SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
FORM 10-K
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)
OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2003
Commission File Number 000-49602
SYNAPTICS INCORPORATED
| Delaware | 77-0118518 | |
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| (State or Other Jurisdiction of | (I.R.S. Employer | |
| Incorporation or Organization) | Identification No.) | |
| 2381 Bering Drive | ||
| San Jose, California | 95131 | |
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| (Address of Principal Executive Offices) | (Zip Code) |
(408) 434-0110
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act:
Common Stock, par value $.001 per share
Preferred Stock Purchase Rights
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 registrants knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. [ ]
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 12b-2). Yes [X] No [ ]
The aggregate market value of Common Stock held by nonaffiliates of the registrant (22,493,237 shares) based on the closing price of the registrants Common Stock as reported on the Nasdaq National Market on December 31, 2002, was $170,948,601. For purposes of this computation, all officers, directors, and 10% beneficial owners of the registrant are deemed to be affiliates. Such determination should not be deemed to be an admission that such officers, directors, or 10% beneficial owners are, in fact, affiliates of the registrant.
As of September 5, 2003, there were outstanding 24,033,525 shares of the registrants Common Stock, par value $.001 per share.
Documents Incorporated by Reference
Portions of the registrants definitive Proxy Statement for the 2003 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K.
SYNAPTICS INCORPORATED
ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K
FISCAL YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2003
TABLE OF CONTENTS
| Page | ||||
| PART I | ||||
| ITEM 1. | BUSINESS | 1 | ||
| ITEM 2. | PROPERTIES | 28 | ||
| ITEM 3. | LEGAL PROCEEDINGS | 28 | ||
| ITEM 4. | SUBMISSION OF MATTERS TO A VOTE OF SECURITY HOLDERS | 28 | ||
| PART II | ||||
| ITEM 5. |
MARKET FOR THE REGISTRANTS COMMON EQUITY AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER
MATTERS
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29 | ||
| ITEM 6. | SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA | 31 | ||
| ITEM 7. |
MANAGEMENTS DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND
RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
|
32 | ||
| ITEM 7A. |
QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
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41 | ||
| ITEM 8. | FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA | 42 | ||
| ITEM 9. |
CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE |
42 | ||
| ITEM 9A. | CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES | 42 | ||
| PART III | ||||
| ITEM 10. | DIRECTORS AND EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE REGISTRANT | 43 | ||
| ITEM 11. | EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION | 43 | ||
| ITEM 12. |
SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS |
43 | ||
| ITEM 13. | CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS | 43 | ||
| ITEM 14. | PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES | 43 | ||
| PART IV | ||||
| ITEM 15. |
EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES, AND REPORTS ON FORM 8-K
|
44 | ||
| SIGNATURES | 46 | |||
| INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS | F-1 | |||
Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
The statements contained in this report on Form 10-K that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our expectations, anticipation, intentions, beliefs, or strategies regarding the future, whether or not those words are used. Forward-looking statements also include statements regarding revenue, margins, expenses, and earnings analysis for fiscal 2003 and thereafter; technological innovations; products or product development, including their performance, market position, and potential; our product development strategies; potential acquisitions or strategic alliances; the success of particular product or marketing programs; the amounts of revenue generated as a result of sales to significant customers; and liquidity and anticipated cash needs and availability. All forward-looking statements included in this report are based on information available to us as of the filing date of this report, and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Our actual results could differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are the factors discussed in Item 1, Business Risk Factors.
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PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Overview
We are the leading worldwide developer and supplier of custom-designed user interface solutions for notebook computers. In our fiscal year ended June 30, 2003, we estimate that more than half of all notebooks shipped contained our products. Our original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, customers include the worlds ten largest PC OEMs. We generally supply our OEM customers through their contract manufacturers, which take delivery of our products and pay us directly for them. These contract manufacturers include Arima, Compal, Elitegroup Computers, Foxconn, Inventec, and Shanghai Yi Hsin.
The latest industry projections for notebook shipments for 2003-2007 show a compound annual growth rate of 12.9% compared to 7.2% for desktop computers, reflecting the continuing trend toward mobile computing and remote access. Based on the strength of our technology and engineering know-how, we believe we are well positioned to take advantage of the growth opportunity in the notebook market and to provide innovative, value-added interface solutions for each of the key end-user preferences. We estimate that in fiscal 2003 approximately 63% of all notebook computers sold used solely a touch pad interface; 16% used solely a pointing stick interface; and 21% used a dual pointing interface, which consists of both a touch pad and a pointing stick. Our notebook product lines of touch pads and pointing sticks allow us to address 100% of the total notebook market.
Our TouchPad is a small, touch-sensitive pad that senses the position of a persons finger on its surface to provide screen navigation, cursor movement, and a platform for interactive input. Our TouchPads offer various advanced features, such as virtual scrolling; customizable tap zones to simulate mouse clicks, launch applications, or perform other select functions; Palm Check to eliminate false activation; and Edge Motion to continue cursor movement when the users finger reaches the edge of the touch pad. Our TouchPads are custom designed to meet our OEM customers specifications regarding electrical interface, size, thickness, functionality, and driver software for various advanced features and operating systems. Our pointing stick solutions, including TouchStyk, our proprietary pointing stick solution, enable computer manufacturers to offer end users the choice of a touch pad, a pointing stick, or a combination of both interface devices. TouchStyk is a self-contained, easily integrated module that uses similar sensing technology as our TouchPad. Our QuickStroke® provides a fast, easy, and accurate way to input Chinese characters. Using our patented pattern recognition software with our TouchPad, QuickStroke can recognize handwritten, partially finished Chinese characters, thereby saving the end user considerable time and effort.
We believe our extensive intellectual property portfolio, our experience in providing interface solutions to major OEMs, and our proven track record of growth in our expanding core notebook computer interface business positions us to be a key technological enabler for multiple applications in many markets. Based on these strengths, we are addressing the opportunities created by the growth of a new class of mobile computing and communications devices, which we call information appliances, or iAppliances, as well as a variety of other electronic devices. iAppliances include personal digital assistants, or PDAs, smart phones, and MP3 portable jukeboxes as well as a variety of mobile, handheld, wireless, and Internet devices. Other electronic devices include Touchpads for set-top box remote controls for Internet access and home entertainment utilizing the users television screen as the monitor as well as touch screens for use in ATMs, kiosks, Web phones, and interactive gaming machines. We believe our existing technologies, our new product solutions, and our emphasis on ease of use, small size, low power consumption, advanced functionality, durability, and reliability will enable us to penetrate the markets for iAppliances and other electronic devices.
We continually strive to introduce new user interface solutions, including solutions for iAppliance and other electronic devices. Current solutions include ClearPad and Spiral as well as our new touch sensitive scroll wheel, integrated fingerprint touch pad module, touch pads with embedded character recognition software, and touch sensing modules for large touch screens. Our ClearPad touch screen solution is a thin sensor that can be placed over any surface, including display devices, such as liquid crystal displays, or LCDs. The ClearPad is a lightweight, low power consumption solution, and its flexible design allows it to be mounted on curved surfaces, such as the lens of a cellular phone. ClearPad is an extension of our capacitive technologies. Our Spiral is a thin, lightweight, low power consumption, inductive pen-sensing system. The Spiral sensor lies behind an LCD screen,
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effectively permitting 100% light transmissivity and lower overall power consumption resulting from reduced backlighting requirements. Spiral uses a patented inductive coupling technology that offers the unique feature of proximity sensing to measure the position of the pen relative to the pen-based device. Our TouchRing is an integrated solid-state interface circular scrolling wheel utilizing our capacitive touch sensing technology that enables the user to navigate through menus and scroll through lists. Our fingerprint recognition touch pad combines our TouchPad with an advanced biometric sensor and software to provide a complete biometric security solution for notebook OEMs. The fingerprint recognition features of the TouchPad replace the need for a user name and password combination with the users fingerprint. The fingerprint recognition touch pad has the dual advantage of providing security by restricting login access to anyone other than the rightful user and providing user convenience by making it easier and faster to log in since a user name and password are not needed. Our TouchPad with embedded Chinese character recognition software, allows users to interface application specific content, such as electronic payment processing, map locators, and short messaging services.
ClearPads first application is in a high-end Toshiba notebook. A version of our Spiral technology is being developed as a user interface for accessing, navigating, and managing, content rich information delivered to mobile phones. Our TouchRing, which enables the user to navigate through menus and scroll through play lists and songs, is being used in a leading MP3 player. Our integrated Fingerprint TouchPad module is included in Samsungs Sens X10 notebook. Our TouchPad with embedded Chinese character recognition software is being used in public pay telephones of a China-based telecommunications company to provide users easy access to application specific content, such as electronic payment processing, map locaters, and short text messaging services. The first application for the touch sensing module for the large touch screens is in ATM machines.
Our website is located at www.synaptics.com. Through our website, we make available free of charge our annual reports on Form 10-K, our proxy statements, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and our current reports on Form 8-K as well as Form 3, Form 4, and Form 5 Reports for our directors, officers, and principal stockholders, together with amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a), 15(d), or 16 under the Securities Exchange Act. These reports are available as soon as reasonably practicable after their electronic filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Our Strategy
Our objective is to continue to enhance our position as the worlds leading supplier of interface solutions for the notebook computer market and to become a leading supplier of interface solutions for other markets, including the markets for iAppliances and other electronic devices. Key aspects of our strategy to achieve this objective include the following:
Extend Our Technological Leadership
We plan to utilize our extensive intellectual property portfolio and technological expertise to provide competitive advantages, extend the functionality of our product solutions, and offer innovative product solutions to customers across multiple market segments. We intend to continue to utilize our technological expertise to reduce the overall size, weight, cost, and power consumption of our interface solutions while increasing their applications, capabilities, and performance. We plan to expand our research and development efforts through strategic acquisitions and alliances, increased expenses, and the hiring of additional engineering personnel. We believe that these efforts will enable us to meet customer expectations and to achieve our goal of supplying on a timely and cost-effective basis the most advanced, easy-to-use, functional interface solutions to our target markets.
Enhance Our Leadership Position in the Notebook Computer Market
We intend to continue to introduce market-leading interface solutions in terms of performance, functionality, size, and ease of use. Our touch stick solutions, including our proprietary TouchStyk, enable us to address both the pointing stick and the expanding dual pointing segments of the notebook interface market. Our pen-sensing applications, multi-finger gestures, and scroll strip products are designed to provide additional functionality that results in competitive advantages. Our HyperThin TouchPad solution allows our customers to design and produce even thinner notebook computers.
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Capitalize on Growth of New Markets
We intend to capitalize on the growth of new markets, including the iAppliance markets, brought about by the convergence of computing and communications. We plan to offer innovative, easy-to-use interface solutions that address the evolving portability, connectivity, and functionality requirements of these new markets. We plan to offer these solutions to existing and potential OEM customers as a means to increase the functionality, reduce the size, lower the cost, and enhance the user experience of our customers products. We plan to utilize our existing technologies as well as aggressively pursue new technologies as new markets evolve and demand new solutions.
Emphasize and Expand Customer Relationships
We plan to emphasize and expand our strong and long-lasting customer relationships and to provide the most advanced interface solutions for our customers products. We recognize that our interface solutions enable our customers to deliver a positive user experience and to differentiate their products from those of their competitors. We continually attempt to enhance the competitive position of our customers by providing them with innovative, distinctive, and high-quality interface solutions on a timely and cost-effective basis. To do so, we work continually to improve our productivity, to reduce costs, and to speed the delivery of our interface solutions. We endeavor to streamline the entire design and delivery process through our ongoing design, engineering, and production improvement efforts. We also devote considerable effort to support our customers after the purchase of our interface solutions.
Pursue Strategic Relationships and Acquisitions
We intend to develop and expand strategic relationships to enhance our ability to offer value-added customer solutions, penetrate new markets, and strengthen the technological leadership of our product solutions. We also intend to acquire companies in order to expand our technological expertise and to establish or strengthen our presence in selected target markets.
Continue Virtual Manufacturing
We plan to expand and diversify our production capacity through third-party relationships, thereby strengthening our virtual manufacturing platform. This strategy results in a scalable business model; enables us to concentrate on our core competencies of research and development, technological advances, and product design; and reduces our capital expenditures. Our virtual manufacturing strategy allows us to maintain a variable cost model, in which we do not incur most of our manufacturing costs until our product solutions have been shipped and billed to our customers.
Product Solutions
We develop, acquire, and enhance interface technologies that enrich the interaction between people and mobile computing and communications devices. Our innovative and intuitive interfaces can be engineered to accommodate many diverse platforms. Our extensive array of technologies includes ASICs, firmware, software, and pattern recognition and touch sensing technologies.
Through our technologies, we seek to provide our customers with customized solutions that address their individual design issues and result in high-performance, feature-rich, and reliable interface solutions. Our TouchStyk addresses the pointing stick and dual pointing portions of the notebook computer market; our ClearPad addresses the notebook computer and iAppliance markets; and our Spiral solution addresses the iAppliance markets. We believe our interface solutions offer the following characteristics:
| | Ease of Use. Our interface solutions offer the ease of use and intuitive interaction that users demand. | ||
| | Small Size. The small, thin size of our interface solutions enables our customers to reduce the overall size and weight of their products in order to satisfy consumer demand for portability. | ||
| | Low Power Consumption. The low power consumption of our interface solutions enables our customers to offer products with longer battery life or smaller battery size. |
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| | Advanced Functionality. Our interface solutions offer advanced features, such as virtual scrolling, customizable tap zones, edge motion, and tapping and dragging icons, to enhance user experience. | ||
| | Reliability. The reliability of our interface solutions satisfies consumer demand for dependability, which is a major component of consumer satisfaction. | ||
| | Durability. Our interface solutions withstand repeated use, severe physical treatment, and temperature fluctuations while providing a superior level of performance. |
We believe these characteristics will enable us to maintain our leadership position in the notebook computer market and will enhance our position as a technological enabler of iAppliances and other electronic devices and a differentiator for OEMs of these products.
Our emphasis on technological leadership and customized-design capabilities positions us to provide unique interface solutions that address specific customer requirements. Our long-term working relationships with large, global OEMs provide us with experience in satisfying their demanding design specifications and other requirements. Our custom product solutions provide OEMs with numerous benefits, including the following:
| | customized, modular integration; | ||
| | reduced product development costs; | ||
| | shorter product time to market; | ||
| | compact and efficient platforms; | ||
| | improved product functionality and utility; and | ||
| | product differentiation. |
We work with our customers to customize our solutions in order to meet their design requirements. This collaborative effort reduces the duplication and overlap of investment and resources, enabling our OEM customers to devote more time and resources to the market development of their products.
We utilize capacitive and inductive technologies rather than traditional resistive technology in our product solutions. Unlike resistive technology, our capacitive and inductive technologies require no activation force, thereby permitting easy movement across the touch surface, and use no moving parts. Our capacitive technology also can be integrated with both curved and flat surfaces.
Capacitive and inductive technologies provide additional key benefits over resistive technology. Capacitive and inductive sensors are fabricated without the air or liquid gap required by resistive technology, reducing undesirable internal reflections and the power requirements for the LCD backlight, thereby extending the battery life of small handheld devices. Capacitive and inductive technologies also allow for much thinner sensors than resistive technology, allowing for slimmer, more compact, and unique industrial designs.
Products
We offer customers user interface solutions that provide competitive advantages. Our family of product solutions allows our customers to solve their interface needs and differentiate their products from those of their competitors.
TouchPad
Our TouchPad, which takes the place and exceeds the functionality of a
mouse, is a small, touch-sensitive pad that senses the position of a persons
finger on its surface through the measurement of capacitance. Our TouchPad
provides an accurate, comfortable, and reliable method for screen navigation
and cursor movement, and provides a platform for interactive input, which
allows our customers to provide stylish, simple, user-friendly, and
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intuitive interface solutions for both the consumer and corporate markets.
Our TouchPads offer various advanced features, including the following:
Our TouchPads are designed to meet the electrical and mechanical specifications
of our customers. Customized firmware and driver software ensure the
availability of specialized features.
Utilizing
our TouchPad technology, we have introduced our ScrollStrip, a
touch-sensitive device similar to a TouchPad. Our initial target applications
include the integration of the scroll strip in keyboards, external mice, and
portable communication devices. Users can take advantage of the scroll strip
to easily scroll up and down Web pages or word processing documents. Future
applications for the scroll strip may include cellular phones and other
communications and computing devices.
TouchPad Under Plastic
Our TouchPad under plastic, which operates in a manner similar to our
other TouchPads, provide our customers with unique design opportunities.
Placing the TouchPad sensor underneath the plastic palm rest allows for a
streamlined stylized design. Our TouchPad under plastic is now available in
the Toshiba Dynabook and the Asutek M3 notebook.
TouchStyk
TouchStyk, our proprietary pointing stick interface solution, is a
self-contained, easily integrated module that uses similar capacitive
technology as our TouchPad. TouchStyk is enabled with press-to-select and
tap-to-click capabilities and can be easily integrated into multiple computing
and communications devices. We have reduced the number of components needed to
control the pointing device, allowing the electronics for the TouchStyk to be
mounted directly on the printed circuit board, or PCB, of the unit. In
addition, this design greatly reduces susceptibility to electromagnetic
interference, thereby providing greater pointing accuracy and preventing the
pointer from drifting when not in use.
We are currently shipping our TouchStyk in both notebooks that utilize the
pointing stick as the sole interface solution and notebooks that utilize dual
pointing interface solutions. Our modular approach allows OEMs to include our
TouchPad, our TouchStyk, or a combination of both interfaces in their notebook
computers.
Dual Pointing Solutions
Our dual pointing solutions offer both a touch pad and a pointing stick in
a single notebook computer, enabling users to select their interface of choice.
Our dual pointing solution also provides the end user the ability to use both
interfaces interchangeably. Our dual pointing solution provides the following
advantages:
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We have developed two solutions for use in the dual pointing market. Our
first solution integrates all the electronics for controlling a third-party
resistive strain gauge pointing stick onto our TouchPad PCB. This solution
simplifies OEM integration by eliminating the need to procure the pointing
stick electronics from another party and physically integrate them into the
notebook. Our second dual pointing solution uses our TouchStyk rather than a
third-party pointing stick, and offers the same simplified OEM integration.
The second solution is a completely modular design, allowing OEMs to offer
TouchPad-only, TouchStyk-only, or dual pointing solutions on a build-to-order
basis.
ClearPad
ClearPad, our innovative and customizable touch screen solution, consists
of a clear thin sensor that can be placed over any viewable surface, including
display devices such as LCDs. ClearPad is controlled by a small electronics
module, which can be located remotely from the sensor. Similar to our
traditional TouchPad, our ClearPad has various distinct advantages, including
light weight; low profile form factor; high reliability, durability, and
accuracy; and low power consumption. In addition, ClearPad enables visual
information display in conjunction with touch commands.
We
have used our ClearPad technology to develop our cPad, a product
solution that replaces the touch pad in notebook computers. Our cPad solution
consists of a ClearPad mounted over an LCD display. This solution provides all
of the features of a standard touch pad while providing information content and
additional features, including an application launcher, calendar, calculator,
and signature input. We have developed this solution with a USB interface for
significant and rapid data transfer and easy integration into notebook computer
designs.
Spiral
Spiral is a thin, lightweight, low power, inductive pen-sensing solution.
The Spiral sensor lies behind an LCD screen, effectively permitting 100% light
transmissivity and lower overall power consumption resulting from reduced
backlighting requirements. Spiral uses a patented inductive coupling
technology that offers the unique feature of proximity sensing, which measures
the precise position of the tip of the pen relative to a pen-based device.
This feature enhances applications by providing better user interaction and
experience. Spiral also has a high tolerance to user abuse. Spiral combines
100% light transmissivity, high accuracy, high noise immunity, and a passive
stylus into a solution that provides alternatives for richer user interfaces.
We anticipate that Spiral will be used in new markets that require high-quality
pen-based solutions.
QuickStroke®
QuickStroke provides a fast, easy, and accurate way to input Chinese
characters. Using our recognition technology that combines our patented
software with our TouchPad, QuickStroke can recognize handwritten, partially
finished Chinese characters, thereby saving considerable time and effort. Our
QuickStroke operates with our touch pad products that can be integrated into
notebook computers, keyboards, and a host of stand-alone interface devices that
use either a pen or a finger.
Our patented Incremental Recognition Technology allows users to simply
enter the first few strokes of a Chinese character and QuickStroke accurately
interprets the intended character. Since the typical Chinese character
consists of an average of 13 strokes, QuickStroke technology saves considerable
time and effort. QuickStroke provides a solution to enhance Chinese
communication for both business and personal use electronic devices.
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Chinese Character Recognition TouchPad
Our TouchPad with embedded Chinese character recognition software is being
integrated into public pay phones in China, allowing users to interface
application specific content, such as electronic payment processing, map
locators, and short text messaging services.
Fingerprint Touch Pad
Our fingerprint touch pad module combines our TouchPad with an advanced
biometric sensor and software to provide a fully integrated biometric security
and interface solution. The fingerprint recognition features of our integrated
module replace the need for a user name and password combination with the
users fingerprint. The integrated fingerprint recognition touch pad module
has the dual advantage of providing security by restricting login access to
anyone other than the rightful user and providing user convenience by making it
easier and faster to log in since a user name and password are not needed. The
first application of our integrated fingerprint recognition touch pad module is
in Samsungs Sens X10 notebook.
TouchRing
Our TouchRing is an integrated solid-state interface circular scrolling
wheel utilizing our capacitive touch sensing technology that enables the user
to navigate through menus and scroll through lists. The first application of
our TouchRing is in a leading MP3 player in which the scroll wheel enables the
user to navigate through menus and scroll through play lists and songs.
TouchScreen
Our TouchScreen systems provides a user interface solution for use with
ATMs, ticket machines, medical displays, industrial displays, pay-at-the-pump
gas machines, and interactive kiosks. The first application of our TouchScreen
is in an ATM sold by Diebold.
Technologies
We have developed and own an extensive array of technologies encompassing
ASICs, firmware, software, and pattern recognition and touch sensing
technologies. With 69 U.S. patents issued and 29 U.S. patents pending, we
continue to develop technology in those areas. We believe these technologies
and the related intellectual property create significant barriers for
competitors and allow us to provide interface solutions in a variety of
high-growth market segments.
Our broad line of interface solutions currently is based upon the following key technologies:
In addition to these technologies, we have the core competency of
developing software that provides unique features, such as virtual scrolling,
customizable tap zones, Palm Check, Edge Motion, tapping and dragging of icons,
and multi-finger gestures. In addition, our ability to integrate all of our
products to interface with major operating systems, including Windows 98,
Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows CE, Windows XP, Windows ME, Mac OS, Pocket
PC, Palm OS, Symbian, UNIX, and LINUX, provides us with a competitive
advantage.
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Capacitive Position Sensing Technology. This technology provides a method
for sensing the presence, position, and contact area of one or more fingers or
a conductive stylus on a flat or curved surface, such as our TouchPad. Our
technology works with very light touch and provides highly responsive cursor
navigation and scrolling. It uses no moving parts, can be implemented under
plastic, and is extremely durable.
Capacitive Force Sensing Technology. This technology senses the direction
and magnitude of a force applied to an object. The object can either move when
force is applied, like a typical joystick used for gaming applications, or it
can be isometric, with no perceptible motion during use, like our TouchStyk.
The primary competition for this technology is resistive strain gauge
technology. Resistive strain gauge technology requires electronics that can
sense very small changes in resistance, presenting challenges to the design of
that circuitry, including sensitivity to electrical noise and interference.
Our electronic circuitry determines the magnitude and direction of an applied
force, permits very accurate sensing of tiny changes in capacitance, and
minimizes interference from electrical noise.
Transparent Capacitive Position Sensing Technology. This technology
allows us to build transparent sensors for use with our capacitive position
sensing technology, such as in our ClearPad. It has all the advantages of our
capacitive position sensing technology and allows for visual feedback when
incorporated with a display device such as an LCD. Our technology does not
require calibration, does not produce undesirable internal reflections, and has
reduced power requirements, allowing for longer battery life.
Inductive Position Sensing Technology. This technology provides a method
for sensing the presence and position, in three dimensions, of a pen on
surfaces like the touch screen used in smart handheld devices. The sensor
board can be placed behind the display screen, such as an LCD, thus eliminating
any undesirable reflections or transmissivity losses and the need for
backlighting, which enhances battery life.
Pattern Recognition Technology. This technology is a set of software
algorithms for converting real-world data, such as handwriting, into a digital
form that can be recognized and manipulated within a computer, such as our
QuickStroke product and gesture decoding for our TouchPad products. Our
technology provides reliable handwriting recognition and facilitates signature
verification.
Mixed Signal VLSI Technology. This hybrid analog-digital integrated
circuit technology combines the power of digital computation with the ability
to interface with non-digital real-world signals like the position of a finger
or stylus on a surface. Our patented design techniques permit us to utilize
this technology to optimize our core ASIC engine for all our products, which we
believe provides cost and performance advantages over our competitors.
Proprietary Microcontroller Technology. This technology consists of a
proprietary 16-bit microcontroller core embedded in the digital portion of our
mixed signal ASIC, which allows us to optimize our ASIC for position sensing
tasks. Our embedded microcontroller provides great flexibility in customizing
our product solutions utilizing firmware, which eliminates the need to design
new circuitry for each new application.
Competing Technology
Many interface solutions currently utilize resistive sensing technology.
Resistive sensing technology consists of a flexible membrane above a flat,
rigid, electrically conductive surface. When finger or stylus pressure is
applied to the membrane, it deforms until it makes contact with the rigid layer
below, at which point attached electronics can determine the position of the
finger or stylus. Since the flexible membrane is a moving part, it is
susceptible to mechanical wear and will eventually suffer degraded performance.
Due to the way that resistive position sensors work, it is not possible for
them to detect more than a single finger or stylus at any given time. The
positional accuracy of a resistive sensor is limited by the uniformity of the
resistive coating as well as by the mechanics of the flexible membrane.
Finally, due to reduced transmissivity, or the amount of light that can pass
through the display, resistive technology requires the use of a backlight,
thereby reducing the battery life of the device.
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Research and Development
We conduct active and ongoing research and development programs that focus
on advancing our technologies, developing new products, improving design and
manufacturing processes, and enhancing the quality and performance of our
product solutions. Our goal is to provide our customers with innovative
solutions that address their needs and improve their competitive positions.
Our research and development concentrates on our market-leading interface
technologies, improving our current product solutions, and expanding our
technologies to serve new markets. Our vision is to develop solutions that
integrate touch, handwriting, vision, and voice capabilities that can be
readily incorporated into varied electronic devices.
Our research and development programs focus on the development of
accurate, easy to use, feature rich, reliable, and intuitive user interfaces
for electronic devices. We believe our innovative interface technologies can
be applied to many diverse platforms.. We believe the interface will be a key
factor in the differentiation of these products. We anticipate that our
interface technologies will enable us to provide customers with product
solutions that have significant advantages over alternative technologies in
terms of functionality, size, power consumption, durability, and reliability.
We also pursue strategic acquisitions and enter into strategic relationships to
enhance our research and development capabilities, leverage our technology, and
shorten our time to market with new technological applications.
Our research, design, and engineering teams frequently work directly with
our customers to design custom solutions for specific applications. We focus
on enabling our customers to overcome technological barriers and enhance the
performance of their products. We believe our efforts provide significant
benefits to our customers by enabling them to concentrate on their core
competencies of production and marketing.
As of June 30, 2003, we employed 111 people in our technology,
engineering, and product design functions in the United States, the United
Kingdom, and Taiwan. We also have an additional 6 engineering employees in
Hong Kong, as a result of our acquisition of NSM Technology, which closed on
June 26, 2003. Our research and development expenses were approximately $11.6
million in fiscal 2001, $16.6 million in fiscal 2002, and $19.8 million in
fiscal 2003.
Intellectual Property Rights
Our success and ability to compete depend in part on our ability to
maintain the proprietary aspects of our technologies and products. We rely on
a combination of patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks,
confidentiality agreements, and other contractual provisions to protect our
intellectual property, but these measures may provide only limited protection.
As of June 30, 2003, we held 69 U.S. patents and had 29 U.S. pending
patent applications. These patents and patent applications cover various
aspects of our key technologies, including touch sensing, pen sensing,
handwriting recognition, customizable tap zones, edge motion, and virtual
scrolling technologies. Our proprietary software is protected by copyright
laws. The source code for our proprietary software is also protected under
applicable trade secret laws.
Patent applications that we have filed or may file in the future, may not
result in a patent being issued. Our issued patents may be challenged,
invalidated, or circumvented, and claims of our patents may not be of
sufficient scope or strength, or issued in the proper geographic regions, to
provide meaningful protection or any commercial advantage. We have not applied
for, and do not have, any copyright registration on our technologies or
products. We have applied to register certain of our trademarks in the United
States and other countries. There can be no assurances that we will obtain
registrations of trademarks in key markets. Failure to obtain registrations
could compromise our ability to protect fully our trademarks and brands and
could increase the risk of challenge from third parties to our use of our
trademarks and brands. In addition, our failure to enforce and protect our
intellectual property rights or obtain from third parties the right to use
necessary technology could have a material adverse effect on our business,
financial condition, and results of operations.
Our extensive array of technologies includes ASICs, firmware, software,
and pattern recognition and position sensing technologies. Any one of our
products rely on a combination of these technologies, making it difficult to
use any single technology as the basis for replicating our products.
Furthermore, the length and
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customization of the customer design cycle serve to protect our
intellectual property rights. Our research, design, and engineering teams
frequently work directly with our OEM customers to design custom solutions for
specific applications.
We do not consistently rely on written agreements with our customers,
suppliers, manufacturers, and other recipients of our technologies and
products, and therefore some trade secret protection may be lost and our
ability to enforce our intellectual property rights may be limited.
Furthermore, our customers, suppliers, manufacturers, and other recipients of
our technologies and products may seek to use our technologies and products
without appropriate limitations. In the past, we did not consistently require
our employees and consultants to enter into confidentiality agreements,
employment agreements, or proprietary information and invention agreements.
Therefore, our former employees and consultants may try to claim some ownership
interest in our technologies and products and may use our technologies and
products competitively and without appropriate limitations.
Other companies, including our competitors, may develop technologies that
are similar or superior to our technologies, duplicate our technologies, or
design around our patents and may have or obtain patents or other proprietary
rights that would prevent, limit, or interfere with our ability to make, use,
or sell our products. Effective intellectual property protection may be
unavailable or limited in some foreign countries, such as China and Taiwan, in
which we operate. Unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or otherwise use
aspects of our technologies and products that we regard as proprietary. There
can be no assurance that our means of protecting our proprietary rights in the
United States or abroad will be adequate or that competitors will not
independently develop similar technologies. If our intellectual property
protection is insufficient to protect our intellectual property rights, we
could face increased competition in the market for our technologies and
products.
We may receive notices from third parties that claim our products infringe
their rights. From time to time, we receive notice from third parties of the
intellectual property rights such parties have obtained. We cannot be certain
that our technologies and products do not and will not infringe issued patents
or other proprietary rights of others. While we are not currently subject to
any infringement claim, any future claim, with or without merit, could result
in significant litigation costs and diversion of resources, including the
payment of damages, which could have a material adverse effect on our business,
financial condition, and results of operations.
Customers
Our customers currently include the worlds ten largest PC OEMs, based on
unit shipments, as well as a variety of consumer electronics manufacturers.
Our demonstrated track record of technological leadership, design innovation,
product performance, and on-time delivery have resulted in our serving as the
sole source of notebook interfaces for some of our OEM customers. We believe
our strong relationship with our OEM customers, many of which are currently
developing iAppliance and other products, will position us as a primary source
of supply for their product offerings.
Our OEM customers include the following:
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Virtual scrolling. This feature enables the user to scroll
through any document by swiping a finger along the side or bottom of
the TouchPad.
Customizable tap zones. These zones permit separate portions
of the TouchPad to be used to simulate mouse clicks, launch
applications, and perform other selected functions.
Palm Check. Palm Check eliminates false activation when a
persons palm accidentally rests on the TouchPad.
Edge Motion. This permits cursor movement to continue when a
users finger reaches the edge of the TouchPad.
Tapping and dragging of icons. This feature allows the user
to simply tap on an icon in order to drag it, rather than being
forced to hold a button down in order to drag an icon.
Multi-finger gestures. This feature allows the user to
designate specific actions when more than one finger is used on the
TouchPad.
cost-effective and simplified OEM integration;
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simplified OEM product line since one device contains both solutions;
single-source supplier, which eliminates compatibility issues; and
end user flexibility since one notebook can address both user preferences.
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capacitive position sensing technology;
capacitive force sensing technology;
transparent capacitive position sensing technology;
inductive position sensing technology;
pattern recognition technology;
mixed signal very large scale integrated circuit, or VLSI, technology; and
proprietary microcontroller technology.
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| | Acer | | Hewlett-Packard | |||
| | Apple | | IBM | |||
| | Asustek | | Samsung | |||
| | Dell | | Sharp | |||
| | Fujitsu/Siemens | | Sony | |||
| | Gateway | | Sotec | |||
| | Gericom | | Toshiba |
We supply our OEM customers through their contract manufacturers. We sell our products directly to these contract manufacturers. These contract manufacturers include Arima, Compal, Elitegroup Computers, Foxconn, Inventec, and Shanghai Yi Hsin. During fiscal 2003, sales to Inventec accounted for approximately 14% of our revenue. No other customer accounted for more than 10% of our revenue during this period.
We consider both the OEMs and the contract manufacturers to be our
customers. The OEMs typically determine the design and pricing requirements
and make the overall decision regarding the use of our interface solutions in
their products. The contract manufacturers place orders with us for the
purchase of our products, take
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title to the products purchased upon shipment by us, and pay us directly for those purchases. These customers have no return privileges, except for warranty provisions.
Strategic Relationships
We have established strategic relationships to enhance our ability to offer value-added customer solutions and rapidly gain market share. We intend to enter into additional strategic relationships with leading companies in our target markets.
Sales and Marketing
We sell our product solutions for incorporation into the products of OEMs. We generate sales through direct sales employees and sales representatives. Our sales personnel receive substantial technical assistance and support from our internal engineering resources because of the highly technical nature of our product solutions. Sales frequently result from multi-level sales efforts that involve senior management, design engineers, and our sales personnel interacting with our customers decision makers throughout the product development and order process.
We currently employ 36 sales and marketing professionals. We maintain five sales offices domestically and internationally, which are in the United States, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong. In addition, we utilize sales representatives in Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, United States, and Europe and sales distributors in Japan.
International sales, primarily in the Asian and European markets, constituted approximately 86%, 97%, and 96% of our revenue in fiscal 2001, 2002, and 2003, respectively. A significant portion of these sales were made to companies that provide manufacturing services for major notebook computer OEMs. All of these sales were denominated in U.S. dollars.
Manufacturing
We employ a virtual manufacturing platform through third-party relationships. We currently utilize one semiconductor manufacturer to supply us with our requirements for our proprietary ASICs utilized in our notebook interface solutions.
After production and testing, the ASICs are shipped to our subcontractors for assembly. During the assembly process, our ASIC is combined with other components to complete our product solution. The finished assembled product is then shipped by our subcontractors directly to our customers for integration into their products.
We believe our virtual manufacturing strategy provides a scalable business model; enables us to concentrate on our core competencies of research and development, technological advances, and product design; and reduces our capital expenditures. In addition, this strategy significantly reduces our working capital requirements for inventory because we do not incur most of our manufacturing costs until we have actually shipped our product solutions to our customers and billed those customers for those products.
Our third-party manufacturers are Asian-based organizations. We provide our manufacturing subcontractors with six-month rolling forecasts of our production requirements. We do not, however, have long-term agreements with any of our manufacturing subcontractors that guarantee production capacity, prices, lead times, or delivery schedules. The strategy of relying on those parties exposes us to vulnerability owing to our dependence on few sources of supply. However, we believe that other sources of supply are available. In addition, we may establish relationships with other manufacturing subcontractors in order to reduce our dependence on any one source of supply.
Backlog
As of June 30, 2003, we had a backlog of orders of approximately $12.9 million. The backlog of orders as of June 30, 2002 was approximately $7.9 million. Our backlog consists of product orders for which purchase orders have been received and which are scheduled for shipment within six months. Most orders are subject to rescheduling or cancellation with limited penalties. Because of the possibility of customer changes in product shipments, our backlog as of a particular date may not be indicative of net sales for any succeeding period.
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Competition
Our principal competitor in the sale of notebook touch pads is Alps Electric, a Japanese conglomerate. Our principal competitors in the sale of notebook pointing sticks are Alps Electric, NMB, and CTS. In the iAppliance interface markets, our potential competitors include Alps Electric, Panasonic, Gunze, and various other companies involved in user interface solutions. In certain cases, large OEMs may develop alternative interface solutions for their own products.
In the notebook interface markets, we plan to continue to compete primarily on the basis of our technological expertise, design innovation, customer service, and the long track record of performance of our interface solutions, including their ease of use, reliability, and cost-effectiveness as well as their timely design, production, and delivery schedules. Our pointing stick solutions, including our proprietary TouchStyk, now enable us to address the approximate 16% of the notebook computer market that uses solely a pointing stick rather than a touch pad as the user interface as well as to address the growing trend toward dual pointing interfaces. Our ability to supply OEMs with both TouchPads and TouchStyks enhances our market position since we can provide OEMs with the following advantages:
| | single source supplier that eliminates compatibility issues; | ||
| | cost-effective and simplified OEM integration; | ||
| | simplified product line to address both markets; | ||
| | end user flexibility since one notebook can address both user preferences; and | ||
| | modular approach allowing OEMs to utilize our TouchPad, our TouchStyk, or a combination of both interfaces. |
In the interface markets for iAppliances and other electronic devices, we intend to compete primarily based on the advantages of our capacitive, inductive, and neural pattern recognition technologies. We believe our technologies offer significant benefits in terms of size, power consumption, durability, light transmissivity, resolution, ease of use, and reliability when compared to other technologies. While these markets are just beginning to emerge, and we do not know what the competitive factors will ultimately be, we believe we are positioned to compete aggressively for this business based on our proven track record, our marquee global customer base, and our reputation for design innovation in the notebook market. However, some of our competitors, particularly in the iAppliance and electronic device markets, have greater market recognition, large customer bases, and substantially greater financial, technical, marketing, distribution, and other resources than we possess that afford them competitive advantages. As a result, they may be able to introduce new product solutions and respond to customer requirements more quickly than we can. In addition, new competitors, alliances among competitors, or alliances among competitors and OEMs may emerge and allow competitors to rapidly acquire significant market share. Furthermore, our competitors may in the future develop technologies that more effectively address the interface needs of the notebook market and other markets.
Our sales, profitability, and success depend on our ability to compete with other suppliers of interface solutions. Our competitive position could be adversely affected if one or more of our current OEMs reduce their orders or if we are unable to develop customers for our interface solutions in other markets.
Employees
As of June 30, 2003, we employed a total of 176 persons, including 29 in finance, administration, and operations, 36 in sales and marketing, and 111 in research and development. Of these employees, 129 were located in the United States, 24 in the United Kingdom, 20 in Taiwan, and three in Japan, not including employees from our recent acquisition of NSM Technology. Some of our employees also spend time in our satellite offices in Hong Kong, China, and Thailand. We also have an additional 13 employees in Hong Kong, as a result of our acquisition of NSM Technology, which closed on June 26, 2003. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good, and none of our employees are represented by a union in collective bargaining with us.
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Competition for qualified personnel in our industry is extremely intense, particularly for engineering and other technical personnel. Our success depends in part on our continued ability to attract, hire, and retain qualified personnel.
Executive Officers
The following table sets forth certain information regarding our executive officers:
| Name | Age | Position | ||||
| Francis F. Lee | 51 | President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director | ||||
| Donald E. Kirby | 55 | Senior Vice President and General Manager PC Products | ||||
| Russell J. Knittel | 53 | Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer,
Chief Administrative Officer, Secretary, and Treasurer |
||||
| Shawn P. Day, Ph.D. | 37 | Vice President of Research and Development | ||||
| David T. McKinnon | 56 | Vice President of System Silicon | ||||
| Thomas D. Spade | 37 | Vice President of Worldwide Sales | ||||
| William T. Stacy, Ph.D. | 61 | Vice President of Operations | ||||
| Jon R. Stone | 52 | Vice President of Corporate Development | ||||
| Clark Foy | 39 | Vice President of Marketing | ||||
Francis F. Lee has served as a director and the President and Chief Executive Officer of our company since December 1998. He was a consultant from August 1998 to November 1998. From May 1995 until July 1998, Mr. Lee served as General Manager of NSM, a Hong Kong-based joint venture between National Semiconductor Corporation and S. Megga. Mr. Lee held a variety of executive positions for National Semiconductor from 1988 until August 1995. These positions included Vice President of Communication and Computing Group, Vice President of Quality and Reliability, Director of Standard Logic Business Unit, and various other operations and engineering management positions. Mr. Lee holds a Bachelor of Science degree, with honors, in electrical engineering from the University of California at Davis.
Donald E. Kirby has been Senior Vice President and General Manager PC Products of our company since November 2001. He served as the General Manager PC Products and Vice President of Operations of our company from August 1999 until October 2001. From September 1997 to July 1999, Mr. Kirby served as Vice President of Technology Infrastructure and Core Technology Group of National Semiconductor; from January 1997 to August 1997, he served as Director of Strategic Technology Group of National Semiconductor; and from October 1995 to December 1996, he served as Director of Operations/ Co-GM, LAN Division of National Semiconductor. Mr. Kirby holds a patent for a Micro-controller ROM Emulator.
Russell J. Knittel has been Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, Secretary, and Treasurer of our company since November 2001. He served as the Vice President of Administration and Finance, Chief Financial Officer, and Secretary of our company from April 2000 until October 2001. Mr. Knittel served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Probe Technology Corporation from May 1999 to March 2000. He was a consultant from January 1999 until April 1999. Mr. Knittel was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Starlight Networks from November 1994 to December 1998. Mr. Knittel holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in accounting from California State University at Fullerton and a Masters of Business Administration from San Jose State University.
Shawn P. Day, Ph.D. has been the Vice President of Research and Development of our company since June 1998. He served as the Director of Software Development of our company from November 1996 until May 1998 and as principal software engineer from August 1995 until October 1996. Mr. Day holds a Bachelor of Science
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degree and a Doctorate, both in electrical engineering, from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
David T. McKinnon has been the Vice President of System Silicon of our company since September 2001. From May 2000 until September 2001, Mr. McKinnon served as a consultant to start-up companies in the networking IC sector. From April 1998 until April 2000, Mr. McKinnon served as Vice President of Networking Business for Level One Communications. From December 1995 until April 1998, Mr. McKinnon served as the Chief Operating Officer/ Chief Technical Officer of the Japan Business Group of National Semiconductor. Mr. McKinnon holds a Bachelor of Science degree with Honors in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a Masters in Science, Digital Techniques in Communications & Control from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Thomas D. Spade has been the Vice President of Worldwide Sales of our company since July 1999. From May 1998 until June 1999, he served as our Director of Sales. From May 1996 until April 1998, Mr. Spade was the Director of International Sales for Alliance Semiconductor. Mr. Spade previously has held additional sales and management positions at Alliance Semiconductor, Anthem Electronics, Arrow Electronics, and Andersen Consulting. Mr. Spade holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and management from Albion College.
William T. Stacy, Ph.D. has been the Vice President of Operations of our company since October 2001. From August 1992 to June 2001, Mr. Stacy held a number of business management positions in the Data Management and Analog Groups of National Semiconductor. Most recently, from April 1999 until June 2001, he was Vice President of the Wireless Division. Prior to joining National, he held a series of operational and business management positions at Philips Semiconductors. He started his career in Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven, where he worked on magnetic and semiconducting device structures. Mr. Stacy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and mathematics from Oregon State University and a Masters and Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of Illinois.
Jon R. Stone has been Vice President of Corporate Development of our company since January 2003. Immediately prior to joining our company, Mr. Stone was an independent strategic advisor and investment banker to emerging growth companies. From 1984 to 1994, Mr. Stone was with the Sprout Group, then the venture capital affiliate of Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette (now Credit Suisse First Boston), serving as a general partner from 1987 to 1994. Previously, Mr. Stone served in various management positions with the Telxon Corporation (which was acquired by Symbol Technologies), General Foods Corporation, and Warner Communications. Mr. Stone holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and economics from Brandeis University, a Masters of Business Administration in Finance and Accounting from Columbia University, and a Masters degree in Religious Studies from Stanford University.
Clark Foy has been Vice President of Marketing of our company since March 2003. Mr. Foy was the Vice President of Product Marketing for the Optical Storage Group of Oak Technology, Inc. from January 2002 to February 2003. Mr. Foy served as Vice President of Marketing at Gadzoox Networks, a provider of networking infrastructure products from June 2000 to January 2002. Mr. Foy has also held various management positions at Quantum Corporation and Compaq Computer Corporation. Mr. Foy holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from Miami University, and a Masters of Management from Northwestern Universitys Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
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RISK FACTORS
You should carefully consider the following factors, together with all the other information included in this report, in evaluating our company and our business.
We currently depend on TouchPad and TouchStyk products, and the notebook computer market, for our revenue, and a downturn in this product or market could have a more disproportionate impact on our revenue than if we were more diversified.
Historically, we derived substantially all of our revenue from the sale of our TouchPad and TouchStyk products for notebook computers. While our long-term objective is to derive revenue from multiple interface solutions for both the notebook computer market and the iAppliance and other electronic device markets, we anticipate that sales of our TouchPads and TouchStyks for notebooks will continue to represent the most substantial portion of our revenue, in the near term. The PC market as a whole has experienced a slowdown in growth. A continuing or accelerating softening in the demand in the notebook portion of the PC market or the level of our participation in that market would cause our business, financial condition, and results of operations to suffer more than they would have if we offered a more diversified line of products.
Our emerging interface business for iAppliances and other electronic devices may not be successful.
Our emerging interface business for iAppliances and other electronic devices faces many uncertainties. Our inability to address these uncertainties successfully and to become a leading supplier of interfaces to these markets would result in a slower growth rate than we currently anticipate. We do not know whether our user interface solutions for these markets will gain market acceptance or will ever result in a substantial portion of our revenue on a consistent basis. The failure to succeed in these markets would result in no return on the substantial investments we have made to date and plan to make in the future to penetrate these markets.
Various target markets for our interfaces in these markets, such as those for PDAs, smart phones, MP3 players, smart handheld devices, Web terminals, Internet appliances, and interactive games and toys, are uncertain, may develop slower than anticipated, or could utilize competing technologies. The market for certain of these products depends in part upon the development and deployment of wireless and other technologies, which may or may not address the needs of users of these new products.
Our ability to generate significant revenue from the iAppliance and other electronic device markets will depend on various factors, including the following:
| | the development and growth of these markets; | ||
| | the ability of our technologies and product solutions to address the needs of these markets, the requirements of OEMs, and the preferences of end users; and | ||
| | our ability to provide OEMs with interface solutions that provide advantages in terms of size, power consumption, reliability, durability, performance, and value-added features compared to alternative solutions. |
Many manufacturers of these products have well-established relationships with competitive suppliers. Penetrating these markets will require us to offer better performance alternatives to existing solutions at competitive costs. We do not have any significant backlog of orders for our interface solutions to be incorporated in products in these markets. The revenue and income potential from these markets is unproven. The failure of any of these target markets to develop as we expect, or our failure to penetrate these markets, will impede our anticipated sales growth and could result in substantially reduced earnings from those we anticipate. These markets accounted for approximately 7% of our revenue in fiscal 2003, up from 2% in fiscal 2002. We cannot predict the size or growth rate of these markets or the market share we will achieve in these markets in the future.
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If our emerging Spiral solutions are not commercially accepted, our revenue growth will be negatively impacted.
Our emerging Spiral solutions have no established track record. The failure to incorporate this technology successfully into our customers products as the interface of choice would adversely affect our revenue growth. To succeed, we must help potential customers recognize the performance advantages of our solutions. The ability to produce these new products in sufficient quantities and the revenue and income potential of our new solutions are unproven.
Our historical financial information is based on sales of interface solutions to the notebook computer market and may not be indicative of our future performance in other markets.
Our historical financial information primarily reflects the sale of interface solutions for notebook computers. While we expect sales of our interface solutions for notebook computers to continue to generate a substantial percentage of our revenue, we expect to derive an increasing percentage of our revenue from sales of our product solutions for additional markets, including iAppliances and other electronic devices. We do not have an operating history in these markets upon which you can evaluate our prospects, which may make it difficult to predict our actual results in future periods. Actual results of our future operations may differ materially from our anticipated results.
The products of our customers may not achieve market acceptance, particularly in the case of iAppliances and other electronic devices, and our sales will decline if sales of those products do not develop or decline.
We do not sell any products to end users. Instead, we design various interface solutions that our OEM customers incorporate into their products. As a result, our success depends almost entirely upon the widespread market acceptance of our customers products. We do not control or influence the manufacture, promotion, distribution, or pricing of the products that incorporate our interface solutions. Instead, we depend on our customers to manufacture and distribute products incorporating our interface solutions and to generate consumer demand through marketing and promotional activities. Even if our technologies successfully meet our customers price and performance goals, our sales would decline or fail to develop if our customers do not achieve commercial success in selling their products that incorporate our interface solutions.
Our customer base historically has consisted primarily of major U.S.-based OEMs that sell notebook computers worldwide. During fiscal 2002, we began to ship products to many of the Japan-based OEMs. Competitive advances by Japan-based OEMs, which do not utilize our interface solutions broadly in their product offerings, at the expense of our U.S.-based OEM customers could result in lost sales opportunities for our customers. Any significant slowdown in the demand for our customers products or the failure in the marketplace of new products of our customers would adversely affect the demand for our interface solutions and our future sales would decline.
If we fail to maintain and build relationships with our customers and do not continue to satisfy our customers, we may lose future sales and our revenue may stagnate or decline.
Because our success depends on the widespread market acceptance of our customers products, we must continue to maintain our relationships with the leading notebook computer OEMs. In addition, we must identify areas of significant growth potential in other markets, establish relationships with OEMs in those markets, and assist those OEMs in developing products that use our interface technologies. Our failure to identify potential growth opportunities, particularly in new markets, or establish and maintain relationships with OEMs in those markets, would prevent our business from growing in those markets.
Our ability to meet the expectations of our customers requires us to provide innovative interface solutions for customers on a timely and cost-effective basis and to maintain customer satisfaction with our interface solutions. We must match our design and production capacity with customer demand, maintain satisfactory delivery schedules, and meet performance goals. If we are unable to achieve these goals for any reason, our customers could reduce their purchases from us and our sales would decline or fail to develop.
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Our customer relationships also can be affected by factors affecting our customers that are unrelated to our performance. These factors can include a myriad of situations, including business reversals of customers, determinations by customers to change their product mix or abandon business segments, or mergers, consolidations, or acquisitions involving our customers, such as the recent combination of Compaq and Hewlett-Packard.
In fiscal 2003, three customers provided an aggregate of 30% of our sales, and the loss of sales to any of those companies could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Sales to three companies that provide manufacturing services for major notebook computer OEMs accounted for an aggregate of 30% of our net revenue during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2003, and two companies accounted for an aggregate of 28% of our net revenue for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2002. These companies are Quanta and Nypro in fiscal 2002 and Inventec, Shanghai Yi Hsin, and Foxconn in fiscal 2003. Additionally, receivables from Inventec, Shanghai Yi Hsin, and Foxconn comprised a total of 41% of our accounts receivable at June 30, 2003.
These contract manufacturers serve our OEM customers. Any material delay, cancellation, or reduction of orders from any one or more of these contract manufacturers or the OEMs they serve could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. The adverse effect would be more substantial if our other customers in the notebook computer industry do not increase their orders or if we are unsuccessful in generating orders for interface solutions in other markets, including iAppliances and other electronic devices, from existing or new customers. Many of these contract manufacturers sell to the same OEMs, and therefore our concentration with certain OEMs may be higher than with any individual contract manufacturer. Concentration in our customer base may make fluctuations in revenue and earnings more severe and make business planning more difficult.
Our revenue may decline if customers for which we are sole source providers seek alternative sources of supply.
We serve as the sole source provider for some of our customers. Those customers may choose to reduce their dependence on us by seeking second sources of supply, which could reduce our revenue. To remain a sole source provider, we must continue to demonstrate to our customers that we have adequate alternate sources for components, that we maintain adequate alternatives for production, and that we can deliver high value added products on a timely basis.
We rely on others for our production, and any interruptions of these arrangements could disrupt our ability to fill our customers orders.
We outsource through contract manufacturers for all of our production requirements. The majority of our manufacturing is conducted in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Taiwan by manufacturing subcontractors that also perform services for numerous other companies. We do not have a guaranteed level of production capacity. Qualifying new manufacturing subcontractors, and specifically semiconductor foundries, is time-consuming and might result in unforeseen manufacturing and operations problems. The loss of our relationships with our manufacturing subcontractors or assemblers or their inability to conduct their manufacturing and assembly services for us as anticipated in terms of cost, quality, and timeliness could adversely affect our ability to fill customer orders in accordance with required delivery, quality, and performance requirements. If this were to occur, the resulting decline in revenue would harm our business.
We depend on third parties to maintain satisfactory manufacturing yields and delivery schedules, and their inability to do so could increase our costs, disrupt our supply chain, and result in our inability to deliver our products, which would adversely affect our results of operations.
We depend on our manufacturing subcontractors to maintain high levels of
productivity and satisfactory delivery schedules at manufacturing and assembly
facilities in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Taiwan. We provide our
manufacturing subcontractors with six-month rolling forecasts of our production
requirements. We do not, however, have long-term agreements with any of our
manufacturing subcontractors that guarantee production capacity, prices, lead
times, or delivery schedules. Our manufacturers serve many other customers, a
number of which have greater production requirements than we do. As a result,
our manufacturing subcontractors could determine to prioritize production
capacity for other customers or reduce or eliminate deliveries to us on short
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notice. At times, we have experienced lower than anticipated manufacturing yields and lengthening of delivery schedules. Lower than expected manufacturing yields could increase our costs