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UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
 
Form 10-K
 
FOR ANNUAL AND TRANSITION REPORTS PURSUANT TO
SECTIONS 13 OR 15(d)
OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
     
(Mark One)    
þ
  ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1933
 
    For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004
 
or
 
o
  TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
 
    For the transition period from           to
Commission file number: 000-31635
 
Endwave Corporation
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
 
     
Delaware
  95-4333817
(State of incorporation)   (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)
 
776 Palomar Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA
(Address of principal executive offices)
  94085
(Zip code)
(408) 522-3100
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
(Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if changed since last report)
 
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: Common Stock, $0.001 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 þ          No o
      Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).     Yes o          No þ
      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 the registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K.     o
      The aggregate market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2004 was approximately $48.4 million. Shares of voting common stock held by directors, executive officers, and by each person who beneficially owns 10% or more of the outstanding common stock have been excluded as such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes. The aggregate market value has been computed based on a price of $7.95, which was the closing sale price June 30, 2004 as reported by the Nasdaq National Market.
      The number of shares outstanding of the registrant’s common stock as of March 18, 2005 was approximately 10,540,982.



ENDWAVE CORPORATION
FORM 10-K
December 31, 2004
TABLE OF CONTENTS
             
        Page No.
         
 PART I
   Business     2  
   Properties     32  
   Legal Proceedings     32  
   Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders     32  
 PART II
   Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities     33  
   Selected Consolidated Financial Data     34  
   Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations     35  
   Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk     49  
   Financial Statements and Supplementary Data     50  
   Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure     78  
   Controls and Procedures     78  
   Other Information     78  
 PART III
   Directors and Executive Officers of the Registrant     79  
   Executive Compensation     83  
   Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters     87  
   Certain Relationships and Related Transactions     88  
   Principal Accountant Fees and Services     90  
PART IV
   Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules     91  
 SIGNATURES     94  
 EXHIBIT 10.9
 EXHIBIT 23.1
 EXHIBIT 23.2
 EXHIBIT 31.1
 EXHIBIT 31.2
 EXHIBIT 32.1

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FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
      This report and the filings incorporated into this report by reference contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 17A of the Securities Act and within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that are subject to the “safe harbor” created by those sections. These forward-looking statements can generally be identified as such because the context of the statement will include words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “continue,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “opportunity,” “plans,” “potential,” “predicts” or “will,” the negative of these words or words of similar import. Similarly, statements that describe our reserves and our future plans, strategies, intentions, expectations, objectives, goals or prospects are also forward-looking statements. Discussions containing these forward-looking statements may be found, among other places, in “Business,” “Risk Factors,” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” as well as any amendments thereto reflected in subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements are or will be, as applicable, based largely on our expectations and projections about future events and future trends affecting our business, and so are or will be, as applicable, subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties are attributable to, among other things: our ability to achieve and maintain profitability; our customer and market concentration; our ability to penetrate new markets; fluctuations in our operating results from quarter to quarter; our reliance on third-party manufacturers and semiconductor foundries; acquiring businesses and integrating them with our own; component, design or manufacturing defects in our products; and our dependence on key personnel. Because the risks and uncertainties referred to above, actual results or outcomes could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by us or on our behalf and you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which the statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict which factors will arise. In addition, we cannot assess the impact of each factor on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly revise our forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date of this report or the date of documents incorporated by reference in this report that include forward-looking statements.
PART I
Item 1. Business
Introduction
      We design, manufacture and market radio frequency, or RF, modules that enable the transmission, reception and processing of high frequency signals in telecommunication networks, defense electronics and homeland security systems. Our high-frequency RF module designs can accommodate a wide range of component performance and assembly process variations, resulting in ease of manufacture and high test yields. These attributes, coupled with our automated test systems, allow us to use cost-effective, offshore contract manufacturers to assemble and test the majority of our products. Our RF modules are typically used in high-frequency applications and include integrated transceivers, amplifiers, synthesizers, oscillators, up and down converters, frequency multipliers and microwave switch arrays.
      We were originally incorporated in California in 1991 and reincorporated in Delaware in 1995. In March 2000, we merged with TRW Milliwave Inc., a RF subsystem supplier that was a wholly-owned subsidiary of TRW Inc., now owned by Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems Corp. In connection with the merger, we changed our name from Endgate Corporation to Endwave Corporation. As a result of the merger, we became one of our industry’s largest commercial suppliers of microwave and millimeter wave RF

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subsystems with a substantially increased customer base and design and manufacturing capacity. On October 17, 2000, we successfully completed the initial public offering of our common stock.
      Most of our RF modules are deployed in telecommunication networks, including current and next-generation cellular networks, carrier class trunking networks and point-to-point transmission networks. Our target customers for these applications are telecommunications network original equipment manufacturers and systems integrators, collectively referred to in this report as telecom OEMs. Telecom OEMs provide the wireless equipment used by service providers to deliver voice, data and video services to businesses and consumers. Telecom OEMs that purchased our products accounted for 86% of our total revenues during 2004 and included Nokia, Nera ASA, Stratex Networks, Inc., Powerwave Technologies, Inc. (formerly LGP Allgon), Siemens AG and Ceragon Networks Ltd.
      Our RF modules are also designed into various applications outside of the telecommunications network market, including defense electronics and homeland security systems. Our target customers in the defense electronics market include defense systems integrators and their subcontractors that design aerospace systems, defense systems, weapons and electronics platforms for domestic and foreign defense customers. Our target customers in the homeland security market include those customers that are taking advantage of the properties of high-frequency RF to create new capabilities designed to detect security threats. In this report, we refer to our target customers in the defense electronics and homeland security markets as defense and homeland security systems integrators. Revenues from this group of customers, including The Boeing Company, SafeView, Inc., Lockheed Martin Corporation, Suntron Corporation and Raytheon Company, accounted for 13% of our total revenues in 2004.
Industry Background and Markets
      High-Frequency RF Technology
      The applications of RF technology are broad, extending from terrestrial AM radio at the low end of the frequency spectrum, which is less than 1 MHz (megahertz, or million cycles per second), to atmospheric monitoring applications at the high end of the frequency spectrum, which is around 100 GHz (gigahertz, or billion cycles per second). Our products employ microwave and millimeterwave technology. Microwave technology refers to technology for the transmission of signals at high frequencies, from approximately 1 GHz to approximately 20 GHz. Millimeterwave technology refers to technology for the transmission of signals at very high frequencies, from approximately 20 GHz to as high as 100 GHz. The term microwave, however, is commonly understood in the industries we serve, and we use that term in this report, as meaning both microwave and millimeterwave.
      Our RF modules are typically designed to operate at frequencies between 5 GHz and 100 GHz, which we refer to in this report as high-frequency RF. Due to their physical attributes, high-frequency RF signals are well-suited for applications in telecommunication networks requiring high data throughput, defense systems demanding advanced radar and communication capabilities and homeland security systems requiring detection, measurement and imaging capabilities not available by conventional means.
      Telecommunication Networks
      Applications of High-Frequency RF Technologies in Telecommunication Networks. High-frequency transceiver modules are an integral part of microwave radios, which in turn play a key role in many telecommunication networks. Microwave radio links have a number of applications:
        Cellular Backhaul. The communication link between the cellular base station site and a mobile telephone switching office, or MTSO, is referred to as cellular backhaul. This is currently the largest use of microwave radios. In most parts of the world, cellular backhaul is typically accomplished through the use of microwave radios either because of their ease of deployment and low overall cost relative to available wireline options or because adequate wireline facilities are not available. In the United States and Canada, cellular backhaul has been accomplished typically through the use of high-speed telephone lines because low-cost wireline facilities are readily available.

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        Carrier Class Trunking. Communications carriers require high capacity links between major voice and data switching centers, referred to as trunk circuits, to deploy their networks. While fiber optic cables are the most common type of trunk circuit facility, microwave radios are often used for portions of these circuits when the intervening terrain, such as mountains or bodies of water, is difficult to traverse or as redundant backup for the fiber optic network.
 
        Private Voice and Data Networks. When private users, such as companies and universities, deploy stand-alone campus area or metropolitan area voice and data networks, they often encounter situations where it is not possible to access a direct physical path between their facilities due to distance or intervening structures and roads. If third-party wireline facilities are not available or cost-effective, a microwave radio link is often used to provide the network connection. In addition, companies often implement microwave facilities as redundant backup for their wireline facilities.
      Increased Demand for Microwave Radios in Telecommunication Networks. The demand for microwave radios and the transceiver modules used to build them is increasing. As service providers deploy more cellular base stations to serve their growing subscriber base and upgrade existing facilities, they will require more microwave radio links for cellular backhaul. We believe this projected increased demand is driven by several trends within the telecommunications industry:
        Growth of Wireless Telephony in Developing Nations. Developing nations, such as Russia, China, India and nations in Eastern Europe, have experienced a dramatic increase in wireless cellular telephony over the past few years. For example, in February 2005, Nokia publicly announced that its sales in China grew 44% from 2003 to 2004 and that China could become its largest market within three years. Nokia attributed its growth in China to both increased deployment in rural areas and a strong replacement market in urban areas. We believe this growth in cellular telephony will continue in China and other developing nations. We expect that this growth will result in increased demand for microwave backhaul radios because these countries lack well-established wireline infrastructures.
 
        Increase in Data-Intensive Cellular Traffic. Data-intensive “2.5G” applications, such as sending email, transmitting digital images from camera-equipped cellular telephones and downloading music and ring tones, are gaining popularity. The increased use of these data-intensive applications is dramatically increasing the volume of backhaul traffic as compared to voice-only services, necessitating additional high-speed backhaul capacity. In locations where microwave radios currently fulfill the backhaul requirements, this increased demand will necessitate equipment upgrades or replacements. Where cellular backhaul is currently provided by wireline solutions, such as in the United States and Canada, these higher capacity requirements can make microwave radio backhaul solutions more cost-effective than wireline solutions because the incremental cost of added wireline capacity will, in some deployments, exceed the amortization cost of wireless solutions. In addition, adequate wireline solutions may not be available due to their technical limitations.
 
        Deployment of Third-Generation Networks. Telecom OEMs and service providers are deploying new cellular systems known as third generation, or “3G,” networks. We believe the deployment of these 3G networks will require a proportionately larger number of microwave radios. These networks support many data-intensive services, such as internet access via cellular phone or personal digital assistant, which require an even greater backhaul capacity than the current 2.5G applications noted above. We believe 3G networks will have a compounding effect on cellular backhaul needs because more base stations and more backhaul capacity per base station must be deployed in order to provide the required bandwidth and maintain quality of service. As the density of base stations increases, we expect there will be a shift to higher frequency backhaul to support more efficient re-use of the available wireless spectrum.
 
        Introduction of Other High Capacity Data-Only Telecommunication Networks. We believe the introduction of fixed wireless access data networks will also increase demand for microwave radios. Various approaches are being considered for the widespread implementation of fixed wireless access networks, including the IEEE 802.16 WiMAX standard. WiMAX is supported by a large industry consortium, which includes market leaders such as Cisco Systems, Inc., Ericsson and Intel Corporation. Such fixed wireless access networks will, like cellular telephone networks, face the technological and cost

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  issues associated with connecting individual access points to the wireline network infrastructure. This need for backhaul represents an opportunity for microwave radios, particularly because the anticipated high bandwidth requirements of fixed wireless access networks are served more cost-effectively by microwave radios than wireline alternatives.

      Defense Electronics
      High-frequency RF modules are an integral part of various defense electronics systems. Key applications in this market include:
      Electronic Warfare Systems. Most military aircraft are equipped with systems designed to detect if they have been targeted by an opposing force’s weapons system, and are often equipped with electronic countermeasures that jam the targeting radar. These systems employ a variety of high-frequency RF modules.
      Radar Systems. RF modules are used in traditional radar systems to detect large objects at significant distances. In addition, many new weapons systems employ complementary sophisticated radar systems designed to detect small vehicles and combat personnel. These new systems often use higher frequencies in order to provide greater resolution.
      Intelligent Battlefield Systems. The United States military has initiated an effort called the “intelligent battlefield” with the goal of providing the military with comprehensive, real-time information about the situation on the battlefield. Intelligent battlefield systems aggregate data from multiple radar and video sources that survey the battlefield and relay information nearly instantaneously to battlefield commanders. Such systems require high-bandwidth communication capabilities similar to those found in commercial telecommunication systems.
      High Capacity Communications. A modern, widely dispersed military force requires communication systems for voice, video and data wherever and whenever it is needed. Many military communication systems, whether terrestrial, airborne or satellite, employ wireless technology to meet these requirements. As the data rates in these systems increase, the systems must be able to operate at higher frequencies to take advantage of the bandwidth that is available in those frequencies.
      For these reasons, as well as the United States military’s concentration on upgrading existing electronic platforms rather than building new platforms, demand for high-frequency RF modules in the defense electronics market is growing.
      Homeland Security Systems
      The global escalation of terrorist and insurgency threats is resulting in increased governmental and private concern over providing adequate security measures. Many existing security systems and personnel screening techniques are inadequate to address these increasing concerns. The need for new, more capable systems has accelerated security system development. Because of their physical properties, high-frequency RF signals can be used in various detection and imaging systems applied to threats of violence. For example:
      Advanced Personnel Screening Portals. The human body reflects certain high-frequency RF signals. As a result, high-frequency RF signals can be used in advanced personnel screening portals that generate images showing weapons, including plastic explosives or ceramic knives, which are not detectable with conventional metal detection portals. These systems can operate very quickly, permitting a highly efficient and low-cost screening operation.
      Long Distance Personnel Detection. High-frequency RF signals can be used to detect the presence of humans at significant distances, much in the same way lower frequency radar systems can detect metal objects at a distance. This phenomenon can be employed as a radar fence to detect intrusion along lengthy security perimeters such as airport runways, military bases and international borders.
      We believe that the growth of these new security markets for RF modules may prove significant. The United States government’s spending on homeland security more than doubled from $17 billion in government fiscal year 2001 to over $40 billion in government fiscal year 2006.

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Our Opportunity
      Historically, when telecom OEMs and defense electronics and homeland security systems integrators incorporated high-frequency RF modules into their products, they designed and manufactured them internally. However, faced with the need to generate greater cost efficiencies and technological innovations with fewer resources, we believe these OEMs and systems integrators are increasingly looking to merchant suppliers for these items.
      We have observed a trend of increasing use of merchant suppliers in the telecommunications network market. Of the top eleven microwave radio manufacturers that collectively represent 95% of the microwave radio unit volume worldwide, six exclusively use merchant suppliers for their transceiver modules, currently one is implementing a transition to the exclusive use of merchant supply and two source a portion of their requirements from merchant suppliers. Two of the microwave radio manufacturers made the decision to move to merchant suppliers exclusively within the last 18 months. We believe the same dynamic will also occur in the defense electronics and homeland security markets.
      We believe there are several key characteristics that telecom OEMs and defense and homeland security systems integrators value in a potential supply partner of high-frequency RF modules:
        Low Cost. Telecom OEMs and defense and homeland security systems integrators are under increasing pricing pressure from their customers so they expect effective cost reduction programs from their merchant suppliers. These cost-reduction programs require merchant suppliers to make a comprehensive effort at multiple levels, including the integration of multiple functions, efficient manufacturing, effective supply chain management and use of low-cost sub-contractors, as appropriate.
 
        Technical Depth. These OEMs and systems integrators seek merchant suppliers of RF modules that have significant experience in and understanding of the overall system design. This depth and breadth of understanding is crucial to determining appropriate overall system level tradeoffs and in providing advice to the OEM or system integrator, thereby enabling the OEM or system integrator to design and deploy its systems more cost-effectively.
 
        Flexible Production. Volatility of demand is common in the market for RF modules, especially in the telecommunications network market. Therefore, these OEMs and systems integrators need merchant suppliers that can accommodate fluctuations in the demand, whether in mix or quantity, in the normal course of business and can flexibly scale their manufacturing to match the fluctuating demands of the OEM or systems integrator.
 
        Innovative Technology. New technology is the key to providing enhanced performance and continued cost reduction. These OEMs and systems integrators value this capability and therefore prefer partners that create new technologies offering additional functionality, higher reliability, lower cost and better performance.
      We believe that few merchant suppliers comprehensively address all of these requirements. Many of the merchant suppliers that populate the industry are small and lack the requisite operational strength and technical capability. Many merchant suppliers use labor-intensive circuit manufacturing and test methods that limit their ability to produce high-frequency RF modules in high volume and at a low cost. Others have limited in-house RF design expertise and rely on third parties for their circuit designs. Fewer yet provide new technologies to the industry.

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Our Strengths
      We are a provider of high-frequency RF modules to telecom OEMs and defense and homeland security systems integrators. We believe we possess several key strengths that enable us to provide our customers with superior products and services. These strengths include:
        Cost-Effective Volume Manufacturing. Our high unit volumes enable us to achieve lower manufacturing costs than many of our competitors as we increase our materials purchasing power, amortize our overhead expenses over a larger number of units and gain labor efficiencies. The combination of our proprietary semiconductor components and technology, our ability to design highly-manufacturable products and our automated testing capability differentiate us from the labor-intensive methods often used in our industry. We contract with third-party, offshore manufacturers for added cost savings.
 
        Depth and Breadth of Technical Expertise. We have extensive experience in the design and manufacture of high-frequency RF modules for a broad range of products. Our intellectual property and highly-skilled technical team are critical when dealing with the higher frequencies required by emerging applications. Our technical team has broad expertise in device physics, semiconductor device and circuit design, system engineering, test engineering and other critical disciplines. In addition, our large library of proprietary circuit designs enables us to introduce new products rapidly and cost-effectively. We believe the depth and breadth of our technical expertise differentiates us from many of our competitors, enabling us to optimize our products for critical performance factors and to assist our customers in developing an optimal overall design.
 
        Scalable and Flexible Manufacturing. Our use of third-party contract manufacturing and innovative supply chain management techniques enables us to adjust rapidly, efficiently and flexibly to our customers’ varying quantity and product mix requirements, which are often created by unexpected needs and seasonal variations in demand.
 
        Next-Generation Technology. We have invested in the development of next-generation circuit and packaging technologies that allow us to provide our customers with high-performance and low-cost solutions. Many of our competitors do not have the capability to produce proprietary circuit designs and therefore are limited to using standard, commercially-available semiconductor devices. We are able to develop new semiconductor devices on a custom basis to optimize the overall design. We have augmented our circuit design capabilities with advancements in circuit packaging that allow further enhancement of the design. This gives us the flexibility to optimize our product designs for our customers and their specific applications.
Our Strategy
      Our objective is to be the leading merchant supplier of high-frequency RF modules. Our strategies to achieve that objective focus on revenue growth, manufacturing efficiency and flexibility and technical breadth and strength:
      Accelerate Revenue Growth
      Increase our Telecommunications Network Business. We have long-standing customer relationships with many major telecom OEMs. We intend to use our customer base and track record, in conjunction with our low-cost manufacturing expertise, to increase our revenues. For a customer’s new designs, we intend to capture their business by designing and manufacturing new transceiver modules. However, if a customer is already producing a transceiver in-house, we intend to capture this additional business by taking over the production of their transceiver module designs and moving the production to our offshore contract manufacturing facilities where we can lower production costs by using our innovative supply chain management techniques. Subsequently, we plan to redesign our customers’ existing transceivers to lower costs further. In this market, we intend to generate additional revenues by offering both new product lines and frequencies. For example, in 2004, Nokia, Nera ASA and Siemens AG each expanded their relationship with us through purchasing new transceiver modules at different frequencies, Nera ASA chose to outsource all of its internal

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transceiver manufacturing to us and Siemens AG chose to outsource a portion of its internal transceiver manufacturing to us.
      Expand into New Growth Markets. While our core market historically has been the telecommunications network market, we intend to leverage our high-frequency RF module expertise to expand in new growth markets, such as defense electronics and homeland security systems, to increase revenues and diversify our customer base. We are actively expanding our business in the defense electronics and homeland security markets with recent initiatives such as our acquisition of JCA and the formation of our Endwave Defense Systems division, our execution of a multi-year supply agreement with SafeView, Inc. and a teaming agreement with Signal Technology Corporation Microwave Systems, a subsidiary of Crane Co. In 2004, revenues from defense and homeland security systems integrators accounted for approximately 13% of our total revenues. We believe we are well positioned to take advantage of these markets as high-frequency RF modules become a more integral component of defense electronics and homeland security systems.
      Grow through Acquisitions. Since our initial public offering in October 2000, we have acquired and integrated five businesses or product lines. As a result of these transactions, we have increased our revenues and market share, broadened our product portfolio, diversified our customer base, gained expertise outside our core telecommunications network market and added key members to our staff. We believe the consolidation of high-frequency RF module suppliers will continue and will provide us additional opportunities for attractive acquisitions. It is our intent to continue to pursue strategic acquisitions that will further strengthen our competitive position and revenue growth as appropriate.
      Offer the Highest Level of Manufacturing Efficiency and Flexibility
      Continually Improve Manufacturing Efficiency. The manufacturability of our designs, our automated test processes and our continuing improvement efforts have enabled us to bring labor-saving manufacturing technologies to an industry that has historically used labor-intensive manufacturing techniques. We intend to continue to improve our lean manufacturing methods and further enhance our manufacturing expertise. This will be particularly important for our high mix product line, primarily manufactured in our Diamond Springs facility.
      Outsource to Low-Cost, Contract Manufacturers. In 2002, we began moving most of our high-volume manufacturing to HANA Microelectronics Co., Ltd., or HANA, in Thailand, a low-cost, offshore contract manufacturer. We consign raw materials to HANA, as well as provide the specialized assembly and test equipment needed to manufacture our products. HANA provides the direct labor to assemble and test our products. Our readily manufacturable designs, which can tolerate a wide range of component performance and assembly process variations, and our automated production test systems enabled this transition to offshore contract manufacturing. The portion of our product revenues attributable to products manufactured offshore increased from approximately 8% in 2002 to over 80% in 2004. This transition significantly improved our product margins and converted many of our fixed costs into variable costs. This conversion of our cost structure enables us to adjust costs flexibly in response to changing customer demand and the seasonality of our telecommunications network business. We intend to continue to use contract manufacturers to enable us to respond flexibly to changing customer demands and the seasonality of our business.
      Reduce Raw Materials and Component Costs. The costs of raw materials and components employed in high-frequency RF modules are a major part of the overall manufacturing cost. We have reduced the cost of these components by re-designing them, leveraging our purchasing power and selecting more cost-effective suppliers. As an outgrowth of our operational presence in Asia, we continue to identify low-cost, high-quality suppliers for several of the raw materials and components used in our products.
      Employ a Fabless Semiconductor Model. Semiconductors are both a critical technical element and a major cost component of our products. Since our inception, we have focused on producing high-frequency RF modules based on internally-designed semiconductors processed by third-party semiconductor fabrication facilities, or foundries. Our use of third-party foundries gives us the flexibility to use the process technology and materials best suited for each application, allows us to leverage our purchasing power and eliminates the need for us to invest in and maintain our own foundries. We intend to continue to use third-party

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semiconductor foundries, particularly as we introduce new products incorporating more advanced semiconductor materials.
      Leverage Technical Breadth and Strength
      Broaden our Product Portfolio. We are enlarging the scope of our product offerings both in the frequency ranges in which our products are designed to operate and in the type of functionalities we support. This allows us to address a broader range of applications in our customers’ systems and further expands our market opportunities. For example, during the last year we have introduced a new microwave switch product for the homeland security market and a high performance synthesizer for the emerging gigabit ethernet bridging market.
      Develop New Circuit and Packaging Technologies. A key component of our value proposition is providing our customers with powerful and cost-effective technologies that offer them a major technical and economic advantage. We have developed and maintain a strong base of high-frequency RF technology supported by an experienced design team, a large library of circuit designs, extensive proprietary know-how and a large portfolio of patents. Our efforts to create new technology have led to 38 issued United States patents. We intend to continue to invest in research and development, maintain a team of talented engineers and scientists, and build on our manufacturing technologies. To that end, we recently introduced a proprietary circuit technology known as Multilithic Microsystems, or MLMS, and a proprietary circuit packaging technology called Epsilon, both of which reduce the cost of producing our products and improve technical performance.
Products and Technology
     Products
      Our RF modules are typically used in high-frequency applications and include integrated transceivers, amplifiers, synthesizers, oscillators, up and down converters, frequency multipliers and microwave switch arrays. Depending upon the requirements of our customers, we supply our products at the following levels of integration:
        Single-Function Modules. Single-function modules are simple, standardized products that perform a single function, such as amplification, frequency multiplication or signal mixing. We employ these modules in the design of prototype or low production volume systems that do not warrant the development of a custom, fully-integrated module.
 
        Multi-Function Modules. Multi-function modules are customized, complex products that combine a number of individual functional elements into a single package. These modules are typically more cost-effective for higher-volume applications and provide greater reliability and performance than systems assembled by the customer using single-function RF modules.
 
        Integrated Subsystem Modules. Integrated subsystem modules combine several functional RF blocks, such as amplifiers, switches or oscillators, with various types of control and support circuitry, such as a microprocessor or a power supply, to form a stand-alone subsystem. These complex subsystem modules, such as those we supply to Nokia, combine RF capability with sophisticated analog and digital system interface capabilities.

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      The following diagram illustrates the varying levels of product integration available to our customers. The shaded area in the lower left portion of the diagram represents a single-function module used for intermediate frequency amplification. The shaded area on the right side of the diagram represents a multi-function RF module. The area enclosed by the box represents an integrated subsystem module.
(INTEGRATED RF SUBSYSTEM CHART)
      Circuit Technologies
      In high-frequency RF modules, the choice and implementation of the basic circuit technology determines the performance, cost and manufacturability of the product. Currently, the majority of our products employ one of two alternate technologies, either hybrid microwave integrated circuit, or HMIC, technology or monolithic microwave integrated circuit, or MMIC, technology. In each case, we apply our circuit design capabilities to develop custom circuits that are optimized for cost, performance and manufacturability. All of our products manufactured at HANA employ MMIC technology. We have advanced the design of our HMIC and MMIC circuits significantly and have benefited from those advancements in reduced costs and higher production yields. Multilithic Microsystem technology, or MLMS, is a proprietary next generation circuit technology, which we believe will significantly reduce costs and improve performance.

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      The following table compares various characteristics and our assessment of the relative merits of these three distinct circuit technologies:
             
     
    Circuit Technologies
     
        Endwave Next-Generation
    Current Technology   Technology
 
    HMIC   MMIC   MLMS
Circuit Type            
   
(Circuit Graphic)
 
(Circuit Graphic)
 
(Circuit Graphic)
 
Description
 
Individual devices bonded to a substrate and then interconnected with bond wires
 
Monolithic semiconductor substrate with patterned devices and interconnections
 
Individual devices flip chip attached using our patented flip chip assembly technology to a complex substrate
 
 
Module Design
 
Multiple circuits cascaded to form a functional block
 
Multiple circuits cascaded to form a functional block
 
Single substrate can form a complete “system on a chip” functional block
 
 
Substrate
 
Ceramic with single top layer metallization
 
Semiconductor material, typically gallium arsenide
 
Next generation, multi- layer substrate containing metal, capacitive and resistive layers
 
 
Active Devices
 
Individual RF devices attached to substrate
 
Devices patterned into various areas of the substrate; active device area is a small fraction of total substrate area
 
Individual RF devices especially designed for flip chip assembly
 
 
Application
 
Used for rapid prototyping and low volume production
 
Used for high volume automated or third-party assembly
 
Used for high volume automated or third-party assembly
 
 
Number of Bond
 
High — Often hundreds
 
Moderate — Often tens per
 
Low — Often fewer than
Wires (which require manual tuning)
 
per module
 
module
 
10 per module
 
 
Performance
 
Variable — Units must be hand-tuned to required specifications and performance may be variable
 
Good — MMIC circuit designed for consistent performance, limited by substrate characteristics
 
Excellent — Very consistent performance due to lack of bond wires and improved substrate material
 
 
Design Difficulty
 
Moderate — The most flexible circuit technology for customizing RF performance; can be designed very quickly by us because of our large library of HMIC core elements
 
Difficult — Complete circuit and all interactions must be concurrently analyzed; complicated by sub-optimal substrate properties of semiconductor materials for interconnection and filter elements; single-substrate process must be used for all devices
 
Moderate — Multi-layer properties of substrate facilitate ease of design; layers optimized for their function
 
 
Relative Cost
 
High — Material costs are modest, but high assembly, test and rework labor costs
 
High — Material cost of large semiconductors is expensive
 
Moderate — Device and substrate costs are lower than MMICs; assembly process automated for lower labor costs than HMICs
 
 
Status
 
In production
 
In production
 
In final testing and qualification
 
 

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Circuit Packaging Technologies
      In high-frequency RF modules, the circuit packaging technology also significantly impacts cost and performance. The majority of our current products employ planar packaging technology, especially our high-volume commercial products. To improve the performance and reduce the cost of packaging, we have developed our proprietary Epsilon packaging technology.
      The following table compares current RF packaging technology with our new Epsilon packaging technology and our assessment of the relative merits of these two distinct circuit packaging technologies:
         
     
    Circuit Packaging Technologies
     
    Current Technology   Endwave Next-Generation Technology
 
    Planar   Epsilon
Package Type        
    (PLANAR PACKAING DEVICE)   (EPSILON PACKAGING DEVICE)
 
Description   Circuit substrates mounted to metal carrier and then enclosed with metal cover; entire assembly mounted to conventional printed wiring board   Circuit substrates mounted directly to composite printed wiring board using “chip on board” approach and then enclosed with non-metallized plastic cover
 
Size and Weight   Metallic parts add significant thickness and weight   Significantly thinner and lighter than planar packages
 
Performance   Good — Good performance with adequate RF gasket seal   Excellent — RF cavity sealed better than planar packages
 
Design Difficulty   Moderate — Requires separate design effort for carrier and cover with interfaces to printed wiring board   Low — Fewer elements to design and fewer mechanical interfaces to manage than planar packages
 
Manufacturability   Eight major assembly steps   Four major assembly steps
 
Relative Cost   High — Material costs are significant   Low — Metal carrier eliminated and plastic cover is more cost-effective
 
Status   In production   In final testing and qualification
 

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Sales and Marketing
      We focus on the global telecommunications network, defense electronics and homeland security markets. We sell our products through our direct sales efforts, which are supported by a network of domestic and international independent representatives. For each of our major customers, we assign a technical account manager, who has responsibility for developing and expanding our relationship with that customer. Our direct sales efforts are augmented by traditional marketing activities, including advertising, participation in industry associations and presence at major trade shows.
      Our products are highly technical and the sales cycle can be long. Our sales efforts involve a collaborative and iterative process with our customers to determine their specific requirements either in order to design an appropriate solution or transfer efficiently the product to our offshore contract manufacturer. Depending on the product, the sales cycle can typically take anywhere from 2 to 12 months.
Customers
      We sell our products primarily to telecom OEMs and defense and homeland security systems integrators. During 2004, we shipped products to more than 100 different customers. Our top customers, which accounted for approximately 90% of our total revenues in 2004, and the markets they served, were:
     
Telecommunications Network   Defense Electronics and Homeland Security
     
Nokia   The Boeing Company
Nera ASA
  SafeView, Inc.
Stratex Networks, Inc. 
  Lockheed Martin Corporation
Powerwave Technologies, Inc. (formerly LGP Allgon)
  Suntron Corporation
Siemens AG
   
      Revenues from all of our telecom OEM customers comprised 86% of our total revenues in 2004. While we intend to increase our revenues in the defense electronics and homeland security markets, we expect that the majority of our revenues will be attributable to a limited number of telecom OEMs for the foreseeable future.

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Acquisitions
      As part of our growth strategy, we have made acquisitions designed to increase revenues and gain market share. We have completed the following acquisitions since our initial public offering:
               
               
Acquisition     Structure     Key Benefits  
               
JCA Technology, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of New Focus, Inc., a subsidiary of Bookham Technology plc — July 2004     Purchased all of the outstanding capital stock of JCA, whose primary product line was microwave amplifiers serving the defense electronics industry     • Provided significant market position in RF amplifiers and modules for defense and related applications
• Expanded relationships with existing customers, including Raytheon Company, Lockheed Martin Corporation and BAE Systems plc
• Added new customers, including Thales Group SA, L-3 Communications Corp. and Xicom Technology
• Formed core of Endwave Defense Systems division
 
               
Verticom, Inc. — May 2003     Purchased assets including customer contracts, equipment, inventory, product designs and other intellectual property required to manufacture and supply YIG-based frequency synthesizers     • Enhanced high-performance oscillator technology
• Added new customer relationship in the defense electronics market
• Added new product application in the defense communication satellite terminal market
 
               
Arcom Wireless Incorporated, a subsidiary of Dover Corporation — February 2003     Purchased assets including customer contracts, equipment, inventory, product designs and other intellectual property required to manufacture and supply a 58 GHz integrated transceiver     • Expanded relationship with an existing customer
• Enhanced market position as a leading supplier of 58 GHz products
 
               
Signal Technology Corp. Fixed Wireless Division — September 2002     Purchased assets including customer contracts, equipment, inventory, product designs and other intellectual property required to manufacture and supply several transceiver products     • Expanded relationships with existing customers including Stratex Networks, Inc. and Nera ASA
• Added new customers including Siemens AG and Ceragon Networks Ltd.
• Significantly increased our product portfolio
• Facilitated move to offshore production
 
               
M/A-Com Tech, Inc.,
a subsidiary of Tyco Electronics formerly known as Stellex Microwave Systems — April 2001
    Purchased assets including customer contracts, equipment, inventory, product designs and other intellectual property required to manufacture and supply yttrium iron garnet-based frequency synthesizers     • Added new product capabilities in high performance oscillators
• Added new customer relationship with Stratex Networks, Inc.
• Added new application in high capacity microwave radios
 
               
Competition
      Among merchant suppliers in the telecommunications network market, we primarily compete with Eyal Microwave Industry, Filtronics plc, the Forem division of Andrew Corporation, Linkra Srl, Microelectronics

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Technology Inc., REMEC, Inc., Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, Thales Group SA, and Xytrans Inc. In addition to these companies, there are telecom OEMs, such as Ericsson and NEC Corporation, that use their own captive resources for the design and manufacture of their own high-frequency RF transceiver modules, rather than use merchant suppliers like us. We believe that over one-half of the high-frequency RF transceiver modules manufactured today are being produced by these captive resources. To the extent that telecom OEMs presently, or may in the future, produce their own RF transceiver modules, we lose the opportunity to gain a customer and related sales. Conversely, if they should decide to outsource their requirements, this may significantly expand the market available to us. In the defense electronics and homeland security markets, we primarily compete with Aeroflex Incorporated, AML Communications Inc., Chelton, Ltd., CTT Inc., Herley Industries, Inc., KMIC Technology, Inc. and Teledyne Technologies Incorporated.
      We believe that the principal competitive factors in our industry are:
  Product pricing and the ability to offer low-cost solutions;
 
  Technical leadership and product performance;
 
  Product breadth;
 
  Time-to-market in the design and manufacturing of products; and
 
  Logistical flexibility, manufacturing capability and scalable capacity.
Research and Development
      Our research efforts focus on developing new proprietary circuit and packaging technologies, such as MLMS and Epsilon, and integrating our technology into new semiconductor materials, such as indium gallium phosphide. Our product development activities focus on designing products to meet specific customer and market needs and introducing these products to manufacturing. Our technical approach emphasizes the following capabilities:
      Custom Semiconductor Design Capabilities. Our ability to design custom semiconductors allows us to optimize and reduce the cost of designs beyond what is possible with standard, off-the-shelf semiconductors.
      Breadth of Expertise. We are experienced in a broad range of technical disciplines and possess the know-how to design products at multiple levels of integration.
      Computer Modeling Capabilities. Our extensive computer modeling capabilities allow us to create designs quickly and to minimize the number of iterations required to develop specification compliant, cost-effective designs.
      Extensive Library of Circuit Designs. Our extensive library of circuit, module and subsystem designs enables us to generate new designs and produce prototypes quickly to meet our customers’ time-to-market demands.
      Automated Testing Processes. High-frequency RF products require extensive testing after assembly to verify compliance with customer specifications. We use high speed, custom-designed, automated test sets that are capable of rapidly testing a complete RF module. This increases throughput in the manufacturing process and reduces the skill level required to conduct the tests. Concurrently with the development of these test methods, we develop data analysis and reporting tools to facilitate rapid communication of test data to our customers.
      Our research and development and related engineering expenses were $9.2 million, $4.5 million and $5.0 million, in 2002, 2003 and 2004, respectively. The increase in 2004 spending as compared to 2003 was primarily the result of research and development expenses incurred by JCA during the second half of 2004. The decrease in 2003 spending as compared to 2002 was primarily attributable to a significant reduction in the size of our engineering team in 2002 in order to match our investment in research and development with then current market needs.

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Patents and Intellectual Property Rights
      Our success depends, in part, on our ability to protect our intellectual property. We rely primarily on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws to protect our proprietary technologies and processes. As of December 31, 2004, we had 38 United States patents issued, many with associated foreign filings and patents. Our issued patents include those relating to basic circuit and device designs, semiconductors, Multilithic Microsystem technology and system designs. Our issued United States patents expire between 2007 and 2020. We also license technology from other companies, including Northrop Grumman Corporation. There are no limitations on our rights to make, use or sell products we may develop in the future using the technology licensed to us by Northrop Grumman Corporation, provided that the products are for commercial customers and non-satellite applications.
      We maintain a vigorous technology development program that routinely generates potentially patentable intellectual property. Our decisions as to whether to seek formal patent protection and the countries in which to seek it are done on a patent by patent basis and are based on the economic value of the intellectual property, the anticipated strength of the resulting patent, the cost of pursuing the patent and an assessment of using a patent as a strategy to protect the intellectual property. With regard to our pending patent applications, it is possible that no patents may be issued as a result of these or any future applications or the allowed patent claims may be of reduced value and importance. Further, any existing or future patents may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented thus reducing or eliminating their commercial value.
      To protect our intellectual property, we enter into confidentiality and assignment of rights to inventions agreements with our employees, and confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements with our strategic partners, and generally control access to and distribution of our documentation and other proprietary information. These measures may not be adequate in all cases to safeguard the proprietary technology underlying our products. It may be possible for a third party to copy or otherwise obtain and use our products or technology without authorization, develop similar technology independently or design around our patents. In addition, effective patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret protection may be unavailable or limited outside of the United States, Europe and Japan.
Operations
      We currently have our products manufactured in two locations. Domestically, we operate a plant in Diamond Springs, California for those products that are being produced in low volumes. Our domestic manufacturing operations are primarily for defense electronics applications, which must be manufactured within the United States due to government export control regulations. The majority of our products are manufactured in Thailand by HANA Microelectronics Co., Ltd., or HANA, a contract manufacturer. Under our manufacturing contract, HANA supplies the physical plant, direct labor, basic assembly equipment and warehousing functions. We supplement those activities with our own full-time, in-country staff consisting of two employees and six independent contractors who provide production planning, process engineering, test engineering and quality assurance support. We own certain assets held in HANA’s factory, including specialized test and assembly equipment and various raw material and product inventories. Our arrangement with HANA allows us to reduce our labor and facility expenses while maintaining tight control of process and quality. To reduce our costs further, we have identified lower cost Asian sources for various raw materials, especially basic metal and circuit board components. Our manufacturing agreement with HANA currently expires in July 2005, but will renew automatically for a one-year period unless either party notifies the other of its desire to terminate the agreement at least 90 days prior to the expiration of the term. In addition, either party may terminate the agreement without cause upon 120 days prior written notice to the other party, and either party may terminate the agreement if the non-terminating party is in breach and does not cure the breach within 30 days after notice of the breach is given by the terminating party. While our relations with HANA are favorable and we do not anticipate an interruption in our arrangement with HANA, there can be no assurance that HANA will not seek to terminate its agreement with us.
      We design custom semiconductor devices. However, we do not own or operate a semiconductor foundry and rely on a limited number of third parties to produce these components. Our use of various third-party

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semiconductor foundries gives us the flexibility to use the process technology that is best suited for each application and eliminates the need for us to invest in and maintain our own semiconductor facilities. Our primary semiconductor foundry is Velocium, a division of Northrop Grumman Space Mission & Systems Corp., which is the holder of approximately 33.0% of our common stock, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corporation. In this report, we refer to the Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems Corp. foundry by its tradename, Velocium. Velocium produced over 85% of our semiconductors in 2004. We also use other suppliers for some of our products. The loss of our relationship with or our access to any of the semiconductor foundries we currently use, particularly Velocium, and any resulting delay or reduction in the supply of semiconductor devices to us, would severely impact our ability to fulfill customer orders and could damage our relationships with our customers. Our current supply agreement with Velocium expires in December 2005. While we believe we are a significant customer of and do not anticipate an interruption in our relationship with Velocium, there can be no assurance that Velocium will renew its agreement with us. We estimate that it may take up to six months to shift product of a given semiconductor circuit design to a new foundry.
      All of the manufacturing facilities we use worldwide are registered under ISO 9001-2000, an international certification standard of quality for design, development and business practices. We maintain comprehensive quality systems at all of these facilities to ensure compliance with customer specifications, configuration control, documentation control and supplier quality conformance.
Backlog
      Our order backlog consists of a combination of c