Business Overview
We are a
next-generation communications technology company bridging the digital divide between emerging and developed markets by fundamentally changing the economics and complexity of deploying high performance networking solutions in underserved and
underpenetrated markets globally. Our technology platforms focus on delivering industry-leading performance, compelling price-performing characteristics and an unparalleled user experience. These markets include emerging markets and other areas
where individual users and small and medium sized enterprises do not have access to next-generation communications technology. Our business model has enabled us to break down traditional barriers such as high product and network deployment costs
that are driven by business model inefficiencies and achieve rapid market adoption of our products and solutions in previously underserved and underpenetrated markets. Our business model and proprietary technologies provide us with a significant and
sustainable competitive advantage over incumbents, who we believe are unable to respond effectively due to their higher cost and less efficient business models.
We offer a broad and expanding portfolio of communications networking products and solutions and we recently introduced products in the video surveillance, wireless backhaul and machine-to-machine
communication markets. Our products and solutions, based on our proprietary technologies, are integrated and flexible, which substantially reduces the cost and complexity of installation, maintenance and management. Our products and solutions meet
the demanding performance requirements of video, voice and data applications, have a low total cost of ownership and are broadly adopted by network operators and service providers to deploy fast, scalable and reliable networks.
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Our business model is driven by a large, growing and engaged community of network operators, service
providers, distributors, value added resellers (VARs) and system integrators, which we refer to as the Ubiquiti Community. The Ubiquiti Community is a critical element of our business strategy as it has enabled us to redefine the
traditional models for product development, sales and marketing and product support in the following key ways:
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Product development
. Our products and solutions benefit from the active engagement between the Ubiquiti Community and engineers throughout
the product development cycle, which eliminates long and expensive multistep internal processes and results in rapid introduction and adoption of optimally designed products. This approach significantly reduces our development costs and the time to
market for our products.
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Sales and marketing
. We do not currently have a direct sales force, but instead rely on the Ubiquiti Community to drive market awareness
and demand for our products and solutions. This community propagated viral marketing enables us to reach underserved and underpenetrated markets far more efficiently and cost effectively than is possible through traditional sales models.
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Product support.
The engaged members of the Ubiquiti Community have enabled us to foster a large, cost efficient, highly scalable and, we
believe, self-sustaining mechanism for rapid product support and dissemination of information.
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The savings we achieve by
relying on the Ubiquiti Community in the areas of product development, sales and marketing and product support are passed along to network operators and service providers in the form of prices that are a fraction of those of existing alternative
solutions.
Building on our leadership in the underserved and underpenetrated segments of the wireless broadband access market, we intend to
expand our product offerings in our existing market and enter adjacent markets by relying on the combination of our efficient business model and proprietary technologies to provide products and solutions with compelling price-performance
characteristics to customers in those markets.
Our revenues were $353.5 million, $197.9 million and $137.0 million in the fiscal years ended
June 30, 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively. We had net income (loss) of $102.6 million, $49.7 million and $(5.5) million in the fiscal years ended June 30, 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively. Our net loss in the fiscal year ended
June 30, 2010 reflected a one-time compensation charge of $35.9 million related to a repurchase of our common stock and options in connection with the sale of our Series A preferred stock, which we refer to collectively as the Summit
transaction, and a $1.6 million charge for a regulatory export compliance issue. In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we refer to the fiscal years ended June 30, 2012, 2011 and 2010 as fiscal 2012, fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2010, respectively. As
of June 30, 2012, we had 150 full time equivalent employees in four countries.
Industry Overview
Wired networking solutions have traditionally been used to address increasing consumer and enterprise bandwidth needs. However, the high capital and
operating costs and long market lead times associated with building and installing infrastructure for wired networks has severely limited the widespread deployment of these networks in underserved and underpenetrated areas of developed countries and
emerging markets. Wireless networks are emerging as an attractive alternative for addressing both the broadband access needs of underserved and underpenetrated markets and for offering a host of other services and solutions.
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Underserved and underpenetrated markets
. Emerging markets and remote areas in developed markets
remain significantly underserved and underpenetrated for broadband access. We believe this is due to the lack of an established network infrastructure and the high initial deployment costs.
Limitation of existing solutions
. Existing wireless networking technologies such as 802.11 standard based Wi-Fi, WiMAX and LTE have been designed to satisfy the increasing demand for broadband
access and support mobility, but often fail to meet the price-performance requirements of wireless networking in emerging markets, which in turn has led to low penetration and large populations of unaddressed users in these areas.
Increasing use of the unlicensed spectrum
. In the absence of affordable broadband access in the licensed spectrum, the number of users of the
unlicensed radio frequency (RF) spectrum has increased for communications equipment, as well as consumer devices such as cordless phones, baby monitors and microwave ovens. As a result of high demand for the unlicensed RF spectrum, use
of this spectrum to provide high quality wireless networking has become more challenging and congestion is limiting the growth of wireless networks.
Government incentives for broadband access
. Governments around the world are increasingly taking both regulatory and financial steps to expand access to broadband networks and increase
availability of advanced broadband services to consumers and businesses.
To provide robust wireless networks that meet the price-performance
needs of individuals and businesses in underserved and underpenetrated markets, vendors of wireless networking solutions must solve some of the problems facing existing solutions:
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Poor performance
. Existing wireless networking solutions built for the licensed RF spectrum are designed to operate in more predictable
environments and are not optimized for the crowded and less reliable unlicensed spectrum.
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High cost of ownership
. Existing alternative solutions, such as fiber-to-the-premises, cable, DSL, WiMAX, LTE and traditional backhaul,
provide high capacity, high performance broadband access, but often do not meet the demanding price-performance requirements of underserved and underpenetrated markets.
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Complexity
. Existing alternative solutions are often difficult to deploy and manage in heterogeneous network environments and require
skilled employees or consultants to install and operate.
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Lack of reliability, resiliency and scalability
. Existing wireless solutions are not designed to overcome obstacles and effectively recover
from the dynamic changes in wireless spectrum usage that prevail in the unlicensed RF spectrum. Additionally, the performance and reliability of existing wireless networking solutions decline rapidly as the number of subscribers and range of service
delivery increases.
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Our Solution
Our products and solutions enable both start-up and established network operators and service providers to deploy fast, scalable and reliable wireless networks cost effectively. Our wireless networking
solutions offer the following key benefits:
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High performance wireless technologies for the unlicensed RF spectrum.
Our proprietary products and solutions include high performance
radios, antennas and management tools that have been designed to deliver carrier class wireless broadband access and other services primarily in the unlicensed RF spectrum. Our products and solutions overcome significant performance challenges such
as dynamic spectrum noise, device interference, outdoor obstacles and unpredictable levels of video, voice and data performance.
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Unparalleled cost effectiveness
. Our products and solutions have been designed to enable service providers and network operators to deliver
carrier class performance to their subscribers within the economic constraints of underserved and underpenetrated markets. The deployment and operation of our solutions require a fraction of the capital expenditures and network maintenance costs of
those associated with existing alternative solutions.
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Integrated and easy to deploy and manage
. Our integrated products and solutions eliminate significant complexity associated with the
installation, management and expansion of wireless networks. The level of integration between our products is designed to enable network operators and service providers to use a plug and play approach to delivering wireless broadband access and
other services that have carrier class performance without significant management or upgrade complexity.
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Reliable and scalable
. The reliability and predictability of our products and solutions enable network operators and service providers to
deliver to their subscribers carrier class broadband connectivity in unlicensed RF spectrum. The combination of our key proprietary technologies enables us to deliver reliable network performance that scales efficiently with an increase in the
number of subscribers, range of service delivery, network size and number of applications for video, voice and data.
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Our
Strategy
Our goal is to become the leading player in the market for communications technology for underserved and underpenetrated markets.
Key elements of our strategy include the following:
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Continue to enhance our leadership in the wireless broadband access market.
We intend to continue to disrupt wireless broadband markets by
introducing products and solutions that deliver carrier class performance and compelling economic value.
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Leverage our technologies and business model in adjacent markets.
We intend to leverage our technologies and business model to target other
large and growing markets that we believe are ripe for disruption, such as enterprise wireless local area network (WLAN), video surveillance, machine-to-machine communications and licensed microwave wireless backhaul markets. For
example, in fiscal 2012 we introduced airVision, our internet protocol (IP) camera management system, airFiber, our outdoor wireless backhaul radio platform and mFi, our machine-to-machine communication platform.
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Maintain and extend our technological leadership
. We intend to continue to develop innovative hardware solutions and management tools for
our target markets. We believe that our continued focus on developing such technologies will allow us to deliver products and solutions with disruptive price-performance characteristics in our markets.
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Extend our powerful user community
. As we move into adjacent markets, we intend to foster additional self-reinforcing, customer driven
communities and to continue to grow the Ubiquiti Community, to increase awareness of our brand and assist us with product development, sales, viral marketing and product support.
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Evaluate and pursue strategic acquisitions.
We intend to evaluate strategic investment and acquisition opportunities to enhance the
features and functions of our products and solutions, extend our product portfolio, increase our geographic presence and take advantage of new market opportunities while preserving our business model.
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Our Technology and Products
Our proprietary technology enables us to provide end to end wireless networking solutions for network operators and service providers in underserved and underpenetrated markets. We typically design our
products and solutions using low cost hardware and industry standard chipsets to enable these providers to deliver carrier class wireless broadband access and services to their subscribers profitably. In addition, our technology allows us to design
our products for ease of manufacture. Our focus on cost efficiency, robust product design and high performance drives the development of our technology, products and solutions.
Technology Platforms
Our current major platforms include:
Base station/Backhaul/Customer Premise Equipment (CPE)/Bridge AirMAX
In September 2009, we introduced our AirMAX platform which includes protocols that contain advanced technologies for noise immunity. These proprietary
protocols help our products deliver carrier class wireless networking performance for video, voice and data applications. AirMAX is able to support a wireless network that can scale to hundreds of clients per base station while maintaining low
latency and high throughput for point to point and point to multipoint applications. AirMAX enables our products and solutions to deliver high performance outdoor wireless networking over long distances. Unlike most systems using 802.11 standard
protocols, which are primarily designed for indoor networks where multiple pieces of client equipment can hear one another, our airMAX systems eliminate hidden node collisions and maximize air time efficiency. AirMAX incorporates smart polling which
is a feature that improves the scalability of a wireless network by predicting the voice and data requirements of an application at any given time and allocating the required bandwidth. AirMAX also improves scalability by giving priority to active
client hardware over idle client hardware to reduce perceived latency on large networks.
AirMAX provides users with the ability to seamlessly
switch operating frequencies in real time to overcome noise and interference due to changes in the operating environment. We offer end to end solutions that incorporate our proprietary RF technology, antenna design and firmware technologies, which
we collectively refer to as airTechnologies in this report. These technologies simplify the adoption and use of our products and provide our products and solutions with performance characteristics usually found only in the carrier class wireless
networking solutions and solve significant performance, reliability, scalability and ease of use challenges in the unlicensed RF spectrum.
A
majority of our airMAX products and solutions can leverage multiple input multiple output, or MIMO, technology, which relates to the use of multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver to improve performance. Most of our radios employ
multiple independent transmitters and receivers to create independent communication channels using the same frequency spectrum. We use advanced array signal processing techniques to combine our radios communications channels into a single,
higher data rate channel. Our approach to MIMO technology effectively doubles the capacity of our radios when compared to traditional radios. Each of our standalone antennas is dual polarized with radiation patterns that are optimized for MIMO
performance. Our antennas are designed to provide a high degree of spatial filtering while maintaining two largely isolated channels. Our design produces a better signal to noise ratio for each channel and simplified signal processing to combine the
channels, which in turn effectively doubles the throughput of our antennas, when compared to single input single output devices.
Enterprise WLAN UniFi
In January
2011, we released our UniFi Enterprise Wi-Fi System, which is a scalable Wi-Fi solution that includes Wi-Fi certified hardware with a software based management controller. Unifi hardware utilizes MIMO technology, works with 802.11a/b/g/n standards,
and uses a single cable for data transmission and power-over-ethernet. Unlike other enterprise Wi-Fi systems that utilize a hardware Wi-Fi switch, Unifi uses a virtual
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controller that allows for on-site management or remote management through the cloud. Each UniFi access point and can be managed centrally with the UniFi Controller software. The UniFi Controller
enables enterprise WLAN managers to centrally configure and administer a UniFi network and individual access points without any special training and through secure access from any web browser. The UniFi Controller provides automatic UniFi access
point detection, firmware updates, real-time status, map loading and advanced security options.
Video Surveillance airVision
In August 2011, we introduced our line of AirCam H.264 megapixel IP cameras and AirVision management software controller. The H.264
cameras use a single cable for data transmission and power-over-ethernet. AirVision, our management controller software, can be used to manage multiple AirCam H.264 IP cameras as well as manage other digital video recorder devices. AirVision
software is available for download at no cost on our website and only manages Ubiquiti Network camera devices. Similar to our other network management products, airVision can be accessed securely from any web browser, provides detailed statistical
reporting and advanced analytics and provides a management console with multiple views, versatile camera settings and customizable event recordings.
Microwave Backhaul airFiber
In March, 2012 we introduced airFiber, a 24 GHz
Point-to-Point radio. Components of the airFiber product, including the radio, were designed by to provide additional throughput capacity and spectrum efficiency. AirFiber uses an integrated split antenna and the global position system to
simultaneously send data packets from each side of the link. We engineered proprietary communication standards so that airFiber does not suffer from the traditional packet overhead associated with Wi-Fi based standards. In addition, airFiber allows
for the use of HDD (Hybrid Division Duplexing) which optimizes the performance of both FDD (Frequency Division Duplex), and TDD (Time Division Duplex). We believe airFiber will be considered an alternative to
wired backhauls as airFiber is not easily susceptible to vandalism, copper theft, and fiber optic damage because only the endpoints need to be secured.
Machine-To-Machine Communication mFi
In June 2012, we announced mFi, which includes
hardware sensors, power devices, and management software that allows devices to be controlled remotely. For example, mFi allows users to manage and monitor their building temperature and power consumption. The management controller software is IP
based and can be accessed from any browser locally or through the cloud. MFi software allows management to create rules using if/then statements to control numerous devices.
The table below summarizes information about our product platforms:
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Name
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Target Applications
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Bands of
Operation (GHz)
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MSRP
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airMAX
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Base station/Backhaul/CPE/Bridge
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0.9/ 2.4/ 3.6/ 5.8/10
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$ 39 - $399
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UniFi
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WLAN
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2.4/ 5.8
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$ 29 - $ 229
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airVision
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IP Video Surveillance
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N/A
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$ 89 - $ 110
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airFiber
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Microwave Backhaul
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24.0
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$ 2,995 - $3,500
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mFi
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Machine-To-Machine Communication
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2.4/ 5.8
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$ 8 - $ 99
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The Ubiquiti Community
We established the Ubiquiti forum, support wiki and newsletter to foster a large, growing and engaged community of network operators and service providers. The Ubiquiti Community powers our business model
by driving the rapid introduction of innovative and optimally engineered products, propagating viral marketing and
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adoption of our products and providing responsive product support. The following describes the key aspects of our business model that are powered by the Ubiquiti Community:
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Product development
. We seek to identify features and products that are, or are expected to be, needed or desired by network operators and
service providers. We rely on the Ubiquiti Community as a significant source of requests for features that we translate into new product ideas and designs.
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Sales and marketing
. We rely on the Ubiquiti Community to drive market awareness and demand for our products and solutions. This
community-propagated viral marketing enables us to reach underserved and underpenetrated markets far more efficiently and cost effectively than is possible through traditional sales models. For example, there have been many instances where members
of the Ubiquiti Community, who happen to be on online forums not affiliated with us, have strongly recommended that users of other wireless networking solutions try our products and solutions. We hold conferences as an effective way to introduce and
promote our products and solutions to the Ubiquiti Community. For example, over 600 people attended our conference in Chicago, IL in March 2012.
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Product support.
Our network operators and service providers, who enthusiastically support each other through the Ubiquiti forum, wiki and
newsletter, as well as other blogs and online groups, have fostered a large, scalable and, we believe, self sustaining mechanism for rapid product support and dissemination of information. The members of the Ubiquiti Community respond to user
questions posted on our forum in a rapid manner. These responses are then rated by other members of the Ubiquiti Community to help ensure that the users are receiving the best possible answers.
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Sales and Distribution
Historically, we
have not employed a direct sales force. We sell our products and solutions globally to network operators, service providers and others primarily through our extensive network of distributors, and to a lesser extent, original equipment manufacturers
(OEMS) and direct customers. During fiscal 2012, we sold our products to approximately 100 distributors, OEMs and direct customers (collectively, customers) in over 50 countries. In fiscal 2012, fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2010,
Flytec Computers Inc. represented 16%, 20% and 17% of our revenues, respectively. In fiscal 2012, fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2010, Streakwave Wireless Inc. represented 10%, 15% and 13% of our revenues, respectively. We had no other customer or
distributor that accounted for more than 10% of our revenues in fiscal 2012, fiscal 2011 or fiscal 2010.
A substantial majority of our sales
are made to distributors outside the United States and we anticipate that non-U.S. sales will continue to be a significant portion of our revenues. Sales in South America accounted for 25%, 26% and 10% of our revenues in fiscal 2012, fiscal 2011 and
fiscal 2010, respectively. Sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa accounted for 37%, 35% and 40% of our revenues in fiscal 2012, fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2010, respectively. We do not have any visibility on the location or extent of purchases of
our products by individual network operators and service providers from our distributors. Information regarding financial data by geographic areas is set forth in Item 7 and Item 15 of this Form 10-K. See Note 13 of Notes to Consolidated
Financial Statements under Item 15.
Although we publish an MSRP for our products, our distributors have control of pricing to the
ultimate purchaser. We have not historically provided our distributors with any substantial sales training or marketing materials and our agreements with our distributors do not limit their ability to carry products that compete with ours. Our
distribution agreements generally have a one year term, subject to automatic renewal unless cancelled by one of the parties. Our distributors typically provide us with purchase orders for delivery within 60 days, which we use to forecast future
demand and estimate desired inventory builds.
We have initiated a training program for our distributors so that they can educate and train
others to become certified trainers on the effective deployment and use of our products and solutions. The goal is for these certified trainers to in turn educate and train network operators and service providers on the effective deployment and use
of our products and solutions. We intend to offer the training program to our distributors in different languages throughout the world.
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Manufacturing and Suppliers
We retain contract manufacturers to manufacture, control the quality of and ship our products. We primarily utilize contract manufacturers located in China. Our relationships with contract manufacturers
allow us to conserve working capital, reduce manufacturing costs and minimize delivery lead times while maintaining high product quality and the ability to scale quickly to handle increased order volume. We make substantially all of our purchases
from our contract manufacturers on a purchase order basis. Our contract manufacturers are not required to manufacture our products for any specific period or in any specific quantity. We expect that it would take approximately three to six months to
transition manufacturing, quality assurance and shipping services to new providers.
Our internal manufacturing organization consists of
supply chain managers, logistics employees and contractors who supervise the manufacture of our products at contract manufacturer sites and test engineers. We rely on our contract manufacturers and our internal quality assurance resources to
implement quality assurance programs designed to achieve high product quality and reliability. We believe that our low warranty expenses and product return rate to date reflect a high level of product quality. We tightly integrate our research and
development efforts with our supplier selection process. Once product manufacturing quality reaches a satisfactory level, we move into full scale production at the same contract manufacturer site. We also evaluate and utilize other suppliers for
components from time to time.
We rely on third party components and technology to build and operate our products, and we rely on our contract
manufacturers to obtain the components, subassemblies and products necessary for the manufacture of our products. While components and supplies are generally available from a variety of sources, we and our contract manufacturers currently depend on
a single or limited number of suppliers for several components for our products. We and our contract manufacturers rely on purchase orders rather than long-term contracts with these suppliers. The majority of our product revenues are dependent upon
the sale of products that incorporate components from Qualcomm Atheros and we do not have a second source for their chipsets. We are party to a non-exclusive license agreement with Qualcomm Atheros whereby we license certain technology that we
incorporate into our products. The current term of our amended license agreement with Qualcomm Atheros expires on September 1, 2013. This agreement automatically renews for successive one year periods unless the agreement is terminated by
written notice of nonrenewal at least 90 days prior to the end of its then-current term. We depend on this license agreement to modify and replace firmware that Qualcomm Atheros provides with the chipsets with our proprietary firmware. While our
agreement with Qualcomm Atheros remains effective, in accordance with the current terms of the agreement either party may terminate the agreement without cause at the end of the annual contract term.
We do not stockpile sufficient chipsets to cover the time it would take to re-engineer our products to replace the Qualcomm Atheros chipsets. If we need
to seek a suitable second source for Qualcomm Atheros in our products, there can be no assurance that we would be able to successfully source our chipsets on suitable terms, if at all. In any event, our use of chipsets from multiple sources may
require us to significantly modify our designs and manufacturing processes to accommodate these different chipsets.
Research and
Development
Our research and development organization is responsible for the design, development and testing of our products. Our
engineering team has deep expertise and experience in networking and antenna design, and we have a number of personnel with longstanding experience with network architecture and operation. We have developed and intend to continue to develop our
technology in part by operating with a relatively flat reporting structure that relies on individual contributors or small development teams to develop, test and obtain feedback for our products. Our products and solutions benefit from the active
engagement between the Ubiquiti Community and our research and development personnel throughout the product development cycle, resulting in rapid introduction and adoption of new products. Our research and development personnel evaluate the input
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from network operators and service providers and respond to their needs by modifying our products or developing new products based on input we receive.
As of June 30, 2012, our research and development team consisted of 95 full time equivalent employees located in California, Illinois, Lithuania and
Taiwan. Our research and development operations work together on product development and new versions of our existing products. Our research and development expenses were $16.7 million, $11.4 million and $31.7 million (including the stock-based
compensation resulting from the Summit transaction of $26.2 million in fiscal 2010) for fiscal 2012, fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2010, respectively. We expect that the number of our research and development personnel will continue to increase over time
and that our research and development expenses will also increase.
Competition
The markets for networking solutions for network operators and service providers, enterprise WLAN, video surveillance, microwave backhaul and
machine-to-machine communications technology are highly competitive and are influenced by the following competitive factors, among others:
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total cost of ownership and return on investment associated with the solutions;
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simplicity of deployment and use of the solutions;
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ability to rapidly develop high performance integrated solutions;
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reliability and scalability of the solutions;
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market awareness of a particular brand;
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ability to provide secure access to wireless networks;
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ability to offer a suite of products and solutions;
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ability to allow centralized management of the solutions; and
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ability to provide quality product support.
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We believe we compete favorably with respect to a majority of these factors. Although we are a new entrant in the video surveillance, microwave backhaul and machine-to-machine communication markets, we
believe our products compete favorably in these product categories. We have been successful in rapidly developing high performance integrated solutions because we use individual contributors and small, experienced development teams that focus on the
key needs of underserved and underpenetrated markets. Our products and solutions are designed to meet the price-performance characteristics demanded by our end users to achieve a strong overall return on their investment. Our products are designed
to operate in growing networks without degradation in performance or operational complexity. In the markets in which we currently participate, we have strong brand awareness.
A number of our current or potential competitors have longer operating histories, greater brand recognition, larger customer bases and significantly greater financial, technical, sales, marketing and
other resources than we do. As we move into new markets for different types of equipment, our brand may not be as well known as incumbents in those markets. Potential customers may prefer to purchase from their existing suppliers rather than a new
supplier, regardless of product performance or features. In the integrated radio market, our competitors include Alvarion Ltd., Motorola Inc. and Trango Systems Inc. In the 900MHz product market, our competitors include Cisco Systems, Inc. and
Proxim Inc. In the embedded radio market, our competitors include Mikrotīkls Ltd. and Senao Networks, Inc. In the backhaul market, our competitors include Ceragon Networks, Inc., Mikrotīkls and DragonWave Inc. In the CPE market, our
competitors include Mikrotīkls, Ruckus Wireless Inc. and TP-LINK Technologies CO., LTD. In the antenna market, we primarily compete with Andrew Corporation, PCTEL, Inc. and Radio Waves, Inc. In the enterprise WLAN market, we primarily compete
with Ruckus, Aruba
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Networks, Inc. and Cisco. In the video surveillance market, we primarily compete with Vivotek, Inc., Axis Communications AB and Mobotix Corp. In the microwave backhaul market, we primarily
compete with DragonWave, SAF Tehnika and Trango. In the machine-to-machine communications market, we primarily compete with EnergyHub, Inc., Motorola and AlertMe.com Ltd. We expect increased competition from other established and emerging companies
if our market continues to develop and expand. As we enter new markets, we expect to face competition from incumbent and new market participants.
Intellectual Property
We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade
secret laws, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual restrictions, to establish and protect our proprietary rights. These laws, procedures and restrictions provide only limited protection and the legal standards relating to the
validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights are uncertain and still evolving. Furthermore, effective patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret protection may not be available in every country in which our
services and products are available. We seek patent protection for certain of our key concepts, components, protocols, processes and other inventions.
As of June 30, 2012, we had five issued patents in the U.S. and a number of pending U.S. and international patent applications. These patent applications relate to various high-level features
embedded in certain of our products, including the integration of components in a microwave system and certain performance improvements to radio receivers. We have filed, and will continue to file, patent applications in the United States and other
countries where we believe there to be a strategic technological or business reason to do so. Any future patents issued to us may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented. Any patents that may issue in the future with respect to our pending or
future patent applications may not provide sufficiently broad protection or may not prove to be enforceable in actions against alleged infringers.
As of June 30, 2012, we owned U.S. trademark registrations in our logo, UBNT, airControl, airGrid, airMAX, airView, airOS and design, UniFi and design, and a number of trademark applications and
registrations in the U.S. and worldwide.
We endeavor to enter into agreements with our employees and contractors and with parties with whom
we do business in order to limit access to and disclosure of our proprietary information. We cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will prevent unauthorized use or reverse engineering of our technology. Moreover, others may independently
develop technologies that are competitive with ours or that infringe on our intellectual property. The enforcement of our intellectual property rights also depends on the success of our legal actions against these infringers, but these actions may
not be successful, even when our rights have been infringed.
Employees
As of June 30, 2012, we employed 150 full time equivalent employees, which included 95 in research and development, 20 in sales, general and administrative and 35 in operations. As of that date, we
had 63 in the United States, 22 in Lithuania, 45 in Taiwan and 20 in China. We also engage a number of temporary employees and consultants. None of our employees is represented by a labor union or is a party to a collective bargaining agreement.
Corporate Information
We
incorporated in the State of California in 2003 as Pera Networks, Inc. and were largely inactive until we commenced our current operations in 2005 and changed our name to Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. at that time. In June 2010, Ubiquiti Networks, Inc., a
California corporation, changed its state of organization to Delaware by merging with and into Ubiquiti Networks, Inc., a Delaware corporation. Our executive offices are located at 2580 Orchard Parkway, San Jose, California 95131, and our telephone
number is (408) 942-3085. Our website address is
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www.ubnt.com. The information on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Unless the context requires otherwise, the words we, us, our and Ubiquiti refer to Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. and its subsidiaries as a whole.
As of June 30, 2012, we owned U.S. trademark registrations in our logo, UBNT, airControl, airGrid, airMAX, airView, airOS and design, UniFi and
design, and a number of trademark applications and registrations in the U.S. and worldwide. Other trademarks and trade names appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are the property of their respective owners.
Available Information
The
Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to reports filed pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange
Act), are filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC). Such reports and other information filed by the Company with the SEC are available free of charge on the Companys website
at
http://ir.ubnt.com/sec.cfm
when such reports are available on the SEC website. The public may read and copy any materials filed by the Company with the SEC at the SECs Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Room 1580,
Washington, DC 20549. The public may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other
information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at
www.sec.gov
. The contents of these websites are not incorporated into this filing. Further, the Companys references to the URLs for these websites are intended
to be inactive textual references only.
This
Report contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set
forth below. These risks and uncertainties are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe are immaterial may also affect our business. If any event related to these known or
unknown risks or uncertainties actually occurs and has material adverse effects on our business, financial condition and results of operations could be seriously harmed.
We have limited visibility into future sales, which makes it difficult to forecast our future operating results.
Because of our limited visibility into demand and channel inventory levels, our ability to accurately forecast our future revenues is limited. We sell our products and solutions globally to network
operators, service providers and others, primarily through our network of distributors, resellers and OEMs. We do not employ a direct sales force. Sales to distributors accounted for 98% and 97% and 93% of our revenues in fiscal 2012, fiscal 2011
and fiscal 2010, respectively. Generally, our distributors are not obligated to promote our products and solutions and are free to promote and sell the products and solutions of our competitors. We sell our products to our distributors on a purchase
order basis. Our distributors do not typically provide us with information about market demand for our products. While we have recently begun efforts to obtain inventory level and sales data from our distributors, this information has been difficult
to obtain in a timely manner. Since we have only recently begun gathering this data, we cannot be certain that the information is reliable. Our operating expenses are relatively low and fixed in the short-term, and we may not be able to decrease our
expenses to offset any shortfall in revenues. If we under forecast demand, our ability to fulfill sales orders will be compromised and sales may be deferred or lost altogether as potential purchasers seek alternative solutions.
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We are subject to risks associated with our distributors inventory management practices. Should
any of our distributors fail to resell our products in the period of time they anticipate or overstock inventories to address anticipated supply interruptions that do not occur, our revenues and operating results would suffer in future periods.
Our distributors are required to purchase and maintain their own inventories of our products and have no right to return the products
they have purchased. We receive limited information from the distributors regarding their inventory levels and their sales of our products. If our distributors are unable to sell an adequate amount of their inventories of our products, their
financial condition may be adversely affected, which could result in a decline in our sales to these distributors. Distributors with whom we do business may face issues maintaining sufficient working capital and liquidity or obtaining credit, which
could impair their ability to make timely payments to us. In addition, in the past we have experienced shortages of our products and our distributors have ordered quantities in excess of their anticipated near term demand to insulate themselves from
supply interruptions. If, in the future, some distributors decide to purchase more of our products than are required to satisfy customer demand in any particular quarter, inventories at these distributors would grow. These distributors likely would
reduce future orders until inventory levels realign with customer demand, which could adversely affect our revenues in a subsequent quarter.
We rely on a limited number of distributors, and the loss of existing, or a need to add new distributors may cause disruptions in our shipments,
which may materially adversely affect our ability to sell our products and achieve our revenue forecasts and we may be unable to sell inventory we have manufactured to meet expected demand in a timely manner, if at all.
Although we have a large number of distributors who sell our products, we sell a substantial majority of our products through a limited number of these
distributors. In fiscal 2012, fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2010, Flytec Computers Inc. represented 16%, 20% and 17% of our revenues, respectively. In fiscal 2012, fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2010, Streakwave Wireless Inc. represented 10%, 15% and 13% of
our revenues, respectively. We anticipate that we will continue to be dependent upon a limited number of distributors for a significant portion of our revenues for the foreseeable future. The portion of our revenues attributable to a given
distributor may also fluctuate in the future. Termination of a relationship with a major distributor, either by us or by the distributor, could result in a temporary or permanent loss of revenues. We may not be successful in finding other suitable
distributors on satisfactory terms, or at all, and this could adversely affect our ability to sell in certain geographic markets or to certain network operators and service providers.
We have experienced, and may in the future experience, reduced sales levels and damage to our brand due to production of counterfeit versions of our products.
We have recently identified parties that are manufacturing and selling counterfeit products that infringe our intellectual property rights. Given the
increased popularity of our products, we believe there is a high likelihood that counterfeit products or other products infringing on our intellectual property rights will continue to emerge, seeking to benefit from the consumer demand for our
products. In order to combat counterfeit goods, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights. We may not be able to detect infringement and may lose our competitive position in the market
before we are able to do so. If the quality of counterfeit products is not representative of the quality of our products, further damage could be done to our brand. In addition, enforcing rights to our intellectual property may be difficult and
expensive, and we may not be successful in combating counterfeit products and stopping infringement of our intellectual property rights, particularly in some foreign countries, where we could lose sales.
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Our operating results will vary over time and such fluctuations could cause the market price of our
common stock to decline.
Our quarterly operating results fluctuate significantly due to a variety of factors, many of which are
outside of our control, and we expect them to continue to do so. Our revenues were $94.9 million, $91.7 million, $87.8 million, $79.2 million and $67.6 million and our net income was $28.5 million, $27.9 million, $24.7 million, $21.5
million and $18.1 million in the three months ended June 30, 2012, March 31, 2012, December 31, 2011, September 30, 2011 and June 30, 2011, respectively. Because revenues for any future period are not
predictable with any significant degree of certainty, you should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance. If our revenues or operating results fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts or below
any estimates we may provide to the market, the price of our common shares would likely decline substantially. The Companys stock has recently experienced substantial price volatility. For example, from our initial public offering through
June 30, 2012, the price of our common stock ranged from $11.19 to $35.99 per share. Additionally, the stock market as a whole has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected the stock price of many technology companies
in ways that may have been unrelated to these companies operating performance. If the Company fails to meet these expectations its stock price may significantly decline, which could have a material adverse impact on investor confidence and
employee retention.
Factors that could cause our operating results and stock price to fluctuate include:
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varying demand for our products due to the financial and operating condition of our distributors and their customers, distributor inventory management
practices and general economic conditions;
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shifts in our fulfillment practices including increasing inventory levels in attempt to decrease customer lead times;
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inability of our contract manufacturers and suppliers to meet our demand;
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success and timing of new product introductions by us and the performance of our products;
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announcements by us or our competitors regarding products, promotions or other transactions;
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lost sales due to the proliferation of counterfeit versions of our products;
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costs related to the protection of our intellectual property, including defense against counterfeiting efforts;
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costs related to responding to government inquiries related to regulatory compliance;
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our ability to control and reduce product costs;
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expenses of our entry into new markets, such as video surveillance microwave backhaul and machine-to-machine communications;
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commencement of litigation or adverse results in litigation;
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changes in the manner in which we sell products;
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increased warranty costs;
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volatility in foreign exchange rates, changes in interest rates and/or the availability and cost of financing or other working capital to our
distributors and their customers; and
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the impact of write downs of excess and obsolete inventory.
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In addition, our business may be subject to seasonality; however, our recent growth rates and timing of product introductions may have masked seasonal changes in demand. Although we have not perceived
seasonality to date, we may experience seasonality in the future.
15
We could be adversely affected by unfavorable results from shareholder class action litigation.
Beginning on September 7, 2012, two purported shareholder class action complaints were filed against us. The complaints seek,
among other things, compensatory damages, rescission, and attorneys fees and costs. Although we believe that the allegations in the complaints are without merit and we intend to vigorously contest the litigation, there can be no assurance that
we will be successful in our defense. If one or more of these claims are resolved against us, our consolidated financial statements could be materially adversely affected.
If we fail to protect our intellectual property rights adequately, our ability to compete effectively or to defend ourselves from litigation could be impaired, which could reduce our revenues and
increase our costs.
We rely primarily on patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality and
non-disclosure agreements and other methods, to protect our proprietary technologies and know-how. The prospective rights sought in our pending patent applications may not be meaningful or provide us with any commercial advantage and they could be
opposed, contested, circumvented or designed around by our competitors or be declared invalid or unenforceable in judicial or administrative proceedings. Any failure of our patents to adequately protect our technology might make it easier for our
competitors to offer similar products or technologies. In addition, patents may not be issued from any of our current or future applications.
Monitoring unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and costly. Unauthorized use of our intellectual property, such as counterfeits of
our products and unauthorized registration of our trademarks by third parties, has occurred in the past and may occur in the future without our knowledge. The steps we have taken may not prevent unauthorized use of our intellectual property.
Further, we may not be able to detect unauthorized use of, or take appropriate steps to enforce our intellectual property rights. Our competitors may also independently develop similar technology. Our failure to effectively protect our intellectual
property could reduce the value and potential application of our technology and could impair our ability to compete. Any failure by us to meaningfully protect our intellectual property could result in competitors offering products that incorporate
our most technologically advanced features, which could seriously reduce demand for our products. We have initiated and may continue to initiate infringement claims or litigation. Litigation, whether we are a plaintiff or a defendant, can be
expensive and time-consuming and may divert the efforts of our technical staff and managerial personnel, which could result in lower revenues and higher expenses, whether or not such litigation results in a determination favorable to us.
Enforcement of our intellectual property rights abroad, particularly in China and South America, is limited and it is often difficult to protect
and enforce such rights.
The intellectual property protection regimes outside the United States are generally not as comprehensive as
in the United States and may not protect our intellectual property in some countries where our products are sold or may be sold in the future. In addition, effective enforcement of intellectual property rights in certain countries may not be
available.
In particular, the legal regimes relating to intellectual property rights in China and South America are limited and it is often
difficult to effectively protect and enforce such rights in those countries. For example, the regulatory scheme for enforcing Chinas intellectual property laws may not be as developed as regulatory schemes in other countries. Any advancement
of an intellectual property enforcement claim through Chinas regulatory scheme may require an extensive amount of time, allowing intellectual property infringers to continue largely unimpeded, to our detriment in the Chinese and other export
markets. In addition, rules of evidence may be unclear, inconsistent or difficult to comply with, making it difficult to prove infringement of our intellectual property rights. As a result, enforcement cases may be difficult or ineffective.
These factors may make it increasingly complicated for us to enforce our intellectual property rights against infringers, allowing them to
harm our business in the Chinese or other export markets by affecting the pricing for our products, reducing our sales and diluting our brand or product quality reputation.
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If our contract manufacturers do not respect our intellectual property and trade secrets and if they
or others produce competitive products reducing our sales or causing customer confusion, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
Because our contract manufacturers operate in China, where prosecution of intellectual property infringement and trade secret theft is more difficult than in the United States, certain of our contract
manufacturers, their affiliates, their other customers or their suppliers may attempt to misappropriate our intellectual property and trade secrets to manufacture our products for themselves or others without our knowledge. Although we attempt to
enter into agreements with our contract manufacturers to preclude them from misusing our intellectual property and trade secrets, we may be unsuccessful in monitoring and enforcing our intellectual property rights. We have in the past found and
expect in the future to find counterfeit goods in the market being sold as Ubiquiti products. Although we take steps to stop counterfeits, we may not be successful and network operators and service providers who purchase these counterfeit goods may
have a bad experience, our brand may be harmed, and our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.
Our business and prospects depend on the strength of our brand. Failure to maintain and enhance our brand would harm our ability to expand our base of distributors and the number of network
operators and service providers who purchase our products.
Maintaining and enhancing the Ubiquiti brand is critical to expanding our
base of distributors, network operators, service providers, and VARs who purchase our products. Maintaining and enhancing our brand will depend largely on our ability to continue to develop and provide products and solutions that address the
price-performance characteristics sought by these customers and end-users in underserved and underpenetrated markets, which we may not do successfully. If we fail to promote, maintain and protect our brand successfully, our ability to sustain and
expand our business and enter new markets will suffer. Furthermore, if we fail to replicate the Ubiquiti Community in other markets that we seek to enter, the strength of our brand in and beyond those markets could be adversely affected. Our brand
may be impaired by a number of other factors, including product malfunctions and exploitation of our trademarks by others without permission. Despite our efforts to protect our trademarks, we have been unsuccessful to date in obtaining a trademark
registration from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the name of our company, Ubiquiti Networks, and as a result, we only have common law trademark rights in the United States in our name. Additionally, we have been subject
to counterfeiting efforts which may damage our brand value. Any inability to effectively police our trademark rights against unauthorized uses by third parties could adversely impact the value of our trademarks and our brand recognition. If we fail
to maintain and enhance the Ubiquiti brand, or if we need to incur unanticipated expenses to establish the brand in new markets, our operating results would be negatively affected from reduced sales and increased expenses related to strengthening
our brand and our customers may be confused about which products are ours.
The networking, enterprise WLAN, video surveillance,
microwave backhaul and machine-to-machine communications markets in which we compete are highly competitive and competitive pressures from existing and new products and solutions may have a material adverse effect on our business, revenues, growth
rates and market share.
The networking, enterprise WLAN, video surveillance, microwave backhaul and machine-to-machine communications
markets in which we compete are highly competitive and are influenced by competitive factors including:
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total cost of ownership and return on investment associated with the solutions;
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simplicity of deployment and use of the solutions;
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ability to rapidly develop high performance integrated solutions;
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reliability and scalability of the solutions;
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market awareness of a particular brand;
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ability to provide secure access to wireless networks;
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ability to offer a suite of products and solutions;
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ability to allow centralized management of the solutions; and
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ability to provide quality product support.
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We expect competition to intensify in the future as other established and new companies introduce new products in the same markets we serve or intend to enter and as these markets continue to consolidate.
In particular, companies with successful, widely known brands may price their products aggressively to compete with ours. This competition could result in increased pricing pressure, reduced profit margins, increased sales and marketing expenses and
failure to increase, or the loss of, market share, any of which would likely seriously harm our business, operating results or financial condition. If we do not keep pace with product and technology advances, end users may switch to other suppliers
and our ability to sell our products may be impaired, which could harm our competitive position, revenues and prospects for growth.
A
number of our current or potential competitors have longer operating histories, greater brand recognition, larger customer bases and significantly greater financial, technical, sales, marketing and other resources than we do.
As we move into new markets for different types of equipment, our brand may not be as well known as incumbents in those markets. Potential customers may
prefer to purchase from their existing suppliers rather than a new supplier, regardless of product performance or features. In the integrated radio market, our competitors include Alvarion, Motorola and Trango, and in the 900MHz product market,
Cisco and Proxim. In the embedded radio market, our competitors include Mikrotīkls and Senao. In the backhaul market, our competitors include Ceragon, DragonWave and Mikrotīkls. In the CPE market, our competitors include
Mikrotīkls, Ruckus and TP-LINK. In the antenna market, we primarily compete with Andrew Corporation, PCTEL and Radio Waves. In the enterprise WLAN market, we primarily compete with Ruckus, Aruba Networks and Cisco. In the video surveillance
market, we primarily compete with Vivotek, Axis Communications and Mobotix. In the microwave backhaul market, we primarily compete with DragonWave, SAF Tehnika and Trango. In the machine-to-machine communications market, we primarily compete with
EnergyHub, Motorola and AlertMe.com. We expect increased competition from other established and emerging companies if our market continues to develop and expand. As we enter new markets, we expect to face competition from incumbent and new market
participants.
In addition, some of our competitors have made acquisitions or entered into partnerships or other strategic relationships with
one another to offer a more comprehensive solution than they had offered individually. We expect this consolidation to continue as companies attempt to strengthen or maintain their market positions in an evolving industry and as companies enter into
partnerships or are acquired. Many of the companies driving this consolidation trend have significantly greater financial, technical and other resources than we do and are better positioned to acquire and offer complementary products and
technologies. The competitors resulting from these possible consolidations may create more compelling product offerings and be able to offer greater pricing flexibility, making it more difficult for us to compete effectively, including on the basis
of price, sales and marketing programs, technology or product functionality. Continued industry consolidation may adversely impact perceptions of the viability of smaller and even medium-sized technology companies and, consequently, willingness to
purchase from such companies. These pricing pressures and competition from more comprehensive solutions could impair our ability to sell our products profitably, if at all, which could negatively affect our revenues and results of operations.
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New entrants and the introduction of other distribution models in our markets may harm our competitive
position.
The markets for development, distribution and sale of our products are rapidly evolving. New entrants seeking to gain market
share by introducing new technology and new products may make it more difficult for us to sell our products, and could create increased pricing pressure, reduced profit margins, increased sales and marketing expenses or the loss of market share or
expected market share, any of which may significantly harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Historically, large,
integrated telecommunications equipment suppliers controlled access to the wireless broadband infrastructure equipment and network management software that could be used to extend the geographic reach of wireless internet networks. However, in
recent years, network operators and service providers have been able to purchase wireless broadband infrastructure equipment and purchase and implement network management applications from distributors, resellers and OEMs. Increased competition from
providers of wireless broadband equipment may result in fewer vendors providing complementary equipment, which could harm our business and revenues. Broadband equipment providers or system integrators may also offer wireless broadband infrastructure
equipment for free or as part of a bundled offering, which could force us to reduce our prices or change our selling model to remain competitive. If there is a major shift in the market such that network operators and service providers begin to use
closed network solutions that only operate with other equipment from the same vendor, we could experience a significant decline in sales because our products would not be interoperable with these proprietary standards.
We may not be able to enhance our products to keep pace with technological and market developments, or develop new products in a timely manner or
at competitive prices.
The market for our wireless broadband networking equipment is emerging and is characterized by rapid
technological change, evolving industry standards, frequent new product introductions and short product life cycles. Our future success in keeping pace with technological developments, satisfying increasing network operator and service provider
requirements and achieving product acceptance depends upon our ability to enhance our current products and to continue to develop and introduce new product offerings and enhanced performance features and functionality on a timely basis at
competitive prices. Our inability, for technological or other reasons, to enhance, develop, introduce or deliver compelling products in a timely manner, or at all, in response to changing market conditions, technologies or network operator and
service provider expectations could have a material adverse effect on our operating results if end users fail to purchase our products. Our ability to compete successfully will depend in large measure on our ability to maintain a technically skilled
development and engineering staff and to adapt to technological changes and advances in the industry, including providing for the continued compatibility of our products with evolving industry standards and protocols and competitive network
management environments. Development and delivery schedules for our products are difficult to predict. We may fail to introduce new versions of our products in a timely fashion. If new releases of our products are delayed, our distributors may
curtail their efforts to market and promote our products and network operators and service providers may switch to competing products, any of which would result in a delay or loss of revenues and could harm our business. In addition, we cannot
assure you that the technologies and related products that we develop will be brought to market by us as quickly as anticipated or that they will achieve broad acceptance among network operators and service providers.
We may become subject to warranty claims, product liability and product recalls.
From time to time, we may become subject to warranty or product liability claims that may require us to make significant expenditures to defend these claims or pay damage awards. In the event of a
warranty claim, we may also incur costs if we compensate the affected network operator or service provider. We also may incur costs and expenses relating to a recall of one or more of our products. The process of identifying recalled products that
have been widely distributed may be lengthy and require significant resources and we may incur significant
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replacement costs, contract damage claims from our network operators or service providers and harm to our reputation. Costs or payments made in connection with warranty and product liability
claims and product recalls could cause our operating results to decline and harm our brand.
Our distributors, network operators,
service providers, VARs and system integrators may expect us to indemnify them for intellectual property infringement claims, damages caused by defective products and other losses.
Our distributors, network operators and service providers may expect us to indemnify them for losses suffered or incurred in connection with our products, including as a result of intellectual property
infringement, damages caused by defects and damages caused by viruses, worms and other malicious software, although our agreements with them may not, in all cases, require us to provide this indemnification. In order to satisfy these parties
demands for indemnification and the maximum potential amount of future payments we could be required to make may be substantial or unlimited and could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
We may in the future agree to defend and indemnify our distributors, network operators and service providers, irrespective of whether we believe that we
have an obligation to indemnify them or whether we believe that our services and products infringe the asserted intellectual property rights. Alternatively, we may reject certain of these indemnity demands, which may lead to disputes with a
distributor, network operator or service provider and may negatively impact our relationships with the party demanding indemnification or result in litigation against us. Our distributors, network operators and service providers may also claim that
any rejection of their indemnity demands constitutes a material breach of our agreements with them, allowing them to terminate such agreements. If, as a result of indemnity demands, substantial payments are required, our relationships with our
distributors, network operators and service providers are negatively impacted or if any of our material agreements is terminated, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
If we lose the services of our founder and chief executive officer, Robert J. Pera, other key members of our management team or key research and
development employees, we would be required to replace these individuals and may incur additional expense to recruit and employ these persons.
Our success and future growth depend on the skills, working relationships and continued services of our management team and in particular, our founder and chief executive officer, Robert J. Pera. Our
future performance will also depend on our ability to continue to retain our other senior management. We do not maintain key person insurance for any of our personnel, except for a small policy with respect to Mr. Pera.
Our business model relies in part on leanly staffed, independent and efficient research and development teams. Our research and development personnel
tend to be key contributors for a given platform and there is little overlap in knowledge and responsibilities. In the event that we are unable to retain the services of these key contributors, we may be unable to bring our products to market in a
timely manner, if at all, due to disruption in our development activities.
Our future success will also depend on our ability to attract,
retain and motivate skilled personnel in the United States and internationally. All of our employees work for us on an at will basis. Competition for personnel is intense in the networking equipment industry, and particularly, for persons with
specialized experience in areas such as antenna design and RF equipment. As a result, we may be unable to attract or retain qualified personnel. Our inability to attract and retain the necessary personnel could adversely affect our business,
operating results and financial condition.
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We operate in an industry with extensive intellectual property litigation. Claims of infringement
against us or our suppliers may cause us to incur substantial expenses to defend ourselves and could impair our ability to sell our products if an adverse outcome were to occur.
Our commercial success depends in part upon us and our component suppliers not infringing intellectual property rights owned by others and being able to resolve claims of intellectual property
infringement without major financial expenditures. We operate in an industry with extensive intellectual property litigation and it is not uncommon for suppliers of certain components of our products, such as chipsets, to be involved in infringement
lawsuits by or against third parties. Many industry participants that own, or claim to own, intellectual property aggressively assert their rights. Our key component suppliers are often targets of such assertions, and we may become a target as well.
In addition, the network operators and service providers, whom we agree in certain circumstances to indemnify for intellectual property infringement claims related to our products, may be targets of such assertions. We cannot determine with
certainty whether any existing or future third party intellectual property rights would require us to alter our technologies, obtain licenses or cease certain activities.
We have received, and may in the future receive, claims from third parties asserting intellectual property infringement and other related claims. Future litigation may be necessary to defend ourselves and
demand indemnification from our suppliers, if appropriate, by determining the scope, enforceability and validity of third party proprietary rights or to establish our own proprietary rights. Some of our competitors may have substantially greater
resources than we do and may be able to sustain the costs of complex intellectual property litigation to a greater degree and for longer periods of time than we could. In addition, patent holding companies that focus solely on extracting royalties
and settlements by enforcing patent rights may target our component suppliers, us or our network operators and service providers. These companies typically have little or no product revenues and therefore our patents may provide little or no
deterrence against such companies filing patent infringement lawsuits against us or our network operators and service providers. For example, we have received correspondence from two patent holding companies who assert that we infringe certain
patents related to wireless communication technologies. We have reviewed the patents which were specifically referenced in the correspondence and believe that these patents are either invalid or not infringed by us. However, we cannot assure you
that a court adjudicating a claim that we infringe these patents would rule in our favor should these patent holding companies file suit against us. We believe that in the event of a claim we may be entitled to seek indemnification from our
suppliers. However, we cannot provide any assurances that if we seek such indemnification, we will receive it. Regardless of whether claims that we are infringing patents, trademarks or other intellectual property rights have any merit, these claims
can be time consuming and costly to evaluate and defend and could:
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adversely affect our relationships with our current or future network operators and service providers or suppliers;
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cause delays or stoppages in the shipment of our products, or cause us to modify or redesign our products;
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cause us to incur significant expenses in defending claims brought against us, for which we may not be able to obtain indemnification, if applicable,
from our suppliers;
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divert managements attention and resources;
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subject us to significant damages or settlements;
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require us to enter into settlements, royalty or licensing agreements on unfavorable terms; or
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require us to cease certain activities.
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Moreover, even if some of our contract manufacturers are obligated to indemnify us, these contract manufacturers may contest their obligations to indemnify us, or their available assets or indemnity
obligation may not be sufficient to cover our losses.
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In addition to liability for monetary damages against us or, in certain circumstances, our network operators
and service providers, we may be prohibited from developing, commercializing or continuing to provide certain of our products unless we obtain licenses from the holders of the patents or other intellectual property rights. We cannot assure you that
we will be able to obtain any such licenses on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If we do not obtain such licenses, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected and we could, for example, be
required to cease offering our products or be required to materially alter our products, which could involve substantial costs and time to develop.
For information regarding our trademarks, see the risk factor above titled Our business and prospects depend on the strength of our brand. Failure to maintain and enhance our brand would harm our
ability to expand our base of distributors and the number of network operators and service providers who purchase our products.
We are subject to numerous U.S. export control and economic sanctions laws and a substantial majority of our sales are into countries outside of
the United States. Sales outside of the United States represented 76%, 70% and 59% of our revenues in fiscal 2012, fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2010, respectively. Although we did not intend to do so, we have violated certain of these laws in the
past, and we cannot currently assess the nature and extent of any fines or other penalties, if any, that U.S. governmental agencies may impose against us or our employees for any such violations. Any fines, if materially different from our
estimates, or other penalties, could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results.
Sale of certain of our
products into Iran, Cuba, Syria, the Sudan and North Korea is restricted or prohibited under U.S. export control and economic sanctions laws. In addition, certain of our products incorporate encryption components and may be exported from and outside
the United States only with the required authorization or eligibility for a license exception. Until early 2010, we lacked sufficient familiarity with the export control and sanctions laws and their applicability to our products. Our lack of
sufficient familiarity was largely due to our lean corporate infrastructure, the inexperience of our management team in these matters and the fact that our products are manufactured outside the United States and most of our products never enter the
United States. In early 2010, as a result of diligence undertaken in connection with the Summit transaction, we learned that our products could not be sold, directly or indirectly, into Iran and other countries subject to a U.S. embargo and we
learned that some of our products were listed on the Commerce Control List in the EAR, and require authorization from the BIS, prior to export. We then began to evaluate the export controls and sanctions applicable to our product sales and to take
steps to comply with these laws. For instance, we revised our standard form distribution agreements to clearly articulate the restrictions imposed by export control and sanctions laws governing business with embargoed countries, disabled downloads
of our software by users in these countries, and obtained the required Commodity Classification Rulings for our encryption products as required by the EAR. In February 2011, our Audit Committee retained outside counsel to conduct a review of our
export control compliance and possible sales of our products by third persons to embargoed countries. This review was conducted to fully respond to and cooperate with a request for information from OEE, relating to two foreign companies and the
export classification of our products and to ensure that we were in compliance with the export control and sanctions laws. The review was completed in April 2011 and we took the actions described below as a result of our review. In May 2011, we
filed a disclosure report regarding our findings as a result of this review with OEE. In August 2011, we received a warning letter from the OEE indicating that the OEE had completed its investigation of us, was closing out the matter without
issuing a penalty, had not referred the matters described below for criminal or administrative prosecution of us and closed the investigation of us. In June 2011, we also filed a voluntary self-disclosure with OFAC, which disclosure is still
pending.
Transactions Involving Possible Sales of Products into Iran
Although we do not believe that we directly sold, exported or shipped our products into Iran or any other country subject to a U.S. embargo, we believe our products have been sold into Iran by third
parties. However, until early 2010, we did not prohibit our distributors from selling our products into Iran or any other country subject to a U.S. embargo.
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From 2008 to early 2010, we had a distribution arrangement with a distributor (Distributor 1),
in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that gave this distributor exclusive jurisdiction over eleven countries in the Middle East, including Iran, as well as authorization to sell worldwide. We had no sales to Distributor 1 in fiscal 2012,
and sales to Distributor 1 represented 4% and 6% of our revenues in fiscal 2011 and fiscal 2010, respectively. We cannot determine which of our products Distributor 1 sold directly or indirectly to persons in Iran. At some point prior to February
2010, Distributor 1 requested that we list two resellers on our website as authorized resellers of our products in Iran and we did so. We removed these resellers from our website in late February 2010 upon learning of restrictions under the U.S.
embargo.
In early 2010, we began implementing policies prohibiting sales of our products into the countries subject to the U.S. embargo,
revised our standard form distribution agreements to clearly articulate this policy and disabled downloads of our software by users in these countries. We also entered into a new distribution agreement with Distributor 1 that excluded Iran as one of
its territories and contained explicit covenants that Distributor 1 would comply with U.S. export control and economic sanction laws, including a covenant not to sell our products into Iran. From March 2010 until February 2011, we continued doing
business with Distributor 1 under the amended distribution agreement. However, we now believe that Distributor 1 continued to sell our products into Iran after February 2010 and that we overlooked emails from Distributor 1 that included information
about Distributor 1s possible activities related to shipping our products to Iran. In February 2011, we suspended sales of our products to Distributor 1 due to the information learned during our export control review that indicated Distributor
1 may still be selling products into Iran. Also, during the export review we recently conducted, we learned that from December 2009 through February 2011, another distributor, Distributor 2, was selling our products to a company in Iran. At the time
of these transactions, we did not have a distribution agreement with Distributor 2 and we had not specifically instructed Distributor 2 that our products could not be sold into Iran. Distributor 2, a distributor in Europe, received orders from an
Iranian entity, placed those orders with us and instructed us to ship the products to a third party in the UAE. As such, we believed the products final destination was the UAE. Our records indicate that we may have made up to 13 shipments to
Distributor 2 involving an aggregate value of approximately $340,000 that may have been resold into Iran during this time. Prior to February 2011, we had not previously notified Distributor 2 of our prohibition against sales of our products into
Iran. In March 2011, upon learning that it was receiving orders from a company in Iran, we notified Distributor 2 that the end customer was in Iran and of our prohibition on sales to Iran and also entered into a distribution agreement with
Distributor 2. The agreement contains clear language requiring compliance with the export control and economic sanctions laws. We continue to sell products to Distributor 2, as we believe this issue has been resolved and these sales did not
represent a material portion of Distributor 2s business with us.
Export Classification of Our Products
Following the Summit transaction, we began to research whether our products were subject to U.S. export controls and we hired outside counsel to assist us
with this analysis. We learned that a number of our products, although they are foreign produced and do not enter into the United States, may be considered encryption items under the EAR and required an encryption review by BIS. In May 2010, we
filed encryption reviews with BIS for our products, and we obtained the required Commodity Classification Rulings for our products between June 2010 and November 2010. We shipped our products prior to receiving these rulings and these shipments
appear to have violated the EAR. In addition, we used incorrect export authorizations on our shipping documents even after we received the required Commodity Classification Rulings.
Accordingly, prior to May 2010, we did not fully comply with applicable encryption controls in the EAR, despite having made foreign sales of such items, and continued to use incorrect export
authorizations on shipping documents until February 2011, as we did not fully understand the scope of the requirements. In addition, throughout this period, we lacked an effective compliance program with respect to these laws. We have implemented a
significant number of policies and procedures and continue to implement further policies and procedures that will help us to comply with these laws.
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Inquiry from U.S. Department of Commerces Office of Export Enforcement
In January 2011, OEE contacted us to request that we provide information related to our relationship with a logistics company in the UAE and with a
company in Iran, as well as information on the export classification of our products, neither of which are Distributor 1 or Distributor 2. As a result of this inquiry we, assisted by outside counsel, conducted a review of our export transactions
from 2008 through March 2011 to not only gather information responsive to OEEs request but also to review our overall compliance with export control and sanctions laws. It was in the course of this review that we identified the Iranian sales
of Distributor 1 after February 2010 and the Iranian sales of Distributor 2. Our review also found that while we had obtained required Commodity Classification Rulings for our products in June 2010 and November 2010, we did not advise our shipping
personnel to change the export authorizations used on our shipping documents until February 2011. During the course of our export control review, we also determined that we had failed to maintain adequate records for the five year period required by
the EAR and the sanctions regulations due to our lack of infrastructure and because it was prior to our transition to our system of record, NetSuite.
In May 2011, we filed a self-disclosure with OEE and in June 2011, we filed one with OFAC regarding the compliance issues noted above. The disclosures address the above described findings and the remedial
actions we have taken to date. However, the findings also indicate that both Distributor 1 and Distributor 2 continued to sell, directly or indirectly, our products into Iran during the period from February 2010 through March 2011 and that we
received various email communications from them indicating that they were continuing to do so. Since January 2011, we have cooperated with OEE and, prior to our disclosure filing, we informally shared with the OEE the substance of our findings with
respect to Distributor 1 and Distributor 2. From May 2011 to August 2011, we provided additional information regarding our review and our findings to OEE to facilitate its investigation and OEE advised us in August 2011 that it had completed
its investigation of us. In August 2011, we received a warning letter from OEE stating that OEE had not referred the findings of our review for criminal or administrative prosecution of us and closed the investigation of us without penalty.
OFAC is still reviewing our voluntary disclosure. In our submission, we have provided OFAC with an explanation of the activities that led to
the sales of our products in Iran and the failure to comply with the EAR and OFAC sanctions. Although our OFAC and OEE voluntary disclosures covered similar sets of facts that led the OEE to resolve the case with the issuance of a warning letter,
OFAC may conclude that our actions resulted in violations of U.S. export control and economic sanctions laws and warrant the imposition of penalties that could include fines, termination of our ability to export our products, and/or referral for
criminal prosecution. Any such fines may be material to our financial results in the period in which they are imposed. The penalties may be imposed against us and/or our management. The maximum civil monetary penalty for the violations is up to
$250,000 or twice the value of the transaction, whichever is greater, per violation. Also, disclosure of our conduct and any fines or other action relating to this conduct could harm our reputation and indirectly have a material adverse effect on
our business, operating results and financial condition. We cannot predict when OFAC will complete its review or decide upon the imposition of possible penalties.
While we have now taken actions to ensure that export classification information is distributed to the appropriate personnel in a timely manner and have adopted policies and procedures to promote our
compliance with these laws and regulations, we have obtained written distribution agreements with substantially all of our distributors that contain covenants requiring compliance with U.S. export control and economic sanctions law; we have notified
all of our distributors of their obligations and have obtained updated distribution agreements from distributors that account for over 99% of our revenue in fiscal 2012. Our failure to amend all our distribution agreements and to implement more
robust compliance controls immediately after the discovery of Iran-related sales activity in early 2010 may be aggravating factors that could impact the imposition of penalties imposed on us or our management. Based on the facts known to us to date,
we recorded an expense of $1.6 million for this export compliance matter in fiscal 2010, which represents managements estimated exposure for fines in accordance with applicable accounting literature. Should additional facts be discovered in
the future and/or should actual fines or other penalties substantially differ from our estimates, our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations would be materially negatively impacted.
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We may also be subject to export control and economic sanctions laws of jurisdictions outside of the
United States and a substantial majority of our sales are into countries outside of the United States. If we fail to comply with those foreign export control and economic sanctions laws, we may be unable to sell our products and our business would
be materially and adversely affected and our revenues would decline.
In addition to U.S. export regulations, various other countries
regulate the import of certain encryption technology and products, and these laws could limit our ability to distribute our products or our customers ability to implement our products in those countries. Changes in our products or changes in
export and import regulations may create delays in the introduction of our products in other countries, prevent our customers with international operations from deploying our products or, in some cases, prevent the transfer of our products to
certain countries altogether. Any change in export or import regulations or related legislation, shift in approach to the enforcement or scope of existing regulations, or change in the countries, persons or technologies targeted by such regulations,
could negatively impact our ability to sell our products to existing customers or the ability of our current and potential distributors, network operators and service providers outside the United States.
We rely on the Ubiquiti Community to generate awareness of, and demand for, our products. If participation in the Ubiquiti Community decreases
materially, or if negative information, justified or otherwise, spreads quickly through the community, we would need to incur substantial additional expenses to generate awareness of, and demand for, our products.
We believe a significant portion of our rapid growth to date has been driven by the diverse and actively engaged Ubiquiti Community and our business model
is predicated on the assumption that the Ubiquiti Community will continue to be actively engaged. Given our lack of a direct sales force and limited marketing expenditures, the marketing model enabled by the Ubiquiti Community is central to the
success of our business but is ultimately outside of our control. In light of the rapid spread of information within the Ubiquiti Community and the material influence such community has over product adoption by network operators and service
providers, any negative information about us or our products, whether or not justified, could quickly and materially decrease demand for our products and be difficult for us to overcome. If the members of the Ubiquiti Community were to reject our
products and solutions or adopt competitors products on a broad basis, our business, operating results and financial condition would be materially and adversely affected because we would need to incur substantial additional expenses to
generate awareness of, and demand for, our products.
We rely on the Ubiquiti Community to provide network operators and service
providers with support to install, operate and maintain our products. Any inaccurate information regarding our products that is spread by the Ubiquiti Community could lead to a poor user experience or dissatisfaction with our products.
As we offer limited technical support for our products, we rely on the Ubiquiti Community to provide assistance and, in many cases
documentation, to network operators and service providers for the installation, operation and maintenance of our products. Because we do not generate or control the information provided through the Ubiquiti Community, inaccurate information
regarding the installation, operation and maintenance of our products could be promulgated through forum postings by members of the Ubiquiti Community. Inaccurate information could lead to a poor customer experience or dissatisfaction with our
products, which could negatively impact our reputation and disrupt our sales. Although we moderate and review forum postings to learn of reported problems and assess the accuracy of advice provided by the Ubiquiti Community, as our operations
continue to grow, we may not have adequate time or resources to adequately monitor the quality of Ubiquiti Community information.
We
rely on the Ubiquiti Community to provide our engineers with valuable feedback central to our research and development processes and if the members of the Ubiquiti Community were to stop providing feedback, our internal research and development
costs could increase.
We rely on the Ubiquiti Community to provide rapid and substantive feedback on the functionality and
effectiveness of our products. The insights, problems and suggestions raised by the Ubiquiti Community enable
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our engineers to quickly resolve issues with our existing products and improve functionality in subsequent product releases. For example, we developed airSync (part of the airMAX platform) in
response to collocation interference issues that were described in forum postings by members of the Ubiquiti Community. If the members of the Ubiquiti Community were to become less engaged or otherwise stopped providing valuable, timely feedback,
our internal research and development costs and our time to market would increase, which could cause us to incur additional expenses or make our products less attractive to network operators and service providers.
Our profitability may decline as we expand into new product areas.
We receive a substantial majority of our revenues from the sale of outdoor wireless networking equipment. We have limited experience in selling our products outside of our distribution model. As we expand
into new product areas, such as enterprise WLAN, video surveillance equipment, wireless backhaul and machine-to-machine communications, we may not be able to compete effectively with existing market participants and may not be able to realize a
positive return on the investment we have made in these products or services. Entering these markets may result in increased product development costs and our new products may have extended time to market relative to our current products. If our
introduction of a new product is not successful or we are not able to achieve the revenues or margins we expect, our operating results may be harmed and we may not recover our product development and marketing expenditures. We may also be required
to add a direct sales force and customer support personnel to market and support new or existing products, which would require us to accept substantially lower product margins or increase our operating expenses. Adding a direct sales force or
customer support personnel could reduce our operating income and may not be successful.
We rely on a limited number of contract
manufacturers to produce, test and ship all of our products, and failure to successfully manage our relationships with these parties could adversely affect our ability to market and sell our products.
We retain contract manufacturers, which are primarily located in China, to manufacture, control quality of and ship our products. We currently do not have
long-term supply contracts with any of these contract manufacturers. Any significant change in our relationship with these manufacturers could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. We make
substantially all of our purchases from our contract manufacturers on a purchase order basis. Our contract manufacturers are not otherwise required to manufacture our products for any specific period or in any specific quantity. We expect that it
would take approximately three to six months to transition manufacturing, quality assurance and shipping services to new providers. Relying on contract manufacturers for manufacturing, quality assurance and shipping also presents significant risks
to us, including the inability of our contract manufacturers to:
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qualify appropriate component suppliers;
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ensure adequate supplies of materials;
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protect our intellectual property;
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deliver finished products at agreed upon prices and schedules; and
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safeguard consigned materials.
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The ability and willingness of our contract manufacturers to perform is largely outside our control. For example, during mid-2009, the technology market was rebounding from the sharp economic contraction
that was experienced in 2008. Many suppliers and contract manufacturers were unprepared for the speed of the rebound. This led to significant component shortages and capacity constraints at contract manufacturers. During this time,
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our contract manufacturers claimed difficulty in procuring components and extended our order lead times significantly, which forced us to extend the lead time for our distributors.
From time to time, we may change contract manufacturers, which may disrupt our ability to obtain our products in a timely manner. We believe that our
orders may not represent a material portion of our contract manufacturers total orders and, as a result, fulfilling our orders may not be a priority in the event our contract manufacturers are constrained in their abilities or resources to
fulfill all of their customer obligations in a timely manner. If any of our contract manufacturers suffers an interruption in its business, experiences delays, disruptions or quality control problems in its manufacturing operations or we have to
change or add additional contract manufacturers, our ability to ship products to our customers would be delayed and our revenues could become volatile and our cost of revenues may increase.
We and our contract manufacturers purchase some components, subassemblies and products from a limited number of suppliers. The loss of any of these suppliers may substantially disrupt our ability to
obtain orders and fulfill sales as we design in and qualify new components.
We rely on third party components and technology to build
and operate our products, and we rely on our contract manufacturers to obtain the components, subassemblies and products necessary for the manufacture of our products. Shortages in components that we use in our products are possible, and our ability
to predict the availability of such components is limited. If shortages occur in the future, as they have in the past, our business, operating results and financial condition would be materially adversely affected. Unpredictable price increases of
such components due to market demand may occur. While components and supplies are generally available from a variety of sources, we and our contract manufacturers currently depend on a single or limited number of suppliers for several components for
our products. If our suppliers of these components or technology were to enter into exclusive relationships with other providers of networking equipment or were to discontinue providing such components and technology to us and we were unable to
replace them cost effectively, or at all, our ability to provide our products would be impaired. We and our contract manufacturers generally rely on purchase orders rather than long-term contracts with these suppliers. As a result, even if
available, we and our contract manufacturers may not be able to secure sufficient components at reasonable prices or of acceptable quality to build our products in a timely manner. Therefore, we may be unable to meet customer demand for our
products, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
We are dependent on
Qualcomm Atheros for chipsets for our products and do not have short-term alternatives if Qualcomm Atheros were to terminate its agreement with us, which could cause us to be unable to fulfill short-term demand and delay our ability to fulfill
orders.
Substantially all of our products currently include chipsets from Qualcomm Atheros. Our license agreement with Qualcomm
Atheros may be terminated for convenience at the end of the annual contract term which is September 1, 2013 upon 90 days prior written notice by either party. The termination of our license agreement with Qualcomm Atheros could have a material
adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. To the extent we are unable to secure an adequate supply of chipsets from Qualcomm Atheros, we would be required to redesign our products to incorporate components from
alternative sources, a process which would cause significant delays and would adversely impact our revenues. In accordance with the current terms of the agreement, Qualcomm Atheros may choose to terminate the agreement without cause at the end of
the annual contract term by giving us at least 90 days prior written notice before September 1, 2013. We do not stockpile sufficient chipsets to cover the time it would take to re-engineer our products to replace the Qualcomm Atheros chipsets.
Furthermore, if we sought a suitable second source for Qualcomm Atheros chipsets in our products, there can be no assurances that we would be able to successfully second source our chipsets on suitable terms, if at all. In any event, our use of
chipsets from multiple sources may require us to significantly modify our product designs to accommodate these different chipsets.
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Our reliance on third party components and technology means that we may not be able to introduce new
products that include certain advanced features and functionality without obtaining technology licenses from third parties. For example, we currently rely upon a license from Qualcomm Atheros, whose chipsets are incorporated in a majority all of our
products. This process is critical to our ability to manufacture our products. Obtaining these licenses may be costly and may delay the introduction of such features and functionality, and these licenses may not be available on commercially
favorable terms, or at all. The inability to offer advanced features or functionality, or a delay in our introduction of new products, may adversely affect demand for our products and consequently, materially adversely affect our business, operating
results and financial condition.
We base our production on our forecasts of future sales. If these forecasts are materially inaccurate,
we may overbuild product, which we may be unable to sell in a timely manner or at all, or we may underbuild product, which may impair our customer relationships.
Our distributors typically provide us with purchase orders for delivery within 60 days. We provide our contract manufacturers forecasts of up to approximately five months of demand for long lead time
components. To the extent our forecasts are materially inaccurate because we do not receive anticipated purchase order volume, we may under or overbuild product. We may over or under forecast the distributors actual demand for our products or
the mix of products and the components associated with the building of our products. We have experienced volatility in orders with limited advanced notice, and we expect such volatility to occur in the future. If we are unable to meet any increases
in demand, our business, operating results and financial condition would be materially adversely affected and our reputation with our customers may be damaged. Conversely, if we over forecast demand, we may build excess inventory which could
materially adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
We have limited experience and personnel to manage
our supply chain and our contract manufacturers, which may cause us to experience lower product margins, impair product quality and result in our inability to fulfill demand for our products and solutions.
We rely on our contract manufacturers to produce, test and ship all of our products. We also rely on our contract manufacturers to obtain the components,
subassemblies and products necessary for the manufacture of our products. We have limited experience and personnel to manage our relationships with our contract manufacturers and our supply chain. Inaccurately forecasting our demand for key
components, including the Qualcomm Atheros chipsets, could materially adversely affect our ability to build our products in a timely manner and our margins could decline. Any failure by us to effectively and proactively manage these relationships
and activities could result in material adverse effects on our business, operating results and financial condition. If we were required or choose to transition some of our supply chain activities from our contract manufacturers to within our
organization, we would be required to hire more experienced personnel and develop more supply chain policies and procedures. This transition could be lengthy and could cause significant delays in the production, testing and shipment of our products,
any of which may result in material adverse effects, including an increase in our costs and our ability to ship our products and solutions. We cannot assure you that we would ever be able to effectively complete any such transition.
We have significantly increased our transactional sales volumes in recent periods, and if we fail to effectively manage the challenges associated
with this transaction volume growth, we may experience difficulty in properly fulfilling customer orders and may incur increased operational costs.
Over the past several years we have and continue to expand our product offerings, the number of customers we sell to and the number of contract manufacturers we utilize to produce our products. Failure to
effectively manage the increased logistical complexities associated with this expansion would make it difficult to fulfill customer orders in a timely manner and could lead to customer dissatisfaction. Further, we may need to increase costs to
add personnel, upgrade or replace our existing reporting systems as well as improve our business processes and controls. Failure to effectively manage any of these logistical challenges would adversely impact our business performance and operating
results.
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If we experience material weaknesses in the future, as we have in the past, or otherwise fail to
maintain an effective system of internal controls in the future, we may not be able to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations which may adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of
our common stock.
As a result of becoming a public company, we will be required, under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to
furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting beginning with the filing of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2013. This assessment will need to include disclosure of
any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency or combination of deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable
possibility that a material misstatement of a companys annual and interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
We are in the early stages of further enhancing our process of compiling the computer system and process documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404. We may
not be able to complete our evaluation, testing and any required remediation in a timely fashion. During the evaluation and testing process, if we identify one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be
unable to assert that our internal controls are effective. We have in the past identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, and although we have remediated the material weaknesses identified we cannot assure you
that there will not be material weaknesses in our internal controls in the future. If we are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of
our financial reports, which would cause the price of our common stock to decline. In connection with our fiscal 2009 audit, our independent registered public accounting firm identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial
reporting related to our ability to account for income taxes in accordance with GAAP. Subsequently, during fiscal 2010, we identified two other material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. The first related to our ability to
account for inventory and prepaid advances made to our contract manufacturers in accordance with GAAP. The second related to our ability to account for taxes and other amounts due on payments to our employees in foreign jurisdictions.
We have taken steps to address the material weaknesses as disclosed in the preceding paragraph, including hiring a chief financial officer, a corporate
controller and other accounting personnel, forming an audit committee and implementing additional financial accounting controls and procedures. As a result of these actions, we believe that these material weaknesses have been remediated. However, we
have not completed the necessary documentation and testing procedures under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and cannot assure you that we will be able to implement and maintain an effective internal control over financial reporting in the
future. Any failure to maintain such controls could severely inhibit our ability to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations.
Unfavorable tax law changes, an unfavorable government review of our tax returns, changes in our geographic earnings mix, or imposition of withholding taxes on repatriated earnings could adversely
affect our effective tax rate and our operating results.
We conduct operations in multiple jurisdictions and therefore our effective
tax rate is influenced by the amounts of income and expense attributed to each such jurisdiction. If such amounts were to change so as to increase the amounts of our net income subject to taxation in higher tax jurisdictions, or if we were to
commence operations in jurisdictions assessing relatively higher tax rates, our effective tax rate could be adversely affected. Historically, we have earned a significant amount of our operating income from outside the United States in low tax rate
jurisdictions. The continued availability of these rates is dependent on how we conduct our business operation across all tax jurisdictions. We are subject to periodic audits or other reviews by tax authorities in the jurisdictions in which we
conduct our activities and there is a risk that tax authorities could challenge our assertion that we have conducted our business operations appropriately in order to benefit in these lower tax rate
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jurisdictions. In addition, there are possible tax proposals that are being considered by the U.S. Congress or the legislative bodies in foreign jurisdictions that could affect our tax rate, the
carrying value of deferred tax assets or our other tax liabilities. We cannot predict the form or timing of potential legislative changes, but any newly enacted tax law could have a material adverse impact on our tax provision, net income and cash
flows. In the event of an unfavorable outcome, this may result in additional tax liabilities or other adjustments to our historical results. In addition, we may determine that it is advisable from time to time to repatriate earnings from non-U.S.
subsidiaries under circumstances that could give rise to imposition of potentially significant withholding taxes by the jurisdictions in which such amounts were earned and substantial tax liabilities in the United States. In addition, we may not
receive the benefit of any offsetting tax credits, which also could adversely impact our effective tax rate. As of June 30, 2012, we held $102.8 million of our $122.1 million of cash and cash equivalents in accounts of our subsidiaries outside
of the United States and we will incur significant tax liabilities if we were to repatriate those amounts.
Although we believe our tax
estimates are reasonable, the ultimate tax outcome may materially differ from the tax amounts recorded in our consolidated financial statements and may materially affect our income tax provision, net income or cash flows in the period or periods for
which such determination is made.
The final determination of our income tax liability may be materially different from our income tax
provision.
The final determination of our income tax liability may be materially different from our income tax provision. We are
subject to income taxes in both the United States and international jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes. In the ordinary course of our business, there are many transactions where
the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Additionally our calculations of income taxes are based on our interpretations of applicable tax laws in the jurisdictions in which we file. Although we believe our tax estimates are appropriate, there is
no assurance that the final determination of our income tax liability will not be materially different than what is reflected in our income tax provisions and accruals.
We are also subject to the periodic examination of our income tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service in the United States and other tax authorities. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse
outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes. The outcomes from these examinations may have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.
Should additional taxes be assessed as a result of new legislation, an audit or litigation; if our effective tax rate should change as a result of
changes in federal, international or state and local tax laws; if we are found to not be in compliance with tax regulations; or if we were to change the locations where we operate, there could be a material effect on our income tax provision and
results of operations in the period or periods in which that determination is made, and potentially to future periods as well.
Furthermore,
our provision for income tax could increase as we expand our international operations, adopt new products, implement changes to our operating structure or undertake intercompany transactions in light of acquisitions, changing tax laws, expiring
rulings, and our current and anticipated business and operational requirements.
Our operating expenses will increase as we make further
expenditures to enhance and expand our operations in order to support additional growth in our business and public company reporting and compliance obligations.
Historically, we limited our investment in infrastructure but in the future, we expect our infrastructure investments to increase substantially to support our anticipated growth and as a result of our
becoming a public company. We are making significant investments in information systems, hiring more administrative personnel, using more professional services and expanding our operations outside the United States. We intend to make additional
investments in systems and personnel and continue to expand our operations to support anticipated
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growth in our business. In addition, we may determine the need in the future to build a direct sales force to market and sell our products or provide additional resources or cooperative funds to
our distributors. Such changes to our existing sales model would likely result in higher selling, general and administrative expenses as a percentage of our revenues. We expect our increased investments to adversely affect operating income. As a
result of these factors, we expect our operating expenses to increase.
We have experienced rapid growth in recent periods. If we fail
to manage our growth effectively and develop and implement appropriate control systems, our business and financial performance may suffer.
We have substantially expanded our overall business, number of distributors and contract manufacturers, headcount and operations in recent periods. We have made investments in our information systems and
significantly expanded our operations outside the United States, including an expansion of our research and development activities in Lithuania and Taiwan. Our expansion has placed, and our expected future growth will continue to place, a
significant strain on our managerial, administrative, operational, financial and other resources. Our business model reflects our decision to operate with minimal infrastructure and low support and administrative headcount, so risks related to
managing our growth are particularly salient and we may not have sufficient internal resources to adapt or respond to unexpected challenges. As a result of our focus on managing our rapid growth, we may have not allocated sufficient resources to
complying with applicable regulatory and other requirements, such as spectrum operating regulations, export and embargoed countries regulations and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and our development of infrastructure designed to identify and
monitor our compliance with these regulatory and other compliance obligations is at an early stage. For example, in February 2011 we hired our first employee charged with complying with spectrum use requirements and we hired a chief counsel in May
2011. Although we have put certain policies and procedures in place following the hiring of our chief financial officer in May 2010, certain of these policies have recently been adopted and our procedures have recently changed and we have limited
staff responsible for their implementation and enforcement. For example, we have put in place procedures to verify foreign buyers against U.S. disqualified persons lists and to identify the need for export licenses based on proposed bills of
material for new products. Furthermore, our employees who have the most contact with our distributors or who are involved with order entry have recently attended training regarding export controls sponsored by the BIS. If we are unable to manage our
growth successfully, or if our control systems do not operate effectively, our business and operating results will suffer.
We do not
expect our historical growth rates to continue into the future.
From fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2012, we experienced a CAGR of our revenues
of over 137%. We do not expect to sustain this growth rate in the future. Our growth rate to date has reflected our acquisition of market share in a new market that was rapidly expanding, our introduction of products complementary to our initial
offerings and our product pricing strategy designed to accelerate overall market penetration. Given our leadership role in, and the increasing maturity of, the global wireless broadband market, we expect that our revenue growth will slow in the
future as it tracks more closely, and is constrained by, the growth rates of the overall market. Although we intend to employ a strategy consistent with our approach to wireless broadband networking as we seek to enter adjacent markets, such as
enterprise WLAN, video surveillance, wireless backhaul and machine-to-machine communications, we cannot assure you that we will be successful in penetrating these markets in a manner that achieves rapid revenue growth, or at all. If we are unable to
maintain adequate revenue growth, we may not have sufficient resources to execute our business objectives and our share price may decline.
A large percentage of our research and development operations are conducted in Illinois, Lithuania and Taiwan and our ability to introduce new
products and support our existing products cost effectively depends on our ability to manage these disparate development sites successfully.
Our success depends on our ability to enhance current products and develop new products rapidly and cost effectively. We currently have a number of our research and development personnel in Illinois,
Lithuania and Taiwan. We must successfully allocate product development activities across the various development centers
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and manage them in such a manner as to meet our time to market windows while maintaining product consistency and quality. We could incur unexpected costs or delays in product development at these
remote facilities that could impair our ability to meet market windows or cause us to forego certain new product opportunities.
We rely
on third parties for financial and operational services essential to our ability to manage our business. A failure or disruption in these services would materially and adversely affect our ability to manage our business effectively.
We currently use NetSuite to conduct our order management and financial processes. The availability of this service is essential to
the management of our business. As we expand our operations, we expect to utilize additional systems and service providers that may also be essential to managing our business. Although the systems and services that we require are typically available
from a number of providers, it is time consuming and costly to qualify and implement these relationships. Therefore, our ability to manage our business would suffer if one or more of our providers suffer an interruption in their business, or
experience delays, disruptions or quality control problems in their operations, or we have to change or add additional systems and services. We may not be able to control the quality of the systems and services we receive from third party service
providers, which could impair our ability to implement appropriate internal controls over financial reporting and may impact our business, operating results and financial condition.
Increased debt levels could adversely affect our ability to raise additional capital to fund our operations or limit our ability to react to changes in the economy or our industry.
As of June 30, 2012 we had $29.6 million of debt related to a term loan with East West Bank. Additionally, in August 2012 we
increased the term loan facility to $50.0 million and entered into a revolving line of credit for up to another $50.0 million from East West Bank and U.S. Bank under a new loan agreement which replaced our prior loan agreement with East West Bank.
Our increased debt level could have important consequences, including:
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increasing our vulnerability to general economic and industry conditions;
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requiring a substantial portion of cash flows from operations to be dedicated to the payment of principal and interest on our indebtedness,
therefore reducing our ability to use our cash flows to fund our operations, capital expenditures and future business opportunities;
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restricting us from making strategic acquisitions or causing us to make non-strategic divestitures;
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limiting our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, debt service requirements, acquisitions and
general corporate or other purposes; and
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limiting our ability to adjust to changing market conditions and placing us at a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors who are
less highly leveraged.
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In addition, we may be able to incur substantial additional indebtedness in the future. If new
indebtedness is added to our current debt levels, the related risks that we now face could intensify.
We are subject to risks related
to our recently announced common stock repurchase program.
In August 2012, we announced that our Board of Directors authorized us to
repurchase up to $100.0 million of our common stock. The share repurchase program commenced Monday, August 13, 2012. The share repurchase program will be funded from existing cash on hand and from the proceeds from a loan agreement with East
West Bank and U.S. Bank. By repurchasing our common stock we will reduce liquidity of our common stock in the open market and could experience increased volatility in our stock price. Additionally, in order to repurchase our
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common stock we have further increased our indebtedness to financial institutions, therefore substantially increasing our leverage and interest costs.
Failure to comply with the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and similar laws associated with our activities outside
the United States could subject us to penalties and other adverse consequences.
As a substantial majority of our revenues is and will
be from jurisdictions outside of the United States, we face significant risks if we fail to comply with the FCPA and other laws that prohibit improper payments or offers of payment to foreign governments and their officials and political parties by
us and other business entities for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. In many foreign countries, particularly in countries with developing economies, which represent our principal markets, it may be a local custom that businesses
operating in such countries engage in business practices that are prohibited by the FCPA or other laws and regulations. Although we have implemented a company policy requiring our employees and consultants to comply with the FCPA and similar laws,
we have a limited number of employees engaged in sales so we have not conducted formal FCPA compliance training. We have not engaged in training of our distributors and resellers and are in the process of amending our distributor agreements to
provide clear requirements for our distributors and resellers compliance with U.S. laws, including the FCPA, therefore there can be no assurance that all of our employees, and agents, as well as those companies to which we outsource
certain of our business operations, will not take actions in violation of our policies, for which we may be ultimately held responsible. We have not historically entered into written agreements with our distributors and resellers and to the extent
we did, those agreements did not clearly state our expectations for our distributors and resellers compliance with U.S. law. As a result of our focus on managing our rapid growth, our development of infrastructure designed to identify FCPA matters
and monitor compliance is at an early stage. Any violation of FCPA and related policies could result in severe criminal or civil sanctions and suspension or debarment from U.S. government contracting, which could have a material and adverse effect
on our reputation, business, operating results and financial condition.
Our products rely on the availability of unlicensed RF spectrum
and if such spectrum were to become unavailable through overuse or licensing, the performance of our products could suffer and our revenues from their sales could decrease.
Our products operate in unlicensed RF spectrum, which is used by a wide range of consumer devices such as cordless phones, baby monitors, and microwave ovens, and is becoming increasingly crowded. If such
spectrum usage continues to increase through the proliferation of consumer electronics and products competitive with ours, the resultant higher levels of clutter and interference in the bands of operation our products use could decrease the
effectiveness of our products, which could adversely affect our ability to sell our products and our business could be further harmed if currently unlicensed RF spectrum becomes licensed in the United States or elsewhere. Network operators and
service providers that use our products may be unable to obtain licenses for RF spectrum at reasonable prices or at all. Even if the unlicensed spectrum remains unlicensed, existing and new government regulations may require we make changes in our
products. For example, to provide products for network operators and service providers who utilize unlicensed RF spectrum, we may be required to limit their ability to use our products in licensed RF spectrum. The operation of our products by
network operators or service providers in the United States or elsewhere in a manner not in compliance with local law could result in fines, operational disruption, or harm to our reputation.
The complexity of our products could result in unforeseen delays or expenses caused by undetected defects or bugs, which could reduce the market acceptance of our new products, damage our reputation
with current or prospective customers and adversely affect our operating costs.
Our products may contain defects and bugs when they
are first introduced or as new versions are released. We have focused, and intend to focus in the future, on getting our new products to market quickly. Due to our rapid product introductions, defects and bugs that may be contained in our products
may not yet have manifested. We
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have in the past experienced, and may in the future experience, defects and bugs. If any of our products contains material defects or bugs, or has reliability, quality or compatibility problems,
we may not be able to successfully correct these problems. Consequently, our reputation may be damaged and network operators or service providers may be reluctant to buy our products, which could materially and adversely affect our ability to retain
existing network operators or service providers and attract new network operators or service providers. In addition, these defects or bugs could interrupt or delay sales to our distributors. If any of these problems is not found until after we have
commenced commercial production and distribution of a new product, we may be required to incur additional development costs and product recall, repair or replacement costs. These problems may also result in claims against us by our network
operators, service providers or others. As a result, our operating costs could be adversely affected.
Confidentiality agreements with
employees and others may not adequately prevent disclosure of our trade secrets and other proprietary information.
We have devoted
substantial resources to the development of our proprietary technology and trade secrets. In order to protect our proprietary technology and trade secrets, we rely in part on confidentiality agreements with our employees, licensees, independent
contractors and other advisors. These agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of our trade secrets and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of our trade secrets. In addition, others may independently
discover trade secrets and proprietary information, and in such cases we could not assert any trade secret rights against such parties. Costly and time consuming litigation could be necessary to determine and enforce the scope of our proprietary
rights, and failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position.
Although we
primarily rely on confidentiality agreements to protect our trade secrets, we have failed to obtain such agreements from certain of our former employees due to administrative oversights, including those who participated in the development of certain
of our products. Our employment policies require these former employees to continue to protect our trade secrets and to assign to us any intellectual property related to their activities on our behalf. However, we may have difficulty enforcing these
rights, which could reduce our competitive differentiation and result in lost sales and customer confusion.
We use open source software
in our products that may subject our firmware to general release or require us to re-engineer our products and the firmware contained therein, which may cause harm to our business.
We use open source software in our products, including in connection with our proprietary software, and may use more open source software in the future. From time to time, there have been claims
challenging the ownership of open source software against companies that incorporate open source software into their products. As a result, we could be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software.
Some open source licenses contain requirements that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon the open source software and that we license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of a
particular open source license or other license granting third parties certain rights of further use. If we combine our proprietary firmware or other software with open source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain of the open source
licenses, be required to release our proprietary source code publicly or license such source code on unfavorable terms or at no cost. In addition to risks related to license requirements, usage of open source software can lead to greater risks than
use of third party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on origin of the software. Open source license terms relating to the disclosure of source code in modifications or derivative works to
the open source software are often ambiguous and few if any courts in jurisdictions applicable to us have interpreted such terms. As a result, many of the risks associated with usage of open source software cannot be eliminated, and could, if not
properly addressed, negatively affect our business. We currently disclose or plan to disclose the source code for certain of our proprietary software in an effort to comply with the terms of the licenses applicable to the open source software that
we use, and we believe that such disclosure represents the entirety of our source code disclosure obligations under these licenses. However, if we were found to have inappropriately used open source
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software, we may be required to release our proprietary source code, re-engineer our firmware or other software, discontinue the sale of our products in the event re-engineering cannot be
accomplished on a timely basis or take other remedial action that may divert resources away from our development efforts, any of which could adversely increase our expenses and delay our ability to release our products for sale.
Our business is susceptible to risks associated with operations outside of the United States.
As of June 30, 2012 we had international operations in Hong Kong, Lithuania and Taiwan. We also sell to distributors outside the United States and
for fiscal 2012, 2011 and 2010, our revenues from sales outside the United States were 76%, 70% and 59%, respectively. Our operations outside the United States subject us to risks that we have not generally faced in the United States. These
include:
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the burdens of complying with a wide variety of U.S. laws applicable to export controls, foreign operations, foreign laws and different legal
standards;
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fluctuations in currency exchange rates;
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unexpected changes in foreign regulatory requirements;
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counterfeiting of our products or infringement on our intellectual property by third parties;
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difficulties in managing the staffing of remote operations;
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potentially adverse tax consequences, including the complexities of foreign value added tax systems, restrictions on the repatriation of earnings and
changes in tax rates;
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dependence on distributors in various countries with different pricing policies, inventory management and forecasting practices;
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reduced or varied protection for intellectual property rights in some countries;
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demand for reliable wireless broadband networks in those countries;
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requirements that we comply with local telecommunication regulations in those countries;
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increased financial accounting and reporting burdens and complexity;
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political, social and economic instability in some jurisdictions; and
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terrorist attacks and security concerns in general.
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If any of these risks were to come to fruition, it could negatively affect our business outside the United States and, consequently, our operating results. Additionally, operating in markets outside the
United States requires significant management attention and financial resources. We cannot be certain that the investment and additional resources required to establish, acquire or integrate operations in other countries will produce desired levels
of revenues or profitability.
Our contract manufacturers, shipping points and certain administrative and research and development
operations are located in areas likely to be subject to natural disasters or other events that could stop us from having our products made or shipped or could result in a substantial delay in our production or development activities.
Our manufacturing capacity may be reduced or eliminated at one or more facilities because our manufacturing, assembly, testing and
shipping contractors are all located in southern China, the majority of our products are shipped from Hong Kong and we have research and development offices in Taiwan and California. Our principal executive offices are also located in California.
The risk of earthquakes, typhoons and other natural disasters in these geographic areas is significant due to the proximity of major earthquake fault lines. Southern China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are also subject to typhoons and other Pacific storms.
Earthquakes, fire, flooding or other
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natural disasters in California, southern China, Hong Kong or Taiwan, or political unrest, war, labor strikes, work stoppages or public health crises, in countries where our or our
contractors facilities are located could result in the disruption of our development, manufacturing, assembly, testing or shipping capacity. Any disruption resulting from these events could cause significant delays in product development or
shipments of our products until we are able to shift our development, manufacturing, assembly or testing from the affected contractor to another third party vendor or our research and development activities to another location. We cannot assure you
that alternative capacity could be obtained on favorable terms, if at all.
New safety regulations or changes in existing safety
regulations related to our products may result in unanticipated costs or liabilities, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition and future sales, and could place additional burdens on the
operations of our business.
Radio emissions are subject to regulation in the United States and the other countries in which we do
business. In the United States, various federal agencies including the Center for Devices and Radiological Health of the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and
various state agencies have promulgated regulations that concern the use of radio/electromagnetic emissions standards. Member countries of the EU have enacted similar standards concerning electrical safety and electromagnetic compatibility and
emissions standards. If any of our products becomes subject to new regulations or if any of our products becomes specifically regulated by additional government entities, compliance with such regulations could become more burdensome, and we may be
unable to ship our products or they may cost substantially more to produce, which would reduce our revenues and increase our cost of revenues.
Government regulations designed to protect consumer privacy may make it difficult for us to sell our products.
Our products may transmit and store personal information. This information is increasingly subject to legislation and regulations in numerous
jurisdictions around the world. This government action is typically intended to protect the privacy and security of personal information that is collected, stored and transmitted in or from the governing jurisdiction. In addition, because various
foreign jurisdictions have different laws and regulations concerning the storage and transmission of personal information, we may face unknown requirements that pose compliance challenges in new geographic markets that we seek to enter. Such
variation could subject us to costs, delayed product launches, liabilities or negative publicity that could impair our ability to expand our operations into some countries and therefore limit our future growth.
As privacy and data protection have become more sensitive issues, we may also become exposed to potential liabilities as a result of differing views on
the privacy of personal information. These and other privacy concerns could adversely impact our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, our attempts to protect the privacy of customer data may fail if our encryption is
inadequate or fails to operate as expected.
We cannot predict our future capital needs and we may not be able to obtain additional
financing to fund our operations.
We may need to raise additional funds in the future. Any required additional financing may not be
available on terms acceptable to us, or at all. If we raise additional funds by issuing equity securities or convertible debt, investors may experience significant dilution of their ownership interest, and the newly issued securities may have rights
senior to those of the holders of our common stock. If we raise additional funds by obtaining loans from third parties, we will incur interest expense and may have to comply with covenants and secure that debt obligation with our assets. If
additional financing is not available when required or on acceptable terms, we may have to scale back our operations or limit our production activities. As a result, we may not be able to expand our business, develop or enhance our products, take
advantage of business opportunities or respond to competitive pressures, which could result in lower revenues and reduce the competitiveness of our products.
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Our existing credit facilities preclude us from entering into additional credit agreements, other than in
limited circumstances, and, as a result, we may be required to issue equity securities rather than obtain additional debt financing.
If
we are unable to integrate future acquisitions successfully, our operating results and prospects could be harmed.
We have not made any
acquisitions to date. In the future, we may make acquisitions to improve or expand our product offerings. Our future acquisition strategy will depend on our ability to identify, negotiate, complete and integrate acquisitions. Mergers and
acquisitions are inherently risky and any mergers and acquisitions we complete may not be successful. Any mergers and acquisitions we may pursue would involve numerous risks, including the following:
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difficulties in integrating and managing the operations, technologies and products of the companies we acquire, particularly in light of our lean
organizational structure;
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diversion of our managements attention from normal daily operation of our business;
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our inability to maintain the key business relationships and the brand equity of the businesses we acquire;
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our inability to retain key personnel of the acquired company, particularly in light of the demands we place on individual contributors;
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uncertainty of entry into markets in which we have limited or no prior experience and in which competitors have stronger market positions;
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our dependence on unfamiliar affiliates and partners of the companies we acquire;
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insufficient revenues to offset our increased expenses associated with acquisitions;
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our responsibility for the liabilities of the businesses we acquire, including those which we may not anticipate; and
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our inability to maintain internal standards, controls, procedures and policies, particularly in light of our lean organizational structure.
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We may be unable to secure the equity or debt funding necessary to finance future acquisitions on terms that are acceptable
to us. Completing acquisitions could consume significant amounts of cash. If we finance acquisitions by issuing equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders will likely experience dilution, and if we finance future acquisitions
with debt funding, we will incur interest expense and may have to comply with covenants and secure that debt obligation with our assets.