Our electronic chemicals products include sulfuric, phosphoric, nitric and hydrofluoric acids, ammonium hydroxide, hydrogen peroxide, isopropyl alcohol, other specialty organic solvents and various blends of chemicals. These products are used in multipleAs the IC manufacturing process steps throughout the semiconductor fab. Customers demand an increasing level of puritymoves to enable more advanced technology nodes and the complexity of the process continues to increase, yields. Ourquality and purity of the materials becomes even more critical to the device yield. Increasing levels of purity and achieving lower levels of variation in our electronic chemicals products currently have puritybusiness are required to enable next-generation IC technologies. Our advanced chemical purification technologies, including distillation, ion exchange, gas adsorption, and filtration, are designed to provide consistently low contaminant levels up to 20 parts per trillion levels.

We believe that our array of pad technology and products enables us to better serve the needs of our customersalso focus on a global basis, including the ability to offer performance-differentiated CMP slurry and pad consumable sets. For our electronic chemicals products, we believe increasing levels of purity and achieving lower levels of variation are required to enable these next-generation IC technologies. We continue to work to develop industry leading metrology methods to measure the purity levels achieved.

We believe the several supplier excellence awards we have received from our customers over the past decade, which recognize our product quality and reliability, technology leadership, and customer support capabilities, are evidence of our commitment to, and success in, delivering high-performing and high-quality products to our customers through close collaboration with them. Our global business teams are focused on a range of projects with our customers to address specific business opportunities for advanced technologies.

Over the past several years, we have seen consolidation in the customer base within the semiconductor industry consolidate as larger semiconductor manufacturers have generally grown faster than smaller ones, through mergers and acquisitions as well as through alliances among and between different companies.industry. Costs to achieve the required scale in manufacturing within the semiconductor industry continue to rise, along with the related costs of research and development, and larger manufacturers generally have greater access to the resources necessary to manage their businesses. This trend is particularly evident in capital spending within the industry, as the largest semiconductor companies account for an increasingly large portion of total capital spending in the industry compared to the past.

As demand for more advanced and lower cost electronic devices grows, there is continuedongoing pressure on IC device manufacturers to reduce their costs. Manufacturers have historically reduced cost and simultaneously improved device performance by migrating to smaller technology nodes. To achieve performance and cost improvements, semiconductor manufacturers are placing greater emphasis on new device architectures, including 3D memory and FinFET. Many manufacturers reduce costs by pursuing ever-increasing scale in their operations, while seeking to reduce their production costs by increasing their production yields regardless of their scale. Thus, they look for electronic materials products, such as CMP consumables and electronic chemicals products, with quality and performance attributes that can help them reduce their overall cost of ownership, pursue ways to use smaller amounts of CMP materials, and aggressively pursue price reductions for these materials. Electronic chemicals products also require increased levels of purity and, like CMP consumables products, lower levels of variation, which contributes to our pursuit of cutting-edge metrology methods to measure purity levels achieved.

Demand for our CMP consumables and electronic chemicals products is primarily driven by wafer starts, so the electronic materials sector reflects semiconductor industry demand patterns in terms of growth, cyclicality and seasonality, and varying demand for specific device types. Consistent with other participants in the semiconductor industry, we have experienced relatively softstable demand conditions in our fiscal 2020 despite global macroeconomic uncertainty caused by the semiconductor industry starting in our second fiscal quarter of 2019 and continuing past the end of the fiscal year, although some signs of stabilization are becoming apparent.Pandemic. Over the long term, we anticipate worldwide demand for CMP consumables and electronic chemicals used by IC device manufacturers willto grow as a result of expected long-term growth in wafer starts, and the trend to more advanced technologies. With respect to CMP consumables, we believe there will continue to be an associated increase in the number of CMP polishing steps required to produce these advanced devices, and the introduction of new materials that are expected to require CMP. With respect to electronic chemicals, we believe there will be increasing demand as customers are requiring a higher level of purity,transitioning to advanced technology nodes, which requiresrequire an increasing number of processing steps used on each wafer. In addition, as customers introduce smaller technology nodeswafer and new architectures, they requirematerials with higher purity chemicals with fewer and fewer impurities.

Within the semiconductor industry, our customers are generally producers of logic or memory IC devices, or providers of IC foundry services. Some logic customers, and so-called "fabless" companies, outsource some or all the production of their devices to foundries, which provide contract manufacturing services, in order to avoid the high cost of process development, construction and operation of a fab, or to provide additional capacity when needed.

For additional information on our customers, refer to Note 2 of “Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements” included in Item 8 of Part II of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

In our electronic chemicals business, we rely on a variety of suppliers for our raw materials, some of which we purchase pursuant to purchase orders, and others which we purchase under supply contracts. The number of suppliers is often limited, particularly as to the specific grade of raw material required by us to supply high purity products we market through a combination of an internal sales force and distributors organized by geographic region.to our customers.

In our PIM business, LiquidPower Specialty Products Inc. holds a leading position in DRAs, with Baker Hughes as another primary provider. For our additional PIM products and Servicesservices, however, participants include numerous other businesses with none appearing to hold a leadership position.

ThroughIn QED, there are few direct competitors but we believe our Flowchem subsidiary,technology is unique and provides a competitive advantage to customers in the precision optics industry, which still relies heavily on traditional artisanal methods of fabrication.

In our wood treatment business, we are the only manufacturer of penta-based wood treatment preservatives in North America.

We provide DRAs to several major mid-stream pipeline transmission companies both domestically and internationally. We have a U.S.-based and global sales team,network, a wholly-ownedU.S.-based transportation and logistics companyoperations, and a global network of distributors and agents to manage the sales and delivery of our products. Our main marketing approach is throughFor our membership in industry-based professional organizations, trade showsadditional PIM products and publications.

For additional information on ourWe are the only manufacturer of penta-based wood treatment preservatives in North America and only supply penta to customers refer to Note 2 of “Notes toin the Consolidated Financial Statements” includedU.S. and Canada. We do not have other products or business in Item 8 of Part II of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.area.

We believe that technology is vital to success inFor our businesses, primarily in the area of CMP consumables, and we plan to continue to devote significant resources to research, development and technical support (“R&D”), and balance our efforts between shorter and longer-term industry needs. Here,PIM products, we focus our R&D efforts on product innovation at leading-edge applications for our technology-leading customers. We develop new and enhanced CMP solutions tailored to these customers' requirements using our expertise in chemical formulation, materials science, product engineering and manufacturing technology. We work closely with these customers at their facilities to identify their specific technology and manufacturing challenges and to translate these challenges into viable CMP process solutions.

We believe our intellectual property is important to our success and ability to compete, and in addition to it, we also differentiate our products and technology by their high quality and reliability, and our quality systems, global supply chain and logistics. As of October 31, 2019,2020, we had 1,3171,301 active worldwide patents, of which 284 United States268 U.S. patents, and 357344 pending worldwide patent applications, of which 5145 are in the United States.

Many of these patents are important to our continued development of new and innovative products for CMP and related processes, as well as for new businesses. Our patents have a range of duration. We refresh our intellectual property on an ongoing basis through continued innovation. As an example, we have had patent coverage that was important to some of our legacy CMP slurry business and continue to have significant other patents that protect this technology and other legacy and advanced technology with a range of duration. We attempt to protect our intellectual property rights through a combination of patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret laws, use of certain manufacturing technologies, exclusive contractual arrangements with suppliers, and with employee and third party-nondisclosure and assignment agreements. We refresh our intellectual property on an ongoing basis through continued innovation. We vigorously protect and defend our intellectual property and have been successful in this regard.

Most of our intellectual property has been developed internally, but we also may acquire intellectual property from others to enhance our intellectual property portfolio. These enhancements may be via licenses or assignments, or we may acquire certain proprietary technology and intellectual property when we make acquisitions. We believe these technology rights can enhance our competitive advantage by providing us with future product development opportunities and expanding our intellectual property portfolio.

Our facilities and operations are subject to various environmental, safety, and human health laws and regulations, both at a federal and state or local level, including those relating to air emissions, wastewater discharges, chemical manufacture and distribution, the handling and disposal of solid and hazardous wastes, storage and disposal, and various other occupational safety and health matters. Governmental authorities can to enforce compliance with their regulations, and violators may be subject to civil, criminal, and administrative penalties, injunctions, or both. We believe that our facilities are in substantial compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations. Our major operations in the United States,U.S., Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom are certified under current ISO 14001 Environmental and OHSAS 18001 Safety and Health standards, which requiresrequire that we implement and operate according to various procedures that demonstrate waste reduction, energy conservation, injury reduction and other environmental, health and safety and sustainability objectives. We have achieved certification under the revised ISO 14001 standards and are now actively pursuing certification under revised OHSAS 18001 standards that will transition to ISO 45001 standards over the next three years. We have incurred, and will continue to incur, capital and operating expenditures and other costs in complying with environmental, safety and health laws and regulations in the United StatesU.S. and other countries in which we do business, but we do not expect these costs will be material. SeeFor additional information, refer to “Item, 1A. Risk Factors.”Factors”, Item 3 “Legal Proceedings”, and Note 20 of “Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements” included in Item 8 of Part II of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We believe our employees are the foundation of our success. Our overall talent acquisition and retention strategy is designed to attract and retain diverse and qualified candidates to meet our performance goals on an ongoing basis and enable the success of the Company.

As of October 31, 2019,September 30, 2020, we employed 2,0472,082 individuals, including 1,3851,413 in operations, 249252 in research and development and technical, 413417 in sales, general and administration. Approximately 1,091 of these individuals located in the U.S. and approximately 991 of these individuals located outside of the U.S., with 716 in Asia Pacific, 199 in Europe and 76 in Canada and Mexico. With respect to gender diversity, we believe the percentage of women in our worldwide workforce is at least generally comparable to averages in the chemical and semiconductor industries. Of our Executive Officers 50% identify as female, and 50% identify as male.

In general, our employees are not covered by collective bargaining agreements, but we do have some workers who are subject to such agreements, part of worksworkers’ councils, or similar arrangements, primarily in Europe, Mexico, and Singapore. We have not experienced any work stoppages and consider our relations withprovide various employee benefits to our employees around the world. Some examples of this are: an employee stock purchase plan, a parental leave program, and a paid time off program to be good.global employees; statutory health care and pension benefits to our employees outside the U.S.; and, a health and welfare benefits plan and a defined contribution savings plan to U.S. employees. See Note 18 of “Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements” included in Item 8 of Part II of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, definitive proxy statements on Schedule 14A, current reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports, as well as any other filings with the SEC,Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), are made available free of charge on our Company website, www.cabotcmp.com,www.cmcmaterials.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after such reports are filed or furnished with the SecuritiesSEC. Our Code of Business Conduct and Exchange Commission (SEC).certain other governance documents are also available on our website, www.cmcmaterials.com. Statements regarding beneficial ownership of our securities by our executive officers and directors are made available on our Company website following the filing of such with the SEC. In addition, the SEC's website (http://www.sec.gov) contains reports, proxy statements, and other information that we file electronically with the SEC.

Our business is affected by economic and industry conditions, such as those currently being adversely affected by the Pandemic, and the majority of our revenue derives from our Electronic Materials segment, which is primarily dependent upon semiconductor industry demand. With respect to our Electronic Materials segment, historically, semiconductor industry demand has fluctuated due to economic and industry cycles and seasonal shifts in demand, which can affect our business, causing demand for our electronic materials products to fluctuate. For example, we have experiencedprior to the Pandemic, the relatively soft demand conditions in the semiconductor industry startingthat had commenced in our second fiscal quarter of 2019 and continuing pastcontinued into our first fiscal quarter of 2020 had begun to ameliorate in the endbeginning of the second fiscal year,quarter of 2020. However, although some signsour Electronic Materials segment experienced relatively stable conditions during the third and fourth fiscal quarters of stabilization are becoming apparent. Previously, we had experienced2020, the strengtheningongoing nature of the Pandemic has created uncertainty as to demand conditions infor the semiconductor industry from the second half ofgoing forward into our fiscal 2016 through fiscal 2018, following relatively soft demand conditions during the first half of fiscal 2016.2021 and beyond. Furthermore, competitive dynamics within the semiconductor industry may impact our business. Our limited visibility to future customer orders makes it difficult for us to predict industry trends.trends, especially during unusual adverse circumstances, such as the Pandemic. If the global economy or the semiconductor industry weakens further, whether in general or as a result of the Pandemic or other specific factors, such as macroeconomic factors, or unpredictable events such as natural disasters, geopolitical conditions and international trade tensions, civil unrest, or geopolitical events,additional global health crises, we could experience material adverse impacts on our results of operations and financial condition. Some additional factors that may affect demand for our electronic materials products include: demand trends for different types of electronic devices, such as logic versus memory IC devices, or digital versus analog IC devices; the various technology nodes at which those products are manufactured; customers' efficiencies in the use of CMP consumables and/or high-purity process chemicals (“electronic chemicals”); customers' device architectures and specific manufacturing processes; the short order to delivery time for our products; quarter-to-quarter changes in customer order patterns; market share and competitive gains and losses; and pricing changes by us and our competitors.

Further, adverse global economic, industry and industryother conditions such as those related to the ongoing Pandemic could have other negative effects on our Company. For instance, we could experience negative impacts on cash flows due to the inability of our customers to pay their obligations to us, or our production processes could be harmed if our suppliers cannot fulfill their obligations to us. As a result of these or other conditions, we also might have to reduce the carrying value of goodwill and other intangible assets, which could harm our financial position and results of operations.

We expect to continue to make investments in technologies, assets and companies, either through acquisitions, mergers, investments or alliances, in order to supplement our organic growth and development efforts. Acquisitions, mergers, and investments, including our acquisitions of KMG, which we completed in November 2018, and NexPlanar, which we completed in October 2015, involve numerous risks, including the following: difficulties and risks in integrating the operations, technologies, products and personnel of acquired companies; difficulties and risks from unanticipated issues arising subsequent to a transaction related to the other entity; potential disruption of relationships with third parties such as customers or suppliers; diversion of management's attention from normal daily operations of the business; increased risk associated with foreign operations; potential difficulties and risks in entering markets or industries in which we have limited or no direct prior experience and/or where competitors have stronger positions; potential difficulties and unexpected situations arising in operating new businesses with different business models; facilities and operations; potential difficulties with regulatory or contract compliance in areas in which we have limited or no experience; initial dependence on unfamiliar supply chains or relatively small supply partners; insufficient revenuesrevenue to offset increased expenses associated with acquisitions; potential loss of key employees of the acquired companies; or inability to effectively cooperate and collaborate with our alliance partners.

Further, we may never realize the perceived or anticipated benefits of a business combination or merger with, or asset or other acquisition of, or investments in, other entities. Transactions such as our acquisitions of KMG and NexPlanarthe Acquisition could and in some cases have had negative effects on our results of operations, in areas such as contingent liabilities, gross margins, amortization charges related to intangible assets and other effects of accounting for the purchases of other business entities. Investments in and acquisitions of technology-related or early-stage companies or assets are inherently risky because these businesses or assets may never develop, and we may incur losses related to these investments.

Furthermore, the integration of the recently acquired KMG businessbusinesses into our operations is a complex and time-consuming process that may not be successful. Our Company has a limited history of integrating a significant acquisition into its businessacquisitions, and the process of integration may produce unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. TheAs demonstrated in the Acquisition, the primary areas of focus for successfully combining the business of KMGthose businesses with our operations may include and hashave included, among others: retaining and integrating key employees; realizing synergies; aligning customer and supplier interface,interfaces, and operations across the combined business; integrating enterprise resource planning and other information technology systems; and, managing the growth of the combined company. Even if we successfully integrate thean acquired business, ofsuch as KMG, into our operations, there can be no assurance that we will realize the anticipated benefits of the Acquisition.

Our customer base is concentrated among a limited number of large customers in each of our segments. Currently, our principal business is to supply electronic materials primarily to the semiconductor industry. The semiconductor industry has been consolidating as the larger semiconductor manufacturers have generally grown faster than the smaller ones, through business gains, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic alliances. Industry analysts predict that this trend will continue, which means the semiconductor industry will continue to be comprised of fewer and larger participants in the future if their prediction is correct. In addition, our customer base in our pipeline-related businesses is also somewhat concentrated, with large entities predominant, and outside of the United States,U.S., these entities frequently are state-owned or sponsored, and limited in number per country, as described more above.country. One or more of these principal customers could stop buying products from us or could substantially reduce the quantity of products purchased from us. Our principal customers in both of our segments also hold considerable purchasing power, which can impact the pricing and terms of sale of our products. Any deferral or significant reduction in the quantity or price of products sold to these principal customers could seriously harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We depend on our supply chain to enable us to meet the demands of our customers. Our supply chain includes the raw materials we use to manufacture our products, our production operations and the means by which we deliver our products to our customers. Our business could be adversely affected by any problem or interruption in the supply of the key raw materials we use in our products, including raw materials that do not meet the stringent quality and consistency requirements of our customers, any problem or interruption that may occur during production or delivery of our products, such as weather-related problems, natural disasters, orglobal public health crises such as the ongoing Pandemic, geopolitical, trade or labor-related issues, civil unrest, or any difficulty in producing sufficient quantities of our products to meet growing demand from our customers. In particular, severe weather conditions have the potential to adversely affect our operations, damage facilities and increase our costs, and those conditions may also have an indirect effect on our operations by disrupting services provided by service companies or suppliers with whom we have a business relationship. Additionally, some of our full-time employees are represented by labor unions, works councils or comparable organizations, particularly in Mexico and Europe. An extended work stoppage, slowdown or other action by our employees could significantly disrupt our business. As our current agreements with labor unions and works councils expire, we cannot provide assurance that new agreements will be reached at the end of each period without union action, or that a new agreement will be reached on terms satisfactory to us. An extended work stoppage, slowdown or other action by our employees could significantly disrupt our business. Future labor contracts may be on terms that result in higher labor costs to us, which also could adversely affect our results of operations. Our supply chain may also be negatively impacted by unanticipated price increases due to supply restrictions beyond the control of our Company or our raw materials suppliers.

We believe it would be difficult to promptly secure alternative sources of key raw materials in the event one of our suppliers becomes unable to supply us with sufficient quantities of raw materials that meet the quality and technical specifications required by us and our customers. In addition, new contract terms, forced production or manufacturing changes, contractual amendments to existing agreements with, or non-performance by, our suppliers, including any significant financial distress our suppliers may suffer, could adversely affect us. Also, if we change the supplier or type of key raw materials we use to make our products, in particular our electronic materials products, or are required to purchase them from a different manufacturer or manufacturing facility or otherwise modify our products, in certain circumstances our customers might have to requalify our products for their manufacturing processes and products. The requalification process could take a significant amount of time and expense to complete and could occupy technical resources of our customers that might otherwise be used to evaluate our new products, thus delaying potential revenue growth, or motivate our customers to consider purchasing products from our competitors, possibly interrupting or reducing our sales of products to these customers, especially sales of our electronic materials products to our semiconductor industry customers, but also with respect to our pipeline performancePIM products to our pipeline and adjacent industry customers.

Competition from other electronic materials or performance materials manufacturers or any new entrants could seriously harm our business and results of operations, and this competition could continue to increase. Competition has and will likely continue to impact the prices we are able to charge for our products, as well as our overall business. In addition, our competitors could have, obtain or assert intellectual property rights that could affect or restrict our ability to market our existing products and/or to innovate and develop new products, thus increasing our costs of doing business, could attempt to introduce products similar to ours following the expiration of our patents, or could attempt to introduce products that do not fall within the scope of our intellectual property rights.

We currently have operations and a large customer base outside of the United States.U.S. Approximately 64%65% of our revenue was generated by sales to customers outside of the United StatesU.S. for the full fiscal year ended September 30, 2019.2020. We may encounter risks in doing business in certain foreign countries other than the U.S., including, but not limited to, adverse changes in economic and political conditions, both in foreign locations and in the United StatesU.S. with respect to non-U.S. operations of U.S. businesses like ours, geopolitical and/or trade tensions, global health crises such as the ongoing Pandemic, civil unrest, fluctuation in exchange rates, changes in international trade requirements and sanctions and/or tariffs that affect our business and that of our customers and suppliers, compliance with a variety of foreign laws and regulations and related audits and investigations, as well as difficulty in enforcing business and customer contracts and agreements, including protection of intellectual property rights. We also may encounter risks that we may not be able to repatriate additional earnings from our foreign operations outside of the U.S., derive anticipated tax benefits of our foreignthese operations or recover the investments made in our foreign operations,them, whether due to regulatory or policy changes in the U.S. or in the countries outside of the U.S. in which we do business, or other factors.

In addition, we have operations and customers located in the United Kingdom, where voters have approved an exit fromwhich recently has exited the European Union (“Brexit”EU”), which is supposed to occur by January 31, 2020. The. Although the United Kingdom and the European UnionEU have agreed to operate under transitional provisions under which most European UnionEU law would remain in force in the United Kingdom until the end of December 2020, however, this transitional period remains subject to the successful conclusion of a final withdrawal agreement between the parties. In the absence of such an agreement, there would be no transitional provisions and a “hard” Brexit would occur. Although it is unknownat present unclear as to what trade agreement the terms ofparties will operate under following such an agreement, assuming it is reached, will be, it is possible that there will be greater restrictions on importstime, and exports between the United Kingdom and European Union countries, a fluctuation in currency exchange rates and increased regulatory complexities. These changes may adversely affect our operations and financial results. Whilewhat impacts such changes in laws, regulations and conditionsmight have not had a material adverse effect on our business or financial condition to date, we cannot provide assurances regarding the future effect of any such changes.

The distribution, sale and use of our products is subject to prior governmental approvals and thereafter ongoing governmental regulation: Our products are subject to laws administered by federal, state and foreign governments, including regulations requiring registration, approval and labeling. The labeling requirements restrict the use and type of application for our products. More stringent restrictions could make our products less desirable which would adversely affect our sales and profitability. All venues where our penta products are used also require registration prior to marketing or use.

3. If our products are not re-registered by the EPA or are re-registered subject to new restrictions, our ability to sell our products may be curtailed or significantly limited: as described above, KMG-Bernuth's penta product registrations are under continuous review by the EPA under FIFRA. KMG-Bernuth has submitted and will submit a wide range of scientific data to support its U.S. registrations. To satisfy the registration review, KMG-Bernuth is required to demonstrate, among other things, that its products will not cause unreasonable adverse effects on human health or the environment when used according to approved label directions. In September 2008, the EPA announced that it had determined that penta was eligible for re-registration, but the EPA proposed new restrictions on the use of penta that have required KMG-Bernuth's customers to incur substantial additional costs and to revise certain operating procedures. In December 2014, the EPA issued a registration review work plan that required penta registrants to provide additional research and testing data respecting certain potential risks to human health or the environment as a further condition to continued registration. KMG-Bernuth conducted required testing. but cannot tell you when or if the EPA will issue a final decision concluding that the conditions of re-registration for its penta products and all additional testing requirements have been satisfied. We cannot assure you that KMG-Bernuth's products will not be subject to use or labeling restrictions that may have an adverse effect on our financial position and results of operations. The failure of KMG-Bernuth's current or future-acquired products to be re-registered, to satisfy the registration review by the EPA, or the imposition of new use, labeling or other restrictions in connection with re-registration could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

4. Our use of hazardous materials exposes us to potential liabilities: Our manufacturing and distribution of chemical products, such as our electronic chemicals, involves the controlled use of hazardous materials. Our operations, therefore, are subject to various associated risks, including chemical spills, discharges or releases of toxic or hazardous substances or gases, fires, mechanical failure, storage facility leaks and similar events. Our suppliers are subject to similar risks that may adversely impact the availability of raw materials. While we adapt our manufacturing and distribution processes to the environmental control standards of regulatory authorities, we cannot completely eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from hazardous or regulated materials, including injury of our employees, individuals who handle our products or goods treated with our products, or others who claim to have been exposed to our products, nor can we completely eliminate the unanticipated interruption or suspension of operations at our facilities due to such events. We may be held liable for significant damages or fines in the event of contamination or injury, and such assessed damages or fines could have an adverse effect on our financial performance and results of operations.

We cannot assure you that the EPA, foreign and state regulators or local governments will not restrict the uses of penta or certain of our other products or ban the use of one or more of these products or the raw materials in them. Similarly, companies who use our products may decide to reduce significantly or cease the use of our products voluntarily. As a result, our products may become obsolete or less attractive to our customers.

We utilize and rely upon a global workforce. If we fail to attract and retain the necessary managerial, technical and customer support personnel, our business and our ability to maintain existing and obtain new customers, develop new products and provide acceptable levels of customer service could suffer. We compete worldwide with other industry participants in the industries in which we do business for qualified personnel, particularly those with significant experience in the semiconductor industry.and pipeline industries. The loss of services of key employees, or our inability to obtain or maintain visas or other travel or residency documents on their behalf with respect to our business needs, could harm our business and results of operations. Periodically, we engage in succession planning for our key employees, and our Board of Directors reviews succession planning for our executive officers, including our chief executive officer, on an annual basis.

An element of our strategy has been to leverage our customer relationships, technological expertise and other capabilities and competencies to expand our business. For example, we have made acquisitions to expand beyond CMP consumables into other electronic materials product areas, as well as into performance materials product areas in which we have limited experience. Expanding our business into new product areas could involve technologies, production processes and business models in which we have limited experience, and we may not be able to develop and produce products or provide services that satisfy customers' needs, or we may be unable to keep pace with technological or other developments. Or, we may decide that we no longer wish to pursue these new business initiatives. Also, our competitors may have or obtain intellectual property rights that could restrict our ability to market our existing products and/or to innovate and develop new products.

As a company conducting business on a global basis, we are exposed, both directly and indirectly, to effects of changes in United States,U.S., state, local and foreign tax rules. In December 2017, comprehensive tax legislation commonly referred to aswas enacted in the U.S. under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the "Tax Act"“Tax Act”) was enacted in the United States.. Known and certain estimated effects based upon current interpretation of the Tax Act have been incorporated into our financial results. As additional clarification and implementation guidance is issued on the Tax Act, it may be necessary to adjust our income tax estimates, as we experienced in our second fiscal quarter of fiscal 2019 with respect to our previously reported Transition Tax describe in Note 19 of “Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements” included in Item 8 of Part II of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Adjustments to income tax amounts could be material to our results of operations and cash flows. In addition, there is a risk that state or foreign jurisdictions may amend their tax laws, whether in response to the Tax Act or otherwise, which could have a material impact on our future results of operations and cash flows.

We maintain and rely upon certain critical information systems for the effective operation of our business. These information systems include, but are not limited to, telecommunications, the Internet, our corporate intranet, various computer hardware and software applications, network communications, and email. These information systems may be owned and maintained by us, our outsourced providers, or third parties such as vendors, contractors, and Cloud providers. All of these information systems are subject to disruption, breach or failure from various sources including, but not limited to, attacks, degradation, and failures resulting from potential sources, including viruses, malware, denial of service, destructive or inadequate code, power failures, and physical damage. Confidential and/or sensitive information stored on these information systems, or transmitted to or from Cloud storage, could be intentionally or unintentionally compromised, lost, and/or stolen. While we have implemented security procedures and virus protection software, intrusion prevention systems, access control, and emergency recovery processes to mitigate risks like these with respect to information systems that are under our control, they are not fail-safe and may be subject to breaches. Further, we cannot assure that third parties upon whom we rely for various IT services will maintain sufficient vigilance and controls over their systems. Our inability to use or access these information systems at critical points in time, or unauthorized releases of personal or confidential information, could unfavorably impact the timely and efficient operation of our business, including our results of operations, and our reputation, as well as our relationships with our employees or other individuals whose information may have been affected by such cybersecurity incidents.

The market price of our common stock has fluctuated and could continue to fluctuate significantly as a result of factors such as: economic, geopolitical, global public health, political and stock market conditions generally and specifically as they may impact participants in the semiconductor and related industries; and/or participants in oil and gas related industries; changes in financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts who follow our stock; earnings and other announcements, and changes in market evaluations, by securities analysts, investors, market participants or others, of or related to, us or participants in the semiconductor and related industries; changes in business, trade or regulatory conditions affecting us or participants in the semiconductor and related industries; announcements or implementation by us, our competitors, or our customers of technological innovations, new products or different business strategies; changes in our capital deployment strategy, issuances of shares of our capital stock or entering into a business combination or other strategic transaction; and trading volume of our common stock.

Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, and various provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law may make it more difficult or expensive to effect a change in control of our Company. For instance, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides for the division of our Board of Directors into three classes as nearly equal in size as possible with staggered three-year terms.

Not applicable.

Set forth below is information concerningof our executive officers and their ages as of October 31, 2019.2020.

See Part III, Item 12 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for information regarding shares of common stock that may be issued under the Company's existing equity compensation plans.

The following graph illustrates the cumulative total stockholder return on our common stock during the period from September 30, 20142015 through September 30, 20192020 and compares it with the cumulative total return on the NASDAQ Composite Index and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.Index (PHLX). The comparison assumes $100 was invested on September 30, 20142015 in our common stock and in each of the foregoing indices and assumes reinvestment of the quarterly cash dividends declared in each fiscal year from 2016 2017, 2018, and 2019.to 2020. The performance shown is not necessarily indicative of future performance. See "Risk Factors" in Part I, Item 1A above.