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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 


 

FORM 10-K

 


 

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

 

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003

 

or

 

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

 

Commission File Number 000-31103

 


 

LEXAR MEDIA, INC.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

 

 

Delaware   33-0723123

(State or Other Jurisdiction of

Incorporation or Organization)

  (IRS Employer Identification No.)
47421 Bayside Parkway, Fremont, California   94538
(Address of Principal Executive Offices)   (Zip Code)

 

(510) 413-1200

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

 


 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

None

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

 

Common Stock, $0.0001 par value per share

 


 

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

 

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of Registrant’s knowledge, in 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 ¨

 

As of June 30, 2003, the aggregate market value of the shares of common stock held by non-affiliates of the Registrant (based on the closing price for the Registrant’s common stock as quoted by The Nasdaq National Market on that date) was approximately $580,182,036.

 

As of March 4, 2004, there were 78,480,256 shares of the Registrant’s common stock, $0.0001 par value per share, outstanding. This is the only outstanding class of stock of the Registrant.

 

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

 

Portions of the Registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement for its Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held in May 2004 are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

 



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LEXAR MEDIA, INC.

 

FORM 10-K

For The Year Ended December 31, 2003

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Item


        Page

PART I

ITEM 1:

  

Business

   3

ITEM 2:

  

Properties

   12

ITEM 3:

  

Legal Proceedings

   12

ITEM 4:

  

Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders

   15

ITEM 4A:

  

Executive Officers of the Registrant

   15
PART II

ITEM 5:

  

Market for Registrant’s Common Equity and Related Stockholder Matters

   17

ITEM 6:

  

Selected Financial Data

   17

ITEM 7:

  

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

   18

ITEM 7A:

  

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

   49

ITEM 8:

  

Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

   50

ITEM 9:

  

Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

   79

ITEM 9A:

  

Controls and Procedures

   79
PART III

ITEM 10:

  

Directors and Executive Officers of the Registrant

   80

ITEM 11:

  

Executive Compensation

   80

ITEM 12:

  

Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters

   80

ITEM 13:

  

Certain Relationships and Related Transactions

   80

ITEM 14:

  

Principal Accountant Fees and Services

   80
PART IV

ITEM 15:

  

Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules and Reports on Form 8-K

   81

Signatures

   85

Certifications

    

 

The Lexar Media name and logo are trademarks that are federally registered in the United States. The titles and logos associated with our products appearing in this report, including JumpDrive, JumpGear and JumpShot, are either federally registered trademarks or are subject to pending applications for registration. Our trademarks may also be registered in other jurisdictions. Other trademarks or trade names appearing elsewhere in this report are the property of their respective owners.


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CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

 

Some of the statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties, including, among other things, statements regarding our anticipated revenue and costs and expenses. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “plan,” “intend,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “project” or “continue” and variations of these words or comparable words. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and situations that may cause our or our industry’s actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these statements. The risk factors contained in this report in the section entitled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Risks That Could Affect Future Results,” as well as any other cautionary language in this report, provide examples of risks, uncertainties and events that may cause our actual results to differ from the expectations described or implied in our forward-looking statements. You should also carefully review the risks described in other documents we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q that we will file in 2004.

 

Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this report. Except as required by law, we do not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

 

PART I

 

ITEM 1   BUSINESS

 

Company Overview

 

We design, develop, manufacture and market high-performance digital media that we market as digital film as well as other flash based storage products for consumer markets that utilize flash memory for the capture and retrieval of digital content for the digital photography, consumer electronics, industrial and communications markets. To address the growing market for compact digital data and media storage solutions, we also market our JumpDrive® products, which are high-speed, portable Universal Serial Bus, or USB, flash drives for consumer applications that serve a variety of uses, including floppy disk replacement. In addition, we market a variety of connectivity products that link our media products to PCs and other electronic host devices. We also license our proprietary controller technology and sell controllers to other manufacturers of flash storage media.

 

Our digital film products enable customers to capture digital images and download them quickly to a personal computer for editing, distributing and printing. We offer flash cards in all major media formats currently used by digital cameras and other electronic host devices: CompactFlash, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO, SmartMedia, Secure Digital Card, mini Secure Digital, MultiMedia Card and the xD Picture Card. Of these formats, we currently manufacture CompactFlash and Memory Stick, and we plan to begin to manufacture additional formats in 2004. In manufacturing our CompactFlash and Memory Stick flash cards, we combine flash memory from leading suppliers with our patented controller technology. A controller determines, among other things, the manner in which data is written to and read from the flash memory and is important in determining the overall performance of the flash card. We believe our high-performance CompactFlash cards can record data faster than other CompactFlash cards. This performance advantage is particularly noticeable when used in advanced digital cameras that can take advantage of our digital film’s write speed, or the rate at which

 

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our digital film can capture a digital image. In addition, our Write Acceleration, or WA, technology is designed to provide additional performance advantages when enabled by firmware residing in both the digital camera and CompactFlash card. When a WA-enabled camera detects a WA-enabled card, the two are able to transfer data with less overhead, thereby increasing write speed. WA-enabled cameras include certain models of Kodak Professional, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Sanyo and Sigma digital cameras. Our digital film is compatible with substantially all digital cameras.

 

Our JumpDrive product line consists of portable data storage devices that link through a USB connection to allow customers to easily store, transfer and carry data. We introduced and began generating revenue from our JumpDrive products during 2002, and we now market and sell several different JumpDrive models, including JumpDrive 2.0 Pro, JumpDrive Trio, JumpDrive Secure, JumpDrive 2.0 Elite, JumpDrive 2.0 Sport and JumpDrive 2.0 Traveler. We entered the MP3 player market in the fourth quarter of 2003 with the introduction of JumpDrive Music, a USB flash drive that is also a full-featured MP3 player. In addition, we have recently announced the expansion of our consumer electronics products with the introduction of JumpGear MP3, a digital audio player that utilizes our JumpDrive Sport flash drive as its storage medium. Together, these products target the moderately priced, flash based MP3 player market. We intend to continue to expand our JumpDrive product line in 2004.

 

Our digital media reader/writers are products that facilitate the transfer of digital images and other data files to personal computers and other host devices without a direct connection to the digital camera. Our JumpShot® cable connects the USB port to our USB-enabled CompactFlash digital media to quickly and easily transfer images and other data files.

 

Our flash memory controller technology can also be applied to a variety of consumer electronic applications, such as digital music players, laptop computers, personal digital assistants, telecommunication and network devices and digital video recorders. In order to extend our technology into these markets, we have selectively licensed our products and technology to third parties in business sectors such as data communications, telecommunications, industrial, computing and embedded markets.

 

Our principal executive offices are located at 47421 Bayside Parkway, Fremont, California 94538, and our telephone number is 510-413-1200. Our website address is www.lexarmedia.com. We are not including the information contained on our website as a part of, or incorporating it by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We make available, free of charge, through our website our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

 

Our Products and Services

 

Flash Media.    We offer flash media in a variety of speeds and capacities to satisfy the different demands of casual photographers and professional photographers. We are one of only two companies to offer all major media formats currently used by digital cameras and other electronic host devices: CompactFlash, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO, SmartMedia, Secure Digital Card, mini Secure Digital, MultiMedia Card and the xD Picture Card. Each of these types of flash cards is referred to as a distinct “form factor.” Each form factor generally is of a unique size and each has a different set of connections to its intended host device. For example, a Memory Stick is approximately the size of a piece of chewing gum, while a Secure Digital Card is approximately the size of a postage stamp. A device that takes a Memory Stick would not typically be able to accept a Secure Digital Card, as the cards are physically and mechanically incompatible. At this time, Sony products accept primarily the Memory Stick format, cameras manufactured by Fuji and Olympus accept primarily the xD Picture Card or Smart Media and cameras sold by other manufacturers (such as Nikon, Canon or Kodak) generally accept either Compact Flash or Secure Digital formats. A number of cell phone manufacturers have recently introduced products that accept Memory Stick Duo, mini Secure Digital and

 

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MultiMedia Cards. We currently manufacture CompactFlash and Memory Stick with our own controller, and we plan to begin to manufacture additional formats in 2004. Flash products manufactured by us are subjected to rigorous design and testing procedures that we believe are more comprehensive than the standards for compatibility set by the industry in general. We guarantee purchasers of our products that our digital film will work seamlessly with any product that uses the particular form factor.

 

To address the growing market for compact digital data and media storage solutions, we also market our JumpDrive products. We introduced and began generating revenue from our JumpDrive products during 2002, and we now market and sell several different JumpDrive models in a range of size, memory capacities, speeds and functionality, to target specific consumer needs. Our JumpDrive products include the following:

 

    JumpDrive 2.0 Pro—a high capacity, high speed USB 2.0 compliant version of JumpDrive;

 

    JumpDrive Trio—which can connect a user’s Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Secure Digital Card or MultiMedia Card directly to the USB port;

 

    JumpDrive Secure—a rugged, portable USB storage device with encrypted password protected security software for PCs and Macs, which is designed to protect data from unauthorized access;

 

    JumpDrive 2.0 Elite and JumpDrive 2.0 Sport—which feature USB 2.0 file transfer speeds and new designs;

 

    JumpDrive 2.0 Traveler—which offers portable email, file synchronization and private Internet browsing, allowing users to both browse the Internet without leaving history or session information on the host computer and save their Internet settings, including bookmarks, site history and temporary files, for access to such settings on other computers; and

 

    JumpDrive Music—which can be used to easily store, carry and transfer data files, while also serving as a full-featured MP3 player.

 

In addition, we have recently announced the expansion of our JumpDrive product line with the introduction of JumpGear MP3, a digital audio player that utilizes our JumpDrive Sport flash drive as its storage medium. We intend to continue to expand our JumpDrive product line in 2004.

 

We label some of our CompactFlash, Secure Digital and JumpDrive products with write speed performance in which 1x is equal to a sustained write speed of 150 kilobytes per second, nomenclature similar to that used in the CD-ROM industry. For example, our 4x CompactFlash digital film is capable of sustained write speeds of at least 600 kilobytes per second. Currently, we offer CompactFlash with write speeds ranging from 4x to 40x, Secure Digital Cards from 12x to 32x and JumpDrives from 12x to 40x.

 

In the second quarter of 2004, we expect to begin shipping our recently announced 40x CompactFlash cards in 8 gigabyte (GB) capacity, our 80x CompactFlash cards in 256 megabytes (MB) to 4GB capacities, our JumpGear MP3 player with JumpDrive Sport in 64 MB and 128 MB capacities and our Memory Stick Duo in 64 MB and 128 MB capacities. Our 8GB, 40x CompactFlash card delivers high capacity in a matchbook-sized memory card with a 40x speed-rating, which signifies a minimum sustained write speed capability of 6 megabytes per second. By maintaining a close alignment with manufacturers who offer high-end digital cameras that create high-resolution files (which can be over 35MB each if the image is captured in TIFF mode), Lexar’s new 8GB memory card meets the needs of professional photographers who require capacity, speed and reliability in an easy-to-handle removable media format. Our 80x Professional Series CompactFlash cards are also designed to serve the needs of professional photographers and other digital camera users who require faster image write times by doubling the minimum sustained write speed capability of our Professional Series CompactFlash product line to 80x, or 12MB per second. Our JumpGear MP3 player is a digital audio player that utilizes our JumpDrive Sport USB flash drive as its storage medium. Using JumpDrive Sport as the memory source allows users to upgrade memory to 512MB with a single JumpDrive Sport, or carry several JumpDrives, each with its own collection of music and/or data. Finally, our Memory Stick Duo products are one-third the volume and one

 

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half the weight of a standard Memory Stick, which makes them ideal for mobile phones, compact digital cameras and mobile electronic devices.

 

Flash media sales represented 91.9% of our gross revenues in 2003, 85.4% of our gross revenues in 2002 and 84.8% of our gross revenues in 2001.

 

Connectivity, Software and Other Products.    We offer a broad line of digital media reader/writers. Our reader/writer products facilitate the transfer of digital images and other data files directly to personal computers or other host devices through a USB or Firewire port without a direct connection to the digital camera. We also offer software products, including our Image Rescue 2.0 software, that recovers lost or deleted image files (JPEG, TIFF and RAW) from a CompactFlash card, even if the card has become corrupted. We are also the exclusive distributor of Photo Mechanic software, a fast and easy-to-use image browser for digital camera files. In addition, we offer our Professional Card Wallet for organizing and categorizing multiple memory card products.

 

Controllers/Licensing.    We sell our controllers as a stand-alone product to flash card manufacturers and also license this technology to original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs. These customers primarily target adjacent markets such as industrial or commercial computers. These customers typically integrate our high-performance controller into their business sectors such as data communications, telecommunications, industrial, computing and embedded markets. We also sell the controllers for our flash drives to customers such as SMART Modular Technologies, Inc. and STS Semiconductor & Telecommunications Co., Ltd. who integrate these controllers in their USB flash drives and market them primarily to major PC OEM customers. Generally, our agreements with our controller customers have a one-year term and are automatically renewed for an additional one-year term unless either party provides the other party with written notice of non-renewal at least 90 days prior to the end of the one-year term. We also provide the purchaser with a one-year warranty and intellectual property indemnification.

 

We believe that our controllers have competitive advantages in speed, connectivity, cost and compatibility, which we believe make them some of the premier controllers in the industry. We further believe that a number of the solid-state storage controllers currently on the market infringe our patents, and we are in litigation or negotiations with a number of such companies involved in such infringement.

 

Our controller technology and products can also be used in a number of emerging markets other than digital film, which require high-performance, low power and durable data storage, including the following:

 

    mobile computing such as notebooks, handheld personal computers and PDAs;

 

    internal or external storage for personal computers and mobile phones;

 

    networking applications such as routers and switches;

 

    data communications devices;

 

    consumer digital applications such as MP3 players, digital video recorders, electronic books, Internet appliances and television;

 

    automotive applications such as navigation systems;

 

    government applications such as flight recorders and field computers; and

 

    general industrial applications such as retail check-out systems, meters, test equipment, sensing and medical instruments.

 

We are actively pursuing relationships and licensing arrangements with companies to address these adjacent markets. Our controller technology can also be used for industrial CompactFlash, certain PC Cards, flash drives and other flash memory based storage applications.

 

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In April 2001, we finalized a supply agreement and a license agreement with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Under the supply agreement, we purchase substantially all of our flash memory from Samsung, which is priced based upon an agreed methodology. Samsung has guaranteed a certain allocation of flash memory production capacity to us. In addition, Samsung also has the right to purchase our flash memory controllers. Under the agreement, Samsung provides us with intellectual property indemnification for the products we purchase from Samsung, as well as industry standard warranties. The supply agreement runs through March 29, 2006 unless we and Samsung mutually agree to extend the agreement. Either party can terminate the agreement in the event of the other party’s breach of the agreement or bankruptcy.

 

Under the license agreement, Samsung entered into a royalty-bearing license for our technology for some of their products. We received the first payment under the license agreement in April 2001. The license payments were primarily fixed through the first three years of the agreement and were to become variable thereafter based on the types and volumes of flash cards sold by Samsung. In March 2002, we terminated our prior license agreement with Samsung and executed a new license agreement that renewed and extended the prior license. Under this new agreement, Samsung prepaid fixed royalties due under the prior license agreement at a 5% discount rate. Samsung also paid additional licensing fees for expanded rights to license our technology. The license payments from Samsung were fixed through the first eight quarters of the agreement through March 31, 2004. After that date, we will only be paid variable royalties based on the types and volumes of flash cards sold by Samsung. We expect royalties from Samsung after March 31, 2004 to be minimal. Whether we will be paid any royalties under the variable royalty obligations depends on a number of factors, including which flash products Samsung manufactures and sells and in what volumes, as well as our relative market shares and our aggregate purchases from Samsung. We cannot assure you that we will be paid any amounts in variable royalties. We also have a cross-license from Samsung to manufacture and sell flash products. Either party can terminate the agreement only in the event of the other party’s breach of this agreement, the supply agreement or bankruptcy. We have the right to assign this license in the event we are acquired. We do not provide any intellectual property indemnification to Samsung under the license agreement.

 

Under our cross-license agreements with Sony and Samsung, each party may manufacture and sell products that incorporate technology covered by the other party’s patents related to flash memory devices. As we continue to license our patents to certain of our competitors, competition will increase and may harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Currently we are engaged in licensing discussions and/or litigation with several of our competitors. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in concluding licensing agreements under terms that are favorable to us, or at all.

 

Sales and Marketing

 

We sell our digital media and connectivity products to end-users primarily through mass market, photo and OEM channels. The mass-market channel includes national, international and regional retailers and select corporate accounts. We also use a direct sales force, as well as distributors, value-added resellers and independent sales representatives, for the mass market. The photo channel includes specialty stores targeted at professional photographers and enthusiasts. OEMs consist of digital camera manufacturers and other private label resellers.

 

Our growth in the retail channel was a major factor in the significant growth in our product revenues during 2003. Increased sales into the retail market continued to introduce an element of seasonality to our business. For example, retail sales increased significantly in our fiscal fourth quarter of 2003 due to seasonal consumer demand during the holidays.

 

We currently sell our products in the United States, Europe, Asia and other parts of the world, either directly, through our wholly owned subsidiaries located in Japan and the U.K., or through international distributors. We also market our products directly to end users through our website. In connection with the majority of our distributor sales, we pay commissions to independent contractors based upon the sales to their clients from our distributors. We also sell our products to certain customers on a consignment basis.

 

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To support our sales efforts, we conduct marketing programs designed to educate our target markets about the differences in digital media offerings. Our retail marketing programs include merchandising programs, in-store promotions, trade events and print advertising. We also support our marketing strategy by bundling our CompactFlash digital film with the digital cameras of Nikon.

 

Customers

 

Our customers include retailers, distributors, OEMs and licensees. During 2003, gross revenues from two customers, Wal-Mart and one of our distributors, Wynit, each represented greater than 10% of our gross revenues. We estimate that more than half of Wynit’s sales of our products are made to one customer, CompUSA.

 

During 2003, approximately 35.0% of our total net revenues were generated by customers outside the United States, consisting of approximately 16.6% from Europe, 4.9% from Korea, 4.6% from Japan and 8.9% from other countries.

 

We protect some of our customers against the effects of price decreases on their inventories. Accordingly, if we reduce our prices, we pay certain distributors and consumer retailers the difference between the price paid for the product still in their inventory and the reduced price. Additionally, we permit some of our customers to return limited amounts of products still in their inventory for credit or in exchange for new products. We also offer in-store and mail in rebates to end-users through some of our customers.

 

Competition

 

Our industry is characterized by intense competition, supply shortages or oversupply, rapid technological change, evolving industry standards, declining average selling prices and rapid product obsolescence. Our existing competitors include many large domestic and international companies that have longer operating histories and greater brand name recognition, greater access to flash memory, substantially greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources, broader product lines and longer standing relationships with retailers, OEMs and end users.

 

Our primary competitors are companies that sell flash media into the mass market, photo and OEM channels. Many of these companies are manufacturers with both controller and flash memory capabilities, such as Infineon Technologies AG, Renesas Technology Corp. (a joint venture between Hitachi and Mitsubishi), Samsung, SanDisk Corporation and Toshiba Corporation. Samsung has begun to sell flash cards in larger volumes to third parties, including to our competitors, and has publicly announced its intention to sell flash cards directly to retail customers. Renesas has recently made several announcements that suggest that it has increased its commitment to the manufacture of flash memory. Other well known semiconductor companies, including Hynix Semiconductor Inc., Infineon and Micron Technology, Inc. have also indicated that they may enter the NAND flash market. SanDisk and Toshiba jointly develop and manufacture both low-cost and high-performance flash memory. Because flash memory represents a significant portion of the cost of flash media, SanDisk and other flash manufacturers may have a competitive advantage and may have access to flash memory at prices substantially below the prices that Samsung will charge to us.

 

Our markets historically have not lent themselves to standardized definitions. Accordingly, our market data is not broken down in any standardized fashion. This is in part because our products involve rapidly evolving technologies, and because demand for our products is derivative of host technologies that are themselves evolving. As a result, we believe that market data is inconclusive as an indication of total sales or relative share. Lexar, by some estimates, is the second largest seller of flash cards through U.S. retail channels. According to some data, we hold a top vendor position in certain narrowly delineated categories, (such as measuring certain categories of U.S. retail sales), though we are unable to confirm these estimates or measurements. We do not have reliable total market data for international or OEM sales, which comprise a sizable part of our business.

 

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Other measures of market performance, such as by worldwide NAND flash sales, do not typically include us at all, though we have sales in these product categories. Performance measured in these categories may not be a meaningful predictor of future sales.

 

We believe the principal competitive factors in this market are price, performance, design and service, as well as the technologies adopted in host devices, monetary exchange rates and other factors that affect demand for our products. We compete by offering premium products with superior performance and service, and competitive prices. We believe that the superior performance of products manufactured with our proprietary controller, such as our CompactFlash cards and JumpDrive products, is primarily related to their capability for higher sustained write speeds, which means that data can be written to the flash card more quickly. This is particularly important to enable users to capture multiple photos in quick succession or to write full motion video to a flash card. Our JumpDrive products and some of our CompactFlash cards are also “USB-enabled,” which means that USB capabilities are integrated directly into the controller and therefore allows a user to connect to a USB port using a passive connector rather than a more expensive reader. Many of our competitors are larger than we are and, because they manufacture their own controllers and flash memory, do not depend to the extent we do on third parties to supply them with those products.

 

We also face significant competition from manufacturers or card assemblers and resellers that either resell flash cards purchased from others or assemble cards from controllers and flash memory chips purchased from companies such as Renesas, Samsung or Toshiba, into flash cards. These companies include Crucial Technology, Dane-Elec Memory, Delkin Devices Inc., Eastman Kodak Company, Feiya Corporation, Fuji, Hagiwara Sys-Com Co., Ltd., Hewlett Packard Company, Data I/O Corporation, Infineon, Kingston Technology Company, Inc., M-Systems, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Memorex Products, Inc., Memory Plus, Inc., Micron, PNY Technologies Inc., PQI Corporation, Pretec Electronics Corp., Ritek Corporation, Samsung, Silicon Storage Technology, Inc., SimpleTech, Inc., SMART Modular Technologies, Inc., Sony Corporation, TDK Corporation, Transcend Information Inc., Viking InterWorks and many others.

 

In addition, an increasing number of companies are manufacturing their own controllers, including Genesys Logic, Inc., Hyperstone AG, Kingston, Prolific Technology Inc., SanDisk, Sigmatel, Inc., Silicon Storage Technology, Solid State System Co. Ltd., Sony and Zoran Corporation. Such companies either combine their controller with flash memory from third parties to manufacture their own flash cards or sell their controllers to third parties who use them to assemble flash cards. Additionally, major semiconductor companies such as Hynix, Infineon, Micron, Renesas, Samsung and Toshiba have also developed or are currently developing their own controllers that will likely compete with our controller and/or card sales.

 

Furthermore, many companies have introduced USB flash drives that compete directly with our JumpDrive line of products. These include Apacer, Inc., Belkin Corporation, Fuji, Iomega Corporation, JMTek Corporation, KTI Networks, Inc., M-Systems, Netac Technology Co., Ltd., PNY, Samsung, SanDisk, SimpleTech, Sony, Trek 2000 International Ltd. and many others.

 

Our competitors have also introduced certain flash card formats. For example, a consortium consisting of SanDisk, Matsushita and Toshiba have developed the Secure Digital Card, a media format used in digital cameras as well as in other electronic applications, and Fuji and Olympus introduced the xD Picture Card. Another group of companies has recently introduced the “FISH” drive, which is a miniature USB drive. Although we currently sell these flash memory products (with the exception of the “FISH” drive), which we source from third parties, we do not currently manufacture them, and we may not be able to do so in the future at a reasonable rate or at all.

 

Kodak and Fuji are the largest and best-known manufacturers of traditional film products. Kodak and Fuji have entered the U.S. digital media market, but do not yet manufacture their own digital media. Kodak has announced that it plans to build on its digital strategy with investments and purchases as it aims to be the number one player in digital photography. With their resources and worldwide brand recognition, either Kodak or Fuji would be formidable competitors for our core business.

 

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Several companies, such as Cornice Inc., IBM Corporation and Matrix Semiconductor, have introduced competing technologies for use in digital cameras. These include products such as Digital Capture Technology and the MicroDrive. Although the cost per megabyte of rotating media such as Digital Capture Technology and the MicroDrive is lower than that of flash cards, rotating media has historically had higher power consumption and lower reliability than flash cards. Compact discs can also be used as a storage medium for digital cameras and other devices, and, while inexpensive, are quite bulky. We expect to continue to face competition from existing or future competitors that design and market similar or alternative data storage solutions that may be less costly or provide additional features.

 

Technology

 

Our technology is the result of more than ten years of research and development. As part of the Solid-State Storage Business Unit of Cirrus Logic, Inc., which we acquired in 1996, our engineering group initially pioneered mass storage controller devices to work with magnetic devices. This expertise expanded into controllers for solid-state storage systems, and more specifically for flash memory. Solid-state storage systems have no moving parts. As of February 29, 2004, we had 72 patents granted or allowed in the United States or other countries, while an additional 91 remain pending in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and foreign jurisdictions. Most of our patents revolve around our core expertise in developing and designing a programmable controller and achieving system-level performance. We are actively pursuing companies which are marketing products that we believe infringe our patents.

 

Our patented system and circuit technology and proprietary Space Manager enable high write speed operations to the flash memory with minimal overhead. We achieve this in part by using our proprietary indirect mapping methodology, a technique for storing, accessing and erasing information within a flash device. We believe our high-speed technology provides a significant advantage when used in applications requiring large amounts of data to be transferred quickly, such as digital imaging and digital sound recordings. Our controllers integrate various digital and advanced analog modules by using proprietary tools. We believe our controller technology enables us to provide a high performance solution to our customers, while remaining cost-effective.

 

Our patented controller architecture also allows the controller’s operating software, which we refer to as firmware, to reside in the flash storage device. The firmware is downloaded into the controller’s internal random access memory for execution and can easily be upgraded using simple utilities. This feature allows us to reprogram the firmware for any specific host requirements, e.g. optimized firmware for digital cameras or other digital device. As a result, we provide digital film solutions with high-performance and low power consumption without physically altering the digital storage device.

 

Our USB-enabled CompactFlash digital film combined with our JumpShot cable enables users to transfer their digital images or data to or from the computer with ease at higher performance and lower cost than standard digital film reader/writers. Our JumpShot cable does not require the user to connect the camera to a computer, which avoids the drain on digital camera batteries caused by using the serial port or USB port of the digital camera to transfer digital images.

 

Our JumpDrive products enable a user to connect solid-state memory directly to the USB port of a computer or other host device. Our JumpDrive 2.0 Pro incorporates our high-speed technology making it capable of operating at a guaranteed minimum sustained write speed of 40x, or 6 megabytes per second. Our JumpDrive Trio can connect a user’s Memory Stick, Secure Digital Card or MultiMedia Card directly to the USB port of a computer or other host device.

 

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Research and Development

 

We believe that in order to compete successfully, we must continually design, develop and introduce new products that take advantage of market opportunities and address emerging standards. As of March 1, 2004, we had a staff of 45 research, development and engineering personnel. In addition, we have, on occasion, engaged outside consultants to assist in the development of technologies to our specifications. We intend to continue this selective use of outside consultants in the future. During 2001, 2002 and 2003, we spent approximately $6.9 million, $6.0 million and $8.1 million, respectively, on research and development activities.

 

In addition, we endeavor to develop and maintain close relationships with key suppliers of components and technologies in order to enable us to quickly introduce new products that incorporate the latest technologies. We also frequently receive prototypes of digital camera models from manufacturers prior to their market introduction to ensure compatibility with our digital film. We have also worked with some digital camera manufacturers to optimize the performance of their digital camera when used with our digital film. We believe our relationships with digital camera manufacturers provide valuable insights into their current and future digital film requirements.

 

Manufacturing and Operations

 

The majority of CompactFlash, Memory Stick and JumpDrive products that we manufacture use our patented controller technology, and may incorporate software for USB, security and image recovery. We also buy and resell certain products that we do not manufacture in order to meet the demand of our markets. We are planning to expand our manufacturing for additional flash card formats in 2004. We contract with an independent foundry and assembly and testing organizations to manufacture these flash media products. This allows us to focus on our design efforts, minimize fixed costs and capital expenditures and gain access to advanced manufacturing capabilities. We maintain a comprehensive quality and testing program to help ensure that our products meet our quality standards. We also require that our major subcontractors are ISO 9002 certified.

 

There are three major types of flash memory: NAND, AND and NOR. We use industry standard NAND flash memory. We currently purchase substantially all of our NAND flash memory from Samsung. Our controllers can also be configured to work with NAND flash memory produced by Toshiba and Hynix, and flash memory produced by Renesas. Our controller technology can also be applied to other proprietary types of flash memory or other solid-state storage devices such as NROM from Infineon.

 

United Microelectronics Corporation, or UMC, based in Taiwan, currently manufactures most of our controller chips. Our flash cards are primarily assembled and tested by PC Partner Limited in China; Venture Manufacturing in Singapore and Indonesia; and Venture Manufacturing, Vitron Manufacturing Corporation, Macrotron Systems, Inc. and PC Partner in the United States. Additionally, our controllers are assembled, tested and packaged primarily by Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. in Taiwan; and Advanced Interconnection Technology in Indonesia and in the United States. We have entered into a supply agreement with UMC under which we are obligated to provide UMC with a rolling forecast of our anticipated purchase orders. Such forecasts may only be changed by a certain percentage each month. This may limit our ability to react to significant fluctuations in demand for our products.

 

We maintain significant levels of inventories to meet customer demand for products that we do not manufacture.

 

Backlog

 

We sell our products pursuant to standard purchase orders, which are officially acknowledged by us according to our standard terms and conditions. Due to industry practice, which allows customers to cancel or reschedule orders with limited advance notice to us prior to shipment without significant penalties, we believe that our backlog, while useful for scheduling production, is not a meaningful indicator of future sales.

 

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Employees

 

At March 1, 2004, we had 173 full time employees, of which 63 were employed in marketing and sales, 45 in research, development and engineering, 28 in operations and 37 in administration. We also employ 20 part-time employees and consultants. Our continued success will depend, in part, on our ability to attract and retain skilled and motivated personnel. None of our employees is represented by labor unions. We believe that we have good relations with our employees.

 

ITEM 2   PROPERTIES

 

Our corporate headquarters and principal operating facility is located in Fremont, California. Our headquarters is comprised of approximately 34,400 square feet and is the primary location for all our engineering, operations, administrative and worldwide sales and marketing functions. We occupy approximately 25,500 square feet of this facility under a lease that expires on December 31, 2004 and have an option to renew this lease for an additional five-year period. During the third quarter of 2001, as a result of restructuring our organization, we vacated approximately 8,500 square feet in our Fremont headquarters. This space was subsequently subleased during the first quarter of 2002. The sublease expired on January 26, 2004 and we do not intend to enter into another sublease. We are currently in negotiations for additional facilities in Fremont to replace our current facilities and to accommodate our anticipated growth.

 

We also lease facilities in Woking, England, Tokyo, Japan and Boca Raton, Florida. We lease approximately 4,200 square feet at our Woking, England facilities where we carry out sales, marketing and distribution operations under a lease that expires on December 21, 2005. We lease approximately 2,200 feet of office space in Tokyo, Japan for sales, marketing and distribution operations under a lease that expires on September 29, 2005. We lease approximately 2,200 square feet of office space in Boca Raton, Florida for product development activities. The lease for the Florida office expires on May 31, 2006.

 

ITEM 3   LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

 

Legal Proceedings

 

Litigation Against Fuji, Memtek and PNY

 

On July 11, 2002, we filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against Fuji Photo Film USA, Memtek Products, Inc. and PNY Technologies Inc. for patent infringement. We alleged that the defendants infringe our U.S. Patent Nos. 5,479,638; 5,907,856; 5,930,815; 6,034,897; 6,134,151; 6,141,249; 6,145,051; and 6,262,918. We sought injunctive relief and damages against all defendants.

 

On November 4, 2002, we filed an amended complaint against Fuji Photo Film USA. In the amended complaint, we allege that Fuji Photo Film USA infringes U.S. Patent Nos. 5,479,638; 6,141,249; 6,145,051; 6,262,918; and 6,397,314 through the sale of its flash memory products and digital cameras. We are seeking injunctive relief and damages against Fuji. Memtek Products, Inc. and PNY Technologies, Inc. are no longer parties to this particular action. On December 9, 2002, Fuji filed an answer in which they seek declaratory relief that they do not infringe the five patents named in the suit as well as our U.S. Patent Nos. 5,907,856; 5,930,815; 6,034,897; and 6,134,151.

 

On January 8, 2003, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ordered this case transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California where it is now pending.

 

In a second amended complaint, we added counterclaims for infringement on the additional patents for which Fuji has sought declaratory relief, U.S. Patent Nos. 5,907,856; 5,930,815; 6,034,897; and 6,134,151. Discovery has commenced.

 

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This case has been coordinated for discovery purposes with our litigation against Toshiba, Pretec, PNY, Memtek and C-One. On September 17, 2003 and October 1, 2003, the court held two scheduling hearings for all of these matters. As a result of these hearings, the court has determined that the various actions pending before it will be sequenced beginning with the Toshiba matter. Claim construction in our litigation against Toshiba is expected to be held in May 2004. Our litigation against Fuji, Memtek and PNY will be stayed until after that claim construction with Toshiba has been completed.

 

On October 1, 2003, we reached a settlement agreement with Ritek Corporation, which supplied Fuji with CompactFlash cards between 2001 and 2002. Under the terms of the agreement, Ritek made a one-time payment for past damages. We have not given Ritek a license to any of our patents going forward.

 

Litigation with Toshiba

 

We are involved in three separate lawsuits with Toshiba Corporation as follows:

 

Lexar Media, Inc. V. Toshiba Corporation

 

On November 1, 2002, Toshiba Corporation filed a lawsuit seeking declaratory judgment that Toshiba does not infringe our U.S. Patent Nos. 5,479,638; 5,818,781; 5,907,856; 5,930,815; 6,034,897; 6,040,997; 6,134,151; 6,141,249; 6,145,051; 6,172,906; 6,202,138; 6,262,918; 6,374,337; and 6,397,314 or that these patents are invalid. This suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. We believe that Toshiba’s claims are without merit and are contesting this lawsuit vigorously.

 

On November 21, 2002, we filed an answer and counterclaim in which we alleged that Toshiba infringes our U.S. Patent Nos. 5,818,781; 5,907,856; 5,930,815; 6,034,897; 6,040,997; 6,134,151; 6,172,906; 6,202,138; and 6,374,337. We sought an injunction and damages against Toshiba.

 

On December 20, 2002, Toshiba filed its first amended complaint in which Toshiba dropped its allegations that our patents are unenforceable.

 

On February 28, 2003, we filed an answer and our first amended counterclaim against Toshiba for infringement of our U.S. Patent Nos. 5,479,638; 5,818,781; 5,907,856; 5,930,815; 6,034,897; 6,040,997; 6,134,151; 6,141,249; 6,145,051; 6,172,906; 6,202,138; 6,262,918; 6,374,337; and 6,397,314. We are seeking damages as well as an injunction against Toshiba for its products that infringe our patents, including its flash memory chips, flash cards and digital cameras. Discovery has commenced. The parties have now mutually dismissed with prejudice all claims regarding U.S. Patent No. 6,172,906.

 

This case has been coordinated for discovery purposes with our litigation against Pretec, PNY, Memtek and C-One. On September 17, 2003 and October 1, 2003, the court held two scheduling hearings for all of these matters. As a result of these hearings, the court determined that our patent claims against Toshiba will be heard in an initial phase. Claim construction in our litigation against Toshiba is expected to be held in May 2004.

 

The patents at issue in this first phase will be Lexar’s U.S. Patent No.’s 5,479,638 entitled “Flash Memory Mass Storage Architecture Incorporation Wear Leveling Technique”; 6,145,051 entitled “Moving Sectors Within Block of Information in a Flash Memory Mass Storage Architecture”; 6,397,314 “Increasing The Memory Performance Of Flash Memory Devices By Writing Sectors Simultaneously To Multiple Flash Memory Device”; 6,202,138 “Increasing The Memory Performance Of Flash Memory Devices By Writing Sectors Simultaneously To Multiple Flash”; 6,262,918 “Space Management For Managing High Capacity Nonvolatile Memory”; and 6,040,997 “Flash Memory Leveling Architecture Having No External Latch.” Our litigation against Fuji, Memtek and PNY will be stayed until after that claim construction with Toshiba has been completed.

 

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Lexar Media, Inc. v. Toshiba Corporation, Toshiba America, Inc. and Toshiba America

 

On November 4, 2002, we filed a lawsuit in Santa Clara County Superior Court against Toshiba Corporation, Toshiba America, Inc. and Toshiba America alleging theft of trade secrets and breach of fiduciary duty. We later filed an amended complaint to add violation of California Business and Professions Code Section 17200 and to drop without prejudice claims against Toshiba America, Inc. The basis of the allegations is that since our inception in 1996, and including the period from 1997 through 1999 when Toshiba was represented on our Board of Directors, Toshiba had access to and was presented with details of our strategy as well as our methods of achieving high performance flash devices that Toshiba has now incorporated into its flash chips and flash systems. We are seeking damages as well as an injunction against Toshiba. We have filed a description of our trade secrets and discovery has commenced.

 

Toshiba Corporation v. Lexar Media, Inc.

 

On January 13, 2003, Toshiba Corporation filed a lawsuit against us in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that we infringe Toshiba’s U.S. Patent Nos. 5,546,351; 5,724,300; 5,793,696; 5,946,231; 5,986,933; 6,145,023; 6,292,850; and 6,338,104. On February 7, 2003, Toshiba Corporation filed an amended complaint and now alleges that we infringe U.S. Patent Nos. 5,546,351; 5,724,300; 5,793,696; 5,946,231; 5,986,933; 6,094,697; 6,292,850; 6,338,104; and 5,611,067. In this action, Toshiba Corporation seeks injunctive relief and damages. Toshiba’s patents appear to primarily relate to flash components that we purchase from vendors who provide us with indemnification. On March 5, 2003, we filed an answer in which we are seeking a judgment that we do not infringe these patents or that they are invalid or unenforceable. We believe that Toshiba’s claims are without merit and intend to contest this lawsuit vigorously.

 

Litigation with SimpleTech, Inc.

 

On October 1, 2002, SimpleTech, Inc. filed a lawsuit against us in Orange County Superior Court alleging trade libel, libel per se, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, California unfair competition, violation of the California Unfair Trade Practices Act, violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and violation of common law unfair competition. SimpleTech’s lawsuit arose from correspondence between us and SimpleTech and one of its customers regarding our belief that certain of SimpleTech’s products infringe our patents. SimpleTech sought damages, including treble damages under its Sherman Act claim, punitive damages, and injunctive relief. On October 30, 2002, we removed this case to the United States District Court for the Central District of California in Santa Ana.

 

On November 6, 2002, we filed a motion to dismiss SimpleTech’s complaint. On November 14, 2002, SimpleTech amended its complaint. On December 4, 2002, we filed a motion to dismiss SimpleTech’s amended complaint. On January 8, 2003, the Court ordered that SimpleTech’s claims under the California Unfair Trade Practices Act, the Sherman Antitrust Act, and common law unfair competition be dismissed. On January 27, 2003, the judge dismissed the remainder of SimpleTech’s complaint for lack of prosecution. On January 31, 2003 SimpleTech sought to reinstate its complaint. On February 14, 2003, the Court agreed to set aside its dismissal after imposing a monetary sanction on SimpleTech. On June 17, 2003, we filed a motion for summary judgment and for sanctions against SimpleTech under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. On August 11, 2003, the Court granted summary judgment in favor of Lexar on SimpleTech’s trade libel and related claims. Based on the Court’s decision, all of SimpleTech’s claims against Lexar have now been dismissed.

 

On March 20, 2003, we filed an answer and counterclaim for patent infringement. In our counterclaim, we allege that SimpleTech’s sale of flash memory products infringes our U.S. Patent No. 5,479,638. We sought damages as well as an injunction against SimpleTech. We reached a settlement with SimpleTech in December 2003 under which the parties agreed to a mutual dismissal of the lawsuit and SimpleTech took a royalty-bearing license under Lexar’s patents for its past and future sales of Memory Stick products. All other terms of the settlement are confidential.

 

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Litigation Against Pretec, PNY, Memtek and C-One

 

On December 22, 2000, we sued Pretec Electronics Corporation and PNY for patent infringement. We sued Pretec and PNY on the basis of four patents: U.S. Patent Nos. 5,818,781; 5,907,856; 5,930,815; and 6,145,051. The suit is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. We are seeking injunctive relief and damages against all defendants.

 

On April 13, 2001, we filed an amended complaint in our litigation with Pretec, naming Memtek as an additional defendant. On June 26, 2001, the Court allowed us to file our second amended complaint in our litigation with Pretec, naming C-One as an additional defendant and adding our U.S. Patent No. 5,479,638 against all of the defendants. In this action we allege that Memtek and the other defendants infringe our U.S. Patent Nos. 5,479,638, 5,818,781, 5,907,856, 5,930,815 and 6,145,051. This suit is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. We are seeking injunctive relief and damages against all of the defendants.

 

This case has been coordinated for discovery purposes with our litigation against Toshiba, Pretec, PNY, Memtek and C-One. On September 17, 2003 and October 1, 2003, the court held two scheduling hearings for all of these matters. As a result of these hearings, the court determined that the litigation will be sequenced beginning with the Toshiba matter. Claim construction in our litigation against Toshiba is expected to be held in May 2004. Our litigation against Pretec, Memtek and C-One will be stayed until after the claim construction with Toshiba has been completed.

 

Litigation With Willem Vroegh

 

On February 20, 2004, an individual, Willem Vroegh, sued us, along with Dane–Elec Memory, Fuji Photo Film USA, Eastman Kodak Company, Kingston Technology Company, Inc., Memorex Products, Inc.; PNY Technologies Inc., SanDisk Corporation, Verbatim Corporation, and Viking InterWorks, alleging that our description of the capacity of our flash memory cards is false and misleading under California Business and Professions Code Sections 17200 and 17500. The plaintiff has also asserted allegations for breach of contract, common law claims of fraud, deceit and misrepresentation; as well as a violation of the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, California Civil Code Sec. 175, all arising out of the same set of facts. Plaintiff seeks restitution, disgorgement, compensatory damages and injunctive relief and attorneys’ fees. We believe the plaintiff’s claims are without merit and intend to contest them vigorously.

 

ITEM 4   SUBMISSION OF MATTERS TO A VOTE OF SECURITY HOLDERS

 

Not applicable.

 

ITEM 4A   EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE REGISTRANT

 

The following table presents information concerning our executive officers as of March 1, 2004.

 

Name


   Age

  

Position


Eric B. Stang

   44   

Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer

Petro Estakhri

   46   

Director, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President, Engineering

Brian T. McGee

   44   

Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer

Eric S. Whitaker

   37   

Vice President of Technology Licensing, General Counsel and Secretary

 

Eric B. Stang has served as the Chairman of our Board of Directors since April 2003, as our President and Chief Executive Officer since June 2001, as our Chief Operating Officer from November 1999 through June 2001 and as a director since January 2000. From June 1998 to November 1999, Mr. Stang was Vice President and General Manager of the Radiation Therapy Products Division of ADAC Laboratories, a medical equipment and software company. From January 1995 to May 1998, he was Director of Operations at Raychem

 

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Corporation, a material science company. Mr. Stang holds a B.A. in economics from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

 

Petro Estakhri has served as our Chief Technology Officer since April 1999 and as our Executive Vice President, Engineering since August 1997. Mr. Estakhri has served as one of our directors since August 1997, and was the Chairman of our Board of Directors from August 1997 through June 2001. Mr. Estakhri also served as our Vice President, Systems from September 1996 to August 1997. From January 1993 to August 1996, Mr. Estakhri served as the Senior Director of Mass Storage Controller Engineering at Cirrus Logic, a supplier of semiconductors for Internet entertainment electronics. Mr. Estakhri is a co-author of many patents related to magnetic media, flash storage controller and systems architecture. Mr. Estakhri holds a B.S. and an M.S. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California at Davis.

 

Brian T. McGee has served as our Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Finance since May 2003. From May 2000 to May 2003, Mr. McGee was Chief Financial Officer of Equator Technologies, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company that designs, develops, and markets programmable system-on-a-chip processors for video applications. From August 1999 to May 2000, Mr. McGee was Vice President, Finance of SmartAge.com, an internet provider of business-to-business products and services. From November 1998 to August 1999, Mr. McGee was Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Academic Systems Corporation, a provider of education software products. From January 1987 to November 1998, he served a variety of finance positions at Raychem Corporation, a material science company. Mr. McGee holds a B.S. in Business Administration from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and a Certificate in Management Accounting.

 

Eric S. Whitaker has served as our Vice President, Technology Licensing since November 2000 and as our General Counsel and Secretary since April 2000. Mr. Whitaker previously served as our Director of Legal Affairs from December 1999 until April 2000. From October 1995 to December 1999, Mr. Whitaker was in private law practice with Latham & Watkins. Mr. Whitaker holds a B.A. in politics from Princeton University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.

 

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PART II

 

ITEM 5   MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS

 

Market Information for Common Stock

 

Our common stock began trading on The Nasdaq National Market on August 15, 2000 under the symbol LEXR. The following table sets forth the high and low sales prices reported on The Nasdaq National Market for the periods indicated. The market price of our common stock has been volatile. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Risks That Could Affect Future Results.”

 

     High

   Low

Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2003              

First quarter

   $ 6.48    $ 2.94

Second quarter

     9.97      3.22

Third quarter

     20.75      9.11

Fourth quarter

     24.49      14.23
Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2002       

First quarter

   $ 3.00    $ 1.60

Second quarter

     4.30      2.50

Third quarter

     5.20      2.15

Fourth quarter

     8.11      1.90

 

Stockholders

 

As of March 1, 2004, we had approximately 89 record holders of our common stock. In addition, there are several thousand beneficial holders of our common stock.

 

Dividends

 

We have never paid any cash dividends on our common stock. We currently anticipate that we will retain all future earnings for use in our business, and do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

 

ITEM 6   SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

 

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