competitive, and the Company believes that such competition will intensify in the future. The competition is characterized by rapid change and improvements in technology along with constant pressure to reduce the prices of products. The Company currently competes principally in the market for network fax servers and network print servers and fax-on-demand software. Increased competition, direct and indirect, could adversely affect the Company’s business and operating results through pricing pressure, loss of market share and other factors. In particular, the Company expects that, over time, average selling prices for its print server products will continue to decline, as the market for these products becomes increasingly competitive. Any material reduction in the average selling prices of the Company’s products would adversely affect gross margins. There can be no assurance the Company will be able to maintain the current average selling prices of its products or the related gross margins.

      The principal competitive factors affecting the market for the Company’s products include product functionality, performance, quality, reliability, ease of use, quality of customer training and support, name recognition, price, and compatibility and conformance with industry standards and changing operating system environments. Several of the Company’s existing and potential competitors, most notably the Hewlett-Packard Company (“Hewlett-Packard”) and Intel Corporation (“Intel”), have substantially greater financial, engineering, manufacturing and marketing resources than the Company. The Company also experiences competition from a number of other software, hardware and service companies. In addition to its current competitors, the Company may face substantial competition from new entrants into the network enhancement market, including established and emerging computer, computer peripherals, communications and software companies. In the fax server market the Company competes with companies such as Captaris Inc., Omtool, Ltd. and Computer Associates International, Inc. There can be no assurance that competitors will not introduce products incorporating technology more advanced than the technology used by the Company in its products. In addition, certain competing methods of communications such as the Internet or electronic mail could adversely affect the market for fax products. Certain of the Company’s existing and potential competitors in the print server market are manufacturers of printers and other peripherals, and these competitors may develop closed systems accessible only through their own proprietary servers. There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to compete successfully or that competition will not have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, operating results and financial condition. See “Risk Factors – Competition and Price Erosion” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Results of Operations.”

Proprietary Rights

      The Company’s success depends to a certain extent upon its technological expertise and proprietary software technology. The Company relies upon a combination of contractual rights and copyright, trademark and trade secret laws to establish and protect its technologies. Additionally, the Company generally enters into confidentiality agreements with those employees, distributors, customers and suppliers who have access to sensitive information and limits access to and distribution of its software documentation and other proprietary information. Because of the rapid pace of technological change in the LAN product industry, the Company believes that patent protection for its products is less significant to its success than the knowledge, ability and experience of its employees, the frequent introduction and market acceptance of new products and product enhancements, and the timeliness and quality of support services provided by the Company. See “Risk Factors – Dependence on Proprietary Rights; Uncertainty of Obtaining Licenses.”

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      Despite the precautions taken by the Company, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to copy certain portions of the Company’s products or to reverse engineer or obtain and use information that the Company regards as proprietary. There can be no assurance that the Company’s precautions will be adequate to deter misappropriation or infringement of its proprietary technologies. Furthermore, while the Company has obtained federal registration for many of its trademarks in the United States, certain of its trademarks have not been registered in the United States and the Company has registered some of its trademarks in foreign jurisdictions. There can be no assurance that the Company’s use of such unregistered trademarks will not be contested by third parties in the future. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries either do not protect the Company’s proprietary rights or offer only limited protection. Given the rapid evolution of technology and uncertainties in intellectual property law in the United States and internationally there can be no assurance that the Company’s current or future products will not be subject to third-party claims of infringement. Any litigation to determine the validity of any third-party claims could result in significant expense to the Company and divert the efforts of the Company’s technical and management personnel, whether or not such litigation is determined in favor of the Company. In the event of an adverse result in any such litigation, the Company could be required to expend significant resources to develop non-infringing technology or to obtain licenses to the technology that is the subject of the litigation. There can be no assurance that the Company would be successful in such development or that any such licenses would be available. The Company also relies on technology licenses from third parties. There can be no assurance that these licenses will continue to be available to the Company upon reasonable terms, if at all. Any impairment or termination of the Company’s relationship with third-party licensors could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, operating results and financial condition.

Government Regulation

      Certain aspects of the networking industry in which the Company competes are regulated both in the United States and in foreign countries. Imposition of public carrier tariffs, taxation of telecommunications services and the necessity of incurring substantial costs and expenditure of managerial resources to obtain regulatory approvals, particularly in foreign countries where telecommunications standards differ from those in the United States, or the inability to obtain regulatory approvals within a reasonable period of time, could have a material, adverse effect on the Company’s business, operating results and financial condition. The Company’s products must comply with a variety of equipment, interface and installation standards promulgated by communications regulatory authorities in different countries. Changes in government policies, regulations and interface standards could require the redesign of products and result in product shipment delays which could have a material, adverse impact on the Company’s business, operating results and financial condition. See “Risk Factors – Government Regulations.”

Employees

      As of February 28, 2002, the Company employed a total of 44 full-time equivalent personnel, 8 in manufacturing, 12 in sales and marketing, 8 in engineering, 9 in customer service and 7 in finance and administration. The Company has not experienced a work stoppage, no employees are represented by a labor organization and the Company considers its employee relations to be good.

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Executive Officers

      The names of the executive officers of the Company and their ages as of February 28, 2002 are set forth below:

Donald L. Rich

Paul Cheng

Eric Chen

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Edward J. Heinze

Michael Petrovich

Boris Elpiner, formerly Vice President of Marketing, ceased to be an employee with the Company on February  28,  2002.

ITEM 2.    PROPERTIES

      The Company’s headquarters, including its executive offices and corporate administration, development, manufacturing, marketing, sales and technical services/support facilities, are located in Morgan Hill, California in approximately 16,600 square-feet of leased office space. The Company occupies this facility under a lease, the term of which expires in December 2005 with one conditional three-year option, which if exercised, would extend the lease to December 2008. The Company moved into this new facility in December 2000 from the previous location in Santa Clara, California, after the Santa Clara lease expired. In fiscal 2001, the Company consolidated its offices in El Dorado Hills, California and in the United Kingdom with the Company’s headquarters in Morgan Hill, after both of these leases expired. In addition, the Company rents office space for sales and customer support office in Illinois. The Company believes its existing facilities will be adequate to meet its requirements for the foreseeable future.

ITEM 3.    LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

      The Company has been contacted by a third party claiming that the Company needs to obtain licenses of certain patents held by that party for certain of the Company’s fax server products. The Company is continuing to assess the validity and strength of the claims, believes it has adequate legal defenses and that the ultimate outcome of any possible action will not have a material effect on the Company’s financial position, results of operations or cash flows although there can be no assurance as to the outcome of any possible litigation.

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ITEM 4.    SUBMISSION OF MATTERS TO A VOTE OF SECURITIES HOLDERS

      The Company held its 2001 Annual Meeting of Shareholders on November 7, 2001 (the “2001 Annual Meeting”). At the 2001 Annual Meeting, the Company’s shareholders elected five directors nominated by the Board of Directors by the votes indicated:

      The proposal to ratify the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the Company’s independent accountants for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2001 was approved with 3,429,531 votes in favor of the of the proposal, 300 votes against and 5,400 votes abstained.

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PART II

      The Company’s Common Stock (Nasdaq symbol “CSTL”) began trading on the Nasdaq National Market on December 20, 1995 and was transferred to the Nasdaq SmallCap Market as of April 1999. The following table shows the closing high and low sale prices per share of Castelle’s Common Stock as reported on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market. Such quotations do not include retail markups, markdowns or commissions.

      As of March 15, 2002, there were 110 holders of record of the Company’s Common Stock. On March 15, 2002 the last sale price reported on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market for the Company’s Common Stock was $0.65 per share.

Dividend Policy

      The Company has not paid cash dividends on its Common Stock. The Board of Directors currently intends to retain any and all earnings for use in the Company’s business and the Company does not anticipate paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

ITEM 6.    SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

      The following selected financial information has been derived from the audited Consolidated Financial Statements. The information set forth below is not necessarily indicative of results of future operations, and should be read in conjunction with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the Consolidated Financial Statements and related Notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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      Net loss for fiscal 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998 and 1997 included net charges for restructuring and other non-recurring items of $239,000, $0, $400,000, $1.1 million and $6.1 million respectively. For detailed information on these transactions see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Restructuring and Other Charges and Amortization of Intangible Assets” and the Consolidated Financial Statements and related Notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Quarterly Results of Operations

      The following table sets forth certain unaudited consolidated quarterly financial data for the eight quarters ended December 31, 2001. This information is unaudited, but in the opinion of management, has been prepared substantially on the same basis as the audited consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere in this report, and all necessary adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments, hade been included in the amounts stated below to present fairly the unaudited consolidated financial statements and the notes to such statements ap