THPTF Techpoint Inc (PK)

Item 1A. Risk Factors

Investing in our JDS and our underlying common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, before making an investment decision. If any of the following risks are realized, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of the JDS could decline and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We face intense competition, including from our end-customers and potential end-customers, and we may not be able to compete effectively, which could reduce our market share and decrease our revenue and profitability.

The markets in which we operate are extremely competitive and are characterized by rapid technological change, continuous evolving end-customer requirements and declining average selling prices. We may not be able to compete successfully against current or potential competitors, which include our current or potential end-customers as they seek to internally develop solutions competitive with ours. If we do not compete successfully, our market share and revenue may decline. We compete with large semiconductor manufacturers and designers, large automotive equipment manufacturers’ internally developed solutions, and others, and our current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, significantly greater resources and name recognition and a larger base of customers than we do. This may allow them to respond more quickly than we can to new or emerging technologies or changes in customer requirements. In addition, these competitors may have greater credibility with our existing and potential end-customers. Some of our current and potential end-customers with their own internally developed solutions may choose not to purchase products from third-party suppliers like us.

We primarily sell our products through a limited number of distributors and to a limited number of end-customers, and if our relationships with one or more of those distributors or end-customers were to terminate, our operating results may be harmed.

We market and distribute our products primarily through a limited number of distributors, most of whom are located in Asia. This distribution channel has been characterized by rapid change and consolidations. Distributors have accounted for a significant portion of our revenue in the past. Sales to our distributors represented substantially all of our revenue for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021. We do not have any long-term contractual commitments with our distributors.

One of our end-customers, Hikvision accounted for 33% and 38% of our revenue for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. Our sales to Hikvision primarily occur through Phitec, as distributor, who purchases our products as a result of demand from Hikvision for our specific products. We do not have any long-term contractual commitment with Hikvision. Losing Hikvision as an end-customer, or if they decide to scale back use of our products, could have a material and adverse effect on our business.

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Our operating results and financial condition could be significantly disrupted by the loss of one or more of our current end-customers, distributors and sales representatives, volume pricing discounts, order cancellations, delays in shipment by one of our major distributors, end-customers or sales representatives, or the failure of our distributors or sales representatives to successfully sell our products. Additionally, customer buying patterns change and can fluctuate from quarter to quarter and impact our results of operations, particularly for significant end-customers. These buying patterns can change as a result of factors beyond our control, including inventory adjustments by our end-customers, or changes in demand, which could materially harm our results of operations.

Our revenue and operating results will fluctuate from period to period, which could cause the market price of our JDS to decline.

Our revenue and operating results are difficult to predict, have in the past fluctuated, and may in the future fluctuate from period to period. It is possible that our operating results in some periods will be below market expectations. This would likely cause the market price of our JDS to decline. Our operating results in any given period may be affected by a number of factors, including:

We base our planned operating expenses in part on our expectations of future revenue, and a significant portion of our expenses is relatively fixed in the short-term. We have limited historical financial data from which to predict future sales for our products. As a result, it is difficult for us to forecast our future revenue and budget our operating expenses accordingly. If revenue for a particular period is lower than we expect, we likely will be unable to proportionately reduce our operating expenses for that period, which would harm our operating results for that period.

If the growth of demand for video applications for the security surveillance and automotive markets does not continue, or if we are unsuccessful in selling into the automotive market, our ability to increase our revenue and operating results could suffer.

Our ability to increase our revenue will depend on increased demand for video applications in the security surveillance and automotive markets. For the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, 40% and 50% of our

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revenue was derived from the sale of our products designed for the security surveillance market, respectively. If our products sold into this market decline or do not increase, or if demand slows in this market generally, our operating results would suffer. In addition, we have increased our focus on the automotive market and have devoted substantial resources to the development of products for video applications that address this market. We expect that the automotive market will be a substantial driver of our future business. For the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, 60% and 50% of our revenue was derived from the sale of our products designed for the automotive market, respectively. For the year ended December 31, 2022, we have more revenue generated from the automotive market than from the security surveillance market. However, we may not be successful developing and marketing our solutions for the automotive market or gain significant market share. If we are not successful in selling our products into this market, or if the automotive industry in general experiences weak demand, we may not recover the costs associated with our efforts in this area and our operating results could suffer.

The growth of our target markets is uncertain and will depend in particular upon:

Global shortages in manufacturing capacities could interrupt or negatively affect our operations, increase cost to manufacture and negatively impact our results of operations.

If we are unable to secure manufacturing capacities from our current subcontractors, our ability to deliver our products to our customers may be negatively impacted. Also, our subcontractors may increase their fees, which would lead to an increase in our manufacturing costs that we may not be able to fully pass to our customers, resulting in increased operating costs and lower gross margins. In addition, such a shortage could lengthen our products’ manufacturing, assembly and testing cycle and cause a delay in the shipment of our products to our customers. This could ultimately lead to a loss of sales of our products, harm our reputation and competitive position, and our revenues could be materially reduced.

In the first half of 2022, we experienced slight increases in demand for semiconductor products due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a continuing global shortage of manufacturing capacities as semiconductor suppliers were unable to rapidly respond to increased demand. Consequently, we experienced increases in the costs to manufacture our products. Since third quarter of 2022, we have been seeing weakness in product demand due to inventory adjustments at customer end, the lockdowns in major cities in China, and world-wide inflationary pressures.

Our limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects.

We were incorporated in 2012 and began shipping our integrated circuits in 2013. Our limited operating history and limited experience selling products, combined with the rapidly evolving and competitive nature of our markets, makes it difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects. In addition, we have limited insight into emerging trends that may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. We have encountered and will continue to encounter risks and difficulties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries, including unpredictable and volatile revenue and increased expenses as we continue to grow our business. The viability and demand for our products may be affected by many factors outside of our control, such as the factors affecting the growth of the security surveillance and automotive industries in general, and the growth and adoption of new security surveillance technologies and automotive video applications in particular, and changes in macroeconomic conditions, including increases in inflation and interest rates. Our future revenue growth rate, and the success of our business, will depend in particular upon the success of our automotive video business. If we do not manage these risks and overcome these difficulties successfully, our business will suffer.

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We depend on key and highly skilled personnel to operate our business, and if we are unable to retain our current personnel and hire additional personnel, our ability to develop and market our products could be harmed.

We believe our future success will depend in large part upon our ability to attract and retain highly skilled managerial, engineering and sales and marketing personnel. We operate in locations where competition for engineering talent is particularly intense, in particular the San Francisco Bay Area. If we are unable to recruit and retain skilled personnel, our business could suffer and our financial results could decline. The loss of any key personnel or the inability to attract or retain qualified personnel could delay the development and introduction of, and harm our ability to sell, our products and harm the market’s perception of us. We do not have long-term employment contracts with any of our employees, including our key personnel, and their knowledge of our business and industry would be extremely difficult to replace.

We may not sustain or increase profitability in the future, which may cause the market price of our JDS to decline.

To sustain or increase profitability, we will need to generate and sustain substantially higher revenue while maintaining reasonable cost and expense levels. These expenditures may not result in increased revenue or end-customer growth. Because many of our expenses are fixed in the short-term, or are incurred in advance of anticipated sales, we may not be able to decrease our expenses in a timely manner to offset any shortfall of sales. This will harm our future financial results and negatively impact our profitability. We may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or an annual basis. This may, in turn, cause the price of our JDS to decline.

We may not be able to manage our future growth effectively, and we may need to incur significant expenditures to address the additional operational and control requirements of our growth.

We have experienced a period of significant growth and expansion, which has placed, and any future expansion will continue to place, a significant strain on management, personnel, systems and financial resources. We have hired additional employees to support an increase in research and development as well as increase our sales and marketing and general and accounting efforts, which resulted in increasing our headcount from 21 employees as of December 31, 2013 to 83 employees as of December 31, 2022. To manage our growth successfully, we believe we must effectively:

Our efforts may require substantial managerial and financial resources and may increase our operating costs even though these efforts may not be successful. If we are unable to manage our growth effectively, we may not be able to take advantage of market opportunities, develop new products, satisfy end-customer requirements, execute our business plan or respond to competitive pressures.

Changes to industry standards and technical requirements relevant to our products and markets could adversely affect our business, results of operations and prospects.

Our products are only a part of larger electronic systems. All products incorporated into these systems must comply with various industry standards and technical requirements created by regulatory bodies or industry participants in order to operate efficiently together. Industry standards and technical requirements in our markets are evolving and may change significantly over time. In addition, large industry-leading semiconductor and electronics companies play a significant role in developing standards and technical requirements for the product ecosystems

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within which our products can be used. Automotive companies typically have exacting requirements for components in their vehicles, which must meet a variety of standards. Our end-customers also may design certain specifications and other technical requirements specific to their products and solutions. These technical requirements may change as the end-customer introduces new or enhanced products and solutions.

Our ability to compete in the future will depend in part on our ability to identify and comply with evolving industry standards and technical requirements. The emergence of new industry standards and technical requirements could render our products incompatible with products developed by other suppliers or make it difficult for our products to meet the requirements of certain of our end-customers in consumer, industrial, automotive and other markets. As a result, we could be required to invest significant time and effort and to incur significant expense to redesign our products to ensure compliance with relevant standards and requirements. If our products are not in compliance with prevailing industry standards and technical requirements for a significant period of time, we could miss opportunities to achieve crucial design wins, our revenue may decline and we may incur significant expenses to redesign our products to meet the relevant standards, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and prospects.

The market for HD video application integrated circuits is historically characterized by declines in average selling prices as products mature, which could negatively affect our revenue and margins.

Our end-customers expect the average selling price of our products to decrease year-over-year. When such pricing declines occur, we may not be able to mitigate the effects by selling more or higher margin units, or by reducing our manufacturing costs. In such circumstances, our operating results could be materially and adversely affected. Our products have historically experienced declining average selling prices over their life cycle. The rate of decline may be affected by a number of factors, including relative supply and demand, the level of competition, production costs and technological changes. As a result of the decreasing average selling prices of our products following their launch, our ability to increase or maintain our margins depends on our ability to introduce new or enhanced products with higher average selling prices and to reduce our per-unit cost of sales and our operating costs. We may not be able to reduce our costs as rapidly as companies that operate their own manufacturing, assembly and testing facilities, and our costs may even increase because we do not operate our own manufacturing, assembly or testing facilities, which could also reduce our gross margins. In addition, our new or enhanced products may not be as successful or enjoy as high margins as we expect. If we are unable to offset any reductions in average selling prices by introducing new products with higher average selling prices or reducing our costs, our revenue and margins will be negatively affected and may decrease.

We manufacture our products based on our estimates of end-customer demand, and if our estimates are incorrect or our end-customers cancel their orders our financial results could be negatively impacted.

Our sales are made on the basis of purchase orders rather than long-term purchase commitments. In addition, our distributors may cancel purchase orders or defer the shipments of our products. We manufacture our products according to our estimates of end-customer demand. This process requires us to make multiple demand forecast assumptions, each of which may introduce error into our estimates. If we overestimate end-customer demand, we may manufacture products that we may not be able to sell. As a result, we would have excess inventory, which would increase our losses. Conversely, if we underestimate end-customer demand or if sufficient manufacturing capacity were unavailable, we would forego revenue opportunities, lose market share and damage our relationships. We experienced insufficient manufacturing capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Increase in demand for semiconductor products due to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a global shortage of manufacturing capacities in 2021 and the first half of 2022.  In addition, supply chain disruptions occurred due to the lockdown of major cities in China during 2022. As a result, we were unable to meet all end customer demand, resulting in lost revenue opportunities.

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If we fail to develop new products and enhance our existing products in order to react to rapid technological change and market demands, our business will suffer.

We must develop new products and enhance our existing products with improved technologies to meet rapidly evolving end-customer requirements. We need to design products for end-customers who continually require higher performance and functionality at lower costs. For example, we anticipate that sales of 1080p products will decrease as the market moves to higher resolution displays, such as 4K, in the coming years. We must, therefore, continue to cost-effectively add features that enhance performance and functionality to our products. The development process for these advancements is lengthy and requires us to accurately anticipate market trends. Our failure to accurately anticipate market trends in a timely manner will harm the market acceptance of our products and the sales of our products.

Developing and enhancing these products is uncertain and can be time-consuming, costly and complex. There is a risk that these developments and enhancements will be late, fail to meet end-customer or market specifications or not be competitive with products from our competitors that offer comparable or superior performance and functionality. Any new products or product enhancements may not be accepted in new or existing markets. Our business will suffer if we fail to develop and introduce new products or product enhancements on a cost-effective basis.

We rely on a limited number of independent subcontractors for the manufacture, assembly and testing of our semiconductors, and the failure of any of these third-party vendors to deliver products or otherwise perform as requested, could damage our relationships with our end-customers, decrease our sales and limit our growth.

We do not have our own manufacturing or assembly facilities and have very limited in-house testing facilities. Therefore, we must rely on third-party vendors to manufacture, assemble and test the products we design. We currently rely on TSMC and UMC to produce almost all of our semiconductors. We rely on ASE and Sigurd to assemble, package and test almost all of our products. If these vendors do not provide us with high-quality products, services and production and test capacity in a timely manner, or if one or more of these vendors terminates its relationship with us, we may be unable to obtain satisfactory replacements to fulfill end-customer orders on a timely basis, our relationships with our end-customers could suffer and our sales could decrease. Other significant risks associated with relying on these third-party vendors include:

We currently do not have long-term supply contracts with any of our third-party vendors. Therefore, they are not obligated to perform services or supply products to us for any specific period, in any specific quantities or at any specific price, except as may be provided in a particular purchase order. Neither TSMC, UMC, ASE nor Sigurd have provided contractual assurances to us that adequate capacity will be available for us to meet future demand for our products. These third-party vendors may allocate capacity to the production of other companies’ products while reducing deliveries to us on short notice. In particular, other customers that are larger and better financed than we are or that have long-term agreements with TSMC, UMC, ASE or Sigurd may cause either or both of them to reallocate capacity to those customers, decreasing the capacity available to us.

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Changes to industry regulations relevant to our products and markets could adversely affect our business, results of operations and prospects.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires new cars sold after May 2018 in the United States to have backup cameras. There is no guarantee that other jurisdictions will follow the lead of the United States and require backup cameras on vehicles. While we currently anticipate that consumers and regulators in other jurisdictions, including the European Union, will adopt backup cameras, there is no guarantee that this will happen within a time frame that we can take advantage of, or at all. If automotive backup cameras do not become widespread our target market may be much smaller than we anticipate, limiting our potential growth and revenue.

We rely on our relationships with OEM and ODM to enhance our solutions and market position, and our failure to continue to develop or maintain such relationships in the future would harm our ability to remain competitive.

We develop our products for OEM and ODM that serve a variety of end markets including home and office security surveillance, and automotive applications. For each application, manufacturers create products that incorporate specialized semiconductor technology, which producers further down the supply chain integrate into their products. For example, our solutions may be integrated into a more comprehensive video product that is incorporated into an automotive vehicle or aftermarket system and sold to consumers. We must work closely with manufacturers to ensure that each new generation of our solutions becomes qualified for use in their products. As a result, maintaining close relationships with leading product manufacturers in our target markets is crucial to the long-term success of our business. We could lose these relationships for a variety of reasons, including our failure to qualify as a vendor, our failure to demonstrate the value of our new solutions, declines in product quality, or if OEM/ODM seek to work with vendors with broader product suites, greater production capacity or greater financial resources. If our relationships with key industry participants were to deteriorate or if our solutions were not qualified by our end-customers, our market position and revenue could be materially and adversely affected.

Our business depends on customers, suppliers and operations in Asia, and as a result we are subject to regulatory, operational, financial and political risks in Asia, which could adversely affect our financial results.

The percentage of our revenue attributable to sales to customers in Asia was greater than 99% for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021. We derived 69% and 69% of our revenue from sales to customers in China for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. We expect that revenue from customers in Asia will continue to account for substantially all of our revenue. All our sales currently are denominated in U.S. dollars. As a result, an increase in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to foreign currencies could make our products less competitive in international markets.

Currently, we rely on a network of sales representatives to sell our products internationally. We also have offices in Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan, which serve various aspects of our business. Moreover, we have in the past relied on, and expect to continue to rely on, suppliers, manufacturers and subcontractors primarily located in Taiwan. Accordingly, we are subject to several risks and challenges, any of which could harm our business and financial results. These risks and challenges include:

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We have operations outside of the United States and intend to expand our international operations, which exposes us to significant risks.

We have offices in the United States, Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan. We presently intend to expand our operations in Asia, specifically in Japan. The success of our business depends, in large part, on our ability to operate successfully from geographically disparate locations and to further expand our international operations and sales. Operating in international markets requires significant resources and management attention and subjects us to regulatory, economic and political risks that are different from those we face in the United States. We cannot be sure that further international expansion will be successful. In addition, we face risks in doing business internationally that could expose us to reduced demand for our products, lower prices for our products or other adverse effects on our operating results. Among the risks we believe are most likely to affect us are:

Our failure to manage any of these risks successfully could harm our operations and reduce our revenue.

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We face risks related to health epidemics which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.              

We face a variety of risks associated with public health issues, including epidemics, pandemics, and other infectious diseases, including COVID-19. The impact of COVID-19, including changes in consumer and business behavior, fear of a pandemic, market downturns, and restrictions on business and personal activities, has caused significant volatility in the global economy and led to reduced economic activity. The pandemic prompted government authorities to take numerous measures to contain the virus, including travel bans and restrictions, quarantines, shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders, and business shutdowns. Due to the spread of COVID-19, we have changed our business practices (e.g., restricting employee travel, allowing non-critical head office personnel to telecommute, temporarily closing offices, and suspending physical participation in sales activities, meetings, and events/conferences).

In addition, our business has been adversely affected by the impact on the global economy, resulting in a global shortage of manufacturing capacities in 2021 and the first half of 2022, and the price increased for raw materials used in our products. The majority of our sales are concentrated in China. The lockdown in the major cities in China also adversely affected our business and results of operations. COVID-19 is receding in many counties, but the full impact on our business and the global economy as a whole in the future is not yet clear. Also, the possibility remains that its impact could have a material effect on our business performance, and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.

We face risks associated with doing business in China.

We derived 69% and 69% of our revenue for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively, from distributors located in China. Additionally, for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we derived 33% and 38%, respectively, of our revenue from sales to one of our China based end-customers, which we primarily sell through one of our China based distributors. As a result, the economic, political, legal and social conditions in China could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. In recent years, the Chinese economy has experienced periods of rapid expansion and high rates of inflation. These factors have led to the adoption by the Chinese government, from time to time, of various corrective measures designed to restrict the availability of credit or regulate growth and contain inflation. Various factors may in the future cause the Chinese government to impose controls on credit or prices, or to take other action, which could inhibit economic activity in China, and thereby harm the market for our products. In addition, the legal system in China has inherent uncertainties that may limit the legal protections available in the event of any claims or disputes that we have with third parties, including our ability to protect the intellectual property we develop in China or elsewhere. As China’s legal system is still evolving, the interpretation of many laws, regulations and rules is not always uniform and enforcement of these laws, regulations and rules involve uncertainties, which may limit the remedies available in the event of any claims or disputes with third parties. In addition, any litigation in China may be protracted and result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention. Some of the other risks related to doing business in China include:

As a result of our growing operations in China, these risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

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Changes in the U.S. trade environment, including potential changes in international trade relations between China and the United States, could adversely affect the amount or timing of our revenue, results of operations or cash flows.

In recent years, the U.S. government has called for substantial changes to U.S. foreign trade policy, and in particular with respect to China, including the possibility of imposing greater restrictions on international trade and significant increases in tariffs on goods imported into the United States. A significant percentage of our sales are made to customers located in Asia, and in particular China. The percentage of our revenue attributable to sales to customers in Asia and in China was greater than 99% and 69% of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2022, respectively. In addition, our largest end customer, Hikvision, who accounted for 33% of our revenue for the year December 31, 2022, is located in China and is currently subject to certain trade restrictions described below.

Effective October 9, 2019, Hikvision was added to the BIS Entity List, which imposes a requirement to obtain an export license for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations, or EAR, in order to be shipped to Hikvision. We have concluded that our products are not subject to EAR and accordingly, may generally be shipped to Hikvision without a U.S. export license.  Hikvision is also the subject of additional trade restrictions that do not directly prohibit our ability to deal with Hikvision but may indirectly impact our business.  For example, Section 889 of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (“NDAA”), prohibits U.S. government agencies from procuring certain covered telecommunications equipment or entering into a contract with any entity that uses any equipment, system or service as a substantial or essential component of any system, or as critical technology as party of any system. Video surveillance equipment produced by Hikvision is included in the specified telecommunications equipment under the NDAA. The products that we sell Hikvision are used in its video surveillance equipment. The NDAA does not prohibit commercial sales into the United States by Hikvision. However, these new restrictions placed on United States government procurement could negatively impact our business. On June 3, 2021, Hikvision was added to OFAC’s Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies (CMIC) List, prohibiting certain transactions involving the purchase or sale of publicly traded securities of designated companies.    Hikvision was listed in the Annex to Executive Order 14032 and is currently on the CMIC List.  However, Hikvision is not on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List and the restrictions imposed by designation on the CMIC List is not expected to directly impact our business. If Hikvision is added to the SDN List in the future, our market position and revenue could be materially and adversely affected.

On November 11, 2021, President Biden signed into law the Secure Equipment Act of 2021, which requires the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (“ FCC”) to adopt rules no later than November 11, 2022 clarifying that it will no longer review or approve any application for equipment authorization for equipment that is on the list of covered communications equipment or services published by the FCC under section 2(a) of the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019. Items on the FCC’s “covered list” include video surveillance and telecommunications equipment produced by Hikvision, to the extent it is used for the purpose of public safety, security of government facilities, physical security surveillance of critical infrastructure, and other national security purposes, including telecommunications or video surveillance services provided by such entity or using such equipment. The restrictions imposed by the FCC pursuant to the Secure Equipment Act of 2021 impact imports of certain Hikvision equipment into the United States by eliminating the ability of Hikvision to obtain FCC approval for its video surveillance and telecommunications equipment. The FCC is also considering the adoption of new rules to revoke past authorizations issued for Hikvision equipment, but the FCC actions taken to date are currently not expected to directly impact our business.

The U.S. Government may also impose new export controls that restrict the ability to export, re-export, or transfer certain semiconductor products or technologies to certain countries such as China or restrict the ability of U.S. persons to engage in certain activities supporting China’s semiconductor sector.  For example, on October 13, 2022, BIS formally published an interim final rule amending the EAR to, among other things, implement controls on advanced computing integrated circuits, computer commodities that contain such circuits, and certain semiconductor manufacturing items. Although we do not expect this interim final rule to directly impact our business, future changes and new regulations could have an adverse impact on our business and financial results.

In addition, the former U.S. presidential administration imposed tariffs on approximately $370 billion worth of imported products originating from China in response to what it characterizes as unfair trade practices, and China has responded by proposing new or higher tariffs on specified products imported from the United States. Members of Congress from both political parties have expressed support for the tariffs. The current U.S. presidential administration may keep the tariffs in place and introduce more restrictive trade barriers, such as prohibiting certain

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types of, or all sales of certain products or products sold by certain parties into the United States. Any increased trade barriers or restrictions on global trade, especially trade with China, could have a materially adverse impact on our business and financial results.

There remains significant uncertainty about the future relationship between the United States and China, including with respect to trade policies, treaties, government regulations and tariffs.  

Due to the cyclical nature of the semiconductor, electronics and automotive industries, our operating results may fluctuate significantly, which could adversely affect the market price of our JDS.

The semiconductor, electronics and automotive industries are highly cyclical and subject to rapid change and evolving industry standards and, from time to time, have experienced significant downturns. These downturns are characterized by decreases in product demand, excess customer inventory and in certain instances accelerated erosion of prices. Any downturns in any of these industries may be severe and prolonged, and any failure of any of these industries to fully recover from downturns could harm our business. The semiconductor industry, in particular, also periodically experiences increased demand and production capacity constraints, which may affect our ability to ship products. Accordingly, our operating results have varied and may vary significantly as a result of the general conditions in the semiconductor, electronics and automotive industries, which could cause the market price of our JDS to decline.

We have engaged in acquisitions in the past and may continue to expand through acquisitions of, or investments in, other companies, which may divert our management’s attention, harm our operating results, result in additional dilution to stockholders and use resources that are necessary to operate our business.

In the past, we have grown our business through acquisitions and we may in the future seek to acquire or invest in businesses, products or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our business, enhance our technical capabilities or otherwise offer growth opportunities. For example, in 2013, we acquired certain HD video assets from a third party. Such acquisitions or investments could create risks for us, including:

A significant portion of the purchase price of companies we acquire may be allocated to acquired goodwill or other intangible assets, which must be assessed for impairment at least annually. If such acquisitions do not yield expected returns, we may be required to take charges to our earnings based on this impairment assessment process, which could harm our results of operations.

We may be unable to complete acquisitions at all or on commercially reasonable terms, which could limit our future growth. Acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt, which could adversely affect our operating results and result in a decline in our stock price and further restrict our ability to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. In addition, if an acquired business fails to meet our expectations, our operating results may suffer.

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Our headquarters are located in the State of California and we have operations in Japan, which are areas subject to significant earthquake risks and other natural disasters. Any disruption to our or our third-party vendors’ operations resulting from earthquakes or other natural disasters could cause significant delays in the production or shipment of our product.

Our headquarters are located in Northern California and we have operations in Japan, among other countries; our third-party vendors, including TSMC, UMC, ASE and Sigurd, are also located in the Pacific Rim region, which is at risk of an earthquake, typhoon, tsunami or other extreme weather.  Our operations in the Pacific Rim region, including California, Japan, and Taiwan, where some of our third-party vendors are located, is significant due to the proximity of major earthquake fault lines. We are also vulnerable to damage from other types of disasters, such as power loss, disruption due to nuclear disaster, fire, floods and similar events. If any such disaster were to occur, our ability to operate our business could be seriously impaired. In addition, we may not have adequate insurance to cover our losses resulting from disasters or other similar significant business interruptions. Any significant losses that are not recoverable under our insurance policies could seriously impair our business and financial condition.

Uncertain geopolitical conditions could have a material adverse effect on our business and the market on which our JDS currently trade, which could cause the market price of our JDS to decline.

Our JDS are listed on the Growth Market on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. In addition, a significant portion of our business is conducted internationally, particularly in Japan. The Japanese economy is exposed to uncertainty in geopolitical conditions, including concerns over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Given Japan’s close proximity to North Korea, continuing tensions between North Korea and other countries could have adverse consequences in Japan. There continues to be heightened security concerns regarding North Korea’s nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missile programs. This has resulted in increased uncertainty regarding both North Korea’s actions and those of the United States. If North Korea were to take an aggressive action, including acts of war, trading on the Growth Market may be disrupted and our business operations in Japan and elsewhere could be disrupted as well. In addition, terrorist acts and other acts of violence and political unrest could have an adverse impact on our business. If our business and the trading of our JDS on the Growth Market is disrupted as a result of acts of war, hostilities, terrorism or other conditions leading to geopolitical unrest, particularly in the region surrounding Japan, the market price of our JDS could decline.

Our sales cycle can be lengthy, which could result in uncertainty and delays in generating revenue.

We have experienced a lengthy sales cycle for some of our products, particularly those designed for HD video applications in the automotive market. Our sales cycles typically range from three to six months for the security surveillance market and one to three years for the automotive industry. We may experience a delay between the time we increase expenditures for research and development, sales and marketing efforts and inventory to the time we generate revenue, if any, from these expenditures. In addition, because we do not have long-term commitments from our end-customers, we must repeat our sales process on a continual basis even for current end-customers looking to purchase a new product. As a result, our business could be harmed if an end-customer reduces or delays its orders, chooses not to release products incorporating our semiconductors or elects not to purchase a new product or product enhancements from us.

We may experience difficulties in transitioning to new wafer fabrication process technologies or in achieving higher levels of design integration, which may result in reduced manufacturing yields, delays in product deliveries and increased expenses.

We periodically evaluate the benefits of migrating our solutions to other technologies in order to improve performance and reduce costs. These ongoing efforts require us from time to time to modify the manufacturing processes for our products and to redesign some products, which in turn may result in delays in product deliveries. We may face difficulties, delays and increased expense as we transition our products to new processes, and potentially to new foundries. We will depend on our third-party foundries as we transition to new processes. We cannot assure you that our third-party foundries will be able to effectively manage such transitions or that we will be able to maintain our relationship with our third-party foundries or develop relationships with new third-party foundries. If we or any of our third-party foundries experience significant delays in transitioning to new processes or fail to efficiently implement transitions, we could experience reduced manufacturing yields, delays in product deliveries and increased expenses, any of which could harm our relationships with our end-customers and our operating results.

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As smaller line width geometry manufacturing processes become more prevalent, we intend to move our future products to increasingly smaller geometries in order to reduce costs while integrating greater levels of functionality into our products. This transition will require us and our third-party foundries to migrate to new designs and manufacturing processes for smaller geometry products. We may not be able to achieve smaller geometries with higher levels of design integration or to deliver new integrated products on a timely basis. We periodically evaluate the benefits, on a product-by-product basis, of migrating to smaller geometry process technologies to reduce our costs and increase performance. We are dependent on our relationships with our third-party foundries to transition to smaller geometry processes successfully. We cannot assure you that our third-party foundries will be able to effectively manage any such transition. If we or our third-party foundries experience significant delays in any such transition or fail to implement a transition, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially harmed.

The complexity of our products may lead to errors, defects and bugs, which could negatively impact our reputation with end-customers and result in liability or a product recall, particularly in the automotive industry.

Products as complex as ours may contain errors, defects and bugs when first introduced to end-customers or as new versions are released. Our products have in the past experienced such errors, defects and bugs. Delivery of products with production defects or reliability, quality or compatibility problems could significantly delay or hinder market acceptance of the products or result in a costly recall and could damage our reputation and adversely affect our ability to retain existing end-customers and attract new end-customers. Errors, defects or bugs could cause problems with the functionality of our products, resulting in interruptions, delays or cessation of sales of these products to our end-customers. We may also be required to make significant expenditures of capital and resources to resolve such problems. We cannot assure you that problems will not be found in new products, both before and after commencement of commercial production, despite testing by us, our suppliers or our end-customers. Any such problems could result in:

Any such event could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The automotive industry, in particular, experiences a significant number of product liability claims. As a supplier of products into the automotive market, we face an inherent business risk of exposure to product liability claims in the event that our products, or the equipment into which our products are incorporated, malfunction and result in personal injury or death. We may be named in product liability claims even if there is no evidence that our systems or components caused the accidents. Product liability claims could result in significant losses as a result of expenses incurred in defending claims or the award of damages. The sale of systems and components for the automotive industry entails a high risk of these claims. In addition, we may be required to participate in recalls involving these systems if any of our systems prove to be defective, or we may voluntarily initiate a recall or make payments related to such claims as a result of various industry or business practices or the need to maintain good end-customer relationships. Our other products may also be subject to product liability claims or recalls.

Our costs may increase substantially if our third-party manufacturing contractors do not achieve satisfactory product yields or quality.

The fabrication process is extremely complicated and small changes in design, specifications or materials can result in material decreases in product yields or even the suspension of production. From time to time, the third-party foundries that we contract to manufacture our products may experience manufacturing defects and reduced manufacturing yields related to errors or problems in their manufacturing processes or the interrelationship of their

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processes with our designs. In some cases, our third-party foundries may not be able to detect these defects early in the fabrication process or determine the cause of such defects in a timely manner.

Generally, in pricing our products, we assume that manufacturing yields will continue to improve, even as the complexity of our products increases. Once our products are initially qualified with our third-party foundries, minimum acceptable yields are established. We are responsible for the costs of the units if the actual yield is above the minimum. If actual yields are below the minimum we are not required to purchase the units. Typically, minimum acceptable yields for our new products are lower at first and gradually improve as we achieve full production. Unacceptably low product yields or other product manufacturing problems could substantially increase overall production time and costs and adversely impact our operating results. Product yield losses will increase our costs and reduce our gross margin. In addition to significantly harming our results of operations and cash flow, poor yields may delay shipment of our products and harm our relationships with existing and potential end-customers.

If we fail to achieve initial design wins for our products, we may lose the opportunity for sales for a significant period of time to end-customers and be unable to recoup our investments in our products.

We expend considerable resources in order to achieve design wins for our products, especially our new products and product enhancements. Once an end-customer designs our solution into a product, it is likely to continue to use the same version of that component for a lengthy period of time due to the significant costs associated with qualifying a new supplier and potentially redesigning the product to incorporate a different component, particularly in the automotive market. If we fail to achieve an initial design win in an end-customer’s qualification process, we may lose the opportunity for significant sales to that end-customer for a number of its products and for a lengthy period of time. Additionally, manufacturers in certain markets, including the automotive market, may require that third-party vendors undergo extensive qualification processes. This qualification process may take up to six months for the security surveillance market and up to three years for the automotive industry, or even longer for some end-customers. If we experience difficulties qualifying our solutions, we may experience delayed or reduced revenue. Furthermore, even if we successfully qualify our solutions with an end-customer, such end-customer may need to qualify other components being sourced for its system and qualify its system as a whole with its end-customers. This may cause us to be unable to recoup our investments in our products, which would harm our business.

If sales of our end-customers’ products decline or if their products do not achieve market acceptance, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

Our revenue depends on our end-customers’ ability to commercialize their products successfully. The markets for our end-customers’ products are extremely competitive and are characterized by rapid technological change, and in certain instances, government regulation. Competition in our end-customers’ markets is based on a variety of factors including price, performance, product quality, marketing and distribution capability, customer support, name recognition and financial strength. As a result of rapid technological change, the markets for our end-customers’ products, particularly in the security surveillance market, are characterized by frequent product introductions, short product life cycles, fluctuating demand and increasing product capabilities. As a result, our end-customers’ products may not achieve market success or may become obsolete. We cannot assure you that our end-customers will dedicate the resources necessary to promote and commercialize their products, successfully execute their business strategies for such products, or be able to manufacture such products in quantities sufficient to meet demand or cost-effectively manufacture products at a high volume. Our end-customers do not have contracts with us that require them to manufacture, distribute or sell any products. Moreover, our end-customers, or their customers, may develop internally, or in collaboration with our competitors, technology that they may utilize instead of the technology available to them through us. Our end-customers’ failure to achieve market success for their products, including as a result of general declines in our end-customers’ markets or industries, could negatively affect their willingness to utilize our products, which may result in a decrease in our revenue and negatively affect our business and operating results.

Our revenue also depends on the timely introduction, quality and market acceptance of our end-customers’ products that incorporate our solutions. Our end-customers’ products are often very complex and subject to design complexities that may result in design flaws, as well as potential defects, errors and bugs. We incur significant design and development costs in connection with designing our solutions for end-customers’ products. If our end-

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customers discover design flaws, defects, errors or bugs in their products, or if they experience changing market requirements, failed evaluations or field trials, or issues with other vendors, they may delay, change or cancel a project. If we have already incurred significant development costs, we may not be able to recoup those costs, which in turn would adversely affect our business and financial results.

We may not be able to secure additional financing on favorable terms, or at all, to meet our future capital needs.

We have funded our operations since inception through equity financings and through sales of our products. In the future, we may require additional capital to fund our ongoing operations, respond to business opportunities, challenges, acquisitions or unforeseen circumstances and may decide to engage in equity or debt financings or enter into credit facilities, but we may not be able to timely secure additional debt or equity financing on favorable terms or at all.

Any debt financing obtained by us in the future could also involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital-raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions.

If we raise additional funds through issuances of equity, convertible debt securities or other securities convertible into equity, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution in their percentage ownership of our company, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of holders of our common stock. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us, when we require it, our ability to continue to grow or support our business and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited.

In order to comply with environmental laws and regulations, we may need to modify our activities or incur substantial costs, and if we fail to comply with environmental regulations we could be subject to substantial fines or be required to have our suppliers alter their processes.

The HD video application semiconductor industry is subject to a variety of international, federal, state and local governmental regulations directed at preventing or mitigating environmental harm, as well as to the storage, discharge, handling, generation, disposal and labeling of toxic or other hazardous substances. Failure to comply with environmental regulations could subject us to civil or criminal sanctions and property damage or personal injury claims. Compliance with current or future environmental laws and regulations could restrict our ability to expand our business or require us to modify processes or incur other substantial expenses which could harm our business. In response to environmental concerns, some end-customers and government agencies impose requirements for the elimination of hazardous substances, such as lead (which is widely used in soldering connections in the process of semiconductor packaging and assembly), from electronic equipment. For example, the European Union adopted its Restriction on Hazardous Substance Directive which prohibits, with specified exceptions, the sale in the EU market of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead or other hazardous materials and China has enacted similar regulations. Environmental laws and regulations such as these could become more stringent over time, causing a need to redesign technologies, imposing greater compliance costs and increasing risks and penalties associated with violations, which could seriously harm our business.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property and Security Systems

Intellectual property litigation, which is common in our industry, could be costly, harm our reputation, limit our ability to sell our products and divert the attention of management and technical personnel.

Our industry is characterized by frequent litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. For example, in the past, we received a letter inviting us to license technology from a third party, which may be a prelude to claims of infringement and a potential lawsuit. We have certain indemnification obligations to end-customers under our contract development projects with respect to any infringement of third-party patents and intellectual property rights by our products. If a lawsuit were to be filed against us in connection with claims of infringement, our business would be harmed.

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Questions of infringement in the HD video applications market involve highly technical and subjective analyses. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce any patents we may receive and other intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets, to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others or to defend against claims of infringement or invalidity, and we may not prevail in any future litigation. Litigation, whether or not determined in our favor or settled, could be costly, could harm our reputation, could cause our end-customers to use our competitors’ products and could divert the efforts and attention of management and technical personnel from normal business operations. In addition, adverse determinations in litigation could result in the loss of our proprietary rights, subject us to significant liabilities, require us to seek licenses from third parties or prevent us from licensing our technology or selling our products, any of which could seriously harm our business.

Failure to protect our intellectual property could substantially harm our business.

Our success and ability to compete depend in part upon our ability to protect our intellectual property. We currently rely on a combination of intellectual property rights, including mask work protection, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and know-how, in the United States and other jurisdictions. We have filed patent applications to help us protect our intellectual property, but there is no assurance that these applications will be successful. The steps we take to protect our intellectual property rights may not be adequate, particularly in foreign jurisdictions such as China. In addition, any patents we hold in the future may not adequately protect our intellectual property rights or our products against competitors, and third parties may challenge the scope, validity or enforceability of our issued patents. In addition, other parties may independently develop similar or competing technologies designed around any patents or patent applications that we may hold. Some of our products and technologies are not covered by any patent or patent application, as we do not believe patent protection of these products and technologies is critical to our business strategy at this time. A failure to timely seek patent protection on products or technologies generally precludes us from seeking future patent protection on these products or technologies.

In addition to patent applications, we also rely on contractual protections with our end-customers, suppliers, distributors, employees and consultants, and we implement security measures designed to protect our trade secrets and know-how. However, we cannot assure you that these contractual protections and security measures will not be breached, that we will have adequate remedies for any such breach or that our end-customers, suppliers, distributors, employees or consultants will not assert rights to intellectual property or damages arising out of such contracts.

We may initiate claims against third parties to protect our intellectual property rights if we are unable to resolve matters satisfactorily through negotiation. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management. It could also result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property, as an adverse decision could limit our ability to assert our intellectual property rights, limit the value of our technology or otherwise negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, any enforcement of our patents or other intellectual property may provoke third parties to assert counterclaims against us. Our failure to secure, protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could materially harm our business.

A breach of our information and physical security systems may damage our reputation, subject us to lawsuits and adversely affect our business.

Our security systems are designed to protect our end-customers’, suppliers’ and employees’ confidential information, as well as maintain the physical security of our facilities. We also rely on a number of third-party “cloud-based” service providers of corporate infrastructure services relating to, among other things, human resources, electronic communication services and certain finance functions, and we are, of necessity, dependent on the security systems of these providers. Any security breaches or other unauthorized access by third parties to the systems of our cloud-based service providers or the existence of computer viruses in their data or software could expose us to a risk of information loss and misappropriation of confidential information. Accidental or willful security breaches or other unauthorized access by third parties to our information systems or facilities, or the existence of computer viruses in our data or software, could expose us to a risk of information loss and misappropriation of proprietary and confidential information belonging to us, our end-customers or our suppliers. Any theft or misuse of this information could result in, among other things, unfavorable publicity, damage to our reputation, difficulty in marketing our products, allegations by our end-customers that we have not performed our

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contractual obligations, litigation by affected parties and possible financial obligations for liabilities and damages related to the theft or misuse of this information, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, our reputation, and our relationships with our end-customers and partners. Since the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and are often not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures.

Risks Related to Being a Public Company and Our JDS

If we fail to hire additional finance personnel and strengthen our financial reporting systems and infrastructure, we may not be able to timely and accurately report our financial results or comply with the requirements of being a public company, including compliance with the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the SEC, and Japanese reporting requirements.

We intend to hire additional accounting and finance staff with technical accounting, SEC and Japanese reporting, and U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance expertise. Any inability to recruit and retain such staff would have an adverse impact on our ability to accurately and timely prepare our financial statements. We may be unable to locate and hire qualified professionals with requisite technical, language and public company experience when and as needed. In addition, new employees will require time and training to learn our business and operating processes and procedures. If our finance and accounting organization is unable for any reason to respond adequately to the increased demands that will result from being a public company, the quality and timeliness of our financial reporting may suffer, which could result in the identification of material weaknesses in our internal controls. Any consequences resulting from inaccuracies or delays in our reported financial statements could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline and could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

If we fail to strengthen our financial reporting systems and infrastructure to meet the demands placed upon us as a public company, including the requirements of the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the requirement to comply with public disclosure regulations in both the U.S. and in Japan, we may be unable to report our financial results timely and accurately and prevent fraud. We have and expect to continue to incur significant expense and devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance with reporting requirements in Japan and the U.S., including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

We will continue to incur significantly increased costs and devote substantial management time as a result of operating as a public company that is subject to both U.S. and Japanese regulations.

As a U.S. company with securities publicly traded in Japan, we will continue to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company and even beyond that of a domestic company listed in the United States. For example, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, or the Exchange Act, and are required to comply with the applicable requirements of the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the U.S. Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or the Dodd-Frank Act, as well as rules and regulations subsequently implemented by the SEC, including the establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and internal controls and the establishment corporate governance practices. Additionally, we are required to comply with applicable securities and disclosure laws in Japan in accordance with the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act of Japan and related regulations, including a requirement to file periodic reports in Japanese, and the rules of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Compliance with these requirements will continue to increase our legal and financial compliance costs and make some activities more time consuming and costly. We cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur or the timing of such costs. We also expect that it will continue to be expensive for us to maintain director and officer liability insurance.  

If we are unable to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in the future, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of the JDS may be negatively affected.

As a public company, we are required to maintain internal controls over financial reporting and to report any material weaknesses in such internal controls. We are required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act following the date we are deemed to be an “accelerated filer” or a

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“large accelerated filer,” each as defined in the Exchange Act. If we have one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we may not detect errors on a timely basis and our financial statements may be materially misstated. If we identify material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, if we are unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner, if we are unable to determine that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting (if required), investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of the JDS could be negatively affected, and we could become subject to investigations by the TSE, the SEC, Japanese securities authorities, or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources.

Regulations related to “conflict minerals” may force us to incur additional expenses, may make our supply chain more complex and may result in damage to our reputation with end-customers.

Pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act, the SEC has adopted requirements for companies that use certain minerals and metals, known as conflict minerals, in their products, whether or not these products are manufactured by third parties. The Dodd-Frank Act requires companies to perform due diligence, disclose and report whether or not such minerals originate from the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries. The implementation of these requirements could adversely affect the sourcing, availability and pricing of minerals used in the manufacture of our products and affect our costs and relationships with end-customers, distributors and suppliers, as we must obtain additional information from them to ensure our compliance with the disclosure requirement. Since our supply chain is complex, we may not be able to sufficiently verify the origins for these minerals and metals used in our products through the due diligence procedures that we implement, which may harm our reputation. In such event, we may also face difficulties in satisfying end-customers who require that all of the components of our products are certified as conflict mineral free and these end-customers may discontinue, or materially reduce, purchases of our products, which could result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations and our financial condition may be adversely affected.

JDS are a relatively new form of security and there could be unforeseen difficulties or risks associated with JDS.

Our initial public offering of JDS, a form of representative instrument authorized by Japanese law, was a unique offering for capital stock in a single non-Japanese issuer. The complexity of JDS as described in these “Risk Factors”, or other unforeseen difficulties or risks associated with JDS, could increase volatility, decrease liquidity or otherwise negatively affect the trading price of our JDS. For a further description of the JDS, please read the “Description of Japanese Depositary Shares” found in our prospectus filed pursuant to Rule 424(b)(4), on September 20, 2017.

Due to daily price range limitations under Japanese stock exchange rules, our JDS may not be sold at a particular price on any particular trading day, or at all.

The JDS are listed on the Growth Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and traded as though the JDS are shares of Japanese companies. Stock prices on Japanese stock exchanges are determined on a real-time basis by the equilibrium between bids and offers. These exchanges are order-driven markets without specialists or market makers to guide price formation. To prevent excessive volatility, these exchanges set daily upward and downward price fluctuation limits for each stock, based on the previous day’s closing price. Although transactions may continue at the upward or downward limit price if the limit price is reached on a particular trading day, no transactions may take place outside these limits. Consequently, a stockholder wishing to sell their JDS at a price above or below the relevant daily limit may not be able to sell their JDS at such price on a particular trading day, or at all.

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Because the trading market for our JDS is the Growth Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the corporate governance rules of the major U.S. stock exchanges will not apply to us. As a result, our governance practices may differ from those of a company listed on such U.S. exchanges.

Our governance practices may not comply with certain New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq corporate governance standards, including:

There can be no assurance that we will voluntarily comply with any of the foregoing requirements. Accordingly, you may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to such corporate governance requirements.

JDS holders do not have stockholders’ rights.

JDS holders are not treated as our stockholders, other than as required by law, and accordingly, a JDS holder will not have a stockholder’s rights, including the right to bring a stockholders’ derivative lawsuit against our directors and officers. JDS holders have the rights as beneficiaries as set forth in the trust agreement with Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, as Trustee, and Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd., as Initial Settlor, of the trust. JDS holders may exercise voting rights with respect to the common stock underlying their JDS only in accordance with the provisions of the trust agreement. The Trustees will notify JDS holders of the upcoming vote and arrange to deliver our voting materials. Upon receipt of voting instructions from our JDS holders in the manner set forth in the trust agreement, the Trustees for the JDS will endeavor to vote the underlying common stock in accordance with these instructions. If an instruction form does not specify any instructions, the Trustees will be deemed to have been instructed to vote in favor of our proposal. The Trustees may not vote in accordance with an instruction or submit a proxy to us unless the Trustees receive the relevant documents necessary to vote the common stock underlying the JDS at least five business days prior to the date of the stockholders meeting. Should the Trustees not receive information from a JDS holder for any reason, the JDS holders may not be able to receive the necessary documents to exercise their voting rights. As a result, JDS holders may not be able to exercise their right to vote and may lack recourse if their shares of common stock are not voted as requested.

We do not presently intend to facilitate secondary trading of our JDS or common stock in the United States and we are not taking any of the steps necessary to register our JDS or common stock with the securities division of any state within the United States or seek an exemption for such secondary trading.

We have not applied to register our JDS or common stock under the laws of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States other than under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, or Securities Act, nor do we intend to make such an application. Until our JDS and/or common stock are listed for trading on a U.S. national securities exchange, trading in, or the offer and sale of, our JDS or common stock will be subject to the securities laws of the various states and jurisdictions of the United States in addition to U.S. federal securities law. As a result, investors may not resell their JDS or common stock in the United States without satisfying the applicable state securities law or qualifying for an exemption therefrom, including the exemptions provided under the U.S. National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996. These restrictions and potential costs could be significant burdens to our stockholders seeking to effect resales of our JDS or common stock within the United States.

If we decide to directly list our common stock in the future, the trading price of our JDS could decline.

We may decide in the future to directly list our common stock for quotation on an exchange, including in a different country, such as the United States. If we do so, the trading price of our JDS may decline because a market would develop in our common stock, the security underlying the JDS, and that market may become more liquid due to a number of factors. If, following this dual-listing investors prefer trading in our common stock, on a different exchange or in a different currency, liquidity in the JDS may sharply decline and as a result the trading price could decline.

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Holders of our JDS may not receive distributions on our common stock or any value for them if it is illegal or impractical to make them available to JDS holders.

The Trustees of the JDS have agreed to pay cash dividends or other distributions they or the custodian for the JDS receives on our common stock after deducting fees and expenses. Our JDS holders will receive these distributions in proportion to the number of shares of our common stock that such JDS represent. However, the Trustees are not responsible for making such payments or distributions if it is unlawful or impractical to make a distribution available to any holders of JDS. For example, it would be unlawful to make a distribution to a holder of JDS if it consists of securities that require registration under the Securities Act but that are not properly registered or distributed pursuant to an applicable exemption from registration. The Trustees are not responsible for making a distribution available to any holders of JDS if any government approval or registration required for such distribution cannot be obtained after reasonable efforts made by the Trustees. We have no obligation to take any other action to permit the distribution of the JDS, common stock, rights or anything else to holders of the JDS. This means that holders of our JDS may not receive the distributions we make on our common stock or any value for them if it is illegal or impractical for us to make them available. These restrictions may materially reduce the value of the JDS.

General Risk Factors

Unfavorable global market and economic conditions could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Global credit and financial markets are experiencing extreme volatility and disruptions over the past several months, including declines in consumer confidence, concerns about declines in economic growth, increases in the rate of inflation, increases in borrowing rates and changes in liquidity and credit availability, and uncertainty about economic stability, including most recently in connection with actions undertaken by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board to address inflation, the military conflict in Ukraine, the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions. There can be no assurance that further deterioration in credit and financial markets and confidence in economic conditions, including a recession or depression, will not occur. Our general business strategy may be adversely affected by any such economic downturn, volatile business environment or continued unpredictable and unstable market conditions. Our business could also be impacted by volatility caused by geopolitical events, such as the conflict in Ukraine. A significant downturn in the economic activity attributable to any particular industry may cause organizations to react by reducing their capital and operating expenditures in general or by specifically reducing their spending for our products. Such reductions in spending may disproportionately affect our revenue. In addition, if the current equity and credit markets deteriorate, or do not improve, it may make any necessary debt or equity financing more difficult, more costly, and more dilutive. Furthermore, the market price of our JDS may decline due in part to the volatility of the stock market and the general economic downturn.

The issuance of new accounting standards or future interpretations of existing accounting standards could adversely affect our operating results.

We prepare our financial statements in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP. A change in those principles could have a significant effect on our reported results and might affect our reporting of transactions completed before a change is announced. GAAP is issued and subject to interpretation by the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board, the SEC and various other bodies formed to promulgate and interpret accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results and could affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of a change. The issuance of new accounting standards or future interpretations of existing accounting standards, or changes in our business practices or estimates, could result in future changes in our revenue recognition or other accounting policies that could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

Management may apply our cash and cash equivalents to uses that do not increase our market value or improve our operating results.

We intend to use our cash and cash equivalents for general corporate purposes, including working capital and capital expenditures. We may also use a portion of our cash and cash equivalents to acquire or invest in complementary technologies, businesses or other assets. We have not reserved or allocated our cash and cash

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equivalents for any specific purpose, and we cannot state with certainty how management will use our cash and cash equivalents. Accordingly, management has considerable discretion in applying our cash and cash equivalents and may use our cash and cash equivalents for purposes that do not result in any increase in our results of operations or market value. Until the cash and cash equivalents are used, they may be placed in investments that do not produce income or lose value.

Prior to our initial public offering in September 2017, there was no prior public market for the JDS or our underlying common stock, and the market price of our JDS may be volatile or may decline regardless of our operating performance.

Prior to our initial public offering in September 2017, there was no public market for our common stock, and an active and liquid public market for our stock may not develop or be sustained. The market price of our JDS may fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:

In addition, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many technology companies. Stock prices of many technology companies have fluctuated in a manner unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In the past, stockholders of public companies have filed securities class action litigation following periods of market volatility. If we were to become involved in securities litigation, it could subject us to substantial costs, divert resources and the attention of management from our business, and adversely affect our business.

If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they downgrade the JDS, the trading price of our JDS could decline.

The trading market for our JDS will rely in part on the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. We do not control these analysts. If fewer analysts provide coverage of our company, the price and trading volume of the JDS could suffer. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade the JDS, or publish unfavorable research about our business, the trading price of our JDS would likely decline rapidly. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish regularly, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause the trading price of our JDS to decline.

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Provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws or Delaware law might discourage, delay or prevent a change of control of our company or changes in our management.

Delaware corporate law and our restated certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that could discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company or changes in our board of directors that the stockholders of our company may deem advantageous. Among other things, these provisions:

These provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. In addition, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which generally prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in a broad range of business combinations with any “interested” stockholder for a period of three years following the date on which the stockholder became an “interested” stockholder. Any delay or prevention of a change of control transaction or changes in our management could cause the market price of the JDS to decline.

Our restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.

Our restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty, any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our restated certificate of incorporation or our bylaws or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine.

Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. As a result, the exclusive forum provision in our restated certificate of incorporation will not apply to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. As a result, the exclusive forum provision in our restated certificate of incorporation will not apply to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or any other claim for which the federal and state courts have concurrent jurisdiction.

This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees. This limitation may discourage these types of lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions.

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